Fixation (Based on the episode The Fix)
by TLR
Plot: What if Starsky is the one dating Jeanie?
(Some scenes and dialogue used from the episode)
Also references the episode Gillian.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Prologue:
Jeanie's apartment. Day.
She didn't like it that he thought he could just barge in any time he wanted, but that's what he was doing. Again.
"Hi, doll," Ben said as he swept her into one arm and gave her a possessive kiss. "How'd it go last night?'
She stiffened a little self-consciously. Why didn't he get that she didn't want his touch anymore?
"What do you mean?"
"Don't play dumb, chicken. You got my money?"
"Ben, I told you I'm through with that. I thought that's why you brought me here from Vegas."
He took her face in one hand. "And I told you you're through when I say you're through. Now where's the money you made last night. I want it."
"I... don't have any. I swear. I didn't work the street last night. I'm waitressing now. I want out. I thought you were going to help me."
He took her arm and squeezed. "Five hundred dollars a night you bring! I own you! And don't you forget it! Stop trying to be something you're not! And if you want to see another sunrise, you get your ass out there and do what you do best!"
"I... "
She knew when to shut her mouth. If she said anything, anything at all about her new cop boyfriend, he would probably kill them both in their sleep.
She wanted to say "You aren't a man, Ben. Not like the one I have now. He's a real man. Integrity. Heart. Compassion." But she couldn't say those words.
"Tomorrow," he said going for the door and opening it. "I'll come by tomorrow and pick up the $500 you will make tonight, and if you don't have it... " He let the threat hang in the air, then left.
When she was sure he was gone, she ran to her phone and called her cop boyfriend, who said, "Stay put. I'm on my way."
::
Seaview Point.
Night.
His arm still around Jeanie, Starsky gave one last glance around the neighborhood before unlocking the front door to the beach house he'd rented and escorting her inside.
"Are you sure it's safe?" she asked looking around and holding her arms as if chilled.
After closing and locking the door, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. "You'll be safe here. I promise."
"But Ben is-"
"I know who he is and what he is. I've dealt with guys like him before. Now just, try to relax, huh?"
She smiled a bit nervously. Keeping his arm around her, he turned the glare of the overhead light out in favor of the softer glow of an amber lamp, then gave her the grand tour of the tastefully decorated place; different from the eclectic, youthful environs of his apartment, where she'd been hiding out the past week.
She turned into his arms again.
"I'm scared, Dave."
"I know. But he won't find you here. Me and Hutch'll have him behind bars in no time. Then you can breathe easy."
"You haven't told Hutch?"
"Not everything."
And that's good, she thought. Because I haven't told you everything either. I will, though. When the time is right. I'll tell you everything, even if it means I lose you.
She looked up at him and nodded. He took her hand and ushered her through another doorway.
"This is the bedroom," he said, and led her to the bed. "You have a chance at somethin' better. We have a chance at a future together. No more showgirl stuff in Vegas. And I won't let Ben or anyone else take that away from us. I know the score. But I won't let anything happen to you."
Maybe he knew the score. He was razor-sharp. But he didn't know there was more to being a Vegas showgirl. And what would he say or do if he found out? She looked around, seeming to relax, then with a smile, sat down on the bed. "Comfy," she said patting the inviting mattress. "I like this place."
He sat down next to her and they began to undress each other, kissing, holding each other close.
"You're right," she whispered into his ear as they lay back on the bed. "I feel safe here. I trust you."
::
Next day.
Captain Dobey insisted that his two ambitious detectives stay in the squad room and finish reports all day.
All day.
Which was frustrating for two cops who preferred chasing down criminals and booking them. But they had come to accept that paperwork was part of the job. As Dobey was fond of saying, "If the paperwork isn't in order, a criminal could walk free."
Tedious but true.
Starsky sat the cuffed, well-dressed suspect down in a chair. "Come on, fancy pants, tell me a story."
The phone rang on their shared desk, and Starsky answered.
