Three Irish Catholic Men in a Pub

Author's Note: Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU and its characters are not mine.

This idea just popped in my head. I was watching Sex and the City, The Man in the Moon and Wet Hot American Summer with Chris Noth, Sam Waterston and Chris Meloni respectively and suddenly I got this idea in my head. I remembered that all of their characters in Law & Order were Catholic and Irish and they all had abusive parents. And this is the story that came out.

This is just a one shot and I will be posting it on both Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU. Please read then take that just one minute to review please here or on Twitter: Jo_Bautista

Jack McCoy sat in the Upper East Side pub called the Kinsale on a lazy Thursday night. He had retired last fall and though he still did consulting from time to time, nowadays his time was basically his own.

Though he actually lived on the Upper West Side, Jack liked going crosstown to this little bar because it was a cozy place and the patrons and employees didn't make a big deal out of the fact that he was the former Manhattan DA.

His mind started drifting to a night almost 15 years ago when he was also drinking in a pub very much like this but in a seedier part of town. He had blown off going to the office that day because though he didn't want to admit to it at that time, witnessing an execution really threw him for a loop.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted when a voice suddenly spoke up. "Well son of a gun, McCoy is that you?"

Jack turned around abruptly to see who had spoken and found himself face to face with Mike Logan. "Well Detective Logan. How are you? It's been a long long time."

Mike laughed, his green eyes twinkling. "Yeah, we're both pretty old now, McCoy. And I'm now a private citizen, just like you are."

"Yeah. Did your retire?"

"I did…or you could say the NYPD retired me. Depends on your point of view."

Jack laughed and replied, "I think I can say the same for myself. Anyway, who's with you Mike?"

"No one, just me."

"Well, would you like to join me and we can talk about the old times. Reminisce as they say."

Mike chuckled. "Sure counselor. I'd like that."

Mike sat in the bar stool next to Jack and ordered a bourbon while Jack ordered another round of Scotch for himself.

"So what do you do now, Jack?"

"Not much nowadays. I do some consulting from time to time. But that's about it. Otherwise, I basically just sit on my old wrinkly ass."

"Somehow, Jack, I don't see you as the type to just sit at any point in time in his life. I see you as someone who always has to have a goal, a cause and a crusade."

"I think you're remembering Ben Stone and not me, Mike. Ben was the boy scout. I was the rebellious, motorcycle riding, sleeps with all his assistants EADA. I wasn't exactly a boy scout out to make the world a better place."

"Or so you'd like to think."

Jack took a big sip of his Scotch then laughed. "You're correct, Mike. At least that's how I like to think of myself."

"You were never the good Irish Catholic boy, were you McCoy?"

"Never and neither were you, Detective."

"But I heard that you stopped with the last part of yourself description."

"Which part is that?"

"The sleeping with you assistants part. At least, the rumor mill said that it stopped with Claire. Because you loved her."

Jack became quiet then and just took a sip of his Scotch. "You know, it's been 15 years and yet there are still moments that her memory comes back and it still hurts like hell."

"Well that happens when you fall in love." Mike told Jack.

"Yeah, love can suck." A male voice cut into their conversation. Mike and Jack turned towards the voice. Both had raised eyebrows as they looked at who interrupted then.

"I'm sorry do we know you?" Mike asked, his voice rather cold.

"Well, well…it seems this is my night to run into old colleagues." Jack remarked. "Detective Stabler, right? If my memory serves me correctly."

"Good evening, Mr. McCoy." Elliot returned. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to cut into your converasation."

"No, it's okay, Detective." Jack told him. "May I introduce you to Mike Logan. Mike this is…I'm sorry detective, I don't quite recall your first name."

"It's Elliot. Elliot Stabler."

"Yes, thank you Elliot. Mike this is Elliot Stabler. He works of Manhattan SVU. Elliot this is Mike Logan. He used to work over at the 2-7 and his last position was with the Major Case Squad in downtown."

Elliot extended his hand and said, "Nice to meet Mike. Sorry to have cut into your conversation."

"It's okay, Elliot. It's nice to meet you, too. So SVU huh? Man, it must be hard to have your job. I mean all those sexual deviants and all."

"Yeah, well I'm no longer with SVU. I retired last spring." Elliot told them. "I now work for a security company that does corporate stuff. And believe me it pays more and it's a lot easier on than SVU."

"I bet." Mike replied. "Hey why don't you join us? Or are you meeting someone?"

