Author's Note: So here's another chapter. Thanks to all of you who continue to read and review, I hope you enjoy!

Chapter Ten: Lessons Learned

"Lessons learned and they sure run deep, they don't go away and they don't come cheap."

There was no question in Henry's mind that Shawn would stay with him after his son was released from the hospital. As far as Henry was concerned, if Shawn couldn't even remember his own name there was no way that he should be left on his own right now. With or without his memory, this was still Shawn, and Henry did not trust him to take care of himself and not get into trouble. No one gave him any argument or questioned him at all, Gus only insisted that Henry go home and get some rest before Shawn came home, and volunteered to bring Shawn back to Henry's place himself. Of course, Henry got no argument from Shawn whatsoever. Shawn had no idea that he should argue.

Gus lead Shawn out to his car, half expecting his friend to make some ridiculous joke or insist on stopping for something to eat on the way home. But Shawn didn't say anything, he just followed Gus complacently and quietly got into the passenger seat when Gus opened the door for him.

Shawn said nothing on the drive from the hospital to Henry's house. Instead he stared intently at the things passing by outside the windows. Gus let out a weary sigh, focusing his attention on the road and away from his friend. He missed Shawn, he missed him more than he had when Shawn had taken off so suddenly after high school. At least then he had still known that his friend was out there somewhere. He had still gotten postcards, written in Shawn's carefree scrawl, or messages recorded in his joking and easy going tone. Now, Shawn was sitting right next to him but was farther away than he had ever been before, and Gus had no idea when or if he was ever coming back.

It was a difficult concept to face, and Gus just wasn't ready to accept the fact that he didn't know when Shawn would come back. He already missed the crazy and unpredictable adventures that Shawn always managed to get him into, and it made it hard to have Shawn right there beside him and at the same time so far away.

In silence, Gus parked his car behind Henry's old Ford and shut off the engine, turning to look at Shawn. Shawn turned to look at Gus for the first time since he had got into the car.

"This is where I live?" asked Shawn.

"No Shawn, this is where your Dad lives. You're going to be staying with him for a while, just until your yourself again."

Shawn met his gaze for a second longer before nodding and turning back to look out the window. Gus unbuckled and was about to get out of the car when he was stopped by Shawn's voice.

"You don't think I'll remember, do you?"

"Of course I do Shawn," Gus answered, surprised that Shawn seemed to have picked up on his feelings. But then, Shawn had always been perceptive, even when they were children he had always picked up o things that escaped Gus's attention.

"I can see it in your face," Shawn said quietly, holding onto Gus's gaze, "You have that same look that everyone else has. Like they lost something that they don't think they're going to get back."

"Shawn.."

"No, it's ok Gus. I've lost something too, I've lost my entire life. You seem like a really good friend. I'm just sorry that I can't remember it."

"Look Shawn, it's only been a week, just give it some more time, you'll remember something, I know you will. Besides, I'm gonna be right here, bugging you until I hear one of those ridiculous names you always come up with for me. Now I don't know about you, but I'm starving, what do you say we go raid your dad's fridge?"

"Sounds good."

Shawn shot Gus a smile, so close to the one he would have given him before the accident that for a moment Gus forgot that the Shawn he knew wasn't there. Without thinking, Gus balled his hand into a fist and held it out towards Shawn, waiting for his friend to return the gesture. When Shawn just stared at Gus's hand in confusion, Gus cleared his throat, slowly pulling his hand back towards himself.

"That was supposed to mean something wasn't it?" asked Shawn.

"Yeah," replied Gus, "It was, but that's ok, we'll worry about it later. Come on, your dad's waiting."

With that, the two of them exited the car and headed up the walkway into Henry's house.

Later that week Henry was sitting across from Shawn at the local dinner. As Henry had suspected from being with Shawn in the hospital after he had woken up, his son still possessed a sharp learning curve and picked up on things very quickly. It made re-teaching him everything relatively easy, but Shawn had always been exceptionally intelligent and perceptive. It appeared that Shawn's brain was just hard wired to notice the finer details of life, and Henry was glad to see that at least the lack of memories hadn't seemed to affect his son's ability to notice those details and draw conclusions.

In fact it seemed that the only thing that Shawn had lost was any recollection of who he had been before waking up in the hospital. He could still remember nearly everything that he saw from the moment that he had woken up in the hospital. But it was just as if someone had come along and wiped his slate clean. Of course the bland and sparsely decorated hospital room had given Henry little opportunity to test his assumptions, and he hadn't wanted to push Shawn's mind too soon. In a way he was afraid of what might happen if he were to find that Shawn could no longer recall the details of everyday life. It was the one thing his son had always been good at. So after having Shawn at home for nearly a week, Henry had decided that it was time to take his son out into the world and see exactly how much of eidetic memory was still there.

