Chapter 5: Another Day
January 15th. 10am Eastern Standard Time - 1999
The past few weeks had went by quickly and to everyone's surprise, Mimi's health seemed to be steadying out a bit, on the good side. She had been out and about with Roger, to The Life Café, and almost acting like her old self again. Collins told Roger on Christmas night it was a miracle from up above, from Angel. Ever since the cold Christmas Eve night when Maureen and Joanne had found Mimi huddled in the park and brought her back to the loft, they had proclaimed Angel was her guardian angel. Everyone believe Angel would help her pull through again. Roger, however, wasn't sure what to believe. He would always see the weak look in Mimi's eyes no matter how hard he tried to shield it away. He would always catch a painful glimpse of her frown or hear a muffled cough she was trying to hold back late at night. Mimi wasn't going to get better and either was he..
Mark and Roger sat in the living room of the loft. Mark was going through a batch of his old films and looking at the negatives. Roger was attempting to carry a tune as he fooled around with different tunes on his fender guitar.
Roger who was getting awfully frustrated with how things were going, grabbed the sheet of music he had written crumpled it in small ball. "Fuck it. I quit." He scowled before chucking the paper across the room.
Hearing a groan and a "Hey!" Roger looked up at Mark who was rubbing the back of his head. "You mind? I'm looking at something." He muttered pulling his attention back to his camera who rolled a clip of three New Year's Eve ago.
Placing his guitar down on the table he stood up and walked over, gazing down at the screen over Mark's shoulder. "Wow..that was a while ago." He said watching Mimi and himself drinking a glass of champagne as they were attempting to get back into their building that Benny Coffin the Third had padlocked. Bastard.
"Three years." Mark muttered eyes glued to the screen. Maureen was now on the phone with Joanne begging for her forgiveness.
"Pretty depressing." He murmured eyes locked on Mimi. He missed how things use to be and if he could rewind back to then, he knew he'd be different. For one he would have never left Mimi to face her disease alone. Pulling himself away from Mark and the camera he checked the time. "Jeez it's nearly ten. Mimi's not up yet.." He responded before heading into the hall. Mark gazed up towards Roger for a brief moment before looking back to her camera.
"She's probably tired. Let her sleep..." He mumbled not really sure of what he was saying and if Roger had even heard. He assumed not when he heard the door to the bedroom close a moment or two later.
"Meem's? You awake?" Roger whispered softly as he walked into the room and slowly made his way over to the bed. Mimi was laying on her side, face drained of color, blankets wrapped tightly around her. Roger sat on the edge of the bed next to her staring at her for a moment before placing the back of his hand to her cheek.
She was so hot. "Mimi..." He whispered, leaning down closer to her pushing a piece of hair away from her eye as she shifted her legs a bit but made no attempt to move much more. Her lips parted as she let out a soft groan.
His heart began to race and he felt a sense of nausea in the back of his throat. She was fine yesterday....perfectly fine, he thought to himself before swallowing hard knowing she had a high fever. His hand rested on the blanket where her shoulder was and he could feel her radiant heat vibrating from her body.
"Shit." Roger whispered sitting there, thoughts racing as what to do. Seeing her eyes slowly slit open she stared at him, almost like she wasn't sure of who he was. Her eyes softened a bit and she parted her lips to talk but nothing came out except a shallow breath of air. Leaning down close to her he rested his hand on her cheek, "Hey baby..." He whispered a bit choked up.
"Rog-" She started but got cut off by a violent cough.
Roger pursed his lips together for a brief moment. "I need to go get Mark...we have to get you to a hospital." He spoke, voice shaking.
Mimi stared at him feeling tears well up in her eyes, "No...no..." She whispered. Roger knew she didn't want to go in the hospital - not like Angel. But Roger was able to grasp a small amount of hope that just maybe they could do something to help her.
"Shh...shh...it's alright Meems'. They'll help you there...I need to get Mark...I'll be right back." Roger managed to say softly, eyes filled with tears. Mimi couldn't do much to protest but give into his wishes. She closed her eyes as Roger faded slowly from her view.
He knew this day would come, for months, but now he'd do anything for just one more. Just another day...
A/n: Wow. Sorry for the delay. I forgot I finished this fic since my laptop crashed and I thought I lost it. Thankfully it was saved in my journal… but yeah.. the more reviews the quicker you get an update!