LEGAL A/N: Psych and all characters belong to Steve Franks, Tagline Pictures, NBC Universal Television Studios, GEP Productions and USA Network.
2: Gonna Make a Change in My Life
Gus opened his eyes as a wash of bright white light flooded him. A faint beep registered in his ears. He saw in the distance a bouquet of daisies sitting in a vase on a table a few feet away from him. Behind the table, sunlight sparkled down into the white room. His eyes began to travel around the strange area as he heard another beep. They rested on Shawn who stood at the foot of his bed with a grim expression on his face.
"Heya, buddy," Shawn apologetically began.
"Shawn…" he groggily responded. His head was aching as he tried to move his toes and fingers, cords covering his body.
"You're in the hospital, man," Shawn declared gloomily. "You were electrocuted and… you were asleep for some time."
Gus gazed around the hospital room in confusion. He stared around at all the monitors, his apprehension growing. "What's… What's hap—"
"You fell into a coma, Gus," said Shawn. Gus glanced over at him, his fear slowly gripping him. Shawn stared at him with a remorseful frown.
"How… how long…?"
Shawn's heavy eyes fell to the floor as Gus stared at him dreadfully. "I'm sorry," he added, as he lifted his head.
"What's today?" Gus demanded, his heart beginning to beat faster. Last he remembered it was Thursday.
"Friday," Shawn answered. Gus' calmed himself a bit before Shawn then added, "In 2012."
Gus' eyes widened as he sat up in his hospital bed. "What?"
Shawn broke out into a laugh. "Ha! Just kidding ya. You were only asleep for a few hours."
A rush of air filled Gus' lungs again as he relaxed on the bed, but only as much as he could under the aggravating circumstances. "That's not funny, Shawn!" Gus snapped. "You electrocuted me."
"I electrocuted you?" Shawn repeated. "If I remember correctly, I was defending myself when you grabbed the lamp from my hand. If you hadn't, I'm pretty sure that we wouldn't be here right now—"
"I wouldn't be here right now if you had grown up when we left the sixth grade," Gus coldly responded. Shawn glanced over at him, taken aback as a flash of hurt filled his expression momentarily.
"Dude, what's your problem?"
"My problem is you!" Gus shouted angrily. His friend stepped back as his brow furrowed. "Shawn, every single day you do something childish like this!"
He shook his head, offended, "But you think it's funny—"
"No, I don't!" he hollered back. "You know why? I'm not a child!" He sat in the bed, flailing his arms as he mocked his friend. "'Gus – let's break into the house! Gus – let's sneak into the crime scene. Gus – let's start our own fake psychic detective agency!"
Shawn glanced around in sudden alarm. "Dude, keep your voice down! Somebody might hear!"
"So let them hear!" Gus exclaimed. "I'm sick of being ignored! I'm sick of hiding everything!"
"Ignored? What's gotten into you?"
"I almost died, Shawn!" he declared. "I could've, but I didn't. This is my chance! I can't be doing this with my life! Don't you see? I can't be hiding from the police – from the truth."
Shawn shook his head in utter confusion. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying I'm finished," Gus coldly declared. He sat straight up and pulled off the heart monitors and cords. "I'm done with all these lies." As he came to a stand and the monitors began to sound from losing their host, he glanced over at Shawn and caught his betrayed, saddened expression.
"You're not thinking right," Shawn declared in denial, shaking his head. "Just chill out and we'll go get a sno-cone—"
"I'm serious, Shawn!" Gus barked. "I'm sick of your games and I'm sick of your immaturity!" Shawn stared at him blankly with a darkened expression. Gus calmed down a bit and added with a stern tone, "We're done." He grabbed the bag with his clothes in it and walked out of the room, leaving Shawn alone and helpless to do anything but watch.
This wasn't the first time that Shawn and Gus had quarreled, but something was different this time. Something had changed. A sickness formed in the pit of Shawn's stomach and he knew that Gus was serious and this was the end.
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"Thomas Ruiz," the tin-sounding voice of Principal Snyder declared over the microphone as a wave of tired clapping began. Gus sat back in a metal, folding chair which was uncomfortable enough to begin with and even more uncomfortable through the hour-and-a-half which he had been sitting in it. Five hundred and seventy names and they were only in the Rs.
"Kayla Russell," Snyder announced, unleashing another wash of clapping. Gus rolled his head back, stretching out his neck and pulled at the Honor Society stole which had been irritating the skin around his shoulders. The Santa Barbara High School auditorium had been hot and sticky because of the lack of air conditioning which was making the graduation ceremony brutal and Gus' green robe stick to his skin.
