Hand In Hand
By Shotzette, Old Time Fan and Missy

Episode Twelve
By Missy

Thank You To Chesh For Tireless Hours of Betaing!
Lenny cast a wary eye on Shirley. The little brunette chattered on, between bouts of tears.

"...And I have to figure out what I'm going to do now. I'm actually really excited, because now my slate's clean and..."

"I guess you an' Carmine are gonna talk, mm?"

She blanched, "I think that might have to wait awhile...I want to figure out who I am, first."

Lenny nodded, "Yeah, I can understand that."

They stared into the headlights before them.

"Where's Laverne?"

"She decided to stay at home; her new job's gettin' her kinda tired..." He didn't want to say that she had been hoping to get in touch with Carmine, so that he might be home to meet them.

Shirley nodded, her expression showing distraction. She placed a hand on her still-round abdomen; God, she still looked pregnant..

She lay, exhausted, unable to cry for herself anymore. Allowing herself the benefit of passivity. Lenny scooped up her luggage and led her back into Laurel Vista.

Laverne waited for her with open arms.

***

"Well, Frank. Here we are. Again."

Frank stared at the stylish middle-aged woman before him. She had changed; lord, had she changed.

She made him feel pathetic.

"Yeah, Edna." He glared at her, "I can't believe you actually want to come back."

She shrugged, "I can't keep Amy in a hotel," She sighed, "Frank..."

"Yeah?"

"Hell, life's too short; I missed you, you old coot."

He smiled, "Yeah, Edna. I missed you more." He stood up, brushing a wrinkle from his pants, "Don't mean I forgive you for running out on me."

She stared at him, "Sorry, Frank, but you made life a little hard...what's a better word? Stifling."

He stared at her, "You want me to forgive you, after you tell me that?"

"I don't want you to forgive me, but that doesn't mean I still don't love you." She brushed a hand through her graying hair, "Are you going to say it?"

He smiled grimly, "I love you too, Edna." And he embraced her.

Suddenly, the door to the trailer opened, a teary-eyed Amy entered through the door.

"Carmine's gone!" she said, before rushing back outside in tears.

***

Sonny frowned at the immense burn upon the front lapel of his jacket. Damned iron.

He wasn't surprised to hear a knock at the door, nor to see Carmine standing before him, suitcase in hand. "Ey, Carmine, Paisan!" They laughed, shaking hands, slapping backs.

"You mind taking me in for a little bit?" Carmine asked, bravado in his tone, "Considerin' that I skipped out on you without payin' the rent last time..."

"Well, I'm takin' off on a shoot in the Simi Valley soon, so it's no trouble." He turned back to his ironing, "Bed's the way you left it."

Carmine nodded; he and Sonny had never been two for words, nor very close. He ambled into the bedroom, setting about to unpack.

When he emerged, Sonny was busy folding a shirt. Some flash of thought passed through Sonny's eyes, but he didn't say anything.

"I gotta go, as soon as I have somethin' to eat." Carmine said, "I've got a new gig, and it pays so much that I'll be able to get my own place soon!"

Sonny smiled indulgently at his blandishments.

"I should write Shirley a note...I wonder if Walter'd just throw it away if I tried..."

Sonny blanched, "Carmine...about Shirley..." He began.

Anxiety gripped Carmine as he took in the expression upon Sonny's face, "What's wrong? What happened to Angelface?"

Sonny shook his head, "You'd better go talk to her yourself." Carmine had already tossed on his shirt, "Not at the house; at Laverne's apartment."

The words barely penetrated Carmine's skull as he crossed the lawn, headed for what used to be a very familiar place...

***

"...And our complimentary champagne." The haggard, older waitress looked very tired and very unimpressed with the couple seated in the booth. She tossed a complimentary handful of confetti over their heads, "Mozeltov."

Confusion clouded Squiggy's expression as he brushed off the confetti with his good hand, "You Jewish?"

Rhonda shook her head, "Rhonda hasn't been to church in a very long time." She shrugged, digging into her half of the complimentary wedding cake before them. "Try it. It's good; vanilla."

He brought his arm forward (on later reflection, he would realize it was his bad one); it fell, limply, against the table, his fist landing in the cake.. Rhonda didn't seem disturbed, but, at the very least, Squiggy was upset.

Everyone's looking at you.

She grabbed the fork before he could stab his bad hand with it, "Squiggy!" She hissed, and he dropped the fork in defeat as she wiped the frosting from the limp limb. Slowly, gradually, it gained enough feeling to be dragged away.

He couldn't meet her eyes as he ate his quarter, "You married half a guy, Rhonda; not even a quarter of a guy..." He started to ramble.

"Shhs," She urged, picking up his glass. He followed the motion of her arm and, through some miracle, managed to bring the glass to her lips as she brought his to his own, "Bottoms up, Mr. Squiggman."

"Yeah...up..bottoms.." He said perversely, and she cut off his sentence with a stream of champagne.

***

Lenny hit the sheets with a long, low groan.

Laverne looked over her shoulder at her lover and couldn't suppress a smile, "Long day?"

"Oh yeah," He held out his arms and she crawled into them. Though their position was comfortable, their eyes were wide open.

"Len.." she began.

"I know.." He said against her hair, "I scared you last night, didn't I?"

She nodded.

"When Walter called Shirley..." He swallowed, avoiding use of coarser words, "...Those names...I kinda lost it. Know why?"

She shook her head.

"'Cause I've known you girls for a long, long time. I know what kinda ladies ya are." He kissed the crown of her head. "Him sayin' that about Shirley was like him sayin' things about Nattalia." Nattalia; his sister, Laverne realized.

"Len?" She paused, "What if he said that about me?"

"If He said it about you," Lenny said, his voice containing no small amount of menace, "I wouldn'ta threatened ta kill him. He'd be dead."

God help her, she thought that was sexy.

So she didn't mind if he kissed her...and his hand journeyed beneath her green football jersey...up...up. It was beautiful, sensual..

Until the spell was interrupted by a knock at the door..

FIN






To Chapter 11
On To Chapter 13











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