Earthquake

Hutch

It started with a low vibration. A hum that Starsky noticed first, his head cocking up like a bloodhound. There were no windows in the squad room to look out of. No way of knowing what was coming down. The hum was followed by a shriek, and the whole building quaked knocking me back a step. I had time to make one all important move, then the ceiling caved in.

"I'm scared."

"You don't need to be scared, Gracie. Remember what I said about that light up there?"

"I'm not Gracie. I'm Susan."

Starsky chuckled from somewhere in the darkness, but I knew that if I joined him, the girls might think we were making fun of them.

"That's right, you're Susan and you're...five-years-old?"

Blonde pig-tails bounced, blue eyes glinting faintly in the light that filtered down through two stories of debris.

"Bravest five-year-old I know." Starsky said. The fingers of his left hand appeared, curving under the edge of the beam that separated us. They tightened on the metal and I could hear him grunt, shifting painfully in what had become a never ending struggle to get comfortable.

"I'll say. And Gracie is seven." I said.

Susan's older sister was blonde, blessed with curls and cursed with crooked front teeth that left her with a whistling gap. Still her smile was contagious, or it had been the last time I'd seen it.

Starsky had been holding Gracie's hand when it all went down. She'd been under his body when the debris started to fall. The beam that separated us kept her trapped with my partner for the time being.

"I'm brave too." I heard Gracie insist.

"Sure are." Starsky said. "Maybe you'll be a cop some day."

"Girls can't be cops." Gracie said, whistling her 's's.

Susan whipped her head toward the sound of her sister's voice, then back to me, waiting for me to confirm or deny the wisdom of the older sibling.

"You mean you didn't see all those brave girl cops when you came into the station this morning?" I asked.

Susan shook her head, wide-eyed.

"Oh..there's lots o'dem." Starsky slurred, "There's Minnie."

"And there's Joan. She's a detective." I added.

Susan gasped. "Like you!"

"Nah, Susan, she's better than Hutch."

"Thanks a lot, partner." I muttered.

Starsky gave a laugh that turned into a choking cough that he did his best to muffle.

I waited, listening past the pounding in my head. The solid, steady throb in my hand. The rhythm of the tiny heartbeat and lungs leaning against my chest.

Starsky recovered slowly, gasping for breath, but picking up the conversation as if nothing had happened, as determined as I was to keep both children calm. "There's...uh...Sergeant Peterson...she works with kids."

There were others. Others that we had worked with, then buried. Others that had met the challenges and dangers of the job without blinking and paid the price. The mentality towards women on the force was changing, but in too many cases, it wasn't fast enough.

"You know…" I started, surprised at the sudden waver in my voice. "By the time you and your sister are old enough I'll bet they'll be lots of lady cops."

"And lady firemen maybe." Starsky added.

"And doctors?" Susan asked.

"And….and school bus drivers?" Gracie piped up, anxious not to be left behind by her younger sister's imagination.

I could hear a breathless chuckle under my own.

"Lady...lady astronauts." I suggested.

Starsky coughed, the sound wetter than before, but he reigned it in quickly. "Lady zookeepers."

Gracie giggled, delighted. "Like Mommy!"

"What!?" Starsky demanded, the reaction making Gracie giggle harder.

"Mommy says we're like aminals in a zoo!" Gracie laughed, then shrieked with glee.

I could feel Susan squirming on my lap, anxious to see her sister, and join in the fun. The rubble had destroyed her only means of locomotion however and she sat without complaint, enjoying her sister's happiness vicariously.

The fun ended abruptly with another round of vicious coughing that faded to my partner panting weakly and Gracie silent as death. I grit my teeth together. There was nothing I could do about it. I knew he was hurt, but I had no way of finding out how bad.

Trying to shift the rubble had broken my left hand and showered us with dust, dirt and concrete shards. Susan couldn't crawl through the gaps that separated us, and Gracie wasn't going to fit. We'd been inches apart before the earth started shaking and now it felt like miles.

"Starsk?"

"I'm ok." My partner responded almost immediately, but his voice was strained.

