Collins
"Check. Your move."
Mark sighs and rubs his forehead. He's never been terribly fond of chess, but Collins insisted. "Are you sure it's not checkmate?"
Collins smiles wanly. "Yeah, I'm sure. I'll let you know when it's mate."
"All right. You better." Mark returns his attention to the chessboard. He reaches out, his hand hovering over the board for a few still moments. He picks up a dark mahogany chess-piece and makes his move.
Collins nods, seemingly satisfied by whatever Mark's done. He coughs, and it makes his chest rattle. The coughing sounds like it hurts like a bitch. "Nice of you to indulge me in these games so often," he begins, waiting for Mark to cut him off.
Which Mark swiftly does. "Don't mention it."
"You always say that, and I always mention it anyways."
Mark glares, but there's no anger. It's just habit. "Your move."
Collins tilts his head, considering the chessboard in front of him. His deep brown eyes grow soft and unfocused as he thinks. They look huge and round in his pale face, surrounding by thin wasted cheeks. Mark takes the chance to lean back in his chair and look away from Collins' disease. He stretches his arms out a little. The chair's pretty uncomfortable. All of the furniture in the loft is uncomfortable.
"Still," Collins says finally, like there was never a pause, "it's nice. Roger never plays chess with me."
"Roger doesn't know how to play chess."
"Not that it matters. Roger's never here." Collins moves his queen. "Check."
Mark frowns, at both Collins and Collins' alabaster-white queen. He knows this was what Collins really wanted to talk about. He knows Collins misses Roger.
"Roger's having a hard time," Mark says carefully, while moving his king out of striking range.
"Mimi." Collins nods all-too-knowingly.
"Yeah."
Collins suddenly smiles, the brightest smile he's worn in a long time, and Mark feels his heart sink. The philosopher places his index finger carefully on the chessboard and nudges one of the pieces forward a few squares.
"Checkmate," whispers Mark.
"Yup."
Mark's throat goes dry.
"Now if I recall, we had a bet … "
Mark closes his eyes. He can't do this. He can't deal with this.
"Aw, come on, Mark. Don't be like this. You promised." Mark opens his eyes. Collins' hand is on his arm, and Collins is still smiling, slightly. "Please, Mark," he says, and it almost sounds like pleading. "I can't go to a hospital. I saw how it was with Angel. That can't be me."
The filmmaker stands up and stretches again, buying time, putting off the inevitable. He moves towards the kitchen, but he can't feel his own legs. It's like he's floating. Dream-like, almost peaceful. Then he reaches the kitchen, and he has to close his eyes again. No way can he do this.
"Hey, Mark?"
"Yes?"
A pause. Then, almost shyly: "I love you, man."
And Mark's back again: attention focused like a laser, eyes wide and awake. He can do this. He has to. "Love you too, Collins," he says lightly, while taking out the bottle of pills from behind a cereal box. After filling up a tall glass with tap water, Mark goes back to the living room where Collins waits on the couch. Silently Marks hands both bottle and glass to the other man.
Collins finds his rhythm quickly. Shake out the pills, toss back the glass, swallow. Repeat. It feels like forever to Mark, but within thirty seconds the entire bottle of pills is gone. Mark takes the bottle and glass back and place both on the coffee table, next to the chessboard.
Collins leans heavily against Mark. Mark wraps his arm around Collins' broad shoulders. "You're gonna stay the whole time, right?" Collins whispers in a soft, child-like voice. "Til I'm, uh, sleeping?"
"Of course."
Collins nods. He's happy. His body's gone and given up on him, he's broken and tired and old, but he's still happy. He snuggles into Mark's warm chest a little. "Take care of Roger, okay? He's, well, you know. He's Roger."
Despite himself, Mark smiles. "Okay." As Collins' breathing slows, as Collins loses consciousness, Mark hopes desperately that he's doing the right thing and that Angel will forgive him if he's not.
---
Author's Notes: I've changed the title of the last chapter to avoid confusion. Roger did indeed live through that chapter—the mention of both his and Mimi's names in the chapter title was simply to reflect that both appeared.