(Thanks brook5 for the encouraging emails. It's really helped me to stay focused and keep plugging away at this thing. And thanks everyone for the positive feedback - hopefully the story reads kinda like an eppy. Enjoy.)

Chapter Seven

Less than ten minutes after dashing out of the Pits, Hutch pulled the Torino up in front of the combination newspaper and shoe shine stand. A thin, bald-headed, elderly black man looked up from unbundling a stack of the morning edition from the corded bindings, the process a bit hampered by slightly arthritic fingers.

Hutch climbed out of the Torino and slammed the door. "Hey, Shoe-Shine."

The man greeted the cop with a courteous though a bit of a surprised smile. "My dime didn't even get cold, my man."

"Huggy told me you've seen Detective Starsky."

"Well. I'm not sure, Hutch. Damn eyesight ain't so good anymore because of the cataracts, you know, but I think it was him."

"When, Shoe-Shine? Please."

"Just a little while ago, but he looked different."

"How do you mean?"

"Like he had one hell of a night. Was kinda in a daze too, just sorta staring at my stand. When I started walking over to him to ask if he was all right, he just turned the other way and left."

"Which way did he go?"

"Down Kingston, towards Grant."

Hutch dug into his pocket and pressed several bills into the old man's hand and clasped the arthritic fingers between his larger, stronger ones gently. "Thanks, Shoe-Shine!"

"Hope you find him, Hutch."

The cop nodded in gratitude and quickly departed. Shoe-Shoe went back to the task of unbinding the stack of newspapers, not paying much attention to the headline in bold faced lettering on the top.

~S/H~

Hutch drove the Torino slowly up the street scanning the blocks. In the early morning hour a grey tinge of overcastted light had now replaced the dark. Traffic was beginning to pick up as commuters moved into the city, but most of streets in this particular section of town remained practically empty of foot traffic.

Hutch had maybe driven six blocks when he thought he saw a flash of a blue shirt and a dark head of curls just as the Torino passed through the intersection.

"Shit!"

He slammed on the brakes and swung the Torino around. The front suspension hit and then went up and over a concrete divider separating the lanes of opposing traffic.

Hutch winced. Starsky's gonna kill me for that!

By the time he'd completed the U-turn and reached the intersection though, the light had just turned from yellow to red. Hutch floored the gas pedal and the Torino surged forward just as the cross traffic entered the intersection. He swerved the car to avoid a collision with a truck, receiving a blare of a horn in return. Ignoring it, he fixed his eyes on the street, frantically searching for a glimpse of the man again. Not a second later however, a siren startled him and to his disbelief saw a black and white unit with its mars bar flashing in his rearview mirror.

With a curse he was forced to pull the Torino over.

The cruiser had hardly come to a full stop behind him before Hutch was flinging the door open and climbing out.

"Hold it right there, mister!" the officer firmly demanded, his left arm stretched forward, his right on the holstered weapon on his hip.

Hutch stood up to his full height. "Look, officer I'm a…" but he was cut off.

"I said HOLD IT!" The officer repeated and was now joined by his younger partner who had drawn his gun.

Livid, Hutch held his hands clearly where they could see him. "I'm a fucking cop for Christ sakes!"

The uniformed officer approached cautiously, clearly disbelieving him.

"Look, I'm Sergeant Hutchinson, with the Ninth. My ID's in my shirt pocket if you'll just let me get it out," he said impatiently.

"Slowly."

With his right hand, Hutch reached into his front pocket and pulled out his ID with two fingers, flipping it open and extending it out.

The officer took it and a moment later directed his partner to lower his weapon.

"Sorry, Sergeant," the uniformed officer said curtly, handing Hutch back his ID. "But maybe next time you decide to fly through a red light, maybe you better put your siren and lights on."

Hutch shoved his ID back in his pocket. He was just about to make an angry retort when he spotted the man again, this time across the street in a used car lot. From the height, stance and the wild curly head of hair, Hutch knew at once it was his partner.

~S/H~

In a dazed stupor the man walked, his mind a swirl of thoughts, images and a newspaper headline: "MENTAL PATIENT ESCAPES CABRILLO."

