Into The PIts

Written for the 20 minute fic challenge–prompt words Pierce and tattoo. Mourning a beloved friend.

The slow tattoo of the drums seemed to pierce his brain, heaping the pain and sadness down deep. How was this possible? It had been four days, and he still couldn’t believe his friend was dead.

The drummers marched ahead of the coffin. Starsky clutched the heavy wooden box with both hands, holding it close to his shoulder. In this position, he couldn’t see anything except what was right in front of him, but was well aware of the other five men all supporting their share of the coffin’s weight. They processed out of the church, the mourners walking behind them and into the parking lot where the hearse waited.

People fanned out around the hearse, watching as the coffin was slid inside.

Starsky ducked his head with a sigh, unsure of what to do next. He almost didn’t want to go to the grave site and see the dirt piled on top of the coffin. That was too final—the last hurrah of a good man.

“Hey.”

“Hey, yourself.” Starsky looked up into Hutch’s dear eyes. “Still having a hard time believing Huggy’s dead.”

“I know.” Hutch slid a hand along Starsky’s spine, under the cover of his black suit jacket. “At least we were there, huh?”

He’d died right in the middle of The Pits. One minute, serving beers, jiving with his customers, laughing at some joke. The next, Starsky had seen Huggy lean against the bar, rubbing his chest. He’d sagged down onto a bar stool, supporting his head with one hand and then fallen.

Starsky had been up and across the crowded room in seconds, every instruction he’d ever had in CPR draining from his brain at the sight of a friend dying.

Hutch had started what was necessary; one breath and then the chest compressions. Starsky had joined in by rote, his throat choked with tears he’d never yet shed.

When the paramedics arrived, he’d known from the look on Johnny’s face as he leaned over to listen with his stethoscope. There had never been any chance.

“He’s gone,” Johnny said quietly to Roy. “You guys gave him the best chance—”

“But he died the way he lived,” Hutch whispered to his love the day of the funeral. “Fast, happy and with friends.”

“Amen to that, my brother,” Starsky said.

The hearse turned right out of the parking lot. Starsky and Hutch got into the Torino and turned left, towards The Pits.

They would keep the place open, for as long as they were able, as a tribute to the Bear.

FIN