"Alright girls, let's load up the car." Gramps said as he opened the door to Daddy's car.

"Gramps, Gramps, when we get to the park, can we practice the hat thing?"

"You know Gosling, your father always hated that." Nanna said. Gramps and Nanna were always together now, and she liked that because it meant she got to see them more and also they were way happier than before.

Rebecca sat in the seat next to her and looked from Gramps and Nanna to her. "What hat thing?" She asked.

"Well when we go to a restaurant or the park or something, Gramps has me close my eyes and tell him how many kids are wearing hats on the playground or how many grown ups and kids have hats in the room and what they look like. Sometimes I miss one but Gramps says that's okay because I'm little still and not a pain in the butt like Daddy."

"You said that to her?" Nanna asked Gramps, hitting him in the arm. But she knew it wasn't a hard hit because Nanna loved Gramps, just like Daddy loves Jules.

"That sounds fun, can I try?" Rebecca said and Rachel nodded, maybe, even though Daddy wasn't her actual dad, she'd be able to be a psychic too!

Mommy had seemed a little nervous when she dropped her off at Shawn's, but she was pretty sure it was the same kind of nervous she was for Kindergarten: real excited but a little bit scared because it's new even though it'll be fun. And she knew Mommy would have fun with Shawn while she had fun with Gramps and Nanna. She didn't know what to actually call them, so instead she just never called them anything out loud, but in her head they were Gramps and Nanna.

Plus she was with Rachel, and that was always the funnest. Plus Gramps was taking them out to the park then a nice restaurant then mini-golfing then a sleepover at their house with movies and Nanna's cookies. So basically it was going to be the best night ever!

"So Pumpkin," that's what Nanna called her, "are you a fan of Orville Redenbacher's movie theatre popcorn?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" She cried; movie theatre popcorn was her favorite. This night just kept getting better. Shawn and Mommy were together and happy on their first date and she was having what Nanna had called a 'GNG night—Gramps, Nanna, Girls'. She hoped everything went perfect with Shawn and Mommy so they could do this lots more often.

"Alright Juliet, the girls are off and so are we, there is much to do!"

She couldn't help but smile at his enthusiasm, yet, she knew there was something lurking underneath. "Shawn, you know I'm excited, but should we really be doing this today?"

"Jules," he looked more somber and gently took her hands in his, "if you don't want to, if you want to go to the station and be there while Lassie transfers Yin to prison, we can do that. I can reschedule stuff, and I'm sure my parents would be happy to take the girls another time. That being said, I picked this day specifically because I want to show you that you can still live life and be happy as a cop who is all too aware of the bad things that happen in the world."

She smiled and withdrew a hand so that she could grab her coat. "You're right, let's go."

"Of course I'm right!" She saw that sparkle in his eye brighten. "Now give me your keys because I know where we're going and you don't."

She dangled the keys in front of her, but quickly pulled them away as he grabbed for them. "Or you could just tell me."

"And what would be the fun in that." Instead of reaching for the keys, he grabbed her and kissed her—taking advantage of her temporary lack of brainpower to slip his hand in hers and pull the keys from her grasp. "I will give you a hint though." He shot her a devious smile and she nodded for him to continue after he locked the door to the townhouse. "This is our first proper date—but it's not the first date I've wanted to take you on, so to make up for it, I'm taking you on all the dates." Her confusion must have shown on her face because he shook his head and continued. "Imagine like in 50 first dates, except instead of Drew Barrymore with a head trauma, it's you and I'm Adam Sandler without the fishy smell and with better hair."

She smiled at the movie reference, it was more recent than he tended to go, but as she thought about it, the early 2000s were long past now. "So we're going on 50 first dates?"

"If I told you how many, it would ruin some of the surprise." He said as he held the door open for her before running over to his side. "So, try to imagine where I first wanted to take you on a first date—that is, after I got to know you a little bit, not upon first meeting you."

"Are you going to talk in riddles all night?" She stalled; she had no idea where he would want to go.

