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.

Chapter 2: I'm Not Scared…Ok Maybe a Little

Lassiter stared up at Juliet as she looked down on him with a worried expression. 'That's funny. She looks a lot taller all of the sudden' he thought to himself. Must be this awful headache he had now, it was throwing him off. What the heck just happened? Spencer was going to pay for this. "Um Carlton, are you…okay?" Juliet asked again. A crowd of officers had gathered, and everyone was staring at him with the same weird expression, it was annoying.

"I'm fine!" he yelled, but stopped short when the yell came out a bit higher pitched… and squeakier… than it should have. Suddenly he realized that something else felt a bit off, for some reason all of his clothes were too big for him. He lifted his arms and saw that his dress shirt hung loosely around his shoulders and the sleeves far past his hands. "What happened to my clothes?!"

"Um, it's not your clothes that are the problem Lassie." Shawn said, stepping up next to Juliet and looking down at the confused detective.

"What? What are you talking about? Spencer, you are in so much trouble!" Carlton stood up and held his shirt on tight because his pants were also far too big for him; luckily the dress shirt fell almost to his feet. But what suddenly disturbed him the most was that, when he stood, Carlton Lassiter was only tall enough to come just past the knees of everyone that stared at him. "Wh-what's wrong with me? What did you do?" he yelled angrily at Shawn.

"Carlton, you're um…well your kind of… wait just a second, I'll show you." Juliet ran to her desk and pulled a mirror from one of the drawers; she ran back and held it down in front of Lassiter.

He let out a squeak of horror when a four year old version of himself stared back from the mirror. "Wha-…Wha-…I…" Carlton stuttered, and couldn't seem to finish his sentence.

"I told you!" Gus yelled, poking his head up from behind the desk he had dove for cover behind, "You released the mummy curse."

"It's not a mummy curse Gus." Shawn told him not taking his eyes off the tiny Lassie. "At least I don't think so…. no, it's not. If it was a mummy he would be a zombie, not a little kid."

"You don't know that Shawn."

"Mr. Spencer." The Chief said, finally coming out of her shocked stupor. "What did you do with the artifact; I'm sure we can do something to fix this…somehow."

Lassiter suddenly perked up at the thought of getting back to his normal self, "Yeah! That's perfect! There's probably a reset button or something."

"It's not a remote, Lassie." Shawn joked, keeping his hands hidden behind his back. "I'm not sure it works that way."

"Spencer, I don't care. Give it to the Chief, so she can fix you're stupid mistake."

"Um…" Shawn dropped his head and pulled out the evidence bag from behind him. Carlton's heart sank at the sight of the broken cube. "Sorry Lassie."

"Spencer, I'm going to kill you!" Lassiter lunged towards the psychic, but tripped over his oversized shirt and fell flat on his face.

"Carlton!" Juliet gasped and ran to his side.

"I'm fine." He said, quickly getting to his feet, his face turned red in embarrassment.

"Mr. Spencer, Mr. Guster in my office. O'Hara why don't you take Lassiter and find him some clothes that fit. The rest of you back to work." Vick made the order but no one moved, none of them were really sure what to do. They weren't really sure how to process what had happened. "Now!" Vick ordered again, they all wandered awkwardly for a moment before finally doing as they were told.

"Is everything okay Carlton?" Juliet yelled outside the men's room. "You don't…um…need any help do you?"

"I know how to dress myself O'Hara! Leave me alone!"

"Ok, sorry." Juliet shifted uncomfortably. She wasn't sure how to act around her tiny partner. Carlton was acting the same way he always did; he just looked like a little kid. Actually, Juliet thought he looked adorable, his dark hair and bright eyes made her grumpy partner into a really cute kid. She wouldn't dare tell him that though.

The door to the bathroom cracked open, Carlton hesitated before coming out. When he did he stood in front of Juliet wearing small khaki pants, blue tennis shoes that lit up when he walked, and a t-shirt that had a picture of a puppy wearing an oversized police cap and read 'Daddy's Little Cadet'. "Awwwww, Carlton you look so cute." The words came out of her mouth before she even realized what she said.

Lassiter's big ears turned bright red with embarrassment. "I am not cute." He mumbled, staring down at his feet. "These clothes are humiliating, who would wear this?"

"Carlton those are kids clothes, kids wear them." she said with a laugh. "You should just be thankful Officer Nielson went shopping for his son on his lunch break."

"Oh yeah, sure. I'll have to thank him." Lassiter said sarcastically, pulling awkwardly at the puppy shirt.

