Disclaimer: I don't own anything Psych and I am not making any profits off of this story. It all belongs to the Steve Franks and USA network and whatnot so, please don't sue and please don't be offended by the language or situations the characters find themselves in.

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Chapter 11

Burton Guster or Gus as he was known felt like he had an ice cold vice wrapped around his heart squeezing it without mercy.

The grip he had on the steering wheel of his car was white-knuckled.

He was currently sitting in his blue Toyota Yaris parked right in front of a light colored house with a white fence around the front yard.

He'd come and gone from this house countless times throughout his entire life.

However, this time Gus was beyond hesitant to even get out of his car.

Four months earlier he'd made a terrible mistake that had ended up costing him his privilege of being welcome to the said house.

Now Gus found himself wondering just what he should do.

Get out of the car and face up to things or stay in the car and drive away like a coward leaving things the way they were.

Broken and in shambles.

He was standing at a precipice and needed to decide.

It was then that an entire life-time of memories flooded Gus's mind.

Memories of him and Shawn.

When they were growing up together.

Being teenagers going after girls and getting into all sorts of trouble.

Becoming adults.

In a manner for Shawn.

All the good times they had while solving cases and genuinely helping people out.

Then, that one day where everything had seemed to go wrong all at once.

Shawn's face after he'd torn down whatever last vestiges of self worth the man had left with his verbal bashing after they'd been dismissed from the station.

Finding out that Shawn had been right all along and that he, along with the others who'd so brazenly turned on Shawn had been wrong.

The months of loneliness and guilt that had followed after Shawn had vanished from his life.

It was here that Gus made his decision.

He got out of the car, locked it, and then made his way to the front gate.

There was a hole in him that needed to be filled.

If he could beg and beg and still not get his friendship back, at the very least he could apologize to Shawn for the part he had played in chasing him away.

With a steadying breath Gus undid the latch on the gate in the fence and stepped inside.

It was a very strange feeling walking up the path to the front door of Henry Spencer's house.

He's come and gone this path so many times before in his life but now it seemed almost like he were hiking an unknown path with only God knows what waiting at the very end, in this case on the other side of the front door.

The moment of truth arrived when Gus found himself standing before the already mentioned door.

Taking in a deep steadying breath to steady his nerves, Gus slowly raised his hand to knock on the door.

He was just about to let his knuckles fly when the door suddenly swung open.

" Oh Crap." Thought Gus as he came face to face with certain elder Spencer.

Henry Spencer stared at the young man currently standing in his doorstep with hard eyes.

He hadn't forgotten in the slightest that four of the longest and most stressful months of his life were caused in part by this man who was fidgeting nervously before him.

" H-Hello Mr. Spencer." Stuttered Gus softly.

Henry was silent for a while before he answered.

" Hi Gus." He said neutrally.

The two men stood facing each other at a silent impasse.

Henry look upon Gus with hard and unforgiving eyes.

Gus found himself alternating between trying to meet Henry's stone-faced stare and keeping his eyes to the floor of the front porch in nervousness and maybe just a little bit of shame too.

Okay no, a lot of shame.

" Well, are you comin' in or not?" Asked Henry with a small sigh, his face softening just a fraction as he stepped aside from the doorway.

Swallowing back his obvious nervousness Gus urged his feet into motion and stepped over the threshold into the Spencer house.

Gus stepped past Henry and in a very hesitant manner made his way to the den after Shawn's dad pointed in that said direction.

As he reached the threshold that led into the living room Gus was abruptly introduced to a certain big white German Shepherd.

" Holy crap you're huge." Swore Gus under his breath as he found himself under the silent scrutiny of pale blue eyes.

Titan stared at Gus with curiosity. He could tell that the human before him was nervous as Hell and unsure of how to proceed.

Titan felt a small morsel of glee go through him as he made Gus squirm uncomfortably.

He could do this all day if he wanted.

