AUTHOR'S NOTES: Okay, I gave a bit on this one to the guys who wanted a bit more Shawn and Juliet in this story. I couldn't say no. They are just so darn cute together.

Spoiler: I also made sure to heavily whump a beloved character because someone wondered how I would do it in this version. :)

Chapter 7- The Tables Have Turned

"I'm sorry Henry..."

The shot from Jerry Carp's gun reverberated through Shawn's head as he jerked awake with a groan, or as much of a groan as he could muster with a tube down his esophagus, or was it his pharynx? Shawn had heard it both ways and wished that Gus were around to correct him, as if he were even able to communicate the semantic dilemma that he was currently having in the first place. Shawn figured he was heavily drugged up or he really wouldn't be worried about the correct pronunciation of his air tube all that much.

Hushed whispering from right outside his room got his attention.

"Yes he's asleep." Juliet said quietly into her cell phone.

Shawn strained to hear the voice on the other end and caught most of Carlton's reply echoing through the quiet area.

"The FBI is investigating the Feed Everyone Charity head Julian Drake. If the feds are involved this has to be big. The agent didn't say much but we did get out of him that the gun running through the firing range has something to do with it. We found nothing at Vest's house so we'll have to let him go tonight."

Great. Shawn frowned. Let the hit man go.

Juliet mirrored Shawn's thoughts, "There's nothing you can do to keep him? What about the FBI? Don't they have anything?"

A heavy sigh came through the receiver. "The FBI have been building up a case against Julian Drake for months O'Hara. They see Carp and Vest as small potatoes. Henry seems to think that Julian may be hiding Carp, but what I don't get is why?" Shawn was surprised. The only person he knew that was usually able to make Carlton that frustrated was himself. "Why would Julian put himself out there for a guy the police are hunting down. Whatever he's doing could be blown wide open. We haven't found any paperwork linking the two. If they were friends I could understand but there's absolutely nothing to prove that. Just a bunch of speculation. I'm stuck O'Hara."

"What about Vest? Do you think he would be a danger to Shawn?" Juliet sounded really worried.

"I think Vest has more to worry about than Spencer. I have a feeling Henry and Guster are going to stir something up. The Chief is keeping the police out of the case because of the FBI involvement, but that won't stop them."

That's my daddy. Shawn smiled and started to feel all floaty again. He turned his head and saw the timed morphine was being administered. Knowing he didn't have a lot of lucidity left, he tried to wrack his brain around Carlton's riddle. Why would Drake protect Carp...? Shawn ruled out friends. Vest and Carp might be friends but there was no way a business man like Drake would risk that much for a friend. He thought about them being business partners, that made sense, and if the FBI knew about the gun running Carp was doing and hadn't done anything about it Carlton was right. It was big.

The colors in the room started to swirl and Juliet's voice started to become distorted. Shawn shook his head, trying to stay awake, he almost had this.

So Carp and Drake are business partners and guns are involved. Why would Drake want guns. Shawn asked himself. He's the head of a charity. The guy probably spends most of his time delivering food to third world... Shawn gasped, both in pain and realization. As a charity organization, Drake would be above speculation if he were trafficking guns. Especially with a respected charity like Feed Everyone.

He's not covering for Carp, he's covering for himself. He's guarding his supplier. He killed Atwater because he was a middle man knew too much and would have fingered his organization. Shawn reached for his pen and paper but his dexterity was out the window and he knocked the pen to the ground. Cursing he looked around. The nurse's button was attached to the remote control for the TV, which Juliet had been using and it was sitting out of reach on the table. So that was out too. What do I do? Shawn's gaze landed on his food tray. Gus hadn't been there to eat his lunch for him and right there was a brownie with lots of chocolate frosting. Desperate and fading fast, Shawn got an idea.

"Ok Carlton, I will. Thanks." Juliet hung up and went back into Shawn's room. She was surprised to see his hands were covered in chocolate and there was a mashed up brownie sitting on him.. At first she thought he'd tried to eat again with the tube still in, but as she got closer she noticed a note with chocolaty writing on it next to the brownie plate. She quickly picked it up and read it.

JC=Sup & JD= Dem.

Why didn't he use his pen? Juliet looked around and her question was answered when she noticed the pen on the floor. Way out of her boyfriend's reach.

For someone finger painting with frosting Shawn had done a pretty good job, but Juliet had no idea what it meant. Shawn was never one to be clear with his messages. Juliet had long ago realized it was just how his mind worked, but it had to be important if Shawn had been desperate enough to use frosting of all things.

