Severed Time
Part 3
By Missy

SERIES: Severed Time
PART: 2 of ??
RATING: PG-13 (More Later)
PAIRING(s): Lenny/Laverne, Carmine/Shirley
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-Hair Today...
SPOILLER/SUMMARY: Lenny and Laverne's sense of peace is shattered...
NOTES: Some L/L drama.

****

Laverne woke that morning to the sound of rain trickling down the house's gutters. Her other four senses immediately assaulted her with varying messages. She felt contrasting skin textures, recognizing Lenny's gruff texture around her waist versus the pearly hands of her granddaughter clutching her fingertips. The scent of morning breath and the salty taste of tears arrived next.

Turning over against Lenny's embrace, she captured his hazy eyes and smiled. "Morning."

He kissed her lips, nose, and cheeks, in their usual customary fashion. "Morning."

"Gamma?" Natashya rubbed her soft green eyes as she stirred.

"Morning, sweetie." They watched Natashya sit up and crawl down.

"Where ya goin'?" Lenny wondered sleepily.

"Gotta make coffee for mommy." She muttered.

Lenny and Laverne exchanged a glance. "Grown-ups do the cooking here, honey."

"But how's mommy gonna get up?"

"Honey..." Laverne scooped her up. "Remember what we told ya? Your momma isn't gonna come back."

Lenny masked his tears. "But you can stay with us."

The girl contemplated their words for a moment. "But...all the stories...people don't stay dead, do they?"

"I'm afraid so."

The little girl tilted her head. "I wanna go to the bathroom. Momma says that ladies don't go out without their powder."

Exchanging worried glances, Laverne ushered the little girl into the bathroom.

***

"Gin!"

Carmine stared in disbelief. "what? Lemme see!" Natashya tipped her hand in his direction, and he made a face. "Damnit..."

Lenny laughed as he poured another round of coffee for the Teamster's Local 112. "Don't even try it, Carmine. She's whipped me two Christmases straight."

Carmine smirked. "Okay, you win, you win."

Natashya smiled. "May I have some pie?" She asked, her tone wise and firm beyond her years.

"Apple 're blueberry?"

"Apple. Blueberry stains."

Lenny frowned as he cut her a slab and passed it over the counter, where Carmine served her.

"So, I was thinkin' that when yer Gamma comes back from the airport we could go to the park."

"The park? What on Earth for?"

"Well...uh..." Lenny rubbed the back of his head, frowned at the grease gathered in his palm, and then rinsed it quickly. "I thought we could play catch. Ya know, we didn't have a park when we grew up, right, Carmine."

"Yup. Only a lake. A lake filled with dead bod-" He winced. "Sorry."

"Geez, Carmine, why don't ya just tell her about you an' Shirl and yer non-porkin'!"

"Len!"

"What? There 're some things ya don't tell a little kid."

"Yeah? What about dirty rhymes and limericks?"

"That don't count! It's poetry!"

A short, surprised cry drew their attention away from the argument. Lenny swiftly realized Natashya was gone, but as his eyes scanned the restaurant he couldn't find his granddaughter. He turned around and saw her then.

Staring wide-eyed at her hand as a small puddle of blood welled up in the middle of her tiny palm. And a butcher knife clattered to the tiles from her unencumbered hand.


TBC

To Part 2

To Part 4