"Look! Look at this!" Shawn shoved his phone in Gus' face again.

Gus smacked it away, "Would you stop it. You've shown me your text messages like ten times now!"

"But she hasn't answered!" Shawn whined, "Three replies, that's it. All day. What's going on?!"

"It's not been all day, it's only lunchtime," Gus corrected as they walked down the sidewalk towards a new bakery they'd decided to try out.

"And normally there'd be like… a hundred times more by now!"

Gus sighed, wondering whether it was worth going after the low-hanging fruit. Shawn tried to shove the phone in his face again and Gus smacked it away, "You do not get three hundred texts from Juliet in a morning, Shawn. She actually has work to do."

"But she's not working!" Shawn argued as they turned onto a busier street. "She's not at the station again and no one knows what she's doing, just that she took a few days off."

Gus focused on the conversation and his shield, keeping the surrounding thoughts from being too distracting, "Look, you asked her if anything was wrong and she said no. Just leave it, show her that you can give her space when she asks."

"Gus! Last time I gave someone space they went to Uganda! I don't want Jules to go to Uganda!" Shawn checked his phone again, even though there hadn't been any new notifications.

Gus sighed and took the phone from his hand, "Ok, stop it. You two are fine, she told you so herself. You will get this back after lunch, we aren't talking about it again until then. Now tell me about this bakery."

"Jules would like this bakery…" Shawn said sadly.

"Nope. Try again."

"It has food things and we haven't been there."

"Closer. One more time."

"Ugh, fine," Shawn threw up his hands, "They have french toast that's dipped in pancake batter and fried, they have waffle sandwiches with hazelnut spread and marshmallow fluff, they have cookies shaped like pineapples, and they have bread."

"Bread?" Gus smirked, "That was the best you could end it on?"

"Well, I felt like it kind of peaked at the waffle sandwiches," Shawn shrugged and opened the door to the bakery.

Gus couldn't help but point out, "You know, none of those were actually meals…"

"Nope, but all of them together are."

Gus nodded his head to the side in agreement as they got in line.

Shawn started to scan the people in the shop and the menus on the wall, Gus used the lull in the conversation to practice sorting the thoughts around him. Four smells, six tastes, three visuals… He was starting to sort the sounds when one of them caught his attention, the sound of metal scraping against a cymbal. He frowned, unsure what exactly was off about it. Shawn stepped up to the counter to order and Gus moved with him, closing his eyes as he listened closer to the sound: Anticipation, the feel of a gun under his shirt, a picture of a blue car, a picture of Shawn.

Gus snapped his eyes open, "Shawn…"

"Yeah, and two of those waffle sandwich thingies…" Shawn added to his order.

"Shawn!" Gus hissed, scanning the shop as he tried to find the owner of the cymbal sound.

"I know, I know… can we get some syrup to go?"

"We need to-"

Shawn turned and held out his hand, "I forgot my wallet, card me."

Gus gave up trying to be subtle, "Wind chimes."

Shawn's eyes immediately sharpened at their code word for danger and his waves crested deafeningly loud as he looked around, "What do you got?"

Gus listened again, trying to pinpoint the sound, "Not sure, but they're coming this way."

"Excuse me, sir?" The cashier looked at them with a mix of impatience and confusion. "Your order…?"

Gus saw Shawn go over potential escape routes in his mind as he turned back to the cashier, "Hey, I'm really sorry, we're going to have to cancel that. My boyfriend's got a crazy ex outside, is there any chance we could go through your back door?"

The cashier looked between Shawn and Gus as she stuttered out, "I… I'm sorry, but we can't let customers in the back…"

Shawn looked behind them, still trying to see the threat, as he tried again, "I promise you won't get into trouble, we won't touch anything, we just need to get out before he sees us…"

He sent a mental nudge and Gus realized he needed to help sell the act, "It's fine… maybe he won't see us. It might not be like last time…"

Shawn pinged an approval as he looked over in concern, "Shh, it's not going to come to that." He spoke to the cashier again, "Last time things got ugly, we don't want to cause any trouble… please…"

The cashier bit her lip before nodding and opening the gate for them to come behind the counter. "Good luck."

