The Third Door
By Missy


TITLE: The Third Door
PART: 1 of 1
PART OF: The Kisses Continuity
RATING: PG-13 (mild language, sexual content)
PAIRING(s): LDF/CR; Past SF/CR
DISTRIBUTION: To LW, Kai, Myself and FG so far; any other archives are welcome to ask, but disclaimers must be included, my email left intact. send a URL, and provide full disclaimers as well as credit me fully. Please inform me if you are going to submit my work to any sort of search engine. Please do not submit my work to a search engine that picks out random sets of words and uses them as key words, such as "Google"

Please contact me in order for this story to be placed on an archive, or if you want know of a friend who would enjoy my works, please email me their address and I will mail them the stories, expressly for the purpose of link trading. MiSTiers are welcomed! Please do inform me that you'd like to do the MiSTing, however, and send me a copy of the finished product. I'd also love to archive any MiSTings that are made of my work!
CATEGORY: Romance
FEEDBACK: PLEASE?!
SETTING IN TIMELINE: Milwaukee Canon
SEQUELS TO: Three Kisses, Even More
SPOILLERS: For Shotzette's "Three Kisses", "Even More"; the canon eps "One Heckuva Note" and "Not Quite New York".
SUMMARY: The last boxes are packed...
NOTES: Part of official continuity.

****

The summer sun had beat down on Shirley's fragile shoulders, making dark red marks where the straps of her bra cut into her shoulders. Later, she would find lineament to rub onto her aching skin; now, with ravening worry picked at her mind, it didn't matter. Had she remembered to return her keys to Mrs. Babbish? Have the power and gas disconnected?

Yes and yes. The lights flickered to darkness over her head.

Ghostlike, the white emptiness of the apartment settled around her. Hours before, the place had been filled with laughter; a goodbye party for herself, the boys, and Laverne. That night, she and Laverne had spent the entire night up, eating sweets and laughing as they had when they were children. Carmine had understood, given them some sort of mercy, their time alone for one last night.

God only knew where her best friend was now; Laverne and Carmine had departed with the dawn, under a sour cloud provided by Lenny and Frank's cold disapproval. She had managed a hug for each of them; Laverne's lingered, Carmine's more brief. They were all friends now, though she and Laverne now had a passionate friendship that had made it through the fire. They had driven East, while she and the boys had made plans to travel west. She stood alone in the shelter of what had been their home.

She carried her boxes upstairs, reflecting on the changes in her life. They had not been easy.

And it hadn't been easy for Carmine and Laverne to tell her what was going on.

Somehow, after her initial anger had been spent - which had involved sitting on Laverne's head and spraying her with foam from the dispensing machines....no one could call her a perfect lady under stress- she had come to find a certain grace in accepting what was inevitable. She and Carmine had never had a stable relationship...and not the kind he really wanted, the kind she hadn't been able to give to him since Lucile Lockwash had invaded her picture of domestic bliss, years before Laverne had gone to bed with Carmine. These memories had drained her of anger, transferred the welter of pain she felt in regard to Carmine into a state of non-feeling. She could leave him or take him, to her own shock, but Laverne...that friendship was older than her love for Carmine. Older than time itself, it seemed...

The situation in Milwaukee had become bearable in the weeks outlying the move. Carmine and Laverne spent time together alone, or with Shirley, though Shirley found herself with Squiggy and Lenny more often than she thought she would have liked. When the firings had come down from Shotz, each of them had taken it as a fortuitous sign. Carmine and Laverne would live together in New York, and Shirley would get an apartment near her mother in California.

To Laverne, the idea was disturbing; she still saw Shirley's mother as a bad influence upon her independence. Shirley didn't tell her best friend that she wasn't planning on moving in with her mother; she was planning on moving in with Lenny and Squiggy.

Lenny stood by the truck, shoring everything up. He and Squiggy had painted a banner the night before, it's smudgy red letters reading 'California Or Bust!' The boys had barely finished packing by the late afternoon, with Shirley's encouragement and the addition of her last boxes to the back of the truck, now they were ready to leave.

Lenny, poor Lenny; he hadn't taken the newness in his life well. He was angry with Laverne for 'selling herself short' with Carmine; he was sad to be leaving Milwaukee. But most often, flashes of enthusiasm burst forth, like a child going to see his Grandmother, he was in love with the sheen of travel. The same couldn't be said for Squiggy, who walked through life in a daze -he still didn't understand why Laverne was with Carmine in New York. The world must be crazy.

Shirley climbed into the ice cream truck, sitting in the back, on boxes, unsteady. It would be a dangerous journey, a long journey, but she was ready for anything now. The world was wide-open, the sun was shining, and she was free and filled with life.

"...doin', Shirl?"

"I'm sorry, Lenny, I didn't hear you."

"I said we're stoppin' for the night." He pushed through the empty cartons, past her, picking through the refrigerator unit. "Wanna Nutty Buddy?"

"No thank you; I packed watercress."

He crinkled his nose. "You don't know what's good for ya."

"Sit down, Leonard."

In the twinkling darkness, she watched him awkwardly arrange his limbs against the cardboard seat. Her Lucy watch told her that it was one in the morning.

"How are you?"

"Just fine."

"I don't get it." He said abruptly.

"What?"

"Why Carmine's with Laverne."

Shirley shifted her skirts primly over her knees. "Well, I don't know why Eddie left Debbie for Liz, but it happened."

"And you don't care?"

"Leonard, Laverne didn't want to hurt me. She almost had a panic attack explaining what happened. I want good intentions to stand for something, for once."

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered in distraction.

"What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothin'; goin' so far away and all, I guess it's makin' me blue..."

"Don't let yourself get that way. In fact, Leonard, whenever you do, just come to me. I'll be your traveling buddy."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." She patted his knee fondly.

"You're a real swell girl, Shirley Feeney."

"Thank you, Leonard Kosnoski" she said, bowing grandly as she scrambled over the empty boxes to the sleeping bag she had borrowed from Frank DeFazio. "Thank you, and good night."

To "Even More"
To "Roadrippin'"