Finally back! What you see below was actually supposed to only be a short intro into the chapter, but I love Shawn/Henry interactions so much that I got a bit carried away and it turned into its own chapter. Oops.

I am doing some serious brain-storming for this. Hopefully it won't be another three months before my next chapter!

R&R xoxo Artemis024

Enjoy!

Chapter 10: Couch

Five hours passed before Shawn's weary feet carried him back to the Psych office. He wanted nothing but peace and quiet, and the ability to put the past few days' events behind him. Latching the door, he leaned his forehead against it, and sighed with exhaustion.

"Where have you been?"

The voice from behind startled him and he spun around, seeing his father on the couch in the other room.

Shawn took a couple steps in. "What are you doing here?" He glanced around quickly. "How'd you get in?"

As if on cue, Gus walked from the back office, with his head down looking at his cell phone. "He's still not picking up."

Shawn rolled his eyes and said, "That's because he's right here."

Gus' head snapped up to look at his friend. "Shawn! Where the hell have you been?" he asked, reiterating Henry's question.

With suspicion creeping in, Shawn replied, "I was walking. What's going on?"

Henry stood. "You were walking for five hours? Just wandering the city?"

Taking half a step back, Shawn crossed his arms defensively. "Yeah, I was. Are you going to tell me why you're here?"

Mimicking Shawn's gestures, Henry crossed his arms too. "We couldn't get a hold of you. We were worried."

Shawn scoffed and rolled his eyes again. "Yeah, I'm sure you were." Looking back at his father, Shawn continued, "You sure have been using that worried line a lot recently, Dad."

Henry bridged the physical gap between him and his son by taking a step forward. He replied, "Yeah? You think so? And why do you think that is, Shawn?"

Changing the subject, Shawn turned toward his friend. "Gus, what are you doing here? I thought you were out of town for another couple days.

Gus furrowed his brow. "Yeah, I was supposed to be. But you called me a half dozen times in the past few days. And you didn't sound all that good in most of the messages. One came up as a station number in the middle of the night—"

Henry interrupted, "I bet I can guess what night that was." He glared at Shawn.

Confused, Gus asked, "What am I missing here?"

Rubbing his eyes, Shawn replied, "Nothing. Ignore him."

Gus glanced between his friend and the father before continuing, "And then your dad told me the last time he saw you was right after you saw a doctor—"

Shawn snapped his head toward Henry, "You told him I saw a shrink?!"

Henry slowly shook his head. "No, but you just did. All I told him was that you had a doctors appointment earlier today and that I hadn't heard from you since."

Taking a couple steps toward his friend, Gus asked, "Why did you see a shrink, Shawn?"

Feeling a flash of panic, Shawn looked from his father to his friend. Thinking quick on his feet, he replied, "It was nothing. It was just for a case." In the corner of his vision he could sense his father's eyes trying to penetrate into his skull.

Crossing his arms, Gus paused a moment before asking, "Then why were you freaked when you thought your father had told me? I mean, if it is for a case why would it matter if I knew?"

"Why does it matter either way?" Shawn snapped defensively.

Henry sighed. "Shawn, are you going to tell him or am I?"

"Tell me what?" Gus asked.

Shawn sat down on the couch and put his head in his hands, exhausted. "Nothing, Gus."

After watching his son for an instant, Henry blurted out, "Shawn got to spend the night in a jail cell after getting arrested for drunk driving."

"Dad!" Shawn snapped his head to his father.

"Shawn!" Gus shouted at his friend.

"That's why he called you from the station the other night," Henry continued. "And because of that and his recent attitude, he was forced to see a shrink and be evaluated."

The psychic stood in front of his father. "I can't believe you outed me again!"

"Yeah. Blame me. I'm the cause of all your problems."

Gus crossed his arms again and ignored the father-son fight. "Forced by whom?"

"The chief," Henry quickly replied before turning back to his son.

"Dad!" Shawn stood with rage.

"Wait," Gus took another step toward his friend. "Is this going to jeopardize Psych?"

Shawn exhaled, exasperated by the whole ordeal. "No, Psych's fine." He rubbed his eyes again, wishing he could be left alone.

Gus paused and sniffed the air. "What's that smell?" As he leaned toward Shawn, the psychic playfully slapped him away.

"Oh yeah," Henry said smugly, "And Shawn now smokes like a chimney."

Looking up at the ceiling Shawn blurted out, "Oh. My god."

Confused, Gus replied, "Shawn doesn't smoke," as if the concept hadn't quite sunk in.

Neither Spencer had heard Gus. Shawn rubbed the heel of his hand on his forehead and said to his father, "You've seen me smoke, what, three cigarettes? That's a chimney to you?"

"Hey," Henry replied as he threw his arms up in the air, "It's more than zero. You're the one making this into a thing, Shawn. Not me."

"Fine! You want to make this into a 'thing'?!" Shawn said with air quotes. He pulled out his cigarettes, lit one up, and blew out the smoke. "There. You can tick another one off. Now it's a thing."

Henry grabbed the cigarette as he exclaimed, "You're just proving my point!", but Shawn grabbed it back and took another drag.

Meanwhile, as Gus tried to process the last few minutes, tension increased between Shawn and his father.

"I honestly can't believe you!" Shawn shouted. "Why are you even here?!"

"You act like this and you can't believe me?!" came Henry's response. "I'm trying to help you, Shawn!"

