"Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality." - Emily Dickinson

Pink

He never thought much about Valentine's Day until this year.

It's the first one since Terry died, the day Starsky might have been celebrating with her instead of sitting alone. They might even have been married by now.

Starsky doesn't talk about her much. There's a sadness in his eyes at times, a painful sorrow that tears at Hutch's heart. He didn't love her as Starsky did but he's cried for her, cried because Starsky had cried all his tears out, with him, the tears of one spilling over into the other.

Today of all days Starsky shouldn't be alone. He should be there to hold him up, to get him through the day.

He gathers up a board game and drives to Starsky's apartment, walking up to the front door and knocking their short, familiar seven raps.

Starsky's face is stoic when he answers the door, but Hutch can see the pink in the corners of his eyes where the blue has been burned with tears.

"I brought Monopoly." He holds out the game like a peace offering.

And so they sit and play, saying little, communicating so much through quiet glances, until morning comes and Valentine's Day is replaced by the 15th of February..an ordinary day.