Shawn had almost finished his meal when Henry set his own plate aside and turned his attention to his son. He was still thin after his long stay in the hospital, but the week of real food had done much to erase the tired and haggard look from his son's features. Still, he had a long way to go before he was back to the man he had been before the accident, in more ways than one. But Henry hoped that tonight, he could get his son started back on the right path.

"Close your eyes Shawn." Henry said softly.

Shawn looked up at his father, and Henry could see the questions forming but he put down the bite of food he had been about to shovel into his mouth and complied immediately. Once again, Henry was slightly surprised at how easily his son followed his instructions now. He still wasn't used to the fact that he didn't have to argue with his son anymore. Shawn still got distracted easily by things, and more than once Henry had had to refocus his attention to the task at hand, but in general, Shawn was very compliant with Henry's demands. It was exceptionally unnerving and just plain unnatural.

"How many hats Shawn?" Henry asked

"What?" asked Shawn, genuine confusion echoing through his words as his eyes snapped open to look at Henry questioningly.

"I want you to tell me how many people in this restaurant are wearing hats."

"Why are their hats important?"

"Details are important Shawn. You need to be able to remember the details, no matter how insignificant. When you're working out in the field you never know what detail may prove important, you've done this before. Now, how many hats Shawn?"

There was still confusion in his son's face, but Henry watched as Shawn closed his eyes again and his brow furrowed in concentration. His eyes moved frantically back and forth behind their lids as he worked out the answer. It took longer than it would have taken Shawn before, but considering the circumstances Henry was pleased with the time it took his son to reach the answer.

"Five," he stated simply.

Henry smiled to himself. Shawn may not have a clue who he was, but at least he would be able to recognize the details. Which meant that he could probably go back to work at some point, and more importantly that when he did, Henry wouldn't have to admit to the SBPD that his son had been lying to them for the past few years.

"Good job kid, you can open your eyes."

Shawn did, but didn't return to his meal. He just stared down at the remainder of his food. Silence stretched between the two of them for a moment before Shawn looked up at Henry, frustration and sorrow plainly evident in his son's eyes.

"How come I can remember almost every detail of everything I see, but I can't remember even one thing from before the accident?"

Henry sighed, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest. He didn't know how to answer, the truth was he was wondering the same thing himself. And always present in the back of his mind was the fact that Shawn might never remember anything from before.

"I don't know kid. I really don't know. But you never did anything half way, I guess losing all of your memory is no different."

Shawn snorted, as he pushed the remainder of his meal away.

"It doesn't seem fair," he said, " all I want is to be able to look at a street, and know that I've been down it before, or to remember what my favourite drink is, but I can't. Instead, I can remember exactly what magazines you had on the table this morning, how they were laid out, and how many stupid hats are in this diner. It's just not fair."

Frustration welled up in Henry, more than anyone he understood that this was not fair. If Shawn had listened to him and got rid of that stupid death trap, he wouldn't be sitting across from Henry now with no idea who he was.

"Life's not fair Shawn, if it was, I wouldn't be raising my 30 year old son again." Henry snapped.

He regretted the words as soon as he had said them, and he cursed himself as Shawn let his gaze wander away from Henry's and back down to his discarded plate.

"I'm sorry." Shawn said softly.

"It's not your fault Shawn." Henry said as he pulled out his wallet to pay for their dinner, " I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I've been through a lot, and I'm tired."

Shawn just nodded as Henry placed the bills on the table and rose to leave.

"Come on kid, let's go home."

Shawn rose and followed Henry out to his truck in silence. Neither of them said a word as Henry started the truck and headed for home, each wrapped up in their own thoughts. They had made about half of the way back home before Shawn broke the silence with another question.

"Why is it really so important to you that I notice these details? I can tell that it means a lot to you, why?"

Henry looked over at his son, not sure how to answer because the real answer laid all of his fears on the table, and he wasn't sure that he wanted Shawn to know that they were there. He let out a sigh, deciding that it wouldn't matter, because really, Shawn wouldn't be able to place Henry's fears into any meaningful context. To him, it was just another answer to a long line of questions.

"Because, if you can pick up on the details, like you did before, you can go back to work."

Henry paused, not sure how to say the rest of what he was thinking. After thinking about it for a moment, he decided to just say it.

"Look kid, you know that you may never remember who you really are. You could be like this for the rest of your life, and I'm doing the best I can to help you out now, but I can't always be here. Sooner or later, if there's no improvements, we're just going to have to accept that this is who you are now. That means that you're going to have to go back to work, to provide for yourself. If you can do what you were doing before that just makes it easier."

"And what exactly did I do before?"

Henry let out a small chuckle, he knew that sooner or later Shawn was going to ask this question, and he had been thinking of the best way to tell his son that he had floated through life, wasting his potential to fool around and put in as little effort as possible. But he had made the mistake of telling Shawn that one too many times in the past, so he settled for the easy answer.

