This is the sequel to A Prayer in the Dark. It's all written and as a good friend of mine pointed out - it's only the work of a second to publish a chapter here and there. RL (even when it sucks) still allows a second for my boys, so here it is. I know I said I'd be gone for a while, but I'm addicted and to be honest, the curly one, the blond one and my friends throughout the world are the only things getting me through just at the moment. So please bear with me, sit back, buckle up and lets set the Torino rolling huh?

For my wonderful sisters, Brook, Nelleke, Angie and Eli, who talked me round when things were dark.

Disclaimer - don't own 'em, dang if I don't make money from 'em, but they look so cute when they're hurting!!

Chapter 1

'Susan Priscilla Gunther, you have demonstrated neither remorse nor a true understanding of the nature of your crimes against two of your fellow men. During the time that you held David Michael Starsky hostage you systematically tortured him to the brink of death. Had it not been for the timely tip off from some unknown but brave soul to tell of Mr Starsky's whereabouts, you would now be facing a sentence for murder in the first degree.'

'Compounding your crime, you also feigned a relationship with Kenneth Richard Hutchinson which would ultimately have lead to his death also. Your attempt on his life was cut short by the brave intervention of one Kiko Garcia and at this point I would like to honour him with a recommendation for an award for his bravery in tackling you and arresting your attempts to suffocate Mr Hutchinson.'

'In all, Susan Gunther, you are to be sentenced for two heinous crimes. Although you have steadfastly tried to demonstrate that you are not of sound mind, I have to tell you that this court has not been taken in by your act. Two psychiatrists have examined you and neither of them has found a jot of proof that you are not faking your own insanity. That said, I have no alternative but to commit you to prison for the rest of your natural life. There will be no right of parole. Bailiff take her away.' At the end of his sentencing remarks, His Honour Judge Hank Bennett stood and without a backwards glance left the bench.

The courtroom, stuffy in the heavy August heat remained silent as the woman dressed in a simple grey cotton tunic turned and stared hard at the two men on the front row of the public gallery. 'I'll make sure that you live every day in fear' she hissed as she was pulled bodily from the courtroom. 'I'll make you pay for what you did to my father….I'll haunt your lives till…..' Sue's voice was lost to the crowd as the door to the courtroom closed behind her and with a sigh Hutch turned to his partner.

'Still think you want to carry on buddy?'

Starsky winked one indigo blue eye at his partner. 'Now more'n ever. She's gone. She aint never comin' outa jail as long as she lives and she was the only other member of the Gunther dynasty, we checked. This time, he can't do nuthin more at us. We're fine.'

'Uh huh? And what about every other flake in Bay City?'

Starsky stretched stiffly and sighed. 'We take 'em one at a time like always. Me and Thee against the world huh? C'mon Captain Marvel, I'll buy ya dinner.'

'Great. Double cheeseburger and fries. I can't wait' the blond muttered as he glanced fondly at his best friend and partner.

As the courtroom started to clear, the two men sat contemplating the previous four months. Sue Gunther had tried to kill them both. For Starsky that had meant her burning down his house and planting a body in his bed to make it look as though he'd perished in the flames while in reality she'd taken him to an abandoned block of apartments and had tortured him for a week before abandoning him to die alone. Had it not been for a mystery girl who Starsky was adamant was really an angel come to look over him, he'd have died a long, slow and intensely painful death, to be discovered probably months later when the block was eventually demolished.

While Sue was maltreating Starsky, she had a more underhand way of dealing with Hutch and had snaked her way into the blond's life as his girlfriend. As he grieved for the "death" of his partner, Sue, ever the caring girlfriend, started to slowly poison him, firstly with overdoses of the Vallium prescribed by the doctor and then with doses of some Chinese herb she'd managed to buy from a shady character on the east side of the city. When they had taken too long to do their work and Hutch had found Starsky's necklace in her purse, Sue had tried to smother her "boyfriend" with a cushion and had only been stopped from completing her task by the timely arrival of Hutch's young friend Kiko.

