When Marshall woke the next morning, he expected Regina to still be asleep or fighting to stay under a pillow, complaining of a headache. But she wasn’t even in bed. He hoped she wasn’t sick or something and sat up quickly looking around the room.

“Regina? You okay?” he called. There was no answer. He got up and checked the bathroom, but she wasn’t there. He went out into the living room and found her sitting at the table, a cup of coffee in front of her, her hand furiously scribbling something on loose-leaf paper.

“How come you don’t have a hangover?” he asked walking up to her.

“Shh! One second!” she said harshly as she hurriedly scribbled something else down. In the mean time Marshall spotted the cart from room service and got himself a cup of coffee. While he waited, he took the seat opposite of her and watched.

“There, done, at least with that one,” she said after a minute, looking up at Marshall with a smile.

“Why are you so chipper?” he asked.

“I don’t get hangovers. I drink, eventually puke up everything I drank, take a couple hour nap, and I’m ready to go. I’ve been up since four,” Regina replied quickly taking a sip of her coffee. Marshall yawned and took another sip of his coffee.

“I can’t believe, after what you put away, you’re not totally off,” Marshall replied.

“Always been this way. I don’t remember what I said last night, but, if it’s any consolation, I’m sorry if I said anything to offend you,” Regina added quickly as she looked up from her paper.

“Not much, just said that you turn guys gay, and that I’ll dump you soon and turn into a fairy, but that’s all,” Marshall replied.

“Don’t let me drink any more,” Regina replied going back to her paper.

“Your allowed a couple Reggie, after the shit you’ve been through, I’m not going to worry about it. It’s not your fault Mario fucked with your head,” Marshall replied stretching his neck. Regina kept her eyes on what she was working on.

“Still, it wasn’t any reflection on you, just so you know,” Regina said after a moment. As she reached for her coffee she looked up at him.

“I know, and trust me, I don’t plan on turning into a fairy, any time soon, especially with the sex I’m getting from you,” they both laughed.

“You must be the luckiest guy, cause you know, that if we get in a fight, I won’t be able to hold out on you,” Regina laughed.

“What you think make up sex is for?” Marshall asked with a raised eyebrow, his voice still roughed from sleep.

“You’re cute when you’re half awake,” Regina said as she looked back at her work.

“I’m halfway hung over and feel like I’ve been run over by a truck,” Marshall replied with a chortle. Regina stood up and walked over to him, placing her hands on his shoulders.

“I know the best cure for a hang over,” she said pressing down on his shoulders slightly and kneading them gently with her hands.

“Damn girl, anything gets you going,” he said with a grin.

“Well, what can I say, my boy, sitting around, in his boxers, seems like a pretty inviting deal to me,” Regina said with a lilt to her voice.

“I’m half asleep,” he replied, though the idea of sleep over sex was not a concept he knew.

“Never stopped me before.”

Today Regina was scheduled to record some of her stuff. Most of the studio time she’d worked on while she was still going to school had been on beats. She’d written a little, but the bulk of her writing had been done in the wee hours of that morning. She’d been inspired.

“Not the first time it’s happened, writing the best shit while your drunk, just ask Marshall,” Dre replied as he got out the beats they’d been working on in California.

“I wasn’t drunk, slightly hungover maybe, but that’s all, hey, the first one I want to work on, you know the slower one with the tambourine, I have a couple things to add to that before I rap to it.” Regina said as she pulled out her wad of papers.

“Damn girl, you’re worse than Em,” Fifty laughed.

“Great minds think alike, what can I say,” Marshall laughed going to look at some of Regina’s things, but she yanked them out of his grasp.

“You’ll hear them the same time everyone else does and not a second sooner,” she replied.

“Why not?”

“Because, that’s the way I want it to be. It set up Dre?” Regina asked.

“Yeah, what you want to add to it?” Dre asked as he turned up the beat so it was playing in the room.

“Where’s that guitar, ah, here we go, see right here,” Regina grabbed the guitar sitting in the corner and threw the strap over her shoulder.