"Thank you so much." Shawn said quickly before grabbing Gus and pulling him through the small kitchen in the back. He stopped once they were in the alley behind the shop, "What's going on?"

"I don't know, someone's got a gun and they're looking for you." Gus listened for the cymbal, "I think they're in the bakery now."

"Well, that's just great…" Shawn looked around quickly before his eyes landed on a car. And a fire escape ladder just above the car. "I have an idea."

"Shawn, that's a terrible idea!"

"If he knows we were in the bakery then he's gonna figure out where we went, we need to get out of sight. Do you have a better idea?" Shawn asked as he started to climb onto the car.

"Running would be good," Gus hissed as he heard the cymbal get closer.

Shawn readied himself and asked, "Do you know there's only one bad guy?"

Gus hesitated, "No."

"Then this way's safer." Shawn jumped and barely managed to grab the second rung of the ladder. His feet scrambled on the brick wall, looking for purchase, and Gus cursed before climbing up the car. He grabbed Shawn's foot and pushed, giving him a boost so he could grab the next rung. Shawn was able to get his feet onto the bottom of the ladder and started climbing, glancing back as he moved to make sure Gus was following.

Gus bent his knees and took a deep breath before launching himself into the air. He managed to grab the third rung and scrambled quickly up the ladder, barely noticing the height through his adrenaline rush.

"Dude, that was epic," Shawn told him with a grin as he held out a hand and helped Gus onto the building's roof. He looked down and immediately crouched, pulling Gus down with him.

A large muscular man with long blonde hair closed the door to the bakery behind him as he looked around the alley. Gus focused and felt dollar bills fanning through his fingers along with the cymbal sound: Most likely routes to run, plaid shirt and jeans, the Psych window, frustration.

Gus glanced over and checked on Shawn, who was wearing a plaid shirt and jeans. Shawn was watching the gunman, picking up as many clues as he could while staying low and out of sight. As they watched, the blonde man pulled out a cell phone and made a call while jogging down the alley back towards the busier street.

Gus let out a breath as the gunman moved out of sight. He knew there were a lot of things to figure out, but he needed to ask the most important question first, "Why did we have to be boyfriends? Why couldn't we just be friends?"

Shawn didn't seem surprised by the question, "Because she had a girlfriend, I figured it might help."

"Oh." Gus wondered how he'd known that before deciding it wasn't worth asking. "Then why did he have to be my ex?"

"Because you already know what it's like to have a crazy ex," Shawn answered with an easy grin as he stayed low, his eyes still scanning the alley.

Gus closed his eyes and lifted his hand to his head to keep track of the cymbal sound as he replied, "Mira wasn't crazy. She was just… Mira."

"She punched a bull in Pamplona," Shawn countered as he sat back and made himself comfortable on the roof. "Besides, we've been over this. Jules already has to share me with you, I can't add anyone else to the mix." He suddenly started patting his pockets frantically before holding out his hand, "Jules! Did she text yet?!"

Gus groaned and handed over the phone as the cymbals faded from his senses. He sat down while pulling out his own phone.

Shawn sighed at his blank notifications and checked with Gus, "Who are you calling?"

"Lassiter," Gus said as he lifted the phone to his ear.

"Ooh, good idea. Ask him about Jules for me!"

Gus reached out and flicked Shawn's ear as Lassiter answered, "Guster, please tell me you aren't calling about O'Hara…"

"Oh my god, no! I don't care about Juliet!" Gus exclaimed in exasperation.

There was silence on the other end of the phone and Shawn looked at him with raised eyebrows. Gus quickly corrected himself, "I mean, I care about Juliet, she's my friend, but I don't care where she is… or, not right now anyway…"

"Please tell me this has a point…" Lassiter sighed through the phone.

"No, not really." Gus moved onto what was actually important, "There's a guy here with a gun looking for Shawn, can you pick us up?"

"There's a what?!"

