"Shawn, your phone is buzzing." Gus said as he nudged his best friend awake. They'd been on stakeout all night with nothing to show for it and came back to the office to crash at around seven am. "Shawn!" He said louder, slapping his chest.

"Ow! What?" Shawn replied sharply, now awake.

"Phone!"

"Ooh! A message from Kate. 'Dinner with Dad tonight, I'll pick you up at 6:22 sharp at the batting cages. Hawaiian pizza and no blueberry pie.'" Shawn read and he stared at him confused.

"So…she's okay?"

"She must have enough to bring them in. Dad means she's okay, Hawaiian pizza—meaning pineapple—means good news." Shawn replied.

"And the blueberry pie?"

"Means don't show up in the blueberry. So she must still have her cover in tact." Then Shawn went silent as he texted a reply. Second's later, his phone buzzed again and he read the next message. "No cops yet. I asked if we could bring the dog—meaning Lassie—and she said no, so she probably needs a little help getting the final details. "

"How are we going to help her if they know who we are?" Honestly, he had never been sure what the exit strategy for Kate was, but Shawn refused to listen to any of his doubts.

"If we're meeting at the batting cages, maybe she's got a way to sneak us in, I don't know. Don't be an overboiled potato." Shawn once more brushed aside his concerns and looked at the clock on the wall. "We've got three hours to kill, let's go get our incognito on!"

A few hours later, he and Shawn walked around the batting cages in baseball caps and jackets. Shawn had wanted to bring back Soupcan Sam, but he had steadfastly refused to stay pinned to Shawn's right side in an effort to cover the half-beard so they rolled with the minimal disguises.

"You think when Jules and I have kids she'll let me use them as cover?"

Shawn asked nonchalantly, but the question stopped Gus in his tracks. Shawn and Juliet had set the date for Mid-November, and it made sense that they'd be thinking about having kids eventually, but Shawn said 'when'. Which implied Shawn had seriously considered it and wanted children. He was proud of his best friend's steps toward maturity, but at the same time, it was odd to hear Shawn plan a wedding, plan on having children, when he was…well…Shawn…

"Uh," he mumbled, trying to think of a coherent reply, "maybe whene they're old enough if there's not a real danger."

"Right, danger, I forgot about that. Maybe I'll leave the kiddos at home." Shawn scanned the cages again while he scanned his friend. There was no punch line coming, no sarcastic or commitment-phobe remark, Shawn was just thinking about a future in which he had kids to think about. "Ooh! Mango!" He shouted and Gus shook his head and turned his attention to the young woman approaching them.

"Sup Napps!" Kate called back. "Bu-ud"." She added with a nod to him. Shawn had been telling people for years that he was Bud from the Cosby show, but he was not Bud. Still, he needed a cover name in case Kate was being watched, so it worked.

"You look a little dressy for the batting cages." He replied. She was in a shorter dress and high heels, looking dressier than he'd ever seen the youngest Spencer.

"Busy day at work…" She said, subtly affirming Shawn's thoughts that she had something that could close the case. "And we'll have a busier night. You ready?"

"You know that's right." Shawn answered enthusiastically. "Where to?"

"I need to pick up the pizza." So they were still talking in code, which meant Kate was likely either being followed or bugged. Which meant getting any info just got infinitely more difficult. "Come on, I'll drive."

They drove for over an hour, with Kate often checking her rearview mirror for a tail, and the two Spencers talked the whole time, but while he was sure they understood each other, he had trouble seeing past the shallow meaning. As far as he gathered, Kate was having trouble with the next phase of initiation into the group because of her refusal to sleep her way to the top. But she had gotten the job at the front desk of the shooting range, and, because she's Shawn's sister, she did figure out quite a bit about how the organization is run. From there, he was lost. They kept talking about 'Dad' and 'the dog' and overall, he just wished they could speak plainly.

Eventually, Kate parked the car in the lot at an actual pizza joint near the coast. "Keep the car running, I just have to grab the pizza." Kate said as she hopped out of the car. She returned minutes later with a pizza box and a purse that he hadn't seen her walk in with. "Sorry guys, change in plans, we'll have to eat in the car." She passed the pizza box back and he eagerly opened it. He hadn't eaten in hours and the pizza smelled heavenly. "But Napps, I think you should bring the sister-in-law here soon, she'd probably find the ingredients interesting."

