"Jesus Christ, would you keep your shirt on. I'm coming," Lennie Briscoe complained pointlessly, to whoever it was who was incessantly ringing his door buzzer at 2AM. He figured it was probably a former partner or old army buddy or maybe his AA sponsor who was in a jam, needing a shoulder to lean on, an ear to bend. Lennie was nearly always good for that sort of thing, which was why he wasn't any more annoyed than he was at a door buzzer sounding at 2AM. He was however, a little startled when he opened his front door to find his nephew Kenny on his doorstep.
"Hi Uncle Lennie. I need to talk to you. I need some advice," Kenny said as he entered his uncle's apartment. Or at least that's what he tried to say, but the fact that he'd spent a good part of the evening at a nearby bar partaking of scotch and then vodka when he decided the scotch wasn't haven't the desired effect, impaired his speech.
"Good God Kenny, you're drunk as a skunk. What the hell happened?" Lennie asked as he helped Kenny to his couch, and then headed to the kitchen to start some coffee.
"Where'd you go," Kenny asked in confusion.
"No where, I'm just over here in the kitchen making you some coffee. Now what gave you the bright idea to go get yourself all liquored up?" Lennie asked, still trying to figure out why his normally responsible nephew was behaving like, well like an earlier version of himself.
"I screwed up big time, Uncle Lennie. Fucked it all up. I'm gonna be lucky if I just get transferred out of Special Victims, probably end up back in uniform," Kenny started babbling.
"Kenny, shut up and drink some of this," Lennie said, shoving a cup of instant coffee into Kenny's hand. Kenny obeyed, more because of the tone of his uncle's voice than anything else.
"Now, what did you do that was so bad," Lennie asked, once Kenny had drunk some of the coffee and seemed calmer.
"Cragen gave me a simple assignment and I screwed it up, and now a rapist is going to go free. He's probably gonna fire my ass. Hell, he's never trusted me with anything anyway. Always gives me the grunt work. I know he's just kept me in the unit because of his friendship with you. Everyone knows that. No one thinks I can pull my weight as a detective, and I guess I proved it today. Couldn't even get a simple assignment like keeping a lineup witness from talking to other witnesses before they did the line up, right. Now all the IDs are screwed," Kenny explained hanging his head.
"Hey, couple of things, first, Cragen is not keeping you in that unit because of me. On the contrary, I never wanted you in that unit, too damn hard on people if you ask me, worse than homicide when it comes to burning people up. Second, anybody can blow the kind of assignment you screwed up today, it happens to veteran cops too, it's just one of those stupid things. And finally, if the people your working with don't think you can pull your weight as a detective, then you damn well better get up in their faces and show them that you can, 'cause you're a Briscoe and Briscoes pull their weight whatever the hell the job is they're doing." Lennie'd gotten pretty loud on the last part and Kenny's head was already not feeling too good, so he winced.
"Uh, Uncle Lennie, I get your point, not so loud huh, and can I use your john?" Kenny asked, suddenly looking a bit green.
"Yeah, you know where it is, kid," Lennie said with the sudden realization that his nephew was about to pay the price for the unwise decisions he'd made earlier in the evening.
As Lennie heard the unmistakable sound of his younger relative relieving himself of the contents of his stomach, he shook his head, and was glad he'd finally left those days behind, except perhaps for the specter of an awful bout with the flu bug.
"You OK in there, or do you need some help?" he asked, trying, though perhaps not completely succeeding, to not be too much of a mother hen to the kid. Not having had his own son, he tended to dote on Kenny, which had always seemed to be all right with the kid, as Kenny and his Dad just didn't seem to hit it off with each other, maybe that's why Kenny became a cop instead of following in Lennie's brother's footsteps.
Kenny emerged from the bathroom, pale and shaky, "I'm OK, thanks.
"Did you hear any of what I said?" Lennie asked, and looked at Kenny with his head cocked at an angle.
"Yeah, I heard it," Kenny said with a sigh. "So what do I do?"
"Grow up a little," Lennie said.
"What's that suppose to mean?" Kenny said, getting a little hot at his uncle.
"Aren't you touchy?" Lennie commented but before Kenny could answer he continued. "It means next time you screw up just admit it. Say you're sorry, and promise the boss you'll never let it happen again. Stop worrying about what the people you work with think about you, and do the best job you can. People are going to think what they're going to think, but they're bound to think better things about you if you're working hard and not sporting a chip on your shoulder."
"So you think I've brought this on myself?" Kenny asked.
"I think a lot of it is in your imagination. I bet most of the people in that squad room, Cragen included, genuinely like you and think you're an asset to the unit. God, who do you get this neurotic streak from?" Lennie asked.
"I don't know, I must have gotten something from Dad, even if everyone says I look just like you," Kenny said, in a tone and with a grin calculated to make his Uncle "angry".
"You do not look just like me, your eyes are brown and you're a good 3 inches shorter than me. So you can just stop feeding that ugly family rumor! Besides if you keep it up, I'll toss you out instead of letting you sleep here tonight," Lennie said with a broad smile, with that he started helping his nephew turn the couch into a bed, and he located the spare pillow and linens for him.
"Uncle Lennie," Kenny called out.
"Yeah?"
"Don't tell Dad but –sometimes I wish it were true."
"What were true?" Lennie asked, tired and not sure he was tracking the conversation.
"That you really were my Dad instead of my uncle," Kenny answered.
"Oh, yeah," Lennie paused a moment, and then decided he could risk the truth, "well to tell you the truth, I always wish it were true."
There was quiet for a while, and then Kenny asked, "Hey, what's that mean?"
"Oh for crying out loud Kenny, go to sleep."