Shallow Water, Part 8
By Missy



SERIES: Shallow Water
PART: eight of a fic of undetermined length
Author: Missy
Email: lasfic@yahoo.com
RATING: PG-13 (This part), for dramatic angst.
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: Humor, SOL, Horror, Drama, L/L
CANNON/SPOILERS: California era. Hippie-era, pre Altamont.
FEEDBACK: PLEASE?!
SPOILLER/SUMMARY: Laverne accompanies Lenny on his first ever professional music tour...and then tragedy strikes.
NOTES: Just a little fluff piece I came up with out of nowhere.

****

"I ain't gonna do it!"

Laverne stood firm at the end of the apparatus. "I ain't goin' anywhere, Len." She cheerfully pointed out. "And neither 're you."

"She's right, mister Kosnowski." Said a white-coated physical therapist, in a cheerful tone. "You'll have to walk, one way or the other."

Lenny grimaced and his torso ached as though it were on fire. He glared at Laverne, who continued to grin pertly at him. She had recovered nicely from her concussion, and already her fingers were healing. It gave her a good excuse to nag him.

Gingerly, he made his first step. Then another. And another, until he rested against Laverne.

"Great job, Len!" She smiled, coddling him.

His expression was wan. "I gotta go back toward the door."

"Oh, that's enough for the day, Mister Kosnowski." The therapist handed him a towel, which he weakly mopped his forehead with. "I trust your girlfriend can get you back to the room?"

Laverne nodded. "Sure thing, doc."

She smiled warmly before leaving Lenny and Laverne to their devices.

"Told ya you could do it." Laverne smiled.

Lenny guffhawed. "Oh yeah; it's easy ta do, when yer not me!"

She gifted him with a kiss. "I gotta get ya back to bed." She pulled his wheelchair over. "Sit!"

Lenny pouted, but did as she requested. "Vernie?" He asked as they left the room.

"Mmm?"

"I wanna go see Squig."

She stopped.

"Uh, Laverne, we ain't movin'..."

"I know...Len, ya remember when we was little? An' yer turtle died?"

"Yeah...I shouldn'ta put my initials on 'im..."

"Well...yer folks didn't tell ya..."

"You mean someone put their initials on Squig?! I'll murder 'em!"

"No!!" She took a deep breath. "I been lyin' to ya, Len."

Lenny froze, and guilt swamped Laverne. Lying to Lenny Kosnowski was about the worst thing she could have done. Something she knew from experience.

"Squig's in a coma. He's on life support." The words droned from her mouth in an unfamiliar tone. "I'm sorry, Len, I'm so..."

"How could ya do that to me? I HATE lies!" He snapped. "But ta Squig! He wouldn't wanna live on no machines!"

"He's in there, Len! Ya don't understand; I can't just let 'im DIE..."

"Maybe him bein' dead would be better. Ever think a' that?"

Laverne shrunk, embarrassed. She had considered Squiggy's options, but perhaps she hadn't thought of what he would want. Maybe she had been thinking only to preserve him for Lenny.

"I wanna see him. Take me there."

Even though she suspected that he wouldn't be strong enough, Laverne complied.

The tears that occurred upon their arrival in the room confirmed this.

"Squig..." Lenny said quietly, as she moved him toward the bed. Lenny reached out and touched his best friend's hand.

In silence, she listened as Lenny poured his heart out; about the baby. About the accident, and how sorry he was that Squiggy had fallen on his head.

"This was his dream, Laverne." He said abruptly, turning to her. Then he continued on with his talk to Squiggy's lifeless form.

Hours passed before he finally signed the form to disconnect Squiggy's ventilator. At five in the evening, they did so.

But Squiggy's stubborn heart beat on. And four minutes later, he opened his eyes.


TBC!



To Part 7

To Part 9