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(A/N: Mimi/Marq will now be referred to as Maria except in dialogue.)

Christmas morning came too quickly for Maria. She had barely gotten any sleep and what little she did was devoted to her rock- star. She couldn't believe she was having dirty Roger dreams. She was a mother, she wasn't supposed to have those dreams. She seemed to ignore the fact that she was only twenty three, and it had been three years since she was last pleasured. Well, she hopes Roger pleasured her when he impregnated her with his seed. She was probably too high at the time to remember.

"Are you thinking about sex? You have the sex look on your face. Or is that the 'I'm doing math in my head because I'm too lazy to get up and find the calculator' face?" Angela teased. Maria threw her tea bag at the twenty year old.

"Late night, eh?" When Maria gave her a confused face she elaborated. "Tea. You only drink tea when you get very little sleep. And I guess the fact that you are up before the twins is a dead give away."

"Should I be afraid that you know me so well?" Maria laughed. She shook her head ignoring the questions all together. Soon she went back to staring at her tea, which was cool enough to drink but she couldn't quite make herself drink it.

"Merry Christmas Marq!" Angela cheered as she sat down with a glass of orange juice and a bear claw.

"Oh yeah. You too!" Maria put on a fake smile that spread from cheek to cheek. Angela rolled her eyes.

"Such the actress." Angela whispered under her breath, purposely loud enough for Maria to hear her, though.

"Oh shut up. I'm tired and cranky."

"And you never answered my questions, I let it go before…"

"Because you live in my house and know that I can kick your ass out at any time I want." Maria interrupted her young friend with a smirk. They both knew she wouldn't though. Nobody likes to live alone. Nobody likes to live alone with two terrible toddlers.

Maria looked back down into her cup of tea. She still didn't feel like drinking it. She didn't feel like eating. And, today, she didn't feel like living. She knew that if she died her niños would be well taken care of by either Angela, her sister Lucy, or her father. Maybe even Roger would take care of her kids. His kids, she corrected herself. Their kids, she corrected herself again.

Maria knew that just giving up went against all her ideals. She knew it would be cruel to leave her children motherless. But she also knew that if she was going to die she should do so when they wouldn't remember her and her death. However, she contradicted her own thoughts, it wouldn't be fair for her children to never know their parents. Maria sighed, there was no good time to die.

"What are you thinking about?" Angela asked, hoping she'd get more than an empty threat.

"Death. Dying. Specifically how there is no good time for me to just die, not with kids who will grow up and resent me or not remember me or miss me." Maria answered. It was always awkward for her to talk about dying, especially with Angela.

"Stop it, okay. Can you leave the death talk for another day? Please?"

"Why? I mean it's going to happen at some point, might as well be prepared."

"Why? Because I don't want to talk about my friend, my best fucking friend dying on Christmas. It's not exactly a happy thought, you know." Angela wanted so bad to smack her friend, to strangle her or something.

"I know, I'm sorry. But I don't want it to come as a shock when it finally happens. I want you to be prepared. Know the numbers to call and stuff."

"Well we'll get to that when we get to it." Angela was acting so nonchalant about her death it angered her. Maria stood up to make her point.

"You don't get it do you? I could drop dead at any point. There will be no fucking warning." Angela stood up too.

"Yeah, well maybe if you stopped acting like you were fine all the time I wouldn't be surprised when you…" Angela sucked in her tears. She hoped Maria didn't notice.

"You want me to tell you stuff like I was so tired I couldn't fall asleep? Or how about I spent last night vomiting? You want to hear that I can't eat because I know I'll throw it up anyway? Is that what you want? The truth?" Maria didn't yell, she barely spoke above a whisper. She noticed how her friend was about to break down into tears. She wanted to hug Angela, she really did. She wanted to comfort her and lie to her telling her everything would be alright. What she really wanted to do was mother Angela.

"Stop it, okay. Stop it! You win. You fucking win, alright?" Angela wiped her tears away and backed away from the table. She was going to take a shower and then leave for her parent's house.

Maria sat back down at the table. She had the urge to throw her tea cup at the wall. But she didn't. She liked to think she was in much more control of her emotions than she used to be. She knew she was probably lying to herself, but it didn't matter. She stood up again and put the dishes in the sink. She'd wash them up later.

She hobbled into her living room (She didn't know where her crutches were) and plopped down on her couch. It was a used couch. It was a hideous shade of purple and had stains all over it. The previous owner had a cat so it was scratched up all over the sides and the back. And she could swear she still found cat hair inside that thing.

