Summary: Most of it's in Shawn's nature. Forgetting important stuff, the random thought process and the endless tangents. All par for the course. It's the grinning that really gives him away. He's happy. So, yeah, Gus is sure she's the one. Shules.
Disclaimer: I own fire hockey. That's about it.
A/N: Okay, so originally this was just gonna be a one-shot that I had named Unless Fire Hockey Kills Us First, which you'll understand after reading this, but then I wrote another one-shot that was secretly just a continuation of this. My muse can be sneaky like that. So I'm gonna put them together in a two-shot. Hope you enjoy!
And, for the record, both parts take place a little ways into the future. This part about three years and the next one about five years. It's a little less obvious in this one so I thought I'd just forego any potential confusion.
That's all. Read on, my dear friends, read on!
Essence of Grinning
Part One
"Hey, Gus!" Shawn yelled through the Psych office, letting the plastic grocery bags he was carrying fall to the floor near the entrance. "I'm here! I told you I'd be in today! Hey, remember that game we invented yesterday? Well, I made up a better version that I'm thinking we could try out. Now, I went by the hardware store but they were all out of propane, so I got a blow torch that, in theory, should produce similar results."
As he talked, he walked the short distance through their office and to the desk area. They'd never really come up with official names for the inside of their office; there was no lobby or waiting area, no professional space or office. Well, the whole building was the office, so calling any part of it by the same name would just get confusing.
Shawn liked to call the little hallway before you could see their desks John and the area where their desks and lockers resided Yoko. That's what he called them in his head, anyway. Gus had never really caught on to his master plan and mostly they just said desks and entrance.
"Hey," Shawn finally spotted his best friend, sitting on top of his desk. Willy, Shawn had named it. His own desk was Charlie but, again, that had never really caught on. They usually just used their own names to specify the furniture or, if they had a new client, the meticulously clean one and the one with the Pineapples. "So, whaddya think? Blow torch? Propane? They're pretty much the same, right?"
"No." Gus said shortly.
Shawn didn't take his tone to mean anything. This new game they'd created yesterday had caused a few sparks between them. Literally. No matter what Gus said, they really were just sparks. Maybe one flame. But it defiantly hadn't been a fire.
"Look, I got more fire extinguishers, too," he tried to placate his best friend, "So stop giving me that look. I swear, the fire department cannot sue us. I looked it up."
"What did you do today, Shawn?" Gus's voice was purposely calm and even. It was his I know something you don't know tone and Shawn more often than not came out on the other side of it feeling like an idiot.
Still, he had no choice but to play along. "Uh, I woke up, went for a jog, drank some decaf coffee with that pineapple flavoring you bought me last month, watched Dawson's Creek reruns for a few hours, checked my MySpace, got a new high score on Pacman, went to the hardware store and bought the blow torch and every single fire extinguisher in the place – plus some fire resistant tarps – then I came here and now I'm thinking maybe that was a mistake."
Gus kept staring at him with his eyebrows raised and an expectant look on his face. "C'mon, dude," Shawn whined, pushing a few things over so he could sit on top of Charlie and face his friend. "Quit with that look. You know I hate it."
Gus kept staring.
"It reminds me of my father."
Gus crossed his arms, obviously not budging.
"Okay, so I take it I did something stupid?" Shawn guessed, trying to sound hopeful. Gus gave him a pained expression. "Right. Something stupider than fire hockey?"
"As hard as it is to believe." Gus nodded.
"And you're not even gonna give me a hint?"
"You're the one with the super powerful, death trap, solid steel photographic memory." Gus said haughtily, "Figure it out."
"Right," Shawn nodded. He couldn't really be upset, because his memory was a photographic, super powerful, steel death trap that he bragged about more often than not. So he pretty much deserved this. "Well, I know I didn't do anything illegal," he said, "Except for that thing last week with the water tower. No one found out about that, right?"
Gus shook his head negatively and Shawn breathed a sigh of relief. That would have been one hell of a fine. "Okay," he clucked his tongue thoughtfully, "I know I paid my rent on time and you handle all the bills here. Did I forget to mail something?"
"I do everything online," Gus informed him, arms still crossed, "But you're getting closer."
