Disclaimer - I own nothing of RENT or the song, Long Slow Beautiful Dance. Both belong to their respected owners. 'Nuff said.
Italics are song lyrics and thoughts.
A/N: I have no idea how this story came to me. I will update Blue Skies, no worries.
Summary: AU: When Roger dies, Mimi finds Long Slow Beautiful Dance in a shoebox along with some other stuff. All pairings mentioned. One-shot. Based on the song Long Slow Beautiful Dance by Rascal Flatts. Told from Mimi's point of view. Takes place in 2008.
Genre: Romance/None
Rating: T
Mimi's POV:
It seems like yesterday that I lost Roger, but it was really two months ago. He was going strong, and then he just declined. He was just thirty-three-years-old. He was more than my husband - he was my best friend.
After he died, I got together with his siblings - twin sisters Sara and Melanie and older brother David. We're sitting on the floor of the loft, looking through boxes, just in case there's something that his siblings want.
"If you don't mind, I would like to keep his guitar and the songs he wrote." I spoke up, looking at the three strangers in front of me. Sara nodded her head, her brown hair falling in front of her face.
"I can't believe he's gone." David spoke up. Melanie looked at her brother and put a hand on his shoulder. David and Roger had been close - they did everything together and were in each other's weddings.
"What's this?" Sara asked, startling me out of my thoughts. She handed me a tan shoebox with the ADIDAS logo on the side. Lifting the lid, I went through everything that was in the box - a couple of goofy pictures of us from the photo booth in the mall, pictures of the gang on Halloween and Christmas of 1984. I looked at the people in the picture - Angel, Collins and Roger were gone. Joanne and Maureen were married and living in Manhattan. Mark had married a girl named Elizabeth and they were expecting. Benny and Alison married and instantly had twin boys - Owen and Noah.
Digging around in the box some more, I found a piece of paper folded in fourths. I unfolded it and looked at the words written on it - Roger's handwriting. On the top of the page were the words 'Long Slow Beautiful Dance'. I handed it to Sara, who was a music major at the community college. She patted her thigh in time to the music.
"Sounds like a scene from the silver screen
Yeah, that's how it was
Love doesn't always look like a picture perfect storybook
Ah, but sometimes it does
Standing beside her the stars shined even brighter
And for a moment all the world was, all the world was still
I knew we belonged together the moment my eyes met hers
And I thought nothing lasts forever, but maybe this one will
A deep breath and baby steps
That's how the whole thing starts
It's a long slow beautiful dance
To the beat of a heart." Sara sang softly, tears in her eyes. Melanie and David walked over and sat down next to us. Sara handed the piece of paper to Melanie. She took a deep breath and began to sing.
"The world starts to spin again, you learn things you didn't know then
Feels like the bloom is off the rose
But you weather a few storms and you pull out a few thorns
And together the garden grows and grows
A deep breath and baby steps
That's how the whole thing starts
It's a long slow beautiful dance
To the beat of a heart
It's a long, slow, beautiful dance, my friend." Melanie crooned before handing the paper to David. He took it gingerly and looked down at the paper. It was wonderful to watch the three siblings sitting in a circle and singing. He smiled and looked down at the words. He was on Broadway currently starring in the musical version of the Disney classic Enchanted as Prince Edward.
"The house is filled with so much love
We got more than enough for two
So we've been thinking about having a baby
I know it sounds crazy, but it seems like the natural thing to do." David crooned.
Sara and Melanie ended up leaving the loft around ten-thirty, with David following them shortly after. I opened a bottle of water and took my AZT. I felt tears in my eyes as I turned on the TV and watched Roger and my wedding video for the six hundredth time in a row.
It's a long, slow
I got a call the next day - Christmas Eve - from Mark saying that he and Elizabeth had their baby - a boy that they named Roger Samuel Cohen - after Mark's best friend. I told him that Roger would have been honored to have his best friend's son named after him.
It's a long, slow
The weeks flew by and towards the middle of spring, I started feeling dizzy and very nauseous. I had missed my period two months in a row, which totally scared the crap out of me. I really didn't want a baby - it was hard on a person with HIV/AIDS. I hadn't had sex since before Roger died and both of us had used a condom, but it must've broke.
I moved in with Mark, Elizabeth and little Roger when I was in my second month. I was definitely pregnant, according to Elizabeth, who was a registered nurse. She was my caregiver until my little baby, Maria Carina Davis, was born. It felt so good to hold the baby in my arms, but I was so weak. I couldn't even bottle feed her, that's how weak I was. Both Elizabeth and Mark worried about me and put me on strict bed rest. Both of them took care of Maria and little Roger, which was putting so much pressure on them that I offered to move out and live with my sister. Both of them refused and told me that they could handle it.
Tragedy struck my heart when Maria turned three - she caught a bad cold from a kid in her daycare and she couldn't shake it. She would just lay in bed and throw up - sometimes it even had blood in it.
