My apologies for the late delivery, the next few chapters will be up much quicker I promise!
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The early morning sun slanted through the window of the Psych office and hit Shawn's back, penetrating his skin and giving him what was sure to be a lovely golden tan later. He was just lucky that way.
The heat coming from underneath him however was a result of the kind of blind, stupid, awe inspired luck that few people ever get to experience.
In his sleep Shawn felt the heat on his back and tried to move away from it, which in turn disturbed the man underneath him. After some groaning, mumbled half words and some more movement the shirtless detective opened his eyes and hazily looked up at Shawn.
They stared at each other for a few seconds while their brains ticked over. Lassiter opened his mouth to speak but Shawn grabbed him by the back of the neck and pressed their lips together to hastily silence his apologies or regrets. The kiss pulled them back into the passion they had shared last night and they both succumbed to the electric sensations shooting up their spines.
They kissed once, twice, three times. Opening their mouths a little more each time, tongues met and tested each other, pushing and sliding together. Shawn made a moaning sound in his throat for more. He changed his grip on Lassiter's neck to start playing with the hairs there, slowly working his way up to Carlton's head and running his hands through the man's surprisingly thick, soft hair. Lassiter ran his hands up and down Shawn's back, marvelling at the feeling of the young man's skin on his own.
They were both so caught up in the moment, so blissfully unaware of anything outside of what they were doing that neither heard the door open. Although a few seconds later they did hear the sound of someone surprisingly close clearing his throat.
The sound wrenched them from their moment of pleasure and snapped them back to reality.
Lassiter put his police-enhanced reflexes to good use and grabbed Shawn's shoulders, rolled him sideways and slid out from under him at the same time. He deftly grabbed his shirt from the floor without breaking his stride, making it to the door in breakneck speed and was gone without a word or backwards glance.
Gus watched Lassiter leave and turned back to find the couch empty. After spinning around left and right, scanning the room to find no-one he entertained the thought that maybe he had finally lost it and was seeing things. But the sudden sound of water running signified that no, he wasn't nuts yet.
Shawn was still here, but he'd managed to slip by Gus and made it into the shower.
Gus stood, rooted to the spot, mind racing, arms slack at his sides. After 2 full minutes he twitched his head slightly, turned and went to the kitchenette to make some coffee.
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Shawn was unabashedly grinning when he finally emerged from the shower wearing the clothes he'd kept in his locker for emergencies, the towel adorning his head like a turban.
"Morning Gus!"
Gus was sitting ram-rod straight in his seat, staring off into space with hands clasped in what Shawn observed must be a painfully tight grip around his coffee mug.
"Good Morning Shawn."
Gus spoke in a stilted monotone. Shawn tilted his head to the side and walked over to Gus, cautiously waving his hand in front of Gus' face. Gus didn't even flinch, his gaze stayed fixed on a random spot on the wall.
Shawn smiled a little and then said:
"Gus. I think you've probably blown a fuse."
Finally jumping awake at this Gus sipped from his coffee.
"I do not know what you are talking about, Shawn. I am just enjoying my coffee."
Shawn rolled his eyes, grabbed a chair, pulled it over next to Gus and plonked himself down on it.
"Look, I hate to interrupt the epic staring match of 'Wall v Gus' but I think even a blind Puma could tell that something's bothering you. Wanna talk about it?"
Gus just gripped his mug tighter.
"There's nothing to talk about Shawn. Everything is fine."
Shawn adopted a nagging mother-hen tone
"Guuuuus. Don't be a gooey chocolate chip cookie! You haven't broken eye contact with the wall in at least 4 minutes. You have an unnaturally tight grip on that mug, seriously is your hand on fire? How hot is that coffee? And you're talking like every word is its own sentence. Dude, we both agreed that no-one but Shatner could pull that off."
Gus kept staring at the wall with his chin tipped slightly up in the air as though Shawn's words couldn't reach him. His mouth was jammed shut and getting tighter every second.
"Gus. Gus?... Gus! You gotta talk to me eventually man."
Nothing. Except that now Gus' eyes were narrowed in annoyance.
"Okay Gus. You're obviously trying to prove to me that you can handle this like a grown-up and not make a big deal out of it, but we both know that it's a big deal. You're burning your hand over it for God's sake!"
Shawn reached over and pried the coffee cup out of Gus's hand. Expecting it to be boiling he was surprised to find the mug was actually cold, almost ice-cold.
He couldn't help laughing.
"You made your coffee with cold water?!"
Gus finally tore his gaze from the wall and turned to glare at Shawn.
"Some people like cold coffee Shawn. It's all the rage in Costa Rica."
Shawn snorted.
"I've seen the coffee commercials Gus, I'm pretty sure they use hot water."
