Normally, clients don't show up at the Psych office in the middle of the night.

Normally, clients aren't searching the office for food.

Normally, clients at the Psych office are of age.

And normally, clients don't bring along that much trouble.

But this client is different, and the case might just become the most taxing case our favourite psychic has yet had to deal with. Because he's not exactly working with the police on this one. On the contrary, the SBPD would very much like to talk to Shawn's client themselves, thank you very much. If only Shawn would tell them where he was...

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

The title of the prologue is the first line from the John Denver song "Leaving on a Jet Plane". I don't own that song, either.

Runaway

Prologue: All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go

Santa Barbara, 1987, the Guster residence

It was after dinner, and ten year old Burton Guster climbed up into his tree house in the back garden to read another comic before his mother would call him down for bedtime. He pulled himself up on the rope-ladder, then started rummaging around in search of his flashlight. It wasn't entirely dark yet, but the tree house only had one window, and that was covered by the greenery, making it eerily dark in here even though there was still some light outside.

His fingers didn't close around the flashlight as he had expected, and with a frown Gus started to systematically search the floor. Sometimes it rolled off, the floor of the tree house wasn't totally even, but Gus always took great care to place it somewhere where it wouldn't roll out the door and fall down.

But the flashlight wasn't there, so maybe this time he hadn't taken enough care and it was gone.

"Darn", he muttered under his breath.

"I should tell your Mom to wash out your mouth with soap", a quiet voice said from the dark corner ahead of him. Gus started, badly, nearly falling back out of the door in the process. He grabbed the side of the tree house for support and angrily started crawling over towards the voice.

"Shawn you idiot! Do you want me to fall out?"

There was a low click, then the beam of the flashlight shone, illuminating Shawn's face from his chin up. "It's not my fault that you're so easily scared. Besides, I told you time and again that you need to set some traps up here. Just about anybody can come in here and climb in."

Gus knew that, but the only one who ever did come up here uninvited was Shawn, anyway.

"What are you doing here?"

Wordlessly, Shawn swung the flashlight around in a small arc, illuminating the backpack that was lying next to him. It wasn't tied, and in the short flash of light Gus could just about make out a bag of Cheerios, some clothes and Shawn's favourite remote controlled car stuffed into it.

"What's that supposed to mean, Shawn? You're running away?"

Shawn nodded, and with a sigh Gus sank down to sit beside his friend.

"What happened?"

Shawn nervously started picking a thread on his sweater. "I just can't stay there anymore, Gus."

"What happened?", Gus pressed again.

Shawn shrugged. "He's always on my case. Always complaining, always telling me that I could do things better. Always. Whatever I do, it just isn't good enough. He's trying to ruin my life, and I won't let him. And now he's grounded me again, for absolutely nothing. Just because I didn't do what he wanted me to do."

"Like your homework?", Gus asked with a frown. It wasn't the first time that he had heard his friend say those words, but it was the first time that Shawn had acted upon his threat.

"No, not the stupid homework. I told him I wouldn't play his stupid games anymore. How many hats are in the room? Really. I told him I didn't want to become a darn cop like him, he yelled at me for cursing and told me I was too young to know what's good for me, I yelled back, he grounded me." Shawn shrugged. "Pretty much like that."

Gus knew better than to pry further. He knew Shawn well enough to know that there was more to this story. Probably a lot more cursing had been involved which had been the main reason for his friend getting grounded. But that wasn't important right now. He needed to talk Shawn out of the stupid idea of running away, and quickly at that. Before he got into any more trouble.

"Shawn, that wasn't the first time the two of you fought like that, and I'm sure it won't be the last."

"It will, because I'm not going back!"

Gus sighed. "And what do you want to do?"

Shawn shrugged again. "I don't know. Get away from here. Find another place to stay."

"Really? And where would that be? You're ten years old, Shawn. You can't get a job, or an apartment. And if people find out that you're alone, they're going to figure out who you are and send you back. Your Dad is a cop, Shawn, he's going to find you. It's not going to work. Or do you want to stay up here? Because I can tell you that this is the first place your father will come looking for you."

Shawn sighed dejectedly. "I know. I just needed some time to think this through. And I couldn't grab any food from home, only the Cheerios I still had stashed away in my room. Do you think you can get me something?"

"Yes. But still your Dad is going to come searching for you. And then he is going to come here and question me. And you know that I cannot lie to your father."

"Don't worry about that, Gus. I can't ask you to lie for me, and by the time he realises that I left, I'll be long gone."

Gus thought for a moment, then sighed again. "All right, there should be some leftover chicken from dinner. I could get you that, and some sandwiches. But it might take a moment, I need to make sure that my Mom isn't around.

In the dim light of the flashlight, Gus saw Shawn smile at him. "Thanks mate. As soon as I've found a place, I'll let you know where I am."

Gus still wasn't convinced that his friend's idea would work out, but Shawn was his friend and he'd not leave him alone. If Shawn needed help, then Gus would help, it was as simple as that.

"I'll be back as soon as I've got the food."

Shawn nodded and Gus climbed back down the ladder. Silently, he snuck back into the house through the back door, glad to find the kitchen empty. But just as he opened up the refrigerator, his mother's voice interrupted him.

"Gus, we've just eaten dinner."

Gus spun around and slammed the fridge door shut. "Erm…yes. I know. I just…you know, wanted to get…some milk. Yes, milk. Just a glass of milk."

Mrs. Guster watched her son with a raised eyebrow. Gus knew that look, and he knew it didn't bode well. His mother didn't believe him. Just great.

