CHAPTER 14

Hutch cautiously approached the bed sitting in the middle of the room. His heart pounded in his chest, and he could feel the hairs rising on the back of his neck. For a brief moment, he thought about turning and bolting from the room, but he forced himself to keep moving forward.

He looked at the figure lying on the bed. The face was thin, almost skeletal, with the skin stretched tightly over the cheekbones and the eyes sunken in their sockets. The rest of the body was the same: Hutch could count every rib in the man's chest.

Various machines surrounded the bed with tubes and monitors attached to the man's emaciated body. Soft beeps filled the air from the machine monitoring the man's heartbeat.

Tears fell unchecked down Hutch's face as he reached out a trembling hand and clasped the thin, bony fingers of the figure lying on the bed before him.

"Starsky…." He whispered in an awed voice as he sat down heavily in the chair beside the bed. "God, Starsk…you're really alive…." Hutch's shoulders began to shake with silent sobs as he bowed his head.

Fighting back his own tears, Huggy Bear stepped up behind his friend and put a comforting hand on Hutch's shoulder to steady him. Their journey had ended. Starsky was alive. He didn't look like himself and was obviously still in very poor condition, but he was alive. Like a miracle from God, Starsky had come back from the dead.

Hutch raised his head and wiped away his tears with his free hand. Leaning closer to his best friend's curl-covered ear, he whispered "I'm here, babe…Hutch is here and I'm not leaving until you're well enough to walk out that door with me."

Despite his heavily sedated condition, the heart monitor began to beat louder and faster as some part of Starsky's unconscious mind responded to Hutch's voice.

"He's knows you're here," a man's voice said from the doorway.

Hutch's head turned sharply at the sound of a stranger's voice. A tall, well groomed man in his early to mid-forties, stood there. He was casually dressed in faded jeans and a polo shirt, but still managed to give off an air of authority.

"Dr. McEntire, I presume," Hutch said in a carefully controlled voice.

"Yes, I'm Robert McEntire." the man acknowledged. "I've already spoken to Joey, so I know who you are, and I know that you know how your partner ended up here."

"I want to know everything there is to know about his condition," Hutch said firmly.

"Of course. Why don't we go down the hall to my office?'

Hutch shook his head and growled, "No. I'm staying right here. Now that I've found out that he's still alive, I'm not leaving this room until he can leave it too. So start talking, Doc. And don't leave anything out."

"As you already know, your partner was shot point blank in the torso with an automatic weapon. He was hit five times, one shot hit him in the chest, one hit him in the left shoulder, and the other three bullets hit him in the back after he was spun around by the first two shots. He suffered massive blood loss at the scene, and his heart stopped twice in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. It's a miracle he even survived that long. He should have died at the scene."

Hutch's face paled as he listened to the doctor's narrative, and McEntire paused momentary to allow him to absorb what he had been told so far.

"Go on," Hutch told him, a bit impatiently.

"He suffered massive damage from the gunshot wounds and none of the doctors on hand expected him to even survive surgery. The bullet to his shoulder tore through the muscle and shattered his left shoulder blade when it exited his body. The shot to his chest miraculously missed all of his vital organs, but it did collapse his right lung and caused internal bleeding. It also exited through his back.

The three shots to his back did the most damage. One bullet ruptured his spleen, causing massive bleeding; it also broke three ribs which caused further internal damage. A second bullet came dangerously close to his spine and ended up lodged in his liver. Neither of those two bullets exited his body. The third bullet tore through his lower intestines and abdomen, exiting his body through his left groin. We had to remove his spleen and part of his liver. The immediate concern, however, was to get the massive internal hemorrhaging under control, which took some time. We were forced to replace almost all of his blood supply.

His left lung was shredded from pieces of broken ribs and one of the bullets which shattered on impart with his ribs. The third bullet also did substantial damage to his lower intestine and stomach. His heart stopped again during the surgery, but we managed to bring him back."

