A/N: From now on, Mark's point of view will be featured as well as Roger's. It's a transition tool. Bear with me. :D Winnie-the-Pooh ain't mine either. For some reason, I can't stop writing this stuff. It's like, to use Lindsay Lohan's words, "word vomit". Lol. I enjoy it though. And your reviews! Thanks very much! Keep on reading!

XV.

March 8, 1991

Collins was leaving the next day and both Roger and Mark had brought back a lot of stuff from Scarsdale, especially Mark, so they decided it would be best to spend the philosopher's last night with them rediscovering the past everyone was itching to know about. Both he and Roger had decided that the best way to go about it was to see what souvenirs they'd brought back. His mother had filled three boxes full of clothes and assorted stuff she thought they could use. Mark had snorted when they'd gone through the boxes the next morning and chanced upon assorted board games. What the hell did his mother think they'd do with board games? He'd mainly had them as a kid as some sort of tool his father used to get him to talk.

"Mark, would you like to play a board game tonight?"

Shit. Not another one. What does his father want to talk about now?

"Uhhh…not really, Dad. I've got homework."

"Oh, homework can wait." His father has a wide grin on his face and a brand new game in his hands. What is it? It's something called 'Life'… "C'mon, give your old man a break."

He wonders if his Mom's told his Dad about anything he's done in school. Grades? Stuff he's done with Roger? What have they done? Nothing bad, really. Damn. This is probably another of his father's 'check-ups' to see if he was right in the head.

"Oh my goodness, Candyland!" Mimi scooped up a long flat box decorated with candy canes. "I used to play this!"

"That is one sissy-ass game, Cohen." Roger laughed.

"Shut up. That was Cindy's." Mark was filming. Again. Practically every day he had his camera on, though he wasn't sure why. He just had this sudden urge to just capture every single thing. Scarsdale had been an exception, though, but he didn't regret keeping the camera off.

"Oh, this is cute, Roger…" Joanne had this big smile on her face as she lifted something from Roger's one box, which was mostly filled with assorted clothes. It was a battered Classic Winnie-the-Pooh book. Mark almost died laughing as he saw the look on Roger's face: something that was a cross between utter humiliation and guilt.

"Jo…" Roger whined. He swiped at the book. Mimi laughed.

"I brought that for my first show-and-tell. My Mom had read it to me chapter by chapter when I was, like, five." He confessed. He held the book fondly. Mark made sure to get a close-up of his best friend's face. He knew about the book. He'd seen it one too many times tossed casually on Roger's bed before back in Scarsdale, and whenever he asked, Roger always said, "Fuck off, man. It's a good story."

"Good thing those Woozles and Heffalumps didn't affect you too much." Collins laughed, going through the boxes some more. His voice took on something resembling a storyteller's: "'Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head behind Christopher Robin…'"

"Aw, honey, don't worry, it's cute," Mimi assured her husband as the latter grew redder. Dodge nipped at the edges of the book as he toddled around the couch. "We'll read it to Dodge sometime."

"So your Dad's a lawyer…?" Joanne asked carefully as she lifted another sweatshirt out of Roger's box.

"Yeaahhh…" Roger said the word lazily and Mark almost thought he was going to ignore the topic. But he didn't. "He's a damn good one, to his credit. Though he was kinda lousy with me…but it's all good."

"Wasn't your thing, huh?" Joanne said. "I can't imagine you as one."

Roger smiled. "Yeah, we'd probably have never met if I became one. That'd suck. I mean, maybe we'd have met, but we probably won't be friends. It'd be, like, courtroom drama." He shook his head. "Nah, not my kind of thing. Besides I hate those goddamn suits. Mark was supposed to be a psychologist like his old man, too."

"Yeah," Mark spoke from behind the camera. "Then you appeared and invited me to ditch college to come here, which I'm pretty happy about. My father almost had a coronary, I heard, and my mother almost went over the edge, but I'm okay with it."

"Your Mom's nice." Mimi smiled, though there was a devilish gleam in her eyes. "Seems a little high-strung though…"

"Like mother, like son." Roger snorted, which Mark promptly replied with a "Shut up." Roger had always found his family so amusing. Well, to be fair, whenever Mark looked at them from an outsider's point of view, they were, with all their 'perfect dysfunctions', as Roger had called itIt was just his luck that he wasn't an outsider and had had to bear with a too-nosy father, a paranoid mother and a too-perfect sister for the first 18 years of his life. He'd rather have them over Roger's folks any day, though.

"Matthew Roger Davis Jr.! Get yourself downstairs NOW!"

Mark sees as Roger visibly pales.

"What? What's wrong?" he's scared now too. Damn. Mr. Davis' yelling always scared him, and it doesn't help that he's in Roger's house now when it happens.

"I didn't mean it!" Roger is babbling. "I didn't…oh God, he's going to kill me…"

"What? What didn't you…"

"I'M GIVING YOU TEN SECONDS, BOY! ONE…!" Mr. Davis' voice booms like a sudden explosion on the stairwell. Fear gets a hold of Mark's heart. Their comics are strewn all over the bed over the unfinished homework, and cigarette smoke is hanging over their heads. Roger decided he was going to see what was so good about smoking but gave up on it after the first stick. Shit. Shit. If Roger's father sees this…

"It was my bike. I dented his car…I didn't see it! Shit! It was his new one…oh fuck, I have to…I have to…" Roger's eyes are wide and frightened. Mark feels for his best friend. He IS in big trouble. The Benz was only a week old.

"It was an accident…it wasn't your fault…just tell him that…" Roger's doomed, Mark knows, but he continues to encourage his best friend. Mr. Davis is already on "THREE!".

