Hand In Hand
By Shotzette, Old Time Fan and Missy

Episode Thirteen
By Shotzette

Thank You To Chesh For Tireless Hours of Betaing!
Episode 13


Laverne groaned against Lenny's probing tongue as the angry buzzing sound interrupted their intimacy. "We're not home," she mumbled, while her hands crept lower down his torso.

He surprised her by pulling back, the conflicting emotions warring on his face. "Vernie, it might be Shirl back from her walk. She told me she wanted to give us a little privacy," he said, waggling his eyebrows for emphasis.

She groaned, but pulled her jersey down and climbed out of bed to head to the stairs on weakened knees.

The buzzer was still ringing in her ears when she threw open the door to reveal...

Rhonda.

In a wedding dress.

With Squiggy behind her.

"Guess what?" Rhonda trilled, with her usual forced gaeity.

"What?" asked Lenny, as he appeared on the top of the stairs, simultaneously pulling a tee shirt over his head while trying to zip up his pants, and failing miserably at both.

Squiggy shuffled forward, dragging his left leg as he took Rhonda's hand and said in the most reverent tone Laverne had ever heard come out of his mouth, "This bubble-headed angel of mercy done the craziest thing she's ever done in her whole life today. She married me," he said, drawing himself up to his full five feet four inches.

Both Laverne and Lenny's jaws dropped to the floor.

"Married?" Laverne managed to choke out.

"Squig?"

"Now, Len," Squiggy began, shuffling forward, "I know this is sorta sudden..."

"Sudden?" Lenny flared, "My best friend since kindegarten gets hitched with no warning or nothing?" He then eyed Shirley's suitcases next to the couch, "I guess there's a lot of that going on these days, ain't there?"

"Len," Laverne began.

"I think Shirley had the right idea. A walk sounds really good right now." With that he stormed through the kitchen and out Laverne's back door.

"Len!" Squiggy cried out, and tried to follow.

"No, Andy." Rhonda said, firmly. "You stay and chat with Laverne, I'll go after Lenny."

Laverne watched as the statuesque blonde trotted after Lenny, and once again marveled at the woman's ability to move so quickly on four inch heels. Turning to the man on her right, she forced a smile and repeated, "Married?"

"Yeah, I can't believe it neither."

"You never struck me as the marrying type, Squig."

His face darkened momentarily, "I'd be luckiest guy in the world if any woman married me now, no matter how ugly she is." Squiggy's lower lip trembled, a muscle reflex that had nothing to do with his disease. He then cleared his throat before continuing, "Rhonda just did it so she could take care of me, is all. If we're awfully wedded, no one can put me anywhere if she and I don't want me to be there. It ain't like she really loves me, or nothing."

"I can't imagine marrying any guy I didn't care about, no matter how tough a time he's going through," Laverne said softly as she sat on the couch. "You two might not have the sort of relationship you'd always thought you'd have with a girl when you were growing up, but life hasn't turned out the way any of us thought it would, has it?"

Squiggy glanced at his cane before replying, "No, Laverne. It hasn't." His dark eyes flickered towards the kitchen door briefly before looking back at her.

Laverne smiled reassuringly at him, "Don't worry. Lenny's a little sore now, but he'll get over it. He's just a little raw right now, like we all are."

"Yeah. I heard Walnut paid you guys a visit last night. Miserable jerk! If I was here, I woulda..." He looked down at his limp arm and sighed, "I'd have fallen on him real hard." He looked back into her eyes. "Guess you're lucky that Len was here instead of me."

"I'm lucky Lenny was here, but not for the reason you think. With all the craziness and change that's happened to all of us, I just don't know what I'd do if it wasn't for him."

"Laverne, you ain't gonna ever have to worry about being without Lenny. Listen, the big lug would squash me if he knew I told you this, but he's been in love with you since fifth grade."

"I know."

"So you ain't gonna hurt him, are you?" he asked, his face suddenly stony. "Cuz, if you do, I'm gonna have to fall on you real hard, y'know?"

"No, Squig," she replied as she felt a goofy smile spread across her face, as it so often did when she thought about Lenny these days, "Me and Lenny are the real thing."

"Good," he replied, flashing her a quick smile before his eyes darted downward again, "Say, Laverne? You ain't wearing anything under that new jersey, are you?"

She punched him in the shoulder, a punch with about one tenth of the force it would have held six months earlier for such a comment.

He grinned in response. "Promise you'll always punch me when I say stuff like that."

"It's a deal."


*****

Carmine Ragusa rounded the corner of the building at a blinding speed. All he coud think of was Shirley. It wasn't so much what Sonny said that had him worried as much as the look in Sonny's eye. Anything that could put a chink in his roomate's superficially cheerful expression had to be pretty serious.

In retrospect, he should have been looking where he was going instead of over-analyzing Sonny.

