~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Timeline: 2 weeks after part 3.
~Twyla's living with Greg and Pat at her old apartment, because it's easier than finding an apartment and more comforable than Lewis' place.)

    Twyla was sick.  She couldn't get a "Good Morning" out without a coughing fit comming with it.  So, at present, she was bed-ridden.
"It's not that bad." Twyla reassured Greg in a raspy voice.  Greg sat on the edge of her bed with a thermometer in his hand.
"Not that bad?  Twy, listen to yourself."
"What did I say?"
"No, I mean listen to your voice.  You sound like a frog."
"Hey!" Twyla said defensively.
"Sorry, that was a little blunt.  Anyway, you don't have a temperature, but we can forget about playing tonight."
"Huh?  Why?"
"You can't sing." Greg stated matter-of-factly.
"Hey, I can manage." Twyla attempted to hum a few notes.  The notes that managed to come out made them both cringe.  Twyla went into another coughing fit before laying back down on the bed.
"Well, I can still play.  You and Pat both have decent voices, can't you cover vocals for me?"
"You're the only one who can play and sing at the same time."
"Damn me and my talent." Twyla sat for a minute with her arms folded before speaking again.
"Well, we'll just have to find a temporary lead singer.  I mean, we know some popular songs, one rehersal with a few and we're good."
"Huh?"
"If we can play some songs that my replacement knows, we'll just have to reherse once or twice."
"Ok, I can see that happening.  But who's gonna do it?"  A knock on the door interupted the conversation.
"Pat, can you get that?" Greg yelled to the other room.  A couple seconds passed before Pat yelled back:
"It's Lewis."  Sure enough, Lewis walked into the bedroom.
"Hey.  How are ya doin'?" he asked Twyla.
"Not great." Twyla replied.  Lewis made a face at her raspy voice.
"Man, you sound like the Mankey at DrugCo." Twyla made a face at this before Lewis continued, "How are you going to sing tonight?"
"I'm not.  I'm afraid I'll offend the Macy Gray fans.  Right now, I need to find someone to sing for me."
"Hey," Greg pipped up, "can you sing Lewis?"
Lewis shrugged. "A little."
"Do you think you could sing with us tonight?"
"Uh, I don't really sing in public.  I'm more of a shower-singer.  And I will not take a shower in public."
"Okay then...what about Kate, does she sing?"
"Kate?  Man, you'd be better off having Twyla sing as she is.  Kate sings like a donkey." Lewis shuddered at the thought.
"What about Drew?  Or Oswald?"
Lewis made a "so-so" gesture with his hand.
"Come on Lewis," Twyla pleaded, "please help us here."  She made the best "sad-puppy" face she could conjure up.
"Well...all right," Lewis shrugged, "can't say 'no' to a face like that.  But we'll have to stick to songs I know."
"Know anything by Harvey Danger?" Greg asked.
"Hmm...he did the paranoia song didn't he?"
"'Flagpole Sita', that's the one."
"I know it."
"Good.  I can picture you singing that."
Lewis shrugged and grinned at this.
"Oh, I almost forgot."  Lewis reached into his coat, brought out a little stuffed giraffe, and handed it to Twyla.
"Sort of a 'get well' present." Lewis shrugged again.
"Oh Lewis, it's adorable.  Thank you."
"No problem.  See you tonight then." With that he left.  Greg saw him out then came back to the bedroom with an evil grin on his face.
"What?" Twyla looked at him quizzically.
"Didn't take you long to get over me did it?"
"Greg, you slept with a man.  It's a little difficult to imagine our relationship being exactly the way it was before, so that made things a bit easier.  Still, where is this comming from?"
"You like Lewis." Greg stated simply as he folded his arms.
"What?"
"You like him," he restated, "I can tell."
"Yeah, he's a cool guy.  I like him well enough."
"I mean you 'like' him...you know, 'like that'."
"Do not!" Twyla exclaimed defensively.
"Do too." Greg retorted with confidence.
"You know," Pat said from the doorway, "if you two can't play nicely I'll have to separate you."
"Greg thinks I like Lewis." Twyla explained.
"Don't you?"
"NO! Geez...don't you two have some animal-sex to get to?"
"It can wait." Pat rolled his eyes.
"Twy," Greg shook his head, "I know when you're lying.  I have ways of making you tell the truth.  Pat, hold her down."
"Man," Pat said as he walked over to the bed, "as if I haven't heard that before."
Greg looked at Pat for a minute before saying:
"I don't want to know, it'll just upset me."
Once Pat had Twyla's arms secured, Greg began to tickle her relentlessly.  Twyla laughed so hard she started to cough.  This got the truth out of her.
"Oh*cough*kay.  I*cough*like*cough*Lewis*cough, cough*"  With this, Greg stopped.
"Now, was that so hard to admit?" he said with a grin.
"No," Twyla said as she held her aching abdomen, "It's just that...I'm not sure about these feelings.  Whether I'm being desperate, or on the rebound, or...really in love.  I don't know...I just can't rush into anything until I figure myself out."
"Feel free to give yourself as much time as you need.  Eventually, your heart will know what's what.  Then it'll be worth the wait."
"What makes you so sure?"
Greg looked at Pat.
"It worked for me."  Greg and Pat smiled at each other.  Twyla couldn't keep the slight pang of heartache down, so she dealt with it the best way she could...with sarcasm.
"Oh, this is beautiful.  I'm getting verklemped." Twyla attempted the best "Coffee-Talk"-host impression she could.  Greg's response was turning back to her and whacking her with a pillow.
"Ow, okay let's injure the sick girl.  I see how it is."

