A/N: The contents of the letter described in this chapter has been taken directly from Jan's original story "Finally coming Home" The only thing that has been changed is the date.

Chapter 3

The first thing Starsky became aware of as he drifted towards consciousness was the intense throbbing in his head. It felt like someone was inside his skull trying to pound their way out with a sledgehammer. The second thing he became aware of was that his hands were tied behind him and his ankles were bound together severely limiting his movements. With some effort, he forced his eyes open, blinking rapidly to clear his cloudy vision. He appeared to be inside some sort of vehicle, a van from the appearance of the interior. The air was hot and stuffy, making it hard to breathe.

Starsky instinctively pulled at the ropes holding him captive but the knots were tied securely and he couldn't loosen them. He closed his eyes and struggled to calm his breathing. From the dizziness that threatened to overwhelm him combined with a sense of disorientation, Starsky knew he probably had a concussion. Sighing softly he took assessment of the situation. It was obvious that whoever had abducted him didn't want him dead, at least not right away, or they would have killed him at his apartment.

Starsky and Hutch had made more than their fair share of enemies over the years and this wouldn't be the first time that one of those enemies had come after one of the two detectives with revenge in mind. Starsky had barely survived an attempted assassination attempt two years before. Despite all the odds against him, he had fought his way back to health and back to the streets with Hutch. There was no way of knowing who might be behind this latest attack. All Starsky could do was wait and see what his captors had in mind for him and pray that Hutch found him before it was too late. Against his will, his eyes slowly drifted shut as he lost consciousness once more.

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A hard kick to the stomach forced Starsky awake with a grunt of pain and a ragged gasp for air. His captors stood above him leering down at him. Instinctively, Starsky scanned their features committing the details to memory and assigning them names in his mind.

The tallest and apparently the oldest of the two men had a deeply lined face with a sharp nose and stringy brown hair. He was tall and skinny, his jeans hanging off his hips. Starsky named him slim since he was so tall and thin.

The second man was younger with soft brown eyes, neatly trimmed brown hair, and a soft, out of shape body. Starsky automatically named him Junior.

"Wakey, wakey pig…" Slim sneered through a mouthful of decayed teeth. "You'll miss all the fun." He laughed a high thin sound that sent a chill down Starsky's spine. Slim's eyes were cold and flat with no sign of compassion or emotion. Starsky had seen men with eyes like that before, dangerous men who killed without mercy or remorse.

Junior reached down and grabbed Starsky's arm, jerking him to his feet and wrapping his arms around his chest to keep him upright. For the first time, Starsky realized that his feet were untied even though his wrists were still securely bound. With a gleeful grin, Slim slammed a fist into Starsky's stomach followed almost immediately by a hard right cross to his chin. Starsky glared into the other man's eyes his defiance shining through. In a breathless tone, he said, "That all ya got? What's the matter? Can't you get it off unless you're beating up someone who can't fight back?"

"Shut up, punk!" Slim snarled with another hard punch to Starsky's abdomen knocking the air out of his lungs and making him gasp for breath. The beating continued relentlessly for several minutes. Then at a signal from Slim, Junior suddenly pushed Starsky aside. The brunet lost his balance, stumbled and fell. He screamed in pain as he fell into the hot embers from the fire. Instinctively, Starsky rolled away from the heat and the pain.

"Guess that'll teach you to mouth off to me, you prick!" Slim snarled with another kick to Starsky's stomach. Starsky curled up into a fetal position in an attempt to protect the more vulnerable parts of his anatomy. Starsky lay there, breathing heavily, and trying to ride out the pain throughout his aching body. His right shoulder stung where the hot embers had burned through his shirt and burnt his skin. He could smell the scent of scorched hair. Starsky was relieved that he hadn't been burned any worse than he was.

The two men ignored him and walked away, sitting down in front of the makeshift tent. Slim pulled a bottle of liquor from his pocket and opened it. The two men began passing the bottle back and forth, drinking greedily. Starsky hoped they would drink and forget about him for a while to give him time to regroup. He had no doubt that these men planned on killing him but they obviously wanted him to suffer first. Starsky vowed not to give them the satisfaction of seeing any trace of fear in his eyes. He wasn't afraid of death he had faced it too many times in his life to be afraid of dying. But, he did regret leaving Hutch behind to suffer alone.

