Vertigo – by Kirsty Welsh and Brook. Yes, you know the score - Brook made me, honest! This story was written because we wanted to answer a few questions. Why is Starsky so afraid of heights? And why does he often seem to limp? Ever wondered? Well, we hope we've answered those questions.

Chapter 1

The young, curly haired boy closed the door to the house softly behind him and stepped out into the silent tree lined street. He didn't want a fuss. He didn't want his aunt to be there, mussing his carefully combed hair and covering him in kisses. He wanted some peace and quiet and time to assimilate what had happened to him. It had been so quick – the move. And now he had to settle into the new neighbourhood and a new school.

The 14 year old David Starsky had been moved from his comfortable home in Brooklyn New York to Bay City California on what he regarded as a whim and a betrayal of the trust he'd had in his Mom. He'd not wanted to move. He'd had no say in the matter. And after the night in police cells, his Mom hadn't even allowed him to go back home to chose what to pack and to say goodbye to his brother and his friends. God knows what they'd think of him, and truth to tell he hadn't been very good company these last two weeks, but he still needed to have some closure. He still felt he'd been whisked away without the opportunity to explain himself, or to persuade his Mom that he knew he'd done wrong and he would never let her down again.

It had all started 6 weeks ago, when on a rainy, cold night there had been a knock at the door of the apartment he shared with his Mom and Dad and his brother, Nicholas. His Mom had frozen at the knock, expecting trouble. Her husband had gone to work as usual for the evening shift in the notorious Queens District and he had kissed her on the cheek, wished her a good night and gone out the front door. Nothing earth shattering there, except that Michael Marvin Starsky was a cop. And cops in Queens had one of the toughest areas in the country to patrol and short life expectancies.

So when his Mom had gone to answer the door both David and Nicky had braced themselves for bad news. They heard voices, a man's a woman's and then they heard the muted scream, followed by a sob and his Mom came back into the living room supported by two of his Dad's friends. At that point the two boys realised that something was terribly wrong.

Paula McCafferty, a woman police officer had come to sit between the two of them and she put her arms around them both and hugged them to her protectively. As David looked at her he could see tears shining in her eyes and his heart hammered in his chest. He'd always been so proud that his Dad was a cop, even though it lead some of the other boys at school to mock him, and he'd come away with bruised knuckles and the odd black eye. But he also knew that doing the job his Dad had was dangerous and that some day something bad may happen to him.

'Its Dad isn't it?' he said, his voice remarkably level, considering his youth and the tension in the room.

Nicky, two years his junior, let out a wail and hugged Paula tighter.'No, not Dad. Please not Dad' he sobbed, burying his face into the police woman's jacket.

David looked at his Mom, who was sitting with quiet dignity by the side of Sid Hallam, one of his Dad's best friends. He got up and crossed the small room, kneeling down in front of the tiny woman and looking up into her face.

'Is Dad dead?' he asked.

'Yes son. He was shot in a drive by' Sid said gently as the blue eyed boy put his arms protectively around his surviving parent and pulled her into a hug.

'S'ok Mom' David said as he buried his face into her hair and hugged her close. 'S'ok, I'll sort everything'. There were no tears. He was the man of the house now and he needed to be brave for his Mom and for Nicky.

The two officers stayed a while, making cups of tea, comforting the family and telling them the outline of what had gone down. Michael had gone to work as usual, picked his partner Rod up at the station and had set off downtown in their patrol car. They been cruising for perhaps half an hour when they got a call to a robbery at a drug store in one of the seedier areas of their patch. With mars lights flashing and sirens wailing, they made it to the drug store quickly and just in time to see a guy wearing jeans and a bright red tee-shirt and with bright orange hair leaving, a bag slung over his shoulder.

Michael and Rod got out of the car, hunkering down by the sides of the open doors and Michael Starsky was preparing to cover his partner, when around the corner a large black pick up truck screeched, bearing down on the two cops. As it drew level, and without giving Michael chance to move or protect himself, the robber's accomplice leaned out of the driver's side window and shot five times, each bullet piercing Starsky senior's body so that he slumped, dead before he hit the ground, by the wheel arch of the car.

His partner, Rod had been left relatively unscathed, a flesh wound to his thigh being the only physical wound, but he'd been hospitalised with shock, believing that he was somehow to blame because he hadn't watched his partner's back. Sid explained that there would be an inquiry, that all the guys in the squad room were there for Rachel Starsky should she need anything, and that she need only ask.

Acting as the man of the house, David had courteously shown Sid and Paula to the door assuring them that he would be fine and that he could look after his Mom. Then he'd closed the door, organised Nicky to go to bed, made his Mom another cup of tea and stayed with her. Eventually he'd gone to bed too. And then (and only then) did he allow himself the luxury of tears as he cried into the dark for the Dad he'd lost and the pain he, Nicky and his Mom would have to bear.

Five harrowing days later, at the end of a funeral service conducted in driving rain and a bitter wind David and Nicky escorted their Mom back to the house. Both boys looked older than their years, dressed in their black suits, white shirts and black ties. Nicky had cried most days since his father's death and David had heard his Mom, late at night, sobbing in her bedroom, emerging next morning with a pale face and heavy eyes and slowly the cold hand of anger had gripped at his heart.