She shook his shoulder gently, "Shawn?" but got no response. He was out cold and she was on her own for deciphering the clue he'd left. Juliet surmised that JC and JD were Jerry Carp and Julian Drake respectively, but Sup & Dem? She wracked her brain and said the message out loud. "Sup and Dem. Sup and Dem…" Suddenly it clicked. "Supply and demand!" Jerry Carp was the supply and Julian Drake was the demand. Henry was right, Julian is protecting Carp. If he's his weapons supplier he can't have him arrested. He might talk. That also meant that if her partner was right and Henry and Gus were going after him, they were walking into a world of trouble.

"Oh honey." Juliet leaned down and kissed Shawn. She didn't know whether it was from a vision or if he'd just had time to work everything out, but even in the hospital and drugged out of his mind, he still felt the need to help. "We'll get him, I promise."

She stepped back and took out her phone, calling Carlton again. He answered the phone with some urgency. "What O'Hara? Did something happen?"

Smiling a bit at his worry Juliet relayed the information that Shawn had figured out. It wasn't exactly huge news but it helped confirm a few suspicions and gave Carlton a new lead to look at.

"Tell Spencer good work when he wakes up. I'm going to take another look at Carp's house. Maybe we missed something. Nothing there really screamed arms dealer to me but it won't hurt to take another look."

"What about the Chief?" Juliet pointed out. "She told you not to go after Carp."

"I'm not going after Carp. I'm just going to go look at an old crime scene. Nothing wrong with that is there?" Carlton could be pretty sly when he needed to.

Juliet could almost hear the smile on the other end of the line. "Thanks partner." She hung up and sat back down next to Shawn's bed. She had no qualms about not being part of the investigation. Besides, when the time comes to let Vest go, she should be here to watch over Shawn to make sure no one tries to hurt him. After all the crazy investigations he's gotten into, it was his father's mistakes that put him here. It seemed to her that irony was never in short supply in Shawn's life.

Carlton pulled up to the seaside cottage not half an hour after O'Hara called him. The crime scene tape had been taken down but a police cruiser was scheduled to come by at least once every hour to make sure Carp didn't come sneaking home. Letting himself in the house with the key supplied to the SBPD, he set to the task of looking for something suspicious.

Two trips through the house and a lot of muttered curses later, Carlton was no closer to finding anything than he had been days ago when he first checked the place. He rubbed the tiredness out of his eyes and took a deep breath. "Ok, if Spencer can get a lead from a hospital bed, I should be able to get something when I am standing in clue central." He picked a spot in the middle of the room and turned in a circle, looking around. He repeated the action in two other rooms before he noticed something. In the game room, with a juke box, pinball machine and various shelves and trophies, he noticed the afternoon sun was shining through a crack in the floor underneath a curio cabinet.

Bending down to take a closer look he noticed that the cabinet didn't have legs and was designed to sit right on the floor, but it wasn't. The gap underneath it was a good half inch wide. Standing again he messed around with the cabinet until he was able to move it sideways revealing a stairwell. "Carp you son of a bitch…" Carlton sneered and drew his gun before heading down the stairs.

Inside the room there wasn't much but a few empty shelves and some loose items and ammo lying around. One of those items was a MK 367 landmine. The mine definitely came from here. They must have emptied it out before putting it in Henry's truck yesterday. He was going to have to knock some heads when he got back to the station. The bad guys had had time to waltz in and empty out Carp's weapon locker right under their noses.

After he calmed down he realized that things might just work out after all. If they found the missing weapons, they'd be able to connect whoever had them to Carp. That was at least something he could work with.

Carlton turned in a circle, admiring the amount of shelves and how packed this place would have been when full. He took a couple of pictures of the layout for some decorating ideas and headed back upstairs. He needed to report this, and God forbid he may need to talk to that FBI agent again. Maybe if we can nail Julian in time Henry and Guster will be off the hook before they get in over their heads. He grimaced at the thought but set out to get things done on his end to help out Henry, however he could.

"Gus! Would you get your ass out here and help me?" Henry hissed at the black man who was still sitting in the driver's seat of the Blueberry.

They were currently on a stake out of the property that Julian Drake owned and had up for sale. They'd been watching the place for a couple hours and there was a lot of activity going on which told Henry that his instincts were right about Drake packing up his operation. Things were happening fast and they now had a very small window to work with before Carp was gone.

"Have you seen Carp yet?" Gus popped his head out of the car.

"Keep your voice down, and no, but I know he's there. If Julian thinks he's important enough to hide, he'd want to keep him close by."

Gus lowered his voice and asked, "If you haven't seen him, then why do you need my help?"

Henry sighed and lowered the binoculars. "Another set of eyes always helps Gus. Don't tell me you never picked up anything hanging around during Shawn's lessons."

Gus glared at Henry, "I did learn something. I learned that stalking murderers is a good way to get murdered yourself." A thought came to mind and it was out of Gus' mouth before he could stop it. "You know, if it were Shawn were doing this, you would lecture him about the dangers of chasing criminals to their hide-out without back up."

