(Authors note) When I finished this chapter I realized that I had changed Point of View from 1st n to 3rd person. Sorry about that, I was going to change it back to 1st person, but then I re-read it and thought that it actually worked quite nicely the other way. Tell me what you think, and I'll change it in the next chapter if you all don't like it.

Shawn Spencer was facing one of the greatest challenged known to mankind, and was for the record handling it quite well. It was with a cool hand and mind that he had knocked down most of his opponents, but it was starting to wear on him. There was one foul beast that would not lay down and die. Was this the end?

"Hey Gus, seven letters across. A representation of medieval knighthood."

"That's 'Quixotic', Shawn."

"AHA I GOT YA!" Shawn whooped, penciling in his answer. Today's crossword had been unusually challenging…

Both men looked up as there was suddenly a great commotion outside. A red Mustang had swerved across five lanes of traffic, and slammed into their parking lot, narrowly coming in through the front window but rolling to a safe stop at last.

Gus leaped to his feet, yelping, "SHAWN THEY MOWED OVER MY PANZIES!!"

"Gus, sit down before you soil yourself, and for the record you are a pansy." Shawn didn't look all that interested in the goings on outside until he saw the two figures step out of the car, one girl and one boy, "Well, well what do we have here?"

"Look's like we've got company, Shawn!" Gus grinned.

"Oh GOODY!" Shawn lowered his feet from their position perched on his desk, and returned them to the floor with a bang, "Maybe they'll help me!" Shawn waved the newspaper around in the air, joy on his features.

Or maybe we can help them!" Gus sat up a little straighter, and tweaked his tie.

"Oh come on, Gus you're being way to professional about this." Shawn scorned, running in his fingers through his hair (which had not seen a comb for at least three days), "And no we haven't gotten a job in at least three weeks so don't get your hopes up—"

The girl slammed through the front door, ringing the bell loudly, followed by a taller broad-shouldered boy who wore a sour express on his face. Gus leaped to his feet, all distress over his pansies gone as he smoothed down his shirt and held out a hand for the girl to shake.

"Hi, I'm Burton Guster. Welcome Psych Agency!"

The first things Kat noticed about the place was that it looked nothing like she thought the office of a Psychic would. The place was neatly, smartly decorated like a plush office would be, and as far as she could tell there was absolutely nothing about the place that suggested it had anything to do with psychics

The second thing she noticed was the man dressed to the hilt in a clean-cut gray suit that was shaking her hand very hard.

"Um…hello." Kat managed to pull her hand from Gus's grasp, and noticed another man (who was defiantly not wearing a suit, rather a tattered T-shirt and khaki shorts) lounging at a desk, doing a crossword, "We're…um here to—"

"Hire us?" Gus said, beaming.

"But of course you knew that." Jack said, scowling and crossing his arms over his broad chest, "Being psychic and all."

"Hey can I get a thirteen letter word from anyone? Bringing up to date?" Shawn swiveled back and forth in his chair, totally ignoring Jack's comment.

"Aggiornamento." Kat said automatically, looking confused, "I that this morning's paper…I already did that crossword it was quite easy…but anyways…back to what we came here for…"

"Gus here has a little trouble spelling 'Aggiornamento', right buddy?"

"SHAWN!"

"A-G-G-I-O-R—"

"SHAWN!!!"

Jack and Katlyn exchanged glances. Jack started his chant again, under his breath

"Wasteoftime, wasteoftime, wasteoftime, wasteoftime, wasteoftime…"

"EVERYONE SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO ME!" Kat hollered.

Everyone froze, and stared at her.

The girl smiled, and tossed her pretty head, "Thank you very much. Now—I want to get this done as soon as possible, Jack and I can't be in one place for too long. Who's the psychic here?"

"That would be me." The other man threw his crossword down on the desk, leaped out of his chair, and vaulted over the desk. He stood in front of Kat, grinning widely, "How may I be of service?"

While Jack and Gus rolled their eyes so hard they were in danger of spraining their eye muscles, Kat smiled back at him.

"Well—"

"Shouldn't you know that too?" Jack cut in, stepping between Shawn and his sister. Jack's arms were still crossed and he was looking mighty protective, "I mean, being a psychic and all…"

Shawn poked the man in the chest and got right up in his face, "Do I detect a hint of doubt in your beautiful blue eyes, sir?"

"Yeah, ya do." Jack's hard stare bored into the back of Shawn's skull, not about to be intimidated, "And it's a lot more than a hint, I can tell you that much right now."

"Jack!" Kat resisted the urge to kick her brother in the back of his legs with a lot of difficulty.

"Hold on!" Gus said, looking as though he had been struck with understanding, "You two are Jack and Katlyn Springer, aren't you? You guys are all over the news, they're looking for you in San Francisco! I recognized her!" Gus pointed at Katlyn, and she looked startled.

Jack turned his attention from Shawn and stared at Gus, "WHAT?"

"What do you mean, looking for us?" Katlyn suddenly went from startled to scared.

Now it was Shawn and Gus's turn to exchange glances.

"I mean…like…they're asking your friends where you've gone…" Gus said, raising his eyebrows, "That's usually what people mean when they say—"

"They don't know where I am, do they?" Katlyn looked desperately from Gus to Shawn, "Do they?" She added in a slightly shrill voice.

DING! The tension in the air was cut clean in half as Shawn's Easy-Bake oven announced the fact that his cupcakes were finished.

"JOY!" Shawn practically skipped over to the other side of the room, and pulled open the oven door, "Everybody push pause a second—now who wants one?"

Shawn spun around, the cupcake tray in his hands. Kat cocked her head—The cupcakes were about as big around as a quarter and about as tall as one too.

