Note: I apologize for posting this chapter on Valentines Day. Honestly, it was hard for me to wait even this long, and I couldn't take it anymore. I promise to try to have something happy up for you today, too (and to fix the mess I made here :p). Please R&R and don't kill me! O:)
Juliet Gets Engaged
by: jewel of athos
Chapter 2 - Shawn Learns The Rules of Engagement
It was nearly two weeks before Shawn was able to bring himself to enter SBPD again, and even then he almost turned back. But when he walked in and neither Juliet nor Jeremy was in sight, he breathed a small sigh of relief and headed over to her desk.
The roses from the other day were in a pretty glass vase now, and well-wishing cards still littered her desk. Half hidden underneath them, he saw a note in Juliet's handwriting with the name of a restaurant, and a time. Seven thirty.
"She must be going out to dinner with Jerry..." he mused, pulling a blank card and a pale green envelope out of his pocket. He selected a pen from Juliet's desk and scrawled a quick message inside the card. "Sorry I haven't been around. Meet me at the Psych office before you go to dinner." He didn't sign it; it was obvious who it was from. He stared at the message for several seconds more, debating the wisdom of his message, but finally he gave up. He slipped it into the green envelope and sealed it carefully, and placed it on top of all the others on her desk.
He turned to go and ran straight into Lassiter.
"Oh, Lassie!" He backed up a few feet, keeping a careful eye on the gun strapped to the detective's hip. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you there---"
"Well, Spencer, what a surprise. I haven't seen you around since the big day."
"The big---? Oh, yes, right, the engagement day. I've, well...I've been busy. There's this case I've been working on..."
"You haven't had a case in weeks."
"I'm sorry, who is the psychic here? Is it you, Lassie? I don't think so."
"The only cases that you ever get are the ones that you steal from me, Spencer. And since I've been solving the greatest crimes of this decade for the past couple of months with little if any help from you, I can tell you for a fact that you don't have a case."
"Hm. Well, the guy you arrested last week is innocent, if you're interested. The bank teller did it." Lassiter's eyes widened, and he coughed several times, looking around and trying to cover his cursing.
"Well, that's a very interesting theory, I'll have some people look into it. But actually, I didn't come over here to gloat about my successes."
"Really?" Shawn stalled, raising an eyebrow. "Because to me, that looks like exactlywhat you came over here to do." Uncharacteristically, Lassiter ignored him.
"You know, I'm surprised at you, Spencer. I have to admit, in spite of the obvious errors in you personality and behavior that would never allow a relationship between you two to work, I fully expected you to be the one to propose to Detective O'Hara. I certainly didn't think that you'd let Jeremy Ross marry her before you'd at least said your piece. Which begs the question, what the heck are you doing?"
"Lassie, as usual, you're way off base and I have no idea what you're talking about. I didn't know that Jerry was going to propose to her, nor would there be any problems hindering a relationship between Jules and me."
"I will overlook the second part of that statement right now and take a moment to laugh about the first. How could you not know? Even though you've hardly showed your face here in months, your "psychic powers" definitely should have showed you what was going to happen. So why didn't they? Are you losing your touch?" Shawn frowned thoughtfully, tapping his chin.
"That may very well be," he said, wincing a little. But then he brightened, and patted Lassiter on the shoulder. The detective jerked away. "But that's all about to change. See you, Lassie."
"What---?" Lassie watched him go, his hands spread in confusion. "And he ignores my sarcasm completely?"
~*~*~*~*~*~
Shawn was at his office nearly three hours early, waiting restlessly for Juliet to show up. He played around on his computer as much as he could with Gus's parental lock still in place, flipped through the channels without finding anything worthwhile to watch---he shut the television of when a news minute came on about "Detective O'Hara's Engagement"---and paced around periodically, screening his calls. There were at least three from Gus, all of which he ignored. He hadn't talked to Gus since the engagement day, either.
Around six thirty, he heard the door open.
"You're early," he started to say as he turned around. He started. "Dad?"
"Thanks to you, I lost half a box of Apple Jacks," he said, dropping a box down on the desk. "Shawn, what's going on?"
"I don't know what you're talking about..." His dad shook his head, taking a couple of steps closer. Shawn backed up in response, a little worried.
"You came over my house, ate half a box of Apple Jacks, and ducked out without talking to me. You haven't had a case in months; you've even been ignoring Gus for over two weeks---"
"No I haven't!" Shawn protested. I've been avoiding him, he corrected silently. His dad grabbed his cell phone and showed him the missed calls list. The last seventeen were Gus. He raised an eyebrow. "Alright, so maybe I've missed a few calls..."
