CHAPTER FIVE
"You do the math," the uniformed officer sneered as he walked down the hallway with his companion, another uniformed officer from his squad. "He knocked her up, and they had to get married. Serves him right, as much fucking around as Starsky and Hutchinson do. It was bound to catch up with one of them eventually."
Neither man noticed that Hutch had been walking behind them towards the detective's squad room at the end of the hall. The big blond's temper automatically flared at the insult to his absent partner.
"You need to keep your opinions to yourself, Fisher," He said in a cold, warning tone that stopped the two men in front of him in their tracks. They both turned in tandem to face an irate blond with ice blue eyes. "Starsky's private life is just that, private. It's not a topic of discussion in the hallways."
"Sorry, Hutch," Fisher said apologetically. "I didn't mean anything by it. Just talking, ya know?"
"Well find something else to talk about," Hutch advised him as he brushed past the two uniformed officers and continued on his way down the hall.
Once he was out of earshot, Fisher snorted and muttered under his breath, "Bastard. Thinks he's better than us. Starsky got what he deserved. Too bad it wasn't Hutchinson."
"I'd still watch what I said around here," His companion warned "You don't want to cross Hutchinson or Starsky. They'll eat you alive."
"I ain't scared of them. Couple of fag pussies."
"I'd be scared of them if I were you. They got a lot of friends around here. More than you do." His co-worker walked away, leaving Fisher alone.
Hutch was still irritated as he sat down at his desk and reached for the phone to do a background check on Jessica. The office grapevine was buzzing with rumors about Starsky's sudden marriage to his pregnant girlfriend, and Fisher wasn't the only co-worker who felt that Starsky had gotten what he deserved because of his promiscuous single lifestyle. Only Hutch truly knew how much Starsky was suffering for his error in judgment when it came to Jessica.
Twenty minutes later, he hung up the phone with a heavy sigh. The parts of Jessica's story that he had been able to verify seemed to check out. Her parents had been killed just as she had told Starsky, and she had spent four years in and out of foster homes. She had lived in New York for most of her life and had supported herself working primarily as a stripper in several sleazy New York clubs. Hutch suspected there was more to her past than what met the eye but was at a loss to find out any more information. She had never been arrested, not even been given a parking ticket. His New York contacts were severely limited at best. Even Huggy Bear, one of the detectives' prime sources of information, had only minimal contacts back east.
Shortly after noon, Starsky entered the squad room. Hutch greeted him with a warm smile. Starsky's personal appearance was starting to show signs of his failing marriage. His hair was longer than usual and there were permanent dark circles under his eyes. Even those sapphire orbs had lost their sparkle and mischievous gleam. His trademark crooked smile was rarely seen and, when it was, it was only a mere reflection of its former brilliance.
"Sorry, Jessica had a doctor's appointment this morning," Starsky said apologetically.
"Why? Is Jessica having any problems?" Hutch asked in a concerned voice. He may not care for the woman or the way she was treating Starsky, but he knew that Starsky already loved the little life that he had helped to create and was worried about the pregnancy.
"No, she just seems to be gaining a lot of weight." Starsky said offhandedly.
"Are things getting better with you two?" Hutch asked, lowering his voice so nobody else in the squad room overheard him.
Starsky shrugged his shoulders slightly. "Sometimes things seem to be okay, then the next day she's acting like she can't stand me again. I feel like I'm walking on eggshells around her." A thin smile tugged at his lips. "The other night we actually had sex for the first time in almost a month."
Hutch frowned at the comment. The brunet had only been married for two months, and his marriage was already in serious trouble. Hutch couldn't help wondering if Starsky had enough stamina to last for five months until the baby came.
He watched with a heavy heart as his best friend sank down on his side of the table that served as their desk. His usual bounce and infamous strut was gone from his step. Hutch had a suspicion that this experience would turn Starsky against the idea of marriage, the same way that Hutch's marriage to Vanessa had done to him.
The afternoon passed slowly as the partners tried to catch up on their chronically overdue paperwork. They left the office at six and went their separate ways for the evening.
Starsky returned home to find Jessica watching a game show on TV. The aroma of something cooking in the kitchen filled the air. The brunet was instantly on guard. The only time Jessica cooked for him was when she wanted something, usually money. Jessica smiled brightly and awkwardly shoved herself to her feet when he came through the door. Starsky thought she was getting awfully heavy so early in her pregnancy but, she continued to tell him that there was nothing to worry about. She said the doctor had told her it was because of a lack of exercise. Not that Starsky would know. Jessica might let him drive her to her appointments with the doctor but she refused to let him come back during the exams.
"You're home! I made your favorite," Jessica gushed. "The Paul Muni special."
Starsky nodded and went into the bathroom to wash up. The Paul Muni special, as his mother called it, was simple pot roast with carrots, potatoes and a rich, thick broth seasoned with herbs and spices. Jessica was a fair enough cook, but nobody had ever come close to making the dish as well as his mother, except for Hutch. Jessica tended to overcook it, leaving the meat dry, and she never got the spices and herbs right.