She didn't know how long she spent sitting on the couch staring off into space. But when she started to regain her thought process Angela was standing in front of her mockingly waving her hand in front of Maria's face. Maria glared at her young friend as she smacked the hand away.

"What?" Maria wasn't sure if they were still arguing so she kept her tone inquisitive.

"I'm heading to my folks for Christmas. Are you going to be okay today?" Angela's tone was distant so Maria could safely assume their argument was not forgotten.

"I'll be fine. Do you want to say goodbye to the twins?" Maria kept her tone even and void of emotions. She knew it was helping the situation, but she didn't know what else to do. She had always tried to be honest.

"Yeah." Angela wasn't sure if she would be coming back to Maria's that night, or ever. She didn't think she could take watch a friend die from AIDS. She had listened intently whenever Maria told her stories about Angel. She had listened because she wanted to be prepared when Maria died. Angela just wasn't too sure if she could emotionally handle her best friend's passing.

"I'll wake them up. Give me a second." Angela watched as Maria struggled to stand up, she knew it wasn't the sprained ankle that made Maria wince. She stared at Maria's retreating back and when her hair moved to one side she could see the lesions. Angela kicked herself inwardly. It wasn't as if Maria was hiding her illness, it was just that she was too scared to take notice of it.

But still, Angela didn't know if she wanted to keep faking ignorance or accept Maria's screaming truth. Death was inevitable, sure, but she had never watched someone die. She didn't think she was strong enough. So she was running. Maybe. She didn't know yet.

"Angel"

"Angie" Two tired little voices cried out. She could hear the pitter patter of their running little feet and the soft slow steps of her friend and mentor.

"Angie" the little girl jumped up and down waiting for Angela to pick her up. The little boy stayed back a few steps waiting his turn. Angela quickly picked up the little girl and twirled her around in a fast circle. The girl giggled before demanding to be put down and rushing over to her mother.

"Come here Dominic." The little boy jumped into her outstretched arms and Angela spun him around too. Once the boy was down, he began coughing and Angela felt bad. Her eyes met Maria's panicked eyes. She knew the drill.

Angela ran over to Dinah, the little girl, and rushed her to the kitchen for juice. Maria was at Dominic's side almost instantly. She had spent so much time worrying about her own death she hadn't considered the possibility of her child dying before her. She patted Dominic's back until the coughing subsided. She picked him and whispered a Spanish lullaby in her ear while carrying him to the bathroom. She handed him a chewable 'vitamin' and a sippy cup full of water. If the coughing persisted she would give him prescription cough syrup and if that didn't work she'd spend her Christmas in a hospital. It wouldn't be her first. Luckily enough, Dominic stopped coughing.

When she opened the bathroom door Dominic was running out towards the kitchen. He was hungry, he had told his mother moments before. Maria followed quickly at his side just incase any other symptoms emerged. Upon entering the kitchen she helped Angela fasten Dominic in his high chair. She then walked over to her daughter and kissed her on the head.

"Te amo." She whispered to her daughter. She quickly looked at both children and upon noticing that they were both immersed in their cheerios she followed Angela into the kitchen.

"You don't have to do that." Maria said upon noticing Angela cleaning her kitchen.

"In fact you don't have to do anything." She continued.

"I want to. You need help. I'm here to help." Angela didn't look up to meet Maria's eyes.

"Angela. I think I have been too selfish to realize this, but…" Maria stopped. She had to get the wording just right, she didn't need to mess things up anymore than they are.

"Marq I do these things because I want to help you out. You helped me out, I'm just repaying you." Angela knew that was going to miss her bus if she didn't leave soon, but she couldn't make herself move.

"I've never expected you to repay me. I guess that when you did, I got used to it. I don't know if I've ever said thank you, but well, Thank you Ang."

"Marq, I uh… You're welcome. But it's not just the giving me a place to stay, it's everything. It's telling me the future, showing me the future. You've always been honest with me and I thank you for that. I don't think…"

"Mama"

"Mama!" The twins cried out in synch. Maria gave Angela a sympathetic look before walking over to her babies.

"I'm going to uh, head out now. Merry Christmas." Angela walked over to Maria and hugged her. She then kissed each of the kids on the head.

"When are you coming back?" Maria asked over the screaming cheerio fight.

