Work Text:
A DESICCATED LIFE
by: Avoca
It was going to be a beautiful day. The sky was blue with little white balls of cotton candy clouds. Hutch turns his back to the window and the view of paradise. He drinks the strong coffee from a mug with gold lettering that proudly proclaimed, "Coffee is a pig's best friend". The mug had been a gift from one of the transient women in his life. A stewardess, Jilly, Jenny, Judy -- something like that. Hutch closes his eyes and tries to conjure up a picture of the gift bearer but to no avail. Suddenly an unwanted image forms. Blonde hair and giggles and Kira appears. Hutch opens his eyes and the unbidden picture is gone. He runs his fingers through his mustache and adds the empty mug to the growing pile of clutter in the sink.
Hutch grabs his shoulder holster from the back of the closet door and pulls it on with an air of familiarity. He studies the jackets hanging in a row and then without conscious thought pulls a light weight white cotton one from its hanger and slips it on. He walks back into the kitchen and for the first time in days he notices the mess on the counters and the blender sitting beside the sink. He begins to recite the ingredients he used to mix for his power shakes but stops when he gets to desiccated liver. Desiccated, oh yes, it means to remove moisture to dry out. That's how he feels. He's dried out, desiccated with his life.
He walks out of the kitchen and sits on the couch. He reaches into his pants pocket and pulls out his watch chain. It's only seven a.m. and Starsky won't be here for at least thirty minutes. He needs to talk to Starsky and maybe today he will do that. He's burning out and he knows it. He knows the feeling of watching it all slip through his fingers like the sand on the beach. He remembers walking on the beach and throwing his badge into the ocean. He remembers the feeling of freedom as the leather folder sank into the sea but then Starsky appeared and suddenly the freedom was gone, as Starsky's badge had followed his into the sea. It's one thing to watch yourself burn out but it's a completely different ball game to take down your best friend with you. Kira, the bitch's name came again to his mind. He had almost destroyed his friendship with Starsky over her, but she was just a symptom. Even now he referred to her as "The Bitch" in his mind when in reality she had just been a willing tool in the stupid game that Ken Hutchinson was playing.
Hutch leaned his head back against the couch and his long hair tickled the skin on his neck. He really needed a haircut but it was just something else to add to the list of things he needed to sort out. His mind drifted back. Kira, well they had sorted her out and in the process had attempted to put their friendship back on track. They had talked for hours after they had left "The Pits". Hutch could still feel the warmth of Starsky's arm around him. The talking had cleared the air or at least it had made Hutch push his demons back into the box. Starsky wasn't fooled by Hutch's cover-up but he went along with it because the alternative was too scary to contemplate. Starsky was one of the most intelligent and complex men that Hutch had ever met so somehow he had managed to put a band-aid over the wound in their friendship and carry on. Hutch knew that Starsky was waiting for him to open the lid of the box again and deal with whatever phantoms that emerged but Hutch couldn't do that.
The phone call last night might give Hutch an out. It might allow him to flee with his demon box intact and still allow Starsky his personal freedom to soar. The call was from Duluth and a year ago Hutch would have dismissed the offer without a second thought but now it was like a sign. The offer of a new life or at least the ending of a life here in Bay City that had lost all its charm. He could begin again. He could stop seeing through jaded eyes. He could push away the misery of the streets, the pushers, the whores and their pimps and instead he could see the natural beauty of the world. For too long he had watched the dirt of the city streets and now suddenly he was being offered all that was good and clean and all he had to do was reach out and take it. The job in the newly founded nature reserve was his for the taking. He would be in charge of overseeing the whole project.
The skeptical part of Hutch's brain told him that "The Hutchinson Nature Reserve Project" was a cynical ploy by his family to get him to come home and resume his rightful role but right now a job that allowed him to wash away the dirt of the streets looked appealing. There was of course one big fly in the ointment, David Starsky. Starsky may have become a little disillusioned over the years with all the dirt he had been forced to wade through on the streets but he was still an optimist. In fact David Starsky had become the reason for Hutch to get up in the morning. Hutch was disillusioned with his own life but Starsky was not a part of that indifference.
Hutch needed to talk to his partner and try to explain how he felt. It would not be easy but it was necessary. The sound of the Torino's horn broke through Hutch's thoughts. The tall blond man stood up from the sagging couch and headed for the front door. He grabbed the table tennis bats and ping-pong balls from the table beside the door. He laughed, only Starsky could think up a scheme to while away their shift as the decorators worked on the squad room. Hutch threw open the front door. Yeah! He'd let Starsky win at ping pong then take him out to a good restaurant and somehow he'd find the strength to talk, really talk to his friend about their future.
END