So, in this chapter will be no interaction between Winchesters and Shawn, or Lassie for that matter. But little bonding between Lassie and one undisclosed character. And the Gang will be together again, very soon! And we will start with.. wait for iiit.. you know what, it's a surprise!


Okay, that was fun. Shawn heard every word of their conversation. They talked so casually about ghosts and from their expressions they were deadly serious. It was really ridiculous. So when they finally saw him, he just had to jump on that opportunity. He grinned again. The look on their faces was just priceless. Their entire conversation was complete nonsense of course, but who's he to judge crazy people? He has neverending dream, afterall. But what gave him the creeps was that some of their words were getting to him. Ghost.. Already dead... Kill him again..Wait, rewind. Shawn 'sensed'.. well okay, it was more of a hunch, that while he was laughing he heard something that wasn't total bullshit.. he concentrated and thought back to their dialogue.

He was laughing hard and in the corner of his eye he saw that the smaller 'agent' was ready to explode.

I'm gonna kill him!"he said.

You mean salt'n'bore?"the taller one said.

No, I mean I'm gonna kill him! Slowly and painfully!"

He's already dead. You can't kill him."

Just watch me!"

Dean.."

Ha! Stop right there. Now he had a name for one of these clowns. But what the hell is salt'n'bore? Are they gonna try to bore him to death with salt? Or was it salt'n'bake? Is it some sort of new delicious, yet deadly snack? Maybe it was... Shawn froze when he saw someone in the hall. Someone so much familiar. Someone he thought he'd never see again. Not here anyway. But there he was, suit like always, with no hair and oddly eager expression on his face. His identical twin of a different race born from another womb, Burton Guster. And he wasn't the only one who noticed him, Shawn saw Lassiter coming to him with bewildered expression.

„Guster? What are you doing here?"

„Buzz called me. He said that he saw Shawn. Did you find him?" Shawn looked at his best friend and was touched. Really touched. He thought that he worked all the time, maybe found a nice wife and forgot all about him. But there he was, and one call that he was seen was enough.

„McNab!" Oh dear. Poor Buzz. Hope he'll survive. While Lassiter waited for Buzz McNab to come to them, he said to Guster: „No, we didn't find him."

„But,.." Gus began, but was interrupted when Buzz came to them.

„Yes, sir?"

„You mind telling me what the hell were you thinking, calling Guster and telling him you saw Spencer?"

„But I did saw him. We all did. Even you. Sir."

„I definitely didn't see him. If I saw anything, it had absolutely nothing to do with real Shawn Spencer."

„But he was right. That agent was fa.." Buzz didn't finish. He saw the furious look Lassiter was giving him and decided it would be wiser to just stop talking.

„I'm sorry, what is going on here?"

„Well we had two FBI agents here asking about Fabien Loco and Mr. Spencer, then Shawn appeared, had a vision that these guys were fake and disappeared, detective Lassiter checked their badges more closely and arrested them."

Gus looked at Lassiter who looked like he's ready to shoot him. Buzz, not Gus. Or maybe both of them. He certainly didn't look like he had any preferences.

„What do you mean, 'appeared'?" Gus asked, still confused.

„Don't you dare say it." Lassiter barked. Buzz was looking hesitantly back and forth from Lassiter to Gus but eventually he decided in Gus's favour.

„The fake agent said it was his spirit and that the station is haunted by him." he quickly said and then he ran off, afraid that Lassiter really does shoot him.

„Did he say - haunted?"

„Unfortunately.. Guster? Where are you going?" Lassiter asked when he saw Gus back away. As he was going towards the table with coffee machine, he was frantically looking around, as if he was expecting Shawn to emerge any minute with loud 'Booh!'.

„Guster!" Lassiter called after him once more and then followed him.

„Do you have any salt in here?"

„What? Why would we have salt?"

„I—We need salt."

„What the hell are you talking about?"

„We need it, now! There is no salt in the station? None?" Gus asked with terrified look. And Lassiter was loosing patience.

„The only salt in the whole station is in the evidence room. Those two jokers had it in their car. Now, try to understand my words. What. The. Hell. Are. You. Talking. About?!" Lassiter emphasized every word of his question, hoping it would get him an answer. But no such luck. Gus just turned around and ran towards the evidence room.

„Goddamnit!" Lassiter cursed and followed him.

He catched up with him in front of the door to evidence room. Before Gus could even touch the door handle, Lassiter caught his upper arm and led him from the room. When they were in the corner with no people around, Lassiter looked into Gus's eyes and saw the sorrow in them. He instantly felt bad for him.

„Guster. Calm down and tell me what's this about." he said surprisingly calmly, which had the desired outcome. Gus finally answered him.

„When I was a kid, I read some ghost stories. And I told all about it to Shawn, that ghosts cannot cross the line of salt, that it repels them, if you burn theirs bones it destroys them, stuff like that. What if it's not just a story? What if he really died and came back?"

