The weather that day was dismal and dreary, with a steady downpour of rain that hit the pavement at a rate akin to corn popping in a microwave. It was almost as if the sky itself was in deep mourning. The entire Bohemian family, sans one, was all assembled within the Condo, their faces reflecting the mood of the weather outside.

"Why didn't he say anything?" Penny finally spoke up, her eyes red from crying. "I mean, we all knew it was coming, but why didn't he tell us he was getting sick?"

"Because that's how he was," Maureen, who had been softly crying on Joanne's shoulder, replied in a voice that seemed weak and cracked. "He didn't want us to start to mourn him before he actually…." For a moment, she trailed off, unable to actually say the word, but then Joanne continued for her.

"He wanted his last month to be as normal as possible, so he pretended that everything was the same."

"He's with Angel, now," Mimi added from her seat on the couch, where she had the one-year-old Rodolfo perched on her lap. "We gotta remember that he's with Angel. I bet he's happy about that."

"Yeah," Mark agreed, rubbing Emily's back from their seats by the metal table. "The happiest he's been since she died." Once again, a mournful silence fell, which was only broken by the sound of a baby starting to fuss in the next room.

"Zack," Emily whispered, recognizing the sound of Mark and her newborn son's cry to be held. Wiping away the tears in her eyes, she started to head off into the bedroom to tend to the infant's needs.

"I'll take care of it, Emily." Everyone in the room started at the sound of Roger's voice. He had barely spoken a word all day, and had been unmoving from his seat at the window, where he'd been staring out at the street below, so his offer to see to his 'nephew' was a surprising act.

"Thank you, Roger," Emily replied, still unable to completely quell her surprise at hearing Roger speaking again. Without another word, Roger disappeared into Mark and Emily's bedroom, closing the door behind him. Once the baby Zack was in his arms, Roger sat down on the bed, gently bouncing the newborn. He was so intent with the child he was trying to calm, he almost didn't realize that the tears were falling from his eyes again.

It had been him who had been out with Collins, the two of them enjoying a drink, when the anarchist had collapsed without any warning at all. He was the one who had to sit in that sh-tty waiting room while trying to reach his friends to tell them what happened. It was because of that fact that he was the first one to hear the doctor's news. According to the doctor, not only had Collins' condition progressed to full-blown AIDS, but he'd also been suffering from a bad case of pneumonia for well over a month. Collins had never told anyone that he'd gotten sick, so the other Bohemians hadn't even realized that he'd been so close to the end. As a direct result, when the doctor had told them that Collins wouldn't last the week, it had been a terrible shock to everyone.

As Roger gently bounced Zack in his arms, he did everything he could to fight the tears that were rapidly forming in his green eyes. The sudden death of Collins had hit him particularly hard. Collins had always been something of a father to him since they met, and now that he was gone…. It was almost as bad as it had been when Angel had died, but it was even worse now. There wasn't going to be anyone coming over on Christmas with their traditional Stoli anymore. He no longer had anyone to sit on the street corner with, sharing a smoke while talking, and there were a whole lot of things he could only talk about with Collins. In spite of how much he cared about Mark and Mimi, he could never feel comfortable in talking about some of those things with them. It was almost like how there were some things you could tell your best friend but not your parents, or vice versa. Among those things were the tormented thoughts that now plagued his mind.

Collins' death was more then just the loss of an irreplaceable friend to Roger. It was also the reminder of the ticking clock that hung over his life, all because of the virus that existed in his veins. With Collins gone, there was no denying the terrible fact that he'd tried so hard to push back to the furthest corner of his mind. He'd tried to forget all about it, after all the things that had happened to him. He had a family. A wife and a small son. He had a life with them, his best friend, and his best friend's family, which included his 'niece' and newborn 'nephew.'

Now Collins was dead, and there was no more pretending that his life was as simple as he'd been pretending it was. There was no more denying that the life and the family he had within the Condo was only temporary. Now there was only one question that remained, and he feared the answer with every fiber of his being. Who would be the next one to go? Him or Mimi?

AN: I'm SO sorry for that. It killed me to do that to Collins, but it was necessary for this story, especially later on. I can promise that it gets more cheerful in the next few chapters. This is, for the most part, a story that focuses on the friendship of the Cohen and Davis family, and I can guarantee a lot of Mark/Roger friendship throughout the story. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this sequel to The Other Virus.