"You were a psychic detective. You helped the police solve some tough cases."

Shawn looked at him in disbelief.

"I was psychic? I could talk to ghosts and stuff like that?"

"Not exactly?"

"I don't understand, I'm not psychic now. Do you think the accident interfered with that as well?"

"No Shawn, you weren't really psychic, you notice details. Sometimes you see things that others miss. You were able to convince the Chief that you were psychic, that this was how you got your information."

Shawn realized the truth of what Henry was trying to say and summed it up immediately.

"So I lie to these people?"

There was no point in denying it, it was the truth, so Henry simply confirmed Shawn's conclusion.

"Yes Shawn you do."

"But that doesn't seem right."

It was ironic that it took Shawn losing his memory for him to realize that what he had done was wrong, but by this point, Henry had realized another truth about the man his son had been. Even though Henry had never agreed with his son's methods, the truth was that Shawn did more good than harm...for the most part, and Henry was proud of his son for that.

"It's not right, but you help people because of it, and that's what's important. You're good at it Shawn, and I know I never told you this enough before, but I am proud of you for it."

Shawn though about this for a moment, turning away to look out the window while he processed what he had just learned about himself. But it hadn't taken more than a few minutes before he turned back to Henry, more questions burning in his eyes.

"Why didn't I just become a cop then, if I am this good at it why didn't I become a cop?"

This was exactly the question that Henry had asked himself since Shawn had thrown away his chances when he was still a teenager. Shawn, who had always wanted to do as little actual work possible, had given up on the one career that he was so suited for that he didn't even have to try to succeed at it. Henry knew the reason, he didn't like to admit it but that reason was that Henry had wanted it too much for Shawn, had been to forceful pushing Shawn towards becoming what Henry wanted him to be. And Shawn had always marched to the beat of his own drum.

"Because I wanted you to do it too much Shawn, I pushed you too hard and you pushed back the only way you knew how."

Confusion settled over Shawn's face, "I don't understand."

Henry sighed, not wanting to have this conversation with his son right now. It had been a long day, at the end of a long week and he was way past tired. To tell the truth he hadn't gotten a decent sleep in a long time. Thankfully, they had finally made it home, so Henry was able to avoid answering anymore of Shawn's questions for the moment.

"I know kid. Look, I think that's enough questions for now. Why don't we go on into the house and watch some TV?"

Shawn looked at Henry for a moment longer, trying to read the expression on his father's face. It was a strange mix of sorrow, anger, guilt, and a hurt that went deeper than Shawn could understand. By now, he had learned enough about Henry to know that his father had reached a limit, and Shawn wasn't going to get anymore answers out of him tonight. So Shawn simply nodded before getting out of Henry's truck and following his father into the house.

Henry lasted two weeks with the new version of Shawn before he had to relent and seek outside help with his son. It wasn't that he couldn't deal with his son, but it was somewhat like dealing with a small child again. Shawn had to be re-taught almost everything from how to make his bed to how to mow the lawn and how to read and write. Granted this time Henry had the advantage of having dealt with his son before and knowing exactly how to get through to him, but there was just nothing of his son left in the man that lived in his home now. He was still smart and perceptive as all hell, and his keen sense of observation helped increase his already sharp learning curve. It took Shawn hardly no time at all to relearn certain things, but there was just no way to get all of the memories he had lost back.

Shawn's questions were getting more and more complicated for Henry to answer and he was running out of ways to avoid doing so. There were just some things that he wasn't ready to tell Shawn yet. One of those things being the entire truth of what had happened the night of the accident. Henry told Shawn the basics of what had happened, but had not mentioned his role in it. Thankfully Shawn had seemed satisfied with Henry's version of events and had not questioned his father for more details.

But even though Shawn was a quick learner and was progressing rapidly, it still didn't get rid of the fact that there was just something missing. Gus had told him that it was like having a ghost hanging around, every time Shawn would come into a room they would expect him to spout off one of his characteristic jokes, but none would ever come. And when it came right down to it, it was just too heartbreaking for him to have to teach his son everything all over again. The simple fact was, that even though he could re-teach Shawn facts, he could not teach his son about the lifetime of experiences he had lost. Besides that, Henry knew deep down inside that it would not be his connection with Shawn that would bring back his son's memories, after all the two of them had never really seen eye to eye.

So, having reached the conclusion that he had done everything he could to help Shawn, Henry decided it was time to seek outside help. Tomorrow, Henry would take Shawn with him to see the only other people that he knew would be able to help Shawn get his memories back and tried not to think about what would happen if they failed.

End Notes: So I think this chapter might get a little bit long, but maybe that's just me. The rest of the chapters will be longer also, I think. So let me know what you guys think, if you want shorter chapters let me know and I'll split them up. Up next... how will Juliet deal with seeing Shawn again?