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Chapter 16:
Every secret tells a story
A new week had begun as the station buzzed with activity. It was already a good day because McNab, of all people, was able to find Dr. Joseph Emerson hiding in Durham, England. The only problem now was finding a way to get the scientist stateside.
Then Henry suggested that they fake the death of Emerson's mother. The elderly woman still lived in Santa Barbara and was a little too eager to help in baiting their trap.
As everyone was working on this trap idea, Shawn was taking a real interest in Lassiter's behavior. The Head Detective looked fine and acted normal but something was just off about him.
As Shawn and Gus sat in the blueberry eating their favorite burritos from Mouth of the Border food truck, Shawn asked "Hey Gus... recently has Lassie seemed...I dunno off to you?"
"Shawn that man's always been off." Then Gus made a 'pffing' sound and stated, "I really don't think he was ever quite 'on'."
"Hm. That is true, I can't deny that. But I'm serious Gus. Lassie's been acting more strange than usual! Like a couple of days before McKinley left I heard him muttering to himself about Lassie's eyes flashing red."
"Shawn you can't take the mutterings of a pissed and sleep deprived detective as clues to anything."
"But what if it did!" Shawn insisted.
"Well, red eyes are a common occurrence of..."
"That's not what I mean and know it Gus. Just...just humor me. What would freak out a hardened detective that has red eyes?"
"Red eyes could indicate a high ranking demon. I read some place before that the unknown leader of the Knights of Hell was rumored to had red eyes and that his powers shot forth in a blood red color."
"That's not it...but we're getting close."
"Come on son! You can't be serious!"
"No, you come on son! Lassie's not been totally the same after the Lab accident. I mean really. Do you believe for one second that straight and narrow Lassie got a strange call in the middle of the night and went and found Mia? All the while, he never called for Jules or backup of any kind. Do really honestly believe that."
"Okay, you have a small, small point. But what you're implying something even more outrageous! You're implying that Lassiter went and not only found Mia by himself -something we couldn't do in a day and a half- but he also took down a factory worth of guards with big guns. Shawn. That's not humanly possible!"
Before Shawn could refute the matter, his green psych phone rung in his pocket. After talking with Juliet for a minute or so, Shawn and Gus were driving back to the department.
After the psychic duo came into the building, they were immediately pulled into a conference room by Henry.
Lassiter was going over the plan on how the trap would work and as he finished he asked, "Any questions?"
Shawn raised his hand and bounced his seat slightly saying, "Ooh me! Me Lassie! I gotta question!"
Lassiter pinched the bridge of his nose as he motioned for Shawn to ask his question.
Shawn asked, "Are you feeling alright?"
"What? Spencer that was you question?!"
"Well yeah. You're my buddy too. And besides you look a little pale and under the weather. It's not like you're a vampire or..."
With his face pulled into an angry frown, Lassiter said, "Please be finished."
"Okay. But aren't you going to threaten to shoot me? That's how our back-and-forth usually ends."
"I'm just too busy to maintain my usual level of disdain for you two." Lassiter said as he walked away.
"Shawn what was that about?" Juliet said, while Henry starred at his son.
"Well..." Shawn began but was cut off by Gus saying, "Shawn thinks Lassie is a Knight of Hell or a vampire."
"What?! Shawn you need to stop watching those freaking old time horror movies," vocalized Henry with Juliet nodding in agreement.
"Guys come on! I don't think Lassie's any of those things. I just..." Again Shawn was cut off but this time by Lassiter yelling his usual "Let's get to work!" Which made them scramble to get back to making the trap go off, hopefully, without a hitch.
By midweek the trap was set and the faux funeral was in place and the congregation was filled with undercover officers. The bogus ceremony was being held outside as Shawn and Gus wore button cameras to live stream the footage back to the unmarked van where Lassiter and Juliet were.
As the factitious ceremony concluded, Shawn and Gus led the distraught Dr. Emerson away to a park bench. And in a matter of moments, Lassiter and Juliet flanked both sides of the bench and proceeded to inform the scientist that they needed to speak with him about Life Foundation.
Dr. Emerson was very nervous as he constantly was looking over his shoulder. "Detectives I-I just c-can't help you. They threatened my wife. They said they'd kill both of us."
"Dr. Emerson, I swear on Judge Judy we will do everything in my power to protect you and your wife. But we help you if you tell us what's going on." Lassiter said confidence.
