Chapter 7

Leading his sightless partner carefully around the table, Hutch once again delved into the cupboards, finding a clean dish, some cotton pads and some sterilised water. Wearily he opened the sachets of water and poured them into the dish. Unable to stand any more, he positioned the brunette on the floor with his back braced against the wall and knelt at his side. Now that he could get a good look at his friend he realised just how deep the cut above Starsky's eyebrow was. Standing back up with a groan, he could just reach the drawer he'd seen with the steri strips and bandages in, without having to disturb his partner.

Although still unfocussed, Starsky was at least making a little more sense now. He wasn't muttering to himself any more, but there was still a certain glassiness in those eyes that worried Hutch. He knelt down again arranging all his equipment around him.

'Gonna look at that head of yours now buddy' he said gently as he reached up to brush some of the blood soaked curls away from his friend's brow.

'Is it still on my shoulders?' Starsky asked with a small shadow of a smile. He knew his partner was hurting also and desperately wanted to be able to see again so that he could help Hutch in whatever way he needed. Although he knew his head was cut, Starsky was more concerned about his eyes and his heart was in his mouth as he submitted to Hutch's ministrations, hoping there would be a quick fix in this somewhere.

'No Starsk, I found it rolling around the floor back there! Course it's on your shoulders dummy'. Hutch was glad that at least his partner was beginning to make jokes again. The situation was just too intense to let the banter pass by. It was one of the tricks both men resorted to in order to ease tension in situations where they needed to be clear headed.

'Well it hurts too much. Put it back where ya found it huh? It might stop achin' if it's all by itself' the brunette mumbled

Hutch chuckled then stopped, coughing, as the pain lanced through his side again.

'Hey Blintz, just rest a while. Head'll be there when you've slept ya know' Starsky felt his partner tremble as the coughing bout finished.

'M fine. Just hold still a minute' Hutch ground out a little too sharply. The pain was getting worse, but he knew if he could clear his friend's eyes, and tend to this wound they may yet have a way out. He started cleaning around the wound, dismayed at how deep it was. He could patch it up for now and hopefully stop it bleeding, but it would need real hospital care and stitches if and when they got out of the hotel. He heard the curly haired cop gasp and hated hurting his friend, but it needed to be done.

'Nearly there Pal' he murmured as another pad of cotton came away red and blood soaked. Now the wound was clean, he could see that the cut was a couple of inches long and almost down to the bone.

'Glad you didn't stick to being a doctor' the smaller man gasped as he tried hard not to pull away. 'Hey, it's me under all the blood ya know!

Hutch smiled as he drew the lips of the wound together and stuck the steri strips across it. 'Ya know ya really are a crummy patient. If Dad had have gotten his way, you'd be paying big bucks for me to do this right now'.

'Yeah? Remind me. Were ya gonna be a doctor or a vet?'

The blond finished, adding a fresh white bandage round his partners head. Starsky looked cleaner and less gory, if a little piratical, with the pad of the bandage covering the top of his eye and eyebrow. His blood stained curly hair sprouted out of the top of the bandage, but Hutch was satisfied the wound wouldn't get dirty again.

'How do I look?' his curly haired partner asked, looking in Hutch's general direction.

'Well, you're no oil painting, but you'll do' Hutch grunted. 'How's it feel?

'Better. Still aches, but if I'll survive' he answered tightly.

'OK, well it's bound to ache. You took quite a pounding there Gordo. I'll see if I can find some aspirin later. Stay still, I'm gonna look at your eyes now. Do they hurt?'

'No, not really' Starsky replied with a hitch in his voice. 'Just can't see out of 'em'.

'Can you see anything? Dark and light maybe?'

Hutch watched as his friend seemed to stare right at him, furrowing his brow in concentration.

'Hm. Yeah, there's somethin'. I think. It's difficult to tell' he put his arm out. 'Is that dark blob you?'

'Sure is partner. Is it coming back some d'ya think?' Hutch asked, hoping he wasn't grasping at straws, but relieved his partner wasn't in total blackness.

The brunette sighed. 'Dunno. Hope so. This is not one of our better days. So, ya wanna look into my beautiful blues then?' He braced himself mentally. Now for the moment of truth! All he wanted was for his partner to tell him that everything was going to be fine, but at the back of his mind, eating away at him a little at a time was the feeling that this could be permanent.

Gently Hutch bent the smaller man's head back pulling up the eyelids to see if he could see anything in there. Dust particles swam round the perimeter of the indigo blue and the blond reached back for another sachet of the sterile water. He ripped the top off with his teeth and carefully poured the contents into Starsky's right eye, letting it run down his cheek. He repeated the performance with the left eye then wiped the excess away with a clean cotton pad.

'How's that feel?'

Starsky blinked, screwed his eyes up and blinked again. 'Like I've just spent the whole week in a chlorine treated swimming pool. Either that or a particularly smoky night at the Pits. Stings!' he put his hand up to his eyes to wipe them, but Hutch batted it away.

'If there's any more dust particles in there, you'll scratch your eyes' here'. He wiped the excess water gently away with a clean gauze pad. 'Better?'

