AUTHOR'S NOTES: I had to do a back in time piece because I originally intended for the first chapter to be a one shot. I thought this worked out quite nicely though with finding out how everything in the last chapter happened.
Chapter 2- Out to Lunch
Two hours earlier:
"Shawn!" Juliet gave an exasperated sigh. "I can't go out to lunch with you. I can't even have lunch! Carlton had to go to court and he left me with a ton of paperwork to do this morning and it needs to be to the Chief by this afternoon. I am lucky if I have time to step away and get coffee."
Her boyfriend was practically hopping from one foot to another. "C'mon Jules. You know will be able to function better on a full stomach." Pointing towards the door, Shawn tried to sweeten the deal. "It will be my treat. Pleeeease?"
Henry was watching the scene from his desk with a mixture of annoyance and amusement. He had been trying to get work done but the sound of his son whining was one of the sounds he found impossible to block out, even after all these years. Rubbing his head and putting down the paper he had been trying to read for the last five minutes, he turned around to face the bickering pair. "Detective, just go with him. The rest of us will get more work done that way." Shawn stood there, his mouth open in an indignant scoff, but Henry met Juliet's eye and winked at her.
Pushing herself up from her desk, and fighting off the dizziness from standing after sitting too long, she relented. "Alright Shawn. Lets go." She snagged Shawn's arm as she walked towards the exit. "Where were you wanting to go?" Shawn opened his mouth to suggest something but Juliet interrupted her boyfriend. "I refuse to eat any more jerk chicken for the next month so you can pick another place." Shawn opened his mouth again but she stopped him with a glare. "A smoothie shop does not count as lunch, if I am leaving a pile of work to go out with you it is going to be more satisfying than a razzmataz."
Juliet smirked as Shawn looked all out of ideas and he hadn't even said anything. Suddenly his eyes brightened. "How about Red Robin?" Finding this acceptable Juliet agreed.
Once outside they kissed their temporary goodbyes as each needed to take their own vehicles. Juliet needed to head back to work afterwards and Shawn was planning on heading back to Psych for the afternoon until she was free to spend the evening with him. Shawn flashed Juliet a charming grin as he donned his helmet and hopped on his motorcycle.
"So then Gus says, 'I think we hit something.' and all this water comes gushing up out of the ground soaking us to the bone and covering us mud." Shawn smiled as he told the story. He loved how Juliet thought his misadventures as a kid were funny. "So ended our dream of striking oil."
Juliet laughed, "I bet your dad was furious." Shawn poked at his food and nodded. The detective was still chuckling when she glanced at her watch. "Oh my God! It's been almost an hour! I have to go." She rose and kissed Shawn who was still eating his bottomless fish and chips. "I will see you after work."
Shawn was trying to swallow the food in his mouth to reply but Juliet was already out the door. As she hopped in her vehicle Juliet was actually happy she took Shawn up on his offer. She felt a lot more relaxed and refreshed.
She was halfway back to the station when a call came in over the police radio on her dash. "Units we have a report of a possible 10-16 in the vicinity of Bath and Victoria Streets please respond."
Being only five blocks away Juliet figured she could check it out on the way back to the station, plus it gave her another excuse not to do Carlton's paperwork. "This is Detective Juliet O'Hara, I am near that location and will check it out. Over." She pulled over and wrote down the address before making a U turn and heading towards the house.
When Juliet pulled up to the house everything was pretty quiet, but she needed to check anyway. Walking up the driveway she thought she saw one of the curtains in the house move. When Juliet reached the door she could definitely hear something going on inside. Knowing that domestic disturbances could be some of the most dangerous calls she was chastising herself for not calling in back up.
She knocked once on the door before a young woman about her age burst through it, falling sobbing into her arms. The woman looked like she had been knocked around. Her scalp was bleeding, probably from when her hair was grabbed, she also had many visible bruises on her face in various states of healing. Juliet figured the abuse had been going on for a while.
"Oh, my God! Thank you! He is going to kill me!" She cried, holding onto Juliet in a death grip. "Help me!"
