AUTHOR'S NOTES: If you haven't already noticed I love to have have some fun with the chapter titles. They usually give hints to what you can expect or they are just double meanings. It is my way of messing with my readers a bit. :D

Chapter 3- Too Much at Stake

Shawn lay prone and gasping on the floor. He gave a few hiccupping coughs and blood started to trickle out of his mouth. Henry tried to ignore it and focus on what had to be done.

"Now Shawn," Henry paced back and forth on the plastic sheeting that protected his carpet from the mess of Shawn's pooling blood. "I heard from Mick that he was a bit easier on you because of what you went through recently. He doesn't know you like I do Shawn. You have always been at your best under harder circumstances." Leaning over Shawn, Henry gave him an ultimatum. "So, if you want to meet up with Juliet at the station today, you are going to have to reach up and pull out the stake yourself."

Shawn could not speak, he was sure one of his lungs had been punctured, but the look he gave his father blatantly asked. "Are you crazy?"

"I called Mick and talked to him. He says it is possible if the stakes are smaller." Henry didn't tell him Mick's exact words were, "It's almost impossible even with smaller stakes." But that was just unimportant details.

Shawn started to make an effort to move his hand but it caused him to tense up and start coughing blood again.

"I'll be watching TV Shawn. Let me know when you are done." Henry walked quickly from the room. Once out of sight of Shawn, Henry leaned against the living room door frame. He hated to do this to Shawn but Juliet had eventually talked him into it.

"If Aaron could break my wrist while staked, maybe Shawn could learn to yank the stake back out." Juliet had reasoned.

It had seemed like a good idea at the time. Henry thought it was a pretty large Achilles Heel for vampires to be so strong, fast and smart but one small piece of wood in their chests and they are helpless as babies… more or less. Witnessing Shawn's reaction in the hallway was almost enough to break Henry's resolve but if anyone could do it, Henry knew Shawn could.

Carlton Lassiter sat at his desk grumbling. "A car explosion, it had to be in that parking lot." He put his head in his hands tiredly. After spending a week being awake at night it was going to be a chore turning his schedule around again. Not to mention his first day back was a case where he would have to work with Shawn again. He had just finished spending a week with him. It wasn't exactly as bad as Carlton thought it would be but there was only so much of that man he could take. "The fates must hate me."

Buzz McNabb approached Carlton's desk with a cup of coffee just the way the detective liked it. "Aren't you supposed to be more relaxed after a vacation Detective? You look like you have been hit by a train." Buzz smiled good naturedly at Carlton who only grunted in response.

Glancing at the coffee and sighing, Carlton knew he had to keep up appearances so he grabbed it and took a sip. It didn't taste half bad but it wasn't the ambrosia that he remembered it being. "Did you find anything out from the vehicle license number I gave you?" Carlton was curious to know who the woman was if Shawn was so sure she had given him a fake name.

Buzz was about to answer when Juliet walked up and put a thin file in front of Carlton with her good arm, the other was still in a sling because of her broken wrist. "Her real name is Cynthia Davis. She came to the US from Europe about four years ago. She ended up staying in California around the LA area, had a pretty nice house too before it got torched."

Carlton looked through the pictures of the burnt out house with Buzz looking over his shoulder. The house was a mini-mansion. "This woman had to have been loaded." Carlton thought and smirked at the fact that Shawn probably had his dreams of a large pay day blow up right in his face. Literally.

Seeing Carlton's smile Juliet asked, "What is so funny?"

"Nothing, at all." Carlton lied and noticed something. "Isn't this house the most recent in that arson case?"

There had been a large outbreak of fires in the state. It was starting to become a huge news story but no one had been able to figure out why or if the houses and businesses had been targeted.

Buzz, who had been following along from the background interrupted. "You know… if this murder ends up being related to the arson case we could have a reason to help investigate it. Could be some good press for the department."

Carlton looked at Buzz like he had grown a second head but Juliet smiled. "Nice work Buzz. If you want to help you can go see what the forensics people found out about the explosive. Carlton and I will talk to the Chief."

Looking like he just won the lottery. Buzz nodded and sprinted off eagerly. Juliet and Carlton watched his lumbering form disappear down the station steps.

Juliet turned to Carlton. She had not had a real chance to talk to him since he got back. "How are you doing? Did everything go ok at the uh... thing?"

