Shawn and Gus were sitting inside of the doctor's office. Impatiently waiting for him to come back and give them the results of Shawn's physical. Although they had neglected to mention the hallucinations, they had told the doctor that Shawn had hit his head, after being shocked while changing a lightbulb. After hearing that the doctor had done the whole works to make sure Shawn was okay.
"Shawn, what are you doing?" Gus asked his friend as he watched Shawn comb the room for something.
"I'm looking for his stash," Shawn explained as he looked through the cabinets.
"His what?"
"Of suckers. You know, you go to the doctors if you're sick and if you're a good boy then you get a sucker."
"Shawn, you only get a sucker at the doctor's office if you're a kid."
"I know, and I want one. It's so unfair."
Gus rolled his eyes. Leave it to Shawn to have what was probably his most terrifying experience ever and have him act completely normal at the prospect of a pineapple or banana sucker. Apparently both were very good, and if Shawn found the suckers he wasn't sure which he would have, although he was feeling in a more 'bananay' mood. Unless of course the sucker industry finally decided to make apple flavored suckers, then he would want to try that one, because it was something new.
All in all, Gus couldn't wait for the doctor to come back.
The door to the office opened and a middle-aged man walked inside, causing Shawn to quickly abandon his search.
"Well Mr. Spencer," the doctor said, looking briefly into a manila folder and then shutting it, "you seem to be the picture of health. Your little accident while changing your lightbulb appears to have no affect on you whatsoever. And the only indication that you had hit your head is that bump."
Shawn and Gus stared at the doctor for a moment, shocked. Then they looked at each other.
"You mean, Shawn doesn't have a concussion?" Gus asked, wanting to make sure that he had heard the doctor correctly.
"That's exactly what I'm saying," the doctor confirmed with a nod.
"And his brain wasn't fried when he was electrocuted?" Gus pursued.
The doctor couldn't resist giving Gus a strange look before answering, "he's in a perfect state of health."
"Well that was wholly unexpected," Shawn said as he and Gus made their way out of the hospital and over to the parking lot.
"I don't get it," Gus said, "I just don't get it. How can you not have a concussion? How could you not be hurt in anyway?"
"I'm a very resilient person Gus," Shawn said as Gus unlocked the doors to his car and the two climbed inside. "But what I don't understand now, is what could have caused me to see those ghosts?"
Gus placed his hands on the steering wheel, even though he hadn't started the car yet, and just sat there for a moment, thinking.
"Maybe," Gus said, after a few minutes of silence, "you were just stressed."
"Yes, because stressed people often see ghosts murdering each other," Shawn shot at him.
Gus didn't respond to Shawn's satirical remark, because up until that point the only thing that Shawn had told him, was that he had seen ghosts. He had never mentioned what it was that the ghosts had been doing.
"You were seeing the murder being played out?" Gus finally asked.
Shawn looked at Gus and for a second he thought that Shawn was going to either confirm or deny his guess, but instead he turned forward and opened up the glove compartment.
"What do you have to eat in here?" he asked.
Gus rolled his eyes and started the car. He then pulled out of the parking lot, as Shawn pulled three bags out of the compartment. One was a bag of chips, one had peanuts, and the last held jerky.
Shawn looked at the three bags in contemplation as Gus tried to think of another reason why his friend had seen the things that he had.
"Maybe you were just tired," Gus suggested, even though as he said it he knew that that couldn't be the answer.
"Yeah Gus," Shawn said sarcastically, "because I'm just not me when I don't get my full sixteen hours of sleep."
Shawn turned back to the bags of food, going through his mind which one he wanted to eat the most. Gus, on the other hand, continued to try and figure out something...anything else that could attribute to Shawn's condition. But after about eight minutes of contemplation, he hadn't been able to think of anything.
"So nuts it is then," Shawn said suddenly.
Gus turned to look at Shawn, so that he could tell his friend that he wasn't nuts. But before he had a chance to say anything, Shawn opened up the bag that held the peanuts and popped a few into his mouth. Gus turned back to the road.
