Hutch woke up, and the first thing he felt was confusion. Why am I on the floor? And for that matter, whose floor is this?" The second thing he felt, after trying to sit up, was the headache. Oh yeah.

Hearing the groan, and seeing that he was awake, Jon came over and peered down at him. "Good... you're awake. You need to be awake to learn your lesson."

Oh, that doesn't sound good. Where's Starsky?

Jon roughly dragged Hutch upright, causing his head to scream at him that it was going to explode. He stayed silent, however, not giving this idiot the satisfaction of making any more sound.

Jon knew that the bravado wouldn't last. Not when the cop had really learned his lesson. He picked up a loose plank of wood that had fallen from the side of the barn and looked at Hutch as if considering where the best place to start was. That was exactly what he was doing.

He went for the ribs first. So imaginative, Hutch sneered in his head. Jon swung the plank hard and Hutch felt the crack of at least one rib giving way. The pain took his breath away, and he instinctively curled up.

Starsky...

Jon grinned. "Isn't that sweet," he mocked, "he calls for his partner. What's the matter, is mean Jon hurting you?"

Hutch hadn't realised he'd said the name out loud. He wanted to scream at the idiot "Yes, you moron, now let me go!" but he restrained himself. His headache didn't want him to scream anyway, and he probably didn't have the breath for it.

The moron came at him again with the plank, and this time he had no problem finding a target, being content to beat any part of Hutch's body that he could see. At first Hutch settled for curling up and protecting the most important parts of himself with his arms, but Jon was relentless. He tried his best to stay quiet as the hits landed on him, but eventually it was too much. How much am I supposed to take? His ribs and head were killing him, and Jon had moved on to the rest of him with his plank. He couldn't stop himself crying out, and cursing, sometimes trying to hit back, but nothing stopped his attacker. He hadn't really expected it to, but it felt better to insult the man hitting him than to do nothing. Meanwhile, he really hoped Starsky was looking for him.

After half an hour, Jon had tired himself out, and finally paused in his beating. Hutch was trying to determine how much of himself still worked, just in case the opportunity to escape should arise, although right now he wasn't very hopeful about his chances, given that every movement hurt like hell.

He was confirmed in his suspicion that he wouldn't escape when Keene and McCaffrey returned.

"That'll do for now Jon," Keene informed the man.

"Hello Ken," said McCaffrey, "we're going to take you for a ride now. Hope you don't mind."

"What if I did mind?" asked Hutch, trying to show some defiance, for what it was worth, as he barely recognised his own voice.

"I'm afraid you don't get a say in it."

At a gesture from McCaffrey, Keene and Jon dragged Hutch to his feet, ignoring the groan this caused. Damn it, Starsk, I really could use you now, Hutch thought. He hated having to lean on the bad guys. Still, they were the ones that got him into this mess, so it was their problem.

McCaffrey nodded at Jon. "Take care of it."

They dragged him to a car again and shoved him into the back seat, not caring how much they hurt him.

"Where are we going?" Hutch asked the bad guys.

Jon, who was in the back seat with him, elbowed him in the ribs, making him gasp with pain. "You don't need to know that."

Hutch wanted to try to watch the landscape going past to figure out where they were going, but it was hard to focus on anything, and watching everything flash past was making him dizzy.

***

Around half an hour later, the car stopped and Jon jumped out, running round to Hutch's side. He pulled the door open and dragged Hutch out, depositing him on the ground. "Well, cop, this is the end of the journey for you. I would say see ya, but I won't, because you'll be dead." Jon got back in the car, leaving Hutch alone, and in the middle of nowhere.

Keene spoke to his accomplice, "Jon, we're supposed to kill him."

"Yeah, but he's gonna die out here anyway, isn't he? Why not make it a little more fun for him?"

"You really are a cruel man, Jon," Keene informed the other man, but made no further move to disagree with him, and drove the car away.

Hutch tried to move at first, to stand up or even sit up, but it hurt too much and was impossible, so he settled for lying back on the cold ground. He did notice that he was no longer on a road; they must have driven the car off the road to make things more "interesting" for him. He could be here for days before anyone found him, if they found him at all. Maybe it'll be okay in a few hours, after I sleep. Or maybe... Starsky... His thoughts trailed off, and he passed out.

***

Jon was gloating to Keene about their victory. "It'll be fine now – he'll never make it back from there. All kinds of things could get him. Cold, dehydration, snakes..."

"I hope you're right. Maybe we should just go back and shoot him."

"Aw, no, we're almost home now. Anyway, McCaffrey told us to take care of it and we did."

"I suppose you're right. You were quite thorough in teaching him his lesson. He doesn't have much chance of finding his way back from there, and it'll be dark soon."

TBC