"I've got to keep you interested somehow don't I?"

"You're right, I always did have a thing for The Riddler, what with the tight green spandex and dashing good looks." She joked, letting herself relax—things didn't have to be weird with Shawn now that they were together, and fortunately, as of now, they weren't.

"See most people claim to secretly be Batman, but you've just gone and blown my cover. Why else do you think we switched the PSYCH sign to green? And the Riddler's hair is always perfect, that's no coincidence. I should talk to the Chief about you getting a raise."

She laughed and the light conversation continued until she realized they were stopping. "A bowling alley?"

He remembered the night perfectly. Investigating the so-called 'alien' and seeing Juliet on a date with some broad guy with acceptable hair and feeling his stomach lurch. It was then that he learned Juliet liked a guy who could bowl, and for years afterward, he had improved his skills by secretly joining a bowling league. No one knew, not even Gus, who had always assumed he was just going for a ride on his motorcycle. Of course, Shawn encouraged that assumption, and may have even told him that's what he did, and possibly even researched odd destinations within a two hour range to tell him about, but it wasn't his fault Gus actually believed him.

However, now he only occasionally bowled—Rachel quite enjoyed it and there's a bowling alley in every city and while bowling with his Princess was always a delight, he could admit he was excited to finally fulfill his dream of impressing Juliet with this skills.

"So did you bring your LEGO bowling shoes?" She asked him over the din of people in the fairly crowded establishment.

He laughed; he couldn't believe she actually remembered the lie he'd told her. "You know, I actually opted out, terrible big toe injury a week in, the shoes are in the LEGO museum now as a matter of fact. Size 10 and a half." He said the last bit to the attendant and Juliet hit him with the size 7s she'd already received.

"You're full of it." She said with a smile. "Oh shoot, Shawn, I don't have socks?"

He smiled and produced a pair of clean socks from his pocket—he had thought of just about every complication that could arise. "And I am not full of it!" He replied in mock indignity. "I'd show you, but they're at the LEGO museum in Romania and I feel like that's a little excessive for a first date."

"Mhmm, sure." She smiled at him again, a smile that still made his heart flutter for a second, then started fiddling with the monitor.

She seemed to notice him watching, because she turned the screen so that only she could see it. However, he was able to faintly see what she was typing off the reflection of the pitcher the man behind her was holding. "Wait, wait!" He started and she looked up. "If I'm going to be LEGO Bowling King—which is fine by me, it's what's on the plaque in Romania, I get to fill out the other names."

She looked at him stunned and started stammering as he turned the screen away and began fervently typing. "Shawn, how did you possibly see that?" He put a hand to his head and she smirked jokingly. "Fine 'psychic', at least tell me what you're writing."

He clicked enter and gestured toward the upper screen with a flourish. "See for yourself!"

"LEGO my Eggo?" She read off the screen, sounding confused. "Shawn, is someone joining us?"

"No, but I figured since we only have time for one game, I'll bowl, then we can each do a 'silly' shot in the middle one, then you bowl. It's both a serious and a fun game. Plus only 4 letters show up on screen." He did it with Rachel whenever they were short on time.

"Smart, now before you bowl, tell me how you figured out what I wrote!"

He shot her his signature smile and a wink. "In your dreams Detective."

Bowling had been outrageously fun, and surprisingly, for their 'serious' scores, she had only beat Shawn by a point. She thought he had been lying through his teeth about his bowling skills, but apparently, at least some of it was true—though she still wasn't buying the LEGO thing. Plus, the 'silly' shots in the middle—which ended with a score of 43—had been so fun to come up with and try to outdo each other. However, despite asking numerous times, he still hadn't caved and told her how he saw what she wrote on the screen. She'd tried everything to figure it out, even pulling out her compact mirror to see if the words reflected in her eyeballs, but nothing. "So, how did the LEGO Bowling King figure out I wrote his title?"

He laughed lightly. "How about this, I'll tell you at dinner."

