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Enjoy!
Time of Dying
Chapter Ten
Henry paced the hallway of the Santa Barbara Police Department. It had been forty eight hours since Shawn had stormed out of the house and rode off on that damned bike of his. Henry had tried to stop his son but Shawn being the stubborn idiot he was wouldn't listen to a word he had tried to say.
He had foolishly been hoping that Shawn would decide to come home. Hoping that his son would decide that it was best for him to stay with his dad rather than run off to god-knows-where.
When Shawn hadn't returned to the house by the next day Henry had decided that it was up to him to get Shawn back. He refused to let his son run from his problems. It had taken Shawn years to return to Santa Barbara when he left after high school. Henry had no clue when, or even if, Shawn would ever come home of his own accord this time.
Chief Vick had been surprised when he had shown up in her office. She had assumed that he would be staying at home with Shawn for at least a week or so more like he had told her when he asked for time off. Her confusion turned into concern quickly though when Henry told her why he wasn't at home.
She had quickly called Detectives Lassiter and O'Hara into her office and explained the situation. Lassiter looked perturbed and Juliet looked downright worried. Henry should have thought to inform her of Shawn's departure before he went to the Chief seeing as she was his boy's girlfriend. However, he wanted Shawn found quickly so he went to the person he needed to give the go-ahead for an official search and that person was Chief Vick.
Shawn hadn't been missing for 48 hours, he hadn't even been missing for a full 24 hours at that point, but the Chief said that they could start looking anyway they just couldn't list Shawn as an official missing person. That had been good enough for Henry; he just wanted to start looking.
They had traced the signal coming from the GPS chip in Shawn's cell phone. Henry had been concerned when he found out that the signal was coming from a relatively rural section of highway. He had thought that Shawn might have crashed his stupid bike again. He had been worried that he would go to the site and find his son's body lying in a ditch, broken with the crashed bike feet away.
Henry had felt a sense of relief when they arrived on the site where the signal was coming from and found the cell phone hidden in a patch of tall grass. However, his relief turned into anxiety when he realized that Shawn was no where to be found. His body was not in a crumpled heap in a ditch but nonetheless, the easiest way of finding Shawn had been ruled out.
It was now about 26 hours since they had found the cell phone on the side of the road and 48 hours since Shawn had left. Chief Vick had officially declared a missing person. Sure Shawn had technically been seen leaving under his own control but she was the Chief after all and could declare him a missing person if she wanted to and Henry was very thankful. It was always easier to find a missing person rather than just a regular guy.
They had been tracking Shawn's bank accounts to see if he took any money out of them but they hadn't had any luck. Henry determined quickly that he had perhaps trained his son too well. The phone had obviously been left on the side of the road rather than fallen out of Shawn's pocket as he was riding down the road because it was in perfect condition. He must have realized that they could have used it to track him. Henry concluded that with his son's precautions there really wasn't any need to watch his bank accounts knowing that Shawn knew that it would be easy to track a withdraw to a location.
Nope, Shawn was in hiding and he was going to make it damn difficult to find him.
OOooOOooOO
Juliet had tried to keep her spirits up since she learned that Shawn had left. She had known that Shawn was having a hard time since Gus had died, really who wouldn't have though? He had been quiet and reserved which wasn't like him at all. She was used to Shawn's flamboyant and quirky nature and had been concerned when he had basically been reduced to a shell of the man she loved.
She had tried to offer support, hoping that he would come to her when he was ready. She thought he was getting better, getting closer to opening up to her. He had actually talked to her at the funeral. Shawn had talked about his feelings which was something he rarely did. However, her hopes were dashed when he left without even saying goodbye.
Juliet wanted to be angry at Shawn. Angry at him for leaving without so much as goodbye after she had been as supportive and as loving as she could be. She wanted to be angry because he left without a thought about her. But try as she might, she couldn't muster up any anger towards her boyfriend. Shawn had just lost a person that might as well be considered his brother. He was well within his rights to be devastated and deal with said devastation however he wanted. She just wished that he had least told her where he was going.
Now all she could do was sit and wait until he came home. Sure they had tried looking. Carlton, Henry, and herself had spent two weeks searching but came up empty handed. Shawn had gotten rid of his cell phone and hadn't touched his bank account. The only thing they knew was that he had started out going north but he could have easily doubled back or have travelled far enough that he would have a great head start.
Where ever Shawn was he was doing a very good job of keeping himself hidden. Juliet had no doubt that if he wanted to Shawn would be able to hide for the rest of his life. He had a charming personality and was able to get people to do pretty much whatever he wanted. If he wanted to, Shawn could easily get an odd job without too much question to his background and could probably even get his employer to pay him in cash. If he decided to stay in one place, he would be able to charm the people around him and they would probably end up protecting the secret of his whereabouts even if she was able to narrow down his location.
They weren't going to find Shawn if he didn't want to be found. Juliet knew that but she also knew that she would never stop looking for him.
OOooOOooOO
Spencer had been gone for a month and a half. It had been a glorious month and a half. There weren't any distractions in the office, nobody prancing around having visions or whatever. It was calm, quiet, and peaceful. Lassiter couldn't think of anything better.
