Author's Note:

I'd like to thank my friends Sandy, Paula, Kathy, Fer, Tammy and Kristy for their encouragement.. if it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't be writing at all!

Thank you so much Michele: in you I've found an indispensable help, but above all a very special friend

Starsky pulled over. He was quiet and his gaze was lowered on the wheel. Hutch watched him with a questioning expression: after almost 24 hours of driving around and trying to track down the A-Team, he was tired and unnerved by the whole reason why they were doing it. He wasn't used to chasing outlaws without being sure to send them directly to jail… he felt uncomfortable in this undefined position his partner put him in.

"What's wrong partner?"

Starsky didn't say a word and kept watching his own hands.

" Starsk, I'm talking with you! You have spent the last day looking frantically for those people and now that we are so close, you decide to give up? Make up your mind, buddy… I'm starting to have a hard time following you..."

"You don't have to, Hutch."

"I don't… what?" His tone was now exasperated.

" You can take a cab from here or I can take you to the next black and white and I'm sure they can give you a lift to the department. We can say I had a glitch and... No, I'll take you to the department myself, ok? Then I'll come back…"

"Cut it out Starsky!" Hutch was now really enraged and he stormed out of the car, almost running to the driver's side door and opening it with more fury he had expected.

Starsky knew there was no more chance to avoid his partner's urgency to make things clear. He got out of the Torino with the resigned obedience of a man who had just been sentenced to death. "Hutch, don't get mad…. I don't want to induce you to do anything you don't really want. That's not the way we work…"

"The way we work partner? This is not the way we ARE. What about the 'me and thee', huh? I'm trying to run after you and you won't let me reach you, how can I help you if you don't…"

"I'm just trying to protect you, Hutch!"

"Protect me? You are trying to protect yourself, partner! And you think that by locking me out you are defending yourself. I took a step back to give you space… but I won't let you push me away again."

Hutch noticed the harsh tone of his own voice, knowing it was due to his sense of helplessness and not to his rage as it seemed. So he tried to approach his partner, who was leaning against a big tree a little far from the road side, and went on more gently, "Starsk… you are chasing ghosts."

"Then let me do it by myself!" Starsky snapped without meeting his partner's staring eyes.

"Ah, come on… don't pretend you don't feel and you don't care, buddy… you can fool anyone but me!" Hutch answered. He moved a few steps towards Starsky, reaching out for his arm in a friendly attempt to eliminate the physical and emotional distance between the two. He couldn't expect Starsky's reaction at this simple gesture: he moved his arm abruptly against Hutch's touch, rejecting it and causing his friend to lose his balance and move a couple of steps back to steady himself. He stumbled back against the tree which provided the shelter for this private conversation. Hutch almost fell to the ground, his eyes still concentrated on his partner, who seemed suddenly unfamiliar to him, like a stranger on the street.

"I feel Hutch ok?" bellowed Starsky with a mixture of pain and rage in his wet eyes, "I feel even if I don't want to… and you know what? It sucks!"

"Starsk, you can push me away, you can throw me to the ground, you can punch me in the face, but I will always come back." I am in love with this man! Love how he's gonna stick by Starsk no matter what.

At these words Starsky froze, immobile like a stone in the middle of a violent stream. Hutch knew that the button was now pushed. The question was what would come later.

"They didn't…" were the only whispered words he received as an answer, while Starsky crouched, his eyes still staring into nowhere.

Hutch didn't say a word, he just scooted a little closer… without talking, without touching.

"We were surrounded. We thought we were safe in Hang Gai, but God knows we were wrong. The Vietcong were all over…they were waiting for us and they waited and waited, in silence, till the night arrived. And then… they jumped out from nowhere and started shooting. And we fought…we fought with all of our might. We fought. We fought for hours, deaf to the shooting and blind in the darkness. Maybe we were aiming to one another and we didn't even know."

Hutch's heart was hurting now and he couldn't breath without feeling a sudden lump in his throat.

"We won… we won. We resisted. We did.. We won.." Starsky repeated as if he was in a mental loop. Hutch tried to reach out now, to break this heartbreaking memory, but before he touched his partner's knee, Starsky went on talking and Hutch pulled his hand back and waited in silence.

"Many of us died… we hadn't noticed how many since the sun came out and we saw the slaughter all around. Some of us were wounded. Severely wounded. They cried but we couldn't hear their screams because our ears were still useless." Starsky touched his own thigh with one hand and added "I was shot too. Nothing too serious..."

At this point Hutch remembered the unknown scar he saw so many times on his friend's familiar body and he bit his tongue for having asked so superficially what had caused it. He had never got an answer, till now.

"I could have gone back with the others but I wasn't so fast with my injured leg, so I decided to stay, in this way I wouldn't have slowed them down. In the meanwhile I could take care of the others, who were lying there in pain and unable to defend themselves."

