"O'Hara!" Juliet cringes at the much-dreaded sound of her name. She stops in her tracks, knowing there's no way out of this. Thanks chief, she mutters internally, you couldn't have waited until I was out of the building to tell him. Taking a deep breath, Juliet bites her lip, and turns around to face Lassiter.
"What the hell is going on?" he demands sternly, his face stricken with its usual severity, but this time with a hint of desperation. Carlton clenches his jaw and waves her letter of resignation in the air between them. "This had better be a joke."
Juliet opens her mouth to explain, but no words come out, so she shrugs her shoulders and shakes her head lightly.
Lassiter's eyes widen in disbelief. "Four years of working together and all you can give me is a blank stare? No!" he shouts, crumpling the paper and tossing it sideways in anger. "You're going to tell me what this is about, and you're going to do it now," he demands, his voice loud enough to garner a significant amount of unwanted attention throughout the precinct.
"Can we not do this out here?" Juliet begs, feeling like a victim of Lassiter's interrogation. Irritatedly, he extends an arm toward a nearby office and follows her inside, shutting the door behind him.
They stand in silence for a minute as Juliet gathers her thoughts.
Carlton paces across the room, running a hand through his hair and over his face in distress. "I'm racking my brain here trying to figure out what I did wrong, but I've got nothing," he admits. "Juliet, you've never once expressed the slightest interest in transferring out of SBPD and now all of a sudden, out of the blue, you decide to up and leave? Look, I know I'm not an easy person to work with, but- am I really a terrible partner?" he asks, searching for answers.
"No. God no!" she assures him. "It's nothing like that. This doesn't have anything to do with you Lassiter," she lies through her teeth, strategically avoiding his piercing blue eyes. There's a knot in her stomach. "I just- think it's time for a change."
"But we're a team," he reminds her. "And a goddamn good one at that! You're the only person around here I can stand working with. Please, don't leave me alone with Spencer!" he begs in attempt to lighten the mood. But Juliet just smiles somberly.
"I'm sure you'll manage."
"O'Hara-"
"I-" but she can't say what she's thinking. Not aloud anyway. Her feelings are inconsequential- expressing them won't change anything. Or at least, that's what she's convinced herself. "I have to go."
Lassiter sighs in annoyed defeat but lets her walk away.
Juliet darts into the hall where she almost collides with Shawn.
"Woah, Jules slow down," he urges, immediately noting that something is off. But she pushes past him, in no mood to be the subject of his pseudo-psychic visions.
Shawn purses his lips and glances sideways just in time to catch a glimpse of Lassie kicking a trash can in anger. He swiftly ducks his head into the office. "You'd be rubbish at soccer," Shawn notes with wry amusement, letting the pathetic pun hang in the air just long enough to annoy the detective. "Hey, so what's up with Jules?"
"You tell me," Lassiter orders, clearly pissed off. "She just quit her job."
Shawn's expression immediately fades into a muddle of confusion, shock and determination to get to the bottom of this mysterious news.