Fandom: Houston Knights
Series: Other Authors
Rating: PG13
Archive: Starwinder's
Title: Uncle Joey
Author: JoeyPare
"'Bout time you opened this door, LaFiamma!" Lundy bellowed impatiently, pushing the door open as the handle turned in front of him. "What took you so long, anyway?" The blond detective asked curtly as he boldly strolled into his partner's apartment, only to be stopped dead in his tracks by a toddler with the same raggedy hair that his partner had.
"One of yours?" Lundy quipped, looking intently at the lad who was bouncing at his feet.
"Hi, I'm Mickey! I'm four years old. Are you a friend of Uncle Joey's? Is he a friend of yours Uncle Joey?" Mickey LaFiamma bubbled joyfully, looking up into the stern face of his Uncle's partner.
"Uncle Joey!?" Levon Lundy questioned with surprise, a grin spreading across his face.
"Yeah," LaFiamma answered sheepishly, waiting for the negative response he knew would be coming from the Texan. Mickey's arrival spoiled the plans the two detectives had for their day off.
"What'd you say your name was son?" Lundy asked grinning, dropping to one knee to be eye-to-eye with this dynamo from Chicago.
"I'm Michael Anthony LaFiamma - the third!" Mickey boasted, doing a little dance as he repeated his name. "Are you Uncle Levon? We're waiting for bull-headed Uncle Levon. You're not bull-headed, are you?" Mickey asked shaking his head from side to side. "Uncle Levon's going with us to see some spaceships. I saw some spaceships on telebision, but Uncle Joey said I'll be able to touch a real one. Are you Uncle Levon? Are you?"
"LaFiamma, you can't be serious about bringing this kid along on our outing?!" Lundy replied, eyeing his partner suspiciously.
"Hey, Lundy. They knocked on my door about thirty minutes ago... what could I say... they're family." Joey lamented, knowing the two had looked forward to this day for over a month.
"You could'a said no!!" Levon growled firmly, taking off his Stetson, running his fingers through his mass of curly blond hair.
"NO! Uncle Joey never says no to me, do you Uncle Joey? 'Cause Uncle Joey likes me, don't you, Uncle Joey?" Mickey babbled, skipping from Levon to Joey and back again.
Joe bent down, swooped Mickey up into his arms, and deposited the boy on the living room couch. "Just sit there a minute, Mickey, while Uncle Lee-von and I have a talk."
"O..-kay, but we can't wait too long or the spaceships might take off, and then I wouldn't be able to touch them, would I?" Mickey answered, brushing his hair out of his eyes before folding his hands on his lap.
"Look, Levon - I know this is last minute. But I couldn't say no to my cousin, okay. He's a good kid, he won't be a problem," Joe earnestly pleaded, glancing quickly towards the couch to make sure the boy was still there.
"LaFiamma, he's already talked my arm off, and I ain't even been here five minutes!" Levon groused, wondering if insanity ran in Joe's family, to agree to baby-sit on the first real day off they'd had in months.
Lundy's words brought Mickey off the couch in a single bound. His two small fists shoving into the Texan's thigh. "I didn't neither talk your arm off, it's still here," he said angrily grabbing Levon's arm, giving it a jerk. "See it's there!"
Continuing with barely a breathe between words, Mickey said, "Look! Uncle Joey, Uncle Levon has cowboy boots on. Do you have a horse, Uncle Levon? Horses live in barns. Do you have a barn? Can I ride your horse? Can I?"
"Yeah, Uncle Levon," Joey chuckled with a broad grin on his face, "maybe we should just go see your horse and milk your cow?"
"A COW!! Do you have a cow? A real live cow?" Mickey's eyes grew wide as saucers. "My friend, Rico, thinks milk comes from a carton in the store. But I saw on Sesame where milk comes from, and how it's made ... and it starts with a cow!"
"La-Fi-a-mma!" Levon muttered through a tightly clenched jaw. This imaginary cow the two detectives had made up for one of their suspensions was getting out of hand.
"Why'd he call you LaFiamma, Uncle Joey? Doesn't he know your name is Joe?"
"You sure this kid is related to you, LaF.., Joe. He's said more in the last ten minutes than you've said in two years." Then glancing at the dancing four year old in blue shorts, sneakers, and a white tee shirt that said Chicago Bears on it, Levon replied softly, "I don't have a cow, Mickey, your Uncle Joey was just kidding."
"Well...?" Joey asked, stretching the word, knowing there was no need to finish the question.
"Yeah," Levon said nodding, "maybe a horse would be safer than turning this kid loose in the Johnson Space Center."
++++
"Wow! Uncle Joey - look at the horse! Isn't he beau-ti--ful?" Mickey exclaimed, bouncing up and down, but not letting go of Joe's hand. "Do I need cowboy boots to ride him Uncle Levon? He won't mind if I just have on sneakers, will he?"
As they approached the corral where Lundy's horse, Fooler was kept, Levon turned suddenly, grabbed Mickey by the shoulders and thrust him up onto the top rail of the corral fence. Mickey's face showed total fear until a grin and a nod of a head from Uncle Joey washed it all away.
"If you sit real still," Levon said quietly, "he'll come over to met you. Then we can saddle him and take you for a ride."
"Uncle Joey, did we bring a camera? Rico's never going to believe that I sat on a real horse unless I got a picure to show him."
LaFiamma leaned against the fence and watched his partner saddle Fooler, then lift Mickey into the saddle. A tear glistened in the Italian's eye as he realized, if things had turned out differently with Levon and Caroline, he could be watching Levon and his son working this horse.
"Uncle Joey! Hi, Uncle Joey.. it's me... look! I'm on a horse. I looove you - Uncle Joey," Mickey gushed grinning from ear to ear as Lundy led Ol' Fooler around the corral.
Several minutes went by before Lundy stopped the horse, and lifted Mickey to the ground. His little legs were flying before he landed, and he was off to the barn in a dead run. "Come on, Uncle Joey! Uncle Levon said we can play hide-and-seek in the barn."
Joe's mouth dropped opened and he stared in disbelief at his partner. "Hide-and seek? What, you nuts, Lundy!?"
"Well, I figured if we couldn't find him, he might fall asleep for a while," Lundy replied grinning.
"Wishful thinking, Lundy, wishful thinking. We're the ones who are going to fall asleep first. This kid's had ants in his pants since he was born. He didn't start walking at eight months... he started running!"
"You okay, Joe?" Lundy asked, using his partner's first name was rare for the Texan. "You looked kind of melancholy when Mickey was on Fooler."
"Yeah, I..." Joe started to say. ...but this little voice from inside the barn called, "bet you can't FIND me."
"Maybe we should have gone to the Space Center after all, Uncle Levon, Joey said laughingly as the two jogged to the barn.
"Sure thing - Uncle Joey. I can see Mickey now - swinging from the nose cone yelling, 'Hey, Uncle Joey, I'm up here.'"
THE END