Chapter 2
Shawn walked back into the diner after buying a paper from the kiosk on the sidewalk to find a pretty blonde woman sitting in her seat. She smiled. Maybe today would turn out better than she'd expected. It only took five minutes of conversation (mostly with herself) to realize Juliet was a cop and on a stakeout. What caught her more off guard was that she was apparently working with Detective Lassiter. He seemed just as shocked to see Shawn sitting next to Juliet when he came in, guns a blazing, to apprehend their suspect. "What are you doing here?" he asked.
Shawn took a moment to rake her eyes up and down his lean form, watching as he re-holstered his gun under his jacket. She smiled, "Honestly, Lassie, I was just having breakfast. I truly had no idea you were in the middle of a sting." He still seemed skeptical but shrugged it off and scowled when she continued. "New partner?" "Well, considering someone outed our relationship, Lucinda got transferred to another precinct. So, thanks for that." Shawn only allowed herself a small twinge of triumph and adopted a properly chastised look on her face. "I really am sorry about that, Lassie-face. Didn't mean to get you in trouble. Although, to be fair, you were trying to arrest me at the time for multiple crimes that I did not commit." And she really did feel a bit guilty. She liked Lucinda. And she didn't know Lassiter that well, but he seemed like he deserved to be happy. She felt bad that she might have undermined that happiness. The man in question let out what could only be described as a harrumph and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Not like we were in love or anything. I'll get over it, Spencer." And if Shawn's smile was a bit bigger than the comment called for, neither of them was going to point it out.
Later that afternoon when Shawn entered the office she had rented (Okay, so she had to use Gus as a cosigner because of her sketchy rent history, and he was still more than a little upset that she had signed his name on the lease without permission.) Gus turned off the TV and walked behind his desk, looking like he'd just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Shawn raised one eyebrow. "What were you watching? Korean porn?" she teased. Gus gave an exasperated look, mumbled and hedged for a moment, and finally admitted "It's the semi-finals of the National Spelling Bee." "Wow, Gus. Can you be any more boring?" Shawn complains. "A spelling bee?! Really?!" Naturally, as a former spelling bee champion, Gus gets quite offended. "It's a very important competition Shawn!" She rolls her eyes and looks around for the phone as it starts to ring. "Keep telling yourself that, Gus. Maybe you'll believe it one day." After a brief conversation with Chief Vic, Shawn sighs and reluctantly tells Gus she can get him into the Bee. She shakes her head and follows him out of the office. He really shouldn't act so excited about going to a spelling bee. No wonder he didn't have a girlfriend.
She was having so much fun with this whole "psychic" thing. It opened a lot of doors. It also gave her free reign to act like a complete child and blame it on her "visions". Really, the best idea she'd ever had. Someday she may just have to thank Lassie for trying to arrest her. Today, for instance, she got to pretend the vengeful spirit of a murdered spell master was trying to kill her. Maybe one day she could go into acting. Obviously, she was a born actress. Gus didn't agree, but what did he know anyway? They had made it into the spell master's box and taken a sample of the food she suspected of being poisoned. They even made it back out before Lassie caught them and she got to put on a show for a bunch of news crews and Lassie's new partner Juliet. It had been a fun and productive day.
Unfortunately, the day was not over, and she had to ask her dad for a favor. Something Shawn loathed with all her heart. All she had ever tried to do was impress Henry Spencer. At some point, she'd given up hope that that was ever going to happen, but for some reason she couldn't help but keep trying. And it ticked her off whenever she had to ask for his help with something. Everything had a price with Henry. She knew that. Why she was still surprised by him was a mystery only the very best therapist was likely to have any chance of solving. So when she asked him to have his buddy who worked in the crime lab analyze the sample she and Gus had taken of the spell master's food, she shouldn't have been surprised that he already had his price lined up for her. He wanted her to finish the doghouse. And if that wasn't the most ludicrous thing he'd ever insisted on, she didn't know what was. She'd asked for a dog in the seventh grade. When her dad had pointed out that a dog would need a house and she, as it's caregiver, should provide said house, she thought it would be a piece of cake. How wrong she'd been. Henry was a very exacting task maker and she quickly gave up trying to meet his specifications. Looking back, she was sure that had been his goal all along. He knew she couldn't handle the responsibility of a dog and made it so that she would give up the idea on her own. That didn't stop her from resenting him for it, but as an adult she could see the wisdom of the decision. It was still ridiculous that he wanted her to finish it now, twenty years later.
It should come as no surprise to anyone that Shawn gave up this time too. It was kind of her MO. She thought about it as she drove off on her motorcycle into the night and reasoned with herself that she just needed a bit of a break to clear her head. She'd come back in the morning and look at the project with new eyes. As she drove down the deserted beachside road, she noticed offhandedly that there was a van following her and seemed to be speeding up. She shook her head and snapped back into reality as she realized they weren't trying to get around her as she'd previously thought. She was just able to avoid being sideswiped when she hit the brakes and swerved out of the way, unfortunately still losing control of her bike and flying off the road. The last thing she saw as she flew through the air was the van driving off out of sight before she hit the sand and her vision went dark.
Gus was livid when he walked into her hospital room and saw that Shawn was getting dressed and planning to leave. He had just spoken with her nurse, who told him that she was checking herself out against the doctor's advisement. He gave his token arguments before reluctantly following her limping form and giving her a ride to her dad's house. He didn't really understand her need to finish building a dog house when her leg was in a splint and the rest of her had more bandages than clear skin, but he had known her long enough to know if he didn't drive her there she would find some other way. With his luck, she'd somehow get her hands on her motorcycle and try to drive there herself. He still couldn't believe she hadn't called her dad when she'd woken up in the hospital. They really did have a strange relationship. Anyone who watched them interact could tell they loved each other and just wanted to connect, but both were just so bad at the whole "feelings" thing. Henry would try to teach her life lessons through practical examples and Shawn would find some way to change the rules of the game so that she still won, but not in the way Henry wanted her to. It tended to cause a lot of friction.
Later that afternoon Shawn and Gus were in the chief's office trying to convince not only her, but Lassie and Juliet that the spell master had been poisoned. This would have been easier if they could've fessed up to the whole 'running a sample through the crime lab' thing. But no, things were never that easy with Shawn involved. She continued to insist on her "feelings" telling her the man was poisoned, Lassiter shooting her arguments down each time. Gus could tell she was in more pain than she was showing when she suddenly snapped at him, "Dude, what is your glitch?!" Even Lassiter seemed a bit surprised, though he recovered quickly and shot back, "You, you are my glitch!" They wrapped up quickly after that, no closer to convincing the police of the truth than when they'd walked in the door, and headed back to the event center to search for something they could use to bring the team on board.
Luckily Shawn did it again and somehow pulled off the impossible, wrapping up the conclusion of the case quite nicely. She even introduced Gus to Lassiter's new partner Juliet. Apparently, Shawn had already vetted the pretty junior detective and while she was not opposed to a little of Shawn's harmless flirting, she was very much straight. Which made Shawn consider her fair game for setting up with Gus. Unfortunately for them, Juliet had very strict rules about dating coworkers. Which included people she only occasionally worked with. So, they were effectively slotted into the friend zone. Not that that was completely a bad thing. Juliet was awesome, so they decided being her friend was going to be great.
