A/N: Sorry if the last chapter seemed to have a bit of an abrupt ending. Thanks to PsychFan1, cosette141 and special thanks to the enthusiastic TheShulesLovinPsycho for the heart-warming reviews.

Okay, so I felt like the change to the title may not make a lot of sense to you guys as I left a super-baby hint during the story itself, so this chapter's title and content clears it up nice. This may seem slow, but I'm saving the jalapeno and chili sauce . . . with guacamole for the next chapter, so stay tuned.

And others, it takes barely a minute to give a review, and it'll make me update a bit faster! Please REVIEW! And I'll love to hear your perceptions of what might happen and any ideas! Everyone has some!

Chapter 9: The Next Generation Of Yin And Yang Are Way More Violent.

Gus was frustrated. Nobody told him anything, and he wasn't very patient when on an all time sugar-high from the glucose.

He was especially frustrated now that he had realized that Shawn wasn't getting to come over anytime soon, and nobody wanted to tell him why. He kept wondering why everyone looked so damn guilty whenever Shawn's name was mentioned, until something happened.

It had been the normal thing; his mom had come in to give him some pineapple Jell-O for his dinner. Lassie had run away and hadn't returned yet, which didn't really surprise Gus much. Henry had stayed put, but Gus had a sneaking suspicion that that was mainly because the doctors felt that Henry would be able to sympathize with him.

She had started to set up the bed they had provided, beside his own, and that's when Gus had finally snapped, too damn angry with Shawn, 'Has that son of a bitch arrived yet?'

'Who?' his mom had looked up with a startled expression.

'Shawn,' Gus sighed.

'Honey,' his mother smiled. 'That's not very fair, is it? I mean, it's Shawn. He'll come around soon. He was pretty shaken.'

'Yeah, he must've run away,' Gus said darkly. 'That's his coping mechanism. Remind me to circle this date ten years from now, because I know that's when he's coming back.'

'Gussie,' his mother chided, her eyes darting around nervously, 'Shawn is a great friend, and he'll probably be here anytime now.'

That made dread settle over Gus. 'What did you say?' he asked faintly.

'He's a great friend, Gu—' her eyes widened in horror as she realized what she had done. The Gusters never praised Shawn. To them, Shawn was just like a leech which sucked the success out of their son's life.

'WHAT IS HAPPENING? WHERE IS SHAWN?' Gus shouted, and the heart monitor started beeping like Shawn, that is, in a hyperactive manner.

A nurse rushed in, and Henry followed.

'Calm down, Gus!' Henry commanded. Gus took a deep breath, and he calmed down. The nurse visibly relaxed, putting away the syringe she had just picked up.

'What happened to Shawn?' Gus demanded again.

Henry and his mother shared a look, and then his mom slowly came and sat down beside him, looking down. 'Gus, I am so sorry, darling. I just, I was absolutely unfair to Shawn, and it wasn't my place to say something like that.'

'What did you . . . did you blame him for what happened to me?' Gus took a deep breath to keep his heart rate from soaring again.

His mom nodded mournfully.

'Oh, my God,' Gus whispered. 'I can't believe this! So, now I can't save anyone's life? You're gonna blame Shawn for everything?'

'Gus,' his mom looked up at him, the emotion in her eyes suddenly flipping. 'I wasn't wrong to accuse him. I was just wrong in saying that to him.'

Henry looked at her sharply. He opened him mouth but Gus beat him to the punch, 'Hold it! You were not right to accuse him! Mentally or in his face!'

'If he hadn't taken you-'

'He didn't take me, it was Henry's idea, and I relented before he could even ask! Mom, it was Yin! He has screwed up Shawn's life! Shawn may hide it behind his facade of perpetual happiness and ignorance but he was affected! He was affected, and he has been terrified of what happened to all those he loved because of Yin and Yang!'

'Why did you jump out in front of him, then? I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have done that for you!'

'He already did!' Gus shouted, and then there was pin drop silence.

Finally, he heard Lassie, 'What?'

Gus turned to look up at the lanky detective, who had turned up at his doorstep.

'Remember when he went away for ten years?' Gus explained calmly. Lassiter gave him a blank look, which was soon replaced by a look of absolute delight, 'He can do that?'