While everyone was gathered in his living room for the wake after the funeral, he ducked upstairs, changed into his jeans, tee shirt and sneakers and let himself quietly out of the house. His neighbours, Tony and Patricia Goldstein were busy with his Mom, keeping the food and the tea coming and David let himself into their house. He knew what he wanted. He knew where to find it and he went quickly to the gun cabinet hidden beneath the stairs, Breaking open the door, he took the small handgun and expertly checked the magazine, snaffling a handful of bullets. His Dad had shown him how to look after guns and even how to fire them in the safety of a firing range, but now he was out on the hunt.

Vendetta! That's what he was – a vigillante out to avenge his Dad and as he sat quietly on the bus on his way to Queens, he felt the cold chunk of metal nestling in the waistband of his jeans.

Getting off the bus near the drug store that Sid had described, he started to look around him for any sign of an orange haired guy, or a big black pick up. He had no real idea what he was doing, it was just the burning desire for revenge in the pit of his stomach that drove the brave boy onwards. He prowled the streets, collar up against the wind and rain, hand on the gun in his waistband, but saw no-one that looked like his Dad's killer.

He was beginning to give up hope of finding anyone that day when he was shocked by the screech of tires at his side and the two cops jumping out of the car into his path. Sid and Paula had had a heart broken call from Rachel Starsky that David was missing. They'd put two and two together and had luckily made four and had found the young boy just where they thought he'd be.

Paula grabbed hold of David and spun him round as Sid expertly patted him down, finding Tony's gun immediately. They treated him like any other criminal they'd find on the street and he remained tight lipped as they cuffed his hands and bundled him into the back of the black and white. David remained sullen and silent as they drove him back to his Dad's precinct and took him down to the cells, where they locked him up for the night. It had all been arranged when Rachel had reported him missing. Sid had told her that he'd suspected the hot headed teenager might try to take the law into his own hands, and that being treated to a night in the local lock up, protected by his Dad's friends might be just what young David needed. No charges were pressed, but Rachel had agreed that a short, sharp shock might be what her hot-tempered son required. And while he remained in the lock up she'd telephoned her sister in Bay City to see if she could take him out of harms way.

Rosey had agreed and early the next day, before Rachel had time to change her mind, she and Nicky came to collect David from the precinct and take him directly to the station, putting him on the next bus to Bay City.

David had been angry at his Mom and at the same time releived when he'd been released from the cell. He'd been on his own all night, but the sound of the drunks in the next cell and the almost continual clanging of bars and jangling of keys had stopped him getting any sleep. Not that he could have slept anyway. He knew he'd done wrong, and what upset him most was that he'd let his Mom down too, when she was relying on him to be the man of the house.

Rachel had told him that for his own safety she was sending him to stay with her sister and he'd flatly refused to go, telling his Mom time and again that he was sorry and for her not to send him away. But the tiny Jewish woman had hardened her heart and held back the tears. She'd told Davey that she didn't want him to end up in a coffin like his Dad and that she'd rest easier if he was in the relative safety of Bay City. He'd protested and said he'd run away and come back to her, and she'd finally broken down, sobbing against his chest as he held her. It was then he realised the depth of her love for him, and although he hated that he had to go away, he couldn't bring himself to argue further with her.

He was, however, more than a little upset that she didn't allow him back to the apartment, instead bundling him into Sid's car and waiting with him until the Greyhound Bus arrived. He stood on the steps and kissed her, refusing to cry and as the bus pulled away. she waved a sad goodbye to her eldest boy.

David had sat on the bus staring at his hands as the engine took him further and further from the family he'd always known. He knew he'd been foolish. He knew he'd done wrong and that he'd upset his Mom more than she really showed. He hated himself for adding more hurt onto the woman he loved so dearly and there and then he vowed that one day he'd make her proud of him.

The journey had been long and even though Rosey and Al had been at the station to collect him, David felt lost and betrayed. He'd only met his Mom's sister once and that had been when he was very small. Now at almost 6', with a shock of chocolate coloured curls and incredibly deep blue eyes, he was a far different person from the child that Rosey had held on her knee. But he resolved that he'd try not to make trouble, hoping that in a week or so, his Mom would relent and take him back.

That was 2 weeks ago, and now, with hope of making it back to New York fading fast, he was up, washed, dressed and on his way out to his first day at his new school.

Aunt Rosey had bought him the uniform of black pants, a mid blue shirt which picked out the colour of his eyes perfectly and a black and blue striped tie, which he knotted loosely, leaving the top button of his shirt casually open. He'd never been one for formality and hated the tightness of new clothes, preferring jeans and tee shirts.

David set off for the half-mile walk to school. The one thing he was thankful for was that there was no Jewish school nearby and so he was going to a mainstream school in a good neighbourhood. But it was half way through the semester and he hated the thought of being the new kid. As the building loomed up ahead, he saw other girls and boys also walking in that direction and fell in behind them, bag on his back as he eyed up his fellow schoolmates. He made his way to the principal's office and from there was shown to his class where he sat down at the back in a spare desk and looked around him.

As the tall good looking boy walked in, Sienna Regan looked up and her heart melted. She'd always been a sucker for dark haired types and this boy had a different sort of quality to him. He was feral, almost dangerous, his uniform worn with an air of disdain, and he had a catlike swagger in his step. Her heart missed a beat. David took a quick look around the room and their eyes met. She blushed and looked down quickly and David smiled to himself. He always seemed to have that effect on girls, and this one looked good enough to eat. He resolved that at the next break, he'd go over and set about making friends.