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We Need To Talk
(Part 7 in the 'Rosey Malone Series')

By

Sue M

   Rosey Starsky woke up with a start. It was the middle of the night, the second night after she had and the children had returned after their kidnapping ordeal. She reached for her husband, David Starsky -- he was not in bed beside her, like he always was. She got up, put on a bathrobe and went to find him.

   She went downstairs and she found him staring in front of the TV with a test pattern on the screen and a half-full bottle of beer on the coffee table. He had pulled on his usual dark blue pair of pajama bottoms.

   "David, are you there?"

   "Yes, I am here," he said half-heartedly.

   "David, what's the matter?" She knew her husband too well to know when something was troubling him.

   "Nothing."

   "David, I know you too well to know where something is bothering you. You are sitting there staring at the TV with nothing on but the test pattern."

   "Rosey, we need to talk," he said with a lump in his throat.

   She sat down beside him on the couch, "David, what is it?"

   "Rosey, do you still love me?"

   Her heart sank when he said that. "David Michael Starsky, what ever gave you the idea that I had ever stopping loving you?"

   "Something DAS said today when we were at McDonald's."

   "And what did he say?"

   "That you had told Eugene that you loved him and you hated me."

   "David Starsky, you must understand what happened. Eugene started to say that he loved me and that in time I would start to love him."

   "Okay."

   "Yes, and that the children would be his."

   "Really?"

   "David, he has some sort of mental illness that they are going to have to address and as soon as I recognized he was being delusional, I decided to play along with him. I knew that if I worked this to my advantage, eventually I could think of some way to escape."

   "Oh."

   "I may have said that I hated you, but it was only part of the act."

   "Rosey."

   "Do you think that if I had ever stopped loving you, I would have tried to escape?"

   "Nope."

   "And if I did not love you anymore that I would have spend one of the most wonderful evenings of my life with you like we spent tonight?"

   "No."

   She took his hand and put it on her stomach, "And, David Starsky, what is in there?"

   "A baby."

   "Correction, our baby."

   "Yeah."

   "And if I didn't love you, do you think I would want this baby?"

   "Not really."

   "And how do you think you compare to Eugene?"

   "No idea."

   "There is no comparison. He was a nice guy in the beginning, but he needs help. You are the most caring and kind and compassionate man I know."

   "Really?"

   "David Starsky, you have proved that time and time again how much you care for the human race. That is one of the reasons I love you."

   "Oh."

   "And if you still don't think I love you, why would I want to touch you like I touched you earlier?"

   "I don't know."

   "And that I would want to kiss you like this?" She leaned over and kissed him passionately on the lips.

   "No?"

   "And that I would want to hug you like this?" She took him in her arms and gave him a great big bear hug.

   "Terrific."

   "And that I would want to do is run my fingers through your irresistible, curly hair like this?" She removed her hands from behind him and she started to run her fingers through his hair.

   "Rosey, don't stop."

   "David, and that I would want to massage your chest like you know we both enjoy?"

   "Yeah," he said breathlessly to her.

   "Come on, David, let's go upstairs and I will show you other ways that I love you." She whispered in his ear. She took him by the hand and led him upstairs. He stopped to turn off the TV.

   For the rest of the night, she showed him ways in which she loved him and they fell asleep in each other's arms.

THE END