"Rise and shine," Lassiter's voice was very loud and unpleasant as Shawn slowly woke up the next morning. "We have a lot to do today if we're going to catch Chavez before the drug deal happens tonight." There was a pause and Shawn could hear Lassiter in the kitchen. Then Lassiter's voice was much closer, "what the hell, I told you no couch crashing, Spencer!"
Shawn felt himself falling to the floor as Lassiter pulled on the blanket Shawn had found on the back of the sofa the night before. Thankfully the fall wasn't very far. Shawn blinked and stretched out. He'd given up hope, when he'd heard Lassiter's alarm clock go off at 5:15, that morning that the day before had been a dream induced by a weird slice of pizza.
"I have twenty minutes to get to work and if you think I'm leaving you alone here, you're wrong."
Shawn looked up to see Lassiter standing over him, holding a cup of coffee. "What time is it?" he mumbled.
"Ten after seven and I have a fifteen minute drive. If you think I'm going to let you be the reason I'm late-"
"We won't be late," Shawn cut him off. "However, if you think my hair is going to make itself magnificent in five minutes you are out of your damn mind." Shawn reached a hand up to feel just how messy his hair was going to be after sleeping on Lassiter's couch.
"You would need a barber to help with it," Lassiter muttered.
Shawn ignored him and stood, wincing as his back protested. "Can I at least grab some breakfast?"
"Absolutely not," Lassiter scowled. "I won't have you freeloading any more food from me. Now let's get going."
OoO OoO OoO OoO OoO
Shawn thought that Lassiter would drive back to the building they had been staking out the day before. But Lassiter obviously had other plans as he pulled into the station parking lot.
"What're we doing here?" Shawn asked, a little confused as he followed Lassiter up the steps.
"I just have to check something out," Lassiter shrugged, "Wait out here. I'll just be a minute."
Shawn opened his mouth to protest, but Lassiter had already gone inside. "He could have at least brought me a donut," Shawn grumbled to himself as he sat down on the steps to wait.
Cops passed Shawn for more than two hours, and he seriously considered doing something illegal just to get into the station. Lassiter was taking an awfully long time for "just a minute". He sighed and starting throwing loose rocks down the steps again.
"I thought you were supposed to be saving my life, not becoming my best friend."
Shawn didn't even have to look up to know that Ghost Lassiter was back. "Nice of you to show up," he snapped, keeping his voice quiet.
"I was busy," Lassiter told him.
"Doing what? Communing with other psychics and causing them to think they're going insane?" Shawn finally looked up, giving him a glare.
"You think I made you jump timelines? I have no idea how this happened, Spencer," Lassiter returned the glare.
"Well, you'd better figure that out because once I save you I want to go back to my own timeline. I've got a pretty sweet thing going on there with my life." He threw the last of his rocks and then gave Lassiter a thoughtful look. "Where were you last night anyway?"
Lassiter ducked his head, "I was checking up on my family, okay? It's been a long time."
"I don't have a lot of time if I'm supposed to help you out," Shawn pointed out. "Things go down tonight."
There was a sigh, and then Lassiter nodded, "I know, but I think having you with me... him, me... is going to help. I just need to not get shot." He unconsciously rubbed his chest just above his heart.
Shawn ran a hand through his hair, letting out a slow breath. He nodded, "Do you have any ideas what the other you is doing in there?" He was starting to get antsy the longer he sat there.
"Not a clue,"
"And you can't go in there and find out, because?" Shawn rolled his eyes and prompted the cop to continue.
"Because this is your job, Spencer," Lassiter snapped. The doors behind Shawn opened and Ghost Lassiter went quiet.
Lassiter came down the steps, "C'mon, Spencer, we don't have a lot of time before Chavez shows up." He headed for his car without bothering to see if the other man was following him.
Shawn gave Ghost Lassiter one last glare and then ran to catch up, "Can we please stop for food? I'm about to die of starvation."
"Is your stomach really all you think about?" Lassiter shook his head and waited for Shawn to fasten his seatbelt before starting the car.
"My stomach feeds my brain, which feeds my detective skills." Shawn defended.
"If it'll get you to stop complaining I'll stop somewhere," Lassiter pulled into the parking lot of a burger place and looked over, waiting for Shawn to get out of the car.
"I need money," Shawn admitted.
"What? You don't have any money?" Lassiter shook his head in disgust.
"No, I wasn't planning on having to buy anything." Shawn held out his hand. "Please let me bum a dollar or two. I am helping you."
"What if I tell you no," Lassiter raised an eyebrow.
"What if I tell the chief?" Shawn raised his own eyebrow in response.
At first Shawn didn't think that Lassiter was going to fall for the blackmail scheme again, but the radio crackled to life and Shawn found himself being shoved out of the car.
Lassiter gave him a five dollar bill, "I want change," he reminded Shawn and then grabbed the handset for the radio.
OoO OoO OoO OoO
Fifteen minutes later, Shawn returned to the car, sipping a coke and happily full of food. He slid into the passenger side, "anything exciting happen while I was gone?"
Lassiter didn't answer him. As Shawn turned to repeat himself, the cop clicked handcuffs on the psychic's right hand and the door handle.
"What gives, Lassie?" He jerked against the cuffs. "I thought we were past all this!"
"I want you to tell me the truth," Lassiter had pulled out of the parking lot and was driving towards the Reyes building again.
