He had tracked her to the school, spotting her gold colored Toyota Camry with the Evans Blue bumper sticker in the parking lot. Audrey had been fairly certain Elizabeth was spending the day setting up her classroom for the upcoming school year, but actually seeing her car caused relief to spread through Lucky's system. She was here and there was very little chance she could really avoid him if he showed up where she worked. At least in theory she couldn't.

He followed the hallway to her classroom from vague memory, only realizing he was heading in the right direction when he recognized the faint sounds of Toby Lightman in the hallway. Her love of obscure pop artists was going to give her away every single time. Lucky smiled as he paused outside her doorway, hearing for the first time her half humming half singing along with acoustic version of "Real Love."

It had not escaped his notice that since his mother had what she claimed was a friendly conversation with her, Elizabeth had been avoiding him. He had left her a message about meeting up on Thursday at least two days ago and she had yet to return his call. His attempts to reach her through her grandmother had also been met with silence. Finally the older woman had taken pity on him and told him Elizabeth had been planning to spend her day setting up her classroom again for the start of school in the upcoming two weeks. Obviously something his mother had said had spooked her. First he needed to find out what exactly had freaked her out and then he had find a way to fix it.

Elizabeth was lost in her own world as she unpacked another plastic storage container, perfectly content to be setting up her art station. Every tub of crayons was opened and examined. Ones to small to be used anymore were thrown to the trash. Next would be the paints. Only then would she be able to accurately judge what needed replacing and what could last a little while longer.

As Toby let out her anguish tale of searching for a real love, Elizabeth hummed along, content to have something completely her own to focus on. This was her classroom, her kingdom and she was determined that it would work in the exact manner she wanted it to. She was so lost in her task, it did not register she was no longer alone in the room until she felt a hand gently tap her shoulder.

Figuring it was another teacher or her principal, Elizabeth glanced up quickly from her seated position on the floor. The crayon container in her hand fell to the floor when Lucky's features came into focus for her. She looked to the floor quickly hoping he didn't notice the blush Elizabeth was positive was rising up her cheeks, and busied herself with picking up the mess she had just created.

"Oh hi." She managed. "This is a surprise."

It was worse than Lucky had thought if that was the greeting he was going to get. That was something he said when an out of town relative dropped by his home. It was not something he ever wanted said to him by someone he was seriously interested in. At least not in that flat, forced tone of hers. He bent to his knees and began to help her gather the scattered crayons. "Your grandmother told me where you might be."

Dropping the last of the crayons into the carton, Elizabeth rose to her feet. Lucky followed her as she made her way across the room to her desk. "She did? Well that was nice of her." Mentally Elizabeth made a note to have a discussion with her grandmother about not meddling in her relationships. She was trying to put some distance between herself and Lucky until she could figure out this Daphne thing. Distance meant not seeing him, which also included not having him surprise her in her classroom.

He ran his hand through his hair. "Well I may have played the guilt card on her since I told her you hadn't returned any of my calls."

Perching on the edge of her desk, Elizabeth looked away. It was hard to remember to she wanted distance when he looked so darn adorable. "Lucky you told me you were going to be busy this week."

Stubbornly he shook his head. "I would have answered your calls. And I did ask you out for Thursday, which you never responded to."

She waved her arm around the room, indicating the chaos of boxes and tubs surrounding them. "I've not exactly been relaxing around the pool here."

Lucky allowed himself a small smile at memory of her in a bathing suit. "I didn't think you were. But I do think you are avoiding me."

She was startled by his directness. "Why would I be avoiding you?"

He leaned closer to her, causing her to move further back on the desk. "Maybe a certain conversation you had with my mother in the park the other day?"

Elizabeth felt her eyes widen. "Your mother was perfectly nice Lucky."

He shook his head and chuckled softly. "I'm sure she was perfectly nice. And perfectly nosy. I've lived with the woman for 25 years. I know how she is around women her boys bring around the family. She can't help herself, she's a total romantic."

Her hands moved towards his, without her permission. Her traitorous body was responding to very nearness of him, making her mission to maintain distance all but impossible. Her fingers intertwined with his slowly. "She only wants you to be happy."

Leaning closer, he stopped a breath short of her lips. "I'm so sorry if she freaked you out."

"She wasn't that bad. Really." She took a deep breath. "She wasn't exactly the reason I wasn't returning your calls."

If it wasn't his mother, then what exactly was it? "Go on." He urged her.

Biting her lips, she trained her gaze on their fingers. She should ask him straight out about Daphne. But a little voice in her head still begged her not to. They still hadn't even figured out what exactly they were and he certainly hadn't promised her exclusivity just yet. The feeling that she would be viewed as a jealous shrew was still strong.

