Lauren's Season Nine Continued!
Emotional Escrow
By Missy
SERIES: Lauren's Season Nine, Continued!
CHAPTER TITLE: Emotional Escrow
PART: 1 of ??, Episode 1, Pt.1
RATING: PG(Adult thematic material)
PAIRING(s): L/L; S/C; S/R (Possible)
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: Drama
FEEDBACK: PLEASE?!
SETTING IN TIMELINE: Post-Cali
CONTINUATION: Of Lauren's Season Nine
SPOILLER/SUMMARY: Laverne must deal with possibly selling the Pizza Bowl, and Shirley begins missing her son.
NOTES: Thank you to Lauren for letting me continue her established continuity.
****
"And Step one two STEP two three..."
Laverne watched her class of ten year olds trip over one another, desperately trying to maintain a sense of gravity as they tripped across the floor.
"Okay, okay...stop!"
They all turned toward her, expecting something wise to come from her mouth. She shrugged lamely.
"Start from the top."
From the back of the room, a somewhat audible sigh echoed. Laverne glanced over her shoulder and watched Shirley pick up the needle and place it back onto the record.
As Laverne rapidly tapped her way through the routine, and her class tried to keep pace with her, she tried to remember what day it was.
She came up short suddenly, sucking in a deep breath. How had her life become so routine that she no longer recalled the day?
"Laverne? Did you twist something?"
She looked up to see Shirley hovering over her.
"Nah...Nah, I'm okay..." The children stared at her in muted alarm. "Okay...a one, and a two..."
***
"Ask me how my day was!"
Laverne leaned backward, viewing a beaming but upside-down image of her husband as he all-but danced across their living room. "How was your day, Lenny?"
"Terrific! Fonzie let me overhaul the chassis of a '56 Chevy!"
It was Greek to Laverne, but since Lenny seemed to be thrilled, she listened attentively.
"How was everything at Marjorie Wards'?"
Laverne shrugged. "The same."
"You don't sound excited."
"I ain't."
Lenny frowned. "If ya don't like it there, Vernie, you can always come work for me and Fonzie..."
The idea of crawling through the greasy chassis of a car didn't quite appeal to Laverne. "No, thanks." She sighed. "You ever feel like a third wheel, Len?"
"Yeah. When I used to go out with just you and Shirl."
She winced, but recovered. "Spendin' all day in that studio with Carmine and Shirley makes me feel like one. They work real good together."
"But you and her worked at the Brewery.."
"This ain't Shotz, Len. For one, you ain't there."
He flopped down on the couch. "Oh yeah? You miss me?"
"Yeah." She smiled. Climbing over his knees and straddling his lap, she added, "Especially in the afternoon..." She leaned in to kiss him.
Lenny opened a suspicious eye and pushed her gently away. "Where's the kid?"
"With Edna." She tried to pull him down into another kiss.
"She's back in town?" Lavene nodded.
"Yep; there wasn't much to tie her down in California."
Lenny nodded, too abashed to bring up the memory of Frank DeFazio, with whom he hadn't properly reconciled.
"Len, why're you staring at me like I got two heads?"
"HELLO!" The door slammed open. Squiggy took a second to gawk appreciatively at Laverne as she crawled off of Lenny's lap. "Mail calll!"
"Squig, whatt're you doin' with our mail?" Laverne wondered.
"Because, Miss so-and-sos, they dumped this on MY doorstep." Squiggy tossed a package at Lenny, which landed with a thud onto his stomach.
Laverne picked up the package and started to open it. She stopped cold when she realized what it was.
"Vernie? You look like you seen a ghost."
"Hey, I ain't surprised; it is sorta dusty in here..." Squiggy noted.
"Yeah, I ain't exactly been helpin' out...Vernie..."
"I can't do it, Len." She said, standing up. "I can't do it..."
As she rushed out of the room, Lenny picked up the folder.
"What's got her pantyhose in a bunch?" Squiggy wondered.
Sadness took over Lenny's expression as he returned the files to the couch.
"Cowboy Bills and The Pizza Bowl; Edna found someone to buy them. These're papers for Laverne to sign away her half."
***
Shirley let out a sigh as she finished polishing yet another vase in her meticulously kept apartment. She flopped down on the couch in relief.
Carmine thudded into the room with containers of Chinese takeout. "Mr. Woo says hello."
Shirley smiled. "He always tells you to say hello to me. Maybe he has a little crush?"
Carmine smiled at Shirley's sense of self-flattery. "Oh yeah. I think he has a thing for my Angelface."
As Carmine joked, he watched Shirley's eyes drift southward. She was staring at the blue ribbon he'd tied around his wrist.
"Oh, I put that there so I'd remember to get the new Calypso Fever album."
Shirley's eyes had flooded with tears. "Shirl, are you okay?"
"When David was born, I got a bunch of balloons tied in blue string." Shirley whimpered.
Carmine paused, amazed. Shirley hadn't mentioned her son out loud before. "I thought you didn't miss him."
She shook her head. "That's just what I told everyone, to make myself feel better. Walter kept David in the divorce, and he wouldn't let me see him."
"You've been in pain this whole time and didn't tell me?!"
"I didn't even tell Laverne!"
Carmine slowly shook his head in disbelief.
"I'm only telling you now because..." She gulped. "I think I want my son back."
Go On