"How's your head?" My partner whispered, concern in his voice.
"Like Ricky Ricardo's playing the conga drums in it, but I'll live."
We were cornered, waiting for the back up to arrive that we called for just before all hell broke loose. Starsky and I thought we had plenty of time to get in position to grab the two fleeing felons. We'd been tailing them for a couple of hours, waiting for the right time to grab them. The suspects were armed and we did not want to endanger anyone in order to apprehend them. They had been arrested for armed robbery and assault and left the clerk at the electronics store pretty beat up. He was in a coma and wasn't expected to make it. The suspects escaped from police custody and Huggy had called us with a tip on where to find the pair.
Unfortunately, no cruisers had joined us in the pursuit and we were forced from the car before we had a chance to call in our current position. So the back up we were hoping for was likely not to materialize.
We followed them to a trailer on the site of an abandoned excavation site. They spotted us and immediately began firing, shooting out the windows of my LTD pretty quickly. We both dove for cover through my door. Unfortunately, I misjudged where I was diving and slammed my head into the bottom edge of the car door. Starsky had to climb over me to drag me out.
"You're gonna have a shiner, that's for sure. Ya didn't cut it, there's no blood." He had his hand on my head and lifted my hair to check for any other damage.
"Don't worry about it, Starsk." I pushed his hand away. I sounded agitated, and I didn't mean to yell at my partner. I was mad at the whole situation, not at Starsky.
"Okay. So, what do ya wanna do? Wait for help? You wanna go after 'em? They only seem to have a couple of handguns. We're pretty evenly matched, except we don't know how much ammunition they got." I think Starsky was leaning towards going after them.
"I know you probably want to go after them, but I don't know. We're pretty much out in the open here. There's over two hundred feet between the car and the next cover. Do you think we can make that?"
There was a huge stand of drums and crates nearer to the trailer that would provide good cover, if we could make it there without being shot. And we'd have to have some luck on our side, because two hundred feet was a lot of ground to cover when you're being fired on. We also had to hope that these guys were not good shots. So far we hadn't seen anything to impress us that they were, but that could just be a ploy.
We decided it was better to get away from the car. If they got off just the right shot, they could set off an explosion if they hit the gas tank, and we would have no chance of not being caught in that fireball.
"Sure we can make it. I'll cover you first." This made sense, since Starsky carried a clip with twelve rounds in his gun, and always had an additional clip of twelve on him. Plus, he ran faster than I did, so once I was in position, he'd have a better chance of making it with less cover. Starsky continued, "You head out on the count of three. One, two…"
On two, Starsky started firing. On three, I headed for the crates. I couldn't tell with the pounding in my head and the thumping of my heart rate where all the firepower was coming from, but it sounded like a lot to me. But I never felt it coming my way, and I was able to successfully make it to the crates. Starsky stopped firing and everything was quiet.
I looked over to the trailer and everything looked normal, except if you looked closely and saw the bullet holes in the metal. There were also a number of windows blown out. If we had more than handguns we could do a lot of damage to that piece of tin.
I looked back over toward Starsk. He looked okay, and was looking to me to see if I was ready for him to go. I got in position and yelled, "Now!" I began firing at the trailer, and my partner knew to start heading this way.
I heard him heading over, his typical weaving pattern of running evident from the sound of the footfall on the ground. Then I heard another sound that started a cold sweat down my neck. It was a sound that I would describe as "thump", and then I heard an "Ah!" and then what was clearly the sound of Starsky's body slamming into a crate. He landed not too far from me, and was fortunately out of any direct line of fire from the suspects. Damn.
I stopped firing, and the suspects stopped shortly after. I turned around and dreaded what I might find.
He was lying on the ground, and pressing hard on his left side. I moved quickly and sat on the ground next to him. This is not right! And where was the damned backup?
"Ah, shit, Hutch." It was a good sign that he wasn't too out of it to know that he'd been hit.
"Here, here, let me take a look." He didn't want to take his hand away. He did seem to be successfully stopping the blood flow with the pressure he had been placing on his wound. "Come on, Starsk, let go and let me look."