Hutch couldn't help thinking that this was so much like his partner: he was the kind of man you would have always wanted next to you in the middle of hell.

"They promised they would have come back. 'Hold on just one day, Lieutenant', they told me."

It was strange for Hutch to consider his partner, Sergeant David Starsky – Detective First Class, in his military rank. His friend had rarely mentioned it before.

Starsky went on talking, as if he was in a sort of hypnotic state: "They didn't come back. Not in a day, not in two, not even in a week. They didn't come back at all."

Hutch suddenly understood why his own words reached Starsky so deeply. "I will always come back" was everything he needed to hear. "Oh God, Starsk." This time Hutch's hand was laid on his partner's shoulder and the touch was firm and steady.

Finally, Starsky turned towards his friend and stared into his wet eyes, full of compassion and understanding, and he cried, "All of the men who were with me died, Hutch. One after the other. I was there to protect them but I couldn't… I saw them all dying." Starsky was now sobbing and Hutch held his shoulders tightly with both hands. His partner's words didn't seem to stop now that the emotional door was open: "Everyone wants to talk about soldiers who died in a final flag salute, crying out 'Semper Fidelis!' but it's not true, Hutch. They were all proud and courageous men but how much pain do they think a man can take? We all die the same way: crying, vomiting, calling our moms and praying God to take us away! But this is something people don't want to hear, right?"

"This is something everybody should hear Starsk… Any country should know how its men are dying if it wants to be worth their lives." Hutch held his shivering friend in a tight hug, determined to show him he wouldn't have let him go.

After a few minutes, Hutch felt his friend's sobbing body relaxing a little and he slowly loosened his grip, noticing for the first time that his own cheeks were as wet as his partner's. "I will always come back Starsk. Always."

For the first time in at least a day, Starsky smiled a little and his eyes, sparkling in tears, were now as close to Hutch as his own heart.

Some steps were now approaching, strong and quick, as a fierce trotting horse.

The two men were suddenly startled and they tried to stand up quickly, even if their knees didn't want to respond immediately. They focused on a man taking long steps towards the road and maybe even heading to the Torino. They were now a little way from the road side, where Starsky's car was parked, because they involuntarily had moved to a quiet place to talk.

The man was now doubtlessly trying to open the Torino, without apparently noticing it was a police car.

Hutch, immediately snapped back to reality and shouted: "Hold on, police!" but, while he was trying to pull out his Magnum to stop the robber, he saw a gun aimed at him in a heartbeat.

"Ok, ok , take it easy, huh?" Hutch added in a soothing tone.

"I apologize for my rudeness, Officer, but I need a car right now. You can have it back, after my friend is safe" the white haired man added.

"Colonel Smith" Starsky called from behind. "Colonel…" Starsky walked slowly towards Hannibal, without even trying to take his own gun. His voice assumed that he had recognized the older man and it made Hannibal hesitate before stopping him.

"Colonel I don't mind what happened in Hanoi … The only thing I know and I care about right now is that I owe you a big one and I am a man of honor too. I want to pay for my debts."

Hannibal stared intensely at the curly man but couldn't recognize him, so he kept his gun pointed at Hutch, which Starsky actually didn't like one bit. "I want to help you and I will… you can have my car if you want it, but take your gun away from my partner, ok?"

Hannibal lowered it and asked: "I don't have time for riddles right now, man…. If you wanna tell me..."

"Lieutenant Dave Starsky, Colonel. I was the man you found in Hang Gai, the only one who survived in…." his voice trailed off but he kept his composure; he wasn't talking to his buddy now, he was talking as a soldier. "You and your Unit were heading to a small town near Hanoi but you diverted from your mission to take me to the field hospital. You ordered so. Your Sergeant carried me on his shoulders, your Lieutenant gave me his water and food and your pilot took me there. You can't remember it, Sir, but I will. Your Unit was already famous over there, always engaged in dangerous missions… but you stopped for me that day. You told me that just one life is enough of a reason to fight for and to die for. That's why I became a cop after I came back, Sir."

Hannibal put his gun away and walked towards Starsky. "Seems I made the right choice that day, son. And so did you. If we protect one man and that person helps other people… we haven't saved just one life but a whole nation."

Hutch had put his gun away too, and now he genuinely smiled at the man who had allowed his partner to be still alive, here with him. He watched the man who was haunted by the system but still believed in a way to make it work with a new-found respect.

"I want to help you, Sir." Starsky stated.

"You don't owe us anything Lieutenant. We never take scores."

"Sergeant now, Sir. Detective Sergeant Starsky.

"So let's put it this way. I want to save one life, as you did. Your friend's life."

Hannibal came closer and put one black-gloved hand on Starsky's shoulder: "Thank you Detective."

Hutch reached out his hand to shake the Colonel's. "Ken Hutchinson. I've never been a soldier but I'd fight any day with a man like you".