Original title, "To be or Not to Be? That is the Question." However, this website didn't like that title. Also, thank you to acmabry (Arlene) for beta-reading this for me and making suggestions.

I hope there are no mistakes in this story and it reads well, but this website messed up the typing so bad in the Word document I'd downloaded that I had to make many corrections here in this website.

Title: Spelling Bee

A day in the summer and Hutch and Starsky had just finished eating a wonderful lunch at the beach. Hutch reached inside the ice cooler for another can of refreshing Coke. He took a big swig of the cool drink. Then sitting in a wheelchair, turned around to take another look at the breathtaking sunset, before it totally disappeared for that day.

Both men had not seen what had just gone into Hutch's can of Coke and when he took another sip of it he dropped the can yelling "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!"

Which of course brought Starsky immediately to his side to find out what was wrong with his partner and best friend.

The blond, who normally had the good looks of a California beach boy instead of a cop mouth had swollen up to four times its normal size, when a yellow jacket flew out of the can. Apparently having had enough of the Coke and enough of Hutch's yelling.

Hutch knew the difference between a bee and a yellow jacket. For one thing a yellow jacket was more aggressive at getting what it was after. Besides that, most reported 'bee stings' may actually be yellow jackets like the one which had stung him multiple times. A bee could only sting a person one time.

Yellow jackets can also cause a severe allergic reaction. A fatal one too, but that would take an awful lot of venom to kill him. Still, Hutch was holding both hands to his extremely achy and throbbing mouth.

Starsky had ran immediately to his side with some ice from the cooler, the ice in a clean washcloth. For the ice it to do any good at all, first he had to pry both of Hutch's hands off his mouth and so Starsky could hold the washcloth there.

Unfortunately, the ice wasn't making the swelling go down much and Starsk insisted that they were going to the closest hospital's emergency room. That would be the same ER he had taken Hutch to when just last week he'd stepped barefoot on a piece of broken glass and needed stitches in both of his feet. Right now he was getting around by Starsky pushing him in a wheelchair.

At the hospital Hutch was given a shot of an anti-allergy injection in his bare butt, which Hutch hadn't liked at all because it made his butt sore. He then was given a shot of a painkiller. "Why couldn't the painkiller have come first, then the anti-allergy shot wouldn't have hurt." Hutch thought.

At the hospital even with the painkiller his mouth was still sore and swollen, and he had an extremely hard time talking.

It would be awhile before anything with a 'b' in it wouldn't make him groan (it would remind him he'd been stung by a yellow jacket that looked like a bee!) Not that he needed any reminding that he'd been stung multiple times!

When they got home, Starsky handed Hutch a book to take Hutch's mind off his problems. Hutch gave him a pained withering look because the book Starsky gave him was Hamlet and with the famous line: "To be or not to be? That is the question."

Hutch read the book anyway. Later he turned on the TV and the show "Andy Griffith" was on. The first person he saw on the TV was the character Aunt Bea. Hutch groaned, then fell to his side on the couch because with her name pronounced like Bee, she reminded him he had a sore mouth and couldn't talk.

Additionally, what was he to do about the spelling bee Kiko's school was hosting tomorrow morning on Tuesday. It was a competition between whichever adult each child had chosen to participate in, and Hutch still had some words he needed to brush up on how to spell. One of them being a long word that started with the letter 'b'.

"Do you know how bee-u-ti-ful you are when you're thinking so hard Blondie?" Hutch's mouth was still too achy to tell Starsky off with words, but he had other ways to do it. He gave the brunet a what was supposed to be a small kick to his right leg and in doing so, had forgot about the stitches in his right bare foot. He had been back to sitting up, but now doubling over at the waist and in pain; he still had four more hours to go before it was safe to take more pain pills. If he went ahead and took the pills now, he could experience some unwanted side effects. Like dizziness and a case of the shakes, the same or worse than when he'd been going through withdrawal from heroin.

"Sorry buddy! I'm bad for teasing you like that. Here. Let me help you sit back up then I'll massage your neck how you like it."

The massage felt good, but he was still knotted up some, worrying about how he was supposed to practice for the spelling bee when he couldn't talk. He knew some America sign language and had gotten better at it, but if he was hurting at the spelling bee, any sign language at all and his natural stage fright would get in the way of him spelling the words he was given right.