So wait, did that mean that Shawn's comment had been referring to the food, or to himself? Gus wondered.
"Both," Shawn said.
"Both what?" Gus asked.
"Huh?" Shawn turned to Gus, "what are you talking about?"
"What are you talking about?" Gus shot back.
"I don't know," Shawn admitted. "I just felt like I should say 'both'."
"Why would you feel like you need to say that?"
Shawn sighed and put his head into his hands. "You know what, I'm feeling really tired. Could you just take me home?"
"Shawn, I'm not so sure that you should be alone right now," Gus told him.
Shawn lifted his head and gave Gus a weak smile. "I promise to call if I see anymore ghosties. Okay?"
Gus thought for a moment and then sighed. He would want to be alone right now too, if he were Shawn.
"Okay."
So Gus took Shawn home, but he didn't leave until he had reminded Shawn, several times, that if he needed to that he could call anytime. And Shawn had thanked Gus, but assured him that he wouldn't be calling.
NEXT MORNING
Gus was drifting somewhere between dream and consciousness. His bed was warm and comfortable and he didn't want to wake up. But he could feel himself leaving his dream-like state as he heard a voice calling his name.
"Guuuuusssss. Guuuuuussss. It's time to wake uuuuuuuupppp Guuuuusssss."
Gus opened his eyes and found himself staring directly into a pair of bright blue ones. This was not something that he had been expecting, so he screamed and in one fluid movement jumped out of bed. That's when he saw that it was Shawn's eyes that he had been staring at, because Shawn was laying on Gus's bed.
"Hahahaha, that was priceless," Shawn said, his whole body shaking with laughter.
"Shawn!" Gus yelled, all of the worry that he had felt for his friend the prior day was gone. "How many times do I have to tell you to not break into my house?"
"Oh Gus relax," Shawn said, getting control of himself.
"How am I supposed to relax when you scare me half to death?" Gus's tone aggravated.
"I don't look that bad," Shawn said, sitting up.
Shawn then sobered up and looked Gus directly in the eye. There was no amusement or sparkle in Shawn's eyes. He was being dead serious now.
"I thought about it all night," Shawn said.
Gus didn't have to asked Shawn what he was talking about. He knew.
"I thought about it, and I think that I know what had happened." Shawn suddenly had Gus's full and undivided attention. "What I saw," he continued, "you know, the ghosts...I think that it was a vision."
That was not what Gus had been expecting to hear.
"Shawn," Gus said, his tone gentle, "you couldn't have had a vision. You don't have visions. You're not psychic."
Gus hadn't even been aware that Shawn had moved, all he knew was that one minute Shawn was on the bed and the next he had Gus flat against the wall. His hands placed firmly against the wall on either side of Gus. Pinning him. And when Shawn lifted his head to look into Gus's eyes, Gus could see a slight desperation in them.
"Gus," Shawn's voice was strained, "right now I'm faced with two options here. One, that I have somehow gained psychic powers and that the ghosts that I saw were really a vision. Or two, that I have undoubtedly and irrevocably lost my mind."
As Gus stared into the tired eyes of his best friend, he realized that Shawn had truly thought this through. He had weighed both options carefully and had, as the saying goes, picked his poison. The option that he had chosen had been one that up until that point he had believed to be unreal. He had decided to condemn himself to being something that he didn't believe actually existed, instead of accepting that he had lost his mind. Which one of the most precious things that Shawn owned.
"So you're psychic now," Gus finally said, his voice also a little strained.
At that comment Shawn's whole countenance changed. He was back to looking like the Shawn that Gus had grown up knowing.
"Apparently," Shawn said, dropping his hands to his side and stepping away from Gus, "possibly...hopefully, I haven't really tested it out yet. So that's why I need you to get dressed pronto. We need to go and get some Chinese food and then go back to the crime scene."
There was so much wrong with what Shawn had just said. Starting with the Chinese food. It was seven in the morning for goodness-sake! Then there was the whole 'go back to the crime scene' thing.