"My wife is meeting me here in about an hour when she gets off. But in the meantime I'm on my own. "

"Great, then join us, Elliot." Jack seconded Mike's invitation. "And please none of the Mr. McCoy anymore . We're not at work, we're just three Irish guys in a bar, having fun. So please, Elliot, call me Jack."

"Okay, Jack, then." Elliot agreed.

"So going back to what we were talking about earlier, you loved her didn't you, Jack?" Mike asked again.

Jack chuckled when he saw the confused look in Elliot's eyes. "Why don't you let me fill Elliot in before I answer that question, Mike."

"Sure, be my guest."

"You don't have to, Jack. I mean I don't want to butt into your personal stuff, you know?" Elliot declared.

"It's okay. I want to."

"Okay."

"Mike feel free to help me along okay?"

Mike snickered then nodded. Jack spoke again. "Mike was saying that I was a reformed man. You see during my younger years in the DA's office, I used to sleep with every female assistant I had. Hell I even married one of them. When that didn't work out, I realized that marriage wasn't for me so I reverted to just sleeping with them. That worked fine for me and I didn't even really care about the reputation I was getting in the office. I mean I was damn good at my job and that's all I cared about."

"Until he got Claire Kincaid as an assistant."

"Yeah, until Claire. To make a long story short, she and I were together but then one night, as I was getting drunk with Mike's old partner, Lennie Briscoe, I paged her. I asked her to pick me up. But I was too impatient to wait for her. So I left and I even told Lennie as I left, "To hell with her" because I was pissed that she didn't pick me up. Turns out she eventually did come, she saw Lennie drunk and offered to take him home. And…" Suddenly Jack's voice caught and he took the last sip of his drink. "Why don't you finish it for me, Mike?"

Mike nodded and told Elliot. "On the way to Lennie's place, Claire car was hit by a drunk driver. She died instantly. Lennie survived."

"And you know what Elliot, 15 years later, it still hurts." Jack remarked. He signaled to the bartender for another Scotch and told the two former cops to order up. "It's on me."

Elliot and Mike accepted his offer and ordered another beer and bourbon respectively.

"I'm sorry to hear that Jack. At least even for a short time, you had her. It'd be worse if you didn't have her even for a short time."

"Well, that's my story. Not Jack's." Mike replied. "I guess I always had mother issues, so that's why I never really was able to have a normal relationship."

"She hit you?" Elliot asked bluntly. "Sorry. I'm running my mouth again. But my old man used to hit me – tough love – discipline he called it. Discipline my ass. It hurt like hell."

"Well, yeah, that's how they justify it. " Mike replied.

"My father was a cop. And he had these big strong hands." Jack confided. "Losing was never an option in the McCoy residence. If we lost, you can imagine what he'd do with those large hands of his."

"And I bet they were all deeply religious Catholics." Mike laughed sardonically. "My mother used to beat me with one hand and on the other she would be holding a rosary. It's really no wonder I never got married or stepped foot in a church in so long."

"So wait, who was this girl who got away from you?" Elliot asked.

"Well she's around. I suppose even though we're a lot older now, I suppose I could still go for her. From what I know she's still single. And because of that sometimes I wonder what's wrong with her? And when I think that I make it the justification to not go for her."

"You know, you could still change all that, Mike. I still see her in the DA's office from time to time before I left. In fact, I'm sure Elliot here also knows her personally since he worked with SVU."

"I know her?" Elliot questioned.

Jack glanced at Elliot then directed a smile at Mike. "I'm sure Liz would think it's a lovely surprise after so long if you call her."

Mike laughed then took a sip of the bourbon that the bartender just put in front of him. "Yeah, I'm sure she would then she'd start analyzing me to look for the reason why after so long I suddenly called her now. Nah…I'm sure we're better off just as we are."

"Analyze you? Liz…..oh!" Elliot suddenly exclaimed. "Liz Olivet? The child psychologist. That Liz? That's your one that got away?"

"Good work, Stabler. You figured it out right away." Mike told him.

"Well actually at first I thought Elizabeth Donnelly but then you said analyze and that's when it hit me."

"I bet you were a great detective in SVU, Elliot."

"Well, that's over now."

"What happened? I heard rumors." Jack asked.

"I really don't want to talk about it." Elliot said, taking a sip of his beer. "But really, it's done and over with and I'm getting better each day."