Starsky closed his eyes and thought about his partner. The thought of the big blond was comforting and helped to soothe his ragged nerves. The two men had been through a lot in their time together. More than most partners and definitely more than most friends. But the traumas they had faced together had helped to cement the bond between them, a bond that would never be broken. It was that bond that Starsky knew would keep Hutch searching for him until he found him.

The two men drank until the bottle was empty and then they decided to have some more fun with Starsky. They swaggered over to where the defenseless brunet was lying on the ground watching their approach with wary eyes.

"Whatcha looking at?" Slim growled in a slurred, drunken voice. "You need to cool down, boy…" With a high pitched giggle he reached down and grabbed hold of Starsky's forearm, dragging him across the rough, rocky ground. Starsky felt the rocks and hard ground scraping against his skin as his shirt was pulled up over his torso.

Suddenly, Starsky heard the splash of water and then felt the chill as the water soaked through his clothing. His heart began to pound with fear. With his hands tied he couldn't swim if he had too. As Slim pulled him into deeper water, Starsky began to struggle helplessly. When Slim released his arm, Starsky had just enough time to take a deep breath before he sank beneath the surface of the water. As his lungs began to burn, he tried to fight his way back to the surface. Darkness was clouding his vision when he felt someone grab him by the hair and pull him back to the surface. He desperately pulled in deep gasps of air to fill his tortured lungs. Then suddenly, he was released again and immediately sank below the surface. Slim kept up his 'game' until Starsky was only semi-conscious from the repeated near drowning.

Starsky was vaguely aware of being pulled out of the water and drug back to the makeshift camp. He shivered violently chilled from the wet, cold clothes. Slim let Starsky's bruised and battered body drop carelessly to the ground and walked away, ignoring him once more now that his 'fun' was over. Starsky lay there, shivering and coughing as he choked up some of the foul tasting water that he had inadvertently swallowed. He slowly sank into a semi-dazed state not entirely unconscious but not fully alert either.

He was not aware of the two men leaving for a couple of hours and then returning to camp accompanied by a third man. David Tuber strolled over to where Starsky was lying on the ground and examined the battered body closely. Satisfied that Starsky was still breathing; he straightened up and joined the other two men who were sitting in front of the tent.

"How long we gonna keep him alive?" Todd growled as they were joined by their partner.

"We'll finish him off tomorrow…after he writes the note."

"I think we should just waste him and get it over with," Matt muttered sullenly. He was quickly tiring of the game. He just wanted to get it over and go home.

"You're not getting paid to think," Tuber growled at him "This is how the man who paid us wants this done and that's how we're going to do it."

Starsky knelt on the ground with his hands still tied behind his back and watched in silence as Todd and Matt built the crude wooden box that they planned to bury him in. The third man, that Starsky realized was a police officer, seemed to take perverse pleasure in describing in great detail how they planned to kill him and then bury him here on this mountain where nobody would ever find his body.

Tuber suddenly knelt down beside Starsky and grabbed his left hand. As he started tugging at the rings Starsky wore on his left pinky, the brunet resisted by trying to close his fingers into a fist to keep him from removing the rings. Starsky cried out in pain when Tuber grabbed his right forefinger and bent it backwards until it broke with an audible snap. His other fingers automatically unclenched, allowing Tuber to remove the rings. He smirked as he tucked them into his pocket.

Starsky sat there with his head bowed, blinking back tears of anger and pain. He knew that he was quickly running out of time. They would kill him soon and bury him in this god forsaken place. Starsky didn't even have any idea where he was but he had a feeling that he was a long way from Bay City. Starsky had always known that someday his luck would run out. He just hoped that if his body was ever found, it wouldn't be Hutch who found it.

As dusk began to fall, Tuber approached Starsky cautiously. Kneeling down, he untied the brunet's wrists and handed him a pencil and a piece of paper. Pulling a gun from underneath his jacket, Tabor pointed it at Starsky and said, "You're going to write a little note for your partner telling him goodbye. We'll make sure he gets it after you're dead."