"Do you know where Shawn is?"

Gus' breath caught in his throat. How could she know? "Erm…no. It's late, he should be home. Why do you ask?"

"Henry just called. It seems that Shawn ran away, so naturally, his first step was to ask if you had seen him."

"No, I haven't", Gus said quickly. Too quickly.

"Burton, I want you to tell me the truth."

Oh-oh. Use of full first name meant he was in deep trouble if he didn't answer now. But Shawn would probably be in worse trouble if Gus told on him. He could take some trouble, but he didn't know if Shawn could take any additional problems. So Gus averted his eyes, stared down at the kitchen tiles and shook his head.

"Burton!"

Gus only shook his head again. With a sigh, his mother crouched down in front of him so that she was at her son's eye level. "Gus", she started again, softer this time. "It honours you that you want to stick up for Shawn, but if he's out there alone he'll get into trouble. It's too dangerous for a ten year old to be out there alone. You don't want Shawn to get hurt, do you?"

Of course Gus didn't want that. But he also didn't want him to be as unhappy as he had been during the past days. And he didn't want him to get into trouble with his father. And if he told on Shawn now, trouble for him would be a sure consequence.

"Gus, why aren't you telling me what you know?"

"Because then you're going to send Shawn back. And his Dad will get mad, and he'll be in trouble, and his father will yell at him and ground him forever, and then Shawn will only run away again!"

Mrs. Guster sighed and pulled up two chairs. Sitting down in one, she gestured for Gus to take the other.

"Listen to me, Gus. Of course Henry isn't excited that Shawn ran away. Because he's worried about him. And I can't promise that Shawn won't get into any additional trouble because frankly, I think he will. But that's a part of growing up, Gus. He has to learn to face the consequences of what he's doing."

Gus drew a breath to say something, but his mother interrupted him before he had the chance to say a word.

"No, Gus. It honours you that you want to help and defend Shawn, but believe me, facing Henry right now is the preferable alternative to spending a night out on the streets. And I'm fairly sure that Henry was worried enough so that he'll try to figure out why Shawn wanted to run away instead of merely punishing him for it."

At that moment, there was a knock on the front door. Mrs. Guster got up from her chair and Gus looked at his mother with pure betrayal in his eyes.

"That's him", he hissed.

His mother nodded. "Yes, of course it's him. Gus, he's worried about Shawn, he's only trying to find him before something happens." She turned towards the hallway. "Door is open, come in!"

The front door opened and Henry Spencer came walking towards them through the hall. It was unusual for Gus to see his best friend's father not in uniform, but in a simple pair of jeans and a blue sweater. He came to a stop in the kitchen doorway.

"Good evening Doris. Gus."

"Hello Henry. I was just talking to Gus about Shawn."

Henry took a few steps towards his son's friend and crouched down slightly.

"Gus, if you know where Shawn is I really need you to tell me. Before something happens to him."

Gus was fighting an internal battle between loyalty and logic. Of course he knew that if Shawn ran away, he'd only get into trouble. Maybe something might even happened to him. But if he told Shawn's father about it now, he'd also get into trouble.

"Gus?", Henry probed again. "I know that you're a loyal friend. And that's an admirable trait under normal circumstances. But I need to know where my son is."

Gus sighed in defeat. "He's in the tree house."

Henry straightened up and squeezed Gus' shoulder. "Thanks."

"Promise that you won't yell at him again!", Gus suddenly blurted out.

Henry stopped and turned back towards his son's friend. "I will need to make him understand why he can't do that ever again, Gus."

"But promise you won't yell. Shawn won't listen to you if you start yelling anyway, and then he'll only run away again."

"Burton!", Mrs. Guster hissed at her son, but Henry waved her off.

"It's all right, Doris." Henry sighed. "All right, Gus, I promise that I won't yell at him. But I will need to seriously talk to him about this, and I can already tell you that he will get grounded for quite some time."

"All right", Gus said grumpily, knowing that he'd not get anything else out of his friend's father for now. Together, the three of them turned towards the back door and went out into the garden. They came out just in time to see a small shadow climb down the ladder to Gus' tree house. Gus was sure that his friend had figured something was wrong after Gus had stayed away for so long. But Shawn hadn't noticed them yet, and Henry was already hurrying over towards his son.

"Shawn, your Dad's here!", Gus yelled, but it was too late.

Henry had already reached his son, and Shawn had nearly reached the ground when he heard his friend's yell. It was too late to climb up again, and it was too late to jump off the ladder and run away. Gus could see in the dim light how Shawn quickly assessed those options, and then climbed down the last two steps of the ladder in defeat. His father's hand landed on Shawn's shoulder, and Gus felt his own mother put her hand on his arm, as if to stop him from running over towards his friend. As if that would help either of them right now.

"Sorry Shawn", Gus mumbled.

Shawn attempted to flash him a smile. "It's not your fault, Gus."

"Come on Shawn, let's go home", Henry said and turned Shawn towards the street. "Thanks for helping out here, Doris."

Gus' mother nodded. "You're welcome. Good night, Henry."
"Night Doris. Gus."

And Gus watched as Shawn walked out of their garden and along the small path beside the house that would lead them towards the road and Henry's car. Knowing the punishments his friend normally received, this would probably be the last time he saw Shawn for the next couple of weeks.

"Come on, Gus. It's time for you to go to bed."

With a last look at the disappearing form of his friend, Gus allowed his mother to steer him back into the house.