SERIES: Souvenirs

SUBTITLE: Puzzle Pieces

FOLLOWS: Souvenirs, Fire With Fire, Bury That Jewel, High Sierra, Walking Lonely, Blues Along The Way, Balloons Land, Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans, Somewhere Sails, Baby, It's You, So..., Through The Looking Glass, Desertion, I Know You Rider, Midnight Musings, BattleLines, Bright Lights and Promises, Break, From Me To You, Wanderers, Right Beside You, Separate But Together, Kaleidoscope

PART: 1 of 1

AUTHOR: Missy

EMAIL: lasfic@yahoo.com

RATING: PG

GENERE: Gen

PAIRING(s): none

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"

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: California-era; alternate post-show canon.

SPOILLER/SUMMARY: Laverne and Shirley meet a day after Laverne bridges the distance between them.

****

Laverne would be here soon.

The idea made Shirley smile as she scanned the lunch menu in her place behind a white-pained patio table at Luly's Lunchtime Cafe.  During their brief conversation the morning before, the girls had made quick plans to have lunch that very afternoon.  Laverne had suggested the place - Shirley hadn't had the time to learn the names of the new restaurants and cafes that had sprung up during her time away.  She would have to soon, now that she was a full-time receptionist at Mercy Hospital.  Automatically, Shirley felt for the thin metal badge pinned to her blouse, which marked her a nursing student.  It was tiny and wore miniature grape jelly-scented fingerprints, but it marked her progress as a woman.

Squiggy had been thrilled for her - visibly excited, which was something for him lately.  He agreed to hold up his end of the bargain, watching Davy during the few hours between their shifts which her daycare couldn't cover.  Soon enough, she would be able to pay for full-time care and a place of her own, thanks to her new benefits package.  She would even be able to begin saving a nice nest egg for the future...

She stopped cold at that notion - the future.  She was planning a future without Walter, something she had never imagined necessary.  She knew that by now he had left the service to move to Kentucky - to follow the dream she supported but could not live.  Too many days had been spent away from the people she loved, following his career - being the good, self-effacing wife she had always dreamed of being.  The woman that she knew she definitely wasn't.

"Shirl?"

Laverne hovered beside the table, looking beautiful, tanned and in love.  Shirley stood and embraced her, the sisterly hug melting tension while leaving it between them.  Separating their bodies, Shirley admired her friend - Laverne seemed fresh and rested, almost untouched by the miles and lessons before her, in her denim shorts and lace-edged tank top.  Shirley wondered if she looked as fresh in her business casual, a two-piece suit of navy, the first white-collar business outfit she'd ever owned. 

"You look real classy," Laverne suddenly uttered.

"You look - relaxed.  Sit down, sit down," Shirley ordered.  Laverne followed the directions, picking up the laminated yellow menus.

"What sounds good?" Laverne wondered.

"A long talk," Shirley admitted.

Laverne smiled back at her over the menu.  Their white uniformed waitress precluded further conversation, and Shirley ordered for them.

"Two number twos, a milk and an OJ."

"Very good," the waitress observed boredly.

"I didn't want milk," Laverne whined, handing her menu back to their server.  "And what's a number two?"

"Pancakes, bacon, hash browns and oatmeal," Laverne whined.  "Oatmeal's good for you," Shirley glad-handled, waiting for the waitress leave.   When they were alone, she took Laverne's hands between her palms.  "What's new with you?"

"Look down."

Shirley studied the front of Laverne's blouse, and then traced her shoulders and arms with her eyes - nothing new.  It took her awhile to notice the glittering band on Laverne's left ring finger.  She gaped.  "You didn't!"

"We are."

She shouldn't have been shocked, but Shirley found herself speechless at this new development.  When she did speak, her words were not encouraging.  "I certainly hope you aren't..."

Laverne's expression hardened.  "I ain't having a baby.  We're gettin' married 'cause we're in love, and I ain't gonna wait anymore to be happy."  She examined Shirley's placid face.  "Are you surprised?"

"I knew you would marry him.  I've known since Tennessee."

"You're shocked."

Shirley had managed to recover a bit.  "Only because you and Lenny just moved for the second time in three years - you're in a brand-new town..."

"Huh?  Milwaukee ain't new to us!"