“There, right after this, the thing, it’s sloppy, too loose. This is what I want to put in behind it,” Regina strummed the guitar softly, a gentle little tune, something that sounded strangely familiar to both Bizarre and Marshall.

“Cool, I like it, nice touch, okay, get in the booth, we’ll run two practices, one clean run through and then place it, aight?” Dre asked. Regina nodded, grabbing her wad of papers and sat down in the both.

“Hey, since when does she play the guitar?” Dre asked looking over at the guys.

“Beats me,” Marshall said shrugging.

It took a little over an hour to get the beat the way both Regina and Dre wanted it. She was as much a perfectionist if not more than Dre. Constantly she asked the guys for their opinion, and if any little thing were off, she’d launch in to fix it. But finally it was done. Regina’s guitar riff was placed into the song and it sounded incredible.

“All right girl, lets get you in there and you do your thing,” Dre said rubbing his hands together. They had been waiting for this for a long time.

“Can’t believe you didn’t make her show you her lyrics,” Marshall said as he stood up by the soundboard to watch Regina in action.

“Why should I, this is half the fun. Yo Ace, this your area, get up here and help us,” Dre called as Ace ambled over and took a seat at the board.

“All set Reggie girl?” Ace called.

“Ship shape, set it off, I’m ready, lets blow this thing baby, I’m ready,” Marshall smiled at that and she gave a sort of gratified hyper grin as she gave a thumbs up.

“All right Reggie, here you go girl, we’re giving you the beat, hit it!” Dre said as he hit the switch. The beat filled the room and Regina got into her beat.

“Wait a minute, where’s my snare, there’s no snare in my headphones, wait, there you go,” she laughed and sent the room into hysterics, even Marshall was laughing hard at this.

“Nah, seriously though, yeah come on, lets keep it real, have you ever though of, the deepest pain you could feel, maybe physically, I’ll tell you, it’s been surreal, I thought pain only brought bad things, but listen to what I’m about to sing, about the birth of my daughter, Maria, it hurts just thinking bout her, she be about five right now, wow, how, hard it is to keeping thinking that thought, how its always going to be if, not ever is, cause she’s gone, but back to the day when she came into this world, born from my heart it seems, cause the pain in my back and my legs, couldn’t possibly be from getting to hear her, first screams, beauty to me, my girl, coming into the world, the pain was nothing cause I got her, laying in the hospital, wondering how the world ended up the way it was, with the birth of child you wonder why you think anything matters all, Chorus: Pain to me is breathing, everyday without my Maria, pain is welcome till she’s by my side, pain is the thing that holds me to this world, until it takes me back to my world, Maria. It seems that pain is destined to be my companion for life, I wasn’t meant to be right, correct in thinking that I’d get to keep her, with me, any longer than three short months, the punishment for loving her so much, the hardest thing to deal with, is reality, when your baby crying, and you can’t do anything, to help her, cause she came to earth early, impatient but worthy, but her heart would have preferred it, that she hadn’t come, three month premature and, after three months her little body couldn’t take it, she left me, with only a pack of pictures and a deep aching, Chorus: Pain to me is breathing, everyday without my Maria, pain is welcome till she’s by my side, pain is the thing that holds me to this world, until it takes me back to my world, Maria. Now I look back at, her face in my mind, trying, to lie to myself, saying that she isn’t really gone, she’s mine, here smiling, laughing and talking with me, my girl, my beautiful baby, but she’s not, I got, to move on, living with the stinging pain, again and again, when will this heart of mine be able to unfold, to enclose on something else, worthy of love and able to take in a pain, cause I chase pain, and keep it and want it, love and closure come with it eventually, but first you got to feel pain, Chorus: Pain to me is breathing, everyday without my Maria, pain is welcome till she’s by my side, pain is the thing that holds me to this world, until it takes me back to my world, Maria. Mi belleza pequeña, il gioiello del mio occhio, el amor de mi vida, L'Imp di desideri, la sola persona nella mia vita, quién tiene moneda, Il valore più di l'oro o l'argento a me. My little beauty, the jewel of my eye, the love of my life, the imp of my wishes, the only person in my life, who holds currency, worth more than gold or silver to me.”