Chapter 4

Throughout the morning the guys cruised the streets. There had been a resurgence of sex crimes in the city and Starsky and Hutch had been on the trail of Janos Martini for weeks. The flake who had originally reinvented himself as "Sexational Films" and been illusive to say the least, but they had finally got a lead on him through a girl who ran with the same stable as Sweet Alice. Marta had been unwilling to give the detectives too much information but she did say that Martini was getting in way over his head and his videos had gone from X rated to "banned" almost over night. The duo were keen to find out just what that meant, but for the moment they were keeping a low profile. Janos Martini knew them of old and they didn't want to scare him away before they could nail him.

By 11:30 they were both hot, thirsty, and in Starsky's case, ravenous and they stopped at Mario's hamburger stand on the bridge for a dog and a coke while they regrouped.

'You said you're seein' Gina tonight?' Hutch said as he sipped his Cola and looked on in disgust as his partner demolished the burger in record time. 'If you eat like that buddy, you're gonna give yourself heartburn.'

'M'fine' the brunet mumbled indistinctly through his final mouthful. He swallowed the last of it down, flicked the crumbs from the front of his jacket and threw the paper wrapper into the trash can by the side of the cart. 'Yeah I'm seein' her. You seein' Sarah?'

A shadow fell over the blond's face. 'Dunno. I love her to bits an' all that, an' I'm sure she's the one, but she said some pretty damming things last night. I just feel like I need some space.'

'What did she say?'

Hutch blew out his cheeks. 'That I didn't need a wife coz I was married to the job. That she didn't want to be alone so much and…. Doesn't matter.'

'Must do if it's got ya so riled up. Tell me' the smaller man urged as they both got back into the car.

Hutch looked uncomfortable. 'She said she didn't want to be in a marriage with three people in it' he said in a rush.

Starsky wiggled his eyebrows. 'Is there sumthin you aint tellin' me buddy? Ya got a secret stash of hot sex goddesses somewhere?'

The flaxen haired man looked at him with pain in his eyes. 'Shudup will ya. I'm tryin' to be serious an' I think she has a point.'

'Huh?'

'She meant I'm always with you; always on the job. We spend so much time together that she feels pushed out……an' maybe she's right' he finished quietly. There was silence in the car so thick it could be cut with a knife.

'You want a new partner? Is that what you're tellin' me?' Starsky's voice was so lost, so scared that Hutch wanted to gather him up and hug him.

'No. Oh God no Starsk. I couldn't do this job with anyone else but you. You need to ask me that after all we've been through? Besides, who else'd have me? It's just…… it's hard to explain, but this job takes over. It was fine when we were footloose and fancy free. But now? With me havin' Sarah, an' with you meeting Gina….. Maybe its time to step down a gear huh? We aren't getting' any younger.'

Starsky snorted. 'Hutch, we're 35, not 85. Prime of our lives!'

'Yeah, an' how many times have those lives come near to bein' snuffed out huh? When you were shot I thought I'd die right along with ya, an' I consider myself a strong type of guy. An' I got to thinkin'. Would I want to put Sarah through that?'

'Well Gunther's behind bars' the brunet protested, but he was beginning to see the force of Hutch's argument. He'd accused Gina of being married to her job and yet there was he, riding the streets with his partner, working long hours, cancelling more than enough of his own dates with his girl. Maybe Hutch was right. But he doubted either of them would be able to give it up completely.

'Gunther might be in jail. But there are always other Gunthers hidin' round dark corners an' somehow, having a girl makes me want to avoid 'em at all costs. Even if those costs involve…… Well. I know it hasn't come to that yet, an' I'm ramblin'. Just call us in as rollin' and ignore me huh?' Hutch said as lightly as he could. Starsky grabbed the mic. and called them in, but as he gunned the big engine of his car he thought hard on what Hutch had said. Was it time to quit? Was it time to start thinking seriously about how much he gave to the job?

The brunet's Dad had always told him that a safe cop was one who was into the job one hundred and ten percent. Anything less meant certain early death, and so he'd always given at least that amount if not more. Just like Gina seemed to give to her job. His girl had never complained when he cancelled. She'd never pulled her face when he'd come in tired and angry and had talked of flakes and whippos rather than love and romance. She was one in a million and yet he'd accused her of thinking more about her job and her boss than him. Damn he was stupid! She was special, and he needed to make it up to her.

As they turned the corner of the street, up ahead he saw a flower stand on the corner of the street and he slowed and pulled up by the side of it. Ignoring the questioning look from his partner, on impulse he got out and returned a moment later with a dozen red roses wrapped in cellophane and tied with an enormous red ribbon. He put them gently on the back seat and set the car motion without a word and it wasn't until they had gone a couple of blocks that Hutch finally questioned him.

'Where are we goin' buddy. This aint the way to Martini's hideout.'

'Nope'

'So ya got another lead?'

'Nope.'

'Jeez buddy! We gonna play 20 questions for the rest of the day?'

'I need to go over to Gina's office. What ya said – about Sarah. It kinda struck a chord. I balled her out last night coz I was mad at her boss makin' her work again an' when you were sayin' what Sarah had said, it made sense. I phoned Gina this mornin', but I want her to know she's special' he grinned shyly. 'Ya think it's too soapy?'

