{"id":216,"date":"2015-12-17T05:44:14","date_gmt":"2015-12-17T05:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/advent.starskyhutchcalendar.net\/2015\/calendar\/?p=216"},"modified":"2015-12-18T03:27:26","modified_gmt":"2015-12-18T03:27:26","slug":"december-17th-our-lucky-day-by-d-p-patricks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advent.starskyhutchcalendar.net\/2015\/calendar\/?p=216","title":{"rendered":"December 17th- Our Lucky Day by D.P. Patricks"},"content":{"rendered":"

An interminable stakeout and a dubious crossword puzzle.<\/b><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Stakeouts always seem endless when there’s nothing happening. We’re in my car because Captain Dobey specifically vetoed the Torino. “Absolutely no place within sight to hide that carnival ride!” he’d roared. That was a given, of course, but hardly anybody ever verbalized it.<\/p>\n

So here we are, half a block from Gene Carmody’s house, waiting to see if the known murderer would be stupid enough to return after he’d managed to elude the take down last night in the Sixth. Criminals are admittedly dumb at times, so no possibility could be overlooked. Starsky and I had drawn the next-to-shortest straw. We had the noon-to-eight shift. Babcock and Simmons got the eight-to-four. Night stakeouts are worse, in my opinion.<\/p>\n

“What’s a nine-letter word for ‘two organisms that live off each other’?” Starsky asks into the silence.<\/p>\n

I keep the binoculars to my eyes, while I think a moment. “Symbiosis,” I say.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In my peripheral vision, I see Starsky bend his curly head over the crossword on his knees. It’s spring and daylight is staying around longer. It won’t be dark until after we’re gone so, thankfully, no dome light will be needed.<\/p>\n

“Knew you’d know,” he says, gratefully. He fills in a few more spaces. “Okay, here’s one\u2026 another nine-letter word that means ‘boon friend’.”<\/p>\n

Where’s he going with this, I wonder. We have two more hours and it sounds as if he’s making up puzzle clues. I lower the binocs and look at him. He’s gazing at me with his patented innocent puppy-dog eyes, but I know he’s up to something. “Companion,” I say, quietly.<\/p>\n

“Ah, right!” He’s back over the newspaper again.<\/p>\n

I can see he’s printed letters over dark squares and even over other letters. He’s obviously not doing a real puzzle. Hmmmmmm. He’d been antsy during the entire first six hours of our watch for Carmody, but suddenly, he’s concentrated on his spurious word game. I can’t read the scribblings he’s got penciled in the margin but two of them are crossed off. Two aren’t.<\/p>\n

“‘Logical next step’,” he says, looking up again. “Eleven letters, beginning with ‘p’.”<\/p>\n

I put the binoculars to my eyes again and check to see if anything’s changed at the suspect’s place. Nope, nothing. We knew this was a wasted effort, the guy’s not coming back here. But Dobey said we had to cover all bases, so here we are, stuck for another, I check my watch, hour and fifty minutes. I lower the glasses and look at my expectant friend. “Progression.”<\/p>\n

He smiles, happily, and writes it down. He also crosses off another of the margin scratchings.<\/p>\n

“What’s goin’ on, Starsk?” I ask, unable to keep the question inside.<\/p>\n

He glances up at me. “What makes you think something’s going on?” he asks, ingenuously.<\/p>\n

I turn back to what I’m supposed to be doing, which is watching Carmody’s building. “Nothin’.” I can wait as patiently as anybody else.<\/p>\n

After several quiet minutes of printing, then erasing letters, probably staring out his side window, breathing quietly and thinking loudly, I can feel him looking at me again. “A ten letter word for ‘bound to happen’?”<\/p>\n

I keep the binoculars in place but heave a genuine sigh. Oh shit, he knows. Somehow, he’s seen through all the layers of subterfuge I’ve been applying to our relationship recently. I think about him all the time. I dream about him, fantasize about him. Us. Together. More closely than we’ve ever been before. And he knows.<\/p>\n

“Inevitable,” I admit.<\/p>\n

He writes the word on his puzzle. “Yeah.”<\/p>\n

I lower the glasses and look at the face I see in my dreams, the face I love. “Why now, Starsk?”<\/p>\n

