Chapter 2

Roger and Mark went off to the kitchen and Collins and Angel said their goodbyes, leaving Maureen, Danni, and Lizette in the sitting room. The diva smiled at the girls. "Hey there cuties. Why don't you tell me about yourselves?"

Danni lowered her eyes quickly while Lizette bounced out of her chair to sit with Maureen. Now that the moment had passed, she wasn't crying anymore. "I like pink." She said. "I like pink and pizza. My Daddy brings me pizza sometimes, but never anything pink. Do you know why that is?"

Maureen grinned. "Roger hates the color pink. You'll find that out soon enough. Danni, why don't you tell me something?"

The girl shrugged. "I love to read." She said simply.

Maureen rolled her eyes. "Come on there has to be more than that. What's your favorite color? Do you have a boyfriend? What's his favorite color?"

Danni's nose flared like Roger's did sometimes when he was annoyed. "Lizzie." She said to her sister. "Go tell Dad you need your vitamin."

"But I don't wanna take it." The little girl complained.

"You have to Lizette, we've been over this. Tell Dad that the bottle is in the pink bag he brought from our house." When her little sister still hesitated Danni stood up. "Fine I'll go with you." She grabbed the girl by the hand and towed her off to Roger's room, where he had gone to take his AZT.

Mark looked up when the girls entered. "Hey," he said uncertainly. "Um, do you need something?"

Danni ignored him and pierced her father with a look. Roger just stared back until he suddenly remembered. "Fuck!" he exclaimed. "I mean darn. I forgot. Come here Lizzie. Thanks Danni."

"No problem." The teenager said dryly. She leaned against the wall, watching as her father found the pink bag and fumbled around in it until he came up with a small bottle of pills. Mark peered over Roger's shoulder to read the label.

He gasped when he read it. "Oh no."

Roger nodded glumly and handed his younger daughter a pill and the remains of his glass of water. She looked at it distastefully and then swallowed it. "Danni, can you take Liz to the bathroom please? It's the second door on the right."

Without replying, Danielle took her sister's hand and they left the room. Mark looked at Roger with a mixture of expectancy and sadness. "Yeah, she has HIV." The musician explained. "I didn't know for the longest time. Elizabeth didn't want to make me feel bad or responsible for it, so she hid it from me. I probably still wouldn't know if it weren't for Danni. She was getting fed up with my apparent disinterest in the subject; her words not mine, and finally told me everything."

"So what are you going to do now that it's up to you to raise her?" Mark wanted to know.

Roger shrugged. "Well I've got nearly thirteen years of dealing with my own problem. I think I can handle it. And if I can't, then I'm sure Danni will make sure I figure out how."

"Yeah, she does seem a little intense." Mark commented with a smile. "A lot like you."

"And that is what worries me. She's way too young to be so much like me."

"It'll be fine. She just needs to open up some, and living here with us and being constantly around Maureen, Collins, and Angel, she's bound to."

"I guess." Roger replied. "But it might take a lot. I mean the kid lost her mother and her aunt and now she's stuck with me and her six year old sister. That can not be an easy life for a sixteen year old to live."

"Oh like we had it so good when we were sixteen." Mark retorted. "Don't worry, Danni'll be fine Rog. You might not know it but you have grown up and I think you'll be a good father to those girls."

Roger rolled his eyes. "Okay Mr. Sunshine. That's enough compliments for one day. Keep this up and people will start to think that you love me or something."

"And we can't have that of course." Mark answered.

Suddenly there was a shout from the main room. "Daddy, I'm hungry!"

"And we begin." said Roger as he headed into the other room.

With Maureen's help the bohos got something remotely edible on the table and they all sat down to eat. The diva tried to engage Danielle in conversation only to get one or two word answers from her the whole time. It was after seven when the teenager scowled at Roger and snapped, "Liz should be in bed."

"Oh but Danni, it's not late and I wanna talk to the nice people!" Lizette complained.

"Bed, Lizzie." Danielle repeated and gave her father a look that was not to be argued with.

"Um, yeah. So I'll show you two where you're sleeping." Roger acquiesced. The girls followed him to Collins' old room and shut the door. As soon as it swung shut Maureen jumped up and plopped into Mark's lap.

"What the fuck is up with those kids?" she asked loudly.

"Maureen please. Not so loud. This place isn't exactly soundproof." Mark returned.

"Well I'm sorry, but they are just creepy. The little one is okay, but she lets herself be ordered around way too much."

Mark rolled his eyes. "She's six Maureen."

"And the older one is so weird. She reminds me of someone, but I can't put my finger on it."

"Roger," Mark supplied. "She reminds you of Roger. That's how he used to be back when April died. The one words answers and reclusive snappishness. That's all Roger."

"Jesus fucking Christ!" Maureen exclaimed. "You're right. She's like a sixteen year old angst ridden girl version of Roger Davis. Marky we have to do something. We can't let her stay like this, it's too depressing."

"What do you want me to do about it?" Mark demanded. "I know nothing about teenage girls."

"That is a very good point," Maureen agreed thoughtfully. "I guess it's up to me and Angel then. We can take her shopping and over to the Life. Maybe we'll even find a nice young man or woman for her to date."

Mark could smell the whiff of a scheme and got a little worried. "Look, just make sure you run all this by Roger before you get too carried away. He might not appreciate you corrupting his daughter."

Maureen waved his comment away. "He'll be thrilled. Roger trusts me Marky, you should too."

"The fuck he does." Mark muttered, but it was too late. Maureen was already lost in the thrall of planning.

She jumped up, grabbed her purse and headed for the door. "I'll see you later Marky!" she yelled and was gone.

Mark went to the phone and dialed Collins and Angel's number. Angel picked up on the third ring. "Hello House of Fabulousness, this is Angel." She said.

"Hey Ang. It's Mark." The filmmaker replied. "I need to talk to you for a sec."

"Sure thing Marky honey. What's going on?"

"Maureen is hatching some elaborate plan to make Roger's daughter Danielle a better person. You know how out of control Maureen can get, and she's not planning on running anything by Roger. All I'm asking is that you try your hardest to restrain her from doing anything too outlandish."

"Yeah, I think that might be best." Angel said. "I'll do what I can."

Mark sighed in relief. "Thanks Angel."