The Men Who Love Her
By Beccabo

Chapter 4

Chapter Four - Patrick

"Her fever is still too high." Noah Drake said quietly, checking on Robin’s vital signs as he stood above her bed and looked down into her sleeping face. "It is as if she is drowning in the fluid in her lungs..."

Patrick nodded as he continued to administer into her IV the drug they believed would fight Robin’s infection and restore her immune system. "That should do it."

"We have to give it at least twenty four hours to circulate through her system." Noah stated, turning his eyes on his son as he watched Patrick watch Robin. "It’s all up to Robin now."

Patrick nodded again, never taking his eyes off of the bed where she lay. Realizing that his son needed a moment alone, Noah stepped forward and touched Patrick’s arm. "A person’s will to live is as powerful as any drug we could have come up with. And Robin has plenty of reasons to want to live. Maybe you should remind her of that." Patrick looked back at his father and the two men locked eyes before Patrick nodded in silent understanding. Noah moved toward the door and said, "I’m going to go see if I can help administer the drug to the rest of the patients. Why don’t you stay here until Mac or Anna get back."

Patrick listened to the door close behind his father’s retreating form and pulled the empty chair from the corner of the room closer to Robin’s bedside. He was mentally and physically exhausted. He had been stretching himself too thin treating patients of this outbreak and doing research in the lab with his father. It had been the three of them...Robin, Noah, and himself...racing to find the cure until Robin had taken sick. He remembered the moment he realized she was sick as if it were only moments ago instead of a week ago.

True to form, Robin had been working herself to exhaustion to find the cure. She knew it was in her research somewhere and she was on a mission to find it. Losing Dr. Tony Jones to this virus had really affected her, but when Lucky and Liz’s son Cameron fell ill...Robin was like a woman possessed. She didn’t eat or sleep as she poured over her research articles trying to isolate the strain of the virus. It was foolish of her not to think of her own health, so Patrick had to. He had finally convinced her to go get some rest in the lounge while he and Noah continued her work. When he had gone up to check on her, Patrick had been unable to resist brushing a stray hair off her face as she slept. She looked so peaceful and beautiful. But as his knuckles brushed the delicate skin of her forehead, he had felt that she was burning up. Her fever had spiked and he knew that the virus she was working so hard to kill had worked it’s way into her own system.

Patrick shook his head of his memories while he ran his hand over the feverish skin of her forehead and was dismayed to feel how warm she still was. Quietly, he said, "We did it, Robin. We isolated the strain of the virus and my dad worked for ten hours straight on the right combination of drugs to fight it. He was unbelievable. You would have been so proud of him." I know I was, he thought silently in himself. "It was right there in your research all along. We just kept missing it for some reason. Overanalyzing, I guess. We just had to step back from it for a minute, which is what we did when you got sick. I’m sorry that it was too late for Edward and Tony, but Cameron, Ric, and Morgan are going to be okay. And so are you."

Sighing deeply and leaning back in the chair, Patrick smirked. "Your mom is here. I didn’t think there could be a woman who was a bigger pain in my ass than you, but I was wrong. Like mother, like daughter." He shook his head with a grin. "I don’t think she likes me very much. I could take comfort in the fact that she doesn’t seem to like Sonny or Jason either...but that’s not exactly the group I want to be lumped in with. So, when you wake up, I’m really going to be in for it. I’ll have the both of you on my case."

Robin was stubborn, but Patrick wasn’t sure the lure of harassing him had the power to bring her back to life. But maybe, if she knew everything else that he could offer her, everything that he’s wanted to tell her, maybe then that might be enough. Taking a deep breath, Patrick took her hand in his and began to talk to the stillness of her form. "You’re scaring me, do you know that? I’m really scared. Are you happy now? I think this is what you wanted all along. You pulled this whole stunt so that I would realize that being a doctor meant more than just having steady hands. So, here I am...completely terrified, vulnerable, and at your mercy. And I have to tell you, if this is what bedside manner is all about...well, I’m glad I avoided it for so long."

He took a few moments to gaze at her beautiful face. Even though her skin was pale and drawn from the illness, she was still so beautiful. He lifted her hand up to his lips and kissed the back of it, letting his lips linger on the warmth of her skin. At least she wasn’t cold and lifeless, so there was still hope. "We are so much alike, you and I. We’ve both spent a good portion of our lives hiding from the pain that life has found necessary to inflict on us. We go about it in opposite ways, but we’re doing the same thing. You hide in your work and I hide in meaningless relationships. I am willing to admit that now. That's what's so infuriating. We really are alike, and complement each other perfectly, so of course fate had to throw us together this way. And then in the cruelest of all twists, just when we are starting to connect, life pulls us apart. Because why the hell should any of this be easy, hmmm?" Patrick let his rhetorical question linger in the silence of her hospital room as he continued, "But I decided a few nights ago that I refuse to lose you. Nope, not going to let you go without a fight. Because that’s the way we do things, after all. Everything with us is a fight, so why should this be any different? And I know that you think I am selfish, so I might as well use that to my advantage. This is the most selfish thing I’ve ever asked of you, Robin, but you have got to fight this virus for me. Because there is still so much left to say..."

Patrick could feel the emotion of his voice catch in his throat and stopped himself for a moment. He would not let her see him cry. She would use it as ammunition for years to come. Regaining the strength back in his voice, he whispered, "There’s still so much I have to tell you. I wanted to wait until you woke up to tell you this, but I don’t think it will hurt to tell you now. I can always tell you again when you open your eyes. Besides, telling you now means you can’t interrupt me with you witty comebacks and insults." He rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb as he confessed, "I never told you how beautiful I think you are. I don’t know why you can’t seem to see it, but you radiate beauty Robin. Natural beauty, that comes from a beautiful place inside. It takes my breath away sometimes. And I never told you how much I love to try to make you laugh, because, really, Scorpio, you don’t do it enough. There really is so much to laugh at in this world and it kills me to see you letting it pass you by." He paused, and then said in a gentle voice, "I never told you how much you make me want to be a better person. Some people think that you are judgmental, but that’s not how I see it. You do what you think is right, no matter what. You defend the people and the things and the ideas that mean the most to you, even when it means that the fallout is going to be brutal. Strength like that is really rare, especially in someone your size, and it makes me want to have that kind of courage. You make me want to be a better doctor, too. And that one was really hard for me to admit. But you challenge me and I love how hard you make me work to make my point. Very few people in this life challenge me...and I love a good challenge."

Patrick drew in another deep breath and teased, "Okay, I’m pouring my soul out to you here Robin. The least you could do is open your eyes and give me a sign. Your eyes have told me so much in the short time I’ve known you. They darken when you're passionate or angry. They shed tears when you're sad and need someone to make you feel safe once again. They shine when you’re happy and in those rare moments when you laugh. You can't ever hide from me when you're scared since your eyes will tell me all about it. But you need to open them now so I can get some sense of what’s going on inside there."

Robin’s eyes didn’t even flicker and Patrick knew he had been asking for too much. She wasn’t just going to miraculously wake up because he wanted her to. It didn’t work that way. But as he sat there in the growing shadows of the afternoon, his fingers absently running over her knuckles, Patrick realized that, if Robin needed him to, he’d wait forever. Just to look into her eyes once more.

to be continued...

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