"Gus, just shut the door." The words were out of her mouth as quickly as she could, before she leaned back over the toilet. Her body heaved against the unyielding wave of nausea. "Ugh. Just kill me now." Juliet groaned, as she swiped a hand against her mouth.
"Gladly." The voice that called behind her sent a chill down her spine. It was most definitely not Gus. That much she knew.
Groaning, Juliet lifted her head, pitching a glance over her shoulder. Her eyes glazed over as her mind tried to dig through the haze and figure out why his face looked so familiar. A gasp sounded, when she realized that it was Garrett Marshall. The sadistic smile on his face made her cringe. "Freeze, you bastard."
"What a mouth! A lady shouldn't talk like that."
Juliet sneered at him. "Well this lady gets pissed when people start messing with her family. You killed my husband's father and you tried to kill my husband."
Garrett's face turned a bright red. "He deserved it, dammit!" He snarled at her. "My father is dead, and it's all his fault."
Juliet was getting agitated. How dare this deranged psycho blame Shawn for his whacked out father attacking him! "Your father almost killed him!" Juliet attempted to pull herself into a standing position, but the jostling caused her stomach to roll. She fought against the nausea, but she knew it was a losing battle. She really just didn't want to turn her back on this psycho.
"You're looking a little green in the cheeks." He smiled, almost as if he was proud that Juliet was about to hurl.
"Ugh." Juliet leaned herself back over the toilet and spilled the remainder of her stomach contents into the white porcelain. She tried to keep a sideways glance on Garrett but the pain from throwing up was so severe that she allowed her eyes to close for a moment as she groaned through a couple of dry heaves. Something in the back of her mind alerted her to someone being behind her, but she forced that thought away until a blinding pain exploded in her head. Her body fell backward, away from the toilet, without her permission. Her eyes, though glassy, were able to see Garrett standing over her. He pressed a rag against her mouth, and Juliet tried her hardest to not breath in the chemical. Yet it was obvious to her that it was pointless, she would eventually have to breath, and she knew that he would be able to wait her out. One final thought entered her mind before she dragged in a ragged breath. I am so sorry, Shawn.
Shawn ripped the hospital band from his wrist, as Gus attempted to push against his shoulder.
"No, Shawn! I will not help you escape the hospital so that you can go out there and get yourself killed!" Gus stamped his foot at the end, like a very visual exclamation point at the end of his statement.
Shawn's head whipped toward Gus, causing him to grimace. "First of all, Gus. When you stamp your foot like a little girl, it only makes me laugh. All your missing is for your hands to be on your hips, then you'll look exactly like Jules when she's pissed-" As he realized what he said, he grimaced again. "Second of all, not even you will be able to stand in my way, Gus. I am leaving this very depressing place, and I will find Juliet."
Gus sighed, but remained rooted in place. "No way, Shawn. I'll call for a nurse if I have to."
Shawn gaped at Gus for a moment. "Seriously. You're just going to stand there, holding me hostage, while some psycho has Juliet and could be doing God only knows what to her! She's pregnant, Gus. That's my little girl or boy in there."
Gus's face dropped slightly, as his arms hung loosely. Shawn eyed him carefully. Definitely will take work to get past Gus in his current state, but not impossible like before. At least in his current state. Brain damage be damned. His wife and child's life were at stake here.
"I know, Shawn, which means that you need to stay alive long enough to meet them! I can't."
Shawn groaned. "You know what? Fine, Gus. Be that way. I am leaving, with or without you. Now, you can either help me, or you can move the hell out of the way. Either way, I am up and out of here."
Gus sighed. "Fine, Shawn." Gus knew it was a losing battle from the start, he wasn't even sure why he even started to fight Shawn on it to begin with. Even before he knew that Juliet was pregnant, the first hour without any new information would have caused him to walk out of the hospital. There was no Henry here to help either. That thought made Gus frown. Almost as if he had forgotten that Shawn's father was dead. Gus knew that as soon as Shawn's adrenaline wore off, that he'd crumple in onto himself from grief, especially since Shawn hadn't had an appropriate amount of time to grieve. Which reminded him. "Hey, Shawn. Would you like me to call your mom?"
