Gus closed his eyes. Maybe bursting into an active hostage situation at the wax museum wasn't the best idea he'd ever had but there was little time for regret. He spared a second for a small whimper, conveying that he'd read the same body language in Lassiter's stance that O'Hara had interpreted. Lassiter was ready to do his job in the only way that could spare all but one life. Only in the movies did cops shoot guns out of criminal's hands; in real life, the trick shot was just too risky, and officers were taught to aim center mass. Gus gathered his wits. He'd come here to save Shawn and if he could save Buzz, all the better.

"Lassiter, the report came in from the hazmat team. Buzz's apartment was pumped full of the same drug that you were exposed to in your apartment and microphones were found hidden in the vents as well. Buzz was being manipulated. His wife is responding to treatment but his little boy cat is dying from the effects." Gus whispered the last part. If there was any humanity left in poor Buzz he did not need to hear that.

Lassiter really didn't want to shoot McNabb now.

"McNabb, you've been drugged," Lassiter told the trembling officer who now had his long arm snaked around Shawn's shoulders.

"He said you'd say th-that," Buzz said for the seventh time that day. "But it's real, Francie l-left me…"

Shawn stared at his best friend who picked up his cell when it rang an ironic jaunty song about Pina Coladas. Phone calls now? Really? Come on son! Buzz seemed on autopilot and was the only person in the room not cringing in incredulity.

Hanging up the phone, Gus turned to McNabb even as Lassiter, Henry, and Juliet all ordered him to leave.

"Francine is awake. She's calling my cell in a minute." Gus quickly changed his ringtone to a generic bell not having time to look sheepish.

The phone rang, barely audible against the screaming fire alarms and finally, the sprinklers turned on. The cold water from above hissed and popped on the top of the hot wax and Gus held his finger in his free ear in order to hear the phone call.

Gus simply walked up to the vat and held the phone up to McNabb as high as he could reach.

"It is your wife, Buzz. I swear to God, it's Francine."

And for some reason, Buzz believed Gus. But McNabb was well trained, better than anyone there gave him credit for. His gun never strayed from Shawn's body as Gus climbed the rung, unable to reach Buzz's outstretched hand as far as he was willing to lean over anyway. If this were anyone else, Lassiter would have a shooting solution and he would have taken it but the head detective had demons of his own to battle after being exposed to that drug through his vents and that was with his own imagination in play, not with added microphones and Yin telling him God only knew what.

Lassiter fought the urge to close his eyes as his finger pressed firmer over his trigger. Yin had never lost, stronger cops than the innocent Buzz McNabb has succumbed to him in droves.

Gus had a determined look in his eyes that Henry had seen many times when Shawn and he had competed for various prizes or favor in the past. The tension in the room changed. Buzz reached down, Gus reached up, grabbing McNabb's shirt instead of his hand and succeeding in pulling the much larger man off the rungs of the vat. Henry dove onto Buzz's thrashing body as Lassiter sprawled across the room to grab his gun out of his hand where it was still firmly clutched. At that moment, the fire alarms stopped and Francine's tiny screams from the phone intensified by Buzz's wheezes and groans of pain. Running footsteps were heard in the hall as Juliet, her gun still trained on Buzz made her way toward the vat upon which Shawn had fallen to his knees.

The horror that Buzz had been through weighed unbearably on Shawn. If he'd only told the truth, he never would have been dating Abby, he'd have left Santa Barbara again by now, never having worked at the department. None of this would have happened. And worse, he couldn't stop being selfish – because Juliet knew…

Henry looked pained as he punched McNabb in the face as Lassiter tried to wrestle the gun from the drugged cop. But now Lassiter remembered the feeling of invincibility, the extra strength…

McNabb stood like Goliath and broke free of both men, climbing the vat like the crazed King Kong up to the top of the Empire State Building. Lassiter latched on to his leg as Juliet kept her gun trained on McNabb. It didn't escape her attention that she too, would have taken a shot by now had circumstances been different and if Shawn wasn't pleading with Lassiter in particular not to kill McNabb.

A bullhorn sounded outside.

"Officer McNabb, come out with your hands up! We have you surrounded."

Lassiter rolled his eyes. He knew he was in Hollywood for sure now with that line.

McNabb's hand went to his heart and his face paled as he looked desperately to Juliet and Lassiter.

"I – I – wanna go home," he gasped as his gun arm fell to his side as the doors burst open and a flash-bang in quick succession marked the spot on Buzz's chest where the bullet found its mark.

A/N So we see from this that sometimes you're the bug, sometimes you're the windshield and poor Buzz, well he's been the bug for a long time and Yin loves to squash bugs along the way to destroying Shawn for good. and he's not finished yet. Longer chapters coming up next Thanks for the reviews and watches. Please review if you can.