"This is just procedure, you understand?" Billy Korals, the most hated District Attorney in all of New York, spoke to Lucas as if he was no older than five.

"I understand." Lucas ground through his teeth for the hundredth time.

"Is there a reason to make him go through this more than twice?" Mac wondered with an eye roll.

"I just want to make sure every fact is accurate."

"Isn't that what makes a fact?" Lucas muttered under his breath.

"This is a very serious crime, Mr. Jones." Billy scolded him.

"Oh I know. Trust me I know. If you were doing your job, Logan Drake wouldn't have had any reason to come back here."

"Excuse me?" Billy looked startled. His ten minutes as D.A. hadn't struck up the kind of fear and respect he had been hoping for.

"You heard me. If I hadn't stopped him, someone else would have."

"That's enough Lucas." Mac warned quietly.

"But the body count would have been much higher." Lucas threw in. "How long were you going to wait to catch him? Did your office put any manpower into finding him?"

"Lucas." Mac repeated.

"If you have to put me on trial for this murder, go ahead. It wasn't premeditated, but I'm not sorry. No amount of jail time is going to change that." He held out his wrists.

"It was clearly self-defense." Mac declared.

"Says you. He was shot four times!"

"They were struggling with the gun. You weren't there. I wasn't there. The only ones who can corroborate this story is my niece and I don't think I have to remind you where she's spending her Tuesday night, now do I?" Mac stared Billy down until he was scrambling to find a seat.

"Can I go now?"

"Yeah, you can go." Billy said. Mac and Lucas shared a look. Like his opinion mattered. "I don't think I have to remind you not to leave town."

"No. You don't have to remind me." Lucas assured him sardonically.

"No shit." Mac pulled a cigarette from his breast pocket. He hadn't ever smoked, but he figured tonight was a good a night as any to start. He fished out a cigarette and lit it, ignoring the No Smoking sign hanging above the door.

"I want you off this case."

"I don't believe you have the power to do that, Mr. Korals."

"No, but I can strongly suggest it. You can't be objective and I'm not going to have this case thrown out because of some false move you make."

"Fuck you." Mac said conversationally, lighting his cigarette. "I'm damn good at my job."

"But this is your niece and no one's going to believe that you're treating her hero as a criminal."

"He's not a criminal. I'm proud of him. Maybe if my niece's husband would have stepped in before, this wouldn't have happened. But it did. I let that little weasel slip through my fingers twice and this time somebody stopped him. As disappointed that I am it wasn't me, I'm glad it's over."

"You're giving me ammunition to keep you away from this case you know?" Billy told him.

"Well I'll tell you what Junior. You do whatever you have to do. I'll continue working this case with or without your permission."

"By the way, I'm sorry about your niece."

"My niece will survive this. She doesn't need your pity." Mac assured him, shoving out of the office.

*****

"What's the situation? What's going on?" Ric demanded as he walked into the operating room. He had been paged five minutes ago to assist with a problematic patient. It was one of the downsides of being the head of the OB department. When the case had the potential to go horrifically wrong, he had to be present to make sure every possible attempt had been made.

Dr. Walker looked up from the table and sent him a grim smile. "Thank you for coming. The patient is twenty-six. She's in her final month of pregnancy, suffered a gun shot wound, but we were able to extract most of it. The reason I had you paged is because she had a bad reaction to one of the drugs and I'm not sure which one. I could use a fresh pair of eyes."

Walking quickly toward the bed, Ric felt his brain shift into procedure mode. "Which protocols have you already tried?"

"Syntocinon was used to induce the baby, but once he was out, the patient suffered PostPartum Hemorrhaging and was given Misoprostol to control the bleeding. According to the patient's history, she has an allergy to Penicillin, but at no time was this administered so I'm not sure what caused the reaction. She flat lined for thirty seconds and we brought her back, but we need to move onto blood transfusions as soon as possible. And you know as well as I do that, until we can figure out what she reacted to, we can't use up the B-Negative blood we have on hand."

