Chapter 4: The Recovery

Chief Vick had called in her best, O'Hara, Lassiter, as well as Shawn Spencer's best friend and father. She figured they needed to know, but she wasn't sure if they'd want to see.

"I'm glad you two came." The chief motioned towards Gus and Henry. Addressing the room, she continued. "I wasn't sure how to tell you all. Let me first say that the tech department has already authenticated the video, as in they couldn't find any evident tampering."

"Oh get on with it!" Henry spouted. "Does this have to do with Shawn or what? Just play the dang thing!" The chief faltered for a second, then nodded.

"Yes, I suppose so." She turned around and hit play. Jules gasped when she saw Shawn shackled. There was a man in a black suit holding a gun to Shawn's head. Henry ran his hand over his face. There was some static on the video, then when it cleared up, the man shot Shawn. Blood splattered all over and his body went limp, his blood pooling around him. Gus ran out of the room in shock. Jules put her hands to her face and started crying. Henry was doubting the video. After the footage went black, a note appeared stating that they could find the body in the Skofield Park area.

Chief Vick cleared her throat. "I've already sent a couple black and whites up there to check it out. We're just waiting to hear back from them."

"I'm going to go help look." Henry stated, walking out. The chief let him leave.

Juliet wiped her eyes, "I'm going to go help, too. The more people we have up there, the quicker we find him." Carlton nodded and said he would go too.

Shawn had felt the barrel at his head and the crazy man continued on his rant that had turned into nonsense. He got so caught up in his rant, that he didn't even notice the door open and Meredith sneak in. Shawn acted like he didn't see her, praying she would get the lunatic away from him.

She sidled up to the man and put a hand to his head. He collapsed in a heap and Meredith was able to grab his keys. "Shawn! I'm sorry I wasn't able to get to you sooner. Are you alright?"

"I will be now, just hurry up and get me loose, my hands are really numb right now!" She unlocked his ankles first, then his wrists. He hugged his arms to his body in pain as the blood flowed back into them. She quickly took an alcohol soaked cotton swab, wiped down below his right shoulder and stuck a needle in him before he could complain.

"Ow! What was that for? Am I not in enough pain as it is?" As the medicine went through his body, he started feeling dizzy and looked at her with an expression of betrayal.

"It's morphine. I figured you were in too much pain to travel very fast and we must do this quickly. The dizziness you're probably feeling will fade as your body uses the morphine up." He noted she was right, he was in pain, and the morphine was certainly starting to help. He slowly got up and tried stretching his legs a little, trying to get them used to moving again.

"Well let's get a move on it, this creep is probably going to wake up soon." Shawn kicked the suited man. Meredith suddenly got a gleam in her eye and smiled.

"It's a strange way to do things, but with all the guards they have stationed around, I think it's our best bet." She quickly told Shawn her plan.

"I like how you think, you mighty think machine! Let's get to it."

When O'Hara, Lassiter, Gus and Henry made it to the search site, they looked at a map of where people had already searched, where people were currently searching and then picked their own places to search. They weren't sure what they were even looking for; a trash bag? A box? Just a body? They each secretly hoped it was the wrong person, and that they would find some random person instead of Shawn. Henry Spencer was still not fully convinced the video was real. There was something about it that was bugging him, but he couldn't wrap his head around it. He chalked it up to being in denial.

Shortly before sunset the search crew got a call that something was found. As they gathered around a large black box that seemed to have holes in it, they seemed to hold their breath while the box was opened. The lid popped off, revealing the body of Shawn Spencer, dressed in just the white pants, with a large gaping wound in his head. His body was covered in bruises and wounds. Jules ran to him and grabbed his arm, whispering no. Shawn suddenly jerked and opened his eyes.

"Jules! I knew you'd come for me!" He sat up, wincing, and smiled. Jules just stared, open mouthed, not sure what to think.

"Shawn! Um, you're alive! But, we saw you get shot!" She looked seriously confused. Lassiter charged up.

"What is going on here, Spencer? If this is another one of your little pranks, why I'll…" His hand went to his gun. Gus stepped up and nodded.

"I'll let him, Shawn. You can't put us through something like that just for fun!"

"Whoa, there Lassie! Gus! Where's the love?" He winced in pain and grabbed his side. "Ugh. That tape that you guys saw was a forgery. Not real. It was the only way I could get out. Suits guy was completely insane, so we had to trick him into thinking he had shot me." Shawn reached up and pulled the fake bullet wound off. "We figured out his plan to dump me out here, and we knew he was going to send a note letting you guys know where to find me, but we didn't know he was going to send you the video!" Shawn laid back down, still gripping his side in pain. "You know what, guys, just leave me here. I don't think I can move."

Chief Vick had told Henry about the rest of the video beforehand, so Henry knew what Shawn had just been through. He admitted to himself that he was pretty proud of his son, being able to still joke around after almost 4 weeks of captivity and a week of torture. It was very obvious to him that his son was putting on a huge front for the amount of pain he was in, so Henry spoke up.

"We need to get an ambulance for Shawn asap. We need to figure out if there's any internal bleeding or anything." Jules, who had been staring into Shawn's eyes, snapped back to reality. She heard someone else radio in for the ambulance, and the whole group was suddenly moving around doing things.

"Oh Shawn, I'm just so glad you're alive. You had us so worried!" She awkwardly rubbed his shoulder. He just smiled back at her. Gus reached down and patted his shoulder.

"Seriously, Shawn, I'm really glad to see you again. We never lost hope that we'd find you." Shawn smiled and fist bumped Gus.