Ignoring him, Henry nodded.

'Yeah, well, before he went off alone, he spent a day and a half with me. We went to a bar in the outskirts of Santa Barbara,' Gus continued.

'Who the heck let you two in a bar? You were seventeen!' Henry interjected.

'Shawn was seventeen. I was eighteen. Besides, we just had some lemonade. Anyway, when we left, this mugger appeared, and he was drunk, and he had a gun, and he had seen that I had been the one with the money. Shawn never pays,' Gus commented when Lassiter opened him mouth with a frown. 'And this drunk, gun wielding mugger appeared from nowhere, Shawn was chatting up some girl inside, and I was going to his bike. And I was so stupid. I didn't give him my wallet. And he threatened to shoot me,' he swallowed. 'And I still didn't. I mean, he was drunk, and with a gun, I should've. But I didn't. And I was waiting,' he gulped again, the memory was too haunting. He had been kinda grateful when Shawn had asked him not to mention it to anyone. 'I was waiting for the bullet to hit me, but it never came. And the mugger ran away. And I was happy. And then I saw Shawn on the ground, and there was blood coming down from his left shoulder . . . right from where he got shot last time.'

Henry gasped, paling evidently. 'Why didn't you ever tell me?'

'Because they didn't keep him for longer than a night, he signed out an AMA, and he made me pinky swear.'

Henry looked like he was the one with anger issues this time round. But Gus focussed on his mother, who seemed to be shrivelled up in shame.

'Please tell me you told him I was asking for him,' Gus said.

'Juliet did,' Henry answered, and then all eyes turned on Lassiter.

'Um . . . okay,' he said slowly. 'Since everything seems to be out in the open now, I'll just go ahead and say it. Guster, you can shut your ears if you want.'

Gus gave him a looked, and Lassiter continued, 'Okay! So . . . Shawn's attacker struck again.'

'What?' Henry said.

'And took Juliet and Shawn hostage,' Lassiter said quickly.

'What?' Gus gasped.

'And brutally murdered Yin,' Lassiter followed up quickly.

'What?' Henry cried.

'And she's Allison Cowley and her accomplice is most likely Lindsey Leiken, an ex-convict out on parole.'

'WHAT?' this time, it was Gus.

'What, is there and echo around here?' Lassie snapped.

'Wait, who's Lindsey Leiken?' Henry frowned.

'Shawn hooked up with her, five-six years back,' Gus muttered, dazed. Shooting him a look, Lassie added, 'And she was also a fake psychic who turned out to be a thief and a murderer and Spencer caught her.'

'Yeah, that too,' Gus muttered.

'Yin's dead?' Henry started to realize what Gus had started to realize.

That didn't sound right.

'And Yang's dead,' Gus realized.

'Yes,' Lassiter said darkly. 'We believe this is the next generation of Yin and Yang, and Cowley is probably the Yin. And the former Yin was the first victim of Yin-Yang.'

And Shawn or Juliet could be the next one, they all realized.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Shawn shifted his weight as he gained consciousness; he must have nodded off.

'Shawn?' came Juliet's fuzzy voice. Smiling a bit, Shawn started to turn to drape an arm around her to keep her from stealing away to the bathroom, and someone ripped his right arm off. He gave a yelp of pain and then bit his lip, the pain jarring him back to the bleak conditions.

'Shawn! What's wrong?' Juliet cried.

'We're in a hostage situation,' Shawn muttered through clenched teeth. His vision cleared and he focused on Juliet, who had been made to sit on the chair across him. There was a cut across her forehead which Shawn didn't really remember seeing while they were being escorted to the former interrogation room. Then again, he hadn't exactly been seeing much at that time, had he?

He frowned. Something was off. His vision tunneled on her wrists, which were red and the right one was slightly swollen. His eyes widened in alarm, but before he could say a word, Juliet said, 'I'm fine, I just kinda got hell bent on killing Lindsey Leiken after her little chat . . . and they tied me down, and I struggled a bit too hard, and they didn't really want me to die from slits in my wrists. So they set me free.'