"It could be anything." Ric agreed. "Even the Hypromellose found in the Misoprostol. Are there any other medications that she takes regularly?"

"Just her protocol of Antiviral medication. She's HIV positive."

HIV positive...Ric made his way to the patient, hoping it wasn't who he thought it was. It would kill Maxie. The only thing he had ever wanted to be wrong about in his entire professional career was his prognosis for Robin Drake. As he reached the bed, he fought against the tears that immediately welled up in his eyes. "Robin? Robin Drake is your patient?"

"That's right: You had her as a patient originally, didn't you?" She feigned surprise.

"You know damn well I did Joanne." Ric snapped.

"Touchy. Considering the way you washed your hands clean of this case, I'm surprised it bothers you so much that she can't breathe without the machines."

Ric glared at Joanne and walked menacingly toward her. "I told her the truth, which is far more than you did clearly. And now I'm here to make sure you don't screw this up even more than you already did."

"I didn't screw up anything! If she didn't know to avoid bullets, she punched her own ticket." Joanne retorted.

"That's the least of our worries right now." He glanced at the fetal heart rate monitor. So far the baby seemed to be holding his own, but that could change quickly. "I'm scrubbing in. I'll handle the baby, you concentrate on finding what is causing her reaction and stopping that bleeding."

"I'll go talk to the family now if that's okay with you."

"Go. I'll be here working."

"Don't think just because I called you in here means that I'm giving you all the credit." Joanne said before heading out.

"All the credit I want is to save this baby if at all possible. Quit worrying about your reputation and let me do my job."

Joanne wiped the smile from her face before she went out to meet the family. Her news wasn't exactly good, but it could be a lot worse. At least they had saved the baby. She almost ran into Patrick he was standing so close to the O.R. "Mr. Drake." She greeted him stoically.

"Georgie said Robin had a reaction to one of the medicines. Is she alright?" Patrick wanted to know. He was going to try this calm thing and if it didn't work, he would try something else.

"We were able to get the baby out safely." Joanne hedged.

"That's wasn't my question." Patrick clarified coldly. "Is Robin okay?"

"We're trying to figure out what caused the allergic reaction right now. Other than Penicillin do you know of anything else that she's allergic to?"

At least she referred to Robin the present tense. He figured that was as close an answer as he was going to get. "No. Nothing."

"You see the problem we run into is whether or not we can find the cause before Robin bleeds out."

"What are you doing here then? Go in and save my wife." Patrick demanded.

"I thought you might want to hold your son." Joanne explained hesitantly.

"You thought wrong." Patrick shook his head furiously.

"Patrick. Nathaniel needs you right now." Elizabeth moved toward him quietly. "Let Dr. Walker work on Robin."

"That baby means everything to Robin. I'm not holding him until she has a chance to." Patrick countered.

"So Little Nate is just going to sit there and wonder where both his parents are?" Elizabeth asked him. "Robin would want you to be the first to hold him. You know that."

"I know that I'm not in any condition to see him right now. I know that I've got my hands full trying to get Morgan to talk. And I know that Robin hasn't regained consciousness one time since she got here. Babies pick up on this kind of anxiety and that's not how I'm going to meet my son."

"Morgan will get better, just like he did last time. Knowing his little brother is here and fine will help him. Georgie is with him and she won't let anything freak him out. Just concentrate on the love I know you already have for him. Let him pick up on that."

"I'm sorry, I can't." Patrick walked away from them, from their whispering voices and accusing gazes.

"Fine. I'll go." Elizabeth sniffed, pushing away the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes. She understood Patrick was terrified about losing Robin, but damn that little boy needed him too.

"I'll go with you." Laura offered. "I've been patiently waiting to meet Nathan for at least three months now and you know how I hate to wait." She teased.

"Don't I ever?" Elizabeth joked back. "Dr. Walker, where's Nathaniel?"

"We haven't moved him to the nursery yet. I'll get him for you." Joanne disappeared into the O.R. where she found Ric. "Any change?" She asked, scooping the baby up.

