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Going In With My Eyes Wide Open
(Part 2 in the 'Judith Kaufmann Series')

By

Sue M

   "American Airlines' flight 450 from Mobile, Alabama is now arriving at Gate 4." The announcement came over the public address system.

   "There she is." Los Angeles Police Department, Detective Ken Hutchinson looked through the crowd of people coming in through Gate 4. He looked at his best friend, David Starsky, with a big smile on his face. When he saw the brown-haired, brown-eyed doctor, he went over to her.

   It had been three weeks since she had left to go back to Mobile.

   Ken and Judith and met when Judi had been temporarily assigned to Los Angeles when Hutch had contracted the plague. She worked for the Disease Center in Mobile. After Hutch had been cured, Judith had decided to remain in Los Angeles to be with Hutch. They had been together one weekend.

   Before Hutch had contacted the disease, he had developed feelings for Judith and she was starting to fall in love with him. After the crisis was over, she wanted to develop her feelings for him. When the weekend was up and she felt she might have a future with him, she had decided to go back to Mobile, put in her last two weeks of work at the lab and move to Los Angeles to be close to him.

   It had taken her one week after she had fished work to finish up the few loose ends, make arrangements to move, pack up her things and give notice to the place she lived. Now she was landing in Los Angeles and meeting Hutch and David at the airport.

   Hutch spotted her and waved to her as he called her name. He had a big smile on his face and a large bouquet of flowers in his hand.

   "Dock," he said.

   "Yellow Rock," she said.

   They ran to each other, nearly missing hitting a few people on the way.

   David just looked their way and smiled. He knew what Hutch had been doing through the past few weeks. It had been hard for Hutch to say good-bye to her three weeks ago. He knew that Hutch missed her more every day and that Hutch had been counting the days until she returned.

   They embraced and Hutch did not want to let her go.

   "Hi, beautiful."

   "Hi, yourself, handsome."

   He kissed her passionately on the lips as if she had never left him. The last three weeks of longing and missing her all came to a head.

   "Okay, you two," David said after a few minutes. "Let's get out of here."

   "Yeah, yeah, Starsky," said Hutch when they came up for air. He took Judith by the hand and out of the main traffic area of the terminal.

   "Ken, are they for me?" Judith asked when she saw the flowers.

   "They sure are, Doc."

   "Ken, you shouldn't have."

   "Yeah, but I just saw them and thought of you."

   "Ken, I appreciate them." She gave him a big kiss on the cheek.

   "I missed you."

   "I missed you, more."

   "Let's get out of here."

   "First thing, I have to get my luggage."

   "Oh yeah."

   They went over to the revolving luggage rack and she retrieved her luggage. After she had gotten all her suitcases. Judith asked, "where to first?"

   "How about my place?" Hutch suggested. "Then you can drop your stuff off and we can take it from there."

   "Sounds good," she agreed.

   David and Hutch picked up several pieces of her luggage each and they headed towards the parking lot where Hutch had parked his non-descript car.

   Judith and Hutch had their arms around each other's waists as they headed off towards the car and David trailed along behind.

   "I have some good news for you, Doc," Hutch announced as they headed towards the car. "Starsky and I have taken a few days off of work to help you get settled."

   "You guys are the best."

   Actually, David had been on desk duty since Hutch had returned from the hospital and Hutch was on sick leave.

   "Fortunately, things have been a little slow at work and we both had days coming to us."

   "Thanks, Ken."

   By this time, they had reached the car. Hutch opened the trunk and they put the suitcases in the back. Hutch got into the driver's side of the car and Judith got into the passenger's side. She moved over into the middle and David climbed in beside her. They drove out to Hutch's place and everyone help to bring the suitcases into the house

   Once the job was done, David inquired, "what now?"

   "Why don't we order a pizza or something?" Hutch asked.

   "Sounds good," Judith agreed. "They served food on the plane, but I am starved. They never serve enough food."

   "So, pizza, it is. Is there anything you don't like on your pizza?" Hutch asked.

   "Anchovies. I don't like anything that that looks back at me," she answered with a laugh.

   "Good point, neither do Starsky and I."

   "How about Hawaiian pizza? I love pineapple."

   "Okay. Two large pizza deluxe with pineapple and no anchovies." Hutch said.

   "Anything to drink?" David asked.

   "Anything is fine. I like grape, orange, coke, almost anything but root beer or cream soda," she answered.

   David just shrugged his shoulders, "Well, then more root beer for me."

   So they ordered the pizza and spent the rest of the evening eating pizza, laughing and playing Monopoly.

   Judith got to see first hand how rotten a player David was, but she enjoyed the evening, anyway, getting to know Hutch's best friend that much better. And David got to know Judith that much better also.

