Sorry it's been a while, esp since it was a cliffie, but I'm having trouble on the next chapter. Special apologies got to Plogop. I actually had this chap finished, but didn't want to post it till I got past my block on chap 5. But, when I got Plogop's review, I decided I'd better post. It may be a little while before the next on.
"Meow!"
Shawn just managed to grab Lassiter's arm and knock his aim off course. The cat yelped and scampered into a cardboard box that was upended in the alley.
They stared in disbelief. Then Shawn began to laugh, and scooped the little creature up. It was shaking where it curled in the box. The cat couldn't be more than a few weeks old. It was a tortoise-shell kitten, with long whiskers and a white patch on it's throat, and it was far too thin. It had obviously been separated from it's mother, or maybe the Mama Cat had died. There was blood coming from a small round hole in it's ear, and a long scrape along it's side. The bullet had passed straight through the ear, and then clipped Kitty's shoulder. It soon settled in Shawn's arms, mewling a little as he examined the wound.
I went on record to the Chief, telling her I'd never shoot a cat. Lassiter thought. He was stunned. Well, unless it was approaching in a threatening manner, and this little guy certainly was. He scared the crap out of me! He almost groaned, knowing this incident would lead to a lot of teasing if it got out. Especially given how sure he'd been that there was something wrong. That someone was out here. Oh well, that's why I don't trust my gut. It lies.
"It's a girl." Shawn declared, not bothering to check the kitten's privates. "And I shall call her Little Girl Cat. LGC for short."
"Shawn, are you sure? Your record for guessing the gender of mammals isn't brilliant." Lassiter grinned, getting over the shock finally. He clapped Shawn on the shoulder as they headed back to the front door.
"Just because I was wrong about that stripper in Las Vegas... oh, you mean Little Boy Cat."
"Yes, I meant... what stripper in Las-?" Lassiter stopped and put his arm out to stop Shawn getting closer to the door. "Shawn?"
"I see it." He turned around in a slow circle, looking for anything, anyone. He shuffled the kitten so he could hold it in one handed, and raised the gun, ready to shoot. "How could they do this without us seeing them?"
"I don't know. Get inside. I'm calling the Chief. Lock all the doors and windows. And call Gus."
"Yes, sir!" Shawn saluted sharply. "You should come inside too. I wasn't the only one they kidnapped." Lassiter looked at him for a long minute, but the panic hiding in Shawn's eyes was hard to refuse. He nodded and followed him inside.
Gus arrived before the Chief and O'Hara and he entered using the key he'd cloned from Shawn's, a sick look on his face.
"You okay?" He checked, going over to sit beside his best friend.
"Yeah. I... I just... they were right there and we couldn't even see them."
"It's going to be okay, Shawn." Gus said, and wrapped his arms around him. They sat there like that for a long moment.
"Dude." Shawn said in a slightly watery voice. "No chick flick moments." Gus pulled back and looked at Lassiter, who had on his angry eyes. They exchanged a nod.
It wasn't until then that Gus registered the blood on Shawn's shirt.
"Shawn! Tell me that's ketchup!"
"No can do, buddy." Shawn smiled wanly. "It's closer to something Edward Cullen, or Bill Compton, or even Count Von Count would drink."
"Then at least tell me it's not yours!"
"That I can do. It's not yours."
"Shawn!"
"And it's not mine either. Chill, dude. It's LGC's." He pointed, and Gus saw a small furry creature curled on the floor.
"What the hell happened?" Gus asked, looking from Shawn, to Lassie, to LGC. "And you'd better not let that cat ride shotgun."
"Shawn, you shouldn't have said anything. You told lies. Lies about us. Now, everyone thinks that we're the bad guys, when we all know you are. You and him. When we get a hold of you again, we won't waste any time. You will be fucked hard and killed slow, and I will enjoy every minute of it. If you can keep your fucking mouth shut, then maybe we'll just let you leave town, instead of hunting you down." Juliet read.
She and Vick had arrived about half an hour ago, along with several officers and a team of CSI's. The letter was in a clear plastic evidence bag, but they all doubted there would be any fingerprints etc on it. The rogue cops were just too good. In a second bag was a photograph of Shawn with his face crossed out in red marker pen.
"We know what it says, Jules." Shawn said softly.
"Shawn I... I'm sorry." There was quiet pain in his eyes, and it hurt her to look at him. She put the letter in the bag down on the coffee table.
Little Girl Cat batted at the edge of the bag, where it hung over the edge of the table and then curled up on a cushion and regarded them all as if she owned the joint. Juliet smiled and stroked the kitten gently with one finger. LGC had a makeshift bandage over the gunshot wound. She didn't seem to be in much pain. Lassiter had sent Buzz (he'd arrived with O'Hara and Vick) to pick up some Kitten Food, which had gotten him a small smile from Shawn.
"Why are they doing this? What do they hope to get out of it?" Gus asked.
The Chief and Juliet exchanged a glance.
"Well," Vick said. "They're putting forth the story the Shawn and Lassiter are in a relationship. They admit to harassing Shawn and they say that the two of you attacked them, kidnapped them and framed them in revenge, resulting in Mr Ellis's break from reality."
Shawn snorted in disgust.
"They're trying to make it look like your trying to frame them by leaving things that obviously point to them, but have no physical evidence on them. If there's no fingerprints and so on, then this actually points more to you than to them." Juliet added. "It doesn't help that the judge is really old fashioned and doesn't believe in psychics. He's predisposed to think you're lying."
