Chapter Nine

Roger heard laughing and movement in Mark's room. He wasn't stupid. He knew what was going on in there. Some other noises happened, one of which was a solid thump against the wall. You could NOT pretend that something interesting wasn't going on in the room next door.
He knew he shouldn't let this get to him. Mark was his best friend, and a lot of what they had said to him started to sink in. They wouldn't do that to him, would they? But Roger was never one for rational thought. He opened his door and found that, to add insult to injury, they had left their clothes everywhere. Mark's clothes and his scarf were tossed so carelessly over his guitar. He picked it up. Another laugh made his hands clench over the scarf. That bastard. That. Little. Bastard. Right in front of him?
We'll see if this was going to stick. He went over and tried Mark's door. Mark and Mimi apparently didn't hear him. With a sudden rush of anger, Roger kicked the door.
"SHIT!" Mark said, grabbing a blanket and throwing over himself. It wasn't Mimi that was next to him.

"Oh fuck! Roger!" Maureen grabbed from Mark's sheets, nearly falling off the bed in her haste. "What the hell!"
"HOW COULD YOU, MARK?" Roger spat before he took in the situation. Mimi wasn't there. He looked at Maureen before he was startled and amazed. So Mark WAS a cheater! "HOW COULD YOU!" he spat again.
If it was any other situation, Mark would have laughed. He would have. Because this was funny. But given everything...
"Roger...do you mind?" he asked. He was kind of naked at the moment. And so was Maureen.
"Oh, I mind," Roger said. He seemed to betrying to formulate a big enough insult. He eventually turned heels and stalked out of the room. Mark looked at Maureen.
"Well," he said. "That was definitely interesting." He slipped over to his dresser and pulled out a pair of joggers to slip on. At least now he was covered. He gave Maureen a shirt. "I really would rather you stayed naked," he said, kissing her. "But we have to deal with this right now."

Maureen kissed him back and pulled the shirt over her head. "We have plenty of time for that later." And despite the circumstances, Maureen couldn't help but think about how good it had felt to be with Mark again. Even after being so rudely interrupted.

Mark gave her a grin. "Hey, that was better than I remembered it," he said. "C'mon...lessee if we can fix what's going on," He smiled at her.
"You're right. There IS always later." He held out his hand for her.

Maureen grinned back at him and took his hand. Time to talk to Roger. Maureen had the distinct feeling this wasn't going to go very well. They walked into the next room.

However, Roger wasn't there...
It was then that they heard the loft door slam.
Roger had left the building again.
He couldn't stick around. Not with what he had just seen. His hands were tightly clenched as he made his way down the stairs and out to the street below.
Once outside however, he stopped and looked around. Where had he planned on going? He didn't want to walk to Benny's. The thought of meeting Alison made him cringe and he was not in the mood for a run in with her.
Normally, he might have gone to Collins' place...but Collins was in Santa Fe...

Mimi heard a door slam on the floor above her and knew exactly who it was. What had happened, she didn't know, and she knew this probably wasn't the greatest idea, but this needed to be resolved sooner rather than later. Mimi pried herself from the couch and pulled her sweater around her. She inched her way to the door and once out, slowly went down the stairs. She saw Roger storm out the front door and she quickened her pace as much as she could. She made it out the door and saw Roger standing at the corner, looking around in confusion. Mimi took a deep breath before walking over to him, taking his hand in hers.
"You okay, baby?" She knew the obvious answer but this couldn't possibly have been anything that was her fault this time. The cold breeze hit her like a whip and her tiny body began to shiver.

Roger turned as he felt someone take hold of his hand. It was Mimi! What was she doing out in the cold in her state?
The first words out of his mouth were, "You shouldn't be out here, Mims..." as the anger he had had for her earlier seemed to dispel.

Mimi looked up at Roger, trying to hide her surprise.
"Well neither should you," she responded, venturing out and taking his other hand. "Where're you going?"
She tilted her head to the side and stifled a cough.

"Out," Roger said simply, his voice a bit harsher this time than he meant it to be around her. "I can't stay in the loft."

Mimi had heard some yelling from above. Nothing she could really make out but she heard it nonetheless.
"What happened up there?" she asked with a frown. She probably didn't want to even know, as it would probably further her anger with him at the moment, but she figured she'd try to put this all together anyway.

"Mark is what happened up there!" Roger replied.
He looked both ways before crossing the street, wanting to get away from the building before Mark came down. There was no doubt in Roger's mind that Mark would follow him.

Mimi looked at Roger with a frown before following after him.
"What are you talking about?" she asked as gently as she could.

"Aw, shit." Mark said. "Maureen? Honey? Baby? You know I love you. I'll be right back." He found his coat and threw it on, slipping on his shoes on over his feet. He ran out the door as fast as he could.

