Only the Curious Have Something to Find

Chapter 7

Special thanks to Squeedle, aka xX Jujumagumbo . Hollabackatcha Xx, for being awesome and saying nice things about me, I dedicate this chapter to you!

Note: Now, I've never had a boyfriend but I have been on a date before, so the date scene is based off of that day. Hopefully you'll like it :D

Enjoy!

--

"Damnit, Shawn, I'm not gonna say it again."

Shawn curled tighter into himself as Gus growled at him. After the incident at the Peterson's house the previous night Shawn and Henry had to talk to police officers, firemen, people from the insurance agency and even some reporters. They had to sign things and make statements and blah, blah, blah. Shawn still had no idea if what he said to them was coherent, but they seemed to accept it.

They'd also had to get checked out by the EMTs, having to sit with oxygen masks on their faces for an hour. Neither felt like going to the hospital, but after seeing Shawn's wrist and knee they forced Shawn to at least sit in the ambulance and let them check everything out. After being poked and prodded for another hour and a half they let him go with two new braces and orders to 'Take it easy, don't go running into anymore burning buildings.' After that they were finally allowed to climb back over the fence into their own yard - this time with the assistance of a stepladder, because they were too damn tired to vault it.

Shawn didn't even let Henry argue over the shower, not that Henry was going to anyway. From the look on his face he felt bad for Shawn. Henry ended up using the perpetually cold shower in the basement. Shawn would have felt bad, but he was tired, sweaty and covered in ashes, so at that point he didn't give a rat's ass.

Long story short, they didn't get to climb into bed until the sun started to rise. Neither would have gotten up when they did at one o'clock in the afternoon if Gus hadn't come over, demanding to know why the hell a partially coherent Shawn and Henry had been on the news that morning. "A fire?! And you didn't call me?!" He'd yelled, making both somnolent men jump.

"I was tired." Shawn whined, while Henry mumbled something about coffee and stumbled into the kitchen.

That had been two hours ago, and Shawn had since fallen asleep four times during his conversations with Gus. "Shawn." Gus said again. "I'm not gonna-"

"Say it again, I know." Shawn mumbled, forcing himself to sit up. "You said that already."

Gus rolled his eyes, simply responding. "I'll let you fall back to sleep once I've accomplished my mission."

"Mmm, yea ok." The psychic rubbed at his eyes and yawned. "What cha' got?"

Gus pointed to the three shirts hanging on hooks by the door, while in his hands he held a pair of clean, non-torn jeans. Shawn blinked at the shirts. "They're all in yellow hues?"

"According to Juliet, its Lassiter's favorite color." A smile spread across both their faces.

"I love you man."

"I don't swing that way."

"Obviously, how's it going with Jules?"

"She's…" Gus trailed off, a dreamy look in his eye.

"Interested." Shawn said with an affirmative nod. "Your first dates in two weeks."

Gus's eyes widened, "Wait, what?"

"You're gonna ask her out next week, she's gonna say yes and in two weekends you'll be on your first date."

A wide smile spread across his face, "She'll say yes?"

"Who wouldn't?"

"Got that right."

Shawn snorted and stood, walking to the clothing. The first choice was a golden sweater over a white t-shirt. The second was a black t-shirt under a plaid yellow button-up. The last was a yellow polo shirt.

"I like the second one." Shawn said, grabbing the hanger. "But I do like that sweater."

"Wear it to your next date."

"Who says there's gonna be a second one?"

"You know there will be, you don't need to be psychic to see that." Shawn smiled. "Here, take this," Gus shoved the jeans at Shawn. "Go shower and change. You've only got a little over two hours 'til your date."

--

"Juliet I-"

"NO ARGUMENTS!"

"I was gonna say I liked it!"

"Oh, well good! Then I was just being psychic!"

"Sure you were."

"What's with the yelling?" The two arguing friends turned to the doorway to see Claudia Lassiter standing there, a perplexed look on her face.

"Lassiter likes to argue with me, so I was stopping him from starting."

"I wasn't going to argue! I said I was going to say I liked it!"

Claudia laughed, "You go, Juliet. It's a difficult task to get these Lassiter men to listen."

Juliet smirked, "Don't I know it."

"Hello? I'm right here!"

The two women turned to Lassiter, smiles on their faces. The mother looked her son over, taking in his outfit of a green unbuttoned polo shirt over a white t-shirt, with a pair of jeans. Claudia took a step forward, outstretching her hands and cupping her son's face. "Oh, baby, I'm so happy for you." She smiled warmly. Her son's eyes widened, "Oh please, don't act so shocked that I figured it out. I was trying my hardest at the dinner to be discrete."

