CHAPTER FOURTEEN
(chapter title – Coffee With Kaitlin)

"Rog? You wanted to see me?" Kaitlin asked the next day. She and Roger were the last two people to leave the studio for the afternoon.

"Yeah. I was wondering if you wanted to go to the Life and have some coffee with me. I really need someone to talk to." Roger told her.

"I understand, Rog. Sure, I'll have coffee with you, but I have to be somewhere at five – Ally's in the school play and I promised I would be there for her." Kaitlin said, opening the studio door and heading into the cold September air. Roger put his leather jacket around Kaitlin's shoulders as they walked the three blocks to the Life Café.

"Roger! I know about you and your AIDS! You need your jacket! I don't want you to catch a cold." Kaitlin told him, handing his jacket back to him. Roger smiled and looked at the sound technician. She was paler than usual and skinner, too.

"Kaitlin, you okay?" Roger inquired, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"Yeah – I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"Because your paler and skinner than usual."

"Who are you – my mother? I said I'm fine." She had never snapped at him.

"Sorry. I'm just trying to be a friend." Roger apologized. Kaitlin smiled slightly.

"I care about you, Kait." Roger told her.

"I know you do, Rog. Shall we go to the Life?" Kaitlin asked. Roger nodded and opened the door for her.

"Hey Rog! Usual table?" his favorite waiter, Tony, inquired.

"Yes, please, Tony." Roger told him, smiling at Kaitlin.

"Who is this lovely lady, Roger? Certainly not your daughter, Sara?" Tony questioned as Roger and Kaitlin sat down at a table at the back of the restaurant.

"No, Tony. This is a colleague of mine – Kaitlin Smythe. Kaitlin, this is Tony – the nicest guy you'll ever meet." Roger introduced the two of them.

"It's so nice to meet you, Tony." Kaitlin told the waiter, smiling.

"You too, Miss Kaitlin." Tony smiled back and turned his attention to Roger.

"What can I get you?" Tony asked.

"Two coffees – black and a basket of cheese sticks." Roger told the waiter. Tony nodded and went to the kitchen.

"You never fully explained how Mark died." Kaitlin said as soon as Tony was out of earshot.

"I thought I did." Roger told her, confused. Kaitlin slowly shook her head.

"Well, here's what happened. I really didn't want to tell Sara what happened to him and I would appreciate it if you didn't either." Roger then went on to tell her exactly what happened to Mark on that dreadful day. Kaitlin listened intently, not talking until Roger was done with his story.

Mark was heading home from work, all thoughts on Sara, Jennifer and Roger. He turned his bike down the street, whistling. He didn't see that yellow taxi coming his way. He was knocked off his bike and flew backwards, banging his head on the pavement. Nobody even stopped to notice that the filmmaker was hurt and bleeding on the street. By the time that somebody did call the hospital, it was too late. He suffered a massive concussion and damage to his spinal cord. He was pronounced dead at 3:45 PM.

"Oh my God, Roger!" Kaitlin whispered, nibbling on her cheese stick. Roger's eyes were welling up with tears. Kaitlin reached across the table and took Roger's hands in hers. He squeezed her hands gently and blinked the tears out of his eyes. Kaitlin felt tears run down her cheeks as Roger told her the story.

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The two of them finished their coffee and cheese sticks and exited the café. Roger handed Tony a twenty and told him to keep the change. They headed back to the loft where Sara was waiting for them, along with Musetta. Christopher was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey Sara bear! How are you?" Kaitlin smiled at Sara as she stepped into the loft. Musetta bounded over to Kaitlin and sniffed her jeans.

"She probably smells my cats." Kaitlin noted, walking over and sat down next to Sara on the couch.

"I'm gonna go to the cemetery for a bit. Have Christopher call me when he gets home." With that, Roger grabbed his jacket and headed into the September air. Kaitlin and Sara watched a movie on TV before Sara realized that she had homework to do. Getting up from the couch, she walked to her room and got started on her homework. Kaitlin stroked Musetta's soft ears as she turned the TV to her favorite soap opera. Pulling the blanket off the back of the couch, she curled up in a ball and fell asleep.

Christopher walked in the door five minutes later to see a woman fast asleep on the couch. Cautiously, he walked over to her and leaned over her.

"Mmm. Roger, is that you?" the woman asked.

"Uh, no. This is Christopher." Christopher told the woman. That's when the woman sat up and looked at Christopher.

"Oh, hi. I'm Kaitlin." The woman introduced herself.

"Christopher – Christopher Collins." Christopher told her, smiling slightly.

"Roger wants you to call him." Kaitlin told him, curling up back in a ball and falling back asleep. Christopher nodded and walked over to the phone, but didn't call Roger – he called his girlfriend, Hannah Coffin.

"Hello?" Hannah's voice sounded from the other line.

"Hey baby. It's me." Christopher told her.

"Chris! Hey sugar! What's up?" Hannah wanted to know.

"Not much. I was wondering if you wanted to come with my family and I to see Sara's play." Christopher said, twisting the phone chord around his finger.

"Um, let me go ask really quick." There was a long pause as Hannah put the phone down and went to ask her parents. There were footsteps a few minutes later.

"Hannah?" Christopher asked as soon as his girlfriend picked up the phone.

"Hey babe. I can go." Hannah told him, excited.

"Great! We'll pick you up as soon as Roger gets home." Christopher told her.

"Awesome. See you then, sweetie."

"Sounds good. Love you."

"Love you, too."

Christopher smiled and hung the phone up and called Roger.

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Roger was in front of Mark's grave, sobbing when his phone rang. Standing up, he fished his phone out of his pocket.

"Hello?" Roger's voice was hoarse from crying.

"Rog? You told me to call you when I got home." Christopher's voice sounded from the other line.

"Yeah. I'm glad that you're home. I'll be there in about fifteen minutes." Roger told him.

"Cool. Hey, is it okay if Hannah comes with us tonight to the play?"

"I don't care."

"Okay. I'll see you in about fifteen minutes." He then remembered the chick on the couch. "Roger, who the hell is the chick on the couch?"

"Oh, that's a friend of mine from work, Kaitlin Smythe." Roger told him, wiping the tears away from his face.

"Oh. Okay. See you in fifteen." Christopher hung up, figuring that Roger wanted to be alone. Roger turned off his cell phone and put it back in his pocket. He then turned to Mark's grave.

Marcus 'Mark' David Cohen-Davis
1970-2006
Give Into Love Or Live In Fear

"I love you, babe. Just know that I'll you in time." Roger put the bouquet of red roses on Mark's grave and walked out of the cemetery – stopping momentarily at Collins', Mimi's, Angel's, Katie's and April's graves. As Roger looked at April's grave, he saw different colored flowers and a wreath hung around her grave. He walked over and stood in front of the grave.

April Renee Erickson
1970-1985
Always Think Of Others Instead Of Yourself

That was April – always thinking of others instead of herself Roger thought as he walked out of the cemetery and back to the loft.