Peculiar Foresight
Summary: Gus saw all of this coming, but he still loves his best friend.
Pairings: All very mild. Implied/future- Gus/Juliet & Shawn/Lassiter. Shawn/Juliet. Henry/Madeline mentioned.
Rating: G
Word count: ~725
a/n: Gus POV. set post series'(?) and part of a fic-verse I'm dreaming up on, so I'm hoping I don't get jossed too badly. unbeta-ed(help please?), so all mistakes mine. I've tried to keep true to the show with the few pop culture refs I've made.
Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, no profit derived.
Most writers live for feedback... so do I. :-) would love to know what you think!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Gus loves his best friend. He does.
But now, having dropped off an apologetic, tear-ridden beautiful girl, who worse, has become a very good friend—I'm so sorry to put you in the middle of all this, Gus, but you know how he is— and who is about to break up what is, as far as Gus is concerned, the best thing that has ever happened to said best friend? Gus only feels tired.
Jules is—Jules. Capable, sweet, and ultimately, entirely susceptible to Shawn Spencer's charms in the end. Even though Gus had thought that their shared loved of comics, and his manly courage at risking life and limb in saving her during that skating game(with the crazy girl-robbers), had meant a spark of mutual... something. But when Shawn-and-Jules happened, he didn't mind, really, as everybody he meets at some point gets overwhelmed by Shawn's particular brand of charm, pineapples-Agape and all(a certain Head Detective notwithstanding)— even though very, very few of them stick around after the initial flush fades.
Gus has always been Shawn's. Right from the beginning when they were knobbly-kneed eight year olds out survival-camping with his dad, and were getting beaten up on a regular basis by bullies who'd fallen for the day's scam Shawn had cooked up at school.
They've been doing this, the Psych-Investigations thing for coming up to six years now... and the largest part of Gus, that keeps waiting for the phone call from New Orleans, the postcard from El Salvador, or the letter addressed from someplace else like, like, Bora-bora or Timbuktu has relaxed since the fifth year. So yes, they've changed, expanded, and built up something of a thriving reputation as unorthodox, yet competent consultants— but Shawn is still Shawn, and Gus still has to distract, add-lib, and become human prop whenever Shawn's well-honed sense of drama flares.(It still does, frequently.)
The only person Gus still hasn't quite figured out is Lassiter, who's become the Lieutenant in charge of Serious Crimes Unit(the SBPD had a chain of command restructuring), and in a lot of ways has remained the tight, repressed, disapproving figure as always. The only thing that's changed is that he's not as openly disparaging about Shawn's 'psychic' skills, and is less adamant about their involvement in cases.
Gus isn't sure when it all started to change, but there was that time, when they'd consulted in a joint effort with Sex Crimes, working on a case of missing 5-9year olds, that had his normally capricious friend seldom seen so focused, with minimum guile or artifice, and Gus had been watching. He'd watched the narrow-eyed glances, the sidelong, contemplative consideration the other man had subjected a rarely oblivious Shawn to, during that case, and something, Gus still isn't sure what exactly or when it happened, had changed.
Apart from that, his emotionally fickle sister falling in love, and marrying a single father with 6 year old twins(who were horrors, no matter what Shawn says), and Henry Spencer's renewed, long distance relationship with Shawn's mother(a freaking that took weeks for Gus to weather his friend over), there isn't much else that's taken Gus blindsided.
So yes, despite not having Shawn's special mentalist, observational skills, Gus saw all of this coming. He wasn't surprised when it appeared that Shawn was getting serious beyond puppy-flirtation with Juliet, and, though he'd hoped otherwise for his best friend's sake—he wasn't surprised that it's ending. So he'll consol Jules, and maybe they'll watch Cry Baby(which he'll pretend to hate), or Mars Attacks! together, or he'll take her to the San Diego comic-con. And maybe Gus, who's been quietly waiting all this time, will get the chance to show Juliet he appreciates her knowing the finer points of Martian Manhunter and Aquaman, and their respective places in the JLA, 1994 edition.
As always, he'll be there to catch Shawn, when he realises just what's happened, what it means, for the him that was him-and-Jules, for him—Juliet—Gus, their friendships and work, to help buffer and even things out, and for when Shawn needs the steadiness and constancy that is their friendship. And maybe, maybe Gus will push him to doing a few single consults with Lassiter, so that when Shawn throws himself at Lassiter this time, maybe something might happen, for the both of them. That maybe this time might just be enough. Be the right time.
He hopes.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~