Love Hurts

I have never before left a story unfinished, but I came close with this one. Real life decided to get in my way, and I want to apologize to everyone who was reading this story and that I left hanging. My deepest apologies to all of you, please forgive me. I will do my best to have the rest in a couple days and finish this story, thank you all so much for your understanding and patience.

Disclaimer: This is done strictly for fun and not for profit, although tips are greatly appreciated.

Author’s Note: Thanks to my friends in the fandom, especially my muse Brook, and my writing sisters Janet, and Shawne, it is only a matter of time before our family begins to grow. Love you guys! This one is for you, and by the way, special thanks to Janet for letting me write this one and naming it for me.

This chapter wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for Kirsty Welch who wrote most of it for me, thanks for your help sissy!

Chapter Sixteen

The Nordic shook his head, trying to clear his mind, and focus on the situation. He heard steps and felt a blow to his side, briefly knocking the wind out of him as he caught himself from falling over. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Ellen pull back her leg to take another strike at him. He quickly turned and grabbed her calf in his large hand, jerking it sharply, knocking her off balance causing her to drop to the floor with a satisfying thud.

Hutch twisted his body so that he could move towards her, his large torso hovering over her much smaller frame, his gun still his right hand, pressed firmly against the ground. Taking his left forearm and laying it forcefully against her chest, he pinned her to the ground, her large frightened eyes staring up at him.

“Get off me!” She demanded.

“You’re not goin’ anywhere!” Hutch informed her, his eyes darting upwards to peek at his partner lying limply on the bed.

“Dave! Make him get off me!” She called out, actually expecting the man she had kidnapped and held captive, to save her. In her mind, he was her lover, inside and out. She loved him, and truly believed that Starsky loved her back. “Dave, do something!” The tone of her voice unveiling a panic stricken tone, shaking and cracking.

The brunet mumbled something incoherently causing Hutch to grow worried, “You with me Starsk?” He asked his partner, pausing momentarily waiting for an answer but getting none. “Buddy? You okay up there?” He repeated, as he looked up through his brow at his friend’s form, watching his arms and legs move sluggishly.

“What the fuck did you do to him? What did you give him?”

Ellen glared up into Hutch’s soot blackened face. “You’re too late. He’s mine. He forgot you a long time ago.”

Hutch shook the woman. “I’m only gonna ask this one more time. What’ve you given my partner?”

“Something to help him relax, that’s all”.

Lurching to his feet, Hutch pulled the woman up with him. He grabbed a hold of her left wrist and snapped on one of the handcuffs, moving her over to the foot of the bed so that he could link the other through the spindles there. Ellen spat at him, her human reactions coming to an end. She looked at the man on the bed one more time, tears of frustration now forming in her eyes.

“Dave, please….Dave, tell him. Help me.” Starsky’s eyes cracked open, but his lips refused to shape the words. Instead he moaned low in his throat and immediately Hutch had secured the woman, he knelt on the bed, his hand cupping his partner’s chin gently.

“Starsk?” he asked softly. “Hey buddy, can you open you’re eyes for me. I really need to see those blues bud.”

Slowly a crescent of cerulean blue appeared and Starsky tried to smile. “..utch?...sle….eepy. Can’t stay…..’wake.”

The blond stared at the tearful petulant woman bound to the foot of the bed. “How much did ya give him? And what?”

“A little cocktail. He’s gonna be sleepy for while.”

“Sleepy? He looks like he’ll never wake up. How much did you give him?” Hutch looked around desperately, his eyes finally falling on the empty syringe lying on the floor next to the orange cap. He picked it up and stuffed it in his pocket. Quickly, he untied the brunet’s ankles and looked around for the keys to the handcuffs.

“Where’s the keys?” he asked

“Nightstand on the left,” Ellen said sullenly. “I never meant to hurt him. He loves me and I love him. I wanted him to be with me, you were in the way. I never meant to harm him.”

Hutch inserted the small silver key into the cuffs and eased his partner’s arms down from their enforced position. Starsky had been tied so long to the bed that his muscles protested and he groaned, his face creasing in pain. His eyes flew open for a moment and he looked up into his partner’s face as though seeing him for the first time.

“..utch….your face….dirty. Should’a ….washed up,” he mumbled drunkenly.

The blond smiled. “I’ll try to remember that the next time I save ya’ buddy. Can you sit up? Starsk?” Hutch’s eyes widened with fear. “STARSKY!” The tall blond shouted as the brunet’s eyes had closed again and now he seemed to be fighting for breath.

Easing his buddy’s body up, Hutch propped Starsky against him until he was standing and balanced. Slowly and carefully, he hefted the smaller man over his shoulder, yelping as the body overlay the cut he’d had from his expulsion through Huggy’s window. Ellen watched open mouthed.

“What are you doing? Where are you taking him? You can’t leave me here!”

Hutch turned, slightly out of breath from his maneuvers. “I can, and I am. This is us, leavin’,” he quipped. “An’ if you’re real lucky, I might send a cop car by to pick you up. Pray Starsky’s ok an’ I don’t forget ya huh?” He grunted as he carefully negotiated his way outside.

Opening the car door, he gently let Starsky down, pushing the brunet’s legs into the car and closing the door. He ran round to the driver’s side and got in, pushing the brunet up so that he could get behind the wheel. The curly haired cop’s body sagged against him and Starsky’s head rested on his shoulder as he started the engine and reached for the mic.

“Zebra Three to central. Come in Mildred honey this is an emergency.”

