The basic idea for the first paragraph of this story came to me late - and I do mean late - one night as the start of a High School Musical story, but I had been in the mood to try my hand at writing Psych, specifically Lassiet, so I altered it to become the first paragraph below and just kept writing to see where it took me. Enjoy!
The thoughts that that broke through the mother of all headaches were these: She was in Vegas. She was wearing a wedding band. There was a man in bed with her, and she knew by his scent alone - gunpowder and real cologne, not pineapples and awful knock-off cologne - that he wasn't Shawn. And above all she knew that every bit of this was absolutely vodka's fault.
She really should be more concerned about the particulars of this situation then what she was, and if she weren't so hung over, she probably would be, but she isn't. And mostly that was because the scent that covered this man, her, and the bed that they were in was – although a faint one – a familiar one. She had known it for years, and yet she couldn't place it to begin with.
So she kept her eyes closed and tried to decide whether or not it was worth opening her eyes. The very sunlight coming through her eyelids was making her feel like someone was running a jackhammer through her head, so heaven knew what was going to happen when she opened her eyes.
But then it clicked, She realized who exactly was lying beside her.
Juliet sat straight up, ignoring the agony that shot through her just as the man in question rolled over in the bed and moved to throw an arm over her nude body. Instead he ended up hitting her in the nose.
"Ow!" she yelped, grabbing her nose.
"What is it?" the man beside her asked sleepily, blinking as he sat up much slower then she had. "What's wrong, baby?"
"Baby!" Juliet shrieked, ignoring the nearly unbearable pain in her head and refusing to acknowledge the discomfort in lower parts of her body as she flung the covers off, getting up out of the bed.
She was horrified to realize anew that the only thing that she was wearing was her birthday suit as she ran around the hotel room, grabbing her clothes and pulling them hurriedly on. Once she was fully dressed, she took a deep breath before turning back to the man, who was still sitting stupidly up in the bed that they had obviously shared the night before and had been watching her run around the room like a headless chicken.
She planted her hands on the edge of the dressing table, staring at him out of the corner of her eye before she looked him full in the face, saying fiercely, "Do not call me 'baby' ever again, am I clear, Carlton Lassiter?"
Carlton shook his head slowly, seeming to be coming to himself as he frowned at the blankets, muttering, "'Baby?"
"You called me 'baby' less than two minutes ago," Juliet said tersely.
Carlton groaned, leaning back against the headboard and closing his eyes as he asked, "What the h*** did we do last night? Wait a second!" he paused to look wildly at the ring on his ring finger, asking sharply. "What in the name of the seven levels of h*** is this?!"
"That," Juliet groaned, plopping down on the edge of the bed. "Is a wedding band."
"Wedding…?" Carlton muttered, starting to look much more like himself – sans the fact that he was still naked, anyway. "Oh, please, sweet mother of all that is holy, tell me we did not do something that stupid last night!"
"What do you think we did, then, Carlton?" Juliet snapped.
"Then we can – we can just get an annulment, and go home, and forget that this ever happened," Carlton said decidedly, putting his head in his hands.
"No, we can't," Juliet said flatly. "You can't get an annulment once you've," she waved her hand around in the air, blushing and feeling dirty for even saying the next word. "Consummated a marriage."
Carlton groaned and started to beat his head against the headboard with his eyes still closed, but stopped instantly, actually whimpering when he realized just how much extra pain it was causing him. "So we get a divorce before we go back to Santa Barbara."
"We can't wait around Vegas for a divorce to be finalized; this is only supposed to be a weekend trip! Divorces can take forever to be finalized!"
"I know that!" Carlton growled. "But what else are we supposed to do?"
"Right now," Juliet said, forcing herself to calm down. "You are going to get dressed, then go back to your room and get presentable, and I am going to do the same thing here in my room. Then you're going to meet me in half of an hour down at the dining room where we can get this figured out."
Carlton got out of the bed as Juliet darted inside the bathroom and slammed the door behind herself so that she didn't have to see her partner unclothed – the foggy memories floating back to her of last night were bad enough, she didn't need to see that in the daytime when she was at least half sober. She stood in front of the mirror and ran a brush through her chin-length blonde hair, taking calming breaths as she listened for the sound of Carlton closing her hotel room door as he left. After a couple of minutes, she heard him leave, and released a deep breath before flinging the bathroom door open for a little relief from the claustrophobic conditions of a hotel bathroom. Satisfied with her hair, Juliet brushed her teeth, and then retrieved her makeup bag. Just because she had drunk herself into oblivion the night before didn't mean that she had to look like it the next morning.
She paused as she lifted a mascara wand to her eyelashes, really noticing the wedding ring on her hand for the first time when her eye was caught by the way it glinted in the mirror. She lowered the wand and stared at that ring for a minute, smiling a little despite herself. Although she couldn't remember for the life of herself where she and Lassiter had gotten their rings, hers really was beautiful. A silver band with a crystal clear diamond; small, simple, and maybe even a little understated, but Juliet had to admit that she liked it, in spite of the circumstances that it represented.
Her smile slipped when the thought crossed her mind that this band – or even one like it – wasn't something that she would ever be getting from Shawn. Not after what she had seen him do.
Reviews make my day if you feel so inclined, especially since I'm not sure how good of a job I'm doing at writing these characters. Thanks!:)