"Okay, we respect that. But it's your turn, buddy. You gotta tell us about your one."

Elliot laughed and answered, "I don't know guys. My life is blah. I have five kids and one wife. That's basically it. No one got away."

"Really? But you said earlier, that's love can suck." Jack returned, looking a little confused.

"It can. Working at SVU – you see warped versions of love all the time. People kill people and do the nastiest things all in the name of love."

"The smartest people can become the dumbest all because of love." Jack admitted.

"That's true." Mike agreed.

"You know what, the year after you left Mike, Lennie and his partner at that time, Rey, found the real killer of those black boys- you know that case the one that they found notes in the bodies "It must be destroyed."

"Yeah, wasn't that Andrew Dillard?" Mike asked.

"No, it wasn't. It was someone else."

"Yeah, I remember that. Adam Schiff who was DA then was going out of his mind. You and your assistant at that time, what was her name?" Elliot snapped his fingers in recognition of the case.

"Diana Hawthorne."

"Was she one of the? She was, wasn't she?" Elliot said.

"Yeah." Jack conceded.

"If I recall correctly didn't she hide evidence that could have led to the exoneration of Andrew Dillard?" Elliot continued.

"Yeah. And do you know why she hid the evidence?"

"Why?" Mike asked.

"Because she wanted to make me a gift of my promotion. Because I convicted Andrew Dillard, it sealed my promotion from ADA to EADA."

"God! The things we really do for love." Mike remarked. "Anyway, Elliot, you still haven't told us your story."

Elliot laughed and then from the corner of his eye, he saw someone walk in. He saw her see him and walk towards them. "Why don't I just introduce you guys to my one? Because in my story, she didn't get away. In face, here she is now."

A tall, leggy, brunette walked up to Elliot and gave him a kiss. "Hi baby."

"Hey, yourself." Elliot returned her kiss and greeted.

"Aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?"

"Of course. Baby, I think you'll recognize my friend over here as our former DA, Jack McCoy and this is Mike Logan. He used to be with the major case squad. Mike, Jack, this is my wife Olivia Benson-Stabler."

The two men greeted her and then Jack spoke up. "Wait a minute Elliot, if I remember correctly, Olivia was your partner in SVU, right?"

Elliot grinned. "Right."

"And if I remember correctly, Don told me before that you were his two best detectives but he never said that you two were together."

"Because we weren't together when we were working in SVU, Mr. McCoy." Olivia told him.

"So you see guys, you wanted my story. Here it is. Olivia and I were partners for 12 while I was married to someone else. The five kids I told you about – that was with her. After I left SVU – I realized that I was letting the one I truly loved get away. So I did what I should have done a long time ago. I divorced my now ex-wife and I went to find Olivia. Thankfully, she felt the same. And so now, here I am, here we are. Two people who didn't let the one get away."

Olivia laughed and she gave Elliot a loud smack on the lips before speaking up again. "It's true Mr. McCoy and Mike. Elliot and I used to be the most cynical and jaded people ever. I mean it happens when you're in a unit like SVU. But because of our own story, we're less cynical now and we realize it can happen. That happy ending. Or at least the ending you want for yourself. It can happen."

"It already happened for me." Jack said. "And I guess she didn't really get away per se."

"No she didn't. I'm sorry for what happened for her though."

"Me, too Elliot, me too." Jack said.

The group was silent for a while until Jack spoke once more. "Mike, why don't you call Liz?"

Mike started at Olivia and Elliot. He sipped his bourbon slowly before putting it down. He shrugged. "Who knows, maybe I will. But it's been what? Almost 20 years."

"Mike, my ex and I? We were together for 20 plus years. Things change. You won't know until you try."

"Maybe I will Elliot. Thanks." Mike replied, giving him a small smile.

Elliot stood up then. He patted Mike on the arm and then shook the hand of Jack. "Well, guys, I gotta go. Olivia and I have our weekly date. Maybe will run into you here again sometime."

"Sure. I'm here a lot." Jack told him. "Usually here Wednesday or Thursday nights. Come back sometime with Olivia and we can have drinks."

"Sounds like a plan, McCoy." Elliot replied. "See you around."

And just before he and Olivia left, Elliot grabbed Mike by the back of his neck, looking at him straight in the eye and said, "Call her."

With those last words, Elliot and Olivia walked out hand in hand, leaving Jack looking heavenwards thinking of Claire and making Mike think again about calling Liz.

End

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