********************************************************************************

"I'm ready to tell her." Lewis announced to the table at the Warsaw.
"Tell who what?" Drew asked.
"Tell Twyla I love her."
"Wow, good for you buddy," Oswald grinned, "when are you gonna tell her?"
Lewis sighed with disgust. "Must you bother me with technicalities?"
"I take it that means you don't know." Kate decided.
"Well...yeah, it does.  I just want ot find the right way.  I mean, this could be 'the one', and I want our relationship to be special and romantic.  From the very beginning."
"Please tell me you did not just use the words 'I', 'want', and 'romantic' in the same sentance in that order." Drew said, looking sick to his stomach.
"Why, something wrong with romance?"
"No, it's just seems wrong hearing you talk about it."
Lewis resisted the urge to stick out his tounge and instead took a sip from his beer.  Twyla walked in a few minutes later with Greg and Pat.  The boys went to set up the stage while Twyla walked over to get Lewis.
"Hey Lewis.  Ready for your singing debut?" She said with a grin, her voice still as raspy as ever.
"Huh?!" Everyone at the table gasped.
"Oh, I'm singing with the band tonight." Lewis stated simply.
"And we are finally indroduced to the double life of Lewis Kiniski I see.  First romance, now singing." Drew muttered.  Lewis rolled his eyes and walked to the stage with Twyla to help finish the set-up.  A few minutes later, they were done and Twyla stepped up to the mike.
"Hey guys.  In case you didn't guess just know by the way my voice sounds, I'm not going to be singing tonight." This recieved several "aww"s from the audience before Twyla continued, "However, Lewis will be my replacement for now until my voice sounds a little less...painful.  Take it away Lewis."  Lewis nodded nervously and stepped up to the mike.  It took him a minute to notice that the mike was at the middle of his chest.  Rolling his eyes, he yanked it up to his level.
'It's the story of my life, please raise the mike.' Lewis thought to himself.  He looked at the rest of the band to make sure they were ready.  Twyla gave him a thumbs up.
'Here goes nothing' Lewis thought.  Before he knew it, the opening chords to "Flagpole Sita"(in a key he could sing it in) eminated from behind him and there was nothing left to do but go with it:

"I had visions, I was in them
I was looking into the mirror
To see a little bit clearer
The rotteness and evil in me..."
Lewis grew more comfortable as the song went on.  By the time he got off stage, he felt he could easily do that again.

********************************************************************************

     The next morning, Greg woke up before everyone to find someone knocking at the door.  Lazily, he got up and answered it to find Lewis standing there.
"Hey Lewis." he said as he rubbed his eyes.
"Hey.  Is Twyla up?"
"No.  Do you want me to get her up?"
"No, no.  She can't know about this.  I need to talk to you."
"Ok.  Have a seat." Greg motioned to the couch.  They both sat down in an uncomfortable silence before Lewis began:
"Okay, I'm not sure if you could tell, but I'm in love with Twyla.  And I just decided on a way to tell her.  I'm going to sing.  Next time the band performs, I'm going to sing to her.  But I don't know what.  So I wanted to know if you had any ideas."  All this just kind of blurted out of Lewis' mouth, and it took Greg a minute to digest it in his half-asleep state.  A few moments of silence passed before Greg spoke up:
"You know, she's always loved this one song by Seal called 'Kiss By a Rose'."
"Oh I've heard that song before.  It's very nice."
"Yeah, and it's always been her favorite song.  I wrote an arrangement for it while we were still together, but I never played it.  It's for just one guitar and a piano instead of two.  We could use that, and you could sing.  What do you think?"
Lewis took a minute.  He didn't expect things to be finalized so quickly.  But there was no going back, he was going to sing.
"That's good.  I'll sing that."

********************************************************************************

     A few nights later, after they had finished setting up and Twyla made her introductions, she was about to get her guitar when Lewis stopped her.
"Not tonight." With that, he put a hand on her shoulder and guided her to an empty chair sitting in front of him.  Lewis took the mike out of the holder and spoke with as much confidence as he could muster:
"When I heard your voice and saw you sing, I thought you were beautiful.  When you forgave me for my first mistake, I knew you were more than that.  And when you looked into my eyes and cried in my arms, I knew I wanted to keep you there.  I knew I was in love with you.  Now, it's time you knew."  With that, Pat began the indroduction to "Kiss By a Rose" on the keyboard.  And Lewis sang.

It wasn't sung perfectly.  Lewis' voice tended to crack on the higher parts, and he went out of tune every once in a while.  But every note and every sylable he sang carried the weight of his love with it.  Every verse was backed with his passionate longing and care for her.  It was perfect in it's own way.

