SERIES: Woman 'Cross The River

PART: 6 of 6

RATING: PG (Adult thematic material, language, adult content)

PAIRING(s): L/L

DISTRIBUTION: To LW, 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"

 

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CATEGORY: Drama

FEEDBACK: PLEASE?!

SETTING IN TIMELINE: Includes canon up to "The Cruise" - roughly six years later.  This fic is set in 1965.

SPOILLER/SUMMARY: Laverne meets an unforgiving ghost on her summer vacation.

 

***

 

Laverne wanted peace.  She wanted to bury the past completely - and she knew that if she didn't have this talk with Shirley, it would never be so.  "All right," she said.  "Len?  Can you check on the kids?"

 

He glared at Shirley.  "Scream if you need me."  He carefully disengaged their bodies and headed for the house.

 

Quite suddenly, the best friends were alone for the first time in years.

 

Laverne finally spoke. "You have fifteen minutes to explain yourself."

 

Shirley took a deep breath.  "I'm sorry.  I never wanted to lose you as a best friend.  I never wanted to lose you period - and I hope we can be friends again."

 

"Now you need me?  You're a navy wife - don't you have navy wife friends?  Or does Mark make passes at them too?"

 

"Mark and I have separated."

 

"You finally wised up?"

 

"No, Laverne - I never 'wise up'.  I found him in bed with our daughter's babysitter," Shirley bit her lower lip, trying not to cry. 

 

"Do you believe me now?" Laverne asked.  "Now that it's too late?"

 

"I believe he's capable of it," Shirley admitted.  "But you could have gone to the police!"

 

"That's the part I never told anyone - not even Lenny.  I went to Norman two days after we docked - to see if I could sue.  He told me that, thanks to my reputation, the case 'hinged on morality' - my word against his.  I'd believe you, Laverne, but a jury probably wouldn't."

 

"But you could have called Lenny as a witness!"

 

"Too close to the case.  They could have dragged up our relationship.  So I gave him my dress as evidence.  When I called him to end our relationship, he said he meant to call me - someone in the evidence locker lost it.  I had one hope left - that big bloodstain Rick left on the floor of our cabin.  Norman told me that he would try to match the blood samples by type.  But when he sent a unit on the ship, the stain had been bleached out."  Laverne closed her eyes.  "Your husband is loyal to his crew.  That's one nice thing I'll say about him."

 

"I'm so sorry," Shirley whispered. 

 

"You always follow your heart," Laverne said.  "Why did you have to follow it this time, Shirl?  Why didn't you have faith in me?"

 

"Because I thought I was in love.  I let that overpower all of my instincts.  You know what that's like - you're married to Lenny."

 

A small smile crossed Laverne's face.  "I think friendship is the strongest kind of love.  At least that's what I tell myself when I see Squiggy sitting at my dinner table every Saturday night."

 

"You eat dinner with Squiggy regularly?  Times do change."

 

"For the better."

 

"Laverne?"

 

"Mmm."

 

"I miss you a lot more than I miss Mark.  Can you ever forgive me?"

 

"That'll take time," Laverne said casually, enjoying having the ball in her court.  "But I don't see why our girls can't spend time together."

 

"Serena will be delighted!  She misses her friends on the West Coast so..." 

 

The two women walked back toward their rented houses - toward Lenny, who waited on the shore for his wife  "Shirl?"

 

"Yes?"

 

"Do you think friendship is the strongest love?"

 

Shirley nodded her head.  "I didn't before.  But now I do."

 

 

**

 

As Emmy and Dominick slept, their bellies filled with hot dogs and cola, Laverne stared through the sliding door, mulling over the day's events.

 

"Here you go," said Lenny, as he handed her a mug of steaming coffee.

 

"Mmm..." she took a long, satisfying draught fromt the mug.  She had married wisely - Lenny still remembered how many sugars she took. 

 

"So you and Shirley are gonna keep talking?"

 

"We'll try to.  Our kids are going swimming together tomorrow," she leaned back against Lenny's shoulder.  Tempted to tell him about her consultation with Norman, she decided against telling him.  He would only get angrier at the unfairness of her abuse at Rick's hands, and their inability to solve the quagmire of the assault.  Her body and mind had healed nicely, but some parts of her life would never be perfect.  "I don't know, Len."

 

"I never thought you and Shirley would go five years without talking.  You were like one person instead of two when we were younger."

 

Laverne smiled - truly, they had been like that, a  LaverneAndShirely monster with two heads and two dreams.  They would never be that way again, but maybe they could be something greater.  She had Lenny in her life now - a man who had stuck by her and believed her, even if he didn't know the whole story.

 

Lenny's hand danced down her side.  "Len..."

 

"Wahh?" he whined.

 

"Where's Squiggy?"

 

"Upstairs...watching our kids."

 

Laverne turned around, a brow raised.  "You thought ahead."

 

Lenny's smile was libidnous, but his eyes were childlike.  "Wanna go skinny dipping?"

 

 

 

 

To Part 5