He smiles shyly. “Because we’ve got\u2026” He glances at his watch. “\u2026 An hour and thirty more minutes of this silly stakeout left and you can’t run away.” His smile exudes naked happiness. “You can’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about.”<\/p>\n

“No, I can’t,” I say, softly.<\/p>\n

“Why’d you try to hide it, Hutch?” he asks, clearly confused. “Did you think I wouldn’t want to make that inevitable progression?” He looks at me with a depth of feeling in his eyes I’ve never seen before. “My symbiotic friend. My boon companion.”<\/p>\n

He looks so pleased with himself, I smile into those indigo blues. “I didn’t actually try to hide it, Starsk.”<\/p>\n

“Okay,” he agrees, reluctantly. “Maybe hide was the wrong word.” He glances down at the paper on his knees, then up at me again. “And here I was playing word games with you. ‘Deflect me’ then, how’s that? Every time I tried to bring up the subject.”<\/p>\n

“Deflect’s a good word, partner,” I say. “Delay, stall, wait. All those procrastination sentiments.”<\/p>\n

“You thought I wasn’t ready, didn’t you?” Starsky asks, gently. “Figured if you told me how you felt, it might ruin everything.”<\/p>\n

“That idea did seem to have some merit,” I admit.<\/p>\n

“Well I’m ready, and it won’t!” Starsky states, unequivocally. “We’ve loved each other forever, Hutch. It’s time we started lovin’ each other!”<\/p>\n

He adds the lop-sided grin he knows I can’t resist to the intensity in his eyes and it makes me shiver. It also makes me rock hard within a heartbeat. He sees it, too. He stares at my crotch and his smile turns positively wicked.<\/p>\n

“Oh, my sweet Hutch,” Starsky murmurs, “stiffening up. For me.” He reaches a hand toward my groin but, having caught movement out of the corner of my eye, I catch it and squeeze tenderly.<\/p>\n

“Hold that thought, partner,” I say quietly, forcing my hormones down. Adrenalin is quickly taking their place. “We’ve got company.”<\/p>\n

He looks out the windshield to where Gene Carmody is walking nonchalantly toward his house.<\/p>\n

“Our lucky day, Hutch,” Starsky says, throwing the newspaper on the floor and reaching for the door handle. His Beretta is already in his hand. “We drew this shift, you know. In the ‘How Stupid is Carmody?’ pool.”<\/p>\n

“I know,” I say, unsnapping the safety strap on my holster. “Didn’t figure we had a chance.”<\/p>\n

“Guess there’s always a chance then, huh, partner?” Starsky asks, more emotion in his simple words than I can fathom right now.<\/p>\n

Later, babe, I silently promise both of us.<\/p>\n

The arrest of Eugene Carmody, paroled murderer and suspected current killer, goes without a hitch. It’s almost embarrassing how easily it’s accomplished. Starsky and I collect the $110 office pool. Our lucky day, indeed.<\/p>\n

But it’s after the guy’s booked and processed, the paperwork done and on Dobey’s desk, and Starsky has locked the front door of his apartment behind him, that I truly discover how lucky I am. And how loved.<\/p>\n

END<\/p>\n

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An interminable stakeout and a dubious crossword puzzle. Stakeouts always seem endless when there’s nothing happening. We’re in my car because Captain Dobey specifically vetoed the Torino. “Absolutely no place within sight to hide that carnival ride!” he’d roared. That … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fic","category-slash"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/advent.starskyhutchcalendar.net\/2015\/calendar\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/advent.starskyhutchcalendar.net\/2015\/calendar\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/advent.starskyhutchcalendar.net\/2015\/calendar\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advent.starskyhutchcalendar.net\/2015\/calendar\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advent.starskyhutchcalendar.net\/2015\/calendar\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=216"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/advent.starskyhutchcalendar.net\/2015\/calendar\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279,"href":"https:\/\/advent.starskyhutchcalendar.net\/2015\/calendar\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216\/revisions\/279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/advent.starskyhutchcalendar.net\/2015\/calendar\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advent.starskyhutchcalendar.net\/2015\/calendar\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advent.starskyhutchcalendar.net\/2015\/calendar\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}