"With bills?" Shawn asked skeptically, "Dude, I only have a few. And none are due for, like…I dunno, another week or something."
He raised his eyebrows again and Shawn got it. "Oh. Not bills. Forgetting. I forgot something?"
Gus nodded sharply.
Shawn rubbed his hands together, cracked a few fingers and dived right in, "Okay, here goes. A major landmark?" Gus wasn't even giving him that much of a hint. "No holidays that I know of. Your birthday's not for four months, my dad's is in December, Jules' was last month – how awesome was that carnival thing, right?" Shawn smiled, trying to get his friend to break. He got nothing.
"Oh, c'mon, man. That was a great idea! I reenacted the typical ninth grade, first real date thing. Complete with walk along the beach, giant stuffed animal, goldfish, corndogs, Ferris wheel. Well, the Ferris wheel bit was more at the college spring break level, but you know what I mean."
Gus didn't so much as crack a smile.
"Fine." Shawn sighed, "I know it's not a birthday. The only anniversary I have to remember is, ya know, mine and Jules. And I do 'em all, man. First time we met, five years ago last January. I took her to that little crap shack diner, sat down next to her, pretended not to know her, flirted with her…it was straight out of a friggin' Hallmark card and you know it."
Gus remained stony with silence.
"Um…the first time we kissed. Two years last March. I thought taking her back to the bridge where that guy almost killed her would be less than romantic, so I did the whole traditional candle lit dinner thing." Shawn wasn't really aware if it, but he had this stupid, goofy grin on his face, "You helped me, remember? That restaurant your doctor client guy's son owns? She loved that."
Shawn's gaze was drifting farther and farther away, he didn't notice that his best friend's expression had softened or that he'd uncrossed his arms.
"The anniversary of our second date," Shawn chuckled. "My first second date ever. Remember, I told you I wanted to do something exciting and dangerous? 'Cause, well, you know me. Second date; enough said. And you thought she'd never, ever go for it. But that first year I got her to go water skiing. And then, last month, we went sky diving. God, she was so into it. I didn't tell you this, but I was the one who almost chickened out up there. Jules said something about me being fearless, taking away her fear. I kissed her and she…well, she grabbed me and pulled me out of the plane."
Gus laughed at that, "Yeah, I kinda figured that was the way it went."
"The first time we said I love you," Shawn licked his lips, thoughts still so far away from Gus and the Psych office that it seemed almost pointless to try to bring him back, "I ordered that thing of candy off the internet. It was supposed to me a mix of M&M's, those little Valentine's Day candy hearts, Hershey Kisses…"
"That all said I love you," Gus recalled, and if Shawn had been paying attention at all, he'd have noticed that there wasn't even a trace of anger or impatience left in his voice. "Yeah, I remember."
He laughed again, "But I didn't read the fine print, and we ended up with twenty pounds of all that candy, not the one pound I thought I'd specified when I'd ordered it. God, she still has some of that candy, in a flower vase in her living room. You know, I don't think those candy heart's expire and I'm afraid to open any of the Hershey Kisses. We ate all the M&M's."
"Of course you did," Gus chuckled. "And she ate all the red ones first and you ate all the green ones. Because you're a sappy, romantic fool."
Shawn finally managed to pull himself out of his Jules induced trance at his friend's words. Gus was shaking his head back and forth fondly and for just a moment, Shawn forgot what they'd been talking about in the first place. "Huh?"
"A sappy, romantic fool who needs to get a palm pilot." Gus amended, and wasted no more time in taking the little piece of paper that he'd been hiding in his pocket out and shoving it in his friend's face.
Shawn's eyes went wide the moment he saw it. "Damn it!" He swore. "The ring. I forgot to pick up the ring. Mr. Harping said he'd only hold it for one day because it's special order and everybody wants it and-and-and I only had today to pick it up and ordering another one will take two months and I have that thing all planned out and I-I told you not to let me forget the ring. You knew I'd forget the ring. And I said I wouldn't but I did and now everything's ruined and I'll have to go get a ring out of a cracker jack box and do they even put toys in cracker jack boxes anymore? Jules won't want to marry a guy who gives her a wedding ring that smells like Carmel popcorn. No, Jules wants to marry a guy who can remember to pick up the damn ring and I…"
He'd jumped off his desk halfway through his rant and was now pacing back and forth on the carpet at an accelerated pace.