"Guy, gun, looking for Shawn," Gus reiterated. Shawn suddenly held a hand out, stopping him from saying more. Gus peeked over the edge of the roof and saw the blonde man had come back, bringing a smaller man with a pointy face and greasy brown hair with him. Gus thought about flicking his own ear for not keeping better track of the psychic sensations.

Shawn brought his phone up and took a few pictures before hunkering back down to type. Gus ignored the detective snapping in his ear as he focused on the sound of a gun being cocked and the smell of a car exhaust: Anger, imagining his fist against a face, Shawn, stubbornness.

"How the hell did they get away?" Pointy asked Blondie.

Blondie looked around carefully and Gus sank further down, staying out of sight as his heart pounded. "I know they went this way… they must have gotten lost in the crowd. Damnit! How did they even know to run?"

"'Aint one of them supposed to be psychic?" Pointy asked.

Blondie sneered, "You don't believe in that shit, do you?"

Pointy shrugged, "I believe whatever I gotta believe to get paid. Their car's still at their office, they gotta come back there eventually. Let's go."

Gus felt a wave of relief wash over him as he watched the two men walk out of the alley. He kept his voice low, just in case, as he spoke into his phone, "Lassie, you still there?"

"Guster, finally," Lassiter snapped out before reverting to his even, detective tone, "I got Spencer's text, I'll be there in five minutes. What's your situation?"

"Two bad guys, they just left, we're on the roof," Gus looked over and rolled his eyes, "and Shawn's texting Juliet again."

"For christ's sake, tell him to leave her alone. Stay there, stay on the line, do not move."

"Got it," Gus agreed before moving the phone away from his mouth to talk to Shawn, "Lassie says to leave Jules alone."

"Lassie's not the boss of me… He get the pictures?" Shawn asked distractedly as he typed.

Gus talked into his phone, "Shawn wants to know if you got the pictures."

"I sent them to McNab, if they have a record we'll find them," Lassiter promised. "Do you know for sure they were after you?"

"They followed us through a bakery and knew Shawn was psychic, so… Yeah. They said they were going to wait for us to come back to Psych."

"Well, you're obviously not going there now," Lassiter said dryly.

"But my car's there!" Gus realized in dismay, "Lassie! It's a company car! What if they decide to key it or slash its tires or something?!"

"Better its tires than your neck. Didn't you put up cameras for that exact reason?"

Gus relaxed, feeling better at the reminder, "Oh yeah, we do. I can get insurance to take care of it… Wait! The cameras! We might be able to see them on the feed…"

"Send McNab the information, he'll get our people working on it."

"One sec," Gus took the phone away from his ear and typed out a text to Buzz, giving him the website and log in information for their security cameras.

Shawn put his phone away and glanced at what Gus was typing, "Tell Lassie that they're mercenaries, and I think they might be from Podovsky."

"What? How do you figure that?" Gus asked without bothering to correct the name. He thought through what he'd seen in their thoughts; mercenary made sense, but he couldn't see any connection with Novikov.

Shawn rolled his eyes and grabbed Gus' phone, "Lassie, they were mercenaries and the Russian guy sent them. The manager from the shipping yard probably told him about me and he knows I'm your best bet at finding him again."

Gus clicked his tongue and grabbed his phone back, Lassiter was mid-rant when he brought it up to his ear, "...told you to stay out of it! I am not going to deal with saving your sorry ass again because you couldn't just-"

"It's me again," Gus cut him off, "and for the record, we weren't looking for trouble, we just wanted lunch."

He heard sirens in the distance and relaxed, knowing they'd be safe soon. Lassiter grumbled in his ear, "Your whole existence is looking for trouble…"

Gus couldn't really argue with that point, so he waited quietly until Lassiter's car was parked in the alley. He listened to his psychic sense, making sure he couldn't feel the bad guys anymore, before standing up and waving. Lassiter looked up at them, his gun out and ready, "How the hell did you guys get up there?"

"We were like ninjas, Lassie!" Shawn called down. "Now look away, ninjas can't be watched when they stealth down a building. It ruins the magic."

"Spencer, get your ass down here, now!" Lassiter yelled back up.