"Is that where we're going next?" Honestly, she was content to just trust Shawn and go along for the ride, but she wanted to know about his 'psychic' powers.

"No, but we are getting a churro to keep the hunger at bay."

"A churro?" She questioned. "So the bowling you obviously knew was a hit, but your next great idea for a first date was a churro?" She was kidding of course, any time spent with Shawn was a great first date, but it did seem a little strange.

"First!" He said in a Spanish accent, "Never insult a churro. B. I never said these were in order." The accent continued and he now had two fingers in the air.
"And tres, I think you are forgetting that I had many ideas."

She laughed and interwove her fingers with his in the hand he was holding up. "All right, all right, I'll wait till I get there to judge." She was having a great time with Shawn, but she couldn't help but wonder what Rebecca and Rachel were doing right now and if they were having fun. They'd only been apart for an hour and a half or so, but Friday's were usually family nights—either with just her and Reb, or with Rae and Shawn as well.

"I recognize that look." Shawn said, giving her hand a quick squeeze. "And I'm actually glad to see it. Like I said, these dates aren't in order," he pulled in to a mini-golfing place with an ocean theme, "and although I had always thought mini-golf was a fun date activity, I also recognize that spending an entire Friday evening away from our daughter's right away when we're so used to spending every Friday with them specifically would be difficult. So I figured we could spend about an hour of date night with them." She smiled; he really was an amazing father and a great man. "But they have no clue we're coming, my parents do, but they'd understand, so if you'd rather not, I have other things we can do."

She leaned across the console to kiss his cheek. "This is perfect, you're sure you don't mind?"

"Jules, it was my idea! I love hanging with you, but I admit I miss my daughter…a little…an hour's worth." She laughed again and he pulled her in for a tender kiss on the lips. "But you're still mine—that means you have to go just before me and maybe have some trouble with a hole now and then while we let the others go ahead."

"Deal." She whispered, kissing him again. It felt so good to do that, just to be able to kiss him whenever she wanted and still have that warm tingly sensation every time she did. "And I may need some help with my swing, I'm a terrible golfer."

He grinned, "Ooh, this is going to be fun." He said with a wink, then nodded his head to his car as his father pulled it in, "Let's go get 'um."

Mini-golf went better than he ever could have hoped for. After the girls excitedly greeted them and got churros, they told them all about their 'Psychic Adventures' through the park—evidently his dad had been honing Rachel's observatory skills and Rebecca picked it up easily as well, not surprising considering her father had an eidetic memory and her mother was an incredible detective. However, once they started golfing, the girls seemed content to let him and Jules lag behind to 'work on her technique', and giggle while his parents smiled knowingly. Overall, all three generations had a great time and as he and Juliet waved goodbye to the rest, he felt refreshed and more in love with his life than ever before.

"Okay Shawn, that was wonderful, but now you're all mine!" Juliet said as she buckled her seatbelt. "So where to next?"

"How about a walk on the beach as the sun sets?" Daylight was fading fast, but he was sure he could make it in time.

Juliet nodded and smiled and he sped off, using every shortcut he knew and they had made it just in time to see the ocean swallow the sun. Juliet looked radiant in the red-orange glow that lingered and the coming twilight made her eyes sparkle. "You are beautiful." He breathed, caught up in how true that was. At first she looked slightly taken aback, like she didn't quite believe it was true, but as he leaned in to kiss her, the look turned to a smile. He couldn't get over the way he felt kissing her, it was like—well it was like every great movie combined into one perfect, exhilarating, life-filling kiss. But eventually they had to break for air and as the sky started to lose its pinky hue and succumb to the darkness of the night, he grabbed Juliet's hand and started walking.

She held on to his hand and rubbed his thumb with hers while they walked, temporarily silent in the beauty of the changing colors, but eventually she spoke. "Shawn, tell me about all the jobs you've had."

He laughed, "Jules, that could take a while, I've had a ton of them."