Realization flashed in his eyes, and sadness became apparent on his face. He sighed. It would be nice to have his mom around. Someone to help him through all of this, but he also knew that if she came right now that she'd stop him from finding Juliet. His eyes squeezed shut as he hefted himself up off the bed. The room spun for a moment, as Gus clamped a hand down on Shawn's arm to help steady him. His eyes opened as soon as the room stopped spinning. "You know what, Gus? That would be nice. Thank you."
Gus nodded, as he wrapped an around Shawn's back, letting his best friend lean most of his weight down on him. Carefully he guided him over to the nurses desk. Gus smiled brightly at the younger nurse.
"Mr. Spencer, what are you doing out of bed?" The younger nurse chaste him.
"I want to be released."
The nurse shook her head. "I'll have to contact your doctor. Give me a moment, and please sit down."
Gus led Shawn over to a small row of chairs and sat him down. "Shawn, I honestly don't think the doctor will release you if you can't hold yourself up."
"I think I don't give a shit. He will release me, or I'll climb out the window."
Gus laughed lightly. "Shawn, you're on the fourth floor."
Shawn shrugged. "So it'll be a bit of a drop. Anything for Jules."
Gus smiled softly. When Shawn first told Gus that he was going to ask Juliet to marry him, Gus had been worried for both of them. Shawn was not the settle down type, and Juliet always had that look that said, I can change him. Gus hadn't believed it to be true. Even when Shawn did go through with the wedding without one complaint of cold feet. Gus was truly happy to be proven wrong in this case, because he had never see Shawn happier. Sure their marriage was anything but perfect and Juliet learning of Shawn's lies the way that she did wasn't helpful in the least bit, but they were both fairly happy. The fact that Juliet was pregnant would only bring them more joy, so Gus couldn't blame Shawn for going to such extremes to insure that Juliet and his unborn child were safe.
"Mr. Spencer." Shawn's head whipped toward the voice and fought against the grimace from the pain it caused. "I've been told you want to be released from the hospital. Correct?"
Shawn sighed, he could tell this would not be an easy sale. Using Gus to help get himself into a standing position, he stood under his own power. He could feel his energy draining quickly. "Yes, Dr. Wingham. My wife's life is in danger, I need to find her."
The doctor simply nodded his head. "You understand that you'd be getting released without medical advice, correct?"
"Yes."
"You also understand that you have some pretty serious head trauma that could become increasingly worse if you manage to hit your head in anyway, correct?"
Shawn sighed, his legs felt like jello. "Yes, look I understand anything that could go wrong, and how it wouldn't be your fault because I'll be signing myself out AMA. This isn't my first rodeo, doc."
The doctor nodded. "I see." He frowned for a moment before looking at the younger nurse from earlier. "Draw up the papers, please." Dr. Wingham turned his attention back to the two men in front of him. "Here is some documentation on your injury. If you experience any of these serious symptoms, then I want you to return to the hospital, immediately." Though he was technically talking to Shawn, Dr. Wingham looked directly at Gus.
Gus nodded his head, as Shawn smiled. "You got it, doc."
The doctor walked over to the nurses station, pulled out a pen and signed his name. "Sign here, Mr. Spencer, and you're free to go."
Shawn crept forward, afraid if he moved to quickly his feet would fall out from under him. He reached for the pen that the doctor held out to him, before signing his name. "Great doing business, doc." With that, Shawn turned and crept toward Gus. As soon as Dr. Wingham turned to leave, Shawn leaned into Gus, who pulled his arm around Shawn's back again. "Let's go find us a psychopathic killer, Gus."
