By Her

Part 1

By Missy

SERIES: By Her
PART: one of three or four
Author: Missy
Email: lasfic@yahoo.com
RATING: PG-13 overall, for dramatic angst.
PAIRING(s): L/L (what else? *pins 'shipper button to forehead*)

DISTRIBUTION: To LW, Kai, and FG so far; any other archives are welcome to ask (Please Email Me), 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!

DISCLAIMER: Laverne and Shirley, of course, not my property and belongs to its creators.

CATEGORY: Drama, L/L
CANNON/SPOILERS: Late Milwaukee era; post Officer Norman Hughes and Laverne's Bad Girl Period
FEEDBACK: PLEASE?!
SPOILLER/SUMMARY: Lenny and Laverne have a secret...
NOTES: Inspired by the Beth Hart song "By Her"; what else screams L/L but the lines "She gives it away, and you're fascinated by her"?

****

She crossed her legs, feverently praying for good news even as fear settled firmly in her walk, the shake of her hands. Mr. DeFazio was frantic, the poor man had returned to his restaurant in a state of panic, and only an emergency call from the place had returned him to his post.

Frank had found Shirley at home, comfortably lounging on the couch, watching a soap and waiting for Laverne to return from a shift at the Pizza Bowl. The instant she saw the flour-encrusted patriarch, she knew that something dreadful had gone wrong.

"Waddya doin' to me?" Came a whine from Laverne's room; tears of relief sprang to Shirley's eyes in response; she shoved her way into the shared ward in which Laverne lay. The first thing she recognized were the heels of her best friend's scuffed black shoes.

"Miss DeFazio, we need to stop the bleeding..." Alarm raced through Shirley's heart; as she reached Laverne's bed, she could clearly see from whence the bleeding came.

"Oh God," Laverne moaned. "Do anythin', doc; anythin' to save him..."

"We're trying our best." The attending physician wore an expression of intense concern, "Have you been getting prenatal care for your pregnancy, Miss DeFazio?"

Shirley stood rooted into her place. At that very moment, her best friend caught sight of her, "Aww, no..I didn't want ya ta hear like this, Shirl." She clutched her stomach, moaning at the pain, and at that very moment Shirley Feeney's always-tough best friend burst into tears. "I..I ain't been. I was gonna wait an' tell the dad...today..." Tears bled from Laverne's eyes, falling into her hair, soaking onto the pillow. "Did you call him?" Even in her weakest moment, Laverne had never behaved like a needy woman; now, she looked frantic, in desperate need of some sort of comfort.

The little brunette almost swayed off of her sensible shoes; it was all like an soap opera, made awful by the fact that it was her friend in desperate pain.

In all of that time, as the doctor and nurse hovered over her best friend, she hadn't said a word. A nurse noticed Shirley's discomfort and said, suddenly, "You belong in the waiting room, Miss."

"But I'm her best friend..."

"Immediate family only," The nurse said, sadly, as she forcibly escorted Shirley away from the scene.

"Laverne!" Shirley frantically appealed to her friend, but the young woman only shook her head.

"I'm sorry, Shirl." Her tears continued to flow, unabated.

***

"Your friend, Miss Feeney, is approximately two months into her pregnancy."

Shirley shook her head, "But she hasn't been dating anyone, Doctor..." It had been over four months since Laverne had split with her police officer boyfriend, Norman Hughes, and a month more since her last date with Jake The Snake. Laverne had been spending her Saturdays, for the most, with Lenny and Squiggy. At least, that was what she had told Shirley.

The doctor blathered on, "....Her body may simply be rejecting the fetus. In these cases, miscarriage is an unfortunate but necessary occurrence."

"Necessary?!" Shirley almost snarled her response. When the doctor looked up, his expression placid, and she cooled considerably. "It's necessary for a baby to have a father. Where is the...cad?" Her Georgette-Heyer bread words only made the doctor freeze into a more formal stance.

"The father has been notified." He said, primly. At that point, Frank DeFazio rushed into the room, asking in much more demanding tones what was wrong with his muffin.

As the doctor fended Frank off, Shirley worked herself into a nice mental lather. She had no clue what she would say to Laverne when they admitted her to a room.

"I'll kill 'im! I'll kill 'im!" Frank hollered, fury glowing upon every inch of his face.

"That won't solve anything, Mr. DeFazio." She soothed, "We have to be patient and wait for the...crumb." She said, hesitating briefly to search for the best word to describe Laverne's lover.

So they did...but as the night dragged on it became more and more obvious that the guy wasn't about to show up. When they finally wheeled a stable but exhausted Laverne into a shared room, pregnant but still in danger, a tired and cross Shirley couldn't even wake a snoring Frank DeFazio. Alone, the brunette sank into a restless sleep.

Rising to the eerily silent calm of the hospital waiting room an hour later, Shirley arose and groggily went in search of some coffee. As she passed by Laverne's room, a set of muffled voices drew her attention.

"...Gonna be OK. I swear, Laverne, s'gonna be OK.."

"It ain't...I knew I was gonna be a bad mom..."

"I told ya; yer meant to be a mom. Aww, don't cry...it ain't yer fault."

"It is!"

Shirley couldn't stand the sound of her best friend's sobbing for another instant. She opened the door, cautiously.

She wasn't surprised to see Lenny, holding Laverne to his chest in her hospital bed while she sobbed, ardently.

"Shirl's here, Vernie." He whispered, "Ya wanna talk to her?"

Laverne froze in Lenny's arms, "I ain't told her...Can ya...Please?"

"What? Tell me what? Laverne, what is going on?" Shirley's angst rose to the surface, "Did that jerk of a boyfriend of yours leave you here?"

"Shirl..." Lenny began.

"Leave you with child like this!"

"SHIRL!" Laverne shouted, "He didn't leave me." She buried her face in Lenny's shoulder, "He broke the speed limit tryin' ta get here.."

"He's in jail!" Shirley gasped.

Lenny groaned, "Shirley! It's me!"

Shirley's expression froze into an ugly mask of anger. And then instinct took over.

She burst into laughter.

On To Chapter 2











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