He opened his mouth again, and she beat him to the punch again, 'I just showed Monkey Shines my right wrist, not my left one. I can use that arm well and good, and I'm a lefty so . . .'

Shawn blinked in amazement at the fact that she knew exactly what he had been about to ask. Then he gave her his sarcastic lopsided smile and said, 'We fit together perfectly!'

Juliet frowned at the hoarseness of his voice. She reached down and pulled up a tiny ice cream cup filled with melting ice chips and took some on her fingers, scooting closer and then gently dropping them into Shawn's mouth.

He sighed from the comfort of the ice chips and felt even better when Juliet gently brushed his lower lip with her fingertips. After three rounds of feeding him ice, she pulled back and said, 'So.'

'So . . .' he looked up at her, lowering his head a bit and asking genuinely:-

'Are you still turned on?'

Juliet laughed, and then she leaned over and pecked his lips, 'I love you!'

'We'll get through this,' Shawn promised, a smile playing on his own lips. 'I promise. I will protect you because you have me now. I know I may not appear that physically imposing at first blush, but it turns out I have the tenacity of a Swiss Fox, and the instincts of a dragonfly.'

Juliet smiled, 'You realize one of those is a rabbit, and the other is an insect?'

Shawn leaned closer, or tried to, anyway, 'That's why I chose them.'

Juliet reached out and put her palm against his cheek, and he closed his eyes, whispering, 'But I'm trying to tell you that I would protect you.'

Juliet closed her eyes at the memory and said, 'And I will protect you right back.'

Shawn winked at her, squinting open his eyes, 'I think you're swell.'

'Well, my wrists are,' Juliet sighed, breaking the magic.

Shawn kissed her hand, turning his face towards her palm. Then he cleared his throat and continued, 'So, you got anything?'

'Well,' she put her hand on the table and glanced nervously at the glass separating them from the viewing room.

'They're not there,' Shawn assured.

'How'd you know?'

'Psychic, remember?' he quirked an eyebrow and gave her his smirk. Juliet narrowed her eyes at him, but a smile played on her lips.

'All I know is that they'll ultimately kill us, not very painlessly, I believe.'

'That's a given,' Shawn shrugged, and immediately regretted it, wincing in pain.

'And Allison hates it when anyone calls her "Chimp", and Lindsey really does have a soft spot for you,' Juliet finished, trying to act nonchalant.

Shawn tilted his face a bit. It felt good to let loose a bit, it felt like the first time he felt okay since the attack on him. Then he joked, 'Don't be jealous.'

'I'm not jealous,' Juliet said, emphasizing each word.

'It's okay,' Shawn said. 'People get jealous . . . everyone's bitten by the green-eyed monster once in their nine lives!'

'Cats have nine lives. And Shawn, she's a killer. I know you won't date her,' Juliet argued.

'That is correct,' Shawn concluded after a moment of pondering. 'But you don't know that!'

'Yes, I do,' Juliet rolled her eyes. And that's when Shawn had a promising, albeit unpleasant idea. Juliet peered at him suspiciously as his countenance changed, and Shawn pursed his lips in concentration before announcing, 'I have an idea.'

Juliet narrowed her eyes at him, 'Is it a good one?'

'No,' Shawn answered truthfully. There was a long pause. Jules seemed to be waiting for something. Then she prompted, 'But . . .'

Shawn tilted his head in confusion and questioned, 'But what?'

'No . . . I mean, where are the buts, Shawn?'

'Above the legs and below the back,' Shawn replied.

Juliet sighed, and she pressed her head against the table. For ten counts, Shawn had a view of her now dirty blazer rising and falling with each deep breath, and then she sat up and said calmly, 'Shawn, what I meant is . . . where is the "but" part of your statement? As in, "but, the plan is . . ." etcetera, etcetera.'

'Ooooh!' he realized. 'Silly me. Well, Jules, sweetheart, there are no buts.'

'What the . . . Shawn! You mean you have a plan, and it's bad? That's all you have?'

'Well, it'll get us out . . . if it works.'

'I'm guessing that's a big if.'

'Well, duh. It's a plan by moi, Jules.'

'What is the plan?'

'You're not gonna like it.'

'I know. Just tell me what I have to do.'

