A/N: Alrighty! Well, here it is! The fifth chapter of 'Might Not Make It'! I'd like to thank all you faithful readers (and reviewers!) out there who've stuck with this story!
It's not ending just yet! So that's not a goodbye speech, though you may here one from a some specific characters in a certain story... Mwahaha!
But there's no need for a CharDeath warning yet! So don't worry!
This chapter is a gift for dare-to-dream22! If it hadn't been for what's on this day (not sure if ya want me to say) then I prob'ly would've procrastinated and this would've come out, like, on the weekend.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Psych. It would be a crazy show if I did!
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"Oh-oh, God," Gus whispered. He felt his knees buckle underneath him and he collapsed to the cold linoleum floor. He couldn't believe this was happening. It just couldn't be happening. Not to him, not Shawn. He was always the invincible one. The one who would go through it all and be the last one standing.
Gus was lost in his own grief-stricken thoughts and didn't notice how the others took it. He didn't notice how Henry's eyes got glassy and distant and he just seemed to deflate. All the fight gone out of him, all that stubborn defiance Gus had witnessed firsthand just gone. It was like he was a bubble and someone popped it. It just didn't exist anymore.
Gus didn't notice when Lassiter stalked over to the wall and hit it with all the force the detective could muster, or when he hit it again. Like it was the hospital's fault that Shawn was... dying.
He didn't see how Juliet turned to her partner with a tearstained face and told him to stop. And then Gus missed how the young woman leaned on Lassiter and sobbed, and then he put his arms around her, not caring what people thought. They were partners and one of their friends would be dead within hours and they couldn't do a damn thing about it.
No. Gus didn't see any of that. All he saw were memories of times past. Shawn's mischievous grin before they did something stupid, and the time they decided to have a race on their bikes and ended up in the ER. Just where Shawn was now... or well, had been.
He did see Henry turn to the nurse, who was still standing there with a tear trickling down her face. He looked at her with devastated eyes and asked in a ragged voice, "Can I see my son now?"
The nurse led him away quietly. She told the others that it would be best if there was only one person in the room at a time. Gus watched the elder Spencer walk down the hall towards Shawn's room and it finally reached him that his best friend since childhood was leaving him.
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Lassiter felt grief coiling around his soul, like a boa constrictor squeezing the life out of a victim. Lassiter shoved the feeling away, he had no time for it. He had an idea and it couldn't wait. He lowered O'Hara into a hard hospital chair and before he turned away he put a hand on her shoulder in a quick, comforting gesture. Sure, if he let himself he'd be feeling this grief too, but he knew that O'Hara's pain would still be double that. He didn't even want to think about what Guster and Henry were going through.
"Guster," Lassiter said, earning the attention of the whole group. "Do you remember anything strange from Mr. Sadusky's house when you and," Lassiter was almost afraid to say his name for fear of sending everyone back headfirst into their own personal misery, "when you and Spencer went in?"
The tiniest bit of hope filled Gus's brown eyes and he latched onto Lassiter's idea like, as Shawn would say, a drowning cat. Gus got to his feet and paced. There was something he'd noticed, he was sure of it. If only he could remember...
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Ivan Sadusky's House Earlier That Same Day:
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"Shawn, this isn't a good idea!" Gus whisper-shouted at his best friend as the were sneaking along behind some hedges.
"Gus don't be a soggy hamburger bun," Shawn said, carefree as usual.
"We can't just walk in there!" Gus argued.
"What do you think we've been doing the past four years, Gus?"
Gus fell silent then; he had nothing to say to that. They had been doing this for years, and they'd somehow managed a miracle in not getting sued. Gus hoped it would stay that way.
"That's what I thought. Now c'mon, man!" Shawn urged him toward the house.
Shawn crouched down a little and started running to the back door. Gus hesitated for a moment before following him, but not before muttering something about how stupid what they were doing was and how they'd get caught and sued and how Gus would never be able to get a good job again because he'd have a criminal record.
