Disclaimer: La la la, rent is not mine.

A/N: I don't have too much to say as I begin this chapter. Just don't be too mad at me. In this chapter, something BIG is going to happen. You probably don't know what I mean. It's a bit of an inside joke between my sisters, my sister's friend, and I. It was the day of one of my sister's Bat Mitzvah and we were watching a movie with a really predictable plot after getting our hair done. We plotted it out using predictable terms and motions. One of the ones was: Best friend dies, something BIG )(the half parentheses symbolizes something BIG) happens, lover comes home. Those aren't the exact words. Maybe at the end of the chapter, I will tell you what movie it was. If I tell you now, it will ruin the surprise. Oh and 10 chapters! Yay!

So now:

CHAPTER TEN

It had been roughly a month and a half since Mark last talked to Marli. They saw each other in the meetings involving the first few weeks of beginning production of the film, but she refused to talk to him. She always looked like she was sick and had been crying ungodly amounts. It killed him to see her like this. He loved her and wished she would just talk to him. But she refused. And he cried about it nearly every night.

He hated Alexandria. She was the reason all of this happened. If it weren't for her, he'd be with Marli right now, blissfully in love. But now that he wasn't with her, he was still in love, just painfully. And he knew that she felt the exact same way about him, she just was upset.

For the first two weeks ago, Mimi had tried to talk to Marli about it. But every time it was brought up, Marli burst into sobs and Mimi ended up buying her ice cream and bringing her home. Eventually, Mark had been told that Marli just had to get to the point where she could understand, and then she would finally listen to what Mark has to say.

Mark didn't know how he'd ever wait that long. Lately, all he did was go to work, come home, film random things, fall asleep midday, and then dream about Marli. Then he'd wake up and feel like crap. Then he would cry. Roger would come home, call him a girl and then go do stuff with Mimi. Then Collins would come over, comfort him, and give him alcohol, given to Collins by his new boyfriend, the wealthy philosophical journalist Daniels, Jack Daniels. Then Mark would shower and go back to sleep.

Sometimes, Maureen and Joanne would come over and make him feel better. He realized he had never even been this upset after breaking up with Maureen. It was obvious why. Marli had been the only person he ever truly loved.

That's when it occurred to him! It would probably be A LOT easier to get Marli to understand while she was still upset and looking for excuses as to what went wrong. He got dressed, grabbed his wallet and ran out the door. He'd walk all the way uptown if he had to. That was probably a pretty likely option.

Marli felt completely, utterly sick to her stomach. For the past week, her life had consisted of crying over Mark and then emptying her guts into the toilet bowl. It wasn't that she was bulimic or anything. She just seemed to have a severe bout of the stomach flu. It was terrible. Her throat burned from all the stomach acids that had come up. It was pretty gross. She could barely keep down anything she ate.

All of a sudden, someone came into her apartment. And obviously, whoever it was had not bothered knocking. Last time someone had done that, the person had gone and kissed her boyfriend, the only person she ever loved. Pray it wasn't Alexandria. She could not deal with the stupid whore today, or ever for that matter. She just needed to die or something.

Who it was hurt even worse: It was Mark. Oh shit! She felt like crying. And throwing up, except she couldn't, she needed to have some dignity. "What do you want Mark?" She came face to face with him, completely aware how awful she looked. He eyes were sunken and failed to shine like they used to. He blonde hair was limp and flat and greasy. She lost about five pounds that week alone. She looked terrible, and she could tell he noticed.

"Marli, I came to talk to you. Man you look terrible. What's wrong?" He asked, genuinely concerned. She didn't care if he was concerned. She was fine, wasn't she?

"You! You and the stomach flu! That's what's wrong!" She said angrily.

"Listen to me! I need to explain everything to you," he did. And she listened intently, and then forgave him. He held her in his arms and nothing had ever felt more right to her, ever. She was soaking up this feeling, it felt so new again, but her stomach lurched unpleasantly. She leaped up, covered her mouth with her hand and ran to the bathroom. Mark followed her and got there just in time to watch her lunch go right into the toilet.

"Marli, sweetheart, how long have you had this flu?" He asked gently, holding her limp blonde hair back with his hands.

"I don't really know. It kind of started like a week and a half ago. But it just started getting really bad a week ago. It's terrible."

"Why haven't you been to the doctor if it's lasted that long?"

"Not sure, I figured it was just stress."

"Well take a shower, then I will take you to the doctor." He had an odd way of soothing her. When she was with him, everything was all right.

