A/N: There is a major character death. You've been warned. Proceed with caution.
Originally written for the I believe challenge on . If interested in it the prompts are in my bio on here.
He stood at the podium, his eyes glued to the floor, and his hands folded on top of the other as he rested them on the stand. You could tell that he was nervous, that he was fighting an overwhelming amount of emotions. The piece of paper that he had under his palms had words that he couldn't manage to read. The words were written clearly but that wasn't the problem. His eyes were starting to become blurred by the tears forming in at the edges. No matter how hard he tried to keep them locked away he still managed to let a couple slip.
Gus stood in the front of the room trying to find the courage to speak in front of all the people before him. He tried to form the words to speak, but his tongue continued to lay still, unwilling to cooperate. Gus wanted to lift his stare from his neatly polished dress shoes to the people sitting in the chairs before him, waiting for him to speak. There were people that he had never seen before sitting among familiar faces that had tears running down their faces. He tried to do what Shawn would do if he were up there about to give a speech in front of all of these people.
-Flashback-
Gus could feel the uneasiness in his stomach as Shawn, his best friend, fell to his knees after the shot rang out. He could feel the fear swelling in his throat and yet all he could do was stay hidden behind the barrel that he had been crouching behind.
The day had started out as a normal day until Shawn had solved the case that they had been working on alongside detectives Lassiter and O'Hara. They were supposed to meet them at the abandoned warehouse about ten miles past city limits. For the first time in a long time the two detectives had beaten them there and had already gone inside. Gus knew that it was a bad idea for them to go inside, he had an odd feeling about it, but Shawn blew it off as the after effects of the breakfast burrito he had eaten roughly an hour prior to their arrival.
Gus known that he shouldn't have let his best friend enter the building. He knew that now as he watched his best friend pull a bloodied hand away from his abdomen. He heard Lassiter take out the shooter and within seconds Gus was next to Shawn. He helped him lay on his back and put his hand over Shawn's to help keep the wound from bleeding. The blood was making Gus's stomach scream at him, but he fought the urge to vomit, mainly because his best friend needed him to keep his composure, but it was his best friend's blood being all over his hands that made him almost pass out.
The gunshot wound was dead center of his abdomen right below the chest. He heard Juliet kneeling beside him asking why he would do something so dumb. She asked him why he would take a bullet for her. She was the cop and he was the civilian and this wasn't supposed to happen, ever, at least not to the people that she loved.
Shawn's breaths were raspy and a line of blood rand down the side of his mouth.
"G-gus? I-I need y-you to tell my dad that I love him. C-can you d-do that?" Shawn's voice was strained and he spoke between gritted teeth and blood.
"Of course, but you're gonna be okay Shawn. Just hold on the ambulance is almost here." Gus was holding back the tears that were trying to clog his throat.
"J-jules, I don't want you to feel guilty. I'm glad that I took the bullet for you. I-I love you. I love y-you and G-gus." His voice was becoming pain filled.
"Shawn, I love you to. I always have." Juliet's eyes were failing at hiding her tears.
"You're my best friend Shawn, you're my brother, I can't lose you because I love you too. I need you, Shawn. Please, keep fighting, you have to." Gus had tears streaming down his face.
"I know you do Gus, b-but it's time, my time. S-sometimes things happen that we can't c-control but t-that's the thing about l-life, nobody can c-control the f-future." Shawn could no longer feel the pain and somehow his breathing was coming easier to him. Death was upon him and he knew it.
He could see detective Lassiter standing to the side with an expression on his face that clearly shown fear, anger, and pain.
"Lassie-face, keep an eye on Jules for me, would ya? And whatever you do always b-be y-you because t-that is what m-makes y-you the b-best detective Santa B-Barbara has ever had. I'm honored to c-call you a co-worker and f-friend." Shawn's eyes were starting to grow heavy and his pulse was weak, extremely weak.
"Shawn, you're going to be fine. The paramedics will be walking through that door at any moment." Lassiter couldn't let his emotions show through not verbally.
"You c-called me Sh-shawn." A smile grew on his bloodied lips. "I-I can s-see the most b-beautiful light, G-gus." Shawn grabbed his best friends hand and held onto it. "T-there's a man, he's t-telling me it's t-time."
"Shawn, hold on. Please, Shawn don't leave me." Gus had streams of tears rolling down his face.
"I'm w-warm and I c-can't feel anymore p-pain. It's t-time. I-I…" Shawn let out his last breath before he finished what he was saying.
"No, Shawn! Please! Come back!" Gus's voice squeaked. "Don't leave me." No matter how squeamish blood made him Gus leaned his head against Shawn's chest and let out a sob that he could no longer control.
-End Flashback-
Gus thought that he could feel his best friend standing beside him with a smile on his face. He thought he could feel Shawn resting his hand on his back, and that is when he began his speech, but not the one he had written on the piece of paper.
"I believe… I believe that heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless the consequences…"
A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed this, even though it was very depressing. I'll admit I cried my eyes out while writing it. Actually I had to stop typing and regain my composure. I'm not one to write this kind of fic.
This is complete so there will be no more updates.
Please leave me a review and thank you so much for reading.
-ElmerFudFry-