The lad had been stunned by what he saw and when he tried to save his blond friend from certain death, Sue had attacked him, breaking his nose and fracturing a bone in the young man's foot.

When Hutch had been admitted to the hospital suffering from the effects of the poison and the attempt on his life, his partner had still been missing and it was only the blond's determination to find his buddy that had spurred on both Huggy and Hutch to continue searching. The blond had been unable to rest and had "escaped" from the care of the nursing staff with Huggy's help. Their breakthrough came with an anonymous phone call from a female tipping them off about the brunet's location and both men rushed to the scene.

It wasn't a moment too soon and in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, Starsky's heart had stopped beating twice, each time restarting when the flaxen haired cop yelled at his friend to live. For two days Starsky had hovered between life and death, his kidneys having closed down and his body rebelling against healing once more from such devastating injuries. In all that time, Hutch remained by his side and despite needing to heal himself, Hutch's strength helped to pull the smaller man through.

Altogether the brunet remained in hospital for three and a half weeks and during that time, the two men had time to talk and gather their thoughts. Although Hutch had felt that enough was enough and that he wanted out of the cop circus for good, surprisingly (considering all he'd been through) it was Starsky who wanted to push on and continue where he'd left off, citing simply that if he gave up now, Gunther and his family would have won.

When Hutch attended the pre hearing and heard that Sue was trying to cop an insanity plea, that spurred the two men even more and against all the odds, two months, three weeks and six days after he'd been found more dead than alive, Starsky and his partner once more logged Zebra three in as on the streets and rolling. Once again the brunet had defied all the odds in recovering so well, but not even Hutch knew this time how much it had cost.

At night, Starsky had taken to sleeping with the light on. He snickered to himself each time he went to bed and left open his bedroom door. The thought of being enclosed in a room on his own was too much for him to deal with. On occasions, even the light wasn't good enough to conquer his fears and he would ease himself out of bed and put the radio on low. Silence and darkness were his enemies, although he would never admit it. At work, he was the same brunet whirlwind as ever – laughing, joking, eyeing up the women. At home however, he was quite, introspective and more insecure than he'd ever been. He hadn't even thought about women seriously since his attack. Sure, he flirted, but that was more because it was how he was meant to be. When he lay in bed at night and allowed his mind to drift back to that week of hell, he admitted to himself that Sue Gunther had scared him more than every other flake he'd dealt with rolled into one. She was small, beautiful and deadly and in his mind he started to refer to her "The Black Widow".

Nightmares plagued him, although that was only to be expected. The police psychiatrist who had been assigned to both men despite their pleas that they weren't nuts, had explained to Starsky that he was suffering from anxiety brought on by his captivity and maltreatment. The medic had prescribed anti-depressants which had promptly been flushed down the pan. Starsky had suffered nightmares and flashbacks for most of his adult life – first as a result of his experiences as a POW, later from a series of experiences out on the streets. It was a cop's lot in life. They chased the bad guys while every flake on the street dreamed of retribution. It was just bad luck (and also the nature of homicide) that the flakes that the brunet and his partner dealt with were the worst society had to offer – and the most twisted.

Now however, the nightmares were all of confined dark places. Of monsters lurking in the shadows and every now and again, the darkness would be pierced by the bright light of the young girl. Starsky had little recollection of her, other than that she'd been kind to him and hadn't hurt him. He could only picture a sweet and earnest face looking down at him and if he concentrated he could remember her childlike voice. In his dreams, her image became inextricably intertwined with the pictures of angels that he'd seen in books as a boy and when he described the comforting presence to the blond as he recovered, Starsky drew a description of an almost unearthly being, sent down from whichever heaven was interested in him to help him and relieve his suffering.

For his own part, Hutch went along with it. He had no basis on which to refute Starsky's story. The only thing he knew was that he'd received an anonymous telephone call from an unknown female, telling him that Starsky was in trouble, terribly injured and the location. From that small snippet, he could hardly tell his partner that he'd imagined everything. In fact, when Hutch had told his side of the story, Starsky had taken it as yet more proof that his "angel" actually existed.

