A/N: hello peeps, I'm back with chapter 3! I really like this one because it's the shoulder devil and angel deal here, and I love when characters have to battle with themselves to do the right or wrong thing, cause they always end up doing something wrong. Anyway since I don't think ANYONE would end up with Gary (except maybe Lucy) I have created an OC the only OC I will ever create and she's only for Gary…BACK OFF PUNKS! And NO Gary is not really the height I say he is…but he will be said height!

Disclaimer: Avenue Q sadly does not belong to me, but to Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez…curse them and their amazing brains!

Summary: Gary meets and befriends this mysterious new girl. Everyone else can see right through her, but can Gary? And will she be forgiven when she makes the biggest choice of her life?

WARNING: this chapter is pretty long...well by my standerds, and it is a lot of back ground cause its a new character...but that won't sotp you from reading it, just wanted to let you know though

Chapter 3: I Can't (73)

Once upon a time, in a city much like your own, two people fell in love. Although it's not the most creative of stories, it is very true, and it is very sad and romantic at the exact same time. See, this girl loved her job so much; she risked her relationship with the boy she loved as well. Her job however was more important to her, so she ruined what little connection she had left with him. It might have hurt him, but it hurt her even more after she realized her mistake. But our story does not start here, far from it, if it started here, you'd be confused, actually it starts with the paragraph below…

Felicity Johnson was currently happy with her job. She was Istar dailies most watched reporter, her show was the most watched, and she got the best dirt and celebrity gossip. She might have been the most hated woman in New York but her many fans made up for that, and that's all that mattered at this particular moment. She wasn't being watched by her many fans today, nor was she chilling in her cushy penthouse apartment, no Felicity Johnson, ace gossip reporter was on that job, trudging her way through Alphabet city in search for her new gut wrenching story.

Her new boss, Mr.Brogdin, had complained about the continuous and repeated crap she had been dishing out all month, so with that said she needed something new and fresh that no one had ever heard before. That, she had bragged, would be a snap, she dug up the dirt that no one was supposed to know, that celebrities kept under wraps so not even the media would know it. For Example, did you know that Britney Spears had three abortions and two miscarriages before having her first child? Yes, Felicity had spent about a month on that story, doing tonnes of research and under cover work. Sure Mrs. Spears has filed a restraining order against her, but it was well worth it in the end to deliver that scoop to the world.

So here she was, a black woman about the age of 29, marching her way through New York with a black shoulder bag slung over her shoulder in hopes of finding her next big story. The bag was filled with supplies, clothes, cameras, a tape recorder and office supplies, all in all the bag was bursting at the seems with all the crap she had pilled into it. Felicity grumbled as she walked, glaring down at the sidewalk, she pulled the tape recorder out of the bag and flipped it on.

"Note to self, NEVER wear stilettos while researching" she flicked it off, and shoved it back into the bag.

She strolled down ally after ally, avenue after avenue; she quickly glanced at her watch, which ticked until the arrow reached the three. Three o'clock, she'd been wandering around town for a good two hours now and nothing interesting had popped out at her so far. She a saw a street sign pointing left; she found the street name promising enough, a light at the end of this hopeless day if you will. She took the left and marched down the sidewalk.

A three building, three floor apartment complex loomed in front of her. It didn't look presentable, barely even well kept, some of the brick was falling off, and the outside needed a real fixing up. Extremely shabby and dead end if you asked her.

"Some d-list celebrity just HAS to live in this dump" Felicity reasoned with herself. Music seemed to just be screaming at her everywhere she walked, and she shuck her head trying to smack the stupid (but very catchy) songs out of her head.

She looked down at herself, then the building, then herself again, if she went to talk to whoever owned this place she'd stick out horribly with the inhabitants of this shack. A three piece Armani suit in comparison to probably normal, poor people's clothes…not a good picture.

Felicity set her shoulder bag on the ground, and gagged involuntarily at the rat that scurried away from it. She removed her suit jacket and shirt so she wore only a white tank top. She pulled on a pair of grey, baggy track pants, and threw her skirt into the bag. She groped through the bag until she found a tub of hair jell, and once finding it, her short mahogany curls were no off spikes. She checked out her reflection in a compact mirror and smirked, she'd fit in perfectly with these random people.

