"What the hell was that?" Gus stared at Shawn whose eyes blazed an emotion that rarely ever touched his face. He was angry. And not just the normal angry he gets when Gus eats the whole bag of Doritos and doesn't go out and buy another one—this was a whole new level of angry. However, once Gus finished his sentence it was as if he had flipped a switch and the ferocity that was once in his friend evaporated.
"Well, I couldn't let them spoil the surprise." Shawn smile returned and all trace of rage trickled from his face.
"You didn't get to hear what happened—about your Dad." He felt a weight in his chest lower. Shawn was known for not taking things seriously, but this was something different altogether. He watched his friend
carefully, a sense of foreboding edging away at his stomach lining.
"Gus, Gus, Gus...Don't be a ninny. You obviously haven't learned anything from our time together, and that's just insulting." Shawn stretched his back and dumped the old shirt, full of vase shards, into the trash. He turned away from the door and quickly walked to their closet.
"Are you coming or what?" Shawn was already grasping at a light rain coat, but seemed to think better of it and grabbed a heavier one with a satisfied nod.
"What are you talking about? You know what happened?" Gus said as he approached. As soon as he was within a meter, Shawn took the opportunity to throw a raincoat into his face.
"You saw what I did, you should know what happened too."
"Shawn."
"You know, you should really start paying attention more. You'd be able to actually solve some crimes too instead of just letting me do all the work."
"Shawn!" Gus wanted to scream at him, grab him by his shoulders and shake the answer out of his brain and let it fall on the floor in a big gooey satisfying mess. Shawn seemed to take the hint since he had stopped struggling to figure out if his rain coat was reversible or not.
"What happened?" Gus said, carefully, in case Shawn was still not capable of understanding the question. One look at the sudden change in his friend's eyes made him regret ever asking.
"Someone tried to kill my dad." Shawn decided on the side of the jacket that was the least permeable and threw it over himself, "and we're going to stop him before he tries again."
Gus frowned, "Shawn you don't know that. It's terrible outside, even Henry could end up making a mistake in this."
"You obviously don't know my dad. If he was out in this weather at all, he would never have been idiotic enough to have hurt himself. Think about it, first the blueberry—and now..."
"That's a bit of a stretch don't you think?"
"Is it though? How many people have we thrown in jail? How many of them swore revenge on us? What if someone's trying to enact revenge?" Shawn's voice seemed to tremble in his mouth, he looked pleadingly at Gus—desperate if Gus read him correctly.
"Okay, let's say you're right. Now what? It's not like we have a ride since you know..." Both of them stopped speaking for a moment, lingering on the image of the blueberry's body being tormented by the fire.
"Oh but we do, or have you forgotten?" Shawn's grin returned full force. Gus could swear he saw a tint of mischievous joy in it.
"Are you out of your damn mind? We can't ride that in this!"
"What other choice do we have?"
Gus glared at him and thrust out his hand. He pointed at his fingers as he began to count, "How about calling Juliet or Lassiter back up for a ride and an apology, a cab, a limo, we could walk there—"
"Walk, to the other side of Santa Barbara? I didn't realize you hated motorcycles that much." Shawn seemed to be enjoying this.
"It's not that I hate motorcycles, Shawn, it's that I hate the idea of dying unnecessarily."
"As opposed to what, necessarily dying? Is that even a thing?"
"I have an idea, how about you go and I'll wait for you here?" Gus held out his raincoat to Shawn. Shawn looked at it for a moment, then looked back at Gus. There was a long pause, during which Shawn seemed to be wrestling with himself on if he should say something.
"You know I can't do this by myself."
The first thought that came to Gus's mind was one of exasperation. Of course he'd try to make him pity him, that was just Shawn. It was his tactic. He was manipulating him—but when Gus looked back at his friend he saw something in his expression that stopped that particular train of thought. Shawn was scared.
"Alright, but you're staying under 10 mph the whole time."
Shawn frowned, "we might as well walk there at this point."
"Safety is important, Shawn."
"Yeah well so is my youth, and I'd like to keep it for a little while longer." Shawn grabbed the keys from the office wall and practically leaped across the room to the front door. Outside the wind howled in anticipation of its next meal. Shawn's hand paused over the knob of the door and Gus had to stop himself from walking right into his back.
"Shawn, are we going or not?"
"I hope he's okay," Shawn muttered in a rare show of earnest worry. Gus frowned and went to pat his friend's back, but it had already dipped through the door and into the stormy air.
"Me too, Shawn, me too."