With that Shawn had had enough. He turned and walked away, into the kitchen.

"Where are you going?!" his father shouted behind him. But the answer came quickly as Henry heard the tell-tale fizz and his son returned with a beer, a glass as an ashtray, and a plume of smoke trailing behind him.

As Shawn sat down on the couch again and enjoyed his drink, Gus and Henry turned and stepped closer in front of the couch.

Henry spoke first. "What are you doing, Shawn?"

"What does it look like?" Shawn replied with a shrug and took a swig.

"Wait," Gus said, "I'm gone a few days and you end up with a DUI and start smoking?" He looked around the office. "Am I dreaming? Is this real?"

After another swig, Shawn said, "No, you're awake. And, yes, I got a DUI while you were gone, but I was only pulled over because I wasn't wearing a helmet. And this," he held up his hand with the cigarette, "this has been going on for, I don't know, a few months. You've just been so caught up in your own life that you haven't noticed." Shawn showed no emotion on his face as he took a drag.

The men were shocked, not because Shawn drained his drink and puffed away, but because his answers were so flat. Shawn stood and went into the kitchen, leaving Henry and Gus confused. He re-emerged with a fresh beer and took a seat again.

Gus shook his head. "I don't understand."

Crossing a foot over his knee, Shawn replied, "What's there to understand?"

Gesturing towards his friend, Gus said, "This. You don't smoke. You've never smoked. You hate it."

Shawn shrugged as he took another drink.

It was Henry's turn. "What did the shrink say, Shawn?"

With a scoff Shawn replied, "Well, father, you've already revealed all the state secrets. You expect me to believe you don't know." It was a statement, not a question.

"Quit being paranoid." Henry sat on the edge of the cushion next to his son. "Come on, Shawn."

The younger Spencer tipped his head back and rested it on the back of the couch. After a moment of contemplating if he should share anything, Shawn finally said, "He recommended that I drink less." He glanced at his father. "That's it," he lied.

As Henry tried to study his son for tells, Gus grabbed his coat and started towards the door.

"Yeah," Gus said. "Looks like you're doing a great job with that."

"Where are you going?" Henry asked.

Gus stopped. "I have reports to do. And considering what's going on here," he gestured to the inattentive Shawn, "I don't know how much longer I can rely on Psych for income. I need to focus on the job I can count on." He furrowed his brow and again made a concerned look at his friend. Shawn didn't see this as his head still leaned back and his gaze still stuck to the ceiling. With no response, Gus shook his head, grabbed Shawn's cigarette from his hand, and walked out.

This finally caught Shawn's attention. He called after his friend, "I have more of those you know!" He then turned to his father and said, "Well that was passive aggressive. Do you think he's going to smoke it?" After a beat with no response, Shawn got up and started toward the kitchen again.

"Shawn, stop," Henry called out, but Shawn didn't obey. Henry sighed, not knowing what to do. Luckily for him, Shawn returned moments later and sat back down, another beer in hand.

The silence lasted only a couple minutes, but to Henry it felt like eons. He wanted to say so much that he didn't know how to start.

Instead it was Shawn who spoke first. "I couldn't look at him." His elbows rested on his knees as he glanced sideways at his father.

"I know," Henry replied. "He's just… worried. So am I."

Shawn sighed, not out of frustration but out of internal surrender. "I'm not going to tell you about the shrink eval."

Henry nodded. "Okay. But if you change your mind—"

"I screwed up, Dad," Shawn interrupted, catching Henry off guard.

"What do you mean?"

Shawn leaned back. "I should have been more careful. I don't know… worn my helmet… gotten a cab… stayed home. Anything so I didn't get caught."

Stunned with disbelief, Henry replied, "That's what you're getting out of this?"

Shawn took a drink but didn't respond.

Henry continued, "Shawn, the problem isn't that you got caught. The problem is that you think you're okay. You're acting like this," he gestured to the beer, "is nothing. But hey, if you want to be in denial and pretend, then let's pretend. Buck up, kid." Henry clapped his hand on his son's shoulder.

Shawn screwed up his face and looked at his father. "'Buck up, kid'? I just got out of a department required psych eval and all you can say is 'buck up, kid'?"

Henry rubbed his eyes. "You're the one who's ignoring the real problem here, not me. I ran out of good stuff to say on the shrink's steps."

Shawn drained his beer and headed to the kitchen. "I wouldn't have even had to go if you hadn't set me up at the station!"

This time Henry followed his son into the other room. "It was for your own good!"

"I'm fine!" Shawn shouted back. He cracked open another beer and took a drink.

"Oh, yeah. Because 'fine' people wander for hours, not answering their cell. 'Fine' people drink in the middle of the afternoon when they just got out of a psych eval that was to assess their drinking!" Henry grabbed the beer while Shawn was mid-swig and slammed it on the counter.

Infuriated, Shawn shouted back, "I don't know what you want from me!"

In a hushed tone Henry replied, "I just want you to admit that you are not fine."

The two men watched each other closely for a minute before Shawn reached for his bottle again.

Henry let go. And as he watched his son greedily drink he said, "Yeah. You're fine. Get your life together kid, or you're going to lose everything."

Shawn put down the bottle but didn't respond, unsure what to say. He watched his father.

Henry continued, "Let me know when you decide you want my help."

And with that Henry walked out, leaving his son alone with his thoughts.