"Dude," Gus said loudly after Shawn had trailed off, causing the other man to stop his pacing and look up. His expression was a mix of anger, irritation, disappointment and sadness; none of which were normally apparent on Shawn Spencer. "Don't you think you're being a little over dramatic?"
"Over dramatic?" Shawn parroted, amazed with his friend's lack of compassion. "Didn't you hear what I just said? Today is the only day I had to go pick up that damn ring. Hell, I didn't eve have today. I had this morning. And this morning is long over and Mr. Harping probably sold it and…Jules is never gonna wanna marry a guy who can't even remember to go pick up the damn ring."
"Maybe not," Gus agreed, making Shawn's heart plummet just a little as he hung his head low, "But do you think she'd settle for a guy whose best friend remembered to pick up the damn ring?"
Shawn's head snapped up just in time to see Gus pull the little velvet navy blue box out of his pocket and toss it in his direction. He caught it with both hands and wasted no time in opening it up.
He smiled the second he saw it. It was identical to the picture in the magazine. The picture in the magazine that Jules insisted she hadn't been staring at longingly - over a year and a half ago.
They'd been at a restaurant just outside the city limits and Shawn had been coming back from the bathroom halfway through their meal when he'd spotted the magazine on the table in the little area where people normally waited for seats to become available.
He'd seen the page number earlier, as Jules had quickly shut the magazine and put it down, claiming that she hadn't been staring at all; but it was only after coming out of the bathroom that he picked up the booklet and opened it back up to the page she'd been on.
He didn't know exactly what had possessed him to rip out the page, stuff it in his wallet and keep it there for over a year, but he was damn glad that he had. Maybe he knew, even back then, within their first few months of dating, that he'd be here eventually. Wanting to be with her the rest of her life. Wanting to marry her, have kids with her, and maybe even move to a suburb with her. Maybe. If she really, really wanted to.
That's how far his love for her went. He was willing to move to a suburb to make her happy.
It was that moment, that one tiny decision in that restaurant that had stale bread and expensive wine that he couldn't even remember the name of anymore, that he'd decided, known and predicted their future.
The silver diamond engagement ring staring up at him from that little box proved it. This time, he hadn't missed his moment.
"Dude," he looked back up at Gus, completely dumbfounded, "But how…I hadn't paid for it yet."
In response to this, Gus held up a hand, signaling for him to hold on a second. He walked around his desk, opened a drawer and pulled something else out. Shawn shut the ring box, tucking it securely in his pocket, and was ready to catch the next item Gus threw at him.
"My checkbook," he nodded as he opened it to what would have been the next available blank check. The amount was already filled in. Along with Gus's name and the date.
"All ya gotta do is sign it," he said, and tossed him a pen a moment later.
Shawn wasted no time in doing just that, ripping out the check and handing it to his best friend moments later. "I owe you." He said, shoving the little book back into his own desk. "Seriously, anything you want, just name it."
"I'll get back to you on that," Gus nodded, and Shawn knew that he would.
"So…" Shawn hopped up onto Charlie again, the box making a comfortable bulge in his pocket, "I'm really gonna do this. I'm gonna ask her to marry me."
"That's been the plan for over three months," Gus nodded. He too sat back down on Willy. "Don't tell me you're getting cold feet."
"Nah," Shawn shook his head, "Nope, no cold feet."
"Good." Gus nodded.
"Yup, I'm cool as a cucumber."
"Glad to hear it." He nodded again, studying his friend carefully.
"I mean, I have it all planned out. Romantic and insanely girly. Just like she's always wanted." Shawn went on.
"Willing to sacrifice looking cool to impress your woman," Gus pointed a single finger at him. "That shows real commitment."
"I'll be giving her a fairy tale." He was swinging his legs back and forth just a little.
"Every woman's dream," Gus agreed, thought for a second, and then, "Well, Juliet's dream, anyway. It'll be good, man. Stop stressing."
