Joanne Jefferson was in a very bad mood.

She sat in the Life Café near a window, staring out into the bright June sun and directly into nothing at all. Today had not been a good day so far. In fact, Joanne was positive this was the worst day of the year.

To begin with, she was horribly fatigued. After suffering insomnia for all weekend, waking every hour on this particular Monday had been a real kick in the ass. She hadn't been able to get back to sleep around three am, so she'd gotten up and gone for a jog hoping to tire herself before going back to bed. Needless to say the trick hadn't worked. At about six am, Joanne had walked her tired body into her office downtown. Her secretary hadn't come in until three hours later, at the usual time, and like everyone else who arrived at the firm after eight am, was quite surprised to see Joanne staring at her wall blankly.

"Ms. Jefferson?" Jennifer had questioned. Joanne hadn't answered her. She rarely ever responded when Jennifer called her by her given name. She'd always cultivated familiarity between her and her assistant, but this morning she had honestly not heard the younger woman calling until she'd spoken again.

"Joanne?" She turned at the sound of her name, the name she so rarely heard anymore. Her father only ever called her Kitten, the blissful nickname he'd given her as an infant. It was a testament, he'd said, to her playful and curious nature. It was a part of her that was almost never shown these days. Too much had happened for playful curiosity to take over her life.

"Are you alright, kiddo?" Joanne had smiled, or at least attempted the expression before failing miserably. At the look that came to her assistant's face, the lawyer sighed with a shake of her head and proceeded to gather the files she would need for the day. The two friends, as Joanne considered Jennifer something of a friend, went about their day in the usual fashion.

Her first two clients had come in for their meeting at ten am, a young couple suing their landlord for negligence. An apartment fire had completely destroyed their loft and killed their two cats, Alice and Jasper. They were suing the landlord because apparently the prick had failed to fix faulty wiring in the kitchen area before moving the couple in. Isabel and Eric Lee was the couples name and they were often indecisive and vicious toward one another. The entire two hours they had sat in her office, Isabel and Eric had argued back and forth with each other. Finally, at around twelve, Joanne had escorted them out with some semblance of a smile, to the amusement and concern of her secretary.

Her hour of lunch had gone by swiftly, reading through the file for the next case while she munched on a salad. Oddly enough, despite working at one of the most successful litigation firms in the city, Joanne Jefferson rarely ever left her office for lunch. On the few occasions she did leave, it was because one of her Bohemian friends had dragged her out of her office for the day. Of course, Joanne hadn't wanted to spend her day reliving painful memories of bliss, so she'd started working again to distract herself.

Then, suddenly, her phone had rang, and she'd picked up the call.

"Joanne, you've got a visitor." Jennifer's voice had whispered on the other line. Distantly, she had heard the sound of footsteps but before she could ask who the visitor was, her office door had swung open. In walked Judge Anna Jefferson, or as Joanne was so often reminded, her mother.

"Immele." Her middle name alerted her to the mood her mother was in. See, Anna never called her by her given name unless they were in public. In the privacy of an office, or one of their many homes, Anna only called her daughter Immele. It was a testament to how much the two women didn't get along. The young lawyer was only Joanne when it suited her mother's purposes, only Joanne when she was worth something, only Joanne when she wasn't tarnishing the family name.

Anna had never admitted it aloud, but Joanne knew exactly how her mother felt. It became obvious whenever Anna showed up to present her daughter with one of her legendary lectures, like the one she had come to give today.

"Immele, some of my friends and I were talking the other day, and they had remarked that you seemed a little out of sorts lately. You've been arriving to working odd hours, they said. According to your father, you barely speak to anyone except your clients and secretary, and even Jennifer seems to notice that something is wrong. You've got to pick your life up, Joanne. Stop wasting away behind that desk. You're going to ruin yourself this way. Think of your father. He can't bear to see his daughter so lonesome and honestly, darling, it is very unbecoming of a woman of your station."

That had been the last straw. Yes, Joanne was very used to her mother's incessant lectures about how much of a failure she was. This, however, had gone over the line. The day had already been horrible, and working on little to no sleep, Joanne had no patience for her mother's antics. Ever since the unspeakable events at her engagement party… Ever since then, Anna had been cold toward her daughter, constantly telling her how this thing or that thing was "unbecoming of a woman of her station." The young woman was tired of hearing it, and tired of being rejected by the one woman who supposed to love her no matter what. Staring up at the beautiful glass that protected her office from the elements, Joanne had flown off the handle.

"I'm never going to be good enough for you, am I, Mother? It's bad enough that I'm happy being a public lawyer, who does most of my very successful work pro bono, but no I had to go and be a lesbian too! And now, it's even worse for poor Judge Anna because not only am I lesbian, but I'm a lesbian who can't even keep a girlfriend for longer than a week. I am just the ultimate form of failure, aren't I, Mother? Poor Judge Anna, she wishes her daughter had never been born."

The words had been harsh, unbelievably so, but necessary. The anger behind them had silenced her mother, and the woman had walked from the office in shock. Minutes after Anna had left, Jennifer had walked in to her office, and found Joanne still standing in the same spot, staring out at nothing.

"Joanne? I've rescheduled your meetings for the rest of the day. Go ahead and leave. You need some time to relax." Jennifer had stepped around Joanne as she spoke, packing up her briefcase and handing it to her as she gently pulled her out the door. "Go anywhere, Joanne. Just don't come back here until tomorrow."

Whispering a heartfelt thanks to her secretary, Joanne had left the building at a dead run. She had needed the escape, needed to leave that building to get away from the thoughts cramming in her mind. No matter how much she hated the words Anna had spoken deep down Joanne knew they were true. Joanne had been moving listlessly through life since that engagement party, since she'd taken a dagger to her own heart.

The memories had swept over her like a flood, and barely holding back the tears that threatened to flow, the young woman had begun walking. She allowed her feet to carry her wherever they wished, trusting that they would help her escape from the pain she was unwilling to let herself feel.

Now, three hours later, Joanne still sat in the same chair she'd sat down at when she walked into the Life café. Ironic that her unconscious thought had brought her here to the place that held bittersweet memories. Still, she'd had nowhere else to turn, and the Life made the best green tea in town. Sipping her cup of the now cold drink, Joanne looked out at the people passing by the window, wishing that she could feel the carefree feeling their faces expressed.

I could certainly use a distraction. She thought, and as her mind traveled to the fantasies she hadn't dared to dream, the chimes on the door rang. It opened, and in walked the woman she had hoped to not see.

(A/N: Alright, readers, this is my first RENT fic, my first slash fic, and quite honestly I have no idea what will happen next. Well, that's not entirely accurate. I do have a general idea of what I want to happen where. So just bear with me, also I'm not a regular updater, so be prepared for a few months to go by between updates. C'est La Vie.

~JT~)