"Say what you will Shawn, it happens to be delicious."
Gus snatched back his cup and took a large swig. The expression on his face that followed was so priceless that Shawn nearly lost it trying not to laugh. After a few minutes he finally managed to compose himself enough to speak but he couldn't physically keep the smile off his face or the laughter from his voice.
"Okay Gus, whatever you say. Can I make a proposition here?"
With an eyebrow raised Gus shot Shawn a thoroughly shocked look.
"A suggestion Gus! Can I make a suggestion?"
Gus shifted his focus to the cold liquid in the mug in his hands, as though he was actually seeing it for the first time.
"What is it?"
"You obviously have a problem with what you saw…before. I know you're trying to be all cool and act like you know what's going on but we both know you have a thousand things you want to say. I can see them swimming around in that shiny head of yours! So, how about you get like four minutes to say whatever you want and anything that's said in that four minutes is totally confidential."
Gus looked at Shawn.
"Four minutes?"
Shawn nodded.
"Apparently it's enough time for Madonna to save the world."
Gus thought about it for a second and then held out a hand. Shawn shook it and looked at his watch.
"Okay. Four minutes of brutal truth, starting………now."
Gus immediately jumped up from the table.
"What the hell was that Shawn? You and Detective Lassiter? What were you doing? Please tell me it's some weird new form of resuscitation."
Knowing Gus, Shawn had braced himself for it, so he was ready with an answer.
"No it wasn't resuscitation; it was EXACTLY what it looked like. We were making out."
Gus' mouth opened and closed like a goldfish and then turning away from Shawn he briskly paced from the table to the kitchenette counter and back.
"How long?"
"Well before you came in, I'd say for about 10-15 minutes."
Gus stopped and gave Shawn an evil look.
"Don't play with me Shawn. How long have you been…. you know?"
Shawn kicked his legs up onto the table.
"How long have I been what?"
Gus gestured with his hand.
"How long have you been, you know, seeing Lassiter?"
Shawn smiled.
"Technically I'm not seeing him right now, he left."
Upon a glare from Gus, Shawn decided to forgo the jokes for the remainder of the three minutes.
"I'm not seeing him. It just happened."
Gus continued his pacing then stopped again.
"How does something like that even happen?"
Shawn sucked in a breath and proceeded to explain the whole thing, albeit very quickly.
"I was here listening to the police scanner and Lassie was on patrol when he suddenly went offline after reporting a disturbance. I thought he was in trouble so I grabbed my bike and headed to where he was. Long story short, I accidentally distracted him from catching the bad guys. I went to leave but the bad guys had stolen my bike, Lassie gave me a ride. I hit on him. He ignored me and dropped me off here. Then he talked through the scanner and he hadn't left and I opened the door and we kind of…."
Here Shawn brought his hands together in a fist bump motion. Gus' eyebrows rose again but he nodded for Shawn to continue.
"Anyway, we fell asleep on the couch and then woke up and…"
Shawn made the fist bump motion again.
"And then you walked in and Lassie left in a hurry and then I had a shower and then you drank cold coffee, which was hilarious by the way, and then you…"
Gus interrupted.
"So let me get this straight Shawn, you rode off to a dangerous situation by yourself?"
Shawn was struck by just how concerned Gus looked. He had known Gus almost his entire life but he never failed to be surprised by him.
"Yeah. It was stupid. I just…"
Gus held up a hand to silence him and just stared at Shawn for while.
"You were worried about him."
The expression his friend was wearing was making Shawn kind of nervous.
"You really like him don't you?"
Shawn felt a blush growing on his face. He couldn't remember the last time that he had felt embarrassed enough to blush. He paused for a second too long before responding.
"You skipped over a few big points there Gus. My bike got stolen, I brought a date back to the office in complete ignorance of the rules…that you set out. And the date was a guy!"
Gus got the same smug smile on his face that he got whenever he solved some large part of a case.
"You love Lassiter!!"
Shawn stammered for a second before dropping his head onto the table.
Gus jumped up and began doing his 'I figured something out, I'm a genius' dance. Shawn meanwhile was torn between hating Gus for being so smug and loving Gus to death for taking the news so well.
Right around the time Gus had started singing the "Shawn loves Lassie" song Shawn lifted his head from the table to look at his watch.
"Gus!"
Gus broke from his refrain of singing the only line in the impromptu song and looked over at Shawn.
"If you wanna say anything else you should do it now, you have 28 seconds left."
Gus walked over and sat down.
"One more question. I always knew there was something going on with you and him, you're always touching him whenever you have your "visions". You do nice stuff for him even though he's a big meanie, he's always..."
"How is this asking me a question Gus?!"
