A/N: This chapter was a long time coming. I humbly apologize for my absence. Please enjoy!
Dead Squirrels
Shawn wasn't sure how long he was in that room for, he was awake but he couldn't move. How much longer would it be? Shawn didn't know where he was, and he had no way of defending himself. He thought this time he'd die for sure. Shawn's insides cringed a bit, and his mind kept wandering to Lassie. They hadn't even made it a year, and now it was all going to be over.
"Shawn?"
Shawn tensed. Officer Jenny's voice was soft, and sounded really apologetic. Shawn just managed to lift his head to see her standing in the door way. She was still dressed in a police uniform. Shawn didn't say anything to her. If she was going to kill him, he prayed she did it quick.
"Say something." Officer Jenny urged lightly. "Please."
Shawn didn't know what to say, and he had no idea why Officer Jenny was acting this way. She was begging him to say something, so he said the first thing that came to mind. "You're crazy."
At that point in time, Officer Jenny just started crying. Really, really hard. "It wasn't supposed to end this way." Jenny cried. "I'm so sorry."
"Then let me go." Shawn urged. "It doesn't have too."
Officer Jenny didn't say anything; she walked closer to Shawn with tears streaming down her cheeks. The closer she got, the worse Shawn felt. His mind was racing to act, to do – something, but his body wasn't letting him.
"It's a horrible feeling Shawn." Jenny went on to say. "I don't think you appreciated how hard I tried...I tried so hard, until I couldn't handle it anymore...Getting Kayla was my last option... Because it just isn't going to work."
Jenny wasn't making sense. At all. She was shaking and giving soft sobs. Shawn's jaw clenched considerably – what was she going to do to him?
"I was counting on you Shawn, I trusted you. Why couldn't you let me in?" As she said this, Officer Jenny got right on the ground with him. She snuggled into Shawn's side – lifting his arm to drape over her shoulders, her arms locking around his waist. "You're my hero Spencer; I just wanted to be as good as you."
If Shawn couldn't move before, he was frozen now. Jenny's embrace was tight, and overly intimate. The inside of Shawn's stomach was turning. He was honestly a little terrified, and very unsure. Officer Jenny clung onto him like a lover but her sobs and her tears were anything but loving. She lay there wrapped around him, crying uncontrollably into the Shawn's shoulder.
"The first Murder." Jenny said quietly. "Was a coincidence. Margaret was crazy, she hated Renee. With such passion. I wasn't expecting to meet you there, I was just on another job...Then there you were. The psychic I read about, the one who inspired me to attend the academy. Even though my dad didn't want me to."
Her dad?
"Chief Anderson." Shawn managed to get out. He still couldn't move.
"Yeah." Jenny sniffled. "He never believed I could do it. He always told me I was too naive, too fragile. All I ever wanted to do was be like him, but he told me no. Then I found you – and your stories were so brave, so amazing. I just wanted to impress you, I did it all for you."
"You murdered." Shawn tried reasoning with her. "I don't do that."
"For you!" Officer Jenny said again. "Nora...The groomsmen..."
"Riley." Shawn said. "You nailed him to my door."
"For you!" Officer Jenny said again. Her grip on Shawn tightened again. Just enough to make Shawn's breath catch in his throat. "I wanted to investigate, wanted to prove to you how good I was, so you could tell my dad. Then you would've been hired full time, we could've been partners. We could've been amazing!"
"Tell me who." Shawn said. "Tell me who you were going to pin the murders on...Tell me who."
"Margaret at first." Jenny said. "She already killed Renee, what was a few more?"
Shawn managed to make himself feel just a little more comfortable. He was getting a confession. It might not be worth a lot considering he might not be getting out of this, but if worse came to worse, he knew the truth.
"Tell me how Kayla got involved. Why did you connect this to the Atkinson case?"
"It was so easy." Jenny said. "The murders were so similar in nature, and Margaret was part of the same group as Kayla...I went to see her, I understood her. We became friends. At first I was going to leave her in jail...but then...nothing went the way I wanted. Margaret killed herself and I never got my chance to prove myself. The case was ending. I was fired. I was so angry. I wanted you to just go away...But I love you too much to do it myself. So I pulled a few more strings, and got Kayla out. She has her own reasons for wanting you to die, so I'm going to let her." Jenny snuggled into Shawn further. "But not yet. I just want to lay here with you for awhile."