"Why do we have to go back to the crime scene?" Gus asked.
"Because I can't be sure if I have psychic powers, if I don't go back to where I first used them and duplicate what happened, but with results that will help the investigation. Because I might as well actually be insane if I see the same thing but don't get anything useful out of it."
Gus was surprised by how much thought that Shawn had actually put into this. Especially since Shawn never thought anything through.
"Okay," Gus said, "just give me a minute to get dressed. Then we can head out."
"Thank you," Shawn said.
"..."
"Why aren't you getting dressed?"
Gus gave his friend a look of disbelief.
"What?"
"Get out!" Gus shouted, pointing at the door.
Shawn rolled his eyes and heaved a dramatic sigh. "Well if you're going to be like that," he said.
"Yes, I am. Now..." and instead of finishing his sentence, Gus jabbed his finger at the doorway.
Again Shawn sighed, but then he left.
Gus closed the door forcefully and locked it. And for a moment he had to just stand in the middle of his room grinding his teeth. Really, sometimes Shawn could just be so... Gus didn't bother to continue on his train of thought, because if he took too long in getting dressed then Shawn would probably do something really stupid or annoying or both. So as quickly as possible, Gus got dressed and then headed out of his room.
Gus entered his living room, just as Shawn was hanging up his phone.
"Who were you talking to?" Gus asked.
"Just the Chinese place. I ordered ahead. Hope you're okay with noodles, wantons and sweet and sour chicken, because that's what I ordered."
Gus rolled his eyes. "Anything's fine with me," he said, "I'm probably not going to eat any of it anyway."
"But Gus," Shawn said in mock shock, "breakfast is the most important meal of the day. No, I can't let you ruin your whole day and possibly your whole life, just because you want to skip one meal. I'm sorry, but real friends make real friends eat Chinese."
Gus didn't even bother to respond to what Shawn had just said to him. It would be best to just let it go.
"Let's go," Gus said, grabbing his keys and wallet off of the coffee table and heading for the door.
" 'Kay," Shawn said happily, as he trailed behind Gus.
"What restaurant did you order our food at?" Gus asked as he and Shawn got into the car.
"The one that's by our office," Shawn told him, buckling in.
Gus paused, keys in the ignition. Slowly he turned to face Shawn.
"The one by our office?" Gus repeated.
"Yep."
"Shawn," Gus snapped, "that place fifteen minutes in the opposite direction of where we're going."
"I know," Shawn said, unfazed by Gus's anger, "but it's the only Chinese food place that's open at this hour."
Gus growled and started the car. Then he drove to the Chinese place, but not because he wanted to, but because Shawn kept complaining about how he had already ordered the food and about how if they didn't pick the food up then they would loose their credibility there.
Once the two were finally headed in the direction of their original destination, Gus noticed that Shawn had grown quiet again. And when they were all but five minutes away from the house, Shawn had stopped eating.
"Are you okay?" Gus asked, he realized how hard this must be for his friend. For in a few minutes they would finally be able to come to the final conclusion on what was going on with Shawn.
"I'm fine," Shawn said, although anxiety could be heard in his voice.
They were quiet for the remainder of the drive and when the two reached the deserted house, Shawn couldn't suppress a shudder.
"Shawn..." Gus was going to asked if he was okay again, but Shawn beat him to it.
"I can feel the ghosts," Shawn explained. "Come on, let's go."
Shawn and Gus got out of the car and headed up the walk and to the front door. But before they went inside, Shawn stopped. He had to gather his bearings. He knew what was coming and he wasn't looking forward to it. So, with a deep sigh, Shawn stepped into the house.
As it did the first time, the feeling of something being off, came to Shawn. But since he had prepared himself for it, and because he was sure of why he was getting the feeling, it wasn't as bad as it had been the first time. 'Not as bad' meaning that he wasn't frozen in place like the first time. And he was able to continue walking with Gus, supportively by his side, into the living room.