Hutch grinned back. 'Comin' from you? No. Just be quick Casanova. We still have Martini to find.'

Starsky pulled up outside the office block and took the flowers from the back seat. He was a sensitive guy who at heart was a big romantic. While on the outside he seemed quite prickly and superficial, deep down Starsky was a one woman guy who loved nothing more than to wine and dine her and then spend hours making slow passionate love in front of an open fire on a pale sheepskin rug as candlelight flickered round the room.

'Won't be too long' he said as he closed the door. 'Just gonna deliver these…. an' take that smile off your face. Ya know you'd do the same thing.'

Hutch snickered. 'Sure thing buddy' he muttered and watched as those impossibly tightly swathed hips strutted across the parking lot and into the building.

The blond examined his feelings. He hated arguing with Sarah. She was a good girl. He'd met her while he'd been in the hospital recovering from a kidnapping by Diana Harmon. The flaky nurse had taken a liking to him and despite being committed to a mental hospital for her problems, she'd escaped and had made it back to Bay City, where she'd kidnapped him and had let her Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy affliction play out painfully and devastatingly (See Truly Madly Deeply, by this author). Sarah had been his nurse in the hospital and her caring and compassionate nature had finally penetrated the blond's pain and despair and their relationship had grown from there. Based on caring and what he thought all along was love, now Hutch was having second thoughts. He'd been convinced Sarah was the one for him. She was plain, but not ugly. She had a caring way with her and she loved nothing better than to cook for him and be the perfect little housewife.

The blond, however, was beginning to feel claustrophobic around her. The relationship that had been based on her care for him in hospital had grown into a physical relationship too, but he still felt as though she tried to mother him. And for the big flaxen haired man, that just wasn't right. He needed to be in charge in a relationship. He was the protector, not the other was around. And when she clucked over him and fussed and told him he looked tired and he needed to rest, he felt suddenly emasculated and powerless. The final straw had been her accusations that he thought more of his partner than he did of her. It had brought Hutch up short and had made him consider and reassess his position. And the more he thought about it, the more he realised that there may be something in what she said.

In all the times after the Gunther shooting when he'd sat by the side of Starsky's bed, or watched as the brunet pushed himself to his limit and beyond during his gruelling physiotherapy sessions, his admiration for his partner's fortitude had escalated. His feelings of admiration for the curly haired man had changed subtly, the dynamics of their partnership shifting so that what had once been care to watch his partner's back now morphed into watching out for signs of strain, tiredness or pain. His physical care of the smaller man during his recovery had awakened a knowledge of Starsky's body that would take a woman a lifetime to learn. Hutch had taken over the massage and exercise regime from the physios and he knew each muscle, each bone and ligament intimately. He knew what would make Starsky groan in pain or purr with satisfaction. In all, he knew Starsky better than any woman would ever do.

Inside the building, Starsky took the elevator up to the top floor and walked along the carpeted corridor to the main office. Ramsey had his own oak panelled office in the corner of the bigger office and Gina worked at a desk right outside it, tucked around the corner from the rest of the PAs and clerks. As he pushed open the big glass doors to Ramsey, Ramsey and Mahoney, he spied his girl before she had chance to look up. He crossed the space to her in half a dozen steps and by the time she raised her head, Starsky was standing in front of her desk, the bouquet of roses outstretched.

'Dave? What are you doing here?' she asked quietly. She'd never expected to see him in her office and she could see a couple of the other partners looking their way. The same men who'd told her she could do better than a cop. They looked down their noses at the man dressed in jeans and trainers and she wanted the ground to open up and swallow her not because she didn't want to be seen with the brunet but because she didn't want Starsky to be hurt by their words and actions.

Starsky smiled at her. 'I couldn't wait till tonight. I needed to apologize in person and give you these.'

She took the flowers and buried her head in their fragrance. 'They're lovely. Thank you' she murmured. From inside his office she could see Ramsey looking at them. He had a scowl on his face and Gina hated that he saw the two of them together. She had kept her boss at bay for the whole of the morning, ashamed and uncomfortable at what had gone on the previous night although Ramsey had said nothing. It was as though to her boss, the escapades of the previous night had never taken place, although she could feel his eyes boring into her when he thought she wasn't looking.

'It's a lovely thought but……' she looked around at the man in the office and Starsky followed her gaze.

'But I shouldn't have come. Sorry honey. I goofed again. I just….'

She smiled. 'It's fine. Just go and I'll see you tonight' she said as he pecked her on the cheek. What was it with him all of a sudden? The telephone call this morning and now the flowers? Guilt? It must be. He felt guilty for seeing that girl at the disco. Although she carried a fair amount of guilt herself for….. Damn, life could be complicated!

As the brunet cop turned and left the office, Ramsey looked out at his PA with the bunch of flowers on her desk and he snickered to himself, his mind going back to forcing the girl to give head the previous night. She hadn't wanted to, he could feel that in her. But the power he felt at forcing her was intoxicating and Ramsey was a man who lived for power. He nodded. Oh yeah. This was perfect. With the cop in the picture, he could win over the both of them.