Just a disclaimer: I love Lennie/Ed repartee, and I suck at making it up myself, I know that. But I love them so much that I had to write this (after watching about 12 straight hours of taped reruns). It was also written at 3:17 in the morning, so beware.

"Hey yo, Lups, I'm heading out…you going to stay here for a while?" Ed said, pulling his coat on. Lupo glanced up and sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"Yeah…I still have about three years worth of illegible receipts to go through, I'll call you if I see anything." Ed rolled his eyes and nodded.

"Sounds good. 'Night, man," he said over his shoulder on his way out the door. As he went down the hallway, exchanging goodbyes with a few people left and right, he spotted her down by the coat closet, pulling her own coat off a hanger. He quickened his pace a little and slowed again when he reached her, giving her a friendly tap on the shoulder as he passed.

"Hey, have a good night…say hi to the babies for me." She jumped at the touch and turned to face him, smiling and laughing a little.

"I will, and thanks. You have a good night too, 'kay?" she replied, raising her eyebrows at him. He smiled back and nodded, then continued towards the door. Very suave, you idiot, scaring the shit out of her…

Yet he was still smiling when he dropped down onto the bar stool beside his old partner. Lennie took one look at him and started laughing.

"Shut up, man, you ain't got no reason to—"

"Ed Green never changes, and that's fact," Lennie remarked, cocking his head knowingly. Ed glared at him, but with no real anger. He ordered from the bartender and glanced at Lennie's glass, which was half-full.

"We being tempted?"

"No, we are not, and thanks for being so tactful. Seltzer is fine with me, it's a very pleasant beverage," Lennie said, his face deadpan. Ed chuckled and drank from his own glass, shaking his head (after drinking, as doing it while drinking would be very messy indeed).

"I'm not exactly tactful, man, you know that."

"Could have fooled me, all those female witnesses who found you tactful enough to give you their numbers…which reminds me, who's the girl?"

"What girl?"

"Only one reason you'd look like how you looked when you came in, and it's got long hair and legs from the Elysian Fields," Lennie told him, which made Ed laugh again.

"Man, since when do you know what the hell the Elysian Fields are?"

"I'm retired, remember? Doing some reading to make the time pass. That and playing pool with some other retirees…neither particularly exhilarating, but what can you do?"

This was a little sobering. Ed sat back on his stool and looked at his old partner, who was now examining the seltzer in front of him.

"So, the third partner in what, four years? Am I the only one who could stand you for an extended period of time?" he asked, not looking up. Ed smiled and shrugged, though Lennie couldn't see it.

"They didn't put up with as much of my bullshit as you did. They all had the good sense to split before they spent too long around me…more sense than you had, anyway." Lennie half-laughed and looked up at the wall, squinting in the dim light at the bar. Ed didn't much like talking about his new partners with Lennie, except maybe to complain. He knew more than most how much Lennie missed being on the force, and (though he would never say this aloud to his friend) he really missed having him as a partner. Joe had been different, but with a slightly familiar ring to him: older, more experienced, hardened as a cop. Nina was a piece of work: his second female partner, and the first one out of all of them to piss off the Lieutenant almost as much as he had his first day. Then she'd been transferred out of the precinct and now Ed was stuck with Lupo (he couldn't bring himself to think the name Cyrus), dark and brooding as Ed was himself sometimes. He liked the guy enough, but the connection he'd had with Lennie was missing…as it had been with the other two. He'd been at the 27th precinct for almost a decade, and Lennie had been with him for half of it. He'd started him out there: a bumpy and somewhat tension-filled start, but one that ended in friendship.

"And uh…the girl…she's sorta connected to my partner," Ed said, trying to draw the conversation back to where Lennie didn't get silent and thoughtful. It worked: his old partner rolled his eyes and turned towards him, taking a sip of seltzer.

"Oh yeah? What is she, his cousin or something?"

"More like the wife of his recently deceased brother," Ed told him, unsurprised when Lennie burst out laughing.

"Ah, Ed, if you gambled as much on your own love life as you do on poker, you'd be either a very wealthy man or living in a cardboard box in Alphabet City."

"Sensitive, man…really."

"Not Lennie's most outstanding feature, sensitivity," they heard from behind them. Turning, they saw Van Buren standing beside Ed's stool with her arms crossed and one eyebrow raised: the Yes-Ma'am-Certainly-Ma'am-Please-Don't-Shoot-Me-Ma'am face.

"Hey, Lieu! Late night?" Lennie asked innocently. She rolled her eyes and glanced at Ed.

"You two still having this weekly powwow thing?" she asked, smiling a little. Ed sighed and hung his head.

"It's a guilty pleasure…every time I see him, I feel better about my own crappy life."

"Right, that's the whole reason I'm still here. Otherwise, I'd probably be bribing the man upstairs to make you kiss the floor during an interrogation—again."

"Hey, man, that was one time, and I tripped—"

"Over your own two feet, sure."

"'Least I wasn't old enough to forget my own name in front of suspects."

"It's called mispronouncing things, smart ass, and you—"

"Five years and the two of you are exactly the same around each other…pretty pitiful, if you ask me," Van Buren cut in, laughing. They laughed too, and Ed scooted his stool a little to the side.

"Join us for a sec before you go, Lieu?"

"I don't know…what the hell, if Lennie's sure he's not too old to be awake at this hour, I should be fine," she said, taking off her coat. Lennie's protests were matched by Ed's laughter.

Life's pretty messy sometimes, but by accident it can be known to work out too.