Juliet and Lassiter had just started inspecting a new crime scene they'd been called Juliet's phone buzzed. It was Shawn. Lassiter, Buzz, and the homeowner all turned to look at her. "Is Spencer bored again?" Lassiter quipped.

"I'm so sorry," she said, declining the call. "Um, please, go on."

The homeowner continued describing how she'd discovered her roommate's body when she returned from her mother's house that morning. She cried as she spoke, which made Juliet feel even worse when he phone rang again. Once again, it was Shawn.

Juliet sighed as Lassiter raised his eyebrow at her. "I'm sorry," she said once more to the homeowner. "It's my- Shawn is sick, so it could be an emergency. Just give me one moment." She headed to the small kitchen, which was free of other detectives, before answering. "Hey, is everything okay?"

He cleared his throat before he answered, but he still sounded hoarse. "Are you at work right now, Jules?"

"Yeah. Do you need something? You don't sound good."

"I've been better. I mean...I mean-"

"What is it?"

"Gus has some big presentation at work, and I can't get ahold of Dad-"

He still hadn't said what the problem was, and it was making her nervous. "Shawn...?"

"It's nothing major. I just don't think I should... You know what, you're at work, I'll just-"

"Shawn, it's okay. Lassiter and I are at a crime scene right now, but it's pretty close to your apartment. We can swing by when we're done."

"Thanks." Through the phone, she could hear him coughing harshly. "I'll leave the door unlocked."

She said goodbye to him and walked back to the livingroom. The homeowner had wandered off, but Lassiter and Buzz were where she left them, talking to each other. "O'Hara," Lassiter said as she approached, "everything alright?"

"Actually," she said, "we need to make a pit stop on the way back to the station."

When Shawn Spencer was nine years old his father caught him trying to play hooky. Instead of getting up when his alarm went off, he waited in bed until his dad came to see what the hold up was.

"Why aren't you up? You're going to be late for school."

The young boy put on his best pained expression. "I can't go to school. I feel sick."

"Really?" Henry asked. "You don't look sick."

"Well, I feel sick. My stomach hurts, and my head."

Henry narrowed his eyes. "This doesn't have anything to do with your big project you haven't worked-"

"No! How did you know about that?"

"Get dressed, kid."

"Dad," Shawn whined.

Henry looked at his young son in thought. "I'll tell you what. School policy is you have to stay home if you have a fever or throw up. I'm going to get a thermometer."

"Okay, no problem. I...I think I have a fever."

"Well, we'll see soon enough." Still confident that he'd be sending his son off to school, Henry fetched a thermometer and brought it to Shawn's room. "Go on."

Shawn looked quickly at his dad, then down as he put the thermometer in his mouth. He mumbled, "can I have some juice? My throat hurts."

"Sure," Henry agreed, suspicious. He loudly walked away from the bedroom, waited a few seconds, and then quietly creeped back. Just as expected, Shawn was holding the thermometer to a lightbulb. From the doorway, Henry cleared his throat.

"Dad! Uh..."

"Get dressed. Now. We're leaving in ten minutes."

Forty minutes later, Juliet and Lassiter arrived at Shawn's apartment. She knocked to be polite, but when there was no answer, she remembered Shawn said he'd leave it open, and went in. "Hello?" She peered into the kitchen, which was empty. Then, following the sound of coughing, she ducked into his livingroom. There was Shawn, laying down on the sofa, bundled up in multiple blankets.

"Oh good," he said, "you brought Lassie."

Still standing in the hall, Lassiter said, "we were on our way back to the station."

Juliet looked at her partner. "But it's no trouble. Right?"

"Right," Lassiter said flatly.

Shawn pushed himself upright, swaying as he sat. "Whoa." He rubbed his eyes. "Sorry. I took a lot of DayQuil. Maybe it was NyQuil." He looked at Lassiter, saying, "point is, I've had a lot of 'Quil."

Juliet sat in an empty armchair. "So, what's going on?"

"Oh, I'm okay," Shawn said, sounding far away and dreamy. "For a minute there I thought I was having a heart attack-"

"You what?" Juliet interrupted.

"-Because my chest hurt pretty bad, and I couldn't really breathe, but then I realized that was just from coughing." He flashed a lopsided smile. "No biggie."

"You didn't have a cough last time I saw you."

"I know. Gus leaves for one day and I fall apart."

"O'Hara," Detective Lassiter said, "a word?"

Henry got in his car knowing two things: his young son was absolutely going to be late for school by the time they finally left the house, but he absolutely was going to school. Once they were on the road, he started lecturing Shawn about the importance of honesty. "Lies spiral, Shawn. In the long run, it's much easier to be up front with people." He looked at the boy through the car mirror. "Not to mention, it's the right thing to do. You know that."

"Mmhmm," Shawn said quietly.

"People usually find out the truth one way or another. You should have been honest and said you hadn't done your part of the project instead of pretending to be sick. Or better yet, you should have done your half instead of letting Gus down."

"I know."

Henry continued to lecture Shawn, who continued to stay quiet, although he kept squirming in his seat. Henry figured the boy felt guilty, which was only appropriate.