The body had been removed from the middle of the floor and a large red stain on the carpet was the only indication that it had ever been there.
Shawn took a calming breath and waited. And waited. And waited some more.
"Shawn," Gus said quietly, leaning in towards his friend, "are you getting anything?"
"No," Shawn said, his tone frustrated. They had been in the house for over a half-hour now, waiting for the ghosts to show themselves. But as of yet, nothing had happened. "I don't get it," he continued, "why aren't they showing themselves. I know they're here. I can feel them."
A thought occurred to Gus. "Maybe," he said, "you don't really feel them." At the death-glare that Shawn shot at Gus, he continued quickly, "no really. The mind is an amazing thing," as if he needed to tell that to Shawn, "if you believe that you're going to feel ghosts, then your mind can convince your body that you really are. I'm just saying, maybe you've convinced yourself that you can feel the ghosts, because of what you saw the other day. And maybe what happened the other day was just a temporary side-affect of getting electrocuted. I mean, just because you were okay when we got to the doctor's office, doesn't mean that you were okay before that."
Gus waited for Shawn to say something. But Shawn didn't say anything. He only gave Gus a look, that he couldn't place (was it hurt?), and shook his head.
"Shawn..." Gus started, but then trailed off. He didn't know he he should say. He tried again.
"Just think about what I–"
"I don't feel them with my body." Shawn interrupted, looking at the floor instead of Gus. "I feel them with my mind, but I just happen to react to that physically." Shawn looked up at Gus, his eyes showing not anger or confusion or fear but fatigue. Shawn was tired. "Gus, I feel them in my mind and I don't mean my brain, I mean my subconscious. And I'm not seeing any ghosts so I guess we can go and get me a nice white jacket, because it looks like we won't have to worry about returning it."
Gus was silent. He didn't know what to say. Shawn had convinced himself that he was one of two things and now, for him, it looked like he was the option that he didn't want to consider.
"Maybe..." Gus sighed, "I mean... what were you doing? You know... when you first saw the ghosts."
Shawn's eyes lit up. "That's it," he said.
How had he not seen that before? It made perfect sense that he would have to repeat his actions the other day, to get the same results today.
"Stand back," Shawn said to Gus. And then he started to concentrate on the room he was in. On the things he was seeing. Suddenly he heard it. The muffled echo-y sound of voices in his head.
Shawn turned his head and saw two shadowy figures standing just on the other side of the couch. They were talking, but Shawn couldn't make out what they were saying. Although he could make out the tone to be pleasant enough.
Suddenly the tone of the conversation changed. The two men were angry and gesturing wildly at each other. Then one of the ghosts, who Shawn instinctively knew was the victim, started to walk away.
"Are you seeing anything?" Gus asked.
The ghosts flickered.
"Shh," Shawn snapped, not taking his eyes off of the ghosts. He needed to concentrate or he'd lose them.
The ghosts were nearing Shawn and Gus, when the murderer roughly grabbed the victim's upper arm and spun him to face him. But the victim, using the momentum, slugged the murderer in the face.
Shawn noticed something white fly away from the murderer, but the didn't follow where it went, because the victim was sprinting to the other side of the room and if Shawn didn't move then the ghost would have gone right through him.
"Shawn!" Gus said, surprised by the suddenly movement of his friend.
As the ghosts flickered, yet again, Shawn slammed his hand over Gus's mouth. Then, same as the first time, the murderer ran at the victim with the unnervingly realistic baseball bat. And Shawn watched as he swung it at the victim.
There was a loud crack, one that Shawn didn't remember, and the victim crumpled. But even though he was on the ground now, and bleeding shadowy blood, the murderer swung the bat at him again. And again. And again.
Shawn didn't wait for the murderer to finish the job. He looked away, breaking his concentration. And the moment it was broken, the sound of wood hitting bone stopped.
"Are you okay?" Gus asked, worry obvious in his tone.
Shawn looked at his friend. His arm was still raised as if he was covering Gus's mouth, but he had unconciously lowered it, so that if Gus hadn't stepped back then Shawn would have been covering his collarbone.
