First Date Jitters
By Beccabo

Complete

Notes: The idea for this story came from a reply that Scrubs fan court left in Beccabo's fanfic Falling For You fic about how much she enjoys "zip me up" fics. 

"Now, I know I have never been to the best restaurant in town, but I don’t think that the dress code at The Excelsior includes a lab coat and sensible shoes." Liz teased, sidling up next to Robin at the nurse’s station counter. Robin looked up and grinned at her friend as Liz continued, "It seems more like an Armani cocktail dress and Manolo Blahnik heels kind of place."

"Actually, I was thinking of wearing my scrubs." Robin teased back, looking back down at the paperwork she was working on. "My mom always says that hospital green goes with my eyes."

"I don’t think it will matter what you will wear." Liz replied, busying herself by straightening up the counter. "You could wear a potato sack and flip flops and Patrick Drake will still think that you are the most gorgeous thing he’s ever seen. That man is crazy about you." She nudged Robin’s shoulder with her own and giggled. "I still can’t believe you finally agreed to go out with him."

Robin shook her head. "Me neither. It was a moment of weakness, I guess. I figured that if I agreed to go out with him, he’d stop bothering me all the time. Get it out of his system and move on, you know."

"Liar." Liz said with a knowing grin. "You know that’s not going to happen. Once he spends an evening in the company of the fabulous Robin Scorpio, he’ll be begging for more. Much more. You know what they say about not being able to resist after just one.

"You make me sound like a potato chip."

Liz laughed and leaned on the counter, watching Robin work. "I just wish you had waited two more weeks and then I could have won some mad money. Then Lucky and I could have gone with you. But I had to go and bet on the two of you not going out until next month."

Robin finally looked up at Liz and asked, "You have been placing bets on when Patrick and I would go out?"

"Most of the staff is in on it...except for those jealous girls who want to be the ones Patrick hounds every moment of everyday." Liz’s eyes twinkled with mischief as she said, "The pool got up over $100."

Robin shook her head in disbelief. The last thing she wanted was to be the focus of hospital gossip. There were already some people around GH who resented her for being so young and winning such a prestigious position at the hospital. "So, who won?" Robin couldn’t resist asking.

"Alan."

"Alan was in on the pool?" Robin asked in disbelief.

"Honey, Alan started it!" Liz laughed as Robin again shook her head. "Are you changing here?"

Robin nodded. "We figured it was easier, since we both had to work today. Maxie came by at lunch and took my car home for me."

"What time?"

"Um...seven, I think?"

"That’s in half an hour!" Liz exclaimed, taking the pen out of Robin’s hand. "Give me those charts and go change!"

Robin laughed as Liz shooed her out from behind the nurse’s station and headed for the women’s locker room where she had laid her clothes out in advance this morning. Removing her toiletries from her gym bag, Robin found herself taking deep breaths and trying to calm herself. She knew she had no earthly reason to be this nervous - this was Patrick Drake, for crying out loud. She was only another notch on his bedpost. Which made tonight, you know, just dinner with a friend. A colleague.

At The Excelsior, the little voice in her head reminded her. The most expensive and romantic restaurant in Port Charles. Robin had been a little surprised when he told her that was where he had made the reservations. She guessed that he figured it had taken her months to say yes to his dinner invitation, so he was going to make sure it was worth the effort.

Robin smiled as she glanced over at her dress hanging from her locker handle. She had "dragged" Georgie and Maxie out with her to find it and knew it was the one as soon as she saw it. A twist on the classic little, black dress, it had an empire waist and delicate pink embroidery across the top, with thin spaghetti straps climbing over her shoulders. When she tried it on, the dress hugged her every curve, hinted at her cleavage, and made her feel like every inch of her was gorgeous. She knew the look on Patrick’s face was going to be well worth the money she had overspent on it. "He won’t call me socially inept ever again." she muttered to herself as she started to get ready.