The cold air was freezing! Especially since he was in hardly anything. Roger was getting the WAY wrong impression. And that needed to be fixed. Now.
"ROGER!" Mark said. He saw them walk. "ROGER! Wait...Let me explain something!" He ran up to them. He pulled his coat tighter around him as soon as he stopped chasing after them. He could practically feel his lips turning blue.
"Roger, that wasn't what it looked like. Well, it was." He was digging a hole, so he stopped and figured he'd be blunt about it. "Roger, listen to me. She is my girlfriend now, okay? We are dating." Mark said this through chattering teeth. He looked at Mimi, who was also slightly dressed.
"Looks like I'm not the only one standing outside wearing nothing in December, huh?" He said, trying to be light. "You're crazy, girl. You should put some clothes on." This coming from someone in a coat and joggers, shoe's with no socks. And chattering teeth and blue lips.

Mark saw Maureen following. She hadn't been able to let him face it alone; it did take two to tango.
"Aww...Maureen! You're going to freeze out here!" he said, voicing his concern. "Me, you and Mimi are all going to be frozen." Mark looked at the strangely undressed group. "Can we go inside and talk about this? At least it's warmer in there."

"No!" Roger spat back. He wasn't going back there. Not with Mark there.
C'mon Roger! Mark thought. Don't be such a jerk! Let's just get inside. He noticed Roger had his scarf. When did he get that? He took it and wrapped it around Maureen's neck as soon as she made it over to them.

Roger walked on, anger in each quick stride.

Maureen was getting tired of Roger's attitude. Being angry was one thing, but acting like a two year old was completely different. "Jesus Christ Roger! What the fuck is your problem?" Maureen took a few angry steps after him, glaring at him.
"First of all, nothing happened between Mark and Mimi. I think that's been quite obvious but you've been too pigheaded to actually listen to your best friend and your girlfriend over a yuppie scum who messes with you any chance he gets." Maureen knew that her little tirade could end up hurting more than helping, but her temper was speaking for itself.
"Second, and I don't see how it is your business, but Joanne and I broke up. I am with Mark now. And no, we weren't cheating on her. It was a mutual breakup earlier today and nothing happened between Mark and I until much later. Now, we both know that neither Mark or Mimi are going to go inside until you do and it is fucking freezing out here. We're all going to get sick and I don't think Mimi can afford to get sick right now. So you can stop acting like a two year old kid who didn't get his way and come inside like a grown-up or we can all stand here in the cold glaring at each other."

Mark groaned. Inside, he was cheering her on. Thank you, Maureen, for stating the obvious.
"Maureen," Mark said, walking up to her and gently taking her arm. He didn't know what was going to happen or anything, but he was starting to get REALLY cold. "Roger will learn where his friendships and loyalties lie on his own. Nobody can make him do anything. Let him go. If he really cared about us, he wouldn't put us through all of this. But it's not our choice." He looked up at Roger. For the first time, it wasn't anger that brought him to confront Roger, but concern for his best friend.
"We all want you to come back, Roger. To join the family again. But we can't make you do anything. C'mon girls," he said, wrapping one arm around Maureen and directing Mimi with his other back to the building. "He'll come back when he's ready. If we keep pushing, he'll just get more pissed. He's an idiot some times, but he knows what he's doing." At least, Mark had as an after thought, I hope he does. "Mims, you can come up with us to our loft. It's probably warmer up there anyway."

But Mimi wasn't having any of it. She broke away from Mark and went back over to Roger and grabbed his hand in hers again. One thing that Maureen and Mark both seemed to be forgetting was that Mimi was just as pigheaded as Roger was sometimes and she was making a little progress before they came outside.
"Baby, at least come back to my loft. We need to talk this out instead of just arguing about it. We don't even know where this whole thing came from. If you just talk to us, or at least me, about it, we can figure everything out and bring everything back to normal. Please."
Mimi looked up at Roger with soft, pleading eyes. Her chin was quivering as she tried to hold together her teeth so they didn't chatter. She found it to be slight inhibition on her part when she was trying to prove a point.

Mark sighed. "C'mon baby." He said to Maureen. "There's not convincing them." He held her closer to him so she wouldn't freeze. "The sooner we get inside the better before we freeze our asses off."
He didn't want to leave Mimi and Roger standing out the cold, but at the same time, he didn't want to get sick over it. They would come back in, eventually.

Roger watched Mimi shiver as they stood there in the cold. "Mims…you shouldn't be out here if you're ill..." He loved her. He really did. He also knew she was as stubborn as he was and took off his coat with a sigh, wrapping it around her. "You should go back in..." There were some things he needed to figure out on his own first.

Mimi didn't move.
"I'm not leaving you," she said stubbornly through her chattering teeth. "I'm afraid if I leave now I won't see you again."

