3-90
From CleanPosts
Tambi, Wendy and Casey come out of a meeting with the IRS high-fiving. Even Tambi breaks into a smile at what they have done.
Francine and Katchoo get ready to go sign the papers and close on the house. Katchoo doesn't feel right. The symptoms she describes remind Francine of how she felt when she was first pregnant. She promises to get Katchoo a home pregnancy kit. Katchoo is in shock, so Francine has to walk her "little girl scout" out to the car.
At the Escrow company Katchoo gets a call from Tambi. She wants to meet, and they arrange to get together at the "Cowgirl Cafe". Francine insists on going with her, and if Tambi tries anything funny she'll have to get past Francine first. "And trust me, I can be a very big problem to get past."
Casey is whining about what might happen when Katchoo sees her. Tambi tells her, "What if I throw you over my shoulders and spank you until you quit whining and trust me?" Casey says she would love that.
Katchoo arrives and tells Tambi she bought a house together with Francine. Casey hugs Francine and Tambi says, "Good move, sis." Katchoo and Francine do little things to express how close they are now, and this makes Casey and Tambi look at each other and smile. Francine announces she is pregnant, this is something she hasn't told Brad or even Katchoo yet. Casey and Katchoo hug Francine while Tambi remains seated, grinning.
Tambi says Casey has something to say, but before she does that, she wants to clear the air between her and Katchoo. She apologizes to Katchoo at length, and Katchoo stops her and says, "It's over, I love you." Casey is so happy and hugs Katchoo, but Tambi just says, Aw crap! Can we get the hugging under control here? This is getting ridiculous!
Casey wags a finger at her, and says, "No no no! Bad girl! Be nice or no dessert!" Tambi growls. "Aw, I love it when she growls like a bear, she's so cute!" Francine and Katchoo are in total shock. Casey hugs Tambi and says, "You're just a big ol' teddy bear, aren't you Tambi?" and kisses her. Tambi just grunts. Katchoo and Francine squeak to each other in a precious voice, Teddy Bear? No Dessert? Sweet!
So everyone sits back down and everyone is cool with everyone else, Francine even gets Katchoo to admit she is cool with Tambi. "Just...no more secrets, okay? No more surprises." Tambi says she's got it.
Casey tells Katchoo that Tambi and Wendy (her assistant) came up with a plan to settle the dispute with the IRS concerning Darcy's estate, which comes to her through David. They had dirt on the IRS commissioner, and they got him to settle the lawsuit for half. Tax free. Katchoo has her inhertance now. $700 million dollars. And Casey arranged to squirrel the money away in a global financial network that will keep any government from every seeing a penny of it again. Tambi is quite pleased about that. So Katchoo is very very rich.
At their new house Francine and Katchoo sit on an inflatable mattress and Katchoo takes the home pregnancy test. She's going to have David's baby.
That night Katchoo realized that Darcy, Bambi, Veronica, the Parker Girls, the crime, the sex, the drugs and wicked deaths were all gone out of her life, and the only thing that remained was her, the baby, and Francine. The only thing that remained was love. This night was the first time in Katchoo's life that she felt completely loved and completely in love.
Every day after that with Francine was better than the last. Francine's parents came to help them set up the house. They didn't know the details, but they knew they had spent years trying to work this out. Marie was especially excited that she was going to be a grandmother at last.
In the snow outside, Katchoo scatters David's ashes while Francine looks on. Francine gathers her lover into her arms. Katchoo resolves to write the entire story of her life down for her children to read. This story would be called "Strangers in Paradise".
Months later, Francine and Katchoo are playing with their baby girls in the house while Francine mentions to Katchoo that she told Casey that they're going to Hawaii for the winter, but Casey says Tambi wants them to come to LA. She interrupts her story to get up and close the door with a smile on her face.