"O'Hara, everything went fine. We got the crap kicked out of us, we talked, everything is good. Now you need to tell me how your wrist is doing." Carlton eyed her sling, remembering the bastard that did that to his partner and made him a vampire. Shawn had told him earlier that he had been executed. Good riddance.

"Well the bone is cracked and will take a while to heal. They reset it before I left for LA for girl's night so it feels a bit better." Juliet was touched at Carlton's concern.

"Good, because for this case I am going to need a partner, not an invalid." Carlton always knew how to ruin a moment.

Her eyes going hard Juliet stated, "I will be fine Detective. Now let's see what we can learn about this Cynthia Davis character and why she would be a target for arson." Leaning closer she whispered to Carlton, "Shawn mentioned in his story that she was a vampire, do you think that had anything to do with it?"

"I don't know. Spencer didn't mention anything but that doesn't mean much. He keeps a lot of things to himself." Carlton said quietly back. "I might have to bring him in again for more information."

Juliet shifted a bit. She knew that Shawn was not going to make it in for a while. She regretted having to ask Henry to help Shawn train a bit but the only other person besides herself that could help with that was Gus and he did not have what someone would call a "strong stomach."

"Shawn is supposed to be in this afternoon. We can talk with him then." Juliet said innocently.

"O'Hara what are you not telling me?" Carlton had heard his partner's heart speed up at the mention of Shawn. Usually he would put that reaction off to her just thinking about her boyfriend but when her face didn't register the doughy eyed girlfriend look she usually had, he knew something was up.

"Nothing. He is just having lunch with Henry on his day off before coming here." Juliet said innocently, trying to walk away from the conversation.

"You and I both know that Spencer would not go to Henry's house unless he needed something." Realization hitting him Carlton banged his hand on his desk. "He is going to try and work this case isn't he? Hell no. I am not going to let him get this one! If it is going to be a state wide press baby for the station I…" Carlton looked at Juliet's glare and rephrased, "WE are going to be the ones to crack it."

Smiling at her partner's reaction, Juliet realized that things actually felt kinda normal considering the circumstances. "Ok, let's let the Chief know and see what we can come up with." Juliet raised her good hand for a high five only to realize her mistake a second later when the pumped up Carlton returned it with a little more force than he meant to.

"Sorry…." Carlton trailed off as Juliet shook the pain out of her stinging hand.

Thirty minutes later Henry was still listening to Shawn's coughing and grunting from the other room. It had gotten worse in the last five minutes and Henry could not take it anymore. "Maybe I should let the kid up." Henry mumbled. Rising he headed for the hallway where he left Shawn. Rounding the corner Henry saw the bloody plastic, but not his son.

Panicking he looked at the blood smears on the plastic to see which way they headed. He was about to head into the kitchen when a white eyed Shawn stepped from around the corner holding a bloody stake.

"Oh my God he actually did it." Henry thought disbelievingly.

At this point, looking at his son standing there holding the stake, Henry expected some sort of snarky or witty comeback. Anything but the uncharacteristically cold stare he was currently getting.

"Shawn…" Henry's statement was cut off by a low growl he didn't know his son could make.

Henry started to back up, keeping his gaze steady and on his son. He needed to get to the kitchen where he had some blood packs stored up. He had prepared for Shawn needing blood after this but he thought he had time to get them.

Shawn's white eyes tracked his father's every gesture like a predator watching for his prey to make a wrong move. Henry was trying desperately to remember what Mick had said to do if anything like this happened. "Keep talking to him…"

"Shawn, you need to calm down." Henry said in a calm voice, nothing betraying the real fear he felt towards his son.

"After what you pulled, you don't get to tell me what I need." Shawn's fangs extended and he stepped toward his father.

Henry backed up quickly, almost tripping over the sofa. With the sudden movement Shawn charged. Henry spun around to run the other way and found his way was already blocked once again by Shawn. "He can move that fast?" Henry thought. "Oh no." He had never seen Shawn this way before, defiant… yes, angry… yes, but this was neither of those. This look was murderous.

Shawn let out an angry screech before pouncing. Henry winced and curled into a defensive position as both fell onto the couch with Henry pinned by Shawn.

"SHAWN NO! You don't want to do this son!" Henry pleaded.

Shawn did not move though. He still had Henry pinned but only curled his lip in a sneer as he stared at him. Henry tried to move but Shawn's grip tightened for a moment to stop him.

