Hutch held the door open as Starsky made a great show of hobbling into the squad room, leaning heavily on the rented cane. Most of the others merely glanced up and nodded at the two, having seen this routine repeated everyday over the week since their return from Florida with Copeland. Once Hurricane Debbie had passed over Islamorada, a FEMA team had rescued the occupants of the shelter, and taken Starsky to the nearest functioning hospital for treatment.
It turned out that in spite of the bulging knot on his skull, Copeland wasn't seriously injured, and after receiving three stitches was transported back to Cabrillo State Pen. Now under much tighter security than that from which he’d made his getaway, the case was closed and Starsky and Hutch had returned to their regular routine. Aside from Starsky’s milking the situation for all it was worth, it was business as usual.
Starsky
eased into his chair while Hutch headed straight for the coffee maker. Before he could pour a cup, Dobey’s door swung
open.
“Starsky—Hutchinson—my
office.” Then, quite out of character,
he added the word, "please."
He didn’t even seem upset that they’d sauntered into work fifteen minutes
late.
Hutch looked across the room at Starsky and arched a surprised brow. “Please?” he mouthed at Starsky. Equally surprised, the dark-haired cop shrugged his shoulders before following Hutch at a pathetically slow shuffle across the squad room to their boss's office.
Squeezing past Dobey's rotund figure in the doorway, Starsky asked, “You feelin' okay, Cap'n?”
“What's that supposed to mean, Starsky?!” Dobey blustered.
Opening his mouth to respond with an irreverent comeback, Starsky’s jaw dropped at the sight of three familiar faces—Ina, Carlos, and Elena. “Hey, look, Hutch—look who’s here!”
Hutch came forward eagerly and greeted the visitors, shaking Carlos’s hand before being caught up in a warm bear hug from Ina. After unintentionally squeezing the breath out of the blond, Ina turned her robust affection on Starsky, accidentally sending the cane flying from beneath his grip. Only shy Elena held back. Even though she smiled and was obviously happy to see the two men, she succeeded in avoiding eye contact.
A casualty of Ina’s boisterous hug, Hutch's hair stood out in wild tufts all about his head. Raking a hand through to smooth it, he asked, "What're you folks doing here?”
“We bring Elena by to say thank you again.” Carlos held his John Deere cap in his hand, his fingers nervously playing up and down the brim. “We use the reward money you gave her to locate her family. It is impossible to believe—but they live in San Dimas. That is only a few miles from here. We are taking Elena to be with them now.”
A broad grin lit Hutch’s face. “That’s wonderful news, Elena,” he told her sincerely.
“You earned that reward, Elena,” Starsky added, giving her a mischievous grin. “If it hadn’t been for you, probably none of us would be here right now. You swing a pretty mean pot for a lady.”
Even though she couldn’t understand them, the shy girl looked up with gratitude shining in her eyes and smiled at the two detectives, bobbing her head in agreement. When they all laughed, Carlos quickly translated their words to Elena. Then, unexpectedly, she stepped forward and wrapped her slender arms around Hutch, her head only reaching just below his chin. She gave him a quick hug, then moved to Starsky and did the same. Embarrassed by her own forwardness, Elena stepped back and giggled nervously.
Dobey, watching the scene with interest, cleared his throat and growled, “Maybe I should do us all a favor and fire the two of you and hire this young lady!”
Starsky’s head snapped up, a hint of indignation dancing in his eyes. “Now wait a minute, Cap’n—it’s not like I lost my gun. I mean I was incapacitated and all.”
This brought a scowl from Hutch. “That’s just like you, Starsky! Blame it on me. If you'd been paying attention to where you were going, that tree wouldn’t have fallen on the Jeep in the first place—”
With a subtle jerk of the head, Dobey motioned to the three visitors to follow him. Starsky and Hutch didn't even seem to notice as Elena, Carlos, and Ina discreetly slipped past them.
“We may as well go down to the coffee shop,” Dobey whispered, as he escorted them out of the office. "They could be at it for hours." He quietly closed the door behind them.
In the background, the argument continued. “And that cane! Starsky, you don’t need that cane anymore than I do—”
“Now that ain’t fair, Hutch. I’m in pain here. You saw the size of that wound—”
The End
May 20-July 12, 2002 (I’m a very slow writer)