CHAPTER 9

Hutch and Rachel sat beside the bed in the I.C.U. watching over the man they both loved. Rachel fought back the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes as she looked at the ravished body of her oldest son. His gaunt face and thin frame was mottled with bruises in various degrees of healing. The open sores and lacerations were covered with soft bandages and gauze pads. Two IV's ran into his left arm. One was a saline solution to help re-hydrate him as quickly as the possible and the contained the strong antibiotics being used to fight the infection that had taken over his blood stream. A second solution on the opposite side of the bed fed directly into a vein just below his collarbone and supplied his body with a highly concentrated nutritional supplement to keep his body nourished as it fought to heal.

Monitors and other machines surrounded his bed, keeping track of his vital signs and monitoring his heartbeat. A tube down his throat forced air into his lungs, breathing for him until his body was strong enough to do it on its own. An empty bag was hooked on the bottom rail of the bed meant to collect the urine that his failing systems had stopped producing.

Hutch stared at his partner, remembering another time and another place, when he had kept this same lonely vigil waiting for his best friend to either live or die after being shot by Gunter's hired hit men. What made it worse this time was the fact that he had already lived the past six months of his life believing that Starsky was already dead while his friend had spent those six months being tortured and abused in unthinkable ways, leaving behind an empty shell of the man he used to be.

"No matter how old he gets….David will always be my little boy." Rachel said her voice heavy with sadness. She looked at Hutch forlornly looking for answers to questions that had no answers. "How could anyone do something like this to another human being?"

"I don't know…" Hutch admitted, "I just don't know."

"God gave us a miracle when he survived before, then he gave us another miracle when you found him this time…" Rachel said softly "Let's pray that he can spare just one more…." She looked at Hutch with a soft smile "He's lucky to have someone like you watching for him. A friend who loves him as much as you do." She glanced back at her eldest son "And if love is enough, then he'll pull through this too…."

The door to the room opened softly and a nurse looked. "Detective Hutchinson?" she said quietly "There's a call for you at the nurse's station. A Captain Dobey."

"Thank you." Hutch acknowledged. He put a comforting hand on Rachel's shoulder as he shoved himself to his feet "I'll be right back." Rachel nodded and turned her attention back to her son's heavily bruised and battered face. She said a silent prayer for God to save her son's life once more.

Fifteen minutes later, Hutch came back into the room. He was quiet and subdued, a scowl on his face as he resumed his seat beside Rachel. Frowning slightly, she reached out to touch his arm gently and said quietly "Ken, is everything all right? That phone call wasn't bad news, was it?"

"That depends on how you look at it." Hutch said, his mouth tightening into a hard thin line. He sighed and took a deep breath "James Gunther was killed in his prison cell last night."

"Gunther? That's the man who hired those two men to try and kill David."

"That's right. And whoever took Gunther out was probably paid quite a bit to make the hit." His eyes darkened "The prison officials found proof in Gunther's cell that he was the money man for what happened to Starsky this time."

"The West Coast connection." Rachel whispered

"That's right."

"I know it's a sin to speak ill of the dead but I'm not sorry that man is dead." Rachel said grimly.

"Neither am I. If anyone ever deserved to die, it was Gunther." Hutch said gruffly. "Hopefully they'll be able to find something in his papers that will tell us who paid the highest price to get their hands on Starsky."

"Joe had him killed, didn't he?"

"Probably. He said he'd take of it…" Hutch said suddenly feeling exhausted, both physically and mentally. He knew he should feel something, anything, but all he could feel was empty.

"Why don't you go get some coffee and something to eat?" Rachel suggested, sensing Hutch's mood. "You need to keep your strength up…for David's sake." She smiled encouragingly "Go on. I'll be okay." She patted his hand gently as their eyes met, communicating silently much as he often did with her son. Hutch nodded and stood up.

"Can I get you anything?" he asked

"Maybe some coffee."

Hutch nodded as he turned to leave the room. With one last glance at his silent partner, he opened the door and stepped into the hall. He went down to the cafeteria where he managed to choke down a chicken salad sandwich and a stale cup of coffee. When he went back up the I.C.U., he saw Nick lounging at the nurse's station flirting with the pretty nurse on duty.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Hutch growled as he stepped up behind the younger Starsky.

"Hey, Hutch…" Nicky said turning around and giving Hutch one of his phony plastic smiles. "I just came by to see how Davy was doing."

Hutch's temper flared at Nicky's gall. Without any warning, he grabbed the younger man's shirt with both hands and slammed him back against the wall beside the nurse's station. Pinning him there with his heavier weight, he put his right forearm against the stunned man's throat and glared into his eyes with a cold deadly stare. "You have no business here!" Hutch growled, "I know all about your part in selling out your own brother!" He watched as Nicky's eyes widened in alarm and more than a little fear at the tall blond's rage.

"Hey, Hutch…come on, man…" Nicky spluttered, "It's not what you think. I had no idea they were going to do something like this to him!"

"You're a lying piece of shit!" Hutch snarled "And I'd like nothing more than to tear you apart with my bare hands! But I'll let Joey handle that…I'm sure he's got something more suitable in mind for you…he already had Gunther hit in prison." Nicky started to say something but stopped when Hutch pressed his forearm harder against his throat "But I'm warning you…if I ever catch you anywhere near your brother again….I'll kill you myself! You got that, you sorry piece of garbage?" He released his hold on Nicky and stepped back "Now get your sorry ass out of here and don't come back!"

Nick didn't need to be told twice. Without a backward glance, he hurried down the hallway and disappeared. The young nurse stood there staring at the tall blond with a combination of fear and admiration. She pulled her hand back from the phone where she had been ready to call hospital security. She'd heard enough of the confrontation to understand the emotions behind it. She didn't think that Nick Starsky would be back anytime soon. She watched as the tall blond walked away towards the I.C.U. room at the end of the hall.