He let go and I took a look. He was shot at about his waist, and he had gotten lucky because that thick leather belt of his seemed to deflect the bullet a little and it slowed the velocity and changed the trajectory slightly. The bullet didn't seem to have gone too far in and it hadn't hit anywhere near any major organs. I would classify it as a flesh wound, except with the bullet still in my partner it didn't really qualify. But if you're going to be stuck with a bullet and without help, this was probably the best scenario you could hope for.
"How's it look?" Starsky had begun to sweat, and he was panting a little. I think that was more from the exertion of running than from the wound. One thing at a time, though. First I had to stop the bleeding.
"Not too bad, buddy. Ya got lucky this time."
"Yeah, I'm feelin' kinda lucky right now." Starsky said softly. I preferred to hear the sarcasm than nothing at all.
"Well, believe me, you should." I took my jacket off, then my shirt and then stuffed the folded up shirt inside Starsky's and said, "Okay, you can have your job back now. Go ahead and press on it as firmly as you can stand."
"That was my plan before you so rudely interrupted me." He was in pain but still able to keep the situation light. My partner was a champ.
"Yeah, I know." I grabbed the side of his face with my hand, and then moved it down to his neck affectionately. "Listen, I'm gonna go over toward the front of these crates and see what I can see."
"No, no, don't do that yet." Starsky was adamant. "I, I think you should wait a while. Backup could show any minute."
"Yeah, or backup could never show. I know control knew what area we were in, but they didn't know we ended up here, Starsk. And this site is pretty far away from anyone who might hear the shots. There is the possibility that we won't be getting any help."
"Well, in that case, I'm you're backup. Maybe we could just wait a few minutes, see if the bleeding stops, and then try again to smoke 'em out."
What he seemed to be saying, without actually saying it, was that he needed a few minutes before he thought he'd be ready to do anything. I really didn't think he was in any kind of shape to try any heroics, but I didn't see what it could hurt to wait a little while. It made me feel better to see him resting, and these guys were probably not going anywhere too soon without being forced to move.
"Okay. We'll sit tight. You just rest a while. I'm gonna keep my eyes on the trailer." We didn't need these guys sneaking up on us. We were in a tight enough spot as it was.
"'kay." Starsky was tiring fast. Being shot, even if it's just a flesh wound, is quite a shock to the system. Even if it's happened to you before, and Starsky's had plenty of practice, your body still reacts, despite your best efforts to remain calm and stay with it. Starsky was certainly trying just that, and it was obviously beginning to wear on him.
I thought maybe keeping his mind on the business at hand might help take his mind off his injury. "Hey, you got more ammo? I'll refill your clip."
"Yeah, right jacket pocket." Starsky usually only carried one extra clip, so he always had twenty-fours rounds ready to go. But he also had bullets in a special carrier that were ready, just in case, which he would keep handy in the glove compartment. He had grabbed them while we were following the perps into the site.
I found them and proceeded to fill up the empty clip, and the partially spent one in the Beretta. Starsky's eyes were shut and he seemed asleep. I reached for his arm and shook him slightly. "Hey, here's your weapon. You okay?"
"Mmmm. Just restin'. You got a plan?"
"No, but I wanted to make sure you were ready when I came up with one." I smiled at him. He smiled back and provided me with an airy laugh.
"I have no doubt you'll come up with somethin'. You're always thinkin', Blondie. I'd help ya out there, but I'm not thinkin' too good right now." I bet you're not, partner, I thought. He was clearly not feeling too well, but I'd take my partner at less than one hundred percent covering my back before anyone else.
"Well, I hope your faith isn't misplaced." I did not have a clue what my next move would be. But I knew I'd have to come up with something soon. Even though Starsky's wound did not appear to be too serious, if we waited too long there was a possibility of infection, which could be more serious than the gunshot wound itself.
I looked closely at the trailer. They had to be roasting in there. There was no power hooked up to it, and they still had all the curtains pulled so that we could not see inside. We at least had the benefit of the air moving, and we were in the shade of the towers of crates. We were on the boundary of the hottest part of the day, and it was already a scorcher. I think there was every likelihood that they were soon going to make a run for it.
"Starsk, listen. I don't think they can last much longer in that tin can. Whaddya think?"
