Following the counterfeiter case, the Chief didn't contact Shawn for any other cases while he was on leave. So he spent his days pestering Gus, visiting Lassiter at work, and relaxing at Lassie's home. At the end of his leave, his team and a few others were planning a BBQ back in Washington, so Shawn checked Lassie's schedule and was thrilled to see his boyfriend was off that weekend. The two of them bought plane tickets and headed up to Washington the day before the BBQ.

The two of them headed to Shawn's apartment after the airport. His apartment was well furnished and had various photos hung up around the place of Shawn and his team as well as Shawn and Gus. Carlton found himself looking at the photos while Shawn dropped their bags on the couch.

Shawn walked up behind Carlton and wrapped his arms around his boyfriend.

"Who's this?" Carlton pointed at a photo of Shawn with a guy, both of them smiling brightly at the camera.

"That's Coop…my closest friend outside of Gus."

Carlton nodded; he remembered Shawn talking about Coop in their years together. He turned around and wrapped his arms around Shawn. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you when you lost him, Shawn."

Shawn leaned his head against Carlton's chest. "…it's okay, Lassie, you're here for me now."

"And I'll be there for you from now on." He kissed the top of Shawn's head.

Shawn smiled up at his Lassie. "I can't wait for everyone to meet you tomorrow."

Carlton's smile falters a little. "There's a decent chance a lot of them won't like me, Shawn…just like Stryker and Reid."

"They'll come to love you, I just know it, Lassie. They have to."

Carlton nodded, but he didn't feel so sure.

The next day they stopped at a small bakery near Shawn's place for a couple pies. Then they headed to the park where the BBQ was being held. The whole ride there, Carlton's leg bounced slightly with nerves. He had a gut feeling he wouldn't be very welcome in this group of people, not after what he did to Shawn years ago.

Shawn reached over and laid his hand on Carlton's leg. "It'll be fine, Lassie, I promise. And if it's not, we'll leave."

"I don't want you to have to leave, Shawn. They're your family. I don't want to cause any problems for you with them."

"Everything will be fine, Carlton."

They arrived at the park a few minutes later where the BBQ was already in full swing. The kids were playing on the playground and the adults were gathered around a couple picnic tables and a barbeque pit. Carlton recognized the members of Shawn's team, but there were a lot of people there he didn't recognize at all, which made him nervous. Anyone that knew Carlton knew he wasn't the most social of people. He didn't want to mess this up for Shawn and he felt the pressure.

The two of them climbed out of the car and Shawn grabbed Carlton's hand before leading the way over to everyone else. Slowly, person by person, everyone started to notice Shawn and Carlton, and conversation started to dwindle as they began to piece together whom exactly was holding Shawn's hand. Carlton noticed a wide variety of expressions on everyone's face, many of which weren't the friendliest. His grip tightened on Shawn's hand.

2001

Shawn sat at a picnic table, nursing a beer, and slowly picking at the label on the bottle. Conversations drifted around him, but he heard nothing. All he was focused on was the fact that two of the most important people in his life weren't there.

Sara Henderson and Lillian Jackson, War's fiancée and Cards' sister respectively, sat on either side of Shawn. They kept an eye on Shawn while they chatted about what had been going on in their lives. They were both worried that the usually "can't shut up" Shawn hadn't said a word.

"Shawn, hon, you want to talk to us?" Lillian laid her hand on Shawn's arm, jolting him from his own little world.

"What?" Shawn looked like a lost puppy, completely vulnerable.

"Oh, Shawn, it'll be okay." Sara said.

Shawn shrugged. "…I've lost everything."

"Hon, you know that's not true. Look around you, you have a whole family here."

"Without it's most important member." He ripped off the label in one fell swoop.

Read walked over and sat across from them. "Coop is still with us, 'apples."

"It's not the same, Read…he should be here…"

Cards joined them and wrapped his arms around Shawn. "We know, Spence, and we agree. But all we can do is remember him and keep him in our hearts."

"…that's super cheesy, Cards." A flicker of a smile appears on Shawn's lips.

Cards ruffled Shawn's hair before heading back over to the barbeque pit where War was grilling the burgers.

