So Close
By Missy

SERIES: Goosebumps!
SUBSERIES: Close
PART: one of one parts for this arc
Author: Missy
Email: lasfic@yahoo.com
RATING: G
PAIRING(s): L/L; S/C; S/R

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: Epic Drama
CANNON/SPOILERS: Pre-Reunion Show Cannon; set five years after the series' conclusion.
FEEDBACK: PLEASE?!
SPOILLER/SUMMARY: Shirley faces an unpleasant reality; Squiggy and Rhonda find their restaurant.
NOTES: The first of one chapters in the eighteenth portion to this series. For previous chapters, see the Goosebumps! Section at LAS Fic or The Look.

No L/L in this chapter.

***

"There will be other children, Mrs. Ragusa."

Shirley stared blankly at the ceiling. Her doctor continued to murmur about precautions and watching out for her stitches, but she couldn't muster the energy to keep her mind focused on the task at hand.

She had experienced cramping at around mid-day, had called a cab and made it to the free ward. There was nothing that the doctor could do; something about a spontaneous miscarriage.

And she wouldn't allow them to call Carmine. He was in the middle of rehearsals, and disturbing him would only make things worse.

They put her on painkillers, sent her home. When Veenie returned home that afternoon she roboticly made her macaroni and cheese.

When Veenie said that her school project would be to make a family tree, she burst into tears and locked herself in the bedroom.

***

"And this, my dove, is where I whiled away my innocent youth."

Something about the grimy surfaces and darkened surroundings made Rhonda clutch Moth closer to her chest. "This is Mister DeFazio's old restaurant?"

"Yep!" He slapped the counter, sending up a cloud of dust. "Turns out her cousin's finally getting out of the restaurant business. He signed off on it, the bank's willing to give us a lone, and everything! All we need is Mister DeFazio to sign off on the place!"

"And how's he going to do this?"

"Over the phone." He pointed to a dusty pay phone in the corner that seemed clearly out-of-service. Rhonda yearned to explain to her husband that it would never ring...until it shocked her silent by doing so. With confidence, Squiggy answered. "Hello? Yeah, Jay, it's Andy Squiggman....Ouch! Don't scream like that in my ear, ya could disrupt my sense a' smell...yeah? But we can afford it!" He frowned. "Jay, I'd take real good care a' the place. Where did I go to cookin' school? The US Army! What? Okay..." He handed the phone to his wife. "He wants ta talk ta you..."

"Hello? Why yes, of course, Mister DeFazio...Yes, I will watch over Andrew...Of course. And yes, we are serious." A pause. Slowly, she smiled. "Thank you, sir. That's right, the Realtor's office. Goodnight."

"What?" Squiggy asked.

"It's all ours." She grinned.

And she was happy about it. Well, at least she believed she was.

***

"Angelface? Come out of your room, Angelface..."

Shirley curled up against her pillow, muffling her tears.

"I saw the pills...baby, it's not your fault."

But she felt, invariably, that it was.

"There'll be other babies."

"I DON'T WANT ANOTHER BABY!" She screamed. "I wanted OUR baby."

"I know, I know..."

"It's my fault!"

"Let me in, Shirl..."

He jimmied the lock, found her lying there alone, curled against the pillow.

"Shirley...I'm sorry."

"Why can't I have another baby, Carmine?"

"Maybe...we should just be grateful that we have Veenie."

"But I am...is it a sin to want more?"

"No." He pulled her into his arms. "It's never a sin to want more love."

And in the rain-spattered night, they wept.




To Chapter One of "Your Fist, Like a Knife In My Nose"
To Chapter One of "All I Learned From Love"











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