THE MAN HE USED TO BE
CHAPTER THREE
Hutch straddled a chair with his arms folded across the backrest, as he stared through the observation window into Starsky's room in the Intensive Care Unit. Captain Dobey stood behind him, looking through the glass at his fallen officer. Starsky was lying on a bed, his normally olive complexion as white as the bed linens. A sheet covered his lower body, his exposed chest and stomach heavily bandaged, along with his left shoulder. A nurse and the doctor were both with him, checking his bandages and vital signs.
Two IVs dripped steadily into the back of his right hand and one into the back of his left. Wires and tubes protruded from various areas underneath the bandages. A clear plastic bag hanging on the bottom of the bedrail collected his urine.
The lower part of his face was obscured by the mouthpiece to the ventilator that forced his chest to rise and fall in the normal rhythm that he could no longer maintain. Hutch found his eyes drawn to the heart monitor standing to the right of the bed. As long as he could see those jagged green lines on the screen, he knew that Starsky was still alive.
"Mrs. Starsky should be here around ten p.m.," Dobey said quietly. "I'm picking her up at the airport. She doesn't know where his brother is to tell him."
"Did you get hold of his Aunt and Uncle?" Hutch asked, trying to focus on what Dobey was saying. He had met Starsky's mother and the rest of his family. He knew how close they all were with the exception of Starsky's brother, Nick. Nick Starsky was too busy looking out for his own interests to care much about the rest of his family.
"They're out of town until tomorrow morning," Dobey told him with a heavy sigh. "It's already on the news…"
"Is there any way to get in touch with them before they hear about it on TV?"
"I've got Minnie working on it. If there's a way, she'll find it."
Both men fell into an uneasy silence, continuing their silent vigil. It had been almost twelve hours since the shooting and they were both exhausted, physically and mentally. Hutch was holding up better than Dobey had anticipated but he could still feel the blond's guilt at not being able to prevent his partner from being shot.
Neither of them noticed Huggy Bear hurrying down the hallway towards them until the tall thin black men stepped up beside Dobey and looked through the observation glass. His shock and concern for his friend was clearly written on his face.
"Cap?" he said softly, a catch in his voice.
"Couple of guys dressed up like officers," Dobey told him gruffly. "He's lucky to be alive."
"He's gonna be okay…." Huggy said his words more of a question than a statement of fact.
"He's dying," Hutch said in a flat toneless voice without taking his eyes off his motionless partner.
"No…." Huggy gasped
"He's suffered massive damage," Hutch said softly. "The body can only withstand…." His words trailed off into silence.
"But there's a chance," Huggy insisted, refusing to accept the idea that his friend was dying. "There's always a chance."
"Of course there's a chance," Dobey said grimly. "There's always a chance."
Doctor Riley came out of Starsky's room and paused, looking at the three men with sorrow in his eyes. Hutch immediately rose to his feet, determined to be with his partner, even if it was only for a few minutes. "He's in a coma," The doctor reminded him needlessly as Hutch brushed past him and went into the room.
Captain Dobey stopped the other man as he turned towards the nurse's station. "Hey, Doc…ummm…." he paused, unable to say the words as he looked at the Doctor anxiously.
"He may live a few more hours…maybe even a couple of days….there's no way of knowing," the doctor told him, apparently convinced that the dark haired detective would die from his injuries. He continued on his way down the hallway, leaving Huggy and Dobey to stare after him in stunned silence.
Inside Starsky's room, Hutch slowly approached the bed. The nurse finished writing some notes in her chart and left the room. Hutch's eyes drifted to the monitor beside the bed that was registering Starsky's heartbeat. It was slow and irregular, the soft beeping sound filling the air.
Hutch slumped into a chair beside the bed and stared at his partner lying on the bed in front of him, feeling an overwhelming sense of helplessness and grief. His eyes took in the mass of tubes, wires, machines and IV bags that surrounded his injured friend. Hutch instinctively started to reach out to touch Starsky but then drew back his hand, suddenly afraid to disturb the wounded man.
Hutch hunched over in his seat, resting his arms on his knees. He could feel the sting of unshed tears in his eyes and the lump that seemed to be stuck in his throat. But the worst was the crushing pain in his chest that made it hard to breathe. He felt numb and detached, his mind still struggling to prepare him for a life without Starsky.
His mind drifted back to all the other times that he'd found himself in a hospital room waiting for Starsky to wake up after being injured in one way or another. They had both had many close calls but nothing like this. This time it was for real. This time, Starsky wasn't going to wake up and smile that crooked smile. This time, there was nothing Hutch could do but watch his best friend die.