Mark shuddered, then let go of the memory. It was over. The past was past, and everything was okay now. Roger had moved on, which was the best that could happen. He lifted his camera and started filming again. Close up on Roger who was finally smiling.

"Heeeyyy, Twister! That's a fun game!" Maureen said. She got a hold of the white plastic sheet that displayed all of the multicolored circles and lay it down on the floor in a flourish. A huge dust cloud billowed up and sent them all in coughing fits. Mark quickly clapped a hand over his nose and mouth. Damn asthma.

"MAUREEN!" Joanne said, annoyed. Roger had staggered to the bathroom, hunched over and coughing, and Mimi sneezed all over the place. "Health hazard!"

"Well I didn't know that was going to happen!" Maureen said innocently. "Sorry, sorry, babies. Roger, babe, you okay?" Mark cast a glance at the open door of the bathroom, where his best friend clutched the sink, sounding as if he were bent on hacking one of his internal organs out. Worry gripped his heart for a split-second. Those coughs didn't sound good…

"Jesus, Maureen," Roger said, his voice in a half-gasp as he staggered back to where they all were. "If you're trying to kill me, can you do it in a less-subtle way? Jesus…"

"You okay?" The dust had settled and Mark could finally take his hands off of his face.

"I'm fine." Roger flopped back onto the couch and slung his arm over Mimi. "Okay, babe?"

"Yeah. I'm fine."

"I haven't played Twister in a long time," Collins said thoughtfully as he gazed at the mat on the floor. He raised his head and glanced at all of them one by one. Mark could sense what was coming.

"We're too old, Col…" interjected Roger.

"We're gonna be aching all over…" said Mimi.

"I don't think I remember how to play…" Joanne shrugged.

Yeah right.

It didn't take long for everyone, sans him, to be on the floor on their knees and elbows yelling various body parts and colors. Mark happily circled them, filming as they got themselves into even more complicated positions.

"Baby!" Mimi screeched in laughter at Roger who was bent over her. "Your hair is tickling my face!"

"Well I can't really move now, can I?" Roger said. He was grinning as well, though the strain on his face was evident. "Collins man, your goddamn weight is on my leg!"

"Oh God, I'm gonna sneeze!" Maureen announced.

"Dodge no!" Joanne said as Dodge had started to lift his leg over the mat, near Roger and Joanne's hand. "NOOOOO!"

The puppy was either deaf or evil, because Dodge just went and peed all over the Twister mat, sending every single one of the bohos on the floor up and yelling.

"FUCK! EW!" Roger ran off in the direction of the bathroom, closely followed by his wife and Maureen and Joanne. Collins was on the floor, on his back, laughing deep belly laughs. Mark wasn't too far behind. The camera was already shaking from his hold.

"Zoom in on Collins, who thinks puppy piss on his hands is so fucking hilarious." Mark said, holding back his giggles. Thank God he hadn't joined in on the game.

"Oh man, this is great." Collins said, laughs still rumbling from his throat. Dodge was all over him, giving the philosopher little puppy licks on the face. "Man, oh man…I haven't laughed this much in a long time…."

"There'll be plenty more laughs, old man," Mark assured him almost automatically. "Don't worry about it."

He didn't want to be reminded. He didn't want ANY little reminders that their days as these were numbered. Roger had always been on his case about not being comfortable with the topic, but who could blame him? Days like these…he knew they'd be gone sooner or later, and he didn't want to think it. But…wouldn't that make him a contradiction to his own statement since he was the one filming everything just so he could anchor himself to the past? God, he hated it whenever his father's psychological training kicked in.

Collins continued laughing, then stopped a bit to catch his breath.

"God, I hope so, Marky." He sighed happily. "I've never felt this alive my whole life. What, when we're all just here, breathing our air…damn, it's a good life, eh?"

Mark licked his lips. He was done laughing. Zoom in on the philosopher who had again hit the nail right on the head.

"Yeah…yeah, Col, it's a good life." He forced himself to say.

"You don't forget that." Collins grinned at the camera. "No matter what shit happens, huh? Don't forget."

"I won't, Col…"

Mark was at a loss of words, which made Roger's sudden re-entry good. Roger had always been there to fill in his silences. Good old noisy Roger who never quite outgrew A.A. Milne and mac n' cheese.

"Okay, where is that little bugger…." Roger stomped back into the living room, looking for Dodge.

"Aw, baby, he didn't mean it." Mimi said, trailing behind her husband. Roger picked up the puppy and held it at arm's length.

"He's gotta be potty trained, Meems! We can't have him going around pissing and shitting all over the place!"

"You guys can try, like, putting a litter box or something," Joanne suggested. "So you don't have to take him outside every time. That's kinda impractical, especially for you people who can get sick easily."

"That's what we'll do," Mimi got Dodge from Roger and crooned at him. Mark laughed when Roger rolled his eyes.

"Sometimes I think you love that thing more than me." He visibly pouted. Maureen guffawed.

"Oh my God, that has got to be the cutest thing Roger has ever said!" she laughed. "He's jealous of a puppy, baby girl!"

Mimi was all smiles too. Mark filmed as she cuddled up to Roger sweetly and whispered something in his ear, which Roger returned with a devious grin.

Zoom in on Davis who's horny now as hell.

He filmed as Mimi had Joanne hold Dodge for a second then as she threw her arms around her husband and kissed him. Filmed as Collins and the others whooped. Filmed as Dodge barked almost angrily (jealous, perhaps that somebody else had Mimi's attention?). Mark found himself smiling, the ugly what-ifs and back-thens erased totally from his mind. The 'now's were important, and he was going to keep filming.

TBC