Chapter 131

In your arms, where all my journeys end

Pushing open the apartment door Robin paused, leaning against the doorframe, and stared at her boyfriend with a mixture of pride and admiration. Sitting up straight on the couch, his earphones in and holding a mirror to his face, he was practicing his pronunciation. She admired his determination to overcome the aphasia and knew how hard he was working at it. There were days where she would come home and he would be asleep on the couch having worked to exhaustion but the earphones were still in and playing the speech therapy discs.

Closing the door quietly she pulled off her coat, hanging it on the polished wooden rack by the door, and dropped her purse on the table. She smiled as she made her way to him. It had been almost a week since she spoke at her group meeting, articulating out loud for the first time her fears of getting married, and as always she found the stress had dissipated. She was not necessarily any closer to being ready for marriage but at least she was no longer being torn up inside by it.

She gently touched his shoulder and slid into his lap, brushing her lips against his.

"Hi" she said softly, her brown eyes gleaming.

Patrick jerked in surprise and hastily removed his earphones, tossing his ipod to the side. "H-hi" he greeted her, wrapping his arm around her waist and nuzzling her neck. "H-h-how was your d-d-day?"

Curling her fingers through the fine wisps of hair at the nape of his neck, she grinned. "My day? My day was fantastic."

Patrick raised his eyebrows in surprise. In the week and a half since his clumsy marriage proposal they had run a gamut of emotions individually and together. Knowing how important marriage was to her, he knew she was struggling with having turned him down and tied in with everything else they were dealing with, her feelings had been all over the map. But seeing the return of the impish glint to her eye made him ecstatic.

"Oh?" he prodded.

"Yup. Fantastic. Awesome. Fabulous."

"H-hot doctor?"

"Don't be silly, you're the only hot doctor at GH."

"D-d-damn straight" he answered with hint of propriety to his voice.

Shifting, Robin straddled him and slung her arms over his shoulders. "I had an appointment with Alan today." Seeing his eyes widen with worry she nipped reassuringly at his lips. "Don't fret."

"W-would have g-gone too" he told her.

It was a fine line he walked when it came to her health. A fiercely independent woman, she was often slow to ask for support as she was so used to doing it on her own for so long. He had, earlier on in their relationship, been good at drawing her out but he was often so wrapped up in his own issues these days it was difficult for him to pick up on the subtle signs. He silently reminded himself he needed to do better.

"It was a spur of the moment thing," she told him. "Alan asked me to swing by his office as my latest blood work had come in early."

With a shaky hand he reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "And?"

Robin's face split into a wide grin. "My viral load is back to its old levels. The new meds have worked and everything is back in its box."

Sucking in a breath Patrick rose quickly to his feet, still holding her, and spun them both happily around the room. Hooking her legs around his hips, she pressed her body against his and squealed in delight.

Spinning them back to the couch they collapsed in a heap on top of each other. Patrick kissed her passionately and lovingly, amazed at how light his own heart suddenly felt with the news. Intellectually he understood that her viral load was likely to go back down with her new protocol but the head did not always rule the heart. He had rationalized the likely outcome and reviewed the statistic probability but it had done little to quell the worry in his heart.

As he stretched out against the length of the couch, taking her with him in his arms, his eye caught the glint of silver tucked inside her shirt. His fingers curled around the two chains and he smiled as he ran his fingers over them. The claddagh necklace, a symbol of who they were to each other and the medallion of Michael the Archangel, a symbol of who she was to him.

Robin closed her hand over his and smiled. "I know it can be really silly to get wrapped up in talismans but it can be so powerful to have something tangible to touch. When I was in Alan's office today I kept tracing the outline of my necklace, reminding myself that I – we – can get through anything. All we need is faith."

His speech well exhausted, he reached for his white board.

It's not always easy to come by but being with you has taught me it's never as far out of reach as you think it is.

"I taught you that?" she queried softly.

Nodding, Patrick kissed her again. His tongue ran tantalizingly along the seam of her lips, stealing a taste of her as it did so.

"Do you know what you taught me?" she asked, peppering his lips with tiny kisses. Patrick shook his head. Tracing her fingertip along his soft lower lip, she smiled. "You taught me that it's impossible to give up on yourself when others still believe in you."

