CHAPTER 8
"Yep," Starsky declared,"I played with Rosie and she taught me a bunch of neat new games. We had fun but I missed you."
"I missed you too, buddy. You ready to go home?"
"Yes!" Starsky said happily, trotting after Hutch as he grabbed the bag with the few items that he was taking home with him.
Hutch had to smile at the brunet's exuberance and energy. He loved the childish innocence that made up a significant part of his partner's complex personality, but he missed the adult Starsky terribly. There were subtle signs that he was starting to remember his past but there had been no dramatic breakthrough yet. It had been almost two weeks and the brunet's agile mind was still stuck in early childhood.
As Hutch began the drive back to Starsky's, the brunet stared out the window, deep in thought. Finally, he turned to Hutch and said, "Hutch, what's wrong with me?"
"What do you mean, buddy?" Hutch asked cautiously, stealing a glance at Starsky, who had a confused and bewildered expression on his face.
"Ma and Pop aren't coming after me anytime soon, are they?"
"What makes you think that?"
"Pop's dead, isn't he?" Starsky whispered, tears welling up in his eyes. "I don't know how I know that…I just do."
"Yes, he's dead." Hutch admitted, deciding to be truthful with his friend. "He has been for a long time."
"And I'm not really a little boy, am I?"
"No, you're not. You're thirty-four years old."
"Jeeze…that's old." Starsky declared, his forehead creasing into a frown. "What's wrong with me?" He repeated forlornly.
"You were in a car accident." Hutch told him quietly. "You hit your head on the windshield."
"Am I going to get better?"
"Yes, you're already starting to remember things."
"Is that why my head hurts sometimes?"
Hutch stole a quick glance at his partner. "Why didn't you tell me your head was bothering you?"
"Didn't wanna…" Starsky defended himself. "Then you got hurt and I got scared. I thought it was my fault for being bad."
"It wasn't your fault. It was a stupid accident." Hutch reassured him. "You know how clumsy I am sometimes."
"Yeah, you're a real klutz." Starsky agreed, with a lopsided grin. Starsky frowned again and added, "That keeps happening…I remember things like that but don't know why I remember them. It's like it's all confused inside my head."
"You've always been a little confused, Gordo." Hutch said with a happy grin "That's normal for you." Hutch was pleased to note that Starsky seemed to be alternating between acting normal and still behaving like a child. It had to be a good sign. It had to mean he was starting to recovery from his head injury. All it was going to take was a little more time and he'd have his old friend back.
When they got back to Starsky's apartment, the brunet slowly walked through the rooms, looking at familiar pictures and pieces of pottery he'd bought in Mexico. As he trailed his fingers over a picture of him and Hutch clowning around for the camera, he said, "Huggy took this picture two years ago, just before I met Terry."
"That's right, buddy." Hutch said, watching the expressions that played over Starsky's face as he struggled to reclaim his lost memories.
"And you gave me this…" he said, pausing in front of a simple charcoal sketch of Starsky that Hutch had done for the brunet's birthday one year.
"That's right."
Starsky turned to look at Hutch, a shy smile on his face. "I remember you, Hutch." He said in an awe struck voice. "I remember you."
Ecstatic, Hutch grabbed his friend and gave him a heartfelt hug. "Thank God," the big blond said happily. "No offense, but I really missed you, Gordo."
"But there's a lot of stuff I still don't remember…"
"You will, buddy. You will. Don't try to rush it." Hutch gave his partner a sly smile and added, "But, I have to admit, I'm gonna miss watching you playing in the tub and telling you bedtime stories."
A deep sadness crept into the brunet's face as he sat down on the sofa with a heavy sigh. "This sucks." Starsky said, momentarily sounding so much like himself and not a child that Hutch felt a lump in his throat. He sat down on the sofa beside his friend and slipped an arm around his shoulders. Instinctively, Starsky leaned against him and rested his head against the big blond. The two friends sat there for several minutes in a comfortable silence, lost in their own thoughts.
Over the next few days, Starsky's memories returned at an amazing rate. Within a week, he was back to being himself. Hutch had enough things to tease Starsky about for months but he was relieved that things were finally back to normal
THE END (But only for now)