The line crackled and the woman’s voice sounded over the airwaves. “Hutch honey! Is that you?”

“Mildred, I’ve got Starsk. I’m taking him to County General right now. Send a car round to pick up Ellen, Dobey has the address.”

“Will do Hutch. Is Starsky ok?”

Hutch looked at the brunet beside him. Starsky’s face had taken on a bluish tinge and his breathing was noisy and labored. “I have no idea Mildred.” Hutch replied worriedly, “Zebra Three out.” He said as he placed the mic back on its holder.

Turning the sirens on, Hutch gunned the big engine of his car and screeched away from the sidewalk in a standing start that Starsky would have been proud of. He drove with one hand on the wheel and the other wrapped protectively around the brunet’s shoulders, keeping him upright.

“Starsk talk to me buddy. I need to hear your voice. Talk to me, ya hear?” The blond commanded.

Starsky’s head twitched slowly against his shoulder. “M’tired,” he mumbled.

“I know you are bud, but ya gotta stay with me…” Hutch pled. “…Stay with me Starsk. Talk to me.”

“Ellen?” The curly haired detective tried desperately to open his eyes, but the weight of them was too much to fight.

“Gone. She’s gone. How’re ya doin’ there, huh?”

“Cant….keep my eyes….” Starskys stopped for a moment panting. “…open….can’t…breathe.”

“I know. We’re gonna fix that. We’re on our way to the hospital.”

“No, I don’ wanna go to the hospital….” He protested, “…hate Jell’o,”’ the brunet gasped petulantly.

Hutch grinned. “Even the strawberry stuff? C’mon buddy. Everyone likes red Jell’o.”

“Huh? ….red….yeah…Hutch…..’urts….”

“I know Starsk, I know. Stay with me, we’re nearly there. I just need ya to stay with me a few minutes longer. Just a few…” his partner’s head lobbed to the side as he slipped into unconsciousness, “ …Starsk? Starsky? STARSK! Damn it!”

Hutch floored the gas pedal, negotiating his way through the traffic and making it to the ER of County within minutes. He sprang from the car, yelling for a doctor and a stunned orderly appeared with a gurney.

Tenderly, Hutch managed to get his partner out of the car and together with the orderly, onto the table to be wheeled into the hospital. At the door they were met with 2 doctors and a nurse. Gently they elbowed Hutch out of the way.

“What’ve we got here?” one of the medics shouted.

“Um…my p…partner. Starsky, David Starsky. I think he was drugged. I got this,” the blond pulled the syringe from his pocket and handed it to the nurse as Starsky’s limp body was wheeled away, an oxygen mask strapped over his nose and mouth. Hutch heard them talking medic speak.

“GCS 11 and falling. We need Us and Es, Someone get his sats. Monitor O2 levels. Let’s get bloods…..”

Suddenly, Hutch felt weak, and he staggered back, almost falling and was caught by a nurse behind him.

“Sir, are you ok?”

Hutch looked up through a haze of pain and fatigue. “Huh?”

“You look sick, and you have burns on your hands and your nose. You should let me take a look at those.”

“No, m’fine. I need to be with my partner. I need to…” Hutch’s foot slipped and he would have gone down had it not been for an orderly that hurriedly inserted a wheelchair behind him.

The nurse looked worried. “Let me be the judge of whether you’re ok. Your partner will be a while yet. They have him in a side room and he’s being cared for. Let me take a look at you.”

The blond hadn’t the strength to argue and allowed himself to be wheeled into a cubicle where the nurse eased him out of his burnt and tattered shirt. He winced himself as he saw the blood trickling from the wound on his shoulder and it was only when he saw the open burns on his hands that the pain finally kicked in.

“You look like you’ve been in the wars,” the nurse said conversationally as she set about cleaning and dressing the injuries.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Hutch said wearily. He felt sick to his stomach both from pain and from the worry about his partner and could hardly wait to get back into the ER to see how Starsky was faring.

Within half an hour, with both his hands bandaged and with tannic ointment decorating his nose and a large bandage on the wound on his shoulder, Hutch sat back in the waiting area, head in his hands. How long had it been since he’d brought Starsky in? Was it an hour? Two? Suddenly time seemed to have stopped still and the world was merrily revolving while Hutch sat and watched. Finally, the door to the private room opened and a doctor poked his nose out.

“Family for David Starsky?”

The flaxen haired cop looked up. “That’s me. How is he? Can I see him?”

The doctor came to sit by Hutch’s side. “We have him on a monitored bed. It was touch and go for a while, but I think you probably saved his life by bringing in the syringe. We were able to get the lab boys to analyze the compound and give him drugs to reverse the effect. Your friend will be sick for a couple of days till the drugs leave his system, and he’ll be breathless for a while, but he should make a full recovery. He um…well we dealt with the dog bite on his leg too; He’s started a course of rabies injections. He’s sleeping now, but you can go in to see him.’

Wearily. Hutch tottered into the small room, pausing at the door. Starsky was laid on his back, covered by a single white sheet drawn up to his waist. He had lines in both arms and an oxygen mask over his nose and mouth, but his breathing seemed easier already and as the blind walked softly over the bed, indigo eyes cracked open a little.

Hutch took one hand in his and squeezed it gently. “Hey partner, how’s it goin’?”

‘…utccch….hate hospitals…they stuck me ….with a ….needle. Take me home…..m’hungry.’

To Be Continued

(I do have an Epilogue planned, thank you to all of you for your patience)