Chapter Ten

Mark opened his eyes about two hours later. Everything was blurry, and there was a throbbing pain in his head...

"Hey! He's alive!"he heard Collins' voice shout. There was the sound of footsteps running across the loft. His focus was coming back, and someone handed him his glasses. He put them on, and could clearly see his friends all surrounding him: Roger, Collins, Mimi, Joanne and Maureen, all smiling at him.

"How are you feeling, Marky?"Maureen, who was kneeling beside the couch where Mark was laying, asked.

"Awful..."Mark muttered, reaching to feel his forehead. "What happened?"

"You must have slipped and bashed your head on the table or something,"Roger explained.

"Yeah, me and Joanne found you laying here with a concussion!"Maureen recalled, as if it were an exciting story.

"A concussion? Oh great..."Mark groaned.

"You'll be okay though,"Collins assured him.

"We were getting worried about you, when you didn't wake up,"Mimi said.

"How long was I out?"Mark asked.

"Four hours, at least,"Joanne replied.

"Jeeze...I really must have hit myself hard!"Mark said.

"Looks like it. You've practically got a baseball on your head there,"Roger commented, motioning to Mark's forehead. Mark groaned as he felt the huge bump that had formed.

"Perfect..."he grumbled.

"We put some ice on your head to bring the swelling down...but I guess it didn't work," Maureen admitted.

"Who did? All of you?"Mark asked.

"Me and Joanne. We took care of you until Roger and Mimi came back, and then Collins' came over later,"Maureen explained, grinning over at Joanne.

"Wait, so are you guys...?"Mark asked, looking at Maureen and Joanne. They both turned back to Mark.

"Friends again? Yeah, we are,"Joanne finished.

"You're not back together?"Mark asked.

"No..."There was a long pause.

"Um...Mimi! Collins! Look at the moon!"Roger cried suddenly, grabbing his friend's arms and pulling them out onto the fire escape, to get them out of the room.

"But I wanna see Maureen tell Mark-"

"Mimi!"

"Well, I've gotta get home too. There's a case I'm gonna drop, and I have to let my client know,"Joanne said, heading for the door. Maureen stood up.

"Why are you letting it go? You don't want to fight it?"she asked. Joanne turned back, looking Maureen straight in the eyes.

"It's not that I don't want to fight it. There are some cases you just know you can't fight, because you couldn't win, no matter how much you might try. This is one of those cases,"she said. Maureen nodded, and Mark got the impression that their discussion was not really about one of Joanne's cases...

"Good luck you two,"Joanne said. And she gave them a wave, walking out the door.

"Good luck?"Mark repeated curiously. "I wonder what she meant by that."Maureen hesitated.

"Um, Mark...there's something I need to talk to you about,"she finally said. Mark looked at her.

"Yeah?"he asked. Maureen took a deep breath.

"When you were hurt, I was scared for you. Really scared. I couldn't pull myself away from you, I felt this...this need to take care of you. And then, you're gonna hate me for this, but that time I was over here, I saw some of your old pictures from when we were dating. And I looked really good! And at first I thought it was my hair, or my clothes, or my makeup...but you know what it really was? I was truly happy in those pictures. Something I never was when I was with Joanne! You make me happy, Mark. Whenever I'm with you, whenever we hang out. I can be myself, I feel comfortable and safe. You never expect any more from me, you accept me, you appreciate me! Mark Cohen...I love you."Mark was gaping at Maureen in utter shock.

"...I must still be in a concussion,"he said.

"Look, it's okay if you don't feel the same. I just thought you should know that I'm in love with you. It's always helpful to know those kinds of things,"Maureen said jokingly. She squeezed his hand for a second, smiling, then let go. But as she was standing up, she felt Mark grab her hand.

"You're right. It is always helpful to know those things,"he said. "I love you too, Maureen. I mean, I have loved you. Since I first met you. Since we broke up...I never stopped loving you. I just never knew how to tell you."Maureen kneeled down again, smiling wider than ever.

