Lennie Briscoe came out of the showers and sat down on the bench in front of his locker. His legs ached fiercely. He hoped he could get into a patrol car soon, walking a beat was killing him, what with the shin splints.
He reached into his locker and started pulling his off duty clothes on. He couldn't believe it, but he'd had another growth spurt while he was in the academy and continuing into this, his rookie year as a cop, so he'd had to pretty much replace his entire wardrobe or look like he was waiting for a flood. He hoped he'd stopped growing; 6'2" was a good height. He was a lot taller than most guys but not tall enough to look freakish. He tucked the tail of his royal blue rayon shirt into his black jeans, and then slipped on the black shoe boots he favored when off duty. Finally, he ran a comb through his hair, sticking it in his back pocket like "Kookie" of 77 Sunset Strip when he was done.
"Hey Bait, wanna go get a drink," John Miller asked him. Miller was one of the precinct's uniformed officers who did his tour in a patrol car, so Lennie was a little jealous of Miller and he hated the nickname Bait.
"Not if you guys are gonna call me Bait all evening," Lennie answered testily.
"Oh come on kid, it's just a nickname," Hank Brown said.
Brown and Miller were OK guys, he just hated that they called him Bait, especially since they wouldn't tell him why they called him that.
"If it's just a nickname, why won't anyone tell me what you mean by it," Lennie came close to whining.
"Man, are you that naïve, Chico?" Manuel Delgado asked him, with a grin. Manuel got a kick out of calling his tall lanky friend Chico, as Lennie was the youngest guy in the precinct, just barely old enough to legally go to a bar. Hard to believe the boy had had two years in the army and then a couple of years in college before entering the NYPD academy.
"Oh, so you know why they call me that, huh Manny?" Lennie asked, almost challenging his friend.
"Sure do, it's 'cause how the women all kind of swarm around you when we head into a club. The rest of us just sort of wait to see which one you set your sights on, then we can hit on your leftovers," Manny explained.
"Yeah kid, the good looking ones have a way of congregating around you. So we all kind of like going to the clubs with you, 'cause well, walking through a joint with Lennie Briscoe is like trawling for chicks," Hank added with a laugh.
Lennie grinned; he didn't feel so bad about the nickname now that he knew what it stood for. "OK I'll go to a club with you guys just so you have a chance of picking a chic up, but couldn't you guys just stick to calling me Lennie?"
"OK, Bait it is," Miller said and clapped Lennie on the shoulder.