A Boy Named Lassie
Disclaimer: I do not own Psych nor am I affiliated with the show or USA network. 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. I also do not own the Rubik's Cube brand.
*Spoiler Warnings for anything through Season 6*
Chapter 1: A Little Change Never Hurt Anyone
"Lassie look out!" Shawn Spencer yelled as a little foam ball flew across the bull pen of the police station.
The detective looked up just in time for the projectile to hit him right in the middle of the forehead with a small *smack*. "Spencer!" Carlton Lassiter yelled as he picked up the ball and stalked towards the fake psychic. Shawn quickly hid his plastic toy gun behind his back and prepared himself for the coming lecture. "Spencer what the hell?!"
"Oh, hey Lassie." He said, trying to sound innocent. "Sorry about that, I was aiming for Gus."
Lassiter glared down at him, not buying the ruse. "You were not, Guster wasn't anywhere near me. He's over behind that desk."
On cue Burton Guster popped up from behind a desk, took aim with his own toy gun and fired, hitting Shawn in the middle of the chest. "Oh yeah! I win." Gus yelled, throwing his arms over his head in a victory stance.
"What?! You do not! Lassie was distracting me, it doesn't count." Shawn whined.
Gus walked up to them and pointed a finger in his friends face, "It does count, you're just a sore loser. Besides, last time you shot me in the face while I was eating my lunch, and you said that counted."
"That was different, you should have known I was there and been ready."
"You were hiding in the bushes, you scared the crap out of me."
"Yeah… you should have known."
"Stop it!" Lassiter yelled, his jaw clenched tight in irritation. Shawn smirked, it was exactly what he was hoping for. "This is a police station, not a play land. Go somewhere else for your stupid game."
"But we're not playing a game." Shawn said with a smile. "We're practicing our police skills. See," He fired off another round into Carlton's chest. "I just shot you, you should have reacted better than that. I think someone needs to work on their police skills."
"You are not, you're playing with toys!" Lassiter yanked the gun from Shawn's hand. "You two need to grow up and stop acting like idiots."
Shawn pretended to think it over. "Nah, sounds boring. Then we'd be uptight like you and that would just suck."
He gave the pair one last heated glare before tearing the toy from Gus' hand as well and storming off. "Hey, those are ours." Shawn yelled after Lassie's retreating form.
"What do we do now?" Gus asked.
Shawn shrugged, "I don't know, that was all I had planned for the rest of the day."
"You two need to be nice to Carlton." Juliet O'Hara scolded. She appeared out of nowhere behind them making the psychic duo jump. She was shaking her head in disapproval but couldn't hide her amused smile. "He's not in a good mood today."
"When is Lassie ever in a good mood?" Shawn said with a laugh. "What's wrong now?"
Juliet sighed, losing her smile. "We hit a dead end on our case."
"Sweet, a case. It just so happens that Gus and I are free for the rest of the day." Shawn told her excitedly. "Our previous engagements have been postponed."
"Previous engagements?" Jules asked, amused.
"Lassie took our toy guns." Gus explained
"So what do you say? Would you like some help from a good looking psychic detective and his sort of good looking partner?"
"Hey!" Gus jabbed Shawn in the side with an elbow.
Juliet glanced around the station, making sure the coast was clear of her grumpy partner. "Ok, fine." She picked a folder off her desk and held it open for Shawn and Gus. "We've had a string of home robberies the last couple weeks. They come in when the families are sleeping, don't make a sound, take everything valuable, and leave without a trace."
Shawn looked over the report and crime scene photos, one thing did stand out to him. "Ah, I'm getting something Jules." Shawn's finger went straight to his temple. "I'm seeing that there were no signs of forced entry."
"That's right." Juliet said excitedly. "We have no idea how they get in, are you getting anything else Shawn?"
The fake psychic grimaced like he was in pain, "ooo sorry Jules, I lost the connection. But the spirits are hot on this one, just give us some time and I'll have something for you."
"Thank you." She said with a relieved sigh. "Just don't tell Carlton I asked for your help."
"Mums the word." Shawn told her with his fingers crossed behind his back.
"Good. I've got to go talk to the Chief about the museum theft we just finished up. I'll talk to you guys later, okay?" Juliet gave him a smile before heading into the Chief's office.
Shawn nudged his friend once she disappeared, "Let's go Gus, we've got some digging to do."
He turned quickly to head for the exit and almost ran into his father. "You better not bother those families Shawn." Henry Spencer warned, staring his son straight in the eye.
Gus jumped at the sudden appearance of the older man. "Why does everyone keep doing that?" he whined. "Do you guys get awards for sneaking up on people or something?"
Henry ignored him, "They have been through enough, they don't need you snooping around their houses just so you can have one of your psychic "visions"."
"Dad please, have a little faith." Shawn said, placing a comforting hand on his father's shoulder. "I would never do such a thing."
