CHAPTER 12

"Come on, Starsk…" Hutch said in a soft gentle voice, a pleading tone creeping into his words. "I'm getting tired of talking to myself here. Say something to me, partner…" he locked ice blue eyes with cobalt blue, but the second set of eyes just stared past his shoulder with that same blank stare they'd held for the past three days.

It was hard to sit there, trying desperately to get some kind of response from him and getting nothing in return. The flesh was warm, the chest moved up and down with each breath he took, he obeyed simple verbal commands, but the spirit of the man, Starsky's very essence, was no longer there. All that lay in that bed was an empty shell of a man where Starsky's vibrant, exuberant personality used to dwell. The blank stares and eerie silence was bad enough but that was nothing compared to the way he flinched and pulled away when anyone touched him. Hutch didn't know how to reach him, how to pull him back into the world of reality instead of the dark recesses of his mind where his spirit had taken refuge.

Starsky had been moved into a private room and most of the machines that had surrounded him in the ICU had been removed, except for the IV that still fed a saline solution into his arm to keep him hydrated, the tube that fed him intravenously, and the catheter that eased the load on his badly bruised kidneys. The gaunt face had filled out but his ribs and hipbones still showed far too clearly through his tightly stretched skin. Most of the bruises were finally fading, most of them no longer a vivid bluish black but a mottled yellowish green with a hint of brown. The doctor planned to remove most of the stitches from the various lacerations and cuts in a few days. He still had some open sores and a rash on various parts of his body but they were slowly healing. Physically, the doctors were pleased with his progress. But they were still concerned with his current mental status.

Hutch continued to stay at the hospital, constantly at his partner's side. Touched by his concern for his friend's welfare, the nursing staff had gone out of their way to accommodate the tall blond. A second bed had been moved into the room so that Hutch would have a place to sleep at night instead of dozing fitfully in the chair he sat in during the day. Having Hutch there actually took some of the load off the nursing staff since he insisted on tending to most of the brunet's personal needs himself, including his sponge baths and repositioning him in bed every two hours to prevent bed sores. More than one nurse had commented on the loving care that the big blond gave to his injured friend.

During each shift, one of the nurses would sit with Starsky for an hour so that Hutch could go to the bathroom, shower or just stretch his legs. But there were only certain nurses that Hutch would entrust that privilege to and if none of them were working on a particular shift, then he would refuse to leave his friend's side unless Rachel was there to sit with her son. His fierce protectiveness of the other man was apparent to everyone involved in the brunet's care. More than one nurse had been brought to tears by the pain they saw reflected in those ice blue eyes when his friend failed to respond to him or pulled away from his touch.

Hutch glanced up as the door to Starsky's room opened and Rachel came in. Smiling, she handed Hutch a plate covered with foil. She always brought him food when she came to spend the day with him and Starsky. Hutch usually saved whatever she brought him for his supper meal. One of the nurses always made sure that the hospital kitchen sent him a breakfast tray and a lunch tray on the patient's food cart.

"Good morning, sweetheart." Rachel said, kissing Starsky's cheek tenderly. "How are you today?" She gently ran her fingertips down the side of his face before sitting down in the other chair beside Hutch. "No change?" she asked softly, already knowing the answer from the haunted look in Hutch's eyes.

"No…" Hutch admitted with a trace of sadness lingering in his voice. "I keep trying to get through to him but nothing seems to reach him…."

"It will…." Rachel said confidently "He knows we're here….I know he does."

"I hope so. I just wish he'd talk to me."

"You need a break. Why don't you come home with me? Just for tonight?"

"I can't." Hutch said firmly, looking at Starsky fondly "I have to be here in case he comes around…..I don't want him to be alone if he comes out of it."

"I understand." Rachel said with a soft smile, "David has no idea just how lucky he is to have a friend like you."

"He'd do the same thing for me."

"I know he would. David's always been like that when it comes to the people he loves. He has a way of getting under your skin until you can't imagine your life without him in it."

