Patrick smiled as he stood in the back of the conference room the hospital set up for the reading of 'Twas The Night Before Christmas watching Emma interact with all the other kids who were gathering around Santa. He'd gotten the text from Anna letting him know they'd arrived shortly after he and Sabrina had finished making love in his office. He got dressed and went to meet Emma while Sabrina ran to her locker in an attempt to fix her hair, which he gleefully messed up.
When Sabrina finally entered the room chatting happily with Felix, Patrick's breath caught at how beautiful she looked. The wrap dress hugged her Latino curves in all the right places without being overtly sexy. When Sabrina spotted him, she smiled brightly, excused herself, and made her way over to him, her hair swinging behind her in a loose ponytail. When she reached him, she said, "Hey".
"Hey."
She nodded her head toward Emma. "Everything good?"
"Yeah. She's excited."
"Good," Sabrina said as she moved to stand next to him - close, but not too close.
They stood there companionably as the kids got settled and Santa began reading. As the story progressed, Patrick found himself inching closer to Sabrina's side and eventually clasped her hand in his. When she felt the contact, Sabrina looked over at him questioningly and attempted to break his hold, but he held tight since they were far enough in the back that their embrace wouldn't be noticeable. Sabrina eventually sighed quietly, squeezed his hand, and returned her attention to the story.
In that moment, holding Sabrina's hand and watching Emma sitting on Santa's lap smiling, Patrick thought everything was perfect.
Sabrina held Patrick's hand as she watched Emma and was more content and at peace than she'd been in ages, which immediately sent off warning signals in her brain. Emma and Patrick weren't hers and letting herself believe that they were, even momentarily, was dangerous to her heart because, despite all of her self-warnings to keep her distance, Sabrina had fallen back in love with both of them. She knew ending the affair and re-erecting her emotional walls was the best thing to do, but she couldn't. Sabrina was, for once in her life, being selfish and keeping them while she could.
Everyone in the room was so engulfed in Santa animatedly reading the story that no one noticed the doors open until Emma, who just glanced up to smile at her and Patrick, froze in shock. A moment later, she wiggled her way off of Santa's lap (who stopped reading) and shouted "Mommy!" as she jumped off the riser and ran down the aisle. After a collective gasp, all eyes in the room followed her until she reached and jumped into Robin's waiting arms.
When Sabrina witnessed this, she was immediately transported back in time to last year's failed wedding and her feelings of shock, embarrassment and helplessness bubbled to the surface. Involuntarily, she gasped and ripped her hand from Patrick's. As Robin hugged Emma, her eyes searched for and found Patrick, who Sabrina could tell was nearly as shocked as last year. When he momentarily glanced at Sabrina apologetically, she whispered "Go," and stepped as far away from his side as she could without being obvious.
When Patrick reached his family, Robin put Emma down. Sabrina heard her say, "It's over. I'm finally home to stay," right before she pulled him in for a kiss.
Apparently knowing her world was going to crash down hadn't prepared her any more for the reality of the experience than being blindsided had. Refusing to show any reaction whatsoever in front of all of Port Charles, Sabrina edged along the wall of the room and slinked out via the nearest side door. Once she was in the hallway she ran to the locker room, which was deserted, sank to the nearest bench and let her tears fall.