"For everything that's changed, it might as well be new.  This town's changed in six years.  I didn't know where to buy a newspaper or how to find a beauty salon when I got here - the only thing that hasn't changed is the hospital.  It's as drafty as it ever was." She desperately tried to convey her worry with a change in tone and expression.  "I'm afraid for the two of you.  That's why I kept fighting with you in Tennessee; I've been afraid for a long time that if you and Lenny dove into a relationship the entire situation would end with the two of you hurting each other."  Laverne took a deep breath, readying another argument, so Shirley pressed on, "but I know now that you really care about one another - that you have a united front for everything and anything that comes your way.  With Lenny, you have a lot of the things that Walter and I never had," she admitted.  "I compare you both to the two of us too often.  I just don't want you to end up trapped and alone, the way I felt.  How will the two of you support yourselves?  Do you have a back up plan in case..."

"Lenny's selling songs - he's got a couple on Loretta Lynn's new album, and he sent some stuff to Ferlin Husky and Dotty West."

Shirley moaned.  "Songwriting?!  Oh, Laverne..."

Laverne charged eagerly ahead, "But that's just for pocket money, you know, nest egg stuff.  Turns out that the drivers Mister Shotz hired to replace the boys were pretty bad  - they actually lost a six wheeler somewhere in Lake Eerie...."

"How did that..."

"Don't ask.  When Pabst bought out Shotz, they kept most of the same people, but fired the driver on Lenny's old shift.  He's working full-time until he qualifies for the dispatcher's test."

"What about you?"

Laverne grinned.  "That's the best part.  I'm taking classes at night school!"

"Oh, sweetie, I'm so proud of you!" Shirley cried, squeezing her hand.  "What are you studying?"

"Hotel and restaurant management."

"What a practical course!"

"Yeah, I've been thinking a lot about the future lately," she twisted her engagement ring with her thumb, the tiny diamond spreading patterns of light through the wine glasses of water on the table. "I ain't never had a goal before...not 'till Len gave me that ultimatum.  He says I'm always too hard on myself, and I never look at the bright side, but he don't know that if I didn't have him I woulda never seen the bright side..."  She came back from her fantasy, her eyes focusing on Shirley.  "What about you?  Whatt're you doing now?"

"I'm going back to school, too - I'm enrolled in a student nursing program at Mercy Hospital."

"Yeah?  You looking for another cute single doctor?" Shirley knew that Laverne was joking, but the very notion behind the idea stung.

"Are you looking for another greaser in your hotel management classes?"

"Sorry, Shirl..."

"You don't have to apologize.  I've been focused for too long on what I want, and keeping it all in working order.  This month with Squiggy has made me realize what's really important - Davy's well-being and his future, and the whole picture outside of the little details.  What you said was only partly true....my dreams were right.  It was my goals that weren't functioning.  Did you know that when I fantasized about marrying a doctor I never thought about what would happen after?   I just thought everything would fall into place by design, like it did for Donna Reed.  No one warned me that it takes a lot to keep appearances up and everything running smoothly.  That it would mean a lot of lonely nights.  Are you ready for that, Laverne?  Can you really live up to what you're dreaming of?"

"That's what's different when it comes to me and Len - I'm not living up to anything.  I'm just living."  The waitress returned with their beverages, and Laverne drained half of her milk before continuing the conversation.  "You complain a lot about Walter, but I wonder - do you want to go back to him?"

"I don't know...our lives are so different now.  I can't ask him to leave his practice in Kentucky, and I can't uproot myself and follow him there.  There's no solution unless we work at it, and we can't work at it until he calls me - which he hasn't done since I left him."

"Did you leave him a number?"

"Hector and Angie's name and address.  Their number is in the yellow pages - you can look it up through information."

"And he ain't called?" Shirley nodded briskly.  "That don't sound like Walter.  He loves Davy, and he's usually real dependable."

"I don't want to depend on him.  My life is settling down, and I feel like I'm home.  I have pressure on me, but it's MY pressure, not Walter's."

Laverne nodded.  "Life's a puzzle sometimes.  I don't have all the pieces yet, but I know what the picture's gonna look like when I'm done."

Their pancakes arrived, and Shirley split her short stack down the middle with surgeon like precision. 

Laverne noticed.  "You gonna try to be a doctor, after you get in the hours for your nursing classes?"

Laverne's question made Shirley think.  "I've been thinking about it - I don't know if the shifts would be be fair to Davy.  He'll be spending enough time in daycare as it is and  I don't want him to be raised by strangers."

"Speaking of strangers, how's Squiggy?"

Shirley's expression turned measured.  "Polite.  Good to me.  Lost without your boyfriend."

