AUTHOR'S NOTES: Oh man was this a tough one to write. I hope it pleases because it was probably the chapter in this whole series I have worked the hardest on. :) Enjoy.

Chapter 14-Fire Away

"Talent is a flame, Genius is a fire"- Anonymous

Santa Barbara- 1992:

Henry and Shawn sat in the court room pews watching the proceedings with increasing interest. Normally Shawn would complain about having to sit through yet another boring trial but this one was a doozy. It also involved a police officer, which made it that more interesting.

They listened as the officer was examined and cross examined. Shawn frowned as he saw a look of shame that never left the officer's face his whole time on the stand. The perp he had been trying to apprehend had taken a hostage and taunted the officer. He had let anger cloud his judgment and made a bad decision in the heat of the moment. The mistake cost the life of an innocent civilian.

Henry leaned over to Shawn and whispered, "What would you have done in that situation?" Shawn thought about it for a moment, but he was unsure. Henry saw the puzzlement in his son's features and explained. "That officer let the bad guy find his buttons and press them. He should have kept his wits about him and realized what the perp was trying to do. When you are angry, you stop thinking clearly and start acting on instinct."

"So… what happens if you can't stop yourself from getting angry?" Shawn questioned.

The officer pointed to his son's head. "The trick is to know yourself and your buttons. If you do, you can plan ahead for the worst while you still can think straight. That is one of the things that makes a good detective Shawn." Henry looked down at the boy and smiled. He knew in his heart that his son would be, not just a good detective, but a great one someday.

Santa Barbara- Present:

Shawn opened his eyes. He had replayed his father's advice to him over and over in his head almost the whole van ride. Unfortunately his inner mantra of "Keep it together…keep it together…" was no longer working. He leaned his head back to rest on the side of the van behind him. He knew his silence was making the others in the back of the van, Morgan, Chuck, Sarah and Mick, very nervous. John and Carlton got the front seat.

Morgan and Chuck looked at each other. With widened eyes, unspoken words and head nods in Shawn's direction they had a fight about who would talk to the upset man. Morgan lost. "Uh, hey Shawn. Yeah are you going to be ok?" He asked tentatively.

Opening one eye in annoyance he saw the worried looks he was getting. With a sigh he lifted his head and nodded, struggling to keep up appearances. "Yeah, great. Just loosening the neck muscles." He rolled his head. "Good for getting the blood pumping."

Mick rolled his eyes and the other three gave him disbelieving looks. Shawn kept forgetting half of these people were government trained to sense deception and Mick could smell how he was feeling whether he wanted him to or not. "You really shouldn't keep this stuff bottled up man. Chuck did that once and I ended up hog tied in Nintendo controllers and..."

Defeated, Shawn interrupted him, "Ok fine. I'm worried, but I don't have time to be. I need to focus and get Jules back. So any emotional counseling can wait until that happens alright?" Apparently the rant worked as no one said anything else. It didn't stop the concerned glances though.

As they neared the warehouse he decided to break the silence and go over the revised plan one more time. "Once we get inside, if ol' black eye hasn't beaten us here, Chuck and Sarah are going to head into the upper decks and wait for Lance's guy to open himself up for attack. Then you are going to shoot the crap out of him with silver bullets. Morgan, once Juliet is far enough away from Lance, I need you to head in and try to grab her out of the way. That will leave Lance open enough for me, Lassie and Mick to attack." The three spies nodded and started talking amongst themselves. The van stopped a moment later and everyone hopped out quickly. They had parked a bit down from the building just in case and were going to have to walk the short distance to the warehouse. Shawn turned around to find where John and Carlton had gone off to so he could go over their part as well.

John Casey was the epitome of intimidation as he stood there with a custom sniper rifle loading it with silver bullets an inch long. He and Carlton were discussing the weapon as they were both doing last checks on their equipment. Chuck walked up and handed Shawn a communicator, "Here, put this in your ear like this..." he showed him and did a sound test with everyone. Figuring the comms were ready Chuck reminded Shawn to get his vest on.

After Chuck walked away Shawn put his hand to his head, he tried to figure out the best vantage point for John to see what was going on in the warehouse and have a clear shot. Getting the sniper's attention, he pointed to a building kiddy corner to the warehouse down the street. "John, you need to get to the roof over there and wait for my signal. Even if he notices everyone else in the warehouse, he won't know you are there." Shawn walked up and pretended to check out the gun. Reaching into his pocket he discretely handed John a note. John looked down and the note said, Don't open until in position. He gave Shawn a questioning look as the psychic stated, "Don't shoot until I give the signal."

Carlton watched the exchange and wondered how Shawn had gotten so good at tactics. He was really starting to feel there was a lot more to Shawn than met the eye. He has been more surprised at the psychic the last two weeks than he had been in six years. "Spencer!" He called to get Shawn's attention. "Is Mick going to be out in the open with us or hiding?" They had agreed earlier that Mick would help them take out Lance but none of them were able to agree whether showing Mick was there would be a good idea or not.

