CH 21

"You're awfully quiet" Ethan said sitting on the edge of his hospital bed.

Sabrina turned away from the window and gave him a half hearted smile "I'm sorry. A lot on my mind I suppose."

"Patrick?" He asked to which Sabrina simply nodded her head yes. "Yeah, I saw Robin earlier. Still can't believe she's alive."

"You and me both" Sabrina responded sinking back into the chair by his bed. Sabrina hadn't seen or talked to Patrick since 2 days prior when he saw came to find her in Ethan's room. In that time he must have left her no less than 20 voicemails. Every time her phone vibrated she felt her heart break a little more. She listened to the first few seconds of one message before mass deleting the rest. Just his voice alone sent her back into an emotional tailspin.

"Well I'm sure you and Patrick will be able to work it out" Ethan said.

"There is no me and Patrick any longer. But thank you for the support." Sabrina said looking away.

Ethan paused seeing the look of pain on her face. He had never seen those beautiful eyes look so hurt. It crushed him in a way he didn't think possible "Sabrina… I'm sorry. I…"

"It's fine." She interrupted trying to change the subject. "Are you sure you have everything? Epiphany said your discharge paper work was all done."

"Yeah. I'm so ready to get out of here too. This bed is like nails and the food was a little on the dreadful side." He laughed.

"Thank you by the way" Sabrina said placing her hand on his.

"For what?" He asked frozen by her touch.

"Ethan, you jumped in front of a bullet for me. You saved my life. I still can't believe you did that."

"I did what I had to do." He smiled

"Because Sonny paid you to?" Sabrina lightly chuckled.

Ethan hesitated and looked down at their hands trying to find the right response. Yes, Sonny paid him to protect Sabrina, but the truth was he probably would have jumped in front of that bullet for her regardless. This was absolutely the wrong time to tell Sabrina how he felt about her, but he wasn't sure how much longer he could hide it. And according to Sonny, he wasn't hiding it very well to begin with. "Honestly Sabrina, I…"

"So, you ready to go?" Sonny asked from the door interrupting Ethan before he could finish.

"Yep. All ready" Ethan replied quickly pulling his hands away from Sabrina's. He stood up from the bed and grabbed the duffle bag from the floor relieved by his timing.

"Good, the car is downstairs waiting to take you back to the house. The staff will get you all situated." Sonny said

"Wait, Ethan is going to your house?" Sabrina asked puzzled.

"Yeah well, he couldn't go back to Luke's tiny suite at the Metro Court. Especially with him not really being there often. So I figured I have more rooms than necessary. Plus he saved my daughter's life. I kind of owe him" Sonny winked.

"Wow. That's really nice of you. I appreciate it" Sabrina said.

"Oh its nothing. This is a good guy here" Sonny said patting Ethan on the back. "Let's get you out of here." Sonny took Ethan's duffle bag as they made their way out of the hospital room.

"Damn, I think I left my cell phone in there." Ethan said once they had reached the elevator.

"It's ok, you guys go ahead. I'll go get the phone and drop it off later." Sabrina offered.

Sabrina went back into the room and began looking for the phone but couldn't find it. She looked on the tables, the window sill and on the bed before finally finding it wrapped up in the blankets. As she picked up the phone, her thumb must have accidently hit the power button, because the screen illuminated. Sabrina looked down at Ethan's phone to see a picture of herself staring back. Sabrina studied the picture and realized it was taken just last week during some random errand run that Ethan followed her on. He must have taken it when she wasn't paying attention, but why? It must have been some sort of surveillance thing, but why was the picture open on his phone? Sabrina figured he must have recently been looking at it but was unclear as the reason. Sabrina quickly turned off the phone realizing that she was clearly invading Ethan's privacy. It was probably nothing anyway. She turned to leave the room but was stopped dead in her tracks by Patrick and Robin standing in the doorway.

Ethan and Sonny arrived at the Corinthos residence a half hour later. Ethan slowly eased his way on to the sofa as Max brought in the rest of his bags.

"This is really nice of you Sonny." Ethan said.

"What can I say, I'm a nice guy." Sonny grinned.

"Yeah ok, what is this really about?" Ethan asked not fooled one bit by Sonny's grand gesture.

"I told you, you saved my kids life. This is the least I can do. And ya know, Sabrina comes over here from time to time. And now that your bodyguard duties have been fulfilled, I don't want you two to fall out of touch."

"Ah, there it is." Ethan sighed "Sonny, when are you going to let this go? Sabrina loves Patrick…"

"That's done! Ok. The first chance he got, he left her. Just like I knew he would. Don't get me wrong, I understand it. But while he's being reunited with his wife, my daughter's heart is in a million pieces. I see no reason why you can't be the one to put it back together."

"I can't do that" Ethan whispered.

"Why not? You care about her don't you?"

"You know I do" He confessed "But I can't be the one who picks her up, Sonny. That would make me a rebound at best. It's entirely too soon."

"Hey, I'm not saying to pursue her right this second. Just be there for her. As a friend and someone she can lean on and trust. Everything else will happen naturally."

"And if Patrick wants her back?"

Sonny chuckled and walked over to the patio doors reflecting on a conversation he had with Robin the previous day. He stopped by to see her with his own eyes and still couldn't believe it. She was really alive. They spent an hour or so casually catching up on things until the conversation turned to Sabrina. Sonny wasn't sure how it was going to go until he realized that he and Robin had a mutual understanding where Patrick and Sabrina's relationship was concerned. There wasn't to be one. "Don't worry about that." Sonny said looking out onto the terrace "It's being handled."

"Oh, I'm sorry. We were looking for Ethan. Has he been discharged already?" Robin said unaware she was face to face with the woman her husband was in love with.