A look of shock flashed across his face. "M-me?"

"You," she replied gently. "I still think back to the night you told me you were in love with me." Her cheeks burned brightly at the memory and the inelegant way she had responded to him. "I was a mess then – much messier than I am now," she grinned. "And I just wanted to go to bed, pull the covers over my head and wait for the world to pass by but you wouldn't let me. You believed I would come through it even when I didn't. You found a support group for me and in so many ways I view them as an extension of the love and support you give me."

Patrick's eyes shimmered as he gazed at her in amazement. It had always been very clear, to him at least, that whatever impact he was going to have on people it would come through his role as a doctor. He had never imagined or envisaged himself as someone who could impact another person's life just by being him. If he had that ability to do so it was because falling in love with Robin had unlocked it in him.

"I l-love you" he whispered as he closed his mouth over hers.

Robin met his kiss with alacrity and moaned as his tongue coaxed her lips apart and swept inside her mouth. They lay tangled on the couch touching, tasting and exploring until the need for air pulled them apart.

"I think we should celebrate" she said, her eyes glassy with desire.

Cocking his head to the side, he gave her a quizzical look. "Th-thought we were?"

Robin smiled. "Well that's one part of the celebration but I was thinking we could with our celebratory tradition of Chinese food and-"

"S-s-s-strip race c-cars?"

She sat up with a start. "Patrick!"

Confused, he pulled himself to a sitting position. "Wh-what?"

"You remember?"

He shrugged non-chalantly, not sure what she was getting at. Picking up his board he wrote: Yes. We always do that. After my HIV results we did

Suddenly aware of the presence of a new memory he stopped writing and looked at Robin, his brown eyes bulging. She covered her mouth with her hands and inhaled sharply.

"You remember" she whispered.

Patrick looked from her to the board and back again, shocked at how the memory just appeared with little enticement or cajoling. He nodded slowly, "I r-r-remember."

Throwing her arms around his neck, she hugged him tightly. "That is amazing!"

He shook his head in wonderment. "I r-r-remember" he repeated.

"Now we have twice as many reasons to celebrate. We definitely need Chinese food." Scrambling off of him, she picked up the phone and hit the speed dial button.

Patrick stared ahead of him in amazement. When he had gone to see Eric he had been so sure that his memories were going to remain agonizingly out of reach. He was almost ready to throw in the towel. And while remembering strip race cars was hardly earth shattering it was, for him, a monumental discovery. Hope raced through his veins that one more memory would lead to another and then another and he would finally stop feeling as though he were fumbling in the dark.

Having ordered the food, Robin slipped next to him on the couch and softly stroked his cheek. "You okay?"

Exhaling slowly, he nodded. It just took me by surprise

"Me too. But it's a good surprise." Patrick stole a kiss as he slid his hand along her thigh. "Do you…do you have your list in your wallet?" she asked carefully.

Patrick narrowed his eyes playfully. "Our l-list."

"Our list," she repeated. "Do you have it?"

Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out his walled and retrieved the list. Carefully unfolding it, he laid it out on the table and then looked expectantly at Robin.

She chewed nervously on the inside of her cheek. "What….what would you say if we started doing some of the things on the list? Maybe not the big trips" she added quickly, "but some of the smaller ones?"

Patrick gave a small smile and cast his eyes quickly over the list. There weren't many small things on the list but there was certainly one item that could be easily done and in truth it was one that he wanted to do from the moment she had given him the list. While he knew it was not possible to cross the same road twice there was much to be said about acknowledging the path that had brought you to where you were.

He pointed to the second to last item on it and looked at her.

Robin smiled back and nodded. "That's just the one I was thinking of."

"G-great m-minds," he stammered.

"Are you sure you're up for it?"

Reaching for the pen he wrote: Up for it is never a problem for me

Robin gave a shocked laugh and playfully slapped his arm. "Perv."

He waggled his eyebrows. I'm sure. Let's go on Saturday.

"Deal!" She brushed her lips against his, giving a small groan as the buzzer rang. "That was fast!"

As she got up from the couch Patrick looked at the list one more time and smiled. It was exactly the small adventure they needed. Ideas began to bounce around in his head as he traced his finger over the words.

One perfect night at the Cabin