A/N: OK, so this is where it starts being mine! Deep, grateful thanks to Ultra-Geek, once again.

"No. No, it's not," she whispered, silent tears streaming down her face. The body spread out before her was one that looked similar to Mark, but his skin was too tan, and his hair was too red. She couldn't see his eyes; due to the fact the corpse's eyelids were shut.

One more chance that he was alive.

"Very well," said the doctor, leading her back out. She sobbed quietly in relief. He wasn't dead. Not for sure, anyway.
The receptionist bade her goodbye and good luck in her search for her "fiancé." She stopped at a payphone down the street and dialed the oh-so-familiar phone number.

"SPEEEEEEEEEEEAK."

She smiled slightly. After she had moved in, Roger had insisted on rerecording the answering machine message so that she was included in it.

"Hey, Roger, it's me. I know you're-"

"Mimi?"

"Hey, Maureen."

"DID YOU FIND HIM!?" She shrieked.

Mimi winced slightly.

"No, but-"

"Is he at the hospital!?"

"Maureen, I-"

"Is he ok?!"

"MAUREEN! Shut up and listen!" She snapped. "I didn't find Mark at the hospital. They had a body that they thought matched his description, but it wasn't him. I posed as his fiancé, so they let me in to identify the body. It wasn't him, Maureen. There's still a chance he's alive…."

"Ok…"Maureen said as she digested this news. "I'll call Joanne. She's out looking with Roger and Collins."
"Ok. I'll be home soon."

"'Kay. Bye."

"Bye."

She still couldn't believe it. Mark was missing. The rock of their family was gone. She walked along the streets, staring at the buildings and the sky in bewilderment. They had already lost Angel. Not Mark, too. What would Roger do? Mark was his brother, the one who had known him longest, the one who knew him inside out. If Mark were… she didn't even want to think about it.

xXx

Collins, Joanne, and Roger had taken a break from searching for Mark and gone to the Life for lunch and, in Roger's case, a drink.

"Roger, slow down," Joanne said as he knocked back a third shot of straight whisky. "I understand you need a drink, but you'll be no use in helping Mark if you're smashed out of your mind."

"I know," he said, staring at the table, head in his hands, "but I just… I can't do this. I've already lost April. We lost Angel, and almost Mimi. Now Mark. What the hell did I do to bring this shit on our
family?"

"Rog, it's not your fault," Collins began.

"Yes it is. I'm the one who screwed up the most. I got involved with the drugs, which got me HIV, and caused April to commit suicide, made me depressed…."

"But it all turned out ok. You got out, you kicked the habit, you found Mimi."

"I got HIV."

Before either could answer him, Joanne's cell phone rang.

"Hello? Hi, Maureen… The hospital?...." Collins and Roger strained to hear Maureen on the other end. "Uh-huh… Mimi?... A body… Ok… She's sure?... Ok, I'll tell them…Bye, Honeybear.

"The hospital called. They thought they had a body the hospital that they thought was one that matched Mark's description, but it wasn't him. Mimi went in and posed as his fiancée so they'd let her in. It wasn't him. She called Maureen, who was at the Loft, and told her to call us."

Roger continued to stare at the table. There was nothing that could be said to make him even remotely smile.

"Man, you gotta keep up hope. They way you look, god, you look like you did post-April," Collins said.

Roger's head snapped up.

"Don't you DARE bring that up. Not now."

Roger wasn't known for handling stressful situations well, and Collins knew this, but was nonetheless hurt.

"There's no need to attack me, Roger! I'm just as worried as you are about him!"

"It's not the same for you. You haven't known him your whole life! He hasn't been there through every single bit of shit that's happened to you!"

"Don't you say that he's not been there! Don't you say I don't know
him!'

"You've known him for what, five years?!"

"Seven!"

"ROGER! COLLINS! STOP IT!" Joanne shouted. "You two ripping each other's heads off isn't helping ANYTHING! I'm just as worried as both of you! He's my friend, too!"

The two friends guiltily looked up at an on-the-verge-of-tears Joanne. They had only ever seen her cry once, at Angel's funeral.

"Jo-"

"Stop it! Just stop it. Between the two of you, I don't know which is worse, you, Roger, for getting drunk and starting on Collins, or you, Collins, for taking what a drunk said personally and fighting back!

"How do you expect us to find Mark when you're trying to kill each other?! It just doesn't work! We're a family! And we're a family that's falling apart. We need to find Mark, and fast, or I'm afraid we may not last much longer."

Collins and Roger stared at their friend, knowing that she was quite possibly right.