Breathe
By Missy

TITLE: Breathe
PART: 1 of 1
RATING: PG-13 (mild language, sexual content)
PAIRING(s): L/L
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: Desirous Series, Senseless
SPOILLER/SUMMARY: Covering the time AFTER "Senseless"
NOTES: Part of the "Desirous" Universe.

****

The sound of Lenny's voice was deafening and yet completely incompressible.

Squiggy could make out snatches of what he had to say. What he understood was "Shirley" and "shower" and "naked" and "wanna die!"

"You saw Shirley naked in the shower?"

"NO!! SHIRLEY SAW ME WITH LAVERNE NAKED IN THE SHOWER! SHE KNOWS ME AND LAVERNE ARE TOGETHER..."

"Geez! Pipe down!"

"I CAN'T!!! NOW SHIRLEY KNOWS!!!"

"Breathe, pal, breathe...oh, and put some pants on, will ya?"

Lenny turned an indescribable shade of scarlet as he dove behind some boxes for privacy.

"You and Shirl...you've done some lousy stuff since we've known each other, pal, but this one takes the pie!"

"It ain't Shirl!" Lenny's head bobbed above the boxes.

"Mrs. Babbish!! How could ya do that to poor Mr. DeFazio!!"

"ME AND LAVERNE, SQUIG!!" Lenny screamed.

"Oh...you got any Spanish Fly left? Cause I got a hot date..."

"I didn't slip her nothin' Squig!! It was just me and her and..."

"Right, pal, I got the picture." His best friend running up stairs, naked and screaming, had more than provided that.

"Ya don't understand; it was supposed ta be something between me and Laverne!"

"Well, if ya don't want someone else ta come into your LUUV nest, why don't ya stop running around without any pants on?"

Lenny babbled something incorhently as he dressed.

"I'm gonna go down to th' drugstore and get some hair tonic. Next time I see ya, Len, I hope yer wearin' pants."

The door slammed closed, and Lenny groaned to himself, wishing he could simply dissapear.


***

"Laverne."

"Shirley."

Even Lenny, in his usually distracted manner, noticed the frigidity between his girlfriend and her best friend. The little thrill he received as Laverne stomped over to their table and pounded herself onto a chair beside him was dampened by her angry expression.

"You and Shirl had a fight?"

Laverne's glare was murderous as she upended her brown paper sack onto the table between them.

"You fought about me?"

Laverne unwrapped her wax-paper covered sandwich and took out a huge bite.

"I hate it when people fight!" Lenny yelped. "Me and Squig had a fight when he found out about us."

"But you're talkin'..."

"Yep."

"What did you tell him, Len?"

"I was naked and he was standin' in front of my pants..."

She finished chewing, then reached over to squeeze his hand. "Len, it ain't your fault."

"Go say you're sorry to Shirl, then!"

"When she says she's sorry!"

"That ain't right, Laverne."

"Don't worry about it...we still on for Friday?"

"Yep."

"Your place clean?"

"Will be tonight, when Squig goes to the movies."


***

"Vernie?"

Her fingers dug into his forearm. "You better have a good reason for not kissin' me right now, Len."

He reached behind him, finding a switch on the wall. Laverne groaned as the room was flooded with light.

Lenny took a moment to appreciate his girlfriend; her lips were still swollen from his kisses, and one of the straps on her dress had been tugged down, her coat discarded with his on the floor. He continued, "you're kissin' me like you're somewhere else."

"Len, that's the dumbest thing I ever..."

"You didn't put your tongue in my mouth..."

"Okay..." She sat down on a folding chair beside Lenny's cardboard table; he followed her, watching intently. "It's us..."

Lenny peered around the room. "What's wrong?"

"Len, we've been doin' this for six months now, and I like it...I really like it...but I ain't into anyone else, and you're not exactly...we're not..."

"Vernie, don't cry...you're gonna make me cry..." But she did, and two fat tears rolled down his cheeks. "I didn't wanna give this to ya 'til after, but...aww! Take it!"

Laverne felt something small and velvety being pressed against her palm. In her hand was a small box.

She cried harder.

"Aww geez...I can take it back to the store..."

Laverne threw her arms around his neck, squeezing him. He felt so real, but she felt sure that she would wake up and he would be in Bridget's bed, or some prison matron's closet.

And she knew what she would say, but the only things she could manage to do were weep and hold him.

"I guess you don't wanna marry me..."


***

"How'd this happen?"

"You want me to draw you a map?"

She noticed sweat dripping down the back of Lenny's collar and ran her hand up his back. "It's gonna be okay!"

"I promised I was gonna take care of you," he said, against her neck. "I broke my promise."

"Not really. That time in the pool was my fault, Len."

He stiffened in her arms. "You said the chlorine stuff made it..."

"Yeah. Guess the girls in high school didn't know it all," she laughed desperately at the joke. Lenny couldn't muster a smile. "The wedding's all planned, Len. We just gotta do it faster."

He peered at her. "How fast?"

Laverne smiled bravely as her best friend shoved her way into the apartment. "Shirl? We got something to tell ya..."


***

"Smile for daddy, Kitty!"

"Len, she ain't old enough to smile!"

"But she's lookin' right at me..." The baby let out a squeal of delight as her father made a silly face.

"Kitty", called otherwise Cathy but most often Kat, was Katerine Bela Kosnoski, named randomly in her post-anesthesia cloud of euphoria. Lenny had selected the middle name, calling her after Bela Legosi, and Laverne hadn't protested his choice; Katerine, Russian and not at all Italian, had confused her entire family, but it had made perfect sense on that pink cloud.

Lenny had settled into fatherhood with ease. Laverne couldn't match that ease; he seemed to be part of Katerine's childish, primal joy, and the sight of him made her light up. She had his awkward smile, blue eyes, and nose...thankfully, she amended mentally.

"Whatt're you thinkin' about?"

She tilted her head, a smile spreading across her lips. "What I'm gonna wear to Squiggy and Shirley's wedding."

"I dunno how that happened."

"While we were changing one of Kat's diapers, maybe?"

That was a sentiment too familiar to him.

"I'm thinkin' about what we did at this lake two years ago."

"Not in front of the baby, Len." But her tone told him later. When the baby's asleep. He grinned at her wolfishly. "Don't smile at me like that, Mr Supervisor. It makes me nervous."

"Oh yeah?" He deliberately widened his grin.

"Oooh, Mr. Supervisor! Don't look at me that way! They'll talk about us!"

Laverne had started, jokingly, calling him 'Mr. Supervisor' from the day he had passed his dispatcher's test. It was a private joke that tended to turn ribald when they got into the bedroom after a long hard day.

She hadn't quit the line, to his concern.

Now wasn't a time to think of such things. It was a happy day; she was a working wife and mother, goals she had never thought to accomplished before she offered to 'make things up' to Lenny that summer day.

"Penny for your thoughts," he whispered in her ear as their daughter rolled across their picnic blanket.

The End!