"Well do we have dinner reservations at a specific time?" He shook his head. "Then we have all the time in the world, and if we get hungry, we'll go and you can keep telling me there. I want to know you."

He thought about that. He'd dated a lot of girls, or well, gone on dates with lots of girls—but none, not even really Abigail, truly wanted to know all about him. They had either wanted to just live in the moment or try to erase his past, but Jules legitimately wanted to hear all about him.

So he told her. From his first job out of college to his stint driving the Weinermobile to Graceland to being a Water Ski Instructor and through it all, Juliet listened. Even asking why he left certain jobs, how on earth he'd found others, if he ever missed Gus or his parents and they just talked. For once in his life he was the center of attention as his real self—not exaggerating, not pretending, just Shawn and he concluded that being real, being honest with someone was far more rewarding than putting up a front to protect yourself. In the end, they had circled back to the Psych office and he had Juliet stand at the door while he ran in to prep.

"Alright Jules, come on in." He called, doing one less check to see that everything looked perfect.

"Oh Shawn, I remember this one…" She said breathlessly as she stepped inside. "I didn't realize…"

"That this was supposed to be a date?" There were candles and crab cakes with strawberries on the plate and the lights were dimmed in the office. He had installed a dimmer that day so many years ago, just so that the day was perfect.

"And then I blew you off and you ended up taking the fall for me with the Chief." She looked stunned. "Shawn, I'm sor—"

"Jules," he walked over and took her hands in his, "you're not sorry, or if you are, you don't have to be." He gently brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "All that matters is that you're here now. You are going to stay, right?"

"Are you kidding?" She smiled. "Of course! You have to tell me how you figured out what I typed!"

He laughed and pulled out her chair. "I don't know Jules, if I tell you it might kill the mystery and excitement."

"Oh, you're right, and the romance goes right out the door with the mystery so I mean really…that would be it for us, huh?"

She had a glint in his eye that he hadn't totally expected but thoroughly enjoyed and he plopped a crab cake on her plate. "Exactly. Now, Detective, I get to dive into your past, tell me about your life."

"Wait, Shawn!" Her eyes widened, "I was kidding! You totally have to tell me!"

"Mmmm…" but the look in her eye broke his resolve. "Fine, it was the pitcher."

"Sorry?"

"There was a guy behind you with a pitcher filled with dark fluid but there was just enough perspiration on the pitcher for it to reflect the light of the screen and I saw what you typed." A look of surprise came across her face. "Well technically I first thought it said 'LENO Baller King' but considering Jay Leno is known more for cars than basketball and our conversation just before I figured 'LEGO Bowling King' made a wee bit more sense."

"You saw it from the sweat on the pitcher the guy behind me was holding…" she stared at him in what he figured was amazement. "Are you sure you're not actually psychic? Because honestly that's more believable."

He smirked and poured her a glass of champagne. "I promise. I'm just good at piecing together random information."

"Shawn, that's…well that's impressive, you would've been a good detective."

He sighed, "It's what my dad always wanted—but I so resented him for, well, actually for something he didn't even do. Plus being a psychic is far more fun!" She smiled at that and he couldn't get over how perfect she looked. He could see the faintest traces of age, the beginnings of crow's feet and a hint of graying hair, but they suited her. Sadly, he didn't see laugh lines that should've graced her face, and he hoped that ten years from now they would exist as evidence of their happiness. "So, I answered your question—you answer mine."

"Shawn, you didn't ask me a question…"

He thought about it. "I told you to tell me about your life..."

"That's a statement—or command."

"Question, command, I've heard it both ways." He winked at her and offered her a strawberry.

"No…" but she was smiling, "but because I think you're kind of cute, I'll tell you." And so she did, she told him about growing up in Miami, about how hard it was when Frank left, about when Lloyd first came in to her life, leaving for college, starting at the Detective Academy, and finally getting the offer of Junior Detective in Santa Barbara. Throughout it all, he was amazed by her strength and courage. Their childhoods had been quite different, as had their young adulthoods. He had returned to Santa Barbara angry at the world and without any plans for the future, but she—she had arrived bright eyed and excited to begin her adult life. Yet, they had both ended up here, a single parent with a job they actually enjoy with a dark couple of years preceding this happiness. But they didn't talk about the dark times tonight; this was their chance to start over, to do it right even though it hadn't always been.

