NEAR DEATHS DOOR

BY P&C PRODUCTIONS

CHAPTER 18

Starsky walked slowly back to Cassie’s room still carrying her eight track tape player. He pushed the door open and found Hutch softly strumming his guitar…the same music he had just been singing to. Hutch looked up from his guitar and smiled at his partner who rested his arm against Cassie’s bed and smiled back at him.

"That brings back allot of old memories." Starsky told him as he laid the tape player on the end of Cassie’s bed…still leaning on his right arm. I haven’t heard you play that song since…" He was interrupted.

"I know…I picked up the guitar and it just started to come out…guess I was reminiscing." Hutch told him and then he laid the instrument gently against the wall.

"Did she have another one…while I was gone?" Starsky asked concerned. "God I really hate to see her like that."

"No…she’s been pretty quite…not a peep out of her." Hutch smiled…if you didn’t count the sound of the respirator or the constant beeping of the heart monitor…He just wanted her to wake up and yell for pizza…even just to open her eyes and smile at him would be enough. Hutch wondered if it would ever happen.

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Cassie drifted through the memories that she knew weren’t her own for a long time…but even while she drifted, she could hear them…talking in the distance…she even thought she heard Mike at one point…though she wasn’t sure. (Will you take me on that slide?…Do you love me that much?) every moment playing before her eyes. Cassie wondered who this lady was…and how she knew so much about him. All she knew was that she liked her…and she knew that Dave loved her.

Doctor Sonja Van Schalm opened the door to Cassie’s room after knocking lightly. Both Starsky and Hutch stood up as she entered the room. They looked at her curiously and then back at eachother…she was smiling…it was the first time they had seen her smile since they had known her. Starsky looked eagerly into her eyes and swallowed hard…he hoped by the expression on her face…it was good news.

"Cassie’s latest test results are back…the toxic levels in her blood have begun to decrease…I think by tomorrow morning we will be able to remove the respirator …she should be strong enough to wake up soon after." She told them.

"Whooooaaah ….Starsky shouted as he headed straight for Sonja…lifted her up in his arms and spun her around and around.

Hutch just let out a long awaited deep sigh and cried out. "Thank God."

Sonja laughed at Starsky as he spun her around…she was so happy to see him smiling.

Starsky sat her back down and then ran over and threw his arms around Hutch…Hugging him and laughing…Hutch patted him on the back and laughed with him.

"She is still on the drug…so she may have a few more seizures…but we should be able to stop the doses tomorrow….you still have to watch her and help her through them…but I think she’ll make it." Sonja told them.

With a smile on her face Doctor Van Schalm left them and shut the door to her room. Starsky and Hutch both approached Cassie’s bed…and looked at her…she still looked so weak and pale. But it didn’t matter…the thought that she would soon wake up made them smile at her…and then at each other.

"Your gonna be alright honey…your gonna be ok now…Cassie can you hear me." Starsky said to her. "I’m here…I’m gonna stay right here till you open those big beautiful brown eyes of yours …and then I’m gonna take you out for the biggest pizza you ever laid your eyes on." He said with a grin. Hutch smiled through tears at the sight of his partner…filled with a new sense of hope.

"Hey Starsk…I’m gonna go downstairs and call Dobey, Huggy, and everybody else I can think of…we’re gonna have one hell of a party."

Hutch said as he began to dig through his pockets for some change.

Starsky reached into his and pulled out all the change he had on him…and then he pulled out his wallet and handed a small piece of paper to Hutch.

"Be sure to call Mrs. Taylor…I mean Kaylene…she and Stacey will want to know." Starsky told him. "And bring me back a sandwich will ya."

"Sure thing." Hutch grinned and then he winked at his partner and left the room. As Hutch walked quickly past the Nurses station…he was stopped…by six Nurses…all of whom he had seen inside Cassie’s room at one time or another. They were cheering and clapping…He had to stop and give them one of his irresistible smiles…and a friendly wave as he continued on his way to the elevator.

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Cassie had another seizure during the night but, it didn’t last long…they helped her through it together until they felt her body relax again. Neither one of them could sleep…it felt like the night before Christmas. They expected tomorrow that she would wake up…and that to Starsky would be better than Christmas.

They borrowed a deck of cards from the Nurses Station and stayed up all night together playing poker, rummy, whatever they could think of…even go fish at one point. Until the soft glow of the sun began to make it’s way through the folds in her curtain…and shone a pale yellow throughout the room.

The Nurses came in around 7:00AM to unhook and remove the respirator…as soon as they pulled it from her throat…she started to gag and both Starsky and Hutch were afraid that she wouldn’t be able to breathe on her own. But soon she settled down into slow easy and deep breaths. Starsky leaned over her…a hand on either side of her waist and looked into her face. The color had begun to come back into her cheeks and she looked just like an angel again…so much better.

Nurse Susan Staton entered the room to take some more vitals and to change her bags again. She smiled at the two detectives as she entered the room.

"I’ll only be a few minutes." She told them. "I sure hope the sight where the tube is won’t leave too much of a scare after they remove it."

The sound of her words took them both by surprise…they hadn’t thought about the tube at all.

"You mean she still has more surgery before this is all over?" Hutch asked her.

"Of course…they’ll have to remove the drainage tube…but that won’t take very long…couple of hours at the most." She said as she went about her routine.

"When will they do it?" Starsky asked.

"Soon after she wakes up…I would imagine." Susan told them.

"You think she’ll be strong enough?" Hutch questioned her.

"The doctors know what they’re doing…relax…it’s got to come out you know. We won’t need it anymore once the toxics drop to a safe level."

Susan smiled at them as she left the room. Starsky went back to the task of stroking her hand and talking softly to her…with Hutch on the other side. They both knew that she could wake up at any time now…and they were gonna be there to witness it together.

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