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Part 2 of The Phoenix Saga
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Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
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Published:
2020-11-05
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1,925
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The Odd Couple

Summary:

Lennie and Jack become roommates.  If only they knew where this was going to lead . . .!
Timeframe:  Just after Family, March 1998

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:

Phoenix Saga Prequel 2 The Odd Couple
(with appologies to Neil Simon)
by LavenderJade

 

What a week it had been.  Was it really only 4 days ago that he and Rey had been assigned to investigate a shooting only to find that the victim was his daughter, Cathy? That day had been the blackest of his life – and that’s saying a lot, considering.  The pain was still with him – it always would be – but somehow now it was bearable.  Mostly because for the first time in a long time, he didn’t feel completely alone. His work had always been his life, that was one of the major reasons both of his marriages had failed.  But for some reason, it had never occurred to him until Cathy’s funeral that his friends and colleagues could become his family.  They truly cared about him, and with their help he could get through the dark times without leaning on the crutch of a bottle.

For example, Jack.  For too many years, Lennie had lived alone in a tiny apartment.  He often worked late just so he didn’t have to go back there.  But after Cathy’s death, his friend Jack McCoy had invited him to stay at Jack’s place until he felt able to face a night alone without reaching for that crutch.  Now that the funeral was over, he found he was reluctant to move back to his hole in the wall.  It had been nice having someone else around to talk to.

For his part, Jack made no efforts to push Lennie out.  He still felt somewhat responsible for Lennie’s fall off the wagon 2 years earlier the night after they witnessed the execution of Mickey Scott.  Somehow, both of them had ended up in the same bar that afternoon, trying to escape for a short while from the doubts that plagued them.  Jack had gotten a big head start – he was already quite drunk by the time Lennie appeared.  In a moment of drunken forgetfulness, he had told the bartender to “Give my friend a drink!”  OK, so Lennie had made it his usual club soda, Jack had planted the idea. It was no real surprise that by the end of the evening, Lennie had fallen off the wagon, hard.

Of course, the worst was yet to come.  Jack left the bar in disgust, tired of waiting for his lady love and assistant Claire to show up.  When she finally arrived, instead of Jack she found Lennie, and realizing he was drunk, she offered him a ride home.  On the way, a drunk driver plowed through a red light right into the side of the car. Claire was killed instantly, while Lennie escaped unharmed – except maybe for his soul.

Jack and Lennie were both consummate loners.  For a while, they each fought their individual battles with the memories of that day, and they were losing.  After about a month, Jack had been forced to take a new assistant and the memory of Claire was haunting him.  Lennie stopped by the DA’s office to drop off some evidence for a file, and seeing Jack’s pain, he suggested they go grab a club soda together.  Jack automatically declined; these days, he preferred to drink alone, and definitely NOT club soda.  They talked about that night briefly, both expressing their guilt for what happened.  As Lennie sadly walked away, something inside Jack snapped into focus.  He stuck his head out the door of his office and called “Hey, Lennie.  Wait up.”  Lennie stopped and looked back in surprise to see Jack putting on his jacket as he jogged down the hall to catch up.   Over the next several months, they found in their shared pain a friendship that neither would have expected.

So when Cathy was killed, Jack wanted to make sure that this time, Lennie stayed ON the wagon.  He had taken the rest of that week off work to help.  Once again, Lennie found solace in Jack’s company; they stayed up late talking about anything and everything, so that Lennie was too tired to worry about the demons that haunt you when you’re alone and awake in the wee small hours of the morning.  They found they had more in common than Lennie would ever have expected.  Jack may have had the polish of a law degree, but underneath he was the son of a Chicago cop.

Next week they would both return to work. On Saturday, Lennie suggested that it was time for him to head back home.

“Are you sure, Lennie?  You don’t have to if you’re not ready.  Sometimes normal life is harder to cope with than the immediate aftermath of a tragedy.  Believe me, I know.”  For just a moment, the sadness of losing Claire crept back into Jack’s eyes.  He forced it away, and, determined to lighten the moment, added with a grin “Besides, it’s not like you’re cramping my style or anything!”

Lennie laughed at Jack’s comment, but he had seen that moment of pain.  “OK, one more week.”

Something truly amazing happened that second week.  Both of them were classic workaholics, and being out most of the previous week had left them way behind.  Lennie spent most of the day Monday digging through paperwork and avoiding the stares of all the well-meaning people around the station.  Around 6PM, his phone rang.  “Hey, Lennie, you gonna get stuck there late tonight or coming home at a reasonable hour?”

He smiled as he realized Jack was still trying to take care of him.  “Well, I figured YOU would be the one trapped under a mountain of paperwork after being out a week!  I hadn’t really thought about it.”