"Edward Sanchez," the principal called. Gus glanced down at his high school diploma in his hands as a small smile of satisfaction crossed his face. Twelve years of hard work and he finally accomplished this tiny piece of paper. The sparkling honor society and national merit seals shined up to him with their own sense of pride.
"Lester Schultz…"
"I earned this," Gus whispered to himself happily. "Now that I don't have any distractions like Shawn around there's no telling what I can do." Right as he said that, he looked to his right to see Shawn sitting in a chair without his graduation robe on. "Shawn?" Gus exclaimed. "What are you doing without your robe? And what are you doing in the 'G' section? And what are you doing in the honor students section? You graduated?"
"Dude, we've got to talk," Shawn declared with a sense of worry. "I know you're mad at me for the lamp thing, but this is crazy."
"I've made up my mind, Shawn," Gus said firmly, shaking his head with resolve.
"Jerrold Smith…"
"Gus, come on," Shawn pleaded with sincerity. "I know I might have been acting a little off center lately, but I know we can work this out."
"What is there to work out?" Gus snapped.
"Lindsey Sowell…"
"What about Psych?" Shawn declared. He stared at Gus with a 'come-on-be-sensible' expression. "Now, Gus, we already talked about the lease—"
"What part of this isn't making any sense to you!" Gus snapped again, his eyes flashing as he glared at Shawn. His friend was once again silenced and stunned. "I can't do this anymore, Shawn. I won't. I told you – this friendship is done."
Snyder's voice came over the P.A. system, "Shawn Spencer…" The rush of clapping never came. Shawn and Gus stared at each other in silence, each mulling over the charred remains of their history. "Shawn Spencer?"
A quake inside of his arm snapped Gus out of his daze. His eyes fell on his right arm and he felt the jolt of electricity as the muscles contracted. Snyder called again in confusion, "Shawn Spen—" A loud shriek rang out from the speakers, the principal's voice being drowned out by the feedback. The graduating class covered their ears in pain.
Gus stared around in confusion as the people around him began to cry out, the never ending shrill feedback consuming their thoughts. He glanced to the right to see Shawn still sitting in the chair beside him, unaffected by the sound just as Gus was, but he seemed to be unaware of its presence as well. Shawn gazed at Gus with a disturbed, saddened look, his heart stirring with the pain of betrayal.
The sound of the feedback was overtaken by a different sound – the penetrating, sharp ringing of bells in a melody. Voices of women in a chorus chimed in, blaring over the speaker system as they sang along with the melody, "Dum da dada dum da dada do do do do da…"
The song was immediately identified in Gus' mind as he glanced back at Shawn to see him completely unaware, still gazing at Gus with confusion. The women known as the Chordettes began to sing together in a haunting harmony, following the Circle of fifths, "Mr. Sandman… Bring me a dream… Make him the cutest that I've ever seen… "
Like the cracking of thunder, a rain of gunfire exploded from every angle. Gus gazed around with wide, horrified eyes as every last one of his high school graduating class was cut down by a shower of hot lead. A wave of crimson red encircled him, almost suffocating him, as he squeezed his eyes closed tightly, knowing for certain that he would die.
In the span of a heartbeat, the explosions stopped, and only the echoing female voices could be heard over the P.A. system. "Mr. Sandman… I'm so alone… Don't have nobody to call my own…"
He stared around being the last man alive in the middle of a massacre. Gus glanced over beside him and saw Shawn's lifeless body, still sitting upright in the uncomfortable chair. The bright red stain covered his chest and only got bigger in his sight. He stared at the body of his best friend in horror being the last man alive…
Gus' dark eyes drifted up in a daze and saw a young blonde woman standing near the entrance of the auditorium, several yards away. As hard as he tried, he couldn't see her face, as if a cloudy curtain blurred her facial features. As if they weren't even there.
Wearing her blonde hair in pigtails and wearing a light blue checkered dress that came to her knees over a white collared shirt, the faceless woman stared at the sole survivor through the see of blood. He could feel the low rumbling of fear inside of his head as he stared at the strange woman.
"For the good of the world, Gus," the stranger whispered in a soft voice. The rumbling turned into a crashing roar inside of his mind as Gus stared motionlessly, chained to the chair helplessly.
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With a deep gasp, Gus sat straight up in his bed, his heart beating erratically. He gazed around at his darkened bedroom as sweat poured down his face into his eyes. It was just a dream. He looked around and his eyes froze on the doorway to his bedroom, the door standing wide open. The silhouette of a woman in a knee-length sundress stood in the doorway, staring at him through the hallway. With another blink, the vision faded and disappeared.
It was a dream. Wasn't it?