57. Sacrifice
Juliet glanced backward at Shawn, as he jogged behind her to catch up. They were at the property of a possible suspect in her case. She had told Shawn to wait in the car, but she realized by now that he never did listen when they told him that. He was with her, because Carlton and Gus seemed to have caught the same stomach virus, and had both been vomiting pretty much all day. Even though Juliet was used to working with Lassiter, her job still had to be done, and it was against policy, and proper judgement to confront a suspect without backup. Plus, she actually enjoyed Shawn's company, even though the whole way here he had been rambling on and on about how Gus didn't appreciate proper burrito structure.
"So where is this guy?" Shawn asked as he finally caught up to her. She jokingly glared at him for disobeying her orders.
"Not sure, but I'm going to knock on the door and see if he's home. You stay back here." She said, then realized who she was talking to, knowing there was no way he'd listen. She unclipped her gun from the strap on her boot and held it steadily at her side where she could fire it quickly if need be. They carefully walked up to the cabin's porch. The property was very much overgrown and full of weeds, and Juliet's first impression would be that no one lived there. The only reason she knew it was being lived in was the fact that quite a few people had called into the police station complaining of gunshots coming from the property, when it was well known that shooting was forbidden in this area. She herself probably wouldn't have come down to talk to the man about the complaints, but one of his neighbors had been murdered by use of gun, making him a pretty strong suspect.
Juliet raised her arm to knock on the door, and simultaneously waved Shawn back. He reluctantly backed up a bit, and Juliet knocked and waited.
"SBPD! Open up!" She yelled, as she knocked again. While she went off to look through one of the windows, Shawn noticed that one of the second floor windows was cracked open. He squinted to see if someone was there, and he saw the tip of a gun pointing out. He realized that it was pointing at Juliet as it was almost too late. He saw a bullet fly out of the window, almost in slow motion.
"NO!" He shouted, and flung himself in front of her. He crumpled to the ground as the bullet hit him. Juliet spun around and searched for the shooter. She saw the gun in the window, and dragged Shawn behind the house, where they would have a few moments until the shooter came out, as she guessed he would. Either to shoot her or run. She pulled out her cell phone and called 911.
Shawn opened his eyes to brightness hitting him square in the face. Where am I? He thought as his surroundings started to come into focus. He was in an all white room. A hospital.
"What the...?" He thought out loud and began to sit up. Pain shot through his body. Then he remembered being shot. Again. Damn.
"Shawn! You're ok!" He looked over and saw Juliet walk over.
"If by ok you mean in intense agony, then yes I am." He muttered with a painful smile. She grinned at him, then frowned.
"That bullet was meant for me, wasn't it." She asked quietly.
"Yeah." He said looking down. He couldn't bear it that Juliet could have been killed. The sacrifice of being shot instead of her was completely worth the pain.