"I know - sometimes I see Lenny staring out into space and I know he's thinking about Squig.  They've been talking a lot on the phone, but they're both too afraid to see each other face-to-face.  When I told him I was going to see you, he said that maybe he'd try to find him downtown during lunch.  For Len, that's real brave."  Shirley noticed that Laverne had wrapped her pancake around a slice of bacon and was eating it in heavy portions with syrup - Lenny's habit.

"How in the world is he going to do that?"

"He could find Squiggy blindfolded underwater.  They're just like that."

Shirley nodded thoughtfully.  She could find Laverne just as easily on a faceless, crowded sidewalk.  "What about your father?"

Laverne noticeably paled.  "What about him?"

"Have you told him you're getting married?" Laverne became enamored with her potatoes, providing an answer unintentionally.  "Oh, Laverne...."

"I don't need his approval for anything."

"But he's going to want to know - you aren't ashamed to tell him?" Laverne's expression went frigid.  "All right, you're not ashamed to tell him.  But you're his daughter - you need someone to give you away."

"I can give myself away," Laverne flatly uttered.

"When we talked about our weddings as little girls, you never said anything about walking up the aisle alone."

"I ain't a little girl no more.  I'm a grown-up woman."

Shirley put down her fork.  "I'd like to think a little bit of you still dances around in your underwear to Elvis records.."

Laverne was mortified.  "Don't ever tell anyone I do that!"

"No!"

Laverne bit her lower lip.  "So, maybe I do.  But I don't need Pop to hold my hand, for him him to sign off on every decision I make..."

"Of course you don't.  You've never needed anyone's approval to do anything."

"Wrong.  I always wanted yours."

"Oh, pshaw!"

"I did, Shirl.  That's why I almost didn't go with Len.  Why I almost wrecked the best relationship I've had since Sonny."

"But you weren't involved with Lenny then..." Laverne stabbed through the crunchy surface of the hash brown.  "How long have you been dating?"

"Since you married Walter.  He asked me out during the reception, and after you went overseas, I said yes."

"You've been involved with Lenny for a year and you never told me?"

"Yeah.  And that's why." Laverne bit into her pancake, and around a full mouth she continued,  "you always act like I make the wrong choices, and I always wanted to impress you by making better ones.  I know it's cause you think you know what's best for me, but it really drove me crazy.  I fought how I felt for Lenny 'cause you used to say I'd be crazy to marry him.  Whenever he'd kiss me, I'd hear you sayin' that I was wrong, that I'd just be hurting him.  It took you leaving for me to block out that little voice, and when it turned out that you were wrong, that he made me happy, I got confused," Laverne swallowed.  "You've never been wrong, Shirl - not since we were seven."

"You blame me for this mess?"

"It's not a mess, and no, I don't.  I blame myself for living my life around someone else's opinion instead of my own - for not caring enough about myself to make my own way in life.  I didn't know back then that people could change.  I was taught that spades were always gonna be spades."

"Well, I said a lot of things when I was young and inexperienced that were wrong.  My relationship with Walter was based on my highest ideals, and look how that turned out.  I'm sorry for being so harsh on Leonard."

"It's okay..." Laverne looked at her flinty engagement ring again.  "Water under the bridge."

Shirley nodded.  Finishing the final bite of pancake, she sat back with a sigh.  "What time is it?"

Laverne glanced at her conch shell-coated watch.  "Half-past eleven."

"I have another hour until classes re-convene."

Laverne's eyes glimmered.  "Hey, have you been by the Pizza Bowl since you got back into town?"

"No."

"C'mon," She laid a ten on the table to serve as tip and payment.  "I wanna see if our initials are still carved on the jukebox."

"What about your oatmeal?"

"Ugh!"

"But you didn't even touch it...And don't you need to get home?"

"Nah - I want to give the boys some time to talk.  Besides," Laverne's eyes glimmered, “I wanna drop in on Rhonda and Carmine.  I heard they're staying together."

"I know.  Carmine was living with Squiggy until I moved in, then they were living downstairs from us until she found a better place near the center of town." 

"Lenny got the address out of Carmine yesterday - they bumped into each other at the newsstand in midtown.   Carmine and Rhonda's new place is right upstairs from the Pizza Bowl!"

Shirley grinned.  "Is all of this interesting to you because you want to kill two birds with one stone or because you want to gossip about the possibility of there being smut between Rhonda and Carmine?"

Laverne grinned.  "Both!"

Shirley chuckled.  She and Laverne fell into natural step together, hand in hand, once again the best of girlfriends.  Their time together might have solved Laverne's puzzle, but Shirley's had just begun to come together.