The impact knocked both him and Shirley to the ground. He blanched at the sight of the pale young woman sitting on the damp grass, gasping for air.

"Shirl! Omigod! I'm sorry! Are you okay? I didn't," he said as he glanced at her abdomen, "hurt nothing, did I?"

He felt her fingers tense in his hand as he helped her back onto her feet. As the hazy yellow light of the street lamp hit herface, Carmine was startled to see how worn and tired Shirley looked. The frail woman who clung tightly to his hand looked nothing like the screaming shrew who had ordered him out her house three days earlier.

"Carmine," she began, her voice trembling.

He didn't need to hear the rest of the sentence, he just knew. The pain in her eyes said it all, pain like he had never seen before.

A flood of emotions raced through Carmine, overwhelming him. Anger; at her, himself, Walter, God, and everyone else in the world. It wasn't right, that a little baby had to pay for his and Shirley's mistakes. His baby.

His world turned upside down. All he could hear was his heart pounding in his ears, and all he could see were black dots spiralling in as they obscured the world into a dark void.

When he could see clearly again, Carmine realized he was sitting on the ground, the grass staining his chinos. Shirley was half kneeling next to him, his right arm across her shoulders as she vainly tried to pull him to his feet. As the buzzing in his ears subsided, he allowed her to half guide, half carry him to the bench in the apartment courtyard.

"Shirl?"

She laid a finger across his lips, "Hush. Stay here, and I'll go get Lenny and Laverne."

"No!" he cried out, as panic clutched his heart, "Don't leave me!" She looked down at him and at the death grip he had on her wrist. The irony then struck him. He had no right to plead with her to stay after he had abandoned her in as cruel a manner as possible.

Once again, she surprised him. She sat down next to him on the bench and opened her arms. He fell into them willingly, and hung on for dear life. Carmine felt the tears begin to sting his eyes. Every tear he had held back since junior high let loose in that hour as he cried, cursed, and mourned for what would have been his child. Throughout it all, Shirley held him, and rocked gently back and forth. She offered him only her embrace, no empty words of comfort or judgement. She simply let him mourn.

Carmine had no idea how much time had passed, when he gently pulled back from Shirley and buried his face in his hands. He took several deep breaths and tried to pull himself together, tried to be the man.

"I'm sorry," he rasped, "I know I ain't got no rights. I know you and Walter are hurting, too." With that, he prepared to stand up and walk out of her life. For good this time.

"There is no 'me and Walter', Carmine. There never was," Shirley replied. At his look of disbelief, she continued, "We're not together anymore. I'll be signing annullment papers in the next few days."

"But you can't--"

"It's the kindest thing I can do for both of us, Carmine. He only married me because he thought he got me in trouble. And," she looked downward, not meeting his eyes, "you and I both know that wasn't the truth."

The questions came babbling out of his mouth before he could stop them. "What are you going to do? Are you going to move back in with Laverne? Are you going to go back to Bardwells? What--"

"Stop it!" Shirley leapt to her feet. "I can't think of any of that right now. It's just too much."

"But--"

"No buts. The only, and I mean only thing I can think of right now is to not have a drink."

"A drink?" He pulled back, disgust on his face. "After all that you've been through, after losing the baby, all you can think about is a drink?" He got up, and started to walk, until her voice stopped him.

"Yes, Carmine. That is what is in the front of my mind right now. That is the first thing I thought of doing after talking to my mother on the phone two hours ago and telling her about the baby and the annullment. I don't think you have to guess which news she took worse, do you?"

He softened immediately. "Jesus, you're kidding."

"No, I'm not. The worst part was, after she hung up on me, I made a beeline to the refrigerator and had my hands on a bottle of Shotz before I even realized what happened."

"Shirley--"

"Yes, I know," she snapped, then immediately looked sorry. "That's why I went for a walk. I had to get myself under control."

"You've been through hell, Shirley. A hell that I caused, and--"

"No," she said flatly, her eyes belying an eerie calm he had never seen before. "You hurt me, Carmine. Leaving me after we made love, for what ever reason," she amended, when he opened his mouth, "was the most cruel, and hurtful thing I've ever gone through, including what I've been through this week. You made my worst nightmare come true, Carmine. I loved and trusted you enough to give my self to you. When you left, you made me feel so used, and dirty..." her voice choked up.

"Shirley, I'm sorry. I don't know how many times I can say it, or how I can ever make up for it--"

"You can't. What's done is done." She refused to let him interrupt her, "However, every wrong decision I made after that point, was my decision, no one elses. I chose to drink. I chose to be with Walter, and to marry him, even though I was nearly certain it wasn't his baby I was carrying." Turning back to face him, her eyes shining with fresh tears, she said, "None of that was your fault, or his, and I can't go on blaming anyone but myself."

"I--I," he stammered, his usually glib charm nowhere to be found, "I don't know what to say," he said awkwardly.