Felicity walked over to the door with a sign that read "knock for super or go away!" she rolled her eyes at the door and banged on it with her fist. She pouted when she got no answer, the nerve of some people; she pounded on it again receiving the same as before. Now she was annoyed, no body ignored her; she lifted her foot and began kicking the door as hard as she could.

"I.WANT.SOMEONE.TO.ANSWER.THIS.BLOODY.DOOR!" she screamed, ending each word with a swift kick

"Someone would, if someone was actually in there at the time" she froze and swung around, foot still in the air. In front of her stood a male, about 6 feet maybe taller, adorning a black shirt, red overalls and a back wards red baseball hat. It was a good thing she changed or she would have stuck out badly. She lowered her foot and gave him an extremely nervous smile.

"Ha…well yes, sorry about that" he just shrugged, gently shoved her out of the way and unlocked his door.

"So is there any real reason you took your anger out on my door?" he said in a bored tone, not looking up from the door handle, she paused for a moment, carefully planning out her words and nodded.

"I saw the for rent sign" she said, gesturing to the hand written FOR RENT cardboard in the window, "I kinda need a place to stay, somewhere cheap, and well this was the first place I looked" she smiled to herself, that was one of the best lies she had ever come up with, she deserved an award.

"Well you came to the right place, cheapest place you can get it…I guess" he looked unsure, but noticing that she ignored that comment he opened the door and ushered her inside.

"Well as you probably know I'm the super of this apartment complex here on Avenue Q, the names Gary…Gary Coleman" he sat himself behind a desk placed conveniently by the door, and stuck out his hand.

Her eyes went wide and she forgot how to talk for a moment. Gary Coleman! The Gary Coleman, this was even better then she had imagined, and he let his name and his residence out. She grabbed his hand and shook it, smiling happily at him.

"Felicity, boy friend just kicked me out…" she stated nervously. Gary raised his eyebrows and blinked.

"Really? That must suck, well the apartment's yours, it's about $100 a month, and the place is a big fixer up but you'll be happy there" he tossed her the keys and pushed her out of the door.

"Um…which one is it?"

"Oh right, the one right beside mine actually, middle building, just walk through the door up the stairs and there ya go. If you ever need me just kick the wall, that might get my attention" He winked at her, and waved as she walked up the stares, "ALSO, be careful of the guy on your left…he's kinda creepy when it comes to new people!" and with that last bit of frightening advice, he slammed the door shut on her face.

She huffed as she made her way up the stairs and to her new temporary apartment; she unlocked the door and went inside. He was right about it being a fixer upper, it looked like no one had lived in this place for years, dust covered the walls, floors and shelves, the windows were covered in a black substance that she wouldn't go near, and the floors were stained with…lets not even go there. She set her bag on the stained couch and walked into the bathroom, which she quickly ran out of screaming, and into the bedroom, the only clean room in the small apartment.

She recovered from her bathroom shock and reminded herself to tell Gary about that, she fell onto the bed and curled up into a tiny ball. This was going to be the worst researching gig ever.

---

The week went by rather quickly, she had met her neighbors the second she moved into the apartment, and by day two Gary and her new friends were pouring their lives out to her. Felicity almost laughed at how comical it all seemed, she didn't even need to lift a finger they were doing all the work for her. Felicity spent more time with Gary then anyone else, five out of the seven days she stayed there; she spent it in his apartment. Mostly because her apartment made her gag, but after a while she really believed that maybe and maybe is a key word that she was falling for the Gary Coleman.

Felicity was sitting on the edge of his bed, typing out her report on the small black lap top in her lap. She typed up a line, looked at it, made a few changes, and then erased the whole thing all together.

"What are you writing anyway, you've been working on whatever that is for the whole week you've been here" Gary comment, handing her the pop she asked for and sitting down beside her

She moved the lap top out of his reach, so the screen was facing opposite them both; she smiled and took a sip of her drink.

"Nothing that would interest you, just some job applications, random emails, boring stuff" she lied, she pressed the save button and closed the lap top. She could finish it tomorrow before she went on air.

