Chapter 5- Of Awkward Symptoms and Lesbian Exes

A/N: Lousy title, I know. But since this is a pretty lousy chapter, I guess it fits.

It was eerily quiet for a couple of hours. Roger assumed that Abbi had fallen asleep, and there was no sound or movement from his room to tell him otherwise, so he felt it best to let her be. True to his word, Mark stuck around, speaking up when he felt he was needed and staying quiet when he didn't. For the most part, it was peaceful. But rather than reassure him, it only made Roger wary of an oncoming storm. He kept glancing over at the closed door, just waiting for a cry, a half-conscious scream, anything that meant trouble. But, there was nothing. Mark caught him looking at the door and briefly touched his arm.

"Relax," he said firmly. "She's okay." The door could not have picked a better time to open. Abbi stumbled over the threshold, looking mildly sleepy but otherwise okay.

"Hey," he said quietly. She smiled briefly and waved. "How're you feeling now?" She shrugged.

"Okay, I guess."

"Where are you going?"

"Bathroom." He let himself relax. She seemed all right to him, a little shaky, but otherwise just fine. Still, he didn't take his eyes off of her until the bathroom door closed, and even then Mark had to nudge him.

"See? Told you so." True enough, the worst thing that Abbi seemed to be suffering from when she re-emerged was a serious runny nose.

"I don't get it," she complained, sniffling into a big bundle of tissues. "What does this have to do with heroin?" He smirked.

"I never understood that part either. Still, it's better than some of the other stuff." She nodded.

"Agreed." He gestured to the seat next to him and she sat down, curling up tightly. Casual, meaningless conversation took over, and Roger let himself fully relax. You see? She's just fine now. However long this newfound peace would last was a mystery, but for now he was just grateful that she wasn't trying to kill him for another hit of heroin. He tried to remember how long the worst of his own withdrawal had lasted, but most of that time was pretty hazy for him. And Mimi… well, her clean period hadn't lasted long enough to use as a suitable gauge. But he estimated, if things kept going at the rate they were, it would be about a week, possibly two, before Abbi's withdrawal started to ease off. Not counting any accidents, slip-ups or relapses that could occur in the meantime. She suddenly nudged him.

"What'd you do to your face?" She reached out and gently touched one of the bruises with her finger. He tried not to recoil. "What did I miss?" She didn't seem to remember what had happened a mere two hours ago. And he certainly wasn't going to remind her. Mark was staring intently at him, his expression completely bewildered. He just shrugged nonchalantly.

"Nothing. I just, uh, walked into a door." She raised her eyebrows.

"Must've been some door." Mark smirked at him, but didn't say a word.

The storm he had predicted finally struck about an hour later. All was quiet and calm until he felt Abbi suddenly stiffen beside him. She swayed to her feet.

"Uh, I suddenly don't feel too good," she said quietly. "Think I'm gonna go lie down for a minute." Roger watched as she slowly made her way for the bedroom door, before freezing where she stood and sprinting for the bathroom and slamming the door behind her.

"Shit," Roger said quietly, realising what she was doing. He started to get up, but Mark held him back.

"I'll take care of this."

"You sure?"

"She didn't seem in the mood for throwing any punches to me. I'll be fine."

You're gonna regret opening your mouth, Cohen. He gave a tentative couple of knocks and eased the door open. Yep, there was Abbi, on her knees beside the toilet. He crouched beside her and touched her shoulder.

"Roger?" she choked before another wave of sickness came over her.

"No, it's me. It's Mark." It was another couple of minutes before she could lift her head again.

"Get out of here. You don't need to see this." She tried to push him away, but he easily fielded all of her gentle blows. When she gave up trying to get rid of him and just settled for ignoring him, he cautiously assumed the classic position for this particular situation, rubbing her back in slow, gentle little circles. She laughed shakily.

"You've obviously had practise doing this before," she commented.

"Don't sound so surprised," he said, filling a glass with water and passing it to her. "Of course I've done this before. I did have a girlfriend once, you know." And I stuck with Roger when he was as bad as you are now.

"You did?"

"Yeah, she left me for somebody else."

"What's his name?" she asked innocently.

"Joanne," he replied smoothly without skipping a beat. Abbi laughed and almost choked on her water. She turned her back and rinsed out her mouth, and accepted his outstretched hand to pull herself to her feet again.

"Joanne?" she repeated incredulously. He nodded slowly and seriously, completely setting her off again.

"I don't see what everyone finds so funny about the fact that my girlfriend left me for a woman, you know," he said sternly to the hysterically giggling heroin addict.

"Oh…come on, Mark. It is…kinda funny," she managed to gasp out. He folded his arms adamantly.

"Not even slightly funny. Now c'mon, before Roger thinks you've died in here." She followed him out, still fighting back laughter.

A/N 2: this one's shorter than some of my others. Sorry, guys :) Um, the next chapter may be a while in arriving as I just exhausted my supply of stock chapters, but I'll work extra hard to get something up here as soon as possible. Leave a review if you're enjoying, or not, or possibly just wanting to whack me across the back of the head with a copy of the DVD (whichever one you happen to own, if you own one at all.) Any one of these options will be gratefully accepted, I don't mind, but flames will just...cause Evita to suffer more in Doggy Hell or something, I don't know...