"No." He replied tersely.

"Okay then." Joanne backed out of the room. "Here he is."

Elizabeth and Laura stood close together as Dr. Walker placed the tiny bundle in Elizabeth's arms. His hair was fine, but already the same dark color of his mother's. He stubbornly refused to open his eyes, but Elizabeth was willing to bet they were the same shade as Robin's. "Hi little Nathaniel." She cooed quietly. "Your momma is going to be so happy to see you."

"He looks just like Patrick's baby pictures." Laura noted, sweeping her hand lightly across his hair.

"I think he looks like Robin."

"You must be so tired." Laura said to the baby.

"Well of course he is. It took a lot of work to get here didn't it?" Nathan yawned and they both smiled. "Now that you get from your dad." Elizabeth laughed.

*****

"You didn't tell me he was here." Maxie accused lightly, hurrying over to the crowd forming around little Nathan. "Wow. There's no question who his parents are."

"No. No doubt about that." Laura laughed.

She had left to get coffee and this was what she got for it? Well she was done being nice to others. It got her nowhere. "Can I see him?"

"Of course." Laura carefully handed over the small bundle to the younger woman. "I'm sure he was anxious to meet you."

"Well that goes without saying. Hey little guy. I'm your cousin Maxie. I'm going to spoil you like crazy."

"You are about ten people back on that line." Lucky joked.

Nathan started to wail and Maxie's eyes widened. "Um, I didn't break him." She promised, looking for someone to hand him to.

"Give him here." Lucky held out his hands. "He's fine. A tough guy. Just like his mom I bet."

"Well he is a Scorpio." Maxie said handing the baby over to him.

Ric slowly walked through the double doors and made his way to the family. He paused only long enough to attempt to wipe away the exhaustion from his face. He had done everything he could do, tried every medical procedure he could. There was nothing else he could do. Now it was up to Robin.

"How is she?" Luke wondered, spotting him first. He recognized the doctor from Bobbie's delivery as well as Elizabeth's.

"She's....she could be better." Ric admitted.

"Did you find out which drug she was allergic to?" Luke pressed.

"No." Ric replied shook his head. "It's still a mystery."

"I didn't realize you were working this case." Maxie said quietly, not meeting his eyes. She could be civil. He was trying to save her cousin's life.

"Dr. Walker called me in to assist." Ric addressed her answer to the entire group, realizing now was not the time to start in on their issues.

"Well I'm sure she couldn't ask for better doctors." Maxie admitted.

"We are still trying everything we can think of." Ric assured them. "And we're not stopping until we figure this out."

"What the hell are you doing here?" Patrick interrupted, Lucas coming up behind him.

"Patrick!" Laura snapped. "He's just trying to help."

"Like he tried to help before?" Patrick challenged incredulously, closing some of the distance between him and the man he had hated for the better part of a year.

"I told you both the truth." Ric defended. "And I would tell you the same thing now."

"I don't want you anywhere near my wife." Patrick said through barely controlled anger.

"Patrick, what's the matter with you?" Maxie demanded, hands glued to her hips.

"Maxie I can handle this." Ric insisted, placing his hand on her shoulder. "Patrick I understand you are scared..."

"You have no idea what I'm feeling right now." Patrick countered, holding his hands out as if to buffer any further explanation the doctor tried to offer him. "I wish for scared."

"I assure you we're doing everything we can to help Robin. Unfortunately this is one of the risks I was worried about."

"Robin's defied the odds before. She'll do it again." Patrick ignored what he recognized in his own words: desperation.

"You keep hoping." Ric advised him as he turned to make his way back into the room. "I'm going to keep fighting."

Patrick turned away too, rage blurring the world around him. Not that man. Not him. He didn't want Robin's life in the hands of Ric Lansing. He sighed and squeezed his eyes shut. But there was no other choice. The doctor's ego alone would get the job done; he wasn't willing to have a casualty on his conscience. Patrick felt the blood leave his face, his entire body. He would have done anything for that numb feeling right now, but there was only a lingering chill.