"Shawn this is not the best time!" Gus said warningly as Jack scowled deeper and flexed his jaw muscles.

Shawn paid his friend no heed. He popped one of the little morsels into his mouth, and immediately cringed, "Urg, tastes like plastic. Nothing ever turns out right in this thing…"

"Do you want a job or not?" Jack spat, looking murderous.

"I take it you are…not a very happy camper!" Shawn smiled as he sifted through memories of that morning's news coverage on channel 3, trying to remember what had been said about the Springer children, "Sorry that I can't help you with your issues, But if you want me to…" Shawn held two fingers to his temples, and closed his eyes as though he were receiving a vision, "…help you find your father, then you're in luck!"
Gus was doing double takes, "Shawn—How did you—"

"It's been all over the news that Jon Springer and his daughter are missing after their mother was murdered," Jack said skeptically, jamming his hands into his pockets, "And since the daughter is standing here in front of you, it's just a logical thread that we either want to find our dad, or find whoever killed our mom. That's not psychic visions, mate—that's just watching the morning news."

"Jack—" Now Katlyn was looking murderous.

Shawn held his arms wide open, "So do you want us to help find your father, then?"

"Yes." Jack and Kat said in perfect unison.

"Well then, we'd better get started!" Shawn beamed, "Well Gus here will take your numbers and we'll get back to you in a few days!"

Kat blinked, "Sorry…what? Can't you just…pull out your crystal ball and…scry him or something?"

"Yes, Shawn Spencer." Jack commented sarcastically, "OR maybe you could use your tarot cards, or possibly even your easy-bake oven…"

Shawn chortled, "Crystal-Crystal ball? Ha ha ha…" He was suddenly serious, "No, Jack and Katlyn Springer. My methods are different. I do not require the usage of such things like some of your other mediocre psychics. I have my own vibe, right Gus?"

"Is that what he calls it?" Jack murmured so only Gus could hear. He continued in a louder tone, "So let me get this straight. We leave you our cell numbers and let you consult the spirits for a few days before getting back to us and telling us that you couldn't find anything?" Jack finished with a challenge in his voice.

The atmosphere in the room was suddenly icy. Shawn slowly put his tray of cupcakes down on his desk, thinking swiftly.

"Almost right." He said, smiling broadly, "You're getting there! You leave us your cell numbers, I consult the spirits, and then in a few days I tell you where your dad is!"

"I'll take that bet," Jack crossed his arms again and looked imperious.

"Then we'll take the job!" Shawn held out a hand for Jack to shake, but the elder Springer looked at it as though he were mad.

"Thanks very much Mr. Spencer." Kat said, coming forward and taking the hand instead, "And as for payment—"

"No need!" Shawn grinned as Gus started forward, with his mouth open, "I have a feeling your brother here wont feel much like paying us unless I get something from the spirits…so until that point its all complimentary."

"Shawn—" Gus looked as though he wanted to strangulate him/

"Want to keep that finger?" Jack growled as Shawn made to poke him in the chest again.

"Fine, FINE!" Katlyn snapped, disgusted with her brother. As she rattled off her number to Gus, Jack leaned in for a private little word with Shawn Spencer.

"Listen mate, if you screw my sister over I'll kill you. Her mom's dead and her dad is missing and she's desperate for help, desperate enough to come to you. I'm not kidding, if you're trying just to make a quick buck or get your five minutes of fame I. Will. Kill. You." Jack suddenly smiled, "Did you predict That?"

"No but I'm seeing some anger management classes in your future." Shawn said tactfully, stepping back from the seething young man, grabbing the tray of cupcakes off the desk again as he did so, "Would a cupcake help your problem? The plastic really compliments the—"

"Thank you both for your help!" Kat said earnestly, grabbing her brother by the arm and dragging him back with considerable force, "It would be ideal if you don't tell the police I'm here in Santa Barbra, or tell them that we're looking for our dad, ok?"

Gus and Shawn raised their hands in a farewell as the girl pulled her brother out the front door, snarling and spitting at him with all the love and affection a sister can have.

"Could you have been a bigger ass????"

Shawn tried another cupcake, and managed to chew on it at least for a few seconds before bending over and delicately gagging it into the trash-can.

"Shawn, what was that?" Gus looked furious, "You tell them we can get them their dad back in only a few days, and then you say that we're not charging them? This could be the biggest case we've ever worked on! We have to call the Chief!"

"Didn't you hear her? She said no police!"

"And that's fishy enough as it is!" Gus started pacing wildly, "If their dad is missing, wouldn't they want all the help they can get in finding him?"

"Of course they do, Gus, but they want all the non-police help they can get!" Shawn starting flipping through the phone book, "They looked as though they've been hunted down this past week, can't you see what's been going on?"

"No, Shawn. I'm not the one with high observation skills. Why don't you enlighten me?"

"Someone kidnapped the dad so that the kids will tell the kidnappers something that the mom wouldn't tell them before they killed her." Shawn spoke very fast, trying to get everything out in one breath, still flipping through the phone book, "And if the police know where the kids are then that's the same thing as the kidnappers knowing where the kids are and that would be bad because I think the kids don't know what the kidnappers want to know and the kidnappers aren't very happy about that, so they're ducked all police and instead going to non police people, which happened to be us.

Shawn sucked in a great breath after this speech. Gus looked lost.

"Shawn, have you even stopped to consider the fact that we don have the faintest idea where to start on this case?"

"Oh, I have a faint idea. Actually, its not all that faint." Shawn beamed, "I'm calling your boss and telling him that you're taking your vacation now for a week."

"WHAT?"

"PACK YOUR BAGS, MATE!" Shawn roared, looking joyous, "ROADTRIP! WE'RE GOING TO SAN FRANCISCO!!!"