Shallow Water, Part 9
By Missy



SERIES: Shallow Water
PART: nine of a fic of undetermined length
Author: Missy
Email: HIMH@aol.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.

****

Later, when Squiggy could speak, he was naturally horrified to learn that they had pulled the plug on him.

"Whattya mean?! I was right here th' whole time, an you was gonna let me go into that white light?"

"Ya saw the light, Squig?" Lenny asked, watching Squiggy eagerly shovel down mouthfuls of Jell-O.

"Uh huh." He lowered his spoon and whispered in a conspiratorial voice. "If it's all th' same ta you, Len, I gotta say: God's headlights're too bright."

"Your mouth ta my ears." Lenny smiled.

"Now, Squiggles," announced a voice from the doorway, "it's time for your beauty rest."

Squiggy frowned. "Ronda, my dove, I ain't talked ta Len fer months, an' ya want me ta shut up?"

She crossed the room with a smile and a kiss. "That's right."

Squiggy pouted, but said to Lenny, "Gotta know when to fold 'em, Len."

Lenny smiled, "Uh huh. I'm gonna go try to find Laverne."

"I saw her at the maternity ward window." Rhonda said, without disengaging her gaze from Squiggy's.

Lenny nodded, leaving the room and headed to the third floor with the same dopey grin on his face. He reflected briefly on Squiggy and Rhonda's relationship, which had been going strong before the band set out on tour. She had taken a job in a remote part of California, a remake of Mae West's Klondike Annie, in an attempt to distract her from the loneliness. Weeks had passed before she'd learned of the accident, and though she had left the set immediately, legalities and transportation issues had kept her in the mountains until shooting was completed.

She had been distraught, and devoted, and in that sympathy she and Laverne resembled each other. Lenny found his girlfriend standing in front of the nursery, watching the squirming infants with a fascinated expression. She didn't flinch against his hand when it found its place on her shoulder.

"Yer walk's getting' better." She noticed.

He nodded. "Not gonna need this cane too much longer."

"Good." She nuzzled his shoulder.

"Eh, it's practice fer when I become a grandpa." His eyes lingered meaningfully over her abdomen, and she blushed.

"Len..." She paused thoughtfully. "We gotta start talking about what we're gonna do when the baby comes..."

"That's easy!" He smiled. "We're gonna go someplace safe, an' we're gonna buy a house."

She nibbled her lower lip. "I was hopin' for somethin' more stable than that..."

Lenny shook his head. "Ya know what ya told me..that ya didn't wanna get married."

Her hand snaked up his chest, gently stroking his lower lip. "Things change, Len."

"Like?"

"Like me almost losin' ya. Like you almost dyin'." She wrapped her arms around him tightly. "I don't wanna lose ya, Len. I want ta stay with you."

He kissed the crown of her head. "I wanna be with ya too, Laverne."

"I think I can help the two of you with that."

The intimacy of the moment was wrecked, and the twosome looked up into the face of a leisure-suited professional with dark hair and oily, smudged spectacles.

"Harry?"

"Lenny, my friend, it's been too long."

Laverne frowned. "Who invited yer agent?"

"Squig. I think he wanted to talk about the band." Lenny smiled. "Sorry, visiting hour's're over."

"But Lenny, baby, we've got something to talk about!" He handed Lenny a copy of Cashbox, opened to the pop album chart.

Lenny blinked at what sat before him. "Uh-uh!"

"It's true." Harry smiled, tucking his hands into his bright orange pockets. "The Squiggtones are the top act in the country."

"But Jeez...what lousy timin'!"

"Not necessarily. You could go back on the road, when Squiggy's healed up."

Laverne shook her head, answering for the both of them. "No."


TBC!



To Part 8

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