"I don't understand how they can live in this damn building," Gaby murmured. It was around eleven o'clock in the morning and Gaby was heading up the stairs to Mimi's apartment. She had just stepped on a particularly rickety stair and, in reaching for the hand rail, realized it wasn't there. Instead of steadying herself, she collapsed in a clumsy heap on the next stair up. She shook her head as she tried to pull herself to standing. "Stupid stairs."

She made her way to the second to top floor and rapped lightly on Mimi's door. "Mims, open up, it's me." She waited a moment but surprisingly got no answer. She knocked again. "Mimi! Come on, let me in. I worked late last night, not you. You got off early. You're always awake by now." Gaby pounded on the door. She was quickly getting impatient. She tried the handle; it was locked. That was no help. She pounded the door with her fist. "Mimi? Mimi! Get up, you lazy bum! Are you really going to leave your best friend out here?"

Furious with her situation, Gaby took a half step back from the door. After a quick eyeing of the hall, she realized…that she was getting upset with a door to no avail. "Well, duh, damn it," she murmured to herself and grasped the handle. She twisted it the opposite direction, jerked it down, and twisted it back the other way while pulling to the left. The lock clicked open and Gaby finally smiled. Maybe they're unreliable building was good for something.

She pushed the door open and searched Mimi's apartment quickly. When she saw no signs of her friend, she walked in. Her keys sat on the small counter and the clothes she'd worn to work the night before were slung over a chair; Mimi had obviously been there. There was, however, no sign of her being there now.

"Maybe she went up to Roger's," she mused out loud. Deciding that that made the most sense, she quickly relocked the door, shut it tightly and took the stairs to the highest floor. She took the flight very carefully, tapping each step gingerly with her foot before putting all her weight on it. It took her much longer to get upstairs.

She noticed, once she finally got to their floor, that the bohemians' door was open part of the way. Gaby wasn't one to barge into the houses of people she'd only briefly met. But, she figured, they were Mimi's closest friends and so, by default, they could be considered friends of hers.

She pushed open the heavy door as quietly as she could, peering in. Her head was between the frame and door itself and she searched the room. It was just as she remembered, open and dingy. She spotted obesely large metal tables and thought of Roger's ridiculous story. The door was now open just enough for Gaby to fit through and that she did, standing uncomfortably in the loft. She took a few steps in and was ready to call for her best friend when she caught sight of what she probably shouldn't have.

Roger and Mimi both lay on the couch, Mimi on top of him. The two were getting rather hot and heavy and did not look as though they should be disturbed. Gaby's lips turned up in an embarrassed smile and she turned to sneak out.

"I see Mimi is much too busy for me at the moment. I guess I show myself out," she chuckled. "Normal people close the door when they're about to have – oof!"

Her sentence was cut off by a certain filmmaker. In her rambling, she hadn't noticed Mark walking into the loft paying an equal amount of attention. She had been walking quickly and bounced off Mark. The thud of her head rang through the stairwell and loft.

- - - - - - -

"If you do that, you're going to drop her!"

"I'm not going to drop her, idiot!"

"If you hold her there, you will."

"Well, if we do it your way, we'll probably break her in half!"

"No, we won't!"

"Would you two boys just shut up!"

Gaby wasn't sure how long she had been lying on the floor. It felt like the group was trying to pick her up but was just succeeding in jostling her around and hollering at each other. Her head was throbbing horribly and she wasn't sure she would be able to move any time soon. Of course, the yelling wasn't helping anything.

"I agree with Mimi," Gaby murmured, feeling waves of pain shoot from that back of her head to her temples. "Oww."

"Gaby!" Mimi squealed, shoving Roger out of her face and leaning over her friend. "Gabs, are you okay?"

"That remains to be seen," she whispered. Before she closed her eyes again, she noticed Roger and Mimi kneeling beside her shoulders and Mark crouched near her knee. Her ankles were at the doorframe and her feet were sticking out of the room. Roger's hand still grasped Gaby's shoulder, although lightly, and Mark's hand was cupped around her ankle.

"Gaby, I am so sorry! I completely didn't see you! I wasn't paying any attention and you just kind of appeared. I didn't mean to. I'm so sorry!" Mark said, trying to look at Gaby but finding it hard. She looked so helpless and he felt so horrible. It was a bad combination.

Gaby opened her eyes again and looked at her upset friend. "Oh, Mark. Marky? It wasn't your fault. I didn't see you either. I was the one walking so fast. It's okay." She smiled weakly at him.

Mark felt his heart drop a mile and he tried to smile back. How is that the day he intends on asking Gaby out, he barrels her over and nearly kills her. "Okay," he squeaked out.

It was then that Gaby remembered the loud clank she heard before her own head hit the ground. "Mark! Your camera! Is it okay?" she worriedly asked.

He looked over at the camera with a slight grimace. Gaby hadn't noticed it lying pathetically by the wall. She had limited knowledge of most electronics but she had a feeling that the arm wasn't supposed to bend that way.

"It'll be…okay."

Gaby looked at the forced smile on his face and wondered if he was telling the truth. "What happened, exactly?" she questioned, knowing full well what the answer would be.

"I was holding the camera when I walked in. When I reached out to try to catch you," he shrugged, "it fell."

"I'm so sorry, Mark," Gaby said quietly.

"Don't worry about it. It'll be fine, I'm sure. As long as you're okay," he replied. "Hey Roger, do we have anything frozen for Gaby's head?" he asked, quickly changing the subject.

"Yeah, I think we have a bag of peas in the freezer," Roger said, jumping up. He stuck his head in the little box and starting pushing things around. "Man, there's ice on everything! I can't read what any of this is. Give me a minute, Gaby. I'll have something as quick as I can."

Gaby tried to laugh and turned her head back to facing the ceiling. Mimi sat back on her heels. "Now that we know you're okay, I was wondering something. What brings you to the loft?" Mimi asked.

"If you must know, I was looking for you! Your apartment was empty and I figured I'd look up here before I got worried." Gaby slowly turned her head to face Mimi. "I've got a question for you. Why'd you leave your keys upstairs?"

"My door wasn't locked."

"Yes, it was."

"No, it definitely wasn't."

"Mimi, I had to unlock it."

"Damn it! I hate that door! It must have locked on its own."

The two starting laughing. Mark, on the other hand, watched them with confused curiosity. Roger was still preoccupied with his head in the freezer. None of them noticed the figure that walked into the doorway.

He has a distinctive swagger that had started when he was only a teenager and had followed him to this day. He held a brown paper bag of groceries in one arm and the other was poised to knock on the already open door. A metal ring with keys jangling from it was held tightly between his teeth. He looked around at the obvious semi-chaos and started the chuckle until he saw who was on the floor. His mouth dropped open and the keys fell to the ground. The clatter of them on the floor brought everyone to attention.

"Gaby?"

At the sound of her name, she pulled herself up to her elbows quickly. The jerk caused a head rush and make the throbbing in her skull worse. After blinking away the block spots and pain, her eyes widened to saucer proportions.

"Professor Collins!"