"-CHUW!" Shawn groaned, rubbing his nose. Of all the times…

He suppressed the next sneeze valiantly, but the effort made his head hurt. Still, it was a small sacrifice to make in light of the greater good. That greater good being the avoidance of an accident suddenly occurring up ahead- which he would likely NOT be able to do if his eyes kept squeezing shut involuntarily every time he- "CHUW!" Dammit! Why did Gus have to insist on attending his little pharmaceutical pow-wow anyway? He'd actually be far happier, for once, if he was cuddled up in a car.

Slowing his bike with the traffic, he flipped up his visor and spit to the side. Wiping a thumb across his lips, he rolled to a complete stop. Around him, other drivers stopped as well; most with looks of irritated defeat. A couple of the more enterprising members of the sudden parking lot conditions used their horns to voice disapproval over the forced halt. Purposefully ignoring them all, Shawn took the opportunity to slide off his bike and remove his helmet. Turning off the rumbling machine, he decided to indulge his curiosity and investigate the accident for himself. It wasn't as though traffic would be progressing forward for a while in any event.

Rounding the crunched side of a toppled SUV, he noted the driver resting by the side of the freeway, a bunched shirt clutched in his hand and held tightly to his bleeding temple. By his side, a slender woman was speaking rapidly on a cell phone. Though moderately battered, the guy didn't appear to be dying… not that Shawn was capable of preventing that if he were. He was a psychic, not a doctor after all. Okay, he wasn't a psychic either. Much. But he did have great hair.

Further ahead, he could see the main source of the crash. Tucking his helmet under his arm, he slid around a smoking Subaru and approached the wreckage. Distantly, he could hear sirens as emergency vehicles attempted a delayed response. Feet crunching over slightly steamed tar, Shawn examined the three vehicles tangled together. It looked like a small station wagon had tried to play hopscotch with a Durango. In the process, it also brought in a lime green Festiva just for fun. If he had to guess, Shawn would figure total loss for every vehicle involved. Thankfully, though, it looked like the drivers had all managed to escape moderately undead. Though, by the look of a sickly dangling arm, one of the victims was going to need more than painkillers. Turning his head to sneeze again, something bright flashed across Shawn's vision. Blinking at the afterimage, he glanced up to see a small pond about fifteen feet to the right of the accident. Immediately his eyes widened as he saw the chrome bumper protruding from the depths.

"Oh God…"

Dropping his helmet, he raced forward through the thick brown grass filling the ditch. "SOMEBODY CALL FOR HELP! THERE'S SOMEONE IN THE WATER!!" he shouted over his shoulder. Not looking to see if anyone was responding, he scrambled across the short stretch of mushy earth towards the sunken car. A dart of panic consumed him when he saw the small hand pressed against the back window. Just before he reached the water, a woman surfaced, coughing and thrashing as she gripped the edge of the car.

"MIA! MIA!!" She looked up as Shawn leaped into the water near her. "MY DAUGHTER! HELP!!"

Not wasting a second, Shawn dove beneath the dank surface, kicking towards the open window the woman had escaped from. Pulling himself through the tiny opening, he looked towards the rear of the vehicle to see the girl, Mia, weakly slapping her hands against the rear windshield. Even as he wrestled his way over the front seat, her arms slowly went limp. Desperately, he lunged out his hand and caught the edge of her shirt with two fingers. Tugging her towards himself, he turned back to the window and saw the mother there. Dragging himself and the girl back over the front seats, he pushed the child at mother- who immediately wrapped an arm around the small chest and swam for the surface. Then, lungs already screaming, Shawn proceeded to follow her. Bracing his hands on the rim of the window, he started to push off from the inside of the car.

There was no warning.

Before he could escape, the vehicle suddenly dropped another four feet, bringing him with it. Then, almost as suddenly, it stopped; a cloud of debris boiling up from the sediment below as the vehicle thudded to an abrupt rest. His chest throbbing, Shawn made a second attempt to escape. Half his body hanging from the open window, he positioned his feet against the center console and pushed off… only to snap to a painful halt as something seemed to reach out and grab his foot. What! He turned his head sharply, but couldn't see through the drifting murk. Something was definitely tangled around his foot, but even as he kicked desperately, he could feel himself weakening. Feeling down his leg, he came across thin hard fabric. The damn seatbelt! It had somehow become tangled around his left ankle! Spots wafted across his eyes as he fumbled with the heavy material. It shouldn't be this difficult to get free! But in spite of his struggle, he just couldn't seem to make sense of the simple entanglement. By now, the edges of his vision had begun to darken. His body jerked as he battled the crushing need to inhale. Just before he blacked out, he had a second to reflect that, of all the times his dad wanted him to trade in his bike for a safer vehicle, it was the safety feature of this safer vehicle that would kill him.