As they pulled into the school parking lot, they saw all of the kids setting up their science fair projects outside, and Shawn said, "I really don't feel so good."

"Nice try, kid. Haven't you ever heard that the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results?"

Gus noticed their car, and started to walk towards them as Henry parked in front of the school.

Shawn said, "no, I mean it."

Now Henry was starting to really get annoyed. It was time for Shawn to stop making excuses and face the music. "Shawn, come on."

Shawn took a deep breath, then picked up his backpack and got out of the car. He made it halfway to the science fair before leaning over and vomiting into the school lawn. Gus ran away immediately, and Henry, almost as fast, got out of the car and rushed to his son's side. The other kids were reacting in delighted disgust, and Shawn's teacher was making her way over, too. "Shawn," Henry said, "are you okay?" He wondered why Shawn would bother tampering with the thermometer if he was really sick. And, he really had been trying to get out of a school assignment this morning. Something wasn't adding up.

"I'm..." Shawn's face paled another two shades, and he dropped to his knees before throwing up again. Once he caught his breath, he murmered to himself, "I thought I'd only throw up once."

"What?" Henry asked, as the teacher gently placed a hand on Shawn's arm in concern. Then, it clicked. "Shawn, did you take something?"

The guilty look on Shawn's green-tinted face betrayed him.

Juliet followed Lassiter into the hallway, sure that she knew what her partner was going to say.

"I'll admit, Spencer is...not wasting our time, but we can't stay here all day." There it was. "We can't even stay here all lunch break. I have risotto at the station."

"And somebody brought cake for Martha's birthday." Juliet frowned. "But I don't feel right leaving him alone."

"So call Guster."

Through the wall, she could hear Shawn having a coughing fit. "I will," Juliet said, then called to Shawn, "are you okay?"

No answer.

Lassiter and Juliet returned to the livingroom. "Shawn?"

Shawn opened his mouth, but no real sound came out. He frowned and, in vain, tried again to recover his voice.

Pleased with this turn of events, Lassiter said, "I could get used to a silent Spencer."

Frowning, Shawn mimed plunging a dagger into his heart.

Juliet said, "we can't stay very long, but I don't want to leave you by yourself. Should I call Gus?"

Shawn shook his head. He picked up the pen and notepad from the coffee table in front of him and, beside a series of scribbled numbers, wrote "work."

"Oh shoot, that's right. You said he has a big presentation. Hmm." She turned to Lassiter, unsure of how to proceed.

Shawn wrote again, then ripped the page out and handed it to Juliet. "Probably boring," it read. She took the opportunity to look closer at the numbers, which turned out to be a series of times of day and temperatures in varying handwriting. On the back of the page was an impressive drawing of a pterodactyl flying over a vocano. On a new page, Shawn wrote a note to Lassiter, who rolled his eyes as he read it, then crumpled it up in his fist and put it on the table.

"What does it say?" Juliet asked.

"Nothing important." He glowered at the smirking psychic, then turned to Juliet. "Are you sure we can't leave him?"

"Yes." Juliet had Shawn dial his dad's number, and, luckily, she was able to get ahold of him. She walked into the kitchen to talk to him privately, leaving Shawn and Lassiter alone together.

"I heard that hack Sweetwater tried to contact you," Lassiter said. "Even when you're gone, I'm still dealing with so-called psychics."

Shawn coughed again, then drank some water and cleared his throat. "Testing, one two-" his voice, although quiet and terribly hoarse, had returned. "Yikes."

"So much for peace and quiet," Lassiter said.

Gus had had an amazing day at work. His presentation went well, and that was a relief. His boss told him how impressed she was. He left the pharmaceutical office feeling confident, and decided to reward himself with a cup of coffee from the new place down the block. His confidence paid off, as he ended up getting in a long conversation with a woman who accidentally grabbed his drink instead of her own, and as the cherry on top of his already great day, she asked him out. Gus could not wait to tell Shawn.

He hadn't gotten so much of a text from his best friend the entire day, and he wasn't picking up his phone now. Gus figured he was asleep again, but decided to drop by Shawn's place to check on him (and to gloat about his date). However, when he got the apartment, his plans were dashed. Shawn didn't answer the door, but it was unlocked, so Gus let himself in.

"Hello?"

He wandered from room to room. He checked the bedroom last and was surprised to find the door open and lights on, but no Shawn.

He was suddenly reminded of the time he was assigned to watch the class hamster for the weekend and the hamster escaped. He found it dead behind his closet days later. It had scarred him for life. So, he checked in the apartment closets just to be safe. Still no sign of Shawn. Gus could feel his stomach knotting with dread.

Where did Shawn go?

A/N: Hola! I hope I didn't lose too many of you with that hiatus between chapters 5 and 6. Let me know if you're still reading! Of course, I'll finish this story no matter what, but I have a few writing projects and I'm trying to prioritize them, so if it's just me this will be a little lower on the list. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I'm enjoying being back to writing it. Next chapter we'll fill in the gaps between the detectives' visit and when Gus arrived, to uncover the mystery of where Shawn is. And of what little Shawn did.

Comments are highly appreciated! Thank you for reading, and have an awesome week.