"Uh...yeah," Shawn said, lowering his hand.
"Are you sure?" Gus inquired. "Because you had the same look on your face that I get when I'm watching one of your horror movies."
"Gus, don't ever say that I make that face."
"I'm just saying..." there was a moment of awkward silence. "So, did you see anything useful?"
"I'm not sure. I think that the murderer lost a tooth. But I don't know where to look for it."
"You saw the murderer?" Gus asked, sounding impressed.
"Not exactly. He was too blurry to make out," Shawn said as he walked over to the general area of where the tooth had flown. "It's somewhere around here," he said, "but I missed where it fell." Shawn quickly scanned the floor, then he turned to Gus and asked, "Did the police say anything about finding a tooth? Maybe they got it already."
"I don't know," Gus said. "Maybe you should watch the ghosts again."
Shawn turned away from Gus and bit the inside of his cheek nervously. He didn't mind having to watch the ghosts again, as long as he could stop before he had to watch the actual murder. But he was worried that when he saw them again, that they would just start up where he had left off.
"Shawn," Gus said, moving to look at Shawn's face.
"Okay," Shawn said, masking the worry on his face, "sounds like a plan."
Again Shawn started to scan the room, and when the voices came he looked over at the stained blood on the carpet, expecting to see the murderer finishing the job. But he wasn't there, so Shawn looked over at the couch and saw the two men.
Inwardly Shawn sighed with relief, and he watched the two men. And when the tooth flew out of the murderer's mouth, he followed it and saw that it hit the floor and slid under the small opening of a large, black bookcase.
"Aha," Shawn cried out, causing the ghost's vanished.
"What?" Gus asked. But Shawn didn't answer. Instead he dove to the floor and looked under the bookcase, but it was too dark to see anything.
"Gus give me your keys," Shawn demanded, holding his hand out.
"What? No," Gus said.
"Gus!"
"Why?"
"Because you have that light on your key-chain and I need it."
Gus dug his keys out of his pocket and placed them in Shawn's hand.
"Thank you," Shawn said and he turned on the small, but powerful, light and shone it under the bookcase. "Bingo," he said.
"Shawn–"
"Fine, Yahtzee."
"No n–"
"Okay eureka. There, that's not a board game. We've no problem now."
"I wasn't talking about that," Gus said defensively, "I just wanted to know if you found the tooth."
"Oh...yeah I found it," Shawn said, his tone slightly indifferent.
Gus rolled his eyes.
"Oh don't be like that," Shawn said, standing up, "we got the tooth and I got a new word."
Gus gave Shawn a questioning look.
"Eureka," Shawn said. "I never realized what a cool word that is until this moment."
Gus gave an aggravated sigh.
"You can sigh later," Shawn said, shoving the keys into Gus's hands, "right now we have to get to the station. I have a case to solve."
EurekaEurekaEurekaEurekaEurekaEurekaEurekaEurekaEurekaEurekaEurekaEurekaEurekaEurekaEurekaEurekaEurekaEurekaEureka
"I don't know what you're talking about. You must have imagined it."
"Mr. Spencer, please don't tell me that you're here for the sole purpose of arguing with Detective O'Hara," Chief Vick said, cutting into Shawn and Juliet's argument.
Right now Shawn, Gus, Juliet, Lassiter, and Chief Vick were all in the latter's office. Shawn had gone in there to have a 'vision' of the tooth, but Juliet had followed him into the Chief's office (Lassiter was already in there) saying that she was glad that he was okay after his 'episode' in the crime scene the other day.
"Well it's not my sole purpose," Shawn said. "I actually came here because I was getting some strange vibes about the house." Shawn squeezed his eyes shut and brought his hands up to his head. "I'm seeing...the ocean. No, the sea...no wait, not the sea. I'm seeing fish. Shellfish. Muscles. Clams. Oysters. NO! Not oysters... pearls," Shawn screwed his face up in confusion, "that's not right. Pearls...pearls...per...pearly whites?" Shawn's eyes shot open. "Teeth!," he shouted. "I'm seeing teeth. But not just any teeth. There's only one. And it belongs to the murderer."
