Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Psych belongs to Steve Franks, USA Network, and anyone else who owns it.

Author's Note: I owe anyone who has read this fic a HUGE apology. I am so sorry it took this long for me to finish it. I am uploading chapter 5 today but I've got the fic finished, I just need to get the edits done that I've received from my beta (the incomparable Loafer). This fic ended up being a total of 8 chapters (with about double the word count on the last 4 chapters vs the first 4).

Anyway, it is finished and I promise to never post a fic and let it linger unfinished this long again. I probably won't post a fic at all unless it's finished (maybe not polished completely, but finished).

At any rate, apologies again for the insane wait and on with the show!

*OoO*

As Carlton pressed the gas pedal to the floor, he was calling Henry Spencer.

"Hello?"

"Henry," he barked, "this is Lassiter."

"Yeah, Lassiter, I saw the caller ID. What do you need?"

"I need you to get your ass to the hospital and guard O'Hara. I figured out who the inside person is and she works at the hospital. I need you to get to O'Hara's room and not let anyone in until I get there."

"Who is it?

Carlton sped through a red light and prayed there were no patrol units around. The last thing he needed was to get stopped. He'd give anything for his roof light right now but they took it before he left the day he resigned.

"I'll tell you when I get there. Just move!" Carlton hit the off button and tossed his phone in the passenger seat. He was laser-focused on getting to the hospital as quickly as he could.

*OoO*

He slid into a parking space in the hospital parking lot, barely missing a Toyota Corolla coming by. He ignored the driver cursing at him as he ran into the hospital. He bypassed the elevators and took the stairs to get to O'Hara's room.

He slid around the corner and saw Henry standing by O'Hara's hospital room door.

"What the hell are you doing out here? I told you to stay in her room with her!" Carlton came to a stop in front of Henry.

Henry straightened from the slouch he'd been in. "I was," he answered, "but the nurse needed to come in and check Juliet's vitals."

Carlton's blood ran cold. "Nurse? Which nurse?"

Henry shrugged, "Don't know her name. It's the nurse who has been taking care of Juliet since she's been here."

Carlton cursed a blue streak as he pushed Henry aside and slammed open the door. He saw Nurse Simmons injecting something into O'Hara's IV and saw red.

"Get away from her!" he yelled as he grabbed the syringe from her hand.

"Hey, what the heck?!" Simmons yelled as she jerked back from the crazy man in front of her.

"Carlton, what are you doing?" Juliet asked as she tried to push herself up in the bed.

"This is the inside man for the guy who tried to kill you, O'Hara, and she just tried again!" Carlton's heart was pounding. "Did she get anything in the IV? Do we need to get it out of you?" He started to tug on her arm and was surprised to have Juliet slapping at his hands.

"Carlton! What are you talking about?" Juliet pulled her arm away before he could dislodge the IV. "I know her. Christine is one of my friends!"

Carlton started to lunge forward again when two things happened. One, Henry had finally gotten in the room and grabbed him and two, O'Hara's words finally penetrated his panic-stricken brain.

"Christine? Friend?" He looked at the two women, dumbfounded.

Juliet winced from all the movement she'd just done and tried to slide up in the bed to get comfortable.

Henry, seeing Carlton seemed to have stopped trying to rip out Juliet's IV, moved to help her.

"Okay," Juliet breathed through the pain as Henry helped her get settled again, "Do you want to tell me what the hell is going on?" Her glare had more of an impact on Carlton than all of the yelling. When he didn't say anything, she gestured to one of the chairs near her bed. "Sit down and tell me what is going on, Carlton, and don't leave anything out."

The nurse, Christine, was still holding the IV and trying to process what had happened. The ex-cop who had been pretty nice to her for days all of a sudden attacked her and said she was trying to kill Juliet? It wasn't the worst thing that had ever happened to her on shift, but it was definitely confusing her.

Juliet snapped the fingers on her good arm to get Carlton's attention from Christine. "Spill. Now!"

Carlton gave the nurse one last glare and sat down as he turned to Juliet. Henry, meanwhile, propped his hip up on the windowsill and settled in to find out what had Carlton so out-of-sorts.

"I just came from Tommy, my C.I." he paused, "well, my ex-C.I." He shrugged. "Anyway, he had some information about the guy who tried to kill you."

"And?" Juliet prompted when he paused.

"He told me he didn't know the name of the main guy but he was working with a nurse in the hospital whose last name started with an S." Carlton turned to glare at the nurse again.

Christine glared back. "Do you know how many nurses there are in this hospital who have a last name that starts with an S?" she demanded, with the adrenaline wearing off, she was starting to get angry. "Here's a hint. A lot!"

She turned to Juliet, "Are you okay, Jae? Did he do anything to your IV?" She bent to check it and make sure nothing was out of place.

"No, Cee, it's fine. He never actually touched it."

Again, Christine turned to glare at Carlton. "See he doesn't. I've got to go check the rest of my patients." She gave a small huff and walked out of the room.

Juliet turned back to Carlton. "Why in the world would you think one of my friends would try to hurt me, Carlton?"

Carlton was still trying to catch up. He wasn't a slow man by any stretch of the imagination but he was missing vital information here. "What do you mean friends? She never said anything about you being friends."