0o0o0o0o0

"Guuaaahhhh!!!!" He blurted, expelling a gout of tepid water before flopping back to the ground, gasping harshly. After a second, he opened his eyes and looked up, noting distantly that his chest hurt.

"Oh thank God!" Breathed a shaken female voice somewhere out of his line of sight. Someone was leaning over him, and after a moment of confused scrutiny, he realized it was an EMT.

"You're gonna be okay buddy. Let's get you in the ambulance so we can check you out."

Still groggy and most definitely unsteady, he allowed the medical tech to support him as he wobbled to one of the ambulances parked near the accident. Absently he noted that traffic seemed to slowly be moving forward again as police cars directed vehicles around the pile of twisted metal. Finally, Shawn reached the back of the ambulance, and let his knees unhinge as he dropped to the metal floor, legs dangling to the ground. One of the EMTs wrapped a blood pressure cuff around his arm while another checked his airway and pupil response. "Can you tell me your name?"

"Shawn Spencer." He coughed roughly as he rubbed a free hand across his forehead.

"Do you feel lightheaded?"

He shook his head. "No."

"Any tightness in your chest?"

He winced, pressing his palm against his sternum. "Not really tightness… it kinda hurts a little though…"

"Probably from the CPR…"

"CPwhat!? You had to do CPR on me?!" He half stood, only to be pushed back down firmly with a hand on his shoulder.

"Sir, you weren't breathing when rescuers brought you to the surface. However, we were quickly able to revive you, so you hopefully didn't sustain any lasting injuries. However, I'd like to get you to the hospital for a more thorough exam…"

"I'm gonna have to pass on that." He said quickly, gaining his feet despite the protests of the man in front of him.

"Sir, you really should be checked out…"

He held up his hands. "No, really, I feel fine…"

He only managed one more step when something drippy and sobbing launched into his chest. He almost lost his footing, but managed to catch himself against the side of the other ambulance. Looking down, he saw the top of a ratty red head. It was the mother.

Grimacing at the liberal amount of fluids she was adding to his own supply, he awkwardly patted her on the back.

"Thank you… so much…" She managed between gasps. Looking over her shoulder, he saw the little girl, Mia, loaded on a stretcher and being wheeled towards a waiting emergency vehicle. As he caught her eyes, he saw her look up slightly, and smile. Lifting one hand, he gave a small wave. Then his attention returned to the crying female clutching his shirt.

"Uh, ma'am? I think they're ready to go…" She looked up, seeing her daughter being put into the ambulance. Nodding, she smiled weepily before squeezing Shawn's shoulder and hurrying after her child.

Free once more, Shawn sidestepped the EMT that tried, once more, to get him to go to the hospital. Instead, he walked back along the breakdown lane, scanning the ground. After just a few seconds, he located his abandoned helmet. Reaching down, he flinched as his chest burned a little. Grabbing the head gear, he carried it by the strap back to his parked motorcycle. Around him, the traffic was starting to move faster as towtrucks dragged the damaged vehicles off the road. There were fewer honks, but he managed to earn several dirty looks from drivers blocked by his bike.

Lifting a leg over the seat, he donned his helmet and painfully started the bike. Gunning the engine a little, he flipped up the kickstand with his heel and headed back onto the road, studiously ignoring the aggravated expression of the EMT as he passed the parked ambulance.

Within ten minutes, the packed traffic had broken up, and he had a more or less clear drive the rest of the way to the station. Still, by the time he arrived, any motivation he had to drum up business had evaporated.

Slinking to Lassiter's desk, he found the Head detective gone. Sitting down wearily on the edge of the desk, he gratefully accepted the soothing words of pity from Lassy's far cuter counterpart.

Adopting a wounded puppy expression, he prepared to launch into his tale of woe. He got as far as "I woke up with a cold" when his was caught off guard by a sneeze. And then another… and another… and… well he stopped counting after ten.

He thought he heard Jules asking if he wanted some cold medication, and he nodded absently. Moments later she was by his side, pressing a couple of pills in his hand and holding out a glass of water. Taking both gratefully, he tossed back the pills and gulped down the water, feeling a trickle run down his throat. Oh well, he was already wet.

Handing back the glass, he watched as Juliet set it on her own desk. A few moments after that, he blinked heavily. He was a lot more wiped out than he realized apparently! He felt himself sway slightly, and put one hand out to brace himself. To the side, he heard an alarmed murmur. Looking up, he saw Juliet standing beside the desk, a small bag of pills in each hand. Then she looked up at him in surprise.

"Oops… uh, Shawn…?"

And that was the last thing he heard as everything faded to clouds.