"So Kate, you ever going to set Gus up with one of your nurse friends?"

"Shawn!" He snapped, but really…it wasn't a bad idea, he'd met a lot of nurses when Shawn, Juliet, and Kate were in the hospital and some of them were pretty fine…Still, he couldn't let Shawn know that. "I don't need your little sister to set me up!"

"I don't know, man, she's only been here a month and she's already had a date—how many dates have you been on in the last month?" Sometimes, he hated his best friend.

"I do fine…I've just been busy." He tried to shrug it off, but he knew they didn't buy it, the Spencers always saw through his lies.

"I do have some nice friends Gus…no surprise children, they reside in the U.S., it could be good for you!" He knew Kate was trying to be nice, they had filled her in on his last girlfriend a little over a week ago, but part of him just wasn't ready to move on yet. "Come on Gus, one date, I think Jackie would like you…"

"Nurse Jackie? Nuh-uh, I am not living a TV show."

He felt Kate punch him—not gently—in the shoulder, but saw she was smiling. "Get over yourself. And she's not even a nurse, she's a pharm tech—you'd have oodles to discuss."

"Did you really just say 'oodles'?" He gave her a skeptic look, but the idea wasn't a terrible one.

"Come on Gus…one date?" She looked like a child, trying to weasel her way into getting an extra candy…and it was a highly effective technique…

"Fine." He sighed. "One date."

"Now will 'Gus the Playa', 'Creepy Gus', or 'Gus the Geek' show up to this date?" Shawn asked with a sly grin and he grabbed a pillow and chucked it at his best friend.

"Oh, please demonstrate all these personalities." Kate said as he and Shawn broke in to a pillow fight.

"Guys! Seriously?" They all turned to see Juliet with a smile that betrayed the annoyance in her voice. "I leave you for five minutes?"

"We're trying to figure out which Gus is going to show up to the date I'm setting him up on!" Kate responded with the same sly grin Shawn wore so often.

"Ooh, a date?" Juliet asked, moving closer and he realized he was rapidly losing control of the situation.

"Yes, with a pharm tech named Jackie." Shawn answered, putting way too much emphasis on 'Jackie'.

"Pharm tech? Geeky Gus for sure." Juliet said playfully as he nudged his shoulder. "But good for you!" Shawn and Kate were laughing hysterically and he decided he could really use some more pie…

"Juliet, is there any chocolate pie left?" He asked calmly, hoping that the randomness of the segue would distract Kate and Shawn.

"Oh, pie…I could go for pie." Shawn said, laughter instantly dying as he thought of food.

"Wow, guys, you just ate…" Kate was a Spencer in, well, in every way that counted, but the defining difference between her and her brother was her ability to turn down food—a difference he and Shawn took full advantage of.

Juliet sighed, "No pie left, but if you pick a movie I'll make popcorn."

"You know that's right." Juliet was like a sister to him, as was Kate at this point, but he loved that Juliet sometimes catered to Shawn and his unreasonable hunger pains.

"Kate, you want to help?"

"Sure thing!" Kate replied. "Shawn, why don't you tell Gus about how you embarrassed yourself at the hospital today?"

"I hate you Mango…" Shawn grumbled, though with a smile as Kate stuck her tongue out at him and followed Juliet into the kitchen.

He kind of loved those exchanges between the siblings—while they were both adults, (and sometimes acted like it), they were forming a relationship that was fun and playful—like all siblings should have. "You making a fool out of yourself…why am I not surprised—how'd you do it this time?"

"I didn't make a fool of myself…I merely introduced us to a colleague of Kate's."

"You sound like a politician…" He said, searching Shawn for the truth. "You gave her a fake name didn't you?" Shawn shrugged. "And the person already knew Kate, didn't she?" Another shrug. "You are an idiot."

Shawn snapped his tongue. "Whaaaat—nah man, you'd do it too."

"Come on, Son. You know I wouldn't." Yet another shrug from Shawn. "So what did Kate find out?"

Shawn glared at him for implying he did nothing for the case, but answered anyway. "She's actually pretty impressive 'psychic' wise…she figured out the hospital by talking to the nurses—we even got the hospital on the third try because she figured out that it would probably be a poorly run institute, one that wouldn't necessarily ask questions and might lose paperwork."

"Sounds like she out-did you." He said with a smirk, rubbing Shawn's face in it.

"I let her have this one…" Shawn said and he shot him a look. "Alright…whatever, so she out-did me—we're a team."

"Well, next time, I'm there—no more picking up the take-out, you getting outshone by your baby sister is not something I feel like missing." He nudged Shawn, who shot him a dirty look before pulling out the DVD folder.

She went straight for the pantry as Juliet pulled out the popcorn kettle—they had bought the "Whirly-Pop" on a whim and hadn't been disappointed by the popcorn it produced—plus it was more fun to make the popcorn than just throw a bag in the microwave.

"So, Kate…" Juliet said, prepping the kettle. "Tell me about your date with Dave?"

She smiled, she had a sneaking suspicion Juliet was going to dig a little deeper than dinner, she had just been surprised Shawn hadn't. "I already said—he was boring, kind of fake—no butterflies or anything."

"You said you weren't really sure of what he did…what did you know about him?" Juliet asked the question calmly, but she knew the implications it held.

"I—Jules, I was working when he asked me out…I didn't have time to get his life story, it was a date, he doesn't even know where I live."

"I just…" Juliet stopped turning the handle for a second and looked at her. "Kate, we've seen a lot of bad things, I just want you to be careful—especially with a possible serial killer on the loose."

"Serial killer? I thought it was just the one? Not that that's better, but…" She thought back to the briefing, she was pretty sure Lassie only mentioned one victim.

"I was digging through files while you were gone…I found two unsolved murders, about three weeks apart from each other and they happened two years ago in Phoenix. The first murder matches this, except the victim was a bit younger, 17 or 18, I can't remember—but she went missing for a month before she turned up in a park, burnt beyond recognition. The next victim was only missing a week." She looked genuinely concerned and Kate felt bad for being so secretive before.

"Oh." A serial killer was big deal—and she knew Shawn and Jules had dealt with some crazy ones in the past. "I'll be more careful Jules, I promise." She added the kernels to the pot and took over turning the handle for Juliet. "Jules, how long ago did you find the girl?"

"Week and a half ago I think, why?" She kept her eyes on the kettle but she could feel Juliet's eyes boring into her neck. "Kate, what did you see when you looked at the case file? Was that Dave?"

"No!" She turned, offended that Juliet would think she'd cover for a crumby date in a murder investigation. But as she thought about the picture she had seen…the suspect…she turned back to the kettle and mumbled: "But he looked like he could've been his brother…"

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

So I'm pretty sure it's been more than a week, but I've been super busy with Thanksgiving and the end of the semester. Still, I figured I'd update this! It's just sometimes hard switching between this and Second Chances because the tone is so different between them, but hopefully everyone who follows this will be pleased!

cupcake…the whole rhyming thing with "Nate" made me laugh and you might just get a first date with a Nate for that…might…but yeah, case is warming up now! Plus a B story of Gus getting a date :)

To the rest of you, if this is your first time reading SKJ or you've been reading all along, let me know what you think! Y'all are great!