If this wasn't slow torture, Shawn didn't know what was.
"They could be anywhere." Lassiter's voice was thick with a fine mix of anger and worry. They had absolutely no trace of Shawn, and an over haul of the mall revealed nothing.
"We'll find him." Randall tried to be encouraging, but truthfully he was starting to feel on edge. This happened on his watch, and he was willing to bet his life's savings that Lassiter wasn't above strangling him to death if anything happened to Shawn.
"We better." Lassiter said.
The two detectives were situated outside of the mall as the search crew were packing up. Lassiter's fists were eternally clenched to the point his knuckles were translucent. His panic had long reached boiling point, and he was at an eerie calm, though anyone could tell that one wrong word could send him into a rage filled with profanity and gun shots.
"Backtrack." Randall tried. "Maybe if we search all the crime scenes, we'll find him."
"Well your Chief so kindly kicked me off the case, so you're going to have to lead the way." Lassiter grumbled.
"Well we'll rule out Nora's hotel room. There's no way they got back in there." Randall said.
"Which leaves us with?" Lassiter asked.
"Margaret's house, and the Psych officer." Randall said.
"Great!" Lassiter said exasperated, and reaching for his phone he started walking.
"What are you doing?" Randall asked.
"Calling my guys." Lassiter said. "You and I are going to Margaret's, and my guys are going to scope out the Psych building."
Shawn wasn't at either of those locations. He didn't know where he was. He did know he was slowly getting feeling back in his legs. But he didn't say anything. Officer Jenny was still snuggled into his side and mumbling incoherently. Her grip had tightened on him considerably, and she seemed reluctant to let go. Shawn wondered if he could milk this.
"Sandra." Shawn said quietly. "You don't actually want me to die do you?"
"It's not my choice anymore." Jenny said. "Kayla has her own reasons."
"Kayla is a bad person." Shawn said. "You were a good cop; cops don't listen to bad people."
"I was until you came along." Jenny said. "All I wanted to do was prove myself to you and you ruined me!"
"I didn't do anything." Shawn said. "Sandra please."
"Stop talking to me!" Jenny snapped. "It's time." She was on her feet, leaving Shawn on the floor. "I'm leaving, and Kayla's going to come and end this."
Officer Jenny left the room. She made her way back to the main floor of the house they were in. Kayla wasn't in the living room. "Kayla its time!" Jenny shouted. She didn't get an answer.
"Kayla?" Jenny tried the kitchen. Oh no. No. No. Jenny went for the stairs, launching up them in a frenzy. "Kayla!" A search of the bedrooms revealed Kayla had bailed. Jenny had taken too long in the basement with Shawn. Dammit. Dammit. Dammit! This wasn't happening. Officer Jenny had to handle Shawn herself now. Shit. Shit! Jenny made her way back down to the kitchen, grabbing a knife with a shaky hand. Could she do it? She was doubting herself. She heard it then. A scuffling in the living room. "Kayla?" It better be her. Jenny went back to the living room, only it wasn't Kayla, it was Shawn making his way for the door. A glimpse out the window and Jenny could see that Randall had shown up. NO! No! It was not ending like this. Jenny would be caught, put in jail, her father would hate her forever, Shawn would never look at her again.
"NO!" Jenny heard herself scream. She charged, as fast and as hard as she could, the knife came up, then came down right into Shawn's back. There was a moment where Jenny just breathed, she pulled the knife out just as quickly, and watched as Shawn fell without saying a word. Or did he? Jenny was sure at one point he had called for Lassiter. Lassiter who had been coming up the driveway. Lassiter who only looked at Jenny with terrifying eyes, his gun coming up to aim. Even though it happened in seconds, it felt like an eternity between the time Jenny had stabbed Shawn and the time Lassiter fired his gun, Jenny went flying back, and landed in a heap inside the house.
Officer Jenny had left the room, and Shawn had his chance. With feeling back in his legs, he was up, and didn't even waste time brushing himself off. He was grabbing for the door pulling it open, the door led to a narrow staircase that was in serious need of an update. Shawn took them two at a time regardless and didn't stop until he reached the top – only to come right into Davis Tuly's old living room. Hope swelled up in Shawn's chest – he was in Santa Barbara. Did he care how? Nope! He was getting the hell out of there. He pulled open the door, and relief flooded him once more as he saw Randall's car with Lassiter getting out of the passenger seat and coming towards him.