Captain Dobey approached with a file. "Starsky? You forgot-"
But Starsky was busy talking on the phone.
Dobey scowled at him.
Hutch held out his hand. "What is it, Captain?"
"Your partner signed this without putting the time in there."
Hutch took the report. "It's love, Captain. Pinches the capillaries. Memory goes first. I'll fill it in."
Dobey waited impatiently.
"There you go," Hutch smiled as he handed back the dated form to Dobey.
"Thank you."
Report in hand, Dobey threw Starsky a curious, almost nosey look, then returned to his office. Starsky replaced the receiver, then stood up with a smile.
"Gotta go. See you slaves in a few days."
"Hey, partner," Hutch said digging into his pants pocket and tossing him a quarter. "Buy a candy bar. Instant energy. You're going to need it, pal."
Starsky tossed the quarter up and caught it again, then headed for the door, Hutch's eyes following him.
"Love," the blond said to the cuffed, well-dressed suspect when Starsky disappeared from his sight. "It's going to put me in the poorhouse."
::
Starsky's short-term plan was simple. Pick up some clothes from his apartment, and head for the beach house to spend the weekend with Jeanie, help her get settled in and feeling safe, then get to work on reeling in Ben Forest and his associates.
A nagging feeling inside told him he should have clued Hutch in about Seaview Point, but he didn't want to put Hutch in Ben's crosshairs, and he didn't want to put Jeanie at further risk.
If the plan worked, Ben would be behind bars quickly, where he belonged, be it Vegas or be it Bay City, and Jeanie wouldn't have to live a life looking over her shoulder. She could start a new chapter, hopefully with him. Fleeing an abusive gangster boyfriend was easier when you had a cop helping you.
As he opened the door to his apartment and stepped in, he realized how tired he was. He and Hutch had been so busy lately that the reports were put on the back burner (not that they were ever on the front), and they were losing sleep. Jeanie was another iron in the fire.
All he wanted to do now was grab some clothes and fall asleep in Jeanie's arms, then rest up for the weekend, maybe on Monday morning talk to Hutch about launching a plan to bring Ben Forest in.
But that didn't happen.
As soon as he moved inside and stripped off his jacket, shoulder holster, and shirt, he was grabbed by two men and slammed face-first into the wall, where he dropped face-down, silent.
The two men pulled his wrists behind his back and cuffed him.
"Take him out," a third man named Monk said as he opened the door. "I'll follow you."
::
Ben Forest's estate. Guestroom.
He was blindfolded at first, still handcuffed and held upright by one of the men while being punched by the other, while Monk was talking to him.
"Where is she, Starsky?"
The words "I'm Hutch" came from him as his knees threatened to buckle. "What you talkin' about?"
"Don't be stupid. She's only a broad. You tell us where she is, you'll wake up in your own bed tomorrow morning, like nothing happened."
"Huh?"
Monk looked at the other two and said, "Do it to him," then left the room and joined mobster Ben Forest in the living room.
Ben, who wore his tailored suit well, stood gazing out the window with his back to Monk, turned around to look at him with cobra eyes that missed nothing. "How's it going?"
"Well, nobody saw us take him. We've got his car outside in the garage, but he's not going to tell us anything."
Ben looked perplexed. "Why, just because he's a cop, he's different? He's going to tell us where she is."
Forest strode into the bedroom where Starsky was being worked over, Monk following behind like a lapdog.
"Cop," Ben addressed as he grabbed Starsky's groin and squeezed cruelly hard. "Think you got somethin' I ain't got?"
Starsky's knees gave way as he fought pain and his gag reflex.
Forest stepped back to observe.
"Ben," Monk said, "why don't... why don't you just forget it? You can get any dame you want."
Forest looked puzzled by the fact that Monk wasn't getting it. "Jeanie is special, Monk. She belongs to me."
"Look. He doesn't know anything. Now, why don't we just dump him and forget it?"
"No, we don't dump him, we don't forget it." A pause. "We juice him."
Ben handed him a small cache of heroin and fixings.