Juliet rolled her eyes, but didn't stop smiling. "Come on the Chief is waiting for us." While they walked to the office Carlton kept glancing around nervously and then back down at his feet. She realized that all the officers were staring at him and whispering. Juliet knew that it was a weird situation but she felt bad for Carlton, no one liked being looked at like that. Lassiter inched closer and closer to Juliet, trying to avoid the accusing stares. Until finally he had enough and took off in a dead run, bursting through the doors of the chief's office.

Juliet jogged to catch up and shut the door behind her. Inside Shawn, Gus, Henry, and Vick were all watching Lassiter try to catch his breath after his run. No one was quite used to the mini version of the head detective. "Chief, did you find anything out?" she asked, trying to pull everyone's attention off Lassiter before he realized they were staring too.

Carlton looked up at Vick hopefully but she just shook her head, "I called the museum about the artifact, they said there's only one person that might be able to fix it. They're going to try and search him down for us."

"And…what did they say when you told them what happened?" Juliet asked

"I didn't. They probably would have thought I was crazy. We'll just have to be patient… Sorry Carlton."

Lassiter stuck his lip out in a pout, but immediately sucked it back in when he realized what he was doing. He quickly turned his attention on Shawn when the psychic let out a giggle. "Spencer, this is all your fault!" he yelled and stormed over trying to make himself threatening in front of Shawn. "You're going to pay for this!"

Shawn laughed and looked down on him, "No offense Lassie, but you're kind of a pipsqueak at the moment. What're you going to do, bite my ankles?"

Shawn looked at Gus hoping for a fist bump over his joke, but his friend just shook his head. Carlton, now angrier, reared back his foot and kicked the psychic in the shin as hard as he could. "OW!" Shawn yelled, wincing in pain and hopping on one foot. Lassiter smirked and ran back to stand next to Juliet. "Not cool Lassie." Shawn whined.

"You deserved that." Henry said, smiling in amusement. Gus nodded in agreement.

"Little brat." Shawn mumbled, rubbing his sore leg. "I didn't do it on purpose, it was an accident how was I supposed to know the thing would actually do something. But you have to admit that flash of light was pretty darn cool." Lassiter scowled at him. Shawn backed up and hid behind Gus, afraid that he was about to receive another kick. "Or not."

Juliet crouched down so that she was at eye level with her tiny partner, "Don't worry Carlton, we're going to figure this out. You'll be back to yourself in no time. Trust me, okay?" He stared at her with big blue eyes, scanning her face for any signs of doubt. She could see that he was scared, and he had every right to be, but she was going to be strong for him. Slowly, he nodded his head in response. "Good." She smiled and placed a hand on his head, ruffling his hair. When she did he looked at her in horror. "Oh, sorry." She said, realizing what she had just done. Lassiter tried to franticly straighten his hair back out, blushing again.

"I'm making sure that word of this does not leave the station. I can only imagine the problems something like this would cause." Chief Vick added. She picked up the cube, still in it's bag, and still broken. "As soon as we figure this all out, I never want to see this thing again." She sighed wearily. "But until the museum calls back, hopefully with good news, we still have work to do. How are we coming with the home robberies?"

"Nothing yet Chief." Juliet answered, straightening up. "I um…" she glanced down at Lassiter, who no longer seemed as threatening as he did before. "Shawn had a vision, so I asked for his help on the case."

"What?!" Carlton squeaked in anger. "O'Hara, I told you we don't need his help." Yup, definitely not intimidating.

"That's probably a good idea." Vick said. "We will need Mr. Spencer's help now that…well now that my head detective can't even cross the street on his own."

Shawn, Gus, and Juliet let out a loud laugh. Juliet slapped and hand over her mouth, trying to stop her laughter when Lassiter glared up at her, not at all amused. "Chief I can still work!" he yelled desperately.

Karen laughed, "I don't think so."

"This isn't fair!" he yelled with a stomp of his foot. "This isn't my fault."

Juliet thought Lassiter was actually going to start throwing a temper tantrum; maybe he was acting more like a child than she thought. But before he could do just that, Shawn interrupted. "Chief, he's right." Everyone looked at him, a bit surprised. "Lassie didn't ask for this. I think you should have Jules take the lead and we can all work on the case and keep an eye on the little guy." They all looked at Vick hopefully, while she thought it over. Juliet knew Lassiter was just going to be a pain if he was forbidden from doing any police work, she didn't want to have to deal with that. "Besides if you don't then we have to get a babysitter and we all know how expensive they can be." Shawn added.

Carlton scowled at him again, "I don't need a babysitter Spencer."