The smile disappeared from Shawn's face after a few moments.

Lillian grabbed Shawn's hand and squeezed. "You have all of us. You haven't lost everything."

All Shawn could think about was his lost brother and the loss of his whole world in Carlton Lassiter.

"He's not worth your pain, hon." Lillian had a knack for reading people.

Tears welled up in Shawn's eyes despite his best efforts. "I needed him…"

"We know, Shawny." Sara said.

"How am I supposed to move on from this?" His voice cracked at the end and Lillian wrapped her arms around him. He let himself break down in the safety of his pseudo sister's arms.

Everyone at the barbeque watched as one of their own fell apart.

"It's okay, Carly." Shawn squeezed Carlton's hand and led the way over to his family. He wasn't blind and noticed the not so friendly expressions Carlton was receiving, but he wanted his family to get to know his boyfriend, even if they didn't agree with his choice.

They all seemed to stare for a moment before Cards broke the tension and walked over with a smile on his face. "Spence, Carlton. Glad you guys could make it." He pulled Shawn into a hug and then shook Carlton's hand. Soon others followed Cards lead and they were greeted by various people.

Shawn introduced Carlton to everyone, starting with the team members of the Scorpions and GA's, the two teams that the Hell Hounds often worked with. Then he introduced Carlton to his favorite people – Sara, Lillian and Amber Watson, Snake's girlfriend. The three of them were like sisters to him.

They were friendly enough, though the three of them were a little cold with Carlton, being very protective of Shawn. Amber may not have been there when the two men first broke up, but she'd heard enough stories to know the heart break Shawn went through.

"It's nice to finally meet the infamous Carly." Sara shook Carlton's hand.

Carlton raises an eyebrow at the nickname but smiled nonetheless and shook Sara's hand, followed by Lillian's and Amber's. "It's nice to meet you guys too."

War and Snake were the only two that don't greet Carlton, instead greeting Shawn when he's off getting drinks for himself and Carlton.

"You two can't avoid Carly forever." He shot a look at both of them, unimpressed.

"It doesn't have to be forever. Just until he leav-." War elbowed Snake in the side, not wanting to upset Shawn.

"What Snake means is we won't avoid him forever, just until he's proven he's worthy of your time."

Shawn nodded, understanding where they were coming from even if he didn't like it.

They're interrupted by a darling little voice. "Uncle Shawn you made it!"

Shawn turned and smiled at the sight of little Mallory Harris, Read's daughter. "How's my favorite little munchkin?" He pulled the ten-year-old into a hug.

"I'm hardly a little munchkin anymore."

"You'll always be a munchkin to me, don't worry."

The little girl rolled her eyes with a smile. "Daddy said you were bringing a friend today? Is he here?"

"He sure is. Would you like to meet him?"

She nodded. Shawn grabbed the beers he came for and led the girl back over to Carlton, who was chatting amiably with the ladies. "Carly, there's someone I'd like you to meet."

Carlton turned and smiled at the girl that was now hiding behind Shawn. "And who is this?"

"Carly, meet Mallory, Read's daughter. Mallory, meet my boyfriend Carly."

Carlton held out his hand to Mallory who shyly shook it. "Hi, Mr. Carly. It's very nice to meet you."

"Its very nice to meet you too, Ms. Mallory."

Mallory giggled. "I like your boyfriend, Uncle Shawn."

"I do too, munchkin."

The rest of the day went off without a hitch. Carlton chatted with Cards and Read and a few of the other team members for most of the day, getting along well with them, and Shawn spent most of the day catching up with his favorite ladies. Overall, the two of them had a great time, and left after dark when everything was cleaned up.

On the drive home, they rode in comfortable silence, holding hands while Shawn drove, until Carlton broke the quiet. "Your family is great, Shawn."

Shawn smiled. "Yeah, they're pretty fantastic. I'm glad you like them. And I told you they'd like you."

"I don't know if they like me, as much as they put up with me, but I had a great time."

"They liked you, I'm sure of it."

"Sure, Shawn, whatever you say." He kissed the back of Shawn's hand. "I love you."