"You should try to rest. Get some sleep."

Starsky sighed, the congestion in his lungs rattling loudly. "Can't sleep without a lullaby.."

A second later I heard a soft sniffle and Starsky quietly telling the older girl not to cry. "Listen, if you cry, you aren't going to be able to hear my partner sing. And he's the best singer I know."

There were more sniffles and I could feel Susan's hands tightening around my right arm, a nervous habit that she usually perpetrated against the armrests of her wheelchair. We'd watched her do it anytime she got excited about something around the station. She and her sister had been frequent guests of the precinct with their mother.

Etta. Strong, passionate, protective. Etta was trying to organize a one woman neighborhood watch while raising two daughters on her own. She had become a familiar face in the precinct and one that I hoped I would see again.

"That's right." Starsky said. "No tears. Open ears. You're on, partner."

"Let's see…" I stalled, moving my hand above my head again to drain the blood that was collecting. I shifted my legs and moved Susan, like moving a baby doll, so that she could snuggle against my chest. Fishing through a lexicon of songs that I infrequently used, and most of the time with a guitar in my hands, or a piano over my lap.

The moment Susan's head came to rest on my chest the lyrics and the tune filtered into my brain and I drew in a breath. "What song to sing, my tomorrow child."

One of Susan's hands rose up, fingers curling around the edge of my breast pocket, pulling herself and her dead legs a little closer to me. Her movements as natural as they would have been in the womb. "Still so small and new."

I wrapped my good arm a little tighter around her and sang, "What shall I say, to show the way."

I heard Starsky begin to cough again and listened intently even as I continued, "What games to play with you."

"The world turns quickly now, and changes every mile.

What shall I say to show the way,

Tomorrow child."

"I can't tell you what your life will be…" I felt Susan falling asleep, head growing heavier against my arm, her fingers going lax against my pocket. "Time will show you roads that I can't see."

Faintly I could hear Starsky humming along, slightly off key.

"And if they carry you away from me, then go with love-Tomorrow child."

Singing had increased the pressure in my head and I would have to move my hand again soon. The amount of air singing required was too much, but humming I could handle and I went back through the chorus, letting my eyes slip closed.

By the time I finished Susan's breathing was steady and deep. I caught my breath for a second then quietly called, "Starsk?"

"Yeah."

"She asleep?"

"Like a kitten. You did good, partner."

I gave him a second to catch his breath. To rest. Then asked, "How bad is it?"

I listened to him breathe for a minute, the sound echoing off of cold stone and lifeless concrete. He coughed weakly and cleared his throat then changed the subject. "How's your hand?"

I looked at it. The swelling was grotesque. I'd had to pull my ring off, over swelling fingers, to avoid losing circulation. It hurt more to look at the damage than to ignore it and I was suddenly in agreement with my partner.

"Gracie alright?"

"Her head stopped bleeding. Seems okay otherwise." He was silent for a moment then drew in a shaky breath and added. "Cold."

"Think you can get some sleep?"

The silence stretched between us and for a second I was struck with the feeling of utter and complete isolation. Like a man cresting a mountain that no one else could reach. The song I'd been singing echoed in my head, buzzing loud in my ears until Starsky spoke again.

"I'd love to, but…"

"We'll make it, Starsk. I promise."

Starsky

What Hutch didn't know. What I hadn't told him, and what Gracie thankfully wasn't able to see, was that there was more than just the weight of a beam pinning me to the floor. I couldn't tell if it was rebar, or a screw, a shard of glass or wood. Something had come down hard on my left side, breaking bone and skin, making it hard to breathe, and easy to bleed.

Whatever it was, was attached to the beam putting pressure on my hips and chest. I was now part of the building itself and I felt like a character in an old children's story that used to haunt me. Trapped, molded to the building and destined to slowly become a part of the architecture.

Our first attempts at digging ourselves out had ended disastrously. I'd been terrified I'd lost a partner twice in the same hour. The first time when I woke to see concrete inches from my nose, and the second time when the debris started to fall and I heard Susan screech.

