Starsky and Hutch sit on a beach, reflecting on the angst Vanessa caused.
Written for the 20 minute fic challenge.
For I love you and I know you love me.
–Papa Gene’s Blues Mike Nesmith
“She played me, didn’t she?”
Starsky didn’t have to ask who ‘she’ was. Vanessa, the ex-Mrs. Hutchinson. Murdered in Hutch’s living room by a couple of crooks over a diamond. And he wasn’t about to answer that—well, not directly anyway. Because, yeah, she’d played him for a loser and tossed him to one side like a piece of trash. Which fried him, it really did.
Looking at Hutch looking out to sea, Starsky settled onto his haunches, back against a sand bank, the late February sun warm on his face. February was tricky—some days warm as summer, some days rain tossed and cold as December. This was one of those the publicity guys doted on. The gorgeous, endlessly sunny weather in Southern California. Such a crock.
Like Vanessa, two sides almost at war with one another. She’d been beautiful, glamorous and sharp as glass when crossed.
“You remember when I was the building manager of that place over on Juarez? Where you and Nancy moved just after you came to Bay City?”
Hutch finally turned from his perusal of the tides, sunglasses hiding his eyes but at least he was facing Starsky. It was a beginning, an opening. “We rented 2B.”
“Yep.” Starsky patted the sand, an invitation for Hutch to sit. Relax. He certainly needed it. “Didn’t tell you this then. Didn’t know you from Adam—not until months later when we were in the Academy together, but she came on to me.”
“Van?”
Starsky nodded warily. Although she’d been Nancy then, before her Californian conversion to poseur with a capital P. She’s become a model, gone to parties, left Hutch in the dust.
“I was gonna check that washer on the second floor that always rejected the dimes, and she came in, ran her hand down my ass while squeezing past me to get her stuff out of the dryer.” Starsky felt his face flame at the memory. He hadn’t been attracted, not then, nor ever, and after getting to know Hutch when they were partnered at the Police Academy, had wondered what the hell Hutch had seen in her. She was all surface, looking out for herself, and Hutch was completely the opposite. “She saw you as her ticket out of Duluth. Thought you’d take her to the land of movie stars, get into some swanky law firm with your five credits short of a law degree, and take her to the stars.”
“And I didn’t.” Hutch sat, resting his forehead on his knees, sounding defeated.
“Cause you chose to do what made you happy, what was in your heart,” Starsky concluded, digging his fingers into the warm sand. “And when you didn’t take her where she wanted to go, she cut you loose.”
He felt the shifting of the sand under his palm just before Hutch’s hand moved over the ground, fingers curling around his, clutching tightly. “She used me, and I let her. Threw away my good judgement the other night, even though I knew she had to have an ulterior motive, and turned my home into a crime scene.”
“Hutch, she always had an ulterior motive, from the day you met her,” Starsky said quietly, raising his sandy hand to stroke Hutch’s cheek. “You never did, and you never will.”
“Which is why I ended up with you,” Hutch whispered. He leaned in for the kiss Starsky had waiting for him.
FIN
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2 comments
I took one look at he title and I knew I’d love it ❤. Beautiful little interlude.
Thank you so much. Those twenty minute fics are fun and I am always surprised at what comes out with very little planning.