“Well, thanks to Jamie, the mountain isn’t TOO high, and I’ve had about as much paperwork as I can stand today.  Dinner?”

They met at a pub not far from the apartment, then headed back for a quiet evening at home.  Over the course of the week, the two workaholics actually left work at a reasonable hour most of the time.  Wednesday evening, Jack had to work late to get ready for a court appearance Thursday, but even then Lennie didn’t stay too late.  Even alone, coming home to Jack’s apartment was a lot better than going back to his hole-in-the-wall.

//You know, I could get used to this.// he thought.  //Hell of a nice place, good company most of the time, but nobody screaming that I HAVE to be home by 7:00 every night.  God, Gloria always WAS good at screaming.  Can’t believe she pulled that stunt at the funeral.  But it was worth it to see Van Buren put her in her place!//

He chuckled at the memory, then decided that it was about time he did something to earn his keep around here and actually started doing some housework.  By the time Jack turned up at 10PM, he had cleaned up the kitchen, picked up around the living room, and vacuumed the place.  They chatted briefly, Jack clearly surprised by Lennie’s sudden domestic turn, then called it a night.

//Yup, I could DEFINITELY get used to this. // Lennie thought as he crawled into the bed in Jack’s guest room.  //Wonder if he’d let me stay?  A modern day “Odd Couple,” his Felix to my Oscar.  Sharing an apartment with my best friend.  Hey, when did Jack become my best friend?  For that matter, when was the last time I HAD a best friend?//  Lennie’s thoughts rambled as he faded into sleep.

Jack shook his head as he tossed his jeans in the general direction of the laundry hamper.  He was touched by Lennie’s outbreak of domesticity.  //I could get used to this.  It’s been really nice to have somebody to come home to.  Even after a long night like this, to have someone greet you with a smile instead of anger for another long night.  Lennie understands, he’s married to his job, too.  You never know when you’re going to have to work late.  Or how long.  Sometimes it just has to be done.  He even cleaned up the kitchen?  I HATE cleaning the kitchen.  I wonder if he’d consider staying . . .?//

Friday turned into a late night for Lennie as he and his partner Rey tracked down someone too nasty to leave out on the streets over the weekend.  He was amazed that it actually occurred to him to leave a message on Jack’s machine that he would be late, don’t wait up.  By the time they got the perp booked, it was well after midnight.  The apartment was dark when he got home; Jack had already gone to bed.  Lennie was careful to be quiet as he made his way back to his room.  Too bad after tonight it wouldn’t be his anymore.

The next morning he woke late, around 9AM.  He threw on his bathrobe – the plaid flannel that he knew just drove Jack crazy it was so ugly – and followed his nose to the pot of coffee already made.  There was a post-it note attached to the coffee pot.  //Jack’s scrawl is almost bad enough to be a doctor’s, // he chuckled to himself.

“Hope things didn’t get too ugly out there last night.  I’ve got some errands early today, will probably be back before you even get up.  If you are up, stick around if you can – I need to talk to you.”

Oh.  This was it, then.  Maybe he WAS cramping Jack’s style after all.  He sighed heavily.  //Ah, well, it was nice while it lasted.  Guess I’d better go pack.//

He sat down at the kitchen table, insisting on at least one cup of coffee before said packing.  A few minutes later, he heard the key in the door and Jack burst in buried under a mountain of grocery bags.  “Hey, sleepyhead, you’re finally up!  What time did you get in last night?”

The mountain deposited itself onto the kitchen table in front of Lennie and he automatically began helping Jack put the stuff away.  “Around one AM, I think.  Was pretty beat, but that bastard rapist we’ve been looking for is behind bars and won’t be hurting anybody over the weekend, so it was worth it.”

As they finished putting the groceries away, Lennie decided it was time to get the painful question out of the way.  “So what did you want to talk about?”

Jack turned and looked at his friend.  “Lennie, I know you planned to head back to your place today.  But I’ve been thinking.  It’s been really nice having you around here.  I guess I’ve lived alone for so long I forgot what it was like to have somebody to share my life with.  But having you here, especially this week as life got back to normal, I realized how much I missed it.  Especially since you keep the same weird hours I do, and you don’t think that I OUGHT to be home by 7 every night.”

Lennie stared at Jack for a moment to convince himself that he was hearing correctly, then broke into a huge grin.  “I know what you mean.  Been thinking the same thing myself.  Actually, I’ve been dreading heading back to that mouse hole I call an apartment.  Didn’t dare hope you’d invite me to stay . . .?”

“Consider yourself invited, my friend.  But there IS one thing.”  Jack was staring at Lennie, trying for his best stern prosecutor glare but the grin edging in just ruined the effect.  “You’ve GOT to get a new bathrobe!”

 

end

Notes:

This orphaned work was originally on Pejas WWOMB posted by author LavenderJade.
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