Disclaimer: I do not own Psych.
"Shawn, Shawn, wake up baby. Time for school."
Shawn sleepily opened his eyes, giving a low moan as he covered his face with his blanket, "Too early."
His mother gave a laugh but there was something off about it that instantly put Shawn on edge. She sounded… worried. Normally, when Shawn refused to wake up, his mother got annoyed… she never laughed.
Something was wrong.
"Come on, baby, we got to go," his mother said, gently shaking his shoulder. He didn't miss how her hands shook as they touched him.
He pulled the blanket off of his head, looking up at the woman. One look told him that something was obviously wrong. Her hair had been pulled back into a messy ponytail and she hadn't put on her makeup yet. Her face was screwed up in worry and concern.
Normally, when Shawn was woken up by his mother, she was completely ready to start her day. She always had her done and her makeup applied. She didn't today.
"What's wrong?" he asked her immediately, worry clawing at him. His dad had left, hadn't he? That was the only explanation that he could come up with. He knew that his parents had been fighting lately. He must have left.
She looked surprised, "What do you mean? Nothing's wrong."
"Yes it is," he said, frustrated as he immediately threw the blankets off of him and climbed out of bed, "You're worried. What happened?"
She chewed on her bottom lip and shook her head, "Nothing's wrong, baby. Everything's fine."
Not believing her, he stormed out of his room and to the living room, expecting to see it empty. His father had left. That was the only explanation.
Only, his father was right there, reading a newspaper. The front page that Shawn could see talked about the recent murder of Ronald Thompson, a ten year old whose body had been found in an abandoned car in the woods. Shawn had heard of the boy. There was a girl in his class named Mary who knew the boy's cousin and had made sure the entire class knew about it.
His dad was home… he hadn't expected that.
"What's going on, dad?" he asked, crossing his arms.
The man didn't react, having obviously seen Shawn come in even if he didn't show it. Shawn scanned the man's face for something that would give away his emotion but it was blank. His father had always been better at hiding his emotions.
"Well, someone didn't finish their homework last night," Henry said, looking up from the newspaper and raising his eyebrows at Shawn.
Shawn wrinkled up his nose at that. How his father knew that, he had no idea. Regardless, he knew that he was fighting a losing battle. If his parents didn't want him to know what was wrong, they weren't going to tell him. Most likely, there had been some really bad argument.
Grumbling, he stomped his way to the kitchen and poured himself some cereal. His mother followed, which Shawn felt was extremely odd as she really needed to be getting ready.
"Um, mom," he said slowly as he finished pouring the milk, "Don't you need to be getting ready for work?"
"Oh, I called in sick today," she told him with a shrug.
He scrunched his eyebrows together in confusion, looking at her, "You don't seem to be sick…"
She gave a cough that was obviously fake but he decided not to question it. Something was going on and he was going to have to figure it out through snooping around.
He loved doing that.
Grabbing his bag, he started to work on his homework as he ate.
Shawn bolted out of the bathroom as he finished brushing his teeth. His mother was really starting to make him nervous with how she stood by the door of his bedroom while he changed or how she seemed to be watching his every move. For once, he couldn't wait to get to school where he could tell Gus how weird his parents were acting and see if he agreed with his theory of aliens.
"See you later, dad!" he called to the man as he grabbed his lunchbox and bag and was about to leave to catch the bus.
Henry stood up, holding his arm out to stop him, "Whoa, hold on. I'm taking you to school today."
Okay, something was definitely wrong. He stopped, staring at his father, "You never take me to school. You'll be late to work."
"Just get in the car, kid. I'll get you some ice cream on the way."
His eyes lit up at that and a grin came on his face. Okay, if aliens had kidnapped his parents and replaced them with these people, maybe it wouldn't be too bad. Having ice cream before school even started was something that he never even dreamed of.
"Ay ay, sir!" he said, playfully saluting the man in front of him and bolting to his father's truck. As he climbed into the passenger side, he was surprised to see Henry practically chasing after him, his shoes clutched in his hands. Why hadn't he waited to put on his shoes?
Shawn huffed slightly in confusion but decided to discard it for future investigation. For now, he was simply looking forward to some ice cream.
"I'm telling you, Gus," Shawn said as he sat down for lunch, talking adamantly to his best friend, "Something's up with my parents."
His friend didn't seem too concerned, "Really, Shawn? Aliens? I'm sure that nothing's wrong. You're just looking into it. Did they tell you something was wrong?"
Shawn hesitated as he pulled out his sandwich, "Well, no…"
"Then it's probably nothing. My parents always tell me when something's wrong," Gus pointed out with his twelve year old knowledge, "Maybe your mom really is sick. Maybe your dad just wanted to spend some time with you."
Shawn scowled slightly as he bit into his sandwich, "Wh't? My d'd n'v'r wats to sped tm w't meh."
"Shawn, chew first!" Gus admonished, but he was laughing anyway, "And sure he does. All dad's want to spend time with their sons."
Shawn just rolled his eyes and swallowed the bite of food, "Gus, you've met my dad. His version of quality time is testing how many hats are in the room."
