COME RUNNING
BY P&C PRODUCTIONS

CHAPTER 5

    They spent the night pacing the floor…watching the late night patients as they wandered in and out…and sitting together in silence. By four o’clock in the morning Cassie was completely exhausted. She had been drinking coffee to try and stay awake with him but even that seemed to have no effect on her anymore.
    She leaned her tired head on his shoulder and released one last yawn before finally drifting off. He was tired too and within a matter of minutes, he was asleep beside her. The same nurse who had refused him visitation watched as the two of them slept together in the hard plastic chairs. Most people would just go on home and come back in the morning. She had to admire
the way they chose to stay here for their friend. She stood at her desk and thought to herself….
    (Maybe the rules could be bent a little in the morning…)

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    The sun rose slowly at around 6:30 AM as the room took on a fresh golden glow. The voices over the intercom grew more and more frequent and another busy day in the ER had begun. People crowded into the room…filling out forms and filling up the empty chairs around them. Cassie awoke to the sound of a small baby crying and gave him a light tap on the shoulder…
    “It’s morning…” She told him as he opened his eyes to mere slits and adjusted them to the bright lights in the room.
    “What time is it?” He asked as he yawned and rubbed his eyes with the tips of the fingers on his left hand.
    She looked at the watch on his left wrist…as he held his arm in front of his face.
    “It’s almost 7…”
    Starsky stood up slowly…holding onto his back for a minute until the pain subsided. Then he walked slowly up to the nurse’s station to speak to the pretty young thing now on duty there…
    “I’m Officer David Starsky…My partner Ken Hutchinson was brought in last night….”
    “Oh you’re the one that Bertha told me about…I can let you go back for a minute to see him, but they’ll be moving him into surgery soon to remove the tube in his throat.”
    Cassie had stood up and moved closer to him to listen in on the conversation when she overheard the invitation.
    “You go on ahead…I’ll wait here for you.” She said from behind him as he turned around to the sound of her voice.
    “You sure?” He asked a little puzzled, as he wondered why she wouldn’t want to go with him.
    “I’d rather see him after surgery…” She confessed. “When he’s feeling a little better.”
    “I’ll be right back and then I’ll take you down to the cafeteria to get a little breakfast."
    “Ok…” She replied as she began to make her way back to the chair she had fallen asleep in earlier.
    Starsky walked through the doorway as the nurse held it open for him. He waited for it to close and then whispered quietly to her…
    “Can you do me a favor?”
    “If I can?” She said with a little hesitation in her voice.
    “Can you keep an eye on her for me?”
    “Sure…It won’t be a problem.” She told him eagerly as she began to walk down the corridor with him.

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    Starsky entered the room slowly as the nurse closed the door behind him. Hutch’s head was turned towards him and the tube was fastened a bit more securely to his neck than the last time he had seen him.
    His face was pale and his eyes were closed. His breathing seemed rhythmic and steady and both his arms lay on top of the blanket that covered his body from the chest down. An IV line was attached to his left arm and his hair was mussed.  He looked like hell…but he was alive.
    Starsky strolled over to him slowly and placed the palm of his hand  flat against his left cheek as he spoke to him…
    “Hutch…Hutch…It’s Starsk.” He called to him as he tried to hide the sadness in his voice.
    Hutch didn’t respond at all and so he made another attempt…
    “Hey you Big Blonde Blintz…You gonna sleep all day or what?” He coaxed as he patted him lightly on the face and grabbed hold of his chin to try and bring him around…but there was still no response.
    He bent his head down and released a sigh as he allowed his right hand to slide down Hutch’s cheek…then he brought both hands up to rest on top of his partner’s broad shoulders before speaking again….
    “Hutch…lookit…I hope like hell you can hear me because there’s somethin’ I gotta say to you.”
    He began as he tried to hold back his tears.  “I’m sorry…God I’m so damn sorry Hutch. After all you’ve done for me…this is how I repay you? I swear…No…I promise you Hutch…I’ll never do it to you again…as long as I live. I just need you to be alright…just be alright.”
    Hutch didn’t flinch and Starsky knew that he was probably only talking to himself at this point. But it felt good to get the words out…even if he didn’t respond to them. He knew that Hutch was listening…if not with his ears…then with his heart.
    A gurney was pushed against the door causing it to swing open and bang against the wall as the intern wheel it into the room. Starsky took a few steps back and watched as the IV bag was lifted and hung from a pole that extended from the portable bed and then the young man lifted the oxygen tank and drug his partner’s limp body onto the gurney as he spoke to him.
    “They’re waiting for him in surgery…you’ll have to leave now.”
    “How long?”
    “I don’t know…I just deliver…you’ll have to ask the doctor.” He said bluntly as he threw Hutch’s hands up onto his chest as if he were transporting a piece of beef to the butcher. Then he threw the oxygen tank between his legs and started out the door with him.
    “Take it easy with him will ya!” Starsky told him angrily.
    “Look…If I don’t have him there in three minutes…Dr. Sawyer will have my head on a platter.” The young man told him bluntly.
    “Well I wouldn’t worry too much about that if I were you.” Starsky said with a cold gaze that caused him to stop and stare back at him. “Because if you do that again…I just might deliver it to him myself.”
    The young man gave him a fearful look and then quickly rolled Hutch’s body out of the room and down the hallway. Starsky strolled up to the doorway and watched until the gurney disappeared through the elevator doors.

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