Lassiter was still looking into his eyes and saw the struggle behind them. This young man was terrified that Spencer would come back to haunt him. And he knew why he thought that. He was feeling guilty that he wasn't with him, that he let him do the case, whatever it was about, all alone. And he couldn't blame him. Hell, even he felt guilty. He was Head Detective, and yet when he saw him earlier that day, he didn't realize that he was in some kind of trouble. And he felt even more guilty that he couldn't figure out what happened to him.

„Guster, listen to me. And if you ever tell anyone about this, I will shoot you."

„Okay." Gus smiled slightly. This was Lassie he knew and loved.

„I know you miss him. I miss him too. He was pain in the ass, but he was damn good detective and.. friend. I can't believe I'm saying this, but even if he was ghost, he would never haunt you. He would've appeared with idiotic grin on his face and some stupid movie reference. But let me ask you something, on the matter of the ghosts, what would Spencer have told you if he was here?"

Lassiter saw that Gus calmed down and was opening his mouth. But he didn't want to hear any more lies about that psychic/spirits nonsense, so just to be certain, he said:

„And drop the act, we both know that the psychic thing is bullshit. Just tell me the truth and I will forget it." Gus still looked hesitantly, so Lassiter added: „Promise on my badge."

That promise Gus could believe, so he answered truthfully: „He would've said it's never ghosts."

„Now we're getting somewhere. There is no ghost, we just want him back too much, that's all."

„I guess you're right." Gus slightly smiled. He was calmer, but he still felt guilty. He failed him, utterly and completely and nothing he could do would fix it.

„But now I have to ask you about those ghost stories."

„What? Why? You just said that ghosts aren't real."

„They're not. But those two fake agents said the same thing about burning bones as you did."

„You think they're involved somehow?"

„I don't know, but they came here asking questions about Spencer. And the next think I hear is about burning Spencer's bones. It is little unnerving, if nothing else. Could be they're just whackjobs, but maybe they know what happened and maybe they're responsible. That's why I need to know where did you read those ghost stories."

„It was some old fairy tale book. My mom should still have it, but I remember most of the stories."

„Okay, you're coming with me." Lassiter said plainly and went towards the holding cells.

Shawn was paying attention to their conversation until they reached the very awkward point. I miss him too. Lassiter's words still rang in his mind. Did he hear right? Lassie would never said anything like this. Maybe he's just going mad and Lassie never said anything. Maybe it's sign of the apocalypse. And maybe it's neither and he really did say it. But why the hell should he be so surprised? It's a dream afterall, anything can happen. The idea that terrified him was of the possibility that this wasn't in fact a dream. And what was worse, he actually began to admit that this could be reality. That the past four years, give or take, weren't dream. Dream that only seems to last eternaly and he will soon wake up and call Gus what ridiculous dream he had. But he still wasn't waking up. And they still thought he was dead. And they still ignored him. Even when he managed to get their attention, they brushed it off like something impossible. Lassie listened to him, but instantly after that he called him 'delusion' and fabrication of his 'subconsciousness'. Wait, not all of them. Those two imposters didn't ignore him. Dean and Big Foot. He needed to talk to them. They believed he was dead too, but at least they thought he was real.

„It's not him." Sam said into the silence. Dean seemed to calm down a bit, but he still looked pissed off.

„I know. Doesn't mean I'm not gonna salt'n'burn him after we're done here." Dean said and sighed. They were stucked in this hole and although he was sure that Shawn Spencer wasn't their vengeful spirit, he needed to pay. But first they needed to get out of here.

„Maybe we should ask him for help."

„Who?" Dean asked confused, but then he saw look on his brother's face. „You mean the ghost?"

„Yes, I mean the ghost."

„Have you lost your mind? Name one ghost who helped us just from kindness in his heart."

„Actually,.."

„Shut up, that doesn't count. And neither does Bobby."

Sam smirked at his answer. He knew that the real reason was that Dean was pissed at Shawn because of his hurt pride. And they couldn't let it come between them and their task ahead.

„If you say so. I'm just saying, he was good guy who was catching bad guys when he was alive, and since he still jokes around, I think he didn't change much. For a ghost, that's rare, maybe he's different, therefore he could help us."

„Forget it. Only thing I will do with him will be setting him on fire."

Sam sighed. Clearly Dean needed more time. And he really thought they really would have more time. But since when things went the way they needed?

Dean was staring at the wall in his cell. He knew his brother was right. They needed the ghost's help. But he was so pissed at him. And he was angry at himself, that he let him to fool him. His thoughts were interrupted with sudden blackout. There was dark, everywhere. Then he heard struggle in the next cell and his heart rate began to fasten in immediate fear for his brother. When he heard muffled shout „Dean!" he felt like the whole world just stopped.

„Sam?!" Dean shouted as he was trying get himself to the bars without killing himself in that freakin' dark. He waited for an answer, but it never came. Few seconds later lights were back up and to his horror his brother was gone.


In the next chapter..

„We have another problem."

Lassiter sighed. Of course we have. „Well spill it Guster, what is it?"

„I called his father."