"I knew it! I knew you two were plotting!" He cried, causing Claudia to burst out laughing, Juliet as well.

"Well of course! You two were more awkward than a turtle on its back. You needed a little push."

"I—I-"

"Mrs. Lassiter, I love you." Juliet said from her bent over position, her face red from laughing. Claudia smiled, opening her mouth to respond.

"Hey, isn't your friend's name Spencer?" A new voice floated into the room.

"What?" All three asked at once, turning to George Lassiter in the doorway.

"Your friend, isn't his name Spencer?"

"Shawn Spencer, yea, why?"

"Well, he's in the paper." George handed the half-read newspaper over to his son. Lassiter grabbed it, reading a small article under the headline Off-duty Cop and Son Save Neighbors from Fire.

Last night around seven o'clock Brent and Angela Peterson were watching television with their two young daughters when a loud bang startled them. "It was such a strange sound," Mrs. Peterson told us, "It was like a firework was going off in my house."

The two ran to the kitchen to see what had happened, only to find their oven had, quite literally, exploded. They tried frantically to put the fire out, when suddenly they weren't the only ones in the house.

"The first person I saw was Henry," Mr. Peterson reports, referring to Santa Barbara Police Officer Henry Spencer, who lives in the house behind them. "He came running in and told us his son Shawn had gotten our daughter out, and then told Angela to get out. The two of us tried to put the fire out with a fire extinguisher and a sink-hose, which wasn't working too well."

"I'd run out," Mrs. Peterson added, "I found Shawn out on the lawn with my four year old, Abby, and my baby Tetra. As soon as I came out he ran back into the house. It was one of the most terrifying moments of my life."

Shawn, a seventeen year old, had run back to the house to assist his father and neighbor. On his way he'd grabbed the garden hose, once inside he switched it on. "After that the fire went out pretty fast." Fast enough to be out before the fire department even showed up.

The Petersons were very grateful, "Without the Spencers we could have lost our house, our children, our lives, we owe everything to them."

When we asked Officer Spencer and his son why he did it they simply responded "We only did our jobs as decent human beings. We're no heroes."

Lassiter stopped reading and dropped the paper, running to the phone in the hallway, "Oh dear lord," Claudia gasped out, while Juliet had gone pale.

Lassiter frantically dialed the phone number that he'd previously pretended not to have memorized, but at the moment he didn't care. It rang several times until finally, "Hello? Spencer residence."

Lassiter paused, that wasn't the voice he'd been expecting. "Guster?"

"Hey, Lassiter." He greeted brightly.

"What are you doing at the Spencer's?"

"Checkin' up on them. Was there something you needed?"

"Well, apparently we're attempting the same task. Are they all right? I just read in the paper about the fire."

Gus chuckled slightly on the other end, "Yes, they're fine. A little tired, but they're ok."

"Did they really run into their neighbors house while it was on fire?"

"That's the Spencers for ya'." Lassiter sank into the wall, letting out a breath. "Yea, I'd get used to the death-defying stunts. They happen frequently."

Lassiter laughed at that, "Should I cancel our date? Maybe Shawn should just rest-"

"Don't you dare cancel the date. That's the last thing that Shawn needs…besides rest, you're right. But he'd really excited, don't cancel it."

"I'm not saying I want to cancel, Guster. I'm just worried about him-"

"Don't worry. I know that…I gotta go, sounds like Shawn's finally out of the shower. See you at school, Lassiter." Gus hung up before Lassiter got the chance to say goodbye, not that it mattered.

He was too busy thinking of Shawn in the shower.

--

"Do I look ok?"

"Shawn, for the millionth time, you look fine! You smell nice, your pants are on straight—though I'm not so sure about your head."

"Ha-ha. So very funny, dad. I just want tonight to be-"

"Perfect. Yea, I know, son." Henry smiled and placed a hand lovingly on his son's shoulder. "You're gonna have a great time, don't you worry." Shawn smiled at his fathers reassuring words, when suddenly there was a knock at the door, and his smile disappeared. "Go answer it before he leaves, son." Henry grinned.

Shawn paused, nodded and slowly turned to the door. After staring at the knob for too long Shawn finally managed to control his limps and open the door. There stood a nervously smiling Lassiter. "Hey, Shawn." He smiled. At those words Shawn's worries seemed to melt away and Henry could practically see him transform into his normal self.

"Hi, Lassie!" He grinned, "Come in, come in." Shawn pulled his date into his house, not noticing Lassiter sneak his left hand behind his own back. "You know my father."

