"Are you sure Detective Lassiter won't mind?" Buzz asked, looking around nervously as he unlocked the precinct door and stepped inside.
"Of course not!" Shawn snorted, following closely behind. "I told you. I just forgot my Alf Pez dispenser this afternoon and I need it."
"Why do you need it?"
"Buzz." Shawn sighed, rolling his eyes as if the answer should be obvious to anyone. "It's an Alf Pez dispenser."
"Right."
Buzz continued inside the station, flicking on some lights as they passed the empty desks stacked with paper work that had been left for tomorrow.
"And you forgot it…on Detective Lassiter's desk?" He murmured doubtfully, glancing back at Shawn.
"In his desk, actually…" Shawn corrected him, clearing his throat.
"How did it get in--"
Shawn waved the question off breezily.
"It's a long story, Buzz, involving totally unjust accusations, an irritable Irish cop, and perhaps one too many cherry Pez flying across the precinct into people's open mouths….namely, the open mouth of a certain irritable Irish cop."
Buzz blinked slowly, trying to process all the new information.
"Were you playing Pez basketball again?" He asked, finally interpreting the story.
"And I was winning, too…" Shawn sighed, nodding. "Until the basket stole the Pez dispenser and threatened to arrest me for assaulting an officer if I didn't stop."
Buzz rolled his eyes as they finally reached Detective Lassiter's desk.
"I told you he doesn't like Pez."
"Everyone likes Pez!" Shawn insisted, absolutely refusing to believe such a thing was possible. "It's Pez!"
Buzz laughed, looking down at the desk in front of them.
"Uh…he keeps it locked." He told Shawn. "He doesn't like people going through his stuff."
Shawn grinned and pulled out a set of keys, letting them swing jauntily back and forth in front of Buzz's eyes.
"I know."
"You have a key to his desk?" Buzz gasped, horrified.
"Maybe…" Shawn shrugged nonchalantly, quickly finding the right one and inserting it into the center desk drawer. "Maybe the desk came with a spare key…and maybe Lassie thinks the spare is taped to the bottom of the photocopier…even though maybe someone accidentally replaced it with a key to a twenty year-old bike lock…"
He grinned as the drawer popped open. He quickly pulled it all the way out and glanced through the pristine piles of paper work and neatly organized collection of paper clips, all organized by size, of course.
"Don't touch anything." Buzz warned. "He'll know…he always knows."
But Shawn wasn't listening. He had already grabbed his Alf Pez dispenser, which had been flung carelessly to the back of the drawer.
Like it was discarded trash!
He brushed it off and lovingly dropped it back in his pocket.
"Okay…" he told Buzz, shutting the drawer and locking it again. "We can go."
He turned on his heel, ready to walk back through the precinct to the front door, but as he did a sound caught his ear.
It was faint…almost imperceptible…but it was definitely there…whatever it was…
He paused, his ears perking and his eyes narrowing as he strained to hear it again.
What is that…?
"What?" Buzz asked, watching him intently. "Are you getting a psychic vision?"
"No…" Shawn murmured, holding his hand up silence. "You can't hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"It sounds like…a beeping…"
"I don't--" Buzz started to say, but never finished his thought. At that moment, the building was rocked by a deafening explosion. Shawn was thrown back in a hail of wood and brick as the floor beneath him was suddenly ripped open in a burst of flames, heat and smoke.
He hit Lassiter's desk, bashing the back of his head off the corner as he started to fall…
Fall…
Even through the excruciating pain ripping through his head, he was still aware of the falling…
In fact, it was all he was aware of…all he could think about…
The ringing in his ears was so loud he couldn't even hear his own cries, or Buzz's, and the pain surging through every inch of his body was so intense he couldn't focus on anything but the falling…
He could see the debris falling around him…furniture…bricks…wood…
Just before he hit the ground…just before he was plunged into the silent, painful black unconsciousness…he had one last thought.
They don't know we're here…
They won't be looking for us…
They don't know we're here…