Of course, it would be nice if O'Hara would stop moping around. It would also be nice if Mr. Spencer would stop being so much grouchier than normal. And maybe it would be nice if someone came bounding into the office offering everyone pineapple smoothies or calling him silly nicknames. Damn, he actually missed Spencer. He had gone from absolutely despising the 'psychic', to tolerating him, to maybe, actually, liking the guy. When had that happened?
Nonetheless, he would not let Spencer beat him. Spencer might be damn good at hiding but Lassiter was a great detective in his own right. He didn't need 'visions' to find someone he could do that with good old fashioned detective work.
However, it had been over a month and they were still no closer to finding Spencer. Lassiter had forgotten how hard good old fashioned detective work was. Even though he hated to admit it, Spencer's hunches, because he refused to acknowledge them as visions, always seemed to pan out. This time Lassiter had to follow the bread crumbs to get the guy but Spencer hadn't left very many breadcrumbs to work with.
Lassiter refused to admit defeat, however. He would find Spencer if it was the last thing he did.
OOooOOooOO
Dare he say it, the last two months had been kind of fun. Yup, he dare say it.
Shawn loved his job at the bar. He loved telling all the patrons about his crazy cases and ending pretty much every night with a karaoke session. He had been hesitant to let himself have fun in the beginning but Tom had quickly snapped him out of that.
Tom had invited him over to his apartment one day to watch some football game or whatever. Shawn hadn't really been interested in the game but any excuse to get him out of the sleazy motel he was staying in was good enough.
Tom told him about his childhood as the son of a highly decorated special forces Marine. Tom told him about how his dad started Marine training with him when he was like five. Shawn had nearly choked on the soda he was drinking when he burst into laughter when Tom said that. Tom had asked what the hell was so funny so Shawn shared some of his favorite cop training sessions with him. Unlike Shawn, however, Tom had actually followed in his father's footsteps for a while and joined the Marine Corps after high school.
Shawn eventually told Tom all about Gus and even Juliet. Tom was very understanding about the whole thing. Tom told him about the occasions when he would lose men on the battlefield. He understood what it felt like to have a friend die in his arms.
They lapsed into an easy friendship and when an apartment opened up in his apartment complex, Tom had even helped Shawn pay for the first month's rent.
Sure Shawn had couple, well maybe more than a couple, bad days when he couldn't get Gus off his mind and would either refuse to leave his apartment or get wasted at the bar. But Tom was always there to make sure he ate something or dragged his sorry ass home after a bender.
Those days were getting fewer and further between, however.
These days Shawn spent most of his time at work or hanging out with Tom.
That night was no different. He got to work at five and helped Tom with the preparations for the night. He was in charge of stocking the bar with clean glasses as Tom made sure that all the alcohol needed was in order.
The rest of the night passed as per usual. He spent more time hanging out with the people that came in, entertaining them and keeping them at the bar, rather than actually doing work such as cleaning off the tables. It seemed like to Shawn that he got paid for his personality instead of his work ethic, which he was totally ok with.
They were just about to close the doors for the night when Edgar came strolling in. Shawn couldn't pinpoint the reason, but Edgar really gave him the creeps. It probably didn't help that the man dressed like a total sleaze ball or the fact that Tom never looked comfortable around him. Either way, the guy was weird and Shawn really wasn't too thrilled about him being there.
"Good evening gentlemen," Edgar greeted.
"Gentlemen? Really Edgar?" Tom teased. Edgar, however, found no humor in it and glared at his younger brother. The smile that Tom had been wearing quickly slipped off his face.
"Anyway," Edgar growled out. "I just wanted to come and congratulate you two on a good job. I've been looking over the books and these last two months have been the most profitable we've had in a long time."
"You can thank Shawn over here." Tom said. "Who knew that all we needed to make this place a hit was a psychic with crazy stories?"
Edgar did not look pleased with Tom's explanation of their success.
"Well whatever the reason, good job."
Edgar walked over to the bar and grabbed three glasses. He turned his back to them in order to fill the glasses. With Edgar's back turned, Tom offered Shawn a confused shrug. Before Shawn could respond though Edgar turned back around with three the glasses filled about a quarter of the way with some golden liquid that Shawn guessed was whiskey.
Edgar handed Shawn a glass first and then gave one to Tom.
"Cheers to the success. Let's hope it continues." Edgar tilted the glass back and finished the drink in one swallow.
With slight hesitance, Shawn and Tom did the same.
When he was finished with his drink, Shawn tried to make a hasty exit. He had been hoping to get to hang out with Tom but he really didn't want to be around Edgar. So he quickly said goodbye, grabbed his jacket, and left.
He was walking to his bike when he started to feel funny. Something wasn't right with him. He felt kind of drunk but that couldn't be it seeing as he had only had that one drink. Nevertheless, his head felt like it was underwater and he couldn't really see straight. He took a few more steps toward his bike before his feet seemed to turn to lead.
The last thing he remembered was falling to the ground. He felt the cool asphalt on his cheek and then his eyelids, which seemed to weigh a ton, closed.
First, let me say sorry for the late update. I realize that it is Tuesday rather than Saturday.
This leads me to my second point. It's the last few weeks of school so I have my final set of midterms, projects, and then finals. Because of this my regular updating may be coming to an end. I will try as hard as I can to update every week but I don't want to promise something I can't deliver.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter. In the next chapter we'll get to some Shawn whump - that shouldn't make me happy but for some reason it does :)