Taking a deep breath, she made her decision. "Remember when I told you that moving here was not all that great of an act?" Seeing him nod, she continued. "Well that's because moving here was as much for me as it was for my grandmother."

"Go on."

"Back in Boulder, I was seeing this guy Max. Max Giambetti. Anyways, we had been seeing each other for about six months and I thought we were getting serious. You know talking about meeting each other's families, going to the work parties together, having the keys to each other's place, even some talk about moving in together. The works."

A faint idea of what had made her so skittish, as Cruz had called her, was beginning to form in his mind. Already Lucky knew he hated this Max person. "Were you happy?"

Elizabeth smiled faintly as she allowed herself to remember the good times. "Yeah I was." She let out a breath, blowing a piece of her hair off the side of her face. "Anyways, one day I was out of school earlier than I thought I was going to be. Some parent was late for their conference."

"We had plans to meet later that night at his place, so I just decided to go over there and wait for him. It wasn't any big deal; I had let myself into his place a million times before that. I heard some music playing when I got there so I thought he had left work early too, so I went in, determined to surprise him." She looked at the floor as she spoke about the last moments in her relationship with Max. "He had left work early. And so had my best friend at the time. I found them in his bed."

Lucky clenched his fist as the rage filled him. He made himself a promise the next time he went to Boulder for L&B business he was going to find this asshole and beat him senseless. "Asshole." He swore under his breath.

"Yeah he is."

"So what happened next?"

"Well he tried to tell me that it wasn't what it looked like. This of course caused me to throw everything I could reach at his head. When he stood up to stop me, he started to say we had never said we were exclusive..."

"Idiotic bastard. Thank you." She met his eyes. "So it's not really you that I'm avoiding. I'm just a little unsure about relationships in general right now."

"This is why I kicked him in a sensitive area."

Lucky thanked whatever watched out over him that he hadn't made her that mad so far. He was willing to bet she had done some serious damage to Max. Not that the cock sucker didn't deserve it.

"Grams hurt herself shortly after that and I decided to leave town. I didn't have anything to keep me there if my so-called friend would betray me like that with the guy I was in love with. It just hurt too much you know?"

He ran a finger across her face, stopping at the tip of her chin. "How many guys have you been out with since then?"

"None." She whispered.

Her soft admission hit him like a ton of bricks. She really did need time, just like she had told him. He softly squeezed her fingers. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."

"Thank you." She met his eyes. "So it's not really you that I'm avoiding. I'm just a little unsure about relationships in general right now."

"I completely understand."

"There's one other thing."

"What?"

"See every time we see each other I think we have a good time."

"So do I."

"Then I see you in a magazine with this girl in a picture dated the next day and it confuses me." He had taken her story about Max well and seemed to understand where she was coming from. Maybe she could ask about Daphne and not completely ruin this.

Lucky's brow furrowed in confusion. Another girl? He hadn't been seen with anyone since he had met Elizabeth. Well no one but Daphne. Oh God. Had she seen the pictures from his publicity push with Daphne? "Was her name Daphne Vega?"

Elizabeth nodded and forced herself to breath normally. "Look I know we haven't been seeing each other all that long..."

He glanced at his watch. "Look I can explain everything about Daphne and I will. Just I think you need to see something first. Can you get away for a couple of hours? Come somewhere with me?"

"Lucky…what are you..."

"I know you have no reason to trust me at this moment, but I think that seeing this will explain it better than I could. Will you just come with me? If you don't believe me, you have every right to kick me in the same sensitive area and never see me again."

She allowed a small smile. "Okay. I'll go with you. But I'm driving myself."

"Are you sure you're tall enough to be answering the door?" Patrick asked the tiny brunette, leaning against the doorframe while the moment stretched into two.

"It's never stopped Robin." Morgan replied flippantly, making no move to invite Patrick in.

"Am I keeping you from something?"

"Yes, but I guess you can come in." Morgan gave in, turning his back to his second cousin.

"Don't put yourself out." Patrick threw back, resisting the urge to roll his eyes at his relative's curt response.

"Why are you here?" Morgan wanted to know.

"You get right to the point, don't you?" Patrick jested, but Morgan was having none of it. "I came to ask Robin a question."

"She's busy. You can ask me." Morgan's tone said that it wasn't up for discussion.

"Look, I get that you're protective of Robin, but there is no way I'm going to discuss this with a six-year-old. This is grown-up stuff." Patrick countered stubbornly.

Morgan knew all about "grown-up stuff." His daddy used to send him out of the room when he would talk business with his partners and/or enemies. Morgan would always hide at the top of the stairs in a corner that was just big enough for him to squeeze into. For Patrick to even imply that he was just a kid in need of babying was a joke. He had heard his daddy order dozens of people to be killed, but Patrick felt the need to omit information where he was concerned?

Unbelievable!

