The Heart Knows

Fanfiction
Title:	The Heart Knows
Author(s):	Charlotte Frost
Date(s):	1997
Length:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Starsky & Hutch
External Links:	online here
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

The Heart Knows is a slash Starsky & Hutch story by Charlotte Frost.

It was printed in Heart and Soul #4 and later online.

The Author Comments

One day in the mid 90’s, I was watching an episode of a documentary series. I think it was “Unsolved Mysteries”. There was a story about a man whose friend (I think it was) was serving in Desert Storm in Iraq. The man had an incredibly intense dream about his friend being a POW, and being imprisoned in a room. There was a lone blanket that the prisoner felt very attached to. After the war was over, and the friend returned home, the man found out that his friend had, in fact, been a POW, and every detail in his dream was confirmed by the friend, including the special attachment to the blanket.

Upon seeing that documentary, my mind went into overdrive. I sat down at my computer and started a story where Starsky felt he was extremely thirsty and the sun was the enemy. Turns out, he was experiencing the very things Hutch was experiencing, as someone lost and abandoned in the desert.

I couldn’t write fast enough. I only stopped when my eyes were too strained. I’d wake up in the morning and immediately proceed to the computer. I had a fan friend who called this kind of intense writing “a white heat”.

In addition to the h/c scenario, I was also writing at lightening speed because it was *so* refreshing to write a female character. I don’t remember where Mary Ann came from; I just enjoyed the heck out of writing conversations with her, because they had a freshness that can’t be found in “no vaginas allowed” stories.

When Hutch is found in the desert, I have him “swaying hunched-over like a gorilla” or something like that. One of my betas went “ick” and told me to take it out. I refused, because I thought it gave the image I wanted. Now, I wish I would have taken it out. *g*

I don’t remember everything about this story, but I’m proud of it. I think it’s a good story. I think it has a lot of elements that are well done.

Reactions and Reviews

It almost seems like cheating to rec one of Charlotte's stories, since they always feel like such an obvious choice to me. Her collection is one that I never get tired of rereading, and this (originally published in her zine, "Heart and Soul 4") is one of my favorites from the batch. It's got several elements of SH fiction that I love to see -- an exploration of the inexplicable, near-psychic bond of our boys, a girlfriend who wises up to the Way Things Are much sooner than the guys do, and tons of hurt/comfort. If you've ever read anything by Charlotte, you preeeetty much know how it's going to end, but the fun is all in the journey ;)