A/N: Rawr.

Another month went by. Even though Mimi was still in fucking awesome shape for a woman who was (as Collins liked to put it) "in the family way," she felt huge—the 3 Bs were even bigger than ever before.

College was becoming brutal. She was taking summer classes to make up for the time she'd missed, and all the students and teachers looked at her like she was a slut. A big fat pregnant slut. Now that she wore maternity clothes, she was like a walking advertisement for what happens when you have premarital sex. "Save yourself for marriage!" Mama had always told her. Oops.

Toward then end of the course, one of her classes went to a shitty local hospital to get a depressing first hand look at sick people.

Weee.

Professor Greenberg led the group of 20some year olds around the lower floors.

They walked up to just outside of a hospital; room. He indicated a thin black woman lying in the bed inside. "In there," he said, "Is a woman of about 40 who was diagnosed with TB. Lucas, tell me what her symptoms might be.

"Oh, I…uh…there would be…"

Greenberg rolled his eyes. "Marquez, can you tell me?"

Oh, Holy cow… "Um, night sweats and bad coughing and…" He waited for more. "Um," she stammered, "like…and pneumonia like stuff…?"

"Are you asking me, Miss Marquez?"

"No, sir."

"Well," he said, "You're basically right. You neglected to mention difficulty breathing and weight loss. I'd suggest you study more." They walked on to the next room. Mimi was too busy being angry with mean old Greenberg to pay attention too much, but she looked up when he said, "AIDS."

"What?" She heard herself say.

He folded his arms across his ample chest and gave her a cold as ice stare. "Was I boring you, Miss Marquez?"

"No sir," she said, ignoring his sarcasm, "I just didn't catch what you said."

He sighed, and pointed to the hospital room. "The girl in there. Dying of AIDS. Advanced AIDS. Kapiche? Now, Miss Marquez, since you don't seem to like to pay attention, perhaps you can also tell me the symptoms of HIV."

She smiled. Too easy. "Well," she began, "Signs can be fever, headache, tiredness, nausea, diarrhea, and enlarged lymph nodes. Some symptoms show up right away for some people, while in other cases it can take up to six weeks. These symptoms usually disappear within a week to a month and are often mistaken for another viral infection." She smiled bigger.

Professor Greenberg said nothing, clearly annoyed that she'd gotten it right, but not knowing why she did. "Well…the girl in here wasn't treated for her virus, so it advanced quickly and she's dying. Shall we move on?" Everyone walked past the room and Mimi looked into it through the window on the door. Then she stopped. She stared at the tiny girl in the bed with the golden curls and big sad eyes. She had seen this girl before.

Without really knowing what she was doing, she opened the door and went inside.

"Marquez!" Greenberg shouted, "Get back here right now!" When she ignored him he followed her angrily into the room, and was about to pull her out of her by force when he saw her kneeling at the little girl's bedside.

"Hello," said Mimi.

"Hello…" said the scared little girl.

"What's your name?"

"Nicole." said the girl.

"Hi, Nicole," said Mimi with a little smile. "My name is Mimi. I was a friend of your mom's." She noticed Professor Greenberg, who suddenly seemed very sad and slightly less demonic.

Nicole nodded. "You were the crying lady at her funeral."

Mimi nodded. "Yes, I was. But I'm better now, I promise." She touched Nicole's hand. "How are you doing."

"I'm real sad," she admitted.

"Oh," Mimi said, "I wish that wasn't true. A pretty little girl like you should be laughing all the time."

"Daddy died last week." Nicole told her.

Mimi bowed her head. "I'm sorry to hear that, sweetheart. But you know what? I don't think he'd want you to be all sad and grumpy!" She tickled her stomach a little and the girl laughed, but quickly went back to pouting.

"Yeah," she said, "but my social worker says I'm gonna die, too. She said it's a crime because I'm so little."

Mimi tried not to look as heartbroken as she was. "You look like a big girl to me! What are you, eight?"

"Nine."

