I.
Time changes everything, and this certainly holds true for life in Santa Barbara over the past seven years. In that time over seventy high profile cases had been solved practically singlehandedly by a band of two best friends who formed their own private detective agency : the region's own resident psychic-(but not really), Shawn Spencer, and the brains behind the operation, Burton "Gus" Guster.
Shawn himself had also met and finally wooed the girl of his dreams, Detective Juliet O'Hara. They had been dating for two years when his entire life was nearly flipped on its side. Out of guilt he had let it slip that he was a fraud. After engaging in a rather heated argument, he was certain their relationship was over so he was surprised when she showed up at his door mere days after his final court proceedings which had ended in his being sentenced to four years of community service, a let off for the many cases he had solved.
Noting the troubled look on her face he let her into his abode at the "Mee Mee's Fluff and Fold." At first neither of them spoke as he led her to the couch. It was as if they both afraid of being the first one to open up. In the past, Shawn would have taken an uncomfortable moment like this one and defused it with his completely random, untrue trivia, but today, and probably for the first time in seven years he was silent. Juliet on the other hand, decided that she had enough of the silence and opened her mouth to speak.
"So, I guess you're probably wondering why I'm here," she asked awkwardly. He did not respond, but continued staring at her with a look that would rival a hurt puppy.
"Shawn, I was wrong. I thought I was mad enough to never speak to or see you again…"
Shawn's previously glued lips chose to open at that moment, cutting her off.
"No you weren't. Anyone in your situation would've done the same thing. I shouldn't have lied to you. I shouldn't have…" this time, it was Shawn who was cut off by Juliet.
"You never did let me finish my sentences," she stated while suppressing a chuckle, cracking a smile for the first time since she sat down. It only managed to grow when she saw him smile back at her before his smile vanished behind a look of utter indifference..
"I was wrong. I was wrong to sell you out," she said in an almost whisper, her statement bringing up the dark day when he finally told her the truth only to have her throw it right back in his face by getting him arrested.
"To tell you the truth, I should have been relieved. I wasn't dating a hooky psychic; I was dating someone whose observation skills were so sharpened that he was able to fool the entire police department into believing he was a psychic. How many people can say that? But that's not the point. The point is that it wasn't as important as I thought it was. I can get over the fact that you've been bold-faced lying to me about one aspect of your life for seven years, because I've realized the consequences of not forgiving you far out-weigh the consequences letting it go."
For a minute he continued to stare at her blankly, and then he cracked another one of his signature, Shawn Spencer smiles before answering her back.
"But how can you forgive me for something that I never properly apologized for, I mean that's just a little backwards don't you think?"
She only had about two seconds to smile back at him before he grabbed her face and pulled her into a short, sweet kiss. Though neither of them tended to believe what they had read in books about something as simple as a kiss bonding two previously fractured people together permanently like two pieces of the same puzzle they certainly believed it now. It was as if the past few months did not even matter, they were together again and it was going to stay that way. Even though they would have been perfectly happy to stay that way forever, a ring of the doorbell caused them to have to break apart. Not surprisingly, it was Gus who interrupted their interlude.
Now, Gus had also fallen victim to the fall out that came along with Shawn being revealed. Luckily, he had received an even more lenient sentence of one year's community service. However, he was still the one who was left to clean up the emotional disaster that Juliet had left in her wake. He had been there when Shawn had nearly destroyed his entire apartment out of anger and frustration with the situation. He had also been the only one to have the boldness to try and convince him to completely forget Juliet. So he was more than a little shocked to see her there at that very moment.