Starsky’s POV
The first shock

I couldn’t believe what she was saying to me. We’d been spending a very sweet time together. I was lying on the sofa waiting for her to make her next move when the ‘phone rang. Why was it I knew that there was something wrong? My mom used to say that she thought sometimes I had a sixth sense – not that it got me very far the night dad was killed. I don’t know about that, but I knew that the news was bad.
She took the ‘phone and turned her back on me. “Are you sure….Yes Daddy, I’ll deal with it…I’m a big girl…”
I lay back and looked up at her. Did my face betray my fear that she was about to hurt me? She turned to me and her eyes said it all. Hurt and betrayed. She turned on me, she was cold and yet her own pain was obvious. She said ‘cop’ as if it was a swear word – well maybe in her family it is. She called me ‘Sergeant’ as if it was a term of hatred; and she told me to get out of her life

There are times when I hate my job and this was one of them. I’d fallen for her when I saw her jogging up ahead of me and Hutch in the park. I had no idea who she was, except that maybe at long last I’d found someone to take away the pain of remembering Terri. Maybe I was acting on the rebound – but after eighteen months I don’t think so. And then those creeps from the FBI sprang it that she was Malone’s daughter; and they had the bloody cheek to suggest that Hutch make a play for her.
I told them that she was mine…and that I didn’t give a flying fuck who her father was…but if I had to do my job…. So I switched over to professional mode although I knew that I was going to fall further and further into her tender trap.
Hutch warned me…he didn’t want me to go any further; he wanted me to leave her alone before it was too late…but it was too late; I had fallen in love with this smart funny and beautiful woman who sold the kind of Mexican pottery I loved.

And now here I was, being thrown out of her apartment. I’ll bet she no longer even believed that my interest in the pottery was genuine. I started collecting it after I took a bike trip across the border…just before I joined the force; but no way would she believe me now.

Her words cut through me like hot knives. “Get to know her better….seduce her…learn about Indian art…well you did your job!”
“I love you and it has nothing to do with my job.”
“Get out!”
She didn’t even give me the chance to finish dressing…I turned to her once more to plead my case…but she was staring at me; trying to keep herself together. I left the apartment and as soon as the door shut I could hear her sobbing. I couldn’t hold it back. I tried; I could feel my throat constricting and I tried not to let it go…but it was too much for me and I left the left the building in tears.

Rosie’s POV
The first shock

This man was perfect! He made love to me the way no other man had ever done so. He was gentle and tender and amazingly intense and all the time he was careful to make sure that I was as content as he was. We’d spent the night together and he was lying on the sofa dressed and almost ready for the day; I was ready to go jogging but Dave had other plans. Then the ‘phone rang.
“Rosie is David with you?” My father’s voice was gruff. He didn’t give me the chance to reply. “I know he is…listen to me carefully. David Starsky is a cop. He was assigned to get as close to you as possible and through you – to me. Get rid of him. Now! Do you understand?”
“Yes daddy, I understand.” I said trying to keep any indication of what was going on out of my voice. I turned my back on Dave. I didn’t want to see those piercing deep blue eyes trying to figure out what was going on. He seems to have a power to look inside a person…and right now I couldn’t let him in.
“Rosie, are you listening to me? He’s a cop; you must get him out of your life…our lives…before he does any damage.”
“I understand daddy; I can handle him…I’m a big girl.”

I put down the ‘phone and turned to look at him. My heart skipped a beat and for a second I thought I was going to give in to him. He was lying there with his shirt half unbuttoned and that soft silky chest hair that I’d been entwining in my fingers only a few minutes ago was peeking through the denim. He has the most fantastic body I’ve ever known. He looked at me with those big blue eyes. He knew. Don’t ask me how; but he knew! He turned his eyes to me and he seemed to be asking a question and pleading at the same time.
I started to tell him exactly what I thought of his lousy trick and he took my breath away.
“I love you.” He said. “I loved you before I knew you were Frank Malone’s daughter.”
I wanted not to believe him…but I’d already learned how much honesty meant to him. I understood now why he’d tried to avoid questions abut who he was and come up with one crazy identity after another. He was ashamed of the play-acting. I could see that he meant it but I couldn’t allow myself to let him stay.
It hurt like hell. It was as painful as if I’d been burned with a flame; but I threw him out. As he left he turned to look at me like a little boy who knew he was going to be whipped but didn’t understand what for. I nearly relented; but I love my father and I couldn’t risk his safety, not even for a man as gorgeous as Dave Starsky.
I closed the door behind him and slid down to the floor in tears. I could hear his sob as his footsteps echoed down the hallway.