Voices echoed in Starsky's head.

"All right Rudy, back to your own section!"

Rudy? The name had a familiar ring to it, yet the flashing images connected with it were disturbing, frightening as he tried to make sense of them.

A white capped red-headed nurse suddenly appeared. "Trying to escape us again, Mr. Skyler?"

"No, I was only talking to…" His shoulder was painfully grabbed in a meaty fist, the fingers pressing hard, digging into the sensitive flesh.

"That will be enough, Mr. Switek!" the nurse snapped sternly. She then looked at him with an air of utter exasperation. "You know the rules Mr. Sklyer. Let's not break them again for the second time in one day, hmm?" Her mouth then pinched up, her face hardened. "It's time for your therapy session, Rudy."

She addressed the intern beside him. "Mr. Switek, see to it Mr. Skyler gets there this time."

A blond haired man in tinted wire glasses appeared. "I can do that, Nurse Bycroft."

"Never you mind, Mr. Hansen. I have other duties for you, follow me." The blond haired man nodded. The nurse turned abruptly on her heels and the intern followed her out the door and down the corridor.

He watched the man go before his arm was jerked painfully. "Come on Skyler. You heard the lady. Let's go!"

He resisted and his arm was twisted behind his back as a fist grabbed a sizeable chunk of hair at the back of his head. "Listen you prick. I'm not going to ask you twice. Do as you're told or face the consequences later!"

The screech of brakes brought him out of the flashback as a car nearly collided into him. He jumped back, and then stumbled across the street. Once on the sidewalk, he wandered through a used car lot sandwiched between a strip mall and the back side of a brick building.

Then two things happened almost instantaneously. The first was he heard a shout and looked up to see a blond haired man calling out from across the street next to a police car. The second was two men suddenly appeared out of a doorway from the building just to his right.

And in that moment what Starsky saw were three men all dressed in white moving towards him. And suddenly the face of the blond haired man running across the street shouting came into view. A shiver of fear struck him as he recognized the man as the intern Hansen from the mental institute. He froze for a second, almost paralyzed, and then took a staggering step backward. Pain jabbed at the back of his head and his vision blurred momentarily. When he looked to his right at the other two men, one white, one black, stepping forward, in his mind's eyes he saw them as Switek and Jackson.

One raised a straight jacket out in front of him. "Did you really think you could escape us Rudy?"

Terror filled his eyes. The three were the interns from Cabrillo and they had been sent to capture him, to bring him back!

~S/H~

As Hutch started across the street he immediately sensed something was terribly wrong.

His partner's appearance was disheveled, his shirt, face and arms filthy. Starsky then staggered back, put his hand to the back of his neck and stood frozen as he frantically looked from Hutch to the two men, bakers from the shop next door to the car lot, who had just stepped out the back door of the building.

Starsky's eyes suddenly widened.

One of the bakers, holding a light jacket in his hand stepped closer and raised his hand out towards him. "Hey mister, you okay?"

Starsky took a step back.

Hutch shouted his name but as he drew closer, the frightened look in Starsky's eyes turned to terror and he suddenly turned and fled in the opposite direction.

Hutch took off after him.

By the time he'd weaved through the used cars in the lot, Starsky had already disappeared around the back of the building. He followed shouting Starsky's name, not understanding what was wrong, but instantly scared.

Starsky stumbled and Hutch quickly closed the distance. As he caught up with him and grabbed his partner by the forearm, concern cracked his voice. "Buddy, w-hat's wrong?"

He got no further as Starsky whipped around and before he knew what hit him, the full force of a fist cracked against his face sending a surprised Hutch reeling backwards onto the ground.

For a second he laid on his back dazed before he shook his head and struggled back up to his feet. By then Starsky had scrambled up the back of a car and awkwardly scaled a cinder block wall.

Holding his face Hutch followed, leaping onto the car and over the wall. He looked right, then left just in time to see a flash of a blue shirt and a curly head of hair crashing into a chain link fence as he rounded a corner.