"You've got to admit. It's a neat trick," Gus pointed out with a smirk and Shawn glared at him. The traitor.
Why couldn't the boy be on his side? There was something wrong!
The school day went on like normal. Shawn had a history test which he was sure he aced. He always did. It wasn't like math where actual work was involved in tests. History was all about memorization and Shawn had the best memory that there was.
His eyes glanced over to Mary after the test was over. She was passing a note to Lucinda and he was quick to notice words like "Ronald" and "shot".
They were talking about the boy who had been killed. The last murder had gained more popularity than the other ones, Shawn knew. This one was closer to where they lived. Ronald had lived just barely out of the school zone and he knew that the boy would have been going to their high school when they reached it. It had caught everyone's attention, especially since someone was friends with his cousin.
It didn't bother Shawn, though. His father was a police officer. He'd overheard cases like this all the time.
Besides, it wasn't like it was connected to Shawn in any way.
When he and Gus left the school, about to start on their walk home (their parents had them ride the bus in the morning because they were afraid that no one would see if anything happened to them but by afternoon, there were much more witnesses), Shawn was surprised to see his mother parked in the parking lot and waving them over.
"Mom, what are you doing here?" he asked her in confusion as he and Gus reached the car.
"Well, since I didn't go to work today, I thought that I should drive you home. Oh, Gus, I'll drop you off at your house if you'd like," Madeline said.
Shawn pouted, "But I was going to go to Gus' house today!"
"Sorry, Shawnie, I need you home today."
He glanced to his best friend who shrugged but was obviously realizing that Shawn was right about the fact that something was up. Madeline kept glancing around as if someone was about to attack them and hadn't even bothered to do her makeup, something that never happened when the psychologist went in public. Her voice was higher than normal as well, giving away that something was scaring her.
He climbed into the back of the car with Gus and, after a moment of awkward silence, decided to fill the space with chatter of his day.
He would do his snooping when he got home.
After dropping Gus off, Shawn headed inside. His father was at work which gave Shawn the perfect opportunity to snoop around in his room… if his mother would stop following him around the house.
He sighed in annoyance and pulled out his homework as he sat down in the kitchen. Maybe he could bore the woman away. Surely, after several minutes of him working on some math problems, she would leave to find something better to do.
After ten minutes, she was still there, watching Shawn as if he might disappear into thin air.
He kept working on his homework a little longer. Surely, she couldn't just sit there staring at him for this long.
He kept working for thirty whole minutes until he was finished. For once, he wished he had more homework… his mother was still there.
"Mom," he said slowly, "don't you have something else to do?"
She frowned, "Maybe I just wanted to hear about your day."
"I already told you about my day in the car," he pointed out, starting to get more than a little worried. His parents never acted like this. He felt like his every move was being watched and it was nerve-wracking. What had caused his mother to be so nervous?
After a moment, he spoke up again, "I have to use the bathroom," and bolted towards it.
He could hear his mother's footsteps signaling that she was standing outside the bathroom and he sighed, glancing around for anything that could clue him into what was going on.
He opened all the drawers, being quiet so his mother didn't suspect anything. Nothing had been added or taken away since the last time he'd seen them. The same thing was the truth for the medicine cabinet. The only thing that was off was the box of latex gloves looked to have been moved slightly and he stored that away. Latex gloves didn't tell him anything.
He had nothing.
When dinner came around and his father didn't even attempt to quiz him on his memory, Shawn was 100% convinced that his parents were aliens. It was the only explanation.
So after hiding in his room for enough time to gather supplies that he could use for weapons, Shawn practically bolted downstairs wearing his bike helmet and clutching a toy sword.
He flung the kitchen door open, brandishing his sword in front of him, "Who are you?"
"Shawn?" his mother asked, confused.
"Who are you?" he repeated, pointing the plastic sword at them, "What planet do you come from?"
"Shawn, don't play games," Henry said with a sigh.
Shawn simply pointed the sword at him, eyebrows raised, "Where did you take my parents? I bet you thought I wouldn't notice but let me just say, you really should have gotten more research if you wanted to act like my parents, aliens!"
A smile flickered onto Madeline's face but Henry simply sighed, "Shawn, we're not aliens."
"Prove it," Shawn said stubbornly.
Madeline rolled her eyes, watching Shawn fondly, "If I were an alien, would I know that your favorite meal is meatloaf with a side of pineapple?"
She gestured to the meat that she was putting on a plate and the sliced pineapples already sitting there.
He lowered the sword, stomach growling at the sight of the food, "I guess not…"
She smiled as she set the plate on the table and ruffled his hair, "Eat up, kid."
AN: There you go! Chapter 2 is up! I hope I wrote kid!Shawn in character. I was really trying to think of how a kid would react to his parents suddenly being super overprotective.
The next chapter is where things will pick up. Again, this is probably going to be about a four chapter story. It's written because of an idea that I have of another, longer Psych story. I needed to write up some backstory for it, first, if it was going to make sense.
Thanks to the people who reviewed my first chapter! Hopefully you liked this one!