Starsky’s POV
The second shock

Hutch and I had done our job and we knew that Malone and Rosie and I were all being used. We were being used by the FBI to set up what they would claim to be one of their biggest triumphs – getting Frank Malone to turn State’s evidence and help bring down the LA mafia.
Hutch and I had then found out that Malone’s life was in danger and I knew that the only way to save him was through Rosie. I went to her gallery and locked the door behind me.
She did her best to reject me, but it was obvious that she still loved me as much as I loved her. I finally got her to see sense and we were beginning to get back on our old track when someone knocked at the door. I yelled out that the gallery was closed.
“It’s Frank Malone.”
She let him in and came back to my side.
He looked at me like I was something he’d stepped in on the sidewalk and said he had come to talk to his daughter. He didn’t need to say ‘get out’. I held her close and told him that I was staying; that he was in danger and that he needed me.
He didn’t want to hear so I asked the question that had led me and Hutch to understand what was going on. I asked him how come Shelby knew who I was. Malone isn’t dumb – far from it. He couldn’t have set up the network he had, including Rosie’s Mexican circuit, if he wasn’t an intelligent man. He stopped and thought about what I’d said.
We talked for a while and agreed that he would cooperate with us to get Shelby. The he’d turn State’s evidence before a Grand Jury where no-one would know exactly what he said…and then he’d be protected.
He couldn’t resist a crack about me protecting him; I let it ride. I called Hutch and he and Dobey started to get things rolling. Malone left us alone for a while and I made sure that our relationship was back where it had been the evening after I’d met her jogging.

It was all arranged. Malone was going to give evidence and then be taken out of the state as a protected witness; new identity, new life. And I was naïf enough to figure that Rosie and I might have a chance of happy-ever-after.
I knew Hutch was still wary about her; he’d seen me hurt too many times in my desperate bids to replace Terri and find a woman I could spend the rest of my life with. I know I come over as the tough street-wise kid; but I dream of being as happy as my mom and dad were until he was killed.
We spent that night together and then Hutch and I went to take in Shelby and to finish a few little untied ends with the Feds.

She called me later that afternoon. Her father wanted to see me. We made a date for the rose garden; under the bower where I’d kissed her for the first time.

When I arrived she wasn’t there; I waited for a few minutes. I could see Hutch watching from the car. He didn’t think she was going to show; I could tell.
She came walking towards me; her long blonde hair blowing slightly with her movements; she was wearing a jogging suit that fitted her slim body perfectly. She was like an angel.
We talked for a few minutes and then Malone arrived. He told me that he had made his decision and that he wasn’t going to take the risk. He had no intention of spending the rest of his life under an assumed name hoping that no-one found him. “We are going away.”
The word echoed round my brain. ‘We…we…we….’ I tried to convince myself that I hadn’t heard right. Or that ‘we’ meant Malone and some of his people. But Rosie was standing next to him and he had his arm around her. She smiled at me. He looked at me with no expression…well maybe a slight challenge as if to say ‘I dare you to.’

I swallowed hard and hoped that my voice was going to come out as calmly as possible; I looked her in the eye.
“We?” I asked.
“Yes David; I’m going with him. He’s my father.” It came out more like a plea than a statement of loyalty. She smiled at me and I made some remark about helping the Indians and she replied…I don’t remember what she said.”
I watched as Malone turned to walk back to his car. He turned and called her.
“Goodbye Dave.” She said and she went to join him.
I watched them get into the car.
I saw Hutch watching me; but I wasn’t ready to go back to him yet. I know Hutch well enough; he would never say ‘I told you so’ but it would be there in the look in his eye.
I stood in the arbor for a while and thought about how good it had been; and how betrayed I felt. I needed to clear my head. I started to jog along the path between the roses. Roses…Rosie…my heart was screaming. I felt the tears burning in my eyes. I started to pick up speed and then I opened up; I was sprinting, running full out like I was in the hundred yard dash at the Olympics. I hadn’t let myself out like that for a long time. I knew I’d probably pay for it in pain the next day; when my leg reminded me of the abuse it had suffered over the years; but right now I needed to hear the air rush in my ears so that I couldn’t hear her voice…. I ran through the roses; trying to forget Rosie Malone.

Rosie’s POV
The second shock

Daddy called and said he wanted to see me. I went over to his house and he told me that he wasn’t going to take the deal.
“You understand what this means, don’t you Rosie? It means that I’ll have to leave the country or my life won’t be worth anything. It also means that you have to choose.”
I knew what he was asking me.
“You can either come with me and we will live safely and look after your Indians and find a new way for me to continue. Or you stay with Starsky and pray that he can protect you. He’s a good cop, Rosie. I’ve found out about him. He and Hutch are considered to be the best in the force. But he can’t be with you all the time…and he has a dangerous job. If he is killed who will protect you?”

I knew what my decision had to be. I didn’t want to die, and when it came to it; I wanted to be with my father for as long as I could. I knew that one day I’d be alone again; my father wouldn’t live for ever. I also knew that seductive as Dave was, I’d find another lover.
We called Dave and arranged to meet at the rose garden.
I’ll never forget the hurt on his face. I couldn’t stand it…he looked stricken and betrayed. I went to join my father.
As I walked to the car I could hear someone running. I turned back and saw Dave running along the pathway…he could have won a medal the speed he was going. I hope that he would manage to run away from the pain I’d caused him.