"Lassie!" Shawn was so happy, and he took his first steps out of the house, about to take off in a run.
"NO!" Jenny's blood curdling scream came from behind Shawn, and before Shawn realized what was happening, a sharp pain overcame his whole body. Shawn froze, unsure of what happened. His vision went blank; the last thing he saw was Lassiter break into a run for him.
Margaret's house was empty. Randall and Lassiter were at their wit's end. They exited after about ten minutes of searching and coming up empty handed.
"Now what?" Randall asked. While inside Margaret's house they had gotten a call from McNab. The Psych office was empty as well. They were at a standstill. "We don't know what car they were in, they could be anywhere."
"I know!" Lassiter snapped. "God dam it Peterson do you ever shut up? !"
"I'm sorry." Randall said. Lassiter didn't respond. "Lassiter?"
Lassiter was hit with an epiphany; pieces of the case were coming together, leading him right to Shawn. The detective kicked himself for not seeing it earlier. Kayla. Son of a bitch! It should've been the first place they scoped out!
"Lassiter?" Randall tried again.
"I know where they are." Lassiter said. "We have to get back to Santa Barbara." He took off in a long stride leaving Randall behind. "If you don't hurry I'm leaving without you!" Lassiter snapped.
At this point Randall was just a ride along, he had no qualms giving Lassiter the keys and letting him drive like a mad man back to Santa Barbara. As soon as they were within city limits, Lassiter was pulling into smaller streets, where the houses were run down and the sun seemed to shine a little less. Randall was confused.
"Where exactly are we going?" Randall asked, but Lassiter didn't answer, instead he just hit the break causing the car to jerk violently. Randall had to brace himself so that he wouldn't smack his head off the dashboard. "Are you going crazy?"
"Just a little." Lassiter was already pulling his gun from its holster. He stepped out of the car and looked up at Davis' Tuly's house. There wasn't a car in site. Still. Shawn had to be here.
Lassiter took a step, just the front door was ripped open, and Shawn popped his head through. Safe and sound. Lassiter was never so happy in his entire life.
"Lassie!"
Shawn sounded relieved too, but that was short lived as Lassiter saw Jenny behind him. The detective broke into a run.
"NO!" Jenny screamed and the knife she had grabbed from the kitchen came down into Shawn's back. Lassiter watched horrified as Shawn's eyes widened and he fell.
"Shawn!" Lassiter had his gun pointed and all bets were off. He fired. Jenny went down. Lassiter was at Shawn's side faster then he thought possible, and was holding Shawn up. "Shawn, Shawn!"
"Hey." Shawn responded weekly. "Glad you came." His eyes started to close.
"No – no dammit!" Lassiter was not about to let him slip away. "Stay with me Spencer, we're getting you help." He turned briefly to Peterson. "Ambulance! Now!"
"It'll be okay." Shawn huffed a bit. "Really." His eyes closed again.
"Eyes open Shawn come on." Lassiter was shaking a bit.
Randall had called the ambulance but while waiting he had gone into the house to clear it. Officer Jenny was down, but Kayla had long bailed and Randall had no choice but to announce her MIA.
The ambulance arrived, and Lassiter wasn't in cop mode anymore, he disregarded Jenny's fallen form like it was nothing but trash. Randall was the one who had to explain to the paramedics what happened as Lassiter refused to leave Shawn's side. Jenny hadn't left the knife in when she stabbed, Lassiter had sacrificed his blazer to stop the bleeding, having taken it off entirely to press it against Shawn's back. There was too much blood. It was scaring Lassiter shitless.
All too soon the paramedics were pushing him back so they could do their job. 10 Months. This same thing had happened not even a year ago. Lassiter's stomach was sinking, and he felt so small. Shawn wasn't moving. This time around Spencer wasn't even moving his fingers to show he was still hanging around in there. The ambulance doors closed.
Randall at this point wasn't sure what to do. Did he call CHPD or SBPD? This case was all over the place. He sighed. At this point not sure of anything. Was Shawn going to be okay?
