Ocean Water
Part Thirteen
By Missy

SERIES: Ocean Water
PART: thirteen of thirteen
Author: Missy
Email: lasfic@yahoo.com
RATING: R (For language, adult themes)
PAIRING(s): L/L

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: L/L; Drama
CANNON/SPOILERS: Alternate post-HTNYT cannon
FEEDBACK: PLEASE?!
SPOILLER/SUMMARY: Laverne's been keeping a secret for the past twenty years.
NOTES: Another one of those weird pieces that come out of nowhere...

***

Shirley Feeney sat where she had every day of her life for the past thirteen years; waiting for Carmine Ragusa to come home..and holding a bottle of vodka.

Laverne tried not to meet her friend's eyes when she said "hello, Shirley."

"Hey, Vernie; want some?"

Laverne's nose curled up. "No thanks." She took a deep breath. "Carmine and I have something to tell you."

"No, we don't. Your best friend here, though, does."

Laverne glared at Carmine, but cleared her throat and continued. "Me and Carmine, we did something...we did something we never shoulda done..."

"What? Did you gamble away my drinkin' money?!"

Laverne winced. "No. Carmine and I...we vode-o-doed. Once. A long, long time ago."

Shirley's glassey eyes stared through her best friend. "No."

"Yes. The summer you were away."

"Yes. And?"

"An...I got pregnant."

Shirley poured herself a shot glass of vodka, then slammed it down.

"Uh-yeah..." Laverne shrugged. "I put the baby up for adoption."

"I see."

"And the baby's dead, now; well, he wasn't when I left him, but he killed himself when he was a teenager."

"That's a shame."

Laverne watched her friend's face. "Don't you have nothin' to say about that?"

"Yes. Carmine, what are we having for dinner?"

Laverne stared in shock, first at Shirley, then at her husband and daughter. Both stood silently in the doorway, unable to speak.

"You don't care? You never cared?"

"Laverne, Carmine's fucked every chorine in New York. I couldn't care less about his indiscretions. Unless you want to have dinner, I suggest you leave."

Laverne nodded, disappearing into the doorway, rushing out beside her husband and daughter.

On the street, she burst into tears.

"I coulda kept him!" She wailed, despondent. "I could've kept him, an' he woulda been FINE!"

"Vernie, no, look at me." Lenny said softly; she calmed instantly. "It was for the best. Ya gotta know it was all for the best."

"Best?! He's dead; there ain't no bringin' him back!"

"You know you couldn'ta kept him, ya know it..." Lenny soothed.

Leah watched her parents silently. The tension she had held within her stayed strong. "Mom, we outa go home."

Home. Leah's words were inspiring. Home sounded like a heaven beyond her reach now.

But they trudged in that direction. Trying to put their broken hearts back together.


To Chapter 12