CHAPTER 12

A/N: The reunion scene between Starsky and Hutch in this chapter is taken directly from TLR's story.

In the end, finding Hutch's new address turned out to be as simple as looking in the phone book. There was only one listing for anyone named Hutchinson, a K. R. Hutchinson, but Starsky knew it had to be his Hutch. He immediately recognized the address. It was in one of the secluded Canyons that were scattered throughout the city, not far from where Starsky's own apartment had been. The problem was it was also clear across town. Although Starsky was rapidly nearing total exhaustion, his need to see Hutch was stronger than the exhaustion that threatened to overwhelm him entirely. His mind was also over stimulated from the sights and sounds of the city that he was no longer familiar with and was in danger of pulling him back into the depths of despair and terror that had been his constant companions for so long. His only hope was to find Hutch before that happened and he was lost forever.

He forced himself to go on through sheer determination. Each step was harder than last, each breath he took requiring more concentration and effort. His mind began to drift as he stumbled along the long city blocks towards his final destination. It was after midnight before he finally found the address he was looking for. With barely any strength left, he crawled up the steps to the front stoop of the tiny house and collapsed. Reaching out he began to scratch at the door, praying that someone inside would hear him.

Then the door opened and an much older version of Hutch was standing there, leveling a gun at the wasted figure of his former partner and best friend, who was struggling to hang onto the doorframe, trying to scratch again as he struggled to his knees.

"Oh, my God," Hutch whispered, unable to believe his own eyes. The gun fell from his hand and he caught Starsky under the arms before he landed on his face. Hutch burst into tears and kissed the top of the dark curly head over and over. "Oh, my God!" he shouted joyfully. "It's you! Starsky, it's you! Oh, my God!"

But, his joy was short-lived, because the shock of seeing him alive after all these years was disappearing and being replaced with bits of reality---Starsky pawing for his sleeves, scars and fresh rope-burns, along with frayed ropes, still around his wrists. His lean, trembling muscles, his near-gray pallor, the numerous scars on his face.

His eyes, though, hadn't changed. Although bruised black, they were still very blue and intensely alive.

As for Starsky, nothing else mattered except the feel of Hutch's secure embrace, grounding him in reality as he gently pulled him into the house. For the first in 18 years, Starsky felt safe and protected.

A/N: To find out the rest of this story, you will have to read TLR's Times and Seasons series. It will also fill you in on what Hutch has been up to for the past 18 years. You can go to Bay City Library and then go to the stories by TLR. There you will find the first story in this series (which is the story this is the pre-sequel to) The story is simply called times and seasons (revised) This is a revised version with a few minor changes. I have both versions.

For anyone who is interested in reading this entire series, I do have the entire series and would be glad to share them with you, just contact me with your email address,. Please note, if you send me your email address thru an instant message, please type it out as follows xxxx at yahoo dot com. If you write it out the usual way, it will not come thru on an instant message correctly

Also, with TLR's kind permission, I would like to share her email with you that she sent to me after reading this story once it was completed. I feel both honored and humbled that she thought I did such a good job expanding on her original idea.

Well, where do I start. With how you blended your story with mine, and got so inside of S during his captivity that I couldn't wait to see what happened next, although I kind of knew, but had never thought about it in such great detail. By the time I got to chapter 9, I felt like T&S belonged to you, and that was so great. You were so into that story, and S's trials. You didn't leave out a thing, even reminding me of things I myself had forgotten about. I especially liked how you captured what I was going after when I had him escaping in his mind. You really got that part, without changing it or over-explaining it. And the gradual loss of his sense of self was compelling too, the balance between feeling like an animal wanting to give up, but a human fighting to survive. You did all that so well without shaking anything up. How did you do that? I know for a fact I could not do that with anyone's story, and I like all of the stories I read. It's almost like you wrote the original T&S story yourself, or with me, or could have, easily. Missing scenes from a story. What a concept. It's not that you got inside S's head. That alone was wonderful enough. It's like you got into mine too, with the making of it, and that's what really threw me in the best way. Maybe other people wouldn't be so blown away by doing something like this, but I am. It's a clever concept, and you executed it better than I would have. I don't know if an effort like this would give anyone else the big head, but it has me. Thank you. I don't really know what else to say. You really brought the baby sacrifice scene alive too. My heart was kind of pounding on that one. And then how you portrayed S's escape from his near-hanging, well, that was awesome too, plus his trek home. I don't want to make you feel like you have to write any more in this series, I am quite satisfied, but if you do, please let me know so I can read it. Now I have to find a way to pull my head out of the clouds. You've made my day.

Sincerely,

TLR