"Nine! Oh my gosh, you're so big!" Nicole seemed pleased. "Hey, sweetie. Want to know a secret?"

"M'kay."

She said in her most cheerful voice, "I've got the same disease you've got." Nicole looked like she was going to cry. "Oh, but you don't have to be sad! I'm a happy lady!"

"Why?" She asked. "Aren't you dying?"

"Am I dead right now?"

"No…"

"Then nope! I'm not dying. I'm living. And so are you!"

Nicole shrugged. "I don't get it."

Mimi planted herself on the bed with her. "It doesn't matter how long you're alive, baby girl! Didn't anyone tell you that? What really matters is what you do with the time you've got! Look at me. I'm sick, too, but do you see me being all mopey!" She made a funny face.

Nicole giggled. "No, you're silly."

Mimi grinned. "I sure am! Do you do silly faces?" Nicole stuck out her tongue. They laughed. "You're funny," she told her. The girl still seemed sad, so she decided to try a new tactic. "See my big fat stomach?" she asked. Nicole nodded. "There's a baby boy or girl in there."

"Really?"

"Yup."

"I like babies." Nicole said.

"Well," Mimi said in her most secretive voice, "I'm not going to have it for 4 months. But as soon as I do, we'll come and see you! Okay?"

Nicole sat up, excited. "Can I hold it!"

"Duh!" Mimi cried. "But you're going to have to be happy. Deal?" She extended her hand.

Nicole contemplated this for a moment, then grasped it firmly and shook it. "Deal."

Mimi gave her a great big hug and promised that she and her friends would visit every week, and that they'd bring her cookies. Then the said goodbye and she quickly walked past her stunned professor and left the room.

He followed her down the hall. "You're good with kids," he muttered.

"Thanks," she said, obviously pissed off at him.

"I did know you had HIV."

"Yup." She didn't look at him and kept on walking.

"I…"

Part of her wanted to smack him in the face and tell him to fuck off, because why the hell should a few years off her life be reason for special treatment? Instead, she stopped, turned around, patted his back kindly, then left to catch up with the rest of the group and promptly forgot about him.

Mimi got home that day and went straight for the freezer. She struck gold. There was a half empty (or half full, depending on how you look at it…) pint of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream just sitting there, waiting—nay, begging—to be eaten. Mark, who was the only other person home, came out of his room and stretched and yawned. He acknowledged her with a nod.

"Yo," she said, displaying the pint. "Care to join me for a little ice cream anti-social?"

"Sure," he grunted, went for the cabinet, and pulled out two bowls.

"Who do you think is washing those?" she asked sarcastically.

"Right," he muttered, and put them back, grabbing just two spoons instead.

The sat down on the couch next to each other and dug in. Mimi practically had an ice cream-gasm while she ate. Abruptly, she stated that she needed pizza and made Mark order one.

Then she said (rather randomly), "Mark, do you think I'm going to be a horrible mother?"

"What? Of course not!" He cried. "Why would you think that?"

"I don't know. Just a thought, I guess."

"Well…" he murmured, "Don't think like that."

"Fine," she said dismissively. She didn't want to think about it anymore. "Change the subject," she ordered.

He thought for a moment. He decided to go with, "So…your friends at school…"

"What about them?"

"Are they…er…nice?"

"Uh…yeah. Sure." What the…?

"Excellent," he said, rubbing his neck nervously. "So…anyone you could maybe fix me up with…sort of?"

Mimi almost spat her ice cream out, she laughed so hard. "Little Markey felling lonely?" She prattled.

"No! I just thought…come on, I'm desperate! Aw, never mind."

She placed a hand on his shoulder. "Babe," she said, quite seriously, "Are you so desperate that you're willing to date an immature prissy college girl with highly naïve and pretentious world views that will come crashing down the minute she graduates?"

"Well…" he continued, "Just keep an eye out or something. This is getting intolerable."

"Yeah," she snorted. "It's been two years since you had hot monkey sex."

