AN: I'm sorry!!!! Had the biggest writer's block for this chapter. And thanks to a combination of Liv, and my discovery of Rent bootlegs, and my acquisition of the CDs for Wicked and tick, tick....BOOM!, I finished this! YAY!!!!!!

Right. So if Maureen seems to start quoting Wicked, or if any of the others start into a foreign language, or quoting some random Rent-related thingy, that's why!

"So...this is what you've gotten yourself into," Curtis said, leaning back in the kitchen chair. "Still working as a slut?"

Mimi bit her lip from screaming at her stepfather. "I'm done at the club, but still lookin' for work." Bel sank down further in her chair. Contrary to last night, this was torture for the two of them. "What are you doing here?" Mimi finally said.

"Your mother. She's in the hospital." A pair of cold green eyes glared at her. "She wants you two to see her again."

"Why? Did something happened at home?" Mimi looked over at Bel, who was slouching down in her seat. "What's wrong with Mami?"

"Meems, I-" Bel started but she was cut off by Curtis. "Your sister didn't tell you?"

"What?"

"Coquina's got emphysema. All those years of chain-smoking, after you left, Michela. She's in the hospital."

Mimi started to feel dizzy. I need to go lay down...

"Professor Collins?" The staff secretary poked her head in his office door. "There's someone here to see you..."

Collins shuffled through his stack of Basic Computer Theory exams. "Yeah, sure, send them in." Yet another couch potato lost in the grades. Thank God for the small amount of hackers in his class, although it could be one of them, inquiring about the 'Actual Reality' theorem-

"Geez, no wonder you're so sick. Do you even dust?"

He looked up at the door. "Dave! What are you doing here?"

Dave perched on the desk. "Roger kicked himself and me out of the apartment for the morning. Apparently, someone Mimi knows- she wasn't too happy to see them either- was there, and here I am."

"And Roger is...?"

"Down at the clubs, trying to get another show. Busy? Wanna go get some coffee?"

"My next class isn't until 11:30...and it's ten now..."

"Let's go!"

Mimi flopped back on her and Roger's bed. "Mami..." she whispered. They had kept in touch after the first time Mimi had come back home from running away. Two years ago, after she had turned eighteen.

Since then, Mami just had been keeping tabs.

Someone started knocking at the door. "Meems, it's Bel."

"Go away."

She ignored her sister and came in anyway. "Look, I'm sorry that I didn't tell you. I mean, did you want me to burst in and say, "Hey, by the way, Mami's dying because her chain-smoking habit? I can't do that."

"So? You're all pissed at me for not telling you what happened to me last Christmas. Why do you think I didn't tell you that?"

Bel's breath caught in her throat. "Look, Meems, I'm sorry."

"I'll forgive you," Mimi mumbled in a pillow.

"He's here to take me back."

"What?" Mimi looked up. "I mean, he's practically disowned cuz I ran awa-" Bel mumbled something very quickly. "What did you say?"

"I didn't run off. I got kicked out."

"Why?" This was news to her. Bel was just as independent as she was, so if she HAD run off, Mimi would not be surprised.

"They found a pregnancy test in the garbage."

"Bel-"

"It was only once and I wasn't pregnant, the thing was wrong anyway. I came home from school and Curtis said I had an hour and a half to get the hell out of there."

Mimi looked away from her younger sister. That hurt, what Bel just said. "We're falling apart, aren't we?"

"We've been. Since you left."

"Bel?"

"Yeah?"

"Let's go see Mami."

Dave blew into his coffee cup. He was waiting for Collins to get back with his drink and some of the food they had ordered. So now it was just Dave, his coffee, and Collins's briefcase.

Some of the papers had spilled out of the top, mostly what Collins was fond of calling "those pieces of shit that can pass as a thesis these days." Now Dave respected his love's privacy, but upon the nearly daily hearing of how bad most of these things were, he couldn't help himself.

So he took a handful. Dave knew shit about computer theory but he couldn't help thinking how bad they actually WERE. And these students were going to NYU, for crying out loud.