So he listened to her talk as brought out the pineapple upside-down cake and just enjoyed listening to her. Hearing her get excited about things, the far-off tone to her voice when she talked about things she used to do with her brothers, all of it.

Suddenly, she looked at her watch. "Oh, Shawn! How could you let me talk for so long? It's after 10!"

He checked the wall clock and saw she was right. "Jules, you could talk all night and I'd listen, but if you'd prefer, I have Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, and 16 Candles on TiVo and oodles of popcorn in the pantry."

"Oodles?"

"Yes, oodles." He replied, returning her smirk.

"It's been a while since I've seen The Breakfast Club, but I think I could only eat one oodle of popcorn."

"One oodle it is then, go pull the movie up and I'll poppa-da-corn."

They were halfway through 16 Candles and she couldn't keep her eyes open anymore. She was laying on a pillow on Shawn's lap as he ran his fingers through her hair and she couldn't remember a time where she felt more content. She traced her finger along his kneecap as her eyes began to linger closed. Right now, in this moment, she was happy. She missed Rebecca and Rachel, but she was happy. She had spent an entire day with Shawn, not worrying about a case, or about her past, just talking and laughing and enjoying being together. She loved him, loved how he made her feel secure and happy and exhilarated and safe all at once. So she drifted off to sleep after the perfect first date with her perfect man and wanting the moment to last forever.

And in her moment of bliss, she didn't realize she missed three calls from Carlton.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I am sooooo sorry it's taken so long to get this chapter up! I got super busy at home, then flew back to school and got even busier! But hopefully this super long chapter makes up for that!

cac0066-I'm glad I captured Yang well, her part was brief in that chapter, but I did want it to seem authentic, so I'm glad it did :)

guest…sorry it took so long to update!

ZataraGrace…your comment actually inspired quite a bit of this chapter, so thanks! And I'm really glad you like the story, hopefully you still do :)

pineapplepsycho…sorry it was such a long wait this time, but thank you! I really love writing this and I'm glad you like reading it :)

Potato…it was kind of difficult adding in the darker twist…and remains so, but I did get a happy date in (if with one little line of cliff-hangerness at the end)! We'll see what happens in the next chapter! And yeah, I definitely wrote 2011 on something…so there's that… :)

Ceetee…I liked your comment because it got me thinking, but after a lot of pondering and turning it over in my mind, I'm comfortable with the gift. Because the gift wasn't really the movies-I never say if Shawn actually takes them or not and I never will, the gift is that she loves and trusts him enough to move through her past with him instead of trying to blot it out. Also, there's something more personal about clothing-it becomes part of you. For instance, you wouldn't buy a shirt from an estate sale of a neighbor who recently died, but you may buy a lamp or a couple of their movies. I'm not saying it's exactly the same thing, but I do think there's a difference between giving a cinephile a collection of movies and giving a new girlfriend an ex-wife's shirt or necklace. But I don't want you to think I'm jumping down your throat or anything, I'm just trying to explain a little I guess. So I'm glad you like it overall and I'm really glad you reviewed! :)

YOUSLYDOG…I went on a hike the other day and thought of an epilogue for this and it was then that I decided it's going to have a definitive ending (unlike my other book SKJ which may go on indefinitely due to it's episodic nature). So to answer your question, I think this will be the first of the last 5 chapters, including the epilogue.

And with regards to that, I know at the beginning I said I'd probably carry this on for a while, but it's already a 170 page word document and I realized that I love this book too much to string it along. All the great books have endings, as hard as that is, and while this book may not be considered great, I think it deserves to come to a close. Anyway, review, let me know what you think of The Proper Date and I'll start working on the rest of the chapters!