"OK, Mrs. Willis. I know you're tired, but I also know you can do better than this." Jerry sighed as he worked with Mrs. Hazel Willis. She was a retired school teacher who had suffered a stroke two months ago. He stole a glance at Mrs. Willis' daughter, Stephanie who was sitting in the chair by the door filing her nails. He didn't really have to think twice to know why Mrs. Willis was not doing as well as she usually did. She never tried as hard when her daughter attended the physical therapy sessions.

Jerry had seen the phenomenon before. To receive more attention, his patients occasionally malingered when family or friends were observing. He found it sad that wonderful people like Mrs. Willis had to resort to such measures to be noticed by the people who supposedly cared about them.

Jerry glanced at the clock on the wall and sighed with relief. Her time in the room was nearly complete. Tomorrow, her daughter would not be in attendance, and she would give every effort to the recovery that was actually progressing quite nicely when she tried.

And he had the next hour with his favorite patient and his favorite patient's best friend.

He had come to look forward to the two o'clock hour in the last couple of weeks that the famous policemen had been coming for therapy. He had initially thought he would be working with just another patient, but found out quickly that he was dealing with a team.

Jerry had seen all the TV and newspaper coverage of the assassination attempt and the subsequent arrest of the most powerful man in the state. This case was going to keep the DA's office busy for months, maybe even years. Every media outlet in the state and most of the bigger news organizations in the country had clamored to get interviews with the two detectives involved. But they had refused, and the police information officer had handled everything. When Jerry had found out that he would be David Starsky's therapist, he had been excited to be a part of the recovery and anticipated getting to know the two men involved in the biggest bust in the history of the state.

He was used to seeing family involved in a patient's recovery, but it was unusual for a friend to be at every single therapy session. Not just there, but helping and learning other methods of speeding the recovery. This was not a typical friendship. It was certainly eye-opening for Jerry as he watched the two of them together. After a few days, he could easily see the love and need they had for each other.

Funny thing -- despite their obvious closeness, these two argued incessantly. Their verbal barbs flew back and forth without rancor, like a tennis ball. It had taken a while for Jerry to see that there was no heat in the missiles that passed between the two. He had been unnerved initially and had thought at first to ask Hutchinson to stop harassing his patient, but he stopped himself, remembering that he didn't always understand the dynamics of the relationship between his patients and their family members/friends. And he quickly realized that the zingers were a way of life for the two. Oh, Ken Hutchinson (or Hutch, as he introduced himself) could be tender with his friend, but the dark one seemed to gain a sense of normalcy from their repartee. And Jerry knew that was important. His patients needed to regain a component of what their lives were like before the event occurred that brought them to the therapy center, so he let Starsky and Hutch continue their verbal sparring. Starsky appeared to thrive on it.

Jerry was washing his hands when he heard the door open, and Starsky and Hutch came in. He finished up and turned to greet them. "Hey, guys. How's it going?"

Jerry immediately noticed Starsky's subdued manner. Usually he could hear the two arguing before the door even opened, but today, everything about the curly-headed detective announced resignation. Jerry shot a glance at Hutch who just shook his head minutely. Clearly, it had been a long day already. Jerry fervently hoped that the two had not received some bad news about Starsky's health and recovery. The goal was to return to full active duty. Jerry hoped that the doctors had not had anything to say to hinder that. That could be one explanation for the sudden mood change. The other was something that Jerry was used to and half expected at some point with most of his patients. Time would give him the answer.

Jerry decided to start Starsky out working on his lower body strength. There wasn't anything wrong with his legs or his nerves or his muscles beyond the fact that they had seen very little use in the last month. When a person was stuck in bed for an extended period of time, muscles lost strength and mass simply because they weren't used. All he needed to work that out was a little weight training to recondition them. It was proceeding quite nicely, and Jerry knew that would be encouraging for the detective to start out with.

Between Hutch and Jerry, they cajoled a somewhat quiet Starsky into finishing the prescribed lifts, and then they moved on to work the right arm. There had been quite a lot of damage to the muscles that controlled the right arm, and Jerry knew that was the greatest source of Starsky's frustration. After about ten minutes of work on the gripping exercises, Starsky dropped the ball and sighed. Jerry reached down and picked up the ball as Hutch began massaging Starsky's right shoulder and arm.

"Come on buddy. You can do it."

Jerry admired the control that Hutch had over his voice. He had heard the soft comforting tone, the irritated inflection, both the lyrical and haughty laugh, and the impatient pitch on occasion. He imagined that Hutch would make a pretty good singer if he ever tried.

Starsky just shook his head in frustration and his voice came out quietly in the surrender of self pity. "Hutch, this is useless. I'm never gonna get back to how I was before the shooting. I'm never gonna be your partner again. I'm just gonna end up being a burden -- no use to anyone. And I know you. You'll hang around and take care of me like you've always done. I don't want you throwing your life away because of me, Hutch." Starsky took a deep breath in preparation for his next statement. "I want you to go now. I want you to ask Dobey for a new partner. Leave before I drag you down with me."

Jerry held his breath and looked back and forth at the partners. This was what he had been afraid of. Starsky was focusing on how long the road back was going to be, not on how far he had already traveled. It was a typical reaction. But the question was, how would Hutch respond? Jerry continued to hold his breath. Were they really a team, or would the blond fold? Jerry had started to cajole Starsky when the quiet announcement came, but one look at the blond and he decided to take a seat in the family member chair. The moment of truth was at hand. He watched Hutchinson's face for the reaction.