"I'm not stressing."
"Okay."
"Really, I'm not." Shawn insisted.
"I know," he agreed.
"Right. Like you said, it's been planned for months. I've got everything worked out." He kept nodding to himself, not really meeting Gus's gaze for more than a second or two at a time. "Without a hitch. It's gonna go off without a hitch. I've covered all the bases. Every possible road bump. I took the car to the shop last week, there's absolutely nothing that would make it stall or die on us. I've got three different routes planned incase of traffic, four umbrella's in the car incase of rain. Hell, I'll even have a picnic basket in the trunk incase the restaurant is closed for some reason or, ya know, it burns down between now and then."
"And who's making this picnic dinner?" Gus asked skeptically, seeing the only possible flaw in his friend's plan.
"Boston Market." Shawn answered, and got Gus's nod to go on. As long as Shawn wasn't cooking, everything was fine.
"I've talked to Lassiter and The Chief and they both guarantee absolutely no interruptions that night. No pages, no homicides that need her input, no paperwork. No emergencies."
"Do either of them know what you're planning?" Gus inquired.
"Just the Chief," Shawn said. "She's happy as can be. Got all emotional, actually. I think she might be pregnant again."
Gus ignored that comment and asked instead, "Have you told your dad?"
"Nope."
"Are ya gonna?"
"Nope."
Gus nodded, "Alright then."
Shawn's relationship with his father had gotten significantly better over the past few years, but there was no way in hell he'd give Henry the opportunity to make him nervous about this. No. Shawn was sure - beyond sure - that this was what he wanted. He had Gus's blessing and that was all he needed.
Well, Chief Vick smiling brightly and blinking back tears as she hugged him tightly hadn't exactly been a deterrent, either.
The two best friends were silent for several long minutes, both lost in their own thoughts. It might have continued on longer, that silence, but Shawn was still Shawn. He may have calmed down a little over the last few years, but he would always be Shawn. And that meant no extended silences ever.
Nothing could change the pseudo-psychic; change the core of who he was or his views on life or his attitude towards it. If anyone ever tried…well, they wouldn't have Gus's approval, that was for damn sure.
Juliet let Shawn be himself. Loved him for who he was. And that, Shawn knew, only came around once in a lifetime.
"What if she says no?" Panic was the overriding emotion there as he snapped his head up to look at Gus. The other man didn't seem surprised.
"What if she does?" He countered.
Shawn's eyes widened. "She's gonna say no?"
"I doubt it," Gus waved a hand, "But if she does, what would you do?"
"I…I…" Taking a deep breath, Shawn pulled himself away from his increasing panic and actually thought about the question. What if she said no? "I know I love her," Shawn said, thinking out loud. "And I know she loves me."
Gus nodded, "Right. And do you think you're both ready for marriage?"
"I'm thirty-two, she's thirty," Shawn listed, "We've talked about settling down, danced around the subject a little."
"Okay," Gus nodded, urging him to go on.
"She wants a dog," Shawn chuckled, "A big dog. A golden retriever or a lab. Her dad was allergic so she could never have one as a kid. Then she started working and moving around a lot. She didn't think it'd be fair to have one since she was always so busy. But she wants a dog."
"You always were a dog person," Gus shrugged, "You just never had a dog. It's fitting."
Shawn was grinning again, "She's always complaining about the size of the kitchen in her apartment. She wants a bigger one, so she can cook more often. She cooked a lot at home, but pretty much gave it up after she started college. She has this family recipe for these little popcorn chicken things. Well, I guess you can make them with anything – shrimp, roast, pork, even tofu, not that she ever would – it's just the breading. It's so out this world. It's got this mix of spices that's just…I don't know, man, but I'd sell my soul for these things. I keep meaning to bring you some, but every time she makes them I end up eating all of them."
Gus shook his head fondly, "Yeah, that sounds about right."
"And cake," he laughs outright, "She likes cake just fine, who doesn't? But frosting? Damn. I mean, I actually sat there and watched her eat a whole thing of frosting in the course of one movie. So, last week, I was bored, right? I tried to make her a whole cake out of just frosting. It didn't exactly work," he shrugged and looked a little sheepish, "But we had fun with the end result."