His righthand man looked at the contents. "O.D.?"
"Monk, how come you're always wrong? We don't overdose him. We string him out. We get him hung up on horse. Pretty soon he's going to beg us to tell us where she is."
Monk considered, "That's going to take a while."
"So? It takes time. There's plenty more where that stuff came from. Go on. Get started."
And with that, Ben Forest left the room.
::
Hutch entered his cottage, and slipped off his jacket and gun holster. After tossing his jacket on the bed and putting his gun in the closet, he went to the phone, picked up the receiver, and dialed a number.
After three rings, a female voice answered with, "Hello?"
"Paige Westerfield, how are you?"
"Ken? Hi, how are you?"
"Great, thanks. Calling to see if you're free for the weekend. Starsky has his own plans and, well..."
"You're kinda lonely."
"Something like that."
"I'll be right there."
::
Starsky was now slumped forward in their chair, fighting to stay conscious, fighting to plow headfirst through them until one wrapped an arm around his throat to hold him back while Monk administered the first injection. His cuffed wrists fought fruitlessly behind him, but as the heroin ran through his veins, his struggle diminished, until they let him slip bonelessly from the chair and onto his side on the floor.
"We'll be back with more," Monk assured him as he stepped over him and they went out.
Handcuffed behind his back and helpless, his mind was on only two people, Hutch and Jeanie, but after a few moments, even they dissolved into a spiral of pleasurable oblivion.
::
Monday morning.
When Captain Dobey noticed Hutch passing by his office door nibbling peanuts from a packet, he summoned, "Hutch?"
"Morning, Captain."
"Get in here!"
Hutch obeyed.
"It's the middle of the afternoon," Dobey said. "Where's that partner of yours?"
"He had days off."
"His days off ended this morning. Now suppose you stop covering for him, get your tail on the horn and tell him I said get his rear end in here."
"Well, actually, Captain, he's uh... sick."
"He didn't report in sick."
"Well, you know how it is. He's in love."
"What you mean is he's shacked up."
"Well, she is a pretty girl."
"You tell him I want him in here in one hour, and ready for duty. You tell him that."
"Yes, sir. But there's only one problem."
"What's that?"
"I don't know where he is."
"Well, I suggest you find out before I have you both on traffic tomorrow morning."
"Aye, aye, Captain. Sir."
::
When Ben and his footmen entered the dark guestroom with flashlights, Starsky was still on the floor, but now tried to roll under the bed away from them, but he didn't fit into the narrow space.
When they reached down to prick his arm for the umpteenth time, his protest was only in his mind. The cravings were growing, getting stronger by the hour, and he had no resistance left.
"Lousy weirdos. This what you wanted? Give me a shot."
"We will," Forest smiled. "As soon as you tell me where Jeanie is."
Starsky rolled his head no on the floor. "Give me a shot, and we'll make a deal."
"About Jeanie?"
"About your conviction, wiseguy."
Ben laughed and looked at his men. "Hear that? He calls me a wiseguy." Smile gone, he kicked Starsky viciously in the chest, which brought a cry of pain, then nodded for Monk and the others to leave. "Let's go. He'll tell us when he's banging his head on the floor."
As the door opened on their departure and light glared into the shadowed room, Starsky looked up at them as they made their exit.
"Wait. Hold up. Come back here. I need... hey. Hey! Don't leave me here like this!"
The need for a fix was so strong, he didn't care that he was begging. He just had to have it.
He tried to inch toward them. "Ben... wait up. Hold it."
Ben came back in a cold fury, jerking Starsky up by the front of the shirt and shoving him onto the bed, planting a knee across his thighs and grabbing his crotch. "How about a jerk-off? Takes the edge off."
"Get lost."
"Where, cop? Where is she?"
The grinding need made Starsky cringe inside, but not from shame. Shame would come later. Right now the only thing that filled his mind was the gnawing need.
When Ben made as if to get off the bed again and leave, Starsky rolled toward him, almost falling out of the bed, eyes begging.