"You're ignoring him. Busted. Now tell me what this is all about." Shawn sighed, running his hands through his hair, avoiding his father's eyes.
"I don't know..." he shook his head, a thousand false explanations running through his head. But his dad had been a cop; and aside from that, he'd never bought any of his lies. He let his hands fall limply at his sides, sighing. "I don't know," he said again.
"Is it about this?" He shifted through the mountain of unread mail spilling in a sloppy pile all over his desk. He fished out an elegant, cream-colored envelope that had to be one of the only nice pieces of mail that Shawn had ever gotten, and ripped opened the flap. Shawn felt an uncomfortable feeling growing in his stomach as he caught the handwriting on the card Henry pulled out. He'd purposefully ignored that piece of mail when it had arrived, afraid of what was inside. He didn't have to be psychic to guess what it was and that things were moving faster than he was comfortable with.
"How did you know about it?" he asked.
"I got one in my mail, too. One for me, and another for you today."
"You got an invitation for me?"
"Well, you haven't replied to this one, have you?" Shawn cringed. He was so hoping that his father would tell him that he was wrong, that was not what had been in the envelope. But of course, he hadn't lost his touch to that extent. Of course, it would be exactly what he was afraid of. "Shawn, I can understand that you want some space. A lot has gone on in the past few months; things have changed. I can even understand why you wouldn't want to talk to me or Gus about this. But why haven't you made even an effort to talk to Juliet?"
Shawn felt his mouth open and close several times, a thousand lies once again shooting through his head, all of which he discarded.
"She has Jeremy now," he mumbled finally. "She doesn't need me anymore."
"Shawn, you were her best friend! You know, I think she's hurt that you haven't spoken to her all these months. She misses you."
"Then why hasn't she---?"
"Why hasn't she said anything to you? Shawn, she asks everyone about you, all the time. The only reason that she hasn't talked to you yet is because she thinks that you want space. She's scared to bother you."
"Jules is scared of me?"
"Yes!"
"She doesn't need to be..."
"Then why don't you try telling her that? You're her friend, she wants you to talk to her. She needs you. This is kind of sudden, and I can imagine that she'd feel a lot better if she knew that you were going to support her through it."
"But Dad, how can I tell her to marry someone else? I," his voice caught, and it was a minute before he could talk again. "I love her."
"If you love her, then do what's best for her." A car door thumped shut outside, but Shawn was too locked in his father's gaze to look away. Time seemed to freeze.
A knock on the door jarred him out of his stupor.
"Shawn? Shawn, are you in there?" He jumped. Jules!
"Dad, you've gotta get out of here."
"Shawn, what's going on?"
"Just---hide!" He pushed his father into the bathroom before he could protest and slammed the door shut. Then he leaped towards the door as Juliet knocked again. He pulled it opened and leaned against the frame, trying to look nonchalant.
This was difficult when she looked so stunningly beautiful for her date. Lacy white skirt, pale pink, form-fitting sleeveless shirt...Gosh! She's beautiful...
"H-hi," he stammered, all of the flowery phrases that he'd been intending to use flying out the window to hide in the gutter with eariler discarded lies. Juliet smiled nervously.
"Hi, Shawn."
"W-w-what are you doing here?" She frowned a little.
"Shawn, you invited me, remember? You asked me to come over tonight. Is this a bad time...?"
"Oh, ah, right. No! Sorry, I just got off the phone with my dad, and I was distracted, and---Sorry." He stood their awkwardly for a moment, mentally berating himself. Say something, idiot!
"...Can I come in?" she asked hesitantly. Shawn kicked himself.
"Yeah! Right, sure. Come in..." Stop babbling! This is not how you planned this conversation to go. He stood aside and let her in, closing the door behind her and then following her into the main room. He heard her take a deep breath before turning to face him, and he couldn't help but notice the warm, attractive blush covering her cheeks. She squeezed the handle of her purse with shaking hands and gave a tentative smile.
"So what's this all about?" she asked. "Why did you want me to come here?"
"I wanted to apologize for running out without congratulating you the other day," he said. "I suddenly felt really sick, and I didn't think you'd appreciate it if I threw up all over you." Her smile turned genuine and amused, and her hands relaxed a bit.
