"Are you done yet?" Patrick wasn't above stomping his foot at Lucky's sluggishness. Lock picking had never been his forte, but Lucky had been born with the skill.

Lucky rolled his eyes at his cousin's behavior. "Contrary to what you may believe, you don't actually want to ruin the lock when you pick it. For one thing we would have to replace it. Now shut up and let me do this."

"Take your time. For God's sake, it's not like either of us is in a hurry. I'm sure they are just waiting for us to come and rescue them from their own illogical thinking." Patrick growled.

"Yeah make sure to mention that to Robin will you? I'm sure it will help your case there."

"Shut up." Patrick didn't want to waste his good retorts on Lucky when he was stringing together everything he could for Robin. He had to make her see reason. He wasn't leaving until she forgave him.

"So what's the strategy going in? You know they are in there planning how to murder us without ending up on CSI."

"We have to split them up, weaken their resistance." Patrick replied.

"Not going to be easy."

"Other than throwing her over my shoulder, I have no idea how to go about this." It wasn't like he spent his life apologizing.

"Word of advice? That's not going to work."

Robin's reaction would have been to stick out her tongue. Men and women were so different. He flipped his cousin the bird.

Ignoring Patrick was always the best course of action. Not only did it drive his cousin crazy, it was also possible to continue on the task you were originally working on. Concentrating on the lock, Lucky continued speaking. "I think we are talking groveling territory."

"Groveling?" Patrick had never heard something so ridiculous.

"Apologizing profusely, promising anything to make up for it, and accepting all blame. You are familiar with the concept. You did make Cruz do all that for the bakery stunt."

"That's different." Patrick hadn't planned on murdering Cruz. He couldn't say for certain that Robin hadn't at least entertained the idea.

"I'm just telling you my plan. Do what you want, but I bet I get further with groveling than you do with caveman actions."

"You are in way more trouble than I am." Patrick argued just for the point of arguing.

"True. But I have more experience in apologizing to women than you do." Lucky paused. "Almost there..."

Patrick showed little interest in the intricate task his cousin was performing. His thoughts were rattling together inside his head. What if he said the wrong thing? It wasn't often that he questioned himself, but this was unfamiliar ground. He didn't need to give Robin more ammunition than she already had.

"Figure out your game plan now. I got it!" Lucky announced.

Patrick was half a step behind Lucky as they threw the door open revealing two confused women. He lowered his eyes to the ground and took a deep breath before allowing his gaze to travel up Robin's quivering form. She wasn't crying. She wasn't whimpering. No, she was furious. Nothing he hadn't expected. He held out his hand for her and said, "Can I talk to you?"

"There's nothing left to say." Robin cut him off, her eyes falling to her shoes. She could feel him moving forward even though his footsteps were silent. Her head shooting up, she startled him. Throwing her hand out in front of her to ward him off, she curled her lips in disgust and held them so tightly against her mouth, Patrick could see the indentions of her teeth.

Lucky hesitantly approached Elizabeth, who immediately launched herself towards the bathroom. Reaching out a hand to stop her, he regretted it when she pulled back immediately. "It's a bit hard to apologize to you if you keep running from me. Listen I messed up. Big time." Lucky started to explain but Elizabeth's snort of disbelief cut him off immediately.

"Oh there's a news flash. Thanks for sharing that shocking insight with me!" She turned on her heel, determined once again to make it into the bathroom and feel the satisfaction that would come with slamming the door in his face. The only downside to the plan was she would be abandoning Robin. Maybe she could get into the bathroom and grab a hold of something good to throw at him.

"What do want me to say? What was I supposed to do?" Patrick challenged, his eyes nothing but dark brown slits as he regarded her anger.

"You were supposed to tell me the truth!" Robin clarified passionately. "You were supposed to warn me." She ground out through bared teeth. "If nothing else, you could have at least factored in how everyone knowing our private business would affect me!"

"Before or after you threw me out without a single explanation as to why? If you were that ashamed to be seen with me, you sure as hell shouldn't have shown up at my apartment demanding that I apologize to Bobbie. You started this!"

"You are a low-grade asshole of the highest order." Elizabeth hissed. "You need to leave right now and not look back."

"I can't do that." Lucky moved his body in front of hers, keeping her from moving closer to the door leading to the main door of the suite. She had been determined to hide from him in the bathroom and he was just as determined to follow her right in there. At least in the bathroom she wouldn't have an escape route.

Stepping backwards, working her way closer to the bathroom wall, Elizabeth cocked her eyebrow. "Oh you are hardly in the position to dictate how this conversation is going to go."

"You're right. You seem to know exactly what you want to say to me, so why don't you go for it?" Maybe if he could get her yelling, she might exhaust herself enough to let him apologize. It wasn't like he didn't have it coming.

"There aren't enough words in the world to express how mad I am at you." Elizabeth turned away, determined not to let him see how much he had actually hurt her. "This is worse than anything Max ever did."

Nothing could diffuse Patrick's temper or render him speechless like the sight of Robin crying. She seemed to be doing so in spite of herself. It had been too long since he'd seen her smile; he was almost certain he had imagined the rare occasions when she'd let him see such an emotion spread across her features. He hadn't meant to accuse her of anything, but her insistence that there was nothing left for them to salvage, that he had already done something so incredible there was no way it could be fixed, had left him feeling defensive. He wanted to fight with her. What's more, he wanted to make her see reason.

