Chapter 12 (FLASHBACK)

As Hutch lay on the floor in the hospital corridor he watched two officers give chase as the would be assassin made a run for it – he felt dazed, the man had kneed him in the face before getting away and for a moment Hutch could see double. The hard floor felt cold against his back and he allowed himself to just lie there staring up at the empty ceiling, feeling the fatigue in his muscles. The physical fight had taken it out of him and he needed a moment to catch his breath. Hutch let his head roll back and closed his eyes.

After the adrenaline and relief subsided fear started to set in – not just the fear of losing Starsky, but the realisation that if whoever had ordered the hit was prepared to target Starsky in the hospital then this was far bigger than any of them had anticipated. Evidently somebody out there wasn't happy that they were both still alive.

He frowned, his head was hurting, and his mind was racing. He didn't even realise that he'd probably let himself lie there, unmoving, a little too long until he started to attract a crowd, and he opened his eyes as he sensed someone standing over him.

"Sir, are you alright?" A male nurse was asking him. He was a tall, slender young man in his mid-twenties with a mop of mousey blonde hair and was wearing blue hospital scrubs. The man leaned over him, and Hutch blinked a few times before responding. The ceiling above him was still spinning slightly. "Sir?" The young man asked him again when he didn't immediately respond.

"Yeah… yeah I'm fine." Hutch faltered, trying to sit up with a groan but the movement made everything spin faster and so he was forced to stay still for a while. As he sat Starsky's doctor and a nurse hurried past him into his room, but his friend remained blissfully unaware of how close he'd almost come to losing his life for the second time that day – his condition unchanged. Captain Dobey appeared at his side. He didn't have to ask him what had happened – it was obvious enough.

"They tried it again Captain." Hutch muttered, holding his head in his hands as the dizziness started to subside somewhat – but then the nausea set in. "Oh God," He sighed in his despair, "I can't even keep him safe in here… I can't protect him…"

"Hutch!" The captain barked to try and get his attention, but the sound of the man's voice only intensified the throbbing in Hutch's head. Dobey looked down at the detective at his feet, and despite the young man's obvious heartache he could also see that he was in physical pain, and he lowered his voice slightly when he next spoke. "I'm going to have an officer permanently placed in this corridor at all times." He told him. "If they try anything like this again, we'll be ready for them!"

Hutch didn't respond.

"We'll keep him safe Hutch!" Captain Dobey tried to assure him, stopping just short of promising him – he knew that it would be wrong of him to make a promise that he couldn't guarantee to keep, all any of them could do was their best – but that hadn't been the reason for Hutch's silence. He had no doubt about the captain's intentions, but whether or not they were able to keep Starsky safe wasn't entirely in their hands – it depended who they were up against, and how far they were prepared to go. His face was really beginning to throb where his assailant had dug his knee in hard, and he wiped at his nose with the back of one hand to make sure that it wasn't bleeding. Dobey watched him.

"I think you'd better get yourself checked over." He told him, but Hutch shook his head. He was still feeling a little shaky and sore, but the room wasn't spinning anymore, and they had much more important things to worry about now than what was, at worst, a mild concussion. He wasn't going to sit around and wait for them to try something like this again – whoever it was wasn't going to stop until Starsky and he were both dead, or somebody caught them, and Hutch wasn't going to go down without a fight. At that moment Starsky's doctor appeared at his side and looked down at Hutch with concern.

"How's Starsky?" Hutch asked him, failing to conceal the worry in his heart.

"No change." Doctor Maybrouk told him with a sympathetic smile on his face, before squatting down in front of him. "Let's take a look at you." He added.

"Oh, I'm alright…" Hutch shook his head – regretting it immediately and grimacing at the pain this prompted in his neck – but his protests fell on deaf ears. The doctor was used to dealing with difficult patients and wasn't put off by the man's insistence. He held out a finger in front of his face.

"Follow my finger." He told him, and Hutch did his best to track the outstretched digit as he moved it slowly from side to side in front of him. He did a pretty good job, but the ache behind his eyes made it difficult once it reached the periphery of his vision, and he grimaced and turned his head away. Doctor Maybrouk then took out a small torch from his top pocket and shone it in one of Hutch's eyes and then the other, checking how his pupils responded to the change in stimuli. "Any headache?" He asked him.

"A little." Hutch confessed. The doctor nodded.

"You have a mild concussion." He told him – reaffirming what Hutch had already suspected. He got to his feet, offering Hutch a hand, but when the room started to spin again and he struggled to find a stable footing on his unsteady feet Hutch felt Captain Dobey's arms grasp him under his arms and help haul him to his feet. Between them the two men then half assisted and half dragged Hutch over to an empty chair, before dropping him gently into it. Hutch hung his head in melancholy thought, but he heard Captain Dobey say, "I'll keep an eye on him," to the doctor in a hushed tone.

"I'll have one the nurses bring you something for the headache." The doctor told him, patting him on the shoulder as he turned to go. Hutch just nodded as Captain Dobey sat himself down in the chair beside him.

"You did good Hutch." He told him.

"Yeah…" Hutch muttered into the palm of his hand. It didn't matter what the captain said, it still wasn't enough, and he knew it. At that moment a young nurse appeared in front of him and held out a small cup with two white tablets in it, and a beaker of water for him to take. He quietly thanked her and necked the painkillers with a mouthful of water, before handing both back to her.

"You should really finish that." She told him, indicating the hardly touched cup of water in his hands. "You need to stay hydrated if you have a concussion." She said. He just looked at her and nodded blankly but he didn't take another drink. He put the plastic cup down on the floor beside his chair, and she smiled sweetly at him as she turned and walked away. He watched her go, and sighed, leaning back in his seat and closing his eyes.

"Why don't you try and get some sleep. I'll get Huggy to bring you some food from the cafeteria for when you wake up." Captain Dobey said beside him.

"Yeah…" Hutch echoed again monotonously – he felt something being draped over his knees and opened his eyes to see that the nurse had returned with a blanket. This time he didn't even acknowledge her but closed his eyes again. He just wanted to block out the memory of what had happened that afternoon – to go to sleep.

Dobey was watching him intently and as Hutch's breathing finally started to slow, his body relaxed and his head lolled forwards as he slipped into unconsciousness.

'At last', the captain thought to himself with some measure of relief, as at that moment Huggy returned with two Styrofoam cups of hot coffee and he got stiffly to his feet to meet with the man and fill him in on what had just happened, before asking him to keep an eye on Hutch whilst he placed a call to headquarters. It seemed as though they were going to need more than just a couple of officers patrolling the corridors if they were going to keep both men safe.