"MIMI!"

"What?" She said. "I'm a horny pregnant person. Please bear with me." He gave her a nuggie and she ducked down, unintentionally resting her hands on her stomach. All of a sudden she froze. "Oh my God…" she whispered, grasping her belly.

Mark stopped. "What?"

"Oh my God."

"Are you okay? Mimi!"

Just then, the front door slid open and Roger entered, looking beat. "Rog!" She shrieked. "Come here!"

"Mimi, what is it!" he cried, dropping his things on the ground and running to her side.

"Roger," she said. Her voice was strange and distant…and excited. "Give me your hand."

"Why…?"

"Just give me your hand." He produced it cautiously. She held it for a moment, and then placed it firmly on her baby bump. "Do you feel that?" She asked.

"Feel what? Mimi, are you okay?"

"Shhh." She snapped. "Feel there. Right there. Don't you feel that? That little thump, thump, thump…?"

He lowered his eyebrows thoughtfully. "I…I think so…" he said. "What is it?"

"Roger." She whispered. "That's the heartbeat!"

A smile slowly formed upon his lips. "That's our baby's heart?" She grinned and nodded. He bent down and kissed her fervently on the mouth. "Mark," he said when she finally pushed him away due to lack of oxygen, "You've got to feel this."

"Sorry," he said. "Mimi banned me from touching her there."

"Oh, just get over here," she relented. Roger stepped aside and Mimi helped Mark find the beat.

"Wow," said Mark. "That's weird."

"Good weird?" she asked. "Or bad weird?"

He beamed. "Wonderful weird." They all shlumped on the couch, Mimi in the middle, and continued felling the heartbeat. "Are you sure that's not your heart?"

"Dumb ass," she laughed. "Is my heart in my stomach?"

"Oh yeah…"

Mimi's ankles were swollen and she bent forward to remove her shoes for relief. She couldn't make it past her knees. "Damn it!" She hissed. "I'm so fucking huge."

Mark raised his eyebrows. "You were one of those kids who yelled at your Barbie Dolls for being too fat, weren't you," he said.

"Actually, I shaved their heads and flushed them down the toilet."

"Freak…"

"At least I'm not a born-again virgin."

"True."

The three of them looked up when they heard a few quick knocks on the door. "That's my pizza," Mimi told them. "I'll get it."

Roger extended his arm to help her up. "You know, I can still walk," she told him, refusing his help and getting up on her own.

"Barely…" he chuckled, watching her waddle to the door.

A gawky 16 year old boy with blond hair and braces handed her the pizza. "That'll be 5.50," he mumbled. She took the pizza and reached for her purse, when she froze. The pizza fell to the floor.

"Holy…" her voice trailed off in amazement.

"Mimi!" Roger cried. He ran to her.

"HOLY SHIT IN A BARREL!" She shouted.

"Meems…"

"AHHH!" She squealed in delight.

The delivery boy looked at the box on the ground. "Are you still going to tip me?" He said.

Mimi seized the delivery boy's hand rather violently and placed it on her tummy. "DO YOU FEEL THAT!" She screamed.

"Mimi," Roger coaxed, "What is it? The heartbeat again?"

"DO YOU FEEL THAT!" She screamed once more, ignoring him. "DO YOU!"

The boy stepped back. "Do you want the pizza or not?"

"Fuck the pizza!" She ran to Roger and forced both his hands on her bump. "Do you feel that! Do you? Do you feel it!" He waited. "That's a kick!" She cried. "It kicked!"

Maybe I won't be such a bad mom after all.

A/N: I suppose this was really just an intercalary/transition esque chapter. The next one will actually have a point, I swear. Sorry this took so long. A friend on mine passed and I haven't been able to write anything that isn't incredibly morbid. But I'll make it up to you very soon with a good chapter. PLEASE REVIEW.

Oh, and as of now, this story is dedicated with loveto Sean Apgar. See ya, Luv ya, Rest in peace.