A/N: had lots of time on my hands so I decided to update wahool! ( I think wahoo should be spelled with an l because wahool is more fun to say than wahoo but anyway...)

Chapter Twelve

MIMI

When I got to the hospital I saw the grim reaper standing by Angel's door. He was six foot tall, maybe more with dark hair standing in every direction, his eyes were black smudges, he was wearing a black mesh top and (oddly) black octopus pants with a belt of glow sticks and he was dead pale.

Then he opened his eyes and I realized it wasn't the reaper, it was just some tired looking guy with smudged eyeliner.

But I swear, I nearly had a heart attack. I thought, shit it's the fucking Angel of Death and he's come for Angel. I shook my head hard, trying to get those thoughts out. Coming down does that to me, it makes me euphoric as well as sore all over.

"Who're you?" I asked (slurred more like. Another embarrassing side effect, my tong turns to rubber) I should have tried to find the Man before I came here, but I'd just had a nasty fight with Roger and...well I wasn't really thinking.

"Who gives a fuck?" asked the guy.

Well that's nice! I thought. "I do!" I snapped, "When people who look like the reaper lurk outside my friends hospital rooms I wonder who the hell they are. Is that alright with you?"

"The reaper?" he snorted, "Yeah I guess I sort of do..you would too though."

"What's your name?" I sighed. I wasn't in the mood I really wasn't.

"Jones."

Ah, one of Jones kids. That'd explain it. I'd just noticed the aunk tattoo on his left bicep, Jones trade mark. My friend Lacy worked under Jones and she had one too. Angel'd also had one on her hip.

"You her brother?" I asked.

The guy grinned, "Yeah."

"I'm Mimi." I said, extending my hand. "Lacy works at the same club as me."

"Lacy's a good kid." he said, "My first name's Jordan."

I nodded, "Ang told me about you."

"Really?"

"Yeah. She missed you and her old friends..is she awake?"

"No." he sighed again, "Collins says she isn't awake much lately."

I bit my lip hard, "You just get off work then?" I asked. I couldn't handle talking about Angel for too long. Not in the state she was in.

"Yeah. You look a little ragged."

"I feel more than ragged."

"I know the feeling. Look, I did a binge this weekend so I've got some on me. Trying to come down slowly. I'll give you some."

"For how much?"

Jordan bit his lip, "Buy me a bagel or something and we'll call it even. I haven't eaten since yesterday morning."

"Sure thing. Let's go."

* * * *

Half an hour and one bagel later we both felt much better and I was really starting to like him. When we got back to the waiting room a man who I can only describe as very brightly colored came bounding up us, "Jordan! Have you seen Sara?" he called, twisting the hem of his T-shirt.

Jordan frowned, "No...shit."

"Don't panic, I've sent Remy and David to look for her. She might still be in the hospital, and that Mark guy and what's-his-face have gone to look for her in the neighborhood."

"What's-his-face Collins?"

"That'll be it. Rasta Joe."

I snorted. "Rasta Joe?"

"I thought you were asexual, Jordan, what're you doing with a chick?"

"I can have breakfast with Angel's friend without sleeping with her can't I? Bisexual not asexual."

Rainbow Boy frowned, "Isn't asexual...?"

"Asexual is liking *neither *."

"Oh. Right. I'm not stupid I swear I just get them mixed up." he said to me, "I'm Sids and I have auditory dyslexia. At least, that's Sara's theory. I like pie and pigeons and pygmy marmosets. My letter of the month is 'P'. Did you know that your pupils dilate when you're horny?"

"When you've managed to recover your lower jaw from the floor you can tell him your name too." muttered Jordan.

I shook myself. I wasn't used to that sort of greeting *at all *. "Uhhh...i'm Mimi."

"Is that your given name or your real name?" asked Sids.

"It's...no it's not my given name. That's Lucia."

"Oh." And suddenly he went very quiet. He twisted this way and that and then suddenly dove off toward the waiting room and began to weave in and out of the seats, counting them.

"One two three four..."

"What was that?" I asked, still gobsmacked.

"five six seven eight.."

"That was just Sids."

"nine ten eleven twelve..."

"But..."

"thirteen fourteen fifteen sixteen.."

"That's his way of coping with being upset."

"seventeen eighteen nineteen twenty..."

"Acting strangely?"

"Twenty one twenty two twenty three twenty four..."

"No that's how he always is. Counting I mean. He counts when he's upset."

"twenty five twenty six twenty seven twenty eight twenty nine thirty." Sids suddenly stopped counting and rushed back to the seventh seat and sat down. Then he sprang back up and began pacing, seven steps in each direction.

I quirked an eyebrow, "Seven," said Jordan, "is the perfect number. Everything happens in seven, the creation of the world, the days of the week, Sids's birthday, the seventh of the seventh. Bad things come in three so he never sits in the third seat or takes just three steps. I guarantee he'll dye his hair purple tonight."

"Purple?"

"When your aura is purple you are enlightened because that's what the color purple represents, enlightenment and peace. Nirvana essentially. Sids is very big on that sort of thing. He's very superstitious."

"He's quite a character."

"He's Sids."

I nodded and headed over to Sids, pulling him into the seventh chair.

"Sit down you're making me dizzy."

"I'm sorry Mimi Lucia."

"It's alright." I swallowed hard, "Sids?"

"Si?"

"Do you-do you think that Angel is going to die?"

"No. She isn't going to die."

I smiled, "No? I hope you're right."

Sids looked at me earnestly, "I won't let her die, Mimi Lucia. I really won't."

Why this was comforting I don't know, but it was. "Promise Sids?"

"Promise."