If possible, Shawn's smile grew. His eyes twinkling. "I love you too Lassie."

Around 3 am Shawn and Carlton were woken by Shawn's phone ringing. "Spencer…yes, sir." He hung up and reluctantly sat up, rubbing the sleep from his face.

"What's going on?" Lassie laid a hand on Shawn's back.

"I just got called in. They want me to report ASAP."

Carlton nodded and pushed himself to sit up as well. "I'll make you some coffee while you get ready."

Shawn loved his boyfriend in that moment. "Thanks, Carly."

The two of them climbed out of bed. Shawn quickly got dressed and grabbed his go bag while Carlton went to the kitchen and started a pot of coffee for Shawn. When Shawn walked out ready to go, Carlton handed his boyfriend a to-go mug of coffee and gave him a quick kiss.

"Be safe, Shawn."

"I'll talk to you as soon as I can, Carly." Then Shawn was gone.

Carlton headed back to bed but didn't fall asleep right away, worried about Shawn like he always was when his boyfriend headed out on a mission. He got a text from Shawn around 7 am saying he'd be gone for several months without contact. Carlton sighed and climbed out of bed to get ready for his flight back to Santa Barbara.

Every week or so, Carlton would get a text from Sara, updating him on any information the families were given. Usually it was just a text saying they'd heard nothing, but it was nice to know someone else was in a similar situation as him, left with nothing but hope.

He put all of his focus into his work, working cases nonstop for months. O'Hara did force him to take breaks on occasion, but most of his time went into doing his job so that he couldn't worry about Shawn.

Shawn and his team were running special reconnaissance on a small north Asian rebel group for almost four months and they were ready to return home. They almost had everything they needed from the group, including their usual operations, the head figures and all the details they would need to take it down if necessary. For now, their mission was intel only. They hadn't expected it to take this long to fully understand the workings of the rebel group, but they had to stay until the mission was complete.

Right now, Shawn and Read were following the leader around town, tracking his movements and staying out of sight, while the rest of the team was sitting on the group headquarters. If they were lucky this would be the last day in Asia and they'd home tomorrow.

"Check in." Cards voice rang out over their earpieces.

"Everything's good here. The Hawk has entered his usual market and should be heading back to headquarters in a few." Shawn answered. Read was watching the back entrance while Shawn had view of the front.

The Hawk always spent 10 minutes within the shop every day and never faltered from their routine. So when 45 minutes passed, the team knew something was wrong.

"I'm going in." Shawn left his bench from across the street and headed into the market, dressed in casual clothes he merely looked like regular shopper. A minute after Shawn entered the market, they heard static then Shawn's radio went dead.

"Spencer. Spencer, respond!" The only answer was silence.

"I'm going in." Read headed for the back entrance to the market.

"You will not! That's an order. You will wait for backup. We'll be there in 15 minutes."

"Shawn may not have 15 minutes, Cards! Let me go in after him!"

"Not without backup! You have no idea what you're walking into."

"It's a small market, we've been inside a hundred times!"

"Which means they're not going anywhere. You will wait."

It took them 15 minutes to meet up at the market, five minutes after raiding the market to find the secret underground entrance, 2 hours to figure out the winding underground tunnels that apparently ran under the small town they'd been in for months, and 5 minutes to take down the enemies between them and Shawn.

The team had to carry Shawn out and luckily slipped out of town without notifying any more of the rebel group that they were there. They caught a quick helicopter right out of town, and they were soon on their way to an American army base over the border in Europe.

When Shawn came to, he was in a brightly lit room and it took several moments for his eyes to adjust. Once they did he noticed he was in a hospital room and his teammates filled up the room around him. They were all dozing off except Read who was whispering into a cell phone.

Read quickly noticed he was awake and hung up. He approached the bed. "How are you feeling, 'apples?"

Shawn let himself focus on the pain and a groan escaped his lips before he could stop it, rousing the rest of his teammates.

"I'll get a nurse to come give you meds for the pain." Read headed out in search of a nurse.

"Do you remember a lot of what happened, Spence?" Cards asked.