We both knew the problem. If this had been an earthquake, then the damage would be citywide. Sure people would be out looking for us. For the girl's especially. But those same people had to get themselves out of danger first before they could worry about the rest of us.

If there had been a bomb, the other likely possibility in a police station, there would be higher priority cases. People who had been closer to the blast than us. Criminals that needed to be secured or the city would be even worse off than it already was.

What all of that translated into was time. Time to get engineers into position. Time to get ambulances and med techs and hospitals ready for the wounded. Time that a guy maybe didn't have if he was bleeding too much. That's why I couldn't sleep.

I was ready to mindlessly believe that Hutch was right, and that we were going to get out of it. But at the back of my mind I was remembering Terry. Terry who had chosen to live out her life, no matter how short it might be, rather than sleep through it just so that she could breathe a little longer.

I figured if these were my last hours. I wanted to live them, awake and kicking.

For that matter…

"We should try it again."

"Wha-No...no. You should rest. Save your strength. It's gonna be bad enough getting out wi-"

"Hutch...suppose we don't have that kinda time. Alright? I still have reports to finish, I got a date tonight, I gotta get my car waxed. Things to do. I'm tired of waitin' around."

Hutch started to argue, an inarticulate protest coming out of his mouth before he settled into thought. Then he asked the same question a second time. "How bad?"

The shallows breaths were working. Keeping the choking the tightness in my chest at bay, keeping what felt like a broken rib from moving around too much. It made it harder to talk though. And...the truth was I didn't know how bad. Not really. "Not sure." I said. "Bad."

Air went out of my partner's lungs like a pierced balloon, then cloth and chunks of concrete and metal started to move and I knew Hutch was working his way upright. "Ok." He said finally, his voice in a different position than it had been before. "Ok."

I listened to my partner for a long while, monitoring the sounds of shifting building materials, the intensity of the grunts, the rhythm of his breathing. He worked in almost complete silence, but in my mind's eye I could see him.

The stillness would mean that he was resting, eyeing the pick-up-sticks pile that used to be Precinct 9, unjumbling the jumble in his mind. Then the rubble at his feet would shift, concrete would scrape on concrete and, seconds later, land with a sharp slap or a tumble. Hutch would shift his footing, pause, then move something again.

The same rhythm had led to the first landslide, Susan's scream, Hutch crushing his hand. Knowing it was a possibility I couldn't just sit and listen for much longer. I was never one for patience. "How's your progress?"

"You're supposed to be sleeping."

"I can't sleep. You're makin' too much noise."

Hutch laughed then sucked air through clenched teeth and the movement of rubble stopped.

"Hutch?"

"I'm fine."

I waited until Hutch started excavating again then asked. "You wanna talk about it?"

"About what?"

"Etta."

Hutch started grunting again. Struggling against something. "You sure this is the time?"

"Maybe not…" I felt the cough coming and I swallowed hard against it, gritting my teeth together until the need and the pain passed. "...but you know I'm bored."

It took him a second to respond. When he did Hutch was out of breath. "Ok...what about her."

"You like her."

I got a chuckle that time, listened to a piece of metal bounce a few times and grinned. "You go gooey eyed anytime she's in the station. You always want to parade her kids around the halls. Here you are, saving their lives."

"She's a good woman."

"Of course she is. She's practically a saint."

"She's not a saint." Hutch said, uncharacteristically crass.

"What!?"

"She's a good mom. She loves her kids and her neighborhood and her...town...uh!" Something big came free, rubble trickled like rain water through the cracks and we both waited, holding our breaths until the building settled. Breathing hard, Hutch continued. "I'd rather she be that, than some stone statue on a pedestal."

"Yeah…"

"Know what I mean?"

"Yeah." A sharp spike of pain cut into me. I'd taken a deeper breath than I should have and the hurt made me want to curl up into a ball. I couldn't move suddenly. Couldn't think.

I didn't hear Hutch scramble over the rubble, didn't notice the brush of the breeze that hadn't been flowing before. I didn't even notice Hutch's hand snaking through into my prison, didn't notice my hand latching on. I only knew he was there when the pain finally passed and I could see his white knuckles through the gaps between my fingers.