Shawn moved his head so his face was almost directly in Henry's. "You know dad. I've put up with a lot when it comes to your trainings." He leaned back but still kept a hold of Henry. "I admit that yes, they have saved my life more than once… but I was a kid dad. Now you try to pull this crap on me when I am a grown man?"

The fear on Henry's face instantly changed to guilt as Shawn continued, shaking his head. "You have no idea what you are playing with here. Especially since I haven't got much of a handle on this yet. Even more especially when you don't bother to find out how much blood I've had today before you try to coup de grâce me with a stake!" Shawn raised his voice and Henry winced at the volume.

Shawn's usual stoic expression creeped back into his features. "Now, you will not treat me like I am some kid you can push around anymore. IF you want to help me, just say so. I might even be inclined to listen…sometimes." Shawn added with a smirk. "But surprising and hurting me is like playing with fire dad. I don't know what I am capable of and I don't want to have to accidentally kill you to find out."

Pushing Henry away from him, Shawn walked towards the kitchen. "Now if you will excuse me I have to have some of those blood bags I smell in your fridge."

A minute later, after recovering from shock, Henry slowly got up from the couch and walked into the kitchen. He saw Shawn turn his back to him as he entered and sat at the table. He gave his son a minute to finish before saying, "That was all an act?"

Finishing the bag of blood, Shawn calmly walked over to the garbage and threw the empty bag away. He turned around and joined his dad at the table. "This time, yes. Next time it might not be."

His anger finally coming out Henry started to yell. "What the hell is wrong with you! You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"You DID give me a heart attack!" Shawn pointed out. "Then you just left me there! I very much doubt your conversation with Mick ended with him telling you, 'Oh by the way, you might want to stake your son every once and a while. It would be good for him!"

"I wanted to see if you would be able to get out of it. That's all!" In a mocking tone Henry continued. "If vampires are so damned powerful how come they have such a huge weakness? I don't want to wake up and hear my son got staked and was killed because he couldn't fight back."

Shawn was getting angry again, his eyes paled. "You could have ASKED dad! Jeezus you are so hard headed that you couldn't just talk to me about it and plan something. No you had to take matters into your own hands." Shawn rose from the table. "Next time you complain about having a kidney stone, remind me to punch you there to loosen it up for you so I can claim I was just trying to help."

Giving up and deciding to tell the truth before his son stormed out Henry admitted, "Juliet asked me to."

Shawn stared at his father in disbelief. "Jules wouldn't do that…"

"Believe it kid. She is more worried about you than she would admit. She doesn't want anything to happen to you, and you have to admit that stuff always happens to you." Henry pointed out.

Shawn gave a mirth filled smirk. "She is probably getting back at me for lying to her about being psychic. I haven't really had the chance to talk to her about that yet."

Wanting to change the subject, Henry asked, "Juliet called before you came and told me about the explosion in your parking lot. Was it really another vampire?"

"Yeah." Shawn nodded, "This stunning, and rich lady just walks into our office and tells us that someone is trying to kill her. The only reason I knew she was a vampire was because she slipped. Her eyes started to turn white. She had put on so much perfume I could not smell anything through it. It had to have been what she wanted."

"Smelling! That could be something we could work on…" Henry started before seeing the angry look Shawn gave him. "Right… too soon."

"Anyway, when I confronted her she freaked out, ran out of the office and got herself blown up."

"You said she was upset when you called her out for being a vampire?" Shawn nodded. "Did she know you were a vampire?"

Closing his eyes and remembering the conversation Shawn could not see that she had given any indication that she knew. "She never said anything about it, but wearing all that perfume to block out my senses was enough proof right?"

"Shawn, think about it this way. If she didn't know you were a vampire and was still wearing enough perfume to be able to block out her scent, what would that mean?" Henry tried to get his son to think. He already had all the information, what he usually needed was a bit of focus to get his mind in gear.

Scrunching his brow Shawn stated, "It would mean that I wasn't the vampire she was hiding from. There had to have been someone else she didn't want knowing what she was!" Jumping up and down a couple times before rushing to the door and shouting, "I have to talk to Jules and Mick. This could be big!"

Henry watched as Shawn hurried out the door to his car. He rose and went to go pick up the bloody plastic that was spread out on the floor. Walking into the living room Henry realized that a lot of the blood had gotten tracked all over the carpet from Shawn chasing him down. "Dammit Shawn!" Henry shouted angrily as he went back into the kitchen to get the bleach.