Hutch felt like he had been slapped. He looked at Starsky's face as he stared at his feet. He had seen the defeat in Starsky's attitude from the moment he walked into the hospital room that morning. Despite that, he was incredulous at Starsky's statement because the idea was as abhorrent and foreign as any he had ever considered. He continued to stare at his distant partner and carefully weighed his options for response. He knew his partner better than he knew himself and decided this wasn't the time for gentleness. Starsky needed a reality check.

He moved around in front of Starsky to make sure he had his attention, and his voice came out hard. "Who do you think you are? Huh? When you were lying in that hospital bed with tubes and wires attached to every piece of machinery this place has, you didn't know anything about what was happening on the outside. Well, let me enlighten you. I had to sit and look through that window and just watch -- as my best friend's life hung by a thread. Watch... and wait... for that thread to break. You were gonna die. They as much as told us that. And I sat there and watched. And all I could do was think about what my life was going to be like without you.

"And I didn't like what I saw. It was cold and quiet and dark and empty. And lonely. And I didn't much like it. And I couldn't fix it. I couldn't do anything to make you come back to me. Hell, I was afraid to even touch you when they finally let me in to see you. What if that upset the balance that was keeping you alive? Huh?

"So I went after Gunther instead. Someone had to be punished for doing this to us. Not just to you -- to us. I was going to lose my best friend. Someone had to pay for that. I couldn't let that sacrifice pass without extracting some kind of settlement. There had to be a payback for what I was losing.

"And then... then your heart stopped, and Dobey said, 'I think you better get down here.' My heart just about stopped. And I got to the hospital, and you came back. Now, that told me one of two things. Either, I have the best timing ever in the history of mankind... or you came back because of me. Maybe that's pretty self-centered of me to think that, but it was all I could come up with. And then you woke up, and I felt reborn.

"So I resolved then and there that I would do whatever necessary to bring you back to full fighting form, cause I need you, dammit. Somewhere along the road of our friendship, you became a prerequisite to my continued existence. Not just to what we do, but to who I am. I've known it for a long time, but I never really realized it until the mess with Kira. All the crap you and I have gone through before, there were times when I almost lost you, but that was because of other people. Kira... that was all me. No one else to blame. When I thought that you might just walk away from me... that made me take a real hard look at myself. And I saw some truths that I couldn't back away from. All the things that I've heard people say about me over the years -- there's some truth in all of it. I am a son of a bitch. I'm cold and driven, and I can be cruel. I can cut people to the core with one word. People that care about me.

"I decided then I would do whatever it took to get you to forgive me. Cause you are the one thing that keeps me a halfway decent human being. Nobody loves me like you do. Nobody has ever cared about me the way you do. Has taken care of me, has pulled me back from the edge, has seen me at my very worst and laughed it off like it was nothing and kept on loving me. And I'm sorry, but I'm a selfish bastard. If anyone knows that, it's you. I can't let you walk away from Me and Thee. Where happens to Me if Thee isn't around anymore?

"I need you, dammit. So you can just forget about taking your leave of this friendship, buddy. And since you're not gonna be happy until you're back to where you were before you got shot, you're gonna get outta that chair and work with this therapist and do your exercises and whatever else they tell you to do, or I'm gonna kick your butt! You got that?"

Starsky had stared at Hutch throughout the entire sermon and did not attempt to interrupt. He felt the intensity of Hutch's need and pain and knew that it matched his own.

Hutch held his breath and watched Starsky's eyes drop to the floor as this new information assimilated itself into his brain. He saw resolution and determination slowly creep back into his friend's bearing.

Starsky's eyes returned to Hutch, and he nodded. "I got it." Silent communication flowed back and forth between the partners as Hutch nodded back.

"Good. Hey, Jerry, we're ready for you."

What a show! It was a good speech. Not much about what Starsky could and couldn't do, but what Hutch could and couldn't do without. Jerry had never heard that kind of encouragement tactic used before, but it sure affected the necessary transformation. He could see the tenacity return to the dark headed detective as the mental decision was reached. His partner needed him. They needed each other. They couldn't be the same people without the other one around, and that was just unacceptable. So Starsky was just going to have to get on with getting better. No excuses would be tolerated.

Jerry nodded trying to hide his amazement. This was a whole other side of the blond that Jerry had never seen before. Hutch had always been gentle and supportive of his friend -- right there with a hand or a wet cloth or a hug -- whatever Starsky needed at any given time. Chief spotter and cheerleader. And though Starsky was making good progress, it was not enough to satisfy the curly headed detective. Jerry had seen this before as his patients realized how long the road back could be. Hutch planned to be there for the long haul and had previously confided to Jerry that he would be satisfied no matter how much mobility his partner regained -- job be damned. But today, Hutch saw his friend's frustration and realized that what he had needed just then was a kick in the pants and a reason to keep going. So he provided it.

Jerry stood up as Hutch nodded to him that they were ready to begin again. He walked back over to the pair and looked at Starsky. He saw that the customary determination had returned to his patient's eyes and shook his head in silent wonder. He had seen blackmail used on his patients before, but he had never seen if used backwards like this -- a sort of reverse blackmail. His eyebrows shot up in amazement as he looked back and forth between the partners.

Starsky and Hutch looked at each other in bewilderment when their usually vigorous therapist just kept staring at them. Finally Hutch shrugged and tentatively asked their question. "What?"

Jerry shrugged in return. "Sometimes I wonder why you guys even need me. I sure ain't never seen anybody like you two before." Then he turned to get back to work as Starsky and Hutch stared at each other in confusion. Then they both mentally shrugged, joined Jerry, and got back to the business of getting Starsky -- and their lives -- back in shape.

The End