This chapter is only partially completed — one complete scene and part of a third scene.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Random Apartment

Patrick pushed open the door and stepped to the side to let Elizabeth enter. It was a nice enough place, he supposed. He followed in her steps, shoving his hands into the pockets of his pants. Large open space, two bedrooms, a decent kitchen. Paint job was all right, hardwood floors. He ambled over to the window and peered out. Good view of the park.

“Looks good,” he said. He turned. “But so did the other five places.”

Elizabeth murmured something noncommittally and wandered into one of the bedrooms. She’d been distant most of the morning, but Patrick had chalked it up to making such a big change. She was still living in the place that she and Lucky had shared—where Cameron had nearly died. He wished she’d vacated the small apartment on July, but her financial situation hadn’t been ready for that.

Not that it wasn’t now, but Patrick knew Nikolas was loaning her the money—had insisted on it as a show of faith that she was still part of his family. Patrick might not like the dark prince for more personal reasons, but even he could admit the other man cared for his former sister-in-law.

“It’s nice,” Elizabeth said, emerging from the bedroom, “but I don’t think it’s right.”

He pursed his lips. “Why not?” he asked. He flicked a wrist towards the windows. “It’s in a nice neighborhood, I think the hospital’s pretty close, I don’t know anything about schools, but I’m sure it’s in a nice district—”

Elizabeth ventured towards the window and peered out. The color seeped from her skin, making her fair complexion look like chalk. “I changed my mind. I know it’s not right.” She took a few steps back. “I’ll talk to the realtor, get some more listings. I’ll drag Emily along next time—”

“Whoa…” Patrick held up his hands. “What’s with the turnaround? You haven’t felt one way or another about most of the places, but suddenly this one is definitely not it? What gives?”

“Nothing,” Elizabeth said flatly. “I just know what I want and t-this isn’t it.” She took another step backwards, towards the door.

“I’m so not buying that, kid.” He shrugged. “I mean, if you don’t like the place, you don’t like it. But no apartment puts that look in someone’s eyes. If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s one thing, but give me some credit.”

Elizabeth closed her eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m mostly—it’s not an issue all the time but I’m afraid it could be if I moved here.” She opened her eyes and met his gaze. “When I was fifteen I was raped in the park over there.” She glanced out the window. “By that fountain.”

Patrick opened his mouth, but discovered there weren’t any words. After a brief, tense silence, he coughed. “I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have—of course, this won’t do—” he stopped, not wanting to babble.

She smiled wanly. “Most everyone knows anyway. Lucky found me, he supported me through everything, which is why we fell in love. It’s part of the reason I didn’t leave him when he got addicted. I didn’t feel right, abandoning him in his time of need. He stayed with me through the nightmares, he didn’t mind waiting three years until I felt like we could sleep together, he was so good to me that I just—” Elizabeth shrugged. “I wanted to do right by him.”

“That makes sense,” Patrick said feebly, unsure what else he could say. What could you say to something like this? Elizabeth was one of his favorite people, one of his closest friends and no one he’d known personally had ever been violated in such a way. Sure, he’d treated rape victims but from a distance, as an uninvolved doctor. “Uh, I mean, did they catch…him?”

“Sort of,” Elizabeth sighed. She rubbed her arms restlessly. “He tried to blackmail Emily about eight months later about some doctored nude photos and he went to jail for that.” She hesitated. “He was killed in prison a few months ago.” A faint smile flitted across her lips. “And this stays between us, but I’m pretty sure Jason arranged it.”

“Good,” Patrick said. Another man he disliked for personal reasons, but he could definitely agree with the assessment that any man who did that to a woman—a girl, for Christ’s sake—deserved whatever he got. “So, let’s go. We should just go—I don’t know, anywhere but here—”

He started past her and she reached out to grab his arm, to stop him. “Patrick, wait a second.” He turned to look at her. “This—this can’t change anything, okay? You’re important to me, your friendship and the way you treat me…” Elizabeth hesitated and laughed a little. “Even the absolutely ridiculous flirting you do with me—please don’t make this change any of that.”

Patrick thought about telling her of course he’d still flirt with her, treat her like the woman she’d always been—since the moment he’d hit on her and she’d cracked him over the head with a clipboard. But he knew that’d be a lie and he was done with lying to females. “I can’t promise that, Liz. I wish I could, but I can’t.” He paused. “I already knew you were strong, because you kept yourself in one piece after Cameron was hurt, and I knew you had common sense and intelligence, because you didn’t take Lucky back. I knew all of that and I respected you, which is new for me, because other than my mother and Robin, I don’t really get close to women.”

“Patrick—”

“But now I know that you went through something like…” he couldn’t even say the word out loud to her.  “I know that it happened to you, and that you found a way to pick yourself up, put the pieces back together and keep it together despite all the crap life has tossed at you. So, no, I can’t promise I’ll treat you the way I always did because I don’t think of you the way I did before. I’m a little in awe of you, honestly,” he admitted. “And I’m a bit worried about myself, because damn if I don’t have a knack of picking women who are stronger and smarter than me as…well…” he shrugged.  “Whatever.”

Elizabeth blinked at him and found it in her to laugh at him. “I’d say it means you have good taste…” she paused and patted his chest on her way towards the front door, “but I’ve also met Carly.”

“Haha,” Patrick muttered darkly. “Everyone’s entitled to a mistake.”

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

General Hospital: Robin’s Office

Robin opened the door to the hallway, glanced up and down the corridor before motioning for the man waiting across the way to hurry in.

She closed the door and pressed her back to it. “I think we’re going to have to find somewhere else to meet,” she sighed.

Jax was already across the room, settled on the couch with Misha in his lap. “He’s getting so big,” he murmured, pressing his lips to the infant’s smooth dark head of hair. “I scarcely recognize him.” He looked up at her. “I can’t thank you enough for allowing me to visit him, it means the world to me.”

0