Part 31
"Daddy told me you'd had an accident, and that I couldn't visit you in the hospital because you were too badly hurt…" The tiny Rosie Dobey sat on the floor at Starsky's feet a couple of hours later, tears glistening in her eyes, and a handful of multi coloured building blocks clasped between her tiny fingers. "Nobody would tell me what happened, but I heard him telling mommy that you'd been shot… are you feeling better now?" She asked.
Starsky smiled, ruffling the young girl's hair. "You're a smart kid Rosie." He chuckled lightly as he took another sip of a glass of water sitting upon the coffee table in front of him, and he shivered – the liquid was cool and refreshing, but a shock to his weary system.
The little girl appeared to notice the sudden change in his body language as he grimaced, and her young face fell in concern – but not before the curly haired Detective had recognised his young charges anxious expression, and true to character did his best to reassure her.
"And yes," He smiled reassuringly, "I'm feeling much better now."
"I'm glad." She grinned, stacking the building blocks still clasped within her tiny hands one on top of the other – each small brightly coloured building brick balancing precariously on top of another – before she turned back to the curly haired brunette.
Something more was obviously preying upon the young girl's mind.
"But why is Uncle Ken sick? Did the bad men shoot him too?" She asked.
Starsky's expression suddenly sank solemnly with the mention of his best friend and partner's name however.
"No Rosie." He shook his head sadly. "But he saw them shoot me, and that's a very difficult thing for him to have to have witnessed."
He reached out to the young girl as he explained, and, taking her gently into his warm arms, sat her down carefully upon his knee, before continuing with a smile.
"Sometimes seeing something like that can make some people very sick." He explained. "Me and Hutch have to look after each other when we're out on the streets because there's a lot of very bad people out there who might want to hurt us, and afterwards Hutch blamed himself for what happened to me."
"But why?" Rosie frowned. "It wasn't his fault… Uncle Ken isn't a bad man."
"No he's not." Starsky smiled to himself. "But he thought that it was his fault… he stopped eating for a time, and when you don't eat it makes you weak and sick, we have to eat Rosie don't we?" He asked.
The young girl nodded. "I know when I'm feeling poorly my mommy gives me chicken soup to make me feel better, is Uncle Ken eating lots of soup?"
Starsky laughed. "Yes Rosie, he's eating lots and lots of soup to make him feel better, but sometimes soup alone isn't enough, sometimes we need a little extra help don't we?"
"Like when daddy has to take me to the doctor's and she gives me medicine?" She asked.
"Yes, just like that." Starsky nodded. "I'm on lots of medicine at the moment to make me feel better, and Uncle Ken has to take medicine to help him sleep because he sometimes has nightmares."
"About you being shot?" Rosie asked. "I sometimes still have those, they're horrible." The little girl sighed, shivering slightly with the thought. "When I have nightmares mommy and daddy sometimes read me an extra bedtime story to make me feel better." She smiled.
Starsky too smiled with the thought of the simplicity of Rosie's young world – the creations of a child's overactive imagination all that she had to be afraid of. Her world was still so simple.
"Oh, I've got something for you and Uncle Ken." She suddenly recalled, jumping down from Starsky's knee and making her way over to the satchel she'd brought with her, full to bursting at the seams with toys and books.
After a few moments of routing around in the bottom of the rucksack she pulled out two similar looking teddy bears and smiled.
"This is Freddy and Ted Bear." She explained, bringing them back over to where Starsky still sat to show him. "They're my favourite bears, they always help to make me feel better when I'm feeling poorly or sad." She explained. "You can look after them for a while if you want."
Starsky smiled, taking the bear which Rosie had named Freddy in his hands as she offered him out to him.
He was a honey coloured, thread-bare old thing with two buttons for eyes and stitches running all the way down the length of his white tummy.
"Argh, thanks Rosie." Starsky grinned a crooked grin, as he tenderly stroked the bear sitting on his lap and placed the other one down beside him on the sofa. "I'm sure it will make Hutch feel much better to know that he's got such a perfect little angel looking out for him."
He squeezed her rosy pink cheeks playfully and she giggled – a high, throaty gurgle, the sound of which made Starsky's heart sore.
"Tell you what," he smiled, "are you hungry?
Rosie nodded.
"Well there's some milk and cookies in the fridge, and some candy in the cupboard." He told her.
"My mommy told me I'm not supposed to eat candy too often," she explained, shaking her head, "because it's not good for me… she tells daddy off for eating too much too, but he never listens. I've seen him sneaking potato chips when he thinks she's not looking."
Starsky laughed. "Well I won't tell if you won't." He smiled, and she looked at him uncertainly for a moment – before seeming to slowly accept that the Detective's offer of the sweet sugary snacks might be alright just this once, and she returned the gesture.
As she hopped down off the sofa however and headed towards the kitchen Hutch emerged from the bedroom, clothed in jeans and a brown round necked t-shirt, and rubbing at his eyes wearily. Although still slightly pale he was looking much better than Starsky had seen him look in the last few days. There was still a tired glaze to his expression but he was at least now looking a little more rested than he had done when Starsky had looked in on him earlier that morning.
"Hey sleepy head, how're you feeling?" Starsky asked.
"A little better." Hutch smiled with a heavy sigh at this, as he sat down on the sofa beside his best friend – picking up the teddy bear which Starsky had only recently placed down beside him, and absent-mindedly playing with its rotatable limbs.
"Look whose come to visit us." Starsky smiled as Rosie returned from the kitchen with a large plate of biscuits and a glass of milk, and Hutch smiled to see the little girl's face light up as she observed the new addition to the room.
"Rosie!" He exclaimed with a broad smile as she placed the plate and glass down carefully upon the coffee table and made her way over to him, arms outstretched for a hug.
"Captain Dobey asked if we could take care of her for a couple of hours." Starsky explained. "Edith had to visit her mother, and how could I possibly refuse that face?"
He looked over at Rosie and she smiled, simultaneously taking a large gulp of milk.
"Are you hungry?" He asked as he turned back to Hutch.
Hutch hesitated.
"Have you taken your pills today?" Starsky asked, blue eyes boring into his partner's own liquid iris's, and although Hutch nodded there was something deeply pained concealed within his weary expression – something he was doing his best to hide.
"How're you really feeling today?" Starsky frowned in concern, noticing his partner's distress straight away.
The blonde haired Detective sighed and grimaced slightly.
"Not so good." He confessed quietly – conscious of Rosie still sitting upon the floor at their feet, munching on the corner of a chocolate biscuit.
Starsky nodded sympathetically – he could now clearly see the lingering paler to his best friend's face which spoke in degrees to the other Detective, there was barely any colour to his cheeks this morning he noticed – but his tone was still adamant when he finally spoke again.
"You have to eat Hutch!" He urged.
"I know…" The blonde nodded meekly.
The little girl at their feet looked quizzically from Starsky to Hutch at this, and smiled, before taking a partially crushed chocolate chip cookie – crumbling at the edges, and evidently from the bottom of the barrel – from the plate in front of her, and offered it out to Hutch.
Hutch hesitated for a moment, but Starsky looked to young Rosie Dobey with a smile as he watched his friend reach out and take it cautiously from her tiny fingers with one shaking hand, winking playfully down at her as his partner put the broken cookie to his lips and took a tentative bite.
Rosie giggled, before going back to nibbling on the corner of a cookie.
Perhaps things were beginning to look up for them both after all.