   When it was time for Judith to go to her hotel room, David dropped her off on his way home.

~~~~~~~~~~

   The next day was Monday.

   Judith woke up in her hotel room. It took her a minute or two to remember she had moved from Mobile, Alabama to Los Angeles. She looked over at her alarm clock - 8 a.m.

   Just then the phone beside her bed rang. Who is calling me at this time of day? She picked up the phone. The person on the other end said, "Hello, beautiful."

   "Ken?"

   "Yupper. In the flesh. Hey, wait a minute, who else calls this time of morning and calls you beautiful?"

   She giggled, "Nobody."

   "How are you doin'?"

   "Great now that I have heard your voice."

   "Missed me, eh?"

   "A bit."

   "Well, are you ready to start looking for a place?"

   "Yes."

   "Okay, beautiful, get up and dressed and Starsky and I will meet you in the coffee shop for breakfast in an hour."

   "Sounds good."

   "Okay."

   "Bye,"

   "Bye." She got up, went and took a shower. Since it was a lazy day, she put on a really smart looking pair of dark green shorts and a long-sleeved light green blouse. A pair of brown sandals completed the ensemble.

   David and Hutch were waiting for her when she entered the coffee shop. They all decided to order the big breakfast - eggs, bacon, home fries, toast and coffee. Hutch had bought the local newspapers. They spent the meal going through the newspapers, checking some of the ads.

   The whole week was spent helping her find a place to live. Some of the places she did like - they were either too small or too big or just not suitable. Finally, on Thursday, they found a place. It was just what she wanted. It was a large, one-bedroom house with a large living room. It was not too far from where Hutch worked and just a few blocks from where Hutch lived.

~~~~~~~~~~

   Now that Judith had found a place to live, it was time to start to look for employment. She had been able to get her severance pay from the job in Mobile and that had helped pay for her moving and first and last months' rent. However, now that she had a place to live, she needed work to help pay for her living arrangements.

   She had gotten her MD degree at the University of Alabama and she had also gone for her Ph.D. at the same university. She had worked at the lab at the Center for Disease Control in Mobile for over ten years. She had enjoyed the work. She traveled extensively throughout that time, but when the opportunity came to move to Los Angeles and possibly finally settle down and get married and have a family, she decided to take the chance.

   She took her time and filled out many applications. Several hospitals were looking for interns. However, she did find out quite by accident that one clinic not far from her new home was looking for a doctor. She arranged for an interview and got an interview within a few days.

   The phone rang at Judi's apartment. It had been several days since she had gone on the job interview at the clinic.

   "Dr. Kaufmann, we have reviewed your application and looked into your references and if you are still interested in working for us, we would be pleased to offer you the position."

   "Dr. Lasky, I would love to work there."

   "Okay. Come in on Monday and we will talk about salary, etc."

   "Thank you, Doctor."

   They both hung up. Judi knew that Starsky and Hutch would want to know the great news. She could not do it over the phone, so she decided to pay Hutch a visit. She was fortunate enough that he had not gone out on a call and was at the office.

   He was sitting at his desk when she arrived. He was talking on the phone. David was sitting at his desk, beside Hutch's. She snuck up behind Hutch and motioned to David not to say anything. After he was finished on the phone, she put her hands up to his eyes and said, "guess who?"

   "My mother?"

   "Nope."

   "Rachel Welch?"

   "Judi?"

   "Awwww. You peeked," she laughed.

   "Hey, what are you doing here?" He rose from his chair and went to stand beside her.

   "I got some great news today and I couldn't wait to tell you."

   "Really? What?" he asked as he pulled her in for a quick kiss.

   "Remember that clinic that I went to the other day?"

   "Yeah."

   "Well, they called a little while ago. I start on Monday."

   "Hey, that's great."

   David got up from his desk and gave her a congratulatory hug. "You know, this calls for a celebration."

   "Yeah, party, party." she said.

   "Let me take you two out for dinner."

   Hutch looked at Judi who was all excited. "Sounds great. What do you say, honey?"

   "Yeah."

   "Okay," Hutch suggested, "you go home and get all dolled up and put on your best dress and Starsky is taking us out to dinner tonight. Any idea where you would like to go?"

   "How about the French restaurant where you took me on our first date?"

   "Then that place it is. How about if I pick you up about eight o'clock? Gives me time to get home and change and shower."

   "Sounds good to me," she agreed.

   He took her hand and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "See you at eight."

   "Congrats again, Judi. See you later," David said.

   "Thanks again, David. Bye."

   She left the squad room and went home.

~~~~~~~~~~

   Hutch picked her up at eight. He was wearing the same medium blue three-piece suit the he had worn on their first date. He looked great as usual.

   She was wearing a short green cocktail dress with spaghetti straps. Her long hair was done in soft ringlets.

   He had a big bouquet of flowers for her.

   "Ken, you should have not bought them for me," she said when she let him into her house.

   "Well, since when do I need an excuse to buy you flowers?"

   "They are lovely."

   "Just like you." He pulled her in for a quick kiss.

   "Thank you. I will go and put them in some water." She said when they came up for air. She broke the embrace and went into the kitchen to get a vase and some water. "What time are we supposed to meet David?"

   "Whenever we make it."

   They left for the restaurant after that. David was waiting for them at the restaurant. Since the dinner hour was past, they were able to get a table right away. David decided to order a nice bottle of wine.

   It was a very pleasant meal. Judith was relieved to finally have a job She had enjoyed life in Los Angeles and wanted to be able to stay in Los Angeles. It was one thing off her mind. During the time she had been searching for a job, she had been able to make some semblance of her life. She had taken her time sifting through boxes of things she had moved from Mobile and the house was slowly but surely starting to resemble a home and not just a place with boxes everywhere.

THE END