"Mick, man I am going to leave this to you. You know Lance better than we do." Shawn looked at the other vampire questioningly.

With only a moment's more hesitation Mick made a decision. "Hell with it. I have been wanting a piece of that guy for four years. I will stand with you guys just so I can see the look on his face."

Shawn smiled and clapped Mick on the back. Remembering the scent, he handed him the bottle of Raccoon smell. "Pass that around. Remember, not too much." Mick took the scent tentatively and opened it. It stank really bad and filled his head with images he really didn't want to have in there. "Oh yeah... don't breathe too deeply around that." He had done it once and regretted it.

Shawn started to walk away but froze as he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He moved away from the group quickly and read the text he had received. He began texting back. A few moments later Carlton's voice boomed at him. "Spencer! What are you doing? Everyone is ready lets go!" That got everyone's attention and he had six impatient people staring at him.

"Sorry, got a text about a free vacation weekend to the first twenty replies. I couldn't resist..." Seeing the impatient stares turn into disapproving ones, he stuttered, "I'll just try later." Before pressing send on his message and putting his phone away. Shawn let out his held breath as they all bought the excuse and turned around to walk the short distance to the warehouse.

Lance looked around as he got to the address that Shawn had given him. It was a rather smallish warehouse facing the highway but was a bit hidden by the larger buildings around it. "This is the place." He looked beside him and his eyes met the angry blue ones of Juliet. She had been bound, her hands behind her back and a gag in her mouth. Lance didn't want her ruining the surprise. He told his associate. "We don't know what he has set up so be cautious but stick to the plan."

The associate nodded as Lance went around to the passenger's side and grabbed Juliet who struggled and glanced worried into the back of the car before glaring at the tall vampire. "Shawn is going to kill you for this." She thought bitterly.

Lance walked into the back door of the warehouse. Shawn had given him directions to the back of the building. He took in the layout of the place quickly as he rounded a freezer into the main and open part of the building. Shawn, Carlton and Mick stood waiting 30 feet away.

Mick St. John was one of the last vampires in the world that Lance was expecting to see standing next to the detective and psychic, though his surprise barely registered through his cool exterior. He pulled Juliet forward and presented her ragged appearance to the detective and psychic. He got the reaction he wanted out of the detective, who growled but the psychic was unreadable... and the animal stench was back. "Probably a ploy to hide their emotions from me." Lance thought and smiled at how naive they were.

The four on the ground and the two in the rafters took in the fact that Lance was alone. There was no way he would leave his back up behind so they knew he had to be here somewhere, which means Lance had something planned too.

"I see this is going to be an awkward family reunion isn't it." Lance drawled.

"I'm just here to make sure you keep your deal with my friends." Mick answered seriously. "How's Coralline? Still alive or did you murder her too?"

Letting Juliet fall to the ground he answered, "Oh, you know my sister. She has her ways to get out of hot situations unscathed." Shawn and Carlton saw Mick tense up. Apparently Lance was baiting him with a painful subject.

"Regardless, I am here for something else." Looking at Carlton and Shawn he raised his voice, "Do you have the cure? Or do I have to show you what happens if you try to deceive me?" He pushed Juliet farther to the ground with his boot and started to press down. Juliet cried out through the gag and locked eyes with Shawn. "Your girlfriend is very pretty detective." Lance called to Carlton.

"My girlfriend!?" Carlton's indignant tone surprised Lance as did the confused glances each of the vampires shared with each other. The detective had been protective of the woman and the psychic was gay so Lance had thought she had to be Carlton's girl. "Why on God's green earth would you think she was my girlfriend?"

Shawn was the only one to really know why Lance would think he was grabbing Carlton's girlfriend. "Um, I kind of made him think Gus was my boyfriend." Morgan suppressed a snort that barely came through the comms but caused Lance to glance around the warehouse for the source of the noise. "Oh crap." Shawn muttered as Lance turned his head to where each of their back ups were hiding.

Clenching his teeth in frustration he realized this must have been the psychic's plan. "Three more heartbeats... Mick, I would think you would know better than that." Lance verbally jabbed him. He leaned over and picked up Juliet placing his hand around her throat and covering his body with hers. "Tell them to come out."

"Can't blame a guy for trying." Shawn tried to be nonchalant but inside he was alphabetically reciting every curse word he ever learned, English or not. He motioned for everyone to come out.

Chuck and Sarah looked at Lance murderously as they descended the metal stairs to the main floor. Morgan hurried to their side from behind the freezer with a mouthed, "Sorry." to Shawn.

