A/N: I have my own view of Maureen's character, and this is it.. It's not the one portrayed in the show, so I guess it's slightly OC.. Or maybe it just shows the personality lurking beneath the flirtations and smile. If you don't like it, sorry, this is just how I see her.
Dedication: Written for my "Mimi"
Disclaimer: Just borrowing them, they belong to the Larson estate.
Maureen sat in her room, alone, saline tears mixed with hastily applied black eyeliner silently dripping from her chin as she listened to the heartfelt lyrics of "Facade" from Jekyll and Hyde.
The room, devoid of its previous occupant, seemed empty to her. The world, a cold and lonely place. Though the diva didn't normally listen to showtunes, the sad, thoughtful lyrics to the song seemed to fit. Her life was a façade. All her life she had felt that she was staging a performance. Always acting, the woman was. Happy and perky, hip and outgoing was Maureen as the world knew her. But inside she felt a hollow ache in her heart, a pain that would not ease.. Had not in years. After men had failed to fill that void, she had turned to women, in hopes that with them she could find what she had been searching for her whole life. So far though, she had yet to find it.
Joanne, her lover of two years, had left tonight for the final time after walking in on Maureen with another woman. Another night, another lover. Always hoping that she would find "the one".
Crying silently, Maureen lifted the object that she had been toying with in her hands for the past twenty minutes, and stared at it. The cool metal caught the light and shone brilliantly for a second or two before Maureen flipped it over and held it to her wrist. The performance was over, the curtain about to close for the final time.
Pressing, pain, deeper, harder, a million and one thoughts flashing through her mind… She did not hear the quick knock on the door, nor did she see the bright flash of color as Mimi, clad in her bright neon pink pants, whirled into the room.
"Maureen?" Mimi screeched, lunging forward and tearing the razor from the woman's delicate hands, away from the sobbing wrists. Frantically searching around the room for something that could be used as a bandage, Mimi darted over to the large walk-in closet, her hair doing a wild dance around her shoulders as she grabbed a shirt and ran back to the broken form on the bed.
"What did you do?" she yelled, her tone a mixed connotation of desperate anger, concern, and terror.
Sensing the anger, the frustration, Maureen responded vehemently. "I can't take it anymore! Dammit, you all think I'm some kind of freak of nature… Some… Some whore who is constantly happy and perky and fun! Well I can't do it anymore. I'm sick of the acting, sick of…" As the song in the background came to a close, fresh tears formed in the woman's bright azure eyes and her voice lowered considerably, "the façade."
"Oh Maureen," Mimi cried, responding to the change of atmosphere by letting go of her own tears that had been forming throughout Maureen's speech. Her lithe arms found their way around the woman's slender waist, as her head, weary now from the taxing ordeal, fell onto Maureen's shoulder. "I don't think you're a whore. Not at all. You don't think I can see the pain in your eyes when you're with Joanne? When we're eating at the Life? I knew, but… I didn't think you would…" She let her voice trail off for a second, looking down at the bloodstained floor and cringing slightly before continuing, "Didn't think you would take it this far. Why, Maureen? Why? That's all I need to know."
"I'm alone," came the hushed admission from the crumpled form on the bed. Tangling her arms around her only source of comfort, Maureen found the strength to go on. "You have Roger, Collins had Angel, everyone has someone… but me? I'm just alone."
"But… What about Joanne? You have her…"
"No," Maureen confessed. "Our relationship was a joke and everyone knew it. We… We broke up tonight. For good."
Mimi nodded slightly and closed her deep chocolate eyes. "Roger and I broke up tonight, too."
Maureen felt slightly guilty as a wave of happiness washed over her… She shouldn't be happy about this, not when Mimi was still obviously hung up on the man. "Oh?" she asked quietly. "How come?"
The Latina laughed bitterly as she leaned in closer to Maureen, letting her free hand play with Mo's wild, red hair. "Apparently he was fucking Mark all this time… And I was blind enough to think he loved me."
"Oh no!" Maureen exclaimed, and had to bite her exquisitely painted lip to keep from letting a giggle escape.
"Well, it's better this way anyway, I suppose," Mimi admitted quietly.
"Why?"
Mimi took a deep breath and looked away for a second, trying to gather her courage, before leaning in even closer to Maureen and planting a kiss on her scarlet red lips.
To say that the world exploded for Maureen would have been an understatement. Butterflies flapped their wings, dancers tapped away to the wild beat of her heart, and a metaphorical picture of Mimi squeezed its way into the empty void inside of Maureen, filling it for the first time in years.
"Because I love someone else," Mimi gasped when they finally broke apart, both women panting and holding onto each other for dear life.
Maureen smiled. A real smile, not the one that completed her daily façade for the past seven years. She took Mimi's hand and lightly stroked the dark, tender skin, before replying. "They love you too."