A/N Well, I hope someone is still interested after three weeks away. But now I'm back home and can use my computer again, so here's the next chapter. I know it's been a long time, email me if you're lost or have any questions. And please review so I know if some one is still reading. Thanks.

Chapter 18



Mark walked up to the reception desk and signed Cass in. Without really paying him any attention, the receptionist gave him a clipboard with papers to fill out. "Here, hold this." Mark handed Roger his coffee as he sat down and started to fill out the papers while Cass played with her coffee cup.

After he finished he took the clipboard back to the receptionist. Roger could hear her talking to Mark. She leaned forward to look at them. Her eyes went up and down Mark first, looking at his faded tee shirt and stained cargo shorts. Then she turned to Roger and Cass. Taking in his ripped jeans and blackening eye and the overall's Cass wore with the paint spill that ran down the outside of her left leg, she turned back to Mark. Roger could hear her asking about insurance. Mark was trying to explain about Cass' insurance, but Roger cold tell by the look on her face all she heard were the words no and insurance.

"I'll be right back." Roger told Cass and he walked over to the reception desk.

"I'm sorry, but if she doesn't have insurance, we won't be able to see her." She told Mark in a flat, cold tone.

"But," Mark started as Roger walked up to the desk.

"Mark give her Cass' credit card. We'll pay it in full today, don't worry. Go ahead and run it if you're so worried." Roger said about as coldly as possible at the receptionist while giving her an evil look.

"Oh, I see." She said as she took the card from Mark. Roger turned around to go sit back down, but as he did, both Mark and the receptionist heard him say "bitch." Not overly loud, just loud enough for her to hear him.

Roger sat back down next to Cass as his and Mark's watches beeped. A minute later Mark joined them. At 10:03 the office door opened and a nurse stepped out. "Ms. Sullivan?"

Cass just sat there. "Cass." Mark said to her. "We'll be right here."

Roger stood up and helped Cass up. He walked her to the door where the nurse was waiting. "You okay?" Roger looked to her. She nodded. "We'll be right out here."

Cass walked through the door with the nurse. Roger sat down next to Mark who was holding a magazine, trying to act like he was actually going to read it. "Take your pills." Mark said without looking up from the magazine. Roger just sat there. Mark waited a minute before he spoke again. "Roger."

"I know. Leave me alone, I'm gonna take them." He pulled his pills from his pocket and took them with the now cold coffee.

"I don't know why we bought coffee. I think that's the first swallow of it any of us drank." Mark said as he put the magazine down on the coffee table. "Look at this place. Amazing what money and insurance will get you. Did you see how that receptionist attitude changed when she got that credit card? All off a sudden Cass went from 'her' to Ms. Sullivan. You're right, she is a bitch." Mark nodded his head towards the receptionist. "Yeah, this place is a little different from the clinic huh?"

"Uh huh."

"Smells a lot better too."

"Uh huh."

"God, I hate doctor's offices."

"Uh huh."

"Roger, we had to do that this morning. Not all of it, that was an accident. But we had to push her. You had to do it. That wasn't your fault. You had to. We had to."

"Uh huh."

"I'm sorry I made you do all that." Mark said quietly.

"You didn't make me. Besides, we had to."

They sat there for a few minutes, not talking.

"Roger?"

"What?"

"Does knowing we had to do that make you feel any better about it?"

Roger stared straight ahead for a minute before he answered. "No."

"Yeah, me either."



*****



"Mr. Cohen? Mr. Davis?"

Roger had his head against the wall with his eyes closed. He heard the voice but it didn't even register until he heard Mark jump up.

"Yeah, that's us. Is Cass okay?"

Roger's eyes popped open and he stood up.

"You both can come with me if you like. Ms. Sullivan is fine. We cut her old cast off. The new one is setting up right now. It's going to be about another 30 minutes till it's ready. You can wait with her in here till then."

Roger and Mark went through the doors she pointed to. Cass was sitting in a chair with her arm on a table waiting for her cast to dry. "Hey." She said softly as they came through the door.

"You okay? What did the doctor say?" Mark asked.

"I'm okay."

"Good." Mark said as he and Roger sat down with her.

She looked at Roger and saw his eye really for the first time. "Oh God Roger! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that to you. I'm sorry." Her eyes were filling up with tears again.

"It's okay. It's no big deal. Trust me, I've had much worse. Don't worry about it. It was an accident. A lot of this morning was an accident. Okay?"

She nodded her head as she wiped the tears out of her eyes. They all sat there in the small room waiting. After about ten minutes the door opened. "Ms. Sullivan? If you'll come with me we need to x-ray your arm again. After, the doctor will be back to talk to you."

After Cass walked out of the room Mark looked to Roger. "Why would they want to x-ray it again? Does that mean something's wrong?"

"No." Roger told him. "They have to make sure it's set right is all."

"Oh. God, I hate the way this place smells."

"I know."

They sat there for a few minutes not saying anything.

"Roger?"

"What?"

"When do you have to go back to the clinic?"

"Week after next I think."

"Oh."

Cass came back in a few minutes later. After a short time the door opened again and a woman walked in. "Hi." She said to Roger and Mark. "I'm Dr. Cole. And Cass, these are your x-ray's. Let's have a look." She slid them up on the light box. "Good, these look good. Carl did a great job rewrapping them. Perfectly set still, arm and fingers. Okay, here's the deal." She sat down on the rolling stool that is in every exam room of every doctor's office in America. "Your ribs look good. Let's keep them wrapped up for another week. Go easy for anther two after that. We'll cut that cast off your arm in four weeks.