He stopped with the pizza midway into his mouth. Were there drugs in this pizza? "You said we could dig in, right?" He asked cautiously, he might have missed some key piece of code on the car ride over.

"Yeah, please do, but share the wealth!" She held out a hand and he slapped a slice in it, then did the same for Shawn. "Anyway, I have to go back to work for a bit. Bud, you can take the car back and Napps, get me at nineteen twenty-four."

He looked at Kate, puzzled. He knew she used military time for work but it was already after 7:24 p.m. However, Shawn nodded and Kate must have taken a more direct route back because they made it back to the shooting range in far less time then they had taken to get out to the pizza place. "See ya!" She said with a light tone but a significant look as she got out of the car.

"Okay Bud," Shawn said when she was out of the car and as he slid into the driver's seat, "let's go back."

He was still completely lost, but opted to remain silent as Shawn brought the car around to the back of the parking lot, turned it off, and got out, keeping low. "Uh, what's going on here?" He mumbled as he mimicked Shawn's exit, but his best friend was busy texting. However, he stopped long enough to point to a sign that hung on the small building on the far edge of the shooting range. '1924', the time Kate had specified—or actually not a time at all.

He and Shawn ducked, rolled, and crab walked across the crowded parking lot and empty range to make it to the building, which, not comfortingly, had quite a few bullet holes in it. They peeked through the window, and saw it to be just a storage shed, filled with various boxes, most of which looked empty. Shawn signaled and they skirted around the building, finding a loose window. "Gus, crawl through that window."

"I'm not doing that Shawn. We agreed you go through windows first."

"But my disguise is far better than yours. Plus I'm way better at lifting you up." Shawn retorted and he clicked his tongue as he was shoved through the very cobwebby window.

"I'm gonna kill you Shawn." He nearly shrieked as he pulled off the sticky and creepy webs.

"Dude, be a man." Shawn whispered as he slid through the window. "Ooh, cobwebs, glad I didn't run into those. Thanks for cleaning them up buddy."

"Shawn…" he growled but the fake-psychic held up a hand to silence him as he examined the seemingly empty shed. The boxes were empty or filled with newspaper—nothing suspicious there, but he had a feeling Shawn saw more.

A grin broke out on his face as he pushed some boxes away. "Care to lead the way DustBuster Guster?"

He looked down the eerie hole and saw only a staircase and darkness. "Shawn, do you even know what we're doing?"

"If my suspicions are correct, Kate wanted us to crawl through this hidden tunnel to figure out what's happening on the other side. She probably found out about the tunnel, but couldn't get out to the shed without blowing her cover. I've already got Jules and Lassie at the Pizza joint—I think that's where the deliveries come in—and we'll cover things from this end."

"This end," he replied, "with all the guns and no police back-up." He was less than thrilled with this plan.

"Pretty sure McNab is still watching. But either way, we've totally got this! Now are you coming or not?" Shawn was already starting down the creepy stairway and he sighed as he followed his friend into yet another perilous situation.

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

Sorry it's been so long since I updated! I've been crazy busy with school and Easter (I hope everyone had an excellent one!) But I am back! I don't know when I'll be able to update again because these last two weeks of school are going to be insane, but I will try to be prompt!

The Writer Es...I'm glad you love Kate, I do too, she's smart and fun!

Cupcake...I do have a brother actually, and we have saved each others lives to various degrees, but not from anything as exciting as drug or gun smugglers...And yeah, I think Kate and Jules should definitely coordinate nicknames! I'll keep those in mind!

Potato...I feel like the fighting and whatever is almost better than fluff because it's more real. Like I could write Shules happy and getting along all the time, but that's not real. Real couples fight, they have disagreements, but they move past them, and I try to show that in my writing. Also, I'm glad you reread-I do it myself-and I'm so glad you think I write Shawn and Woody well, I try!

And to everyone else, I hope you like this chapter! I'll try to update when I can!