A second ambulance had come to retrieve Jenny, and Randall had noted Lassiter didn't take prisoners. If she lived it would be a damn miracle – sort of. With nothing else to do, Randall took in a deep breath. Going over to Lassiter. "Hey. Detective. Why don't you go sit in the car? I'll call Spencer's entourage and have them all meet us at the hospital, then we'll drive over okay?"
Lassiter just nodded, he had no words right now. All the anger and anxiety he had about Shawn being grabbed again was a bit too much. He went back to the car, way too shaky to drive. He watched out the window as Randall dialled the first number.
"Hi Gus? It's Randall. ...Are you sitting down?"
Gus hated his life. Like really – really hated his life. When Randall called him he was sitting with Juliet in pure bliss, discussing baby names, and whether or not they were okay with birthing a child out of wedlock. They hadn't been together that long, so even though Gus wanted to play the marriage card, Juliet seemed reluctant.
"I'm okay with whatever you want to do." Gus said. "Seriously its fine."
"But if you want to get married, who am I to say no?" Jules retorted. "I'm having your kid."
"True." Gus said. "So let's get married."
"But what if it's too soon?" Juliet suddenly said. Gus had never been this happy to run into a brick wall.
"If you don't want to, I'm okay with that." Gus repeated.
"Yeah but you want too." Juliet said. "I feel bad."
"Then marry me." Gus said.
"Maybe not." Juliet said. "It hasn't been that long."
They were running around in circles, and even though Gus was enjoying himself, he was starting to look for a way out of this particular conversation topic. A compromise or a distraction would be good. Of course that's when his phone rang.
"Burton Guster." Gus answered his phone giving his full name; he wasn't expecting it to be Randall.
"Hi Gus? It's Randall...Are you sitting down?"
Gus listened, and nodded. An odd twist in his chest forming. Marriage one second, stab wounds the next. He hung up, looking to Juliet who knew by his expression something had happened to Shawn. Again.
"I'll get the car keys." She said quietly, and she left the room.
Henry was the next one to be called on Randall's list. Though Randall didn't have his number. In order to call him he had to go through the police station. He never personally conversed with Spencer's father, he was expecting Shawn but older, so when a low impatient voice answered the phone, Randall for a second froze.
"Spencer." Henry said upon answering.
"Uh – hello sir." Randall said. "My name is Detective Peterson, I regret to inform you that your son Shawn was injured in the line of duty." Randall kicked himself for suddenly becoming so formal. He used the same line he used on young officer's parents whenever they were hurt, which was odd because Shawn wasn't a cop. Though he was technically on duty. Right?
"Just tell me where." Was all Henry responded – well he was taking this call rather well. "Then tell me where Carlton is so I can ring his neck." Maybe not.
Randall informed Henry that Shawn was being taken to hospital, and as soon as Henry agreed to meet there, Randall hung up and was back at his car. Heat. He suddenly realized he was in a lot of heat for this. Not only did Randall and Lassiter fail to call for backup when they realized Shawn was in Santa Barbara, but Lassiter hadn't thought twice about taking down Chief Anderson's daughter. There was also the part where a homophobic murderer was once again on the loose. Randall didn't say anything to Lassiter, but the entire time they drove to the hospital, Randall was mentally kissing his badge goodbye.
The hospital waiting room was crowded already; Lassiter and Randall had no place to sit. Though it seemed Lassiter didn't care, as soon as they were through the doors the taller detective was on a mission, he went straight to the nurse's station pulling out his badge.
"I'm here accompanying Shawn Spencer who was brought in around 6PM."
"You got it." The nurse replied as sweet as can be. She typed in the necessary information. Lassiter was expecting to hear that Shawn was in a recovering room or in the O.R at least. Suddenly the nurse's face was a bit ashen. "You said 6PM right?"
"Yes." Lassiter responded.
"It might not be him." The nurse said. "But I'm getting two ambulance numbers here, normally I'm not qualified to disclose any information, but since you're waving your badge at me. One of the ambulance patients were announced dead on arrival."
Lassiter's head spun. Then spun again. Oh this couldn't be good. What did he do now? Did he yell? Fire his gun again? He sure as hell wasn't about to start crying infront of the nurse's station. Smoking. Yes. Lassiter was going to take up smoking. Lots of smoking. Only smoking was bad.
