Disclaimer: RENT is the brainchild of Jonathan Larson and is now probably "owned" by some film studio. "Fix You" belongs to Coldplay.
Yes, I did mean Mimi's name in the summary. There are Mimi chapters coming, I promise!
and the tears come streaming down your face
when you lose something you can't replace
when you love some one but it goes to waste
could it be worse
It was that dream again, one of the many that sent Roger into spasms, fighting an enemy no one else could see, flailing and breaking things totally by accident. He looked like a man having a seizure, and was in nearly as much danger. "Oh, G-d, oh, G-d, you can't do it, no, April, don't, please! Don't leave me, don't, April, baby, please!"
The screams were a piece of luck, in Collins' opinion. There were dreams when he made not a sound, when Roger awoke with bruises and cuts he could not explain. Four days ago, he had woken with a shoulder out of place.
"Roger, wake up! Shit. Roger!"
Roger whimpered and kicked blindly. "April--"
"Roger!" Collins insisted, shaking him.
Mark stood in the doorway, afraid to come any closer. Roger in his right mind was no danger. He was silly, sometimes quiet, and slightly uncoordinated, but dangerous? Never. Now, Mark preferred to take no chances. "He's not waking up--"
"Yeah, I can see that!" Collins snapped. Roger wriggled out of his grasp and jerked away; when Collins caught him, his head was inches from hitting the table. "Wake up," Collins repeated, quiet, not expecting Roger to hear him.
"April," Roger said again. He fought the restraint of Collins' arms to no avail. "April, don't--"
Roger's eyes flashed open. He was panting. He looked quickly from Mark to Collins, confused. "I… what… what… where's April?" he asked.
Collins shook his head. "You know, man."
"No…" Roger's face crumpled. "No!" He sat up and hugged Collins tightly, sobbing against him. "No, no, no…" But he could not cry enough. He could not summon up the tears from the place deep inside of him whence the pain came, and all the shallow tears in the world could not bring him back, as much as they could not bring her back.
TBC