Henry looked at Gus and silently applauded his boldness. The pharmaceutical salesman had practically grown up at the Spencer household but there was a skittishness there that never went away. Henry admitted to himself it was true, if Shawn had been pulling this stunt Henry wouldn't have missed the opportunity to give his son a good talking to about safety. "Gus, we're not storming the castle. If anything happens… fine, we'll call back up. Until then get out here and help me watch!"

Rolling his eyes, Gus got out of the vehicle and closed the door quietly. He knew the anger from the elder Spencer wasn't really directed at him. He was just feeling the same frustration and worry Gus was, but expressing it in his own, angry Spencer like way.

A couple minutes later they saw a black vehicle pull up and the tall, baby-faced FBI agent step out. "I really hate that guy." Henry grumbled.

The agent walked to the passenger side of the car and helped Julian Drake out. "Apparently his cover wasn't as blown as he griped about at the station." Gus snorted.

The pair watched as he helped Drake inside and a few moments later both Drake and Carp emerged on the balcony. "Yes!" Henry pumped his fist. "I knew he'd be here."

Gus cast Henry a worried look. "Okay, we know where he is. Now can we call for back up?"

Suddenly, loud music started playing from Henry's pocket. The noise caught the attention of the men on the balcony a short distance away and they began to look around for its source.

Both Gus and Henry scrambled back into the car. "What kind of cop are you that you don't turn your phone off during an investigation?" Gus chastised the older man as he backed up his car quickly.

"It's Shawn's phone! I don't know how to turn the stupid thing off!" Henry complained and took it out to see who would be calling. It was Juliet.

Just as he picked up the phone, a bullet struck the Blueberry's back window, shattering it in. Gus screamed and Henry tried to stay cool as he answered with a "Hello?"

"Henry, I just wanted to tell you that Shawn…" Another bullet hit the driver's side mirror and it exploded. "What was that!?" Juliet demanded.

Henry didn't want Juliet to worry about them. "Nothing, just Gus and I are just out for a drive." Another bullet came really close to hitting the car.

"THEY'RE SHOOTING AT US!" Gus screamed.

Henry shot him a disgusted glare as Juliet yelled through the phone, "Who? What's going on Henry?!"

"We'll get back to you." Henry felt bad for hanging up on her, but now wasn't the time to chat on the phone.

The shooting stopped as soon as they rounded the next corner, apparently they had been shooting from the deck and weren't following them. "Great, our cover is completely blown!" Gus yelled. He was still shaking and gripping the wheel tight.

"Damn it!" Their advantage of surprise was gone. They had even less time now to get them because now they knew they'd been found out. They had to come up with a plan, and fast.

Julian Drake watched through the thick trees as a blue vehicle raced down the driveway and turned off of his property. He held up a hand and the guards around him stopped shooting. He didn't get a good look at who it was that had been watching the house, but he suspected it had been some type of government agency. He turned to Carp, "We leave tonight. Someone is onto us and I want to be out of the country as soon as possible."

"The cops might be comin'." Jerry reasoned.

Julian held his nose up. "Let them. We had intruders on the property and my guards were concerned for my safety. They'd have to have a warrant to really search the premises, and we'll be long gone by then."

Jerry grinned. He knew that excuse would work. "Let me know if you need anything. I have to go sit down for a bit. The ol' hip is giving me hell." He turned and limped his tired frame back into the house. As a young man this type of situation would have excited him more, but he was old now. He'd just been looking to set up a nest egg when Henry had to come along and ruin everything.

Drake watched Carp leave and turned to his personal body guard. He'd noticed that the man had been shooting pretty high compared to the others that had been able to hit the vehicle. He'd seen the man shoot and he was a pretty good shot so he had to have known the people in the car. Plus he'd already seen the security camera footage of his guard flashing his badge at a couple of men at the Feed Everyone parking lot. Drake had planned to toy with the agent a little longer, but with his end game in place he could not take chances, and the agent would have to be dealt with now. "Let's go inside. There still might be someone watching us and I have something to show you."

Nodding obediently, the undercover agent followed Drake inside the house. He was silently cursing the stubborn pair and their blue car, and would definitely be giving their Chief an angry phone call as soon as he could. They have no business meddling in my case. Damn amateurs… his thought process was cut short as a heavy weight hit him on the back of the head.

One of the other bodyguards stood over him with a gun and Drake looked on approvingly. "Tie him up. I want to see what he knows. Then get rid of him." The guard nodded and left to go grab some rope.

END NOTES: Yes, I did it. I injured the poor unsuspecting Blueberry.

I also always wished they would have shown how the agent was found out and figured it had something to do with what he did in the warehouse.