Hutch finally came up with a solution. He realized he didn't seem to get stage fright so bad when he could play his guitar or piano and didn't have to sing. Hutch wouldn't be singing, he'd be participating in a spelling bee and the guitar didn't have many strings to come up with all the letters in the alphabet, but a piano sure did and then some. Motioning with his hands to get Starsky's attention, Hutch pointed to some masking tape and a Sharpie pen on the kitchen counter.

"What do you want them for?" Starsky inquired.

Just to be a smart aleck, Hutch pointed to one of his bad feet.

Starsky took him seriously, replying, "I'm not going to put any masking tape on your foot dummy and signing my autograph on it. The masking tape might pull out your stitches too when I pull the tape off and plus you'll have a chance of getting a bad infection. Plus you….make that 'we' don't want that to happen! ! Would require me taking you to the ER again and I'll tell you pal, I'm tired of taking you there! Sometimes you make a bad patient and get all whiny on me! Remember the time I was taking you to the ER and out of the blue you whined to me if you ever had to go live in a nursing home to please don't take you to the one that smelled like urine? Worse yet, remember the time you got a small cut on your hand trying to go over the fence to catch a criminal? That was the time Diana Harmon ended up being your nurse. But before she came in your treatment room, what did you do but complain to me because the doctor hardly spent any time with you even though your hand had been stitched up but with not many stitches at all.

Hutch bowed his head in shame that he had put his well-being over others in worse shape than him, but that didn't mean he didn't now need the masking tape and the Sharpie pen to do something with his piano. Having grown inpatient, trying to tell Starsky with his hands how come he needed the tape and pen was fruitless. Guess they were having one of their days where they couldn't read one another's minds so well.

"Sigh."

"What's that you said Blintz?"

"Sigh"

"Hey you're talking better, but is the only word you can say right now is "Sigh"?

Hutch was capable of rolling the wheelchair over to where he needed it to go, just would've been easier if Starsky had maneuvered him to where he was trying to get in his Venice Place apartment. When he'd cut his feet, it took Starsky and Huggy to carry him up the stairs and inside his abode. Since then an elevator had been installed, courtesy of the owners of the restaurant downstairs.

Hutch was great at sports, but pushing his wheelchair around his apartment he was quite klutzy at and crashed into things. Starsky had chided him that it was a good thing when he was ready to drive his own car again he was a better driver of his Ford Galaxie than the wheelchair.

Finally, Hutch got the masking tape and the Sharpie pen. Tearing off pieces of tape he got Starsky to push him in the wheelchair to his piano. Placing the pieces of tape on the white keys only, he wrote on one piece of tape a letter of the alphabet. Continued doing so until all the alphabet was there, not able to ignore the fact that the word 'alphabet' had a b in it or that the piano had B keys. He groaned, thinking of his still very sore lip, but this is how he would participate in the spelling bee tomorrow was by using the school's piano to spell the words he was given out. Couldn't use a piece of paper and a pen because it wouldn't be as challenging to get the words right.

Taking an afternoon nap, nighttime came but the sun was still out and Hutch became confused as to whether it was morning or evening. As a result, he took two of his pain pills, too early! Soon he got very dizzy and got a terrible case of the shakes!

Starsky was asleep on Hutch's couch when he heard a glass lamp break in Hutch's bedroom. Running to Hutch's room, Starsky was very careful to not cut his own feet on the shards of glass, he made his way to Hutch.

Temporarily the swelling of Hutch's mouth had gone down and he told Starsky,

"So dizzy! Room's spinning round and round and round and round. And th…th…these these these these these these sh…sh…shakes shakes shakes shakes shakes are wo…wo…worse worse worse worse worse than when I was co…co…coming coming coming coming coming off of Horse."

Starsky went and sat on Hutch's bed and held him. Wrapping a blanket around him. "Poor baby!"

Ten minutes had passed and Hutch wasn't getting any better. "Now I have to leave you for a sec and call an ambulance to take you, I mean 'us' to the hospital so you can be treated."

"Wish these these sh…sh…shakes shakes shakes would st…st…stop stop stop stop! And the the the dizziness! Can't tell if I'm sitting uprightupright upright or upside down! . Starsky while we're in the hos…hos…hospital hospital hospital get me a pi…pi…piano piano piano piano! , S some masking tape an…an…and and and and a Sharpie pen."