"Easy. Take it easy. Breathe, Starsk. Easy."

"F-find...a way out?"

"For Gracie."

"What?"

"Get her up, Starsk. If I can get her over here, she can climb up through, get a look at the damage. Maybe let somebody know we're down here."

Hutch

Starsky's grip had been stronger than I thought possible. The knuckles of my good hand were grinding together and for a while I was sure he couldn't hear me. Too lost in whatever the pain was doing to him. I was afraid he'd pass out, stop breathing, stop being, before I had a chance to put my new plan into action.

Getting Gracie up, building an entryway that she could slip through, reuniting her with her sister then convincing her to climb up through the mole hole I'd made needed to happen faster than was likely. There wasn't time to be gentle anymore, yet too much movement, too much force could end us all.

Still between the two of us we managed. Once she knew that she could see her sister if she was willing to be brave, Gracie crawled through the hole willingly. She gained a couple of new scratches, but was ignorant of them, rushing to hug Susan.

We ran into a snag when I coached Gracie through the climb though. She didn't want to do it alone, started shaking, and went white. Susan surprised both of us when she piped up.

"I'll go with you, Gracie. Like a monkey. Like when we climb our tree." She said.

I wish Starsky could have seen them, the look of reassurance that passed silently, transforming Susan into a girl beyond her age, and Gracie into a hero beyond her time.

With Susan's strong arms wrapped around her neck, Gracie took to the climb like a mountain goat. I coached from below, following them up as far as I could without compromising the integrity of the debris. They amazed me, moving in total harmony until they had disappeared into the bright sunlight at the top.

Minutes after they disappeared they started shouting, bringing as much attention to themselves as they could, just the way I'd told them.

"They make it out?"

I listened to Starsky choking weakly on air and said, "Yeah. They made it."

I crossed the minefield of shifting junk and carefully got to my belly in front of the hole that Gracie had escaped through. I reached into the blackness until I found the sleeve of my partner's jacket and squeezed his arm. His hand closed around the back of my wrist and I felt his grip firm up.

"Shame we had to grow up." Starsk said, exhausted.

"Yeah. It'd be nice to be five again. Fearless…"

"Able to fit through tiny holes. Have somebody else there to...protect ya, pay the bills. Tuck you into bed at night."

"What am I, chopped liver?"

There was a pause. While we rested I could feel Starsk's pulse through the vein in his wrist. Rapid, but there.

"You're not bad, Hutch but...when it comes to tucking in at night I prefer someone with...softer legs, kinder eyes, less facial hair."

"You want me to shave more, I'll shave more."

A few breathless gasps sufficed for laughter and Starsky's grip tightened. "Don't. Like you...hairy." Starsky swallowed, collecting himself, then added. "S'how I can tell the difference between you and the women you date."

"Funny guy…"

Above us we could still hear the girls. They were farther away, defying my express instructions to stay put once they made it up top. There might have been other voices joining them. If I strained I could place one of them as Captain Dobey. Another as the fire chief. Maybe even Huggy.

"I'm ready t'go home." Starsky sighed, slurring worse than before.

"Well...you won't mind if I stop by the hospital first, would ya?"

Starsky's hand jerked away, then latched onto my wrist again. "Why...something wrong with ya?"

"Oh...no, course not. There's just a very attractive nurse I think you should meet before you write off all my girlfriends as hairless men."

"That's a smart idea."

"Thank you."

"You should start dating a whole surgical team. It'd save us a lotta bucks on medical bills."

"Hah!" I laughed. "By that right you should be dating a car mechanic."

"Earl's not my type."

Starsky's fingers dug into the tendons of my wrist and he went quiet. I held on tight, wishing I could take the pain from him.

"We're gonna make it, Starsk."

The pain passed, Starsky relaxed a little and panted, "You know...this time I believe ya."

I smiled, tuned to every sound he made, so focused on keeping him alive by will alone that I nearly missed the first shout of our rescue.

"Starsky! Hutchinson! You guys alive down there?"

"Are we...alive down here?"

"You bet we are, partner."