"Yeah, thanks, I appreciate that," she said. "And it's really okay, I understand. It was a bit of a shock to me, too."
"What? No, that's not why I---"
"But I want to tell you that it means so much to me that you're okay with all of this. I know that we haven't talked in a long time, and I was worried that you might be upset with me because I've been spending so much time with Jeremy..." she took a deep breath, and her sparkling eyes rolled up. "You have no idea how grateful and relieved I am that you think this is a good idea."
"That I think what is a good idea?" Shawn stuttered, feeling like the floor had just been ripped away beneath him.
"That you're okay with me marrying Jeremy. I know that in the beginning you weren't thrilled with our relationship; but the fact that you think this is the right thing to do is so important to me..." His mouth went completely dry.
"Jules---"
"I mean, I thought for a while that you were avoiding us because you really didn't approve..."
"Jules---" he tried again, but she went on.
"...but I realize now that you were just giving us space to get to know each other, to figure things out. And you must have had one of your psychic visions telling you to show up the day that he proposed, to give me the confidence to say yes..."
"JULIET!" He immediately regretted shouting as she startled back a step, the joy leaving her face. He sighed. "I'm sorry, it's just...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scream at you." He tilted his head back and covered his face with his hands. "Oh, gosh..." How could she have read him so wrong?
"Shawn?" There was a definite note of concern in her voice now, and he heard her take a step closer to him. "Shawn, what's the matter, is everything okay?" Don't chicken out now. You wanted to talk to her so you could tell her the truth. Don't lie and put it off until it's too late.
"No!" he burst out. "Juliet, I'm sorry, this isn't how I wanted things to go..."
"Shawn, what are you talking about? Aren't---aren't you happy for me?"
"Do you want the truth, Juliet? Fine. Here's the truth. I'm not happy that you're marrying Jeremy. I'm really not. I don't think that he's good enough. I don't think that anyone---"
"Wait, you don't think that he's good enough for me? What, do you think that you're any better? Did you think that I would wait for you forever while you fooled around and made mistakes with Abigail?" He found the courage to look at her, but regretted it when he saw tears sparkling in her eyes.
"Yes, I made mistakes with Abigail; but I realize that now! I just had to tell you this before it was too late."
"Before it's too late? I've got news for you; it is too late. I got tired of waiting for you, Shawn. I waited for four years for you, and I'm done. And I'd think that you'd be just a little excited for me that I've finally found someone else who makes me happy."
"You're not the only one that he's made happy; when I was going through his apartment, I found out that he's had at least two other serious relationships in the past few years---"
"You broke into his apartment? Shawn!"
"I wanted to find out---"
"You wanted to find out if he was hiding something? I've talked to him about this, Shawn. I know about Anna and Becky." She made a stressed sound in her throat. "Oh, gosh, I can't believe you!"
"Juliet..."
"I love Jeremy, Shawn, okay? And you know what? I don't need your approval on any of the men in my life. She shook her head. "This was a bad idea coming to talk to you. I should have known that you couldn't accept that I'm happy with someone besides you."
"Jules..." Shawn could feel tears pressing against his eyes. This wasn't what I wanted.
"No! Don't call me that, Shawn Spencer! My name is Juliet." She pushed past him and jerked opened the door. He waited for the sound of it slamming closed, but it didn't come. He heard a heavy sigh behind him.
"I still want you to want this for me," she said softly. He turned around in time to see the anger drain from her face and be replaced by a mixture of sadness and hope and something else that he couldn't identify. "Will you at least come to the wedding for me?" Shawn shook his head, feeling like it was made of cement.
"I'm sorry Jule-Juliet. I just, I can't..." He saw her face harden.
"Fine." The door did slam behind her.
Shawn heard his father open the bathroom door, and felt him come up to stand beside him, but he couldn't bring himself to move.
"Sometimes you've gotta just tell the truth," he said. "But I don't think that this was one of those times."
"Better than at the altar, though, right?" A hand rubbed his shoulder.
"Yeah. Better than at the altar." He sighed. "Look, if you want to come stay at home tonight..."
"Nah," Shawn shook his head. "It's okay. I think I'm just gonna...hang out here for a while."
"Alright." He patted Shawn's shoulder again, and left quietly. Once he was gone, Shawn collapsed into his desk chair and let his head roll back.
If I could only die right now...
~*~*~*~*~*~
Note: To be continued. Chapter 3 will be up soon. Thanks for reading!! :D