He had a really bad habit of hiding at the top of the stairs. He had been there when Aunt Courtney and Robin had started yelling at each other. He hadn't meant to listen, but they'd been louder than 101 Dalmatians and he had come out of his room to investigate. There had been plenty of times he had heard Aunt Courtney raise her voice, especially when a guy was mentioned, but Robin so rarely did. He still remembered her snapping at him, but he had been bad. The way she had talked to Aunt Courtney had been much different and vice versa. It was as if they had tried to say whatever they could just to hurt each other. He had snuck into Robin's room at bedtime because she hadn't told him goodnight and he found her with tears still fresh on her cheeks.

Morgan sometimes found it hard to go to sleep without Mommy, but Robin had always been there in her place. In the beginning he had fought her, hurt her feelings, and been an all-around brat, but she had never given up on him. He had finally started to trust her. Plenty of people had promised to be there for him, but she was the only one he felt he could actually count on.

And then Patrick had showed up, seemingly out of nowhere, and wrecked everything! The nights when she had been kept awake Patrick had been the cause! Worse, she had started to doubt her abilities as a parent even more since he had come into the picture. At first, she had been cautious but loving. Now, she was almost afraid to spend time with him out of fear that she was doing the wrong thing, saying the wrong thing. He hadn't protested when she had suggested camp, because she had been so excited about him having something to do, something that she thought other kids did. He wished he could tell her that he wasn't like other kids, but she was so sure of the opposite that he had no choice but to lock up his mouth and throw away the key.

Parents were so funny sometimes. His daddy had always told him how he didn't ever want to be away from Michael and Morgan, but he had spent almost no time with them. If it weren't for Leticia, Morgan bet he never would have gotten through all of his homework. She had been a kind lady, but he hadn't included her in his circle of his friends, because she had been paid to be that way. Mommy had always been there…except when she thought a new guy in town was cute and she felt compelled to chase after him. How many times had he sat on the couch with some guy his mother was lusting after? How many lies had he been fed about them becoming the "best of friends?" If Patrick so much as tried it, he was going to punch him in the nose. He might get in trouble--he would get in trouble--but he figured it'd be worth it.

"I'm not some dumb kid, Patrick. I know why you're here, and I'm going to tell you what I've told the others." Morgan informed his clueless cousin, making sure that their eyes locked. Patrick was like a puppy in that he had a very short attention span.

"'Others'?" Patrick parroted.

"Robin is okay by herself. She doesn't need you in her life. I can take care of her." Morgan explained, tilting his head, daring Patrick to argue the point.

"Maybe you should let her make her own decisions."

"Girls never pick the right guys. Haven't you been paying attention?" Morgan muttered.

Having not expected that reaction, Patrick couldn't help but laugh out loud. He doubled over, holding his sides as if he thought he might fly apart at any minute. Wiping tears away from his eyes, he swallowed hard and met Morgan's impatient stare. "I appreciate the pep talk, Morgan. I don't want Robin to get hurt anymore than you do."

"Then why are you still here?" Morgan challenged, crossing his arms.

"Because I'm not going to be scared away, not by you or anyone. Okay?" Patrick held the boy's stare until the boy finally yielded.

"Fine, but I'm not going to start calling you 'Sir.'" Morgan warned him.

"My dad was always trying to get my brother and me to call him that. I thought the whole thing was stupid. I wasn't in the Army." Patrick told him.

"My daddy made me do the same thing, but it was Mommy who made sure we said it." Morgan recalled.

"I bet you miss them."

"I don't miss Michael's snoring."

"What is going on down here?" Robin wondered, standing on the second to last step of the stairs. Her hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail and she had been on her way to the dryer to pick out a different blouse since the one she'd worn earlier in the day was covered in orange soda. The blood drained out of her face when she spotted Patrick on the couch. Though she was still half dressed in a pair of blue jeans and a flowery pink bra, she felt completely exposed. Patrick looked up, recognizing her voice, and his lips curved into a slow, satisfied smile.

"We were having a very important discussion about crazy parents." Patrick explained, forcing himself to look away. So he had stared? What man in his right mind wouldn't have done the exact same thing? He tried to bite back the smile he knew he wore, but he couldn't. Glancing down at his hands, he waited until he heard the door to the

dryer fling open to continue, "I should have probably called first."

"That is why we have telephones." Robin patronized, returning to the living room dressed in a sexy red blouse buttoned up to her throat. She could do whatever she wanted from this point; the mental image of her half naked on the stairs was enough to send him screaming for a cold shower. Getting to his feet, he brushed a hand over his pants, pretending to have found a wrinkle. Morgan paid little attention, but Robin's face turned almost as dark as her top.

"I have a real reason for coming…for stopping by." Patrick continued, wanting to look away, knowing it was best considering his current state. She was a beautiful creature. It didn't matter that her hair was tousled a bit, because he could just imagine that he was the cause. One of these days, very soon if he had his way, he would be.

