Hi! Thanks for reading. :) I don't own Psych, first off.

This is a series of oneshots throughout a Lassiet relationship that never was. Sigh.

The first one is stemmed from a recent news story in Frisco about a horrifying plane crash. My condolences go out to the victims and families of the terrible incident.

"I ran away."

"You can't blame yourself, O'Hara."

"I ran away when I should have helped."

Juliet O'Hara was seated in a hospital bed, dark blonde hair falling out of her updo, wide gray-blue eyes shining bright with tears. She stared earnestly up at her partner, lip trembling. Carlton Lassiter shook his head, returning her gaze seriously.

"You were injured," he insisted gently. "You couldn't have done anything." She listened to him, hand drifting over the stiff bandages wound over her upper left leg. He reached up, brushing the hair out of her face and hovering delicately over butterfly bandages on her forehead. She smiled weakly.

"Carlton Lassiter," she said quietly, reaching to take his hand in hers. "When has a bodily injury ever stopped him?"

"I've never gotten anything this serious," he snapped a bit irritably, squeezing her fingers gently. "And that is beside the point. You're different, you're—"

"Juliet?" the smile turned bitter, voice roughening. "Because I'm Juliet, the junior, young, female, blonde, incapable detective."

"That's not it!"

"Then what is it?" she stared at him disquietingly. "What makes me different?"

Blue eyes met blue and they stayed like that for a while, Carlton searching desperately for words that would make a semblance of sense.

"Because you are Juliet," he finished. "Clever, beautiful, hardworking, brilliant Juliet." And he said this with so much conviction that it surprised even himself. The injured woman's heart warmed, and she resisted the urge to leap up off of the bed and hug him from where he had stopped pacing.

"Is that it?" she asked, starting to believe what he was saying. Carlton, however, seemed to have quickly lost his sudden rush of inspiration and he slumped back in a chair by the bedside.

"Juliet," he used her first name in hopes that it would project some sincerity along with a bit of annoyance. "You were traveling as a civilian on that plane. The plane fell apart, you got a huge gash on your leg and you nearly caught on fire." He glared at her, suddenly irrationally angry at the woman. "Now tell me, what would you say to me if I were in your place?"

"Be sensible," she breathed, not meeting his eyes. "But wouldn't you feel just a bit guilty yourself?" She knew he would grovel much more over something like this.

"O'Hara, that is enough," he snapped, getting to his feet. But Juliet knew Carlton enough to know that he would not leave. His anger was not directed at her.

"You were worried," she ruminated as he began pacing again. He whirled around, placing his hands on the foot of the bed and glaring at her from across the sheets.

"Hell yes I was worried," he growled. "This was on the news all over California! You could have died. This happens too much, O'Hara, Yin, now this-" His hands trembled. She sat up taller, reaching over to take his hands and pull him over to sit on the edge of the bed. They sat like that for a moment, Juliet leaning over to sit against his shoulder, Carlton fighting the urge to turn around and kiss her.

"Yin was police work," she reminded him. "This was by chance."

"Effing chance." he growled, and she chuckled softly.

"Carlton."

"Yes?"

"Tell me something."

Her beautiful blue eyes implored up at the head detective, and he felt that he'd jump off a building for her at that moment. Hell, at any moment nowadays.

"Anything."

"What were you thinking?"

"What?"

He drew back to stare at her in confusion. She shrunk back slightly herself, afraid that she had said something wrong. He snaked an arm over her shoulders reassuringly.

"I'm sorry," she said softly, puzzled, but he shook his head quickly.

"No, no," he pinched the bridge of his nose, fatigued. "There's nothing wrong."

"I meant what were you thinking...when you heard." she felt selfish, looking for somebody's pity. But something niggled at the back of her mind that would not be silenced otherwise.

She studied his careful expression, heart thumping in her chest, sure that he could hear it as loud as she could. He opened his mouth to speak, about to utter a practiced speech, probably something well-rehearsed and with a painfully restrained with a usual air of pompousness when he shook his head and closed it. He looked down at his hands next to his partner's smaller ones, how they seemed to fit into each other as if they were meant to be that way. His mind went far enough to imagine her lips against his, her body warm, moving in time with his, finally-

Stop it, Lassiter.

He finally spoke.

"I was scared out of my mind," he was completely truthful. "I knew you were more than capable of taking care for yourself but at the same time just having it so unexpected..." and also maybe because he suddenly seemed to feel a lot more towards her than before...He clenched his fists tightly, remembering running through the airport crowds, not giving a damn about the security chasing after him, flashing his badge to whoever would get in his way and dropping it somewhere but not giving an effing damn.

"It was terrifying," he finished. "I thought you were gone."

And on a singular impulse that Juliet O'Hara would later regret (but much later not regret), she leaned forwards, closed her eyes, and found his lips in the darkness.

PLEASE READ!

So I'm probably going to do a Dewey-decimal kind of system. This is oneshot #1, and you are very much encouraged to suggest scenarios for the series. If it's between two fics that have already been written, well, hooray decimals!

It can also be something that doesn't fit with the storyline/alternate ending. I'll just write that it's an AU. :) Your chance to see anything happen with these two (as long as it makes sense though, please), so start suggesting! Just say it in a review but don't tell the ending. (If you have an ending in mind, PM me!)

Just a fun experiment. If nobody suggests the series will just go on as planned. Your words control the story!

So...reviews? ^w^