Juliet pushed her away to look her in the face. "Where is he? Inside?" When the woman nodded frantically Juliet pried the woman the rest of the way off so she could grab her gun. As her hand brushed the handle a searing pain shot through her head and she heard the woman scream as she dropped like a stone to the walkway.
Shawn got a call a half an hour after lunch with his girlfriend. The caller ID said "Papa Monkey." "Hey dad." Shawn answered while flipping through the channels on the big screen TV.
"Shawn when I said take Juliet out for lunch I didn't mean for the rest of the day. Lassiter is on my ass about her not being here." Henry griped.
Scrunching his brow Shawn didn't understand why Juliet wouldn't be there yet. "Hey, it isn't my fault. She finished eating before me and should have been there a while ago."
Shawn could hear the frustration in his father's voice. "Well she better get here soon or we are going to have a homicide right in the police station." Shawn did not envy his dad for having a desk right across from Detective Lassiter.
"I'll see if I can get a hold of her. If you want to get away from Lassie you can ask around and see if she got called away for some reason. It isn't like Jules to not check in with anyone." His dad grunted in what Shawn could only figure was an affirmative. "Call you later."
Hanging up, Shawn tried calling Juliet's phone. "Hey, this is Juliet O'Hara. Leave a message after the beep."
"Yeah Jules, I know we ate a lot for lunch but that doesn't give you permission to sleep on the job, even though you look very good when you do sleep. Everyone is wondering where you are so give me a call." Hanging up Shawn started to get very worried.
Pursing his lips he decided to go for tracking Juliet's phone. He had promised her it would only be for emergencies and not for paranoid boyfriend reasons. He figured this would technically count as both. If anything else he could blame it on his dad being worried, because it was still difficult to admit even to Juliet that he was scared for her sometimes.
Logging in and picking her phone from the list of phones registered to his tracking account which included Gus and Henry as well. He had wanted to add Carlton but the detective said he would rather eat a badger than give Shawn access to his phone. He got a hit on Juliet's phone instantly. It was in a neighborhood about five minutes from the office. Suspicion started to replace worry as he wondered what in the world she would be doing in that area. He memorized the address and ran out to his baby and rode off to find his girlfriend.
Everything was dark and silent as Shawn walked towards the house. He noticed Juliet's green bug right away and brought his motorcycle to a stop a couple blocks farther up from it. Motorcycles are not very good stealth machines so he figured it would be less conspicuous. He walked up to the bug and checked inside. As expected it was empty but there was a note pad with the house's address written on it. It confirmed that Juliet was probably called here on the police radio and Shawn felt his jealously deflate but his worry increase.
Staying low he walked up to the side of the house and peeked in. It took three windows before he saw what he was dreading. Juliet was laying on the carpet. By her disoriented movements he figured she had been knocked down or out and was just coming around. Shawn took in the other details of the room. There was another woman lying close to Juliet and he saw she wasn't breathing. "Oh no..." Shawn breathed out as he saw another figure come into view. He was circling the prone detective and Shawn could hear him start to shout at her.
Taking out his phone he decided to do the smart thing and get some kind of back up. He texted his dad that he found Juliet and put in the address followed by "Jules in trouble. Bring help." He swallowed the lump in his throat as he sent his dad the text. He put away his phone and headed for the back door. He found it already wide open as if someone rushed out of it and did not return to shut it.
Tiptoeing inside he could hear the man's yelling more clearly. "You stupid bitch! You just had to get involved! Look what you made me do! I never hurt her that bad before, it's all your fault!"
Shawn peeked around the corner and got a better view. He saw that the man had Juliet's gun and was pointing it at her. There was also bloodied bat lying a few feet away from the other woman, who's head now resembled the watermelon that Woody had smashed during a demonstration a few months ago. His Juliet was wincing and holding up her hand. Trying to talk the man down.
"You don't have to kill me, people know I am here and will come. You will be in a lot more trouble. Let me call and get her some help..." A gunshot silenced her attempts. Debris fell down from the hole as the man leveled the gun at her once more.
Shawn's protective instinct kicked in and he yelled, "Hey!" and jumped into view, he was willing to do anything to get the gun away from Juliet.