"Where have you been?" Henry asked Shawn when he and Gus strutted back into the station a couple hours later, knowing already exactly where they had gone.
"we went to visit the families that were robbed." Shawn answered, plopping down into a chair next to his father's desk.
"Of course you did." Henry said with a roll of his eyes, "and was it worth it?"
"Absolutely."
"Did you find anything?"
"Not a thing." Shawn sighed, "None of them were even home." It was a complete waste of time, all the families were at work. He should have known they would be, they all lived in nice houses and had good jobs. But he wanted to talk to them, something seemed fishy.
As if to make things worse, Juliet's voice sounded through bull pen. "Shawn! Hey, did you find anything? Please tell me you found something, Carlton is driving me crazy. He keeps telling me to look through the files again, to see if we missed something. Pleeease tell me you found something."
Juliet looked at him hopefully, her arms overflowing with files and evidence bags. Shawn opened his mouth to say something but nothing would come out; he didn't want to disappoint her. "Sorry Jules." He finally said after a minute.
"O'Hara!" Lassiter yelled through the station. Juliet cringed, looking like she wanted to hide under a desk. "O'Hara did you look through those files. I know there's something there that- Spencer! Guster! What are you two still doing here?!" Carlton glared at them, not giving them the chance to answer. "You better not be messing around again."
"We're not Lassie, scouts honor." Shawn held up his hand in salute.
"Well then why are you here?" He asked, still angry.
"Um," Shawn glanced at Juliet, who dramatically shook her head no. "Ok you caught me, Gus and I were going to play a game of hide and seek. Would you like to join?"
Lassiter stepped close to Shawn, seething with anger. "Spencer, I will not tolerate child's play. This is my police station and I-"
"Your police station?" Chief Karen Vick strolled from her office and approached them. "Detective Lassiter, whose police station, is this?"
"Um…it's…it's yours of course… Chief." Carlton stumbled through his words. Shawn smirked at him, quite amused at the turn of events. "I…I was just…"
"That's what I thought." Karen said with a smirk of her own. "O'Hara do you have that evidence for me?"
"Yes Chief." Juliet struggled with the items in her hand. Shawn reached out and grabbed a few to keep her from dropping anything. "Thanks Shawn."
He looked over one of the evidence bags in his hand, it was a particularly shiny one. "oooo what is this? It's shiny I like it."
"It was one of the items stolen in the museum case last week." Juliet explained. "I think it was from the Egyptian display."
Gus immediately stepped back at the mention of Egypt, "Oh no, no mummy curses for me. I barely avoided it last time. It is not getting me now."
"Oh calm down Gus you're fine." Shawn said with a roll of his eyes. He started fidgeting with the item. It was a gold cube, only about the size of a baseball. It reminded him of one of those Rubik's Cube games, he tried twisting it to see if it did anything, "What does it do?"
"It's just an old artifact Shawn. But I think it's got some kind of fountain of youth like legend around it." Juliet explained again.
"Cool." Shawn looked it over again and suddenly started shaking it to get it to do something.
Gus stepped back even further, "Shawn stop it! You're going to put a curse on us all."
"I am not." He shook the cube again.
"That's it Spencer. You're going to break it!" Lassiter tried to grab the thing from his hands.
Shawn pulled it away from the detective, "I'm not going to break it. I'm just looking."
"It's evidence not a toy! Give it here!" Carlton reached for the bag again but Shawn backed away.
"No!"
"Spencer!"
"NO!" Lassiter lunged for the bag one more time, but just before he could wrap his hand around it Shawn felt his thumb click something into place on the small artifact. The cube suddenly lit up with a bright light. Shawn and Lassiter stared down at it in a moment of horror before a beam of light of shot out from the middle, hitting Carlton in the chest, knocking him off his feet, and throwing him back into the filing cabinets. Piles of old papers and files that were stacked on top of the cabinets toppled down on the fallen detective, burying him in the avalanche.
"Carlton!" Juliet gasped, running to her partner's side. No one else moved, they all stared at Shawn in disbelief. The psychic looked down at his hands; the cube was no longer there. Now it lay at his feet, sometime during the strange flash of light Shawn had dropped the cube in surprise, shattering it into several pieces.
"Carlton!" Juliet yelled again trying to dig out her partner from the pile of papers. "Carlton, where are you?" She kept digging but couldn't seem to find him. That was strange, there weren't that many papers.
Finally a small groan came from underneath the pile. Juliet pulled the papers away but didn't really find what she was expecting. "Ow, that really hurt." Came a small, high pitched voice. Where Lassiter should have been sat a young boy, only about 4 years old. He was pale and skinny, with pitch black hair and dark, expressive eyebrows. His eyes were clenched shut with pain.
"C-Carlton?" Juliet stuttered.
Bright blue eyes opened and stared up at her. "Yeah…What? What's wrong?"
Chapter End