Now about your fingers. Your middle and ring finger we can un-splint in about two weeks. I want to wait on your pinky until we take off the cast. We could probably take it off a week or so earlier, but I'd rather wait. If they had put pins in it, it may be different, but we can't change that. Now I'm not going to lie to you. You're going to have problems with your middle knuckle on that finger. Most likely you won't be able to bend that one all that well. Now, I can send you to a specialist for surgery, but unless you're a concert pianist or something along those lines, I don't think you really need to bother. Okay?"

Cass nodded.

"Now," she turned her attention to Mark and Roger. "Which one of you likes to play with the super glue?"

"Um, that was me." Roger looked from her to Cass and back.

"Relax, it was a good idea at the time." She rolled toward Roger and started looking at his eye, which had started to swell. "I don't however suggest making a habit of that thought." She kept talking to them as she started pressing the bones around Roger's eye. "But her stitches and the glue are out. Just take it easy washing your hair for awhile." She stood up and walked to a cupboard on the wall, opened it and pulled out two small disposable ice packs. She slammed one down on the counter to break the crystals inside and shook it up. She handed them to Roger. "Ice that for awhile. And again later tonight and it should keep it from swelling shut, but you may not be doing any photo shoots for a few days." She smiled. "As far as Ms. Cass here is concerned, you two keep her from running any major races. You know, make her take it easy for while. And try and keep her out of pools. Deal?"

Mark and Roger nodded at her.

"Okay," back at Cass. "Well your face looks good, as far as healing up nicely. However the two of you do make for an interesting pair right now, sort of like black eye book ends." She smiled at Cass and Roger. "So I think that about covers it, unless there's anything else. I'll see you in a few weeks. And stay out of Italian allies unless you've got your two bodyguards here with you. And don't let her stick things down her cast. I know it itches, especially in this heat, but don't stick things in your cast! Your not supposed to do that. Got it?"

"See, I told you not to do that." Mark said to Cass.

"I'm going to give you a prescription for some pain killers. Between cutting off the old cast and everything to reset it, you're going to be sore. So any questions. Okay then, I'll see you in a few weeks."

The nurse gave Mark Cass' filled prescription and her chart to hand to the receptionist on their way out. When they got out into the hall she stopped by the water fountain. "Give me a couple of those." Cass said to Mark gesturing at the painkillers.

"I thought you didn't want to go there?" Mark questioned her.

"Well I changed my mind."

"But Cass you said--" Mark began but she cut him off.

"I promised Carlton and myself no more coke. I promised him nothing else ever. I mean I never really had any intention of anything else, but I only promised me about he coke. I don't have a problem keeping that promise. I'm not really concerned about any promises I made to Carlton." She popped the pills in her mouth and took a drink of water.

No one really said anything on the way home. After they came out of the subway, Mark hailed another cab to take them the six or so blocks back to the loft. As the cab turned onto their block Mark looked up. "Oh shit! Listen," he told the driver "don't stop. Keep going and take us back to 10th and A. Life Café. Roger duck!"

Roger looked out the front window and saw the back range rover parked in front of the building. Normally he wouldn't have cared or bothered, but he was in no mood to even think about dealing with Benny right now. Roger slid down in the seat some and turned his head toward Cass' shoulder. "Was that him out front?"

"I don't know, it could have been. I only saw him from the back. But he's there, that's his yuppie mobile for sure."

Mark looked at his watch and then to Roger. He looked out the front window and back at his watch before he let out a sigh and turned to Cass. "Look Cass, I know all you want to do is go home, but you can't right now. Okay? That was Benny's car and trust me, no one wants to make you have to deal with him. Plus I don't have the energy it will involve if all four of us end up there together. You understand?"

Cass nodded. It wasn't until after she took three of the pain killers that Mark had read the bottle and saw that it had said only one every eight hours. Plus you were supposed to take them with food and he knew she hadn't eaten anything since last night's spaghetti. He could tell she was half stoned already, which, he thought might actually make this easier.

The cab pulled up in front of the Life Café. "Listen, Roger's gonna take you to get something to eat." Mark said, more to Roger than Cass at this point. "You guys have some lunch. Give me at least an hour to deal with Benny. You know how he can be. If he's got nothing else to do and is bored, he'll stand there talking and not leave."

Mark paid the cab and they climbed out. "Here's some money for lunch. And here's some change." He handed it all to Roger as he saw the glazed look crossing over Cass' eyes. "In about an hour, call the loft. I'll take the phone in the office off the hook when I get there. If it's busy, he's still there. I'll try and get rid of him as fast as I can, but you know how he is sometimes. And only when I really need it you know?"

"Yeah. Don't' worry, I'll try and get some food into her. If he's still there when we're done we'll just go across the street and sit in the park. If we don't come back, it probably means she fell asleep. She's wasted. "

"I noticed. Okay, I'll see you later. I'm sorry about all this Roger. I know how you feel about Benny and all."

"No, it's okay. You're right. We don't have a whole lot of choices. You want us to bring you some food?"

"No that's okay. Just watch her. Maybe it's good she's messed up right now. Keep her from freaking out or anything, being out here and all. Look, let me go before he decides to cruise over here looking for me."

Roger still had his left arm around Cass' waist and she was just sort of staring at the ground still. Roger went to turn her towards the door and stopped. "Mark." He reached his hand into the pocket of her overalls and pulled out the painkillers, tossing them to Mark. "Take those with you."