Not that either man had suddenly gotten religion. But there was a certain feeling of being watched over and when Starsky had encouraged Hutch to keep on going and not to quit the force, it had been on the strength of that argument – someone, somewhere was looking out for them.

As Sue Gunther was led away from the courtroom, Hutch wanted one more affirmation from his buddy that they were good to go. That Starsky and Hutch were still gonna be a team – the best team in Bay City. Starsky's cheeky wink had said it all and the tall blond now followed his partner out of the stuffy courtroom and out to his car.

The red and white striped Torino shone in the late afternoon sun and as the doors opened a wave of oven-like heat wafted from its interior. As the two men got in gingerly and rolled down the windows, Starsky glanced over at his partner.

'You ok buddy?' he asked.

'Sure. I'm good.'

'No, I mean it Hutch. Are you ok?' Starsky persisted.

While Starsky had received most of the attention from the nursing staff and the guys at the Metro because of his physical injuries, it was Hutch who was still really suffering. The blond's clothes were still hanging from his tall frame as an indication of all the weight he'd lost in the preceding months. His stomach – damaged by the poisonous herbs Sue had continually fed him was still ticklish in the extreme and Hutch was unable to eat anything but the most bland food and in tiny amounts. Anything more brought about recurrent bouts of sickness and pains twisting his guts into knots. The blond played down his problems, laughing off his loss of weight as his attempt to get more female attention than his handsome brunet partner. Only Starsky saw through the charade and although up until now he'd kept his counsel about his worries, today, with its sentencing hearing and the closure it brought it seemed as good a time as any to bring up his concerns. He'd seen Hutch's plough furrow ribs and sallow complexion in the changing rooms at the Metro. Only the brunet seemed to notice the narrowing of crystal blue eyes in the middle of a conversation indicating just how much pain the flaxen haired cop still endured and now he put his hand on Hutch's knee and sighed as the blond once again lied about his health.

'I'm fine' Hutch said lightly.

'No, you're not. You're still hurtin' an' I need to know how much. C'mon Blondie, ya make me tell you everythin' Aint it about time you treated me like an adult and reciprocated?'

Blond eyebrows rose heavenwards. 'Reciprocated huh? You swallowed a dictionary partner?'

'Quit changin' the subject and just tell me how you're doin' Starsky growled.

'OK, you asked for it. I've dropped twelve pounds in three months, I can't eat more'n a couple of mouthfuls before I throw up, I get pains in my gut each an' every day an' I can't sleep for more'n a couple of hours at a time coz I feel like there's some blond flake gonna jump me an' stick a pillow over my face. My love life is none existent and I have a permanent headache. Anythin' more ya want to know?' Hutch snapped defensively.

'Well it aint news, if that's what ya mean Blintz. But why the hell haven't you told me before now?'

'Coz you were sick, go figure.'

'Aww Hutch. You're sick too buddy. Seems like you're worse than me. Ya gotta stop protectin' me like this. I'm a big boy, I can deal with this.'

'Like you deal with it by sleepin' with the light and the radio on?' Hutch asked.

A frown fled across Starsky's face. 'How'd ya know I slept with the radio on?'

'Coz I have my spies. You wouldn't let me stay with ya, so I got Mrs Krantz, your landlady to keep an eye on you. She tells me everythin' that's goin' on buddy. She should've been in the CIA.'

'I need to find somewhere new to live' Starsky sighed. 'Ok, so I have issues too. Don't you think it's about time we took a break? I mean a real break. Get away from it all….no cars, no guns, no goons and no crazed blonds with connections to James Gunther.'

'I dunno. To be honest, I haven't got the energy to think about breaks or anythin' else. I just wish I could sleep.'

Starsky's face cracked into a grin. 'S'ok Blondie. Leave it to me. I'm gonna book us a vacation like nothin' you've ever had before. Three weeks of sun, sea and sand on a nice little Caribbean island.'

Hutch thought it over. They could do with the break, and the sound of a vacation on a sunny isle did hold a certain appeal, but the thoughts of a vacation organised by his partner left him feeling more than a little uneasy.