"Yes?" Robin prodded, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth. "Morgan, why don't you go upstairs and play?" It wasn't a question and the six-year-old seemed to pick up on this.

"Okay." Morgan replied, stealing the oversized coloring book from the desk table adjacent to the stairs and disappearing from sight.

"Are you okay?" Robin asked tentatively, keeping her feet rooted out of fear that she might leap into his arms if she didn't. She hadn't seen him in a couple days. The fight with Courtney had left her feeling wary and uncertain. If they were truly entering into a moderate-strings-still-basically-just-sex agreement she needed to know.

"I was hoping you could tell me." Patrick answered truthfully.

"If this is some sleazy come-on…" Robin let the threat hang in the air.

"It's not." Patrick promised, shaking his head.

"Then what…?" Robin insisted, her impatience getting the best of her.

"I didn't want to go the doctor in case it's nothing." Patrick explained.

"In case what's nothing? Are you sick?"

"I don't know. It could be something as simple as side effects from my meds." Patrick said, running a hand through his hair.

"And you happened to remember that I'm an expert with a thermometer?" Robin goaded him.

"You've been through this…you're still going through it. I thought you might shed some light on it." Patrick hated how vulnerable he must sound right now, but he had run out of alternatives. The only place left was the hospital and he knew he wouldn't be able to handle the news that he had in fact contracted HIV over the last few weeks. Up until this morning, he hadn't even entertained the possibility.

"What are your symptoms?" Robin inquired ruefully, taking a few steps toward him.

"Dizzy spells. I can't keep any food down. If you could just tell me that I've become a hypochondriac over night, I'd really appreciate it." Patrick admitted.

"It sounds like side effects, but let me feel your head." Robin ordered, closing the space between them. Her palm was like ice against his skin and he instinctively took a step back. She grabbed his wrist, pulling him closer, and he could tell by the slant of her eyebrows that she might believe him. "I'll get the thermometer." Robin decided, heading up the stairs.

Patrick sunk onto the couch, his hands automatically reaching up to hold his head as his eyes slid shut. Robin was no doctor, but he hadn't liked the split-second fear he had seen swimming around in dark her hazel eyes. What if he was sick? What if he had taken a turn for the worst and was already infected? He'd have to tell the Spencers. His next call would be to Logan and then Noah. He wasn't sure why he felt compelled to include his immediate family, but, if he was symptomatic, he wanted them to know. This was going to break Laura's heart, he already knew that much. Bobbie would be supportive, but in her quiet moments she would cry. Lucky and Cruz would handle him with kid gloves. This was exactly why he hadn't told anyone but Robin and his doctor. He wasn't prepared for lives to be altered to make way for a disease he might have.

"Open your mouth." Robin instructed, falling into the seat beside him.

"I knew you couldn't resist me." Patrick teased, watching her through half-closed eyelids. Doing as he was told, he let her place the thermometer on his bottom lip.

"Now close your mouth." Robin ordered lightly.

"Will I get a lollipop if I'm good, Dr. Scorpio?" Patrick baited.

"You might." Robin beamed at him. "Now be a good boy and shut your mouth."

"I'd rather be bad." Patrick countered, but he closed his lips over the tiny instrument anyway. It might have been a corny response, but it still got her blushing and that had been his goal. Reaching up to frame her face between his hands, he lost his fingers in her silky cinnamon strands. She sighed, her eyes slamming shut when he started kneading her scalp. Her skin warmed under his hands and he wanted so badly to kiss her.

"You know," Robin whispered, her eyelids slowly lifting, "You don't need a reason to stop by." Patrick shrugged and she continued, "Still, it wouldn't kill you to bring flowers once in a while. I'd feel much better knowing that your visit had something to do with me, instead of just yourself."

Patrick took the thermometer from his mouth assuming that Robin had a lot more to say and wanting to put in his two cents if at all possible. He glanced down at the thermometer and frowned. "What was with getting me all worked up? My temperature isn't even in the triple digits."

"Maybe I wanted to be sure." Robin shot back. "You've been taking your medications right?"

"Ever diligently." Patrick replied in a strained voice.

"Then there really isn't anything to worry about. You might still stop by the hospital and get a real medical opinion." Robin suggested.

"Nah, I trust you." Patrick argued, catching her right hand and turning it over so that he could run his thumb over the inside of her palm.

"I have to get back to work pretty soon," Robin explained, "But you're more than welcome to stay and have lunch with us."

Patrick didn't say anything for a long time. She could see the refusal in his eyes, but she still forced a smile and practiced patience. "What's on the menu?"

"Chicken Pot Pie. Do you think you can keep that down?"

"I think I can try." Patrick responded.