Mark waited calmly while Marli took a shower. She looked absolutely terrible. She needed to go to the doctor. What kind of a stomach flu lasted for more than a week? It was more than a bit odd, it was scary.

He heard the water shut off, which meant that she must be done. Thank god! He wanted her to get medical attention as soon as possible. Then he heard a loud thud. He ran into the bathroom as fast as lightening. The she was, dressed in a sweat suit, collapsed by the toilet. He did what any concerned human being would do: call 911.

The next half an hour was a blur. They took Marli to the hospital, him riding in the back of the ambulance with her. They got to the hospital and started doing all sorts of tests. He was left to call people. First, he called her parents in Palm Beach, then her sister, Alicia, in Boston, then her brother, Erich, in Seattle. They all said they'd be on the next flight to New York. Then he called her agents and her friends, conveniently forgetting Alexandria. Then he called his friends, who rushed over right away. Her friends came as well.

As they all waited in the waiting room, there was a pregnant silence over the room. Full of so many emotions and so many thoughts…it was absolutely the most awful thing Mark had ever experienced. He wished the doctors would just come out and let them know something, anything. Maureen came over and gave him a hug, apparently realizing something was wrong. He could tell she wanted to talk, but he couldn't, he wouldn't. All he wanted was to hear that Marli was all right.

Finally, after what had seemed like a year, but was probably about three hours, a doctor came out. "Mark Cohen?" Mark stood up and nodded, afraid of what the doctor might say. "Marli's awake. She wants to talk to you," Mark nodded and followed the doctor to her room.

She looked terrible. Pretty much the same as at her apartment, but with IV's hooked up to her and the eerie effect of the hospital, she seemed about ten times worse. "Mark? Hey."

"Mar, I'm here, what's wrong, baby? Are you okay? What did the doctors say?"

"Honestly, they haven't said anything yet. They're still running blood tests and everything. Oh, Mark, I'm so scared. I don't know what's going on. They're using all these words I don't understand. I feel so lost, its almost like they don't want me to have an idea of what's going on in my own body. It's terrible! Stay with me please."

"Honey, I'm not going anywhere, I promise. It's all going to be fine, I promise. Before you know it, you're going to be home, in your own bed and your own pajamas. It's going to be okay, I promise."

"If I didn't love you so much, I probably wouldn't believe you. Did you call my family?"

"Your parents and brother were rushing to the airport and your sister was going to hop the train over here from Boston."

"And my friends?"

"They're all waiting outside in the waiting room, if you want to see them."

"No. I don't want anyone to see me like this, not now anyway. Just let them know that I'm alive, okay?"

"They know. The doctor told them. Be quite, love, everything is going to be okay. Nothing is wrong. You're fine. You're going to be fine."

"I can't know that for sure. I guess I'm just going to have to be optimistic and take your word for it."

And he stayed with her for three or four hours. They talked and talked and it was all okay in their heads. Alicia arrived from Boston, and Mark had to go and comfort her. Then he came back to the room and waited with Marli some more. Eventually, the doctor came back in.

"What's wrong?" Marli asked urgently and sacredly. She was nervous and if it weren't for the IV's, she'd probably be biting her nails.

"Nothings wrong! You're perfectly fine!" The doctor was oddly cheery.

"You don't understand. I passed out. I had the stomach flu for a week and a half. There has to be something wrong with me."

"You didn't have the stomach flu. And nothing was wrong with you."

"What are you trying to say?" Mark inquired carefully. He didn't want to ruffle any of the doctor's feathers.

"That nothing is wrong with you Miss Ryan."

"So you found nothing?" Marli asked, smiling weakly.

"Not exactly."

"What do you mean?"

"I did find a little something."

"Which is?" Mark was starting to get worried. What could he have found if nothing was wrong?

"Are you both ready?" They nodded nervously, trying to anticipate what he would say. "Okay, well Miss Ryan, there is nothing wrong with you. Throwing up everything is perfectly normal when you're pregnant."

Marli's mouth hung agape. She was obviously in shock. Well wouldn't you be if you just found out you were pregnant out of wedlock? She looked to Mark, but he had landed on the floor with a thud. This time, it was Mark who had fainted.

A/N: That ladies and gentlemen is chapter ten. What do you think about the BIG surprise? I actually never expected to do that when I started writing the story, because its kind of cliché, but I felt like it would be very interesting to see how it turned out. Oh and the movie I was talking about before is Pearl Harbor. It is one of the most predictable movies ever. See, if I told you that before you started reading, you'd all know what was up my sleeve. Review! I can't stress that enough and besides, now you are going to want to read more so please review!