"Well most people do have teeth," Lassiter said, sounding annoyed and like listening to Shawn was a waste of time.
"No," Shawn said, "not babies and not really, really old people."
Lassiter looked like he would love nothing better than to pick Shawn up and physically throw him out of the police station.
"Well I doubt that Mr. Kinkle was murdered by a child or a senior citizen," Lassiter snapped.
"Good," Shawn said, "we're on the same page." Then, ignoring Lassiter's glare, Shawn brought his hands back up to his head. "I'm sensing a fight," he told them, "the murderer lost a tooth. And it fell and it slid under something. But," Shawn momentarily screwed his face up again, "I don't know what. I'm getting the color black and books. Lots of books."
"Bookcase," Juliet said, "there was a black bookcase in the house."
"Yes," Shawn said, "yes the bookcase. The tooth is under the book case."
"Well," Chief Vick said, "Detective Lassiter, O'Hara, I want you two to go down to the house and see if you can get that tooth. Then I want you to find out who it belongs to."
"Right on it," Juliet said and she left the room with a slightly dejected looking Lassiter following behind.
Chief Vick turned to look at Shawn and Gus, she said, "I'll call you if we get anything."
"Right-O Chief," Shawn said and he marched out of the room, Gus following closely behind.
Neither Gus or Shawn talked until they reached Psych.
"Will it really do any good?" Gus asked after he and Shawn had been in the office for awhile.
"Will what really do any good?" Shawn asked, sitting upside-down on his spinning-chair.
"Finding the tooth," Gus said. Shawn gave him a confused look, so he explained further, "well, you did see the murderers ghost. So doesn't that mean that he's dead too?"
"No," Shawn said, sitting right-side-up, "that doesn't mean that at all. Gus, it was the victim's ghost that was showing me the murder. That's why everything was so blurry. It was one person playing out two roles."
"Well what if the murderer was dead? Then would everything be clear?"
Shawn thought a moment. "No," he finally said, "it'd still be blurry."
"How do you know?"
"I don't know. I just do. It comes with the territory."
Before Gus could say anything else, Shawn's phone started to ring.
"Hold on," Shawn said and he answered his phone. "Hello? Oh hi Juliet."
This time Gus tried to listen to his friend's conversation, but not only did Shawn not really say anything, but he kept his face clear and impassive, so that Gus couldn't read his emotions.
"Okay, thank you Jules," Shawn concluded, "goodbye."
"Well?" Gus asked, leaning forward eagerly in his chair.
A small smirk tugged at the corners of Shawn's lips as he said, "it's official. I'm psychic."
Gus's eyes widened. "What did she say?" he demanded.
Shawn's face broke into a smile. "Well they found the tooth," he started, "and when they saw that it was one of the front teeth, they remembered that when they had been questioning the cousin, that he had been missing a front tooth. So they called him back to the station and when they confronted him with the evidence he broke down and confessed to everything."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Wow."
"I know. Now come on, we have to go back to the house."
"What?" Gus shouted, jumping up from his chair. "Go back to the house? Why do we have to go back to the house?"
Shawn stood up. "Because the murder's been solved," he said, "and I need to know if I see the ghosts of unsolved murders or just murders in general."
Gus needed a bit more convincing, but very shortly the two friends found themselves back at the crime scene. But unlike the other times that they had gone to the house, Shawn didn't seem to be as nervous. In fact, when he stepped over the threshold he didn't stiffen up. He just stopped and stood in the entryway for a moment. Then he turned back to Gus, a giant smile spread across his face.
"Let's go," Shawn said. And the two left.
A/N: Well that's chapter three. And it looks like Shawn only sees the ghosts of unsolved murders. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'm sorry that it took me so long to update. And please review if you liked it, because reviews seem to guilt me into typing.
:D