"You're probably right. You think they're gonna try to bust out soon?"
"Yeah, I do. Are you ready to give them a show?" I would have to re-position Starsky for him to get the best angle from the ground. He was currently facing more toward my car than he was the trailer. Since he wasn't going to be able to move around too much, it would be better to have Starsky facing the trailer straight on. This would definitely give us an advantage, as remaining stationary would allow him to aim better. And we were going to need accuracy to stop these guys from getting away.
"So, I should think of this as target practice, right?" My partner was right on the ball.
"Yep. You ready for me to move you into position?"
"No time like the present." He grimaced as he started to move without my help.
"Hey, just a second. Let me move you. Let me do the work, you just tell me if I'm hurting you." He nodded his agreement and I started to move him. He tensed up right away, so I stopped and quickly asked, "Something wrong?"
"Just a cramp, I think. Nothin' ya can do about it. Let's get this over with." I moved him as quickly and gently into position as I could. He seemed unsteady and looked worried.
"I hope these guys wait a little longer before they make their move. I'm shakin' so much right now that I don't think I'd be able to hit much." The move probably shocked his body into reminding it just what was going on.
"Just breathe deep and try to calm down." I sat down next to him to rest, trying to regulate my own breathing in the hopes that Starsk would emulate it. He would definitely need some time to recover from the move, or our plan would not work. Starsky was the marksman of the two of us, and we would need his skill to keep from losing these guys. Although, at this point, I would give up on these guys in return for getting my partner to a hospital if I didn't know that it would piss Starsky off.
We waited another half hour, with Starsky resting his head on my shoulder, when I decided that we needed to be prepared. I moved away and told Starsky, "I'm going to concentrate on them when they first come out of the trailer. You should aim more for them as they're approaching the car. They're going to have to slow down to get in the car, so that will be your best chance."
"Yeah. Okay, I'm set." We spent another fifteen minutes waiting for something to happen. But Starsky stayed alert and ready to do the job. He was sweating more now, but it was a hot day. I wasn't going to worry that it was anything other than the heat. If he was developing an infection, he was not going to let me see any signs of it just then.
Suddenly, the suspects were out of the trailer and on their way to their car. They were firing towards us, but not really coming anywhere near us with their bullets. They really couldn't see us in the shadows anyway.
Starsky and I both started firing and I managed to hit the guy going for the driver's side in the leg. He fell down, and grabbed for the wounded area, screaming. Just after my guy went down, Starsky got the other one in the arm, the perp's gun flying out of his hand.
I stood and yelled, "Freeze! Police!" The suspect I shot raised his gun towards me, but before I could even think of pulling the trigger, Starsky had shot the guy in the forearm, the perp's gun went off, but the bullet flew far off its mark due to Starsky's expert shot. The suspect then dropped the gun and fell to the ground.
I had already grabbed Starsky's handcuffs in case I needed them, and I headed to the suspect's car, my gun pointed at the one nearest me, knowing that my partner had the other one covered. I kicked the gun away, and cuffed both of them within moments. I gathered their weapons and went to my car to call dispatch, and then returned to my partner.
"Good job, partner." I said to him. He needed to get to a doctor quickly, and I was concerned that since our backup never showed that they would have trouble getting the ambulance here in a timely fashion "I'd drive you to the hospital, but it looks like they did a job when they were firing on my car earlier." It looked like, at the very least, there were two flat tires and the radiator was all shot up.
"To be honest, Hutch, I'm not much of a fan of riding in your car. I don't know if I ever told you that."
"Hmm. I'm trying to remember if I ever heard you say that. To be honest, I don't really recall if you have."
"You don't, huh?" He looked up at me, exasperated. How many times have I seen that look on his face? I loved that look. "I always figured ya never listened to me."
"Only when you criticize my car, pal."
Starsky waved his arm weakly. "Come on, partner. Come sit next to me before ya fall down. It's too hot to be standin' around pacin'. Besides, I need something to lean against."
"Thanks. It's always good to feel needed." I slipped down next to Starsky and pulled his head onto my shoulder.
"I'll always need ya, Hutch." My partner slurred, exhausted.
Me too, I thought, as he fell asleep. Me too.
The End