"Mims..." Roger started.
However, if anyone knew Mimi, he did.
Giving an inward sigh he replied "Alright Mims, I'll walk you back to your loft." He didn't want to see her freezing outside because of him any longer.

Mimi crossed her arms across her chest. "Are you going to stay with me in the loft?" she asked with her usual attitude.

"Yes Mimi," he said with a sigh. "I'll stay." Most likely she'd follow after him if he didn't. "However, if Mark comes knocking, I'm not there."

Mimi smiled. She knew she'd get her way. She grabbed Roger's hand and began walking back toward their building.
"That's fine. And we don't even have to talk. I'll stay in my room if you want; I just want to know that you're okay. I hate sitting at home without you there. It's too empty."

Roger didn't have time to answer before Mimi took his hand and they headed back for the building. "You don't have to stay in your room..." he commented as they headed up to her floor. He then gave a sigh.

Mimi smiled a bit as the two finally got back into the building. It wasn't THAT much warmer, but it was a little better, and Mimi's teeth stopped chattering.
The two made their way up to Mimi's loft in silence before she shoved open the door and turned around to face Roger, raising her eyebrows a little bit.
"So now what?" she asked. She didn't want to tread into any water she wasn't supposed to be in, so she figured she'd let Roger call the shots.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

"I'm sorry, Maureen." Mark blurted out suddenly, as the two of them walked back towards their building. "I didn't mean to drag you into the middle of all of this."

Maureen leaned closer to him, her arm going around his waist. "It's okay. There was really no preventing it." She let her head fall on his shoulder as they walked back towards the loft. "Now what?"

"We get out of this God forsaken weather and warm up." Mark said. "Wrap up under 34 blankets and sit there until we feel our extremities." Besides, the idea of being under 34 blankets with Maureen was a fun time. "What do you say? We'll make coffee and it'll be great. And then Mimi will (hopefully) talk Roger into coming back up and then—well, we'll deal with that when we get there."

Maureen smiled playfully at him. "Well, when you throw coffee into the deal..."
They had reached the building and headed up the stairs. Maureen couldn't help but notice the loft was maybe ten degrees warmer than the air was outside. "Why don't you get the blankets and I'll make the coffee."

"That sounds good," Mark said, dashing into his room and grabbing three blankets (one of which was the one that was kicked off the bed earlier). He actually paused a moment to let it seriously sink in that he was dating Maureen again. He threw on a sweater (a maroon-and-baby-blue one his mother had made for him) and a pair of socks. He also grabbed another sweater and socks for Maureen.

Maureen poured the coffee into two mugs before turning off the ancient coffee pot. They were going to have to find money to go grocery shopping soon, the cupboards and half-broken refrigerator were more empty than usual. That's when it really hit Maureen.
She was moving back into the loft. She was moving back into the loft with Mark, her boyfriend. Mark was her boyfriend. The familiar wave of panic began to fill her mind, but Maureen quickly pushed it down. She loved Mark and he loved her. He would never hurt her and she knew that.
As if conjured by her thoughts, Mark appeared in the room again. She walked up to him, a coffee cup in each hand, and kissed him.
"I have an idea. Why don't you set up the projector? We can watch some of your old footage."

Mark was a little taken aback by the sudden kiss, but had welcomed it all the same. He was REALLY taken aback by her suggestion.
"Uh...sure, if you want to," he said. He pulled the sweater over her head, careful not to spill the coffee. "I've got a bunch of us," He lead her back into the living room and wrapped her up in a blanket before going over and looking through reels. Nope, that one wasn't it. No, that wasn't it either...no...Aha! He found it. They were stashed way at the bottom, but here they were.
He set it up and, after a few groans and wheezes, the ancient projector came to life. He stuck in the first reel and sat down next to Maureen, who looked really adorable all wrapped up in a blanket. At least Mark thought so.
This was old footage of them somewhere around the one year mark. It was summer time, and Maureen was laughing about something, though with no sound it was almost impossible to remember the joke. The shot turned and face Mark, who, holding the camera, filmed himself kissing Maureen. Mark then disappeared from view while making sure to get close-up's of "Maureen's performance," just a little something she did just for him.

"Mark!" Maureen laughed. Anyone else might have been embarrassed, but not Maureen Johnson.
"I was thinking something a little less private. Like Collins' birthday party or the day we moved April into the loft."
She looked more closely at the film and a small pout formed on her face. "Besides, you know I hate the way I look when I tap dance. You are the only person to see me do it since I was eight."

"You just said movies!" Mark defended. He smiled anyway. "Alright, alright, alright, I'll change it." He was just teasing her, but he figured it would be a good way to remind her just how much he loved her. He got up and changed the reel.

A/N: Short today, sorry.

And this will be the last one for awhile. The next installment is kind of not finished yet. So please add us to your story alert list and wait for chapter 10.

And no, elphabafabalaelphiefae, we did not write this 'cause of your review. You're just psychic.