"I think you guys could have fun with anything," Gus said, eyeing his friend critically.
"We did that undercover thing that one time. Remember? The nanny scam? She had this whole wedding and married life all planned out and I asked her once if that was the way she really wanted it and she said…she said that that was just a dream, and how often do dreams come true?"
Shawn was lost in his own thoughts again, far away from Gus and everything else in the world that wasn't related to the woman he loved. He was still grinning, too. "And I said, I told her that sometimes they could, come true. It was the sappiest, corniest thing I've ever said in my life, but she just smiled and said, 'Yeah, maybe sometimes they do.' And I knew, ya know? I knew she was the one."
"Yeah, I know she's the one, too," Gus agreed, and once again, his words pulled Shawn out of his haze.
"Huh?"
"You were doing it again."
"Doing what? What am I doing?" Shawn asked, feeling somewhat lost.
"That thing you do when you're talking about Juliet," Gus explained, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards into a smile, "You'll start off talking about one thing and then you'll get all distracted just thinking about her and you'll segue into all these other random stories and tangents and you'll keep going until you totally forget what you were talking about in the first place."
Shawn cringed, knowing his friend was right. "Sorry, dude. That must get annoying."
Gus rolled his eyes, "Only when you do it with a potential client," he said, "Other than that…" he shrugged, eyes darting sideways, "It's kinda nice."
"Aw, Gus, ya old softy," Shawn cooed teasingly, "You're such a romantic."
"Please, Shawn," he scoffed, brushing some imaginary lint off his shirt, "If I am, it's only because I've been hanging around you too long."
"I've brought to life," he said dramatically, raising his arms out in front of him, "What was asleep inside of you. I'm like your guru."
"Put a cork in it, Spencer."
"Your guide," he went on, ignoring Gus's words all together, "Your romantic segue. Your own personal cupid. I should get an arrow," he gasped. "Or a cape. Or one of those bright orange sticks that they use to guide airplanes down the runway. Actually, I think I have one of those in the back of my closet. I should go get it and paint little hearts on it. I'm guiding your heart safely down the runway," he pretended to get chocked up, "Dude, that's so poetic. I should totally send it to Oprah."
"You wanna play fire hockey?" Was Gus's last attempt to get Shawn to quit mocking him, and, since this was Shawn, it worked like a charm.
"Oh, hell yes!" He exclaimed, jumping off his desk and heading for the front door. "Now," he called out "using the fire extinguishers counts as an automatic ten point penalty, unless you're putting out a fire the other man started, then it's twenty points and you have to move back two spaces."
"Spaces?" Gus repeated just as Shawn was walking back towards him. He was holding a few plastic bags in one hand and the game Candy Land up triumphantly in the other.
"Now, it took some effort, but I actually found a miniature pineapple and a miniature little sample case to use instead of the regular game people," Shawn explained all this as he set up the board on his desk.
"You know, the first version of this game wasn't so complex." Gus pointed out as he got close enough to see what he was actually getting himself into. "These are the cards from Monopoly."
"Well, we can't use the normal ones for fire hockey, now can we?" Shawn looked at him like this was the most obvious thing in the world and Gus just rolled his eyes.
Next up on the desk was the blow torch, a few tennis balls and a dog bone. Gus was beginning to regret this.
"Hey, Shawn, before we die," Gus started seriously, causing the other man to stop trying to light the match that was in his hand.
"What?" Shawn asked when he didn't continue. "We have fire insurance. I checked."
"She's gonna say yes."
Shawn's eyes softened and he grinned that wide, goofy grin of his. "Ya think?"
Gus shook his head, "She's gonna say yes." He repeated. And he believed it, would bet anything on it. "I know."
"Thanks, buddy." Shawn clasped his shoulder lightly, still grinning.
"Yup," Gus nodded again, then glanced down at the various items spread across his friend's desk, cringed at the very thought of the game Shawn had invented and amended his prediction slightly, "Unless fire hockey kills us first."
Fin
A/N: Hope you enjoyed. Hey, don't forget to review! We love reviews. And I'll be posting part two within a day or so.