Gus started to carefully climb down the ladder as Shawn argued, "But then my magic will be broken! Do you really want to be the reason for my-"

"Yes!" Lassiter interrupted him gleefully. "Yes, I do."

"That's cold, Lassie."

Gus reached the end of the ladder and dropped down to the ground, feeling properly badass as he looked up at all of the rungs he had just climbed. Shawn made his way down after him, while grumbling loudly to Lassiter the whole time, and they all made their way to the Crown Vic.

Gus sat in the backseat as they drove back to the station, content to just sit back and listen as Shawn waxed poetics about the bakery's menu and argued his case for going back and grabbing food.

"We already know they aren't there anymore, and you can come in with us! Come on Lassie, think of our stomachs!"

"Oh, of course," Lassiter said in a high, mocking voice, "Let's go back and get you food and then we can walk down the pier together skipping and holding hands and waiting for a sniper to take you out!"

"They didn't want to kill us, they wanted to grab us," Shawn said, seemingly unconcerned, "And they can't grab us if you're there, so we should get food!"

Gus didn't hear Lassiter's growled response as he fully processed what Shawn had said. The bad guys had wanted to grab them. He wasn't sure how Shawn knew it, but he knew his friend was right. They were almost kidnapped again.

Just a few more seconds with the cashier, just a few inches shorter jump, just a lucky glance up. That's all it would have taken. And then they'd be hurt and taken to a basement and tied to chairs and asked questions and hurt and not rescued and…

"Ooh! Turn here!"

"Damnit Spencer, I am taking you to the station and that is final!"

"But Gus will buy your coffee for you!"

Gus realized he was breathing too quickly and his hands were shaking. He wondered what was wrong with him, why he didn't start to freak out until after the danger was done.

"For the love of… There is a snack machine and coffee at the station. I am not stopping!"

"But it's Starbucks, Lass! You love Starbucks!"

The sound of the ocean on the beach washed over Gus and he forced himself to listen to it and breathe slower. Shawn turned slightly to meet his eye with a small questioning look. Gus nodded; he was fine. He was totally, entirely, completely fine.

He wished he could be more like Shawn, who was still talking a mile-a-minute, and just shake off the danger. He had agreed to stick with Psych and he'd known this sort of thing would be happening when he had made that choice. They were threatened all the time, it was just part of the job description by this point; he couldn't be freaking out every time it happened.

But knowing it and experiencing it were two different things. He hoped it would be another thing that got easier with time. He snorted quietly to himself; he was hoping he'd get used to kidnap attempts. His life was weird.

Shawn's phone dinged and he broke off his monologue mid-sentence as he checked his messages, "It worked!"

Gus could see Juliet's name on the phone screen and gladly took the distraction, "Oh my god, you told her about the bad guys so she'd have to text you back!"

Shawn looked back at him in exasperation and the sound of the ocean abruptly stopped, "You gave me crap for not telling anyone I was fine after the bar got shot up, but now I did tell someone and you're not happy either?!"

Gus narrowed his eyes, "Tell me exactly what you texted her."

Shawn paused before quickly looking back out the front window, "I don't see what that has to do with anything."

"Bad guys with guns, might be dead soon, don't forget to tape Leverage," Lassiter read from the phone still held in Shawn's hand. He rolled his eyes and pulled into the precinct parking lot.

"Shawn!" Gus exclaimed, feeling more like his regular self.

"Everything I said was true and important!" Shawn argued back.

"Have you even told her you're safe?"

"For your information…" Shawn typed quickly on his phone and pressed send, "yes, I have told her I'm safe."

Gus climbed out of the car as he shook his head, "Unbelievable…"

"No, what's unbelievable is Lassie not even stopping for coffee- hey!"

Lassiter broke up their argument by grabbing Shawn by the shoulder and bodily dragging him into the station. Gus quickly followed them into the safety of the building.

As soon as they were inside the doors, Shawn flailed out from Lassiter's grip, "Let go! This is a five dollar shirt, man!"

"Stay away from the windows," Lassiter ordered them before stalking to his desk.