Starsky hesitated until he felt the barrel of the gun pressing against his temple. "Write it or I'll shoot you right now." Tuber snarled fiercely. With the barrel of the gun pressed firmly against his left temple, Starsky began to write with a shaky hand:

Oct. 6, 1984

Dear Hutch,

I don't know why they are letting me do this, but I'm not about to ask questions at this point. I don't know when or even if you will ever read this, but in the faint hope that you will someday... I want you to know some things.

1. Please, tell Ma and Nick that I love them. On second thought, you can just tell Ma to tell Nick. I know how you just love to talk with my brother.

2. Know that I didn't go willingly. I will fight to my last dying breath to stay in this life. God Himself will have to tell me it's time.

3. Even as the gun that will most likely end my life is placed up against my ear, my last thoughts are of you and how much richer and fuller my life has been with you to have shared it with.

You know I don't like soapy scenes...
You know what's in my heart...

I love you Hutch.

See ya,
Starsky

When he had finished writing, Tuber took the note and began to read it, smiling in satisfaction. With his attention distracted and the other two men standing several feet away, Starsky knew this was the only chance he had to try and escape. He spun around and kicked Tuber in the knee catching him unaware and knocking him to the ground. Turning on his heel, Starsky began to run across the clearing towards the trees, hoping to find a place to hide in the thick foliage.

Suddenly, a heavy weight landed on his back, dragging him to the ground. Almost immediately, fists and feet began assaulting him. Starsky managed to get in a few good punches of his own but he was still outnumbered. Within minutes, the three men had beaten the rebellious brunet into unconsciousness.

"Stupid bastard!" Tuber snarled kicking Starsky violently in the side, hard enough to lift his body a few inches off the ground.

"Why don't we just put him in the coffin and bury him right now?" Todd said rubbing his chin where Starsky had slugged him. "We got the note and we got the rings. That should be enough to get us the money. And he looks dead enough right now that nobody could tell the difference."

"This is personal now. I want the fucker awake and looking at me when I put a bullet in his head. I want him to watch me kill him." Tuber said as he wiped a smear off blood from his mouth where his bottom lip had been split open in the fight. "Get him back to camp. We'll kill him at dawn." Tuber walked away leaving Todd and Matt to pick up Starsky and carry him back to camp.

"I'm getting tired of that prick calling all the shots." Todd grumbled as the brothers picked up Starsky and began carrying him back towards their camp sight. "I ain't gonna take much more of him bossing me around and treating me like dirt."

"Me neither." Matt agreed with a curt nod of his head.

Back at the camp, Tuber picked up the note that he had dropped when Starsky caught him by surprise. He never noticed the blotches he got on the paper from the blood on his fingers. He folded the note into a neat square and put it into his pocket along with the rings.

Matt and Todd dumped Starsky's unconscious body on the ground beside the campfire and then walked over to the tent to sulk. Tuber knelt down and swiftly tied Starsky's wrists behind his back. Since the brunet was unconscious, Tuber didn't bother to tie his ankles together.

Sometime around midnight, Starsky opened his eyes with a groan as he tried to shift his aching body to a more comfortable position. His first escape attempt may have failed but he planned on trying again. It would be more difficult with his hands tied behind his back but he would rather die in a futile bid for freedom than to sit meekly and let them shoot him.

It was almost dawn before Starsky felt confident enough to make his move. He stumbled to his feet, staggering momentarily as he sought his balance. Moving as quietly and quickly as he could, Starsky made his way across the clearing and into the shelter of the surrounding woods. He hadn't gone far when he heard the sound of angry shouts and curses. He knew that his escape had been discovered. He tried to move faster but it was difficult making his way through the thick foliage without the use of his hands.

He heard the sound of trampling behind him and then he heard the crack of a high powered rifle. A bullet whined past his head, barely missing him. As Starsky stumbled forward, desperate to escape his captors, another shot rang out behind him. Starsky felt an explosion of pain in his head even as he felt his foot slip on some loose gravel. He fell into the darkness even as he fell down the side of a deep ravine.