Chapter 12

Karen Vick got back to her office, forty-five minutes later than what she had originally planned. She had wanted to go to Henry Spencer's house, and talk some sense into him. Get him to start helping her and everyone else, get Shawn back, but the conversation had not gone as planned.

– – – Flashback– – –

"Hello Karen," Henry said, opening his door so that the woman could come inside, "fancy seeing you here."

"We need to talk," Karen had said, getting straight to the point.

"About?" Henry asked, as if he didn't know.

"Shawn."

"Surprise, surprise," Henry said sarcastically.

"Do you even know what's going on with him right now? Why aren't you trying to help him?"

"Because all that he wants is a little attention. There are better ways of getting it."

"Henry, there's a difference between wanting attention and a cry for help. Guess which one this is? You need to do something."

"Don't tell me how to raise my kid," Henry snarled.

"Well somebody has to, because you're not doing anything. What kind of father let's his son go around in such an obvious state of distress for so long?"

"I know Shawn and he is fine!"

"Well obviously you don't know him as well as you think you do, because he is most definitely not fine!" Both adults were now shouting.

"Well you know what? If he can't be bothered in telling me the truth, then I can't be bothered in helping him."

"Henry," Karen said, lowering her voice, "I never would have thought that as good as a cop you were, that you were just that much worse a father."

Karen turned and started to leave.

"The kid thinks that he's psychic," Henry yelled after her.

"I don't care if he thinks that he's Madonna," Karen shouted, spinning back around to face Henry, "he still needs help."

With those last words she left.

– – – End Flashback– – –

"Chief?"

Being pulled out of her thoughts, Karen looked up to see Mr. Guster standing in her doorway.

"Aw, Mr. Guster," she said, waving the man inside her office, "how did things go with Shawn?"

"Not too well," Gus said with a small shake of his head, "we got into a fight. But Juliet just went to talk to him so..." he trailed off, shrugging his shoulders.

"I saw you leaving Shawn's Dad's house," Gus said after a moment of silence, "you looked...angry."

"I was. My talk with Henry did not go as I had hoped."

"What didn't go as you hoped?" Lassiter asked, entering the office, his arms heavy with different case files.

"My talk with Henry Spencer," Karen told him.

"Again with the Spencer's," Lassiter growled.

"Was there something that you needed?" Karen asked curtly.

Lassiter rolled his eyes. "It can wait 'til later," he said.

"What can wait 'til later?" Juliet asked, entering the office.

"O'Hara," Karen said, before Lassiter had a chance to answer, "what happened? What did Shawn say?"

"He didn't really say anything," Juliet admitted, "Shawn looked really bad, so I just left the file there."

Karen groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I doubt that Shawn is going to read the case of his own accord," Gus said.

"I'll go talk to him tomorrow," Karen said. There was no use in trying again until then. To go at him three times in one day, might be much.

"I don't understand why you even bother," Lassiter said, "it's not like not having him is such a big loss."

"Don't you have some work to get done," Karen asked, an edge to her voice.

"Yes," he said stiffly, and he turned to leave, with Gus right behind him.

"I know you don't really feel that way," Gus said, once they were out of earshot, "because if you did, then you would have told the Chief that Shawn had admitted that he wasn't psychic."

Gus left before Lassiter could respond.

Lassiter couldn't focus on his work for the rest of the day. And he was suddenly more perceptive of the glares that were sent his way. Everyone in the station knew that he worked with Spencer more than everyone one else, and he knew that they all felt that he should try to bring him back. But that wasn't his job, and he wasn't going to go to Spencer, begging for him to come back to work. He just wasn't.

Driving home at the end of the day, Lassiter found himself taking a detour. He wasn't really sure why, or even where he was going. It almost felt as if his body was moving of it's own accord. He wasn't even sure that he had a destination, until he found himself parked outside the elder Spencer's house.

For a while Lassiter sat in his car, wondering what exactly it was that he was wanting to do. Again, he found his body moving of its own accord and a minute later he was knocking on the front door of Henry Spencer's house.

Lassiter had to wait only a moment, until the door swung open and he found himself face to face with a very irrate looking man.

"Why are you here?" Henry demanded, when he saw who was at his door.

"I wish I knew," Lassiter grumbled.

"Listen," Henry snapped, "if you're here to preach to me about my parenting skills, or yell at me for being a 'bad father' then I don't want to hear it."

Henry started to shut the door, but Lassiter stuck his foot in the way and then pulled it back open. He couldn't believe the disrespect that he 'Head Detective of the SBPD' had just been shown. And that's what fueled his speech.

"I don't like Spencer," Lassiter said to the glaring Henry, "he's loud, unruly and obnoxious. Not to mention he's disrespectful and is impossible to get rid of. And I don't know if he is really psychic or not, but he gets the job done and we...we," Lassiter nearly choked on the words, "need him," he finished, looking like he had just swallowed a lemon. "We need him," Lassiter continued on, "but something's wrong. Whether what he had seen was real or not, that doesn't matter, because what he's going through is real. And I know that you must be tired of people telling you to step it up and talk to your son and believe me, I don't believe in codling. But, coming from someone who never had much of a father, sometimes a father is all you need."

With nothing more to say, Lassiter turned around and left, not even bothering to wait and see if Henry had anything to say to him. He just got into his car and drove home. He didn't even notice the stunned look on Henry's face.

A/N: Hey, told you you'd be getting this chapter soon. Hope you enjoyed it, yes I do realize that Shawn was not featured in this one. But the next chapter is going to be from Shawn's POV so we're even. But unfortunately the next chapter will take a bit of time getting out to you. But never fear, you will definitely get an update before the New Year. (Unless my computer crashes and I lose everything) Review :D