AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks so much for the favorites and reviews! Here's another one for you guys. I hope you like the silliness I put in, because it really was so much fun to write the banter for this story.


Three Days Later:

Carlton was already not having a good day when he got the call from the Chief to head back to the station for an emergency briefing. The morning started out well enough until he and Juliet stumbled upon a vandalism in progress; a convenience store egging. Not exciting by any means, but Carlton was never one to pass up teaching young troublemakers the consequences of a life of crime.

The two hooligans, once cornered by the two detectives, surprisingly decided not to go down without a fight. By fight it meant they hadn't used their whole cartons of eggs on the store yet, and started whipping the orbs of goo at both of them. Once they were out of projectiles however, they'd had no choice but to come quietly.

Juliet hadn't let him cuff the twelve year olds, but instead had him call the juvenile detention center to deal with them. It didn't help his already sour demeanor that the officers who came laughed at him and his partner's predicament. Even Juliet's mood was dark after realizing how much of it had gotten in her hair. The only thing that had worked out for them was that the grateful owner of the convenience store had given them plastic bags to sit on for their ride back in his car.

Gus and Shawn were already waiting in the bullpen when they'd arrived at the Chief's request. Carlton suppressed an outward groan, knowing exactly what was coming.

"Wow," the 'psychic' exclaimed with a sidelong glance to Gus. "When the Chief said you were going to be late because there was trouble, I thought she was egg-zadurating."

Gus, however, tsked in annoyance and Carlton's opinion of him rose a teeny amount. "Shawn, you should be ashamed of yourself, making fun of them after such a fine egg-sample of police work."

As both friends snickered, Carton made a mental note to add the pharmaceutical rep to his 'List.'

"Shawn..." Juliet said exasperatedly, obviously not anymore in the mood for joking than he was.

The apologetic look at the scolding from his partner surprised him. Shawn's face became serious and he elbowed Gus before they both produced two damp towels. "Sorry Jules, here." He handed the towel to Juliet. She took it gratefully and started wiping off the slime, starting with her face.

Gus handed Carlton his own towel, remarking, "You know, eggs are supposed to be good for hair."

With a scowl, Carlton snatched the towel. "I'll remember that next time, Guster."

"Detectives! In here!" Karen had her head hanging out a conference room door, gesturing them in.

Inside the conference room, a projector had been set up and just enough chairs for the four of them. If this was a normal emergency briefing, it would have been shared with the entire station. Carlton knew something was up, especially with the smirk the Chief was currently wearing as she gestured to the chairs.

"Have a seat everyone, and shut the door." Karen confirmed Carlton's suspicions. "We have a unique situation on our hands."

More unique than a split personality murderer, dinosaur, or a treasure hunters? Carlton wondered at this point what exactly the Chief could possibly consider 'unique.'

"What is it?" Shawn asked excitedly. "Please say it's Teddy Bear testing. I would so RULE at that."

Ignoring Shawn's outburst, Karen continued, but the sly smirk never left her face. "I was contacted today by the Los Angeles Police Department.

"It could still be Teddy Bear testing," Shawn whispered to Gus.

Carlton pulled at his hair. "For the love of−it's not Teddy Bear testing, Spencer!"

"What happened," Karen stressed the point, trying to get her team under control, "Is that an actor was witness to what was probably a gang related hit, and he needs to be put in protective custody until the killers are caught."

"A movie star? Really?" Gus' eyes brightened. Carlton scoffed, the other man was probably visualizing a pretty starlet in need of assistance. All he could think of was a brat wanting every whim to be catered to. Just another Nigel St. Nigel. After attending that man's disastrous dinner party a few months ago, he'd had more than enough of celebrities and their problems for one year.

Juliet leaned forward on the table. "Why don't they just keep him in Hollywood? Why here? And Hollywood is way out of our jurisdiction."

"Let me fill you in on the details and they should answer your question." Karen turned on the slide show, and a body appeared. It was beaten bloody with a bullet wound square in the temple. Gus swallowed hard and pretended to look at the screen, but Carlton could see he was focusing on the back of Karen's head. "This, was Sal Greason. A producer for a lot of independent films, until he hit it big with an action trilogy."

"Ooooo, action!" Shawn exclaimed.

"The actor was just coming off the set of his new movie, 'An Axe to Grind' when he overheard two men arguing with Mr. Greason. He was able to escape, but he was unable to identify the assailants despite the fact that they apparently knew who he was through his association with the deceased."