"No, she wouldn't. Because she knows I'm in danger and she wouldn't want to be used to get to me." Juliet took a deep breath. "I've known Cee since I was 15-years-old, Carlton. She's not trying to hurt me."

Carlton took a deep breath and tried to straighten out things in his head. "Why didn't you tell me you were friends with the nurse taking care of you?"

"Because it never came up!" Juliet said, frustrated. "Most of the time you've been here, I was asleep. How was I supposed to tell you?"

Carlton nodded. "You're right, I'm sorry. I'm just…worried about you." He said softly, laying his hand next to hers on the bed.

"I know you are," she said as she laid her hand on top of his, "but you've got to tell me what's going on."

Henry was staying quiet as a mouse as he thought they both may have forgotten he was there. He felt like he was prying on something very personal but there was no way to get out of the room without bringing attention to himself.

Carlton nodded again and told Juliet everything Tommy had told him. He could see the wheels in her brain turning as she turned to Henry.

"What do you think, Henry?"

Carlton turned to Henry and ignored the voice in his head berating him for forgetting the other man was still in the room.

Henry stood from his perch on the windowsill. "Is this Tommy guy sure the nurse is a woman? For that matter, was he sure it was even a nurse?"

"What do you mean?" Carlton asked.

"I mean, what if the person our bad guy was talking about just worked in the hospital and isn't a nurse. We can't just assume it's a nurse, or a woman, and narrow down our list. For all we know it could be an orderly. A lot of people don't really differentiate. They just see scrubs and assume it's a nurse. I've seen people call a doctor a nurse because they weren't wearing a white coat."

Carlton cursed because Henry was right. He'd let his panic blind him into making illogical leaps. Damn! He thought he'd been so close.

"Henry's right," Juliet said. "We don't much more than we did before."

"But we do know he has an inside person here at the hospital," Carlton corrected.

She nodded. "Point. Now we just need to figure out who it is." She sighed as her shoulder started to ache. "And we really need to figure it out soon because I'm getting really tired of having a target painted on me." She glanced at Carlton. "Not to mention, I'm not the only one with a target painted on them."

Carlton waved her off. "I'm not worried about me."

"I am," she said.

"Well, I'm worried about both of you," Henry said. "So why don't we get cracking on this."

Christine Simmons opened the door. "Visiting hours are over so you both need to leave now."

Juliet nudged Carlton's arm and mouthed, 'Apologize'.

Carlton heaved a sigh but stood. "Nurse Simmons?"

Christine just glared at him.

He cleared his throat and started again. "Nurse Simmons, I want to apologize for the conclusions I jumped to earlier."

"Just the conclusions?" She asked shortly.

He resisted the urge to snap back. She had the right to be ticked off at him. "No, not just the conclusions. I shouldn't have taken the syringe from your hand, tried to take O'Hara's IV out, or said you were trying to kill her." He grimaced at the end because, put together, it was rather bad.

She looked at him for a long moment and gave a sharp nod. "Fine. Just don't let it happen again. I don't appreciate being accused of trying to hurt one of my best friends. Or one of my patients in general."

He nodded back and she left, leaving the door open. Henry took this as his cue to head out as well.

"O'Hara," Carlton started as he ran his fingers through his hair, "I'm sorry." He stood and paced over to start out the window. "I panicked when I thought you were in this room, defenseless, against someone who was supposed to be taking care of you." He turned, expecting her to still be angry with him. He was surprised to see a small smile on her face.

Juliet held out her hand and waited until Carlton came over to sit back by the bed. "Carlton, I understand." He started to interrupt and she tightened her hand on his to stop him. "No, really, I do understand. You forget, I've been in situations and had to watch you be in danger or be hurt." She looked down at their hands for a moment before looking back up at him. "But you've got to stop holding out on me." She held up her free hand. "I know, I know, it's not like I've been awake to help with this but I am now. We're partners."

"Were partners, you mean," He interrupted.

"No," she shook her head, "are partners. Just because you quit SBPD, doesn't mean I'm not your partner anymore."

"O'Hara," Carlton said. "Even after this is over." His hand tightened on hers. "And it will be over, with you safe, I don't think I'll be able to go back to the SBPD."

Juliet paused for a moment to formulate her answer. She knew this probably wasn't the right time but it needed to be said so Carlton knew where she stood. "I know. But if you don't go back, then I don't go back."

Carlton was already shaking his head. "You don't mean that."

Juliet nodded firmly. "I do mean it. We're partners, Carlton. To be honest, the best part of my job has been being partners with you. I can't think of anyone at SBPD I would want to be partners with if I couldn't be partners with you." She released his hand and patted it. "But, that's a worry for another day. Right now, we have to figure out who is trying to kill us."

Before he could respond, Christine knocked on the open door again.

"I'm sorry, but visiting hours really are over and you need to go."

Carlton nodded to her before turning back to Juliet. "I'll be back first thing in the morning and we'll brainstorm and figure this out." He stood and walked out of the room even as Juliet missed the warmth of his hand in hers.

"You know, Jae, even though the guy did accuse me of murder, he's kinda hot." Christine said with a smirk.

"Shut up, Cee!" Juliet said as she slid back down in the bed to try and get some sleep.

Christine Simmons snickered as she turned out the light and closed the door, nodding hello to the uniformed officer outside O'Hara's door.

To Be Continued...