AUTHOR'S NOTES: The ripples from "No Such Thing As Psychics" are going to start to be seen as the gang starts to figure out what happened to Aaron and why. :D

Chapter 8- A Little Heart to Heart

"This is all Lance's fault?" Gus asked Shawn in a fierce whisper.

Getting the connection Juliet continued, "He burned down Aaron's house and killed his family. That's what drove him crazy and it caused him to turn you and Morgan."

"And Lassie." Shawn added quickly.

Both Juliet and Gus gave Shawn a puzzled look but Gus was the one who said, "But Aaron didn't…" Before Shawn elbowed him and motioned at Carlton, who was coming up the stairs behind them.

"Aaron didn't do what Guster?" Carlton asked gruffly.

Gus put on his "smooth" face before replying, "What I meant was, Aaron didn't plan on turning you. It just sort of happened."

Carlton's eyes narrowed in suspicion before Juliet interrupted. "Look at what Shawn found."

Looking at the entry, Carlton exclaimed, "Is that who I think it is?"

Shawn pursed his lips and nodded.

Narrowing his eyes, Carlton growled, "So this all goes back to Lance."

"We found some prints out at Cynthia's house. Lance admitted to being out there. He was looking for something and stopped by Psych to see if Cynthia had given it to us." Shawn gave Gus a meaningful look."

Carlton started to pace. "We can't even bring him in for questioning. It would be too dangerous."

Shawn could feel Carlton's anger spiking. He was starting to figure out that the closer he was to Carlton the more he could feel things. "Note to self," Shawn thought, "Get the name of a good relaxation spa and get Lassie a lifetime membership." He almost laughed at his own joke. A lifetime membership would be pretty cost effective for a vampire.

"Spencer!" Carlton tried to snap Shawn out of whatever train of thought caused him to zone out.

Blinking and trying to shake the lingering feeling of Carlton's emotional spike, Shawn reached into his windbreaker's pocket and pulled out the bottle of animal scent. "Lassie catch!" He tossed it to the detective. "It's what saved me. Lance couldn't smell me through that."

"Well this explains why you smell like a garbage heap." Carlton tossed the scent back. "I'd rather kiss a porcupine than wear that Spencer."

Shawn suppressed the urge to grit his teeth at Carlton's stubbornness and made it look like it was no big deal. "Your loss Lass."

Gus saw through his friend's act and figured it was time to get some rest after the day Shawn had. "I don't know about you guys, but I am hungry and beat."

"Yeah. We should get some rest before we have to talk to the BCA tomorrow." Juliet agreed.

Shawn gave her a little squeeze around the shoulders and Carlton rolled his eyes. "We still on for tomorrow?" Shawn asked his girlfriend.

"6pm Shawn." Juliet stated before kissing him goodbye.

"Let's go get you some food buddy. I can hear your stomach grumbling." Shawn smiled and bumped his friend's fist before turning around and giving a fluttery finger wave goodbye to the detectives.

As soon as the pair was gone Juliet smacked Carlton on the arm. "Ow! What was that for?"

Juliet glared at her partner. "You need to apologize to Shawn. He is just trying to help and you saw how shook up he was by Lance. You still had to push him didn't you?"

"He started it! You saw what he did earlier." Carlton defended. "Tell me that wasn't weird and I will march right over to that hole in the wall office of theirs and apologize right now."

Juliet knew she couldn't deny what happened was weird. She didn't know exactly what Shawn did besides growl a bit, but it really affected her partner. So Juliet merely shook her head and sighed. "You know what. We should call it a night too. You look pretty frazzled yourself."

Carlton rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah I guess I should turn in. I will see you tomorrow O'Hara. I might be a little late. I am visiting Marlowe in the morning."

Juliet smiled as she grabbed her jacket. Visiting Marlowe always put her partner in a better mood. "See you later Carlton."

Shawn stretched and sat at his laptop. It felt good to be home, even if it was a little empty without Juliet there. She had become a regular visitor before everything happened and he missed that. Shawn hoped things would eventually get back to normal, starting with his date tomorrow.