He took off after him, his longer strides soon closing the distance again. He reached the end of the block in time to see his partner crossing the street, stumbling and ducking between two tenement buildings. Hutch followed and nearly got hit by a moving car. He tripped on his own feet in his haste and nearly fell, but managed to keep himself upright.

The passage between the two buildings was narrow, only about six feet wide. Ahead Starsky had come to a stop, was bent over holding onto a rusty abandoned shopping cart, panting and looked ready to fall over any second. But the moment he heard Hutch's footsteps his head snapped up and with a panicked look pushed himself off and started running again.

For a few seconds the distance appeared to widen and Hutch was desperately afraid he'd loose sight of Starsky as he became a silhouette of movement in the shadows between the buildings.

"Starsky, for God sake's stop running! Please, buddy, it's me Hutch!" he shouted.

For a second he thought he saw his partner slow down almost turn but then instead he tipped over a metal trash can and took off again.

In the shadows Hutch tried to avoid the debris, but tripped on something and this time he did go down. He landed awkwardly and pain immediately shot up through his knee. He inwardly hissed as he pulled himself back up and nearly hit the ground again as he tried to put his full weight on it.

Ahead Starsky had slowed again, seemed to be staggering, disoriented, holding his head. He crashed into a trash can, almost fell over himself but at the last second twisted his body so he rolled with the momentum and hit the wall instead. He then disappeared into the shadows.

By the time Hutch reached the point where Starsky had been, he found a narrow service passage between the two brick buildings. He ran down its length in a half run, half painful hobble until it dumped him out into another alley. He looked left, then right, but couldn't see his partner anywhere.

"Starsky!" he shouted. "Starsk!"

Hutch took off to the left, passing a dumpster when a noise from behind caught his attention and quickly reversed his direction. But when he reached the end of the alley which opened up onto a main street, his partner was no where to be found.

~S/H~

Panting heavily, with his pounding heartbeat only adding to the pounding pain already in his head, the exhausted, confused and frightened man pressed his body further back into the shadowed space between the dumpster and the side of the building as the intern's footsteps quickly drew nearer, then suddenly stopped and reversed direction before fading away.

Starsky remained frozen until he was sure the intern was gone before he dared to venture from his hiding place. Using the side of the building for support, he took off in the opposite direction, stealing nervous glances behind him.

Only after a few short blocks though, his stamina began to wane and sheer exhaustion set in as the rush of adrenalin that had been trigger by his fear became depleted. His legs started shaking severely and when a wave of dizziness hit him, he could no longer fight it. He felt himself pitching forward, crashing into a set of wooden crates stack beneath a stairwell. But they were all empty, and as he fell they toppled over on top of him.

~S/H~

"Why would Curly run away from you?" Huggy asked.

Hutch leaned against the inside of the phone booth, his arm outstretched and pressed against the glass panel, the receiver wedged between his shoulder and check. He shifted his weight and winced from the pain in his knee.

"I don't know, Hug," Hutch replied. "He's confused and he's hurt. I saw him gripping the back of his head before he took off running. I think whoever attacked him in the alley must have hit him in the head with that pipe. But there was something else." He paused, struggling to get a grip on his emotions. "He was a-fraid, al-most terrified of me."

The last sentence came out as a stutter, which didn't go unnoticed by the man on the other end of the line.

"Why would Starsky be afraid of you?"

"I d-don't know. But when I grabbed him, he turned around and belted me solid."

Hutch messaged his bruised cheek. He'd totally forgotten just what a powerful compact punch his partner was capable of producing. Starsky had only ever hit him once before but it had been part of an undercover act, and not at full force, but it had still been hard enough to send Hutch sailing across the bar. This one Starsky had put his full weight into, driven by fear.

"Whatever's going on inside his head, Huggy, it's making him run, making him want to hide. God the look on his face! He was so scared."

"Take it easy, bro. You gotta stay calm."

Hutch leaned his head against his outstretched arm and closed his eyes.

"I know. I know."

Hutch had dealt with a hurt Starsky plenty of times and even a confused Starsky on occasion, but never a Starsky actually afraid of him. It went against all his instincts he knew about his partner. It was almost as if Starsky were seeing him as someone else.

TBC...