"That's right doctor. We can only do so much if you don't tell us what's going on." Juliet said. But as she was talking with the jumpy scientist, Lassiter caught the reflection of something aiming for the back of Juliet's head and ultimately the scientist's chest as he stood in front of Lassiter's partner. Thinking quickly, Lassiter shoved both of them on the ground yelling, "Get Down!"
Thankfully only two more shots were taken as the other officers around not only returned fire but also a four man team went looking for the perpetrator assembled in a diamond formation.
Still under the heavy weight of the Head Detective, Emerson said, "You see! That's why I..." Juliet cut him off when she noticed the pained expression on her partner's face as he rolled off of them asking, "Carlton are you okay?"
Lassiter sat up and pulled an empty syringe dart from his shoulder and gruffly said, "Yeah. I'm okay."
"Carlton! What is that?"
"I don't know O'Hara. All I do know is that I saw something coming at Emerson but you were in front of him. This thing was going to go right through you to get to him."
"What!?" Emerson exclaimed. "Look I'm out of here."
"Oh no you're not!" Lassiter said as he got to his feet and grabbed a dust full of the scientist's shirt. Everyone could see the angry veins appear in Lassiter's neck as he growled in the man's face. "Now look Emerson. Whatever that thing was, I took it for you. So you're coming with us whether you like it or not. You owe me Emerson!"
With his head hanging in defeat, "Alright detective. You win. But let me tell you what I know somewhere other than the station. Killers are everywhere."
"Alright. We're going to take you to our consultant advisor's home. Spencer call your dad and tell him we're going to met him there." Shawn dialed his father as Juliet spoke to Lassiter. She was a little angry with him but her anger was mixed with concern. "Carlton you need to go to the hospital. We don't know what was in that syringe."
"O'Hara, we need to ask Emerson some questions first."
"No, I need to. You need to go to the doctor."
"Look O'Hara...let me help with this first and as soon as we question him together, you can take me to the doctor."
"Carlton I'm not agreeing to do that."
"I won't argue with you or the doctor if you agree." Lassiter persuaded.
"Done!" Juliet said in agreement.
Henry's house...
As the two detectives escorted Emerson inside Henry's beach home -followed by Shawn, Gus, and Henry himself-, Lassiter felt a weird tingling sensation grow throughout his body.
Get it together Lassiter. Lassiter thought to himself as he continued to resist the overwhelming urge to vomit and pass out right there at that very moment.
"Would anyone like anything to drink? I've got tea, juice, and possibly a beer for you Doc." Henry politely offered.
"I'll take a beer thank you."
"I'll take some water." Lassiter said leaning against the wall next to the couch as he loosened his tie. Everyone else turned down the Henry's offer.
It only took less than minute for Henry to come back and hand the two men their beverages; however, to Lassiter it felt like an hour in the desert.
In one swift gulp, Lassiter downed an entire glass of water.
"Lassie are you alright?" Gus asked the older detective.
Without answering, Lassiter unintentionally dropped the glass and was unfazed as it shattered at his size 12 narrowed feet. The Head Detective started shivering as he forcibly yanked his tie from around his neck.
"Carlton!" Juliet exclaimed in worry for her partner. As she got up from her chair and crossed the room to him, Lassiter was practically bent over grasping the arm of the couch in a tight white-knuckled fist. But Juliet stopped in her tracks as she and everyone's eyes went wide as an inhuman growl came out of Lassiter.
Then suddenly Lassiter's body started to convulse with pain, agony, and torment as he fell onto the hardwood floor.
As he thrashed there growling, he looked at Juliet with a gaze of pure terror. This look snapped Juliet out of her stupor as she rushed to restrict the Irishman's uncontrollable thrashings. The others soon joined in, but Shawn noticed something that made him lose his voice. Through Lassiter's mouth agape, the pseudo psychic saw the shape long animalistic fangs. Because of Shawn's expression, the others followed his gaze and saw the same thing.
"What the hell is going on?!" Henry exclaimed.
"I don't know!" Juliet retorted.
"Do you think that dart thing did this?" Gus asked.
"Guys I don't know! I just know that we gotta keep him stable long enough for one of us to reach the phone and call a paramedic." But the idea was completely thrown out of the nearest window when Lassiter's eyes changed from his normal beautiful blue colored ones to a terrifying red color.