The bandaged cop leaned his head back against the wall and sighed, opening his eyes wide and then blinking rapidly. 'Hey, I think the dark blobs a bit brighter' he said hopefully. He was just about to add something else when another after shock shook the building. As Starsky put his head down to his knees, protecting his eyes, Hutch overbalanced and fell back against the side of the cupboard. The brunette heard a strangled cry and then a gasp of pain.

'Hutch? You ok Blondie?' he called, reaching out to the dark patch that he thought was his partner, as the earth finally righted itself again and stopped shimmying around them.

There was silence for a moment then Hutch groaned. It was a deep and heartfelt sound that tore at his partner's heart The final fall had caused the pain in his side to intensify. He'd thought he could have ridden it out, but the impact with the cupboard door had sent him spiralling down into a pit of red. He propped himself up against his partner, gasping and trying to ride out the pains lancing through his side. He held his arm protectively around his midriff. Pulling his hand away, he saw warm wet blood. Sweat beaded on his brow as he concentrated on his breathing, riding the crest of the pain spike and slowly coasting as it began to diminish.

'Oh shit' he grunted. He tried to reach for the cotton pads but they were out of his reach and he hadn't the strength to move. Hesitantly he felt for his partner's right hand, pulling it towards him.

'Starsk, I'm bleeding. Need you to put pressure on the wound OK? Can you do that for me buddy?'

Starsky shuffled closer and felt the flaxen haired cop lean back against him. He pushed against the wound, feeling the warm wet cloth of his friend's shirt. As he pressed, Hutch shivered and moaned.

'Why didn't ya tell me it was this bad?' the brunette admonished. 'Ye Gods, Blintz, you're gonna bleed to death at this rate! What else can I do?'

Hutch could feel the world closing in on him, darkness crowding the edges of his vision. 'Just keep pressing' he mumbled, shuddering again as another wave of agony washed over him. 'Need to sleep….just a minute…..ok?'

'No, not ok!' Starsky could hear the slurring in his partner's speech and knew he was going to pass out before very long. 'C'mon Hutch, stay with me huh? Just don't go to sleep, that's not good…not good ya hear?'

'Sorry Gordo…..tired….hurts like hell….just sleep for a little while…need to…..' the sentence never finished as the brunette felt his friend's body relax against him. Frantically he tried to wake up the blond, but the efforts of the night and his injuries had taken their toll, and Hutch was dead to the world.

Starsky continued to push his hand against the wet area on his partner's side, knowing the bleeding needed to stop some time soon. He was tired too and his head ached viciously, but he realised he had to keep awake in order to save them both. If he could remain awake until Hutch came round, if he did, then he could maybe manoeuvre the big blond out of the way, and get some medical supplies for him. If he slept as well, he really couldn't be sure that either of them would wake up. As it was now, he could only sit tight and wait.

He started to talk, more for his own company and to keep awake than for the blond, but if Hutch could hear, then it wouldn't do any harm.

'Hey Blintz. D'ya remember that time on the cruise boat? If it hadn't been for the bombs and the murders, it would have been a good time. D'ya think we should book a proper cruise for when we get out of this? Somewhere round the Caribbean, or maybe the Mediterranean. Always wanted to see Rome. Or maybe we could take one of your camping trips. Ya know I don't really do the whole creepy crawlie things, an' I hate sleeping in tents, and what's the use of walking when ya got a perfectly good car, but what d'ya say huh? We could go back up to Dobey's cabin by the lake. Just so long as there's no snakes in the refrigerator, or Satanists in the woods'.

'Come to think of it, have we ever had a vacation that didn't go wrong some way? D'ya think we attract bad luck or somethin? Coz I'm kinda getting' a complex. Maybe if we hadn't met at the academy'.

'Who d'ya think we'd be partnered with now? Knowing my luck, you'd get a sweet young blond girl with a kick like a mule an' a figure to die for, an' I'd get the 58 year old fat guy who's just biding his time to retirement'.

'Or maybe we wouldn't be cops. Maybe I'd be a car dealer, or run a nice little Italian restaurant. Just not one that has hired guns popping clients off at midnight. What d'ya say?'

'Hutch? Don't leave me. Don't you dare leave me now, ya hear? We're gonna get out of this together. I've spent too much time getting used to your crazy ways to give up on ya now. I nearly lost ya when ya had that plague, but we fought it together. I thought I'd lost ya when that goon forced your crummy car off the road, but we got there together. Ya can't leave me now Blintz. Just hang in there huh? for me? Who else is gonna look after me and feed me chicken soup when I gave a cold? Who's gonna listen to my jokes an' even laugh at some of 'em?'

'God, what am I doing talking to myself? I'm tired too Hutch. I can hardly keep my eyes open. Think I'm gonna just close 'em for a few minutes. Don't go away'.

Starsky felt his body starting to close down. The pain in his head had suddenly hiked up a notch and he was getting blinding white flashes in his eyes. He hoped it was a good sign, but he was just so desperately tired. He fought to keep his eyes open, but slowly they closed.

The two cops slept, the dark haired man holding onto his blond partner as quiet descended over the ruined hotel.