Title: Cool Wave

Author/pseudonym: Cappristar (Debs)

Fandom: Starsky and Hutch

Pairing: Starsky/Hutch

Rating: PG

Status: Complete

Archive: Yes

Feedback: Yes

Series/Sequel: Yes. Part one of 'The Elements'

Other websites: N/A

Disclaimers: I don't own the characters or any rights to them, I just write for pleasure and most certainly not for profit

Notes: Many thanks to my beta Michelle. Her constant encouragement and hard work make writing a pleasure. Thanks friend.

Summary: Starsky is upset at finding out his partner had been gravely ill and that he could do nothing to help.

Warnings: N/A

Cool Wave
by Cappristar (Debs)

It was hot. No..hot didn't quite catch the essence of the smothering cauldron of overbaked air that Southern California had become this particular mid-July. The lethargic lapping of the warm waves disappeared back into the heated ocean at only half the volume they hit the beach with.

A dark haired man, dressed to draw more than a few stares, had there been anyone else on the beach to take note of him, walked slouch shouldered, oblivious to the similarity of the loss the sea was feeling as a cascade of moisture dangerously departed his own leather clad torso. The barely there cut-off denims not causing enough coolant to lessen the intensity of the scorching brilliance of the mid-afternoon sun.

"The clams, even the razors, know when the sand is a done deal." The dark haired man muttered. "Pneumonia..second bout..nurse went back!..Saved his life!..Convulsions!..Spinal Meningitis! Holding him down! Jesus! How could he not tell me?!!

"I nearly lost ya Hutch! I nearly lost ya before we even met!." The man with the dark complexion and endearingly dark and wavy hair continued to ignore his own body depleting itself of its life essence, as he reflected on the facts his partner's sister revealed to him just a few days ago about what could, if God and luck hadn't intervened, have been his desires fate. "Alone..how alone he must have felt.." The dark one continued down the empty beach.

The blond-haired man sat up rigidly in the sweat soaked bed. Absently rubbing the inside of his right ankle and the angry looking varicose veins that surrounded the mangled scar just above the pointed bone. Anger mixed with sleepy wakefulness as he scratched absently at his mother's constant reminder of what sacrifice she paid to bring him into the world, never mind that the delivery was in itself a breeze, the hospitalizing itself not coming for another 18 months. The fair-haired boy had interrupted a much anticipated southern cruise with the onslaught of his so-called serious ailment, a fact she hadn't forgotten and shown no sign of ever letting him either. All that
mattered no more to him at this point in his life than if an already discarded, though favored pair of boots needed new soles. "Starsk!??" He cried out sleepily though alert. Knowing already that his partner had not only departed his passed out place on the couch, but had left the apartment altogether. Snapping more fully awake as the heat of the day seared the blind darkened apartment, he struggled into sandals and shorts and stumbled out the already open door.

The dark one fell to his knees just at the lap of the next wave. Feeling nothing but the pain of not being there for his beloved when his love needed him more than anything.

The blond tip-toed hurriedly over the steaming sand, the rising heat burning his shins up to and just below his knee-caps before he thought to make his way down and wade through the murky though somewhat cooler water. Spying his lover on the ocean's edge not more than 300 feet further down, he discarded his sandals and ran full out, absently thinking that it must be raining as
moisture gathered and cascaded down his own chest. Falling to rest on his haunches just behind and barely out of reach of his lover, he reached out a hand, only able to touch the drenched leather jacket with the bare tips of his fingers.

"Starsk?"

"You didn't tell me." The dark haired one replied, the softly spoken response not disguising the need for the achingly unasked question.

"I didn't know you...I didn't even know me then." The blond answered, a shaky smile matching the wavering hand hovering over the slumped shoulder.

"I couldn't have saved you." The dark one answered, talking not to his lover but to the matted piece of seaweed before him. "I..we were too young."

"Ah but you did." The blond watched as a jelly fish made his escape from the tangled weeds. Sliding the leather coat from off the sticky sweat drenched shoulders.

"How so?" Intense blue eyes turned sideways trying to aid his partner by shrugging helplessly.

"That was just the initial cry..and you heard..then you..you came when I really needed you." The blond responded simply.

A crooked smile formed as tears welled in the pools of indigo velvet. "I want to be there for you always."

"Always you have been, and always will be babe." The blond felt his own eyes swim as he looked out over the storm darkened horizon. "And me for thee." He whispered as a cool wave splashed over them both.

End