"Nice to see you again, Mr. Spencer."

"Same to you, son." Henry smiled warmly. "Don't get home too late, OK?" Henry directed to both of them.

"We won't, dad."

"We won't, sir."

The two spoke at the same time. They shared a look, small smiles slipping across their lips. Lassiter looked away, and Shawn couldn't even hide the blush. Henry grinned and shook his head, "Have fun!" He said as he all but pushed them out the door.

Once the front door was shut the two stood on the porch, standing a little awkwardly, though their smiles were true. "So…" Lassiter started, "I—uh…here." Lassiter pulled his left hand forward, looking away with an embarrassed look on his face. In his hand he held a white Begonia, "It's from my mother's garden." He said, still refusing to look up.

Shawn stared at the flower in shock for a moment, before gently taking the flower from Lassiter's hand. When he did so his hand grazed over his date's for a moment, sending identical shivers down their spines. Shawn didn't know what to say. No one had ever done anything this kind for him, this loving. Without thinking Shawn stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Lassiter.

Lassiter stiffened at first, before he relaxed a bit, just in time for Shawn to realize what he was doing and pull back. The younger cleared his throat embarrassedly, "Aha, thanks."

"N-no problem." They stood there for another moment before Lassiter turned a little to the car, "So, uh, you wanna go?"

--

"Have you seen this movie before?" Lassiter asked as they made their way to the concession counter.

"Yea, it's definitely one of my favorites. Tim Curry is hilarious!" Shawn said brightly, popping a piece into his mouth.

"When did it come out?"

"In the eighties. See, that's why I like this theater, it doesn't show new movies, but old classics. It's awesome!" The two made their way into one of the four screen rooms. There were three other people already seated, the opening credits already starting.

"Small crowd." Lassiter whispered.

"Mmmh." Was all Shawn said in response as they found a seat near the middle of the left section of seats – where Shawn always sat when he went there. No one else sat in the section, for some reason. The two plopped down – Lassiter on the right, Shawn on the left – and began to munch happily on their snack, watching as the movie began.

They were only a little into the movie when they finished their popcorn. They were at a part where all the guests had arrived for a party, each one with a name of a character from the game: Mr. Green, Colonel Mustard, Ms. Scarlet…

Shawn snickered at one of the lines when Lassiter did something that shocked him, an arm snuck itself around Shawn's shoulders. Lassiter had just put his arm around him. Shawn couldn't stop himself from turning to the senior in shock. Lassiter didn't look at Shawn, he kept staring forward, a slightly panicked look in his eye, as if he were afraid Shawn would push him away.

A soft smile slipped across the younger man's lips and he turned back forward, leaning his head on Lassiter's shoulder. Lassiter's tense shoulders relaxed at that and the two remained like that for the rest of the movie, Shawn snaking his right hand over to Lassiter's free right hand on the other side of the teen, grasping it for the remainder.

When the credits began to roll after the third ending neither boy moved. The older couple who'd been in the back of the middle set of seats stood, chatting to themselves about the movie and they left. Still neither boy moved, they didn't want the date to be over.

"What time is it?" Shawn finally asked, sounding reluctant.

Lassiter twisted his right hand, still not letting go of Shawn's hand, to check his watch. "A little past nine."

"Eh, we still got like two hours before my dad will call the SBPD on us." Shawn mumbled, actually nuzzling himself into the older boy's shoulder. Shawn could feel a slight shiver go through Lassiter. Maybe it was because there was no eye contact, or no needed dialog, but whatever the reason was both boys were beyond comfortable, not an ounce of awkwardness in the air.

They heard the door open and saw the light come across the floor, a shadow indicating someone had come to see if the two of them were still in the theater. "I think we have to leave." Lassiter said in a quiet, gentle tone.

"I don't want to."

"Me neither, but I think another movie is gonna start soon."

"They can wait."

"I think your dad might be a little unhappy with me if I got us arrested in a movie theater."

"Pssh, worry-wart. They'd never arrest us for sitting here."

"Come on, why don't we get a bite to eat or something? There's a diner the next block over."

Shawn paused, "I can deal with that." Both boys slowly untangled themselves from each other, both with slightly reluctant looks on their faces. They walked out the door, one of the workers giving them a look as he went into the theatre with a broom in hand. As they pushed open the mail doors and silently agreed to walk to the diner Lassiter slipped his hand into Shawn's.

The two walked hand in hand, feeling more comfortable and confident than they ever had before.

--

So, did it live up to your expectations? I hope so! Thanks for reading!

-claire