"You don't still think you're going to that spelling bee at Kiko's school do you!?

"Yessssssssss a yessssssssss!"

"Forget it buddy. Ain't happening"

"Bu…bu…but But but but but Starsk!"

"Quiet now. I still have to make a phone call to get us an ambulance."

Inside the ambulance Hutch received some oxygen and a had a nice warm blanket placed on him. Hutch was still persistent about going to the spelling bee, while Starsky was holding his hand and trying to comfort the blond one.

"Alright Hutch. Spell receive for me. "

" REVIVE" Hutch answered.

"You've already flunked the first word, buddy!"

"One one one one more more more more mo…mo…more word please pleasepl…pl…please!. For Kiko's sake sake."

"Can I have another blanket for my buddy here?" Starsky asked a paramedic. His shakings are getting worse," he explained.

After Starsky placed that blanket over him, Hutch insisted he give him another word to spell. The word he gave Hutch was cantaloupe.

Hutch spelled it cantolope.

"You spelled that one wrong too. Sorry pal."

Hutch looked sorely disappointed. "I know know know kn…kn…know what word I'll get right! Tell me how to spell your last name. I'm I'm I'm sure to get it right if this ambulance would stop spinning round and round and round and round!

Hutch spelled it "Starsky."

"See there? I got it right. Didn't I? Didn't I?" Hutch looked at Starsky with pride he'd got it right, but still wanted Starsky's assurances he had got the spelling of his best friend's last name correct.

Done being treated in the ER, Hutch saw a piano in the hallway and pointed. Now only if he had some masking tape and a Sharpie pen to practice for the spelling bee the next day and in the morning.

This evening his lip had gone back to being too sore to talk any, and all because of that bee….Um, yellow jacket! At the beach!

"Okay Hutch! Okay! Here's your masking tape and pen right here! Are you happy now?"!

Hutch shook his head vigorously that he was very thrilled about it, even though Starsky had got the items out of his blue windbreaker jacket with pockets.

After the tape and the alphabet had been put on the white keys of the hospital's piano, Hutch got every word that Starsky gave him correct. That included the long word he'd been having trouble with that began with the letter b.

Come tomorrow morning and at Kiko's school, Hutch got 1st place in the spelling bee. Before the spelling bee began the principal of the school had asked everyone, children and adults included, if they minded if he Hutch used a piano and the the masking tape with letters on it to type out on the piano the spelling of each word he was given; explaining what had happened to Kiko's big brother..

Everyone was in agreement Hutch could, and the spelling bee began.

Included in the words he'd been given was bee.

Another was yellow jacket.

Then he was given the word Galaxie as in Ford Galaxie.

Then the words got harder and harder to spell.

But, Hutch ended up winning first place in the competition and with a big applause from those in the spelling bee auditorium, Starsky pushed Hutch up on stage in his wheelchair to receive his reward.

Afterwards, at the school's outdoor picnic, Hutch reached into a cooler and got himself a root beer. Opening the can and setting it down and turning away from the can to look at the beautiful sky, before he took a drink of the soda he looked in the can to make sure there were no yellow jackets or bees in it. Or wasps.. Anything that could hurt him inside there!

Speaking of wasps, last year he was walking across a K-Mart department store parking lot when a wasp flew in front of him, then stung him underneath his right eye. Also, he would never forget the bee that was hot after his aftershave and stung him when Starsky and he were trying to bust Amboy.

It was safe to take a drink of his root beer and doing so, he partially removed the can from his lips. Wouldn't you know it…in between his lips and the can- a yellow jacket slipped in between and stung his lips and in several places!

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" he cried swatting at the yellow jacket to try to get it to leave him alone, along with the rest of the people who were there. He was off-duty but it was his and Starsky's jobs to protect innocent people from man or beast or both.

Hutch could no longer see where the yellow jacket was but he could hear it buzzing around,. No doubt sending a message to other yellow jackets to come join in stinging him.

"Here's a can of Raid insect repellent mister!" a young boy handed Starsky the can and he sprayed Hutch down. Hutch was now soaking wet with the stuff and would require yet another trip to the hospital to take care of the yellow jacket stings and to get the Raid off Hutch so his skin didn't have any allergic reaction to the chemicals in the Raid!

The End