Lance was unable to tell if any of the people were human due to the stench so he had to assume all were vampire. He started to get impatient. This was getting a bit messy. "Show me the cure now!" He shouted. Shawn frantically dug in his pocket and presented the vial. Lance smiled evilly and asked, "Is that the real cure?" and closed his eyes to listen to each heartbeat for signs of deception.

Shawn breathed deeply and replied, "Yes." The only person in the room that knew the cure was not real was himself. He had done a lot of planning to keep it that way too. He figured Lance would want to know if he had the real thing or not.

Lance opened his eyes. Satisfied that each was telling the truth. "Now, bring it to me and you can have the girl."

Shawn looked at Mick, worriedly wondering if this was some sort of trick. However, the other vampire was still staring forward at Lance. He had to know that once Shawn had Juliet they would attack. Mick had a bad feeling about things.

Starting forward slowly, Shawn met Lance half way. The black eyed vampire stretched out one hand and presented Juliet with the other. Shawn looked at Juliet who was shaking her head and yelling through the gag, but Shawn paused the vial anyway. Grabbing Juliet he pushed her behind him and Morgan rushed forward and grabbed her out of the way.

Chuck and Sarah drew guns as Lance stepped farther away from Shawn. "You might not want to do that." He chuckled and backed up to where the freezer was.

"What?" Shawn asked sarcastically as he backed up to his own group just in case Lance tried to get him. "Another bomb. C'mon, you should switch it up a bit, you are so movie villain. Are you going to tell us all your dastardly plan now? Paaaaleeeze."

Shawn was just about to give the order to shoot when Morgan finally got the gag off of Juliet. "Shawn NO!" He looked at her puzzled.

"Not quite." Lance smirked and made a beckoning gesture to his right. Shawn's order caught in his throat as the associate rounded the freezer carrying Henry Spencer. Henry was unconscious and beaten bloody. He was hanging limply over the vampire's shoulder. Everyone looked on in horror as Lance once again had a human shield and the "cure."

Shawn had not moved from where he stood, just in front of the group. A scent wafted through the smell of raccoon. Carlton and Morgan caught it but being new to vampirism they had no idea what it was. Mick knew. "Oh man no." he groaned.

Anger was not a good thing for a vampire, they had to have control over their basic instinct which is why rogues, who had not learned the control needed early enough needed to be put down. They were dealing with something even more dangerous now. They were dealing with a vampire about to go into a blind rage.

Carlton, white eyed and seething with hatred, looked at Mick who was gaping at Shawn. He had a feeling the psychic was about to do something stupid. Moving forward he spoke in a low grumble, "Spencer, don't."

Shawn didn't hear him. His senses were all focused on his father. He cocked his head, noticing each wound Lance had inflicted before focusing on Henry's neck which had fang marks in it. The thread of resolve Shawn had been clinging to broke as his worst case scenario had come true. It had been on his mind since he had not been able to get a hold of his father. This man had blown up his friends, kidnapped his girlfriend and all but killed his father. Shawn couldn't hold back anymore. He growled, low and dangerous as rational mind gave way to pure instinct, and he didn't fight it. Fangs and claws grew, his eyes changed and his posture hunched into a predatory stance.

Chuck pointed to Shawn and asked Morgan, "That's not a good thing right?" Morgan slowly shook his head.

With a screech, Shawn bounded straight at Lance who had little time to do anything but drop Henry and prepare for the hit. Shawn bowled Lance over and both somersaulted and rolled to their feet, facing off.

The rest of the group stuck to the original plan. Chuck and Sarah opened fire on the associate who stood for a moment, surprised at what had just happened. One of the silver bullets ripped through his arm and he dropped to the ground, crouching out of the way of the next bullet volley and charged the pair.

Mick and Carlton sprang into action and ran to intercept Lance and Shawn since the latter had gone flying into a wall after a round house kick to the face. Shawn didn't stay down long. He ducked a punch and slammed his palm into Lance's nose causing it to bleed profusely. Mick and Carlton hit Lance at a run as he paused to hold his nose. With a turn, he deflected Carlton's blow but Mick's hit knocked him down.

Morgan had to jump back from Chuck and Sarah as Chuck swung his wife in a sweeping arch by grabbing her arms and kicking the associate in the face, sending him sprawling. "Yeah buddy!" Morgan cheered as Chuck dropped Sarah on her feet and cast a smile in his friend's direction. The momentary distraction was all the associate needed as he rolled to his feet and grabbed Chuck by the throat. Sarah tried desperately to pry his hands off. Morgan's eyes changed and he leaped on the associates back, hitting him over the head repeatedly while yelling. "Let go of my friend!"

Across the room, Lance had kicked Mick off of himself, flipping to his feet before dodging Shawn's next blow. He backed away from the other three vampires, getting his bearings. "Looks like I hit a nerve with this one." He wiped the blood off his face with the back of his hand while Mick and Carlton held onto Shawn, keeping him back. "He was very refreshing, I think I may have taken too much though... such a shame." The face sympathetic look on his face was worse than if he had laughed.