He flipped over to the next paper, a single handwritten sheet. Not just anyone's handwriting. Collins's.

On the top was written Ti Copriro d'Amore, and some lines of poetry underneath that.

Live in my house,

I'll be your shelter,

Just pay me back

With one thousand kisses...

"Can you believe how long this took just this?" Collins came back to the table. "Dave? What are you reading?"

"Tell me about him," he said, quietly, folding up the piece of paper, "Angel. The poem. Everything."

"I think that'll take longer than a coffee break."

The nurse peered over her glasses at the two Hispanic girls standing in front of her. "We're looking for Coquina Marquez-Peterson."

"Hmm...lessee here... Can you spell that?"

Bel sighed, as Mimi oh-so patiently spelled out their mother's maiden name. "Room 203, but I'm not sure if-"

"Thankyouverymuch," Mimi said, grabbing Bel's hand as she started to run off towards their mother's room.

"You're going to tell her, right?' Bel managed to get out as they continued down the hall.

"Of course! I'm not gonna let her die without knowing she's got a grandchild on the way!" Mimi managed to get out, "Oh, hi, Dr. Hook!"

"And that is?"

"My gyno."

"He's kinda cute!"

They almost missed their mother's room, especially after Bel yelled out, "Shit, Meems, 201!!!!!!" Of course, to the normal hospital visitor, the sight of two curly-haired, panting girls clutching onto each other would have had anyone wondering where to escort them to the insanity ward. "You-pant-wanna-pant-go in-pant-first?" Bel said.

"You're the one who got kicked out for a month."

"You're the one with her grandchild and left us for two years." Well, Mimi really couldn't argue with that.

She cracked the door open. Her mother was laying in the midst of tubes and metal. The faint crackling of some Spanish soap opera. It looked like the woman was sleeping. Mimi just knelt down by the bedside. "Mami?" she whispered.

"Mimi?" was the faint croak of a reply. Coquina opened her eyes, a pair of faded browns that held years of love and hurt.

"Me and Bel are here, Mami. Curtis came over to tell me what was going on."

"It's been too long, mi querida."

Mimi smiled at her mother's pet name. "I have some good news."

"What is it?" Coquina tried to smile faintly at her eldest.

"I met a boy. His name is Roger."

"How long...have you been together? Has it been longer than a week?"

Mimi choked back a laugh. "Try two years, Mami."

"Very good, I hope he treats you well."

"Mami," she said, leaning in closer, "I'm, we're having a baby." Mimi grabbed her mother's hand, and fought back tears of pain for seeing her mother in this state. "You're gonna be a grandma."

Coquina smiled. "I love you, mi Mimi, mi querida."

Mimi gave her mother a hug. "I love you too, Mami."

"I'm sorry that I did look through your things, Tom," Dave said, opening the door to the office.

"I think you did need to know about Angel. She was...something." Collins straightened up a bunch of folders.

Dave smiled as he thought of the drag queen who pulled him back from the edge. "I knew you loved her a lot."

"Well, I have class."

"Oh! Please tell me that you want to go out for dinner tonight."

"Don't want be beat by the sisters Marquez?"

"Well, what do you think?" Dave started laughing as they walked down the hallway. "But, really, a night out for ourselves," he said continuing down the hall. "Something wrong, Tom?"

"Yeah. This is my classroom." Collins opened the door to it.

"Don't go yet!" Dave hurried back to where his lover stood, and then proceeded to kiss him. "I'll see you later, kay?" he said, once they pulled away.

"All right," Collins whispered, and then turned to the classroom of gape-jawed students. "Excuse my boyfriend," he said to the students, "now about these papers..."

PS: FYI, Ti Copriro d'Amore means "My Companion of Love" (I think) in Italian. Roughly translated, its "I'll Cover You." I have the Italian cast's version of the reprise, and I started crying listening to it. REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!!!! (Come on! My Princess Diaries fic is getting more reviews per chap! I want 45 at LEAST!)