Shawn seemed to have gone still, and Gus was giving him a worried glance while carefully avoiding looking at the screen. Carlton ignored the scene and huffed out a frustrated breath and gestured at the screen. "Oh come on! Can't the LAPD figure this one out on their own? We have enough problems up here without having to clean up the scum in the entire state."

Karen held up a hand, patiently dealing with Carlton's outburst. "Let me finish detective." She turned back to the screen. "The problem with the murderers knowing who he is complicates things and leaves him an open target for them to pick off at any moment. What the LAPD is proposing is a switch up."

"I'm getting something!" Shawn stood up, his hand to his temple. Please not now... Carlton clenched his teeth to stop the retort sitting on the tip of his tongue. "I'm seeing a well."

"A well?" Juliet frowned. "You think he's going to be killed by being pushed into a well?"

"No, but it's not just one well... it's two wells. Identical wells, but the well isn't a thing, it's a person who's in trouble and needs a double!" Shawn ducked behind Carlton's chair.

Standing up and out of the way, Carlton glared at Shawn. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Actually detective, I believe he was picking up on this..." Karen clicked the projector to the next photo. It was a tall, thin man with slicked back black hair. His suave smirk and his green eyes would have made any woman swoon. That wasn't the most prominent thing about him though. The most prominent thing was that if you took away the green eyes, and made his nose a bit bigger, he would be the spitting image of one Head Detective Carlton Lassiter. "Meet Arnou Coswell."

"What?" Carlton's mouth hung open as Karen continued.

"The LAPD searched their databases for an officer who would be able to go undercover as Arnou to hopefully lure out the killers so we can catch them and Arnou can finish making his movie without fear of death."

"This is so like that Sandra Bullock movie! The one where she's in the pageant."

Gus nodded excitedly. "Yeah, the one where she adopts a football player."

As Shawn stared open mouthed at the movie sin that Gus had just committed, Juliet shouted, "Mrs. Congeniality!"

"Exactly! And it looks like Lassie here is going to be the prettiest girl at the show." The psychic wrapped his arm around Carlton's shoulders as the latter continued to stare straight forward in absolute shock.


"What−me? How? But−him−"

"Conjunction junction, what's your function," Shawn sang.

Juliet groaned. Shawn wasn't helping. She'd known Carlton long enough to know that he tended to freeze or overreact in certain unexpected situations. Not in his police work, not at all. However, when it came to personally shocking events, they could put him down for the count in a heartbeat.

Karen turned off the projector. "I've had to think long and hard about this after I got the call. Lord knows undercover work isn't your strong suit detective, but it's going to have to work. There's no one else that they could find with your experience and training in time."

Juliet agreed, but she also knew there was the fact that Karen was a very new chief, trying to build her reputation. This was a great opportunity to build a lot of trust and respect with a fellow precinct and Karen needed it.

"There is a catch. We have a time limit." Carlton gulped. "Due to Mr. Coswell's schedule for shooting, we have less than two weeks to draw out the killers and ensure his safety. Once he is out of the country, there is nothing we can do."

Juliet bit her lip in worry. Less than two weeks didn't give them a long time to plan. They had to get her partner into character, make and schedule public appearances to bring the killers out of hiding, plus make sure Carlton wasn't hurt in the crossfire.

"So why do you need us, Chief?" Gus asked as Shawn was too distracted by waving his hand and snapping his fingers in front of Carlton's face, trying to bring him out of his shocked stupor.

"I need you and Mr. Spencer to keep a look out and your senses open for any danger while doing some research on the victim and who his associates might be." Karen tried to reassure her detectives, "We're not just going to leave him out there as a sitting duck. We have to be proactive about this."

Carlton, finally coming around, roughly slapped Shawn's hand away. The psychic made a pained noise and stepped back. "Chief, isn't there someone better suited to keep me safe? What about O'Hara?"

She grinned and sat up straighter, happy Carlton would want her protecting him. She was about to agree when Karen shook her head. "The other part of the deal was that Arnou would be coming here for safety as well as anonymity. If anyone saw him it would ruin everything. We need as few people in on this as possible."

"Where is he going to stay?" Juliet asked. "There aren't many safe houses around here and it would bring more people into the secret."

Karen nodded in agreement and a contemplative silence fell over the group. Suddenly, she saw Shawn brighten and stand up. "I think I have an idea! I'll be right back." With that he rushed for the door, Gus already at his heels.

Karen stopped him at the door. "Make it fast Mr. Spencer. Arnou will be coming here within the hour."

"You got it!"

'Dude, Arnou Coswell is coming here! How cool is that?"