"And if the letter scares you off in the meantime...?" The Chief trailed off suggestively, and shrugged.
"What about the injuries?" Gus asked. Shawn had already tried explaining the underhanded tactics to him, but he just didn't understand how a group of plainly guilty people could just go free. And was usually the one supporting the American legal system!
"They say Lassiter is an abusive boyfriend and he gave Shawn those injuries, and that Shawn fought back, giving Carlton his injuries."
"They're going with an underground BDSM thing gone wrong." Juliet added.
"What?"Lassiter laughed out loud. "They actually think they're going to get away with that?"
"You know how little evidence we have against them..." Vick trailed off. She shook her head. "You know as well as I do that misdirection is the defence's friend."
They all slept badly that night.
The next morning found Henry standing on his son's porch. He knocked, but when there was no answer, he grabbed he hide-a-key (which was not hidden in a fake rock), and entered, fearing the worst.
What he found instead made him stop and smile. His son always was good at winning allies. Asleep on the sofa were Chief Vick and Detective O'Hara. Gus was slumped in the armchair, thumb in his mouth, clutching a pillow to his chest. Henry couldn't hold back a chuckle.
He went through into the bedroom and found Shawn asleep on his side, his face pale and drawn. Lassiter was sleeping on the other side of the bed, fully clothed, and his hand was on his gun which sat on the bedside table.
At one time, finding his son in bed with another man would have worried Henry. It still did, but now he wasn't worried about lack of grandchildren or Shawn's sexuality, but about what could have happened last night to have made them all worried enough that they didn't want to leave his son alone.
And what had kept them up late enough that 3 police officers could sleep through his entrance.
Henry backed slowly through his son's home till he reached the front door. He pulled it open and slammed it as loudly as he could with a yell of 'Shawn!'
Immediately everyone startled awake. Henry found himself staring down the barrels of Juliet and Karen's guns. Gus screamed like a girl. He then proceeded to hide behind his cuddle-cushion. The bedroom door burst open and Lassiter came running out, also with a gun.
"Stay in there, Shawn!" He called behind him. Shawn, of course, didn't listen and followed with a gun of his own.
"Oh. Hi Dad."
"Hi, Shawn. Lassiter, Gus, Karen, O'Hara."
"Henry." The Chief said. Everyone holstered their respective weapons.
"So." Henry said, looking around at everyone. "What exactly happened here last night?"
"We had a party. We would have invited you... but..." Shawn grinned and shrugged.
"Karen?"
"There was... an incident."
"An incident?" Henry asked, giving Shawn a quick visual once over.
"He's fine. Not a new scratch on him." Karen assured.
"Hello? In the room!"
"Karen, what happened?"
"Someone left a threatening letter and a photograph, torn from a newspaper, of Shawn. They'd nailed them to the door."
"Those bastards." Henry felt a distant pain in his hands and he looked down to see that his hands had become fists entirely of their own accord. His fingernails were digging into his palms. He slowly and deliberately uncurled them. It wasn't the letter and the photo themselves that had him upset. It was the idea that they'd been that close to his son. They could have... Shawn could have been... He felt something cold clench in his stomach. It took him a moment to recognise it as fear.
"I'm fine, Dad." Shawn said quietly, his eyes (as usual) seeing too much.
"Shawn, if they'd... they were at your front door."
"I know. I didn't... Dad, I'm fine. Really." He smirked.
"Shawn, Detective O'Hara and I need to go to the station, see if CSI have got anything." Karen said, straightening her suit. She glanced at Juliet and noted that her hair was ruffled and her suit was dishevelled. "Maybe we'd better go home and freshen up first." Juliet nodded gratefully.
The two women left and as soon as they got outside, Karen pulled out her cell.
"Hi honey... Yeah, I'm sorry. It was Shawn...How's Iris?... Yeah?... She did?... Okay. I'll stop off at home before I have to go to works. Love you." She hung up.
"I forgot you had Iris at home." Juliet said, her face clouded with guilt.
"Luckily she's small enough that she doesn't mind if I'm not there for a night. But it's hard. For anyone else but Shawn..."
"I know. He gets under your skin, doesn't he?"
They exchanged an understanding glance.
Back inside, Henry sat his son down.
"What really happened?"
"Dad..."
"Shawn."
"Hey, we're going to do that thing..." Lassiter said grabbing Gus's arm and pulling.
"...Oh, yeah. The thing! In the place!" Gus said and the pair of the dashed out of the room.
"So, you want to tell me what happened?"
"Okay. Don't freak out."
"I'm not freaking out. Now, tell me."
"Okay. Me and Lassiter were talking and then we heard a noise, but there was no one there, just LGC, so we headed back here with her, and it was on the door. They were out there. And I couldn't see them! I didn't see them, Dad!" His hands were shaking. "They could have... they were right there, and I couldn't see them!"
Henry took his son into his arms, and held him while he shook.
So? Thoughts, opinions?
Originally, the gunshot was going to miss LGC altogether, but I figured, what the heck.
No animals were harmed during the writing of this fanfic. A goat did almost choke yesterday, thanks to my kid brother, but that's a totally different story.
The next chapter is driving me mad, so it might be a little longer than I'd like before it's uploaded. Hope you enjoyed it.
Also, to avoid flames, I am not a Twilight fan. I also don't hate it. I am completely indifferent to it's existence. I put in the reference because he's a popular little vampire, and it seemed like something Shawn would say.