"Gus, toss me the chips," Shawn called across the office.
Gus didn't even bother looking up from his laptop. "Come and get them yourself."
"You know I'm not supposed to move. Doctor's orders. You wouldn't want me to hurt myself, would you?" Shawn pouted.
Gus rolled his eyes and threw the chip bag to where Shawn lay sprawled out on the couch. "If you're still healing you should probably be eating something healthier or less solid. Doritos aren't exactly part of your daily dietary needs."
"Exactly. I haven't eaten any Doritos in days," Shawn pointed out, reaching into the bag. "My taste buds have been craving Cool Ranch deliciousness and I feel that they should be given justice."
Shawn had been out of the hospital for four days. Gus still wasn't sure how they'd managed to get Shawn from the Price building to the hospital in such a short amount of time. They'd quickly discovered after the elevator had landed that Shawn couldn't get up without doubling over in pain and crying out. Gus had spent the next few minutes panicking rather loudly (and probably getting on the nerves of nearly everyone there), while also trying to keep Shawn as calm as possible, a combination of actions that had been rather difficult to handle. Finally, he and the Detectives had managed to very carefully half-carry Shawn over to Lassiter's car.
After being poked and prodded at the hospital for nearly two hours, and after blood and urine tests (Shawn had complained very loudly about both of these) and an abdominal ultrasound ("An ultrasound? Doc, I know I didn't go to med school, but I'm pretty sure I'm not pregnant."), the doctors had finally returned with their diagnosis. Appendicitis.
"Never would have figured that out," Gus had muttered bitterly.
"Can we just take it out already?" Shawn and Henry had both asked.
Shawn had been swiftly shipped off for surgery, and his appendectomy thankfully went off without a hitch, though Shawn had argued with a doctor (and his father) for a while about not being able to keep the appendix afterwards. He spent the recommended day in the hospital, driving the nurses crazy by constantly trying to get up and move around. The doctors were concerned he was going to rip his stitches, but Shawn had promised to be careful.
"I'm just sick of staying still," Shawn had explained, and nobody had argued with him too much after that.
The hospital wanted to keep him for another day, just to be safe, but after the three failed escape attempts that followed, along with promises from Henry, Gus and Juliet to keep an eye on Shawn after they took him home, they changed their minds. Shawn had complained loudly about not needing a babysitter. They all ignored him.
"I don't know why you wanted to come into the office today if you can't do any work," Gus said. He raised an eyebrow as Shawn flipped through TV channels aimlessly.
"It's better than being stuck in my apartment all day. Or my dad's place," Shawn replied, shrugging.
He carefully got up off the couch, bracing himself on the table as he stood. Gus watched, ready to get up and help him, as he walked slowly over to his desk, grabbed the copy of the newspaper they'd picked up that morning, and returned back to the couch.
"What happened to 'I'm not supposed to move'?" Gus complained. He clipped his laptop shut and walked over to sit in a chair across from Shawn, reaching for the remote and the bag of chips.
"Only strenuous activity, Gus," Shawn corrected. "Your desk is a lot farther away than mine is. Going all the way over to get the chips would have been far too risky. I wouldn't want to rip my stitches. "
"Uh huh." Gus started flipping through TV channels, eventually leaving it on a rerun of the Golden Girls while Shawn looked through the paper."How's your stomach?"
"Fine," Shawn answered truthfully. "Barely even hurts. It's just a little sore, but not like how it was."
"I bet there's going to be a scar though."
"And that's a problem?" Shawn laughed. "I wonder if Juliet will think it's sexy."
"Oh sure," he snorted. "Belly button scars are totally sexy."
"You're just jealous you don't have a war wound like I do."
Gus shook his head, but didn't bother arguing. It was quiet for a while (aside from the steady laugh track and Estelle Getty's biting wit on the TV), until:
"Unbelievable!" Shawn practically shouted.
Gus jumped. "What?" Shawn didn't reply for a moment, just staring at his newspaper in shock. "Shawn, what?"
"They've got an article in here about the Price robberies and I'm not mentioned at all!"
Gus exhaled in relief. He should've known it wasn't something serious. "You didn't solve the case. And Buzz is the one who made the arrest," he said.
"I so solved the case!" Shawn exclaimed. "I figured it out and everything! I even got paid for it. And I would've made the big reveal too, except-"
"Except you were sick and trapped in an elevator. And your dad only gave you that check so we could pay off bills and so you would stop complaining. Give it up, Shawn. You can't win all the cases."
"But I did win! Dude, do you know how much publicity we would've gotten for solving the Price robberies? We would have customers coming in crowds! You would have enough money to buy a new pair of tap shoes and probably a lifetime supply of M&M's."
Gus smiled. "Well I guess this is a good lesson for you, Shawn."
"What? Keep my body parts in check so they don't cause me pain at the worst possible time?"
"No." Gus's grin broadened. He'd been waiting to use this line for days. "Next time," he said, "take the stairs."
Shawn snorted and threw the empty chip bag at him.
A/N: And that's a wrap, folks! Just a short little epilogue to tie everything together. Thank you all so, so much for the reviews, and once again, I'm really sorry about the long wait on these final two chapters!
I hope you enjoyed it, because I know I did! :D