Juliet hid a smile at Gus' comment and scooted her chair closer to Carlton. "You can do this partner. Shawn and Gus may be immature, but they'll have your back."

"Oh please. One hot dog truck and they'll be running down the street after it, leaving me wide open for assassination." Carlton stared at the table bitterly.

"Come on. Let's go meet Arnou and we can start getting you in character. It may actually be fun!" Juliet smiled, and he finally nodded in agreement before standing up and heading for the door. She'd do her best to be supportive, even though she was still worried for her partner. The last two times she'd gone undercover, she almost died. However, it was worse for Carlton because if he ever broke character, someone else would die.


Shawn darted out of the Blueberry almost before it was stopped. They'd just pulled up in front of his dad's house, and none too soon. Gus had been blabbing his ear off since leaving the station, telling him everything about Arnou. As interested as he was in the case and going to Hollywood, he could do without the fan boy commentary.

"Shawn, did you know Arnou has slept with two out of the ten most beautiful women in the world according to Vogue magazine?"

Turning to his friend and replying sharply, Shawn hissed, "Yes Gus! I heard you the first three times you said it! Now shush! I've got some groveling to do."

He knocked on the door, hoping his dad was home and not out on an early morning fishing trip. Henry really hated it when he came home to a house full of uninvited guests, and since the last incident Shawn had actually done his best to ask permission. More or less.

It seemed too long of a time before his dad finally came to the door. So long Shawn started to become suspicious. He was about to get the Hide-A-Key when Henry cracked the door just enough to stand in it.

"What do you want Shawn?"

"Good to see you too Pop. I'm−" Shawn paused and looked at his dad's stance. Guarded, obviously hiding something... or someone. His father would only be hiding someone if it was a date, or he was being held hostage. Shawn figured it wasn't the latter. With how early in the morning it still was, the only way a woman would be over was if she'd spent the night.

For the sake of his sanity, he hoped he was wrong. Just the thought of his dad with someone else was just, EW.

"Gus, super sniffer."

Gus started sniffing and Henry glared. "What are you doing?"

"I smell perfume." Gus grimaced at the powerful odor.

"Aha! I knew it! You have a lady friend over!"

"So, what of it Shawn?"

"Does she know about your horrible morning breath!?" Shawn said a bit too loudly, "or that you sometimes bite your toenails and then drink out of the milk carton!?"

Panicking, Henry pushed Shawn out of the way and closed the door before the woman inside could hear any more dark secrets. "Damn it Shawn, stop!"

Shawn grinned. "Well, now that we're alone. We have some top secret, favor like stuff to discuss with you."

"You could have just told me you wanted to speak to me alone, Shawn," Henry growled.

"But it wouldn't have been as fun, or enlightening for your new girlfriend." His father took a deep breath, about to unleash hell. "Besides, she's still in the shower. She wouldn't have heard any of that."

Henry didn't even have to ask how Shawn knew that. He'd already realize that the time it took to get to the door, and the water still clinging to him would be enough evidence. "Okay, fine. What big secret stuff do you have to tell me?"

Shawn looked over at Gus, giving him the chance to gush all he wanted about how great Arnou was and how awesome it would be to have an action star in the house. "We need to house an actor for witness protection while Lassiter goes undercover."

Shawn's jaw dropped. That was it? No 'he's the best actor in the world' speech? "Well, thank you Gus for nut shelling that." He hoped his friend didn't miss the sarcasm and the promise of an Indian Burn when this was over. "Yes, a poor, safe houseless actor needs your help."

"No."

"Come on! We can't have too many people knowing about this and the Chief hasn't found a place yet. I figured you'd jump at the chance to voluntarily help out the force."

Henry crossed his arms. It wasn't looking good; he only did that when he really meant business. "You want me to house another pompous, overpaid prick? I still can't get the smell of that other man's cologne out of my robe, Shawn."

"It won't be like that this time!" Shawn said, frustrated. "He's an action star. That's cool, right?" It still didn't look like his dad was budging. "Alright, I'll dust off your fishing trophies and bring them down from the attic."

"I asked you to do that two years ago, Shawn."

"Well, it still needs to be done, right?"

With an overly dramatic sigh, very akin to Shawn's own, Henry reluctantly agreed. "Okay, let me get my company home and I'll get the guest room ready."


END NOTES: Good Ol' Henry coming through for Shawn. I loved writing Gus' fanboy lines. He is the king of TMI when it comes to stars... or pharmaceuticals...or anything else for that matter. :D