"Did you think you'd get away with it?" Robin's voice was cruel, her eyes wet, the scene almost too familiar. Patrick felt guilt seep into his chest and squeeze his heart painfully. He almost had to brace himself against a wall to keep from passing out; the air was rushing out of his lungs that fast.

"You have to know that I didn't mean for any of it to happen!" Patrick insisted, touching her bare shoulder.

Her words stung him to the core. Lucky had fully expected to be compared to Max at some point today, but to hear that that creep was being considered better than him? That thought had only jokingly passed his mind. "Harsh." He managed.

"Sure he was an asshole, but looking back now, he had all the signs around him. I was just too stupid to realize them. You just hid yours better is all." Elizabeth continued on as if he hadn't offered any commentary.

"You aren't stupid. If anyone here was stupid, it was me. " Lucky argued. He had forgotten how hard groveling really was.

"Oh you were stupid. And egotistical. And an asshole." Elizabeth turned, her eyes flashing. "Do you have any idea how humiliating it was to listen to your friends basically rate me?"

"No." He couldn't imagine that at all, didn't particularly want to imagine it really. He knew how his friends talked and silently he groaned about what Elizabeth had most likely overheard. But the problem wasn't Patrick and Cruz's language. It was his big mouth.

"I told you everything about Max. You knew what a big deal us even dating was for me and you went and told them details? I trusted you." Elizabeth bit the inside of her lip. Damn it, she was not going to cry in front of him. He was going to get her angry, get her hurt, but she would be damned if he got her tears.

"Baby..." Lucky reached for her. Her shoulders were shaking and it was obvious she was seconds away from crying. He had barely touched her shoulders when she jerked back.

"You don't get to touch me right now and you sure as hell don't get to call me baby." Elizabeth threw up a finger in warning.

"Do you have any idea what I've sacrificed to be with you? How about my pride? My self-respect? My morals?" Robin was not above blaming him for every bad thing that had ever happened to her if it would knock him off of his damn pedestal!

"I didn't ask you to give up any of those things! Damn it, you pushed for this, not me!" Patrick shouted, old resentment creeping up when it was neither welcome nor relevant. He had gotten rid of it, pushed it so far down inside of himself he was certain he'd never be able to use it against Robin again. His words agitated her further and she swallowed hard, seemingly sucking all of the air out of the room.

"It's a good thing you discovered this when you did." She said through clenched teeth, her chin wanting to wobble, but her current rein on her emotions holding it steady. "I'd hate to think you'd wasted all of this effort on me for nothing."

"It wasn't wasted effort." This was not going how he had expected it to. Instead of realizing her importance, she had gone and assumed the worst. All of the defenses he had worked away to nothing were shooting up all around her so that only her tearful expression could be seen. Even her features were starting to mold into something far more stoic. "I wouldn't trade a single minute with you over the last few weeks. By allowing me to simply share a space with you, you've shown me a part of myself I thought had died long ago."

"These are just words. They're absolutely meaningless." Robin sighed.

Taking his pride out and beating it with a mallet, Patrick bent his knees and crouched down in front of her. "I never meant to hurt you. When you asked me, I couldn't even lie properly. It's like I wanted you to catch me, because my conscience was eating away at me." He watched her bottom lip start to tremble as he took hold of each of her hands. "I'm so incredibly sorry babe." He whispered, his eyes glassy.

Lucky carefully used his finger to force her to look at him in the eyes. "I have no excuse for this. I was an asshole. I shouldn't have done any of it. I can't blame being drunk or anything else. I was just stupid. You deserved better than that."

Elizabeth flipped her head quickly trying not to look in his eyes. There were puppy dog eyes staring right at her. And they were tear-filled puppy dog eyes. If she looked at him any second longer she was going to cave here. They deserve to pay, she reminded herself. They deserve to pay.

"I can't." Robin stumbled backwards, shaking her head furiously.

"Robin, don't do this. You can't do this!" Patrick declared, getting to his feet the instant he noticed the retreat in her gaze.

"Yes she can." Elizabeth pointed out. "We want both of you to leave. This is our room."

"Elizabeth..." Lucky started.

Elizabeth shook her head as she held onto Robin's shoulder. She could feel her friend shaking underneath her. "No. You came to apologize and you did. Accepting your apologies is on our timetable not yours. You need to go now."

"Robin, listen to me." Patrick pleaded, taking a cautious step toward her.

"Go away Patrick." Robin told him.

"You want to forgive me." Patrick snapped.

"No, I want you to go. Please just go."

Lucky moved towards his cousin. If there was one thing Luke had taught him about apologizing, it was know when to retreat and let a woman decide for herself. "Come on man. They're right. We should go."

"I'm not going anywhere. We're not done!" Patrick swore heatedly.

"Patrick, please." Robin begged.

"You are making this worse right now." Lucky kept his hand on Patrick's shoulder.

"We're not leaving the city." Patrick promised. "Call me when you're ready to."

Robin nodded, no words left.

The girls watched as the guys grabbed their discarded bags from the still littered living room area and quietly left the room. Seemingly satisfied they had really left, the two friends turned to each other. Throwing her arms around Robin, Elizabeth hugged her hard. "Now what?"