eesh. i would HATE to be Joanne.

Joanne pushed Maya off, her face hot and blushing. Maya looked confused as to why Joanne had done so, but then she caught sight of Mark and giggled with surprise.

"Whoops! I guess I didn't realize you had company. I'll just see you later, okay?" Maya slinked out of the office, nodding at Mark and casting a smile at Joanne over her shoulder. Apparently, the woman was completely oblivious to the damage to Joanne's life she had just done.

The office was silent, a fragile, thin silence. Joanne couldn't bring herself to look at Mark, to see his face and the expression on it. Instead, she stared at a paperweight on her desk. It was cheap and gaudy; a little sequined bird, made of purple felt and with tiny tufts of multicolored poofing out from its head and wings. Angel had given to her to celebrate a particularly big case that Joanne had one. Until now, it had always just been there, sitting on the desk and aiding her in the quest to sort papers. Now Joanne couldn't tear her eyes away from it.

"How long?" Mark's voice was low and emotionless. Joanne still couldn't look at him. She took in the way the light seemed to trap itself inside the sequins on the bird's neck, how the slight breeze of her breath made the tiny feathers only just tilt back and forth. Maybe, if she stared hard enough, Mark and Maureen and Maya and the world would just go away…

"Joanne, how long?" There was his voice again. She gritted her teeth and did the only thing she could do.

She finally told the truth.

"Since…since late January. Two months…I'm not sure…" That's it; keep your voice completely neutral. Just do that and you won't cry…

"So…is that why you've been so stressed? Because you've been spending time with…her?" Joanne nodded. She finally ripped her eyes away from the little bird and chanced a look at Mark. His face was paper white, and his jaw was tense. She could see that his hands were clenched into fists. All of a sudden, Joanne felt a desperate need to explain what she had done to Mark, to keep him from hating her, to make him understand.

"Mark, you don't…you don't know what I've been feeling like." Her voice cracked, and she took a deep breath. "I'm tired and I'm behind in my work and…it's all just too much. I know that it sounds crazy, but I was doing this because I felt like I had to. At first, it was this rush that I got…but now it's only—"

"I don't give a crap." His words stopped her cold. He was looking down on her now, although how he could do that when he wasn't any taller than her and he was halfway across the room was hard to explain. Perhaps it was the utter disdain and disgust in his eyes. Perhaps that's what it was.

"Wh—what?"

"You heard me. Joanne…" He was shaking his head. Joanne couldn't stand the disappointment in her eyes. However, to her horror she found that her trick of staring at something was backfiring on her; she couldn't look away from Mark, even though she was straining to do so.

"Joanne, I thought you understood what it was like. I thought you knew how it felt to be sure that someone…that someone loved you one minute, and then the next second it crashed down around you and you knew that you were only one on a rotating schedule…or even worse, only an assurance that could be counted on for love forever. I thought you knew how it felt…and I thought you were like me; you promised yourself that no matter what, you wouldn't hurt anyone like that. Especially not someone who cared about you." Mark took a step back. He laughed dryly, a laugh that wasn't a laugh, and he shrugged.

"Somehow, I never imagined that Maureen might get a taste of that. I guess things don't work like out like you think they will." He turned to leave. Joanne stood up so fast that her chair nearly over turned behind her.

"Mark, wait!" He stopped and looked over one shoulder.

"What?" The word dripped with contempt. Joanne swallowed.

"You're…going to tell Maureen?" He turned around abruptly and walked forward until they were only separated by her desk. His eyes blazed.

"We trusted you, Joanne! All of us! Especially her! You made this choice, live with it!" Mark's voice rang out loudly, piercing Joanne's ears like needles. She winced.

"I'm going to do a favor that Maureen never did me. I'm going to tell her about this before she finds out on her own. I'm not going to let her get hurt like I was." And Mark stormed out, slamming the door behind him. Joanne sank back into her chair, numb.

So her nightmare had come true; Maureen was going to find out. Joanne wondered dully what she should do. Should she tell Maya? Should she head Mark off at the pass? Should she start getting ready to grovel?

Or should she cry?

As it turned out, the last one became the most appealing.

-------------------------------------------------------

Mark hurried down the street, hands stuck deep in his pockets and breaths coming in short gasps. His footsteps thudded on the pavement. He wanted to curl up and hide forever.

Joanne was cheating. Joanne, the one person who he had been sure knew how he felt about Maureen and her actions, was cheating with another woman. It made him feel sick. If Joanne couldn't be trusted to keep a relationship, then no one could be.

A problem presented itself to him. He had said that he would tell Maureen what was going on. Mark knew that telling Maureen something like that was probably one of the most terrible things that a person could be asked to endure. She would be furious…or worse, crushed. Maybe she wouldn't believe him. Maybe she would think he was joking. Or maybe, he just wouldn't tell her.

No. Unappealing though it was, he knew that as Maureen's friend, he had to let her know the truth. But how? Mark was not an especially brave or risk-loving person. He wanted Maureen to know…but he did NOT want to be the one to tell her.

And then a thought occurred to Mark. It was a lousy one, a cowardly one…but it wasn't too lousy or cowardly to cross it off the list of options. Mark clung to it and set his resolve. Taking a deep breath, he turned and headed towards the train station.

He needed to get to NYU.

Now.

anyone wanna take a stab what Marky might be up to?