Chapter 1 - Pineapples Were Always the Solution

[Wed]

He and Henry had another fight.

"What's to say?" The guy could and would never understand his ways. He was so boring. Life was meant to be lived, not handled in a straight line. It was meant to zigzag and cross and loop de loop. It can't be controlled and he wanted to live just like that: spontaneous.

And that was one of the many things his father would never appreciate. Hell, it probably wasn't in his dictionary to begin with.

"I try to lighten his mood with a little random surprise, and he just burns it and throws it back in my face. Why did I even try?"

That question floated. He had no answer. It was just a feeling that spurred the action; some nonsense feeling.

And it was those confusing feelings on top of his father's disapproval that created the anger that brought him to pacing the beachfront in the wee hours of the morning. It was one of the many things he did in order to cool his head.

At night, in certain areas, the beach was quiet and no one was there to hound him or belittle him or tell him he wasn't taking responsibility. It was the perfect place to think and be yourself, outside of the apartment, of course.

So it was quite a surprise to find that he wasn't alone on the beach. He thought it was a drunk or some bum passed out in the sand. Curiosity and the need to push back his thoughts was what drove him to drift to the seemingly unconscious man lying on his stomach down in the sand. But those feelings were immediately shoved away in favor of concern when he took notice of the red blotches staining the person's clothes.

A hand shook him back to the present and he turned toward his best friend whose eyes were filled with annoyance.

"Did you even hear a word I said?" The question was met with a blank stare. "I guess not." The light turned green and his friend's attention turned back to the road.

"Dude, I'm sorry. I must've zoned out. I didn't get any sleep last night. What were you saying?"

Gus rolled his eyes. "The next time I leave for a conference you are coming with me."

"But why?" He whined.

"I can't believe you use my credit card to buy that fountain for Psych."

"But dude it's so cool and you said you wanted one."

Gus turned into the parking lot of the SBPD and parked his blue Echo. "Yea, when I was twelve and even if I wanted one now, I wouldn't have installed it inside of Psych nor filled it with pineapple soda."

"But pineapple anything is a hundred times better than water."

Gus sighed and got out of the car. He followed. "That doesn't make your fountain idea any better."

They walked up the steps and enter the building.

"Yes it does."

"No it doesn't."

"Yes it does."

"No it doesn't," Gus paused with arms crossed, "And you'll find out in a couple of days when things start moving in… uninvited."

"What things?"

"Like I said you'll find out and I'm not cleaning up." Gus walked off heading toward the chief's office.

His smile faltered when he realized what Gus meant.

"But Gus…" He hurried into the chief's office. "We…" Whatever he was about to say died on his lips when he saw Chief Vick's glare.

"Gentlemen have a seat." They sat down. "Thanks for coming in. I called you here because we have an unusual case involving three dead bodies and now four as of this morning. We also have a missing person that might be linked to the case." She handed Gus a gray folder. "Here is the case file and once Detectives Lassiter and O'Hara make it back from the most recent scene, they'll fill you in on the details. You are excused."

Standing up, he opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted.

"And you are not allowed to go to the crime scene." Gus looked relieved. "They should be through with gathering evidence and on the way back as we speak. Use this time to look over the file."

She escorted them out of her office and closed the door before he could protest.

"That was straight to the point." He looked over at Gus. "Well, let's go look around that crime scene."

"Shawn, she just said we aren't allowed to go."

"Come on. You know how I work. I have to see the scene. Touch things. Smell things."

Gus grimaced. "I for one don't want to smell anything from there and you know how I get around dead bodies."

"If you don't want to go, then gimme your keys."

"I am not giving you my keys. God knows what will happen."

"Aw, I won't wreck the blueberry."

Shaking his head, Gus walked off heading toward one of the empty office rooms, but stopped and looked back when he heard a jingling sound.

"But seeing that I got the keys…"

"How in the… Shawn, give me back my keys."

"Nope." And he took off running to the front doors. Opening the door with a wide grin, he made to exit only to bump into someone, knocking both of them to the ground.

"Shawn, you know you–" He heard Gus swallow his words. Confused, he looked over at the person he bowled over. Angry blue eyes met his and he gulped.

"Spencer!"

"Hi, Lassie." He grinned. Gus helped him, while Jules helped Lassie. "Had a nice trip? I know I did."

He could see Jules shake her head, but she had a tiny smile on her face. Lassie just glared and walked in. Jules followed closely behind him.

