The Watch

40

Post The Trap. Hutch feels guilty about Starsky’s watch. Brotherhood.

First published 2023.

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It had been over a month and Starsky was still going on about his watch. Not the watch he was currently wearing but the watch he had bought at great cost from the jewellery store where they had first met Joey. What was it about watches that his partner liked so much?

They told time. At least, that’s what they were supposed to do. Starsky seemed to go in for ones that did everything else you could think of but had the time function thrown in as a last minute thought!

Hutch was sorry that his partner’s watch had got shot to pieces. That was, after all, his fault but he had needed a distraction desperately and the alarm going off and making a racket had been all he could think of. Hutch was especially sorry about the watch as it had happened after a ‘I’d give you my boots’ moment. For all his eschewing of soapy scenes, Starsky always managed to hit Hutch in the heart when it mattered. Convinced he might not get out of the barn alive, Starsky had passed his watch to his partner. Hutch had been too distracted (by his own desperate efforts to make sure they did escape the trap set for them) to really appreciate what Starsky was doing. Now, all this time later, he had had time to process the moment and he wanted to show somehow that he appreciated it and the brotherhood between them that Starsky constantly reinforced.

But even with this new understanding and appreciative sensibility coursing through Hutch’s thoughts, Starsky regularly bemoaning the fate of his watch was getting on Hutch’s nerves. So much so that just yesterday morning he had told his partner to: “Get over it!”

Starsky had looked at him with a mixture of annoyance and wounded eyes. The annoyance Hutch could take; the wounded eyes were more difficult to not react to.

So here he was back at a jewellery store looking at watches. When the clerk asked if he could help, Hutch answered with, “I need a watch for a friend. Preferably one that does complicated things and maybe tells the time too.”

Soon he was headed out of the store, his jacket weighed down with a chunky timepiece, his wallet much lighter than it had been.

Hutch knocked on the door, keeping one hand firmly out of sight, and waited. Starsky had had a date last night and might still have company. After a moment, the window in Starsky’s door opened and he peered blearily out.

“Oh, it’s you.”

“Charming. Can I come in? Or do you have company?”

“Nah, you can come in.”

Starsky unlocked the door and Hutch pushed it open. Starsky disappeared into the bedroom to throw on a pair of jeans, before returning to the room.

Hutch was standing near the couch, waiting. Starsky brushed past him and went to make a pot of coffee.

“Why are you here so early on a Saturday?”

“It’s about your watch. I realised I never really apologised for using it as a distraction. I guess I was thinking us being still alive was more important than a watch!”

Starsky made a face. “That’s not much of an apology, Hutch.”

“I guess not. I think our lives are more important than an object but I am sorry that I didn’t really appreciate your passing your watch on to me when you thought you might not make it. I was too focussed on getting out of there.”

“That’s okay.” Starsky went to pour himself a cup of coffee. “Don’t worry about it.”

Hutch waited until Starsky turned around and then held out the small gift bag he’d been hiding.

“What’s that for?”

“I know you don’t like soapy scenes but I figured I would show you I appreciate you always having my back and being my brother.”

He tossed the bag over to Starsky, who caught it one-handed. He put his coffee down and opened the bag and then the box.

“Aw thanks, partner. It’s a beaut!”

Starsky quickly put the watch on his wrist and held it out to admire it. Then he listened to the ticking sound.

“That’s music to my ears.”

“Glad you like it.”

“I love it. Looks like it’s got lots of features,” Starsky said, looking through the small booklet which had been folded up in the bag. “Wanna see everything it can do?”

“If I have to.”

“You have to,” Starsky said firmly, as he steered Hutch towards the couch.

Hutch couldn’t help thinking to himself that at least Starsky couldn’t go on about how much it cost because he didn’t have a clue and Hutch wasn’t going to tell him. His partner was happy and that meant all was right with the world.