After an hour of web surfing, Shawn leaned back and closed the laptop. Smiling, he hoped Juliet would like the surprise that he had planned for her. He was going all out. Dinner, dancing and he would finally be able to have some time alone with her afterwards to talk. "Yep, tomorrow is going to be a great night." He thought to himself before heading to the fridge for a blood pack.

Finishing the blood quickly, Shawn grabbed his coat again and headed out. He had told Gus that he was going to get some rest, which was true. He would get some rest eventually, but first he had something to take care of.

During the week of training Mick and Josef touched on everything the group should be able to "normally" do as vampires. Speed, strength, acute senses, and super healing were the main ones but they also said that it was up to each one of them to figure out the extent of their abilities. Shawn had been unable to test his accurately to due to the fact that if he had trumped Carlton in each exercise, things would have seemed suspicious. So, painfully suppressing his natural competitiveness, he hung back making it look like Morgan, being the super spy he was, was a bit stronger than the two of them. Being naturally modest, Morgan had tried to blame it on training rather than extra ability. So things worked out and Carlton didn't suspect a thing.

It was full dark when Shawn left his apartment and walked the four miles to the warehouse. It was the same one Aaron had taken Shawn to when the crazy vampire had staked and abducted him right out of the hospital. Shawn figured Aaron had to have owned the building to make sure that no one would be walking in on them when he had Shawn chained to a wall, so it should still be empty for now.

Shawn entered the warehouse and looked around. Everything was exactly the same, if not a little cleaner. There were catwalks surrounding an empty area that only included a freezer in the corner. All the blood had been cleaned up, his and Carlton's, and it would be hard to tell anything had really happened here at all except for a couple blood stains.

Swinging his arms back and forth, Shawn tried to figure out where to start. He shrugged off his jacket and looked up. The metal rafters had to be at least twenty to thirty feet up. Crouching down, Shawn leaped for them. He easily grabbed a hold of one of the steel bars and pulled himself up so he could sit on the edge and dangle his feet. "That was kind of fun." Shawn admitted to himself. "Almost like Spiderman…" Shawn trailed off, realizing that he had been a vampire for almost two weeks and he had not had the chance to enjoy it a bit. Sure some of the movie nights they did during training were fun but just being able to goof around was something Shawn needed after the crappy day he had.

Shawn flipped over and hung from the rafter by his legs. He was about to jump down when he heard the warehouse door open and a familiar face entered.

"Spencer!" Lassiter Looked up and saw the psychic hanging upside down. "Do I even want to ask what you are doing?"

Shawn gave a small sigh. "So much for some down time." he grumbled to himself." Staying where he was he shouted to the detective. "Come on up Lassie!"

"Spencer knock it off!" The exasperation in Carlton's voice coupled with the fact that Shawn knew he was in some kind of emotional jumble sobered his mood. He let go and did a rather impressive flip and landed on his feet. Shawn had already figured out that vampires had the same equilibrium balancer that cats had. Pretty useful for not landing on your ass every time you jumped.

Carlton rolled his eyes. That trick was old hat to him and he didn't want to give Shawn any more reason to show off. "Spencer, how did you know I would be here?"

"Usually I would be hurt you would have to ask that question." He pointed to his head, "But this time I didn't. I came here for some privacy. I can't very well hang from my own ceiling can I?" Shawn circled Lassiter a bit and gave him a scrutinizing gaze. "Why are you here?"

"I am an officer of the law and this was a crime scene. I can be here if I want to." Carlton gave Shawn a defiant look.

Realizing this was only going to turn into an argument he didn't want to have, Shawn walked away. "Fine then Lassie. Have at your crime scene."

Carlton saw Shawn was pouting as he walked away. His conscience getting the best of him he stopped him. "Wait."

"What?" Shawn stopped and gave Carlton an annoyed look, expecting to be insulted in some way.

It took a second for Carlton to work up the nerve to say what he wanted to. "I'm sorry about making fun of you earlier. It was cruel and unprofessional."

Shawn was completely taken aback. Carlton Lassiter had just apologized to him. "Are you drunk Lassie?"

