Disclaimer: Don't own it.

Author's notes: Thank you for all the reviews. Here is another Angel interlude, which means this section is shorter, but gets into peoples heads more. Well…Mark's head. And the flashback really has nothing to do with the rest of the chapter. It's basically just what happened before the cemetery, and I wanted it there.

Italics are flashbacks. Like you don't know that by now.

"Speak!"

"Roger, I know you're there. Stop screening."

Roger jumped off of his chair and hurried over to the phone, muttering a string of obscenities as he tripped over…something. "Mark!"

"You sound out of breath, are you all right?" The filmmaker's tone instantly gained concern, and all thoughts of a greeting went out of his mind.

Roger had to wonder how his friend could switch dispositions so quickly, but just shook the thought from his head. "I was just in the shower and I heard you." An easy, believable lie that reminded Roger to actually have one later.

"Oh."

"So where the hell are you?" Roger quickly changed the subject. "It's been a week since you called last. You said it would only be a day or two more."

Mark sighed. "I know. Sorry about that."

Roger heard something in his voice, but he wasn't sure exactly what it was. He didn't like it though. "No it's fine. Where are you?"

"A payphone at Port Authority."

"Well what are you doing there? Get your ass home." Roger couldn't keep the smile off his face at the thought of seeing Mark again. He hadn't seen him since the night of the fight with Cindy.

"Well I'll be there soon, but I was gonna go see if I could--." He coughed. "I was gonna go see if I could catch Collins and the others at the cemetery. It's an Angel day."

"How about I meet you there?" Roger suggested quickly. He had forgotten about the group's plans to go to the grave today; now it seemed like a good, quick way to see Mark sooner.

"Sure." He paused, his voice a little strained. "I'll see you there."

"Hey, are you sick?" Roger asked quickly. But Mark was already gone.

"Mark, how are you doing man?" Collins pulled Mark into a hug when he saw the younger man enter the graveyard. As he pulled back he gave him the once over. "Have you lost weight?"

Mark winced a little at the contact and skirted around the question. "I'm good. I'm relieved that he's gone." He swallowed and winced again.

"Relieved that who's gone?" Maureen asked as she bounced up from Angel's gravestone, Joanne right behind her. Joanne lightly slapped her partner's arm in admonishment as though to tell her that it was extremely rude and dumb of her to even ask. Even though they didn't know exactly what had happened between Mark and his stepfather, they knew that it had been bad, and that he had been to his funeral. Realization dawned on her. "Oh."

Mark glanced around a little. "Yeah."

"Well it's good to have you back Marky." Maureen quickly pulled him into a hug, trying to dismiss the awkward moment.

"It's good to be…anywhere but my mother's."

Joanne frowned a little at his strained voice. "Do you have a sore throat or something Mark? You sound horse."

"It's nothing." Mark put the back pack that he had used for his things on the trip to Scarsdale. "I'm gonna go talk to Angel. Roger should be here in a minute or two." Mark walked over to the tombstone, and sat down in front of it. "Hey Angel…so Richard's dead, and there was a bit of an incident after the funeral, but you probably knew about that. I'm not really sure how to tell anyone, because I get the feeling that it might end up…well…I haven't even been able to tell Maureen, Joanne, and Benny that I'm sick. I don't want them to worry.

"Especially Roger." He added as an afterthought, a few raindrops starting to fall. "I'm not sure if anyone's told you, because I haven't been able to come here lately, but Roger and I are a lot closer now. I guess it's pretty much a relationship. We're really happy." The rain started a bit harder and Mark just started to let his thoughts out, not bothering to formulate things before he said them. "We don't have sex or anything, but I don't think that we really have to, you know? It's like we're already that close. Not like it was with Maureen, or anybody else.

"And you brought us together. I had this dream, and you told me to take a leap of faith, so I did. I really owe you for that one Angel." Mark paused to cough. "I just don't want to mess things up now. I sort of feel like telling him about everything would do that, because he'd be worrying too much. He's been doing that more. Worrying about me.

"And I know that keeping things from him isn't a good idea either." Mark shook his head. It was amazing how he was able to just sort through his problems when he was talking to nobody. "So I guess I should just tell him." And he coughed again. "You're great Angel. I don't think I've told you that lately."

"You haven't told her what lately?"

The voice behind him caused Mark to jump up from his sitting position and turn around. "Roger." He breathed a sigh of a relief, a slight smile going on his face in spite of himself.

Roger laughed. "Did I scare you?" He pulled him into a hug, kissing his forehead.

"No it's just…" Mark shook his head. "I'm…it's good to be back."

Roger stepped back, watching his rain soaked companion's eyes close. "Hey, you OK?" Mark didn't answer. "Mark?"

Mark's eyes reopened. "Roger, do me a favor…catch me." And then his eyes rolled backwards into his skull and his knees buckled beneath him.

Oh, I'm evil. Don't worry. The next chapter is already in the works.