Chapter 10

Once Starsky had ensured Hutch was asleep and after John had assured him he'd remain that way, the brunette agreed to tail the ambulance in his car and get to the hospital as soon as he could. As he watched the two paramedics carry the body of his partner away, Gonzalez, who'd been looking around the house, shouted for him to go look at something.

Starsky followed the big man into the back room and stood at the door aghast at what he saw. The room was large and had a high ceiling. Along one wall was a range of kitchen type cabinets, their medical contents spilling out and onto the floor and in the middle of the room was a single bed. It had a bare mattress and attached to the mattress was a set of brown leather medical restraints for wrists, ankles, chest and neck .Starsky had seen similar before, notably at Cabrillo, but now he understood exactly where the various red welts on Hutch's body had come from. As he looked closer he could see that the mattress was filthy with blood and other fluids dried into the black and white striped ticking. As he realised his partner must have spent the best part of the two weeks tied down, to that bed alone in the dark dingy room, his blood boiled and he had to fight down the wave of nausea.

Gonzalez saw the look on the brunettes face. 'It's inhuman' he murmured. 'D'ya think he was…….?'

'Yeah, strapped down in here, on his own in the dark, waitin' for that psycho witch to come an' play her medical games on him' Starsky ground out, trying to control his rage. All he really wanted to do was go find Diana Harmon and ………..he couldn't think what he wanted to do with her. All he wanted was for his partner to get well, and he knew he'd have an uphill struggle with that.

He checked that Gonzalez could cover wrapping the case up and made his way back to his Torino. The drive to the hospital gave him room to think and to regain some composure, his mind on his driving. He pulled into the Memorial's parking lot and trotted into the ER, looking for Hutch.

The blonde had been taken straight into one of the side rooms and as the brunette peered through the small window, John was just coming out. He motioned Starsky to enter and introduced him to the doctor leading the team caring for the flaxen haired detective.

'Doctor Tucker, this is Detective Sergeant Starsky. He's Detective Hutchinson's partner, the man I told you about? I think you need to discuss the history with him, but like I said, I did promise that Ken wouldn't know anything about being in hospital'.

The young female doctor thanked the paramedic and took Starsky to one side. 'John said that Ken is your partner?'

'Ah, yeah, police partner. We've worked together about eight years'.

'Can you tell me a little about what's happened to him?' she asked bright green eyes boring into the brunette's indigo ones.

'We've been investigating some murders involving blond males. Hutch was the next victim. He was stalked last year by a nurse who used to work here. A Diana Harmon? Turns out she was a psycho and she stabbed him. Nothing too bad, but enough that she was committed to Brock Hurst. Her doctor says she has Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy. She was still fixated with Hutch and two of her friends took him and worked him over for two weeks while she tried to put him back together'.

'And his aversion to hospitals?'

'She was a nurse. She kept him for two weeks strapped down to a dirty bed, in the dark, and she wore a nurses' uniform. Go figure'.

'Ok' she smiled, realising he was upset and didn't mean to be rude. 'Apparently he has a phobia about needles?'

'Yeah. Some whippos got him a couple of years ago. They wanted an address and encouraged him to tell 'em by stringing him out on heroine. He's never been able to stand the sight of needles since'.

The doctor was shaking her head in disbelief. 'What sort of stuff do you two get involved in?' she asked incredulously.

He smiled grimly. 'You wouldn't believe it Doc. They should write a TV series!'

Doctor Tucker was getting down to business. 'Well, what do we do with him? He's going to be out of it for a few hours anyway, then he'll be going to theatre to have a lot of his injuries dealt with and we'll keep him in a medically induced coma for a couple of days after that until his body and his mind have a chance to rest. After that?'

'Is there any way I can see to him at home? I promised him he'd know nothing about the hospital'.

'Do you have any nursing skills?' she asked.

'No, but I'm a quick learner'.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

And so Hutch was in theatre for six and a half hours. He had his fingers set and splinted. Two breaks required pins to be inserted. His leg was set. Fortunately the break there was clean, but because of the extensive wounds on both his legs, no cast was applied. The leg wounds were debrided, cleaned and sutured. The pressure sores along his back were debrided cleaned and dressed. The chest drain wound was cleaned and re-stitched closed and the various other contusions were dealt with. Fortunately, the swelling on his stomach under the enormous purple bruise was nothing sinister and miraculously the chest drain had partially done its job. He had a raging temperature a low grade pneaminia and a kidney infection, but the doctors were all amazed at how much the blond had survived. they were impressed at how his body had withstood the treatment, but were anxious to know the damage which must have been done to his mind.

The NG tube was working adequately and remained in place, but the catheter was removed and replaced by a new, sterile one.

Eventually Hutch was brought back to the private room and laid on a ripple air mattress to aid the recovery of the pressure sores. He was pale and had two saline drips in his arms and a central line for various drugs into a port on his chest, but his face looked peaceful and he was given a reasonable prognosis.

