I Know You, Rider
By Missy

SERIES: Souvenirs
SUBTITLE: I Know You, Rider
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
PART: 1 of 1
AUTHOR: Missy
EMAIL: lasfic@yahoo.com
RATING: PG, Het
PAIRING(s): L/L

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: California
SPOILLER/SUMMARY: Lenny and Laverne try to settle in to their new life, but they're about to receive an unexpected surprise...

****

"Nobody touch me!"

Five pairs of eyes met Lenny as he strode through the front door of Hector and Angie's house.

"What's the matter with you?" Angie snapped, "Don't want your sister..." As she closed in on her brother, Angie's nose curled up. "The truck turned over?"

He nodded his head. "Ten dollars for new coveralls." He said, holding out a plastic bag. Then he started talking about chemical showers.

"Phew! Take another shower. We're going out for steak, then..."

"Yeah, yeah, dancin'." Lenny uttered, his smile teasing. "You kids have a good time at school?" He asked his niece and nephew, who were clinging to Angie's side.

Chris opened his mouth to say something, but wrinkled his nose, overcome with the stench.

"Clean towels are up." She said blithely.


Lenny stomped his way upstairs. Great way to impress his big sister. Only job he could find in Nashville was with a pump-and-dump sewage company. In a way, it wasn't different from working for Shotz; same sort of uniform, same driving hours. It was just a whole lot smellier.

The bathroom was deserted, and he rushed through his shower, humming some unknown melody to himself. By the time it occurred to him to record it, it was gone.

To be nice, he put the towels up to dry and threw out the ruined coveralls, hanging his new one over the guest bedroom door. Typically, he couldn't find his clean clothing where he had left it...strewn over the floor on his side of the bed. Grumbling, he tore through his suitcase until they produced a nice shirt and a pair of jeans.

The very second he dropped his towel, Laverne shoved through the bedroom door.

"Len, your sister's honkin' and..." Her eyes widened at the sight of him. "I miss that so much." She gasped.

Lenny sheepishly clutched his jeans to his body "Vernie, it ain't decent fer you to see me like-"

"Len, I saw you in the shower this morning. And plenty of times before that." She pointed out. He shrugged and tugged on his fitted jeans. She diverted her gaze while he zipped up. "How was work?"

"Lousy. How was the doughnut shop?"

Laverne had gotten her job before he had found his; from the sour expression on her face, another eight-hour day at Sugar Suite's hadn't agreed with her. "Don't ask."

She was in the middle of touching up her makeup in a compact as he buttoned up his shirt. While he tried to pomade his hair back into place, she changed clothing; a knockout red dress. He suddenly remembered what made getting splattered with sewage worthwhile.

"You really think Hector knows the guy who owns this club?"

"That's what he says." Lenny looked a little downcast, and Laverne squeezed his shoulder.

"C'Mon. You're gonna make it, Len. You got talent and you got the brains."

He snorted at the last part.

"Stop that! You do!"

"What if it ain't good enough, Laverne?"

"It's plenty good enough. If it ain't for them, they can stick it."

"Laverne!"

She took advantage of his shocked expression to steal a kiss. "Come on, Angie's waiting for us!"

Lenny lept to his feet, following Laverne's enthusiastic stride...he barely remembered to grab his guitar on the way out of the room. His spirits had lifted by the time they reached the front door.

But when they opened it, a hauntingly familiar face stood there.

Laverne's expression darkened. "Shirley?"

Over her shoulder, Lenny could see his sister, playing with Shirley's baby son. Something was wrong, and he knew it.

Abruptly, Shirley started to talk; something about Walter and the States...eventually, it blended into a garbled sob.

And Shirley threw herself into Laverne's arms, weeping.

FIN


To "Desertion"
To "Midnight Musings"










(Close This Window To Return To LAS Fic)