Shawn sifted through his memories, only remembering pain and a dark room underground, not much else. He shook his head, then regretted it as throbbing pain went through his skull.

"Careful there, 'apples, you have a severe concussion." War said.

A nurse walked in and smiled at Shawn. "Sgt. Spencer, it's good to see you awake. I was told you were in pain?"

"Just a little." He tried for a smile, but it quickly became a grimace.

"Well I can give you something for that." She produced a needle of medication and injected it into Shawn's IV.

"…What are my injuries?"

The nurse pulled out his chart and skimmed it. "You broke four bones in your right hand and 2 in your right arm. You broke 3 ribs and have a severe concussion and bruising. As well as stitches in cuts on your left thigh, your chest and left cheek. You also have a black eye." After checking that she couldn't do anything else, the nurse left the room.

"We'll be flying home as soon as they declare you stable enough to fly." Cards squeezed Shawn's good hand.

"Which should be tomorrow, hopefully." Read added.

Shawn nodded carefully and sighed. "…Lassie's going to kill me."

"Probably, I know Sara would kill me if I came home looking like that." War smirked.

"You can give him a call if you'd like. We have phone privileges again." Read offered him a phone.

Shawn yawned as the drugs kicked in. "…Maybe later."

"Get some rest, Spence, we'll be here when you wake up."

Shawn nodded and drifted off to sleep.

"Hey Lassie, I'm sure you're busy working, but I wanted to let you know that we're headed back to the States in a couple hours. I'll call you again once we land so we can talk arrangements for me coming home for awhile…I got injured so I'll be on recovery for a bit, might even get to be home for Christmas. I love you Carly, talk to you soon."

Three days later, Shawn limped down the hallway leading from the plane to the airport. He was in a decent amount of pain, but his biggest concern was how Carly would react to seeing him like this. He knew Carly was going to use his badge to meet him at the gate, for which he was grateful. He was in enough pain now that he knew he wasn't going to make it to baggage claim alone. He made sure he was the last one off the plane so that he wouldn't bump into anyone in a hurry, so the gate was pretty empty when he finally exited the hallway.

It took Shawn mere seconds to find Carly and he fell in love all over again seeing his boyfriend standing there in jeans and a SBPD t-shirt. He was as handsome as always. Shawn smiled and slowly limped over to Carly.

Carlton saw Shawn right away and his heart broke. There was his usually badass boyfriend, beaten and bruised. His arm was in a sling and he was limping gingerly, likely in a lot of pain. It crushed his soul to see him like that.

"Hey, Carly." Shawn stopped right in front of Carlton and took his hand in his good one. He'd hug him, but his ribs hurt too much for that right now.

Carlton squeezed Shawn's hand. "You look like hell."

Shawn grimaced. "And feel like it too."

Carlton laid his hand on Shawn's uninjured cheek and Shawn leaned into the touch. "Do you want a wheelchair to the baggage claim?"

"No-." Shawn paused. "Actually, yeah, that'd be great."

Carlton immediately knew it was bad if Shawn was willing to accept help like that. He asked a flight attendant to get them a wheelchair and she quickly obliged. In minutes, Carlton was wheeling Shawn down to the baggage claim. They got his bag quickly and Carlton then helped Shawn out to his car.

Their ride to Carlton's house was filled with silence. Shawn closed his eyes and laid his head back, breathing through the pain in his ribs at every bump in the road. Carlton let Shawn be, knowing he could ask his questions later. For now, he just let himself be glad that Shawn was home and seemingly in one, injured, piece.

The two of them ordered in takeout for dinner and discussed Carlton's recent cases while Law and Order played on the TV in the background. Carlton told Shawn about a drug smuggling case, a dead food critic, and robberies conducted by owners of a nannying agency. They didn't discuss what happened to Shawn, for which he was grateful. He still had gaps in his memory, and he wasn't quite ready to talk about it yet.

They went to bed early when Shawn started to drift off. Shawn slept on his back, the best position for his ribs, with Carlton laying next to him. Carlton laid his hand on Shawn's arm, wanting to feel the man next to him. They fell asleep, taking comfort in being together again.

Shawn was glad to be home.