"I want you to tell me everything that comes in to your mind when I say the word 'closet'." Hutch said as he attempted to educate Starsky on free association.

"Closet." Starsky confirmed to his partner.

"Closet." Hutch affirmed.

Starsky began, his eyes closed in concentration. "Closet. Mothballs." Hutch rolled his eyes at the mundane reference. "Stuffy. Dark. Overcoat. It's my eighth birthday." Starsky smiled at the memory, then immediately retreated to a more solemn manner. "I'm hiding from my father. Uh, heavy footsteps. I'm trapped. He's getting closer." At that point, Starsky opened his eyes suddenly, grimaced and swallowed hard at the next memory.

"What?" Hutch asked concerned.

"I just thought of something terrible." Starsky looked disturbed and somewhat perplexed at the recollection.

Trying to be helpful, Hutch pronounced, "Starsky, that's terrific. That's wonderful. Talk about it. Spit it out."

"No, I don't think it's something you'd want to hear." Starsky replied from the floor, looking a little guilty.

"Look, the whole point of this exercise is to, is to cleanse yourself, is to get things out and talk about them. It's the only way it works." Hutch offered in an attempt to urge his friend to continue.

"Sure you won't hold it against me?" Starsky offered meekly.

"Absolutely not. It won't leave this room." Hutch replied.

Starsky nodded, realizing that Hutch didn't really understand what he was promising at that moment. "Well, you remember when I was holding your new Buddy Holly album in my left hand and the pizza in my right hand?"

"Right." Hutch said, listening intently.

"Or was it the pizza in my left hand and the album in my right?" Starsky asked, looking confused. "One of them's in the oven."

Hutch looked to his partner, realization setting in. He raised his head and took a whiff towards the kitchen.

"Doesn't smell like pizza, does it?" The blond asked, looking to Starsky who, looking uneasily at his hands, shook his head in agreement. Then, he looked up to accept Hutch's ire, which he knew he deserved.

Starsky jumped up as he saw the smoke billowing from the oven, wafting above his partner's head. "Hutch, get outta here," he yelled as he jumped to his feet and headed to the kitchen sink. He quickly grabbed the fire extinguisher from the cabinet and, just as quickly, opened the oven door to check for flames.

At the same time, Hutch had gotten to his feet and noticed the smoke. Although he had recovered completely from the botulism scare, his throat was still tender and susceptible to irritation. He immediately began coughing and headed to open up as many windows as possible.

Starsky doused the fire quickly. There'd been little damage done, save for the destroyed, prized Buddy Holly album. Starsky coughed a couple of times from the smoke and the awful smell of cooked vinyl. He grabbed some tongs and retrieved the ruined collectible. He looked up and saw Hutch staring at the sad remains.

"Hutch, I, I'm sorry." Starsky really didn't know what to say. He couldn't believe that he had destroyed the rare, priceless Buddy Holly album; for surely it was priceless, as Hutch would be unlikely to get his hands on one of the remaining seven copies in existence.

Hutch coughed some more as he made his way to his friend. "Come on, let's go into the greenhouse until this smoke and stench clears some."

"Hutch, don't be nice to me. You should be screaming at me, askin' me to leave. I really am a mush brain. I'm so sorry." Hutch noticed that his partner was looking more dejected by the second.

"Look," Hutch began as he put his arm around him and led him out to the greenhouse, "it's just a record. It's not that important. I'll get over it."

Starsky looked at Hutch, sure that some trick was being played on him. There was something wrong with the way Hutch was reacting to this situation.

"What's goin' on?" Starsky asked suspiciously.

"What do you mean, what's going on? Nothing's going on." The blond said as he sat down amid the jungle.

"No, no. You'd usually be madder than hell at me for something like this? Are you still sick? Is there something that you're not tellin' me?" The residual smoke started Hutch coughing again, which only compounded Starsky's anxious state. "Oh jeez, Blintz. I made ya have a relapse." Starsky stood quickly and grabbed Hutch by the arm and tried to drag him to the door.