"Um… yeah. You just missed him" Sabrina replied barely above a whisper.

Robin looked at Patrick and took note of the expression on his face. It was one of shock yet relief. She looked back at the woman in front of her and noticed she was avoiding eye contact with her and suddenly knew exactly who she was. "You must be Sabrina." She said.

Sabrina finally met Robin's eyes with hers a little taken aback that she knew who she was "Yes. It's… it's very nice to meet you Dr. Scorpio-Drake."

"It's ok. You don't have to be so formal with me. You can call me Robin" she replied studying Sabrina from head to toe. Robin knew based on Patrick's track record that any woman he was involved with must have been beautiful, but Sabrina was far beyond that. She was stunning. Robin quickly felt jealousy setting in.

"Well, Robin. It's nice to meet you. I know you're happy to be home with your family. Emma must be ecstatic." Sabrina said trying to sound upbeat.

"Yeah, I think so. I haven't seen her yet actually" Robin replied.

Sabrina looked confused "You haven't?"

"I only just told her last night" Patrick said finally breaking his awkward silence "We wanted to wait until we got Robin's labs back. To make sure Robin was really ok after her ordeal."

"Yep, and just like I thought, I'm completely fine" Robin smiled at her husband who's eyes were still fixated on Sabrina.

"Well that's great to hear. I'm really happy for you… both" Sabrina said quickly glancing to Patrick "I should go. I just came to get Ethan's cell" Sabrina said walking to the door.

"Wait" Robin said lightly grabbing Sabrina's arm "I just want to say thank you. Patrick and my mom filled me in on everything you did for my family. I will never be able to express my gratitude enough. I truly mean that" Robin pulled Sabrina into a hug and completely caught her off guard.

"I uh… It was no problem" Sabrina said looking at Patrick.

"Knock knock" Anna said entering the room "Are we ready?"

"Yeah, I'm ready to get out of here." Robin said turning to leave "Patrick, are you coming?"

"Actually, I'll meet you there once I pick up Emma" Patrick replied. Robin exchanged looks with both Patrick and Sabrina before reluctantly leaving with Anna. Once Patrick saw them get on the elevator he slammed the hospital room door and blocked Sabrina from leaving.

"Patrick, move" Sabrina demanded.

"No. I'm not moving until you talk to me. Why haven't you called me back?"

"There was no reason to"

"Really, Sabrina? I mean that little to you now?"

"That's not what I meant."

"Well then tell me."

"Patrick I don't want to do this with you right now. Shouldn't you be getting home to your wife and child?"

"First of all, Robin isn't coming home yet. She's staying with Anna and Duke so that we can ease Emma in to this. Do you have any idea how confused she is?"

Sabrina looked away "Is she ok?"

"No she's not ok! Yes, she was excited to hear about Robin but that excitement quickly turned to sadness when she realized you were gone. Why Sabrina…?" Patrick began to tear up "Why did you do that to me?"

"It was for the best…" She whispered

"Stop saying that! It wasn't what was best for Emma and damn sure not for me. Do you have any idea what that did to me? Seeing your entire presence just gone like that? The blanket that you keep on the sofa for movie night. Your favorite mug. Those stupid little hair clips that I always find in the strangest places. All just gone! How…" Patrick couldn't even finish. He lowered his head to let his tears fall to the floor. "You just vanished."

Sabrina turned around and put her hand over her mouth to muffle her cries. Seeing him in this kind of pain broke her heart all over again "I'm sorry, Patrick. I just didn't know what else to do."

Patrick rushed over and spun Sabrina around to face him "We love each other, Sabrina. We can't just turn that off. If we just talk, maybe…"

"Maybe what, Patrick" she asked pulling away "Maybe we can ignore that your wife is alive and go back to the way things were? It doesn't work like that! I don't deserve that! I don't deserve to always be second with you!" She yelled "I'm tired, ok? I'm tired of having to fight for you! I want someone who will fight for me for a change!"

"What does it look like I'm doing right now?!" Patrick yelled back. Neither seemed to care about who may hear them.

"I think you're trying to have it both ways. That's what I think."

"That's a damn lie and you know it Sabrina. You're running away. You're running away from me and your running away from Emma."

"That's not fair."

"No it's not fair. Nothing about this is fair. I'm in love with you, Sabrina. You can't ask me to just stop. That's like asking me to stop breathing. I can't do that. I won't."

Sabrina wiped her eyes and ran her fingers through her hair "If you love me Patrick, then let me go." She said sternly.

Patrick stepped back and looked at her as if she had just driven a stake through his heart "Let you go? Wha… no. I… I can't do that" He replied shaking his head.

"You have to. For your family" Sabrina pleaded with tears flowing down her face "And if not for them then for me. It hurts too much, can't you see that? I don't want to hurt like this over you anymore."

Patrick looked at Sabrina and saw she was holding herself upright with the railing of the hospital bed. How could he bring some much pain to someone he loved so much? "So that's it? Just like that. We're just… done?"

"We have to be" She whispered.

Patrick looked around the room in search of something to throw. A wall to punch. Anything to get out his anger. Sabrina had never made him this mad. She was being stubborn and irrational…. and selfless. He hated every part of this but it was what she wanted. He had to let her go. Patrick turned around and opened the door to leave but stopped "Felix asked me. He was all over me to be honest. He asked me what I wanted. WHO I wanted. Where I wanted to be. I didn't respond to him then but just so you know, the answer was you. The answer will always be you, Sabrina." Patrick never turned to face her. He walked out on her, their time together and the hopes of them ever having a future again. Patrick left the room and closed the door on the love of his life.