  And the audience felt it.  Drew, Kate, and Oswald were all overwhelmed by the emotion Lewis demonstrated.  This being a side of him they rarely saw, it was difficult to get used to.  Greg tried to concentrate on his playing, yet his thougts drifted.  He knew now that Lewis could never hurt Twyla, and this made him all the happier to play the song.  Twyla wasn't sure what to think.  Part of her liked it, but part of her stayed wary.  She, especially, was bombarded by the emotion, seeing as it was directed at her.  She saw that Lewis was making himself completly vulnerable.  But she hadn't figured herself out yet.  The confusion, the emotion, all this combined to make a lump in her throat the size of an egg.

As for Lewis, he became eventually oblivious to the audience.  There were only two things now...him and Twyla.  In a way, singing to her was like making love to her.  Not sex, not physically giving himself to her, but emotionally giving himself to her.  At that moment, he would've given her anything, and he got the feeling that she knew that.

After what felt like an eternity, the song ended.  The audience applauded with more vigor than anyone had ever seen.  It was as if they weren't drunk at all.  Lewis simply put the microphone back in it's holder and walked over to where Twyla sat.  He took her hands and she stood up and looked at him.
"Well?" He asked shyly.
Twyla felt a whirlpool swirling in her now.  All her instincts told her to fall into Lewis' embrace and never leave it.  But she didn't know whether to trust her instincts.  So she did the only thing she could think of.

She ran.

********************************************************************************

At the end of the "night from hell" as everyone affectionately called it, Lewis had gone up to his apartment and stayed there.  No one was sure what to do or think.  Oswald, though, wasn't surprised when he came upstairs later and heard his best friend crying in the bedroom. 

Lewis hadn't left the apartment since that night.  He even called in sick to avoid work.  His explination to Oswald was that it would be to tempting to jump in the radioactive waste.  Oswald took this as one of the side effects of being heartbroken.  And he couldn't blame Lewis for feeling like he did.  To drain all his emotion into a song for Twyla only to be blown off...it was terrible.

At Drew's insistance, Oswald brought Lewis over to Drew's place two nights later.  Lewis wasn't nearly his normal self.  He didn't even ask for any beer, which scared the life out of everyone.  He was also a lot quieter.  Not particularly cynical, as everyone expected...just quiet.  When Drew asked how he was holding up, Lewis only responded with a look saying 'what do you think?'.  No one knew what to do or say.  At one point, Greg and Pat came over.
"Hey guys," Greg said unenthusiastically, "what's up?"
"What's up?" Lewis responded for the first time that night, "I've reached the seventh circle of hell thanks to your lovely ex-girlfriend."
"Well then," Greg started nervously, "I doubt you'd care then that she's outside and she wants to talk to you."
"Well there's a first.  And supposing I don't give a crap?"
"Just give her a chance.  Maybe you'll get a laugh out of it."
Lewis rolled his eyes and walked outside. 'What the hell' he thought.  He came outside to find Twyla sitting on the pool table rolling the cue ball back and forth.  She looked up when she heard him, then quickly looked away. 
"Hey" She said quietly.  Her voice had gotten better, Lewis noticed.
"So," he started coolly, "do you actually want to say something to me this time?"
"I want to say a lot of things," Twyla began.  She sounded like a young child who was being scolded for her actions and being asked to explain herself. "I know there's no excuse for what I did.  All I can say is I'm sorry.  I needed to figure myself out.  My feelings for you, and what they meant.  I think I know what they mean now, but I also think it may be too late.  I feel the same way about you Lewis.  I felt safe around you, and I always looked foward to your company.  I felt something for you even before Greg and I broke up.  Remember that day at the bridal shop?  That was one of the best days I've had in a while.  I do want a relationship with you...if you'll still have me."

"Twyla," Lewis started as he leaned next to where she was sitting on the pool table, "you blew me off, you humiliated me, you hurt me when I made myself most vulnerable..."
Twyla cut him off.  In a split second, with the thougth of 'I can't lose this man' flashing in her head, Twyla lost all her fears, leaned over, and kissed Lewis gently on the mouth.  Lewis responded hesitantly at first, then added increasing passion to the kiss.  They both parted, still feeling a surge going through their bodies.
"And yet somehow I don't care." Lewis whispered, his face still close to Twyla's.  As if they couldn't bear to stay apart any longer, they pulled to each other again and began to make out passionately.  They knew that this is what they both wanted for so long, and as Lewis pushed Twyla down onto the pool table they knew that they couldn't let each other go.

********************************************************************************

"Ha ha!  Success!" Pat cheered triumphantly as he walked away from the window.  He and Greg high fived each other and Drew, proud that their plan had worked.  They just needed to get them together.
"So, when did you know?" Drew asked Pat.
"Oh, they started making-out on the pool table."
"Oh...WHAT?!" Drew dashed out the back door as fast as his legs could carry his pudgy frame.  Greg and Pat laughed as they listened to Drew scold the newly formed couple.

Part Five