Hutch laughed at his friend and pulled his arm from Starsky's death grip. "Starsk, I'm okay. My throat's a little sensitive still, that's all. I'm fine. Sit down and relax, will ya?" Hutch wanted to get back to what they were discussing before the Buddy Holly meltdown.

"I can't relax. I ruined your album." Starsky said dejectedly as he looked down at his hands again. He looked up at Hutch. "Are you sure you're okay?" Hutch thought he saw a hint of wetness in those deep blue eyes. Something more was bothering his partner than just ruining a record.

"I'm really more concerned with you. Are you okay?" Hutch asked, placing his hand on Starsky's forearm.

"Am I okay? Whaddya mean? You're the one who's started coughing. You're the one who lost something here. I'm just the one who destroyed it." He got up and seemed to start pacing. But the physical demonstration of his agitation was short-lived, as he sat back down again with a heavy sigh.

"No, I don't mean that, buddy. I mean about what you were remembering before. You seemed bothered by it. We should talk about it." Hutch wanted to get Starsky talking again about hiding from his father.

"No. I think I should go." Starsky again rose, this time heading hurriedly to the greenhouse door. Hutch jumped from his seat and grabbed his partner just as he reached the door.

"No, Gordo. We're going to finish what we started before. I told you that free association is cleansing. You're wound up tight buddy. It'd do you good to talk about it." Hutch thought he had made his case. He looked Starsky in the eyes and saw again what he thought were tears forming.

Starsky looked out the window and started to blink the impending tears away. He had started to remember a moment from his childhood that he never really wanted to think about again. Since his father died, he had tried hard to remember all the good things about his father, all of the fun he used to have, all the lessons he'd learned from him in the short time they had together. Hutch's free association exercise just brought back something painful. He really wasn't feeling like talking about it, and he definitely wasn't ready for Hutch to be nice to him after what he'd just done.

"Listen, can we do that another time? I'm feeling a little weird lettin' you be nice to me. And it just feels weird you being nice to me, period. Usually, you'd get mad and yell and I'd yell back and eventually apologize, and then everything would be back to normal. Can't we just do that?"

Hutch listened and decided that Starsky was not in the right frame of mind to continue just then. It was more important that he help his friend feel better at that moment. He would find a better time to get Starsky to open up about that disturbing childhood memory.

"All right. If that's what you want, then we're done free associating for today." He smiled at Starsky and grabbed his shoulder with a firm, comforting grasp, and received a small grin in return.

"Thanks, buddy." Starsky replied, sounding depressed.

"Don't thank me yet. Are you ready for the tongue-lashing you so richly deserve?" Hutch asked as he continued to smile at his partner.

Starsky looked at his best friend and saw that all had been forgiven just by witnessing the expression on Hutch's face. "Yeah, I'm ready. Give it to me with both barrels." He said, the small grin turning larger by the moment.

"Okay. Here goes. You are the dumbest, mush brained turkey I have ever met. How could you mistake an album for a pizza? You'd have to be the biggest…" he couldn't go on as he burst out laughing, coughing a little at the end. It didn't help that Starsky's grin had grown exponentially during his attempted tirade into a respectable trademark Starsky smile.

"What?" Starsky asked, confused but laughing along with Hutch. "You were doing great."

"Yeah, well I can't do it." Hutch's demeanor turned somewhat serious. "I could've died from botulism, Starsky. And the reason I didn't is because you are tenacious and would stop at nothing to find me. I love you for that and, well I just love you, buddy, and I can't yell at you today and mean it. We can try again tomorrow maybe, if you want."

Starsky looked at his partner and realized any chance of getting what he wanted today was shot. And he was definitely feeling less of a need to be yelled at, basking in the warm feelings that Hutch so readily offered. He realized that this relationship with Hutch was what was really priceless. But he wasn't going to admit that just then. "Well, if you feel that way, maybe I can get you to not call me names anymore, I mean, if that's the way you feel." He looked up with a crooked grin, hoping to get a rise out of his partner.

"Let's not go overboard, buddy."

The End