"No Spencer I am not drunk. I am just..." Carlton trailed off. Was he really about to share his feelings with Shawn?

"Look Carlton. I had a bad day and took it out on you too." Shawn mumbled his own apology. "First it was that stupid dream, and then my client blew up, not to mention getting staked by my dad..."

"Wait a second...Henry staked you?" Carlton raised his eyebrow at Shawn.

"He thought it was a good idea at the time. He wanted to see if I would be able to pull it out."

Now Carlton's curiosity peaked. "Did you?"

Shawn grimaced at the memory. "It took a while but yeah."

"Damn Spencer." Mick had said it was almost impossible but it almost didn't surprise Carlton that someone as stubborn as Shawn could manage it.

"So what are you really doing here Lassie?" Shawn felt the need to change the subject.

Carlton turned and looked at the section of floor that had a large stain next to the wall. That was where he was turned just over a week ago. "You knew Aaron right? At least for a little while?"

Shawn was surprised at the question. "Yeah. We met." He said simply.

"He was crazy though?"

Shawn rubbed his lip. It wasn't a pleasant memory. He had been in pain and misery at the time. "Just a bit of an understatement there. I don't think I helped any though. Getting kidnapped doesn't put me in my best mood."

Carlton turned away from the stain and looked at Shawn, actually getting to the question he had been wanting to know the answer to. "Spencer, do you wonder if before the fire, he was normal? That losing everyone he cared about is what drove him bonkers?"

Shawn figured where Carlton was going with the question and understood completely because he was wondering the same thing. If he could feel when something happened to Carlton, how would it have felt to have five people whose emotions and pain you could feel... let alone feeling the pain of their deaths?

"Spencer! You are spacing out again." Carlton waved his hand in front of Shawn's face. If Carlton didn't know better he would say Spencer was being a bit more contemplative as of late.

Shawn shook his head. "Sorry lassie. Been spacey lately. The spirits have been a bit distracting."

"Right… Anyway, I was just a bit bothered. This guy. I don't even know, changed me forever. I wanted to know a bit more about him...why is your heart speeding up Spencer?" Carlton looked at him suspiciously.

Shawn's eyes widened and he thought quickly to make up an excuse. "I don't like thinking about him is all. You may be a bit nostalgic, but what I know is he tried to make me murder an innocent girl."

"Fair enough." Carlton saw Shawn was still squirming a bit, which usually meant he had more to say. "Ok spit it out Spencer. What?"

"Do you hate him for turning you?" Shawn asked looking down at his feet.

Carlton had never really thought about it. O'Hara had told him that he would have died if Aaron hadn't turned him, but it was Aaron's fault he was hurt in the first place. "I am not happy with the situation, but I am glad I am not dead. Does that answer your question?"

"Yes. Yes it does." Shawn nodded. He felt a bit better knowing Carlton didn't hate the fact that he saved him.

Both men were quiet for a while as they each tried to process the emotions and thoughts going through their minds. "Spencer." Carlton interrupted the silence. "Did we just have a rational, grown up conversation?"

"Well I'll be damned. We really did Lassie." Shawn snorted in amusement.

"At least I can tell O'Hara I apologized and she'll get off my back about it." Carlton stated. "She can be relentless."

"Yes she can, but that is what we love about her." Shawn gave Carlton a light sock on the arm before his face turned serious. "Lassie, do me a favor. If you ever end up seeing Lance for yourself, run."

Giving Shawn a petulant look Carlton asked, "Why?"

"You'll know when you see him. Just, don't mess with him and get out fast." Shawn put his fingers to his temples. "I have a feeling he is not going to stop or leave here until he finds what he is looking for, and will get rid of anyone who gets in his way."

Carlton shook his head. "I wish I could do that Spencer, but vampire or not I have to protect the citizens of this city."

"Ok, but watch out for him. He makes Aaron look like the picture of mental health." He chuckled wryly before heading towards the warehouse door. "Catch you later Lassie." Shawn gave Carlton a wave and walked out.

Carlton followed a minute later with one more glance at the stain on the floor, the last place he was when he was still human.