Sunlight streamed through the window as Shawn leaned back into the soft cushions of the Psych office couch. An icepack rested on his chin and he held one hand up to his forehead, fingers splayed in a lazy version of his traditional psychic pose.
"…and now, because I'm sure you've been oh–so-curious about my adventures last night, I'm going to reveal everything that the spirits have imparted to me in their great wisdom and generosity!" Shawn glanced around the Psych office, making sure his audience was fully captive before he continued.
"It all began at the Orange Orange…" Shawn paused dramatically, projecting his voice loudly across the office. "Nay, scratch that. It began earlier yesterday morning when I went to visit my Uncle Jack. As you well know, my Uncle Jack has a long-held tradition of giving me a penny every time I come to visit – he's been doing it ever since I was a little boy. I remember the very first penny he ever gave me…" Shawn let out a wistful sigh.
"…but I wasn't completely honest yesterday, when I said that Uncle Jack had a place in Pasadena now. I mean, he does, but it's a very small place, and there's sort of a stark minimalist décor complemented with vertical iron accents." He stopped for a second to make sure his meaning was not lost. "He also has a lovely glass window by the telephone, but that pesky guard made me leave just as things were starting to get interesting."
Shawn recalled how the prison guard had pressed the small coin into his hand with a gruff 'This is from your Uncle Jack.' before turning on his heels and escorting the imprisoned Spencer back to his cell. Shawn had been surprised, on his past few visits the guards hadn't allowed Jack to give him anything, but there was a first time for everything, so Shawn had just shrugged and headed out toward the parking lot where his motorbike was, as usual, double parked. It there that he had noticed the tiny perforation in the coin, almost too small to be seen with the naked eye, and realized that this coin definitely wasn't from his Uncle Jack.
"Jack's not in a lot of trouble or anything, there was just sort of a… minor snafu with his latest treasure-hunting expedition. Anyways, I sensed immediately that there was more to the coin I received yesterday than meets the eye."
The small hole in the coin had just begged to be played with and examined in further detail, and after about half an hour of dwelling on this as he cruised down the Ventura Freeway, Shawn had decided that he couldn't take the suspense anymore and just had to buy something to pry the damned thing open. A short detour quickly brought him to the doors of the Burbank Buy More and adjacent Orange Orange, but faced with the choice of assuaging his curiosity or partaking in some delicious frozen yogurt, Shawn opted to start with the latter. It was there that Shawn had met Sarah, and not being one to pass up an opportunity to flirt with a beautiful waitress, Shawn had asked her to dinner – unwittingly procuring himself exactly the protection he would need for his now-inevitable encounter with the Ring.
"On my way back home, I encountered not one, but two CIA agents in a Burbank shopping complex. What's that…?" Shawn turned his eyes toward the ceiling, glancing up at imaginary spirits. "They were guarding something?" Shawn could see it now, the Orange Orange sign plastered over the outline where a neon hotdog had once perched, the one freezer in the yogurt shop that, while seemingly identical to the others, didn't have ice crusted along the bottom of the door, and the two agents – Chuck and Sarah – with their boring civilian cover jobs.
"Seems like you can do more than just buy things at the Buy More. I sense that something is hidden there... something that the government definitely doesn't want me to know about. Mental note: stock up on some more RAM next time I'm in Burbank." he added quietly. He then paused and glanced skyward again, his expression contorting from one of nonchalance to anger as he pretended to receive another 'vision'.
"Seriously, guys? You couldn't have told me that I was being followed before I got kidnapped and punched in the face?" Shawn shook a fist at the imaginary spirits, then looked back at his audience. "Apparently the bad guys were tailing me from the start. They followed me from the prison, waiting to see who I'd meet up with. Joke's on them, though, because the whole thing was one big coincidence. Oh, and now they're dead…" he added as an afterthought, "…or at least they'll probably wish they were after the CIA gets through with them. Man, those guys were hardcore." Shawn remembered Sarah and Chuck's combat skills with a bit of wistful awe, but his mind's eye quickly turned towards Juliet, the only one of the bunch who had taken out two Ring agents. Shawn made another mental note to ask her to teach him some of those moves, but it would have to wait until his entire body stopped aching.
"And now, the moment you've all been waiting for… the final wrap-up, the grand finale, the big reveal… the moment in which I, Shawn Spencer, psychic detective extraordinaire, will divine for you just what was so important about that super-secret spy penny that turned me into an unsuspecting money-mule…" Shawn was standing now, gesticulating wildly as he prepared to make his grand revelation – the moment that he had been waiting for with such anticipation, because to Shawn, this was one of the best parts of every case, and it was all his – all eyes on him, and people were forced to listen and let him, Shawn Spencer "psychic detective extraordinaire", be the center of attention. But instead, he was interrupted by the creak of a door and the sound of footsteps he knew all too well.