"I guess I never stopped loving you either,"she said, laughing a little. Mark grinned.

"So...what does this mean now?"he asked.

"Well, I think this is the part where the guy asks the girl to be with him and love him forever, no matter what," Maureen said. She grinned. "But I'm not gonna let the guy have all the fun. Mark...will you be with me and love me forever, no matter what?"Mark smiled.

"Do you really have to ask?"The two burst out laughing, and Maureen hugged Mark as tight as she could without hurting him any more. Roger, Collins and Mimi all came running back in from the fire escape.

"Did she do it? Oh, she did it!"Mimi squealed.

"This has got to be one of the weirdest situations ever..."Roger sighed. Collins let out one of his big hearty laughs.

"Aw man, I love you guys!"he cried. Maureen and Mark suddenly exchanged glances. 'The scrapbook?' Maureen mouthed. Mark nodded. Maureen stood up.

"Collins, Mark and I have something for you,"she said, running over to Mark's bed, and digging through some papers and old scripts underneath.

"Uh oh...y'all didn't write me a movie or something, did ya?"Collins asked, still laughing a little.

"Not exactly..."Maureen said, pulling out the scrapbook and bringing it over to Collins. Roger and Mimi leaned over his shoulders to see what it was. Collins took it...

On the front cover was a mini-collage of Angel, dressed up, not dressed up, dancing around, playing her drums. In huge, sparkling letters on top it read "TODAY 4 U: The Life of Angel Dumont-Schunard" Collins opened it, flipping through the pages, which were all decorated. There were all sorts of pictures of Angel, doing just about everything. Each page was filled with little quotes and anecdotes about Angel, as well as pictures that spoke a thousand words on their own. Collins slowly flipped through, his eyes welling up more and more with each page, his smile widening. Maureen kneeled next to Mark, taking his hand, as they smile at each other. Mimi hugged Roger as the two of them looked over Collins' shoulder at the scrapbook.

Tears were streaming down Collins' cheeks as he reached the last page, where there was one picture of Angel, without his makeup, just smiling off into the distance. Below it read: Angel Dumont-Schunard: July 14th 1964-October 27th 1990 "You may be up above us now, but you're still spreading love among friends down here."

Collins smiled over at Maureen and Mark, tears running onto his shirt.

"Wow...you guys did this for me?"he asked, smiling gratefully.

"Yeah. This was kind of the project that brought us back together,"Mark explained.

"It's true then,"Mimi said suddenly.

"What is?"Maureen asked.

"Even though Angel's not here, she's still helping us spread our love,"Mimi commented, looking at Mark and Maureen. Collins slowly closed the book, holing it close to his heart.

"Thank you guys...thank you so much. You have no idea how much this means to me,"he said. Maureen ran over and hugged him tightly.

"You deserve it Collins. You have no idea what you mean to us,"she replied. Mark managed to sit up, his head still throbbing with pain. He walked over to where Maureen and Collins were hugging, and joined in. Mimi looked up at Roger, and the two of them also joined the hug. Pretty soon they were all in a big, hugging mixture of laughing and crying, the scrapbook in the middle of the group.

And somehow, it felt that that night, Angel Dumont-Schunard was there in that room with them, helping them to spread their love, and be able to set their feelings free. Which is exactly what Mark Cohen and Maureen Johnson found themselves able to do after two years.

The next morning, Maureen made Mark change the title of his documentary. It was no longer 'A Day in the Life of a Diva'. It was now 'The Lifetime of a Diva, and the Filmmaker She Spends It With' And this documentary would not come to end, 'til death do them part'.

The End

Though Mark and Maureen's relationship might not come to an end...this story must. I'm glad you all enjoyed it, I wish it could have gone on longer, but this was basically the moment I was building up to. Thanks for reading! M&M FOREVER:-)