Chapter 8

Danni wasn't even watching where she was going until she nearly slammed into a solid male body.

"Hey what's the rush?" he asked.

Danni looked up and into the blue eyes of Tobias. She sighed in relief and sagged against his body, finally allowing herself to cry. "Tobias what am I going to do?" she sobbed.

"Danni what's wrong?" the young man wanted to know. "Come sit with me." He suggested. Tobias led Danielle to the Life Café and sat her down at a table, he went behind the bar and got her a soda which he slid to her and the slid himself into the seat across from hers. "You wanna talk?" he prompted.

Danni took a shuddering breath. "Do you know why I'm here, in the city? Why I came to live with my dad?" Tobias shook his head. "Because my mother is dead." Danielle told him. She began to explain about Roger, April and their disease and then about her aunt and sister. "Lizette's mother, my aunt, was killed in the attacks three months ago so that's why she came here with me. She's HIV positive just like our father and now she's really sick."

"Is she going to be okay?" Tobias inquired.

"I don't know." The girl replied. "I mean my dad's made it this far, but…" she began to cry again.

Tobias just held her hand and let her cry. Fifteen minutes later, she was all cried out. She laid her head on the cool surface of the table. Seeing his friend so emotionally exhausted spurred Tobias to action.

"Does Mark or Roger know where you are?" he asked.

Danni shook her head. "He thinks I'm with Collins." She whispered.

"You should be with your family right now." Tobias told her. "Come on, I'll walk you home." He pulled her to her feet and out the door. "So I guess our date's going to be postponed, huh?"

"I'm sorry." Danielle murmured.

"No worries." The boy responded. "You'll be here and we'll reschedule.

They walked the rest of the way to the loft in silence. Tobias knocked on the door to the bohemians' home and Mark opened it a few seconds later. He raised his eyebrows at the two teenagers. "Hey Tobias," he greeted. "Is Danni okay?"

"Yeah, she's just pretty spent right now. I saw her walking alone and I took her to the Life to talk a little while ago. I thought she should be here with you guys right now, so I walked her home."

"Thank you." Mark said. Danni let go of Tobias and walked into the loft. The first thing she saw was Roger, sitting against a wall with his head in his hands. Mark closed the door. "He's been like that since Liz went to sleep." He said softly.

The teenager walked over, sat beside her father and promptly burst into tears. The sound of his oldest child sobbing made Roger look up. Danni looked so small and broken as she wept beside him that he knew he couldn't waste time feeling sorry for himself or falling apart. He took the girl into his arms and let her cry against him.

"Dad." She gasped out. "Is Lizzie…" she tried again. "Is Lizzie…going to die?"

Roger looked over the girl's head at Mark who was watching them with a remorseful look on his face. The filmmaker nodded his head indicating that Roger should tell his daughter what they had learned from the doctor they'd called. "It…doesn't look good Danielle." He said. "She's too sick, too soon. And with this weather..." Roger glanced outside at the flurries of snow that had just begun to fall. "I just don't know."

"I don't want her to die Daddy." Danni cried. Roger's heart wrenched for the girl. She was about to lose one more family member. He would be all she had left, and there was no telling how long he had before he went to be with Mimi, April, and Elizabeth. "I don't want to be alone."

"I know, I know." Roger soothed. "I hate being alone too. That's why I've surrounded myself with so many wonderful people. They won't let you be alone."

"Promise me something Daddy." Danielle said.

"Anything." Roger replied. He loved how she was addressing him as Daddy.

"Promise that you won't leave me until I can handle it." The musician didn't know how to respond to that. He glanced at Mark again who gave his friend a look that said 'what else can you do?'

"I promise that I'll do all I can not to leave you until you can handle it." Roger said finally. That seemed to satisfy the girl because she sniffed and laid her head against her father's shoulder. Roger met Mark's eyes with his own. "That goes for you too. Not until you can handle it"

The afternoon quickly turned into evening, then to night and Lizette had still not woken up. Roger was napping in his room and Danni was with him. Mark called the rest of the gang and Kirsten, who had left to go to work, over. Now they were all eating take out that Collins and Angel had brought and no one was talking.

"It's not fair." Maureen whispered. She was the first one to speak in nearly an hour. "Why should she have to die?"

Joanne looked at her lover in surprise. "She's not dead yet Honeybear. She could pull through."

"Most kids born with HIV don't make it past the age of ten." Collins murmured. "She might still have four good years ahead of her. Maybe more, doctors are wrong all the time. Look at how long Roger, Angel, and I have been hanging in there."

"It's not the same." Maureen shouted. "You and Angel and Roger have all had time to live. You have friends, you have love, and you have your own fucking lives! Lizette doesn't have any of that! And she may never get the chance." The diva broke out into sobs and Joanne pulled her closer. Maureen and Lizette had formed a special bond in the months that they'd known each other. They were both loud and manic, although in six-year-old Liz it was seen as endearing. It was just annoying in Maureen.

Kirsten sighed and looked at her watch. It was nearly half past ten. In about thirty minutes Lizette would have been out for twelve hours. The young woman looked at Mark. "Baby I think we need to take her to the hospital. If she won't wake up…" she trailed off, knowing that Mark and his friends knew the implications better than she did.

The filmmaker sighed. "Yeah, I know. We'll have to wake up Roger."

"Do you want to give it another half hour?" Kirsten asked.

Mark shook his head. "We can't afford to wait any longer." He stared at the wall for a minute. "Kir?" he asked. "I-I can't. Could you?"

Kirsten nodded and walked over to Roger's door. She knocked timidly and then harder. There was no answer so she cautiously pushed the door open. Roger was sound asleep, sprawled across his bed. Danni was tucked in beside him with her head on his chest. The sight of the two of them, not fighting almost made the young woman cry. She took a deep breath and moved over to the bed.

"Roger?" she whispered and shook his shoulder. "Roger?"

The musician opened his green eyes slowly. "Kir?" he mumbled. "What's going on?"

"Roger, honey I think we need to take Lizette to the hospital. It's been nearly twelve hours and she hasn't woken up yet. We're all really worried."

Roger slid Danielle carefully off of him and then sat up. He didn't say anything for a while, just looked at his older girl, her pale face made paler by the moonlight that was falling into the room through the window. "Okay." He said almost inaudibly. "Can you and Maureen or whoever's here get her ready. I- I'm going to need to talk to Danni."

Kirsten nodded. "Yeah hon. Anything. She kissed him on the cheek and left the room, closing the door behind her quietly."

Roger stared down at Danni once more and shook her awake. "Dad?" she winced at the moonlight in her face. "Was I asleep?"

"Yeah Danni. We both were." Roger took a breath. "Um look, we-we have to take your sister to the hospital. She's been out cold for about twelve hours and that's not good." He waited, expecting the girl to lash out at him for neglecting to take proper care of Lizette. Instead she just sighed and nodded in defeat.

"Okay." She whispered.

Roger nodded. "I'm going to get ready to go." He said. "You should… go be with your sister before-" he couldn't finish so he just hugged the girl one last time and left the room.

A/N: So I'm writing this and I'm wondering, "Hmm, is anyone even still reading this? I got like one review for chapter 6 and nothing for chapter 7. Come on you guys I need feedback. PLEASE! It's bad enough that I'm not going to be able to see Adam Pascal in January. Do you want to deprive me of my much-needed reviews as well? I need them to keep me going during the stress of finals week.