"Carlton!" Henry had spotted Lassiter at the nurse's station the second he got in. He wanted news on his son, and he wanted it now. He made his way over to Lassiter who was still in the middle of a third break down that day. Not that Henry knew that. "What's the word?"
"I don't know." Lassiter managed to spit out. "Two ambulance numbers, both punched in at six, one patient announced dead on arrival. I just – I just...I have to go." Lassiter turned to leave, but Henry grabbed his arm. Neither man wanting to admit they were both equally afraid.
"You're not going anywhere." Henry said. "Any minute now Guster and his pregnant girlfriend are going to come stampeding in, and I need at least one more semi level headed idiot to help me take care of their blubbering mouths."
It was Henry trying to be nice. It was working. Kind of. Sure enough not even ten minutes later and Gus and Jules where there, bombarding Lassiter with questions. What happened? Why wasn't anyone called? Who did it? They were going a mile a minute.
"Okay!" Randall had broken it up. "If everyone would just follow me to a hallway. I will explain everything!"
The group fell into line, and they all left the waiting room looking at Randall expectantly.
"Earlier this morning, I had plans to visit Kayla Atkinson in prison. To see if I could gain any new information. When I arrived, I learned that she had been extradited by Officer Jenny, who had been let go beforehand. I knew right away it was a jail break. I called Shawn to ensure his safety. Shawn announced he was at the mall alone, because well-." Randall looked to Gus and Jules. "You two know why. I instructed Shawn to stay at the mall until I arrived. I'm not sure what happened after that call, but when I got there, police were everywhere, there had been a murder in the foodcourt, when we searched the area, Shawn was nowhere to be found."
"Why wasn't he announced missing?" Henry cut in. "How the hell do you operate up there?"
"I understand you're angry sir, and I take full responsibility for the lack of action taken by Coral Haven Police. This is the point where I recruited Detective Lassiter."
"Who didn't call anyone either." Juliet pointed out. She gave her partner a stern look.
"Not entirely true." Lassiter said. "I called McNab. While Peterson and I checked Margaret's house, I had him snoop around the Psych office to see if anyone was there. Which there was no one."
"He didn't want to cause a panic." Henry said. "I admire that."
If this had been a lighter situation, Lassiter would've patted himself on the back from finally earning some praise from the elder Spencer.
"Finally." Randall cut in. "Lassiter realized the full connection between this case and the Atkinson case. We came into Santa Barbara as quickly as possible."
"Ending the story." Henry urged.
"We drove straight to the Tuly residence where Kayla had held Shawn before; it seemed their guard was down long enough Shawn could reach the front door. However as soon as Jenny saw him on the verge of escape, she attacked him. Stabbing him in the back. Shawn went down. The rest is history."
Silence fell over the group. Still no one was sure if Shawn was okay or not, and no one wanted to jump to any conclusions. The whole thing was one big rushed mess, like a chapter in a book that was a long time coming, but a big disappointment. No one wanted to turn the page without first being assured there'd be a happy ending.
Lassiter had had it. He backed away from the group finally, deciding to go for a walk. He broke into long strides, needing to get away.
"Carlton." Juliet called, but she was quickly silenced by Gus.
"Let him go for now." Gus urged. Truthfully Gus wanted to take off too, he wanted to find whatever room Shawn was in dead or not, but he couldn't leave Juliet either.
Lassiter knew exactly where he was going. He went straight down to the morgue. To see for himself.
"Excuse me." Lassiter grabbed the first person in scrubs he saw. "You recently had a new arrival correct?"
"Oh yes!" The doctor looked all too pleased about that. Lassiter showed his badge, and the doctor ushered him in. "A small one too, though not a child, or else I wouldn't be smiling, more like a squirrel."
"A squirrel?" Lassiter said. "Female?"
"Yes female." The doctor confirmed.
A squirrel like dead female had been punched in at 6PM. Relief washed over Lassiter; he lost his train of thought and gave the strange doctor a good tight hug. "Woody you beautiful bastard!"
"Uh..." The doctor froze. "My name's Dr. Brianson."
There was a beat of silence. Lassiter cleared his throat and took a step back brushing the poor man off. "Yes. Yes it is."
In an awkward stance Lassiter gave a curt nod before taking off out of the morgue. Shawn was alive! Alive!
Now he just had to find out what room Shawn was in.