'Yeah, the plan is that you don't have to do anything . . . quite literally,' Shawn cleared his throat nervously.

She gave him a wary look, 'What are you getting at?'

Shawn smiled a bit and took a deep breath before continuing . . .

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Carlton Lassiter took a bite of his spaghetti and enjoyed the deliciousness of the tomato flavoured dough. His wife sat down adjacent to him and smiled at him, 'So, any leads on where Shules are?'

And the moment of enjoyment was over. Carlton choked hard, and after three gulps of cool water, he felt air whoosh back into his lungs.

'Don't call them that!' he gasped in horror.

'Okay, okay!' Marlow assured, an amused grin on her face. 'But that's what we call 'em when they're not around!'

'You. Not we. And I refuse to ever acknowledge the fact that there is enough permanency in O'Hara's relationship with that simpleton is strong enough to give them a single name!'

'I think it's sweet, and I don't think you can say that there's no permanency in their relationship, honeybear.'

'I don't know what happened to O'Hara . . . didn't she hit her head during that fight with Cowley two years back?' he mused to himself.

'Carlton,' Marlowe chided softly. 'So, any leads?'

'Yeah, well,' Lassiter said taking another forkful of the spaghetti. 'It's Allison Cowley, for sure; we got her DNA off the body. There also seems to have been a second person, and after some filtration through lists of convicts out on parole, we came down to a Lindsey Leiken. Did you ever meet her?'

'Leiken,' Marlowe mused, and then she brightened, 'I believe I have. She was pretty famous among the group which consisted of all criminals Shawn had busted.'

'Was she, now?' Lassiter tuned in, absolutely focused on this possible lead.

'As a matter of fact, I think Big Wendy knows a lot about her . . .'

'Where is Big Wendy, now?' Lassiter jumped up from his seat, startling Marlowe.

'I think she went back inside after punching a guy in a supermarket . . .'

'Sweet!' Carlton Lassiter ran out of the door; delicious spaghettis could wait till he found his partner.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Karen Vick put a hand to her head before she asked again, 'Wendy, listen . . . Allison has kidnapped Shawn and Juliet and she might hurt them. Now we think Lindsey might be involved . . . and we need to know all you know about her.'

'I ain't gonna say a word till I get a guarantee that I will be assigned a new parole officer who isn't as much of a –' the convict was cut off when she realized what had been said. Her hazel eyes widened, 'Allison Cowley? Man, that woman is bad news. She was here before they put her in the loony bin.'

'We know,' Lassiter growled beside her. 'We put her in the loony bin.'

'Lassiter,' Karen warned. 'Please continue, Wendy.'

'Well, see, I'm just telling ya all I know 'cause I know that Allison girlie is one crazy badass. She told us all sorts of crazy things when she was here . . . about how she had something colourful planned for this guy who'd caught her . . .'

'Shawn.'

'Yeah, that psychic guy. Well, and I think you wanna find out Shawn quickly if you wanna keep him alive.'

'We figured as much, please continue.'

'Okay, so Leiken, eh? Well, she got out on parole right before I came back. Her parole officer's a kitten, by the way,' after a pointed look, the huge woman continued, 'Well, so, Lindsey Leiken had this soft spot for your psychic guy . . . kept sayin' on and on how she couldn't bring herself to shoot him when she took him hostage right before getting arrested 'cause she had a soft spot for him.'

'She . . . had a soft spot for him,' Lassiter raised his eyebrows.

'Heck, yeah, she did,' Wendy agreed. 'In fact, I don't know why she would lay a finger on the psychic boy. She seemed pretty into him.'

'That doesn't make any sense,' Lassiter protested.

'Never mind that, Detective. Okay Wendy, we get it; Lindsey liked Shawn. Anything else?' Karen cut in.

'Not a thing comes to mind,' she accepted.

'Okay, well, you've been somewhat helpful, I'd say. Now, we've got some ideas . . .'

'We have?' Lassiter frowned. Karen nodded, deep in thought, 'I believe I do . . .'

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

A/N: Do you guys want Madeleine to come in? Or can we do without a prospective Mom-in-law/daughter-in-law moment? Your preference in the reviews!