"Seaview," he mumbled. "Okay? Seaview Point."
::
Hutch stood drinking a beer as he watched Huggy play his own pinball machine in Huggy's bar and grill.
"No," Huggy said, wrapped up in the game. "I haven't seen him. What's the problem?"
"He was due back on duty this morning. He didn't show. I figured he was just
stretching his time off."
"Yeah, you know Starsky. Must be some foxy lady."
"Yeah. Well, I checked her apartment, and she isn't there either."
"Checked whose apartment?"
"Jeanie Walden. You know her."
"Do I know her? Starsky brings her in here like the dark prince saving the princess of the night."
"Translation please."
Huggy stopped playing and stood up straight, looking a little confused. "Jeanie's a working girl. Starsky don't know that?"
Now it was Hutch's turn to look a little confused. "No. I'm sure of that. He'd have told me, and... "
Huggy could fill in the blank: Starsky wouldn't knowingly date a lady of the night, no matter how beautiful or in need of rescue she was.
Huggy gave him an apologetic look, then returned to his game with, "I put her on. She was good too. Then one night they split in a hurry, like they seen a ghost or somethin'. Pretty uptight that night."
Hutch sifted the words, then handed Huggy his empty beer mug.
"Thanks, Hug. If you see either one of them, tell them to call me pronto."
"I dig."
::
Night.
Taking his keyring from his pocket, Hutch approached Starsky's apartment and found the spare key to Starsky's front door. He hadn't been able to raise him by phone. Now a growing sensation of dread began to pool in his stomach.
He stepped inside.
Too quiet.
He looked around. No note. Nothing out of place. A small trail of scattered clothing where he and Jeanie must have undressed who knows when. But a look at one wall drew his eyes like a magnet.
A smear of blood that was congealed, relatively fresh considering blood wasn't a typical thing to find on any of Starsky's walls.
Starsky's blood? Jeanie's?
Hutch's eyes traveled over to a chair, where he saw a duffel bag open and a few toiletries inside and a couple of changes of clothes, as if Starsky had been planning on going somewhere.
With Jeanie? Where to?
Then a look on the coffee table froze his breath. Starsky's holstered gun and windbreaker, plus a receipt for a rental house at Seaview Point, a private beach.
Hutch hurried out, locking the door and running down to the LTD.
::
Same night.
Monk and his aides pushed a beaten and craving Starsky into the backseat of Monk's car.
"He ain't even gonna know what hit him," one of them said. "Even when he hits the water."
The third man got in the back seat with Starsky and tapped Monk on the shoulder. "Drive."
As Monk drove, he said, "We'll dump him off the Point. Current ought to carry that body out about 200 miles."
"By then he oughta be shark's bait."
::
Reaching the beach house, Hutch parked one house away from it and quietly exited his car, scurrying down the bluff in the moonlight and drawing his gun as he made his way to, first the front window, where he could see nothing for the drawn heavy blinds, and then the front door, where he listened first, and heard Jeanie's voice inside.
"Jeanie?" he asked knocking. "It's Hutch. Let me in."
The door opened, and the phone receiver was still in her hand.
"How'd you find me?" she asked as he moved past her and looked around, putting his gun away inside his jacket. "I was trying to call Dave at his place, but he doesn't answer."
He abruptly took the receiver from her hand and hung up, then turned her around so he could see her. "Talk to me."
"I think my ex has hurt him or killed him."
An odd combination of pain and disbelief flickered in his eyes, then he quickly blinked it away in order to focus.
"Who's your ex?"
"Ben. Ben Forest. He runs some things in Vegas. A few casinos. Drugs. Some girls. I... I'm one of them. Dave is helping me get free of him, but he... "
"He doesn't know about the prostitution, does he?"
She moved her head no.
"I was going to tell him, Hutch. I just didn't know how."
"Where?" Hutch asked. "Where is Starsky? Where did Forest take him?"
"He has an estate. "
Hutch shushed her with a finger to his mouth.
"Sshh. Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
He drew his gun again.