"You don't have to say anything, Carmine. Just sit with me for a while, okay?"

He nodded dumbly and scooted closer to her on the bench, as he fought the old habit of putting his arm around her shoulders.

They looked at the haze enshrouded moon for many hours in silence.


*****


Frank and Edna ran out of the trailer and after the young woman. Amy had returned to the playground where she and Carmine had been days before.

"He's gone," Amy sobbed, "Carmine's gone and there's no one to push me on the swing, or to sing to me, or anything!"

"Amy," Edna said, sternly, "What happened to Carmine?"

"A man. A man in a suit said he had a job for Carmine. A singing job."

Frank's face split into a wide grin, "Amy, sweetheart, that's good news! Carmine wants to sing professionally. This could be his big break!"

Amy shook her head, fiercely, "No! It just means people are leaving me again. Carmine's gone. Lenny went away . People always leave," she said, the unheard "me" ringing in Frank's ears.

"Amy," he said gently, "people leave, but sometimes they come back. Look at your mother and me."

The sniffling girl eyed him warily, bolstering his need to continue.

"People need to stretch their wings and grow," at his point, he was not surprised when Edna laid a gentle hand on his arm, "but they come back. Sometimes," he said, his eyes focusing on his former wife, "two people can be a million miles apart in the same living room. You can't hold someone where they don't want to be, it just stifles them, makes them want to run. And," he said as his voice grew thick, "sometimes letting go of someone you love is the hardest thing you can ever do. You just have to trust they'll come back."

His words were cut off by Edna's gentle kiss.


*****


"Damnit, Lenny!" Rhonda screeched, as her ankle twisted when she missed the sidewalk and skidded on the wet pavement of the parking lot right into the side of Carmine's Pontiac.

He turned when he heard the thud of bone hitting steel and sauntered back to her, a sulky expression on his face. "Gee, Rhonda. I thought you'd be on your honeymoon by now."

"I would if my husband's best friend wasn't acting like a complete jerk," she growled as she inspected her shapily leg for bruises.

"Hey! You've been Mrs. Squigman for only a couple of hours. I've been his best friend since grade school."

"You're not acting like a best friend now, are you Lenny?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means, your best friend just got married--"

"And I wasn't invited," he cut her off. "I wasn't even told until after it was a done deal."

"I know you're hurt, and I'm sorry for that. This decision came around rather suddenly, and there weren't a lot of openings at the courthouse. We only had half an hour to get down there and get the license, or we would have had to wait another two weeks. We didn't invite anybody"

"So you would have waited two weeks!" Lenny rolled his eyes, "Why did you have to do it today?" His eyes were immediately drawn to her flat belly, and he turned pale. "Oh, no..."

"Oh, no is right; and I'm not, if that's what you're thinking, Mister!"

"Then why?"

"I wanted to protect Andy," she said in a surprisingly quiet voice. At his questioning look, she continued, "He started having problems with his speech early this morning." At Lenny's frightened look, she reached out her hand to comfort him. "The episode didn't last long, but it frightened us both. It probably frightened me more than him. I started thinking; what would happen if Squiggy couldn't speak, or couldn't move his hand to write? Did you ever think what could happen to him then, Lenny?" At his nod, she continued, "Andy and I have gotten a lot closer since he became ill. He's told me a little about his family. I'm sure you know a hell of a lot more, but the little he told me made me realize that those people have never had his best interests at heart," she said, as she shivered involuntarily at the memory of some of Squiggy's tales of his father, Helmut. Briskly shaking off the clammy feeling, she continued, "As his wife, I can make sure that no one ever puts him away anywhere or takes advantage of him. Only next of kin can make those decisions, Lenny. I know you'd do anything for him, but that's not even legal here in California," she said with a small smile.

He guffawed before meeting her eyes,sheepishly. "You got a point there, Rhonda. Besides, I don't think Laverne would like that too much."

She grinned in return. Not one of her, perfect-for-the-camera smiles, but an honest to goodness grin. At that moment, she had never looked lovelier to Lenny Kosnowski.

"I guess I should go talk to Squiggy," he said, in his goofy, sing-song manner.

"I guess you should," she replied, equally as goofy.

He chuckled, and turned back towards the building, then stopped and walked over to her. "Rhonda?"

"Yes, Lenny?"

"Can I hug the bride?"

"You can do more than that," she said, capturing him in a fierce embrace and planting a hot-pink lipstick-stained kiss on his cheek."

He giggled childishly as they walked back toward's the apartment. "Could you do me a favor, Rhonda?"

"Within reason."

"Don't throw your bouquet anywhere near Laverne just yet. We got to deal with enough of that from her Pop."

As they headed back to the apartment, neither one of them saw Sonny emerge from the shadows of the alley, his face alight with curiousity.

FIN






To Chapter 12

On To Chapter 14











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