"Who else was in on the cover-up?" Hutch asked. "You're not the doctor that told us he was dead."

"No, I'm not. That was actually a federal agent pretending to be a doctor. The Feds took over while your partner was still in surgery and set things in motion to make it look as if he had died on the table. They spirited him to another part of the hospital where he was for three days until Joey intervened and arranged to have him air-lifted here. I've been his primary physician from the start. My specialty area is trauma care." The doctor paused then went on when Hutch didn't appear to have any questions. "I had David put into a medically induced coma to give his body a chance to heal. He was brought out from under sedation three weeks ago, but he has remained in a coma. The increase in his heart rate when you spoke to him is the first sign we've had that he is aware of his surroundings, at least on some level."

"You don't know these two, doc," Huggy said with a smile. "You wait and see, Curly will start to get better quick now that Blondie is here."

"I've seen the benefits of having a loved one close by during a difficult recovery. I was hoping that having his brother here might help, but that didn't have the outcome I had hoped for."

Huggy snorted. "You got that right. Curly and his brother aren't that close. Hutch here is his real brother, even if it ain't by blood."

"Well, that would explain his brother's indifference and animosity."

"Where is Nicky?" Hutch asked.

"In a room down the hall. Do you want to see him?"

Hutch shook his head. "No. I want you to send him home with my friend here. His mother needs him there, and she also needs to know that her oldest son is still alive. I'm sure she'll want to see him immediately."

"All right. I'm sure that can be arranged. I will also have another bed moved in here since you will be staying."

"I'll be staying," Hutch repeated firmly. "And I have his medical power of attorney, so any medical treatments from now on will be cleared with me first."

"Very well," the doctor said in a resigned tone. Joey had ordered him to do whatever Hutch told him to do and not to argue. He didn't have to like it. He just had to do it. Doctor McEntire turned and left the room.

"So what now?" Huggy asked once the doctor had left the room.

"You're going to take Nicky home and fill Rachel and Alice in on what we found out. Rachel will probably want to see Starsky right away, but try to get her to wait until tomorrow."

Huggy nodded. He knew that Hutch needed some time alone with his partner. He scowled when Nick Starsky strolled though the doorway.

"Hey, man," he greeted Hutch in a cocky tone. "It's about time you found us. I was beginning to think that nobody was ever gonna show up."

"Shut up, Nicky." Hutch said quietly.

"Hey, don't tell me what to do," Nicky objected, "I didn't ask to be cooped up here with Davey. Joey had me snatched and brought here against my will."

"And probably saved your life by doing that," Huggy sneered. "Or you could have ended up like your brother."

"I ain't that stupid. He's the cop…not me."

"Shut. Up. Nicky,"

Hutch repeated his command in a hard, cold voice, warning Nicky to listen this time or pay the consequences.

Nicky wisely decided to heed the warning. There was no love lost between Hutch and the younger Starsky brother. Nicky knew just where his brother's loyalties lay, and he knew that it wasn't with him. He might be David's brother by blood, but Hutch was his brother by choice.

"You're going home with Huggy," Hutch continued. "Your mother needs you there. I'll be staying here with your brother until he's well enough to leave."

"Come on, little brother," Huggy said. "Let's go." He gestured for Nicky to step back into the hallway. With a wink at Hutch, Huggy followed him out the door.

Hutch sat there, staring into Starsky's beloved face for several minutes. He was overwhelmed with a sense of relief, gratitude, and a renewed hope for the future. He was no longer alone. He had found the other half of his heart, ow he was complete.

"God, Starsk…you have no idea how much I've missed you. I came so close to losing it…to eating my gun. I just didn't want to be here anymore without you. I tried to crawl into a bottle and not come out. I just didn't care anymore…about anything. I still can't believe you're alive…" Hutch whispered his confession in a broken voice. Exhausted, mentally and emotionally, he laid his head down on the side of the bed and fell asleep, till clutching his partner's hand.