Lauren's Season Nine Continued!
Emotional Escrow
By Missy

SERIES: Lauren's Season Nine, Continued!
CHAPTER TITLE: Emotional Escrow
PART: 1 of 14, Episode 1, Pt.2 of 2
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.

****

Laverne arrived at eight sharp to Edna's apartment, mostly because Lenny had forcibly told her to get the baby while he and Squiggy picked up dinner. She found her dandling a giggling Tommy upon her knee, chuckling happily.

Laverne's smile was overtly tense and Edna instantly felt her anger. "He was a good boy today."

"Thanks, Edna." She bounced Tommy against her hip. "How's the new place?"

Edna gestured to her half-filled apartment, the knickknacks and trunks half-packed. "Coming together, but not fast enough."

"Edna..." She started nervously. "I got something to ask you."

"Yes?"

"Did you sell Pop's shares in the restaurants without asking me?"

Edna's shoulders stiffened. The silence told Laverne everything she needed to know. "If ya didn't want it anymore, why didn't you sell to me?"

"I need to make some part of my money back. Keeping Amy in her group home, the move, your father's funeral; it was incredibly expensive!"

"Pop spent his whole life building that place up so we could share it, and ya try and sell me under."

"It's so easy for you! Your kid's young, and healthy. You're not old enough to have to worry about retiring."

"But you have the building." Tommy began weeping as Laverne's voice turned higher. "You can sell Cowboy Bills, but you ain't getting your hands on the Pizza Bowl."

"You have no interest in running a restaurant! In fact, you TRIED to run a restaurant and fell on your face!"

Laverne bit down on her bottom lip. "If you weren't someone I respected, I'd hit ya square in the mouth, Edna."

"If that's how you feel about me, find someone else to watch your child!"

"Fine! But don't even THINK of asking me to sign away my half of the restaurant!"

"Fine!"

The slamming of the door only punctuated the wailing of Laverne's son.

***

Carmine leafed through Shirley's photo album, while she picked through her dinner. She had kept it hidden, pressed in the folds of her second wedding gown in a steamer trunk for months, and Carmine was therefore unsurprised to see so many photos of Davy's early months.

"He's a cute kid, Shirl; he's got your smile and everything." Carmine laughed to himself, scratching at the dimples in the picture.

Shirley smiled softly. She could see that Carmine was only trying to make the idea of her son a welcome one in their marriage. "He got my eyes, too."

Carmine replaced the album to their coffee table. "If you want me to get us a lawyer, I can. Laverne knows a couple of guys in New York..."

Her blood ran cold. "I know about them. I don't think it's necessary to involve...unnecessary force."

"Anything you want, Shirl." He said, scooting more closely to her. "I'll get for you."

"Thank you, Carmine." He kissed her cheek and began to 'slyly' slide his mouth to the right when the bell rang.

"I'll get it." Shirley mumbled, pushing Carmine away from her. He frowned at her, eyebrows knitting together as he tried to right a tipped container of Chinese food. "You don't have to take a cold shower."

He smirked. "Maybe I should."

Shirley chuckled to herself as she opened the door. "Laverne?"

"Hey; I was wonderin' if..."

"Chinese food!" Lenny cried, carrying Tommy into the room and plunking down beside Carmine, then reaching for the takeout with his free hand.

"We'll pay ya back." Laverne half-apologized. "I wanted to talk to ya alone."

Shirley nodded. "The bedroom's that way..." Her eyes widened as she followed Laverne into the bedroom.

Laverne held out a negligee and laughed aloud. "I guess Shirley 'whoopee' Ragusa's in town, eh?"

Shirley sniffed and raised her chin, snatching it from Laverne's hands. "You're just jealous."

"Nah. I got these in red. And Len thinks they're pretty irresistible."

Laverne plopped down on the bed, giggling the entire time as Shirley scurried around, trying to tuck away the outfit she'd prepared for her bedtime.

"I'm sorry about the food; me an' Len ate with Squig an hour ago, but Len's always hungry."

"That's all right. Why are you here, Vernie? It can't be about shopping."

Laverne sighed. "I've got something I gotta say. You and Carmine don't need me at the studio. The place moves real good without me."

"Are you trying to tell me that you want to quit?"

"Yeah. But I got a proposal for ya, too."

"Oh?"

"Edna wants to sell the Pizza Bowl, and I ain't gonna let her do it. Do you wanna go in as partners?"

"Laverne, the last time we tried that I ended up being pinched to death!"

"But it'll be different! We'll just keep on everyone Pop hired, and run everything ourselves."

"Bachelor Party." Shirley said flatly.

"So we won't take extra business from Fonzie!"

"Laverne, I have one business, and one is more than enough."

Laverne sniffed. "So you're gonna turn on me too?"

"What's the 'too' part of it?"

"Edna and me are fighting. I wanna take the business back over because she wanted to sell it!"

"Laverne! Of all the people you could argue with!"

"So? Edna ain't mean or petty!"

And, as if by magic, the power went out in the apartment.







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