Weeds Between Graves
Part One
By Missy

SERIES: Weeds Between Graves
PART: 1 of ??
RATING: PG-13 (Adult themes and materials)
PAIRING(s): Lenny/Laverne; Squiggy/Shirley
DISTRIBUTION: To LW, Kai, Myself 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. 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: Drama
FEEDBACK: PLEASE?!
SETTING IN TIMELINE: Milwaukee cannon, late-season five.
SPOILLER/SUMMARY: Lenny and Laverne find themselves tools of the Big Good, though they're not entirely comfortable with their mission...
NOTES: In which I steal myth arch from "Joan of Arcadia" and "One Life To Live". Don't worry, I only sort of joke ;-).

Inspired at least in part by the Hootie and The Blowfish song "Running From An Angel". Mostly because Shirley must deal with her daddy issues at some point in her life. And it sounds like a sea chantey.

***

She felt strange.

Not a good sort of strange. Like something was wrong. Like she had been walking for days.

Her clothing was ripped, as though they had been chopped with scissors. That seemed wrong. She couldn't remember anything bad happening to her.

Realization came to her in dizzying waves. The plant...there had been an explosion...

She felt dizzy, and sat down.

"It's all gone." She looked down at her own hands. "Why can I see right through my hands?"

Somewhere in the distance, she heard a song being sung, dimly, not like a dirge. She forced herself to stand and that was when she realized what she had been roaming through.

A graveyard.

She suppressed a scream, not even knowing if she could be heard. She got up, staggering, running in the direction of the singing.

Normally, she would have been relieved to see Lenny. But that 'appearing out of nowhere' thing definitely took some getting used to.

"Ha! I got ya, Laverne!" He declared, standing over her prone form.

"Len, help me up!" He gave her his hand, and then hefted her into a standing position. "Boy, ya think you'd be lighter now that yer decreased!"

She elbowed him, pleased that it caused the same paroxysm of pain it would usually do, were he alive. "Will ya stop that?"

"I was just tryin' ta lighten the mood." He pointed out. Frankly, she couldn't really disagree with his idea. He started walking, and she followed.

"Len, how long have ya know that yer...uh..."

"Decreased?"

"That's the one."

"I dunno. The sun was up when I came to." It was pitch-black at the moment, but she could make Lenny out in the dim light. His clothing, too, was ragged.

"Len, how did it happen?"

He thought for a moment, as hard as he could think. "They said somethin' about one of the vats blowing. We were in the break room, an'..." He paused, guiltily. "Promise ya won't hit me."

"Nah."

"Okay...I kinda threw myself over ya. To protect ya."

"And we still both bought it?"

"Yup."

She thought upon this for a moment, and then said, "at least ya died happy."

"I did!"

She felt him reach for her hand, but pulled her own away. Other, more pertinent thoughts were plaguing her now. "Shirl! What happened to her?"

"Ya think I know? All I been thinking about is Squig..."

He hated the panic in her eyes as she groaned, "we've gotta do something, Len."

"You're not gonna do anything yet."

They both spun on their heels, meeting the calm, even stare of a little girl. She was about six, with dark brown hair, and darker, piercing eyes, and wearing a formal white dress with blue ballet slippers.

Laverne smiled, "uh, hi." Then out of the corner of her mouth to Lenny, "she can see us, Len!"

"Hi," He waved lamely to the girl, and then, aside to Laverne, "Maybe she's a medium or somethin'!"

"Will ya stop talking about food?"

"Don't worry; I'm a ghost, just like you."

They both sighed. "Poor kid, how did you die?"

"Well, I haven't, not yet. I'm actually an emmesary."

Lenny grabbed Laverne tightly. "Don't take her ta hell! Take me! I looked at Squig's French postcards one time an'...."

"No, no. I'm an emissary from heaven."

"You're an angel?" Laverne whispered.

"Yes, ma'am." She rested her tiny hands, folded, on the front of your dress.

"I should've noticed. Kids your age don't talk that good."

"I'm technically over a thirty years old," she shrugged. "I have a message to send the two of you. It seems that you were taken before your time. You have to take care of something for the Big Good, together, as a team. If you do as he bids, the rewards will be great. If you don't, you end up in the between forever." She gestured around her. "In the in-between, there's nothing. Not life or the illusion of it. You'll have each other...for the two of you, that might be something." Lenny's expression filled with a painful self-awareness, but Laverne didn't seem to understand. "But I don't think you'd like it."

"What do we have to do?" Laverne asked.

"I will guide you. There's one central mission, but there are a few things that key into that." She held out her hands. "Come with me."

"Do you think this is a good idea, Len?" Laverne asked, but she was already stretching her hand out.

"If you do." He said.

**

In a sudden bleeding of light and sound, they found themselves standing on a plain, wooden-planked floor.

"Carmine's studio?" Laverne mumbled.

"It is." The girl said. "Your first mission is to break up your friends Carmine and Shirley. Open the closet door to see why. Good luck."

She disappeared, leaving Laverne and Lenny staring blankly at the space she had vacated.

"She's kidding. It's some kinda trick..." Laverne said. "that'd crush Shirl..."

"Let's open the door to see."

"You do it."

Lenny shrugged, and simply jerked the door wide open.

Laverne's jaw dropped. Lenny bit his palm.

Carmine peered over the shoulder of a very leggy, blonde dancer. "Damn wind," he mumbled, and closed the door with his foot.




TBC

To Chapter 2