Disclaimer: I don't own Rent.
Goodbye
Mark stared at the scene playing on the screen before him, eyes burning with the threat of tears. He had brought the camera with him because Roger had asked him too. Roger had wanted to serenade Mimi with a new song he had written for her, and had asked Mark to record her reaction. However, the happy memory Roger had been hoping for was cut short and replaced with grimmer footage. Mark was uncertain of why he had continued to record, the filmmaker part of him had taken over and it had all been automatic.
On the screen doctors and nurses called out orders as they crowded around a young woman lying in a hospital bed. Two doctors ready a defibrillator before a nurse blocks the shot and the screen begins to shake and record the floor for a few seconds. Pan back up to the closed door of the patient's room, close up on her name: Mimi Marquez. Zoom out and pan across the waiting room down the hall, where his friends are waiting, making sure to pause on each person. Collins first, standing next to the empty nurses' desk with silent tears running down his face as he stares at the floor. Benny comes next, looking shocked and slightly out of place as he walks to the corner of the room, giving the others space. After him Maureen and Joanne take over the screen, crying and hugging each other as they stand in the middle of the waiting room floor.
Last to be shown is Roger. The rocker is the only one still in the hallway, a tortured expression on his face as he stares at the closed door before him. Zoom in on Roger's eyes; luckily he isn't crying yet, making it easier to expose the raw emotions reflected in those green orbs. Sorrow brims with the unshed tears that begin to form, anguish drifts like a cloud across eyes glazed over with pure unscripted pain. The footage captured in that moment is the realest thing Mark has ever filmed, the epitome of what he's been searching for in his work. It's then that Roger finally turns and looks directly into the camera; it's then that the tears start to stream down from those green eyes. Zoom out just enough to show that Roger's hands have curled into fists, but stay focused on Roger's face and the expression written on it. Confusion, accusation, rage, and the screen goes blank. But for Mark the scene doesn't end there. His throat constricts painfully, making it difficult to breathe as the memory continues to play out his mind; Roger storms over to him, knocking the camera from Mark's hands as he slams the blond into the wall hard enough to knock Mark's glasses off.
"Mimi's dying and you're still recording?" Roger's voice thick with anger, "Don't you fucking care?!" Mark begins to stutter out a useless apology, but Roger cuts him off by slamming him into the wall again. The rocker releases him and takes a few steps back, eyes dropping to the floor. "Grab your camera and get the fuck out of here," Roger warns, and although it's barely a whisper Mark can hear the hurt and betrayal in his friend's words.
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A/N: Although it really has nothing to do with the song, this was inspired by "Goodbye" by Miley Cyrus. It was originally going to be a Mark/Roger songfic for the song, but it....transformed somehow into this. Since I couldn't think of a title, I just stuck with the name of the song that make me want to write it. Reviews are always welcome, honest thoughts please.