Make It Easier
Chapter Three
By Missy

SERIES: Goosebumps!
SUBSERIES: Make It Easier
PART: three of four parts for this arc
Author: Missy
Email: lasfic@yahoo.com
RATING: PG-13 (For language, anatomical references)
PAIRING(s): L/L; S/C; S/R

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
CANNON/SPOILERS: Pre-Reunion Show Cannon; set five years after the series' conclusion.
FEEDBACK: PLEASE?!
SPOILLER/SUMMARY: Laverne and Lenny get caught up in the romantic atmosphere of Europe, which has the usual consequences for a couple in love. Laverne also discovers a hidden talent. Squiggy and Rhonda prepare for the birth of their first child, while Shirley and Carmine try to hold on to the one they already have.
NOTES: The second chapter in the tenth portion to this series. For previous chapters, see the Goosebumps! Section at LAS Fic or The Look.

***

One Month Later

"Come on, kid; make it easy on me."

Moth's dark eyes glared right through him, and, with the stubbornness only a new born could manage, she nudged aside the bottle, letting out a wail of disapproval.

"Aww, Geez...Rhonda?"

His wife, her face a pale mask, stared blankly at her own palm.

"RHONDA!"

She sprang to attention, tears in her eyes. "What?"

"The kid won't take a bottle. She's screamin' at me! Take her!"

Rhonda shrank back. "Oh no."

"Yes! Come on! I been takin' care of this kid forever! You're the mama! You do it!"

"I can't!" She shivered.

"Do it!"

"No!!"

Squiggy grumbled, carrying the kid out of the room. She finally took the bottle, though she seemed rather biter that her victory ploy had been in vain.

It would be another night up, another night with his kid screaming, needing her mom, the one person he couldn't seem to bring around. For the first time in his life, he felt as though he were breaking up.

Out of desperation, he picked the phone up....

***

"Go fish!"

Shirley smiled as she watched Veenie's joyful game. Walter smiled, rocking back on his heels.

"By george, Veenie, you've beat me again!" He winked at Shirley in his old, genial manner.

In moments like these, Shirley could recall what had attracted her to Walter in the first place. His goofy manner, his sweetness. Their marriage was irreparable now, but that one meeting at Parent's Night had helped heal wounds. The following week, he had the custody suit dismissed, on the agreement that he would get visitation at least twice a week.

So this corner of her life was settled; he had even forgiven her for draining their mutual account. Her job situation remained cloudy, and she only knew that she didn't want to remain a secretary for the rest of her life.

There had to be something better for her to do, besides pull down a steady pay check every week. At least Carmine was allowed to experience adventure.

As though she had conjured him, he pushed through the doorway, sweats under his arm and a cheerful smile on his lips.

"Baby, I've got news...Oh, hey, Walter."

Walter, engrossed in a game with Veenie, waved his hand.

"What is it?" She wasn't quite as irked as she should be to have Carmine address her as 'baby'.

"Guess who's the new Danny Zucko in 'Grease'?"

"Robert Goulet!"

"Shirley!"

She embraced him, meeting his cheek with a warm kiss. "You can't fool me, Carmine."

"Understatement." He teased. "Okay, I'll get dinner going!"

"What dinner? We're celebrating at-"

The phone began burring away, and Shirley tore herself away from the family with a groan.

"Hello? Squiggy, this isn't the...what? Oh, the poor baby...No, I can't come there, Squiggy, I have a job...But maybe...do you have enough to get you to New York? No, babies fly free. And you can bring Rhonda, of course. Only if you pay your own way...I am not being mean! Things are hard-pressed here, too. Okay, tomorrow...I'll be there after I pick up Veenie from school. Bye."

She turned to meet the quizzical gazes of her family. "Rhonda has a chemical imbalance, and Squiggy can't take care of Moth by himself. I agreed to help out until she's back on an even keel."

Carmine and Walter shared a baleful look. They both knew better than to argue with Shirley over the subject of babies, anyone's babies.

Veenie had no such qualms. "But how can they afford to come here? My teacher said gas costs a billion dollars."

"Honey, we're in a gas shortage, not a crises."

"I'll disagree with that." Walter snorted.

Shirley shook her head. "I'd appreciate a little support. Especially from you and..." He nose wrinkled. "Sun-Kim."

"We'll watch her whenever you need us."

Veenie just sat down, frowning at Carmine, who looked away in discomfort. He had the distinct feeling that the girl would, somehow, manage to blame him. That, after all, was her new favorite thing.

"Well! That pizza's not going to buy itself. And I just got my first paycheck, so who's up for some ice cream?" He said cheerfully.

Veenie's enthusiastic reaction lessened any possible blow she might try to deliver to his ego. Walter was already in the process of backing away when his wife suggested, in her most saccharine voice, that perhaps he could come with them.

He decided to give the bum some charity. It would be good practice for Squiggy's return.

***

"Italy!"

Lenny couldn't resist smiling himself at the words on the poster. His wife had made the place sound like a paradise of cobblestone streets and rich, verdant fields. Sure, everything she knew came from postcards and pictures her father had shown her. He was still sure that it'd be paradise, after trekking through twelve European countries in four weeks on a publicity tour.

Leather flopped down beside him. "Hey, Len, you know the chords to 'Everyday'? The Holly song?"

"Do I?"

"Think we could turn it into a rocker?"

He frowned. "I ain't one for switichin' around arrangements."

She smiled. "You don't think Buddy was all for experimenting?"

"Uh..." He shrugged. "Okay. You get the results of your test?"

"Yep. No diseases, no 'detrus', whatever that means."

Lenny nibbled his lip nervously. They were waiting in a customs office for a batch of blood tests the crew had taken, mandatory procedure for exiting and entering countries on such a regular basis. He had so many needle pricks on his arm that he was starting to look like a heroin addict.

The results had come back quickly for everyone but himself and Laverne. The entire process was making him antsy.

"Missus Kosnowski."

"She's in the bathroom, I'm her husband." Lenny had stuffed his hand into the fist of the very Prussian doctor. "Uh, what's wrong? You gotta tell me first, cause I ain't gonna be in any shape to help if I know when she does."

"I'm sorry. Doctor-patient confidentiality..." He broke into a sudden smile. "Just make sure that she drinks much milk over the next eight months, daddy."

"But she don't like milk, unless ya moosh it up with Pep-" His jaw dropped. "'Daddy'?"

"Don't tell her I told you first!"

Laverne stumbled out of the bathroom, green-faced. "I'm sorry, Len. I think it's food poisionin'."

"Vernie...did ya know you're pregnant?"

Her eyes widened, "what?"

"Mister Kosnoski, we don't recommend one just...SAY such things..."

"It's true, ain't it?"

"Well, yes. Congratulations."

But Laverne only burst into tears. "It can't be true! I ain't ready!"



To Part 2

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