However, there are not that many hours in the day and there was important issues that have long been needing addressing.

So a quiet but form voice shot out through the relative silence.

" Titan come here and let our guest in."

Both Gus and Titan instantly turned their heads in the direction of where the voice came from.

Titan's tail wagged lightly while all the breath simply evacuated from Gus's lungs when their respective eyes fell on the man sitting on the big cushy sofa in the living room although, all that could be seen of him was his head and his shoulder.

The rest of him was obscured by the sofa.

With a small bark Titan trotted away from Gus and made his way over to his beloved owner and actually disappeared behind the sofa.

Gus tried his very best to articulate some kind of response, a greeting or a simple words but instead he just came out looking like a dying fish as he beheld the best friend he had not seen in over four months staring right back at him with neutral green eyes.

" Hey Gus." Said Shawn, his voice just a few octaves above a whisper as he battled within himself to keep all of the emotions swirling around in a chaotic vortex inside him under wraps.

Shawn was thrilled beyond words to see Gus after so long, he had missed his best friend after all but, there was also deep set anger towards Gus for all the vile words he'd thrown at him that horrible day.

He was angry, he was happy, he was scared, he was mutely upset, and a whole bunch of other emotions all mixing together.

The pregnancy hormones inside his body weren't helping none either.

With his hands unconsciously moving to cradle his rounded stomach and the whole gesture hidden by the back of the sofa Shawn spoke.

" Are you gonna just stand there all day or come in so we can talk." He asked quietly.

That seemed to snap Gus somewhat out of his stupor.

" Y-Yeah, talk." Said Gus under his breath as he forced his feet to move.

Gingerly, Gus made his way into the living room and took small steps until he came to a stop halfway to the sofa.

Gus now found himself at another silent imappase as he stared at Shawn and Shawn stared back at him.

The best friend took this moment to take in the still sitting man's appearance.

Shawn's hair was longer and darker down, no longer boyish in style.

Dark stubble light peppered slight fuller cheeks.

And for reasons Gus still couldn't figure out, Shawn's once deeply tanned skin was now a softer, creamy hue that seemed to give off a faint glow about its smooth expanses.

It was Shawn who broke the silence while Titan gracefully climbed into the seat on the sofa beside Shawn, further blocking Gus from seeing Shawn's true condition.

" So, how have you been Gus?" Asked Shawn as he finally turned his gaze away from Gus and focused instead on lavishing Titan with quiet affection, using his hands to vigorously ruffle the soft, downy fur around the wolf-like dog's neck.

Titan made a small noise of a approval and lean forward to nuzzle his head into Shawn just, the dog went to far as to gently press his velvet soft muzzle to the top of Shawn four month swell as if to say I love you too baby.

Gus spoke to answer Shawn's earlier question while watching the tender scene.

" I've been doing alright Shawn. I mean I'm still a pharmaceutical sales rep and everything I just... I've missed you a lot Shawn and I-" Gus said before Shawn spoke.

" Well you wouldn't have missed me had you not helped in driving me away Burton." He said, though his voice was quiet it hard as steel and laced with anger as he looked back up at Gus and pinned him with an icy cold glare.

Gus flinched at the frigid stare, the steely tone, and the cold use of his first name.

In all his life Shawn had never spoken Gus's name like that and by God, Gus never wanted to hear it being said like that ever again.

" Shawn I'm sorry I..." Gus began, inwardly cringing at the apology which sounded lousy and fragile to his own ears.

" Of course you're sorry but only because you and the others were wrong and I was right. I can't trust that you mean it when you say that you're sorry, Hell my trust in all of you got shot to Hell that day." Growled Shawn.

To his chagrin he felt his eyes start to burn with a familiar sting but, he stubbornly fought the tears back and extinguished the urge.

He'd cried plenty enough over these last four months and now was definitely the time to start that up again.