"The truth about what? Or did you want to play 'To Tell the Truth', the TV game show?" Shawn joked, trying to quell the panic that was rising. He hated being handcuffed.
Lassiter clenched his jaw, and rolled his eyes, "I had someone run a check for me at the station. Turns out Henry Spencer doesn't have a brother named Shawn."
Shawn's stomach did a flip, but he tried to keep calm. "Well, your records must be wrong."
"They aren't," Lassiter said bluntly. "Henry Spencer has a brother-"
"Yes, me," Shawn interrupted, pointing at his chest.
"He has a brother named Jack, who has quite the rap sheet," Lassiter continued as if Shawn hadn't chimed in. He pulled up to the curb about a block away from the Reyes building. He turned to face the other man. "So either, you're lying to me and you're a con man, or you're just lying to me. Which one is it?"
Shawn jerked against the cuffs again, "Lassie, I'm not lying to you."
"That's not one of the options," Lassiter shook his head. "Are you a liar and a con man, or just a liar?"
"No, Lassie, I'm not either," Shawn could feel the panic starting to form in the pit of his stomach. "I'm not lying to you and I'm not a con man," he paused, realizing that in reality he was lying to Lassiter about not lying about things. "Lassie, you need me to help you,"
"You keep saying that but all I can tell is that you're a homeless person, with no money, no ID and a bottomless pit for a stomach. Why do you need to help me?"
"I'll call the chief if you don't!" Shawn threatened.
Lassiter picked up the handset for the radio and offered it to Shawn, "go ahead, I'll have you arrested for interfering with police business." He raised an eyebrow as if daring Shawn to make the call.
Shawn slumped back down in the seat, "Lassie, you need me to help you, because this could all end in a hail of bullets. Bullets hurt, man. I should know I've been shot before." He didn't care if there was slight desperation in his voice, he was beginning to feel like this whole time travel thing had been for nothing.
"Spencer, if that is your name," Lassiter frowned, "I am not going to get shot."
"Yes you are! You're going to go in there and get yourself shot and then I'll have to solve cases with my girlfriend and your girlfriend," Shawn protested.
Lassiter gave him a confused look and opened his mouth to reply when a shout was heard from down the street. Both men looked out the windshield and saw a man running across the street down the block, gun in hand.
More yelling was heard and another figure darted across the street after the first one. Lassiter unbuckled his seatbelt and checked his sidearm.
"Lassie, woah," Shawn snapped out of his daze and realized what the cop was about to do. "Easy there, c'mon think about this!" Shawn grabbed at Lassiter's sleeve. "You don't have any backup!"
Lassiter shook him off, "I won't need any backup, this is just a routine check for possible public disturbance." With that he got out of the car.
Shawn jerked against the cuffs again, "Lassie! Lassie!" He yelled through the closed door of the car. He flopped back down in the seat and tried to get his hand out of the cuffs. Watching helplessly as the cop disappeared down the street.
OoO OoO OoO OoO
After five minutes of struggling, Shawn was preparing himself mentally to break his thumb if it would get him out of the cuffs. Although, he still hadn't come up with a plan to help Lassiter that involved only one hand.
"It'll heal," Shawn assured himself, for the twelfth time, as he looked at his hand.
"Spencer, what the hell are you doing?" Ghost Lassiter appeared in the driver's seat, giving Shawn a panicked look.
Shawn jumped and glared at him, "What does it look like I'm doing?"
"You have to go help. The last time, I ran in after Chavez I got pegged in the chest!" Lassiter looked towards the building.
"I would go help, but I'm kind of stuck." Shawn jerked on the cuffs again to emphasize his point.
"Why would I handcuff you to my car?" Lassiter looked concerned then he narrowed his eyes. "What did you do?"
"You did this," Shawn pointed with his free hand. "I went to get a burger and you decided to look me up in the system and you figured out that I don't actually exist."
"Why didn't you pretend to be someone who does exist?" Lassiter frowned.
"Because," Shawn was still struggling against the cuffs, "Because my Uncle Jack and I look nothing alike. His hair is awful, especially in 1994."
A gunshot was fired in the direction of the Reyes building.
"Lassie, you have to help me out of these cuffs," Shawn pleaded, "I can't go back to a world where I work with Lucinda Barry."
"I can't actually touch you, and if you think I'm stupid enough to keep a key to my own handcuffs in my car, then you're crazy." Lassiter said exasperatedly.
Shawn started digging around in the glove box, "what about something I can pick the lock with?"
"Why do you know how to pick the lock on a pair of handcuffs?" Lassiter cocked his head to the side.
"Don't ask," Shawn had found a spiral bound notebook in the glove box and was working on getting the binding out.
It took almost a minute for Shawn to finagle his way out of the cuffs, he left them attached to the car door and started running for the Reyes building.
He slowed as he got closer, trying to make his footfalls as silent as possible. There was no sign of Lassiter and Shawn was just hoping that the gunshot earlier hadn't been the fatal one.
They would need backup, Shawn realized and reached in his pocket for his cell phone. "Right, it's 1994," he whispered when he felt nothing in his pocket. "It's just you and me Lassifrass,"
He edged his way around the building, trying to find some kind of entrance. A small door near a loading dock was ajar and Shawn slipped in, hoping that he wasn't too late to stop Lassiter from becoming a ghost for a second time.