"Real nice, Shawn." Gus stated sarcastically.

"Ok, let's get this over with so we can get some real work done."

Lassie stated to them as they took their seats in the conference room. He watched as the head detective walked up to the white board, and started his talk about the case.

Two minutes in, he found his attention wandering.

"…Maybe that fountain wasn't a good idea. I don't wanna have to deal with creepy crawlers… unless I can train them to do simple stuff like clean and wash, that way I won't have to clean up behind them. But that might take too long. I could just relocate them to Dad's place. After all, he was the one that kicked me out last night when I was trying to do something …nice …for him. …The beach!"

He completely forgot about what happened at the beach. His eyes focused back to Lassie, who was currently scribbling something on the board. He studied him.

"There are no fresh scratches or wounds on his skin or any that I can see."

He watched as Lassie paced the front, motioning with his hands about something important.

"He isn't limping or having difficulty walking."

Lassie then pointed to a map, highlighting key areas in the city. A frown was present on his face.

"He is his usual 'radiant' self. So, what was he doing on the beach and why aren't there any signs? Is there something I'm missing? I'll have to go back to–"

"Spencer are you getting any vibes from all this?" Lassie voiced, bringing him flying back to reality. Unprepared, he responded with the first thing on his mind.

"The beach?" Lassie questioned looking at him strange. "What does that have to do with anything here? All the victims were found in isolated areas around Parma Park. This is not the time to be thinking about taking a leisurely stroll down the beach. People are dying because of some sick bastard's fetish."

"Fetish?"

Lassie's face fell. "You weren't even paying attention were you?"

He didn't answer.

Huffing, Lassie stomped out of the room muttering something about working with an imbecile.

He could feel two pairs of eyes staring daggers at him. He ignored them and followed Lassie out of the room. He had to check this out. If he didn't, it would bother him until his attention focused on something else, but after that it would loop back around to this again, in a never-ending circle.

He found Lassie sitting at his desk looking over the case file and writing notes in his yellow notepad.

"Spencer, what do you want?" He could hear the annoyance dripping from each word as the detective finished writing and turned a glaring eye at him.

"I wonder. Is it best to be straightforward or vague?" He shrugged internally and just went with it.

"Did you happen to go anywhere last night?"

Lassie's eyebrow rose at the question. "I don't have to inform you what I do after hours. Why do you want to know?"

He placed a hand to his temple. "I had a vision of you at the beach covered in… It's hard to see… um… covered in red… Jello?"

Lassie's neutral expression settled into a scowl. He could practically see the words going through Lassie's head, but the desk phone ringing prevented them from coming out of his mouth.

He watched as Lassie answered and listened intently; a smile twigged at the edge of his lips as he hung up.

Standing up, Lassie closed the case file.

Wary, he took a step back.

The only times he saw Lassie happy was when he thought he had probable cause to arrest him for something or he had probable cause to pull a gun on a suspect.

"A happy Lassie is a dangerous Lassie."

Lassie saw his guarded stance.

"Oh don't worry. That call had nothing to do with you." Lassie walked past him over to Jules' desk, "O'Hara, we have a viable tip. Get ready. I'll meet you at the car."

Lassie came back to his desk grabbing his keys and a small black notebook. "Spencer, next time you have one of your episodes make sure it pertains to the case. And also, I hate Jello."

He watched as Lassie walked out of the station with Jules following behind him.

"He didn't answer my question." He noted.

"What was that all about?" Startled, he looked over to see Gus.

"Dude, don't do that. At least make some kind of noise or something." He saw the puzzled expression on Gus' face. "Never mind, I'll tell you when we get to Psych. Where did you disappear to?"

"Oh I was talking to Buzz about how adding certain spices to certain foods in a specific order can enhance the flavor of …"

Already feeling bored; he started walking away toward the front doors, counting down for when Gus realize his audience was missing.

"Shawn!"

Author Note: So there's the first chapter to one crazy ride of a story. This idea has been plaguing me for over a year, and I have 20+ chapters finished, so I'll be posting when the wind tells me to post. Overall it is unfinished, but I guarantee I will not let this die, unless something happens to me (which I hope won't happen.)

Anyway to my readers I hope the story will boggle your mind and take it hostage as it has done to me. Hehe.

Oh. Almost forgot. If something disturbing comes in a chapter, I will give a warning at the beginning. But who doesn't love a little blood and gore?