Juliet never expected Shawn and Abigail to break up for real. Even though they were taking a break, she thought once Abigail returned, they would rekindle their relationship and things would continue moving forward. She thought things were going extraordinarily well between the two of them and things were heading in a good direction. However, after Abigail returned from Uganda, she broke it off with Shawn for good. No one really saw it coming.

Juliet had her own problems though. After getting kidnapped by Mr. Yin and getting nearly blown to kingdom come, she was temporarily reassigned to city hall for readjustment. It had been a rather traumatic event for her.

Through the combined efforts of her friends, she came back to work though. Once she was resettled, she had to confront the idea that Shawn was officially single once more. Ultimately, she decided to just let things fall as they may. She was not going to pursue it, but if he was going to try anything, she would not object this time as she always had in the past. However, if he didn't do anything, she was not going to wait for him and she was just going to carry on with her life.

She was still perfectly content with being his friend. She did still like him. She did! He was fun to be around, he made her laugh, he always went out of his way for her, he was extraordinarily smart, he cared deeply about his friends (which, fortunately, included her), and he could really pull it together when it counted. Plus, she was noticing a great amount of increased maturity in his character. Yes, he still preferred drinking juice out of a bendy straw, yes he still watched cartoons regularly, and yes he would rather use the kid's menu in restaurants ("not for the smaller portions, but because no other menu ever lets you draw on it!"). Despite all this, he seemed to be gaining a grasp on who he was and what his purpose in life was and that was impressive. Juliet never would have imagined it when she first met him five years ago.

However, nothing really did happen either way. Business just continued as usual. Shawn never attempted anything with her. He treated her as a friend and they still worked together on cases. Juliet sort of felt disappointment, but after a couple months of him giving absolutely no indication that he wanted to pursue anything with her, she decided that he had moved on and thought it was time she did the same.

He did throw out the occasional flirtatious comment, but he had always done that ever since she first met him. Juliet knew not to read too much into it.

This time. This time for sure. She was going to move forward with her life and think of Shawn as nothing more than a friend.

Unexpectedly, out of nowhere, Declan Rand came into her life. It was perfect timing though because Juliet had been on the brink of signing up for online dating out of desperation for finding someone new. In retrospect, that would've been a disaster even if she could run background checks.

Declan Rand, however, was a criminal profiler who flew in specially for a case. Juliet was immediately drawn to him simply because of his good looks and polite, yet assertive attitude.

He had just concluded that the woman who had died had died beside an aerosol can along with several other victims previously. Juliet and Lassiter were impressed that he made the connection. Shawn and Gus who were also there, were less impressed, particularly Shawn who pulled Gus away to discuss something.

After Lassiter left to check on the aerosol cans, this left Juliet and Declan to talk. They weren't alone long before he asked her out for dinner that coming Saturday. She eagerly agreed.

Shawn suddenly returned. "Jules! May I have a word?"

She smiled at Declan who left with a friendly smile. Shawn cleared his throat. "Well uh... I know this is totally short notice, but I was wonder if uh..."

He was stumbling over himself. Juliet knew this must have been serious because as she had observed perviously, he rarely had trouble finding the right words unless he was struggling with his emotions. He finally spit it out, "...you'd like to be my date to a friend's wedding this Saturday?"

Juliet stared at him, incredulous. Not only was he actually formally asking her out, but he chose now of all times to finally do it? "Are you asking me out next to a dead person?" she asked, just to be sure he was positive he knew what he was doing.

"Yeah..." he said awkwardly, "But I thought it would be OK since it doesn't really smell."

Juliet couldn't believe it. It was actually happening. He had really asked her out on a date. No pretenses, no subtext, nothing. Unfortunately, she had just agreed to go out with Declan. How did this keep happening with them? First with Abigail, now Declan?

"Saturday?" she repeated, "Uh, I would love to..."

"Fantastic!" he said, relief spreading across his face.

"But, I literally just made plans with someone else," she finished.

"What?" Shawn said, his face dropping, "Who?"

Juliet glanced over at Declan who was passing. He gave her a friendly smile and she returned it. Shawn's shoulders dropped. "Oh come on," he grumbled.

"But if I had known-" Juliet began sympathetically.

"No!" Shawn cut her off, the emotion rising in his voice that he was obviously fighting very hard to push back, "That's fine."

Lassiter suddenly called for her, but she didn't want to completely leave Shawn hanging. "We'll talk about this later, OK?"

"Yes. Later," he said, his voice tight.

Juliet did feel quite bad for him. She had been in that exact position over a year ago when she asked him out and he was literally in the middle of a date already so she had to just walk away. After all this time, she just hadn't expected him to ever ask her out.

Besides, thinking about it a little more, maybe he wasn't even asking her out as an actual date, but as a friend. Maybe he just needed a plus one to this wedding and thought of her first since he didn't have a girlfriend. Yes, that did seem the most logical. After all, he had made no move on her so far, so why should this be any different? Sure, they had a little bit of a history, but times change. For sure, he was only asking as a friend and she owed it to him as a friend to go with him.

She found him at the station later and tried to explain it to him. "I was thinking about it," she said, "I barely know Declan. And I will reschedule if you really need a date to this wedding."

He let out a chuckle. "No, no, Jules. I don't need a date. I only asked you that because I thought you might be looking for something to do this weekend, you know? Finding another date will be no problem. Trust me."

It was exactly as she thought and yet somehow, she still felt a little unconvinced. She shrugged it off and thanked him before going to find Declan.

She went on two dates with him and found him all the more charming, intelligent, and kind. He sort of reminded her of someone, but couldn't quite put her finger on it.

However, just as she was beginning to think she might really like him, he suddenly blindsided her with, "I'm a fraud."

She ran into both him and Shawn in the police station and Declan suddenly just blurted it out. "What?" she asked, caught off guard.

"I don't have any uh... fancy degrees from Harvard," he told her, "Or years of experience as a profiler. I'm just a guy with a little knowledge of psychology and a love for catching bad guys. The whole persona I've been putting on is just... it's a complete fake. And I just thought it was important to tell you this because you strike me as the kind of person who appreciates honesty."

Juliet was so completely blown away by this confession. Shawn too looked utterly shocked and was looking back and forth between the two of them.

The one thing Juliet valued above all else was honesty. Ever since her stupid conman father lied and walked out on her multiple times, she couldn't take it anymore. If anyone ever lied to her like that again, especially someone she cared about... she would probably never get over it. Because of this, she knew she should probably be angry with Declan for lying to her and the entire police force. She should probably tell him to never contact her again, to just leave town and never come back.

"Wow," she said, "I don't know what to say."

"Well..." he said slowly, "Let's talk about it."

Juliet shook her head and began to walk away, still trying to process it all. He had done amazing work and had helped them apprehend a dangerous criminal. But he had lied! And she couldn't stand that... But then he had just admitted to it of his own free will.

Juliet turned around again and came back. "Listen, Declan," she said, "There's nothing I value more than honesty and it really does bother me that you would lie like that. But I'm also blown away that you could be just so forthcoming." She nearly cracked a smile. "That took a lot of guts."

Declan did smile. "Should we talk it out over coffee?"

"I don't think so," Shawn said from the sidelines.

"Sure," Juliet replied, completely ignoring Shawn, "But if you're sitting on any other life secrets, now is the time to tell me."

"OK," Declan said. And then he paused as if he were trying to decide what to say next. Was it possible there was something else? "I'm really rich," he finally said.

Juliet saw Shawn roll his eyes. She just nodded. "OK, I can deal with that."

He then put an arm around her and led her out of the station.

Thus began their relationship.