Aberrant Behavior

542

A contemporary conversation.

 

Author’s Note: This bit of dialog has been rolling around in my mind lately and has finally forced its way out. I sincerely hope I don’t piss off too many people but I’m trying to honor two wonderful characters in a unique series. Starsky & Hutch gave us four years of never-before-seen, and unequaled since, friendship, partnership, and love – in whatever form you choose to view those episodes. I’m asking that we remember, and respect, those gifts.

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“You’re awful quiet tonight, babe, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Hutch! We’ve been together for over forty years; how often has that bullshit ever worked on me?”

“Once?”

“Right! The first time. Now… what’s wrong? Is it that fanfic story you were reading today?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“It upset you?”

“It was similar to a couple of others I’ve read and it made me wonder. What have I done wrong, Starsk? Why do some writers say I’d betray you — belittle you — demean you — deliberately hurt you, or cause you to be hurt?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s because they think that setting a story in AU makes it all right.”

“It doesn’t! Saying a story takes place in some alternate universe doesn’t mean I’d be a different person; that my character, my nature, would change. It doesn’t mean I’d treat you any differently than I do in our own reality.”

“I think it may have something to do with writers bringing what they’ve seen of friendship, partnership – even love – from other fandoms, and applying those behaviors to us.”

“But, that’s not fair! I’m Ken Hutchinson! I’m a Bay City cop! I’m in love with my partner, Dave Starsky. He’s the most important person in the world to me and I would not do some of the things I’ve read.”

“I understand, Hutch. I’ve started reading a few of those myself but I quit when I realized where they were going.”

“Why didn’t you warn me, Starsk?”

“I’m not sure. I think, maybe, it was because it hurt so much that an author would think either one of us would do such things. I didn’t want to subject you to the same feelings I’d had.”

“They’d be really great stories if only they weren’t supposed to be about us! What that Ken Hutchinson did is not me!”

“Of course, it’s not, Hutch. It’s some writer’s idea of how she wants you to be.”

“Why does it always seem to be me saying the derogatory things to you? Me taking a new partner, after Gunther, and leaving you by yourself? Me putting you through physical abuse and emotional Hell?”

“It’s not always.”

“Mostly, though. I remember I went missing a couple of times and Dobey forced you to partner with somebody else but you never stopped searching for me! And when I was found, you stood by me and supported me. You didn’t say hurtful things and leave me feeling like an unnecessary outsider.”

“I never would, Hutch. We’re partners. Forever.”

“That’s what I mean! It’s something you wouldn’t do! And neither would I! But that’s what gets written.”

“True. It seems to. I’m sorry you found one of the ones that does.”

“You’ve read some of them, right? Stories where I do uncharacteristic things to you? How did they make you feel?”

“Like I’d been gutted. Like the writer had given two people I don’t know, and don’t want to know, our names.”

“Similar to that episode where the bad guy had doubles of us running around making people think we’d gone over to the Dark Side.”

“Something like that.”

“Why would authors do that?”

“Maybe… because they don’t really understand what we are to each other. What we mean to each other.”

“Everything.”

“Yeah, Hutch. Everything. But I just thought of something. Remember, late third and fourth season, when we had all those snarky lines and all those divisive situations? When it seemed like we weren’t on the same page during a case, and in our relationship?”

“You mean like that time you were off in your own little world with Emily and then almost suckered me into falling down your stairs?”

“Yeah. Except that I caught you sneakin’ peaks under the towel so I knew you knew exactly what I was doin’. And, besides, it was in the script.”

“I hated those games they made us play. It’s like they had us acting out their own aggressions and conflicts.”

“That’s what I mean, Hutch. Today’s writers, and readers, may not know we weren’t doing those things, saying all that shit to each other, because we wanted to. We were doing them because we had no choice.”

“We didn’t write those lines, Starsk.”

“I know that, but maybe they don’t.”

“So you think these writers are taking fourth season’s conflict and building on it?”

“It’s a possibility, doncha think? Plus, as I said, they may be giving us other fandoms’ characters’ ways of doing things.”

“Doesn’t make me feel any better.”

“I know, and I’m sorry. I should have warned you. But you’re bringin’ me down here, babe. Let’s forget all about the stories that write us like we’re the same as characters from other fandoms. If authors don’t understand what we are to each other, there’s no way we’re gonna be able to change their minds.”

“We don’t have any control over it, do we?”

“Of course, not. We’re fictional; we don’t even really exist.”

“But that’s not right, either. I feel like I exist. You sure feel like you exist.”

“In the minds and hearts of many of the writers we do exist, Hutch. And our real personalities, our genuine feelings for each other, come through in those stories. We need to concentrate on them. Read only them.”

“I just wish those negative ones didn’t get so many glowing reviews and comments. Don’t the readers understand either?”

“I guess not. Otherwise, they wouldn’t add to the glorification of them.”

“That’s sad.”

“True. But, again, there’s nothing we can do about it, partner.”

“You’re right, Starsk. I need to let it go, don’t I?”

“Yep. So, let’s think of something else to do for the rest of the evening.”

“Come to bed. I’ll make sure you have no doubts in that curly-haired head of yours –”

“Or the heart that beats for no one but you?”

“Yes. Let there be no doubt in the heart that shares the space in my chest, that I would never treat you as some of those stories describe.”

“You don’t have to convince me, Hutch, but I’ll be more than happy to take full part in any demonstration you care to initiate.”

“I love you, Dave Starsky.”

“And I love you, Ken Hutchinson.”

“Fictional though we are?”

“Indubitably.”

“‘Indubitably,’ Starsk? Really?”

“You bet! All that reading has had some benefits.”

“Well, let’s investigate the other positive aspects of your perusal.”

 

END