"Oh, right. My question is this: why Lassiter?"
Shawn thought for a minute.
"You sure you want to know?"
Gus nodded
"I can take it Shawn, I watch Queer Eye for the Straight Guy."
"Well... first it was cause he smells good, then I noticed that his eyes are impossibly blue. Like bluer than any girls. Then it was 'cause he's funny. But not funny like you and me funny. He's funny without trying to be. Remember when his car got stolen?"
Chuckling, the two men smiled at the recollection.
"I just. I like him. I can't explain it, man. Can you explain why you liked that girl with the high voice? Whitney something or other?"
Gus shook his head and stared off into the distance.
"Uh-uh. She was terrible, but if she asked me to skydive I'd be like: with or without a parachute?"
The two were quiet for a while. Then Gus looked up at the clock.
"Well, four minutes is definitely up."
Shawn nodded.
"I still have a question Magic-Head."
Gus smiled.
"I guess there's time for just one more."
Shawn put his fist out.
"Are we good?"
Gus looked at it for a second and then bumped Shawn's fist with his own.
"Yeah, we're good."
Shawn was relieved. And a little hungry.
"C'mon Gus. Let's get some real coffee. And maybe a hot pretzel!"
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Later, Gus and Shawn were sitting down at the beach, eating hot pretzels and coffee and discussing the relative merits of classic TV shows.
"C'mon! You can't tell me Nightstalker wasn't a good show."
"I had to sleep with the lights on for a month, Shawn! I kept telling my parents it was 'cause I suffered from night blindness!"
"Shooting werewolves with silver bullets? Driving stakes through the heart of vampires? Classic."
"I wet my bed twice, Shawn!"
"Dude. That's just way more than I needed to know. I only needed my night light for three weeks."
They sat in silence for a while, owing to the fact that they had both just taken giant bites of their pretzels and were working on chewing them enough so that they could swallow without choking.
"Shawn, I just remembered something."
"What's up Gusmeister?"
"Lassiter left this morning."
"Really?! I thought he was just taking a really long time in the bathroom."
"He didn't say goodbye to you or anything, he just left. Kind of in a hurry."
"That fact had not escaped my attention."
"So…what does that mean?"
"I honestly don't know. I think you scared him and he ran off like a skittish deer in hunting season."
Gus looked thoughtful for a second then jumped slightly.
"Oh! I'm sorry Shawn. If I hadn't come in…"
"Don't feel bad Gus, he would have freaked out sooner or later. We're talking about Lassie here. He doesn't even handle heterosexual relationships well."
Gus laughed and Shawn's phone started ringing. He checked the caller display before answering.
"Hey Jules. Was just thinking about you. Have you ever seen Nightstalker?"
Juliet rolled her eyes.
"No Shawn, I was never allowed to watch it. You need to come in here, there's a missing person's case that Lassiter's been put in charge of and he's completely stuck. He needs some help before Vick hands the case off to someone else. He's already in trouble, one more mistake and he's looking at a suspension."
Shawn covered the mouthpiece and stage whispered to Gus.
"She has a missing person's case for us. Lassie needs help or he's looking at suspension."
Gus frowned.
"Why?"
"Ooh! Good point Gus."
He took his hand off the mouthpiece.
"Why is Lassie-Face in trouble?"
Juliet took a quick look around to make sure no-one could overhear her and then lowered her voice.
"Okay, I shouldn't be telling you this but he lost a couple of suspects at the Munesco Warehouse last night and then forgot to report in after his shift. He told the chief he was tired and went home to sleep and forgot to turn in the patrol car and clock off. But if you ask me, he looks like he hasn't slept at all. It's just not like him."
Shawn winced.
"Hold on Jules."
He covered the mouthpiece again.
"Lassie is in deep doo-doo and it might be sort of my fault."
Gus shrugged as if to say 'What else is new?'
Shawn uncovered the mouthpiece again.
"Jules? We'll require two croquet mallets, one semi-large pineapple and a live squid."
"Funny. So, are you coming in? I really think Vick might suspend him."
"Sure, guess we could swing by, I need to report my bike stolen anyway."
O'Hara's interest was immediately peaked.
"Someone stole your bike?"
"Yes but for your safety I cannot discuss it further."
"Tell me about it when you get here. Bye."
"Bye. Oh! Jules!"
"Yeah?"
"If Lassiter needs our help so badly, why are you the one calling us?"
"Ah, well…. that's something I forgot to mention. He kind of didn't want you anywhere near this case. In fact he threatened to forcibly defenestrate me if I did, whatever that means."
Shawn turned back to Gus after saying goodbye to Juliet and gave him a mischievous smile.
"How would you like to help me with a diabolical plan?"
To be continued.