A Small Voice

Hutch to the rescue after he receives the phone call from Starsky. Based on the episode, A Coffin For Starsky.

The jangling noise woke Hutch up out of a sound sleep. He punched at the alarm clock, but the noise continued. He cracked one eye open as he looked at the offending contraption and then realized it was the phone.

He picked it up and mumbled into the phone,

“Hello?— no answer. More aware now he asked again.

“Who’s this?”

He thought he heard shallow breathing and then very faintly, he heard a small voice pleading,

“Hutch, help”.

Then there was nothing but shallow breathing again.

“Starsky, is that you? Where are you? Starsky?!”, Hutch cried into the phone.

His gut twisted at the thought of Starsky in trouble but he was frantic now, wondering what he should do. He hated breaking the connection for any reason but he had to know for sure if his friend was at home. He forced his thinking back to last night. After a few beers at Huggy’s, they each went back to their own apartments for the night. Neither of them had left with a date, so he was fairly certain that Starsky was at home. Hutch decided to hang up and dial Starsky just to be sure. He hung up and punched in the number that was tattooed on his brain. He wasn’t surprised when he got a busy signal so he slammed the phone down. Now, what next? He really just wanted to get to his friend’s apartment as soon as possible.

Dobey would probably chew him out about “private parties” and be pissed that Hutch didn’t call for back up right away but all Hutch could think about now was getting to Starsky’s. He mindlessly threw on the clothes that were on the floor, the ones he’d taken off last night. He ran to his car, put the red light on the roof, turned on the siren and sped off.

He reached his destination, frustrated that everything seemed to be going in slow motion. He ran up the steps and stopped. The door was slightly open. This was not good. His instincts kicked in, he pulled his gun and slowly pushed at the door. He wasn’t sure what to expect but the quiet, still, atmosphere that greeted him seemed in stark contrast to the loud banging of his heart.

He swept the room, not really being as careful as he should, but he didn’t see Starsky so he ran to the bedroom and stopped in his tracks. Starsky was lying on his back on the floor beside his bed, the phone still cradled in his hand. Hutch picked up the phone, replaced the receiver and put the phone out of the way. He bent down to Starsky and felt for a pulse. He let out a relieved sigh as he felt the rhythmic thumping.

“Starsky, can you hear me?, Starsky I’m here!”

Hutch tried rousing his partner with no luck. He reached for the phone and called for back up and an ambulance and bent over Starsky again.

He didn’t see anything to account for his present condition. Nothing but a very still, silent man. He wasn’t just sleeping. Something or someone had to have caused his partner’s predicament other than a nightmare and rolling out of bed. Someone had been in Starsky’s apartment.

Hutch went back to the living room when he heard sirens. Ben and Jerry walked up the steps and into the living room. Hutch was glad they were the officers on duty because both of them were good cops and would be extra diligent.

A minute later the ambulance pulled up and the paramedics followed Hutch into Starsky’s bedroom. His vitals were ok but he was still not responding. After reaching dispatch, the medics were instructed to start an IV and transport immediately. Hutch was really fearful and just paced the room until they had Starsky on the gurney. He looked nervously around the bedroom struggling with the option of bringing clothes or grabbing Starsky’s watch, but opted for the watch and quickly followed the gurney and got into the ambulance.

He supposed Starsky would razz him for not bringing clothes but the decision to bring the watch took less effort than trying to decide what clothes to grab. Hutch would gladly put up with Starsky’s temper instead of his present condition. He just couldn’t think about anything other than getting Starsky to the hospital.

The ambulance finally got to the hospital and Hutch followed the gurney into the exam room and let out a growl,

“where’s the doctor?”

A nurse came to him and said her name was Jane. She asked Hutch what he knew, patient’s name and age, then she took the prowling man by the hand and reassured Hutch that they would take care of David, but right now they needed to examine him in order to help him.. With a last look at Starsky and a gentle stroke to his cheek, Hutch walked out to the waiting room to begin his hopeful vigil.

Jane turned back to her patient. He was so still. He wasn’t responding and he was so pale. She checked him over, looking for anything that would explain why he was unconscious. She looked at his right arm and thought she saw a needle puncture. She took a scraping of the area. Next she drew a few tubes of blood and sent all of this to the lab.

By now Dave was showing signs of waking up. His eyes opened, closed then opened again.

“David, you are in the emergency room. Can you tell me what happened?,” Jane questioned him ,observing that his eyes were clearing.

Starsky blinked a few more times and then he nodded his head. His first words came out quickly and urgently —

“Jane, nice to meet ya but I’m gonna be sick!!”

With that he turned on his side and Jane had the basin positioned just in time for Starsky to toss his cookies. While Dave was occupied, Jane was thinking that this latest contribution might help the lab find out more about what had happened.

Starsky was finally done and Jane wiped his mouth and forehead with a cool cloth.

While Jane took his blood pressure again and checked his pulse she asked,

“Dave, can you tell me what you remember?”

“Yeah, someone got into my house and gave me a shot of something and told me I had 24 hours to live,” Starsky weakly responded.

“Look, I’m a cop. Do you happen to know if my partner ,Ken Hutchinson is here?”

Jane told him his friend was in the waiting room and as soon as the doctor checked over the lab results, he would be in to talk to David. Then Hutch would be allowed into the exam room.

Starsky was quickly regaining strength and sat up with his legs hanging over the side of the table.

“OK,” Starsky chuckled,” He’s not going to like all this waiting!!”

Just then Dr. Franklin walked in and introduced himself.

“I have some pretty scary news for you. It is important that you listen and try to understand. We found that you’ve been given a cocktail of a number of different drugs. We were only able to identify two of them. But unless we get the names of the other drugs and the amounts, we can’t come up with the antidote. I’m sorry but I think the 24 hours is true for now. We can run tests to monitor the effects on your major organs ,but we must run down the drugs and their combinations in order to come up with a cure.”

While the doctor had been speaking, Starsky became more nervous and very pale. Jane helped him lay down again. He pulled himself into the fetal position and grabbed his stomach. One look at him and Jane grabbed the basin as Starsky heaved.

After Jane wiped his face, Starsky looked at the doctor and asked in a small voice,” Doc, what’s going to happen to me?”

Dr. Franklin patted Starsky’s shoulder and said,

“David, I’m sorry to tell you but it’s not going to be fun. You’ll have uncontrollable sweating, severe pain, difficult breathing and if we don’t find the antidote, you’ll end up in a coma and then death.”

“Doc, my partner, Ken, is in the waiting room. Could you tell him all this? I just can’t get my head around this and I don’t think I can talk to him yet. Besides I hate soapy scenes.”

Right then Hutch bolted through the exam room door and started toward Starsky. Starsky gave the doctor a pleading look and Dr. Franklin sighed as he moved to take Hutch’s arm in his hand.

“Mr. Hutchinson, I need to talk with you outside please. I need to fill you in on your friend’s condition.”

He stole a last look at his patient and tried to come up with the right words. At the same time, he was hoping that the detectives could help their own cause and track down the person who started this whole sorry mess.