"Yeah….I know that feeling." Hutch admitted with a thin grin. A sob caught in his throat "It's my fault he's like this….I should have known that he was still alive….I should have sensed it. I should have been looking for him all this time instead of trying to lose myself in the bottle because I thought that he was dead."

"Ken Hutchinson, you stop talking like that right now!" Rachel admonished him "You had no way of knowing he wasn't on that plane…..none of us did!" a trace of coldness crept into her voice "Except for Nicholas and he didn't care enough to tell anyone the truth." Her voice turned gentle and soft "David would never blame you for what happened and you know that, so stop blaming yourself." She reached out to touch his hand and patted it fondly "You can't protect David twenty-four-hours a day...so stop beating yourself up because of what happened."

"I wish I could." Hutch said, blinking back the sharp burn of tears that gathered in his eyes. "I just need him back…ya know?"

"I know…..and we'll get him back…no matter how long it takes. You have to believe that. I do."

"I'll let you believe that for both of us." Hutch told her with a smile. "I'm going to get some coffee. Do you want some?"

"No, thank you. And take your time, dear….you need a break. David and I will be just fine while you're gone."

Hutch nodded as he left the room, leaving Starsky to the loving care of his mother while he was gone. Grabbing a cup of coffee from the hospital cafeteria, he went outside to an enclosed courtyard where he sat down on one of the benches, enjoying the sunshine and the fresh air. He needed to call Captain Dobey with an update on Starsky's condition but he decided that could wait until later in the week. If anything happened before then that Hutch needed to know about, Dobey knew how to get in touch with him through Rachel.

Hutch sat there for almost two hours before finally returning to Starsky's room.

As soon as he opened the door and went inside, he could tell that something had happened to upset Rachel. She turned to look at him as he entered, her eyes dark with anger. Eyes that looked so much like Starsky's when he was angry that it was unnerving. A quick glance at the bed assured Hutch that Starsky seemed to be the same. There was no noticeable change in his condition.

"What happened?" Hutch asked anxiously as he took his seat beside her.

"That damn psychiatrist!" Rachel spat out, barely holding on to her anger. "He wants to transfer David to the psychiatric unit!"

"You can't let him do that!" Hutch said, his own anger flaring. "If they do that then Starsky will just give up. He won't even try to get better! All we need is a little more time to get through to him!"

"Don't worry….I told him that there was no way I would allow it." Rachel said in a fiercely protective voice "That if he even tried something like that then I'd file a lawsuit against him and this hospital so fast his head would spin."

"I bet he loved that." Hutch said with an amused chuckle. Rachel might seem like the gentle grandmotherly type but when she was riled, she was a true Starsky. Her temper matched that of her son any day of the week.

"He wasn't very happy." Rachel admitted, "Doctor Parton said after they do the surgery to fix his leg, that David shouldn't have to be in the hospital too much longer after that. He expects me to agree to have him released to a long-term care facility if he's still not responding to anyone when the time comes. But I told him I wouldn't agree to that either." She smiled thinly "He told me I didn't know what I was getting into if I took David home and tried to care for him twenty-four-hours a day in his present condition."

"What did you tell him when he said that?" Hutch asked with a grin

"Let's just say it's a good thing he doesn't understand Yiddish. I also told him the same thing that I told the other doctor."

"I'm sorry I missed all that." Hutch said with a hearty laugh, his mind pulling up the image of the petite woman taking on the two renowned and respected doctors.

"David's been through enough…." She said in a fiercely determined voice "I'm not about to let a couple of doctors tell me what's best for my son just because they don't think he's going to get any better." She had a firm stubborn set to her jaw that Hutch recognized far too well "He's coming home with me where he belongs."

"And you won't be alone." Hutch said his own voice just as firm and determined "Because I plan on staying just as long as it takes…..until we get the old Starsky back again." They both fell into silence as they let their gaze fondly fall on the man they swore to protect and care for to the best of their ability for the rest of his life if necessary.