::
When they reached Seaview Point, Monk parked the car on the cliff overlooking the ocean that churned directly below them, and got out, as did his two assistants.
"Got a full moon tonight," Monk remarked offhandedly.
They reached in to pull Starsky out-"Come on, shark bait"-but when they did, he headbutted the closest to him in the stomach and staggered away, where he mostly fell rather than ran down the side of the bluff toward the beach house he'd rented for Jeanie.
Monk fired at him and missed, and so did his two helpers, but stopped when headlights approached and Ben Forest got out of his car. Ben saw that Starsky was making his getaway.
"Monk!" Ben shouted as he pulled his own gun and headed in Starsky's direction to get a better shot. "I told you to take him out!"
::
The sound of multiple car doors slamming shut in the distance made Hutch shove Jeanie into the bedroom.
"Hide. And don't come out until I tell you to."
She did as he said, while he went to the door and threw it open, shocked and mortified at the partner who spun sand tripping headlong into him, but fixing on the four men chasing him down to kill him.
Hutch caught Starsky with one arm and held onto him while shooting the four men firing at them, dropping each one with precision aim as if they were in a shooting gallery.
He then rushed to the phone and dialed Dobey, panting into the receiver.
"Captain. Hutch. I got a mess here at Seaview Point. Self-defense. Ben Forest and his three men. Jeanie and Starsky are here. She's safe. Starsky's... in bad shape, but he'll be all... I have to go."
Hutch hung up and hurried to Starsky, who was curling up into himself just inside the door, heaving and moaning into the floor, rocking himself to ease the pain.
Hutch's voice too was a gasp as he said "Starsk", and knelt next to him, taking his handcuff key and unlocking Starsky's wrists, which caused his numb, aching arms to fall heavily to the floor. They were basically out of commission.
"Hey," Hutch whispered as he took Starsky's arms and examined them.
Starsky looked more like a snared animal than his partner.
"Starsk, hey," he said hefting Starsky into his arms and standing up with him. "It's okay, partner. They're gone. It's just us. Jeanie's here too."
A low moan began in Starsky's throat as Hutch carried him into the bedroom and carefully deposited him on top of the bedspread, then wrapped him up in it and continued to hold him close. Starsky was now sweating, chilling, trying to move away.
Hutch murmured "No, no, Starsk. Right here. Stay right here."
That's when Jeanie came from the closet, her hiding place, a look of dazed horror on her face.
"Dave?" she said walking closer to them. "Oh my God. I'm sorry."
"Help me," Starsky gasped as he tried to cling to Hutch's shirt. "Help me out. Get... get me somethin'."
Hutch looked at Jeanie. "Can you make some coffee? And find some chocolate?"
At first she stood as still and posed as a life-size Barbie doll, then turned and went to the kitchen.
"Jeanie," Starsky whispered to Hutch.
"She's okay. Ben didn't hurt her. Just keep listening to my voice."
::
A short time later a knock came at the door, accompanied by the voice of Captain Dobey and the handpicked officers working the four-body crime scene behind him, who came in and joined them in the bedroom.
"Hutch," Dobey said. "They're taking the bodies away, they..." The sight of Starsky's withdrawal halted him in the doorway.
Hutch looked at their captain with eyes that reflected the torture of his partner, leaving Harold to question which one was hurting the most. "They pumped him full of heroin, Cap. And... somehow he got away."
"Suh... sorry, Cap'n," Starsky gasped. "I'm sorry, I... jus... just need somethin'... a little... take the edge off... "
Dobey took a step toward them, an impulsive, almost paternal gesture, but Hutch moved his head no and motioned with his head for the captain to leave please.
Which he did. Then Hutch bundled Starsky closer against him. "It's okay. Hey. It's okay."
::
Sometime later, while Hutch was on the phone with Huggy, Starsky tumbled out of bed and headed for the door.
"Stuff," he mumbled. "Just want some stuff."
Hutch dropped the receiver and hurried after him, enveloping him in a loving bearhug from behind.