"I don't know. I don't know if I will." It didn't take long for Maria to get up and pulled her friend into a deep hug.

"I wish there was something I could say to change your mind. I'll miss you so much. God. I love you. You know I've always considered you my second Angel. Oh man, I will you miss you." Maria tried to stop herself from crying but as tears rolled down her face she realized she failed. She sniffled and broke the hug to wipe away her tears. She was going to be okay. She was going to be okay. She was going to be okay. And maybe, if she kept telling herself that she won't cry herself to sleep.

Angela, though incredibly touched to be considered a friend like Angel, once she and Maria parted, walked out of the house. It wasn't until she got to the bus stop that she let herself cry.

Maria tried her best to not cry. But, like Angela, it was hard to come to terms with losing a friend. Maria feared she just lost a very dear friend of hers. She wiped away any tears that escaped and focused on her twins, her sole reason for living.

"Babies, why do you have to be so sloppy?" She rhetorically asked. The twins suddenly became very quiet, Maria couldn't help but look at them suspiciously. When nothing happened she decided to enjoy the sudden quietness and continue to clean up the kitchen.

And then a cheerio hit her forehead.

The giggles of her daughter gave no clue as to which twin was the guilty one.

"Dinah! That was not very nice." Maria tried to contain her laughter. She tried to keep a straight face. But the situation was hilarious. A young mother, tired and fragile looking, cleaning up after her twins' cereal fight on Christmas day when all of a sudden it's becomes deathly quiet. So quiet that not even a mouse was stirring. The mother inspects the children, presumably to see if they were naughty or nice, and upon finding no evidence of foul play accepts the eerie silence as a blessing and continues her cleaning when all of a sudden a cheerio is thrown at her.

"You are more like your father than you'll ever know." Maria muttered as she picked up the cheerio and threw it back at Dinah.

"If you two want to fight then I should tell you. I have an endless supply of ammo and it looks like you're running low." Dominic threw a handful of cheerios her way, followed by a few more from Dinah. Maria did the only thing she knew how to do, she fought back.

"Guess I'll clean this up later." She announced to no one in particular.

Ten minutes or so later Maria and the twins were sitting around the Christmas tree opening presents. Dinah, such a mama's girl, was sitting in her mothers lap while Dominic, sitting a few feet away from the Marquez women, was already playing with a toy train. The phone rang and Maria let it go to the answering machine. She wasn't about to interrupt her family bonding session for whoever thought they were important enough to call.

"You've reached 555-0414, we don't like you. Don't call back." Maria's voice antagonized the caller.

"leave a message and we'll get back to you. Like that dumbass, now were going have to re-recor." Angela's voice was heard in the background before the beep cut her off. They never did get around to re-recording.

"Mimi, it's Roger. I just wanted to say Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas!" A chorus of voices sang in the background. Maria could only assume they were the voices of Mark, Maureen, Joanne and Collins.

"Um. If I don't hear from you before, but um,"

"It's so cute, Rock god Roger doesn't know what to say." Maureen's voice could easily be heard in the background. Maria couldn't help but laugh at this.

"Shut up, Maureen. Um Anyway we're all getting together at the Life for"

"Wine and Beer!" Everyone chorused.

"and you're invited of course." It was silent for a second.

"When?" Maria found herself asking out loud. Dinah looked up at her and laughed. Dominic threw a discarded ribbon at her.

"Tell her when." Joanne's voice ordered Roger.

"Oh right, tomorrow night at ten. You know to celebrate when we all met. I'm going to go now, Merry Christmas." Roger hung up the phone. Maria shook her head in amazement. It was like time stood still. It was like Roger never went to Santa Fe, she never ran away on a drug binge, and of course Angel never died.

The door to Maria's house opened. Maria looked over at the intruder, silently hoping it was Angela.

"Hey sweetheart." Her dad greeted her. He placed down a bag full of presents and food and gathered up his grandchildren in his arms.

"Let Mommy take a shower. Grandpa's got some candy."

"Is that what you say to all the little kids in the park?" Maria's sister Lucy asked. Everyone laughed, even the twins who laughed because everyone else laughed.

"Go on, little sister. We got them." Lucy grabbed the food bag and walked into the kitchen.

"Maria! Get back here and clean the kitchen.!" Lucy demanded.

"Sorry. I smell." Maria closed the door to her room and hoped into the shower. Sure she took a bath last night, but nobody needed to know that.

"Hey. There's my crutches!"