"Wait a minute, you know this guy," Lassiter questioned, sounding innerved.
"Yeah, he was one of my first solo arrests. Predictably, none of the charges stuck though. Guess you really did belong in prison," he spat, looking in the perp's direction once again.
"Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait. This is your son? Well, that just makes the pot all the sweeter doesn't it?"
"James, you don't want to—."
"Don't want to what? Kill the guy who sent my son to his death, the guy who incidentally happens to be the son of the man who ruined my life?"
"James, listen."
"No you listen! This boy drove my son to an incurable depression, drove him to take his own life, and no amount of 'I'm sorry's is going to change that fact. You can't bring the dead back to life so you'll excuse me if all I want to do is send him back where he belongs."
"James, I know that it's hard, but do you really think you're honoring your son's memory by killing another human being?"
"Doesn't matter. It's justice," he said with a tone of finality, before cocking the gun in his hand. " But I'm not completely heartless, so I'll give you ten seconds to run."
"What," Shawn asked pointlessly.
"Ten, nine," the villain started counting, but Shawn was hidden behind the same foliage that had hidden his friends by the time he reached five.
Henry followed his son as he went, thanking God that his knees, which had been causing him constant agony over the past week, were not throbbing now. Even if they were he doubted he would have been able to focus on them while he tried to direct his son to his truck and the subsequent safety it provided. They both reached the car just as the perp began firing live shots. As it happened, Shawn was the one who landed behind the wheel and Henry begrudgingly sat in the passenger's seat.
"Shawn, do you even have the keys," Henry yelled as soon as he sat down, his voice somehow carrying through the hail of gunfire raining down on them.
Shawn did not answer verbally, but the revving of the engine was enough of an answer. Within minutes they had pulled out of the park and were surprised to find the bullets following them even as they went down the road at seventy miles an hour. The reason, however soon became clear as a grey car circa 1989 carrying Mr. Duffy with his gun still in his hand pulled around their left side. Using his quick thinking skills Shawn pushed the vehicle to its furthest limits and managed to put some ground between them Mr. Duffy. He also managed to make several motorists nearly irate as he weaved shakily in and out of traffic
Despite the situation he was amazingly still be able to concentrate a fair amount of his attention on the road in front of him. His natural talent for zoning out was serving him well, right up until a sharp jolt to the side of the truck knocked him forcibly into reality and nearly through the front windshield. Miraculously, he was able to save himself from taking the windshield taste test and swerved the truck safely out of the flow of traffic. Of course he had not been thinking at the time that a maneuver like that was probably going to do little but make him a more open target. His brain was still refusing to work properly when he put the truck in park, the gun that his Dad was somehow able to sneak him during the chaos tucked behind his back and out of sight, and went out to meet Mr. Duffy, who had also stopped the car he was in.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Lassiter's Crown Vic plow into the perp's car effectively trapping him where he was. The same cold fear that he had been hampering all this time now plagued him as he stared in horror at the still car, not knowing how someone could have survived such a spectacular crash. Then, a low rumbling emitted from the car followed by the 'pop' of the driver's door being broken open by a bleeding Lassiter, Gus spilling out of his respective seat in the same way with his weapon drawn.
Still staring at his potential murderer, Shawn waited for a count for Juliet to emerge from the vehicle. When nothing happened Shawn threw away any thought for his own safety and ran straight for Lassiter's car. Even as he went his stride was nearly broken when the familiar fiery pain of a gunshot wound assaulted his left leg. After that chaos erupted around him, but he did not notice. The only thing that he could focus on was getting Juliet out of the car she had been trapped in thanks to the seatbelt that had pinned her in place.
Another gunshot sounded, its bullet hitting the car. Any other time, Shawn would have made a crack at Duffy's unexplainably horrible aim, but he found himself completely preoccupied with trying to get his fiancé out from the mangled mess that was Lassiter's car. After radioing for medical through the still crackling police radio on the dashboard using his rather convincing 'Lassie' routine, he took the knife that he had hidden in his breast pocket and cut Juliet's seatbelt before he carefully lifted her out of the car. His leg nearly fell out from under him when he put his full weight on it, causing him to lose his grip on Juliet, who would have gone tumbling to the ground had it not been for Lassiter catching her in his arms.
Seeing that she was safe for the time being, Shawn limped out from behind the car realizing that that was probably the worst possible move he could have made when he noticed Duffy's gun once again aimed squarely at his face. He did not have time to move, he could not think. In a beat, he was on the ground once again, listening to the glorious sound of a now conscious Juliet screaming his name. While he was trying to assess just how bad the damage to his body had been he heard the crunching sound of someone stepping toward him and looked up just in time to see Duffy heading right for him in an obvious attempt at finishing him off.