Then Lassiter abruptly arched his back slightly as a glob of black ooze started to emerge from his mouth and his veins, along with the strange F shaped mark on his arm, glowed red. Then a second later, his back collapsed once again to the floor and he suddenly stopped his constant growling.
As the occupants slowly released their friend they looked at each other in worry and terror. But it wasn't for long though. Because then they saw their friend change right before their eyes into a huge, horned, black monster. They immediately scrambled away from the being that was Lassiter's prone form on the floor. Then suddenly and a little shaky, Lassiter rolled over and struggled to get onto his knees. Lassiter then moved his giant horned head look at them with his deadly demonic red eyes.
"No. Body. Move." Henry ordered slowly.
Juliet could only stare into the red eyes as her mouth was completely slack now. Her partner and best friend had disappeared within this giant blackened skinned monster before her very eyes.
As the red eyes moved from person to person, Gus made a whimpering sound as those very eyes finally found their way into his direction.
But to their dismay and horror, Lassiter's red eyes clenched in agony as his body forcibly started to shift back with sickening crunches. His body then started to shift and faze in and out of his normal body to the monstrous body continually.
"Shawn call Woody and tell him to drop whatever he's doing and come here now!" Juliet ordered still watching her friend as he was now on his feet grips his head in agony as his body continued to fight itself over which form to take.
"Juliet I'll call McNab to bring Dr. Skirth!" Henry said already dialing.
"Tell her to bring Butorzyme." Emerson said looking at the detective in horror.
"You know what's going on with Carlton?" Juliet demanded as she now hand a fish full of Emerson's shirt.
"I don't know why he's in pain! But I do know that this is some form of the biosuit project."
Any other part of the confession was cut off by Lassiter. In his monstrous beast form, he lent back on his knees as a Jurassic like roar burst forth from his gaping jaws.
As they all waited for help to arrive, the team and Dr. Emerson could only watch in dismay and helplessness as Lassiter writhed in agony.
Lassiter felt in this terrible regularity of changing constantly without a break was causing serious damage to his body. His arms and legs kept elongating. His tendons were in a constant state of stretching. His gums ached at the constant growing and retracting of sharp teeth. But then as he still was shifting, the door burst opened to reveal not only Woody and Doris but also McNab, Chief Vick, and Mia.
Through the haze of pain Lassiter felt shock and horror at his more people seeing him like this. Lassiter's shock was expressed verbally by Juliet. "Chief what're you doing here? And why is Mia here?"
Distracted for a few seconds by the sight of her head detective metamorphizing, Karen was brought back to her sense as McNab and Henry pulled her and Mia away from Lassiter, who was writhing in pain to close to where they were originally standing.
"I got a call from Dr. Skirth wanting to talk with me. And to answer your other question, McNab had Mia when he came to get Dr. Skirth and said something was wrong with Lassiter. But what's happened to Carlton?!"
"We'll explain later! Right now, we need Doris to fix this." Juliet said.
"I can't fix this... but I do have something that'll definitely help. The Butorzyme is a strong pain killer and even stronger sedative designed for this type of situation."
"Do it!" The adults said in unison.
Just as Doris filled a large needle with medication and approached the large monster, she felt two small hands shove her. Doris then looked down and saw Mia standing protectively in front of Lassiter.
"No shots! Don't hurt Mr. Car!
"Look Mia. It's okay. I'm not going to hurt Mr. Car." Doris said in a rush but while trying to gently shove the child out of the way. Because of this though, Lassiter-with all his might- forced himself to stay in his monster form. Lassiter rose to his feet and bared his many sharp teeth at Doris.
The downright terrifying Lassiter scared everyone in the room except Mia, who was now smiling up at the terrifying creature.
Now looking to prevent anyone getting maimed or worse, Juliet said calmly, "Carlton it's okay. No one is going to hurt Mia. We just want to help you. You promised me you'd let us help you. Remember?" The red eyes squinted themselves at her in recognition but still refused to move. So Juliet tried a different approach, "Mia…I promise you that Mr. Car will okay. But right now he's very sick and he needs this medicine to not hurt anymore."
"He won't get in trouble 'cause of his par'site?" Mia said with suspicion.
The adults in the room were flabbergasted by Mia's foresight into the scary situation. But it also revealed that Mia knew something of what was happening. Juliet stored this away for later and said, "Yes Mia. I promise he won't get in trouble."
Mia stood there in front of Lassiter for a moment thinking about what was just said before glancing back at the heaving beast behind her. The little girl then nodded and walked over to Lassiter's massive leg and said defiantly, "Okay. But I'm staying right here."