Shawn stared after him, breathing slightly harder than necessary, "He does realize this entire building is covered in windows, right?"

Gus frowned, realizing Shawn's thoughts were bouncing just a little too erratically too. He jerked his head to the side and they moved away from the large glass doors, "Are you ok?"

"Sure, why wouldn't I be ok?" Shawn asked quickly. "Are you ok?"

"I'm ok, this sort of thing happens all the time, right?"

"Right, just another day in sunny Santa Barbara."

They stood together in awkward silence as they both tried to pretend like they were ok.

"So… was it like this after last time?" Gus finally asked.

Shawn shrugged, "A bit."

"Did it get better?"

"Kinda? Turns out, I'm bad at thinking about consequences. Who knew?"

Gus snorted and gave Shawn an exasperated look.

Shawn shrugged again, "Guns come out, you react. Afterwards, you try not to remember when it went bad, because it didn't happen this time."

"That doesn't sound healthy," Gus pointed out.

"We're talking about getting used to guns being pointed at us, what part of that sounds healthy?"

"Fair," Gus conceded, "I guess, bright side to this, we've got more leads now."

Shawn pointed at him in agreement, "There you go. Leads are always good."

Gus felt his background dread fade slightly as he continued on the hopeful conversation, "Buzz probably already knows who they are."

"And if we know who they are then we can track them. Our very own find-my-badguy!" Shawn smiled and it didn't look forced. He clasped Gus' shoulder and moved to head towards Lassiter's desk before pausing and changing directions, "Snack machine first. I'm starving."

Shawn quickly walked off, turning a corner and moving out of sight. Gus leaned against the wall and crossed his arms, quietly waiting. He made a show of checking his bracelet like it was a watch, "Three… Two… One."

"Gus! I need your card!"

Gus smirked and pulled out his wallet as he followed his friend.

It took less than five minutes for Lassiter to ban them from sitting at his desk. They made themselves comfortable in the corner of the office with a deck of cards and a growing pile of snacks as Shawn used his charm to convince more and more people to bring them food.

"Boom! Full house!" Shawn laid down his cards proudly.

"Damnit…" Gus threw his cards down, "I thought you had junk."

Shawn grinned and held a hand up to his head, his thoughts ponging back to full strength, "Never play against a psychic, Gus. We'll always win."

Gus rolled his eyes and scooped up the cards to shuffle and deal again. Sergeant Bates walked by, talking on his phone, and Gus took a moment to listen to his thoughts: Growing tension, a missed meeting, emergency plans for his family, exhaustion.

Gus kept his name on the shrinking list of possible moles. He didn't think Bates felt shady, but the gang unit didn't exactly have a good track record for dirty cops. He picked up his cards and tried to focus on not moving and giving away his hand with his tells.

Shawn's thoughts were quiet as he smirked. He immediately threw a handful of candy into the pot before the first card was even drawn.

Gus was saved by Buzz walking up to them, carrying two bags of M&M's and a manilla folder, "Hey, guys, Chief wants you in the conference room."

"Well then, to the conference room we'll go!" Shawn said cheerfully as he stood up. Gus gladly threw down his losing hand and followed suit as Buzz handed over the candy with a grin.

Lassiter and Vick were already sitting at the long table as they entered the room. Shawn and Gus quickly took a seat as Buzz opened his folder and laid out a couple of photos showing the men who had been chasing them.

Buzz pointed to the picture of Blondie, "We're not sure who this guy is yet, but the other one…" he pushed forward the picture of Pointy, "is Michael Rollins. He was arrested for an armed robbery and was released a few months ago."

Shawn tensed at the name, "Wait, did you say Rollins?"

"Yeah, why? Are you getting a vision?" Buzz asked. Gus had to stop himself from glaring at the clueless officer; sometimes he forgot that the names of the people who had hurt Shawn weren't seared into everyone else's brains.

Lassiter reached out and grabbed the folder from Buzz to flip through Rollins' record, "One brother, John Rollins. Who's still in jail for kidnapping and murder."

Buzz's face cleared as he finally recognized the name, "Oh! He was the guy who shot you!"

