These Kisses, Part 2
By Missy

SERIES: These Kisses
PARTS: Two of Three or perhaps four
RATING: R (Character death and gruesome description thereof, possible language, mature themes, heavy angst)
DISTRIBUTION: To Squeaky, LW, Kai 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. Â 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: L&L/Randy Triangle; Comfort/Tragedy
FEEDBACK: PLEASE?!
SPOILLER/SUMMARY: Laverne must make the most important decision of her life...after she passes away..
NOTES: This might be a wee bit gruesome at times, but I'm ultimately searching for a sense of beauty underneath it all.
****

"You'll have to choose, Laverne." Randy explained.

"Choose?"

"Between," He took a deep breath, "Between me and Lenny."

"Lenny?" She asked, her face becoming a puzzled moue, "What's this gotta do with Lenny?"

"When you...passed away...you left behind a lot of people. Lenny was one of them, and, I'm afraid, the least able to cope with your dying." He shook his head, "I'll give it to you straight, Laverne: If you don't return to Earth, Lenny's going to go off the rails."

"What..."

"First, he's going to become a drunk. Then, he'll start with a little bit of pick pocketing. One day, he'll start to deal drugs. Then, when he hits fifty, the shame of being alone will crash in on him. He'll find the gun your father left behind, the pearl-handled one in his office, and he'll shoot himself in the head."

"Nah!" Laverne denied frantically, "Lenny's a terrific guy; he'd never let anything like that happen to him..."

"Laverne...have you ever wondered why Lenny didn't become, well, more like Squiggy?"

She tilted her head; she'd never considered Squiggy to be as big of a problem as everyone else seemed to find him. "Not really."

Randy took her hands, "It was you."

She stared at him, confused, "Lenny's always liked me a little."

"No, Lenny's always liked you a lot." Randy laughed,. "Probably more than anyone else humanly possible ever could. After his mom left and his sister ran off with that sailor, you were the only woman who meant anything to him left alive. Subsequently, he started to live just to see you every day, to be with you," he stroked her knuckles, "I can't blame him."

"You don't really mean it," Laverne protested, "Lenny isn't just..."

"Living to be good enough to you. Living to be everything you think he is. And be honest; you think he's a great guy."

"But he's always gonna have Squig and Carmine..."

"...they'll leave, just to save themselves." Randy intoned.

She frowned at him, "What kinda bum choice is this? If I don't go back, Len'll kill himself." She looked at him suspiciously, "And what If I do go back?"

"Lenny'll live. He's destined for great things, Laverne, but he just can't do it without someone stronger to guide him along."

Laverne watched Randy's face as he informed her of this, "There's a catch," She said, "What is it?"

"If you do go back...you'll remember what happened to you. Every detail of why you died." He shook his head, "It wasn't pretty, Laverne."

She sighed, "I don't care about that. I know there's somethin' you ain't tellin' me."

Randy knew that there remained no possible way to avoid it; he'd have to tell Laverne the truth. "OK. If you go back to Lenny...when you pass on...we'll never see each other again."

"This can't be real," Laverne moaned, "Why?"

"I'm getting ready to ascend from this plane of reality," Randy explained; she gave him the oddest look, "The big man on this floor wants me for something else. Another duty. If you stay now, maybe I'll be able to take you with me. But when fifty years in real time passes, I'll be long gone, and you'll have to stay there." Laverne stood, helpless and crestfallen before him. "I'll give ya some time alone to think," planting a tiny kiss on her brow, he dissolved.

***

Lenny lay where he'd sprawled himself hours earlier. How many days had gone by? He'd lost count of them, somehow, lost them in a vague haze of liquor.

He heard the door to the apartment open. "Squig, I don't want nothin' ta eat..." He explained again, assuming that his roommate had returned to ply him with more food.

"It ain't Squig, Len," Carmine said. Lenny tried to raise his head in greeting, but every little move made him dizzy.

"Waddya want, Carmine?"

Carmine shuffled around the apartment, explaining quietly, "I've been callin' all day."

"I took tha phone offa the hook." He explained, and obviously didn't have to add why.

Carmine shook his head, "I had to get ridda forty more of them this morning. Anyway, ya gotta get up, Len."

Lenny laughed bitterly, "What for?"

"Cause the services are today."

Lenny sprung up, ignoring the ache in his head, "The what?"

"Services, Len," Explained Carmine, "Laverne's getting buried. Today."

To Part 3

Part 1