Doris responded as she approached the pair, "That's okay. It'll help him anyway."
"Be careful doctor. I'm not sure if he'll attack you in this form as of yet." Dr. Emerson said in a shaky voice.
"I will be careful Joseph." Doris said as Lassiter knelt in front of the woman. As he was now at a somewhat eye level, Doris told Lassiter, "Detective. I know you're in pain and this was the first moment you were able to take control of your body once again. But I need you to transform back to normal. Or least your face and neck."
For the first time in two hours, Lassiter spoke in a quiet but rumbling scary voice. "WhY?"
"Because the needle won't penetrate through your biosuit."
Lassiter nodded and in excrutiating pain forced some of his normal face to come through; however, his face was the only part that came through. He still had two black horns protruding through his forehead as some of his sweat glistened hair mopped over them.
"Just a little more detective."
Lassiter looked at her in anguish and tried again. This time the horns receded completely from view and his normal pale neck came through the ooze. Doris quickly approached the monster-man and injected the drug into his complex system.
Within minutes, the Butorzyme started to take effect. And Lassiter tried to fight the encroaching darkness of slumber but soon lost the battle. As he lost consciousness he wavered and started to fall to the floor. Thankfully, Doris and McNab grabbed the heavy beast and gently lowered to the floor.
"Is he going to be alright Doris?" Juliet said as she never took her eyes off of her partner's prone and unconscious body lying on the floor.
"Like I said before, I just stopped his pain by putting him to sleep. What we need to do now is find Dr. Victor Guitirrez. He's a professor at Santa Barbara Community College. He worked on the original form of this project for the government at the time. He'll know how to fix this…if he can." As Doris finished her explanation, Lassiter completely reverted back to his normal body but then four massive black tendrils burst through his back. "McNab go find this man now! Drag him here in cuffs if you have to," Karen commanded as she watched Mia cuddle up to Lassiter's side and then the man subconsciously wrapped a muscular tendril around her tiny form.
One hour later…
McNab came back with a well-dressed, annoyed older man. The man looked to be Hispanic, was of average height, and was slightly balding. In a pleasant-sounding voice, he said, "Alright I'm here what do you people want with…" The man-obviously Dr. Victor Guitirrez- trailed off as he saw Lassiter still sleeping on the floor with one of his tendrils wrapped around a sleeping child at his side.
"Okay…this was worth being pulled out of lunch for. But how can I help?"
"Dr. Guitirrez I'm Dr. Doris Skirth and that's my unwilling colleague Dr. Joseph Emerson. We worked for Life Foundation and worked on this project…"
"Project Abyss. Yes, I'm fully aware of that. But I don't understand what's this got to do with me."
"You worked on this before any of us. And we need your help as to fixing Detective Lassiter here."
"Well as you know the biosuit bonding process is permanent and there is no cure for that. The suit and the man are one now. You cannot separate the two. However, on the way here Officer McNab here explained to me what happened and said that the detective on the floor kept... changing?"
Everyone in the room nodded. "Well…what did you give him?"
"Butorzyme."
"Ah. Well, Butorzyme will flush out any trace of other drugs in his system. That is if whatever you turned Detective Lassiter into won't reject the drug."
"We didn't turn him into anything. We actually don't know how he got the biosuit."
"Umm well that's not true." Shawn said, surprising everyone.
"What do you mean Mr. Spencer?" Karen asked.
"I think when Lassie had that accident at the lab…well that's probably where he got the suit. I mean those two vats of goo did fall on him and the liquid gooey things were never found." Shawn replied.
"We thought the goo was vaporized in the electrocution."
"Apparently not…because generally there are only a few weaknesses our biosuits have and that's fire. Seeing as there were no fires caused by the electrocution the biosuit didn't fry." Doris explained.
"Did detective Lassiter have any open wounds from that accident?" Dr. Guittirrez asked.
Gus answered, "Oh yes! He died twice."
"Well your friend is very blessed. If I'm correct, the biosuit saved his life as it bonded with him. If it weren't there, your friend would have definitely have died."
Juliet clapped her hands over her mouth in horror and starred at Lassiter's body.
Just then Mia started to stir from her slumber and Karen called to her gently, "Mia. Come here. We need your help with something." Mia quietly extracted herself from the muscular tendril surrounding her and walked to a now kneeling Karen.