She removed her daytime outfit and part of her laughed at herself for putting on her favorite Victoria’s Secret underwear set this morning. She had, after all, no intention of Patrick seeing it when their date was over, but she rationalized that there was no harm in feeling sexy even if she was the only one who knew it. Her mother's lessons stayed firm in her mind, which meant that everything came before the dress - stockings, which she prayed would stay up (because tugging at her thighs during dinner would most likely be unattractive), black strappy heels, earrings, and careful touches of not-too-obvious makeup. She reached up and pulled two strategically placed pins out of her hair, letting her dark tresses fall across her shoulders. She fretted over her hair for a while before deciding to leave it as it was, silky and hanging down around her face and shoulders. With exactly five minutes to go, heart pounding in a completely irrational manner, she pulled the dress from its hanger. It was of the kind that draped neatly down over her body, the silky lining making it slip perfectly into place. After a moment she reached for a delicate diamond and white gold necklace her uncle had given her when she'd graduated from medical school. Settling it around her neck, she reached with trembling hands for the perfume she seldom used and dabbed it gently on her wrists and throat. She stood in front of the full-length mirror to zip up her dress, twisting anxiously to both sides to examine the view.

It was then that she remembered that the dress had a zipper in back, which happened to be just out of her reach. "Damn." Robin muttered, thinking back on the day she tried it on and had to have Maxie help her zip it up. But she had been so enamored with the dress that she didn’t give that small detail another thought. Until now.

As if on cue, Robin heard Patrick’s footsteps in the hall moments before his knuckles rapped on the door and he called out, "Robin? You decent?"

Realizing she had no other choice, Robin moved over and opened the door, trying her hardest to keep her face calm. "Hey, Patrick," she said, before giving him the once over. Once she did, she had a harder time with casual. The man looked good in a suit.

And he was carrying flowers, which he handed her gallantly but not too theatrically as she stepped back to let him into the locker room. "Freesia," she breathed, caught a little off guard by his sweet gesture, and lifted them to her face to inhale the strong, sweet fragrance. "They're my absolute favorite."

Patrick looked smug and thoroughly delighted with himself. "I was going to go with a rose, but that seemed so cliche, and I liked the way..."

When Robin opened the door a little wider, the words died on his lips, his eyes widened, and Robin knew for sure that the dress was an A plus. His sentence dribbled off pathetically when he did a double take on her, taking in the simple black cocktail dress that hugged to curves that Patrick never knew she had, but had imagined hopefully. It was definitely a total change and she didn’t look at all like the oh-so-professional doctor this evening. "Wow," he said softly. "I...wow."

"Yeah?" she asked, unable to control the smile that crossed her face. It was nothing short of amazing, the way he was looking at her and she felt herself begin to blush.

"Don't fish," he told her, recovering from his moment of speechlessness. "You know how good you look."

"I think I'll look a little better when it's zipped," she says, looking helplessly over her shoulder.

Patrick raised an eyebrow at her obvious embarrassment. "Well, I was hoping that I could demonstrate my well honed zipper skills at the end the evening, but I’ll take what I can get."

"Get your mind out of the gutter and help me with the zipper so that we’re not late for dinner."

Patrick grinned and said, "Turn around."

She turned her back to him, revealing a pale extended ‘v’ of soft skin down her spine. He swallowed and couldn’t help but trace one finger down between her shoulder blades as she lifted her hair out of the way. Robin shivered as electrifying currents coursed through her at the sensation caused by his knuckle running down over the smooth skin of her back. His skin was warm against hers, and he dragged the zipper up slowly, letting his hands rest on her shoulders for a moment, his lips close to her ear. "Exhale, doctor." He whispered before turning her back around to face him.

"Okay." Robin said, her face completely flushed. "Ready?"

His eyes skimmed her admiringly, drifting over her modest but alluring dress yet again and settling once more on her face. "You look beautiful," he said without guile.

Another light blush was the only indication that this meant something to her on more than a friendly level. "Thank you," she replied, managing to keep her voice even. Feeling his eyes on her and pretending she didn't, she reached down to the locker room bench to retrieve her coat. Robin turned back to him with a tremulous smile and bravely said, "Okay, let’s do this."

Patrick took her coat from her and held it for her to slip into, then guided her out the door with a hand at the small of her back. If Robin didn’t know any better, she could have sworn the entire staff was watching them walk out to the elevators. And Alan was around somewhere, happily counting his winnings.

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