Thank you to all who are reading! I'm glad your enjoying it so far.

Dru619

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the RENT characters. They all belong to the late Jonathan Larson. I just like taking them out and playing with them every once and a while ;-)

Chapter 3

"This isn't good," Roger finally said after a long silence. The girl from the freeway was laid out on the couch. All the blankets they owned were piled on top of her. Mark was able to get a meager fire going.

"I know," was all Mark could say. He took off his jacket and tucked it on top of the girl. He stepped back and stood next to Roger. "What are we going to do?" Roger didn't know.

How was he supposed to answer? She didn't have a chance of surviving! She had obviously been exposed to the elements for too long. Her cheeks were extremely pale. Her pretty hair looked weird on her head. It was matted at the bottom, damp from the snow. Roger felt guilty with his next remark.

"I don't want her to die here," he whispered softly. He felt his throat tighten a bit. "We should...shouldn't have gone down to the damn freeway." Mark turned to look at him.

"You're not blaming this on me," he snapped slightly hurt. Roger sighed.

"I'm not blaming anyone for anything so calm down. All I'm saying is that…she's too sick Mark. She's going to die."

"She can't die," Mark said softly. "I'm not going to let her."

"Fate has different plans Mark." Roger turned on his heel and tightened his jacket around himself.

"Where are you going?" Mark asked, kneeling down next to the girl, gently stroking her forehead.

"See Mimi," he answered simply.

"Get your jacket back off of 'Freeway'," Roger paused here to nod over at the girl. "…before going to bed alright?" Mark sighed.

"Yeah. Tell Mimi hi alright?"

"Yeah."

"Who the hells ringing at 10:00 at ni…oh it's you," Joanne opened the door to see Roger standing out in the cold.

"Who did you want? Santa?" Roger waited for Joanne to invite him in.

"Very funny smartass. Come on, Mimi'll be happy to see you," Joanne tugged gently at his arm.

"Where's Maureen?"

"Sleep already," Joanne said through a yawn. "I guess all that energy during the day tires her out. I was about to myself but…she's been whimperin' a lot. I thought it was better not to leave her. She's still achy. She won't admit it but she cries a little anytime she moves." Roger could only assume she was talking about Mimi. He hated himself for not being there with her. Instead he had run out with Mark to the damn freeway and picked up a runaway.

Maureen and Joanne had done really well for themselves. They were in a little better part of the city. The walk was longer but no one complained. They were happy at least someone was going somewhere; doing something with their lives.

"There she is," Joanne murmured softly. Mimi was on the couch, whimpering up a storm until she caught site of Roger.

"Roger," she squeaked softly.

"Hey Mimi," Roger was quick to kneel down to her. He felt sad looking into her tired eyes. Obvious pain was behind them. Mimi had stopped using. With Roger's help, she had been completely clean for almost 4 months. She got sick a lot more. This was the first bad bout of it in a long time though. "Are…are you hurting?" Mimi frowned a bit.

"No."

"I don't believe you baby," he whispered softly with a small grin, bringing his hand over to gently rub her cheek.

"Yes," she whispered softly, a hint of tears in her voice. "Please don't leave me."

"Never," he whispered. Joanne cleared her throat from behind him. Roger had forgotten she was still in the room.

"If it's okay with Joanne," he added.

"Yeah it's good. You got her? I'm going to bed." Roger nodded. Joanne leaned over to give Mimi a kiss on the head then squeezed Roger's shoulder before disappearing out of the room.

"Joanne…set up the bed in the guest room for me. But…it hurts too much to move," she whispered softly, running her hand through Roger's hair. He felt her hot forehead.

"Let me carry you? I need to tell you what Mark and I found." She surprised him with a small giggle.

"Do I want to know?"

He nuzzled into the side of her head.

"You definitely do," he whispered near her ear.

"So…it all started when Mark convinced me to go down to the freeway with him…"