You Can’t Save Them All

Starsky has some ideas about his and Hutch’s future.

Author’s Notes: Originally published in the 2025 Starsky & Hutch Advent Calendar. Many thanks to Nicol Tyler for collaborating with me and providing the beautiful illustration.

Even at dusk, the blond hair was like a beacon.

“Damn. Why’d he have to walk so far down the beach? I’m getting too old for this shit.” He pulled up the collar of his navy blue BCPD Academy fleece jacket and started the long trek through the soft sand.

As he got close enough to see more clearly, he spied the two remaining beers of a six-pack. That’s not good, he thought to himself.

Without ever looking around, Hutch greeted Starsky from where he sat in the sand. “Hey.”

“Hey, yourself.”

“How’d you know where I was?”

“When you didn’t come home, I called the office. Minnie filled me in. I was hoping you’d be at Huggy’s since it’s the middle of winter.”

Starsky started to sit, but lost his balance and fell into Hutch.

“Easy there, turbo,” Hutch said as he reached out, caught Starsky, and helped him the rest of the way down.

Starsky pointed at the beer. “Care to share?”

“Those are yours. If you weren’t so late getting here, you’d have gotten three.”

Starsky opened a beer and took a long swallow. “It must’ve been a hell of a day. You’re sitting here in the dark, on the cold beach, and haven’t even taken your tie off. Wanna tell me about it?”

“No.”

Starsky sighed. “You can’t save them all.”

“I didn’t even save one of them, damnit! And he had two more we didn’t even know about in the basement.”

Starsky felt his partner’s pain as if it were his own. “But he won’t get anymore. And you know at least their families will now have some closure.”

“Fuck closure. It’s just not enough, Starsk. I don’t think I can do this anymore.”

Starsky should have been shocked by Hutch’s confession, but in all honesty he’d been expecting the dam to break for over a year. And he knew he should have had a solution waiting but now he was on the spot and had to think fast.

“But we’ve only got, what is it, another four years until we get our pensions. You can’t quit now. We just gotta find something else for you to do. Babs keeps asking when you’re coming to work with us at the academy. He’s got an opening when Simmy retires next month.”

Starsky nudged him with his elbow, until Hutch looked at him. “Think how much fun we’d have back together again. Those kids won’t know what hit ‘em after we take them around the driving course a few times. It’ll be like ol’ times cruising our beat.”

Hutch smiled ever so slightly. “Got it all worked out, do you?”

Starsky reached for Hutch’s hand and entwined their fingers. “I don’t have to have it all worked out. As long as we’re together, I just know it will work out.”

Hutch leaned over and gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek.

Maybe it was the dark that gave Starsky the courage to ask the next question. One that he’d long wanted to ask. Or maybe it was because he knew the dark would give Hutch a chance to answer honestly, without Starsky first seeing the answer in his eyes.

“Do you ever regret taking our badges back after we threw them in the ocean over there?”

Starsky felt Hutch stiffen, but he’d learned long ago to wait out the response. He didn’t have patience for a lot of things in life, but Hutch had taught him the art of patience in a conversation.

Starsky was beginning to think Hutch hadn’t heard the question after all, but then came the soft reply.

“Yes and no.”

“Wanna elaborate?”

Hutch closed his eyes; Starsky could barely hear him over the crash of the waves.

“Yes. If we’d stayed off the force you’d have never been shot.”

Starsky was not surprised by his answer. He had never recovered the memories from that day but Hutch, even now, still had nightmares about the shooting. He would sometimes bolt upright in bed unable to breath, shouting, “Starsky! Get Down!” As the years had gone by, the dreams lessened in both intensity and frequency, and Starsky could often calm Hutch back to sleep with just a gentle touch.

“And the no,” Starsky prompted.

“If you hadn’t been shot, I don’t know that either one of us would have ever had the guts to take the next step. And I can’t imagine what life would have been like for the last fifteen years if we weren’t together. How about you?”

Now it was Starsky’s turn to take a minute before answering. “Oh, I think we would have figured us out, eventually. And I think Gunther would have kept after us no matter where we were. But mainly, I don’t like to think about it. I mean, I don’t think we’d have gotten very far as porn stars.”

Hutch chortled and squeezed Starsky’s hand.

Starsky squeezed back. “Come on, Butch. Help me up and let’s go home. These old bones can’t take the chill.”

“But you didn’t finish your other beer.”

“One of us needs to drive home. And since you’ve had four, I don’t think it would look good on your academy application if the SVU Chief was recently stopped for drunk driving.”

Hutch stood up and grabbed Starsky’s forearm in a sailor’s handshake and pulled him to his feet. They walked back to the cars slowly, taking time to enjoy the rare chance to hold hands while walking together on the deserted beach.

They could just see the cars when Hutch stopped suddenly. “Wait a minute. I’m Sundance, you’re Butch.”

“That tie must be too tight. I’ve always been Sundance.”

“But I ride a horse better than you. And I’ve got blond hair. Why do you think I grew that mustache for God’s sake?”

“I told you then, and I’ll tell you now, it didn’t look any better on you than it did on Redford! Plus, you’re always saying you’re the brains of this outfit, and that was definitely Butch. We can’t both be Sundance.”

As they walked up the dune to the parking lot, Hutch asked, “What are we going to do about my car?”

“I used your radio and told dispatch to send someone out here later tonight and take it back to the office. I’ll drop you off in the morning.”

“Starsky, you can’t tell them to do that!”

“I might have pretended to be you.”

“Moron.”

They got into Starsky’s midnight blue Charger, and as he pulled out of the parking lot, he glanced at the man that was his everything. He couldn’t be sure if it was the conversation of the future, or the four beers, but Hutch was definitely more relaxed than when he’d first seen him on the beach.

“Hey! I’ve got a great idea!”

“Starsk, I’m not sure how many more of your great ideas I can take in my life.”

“You’ll love this one. On your first day at the Academy we’ll wear matching Me and Thee shirts. Ya know, just to let everyone know we’re back.”

Hutch laughed out loud. “Won’t Babs be jealous?”

Starsky couldn’t hide his excitement. “He already is! He’s always askin’ in what universe is he sitting at home divorced and alone while I’m sleeping with a tall, leggy, blond bombshell every night.”