" Shawn please, I know that we all jumped to conclusions but put yourselves in their shoes, the chief's, Hell even Lassiter's. The evidence was piled up pretty high against you. And as for me I was angry at you for screwing us both over, you got us both fired. But mostly I was mad at you for being so reckless and putting yourself in danger like that. I just, I am sorry that I blew up at you and that you're trust in me was shaken like that but in all honesty I've always yelled at you when you did something stupid, what made that day so different?" Asked Gus both in frustration and wanting Shawn to see his perspective of the situation.

He was met with silence and Shawn tearing his cold gaze away from him and wondered if his words had gotten through to his best friend when Shawn spoke.

" What made that day so different?... What did make that day so different?" Said Shawn more to himself than to his friend.

Then Shawn slowly turned his head to look at Gus once again.

Gus bit back a gasp at what he saw now.

Gone was the icy cold glare of seething anger, in its place now was pain, pure and unadulterated pain.

This was ten times worse than the glare of earlier and something Gus would've given up his very soul to erase from his friend's dark green eyes.

" What made that day so different is that you and the others didn't just hurt me, you all hurt someone else, someone who was completely innocent and didn't deserve the misguided Hell you all gave me." Said Shawn slowly.

" Shawn... W-What do you mean someone else... Who?" Asked Gus in utter confusion.

Instead of saying something, Gus watched as Shawn slowly pushed himself up from his seat on the couch.

Once he was standing with his back to Gus, Shawn slowly turned around so that the other man could see for himself just who this other someone was.

" Oh my God." Whispered Gus as his eyes grew to the sized of diner plates and his mouth fell open like the hinge in his jaw was busted.

Shawn ignored the absolutely floored expression on Gus's face and started explaining.

" This is why I was so sick earlier that morning, why I puked my guts out and couldn't keep anything down. I found out from a doctor once I'd already gotten to Bandon, Oregon." Said Shawn with his voice shaking a little.

But the trembling ceased as he said his next words.

" All of you didn't just just drive me out of my home, you drove my innocent unborn child out too, and I don't now if I can forgive any of you for that."

" And none of you truly deserve my son's forgiveness." Came a deep and mutely angry voice from beside Gus, who turned his head to see Henry Spencer enter the room and quickly make his way over to stand beside his pregnant son.

He sent a hard look Gus's way and then much to Gus already vapor-locked astonishment, Henry wrapped his arm around Shawn's shoulders in a protective manner that before had been an unheard of gesture between the father and son.

And to make things even more charged, Titan made his own protectiveness known by gracefully leaping from the sofa and coming to stand in front of Shawn and Henry with his pale eyes hard, his pointed ears flattened against his head, and his dog lips twitching with the beginnings of a snarl.

All signs of aggression and a ready willingness to sink his teeth into something if need be.

" Now I called you so that we could talk Gus but I now see that neither of us is ready yet to see clearly. I'm still too angry at you and you still don't understand the full extent of what your actions did. So please, leave and come back when you've come up with an apology that shows that at the very least you try to sound like you mean it." Said Shawn before he gently stepped away from Henry and with Titan ever faithfully by his side, Shawn walked right past a still speechless Gus and out of the living room.

Within a few moment both he and his white four legged companion had disappeared up the steps.

This left only Gus and Henry.

" Mr. Spencer please I-" Began Gus, beseeching to the older man when Henry cut him off.

" You heard Shawn and you know where the door is." Said Henry with finality and his arms crossed over his chest.

Gus could do no more than hang his head and leave in defeat.

And as he now drove home in his blue Yaris, Gus couldn't help but be in complete and total awe of Shawn.

The Shawn he'd met today was not the boyish and carefree person he'd known for nearly all his life.

It sent a thrill up his spine as he realized that at some point during the four months that he'd been gone that...

Shawn Spencer had become a complete adult.

It would be something that Gus would dwell on after he'd gotten to his apartment and fell apart for a few hours.

That Shawn Spencer had become a completely adult person and that in the very near future he was also going to become a father as well.