"Fine, I'll allow it. But only if you all agree to be careful, and watch him carefully." Vick finally said. Juliet breathed a sigh of relief. "But I will not allow him to carry a weapon."

Everyone nodded in agreement, except for Lassiter. "I can't have my gun." He asked, sounding like a kicked puppy.

"NO!" everyone answered at once.

A couple hours passed, and they weren't any closer to solving their case. They decided to call it a day and start fresh in the morning. Juliet volunteered to take Lassiter home with her, even against his arguments that he didn't need to be taken care of. Carlton did not like being treated like a child, and he made his point very clear. She had to fight to get him to leave the station, even though he kept falling asleep. She had to fight to get him to sit in the back of the car, where it would be safer for him. She had to fight to get him in the store, so she could buy him some more clothes that fit.

It was dark and starting to rain when they finally got to her apartment. Juliet was exhausted; she'd been able to get Lassiter to listen to her, but not without arguing the entire time. Carlton was just as difficult as ever.

"Carlton are you hungry?" she asked once they were inside.

"Yes." He answered, standing awkwardly in the middle of her living room.

She walked to the kitchen and opened the fridge, "How does a hot dog sound?"

"Fine." He answered again. He was standing still, watching her pull out the food, not really sure what else to do.

"Ok, I'll make some for us. You can watch TV if you want."

"OK." She heard the TV come on, and soon the sound of Cops filled the apartment. It was the quietest Lassiter had been since they left the station. She realized this was probably the reason he protested so much. He didn't like that his junior partner was taking care of him…like he was a child. Carlton was far too proud for that.

She made the hot dogs and placed them on the table with some chips. She called for Carlton but when he didn't answer she went to check on him. He had fallen asleep on the couch, clearly exhausted. Juliet gently shook him awake and had him come eat, it had been a rough day he needed some food. He only made it through about half a hotdog before falling asleep at the table. She couldn't help but smile at just how adorable he was. It seemed like he just couldn't help but act like the child he looked like.

Juliet grabbed a pillow and blanket, and set them on the crouch, making sure it was nice and comfy. She went back to the kitchen and picked up her sleeping partner in her arms, carried him to the couch, and tucked him in. Lassiter let out a small, grateful snore and turned on his side, staying fast asleep.

After cleaning up and changing into a pair of pink pajama bottoms and matching top, Juliet practically fell into her own bed. It had been such a strange, stressful day; she happily drifted off to sleep listening to the patter of rain, and the low rumble of a coming storm. Tomorrow was likely to be just the same but right now, everything seemed so peaceful.

Juliet only managed to sleep for about an hour before she felt something shake her arm. She could hear the rain outside falling heavier than before. She felt the shaking again followed by a small voice, "O'Hara." She slowly cracked her tired eyes open and found Carlton, still just a little kid, standing next to her bed. "O'Hara, are you awake?" the worried tone in his voice left her a bit concerned.

She sat up and rubbed her eyes, "What is it? What's wrong?" Juliet asked, still a bit groggy.

"O'Hara, it's storming out."

Did she miss something? "Um…ok. That's great Carlton, but you could have told me that in the morning." Juliet lay back down, wanting to just go back to sleep, but she felt Lassiter shaking her arm again. "No I mean it's… there's thunder and-and lightning."

"That's usually what it does when it storms." She said with a yawn. Juliet patted him gently on the arm. "Go back to sleep, okay." A flash of lightning suddenly lit up the dark room. In that split second she saw Lassiter's bright blue eyes grow twice their size and fear cross his face. That's when it dawned on Juliet just what was wrong. She quickly sat up in the bed, "Oh! Are you afraid of storms Carlton?"

"No." he said defensively. But the inevitable clash of thunder exposed his lie. At the loud noise Lassiter jumped almost a foot off the ground. Frightened, he crawled up on to the foot of the bed and hid under the covers. "I-I used to be," came his voice from under the blankets. "when I was younger. But I grew out of it a long time ago."

Juliet laughed and picked up the blanket revealing the frightened and embarrassed child. "Well, you are younger again." She said with a giggle. Another flash of lightning made Lassiter pull on the blanket again. She felt him jump when the thunder sounded with an extra loud crack. "Carlton, would you like to stay in here tonight?" she asked the huddled lump. There was a small movement of covers that Juliet assumed was a head nod yes.

She giggled again. Lassiter stayed where he was, curled up in a tiny ball. Juliet sat quietly by his side. She could feel him squirm after every thunder clap, but when she placed a comforting hand on his back, he quit moving so much and soon she could hear the soft, even breathing of sleep. She smiled knowing that her partner really did feel safe with her, even if he would never admit it.

Chapter End