He closed his eyes, listening to the sound of the ventilator as it pumped air in and out of Starsky's lungs. The soft beeping of the heart monitor blended into the background. The sounds of a life still hanging precariously in the balance. Hutch could still smell the blood as it pooled on the hot pavement beneath Starsky's body. And he could hear the gunshots echoing in his head. The guilt of not being able to save Starsky from being shot was tearing him apart. It should have been him, not Starsky. Starsky had never done anything to deserve this.
Hutch lost track of how long he'd sat there before he finally shoved himself to his feet and stumbled from the room. In the hallway, Captain Dobey was sitting in a chair directly across from the observation window. Numbly, Hutch slumped down in the vacant chair beside him, staring sightlessly at the wall. He barely noticed when Dobey spoke.
"You know, there's not much I can do at headquarters that I can't do here."
"Yeah," Hutch muttered in a barely audible voice.
"I think I'm gonna stay," Dobey told him. "I mean…I think one of us ought to be here in case we lose him." The Captain stood up and stretched to work the kinks out of his back and then slumped back down into his chair with a heavy sigh. "Why don't you go wash up and get something to eat?"
"Yeah," Hutch said listlessly. He wasn't hungry but he knew he had to keep his strength up to get through the days ahead.
"Catch up with Huggy. He just went for some coffee."
Sighing wearily, Hutch pushed himself to his feet. He stopped a passing nurse and asked, "excuse me, where's the men's room?"
"At the end of the hall," she told him continuing on her way.
Turning back to the Captain, Hutch said, "Cap, you want something to eat?" Without bothering to reply, Dobey shook his head, lost in his own thoughts. Hutch turned and walked down the hallway towards the men's room.
As he started to go inside, he almost collided with a man in a white tunic coming out. Without bothering to apologize, the man brushed past Hutch and hurried down the hallway.
Hutch stepped over to one of the sinks and turned on the water, splashing some on his face as he choked back a sob. As he reached up for a paper towel, he glanced in the mirror and saw a man's legs, reflected in the glass, sprawled on the floor in one of the stalls. Turning to push open the door to the stall, he discovered a man's body slumped against the wall, blood dripping down the side of his face. The unconscious man was dressed in a white tee shirt with a stethoscope slung around his neck.
Remembering the man he had almost collided with as he entered the restroom, Hutch burst through the door into the hallway. He caught a glimpse of the fake orderly disappearing through Starsky's doorway. Running in that direction, his heart pounding with fear, Hutch reached the doorway and grabbed the other man by the shoulder, pulling him back into the hall.
With an angry oath, the man took a swing at Hutch, knocking him off balance and to the floor. The fake orderly ran down the hall towards the exit as two uniformed officers joined the chase. Captain Dobey scrambled to his feet when he saw Hutch brawling with the other man. Stepping forward, he reached down to help Hutch to his feet.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine!" Hutch snapped in an irritated voice, shaking off Dobey's hand. "Whoever the hell he was, he wasn't any doctor. He was after Starsky! The real doctor is unconscious back in the men's room."
Satisfied that Hutch was unharmed, Dobey took command, barking orders at several other officers who had gathered around them. "I want a police guard put on Sergeant Starsky's room immediately! No one gets in there without proper identification and authorization! Nobody! Is that understood?" At the affirmative nods from his men, Dobey stomped down the hall to the nurse's station, followed closely by Hutch.
The petite blonde behind the desk looked up at the burly black man cautiously and said "May I help you, sir?" The dramatic events of the past few minutes had unnerved her and the expression on the faces of the two men suddenly confronting her wasn't helping any.
"I'm going to be using the empty room beside Detective Starsky's as a temporary command post for me and my men," Dobey told her in a voice that made it clear he wasn't going to be argued with.
"Yes, sir." the nurse said meekly. "I'll tell the charge nurse and leave a note for the other shifts."
Dobey turned on his heel and headed back towards Starsky's room. A young uniformed officer came rushing through the doors at the end of the hallway and said breathlessly, "They caught the guy dressed up like a doctor. He's under arrest. Baker and Jones are taking him down to headquarters now."
"Good. I'll call Edwards and Arnez and have them interrogate him," Dobey said in a satisfied voice.
"Wait, Cap…" Hutch told him "Have Miller and Barnes question him instead," he suggested. "They'll do a better job."
Dobey nodded his agreement and went to find a phone while Hutch slipped into Starsky's room to sit with his friend.