Sure enough the gun swung in his direction. "Who the hell are you?!" The man shouted at him.
Juliet, shaking away the grogginess saw Shawn come into the room. "How?" She thought. Despite her earlier statement, only the dispatcher knew she was here. Shawn looked at her and gave her a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. Eyes that were now filled with fear for, not his life, but hers.
"Hey man. I was just in the neighborhood and heard some stuff going on." He pointed to the body of the woman, and did his best not to vomit at the mess on the floor. "She your girlfriend?" The man wiped away sweat and nodded. Shawn read the disgust on his features, not for what he had done, but for the woman herself. He came up with a plan. "Man, how many guys in your situation wouldn't want to do that. I mean, women right?" A smile came to the man's face and Shawn knew he was on the right track. "I have a girlfriend and sometimes when she doesn't listen to me I wish I could just..." Shawn clapped his hands accentuating his intentions. "You know what I mean?"
The man's gun wavered, he was obviously off his rocker at that point and his addled brain was having trouble remembering there was someone else in the room besides him and the guy agreeing with him. "Yeah man. She just kept pushing and they have to be put in their places sometimes."
"I hear that." Shawn shot an apologetic glance at Juliet, hoping that she knew he was just playing along. "You know what, we should get out of here and get a drink or something. To celebrate your newfound freedom. I'll buy."
The man nodded, "Sounds good..." Blinking a bit, Shawn started to see realization returning to his features and he remembered Juliet. The gun went back to her and Shawn's eyes widened. "Get up bitch!" Juliet stifled a sob and struggled to her feet, but did not say anything. Her detective training let her realize that Shawn had a connection with the man and she did not want to say anything to get herself shot. "Let me finish her off and we can get that drink." The man's eyes narrowed and his finger tightened on the trigger.
His heart breaking at the fear in Juliet's eyes and desperate to get the attention back on himself, Shawn looked around the room for something to distract him with. His eyes fell on some football memorabilia on the shelves. Apparently the guy was a 49ers fan. "Hey, how about those 49ers?" Shawn remembered the football scores he glanced at that morning in the paper. "Facing off against Minnesota Vikings... they kicked butt didn't they?"
The man's finger started to let up from the trigger and Shawn began to breathe easier until the distant sound of sirens pierced the silence. A cold and determined look came to the man's features and his stance steadied. There was no doubt he was about to pull the trigger. "NO!" Shawn shouted as he jumped towards Juliet.
Three shots rang out and both Shawn and Juliet fell to the floor face down. He landed protectively on top of her but the force knocked the detective out once more. The man stared at the gun then looked at Shawn, wondering why he jumped in front of the bullets. He pointed the gun at Juliet's head, intending to finish the job before the cops got there when his front door burst open and a furious Henry aimed his gun.
"DROP IT!" Henry shouted. When the man didn't drop the weapon and Henry saw who he was pointing it at he opened fire. One well aimed bullet ripped though the man's brain and he collapsed boneless, the gun falling uselessly to the floor.
Henry had taken his own vehicle and luckily arrived a minute before the other officers. He had called Gus right after receiving Shawn's text so both Carlton and Gus arrived seconds after he had taken out the shooter. They were followed closely by Buzz and a couple other black and whites. All had stopped at the door to gawk at the grizzly and bloody scene.
Making sure there was no other threats in the room, Henry rushed to Juliet and Shawn. He saw the blood spreading on the back of Shawn's green plaid shirt and he was pale and unmoving. "Call an ambulance now!" Henry shouted and returned his attention to his son. As he was reaching for Shawn's neck to feel a pulse Henry heard sputtering from Juliet, who was pinned under his son.
"Detective O'Hara can you hear me?" Getting no response he raised his voice, "Detective O'Hara! JULIET!" He saw her open her eyes and start to cough. He realized Shawn's weight was impeding her breathing. He motioned for Carlton to help him gently move Shawn off of her so she could sit up.
Carlton whispered to Henry as they carefully relocated Shawn, "Don't let her see this."
Doing his best to shut off his emotions and deal with the situation, Henry nodded and looked at his lifeless son as Juliet sat up, took a deep breath and asked... "What happened?"
