SERIES:  Sing of Your Wonder

PART: 1 of 1

RATING:  R (Character death, suicidal themes, consumed cats)

PAIRING(s): L/L (?)

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CATEGORY: Sci-Fi, Tragedy

FEEDBACK: PLEASE?!

SETTING IN TIMELINE:   AU universe post-show.

SPOILLER/SUMMARY: “Sometimes Your Heart Bursts At Its Seams" (LaverneLenny.  The world is over, but love begins.)

NOTES:  A contribution for the End Of The World Challenge.

***

 “Up to the rafters, up through the plaster, up through the highest beams I will sing of your wonder in a voice like thunder.  Sometimes your heart bursts at its seams.” – Girlyman, Reva Thereafter

***

She was fine, now that the prayers had been said.  She had prepared herself for this day.  Shirley would have been honored, because in the last hours of her life Laverne DeFazio had done her the greatest honor she could – she acted in her stead.  Laverne couldn’t thank her.  The phone lines had been cut, and she couldn’t say goodbye to her dearest friend.  Shirley was fine, as long as she believed it - with her son and her husband – the truest loves of her life. 

Carmine was in New York – New York was part of the ocean.  He knew how to swim.

Her Pop was in the rose garden, dead of a heart attack four days after the first earthquake.  She had left him with a rosary.  It was all she could do for him.

Rhonda had gone mad and shot Squiggy.  Andrew would have been thrilled that the last moments of his life were spent clutched against a woman’s bosom.  Lenny had blown Rhonda away for revenge.  They interred them beside Frank.

It was all they could do for them.

The food ran out.  The water was dirty.  The first tidal wave struck and took out San Francisco.

They caught a cat and roasted it over a pile of old newspapers.  That was when she showed him the bottle of blood pressure medicine she’d taken off of her Pop’s dying body.

You know, he said, taking one, I’ve always been crazy about you, Laverne.

I’ve always been crazy about you, too, she admitted, taking two.

Nice time to tell me. He said, lying down on the bed, closing his eyes.

Hey, I thought I had time.  Who thought the world would end. She did the same, handing him his rosary.

President Nixon.  That’s why he had a bunker built in the basement of the White House. He yawned and handed hers over.

The White House was in the ocean, too.  They bowed their head and began with the Our Father, until they were too tired to do anything but sleep.

She woke up and he wasn’t breathing.

Her last act was to take the last of the clean water and bathed his pale ivory body.  She was amazed by his body – somehow beautiful if emaciated – the pinks and pales of his vulnerability.  His ears were pink seashells and his hands were long, strong flippers.

You’re beautiful.  You’re a beautiful, beautiful man, in every single way.

I love you.  I’m sorry we waited.

Can you hear me, Len?

Carefully, she slicked back his hair, changed him into his tee-shirt, jeans and jacket, then crawled into his arms, all the time humming ‘The Look’.  She kissed his lips, then replaced them with Squiggy’s security revolver….one bullet left.   Had to make it count.

***

…And she was running up the hill, into the red and blue of a beautiful sunset.  The land was littered with picnic blankets and happy, laughing people, but the one she wanted to see the most waited at the very peak.

She kissed him before they touched hands.

The world was filled with symphonic music, guitars, gentle hands, and applause.  She opened her eyes and he was smiling at her.

“What took you so long?”