When he came out of the bathroom, Jessica was setting the food on the table and lighting candles. Now he knew that she wanted something, and he didn't hesitate to say so. "Okay, Jess. What do you want?" He asked as he sat down in his usual place at the table.
"What makes you think I want something?" she asked, batting her eyes innocently.
"Can the act, sweetheart," he told her with a trace of sarcasm in his voice. "You never cook for me unless you want something. I told you there's no extra money this month, and I'm not touching the money in the savings account…what little there is left of it."
"Why do you always think that I want money?" Jessica pouted.
"That's because you usually do," Starsky reminded her. "Okay, if you don't want money, then what do you want?"
"I want to move back to New York," she said casually, as she sat down across from him and began to eat.
"Are you crazy? My life is here. My job is here. I can't just leave like that."
"Why not? You could be a cop back in New York just as easily as you can here…probably even easier if all those stories you told me about your father are true."
"Leave my father out of this," Starsky said, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. He could feel the start of a migraine coming on. He had been plagued with violent headaches ever since his return from Viet Nam. He took medication that usually kept them under control, but they had increased in both frequency and intensity since the beginning of his disastrous marriage. "We're not moving back to New York, and that's final. I'm not leaving Bay City."
"You mean you're not going to leave your precious partner, don't you?" Jessica snapped, knowing exactly which buttons to push to piss Starsky off. Hutch had been a constant source of irritation between them since the marriage. Jessica seemed to resent Hutch and the time he spent with Starsky.
"Hutch is not just my partner, he's my best friend. You knew that when we met." Starsky reminded her, holding onto his temper. "And, no, I will not break up a nine year partnership and an even longer friendship just because you got it into your head to go back to New York."
"I don't need your permission to go anywhere," Jessie said curtly. "I may be your wife but you don't own me. If I want to go back to New York, I can do that without your approval!"
"If you try to leave before the baby is born, I'll do everything in my power to stop you," Starsky threatened.
"Like what?" Jessica snorted. "Lock me up and throw away the key?"
"If that's what it takes. Besides, the doctor would never allow you travel that far in your condition."
"Since when do you care about my condition?" Jessica snapped, slamming down her water glass so hard that it shattered. She cursed as she grabbed her napkin and began to sponge up the mess.
"We're not moving back to New York!" Starsky repeated firmly, as he shoved back his chair and stood up abruptly, his appetite gone. "And that's final!" Turning on his heel, he grabbed his jacket and headed out the door to the one place he knew he could find some peace. Hutch's apartment.
Hutch didn't seem to be that surprised when Starsky showed up on his doorstep. The brunet was becoming a regular fixture at Hutch's apartment after one of his fights with Jessica. He grabbed the brunet a cold beer from the refrigerator and handed it to him without saying a word. He knew that Starsky would tell him what had happened when he was ready to and not beforehand.
Starsky drank his first beer and started on his second before finally saying, "Jessica wants to move back to New York. She implied that she'll go by herself if I don't go with her."
"You're not seriously considering leaving, are you?" Hutch asked in a stunned voice. This was the one thing he hadn't anticipated. The thought of Starsky leaving Bay City for good was something the big blond wasn't sure he could handle. They were too close, their lives too intertwined, to ever be happy working the streets with anyone else.
"Of course not," Starsky said with a snort. "I told her that my life was here. My career was here." He paused and then added fondly, "You're here."
"I bet that went over real well," Hutch said dryly, finishing his own beer and getting another one.
"That's when she threatened to go back to New York by herself. She said that I didn't own her just because we were married."
"What did you say to that?"
"I told her that if she tried to leave before the baby was born, I'd do everything in my power to stop her." He looked at his friend and said sadly, "Hutch, if she goes back to New York, she'll make sure that I never get to see the baby, to be part of its life, just for spite."
"Don't worry, buddy. It hasn't come to that yet. Maybe she's just trying to see how far she can push you."
"Yeah, well this is one thing she's not going to force me to do." Starsky said in a determined voice. "I'm not moving back to New York."
'You know, Vanessa was the one who wanted to move out here after we got married," Hutch said with a sad little smile. "She was positive she was going to hit the big time as a model."
"I guess I should thank her for that," Starsky said with a fond glance at his best friend. "Or we would never have met."
"Yeah…" Hutch agreed. "Anyway…things were already pretty rocky between us before that. It didn't take me long to figure out how different we were, after I stopped thinking with my dick and started using my brain."
"She sure didn't like me very much," Starsky snorted as he remembered the ex-Mrs. Hutchinson.
"She didn't like anybody that didn't have money and drive a fancy car." Hutch paused, lost for a moment in his own thoughts. "I knew it was over for a long time before she finally left but, I kept hanging on…hoping things would get better. I guess I just didn't want to admit that I was a failure."
"You weren't a failure," Starsky said firmly, "Vanessa was a bitch that didn't know how good she had it until she threw it away."
"Sounds a lot like you and Jessica," Hutch said with a thin little smile. "Looks like we both know how to pick 'em."