Gus did glare then; a little tact could go a long way.

Shawn answered with a slight tightness in his voice, "It was his partner that shot me. All he did was knock me out, threaten me a bunch, kill a guy next to me, tie me up in a truck and then try to shoot me. So, you know… not a great guy. Didn't know he had a brother though. Nice to know crime runs in the family. Probably a good bonding experience. I wonder what they did for Christmas, did they just swap stolen goods? That would make the white elephant thing even weirder…"

Gus nudged Shawn's leg gently under the table, cutting him off before he got too far off topic.

"So, a hired gun with a grudge… great." Lassiter sighed.

"Or just a gun with a grudge," Vick said, looking over at Shawn, "How sure are you that they're involved with Novikov?"

"Really?" Shawn asked, sounding more like himself, "You think random bad guys would come after me the exact time we're starting to close in on Badenov?"

"Rocky and Bullwinkle? That was the best you could come up with?" Gus asked in disappointment, knowing Shawn would appreciate the tension break.

Shawn clicked his tongue with a slight smile.

Vick sighed, "Unfortunately, I don't have any officers to spare for a protection detail again. You're obviously welcome to stay here as long as you want… and I called Henry."

"You did what?!" Shawn looked at her in horror, "Why would you do that? Can't you just throw me in the holding cells or something? At least the drunk next door would be decent company!"

"Shawn!" Gus snapped, "I am not spending time in a room that has both a bed and a toilet in it! Your dad's house is like Fort Knox, it'll be fine."

"But it's my dad's house!" Shawn whined back.

Lassiter finished flipping through the folder and slid it across the table towards Shawn, "No known addresses, no known contacts… It's going to be hard to find him."

Shawn picked up the folder and looked through it quickly before sliding it back. "Ugh, fine. Dad's house."

"Thank you," Gus said sincerely.

"Detective?" Vick prompted, looking at Lassiter.

"I can make some calls, we'll see if we can figure out where he is, who he's working for. We've still got our guys going through the Psych cameras. It probably won't tell us anything we don't already know, but we might get lucky," Lassiter's chest reverb thrummed as he traced potential leads in his mind.

"I want you to talk to Agent Cassidy too, find out if this is Novikov's usual MO," Vick ordered, "If it's him, then it could help us take him down. If it's not, then we need to know what the situation is. I don't like my people being in danger, so let's figure this out. Dismissed."

They all left the room and Gus started to walk back to their corner of snacks. Shawn followed before stopping suddenly, his ponging thoughts coloring with dread.

"So, exactly how firm are you on the whole holding cell thing?" Shawn asked quickly.

Before Gus could answer, a voice rang across the room, "Shawn! What have I told you about telling me when someone tries to shoot you!"

Gus turned around and saw Henry bearing down on them, his red face contrasting nicely with his bright yellow Hawaiian shirt. Shawn sighed in resignation, "Technically, I didn't get shot at, so I didn't have to tell you."

Henry snapped back, "A man with a gun was looking for you, that's close enough! Gus!" Gus straightened up as he was dragged into the argument. "You said you'd make sure he called next time!"

"I did make sure he told Juliet he was safe…" Gus tried to defend himself, knowing it was a lost cause.

"Do I look like Juliet to you?!"

Shawn paled, "Oh god. Now I'm going to have nightmares for weeks…"

"Haha," Henry sneered back, "Grab your stuff, let's go. Don't think for a second that I'm letting you out of my sight."

"Does that include the bathroom? Because that's kind of creepy."

Henry crossed his arms and stared back, not saying a word.

Shawn turned with a desperate look, "Gus…"

"No, Shawn. No holding cells." Gus walked over to their corner and grabbed their cards and snacks before returning, Henry looked at his full hands and raised his eyebrows. Gus clutched his stash closer, "What? I'm not letting perfectly good food go to waste."

Henry rolled his eyes and turned around, "Come on, let's go. And stay away from the windows."

"... You do realize we're going outside, right?" Shawn asked as he followed.

Henry didn't dignify it with a response.