Over the next three days Starsky stayed by his side learning how to care for the catheter, how to change the drip bags and check for blown veins and how to change Hutch's position every two hours to make sure his sores were healing well.

On the afternoon of the third day, Doctor Tucker came into the room and closed the door. She checked Hutch's chart and made various assessments of his wounds and vitals.

'Ordinarily we'd think about waking him up now' she told the brunette, who looked almost as pale as the patient. Starsky had had very little sleep and was nearing exhaustion, the stay in hospital being the end of a long two week hunt for his partner.

'What are you saying Doc?' Starsky asked.

'I'm saying that although you've learned a lot over the past three days, his injuries are still so severe that he needs hospital treatment. It would be dangerous for him to go home so soon'.

Starsky's shoulders slumped. 'You didn't see his face Doc. The terror when I said he needed to go to hospital. I promised him he'd be home when he woke up. Is there nothing I can do?'

'Dave, you've got a choice. Let him wake up here, but be safe and cared for if and when complications occur, or take him home and risk him getting worse. I can't say it plainer than that'.

Starsky sighed deeply, knowing that the doctor was making perfect sense but still angry that he couldn't keep his promise to his partner. 'So when are ya gonna wake him?'

'Now'.

'OK. But will ya promise me one thing, huh? No nurses in uniform OK?'

Doctor Tucker smiled at him. She'd never seen a man so hell bent on caring for his friend, and she was touched by the closeness these two men so obviously shared. 'Ok. I'll have a word with the nursing staff and we'll put blinds up at the window so he can't see the corridor. I'll also have a second bed put in here so you can stay and get some sleep. Deal?'

Starsky smiled back at the doctor. He didn't often get on with medical staff, mostly because he was usually on the receiving end of their care and it hurt. But he'd taken a liking to this young woman. She was different than some of the others. Maybe she hadn't been in the game too long to have had the humanity knocked out of her. So he trusted her and gave a brief nod. 'Deal'.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Later that evening, with the windows curtained off and furniture inserted into the room, it looked a little more cosy and less like a hospital room. Two nurses had been assigned to look after the blond, 12 hours on and 12 hours off and had both been briefed on the request for no uniforms. So at that moment, a small sweet nurse called Sarah was standing by the head of the bed, injecting a strong antibiotic into the port on the central line. She was a little over 5' tall, slim, with dark brown hair and green eyes, which danced with laughter even when her face was serious. She had an air of comfort and tranquility about her which belied her 24 years and she was dressed in jeans and a white tee shirt looking just like the 'girl next door'. Starsky sat, as he had done for almost three days now beside his partner, with a hand on the pale arm, needing and giving comfort through a single touch.

Sarah had just finished and was doing routine observations when she noticed eye movements. She mouthed to the brunette that she thought Hutch was coming round and moved away to the back of the room so that the blond wouldn't be startled when he woke. Starsky perched on the edge of Hutch's bed and watched as he became more animated until the blond licked dry lips and his eyes cracked open just a little, showing ice blue beneath thick blond silky eyelashes.

The brunette leaned forward and stroked a hand over his friend's forehead.

'Welcome back Blondie' he murmured as Hutch's eyes opened a little more and he tried to focus.

'Hi yourself' he croaked.

The eyes closed again for a moment as he tried to orientate himself, then opened fully to lock on to his partners.

'Starsk?'

'Right here'.

'Knew ….would be……stay?'

'Not goin' anywhere. D'ya think I'd leave ya now after it took all that time to find ya?'

'Nah…..Starsk?'

'Yeah?'

How long?' Hutch's voice was raw and rasping and he coughed, trying to clear his throat.

'Since I found you, almost four days' Starsky said gently. He knew from bitter experience that those first few moments after Hutch woke up would be scary as he came to terms with pains, sensations and dizziness.

'Four?...wow!...where?' There was a tiny hint of panic in that voice and he tensed, his head moving from side to side on the pillow as his eyes focussed on the room around him. 'Ow…shit……..'urts'.

'I know. You've got a lot of healin' to do. You've just gotta take it easy buddy. Just rest, OK?.

But the ice blues were looking round in panic now. 'Hospital?' he gasped.

'Yeah, I'm sorry, I tried, but I'm right here. Not goin' anywhere, promise. I can look after you, but you need professional care buddy. Ssh, just rest Blintz'.

Hutch was fighting to keep his eyes open, still showing signs of panic as he made a grab for Starsky's arm, forgetting about his broken hands.

'Ungh…….Oh God…… S Starsk…….don't go………d don'……leave me. Where is she?'.

'Hey Blondie, aint goin' anywhere, just go back to sleep, huh? All the bad guys are gone. She's a long way from here. She's locked up and the two guys are dead. I won't let anything happen to you now' Starsky rubbed up and down on Hutch's bare arm, watching the eyes slowly close.

A final murmur from the blond ' 'K….tired…….stay?' and then once more sleep took him