"Mia. I need you to tell me what you know about Carlton's…what did you call it… 'parasite."
"I can't."
"Why?" Henry asked, now kneeling next to the chief.
"Because Mr. Car said he didn't know whether or not he'd get in trouble."
"I promise that he won't get in trouble Mia." Karen said, trying to reassure the child.
"Then can we just wait until he wakes up?" The adults were shocked by Mia's innocent question and found it a little amusing that the child was so protective of Lassiter. Soon as she said this though, Lassiter groaned as he started waking up. And as he was waking up, the black tendrils got sucked back into his back.
"Oooh" again groaned Lassiter as he brought himself into a kneeling position. Everyone was glad that he looked to not be in pain anymore and then Mia threw herself into the unsuspecting Lassiter's arms. Still sitting on the ground, the Head Detective caught her with a loud 'Oof.'
Then he looked around curiously before locking his big blue eyes with Juliet's own eyes and asked, "O'Hara? How did we get here? And Guster why are you hiding behind McNab?"
"Wait a second…you don't remember how you got here?" asked Henry.
"If I remembered I wouldn't have asked," Lassiter muttered darkly and bitterly as he roughly ran his free hand through his lightly peppered but still mostly jet black hair.
"So just to be clear…Lassie you don't remember going beast mode on us?" Shawn asked.
Lassiter simply arched an unamused eyebrow at the younger man and Shawn got the distinct idea that Lassiter was considering pulling his gun out on him.
But thankfully, Karen and Doris explained what happened to him. And as the explanation came to an end, Lassiter was hanging his head in shame. He didn't like having the people he cared about in the crosshairs of danger. Especially when he, himself, was the present danger.
"Mia. Go upstairs and play. And before you ask, no Mr. Car isn't in trouble." Henry told the child. Happy with that bit of information, Mia hugged Lassiter one last time and ran upstairs with Cuddles in tow.
"Carlton why didn't you tell us?" Juliet asked with a hurt expression.
"Because I just couldn't tell you."
"That's a load of bull Lassiter and you know it!" Henry said.
"No it isn't! Look I live on facts. I survive on facts. And the fact is, I don't know what I am anymore! I don't believe in this kind of bullcrunch and here I am turning into something that'd make Freddy Krueger piss his pants. And you wanna know the worst part? I can't live in knowing that the people I work with and care for will from now on look at me and see the monster that I've become!" Lassiter said. Shocked by his tirade, everyone stood in silence.
But then Dr. Guittirrez broke the silence and said, "Detective Lassiter. I'm Dr. Guittirrez. I was pulled out of a lunch phone call meeting to come here. Now these people obviously don't think you're a monster because they'd never would have fought to save you if you were such a beast."
"That's right Carlton! We don't and never will think of you as such." Juliet said with a fiery look in her eyes.
"Aaannnd... I think we'd have Mimi to answer to if we did." Shawn said with a big toothy smile. "Isn't that right Gus." Gus came out from behind McNab and put down the spatula he miraculously found to defend himself if need be, saying, "Uhh…yeah."
Everyone shook their heads in silent amusement at Gus.
"Alright. So... now what?" Lassiter asked skeptically.
"Now we set some need to know rules for you and everyone here about your new way of life Detective Lassiter."
At Nasir Drake's Mansion…
Nasir Drake was pacing his grand study in utter frustration. "So, let me get this straight. You all not only could not keep a little girl from being taken from our factory. A factory that's now been taken over by the hicks of the SBPD. But now you all are telling me that you couldn't shoot Dr. Emerson with the Ampygestrel! That same drug would've killed him in one go!" yelled Nasir.
The four occupants simply hung their heads in shame.
"Unbelievable… is there anything going right anymore?"
Then the door opened and Larry McKinley walked into the room. The egomaniac of a detective answered, "Oh yes sir Mr. Drake. I was able to break into the SBPD like you requested and broke Heather, Billy, and Cole out of their cells."
"Well, Detective McKinley. You were certainly worth the investment I put into you," Nasir said, "Now it's time to up for that sweet revenge I promised you."
TBC
A/N: So I hope you all enjoyed this big reveal! Some of the quotes are from the Psych Shawn and Gus Truck Things Up. Butorzyme is a fictional medication that I came up with. Oh, and did anyone catch that Supernatural reference I put in about Knight of Hell? *dancing like a dork in the corner* Please continue to R/R!