I took her to the hospital, but it was too late - by the time I got there, she was gone. It turned out that she not only a cold, but she had the beginning stages of HIV.
It's a long, slow
After Maria died, I felt like I couldn't keep living - everyone I know and love was gone - Angel, Collins, Roger, Maria and Faith - Maureen and Joanne's sixteen-year-old daughter who was killed in a car crash. I joined Angels Among Us - a support group that my friend at Life Support, Jill, had started when her daughter, Beth, was killed. The support group was for people who were mourning a death of a loved one - I even recruited Joanne and Maureen to it.
In Angels Among Us, I opened up about Roger and Maria's deaths from AIDS. Everyone was so supportive, including a new member named Jon Stone. He had lost his wife, daughter, son and family cat in a fire. He was one of the firemen trying to put out the fire, but all of them had died from smoke inhalation.
Outside of the group, Jon and I had gotten together to do stuff together - going to movies, out to dinner and dancing. I told him that I had danced at a strip club called The Cat Scratch. Jon smiled and said that he visited there often after his family's deaths to get his mind off of things.
Two months later, Jon proposed to me and I couldn't help but to say 'yes' to him.
We were married and I decided to have Roger's siblings, Sara, Melanie and David, in my wedding. Sara and Melanie were glad to be bridesmaids, but David said that it would be awkward - my new husband meeting my first husband's siblings, but it was nice that I was thinking of him.
We honeymooned in Hawaii where I told Jon about my HIV. He totally understood that I didn't tell him earlier and was totally supportive. Because of my HIV, we decided not to have kids, but to adopt.
After returning from our honeymoon, we instantly started looking at adoption websites. There was a little girl in China who recently lost her family in a fire, so she needed to go to a good home. My heart instantly went out to her, and after talking to Jon, we flew out to China to meet her. Her name was Sang-Ming, called Ming for short. Oh, God, she was beautiful. She had light skin, dark hair and big brown eyes. After filling out the adoption papers, Ming came home with Jon and I.
When we got home with Ming, I received some horrible news - Sara had been killed in a car accident. I had been really close to her, so it struck me - hard. She was such a sweet person and it was hard hearing that she was no longer with us. While I went to Sara's funeral, Jon offered to watch Ming. The funeral was beautiful - there were flowers, prayers, songs and stories about her told by her family and friends. At the reception, I decided not to say anything because it would hurt to talk about her. The others completely understood and didn't bother me about saying anything.
Returning home to my family, I helped put Ming to bed before heading to bed myself. I ended up crying myself to sleep that night.
Through the months, more tragedy struck my heart - Mark and Elizabeth's daughter, Sadie, drowned in the family pool. She was just four-years-old. Their son, Roger, followed two months later, after being stung by a swarm of bees. He was just seven-years-old. Noah, one of Benny and Alison's twin boys, got croup, and died. He was two-years-old. The Dalmatian that Maureen and Joanne had adopted, Silly String, got hit by a car and had injuries so severe, that they had to put him down.
There was also happiness - Jon and I decided to try to have a baby and welcomed twin girls - Anna Sophia and Gina Maria - into the world on Roger's birthday - October 24th. I had them by C-section. Unfortunately, both girls had HIV and weren't expected to live long, which upset all three of us - although Ming, who was three, didn't understand what was going on.
After I delivered my twins, I was never the same after that - I was tired all the time, moody, irritable and had a fever. Jon, who feared my health, refused to let me be anywhere near our girls. It hurt me so much, but I understood why - he didn't want the girls to get what I had. I just stayed in bed and sulked, wanting to be near my family.
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Jon's POV:
Mimi ended up passing away on October 24th, 2008 at the age of twenty-seven. Everyone we knew showed up at her funeral - her friends, her family and the people in our apartment complex. She was a sweet, caring, kind, independent person with a big heart and could make everyone around her feel great. I know she's in heaven with her first husband, her friends and her first husband's sister.
Before she died, Mimi told me to love again and move on. I followed her advice and met a wonderful woman named Abby. She and I married and welcomed a son into the world on Christmas Eve of 2009. We named him James Ethan Stone. Ming was happy to be a big sister again. The twins that Mimi and I had together, passed away just short of their three-month-old birthday. I went back to Angels Among Us and that's where I met Abby. She had lost her husband and son when they had been out hunting and the friend that they had been hunting with shot them by mistake. I totally felt her pain, saying how sorry I was for her loss. We hit it off outside Angels Among Us.
Mimi, Anna and Gina, wherever you are, I just want you to know that I think of you, love you and miss you every single day. Wherever you are, I just want to let you know that you're loved and missed every single day.
The world starts to spin again, you learn things you didn't know then
Feels like the bloom is off the rose
But you weather a few storms and you pull out a few thorns
And together the garden grows and grows
A deep breath and baby steps
That's how the whole thing starts
It's a long slow beautiful dance
To the beat of a heart