Soon enough the two of them stood pressed up against the side of the yellow house, in an attempt to not be noticed by anyone looking out the window. Shawn grabbed the doorknob with one hand and slowly turned it. The door opened easily and before Gus knew it he was standing on the doorstep looking inside while Shawn pranced around Ivan Sadusky's living room looking for evidence.
"Shawn, we shouldn't be here," Gus said, an overwhelming sense of foreboding sweeping over him. He was suddenly very anxious to get away from the badly furnished home, unable to shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen.
"Buddy, you're not even in here." Shawn said, picking up a Sports Illustrated magazine. He flipped through the pages absently, "Stop being chicken."
"I am not a chicken, Shawn." Gus argued and crossed his arms over his chest, "I'm just being cautious. Ivan could come back at any time, and if he really did kill that woman he could kill us, too!"
Shawn completely ignored him and moved on to inspect the ugly pastel couch, "And worse, you're not even a rooster. You're a hen."
"Shawn! I'm not a chicken!" Gus yelled angrily, "Or a hen," he added just for good measure.
Shawn started making clucking noises as he moved to the end table and opened the drawer. That was it. Gus took a step forward, just barely feeling the breeze from the fan blowing inside the room...
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Wait a minute...
The fan...
"That's it!" Gus exclaimed, startling the grieving people.
"What?" Juliet asked him hesitantly, not sure if she should get her hopes up, "What is it?"
"Guster," Lassiter eyed him, "What do you remember?"
Gus's excitement overshadowed his anger, sadness, and guilt for a moment as he told the detectives what he remembered, "There was a fan blowing!"
Juliet stared at him with sad eyes, thinking he'd finally snapped. That the weight of the situation had forced him into some odd coping mechanism.
Lassiter looked at him first with anger for leading him to believe that there was something they could still do, but then that feeling seeped away and left pity in it's place.
Gus saw the looks he was getting and decided he'd better try explaining some other way. He thought for a moment before speaking, "Some poisons are carried in the air, guys." He waited for that to sink in a little, "It's the only way Shawn could've been poisoned! Think about it. Stephanie Lillard had traces of an unidentified toxin in her blood, but there weren't any holes from a syringe or any other serious injuries."
Juliet jumped up from her chair and shared a quick glance with Lassiter before she pulled out her phone. Lassiter did the same and soon both detectives were speaking rapidly to different people. Gus was a little confused at first, but then he realized that they must be informing the Chief about this new revelation. He just didn't know who the other person was.
Juliet was done with her conversation first. She looked at Gus and explained, "I just told the Chief about our suspicions. She said she'd send someone to check it out."
They both looked at Lassiter, who was still firing orders at the unknown person at the other end. They wondered who it was.
"I don't care if you haven't finished with the scene yet!" Lassiter paused for a moment as the other person spoke.
"I'm telling you to get out of there now! There's poison in the house. Spread through the air," Lassiter told the mystery person. The person seemed to believe him because Lassiter hung up, a somber expression on his face.
"Who was it?" Gus asked.
"Detective Marrs," Lassiter answered, "He took over the case when O'Hara and I came here. Said he was going to get everybody out of there as soon as we were done."
"That's it?" Juliet asked.
"Well he said that explained why some of the officers were complaining about headaches," Lassiter said.
Juliet and Gus shared a grim look before Juliet said, "Let's hope we got them out of there in time."
Lassiter nodded and then got back into detective mode, "Guster, you stay here and keep us updated on Spencer's... condition." Gus knew he meant that he wanted to know how much time they had left.
"O'Hara and I are going to go find Sadusky," Lassiter said, "And then we're gonna kick his ass all the way to the station."
With that the two detectives turned and walked down the hall towards the exits. As Gus watched them leave he could only hope that they got back in time. Or else... Well, Gus didn't want to contemplate that right now. But they were running out of time, there was no denying it.
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So what did you think? The end was a little rushed in my opinion, but I'm just so excited for the premiere of Criminal Minds in like 10 minutes! And I really had to get this story out already.
You can expect updates on the weekends guys! Unless something comes up.
So tell me everything you think of this story when you REVIEW!