I Never Promised You a Pepsi Tree, Part 12
By Missy

SERIES: I Never Promised You a Pepsi Tree
PART: twelve, of an undetermined length
Author: Missy
Email: lasfic@yahoo.com
RATING: R, for heavy angst, language and dark themes
PAIRING(s): Richie/S/C; Fonzie/Lenny/Laverne; Pos. Carmine/Rosie Greenbaum

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: Epic Drama
Crossover: HD/LS
CANNON/SPOILERS: Milwaukee; pre-California cannon; HD pre-Lorrie Beth
FEEDBACK: PLEASE?!
SPOILLER/SUMMARY: Disaster strikes when one of the girls comes up pregnant.
NOTES: One chapter left before this one's over...

****

"Can this heap of junk go any faster?" Richie asked, his expression menaced. His eyes locked on Shirley's face and he says sheepishly. "Sorry."

"No, it is junk." She glares at the skies, which opened up and sent a flood of rain through the gutters of Milwaukee. "Did Fonzie say six?"

"He said six. It's.." He glanced at his watch as they waited by a stoplight. "Six o five now."

"Damnit!"

"Shirley, if we don't get there...maybe it was meant to be."

She shook her head. "She doesn't love Fonzie. I can't let it happen, Richie."

"But they do seem like they're in love." He gunned the car's engine as they raced past Old Mill Bay Road...inches from St. Anthony's.

"Oh Richie; you're so young and sweet. You shouldn't be in the middle of it."

"My car's at Fonzie's garage for a reason, Shirley." He parked by the street. "I already am."

He rushed through the pounding rain, opening Shirley's door. Stumbling into the gutter as she exited it, she leaned into his arms...and was surprised by his comforting embrace.

But there was no time to analyze their feelings. Instead, beneath the pounding of the rain, they raced toward the church.

***

Laverne marched determinedly toward the pulpit. Fonzie stood there, with Mrs. Cunningham and Joanie, who would be standing in as attendants.

Laverne tried not to notice the complete emptiness of the church, and the fact that her only witness was her father. Frank's deep pride was obvious, but could not fill the void in her world.

Fonzie's eyes showed a vacant, macho pride that thrilled her, but at the same time she remembered his cold technique. It got results, but it was so widely used and so well applied that any woman of Milwaukee who possessed a good figure and a fine face could recount his amour.

As she reached the altar, taking Fonzie's hand, she heard the back door of the church open.

The priest began the ceremony, heedlessly. "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here-"

The sound of a guitar rang through the air. Beneath the drumming of the rain, as the priest began his homily.

Before her father could give her away, the back door to the church blew open.

"I've heard it said
That Life Is Dumb
The Things You Want
Don't-"

His words were cut off by Laverne's embrace, as she ran down the asile to meet him.

"Len," she whispered. "Yer crazy! I can't-"

"Vernie, I ain't gonna let ya marry Fonzie. I love you."

"I love you." The words came from Laverne with such ease that she was stunned. "But, Lenny, Shirl-"

"I don't need you to protect me anymore, Laverne."

She jumped in Lenny's embrace at the appearance of the waterlogged Shirley and Richie in the doorway of the church.

"Shirl, you said we couldn't-"

"It doesn't matter. Lying made everything worse!" Shirley took a deep breath before continuing. "I'm sorry to have deceived you all. To have made your lives worse. But Laverne has been protecting me for too long." She took a deep breath before continuing. "I'm the one who's pregnant."




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