"It seems like your hiding something from me, every time I ask you about your old job, or your life or something you change the subject" Gary sighed, he laid back on the bed and stared at the ceiling, "Your not hiding anything though…are you?"

"Of course not, and here I'll even tell you were I'm going tomorrow, I have an interview with NYC broadcasting tomorrow" she said happily, faking her excitement so he didn't catch on to her ever growing lie.

"That's great! We should celebrate it, the guys would love to here that"

"Ya…it'll be a blast" she spoke quietly, guilt slowly seeping in. she forced the guilt out of her head and went on being the fake happy girl she was supposed to be.

---

"You're on in five Ms. Johnson"

Felicity sat at her desk, her hands were clasped on it, her voice was trembling slightly, and the guilt that had been rearing its ugly head all night was louder then ever. She was having an inner battle, one voice said to not go through with it, while the other said screw them you're the star! She didn't have time to consider which voice was right, she was here, she was going to make her report and damn it, it would be great.

---

Nicky was randomly flipping through the TV, his feet set up on the coffee table, while Gary sat off to the side in an arm chair. Gary whipped one of the pillow and Nicky and glared.

"Keep it on one channel or I'm gonna flip you!" he threatened

"There's nothing on, sue me!" he shot back

"GUYS! Don't make me come in there" Rod called from the kitchen, they both stopped talking and laughed a little at the extremely humorous threat that was Rod.

Nicky finally relinquished his hold of the controller and let it stay on some gossip channel. Gary gave him a weird look, but it was quickly stopped when he looked over at the Tv. Both he and Nicky gasped, Gary leapt forward so he was standing, and Nicky nearly fell off the couch. On the TV, in all her glory, was Felicity.

"Hello viewers and welcome to Istar Daily, where the dirt isn't too hard to dig up, and the juicy truth is delivered no matter what the circumstance, I'm your host Felicity Johnson and here's our top story"

"Wow…Nicky turn that up!" Rod was standing in the doorway to the kitchen; Nicky mechanically grabbed the remote and blared the station.

"We all remember the cute little black kid from Diff'rent Strokes; well I have some awesome news on that little star Gary Coleman, the d-list celeb who is now slumming it in the streets of Avenue Q with a bunch of creepy half puppet people"

"D-LIST!?"

"SLUMMING?"

"PUPPET PEOPLE! That bitch is gonna die" Rod grabbed the remote, forcibly shut the TV off, and whipped the controller so hard that it cracked the glass on the ancient TV set.

"I...I can't believe she said that about me, all this time she WAS lying to me" Gary stated in disbelief, he fell back onto the arm chair and stared depressingly at the set.

"I said to you people she was trouble, I knew her from somewhere and no wonder she snooped around every where we went!" Rod pushed Nicky to the side of the couch and sat down, "She sold us out! She ruined our lives for her stupid career!"

"Wow…I never knew being lied to hurt so much" Nicky muttered, staring blankly at the floor, "I thought she was our friend…friends aren't supposed to sell you out…right?" Nicky looked up at Rod, who merely looked away

"Nicky…"

"Guys…this isn't anyone's fault but my own, she didn't sell you out she sold me, and unfortunately she brought you into it" Gary said suddenly, he gave Nicky a hopeful look and smirked, "Just think of it as a lesson…you can't trust bitches"

---

Felicity made her way back to Avenue Q feeling extremely pleased with herself. Her ratings had gone up, her popularity in the office increased, she was loved by all. Well…that's what she thought anyway. She turned the corner to her complex, but instead of being greeted by everyone she was greeted by Rod…just Rod, and he didn't look happy.

"HEY!" he called from the steps of his apartment, he waved his hand erratically. She raised an eye brow and then noticed the boxes of stuff sitting at the end of the steps.

"Um…what's in the boxes?"

"Your stuff, I took the liberty of packing it for you, and being the first to tell you to take your shit and fuck off!" he sneered, kicking the boxes over to where she was standing

"You have no right to do that!" she said defiantly, narrowing her eyes at him, hands on her hips

"Funny…I do, Gary said I could, well we all agreed that we wanted you and your Istar trash out of…what did you call it, a slum?"