Lassiter groaned as he sifted through the file folder that he had on Garrett Marshall. None of which spoke of where exactly the sick bastard was holding his partner. In a fit of anger, Lassiter slammed the folder down onto his desk. Marshall could be doing anything to Juliet at that moment, and Lassiter couldn't even grasp onto one lead that would help him locate her any faster.
Garrett's rap-sheet was longer than the idiots life had been. Numerous counts of theft and assault. One of which involved a very large pipe that results in Garrett being charged with assault with a deadly weapon.
Lassiter already hated this guy, but seeing everything he had done over the course of his short life made his insides quiver with rage. Heaving a sigh, Lassiter booted up his computer and sat with his head in hands as he waited for the start screen to appear. This low-life had to have made some sort of mistake, and Lassiter was sure as hell going to find it. However, when he looked back at the screen, it was black. Slowly it came into focus. It wasn't his home screen, instead it was some sort of recorded footage peering into a dark and dingy basement. However, the location of the footage got lost somewhere in the back of his mind, as slowly but surely the long, blond hair of his partner came into view.
Lassiter heard a commotion over his shoulder, but his attention fully on the footage in front of him. A grinning idiot stepped in front of the camera, blocking the view to Juliet.
"Hello there, Detective Carlton Lassiter. I surely hope I have your undivided attention as I will only say this once. I want Shawn Spencer, alive and conscious. For every hour that he is not delivered to me, I will start removing parts of the lovely Juliet Spencer here, and I will send those parts to you, one by one. Of course there will come a time when the beautiful detective behind me can no longer go on, and her life will come to a tragic end. How sad." Garrett Marshall frowned at the camera. "Such a shame too! I hear that the lovely Spencer family are expecting a new arrival. I suppose that's two lives that'll come to an end instead of one."
Lassiter pushed away from his desk and stood up ready to scream at the screen version of Garrett Marshall, even if he couldn't hear him, when a loud banging behind him caused his attention to waiver slightly. Turning toward the noise, Lassiter cursed under his breath.
Shawn's face was a bright red, as his breathing came hitching from his nose. "I will kill that son of bitch. Rip him limb from limb!"
Lassiter turned back toward the screen. As Garrett started to grin. "I have it on good authority that Mr. Shawn Spencer got himself released from the hospital, so at least I know he's both awake and conscious. I assume he knows that I have his wife, and I also assume that he knows what I want. Just in case you're watching, Shawn. I want you to know just how serious I am in my threat." Garrett slowly backed away from the camera, and Shawn gasped, having missed the short few seconds of footage that had shown Juliet at the beginning. Garrett walked behind Juliet whose arms were shackled above her head. Her feet barely reaching the ground, and yet Garrett towered over her. His arm snaked around her neck, pulling her body taut against his. He whispered something into her ear, and she cringed at whatever he said. Suddenly, his free hand came up holding a knife tightly in it. Carefully, he pressed the tip of the blade against Juliet's neck. Just hard enough to draw blood, before moving the knife up to her cheek and yanking the knife roughly against her skin. Juliet cried out in pain, before his arm released her, and tiny droplets of blood dripped from the fresh wound on her cheek.
Garrett's face was suddenly in front of the camera again. "See, Shawn. No joking around here. I mean business. If you want your wife and unborn child to live through this, then I suggest you find me. You have one hour or I will be sending you a piece of your wife. Mostly likely a finger, but we'll see." Garrett smiled brightly. "Oh, and Detective Lassiter, if you show your sneering face anywhere near here, I will gut both of them. Do you hear me? No cops, Spencer. I'd hate to hurt your wife—anymore than I already have."
After that the screen went black. Lassiter peered around the room. "Tell me someone was able to track a location!"
A young officer rounded the corner. "We have a location, Detective!"
Lassiter smiled with glee at the thought of ripping that son of a bitch apart. The paper was thrust into his hands, but just as quickly as he had a hold of it, something smashed against his side hard, knocking the wind out of him. The paper fell from his hand. He bent over for a moment regaining his composure. When he looked back up, both the paper and Spencer were missing. "Son of bitch!"