"Hey. Starsk. No. No way. Come on. Back we go. Let's sit down. Game of cards or something, okay?"
Starsky strained against his arms, reaching for the door. "A little. Just... a little."
"No, come on. Coffee. Chocolate. It's over here, come on."
The sounds of the ocean outside were a counterpoint to the tension inside his partner.
"Listen to the waves, Starsk. Fight through it."
When he felt Starsky weaken a little, Hutch turned him around and took his head in his hands, gazing into his troubled eyes. "You can do it, Starsk. Trust me. Believe me. You can."
Starsky's weak arms came up, grasping Hutch like a drowning man.
Hutch moved him to a chair and sat him down, then reached for a sponge floating in a pan of water, then dabbed his friend's face. "Proud of you, Starsk. Don't quit."
Starsky slumped against him and clung to his sleeve, no attempt to hide his vulnerability.
Hutch gave him a drink of water to keep him hydrated.
"That's it."
Hutch helped him back to bed, then opened a window for the breeze and rhythmic sound of the ocean.
Helping Starsky through this was their darkest challenge yet, but he was sure they'd come through on the other side in one piece.
::
Three days later.
Hutch was reading the paper at the kitchen counter while Starsky was coming from the shower.
Over the top of the newspaper, Hutch kept a watchful, evaluating eye as his partner dressed and moved past him to make a cup of coffee and a piece of toast with a trembling hand.
"Where's Jeanie?" Starsky asked without looking his way.
Hutch put the paper down and walked up behind him.
"She uh... I think she's leaving. Starsk... there's something you should know... "
The way Hutch said the words, the tone of his voice, made Starsky turn around and look at him.
"Hm? What is it."
"Jeanie. She... wasn't just Forest's girlfriend. She worked for him."
Confusion and a little anger clouded his dark blue eyes. "Hutch... the only girls that work for Forest are... "
"She was going to tell you."
Starsky sank a little, then he reached for Hutch, and Hutch held him again.
::
When she returned from the convenience store a short time later with a bag of groceries, Hutch met her at the door.
"He's in the kitchen, Jeanie. I think you should leave."
"But I just got here."
"No, I mean. Leave. For good. He knows."
She searched his face. "You told him?"
"I had to."
"I told you I was going to."
"He had to know."
She looked toward the kitchen, where Starsky was standing at the sink looking through a window at the ocean.
"I guess I knew," she said to Hutch quietly. "Deep down. That it wouldn't last."
"He loves you. But that love is built on secrets and lies. You know that, don't you?"
"He can never trust me again. He deserves better."
Hutch nodded and watched her carry the bag of groceries into the kitchen and set it on the table.
"Dave?"
Starsky didn't turn from the window.
Hutch began to walk around tidying up the living room, keeping a watchful ear and eye out.
"Dave," she said again.
This time Starsky turned to look at her, then lowered his head and glanced away.
She stepped up to him, her hand cupping his cheek. "Look what happened to you because of me."
He wanted to be strong and hold his tears back, but withdrawal had weakened his will and brought all of his emotions to the surface.
His voice was close to a whisper. "Don't blame yourself. It's just... me."
"Dave... "
"You don't have to leave. I just can't... give you what you want. I'm sorry. We can still be friends... "
She slowly moved her head no. "No, Dave. If we're going to end it, we're going to end it. I'll go back to Vegas."
He slowly nodded.
"And," she said, "you won't come looking for me, either, will you?"
"No," he said softly, finally raising his eyes to her. "I won't do that."
::
He helped her pack her things in silence, and called a taxi for her, then he and Hutch told her goodbye outside.
When the cab drove out of sight, Starsky looked around Seaview Point, his eyes finally landing on the ocean again.
"All feels like a dream, Hutch."
Hutch put a hand on his shoulder. "You all right?"
Starsky looked at him and said with all sincerity, "Yeah."
Hutch smiled, hoping to lighten the mood. "You want to drive my car?"
Starsky took the cue and smiled back. "Hell no."
the end