Her hands fell to her sides and she felt her stomach drop. They weren't supposed to hear that, the show was aired sure but none of them were supposed to see it. She looked up at the sound of clapping; he smirked at her slowing his clapping down to a halt.

"Her state of amnesia is cured! Did you honestly think we wouldn't see that? Although I guess you're lucky it was a sheer fluke that Nicky turned it to that channel, otherwise you'd be free of this"

"Look…it's not what it looks like…" she was cut of quickly by a high pitched almost comical laugh

"LOOKS LIKE! It looks like you sold us out for your career! We trusted you and you took everything we told you, everything and used it for your personal gain! You never did care about us did you? It was all about you the whole time" he laughed. Everything he just said was true, Felicity knew it, everyone knew it, and there was no denying it.

"Your right, I didn't care, I just used you, but I only felt like that at the beginning" Felicity vouched

"So? It still hurts whether you meant it or not, we trusted you and you ruined it…so now your paying the consciences" Rod gave her a sad look, "We all liked you…then you pull something like this"

Felicity sighed and looked down, she deserved the harsh treatment, but then again…she did get the story, so it all balanced out…right? Felicity was forced out of her thoughts, when she let out a shriek.

"WHAT THE HELL!" her clothes, her boxes, and well all of her, was covered in pink dye, she looked up onto the roof. Nicky waved down at her and pointed at a large bucket that was now dripping the pink dye

"Hey at least now you'll look like us creepy puppet people!" Lucy laughed from beside him, she grabbed Nicky by the arm and they both fell over laughing.

Felicity raised her head high, trying to keep her dignity in tact, grabbed the sogging boxes and walked away from the street she had called home for a week.

---

Felicity had lost contact with all her ex-friends back at Avenue Q, and it was eating away at her. No one called to forgive her, no one stopped to say hi, she even purposely avoided that street when she went to work. She was losing her mind, everywhere she went she was pounded with the guilt of what she had done. It had to end!

"Ok felicity, last weeks show was great, make it even better…those puppet people were interesting enough, but we need something bigger" Mr.Brogdin rambled on, Felicity wasn't paying attention, she sat at the desk she had learned to love, and stared blankly out the window, "EARTH TO FELICITY! You hearing me?"

She snapped her head up and nodded. Then it snapped, the guilt snapped and automatically it tried to fix itself…fix what happened.

"I can't…I can't sell them out anymore…" the camera's red light appeared and she glanced at the screen, "Good evening viewers, welcome to Istar Daily, I'm you host Felicity, and this is the last time I'll ever be on this trashy show" she paused, and looked directly at the screen, her confidence boosting.

"What I did last week was, probably one of my better shows, but I ruined my friendship and my relationship with people I love more. Sure I got you guys a great scoop, but what I said was wrong, Gary Coleman is not slumming, he loves his job, and all those people are his friends no matter what they look like. I was wrong. I'm sorry for what I said, it was stupid and you were right, I cared more about this shitty position then I did my friends, and I hope you forgive me. Oh and to all you viewers…watch something else, read, do something other then watch this shit!" she walked off the screen, but quickly ran back on.

"Oh…and a last minute quote one twisted by my good friend, you all hated me, then I pull something like this!" and with that said, she walked out of her building, her life, and her job forever.

Our story does not end on this somewhat happy note, oh no, Felicity was forgiven, everyone decided to meet her down by her station and walk her back to her rightful home. She sold her penthouse apartment, gave all her clothes to people who deserved them most, and apologized to everyone who she had done wrong. Felicity now had a new job, collecting rent, and making her the OUTSIDE of Avenue Q looked a lot better then it did. But we forgot one little detail, her boy…the one she loved, was now rightful hers again, Felicity's old apartment had the ever present FOR RENT sign in the window, because she now lived in Gary's apartment.

You could say this story was long, tedious and probably boring, but it was a cute little love story filled with random twists and turns and…

"Nicky! Cut it out and come on!"

"Oh…right sorry Rod! Anyway, all I have to say now I guess is…"

THE END