Shawn bellowed and shrugged off Carlton's grip before reaching at Mick's coat, and grabbing the custom silver knife he kept inside of it. Carlton, Mick and Lance all backed up from him. Unsure of what the unstable vampire would do. Shawn gave a toothy grin at Lance who had readied himself for the attack. However, Shawn turned and charged at the other fighting group.

Chuck was still being held by the neck. His eyes unfocused for a moment before snapping open and he did a move, hitting the pressure point of the associate's hand. The vampire immediately let go and Morgan jumped off his back. As Chuck gasped for air Sarah kicked the vampire in the chest, driving him back from them. Suddenly, Shawn was there, bringing the knife around in a batter's swing that sliced cleanly through the neck of the disoriented associate.

Everyone in the room stopped and watched as the head rolled away from the falling body. Shawn skidded to a stop and faced Lance waving the bloody knife in his direction. He cocked his head and smiled, loving the shocked expression on the elder vampire's face. He sniffed and caught the smell of fear and chuckled. The sound sent shivers up Carlton's spine. The laugh was filled with malice and so un-Shawn like coming out of the psychic's mouth. Apparently Shawn wasn't home right now.

Lance stared in horror as his companion of three hundred years dropped headless to the floor. The calm and collected look on his face was gone and replaced with shock and rage. Mick and Carlton tried to take the chance and rushed Lance while he was distracted. Lance saw them coming out of the corner of his eye. His companion was dead, he was done toying with these pests. Crouching low he flipped Mick over his head and the investigator landed on his back with the wind knocked out of him. He grabbed Carlton by the arms and swung him around sending him flying into the corner of the freezer. He felt his back snap on impact.

"AHHH!" Shawn and Carlton cried out in shared pain. Lance was about to go after Carlton when Shawn ran at him with an inhuman shriek, the knife poised to attack. Lance grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the ground. Shawn tried to swing the knife but Lance used his other hand to knock the weapon away. Shawn, still not in his right mind, started clawing and biting at the arm holding him up.

"You...little insect." Lance spat out as he reached in his pocket. He pulled out the vial and plunged it into Shawn.

"No! Spencer!" Carlton shouted as he tried to get up. His back hadn't quite fixed itself yet and he was struggling to get his feet underneath him.

Lance smirked and waited for the cure to take effect. The sight of the vial and the pain from the injection momentarily snapped Shawn back to reality. He stopped thrashing and biting. He closed his eyes and tried to remember, "There was a plan? Wasn't there?" He attempted to organize his thoughts. "Something I'm supposed to do..."

The answer came to him suddenly and his eyes popped open, meeting Lance's for an instant before choking out, "CASEY! NOW!" A second later a shot rang out followed by breaking glass. Shawn jerked as a bullet ripped a giant hole through his midsection and embedded itself into Lance's chest.

Stumbling back, Lance dropped Shawn, who fell unresponsive to the floor bleeding profusely. The vampire looked at the large hole in his chest. The silver was painful but it wouldn't kill him. That was until Gus appeared from behind the freezer and rammed the cure into his back while pressing down on the plunger.

Lance howled in pain and swatted Gus away, sending him skidding a few feet. Gus grabbed his arm in pain and watched as Lance started to shake. He collapsed to his side and a stream of frothy blood came out of his mouth. Lance touched where the bullet entered and saw his hand was covered in blood. "Impossible." He whispered before his hand dropped limply and he became still.

Beth ran out from behind the freezer and rushed to Mick's side. Chuck, Morgan and Sarah ran to assist the father and son currently sprawled on the concrete floor. Henry was still and Shawn was barely moving. The young man looked up at Gus and smiled. "You are so Orlando Bloom right now." He whispered.

Gus chuckled, only Shawn would make a Pirates of the Caribbean reference while gravely wounded. "That would make Casey Johnny Depp."

Juliet had scooted up to Shawn and placed his head on her lap while stroking his hair. "Jules..." Shawn smiled before his eyes closed and he passed out.

Finding his feet and limping over Carlton winced as another vertebrae snapped back into place as he walked. He went to Henry's side and checked his pulse. It was weak but there. He turned to Gus, "Guster what the hell are you doing here?"

Gus was looking down at Shawn who had fallen unconscious. "Shawn left us a note and the real cure in my car. He took one of my insulin needles and made a decoy." He handed Mick the note and picked up each needle holding them up to each other. They were almost exactly the same.

Mick looked at the note and read it aloud.

"Gus, I am sorry I said those things to you. You are my best friend and will always be the cheeze whiz to my twinkie. You are right. I am not handling this well, and what is worse is I have a feeling that Lance may have my dad. If that happens I may go postal, seriously.

So, my dad said always have a back up plan right? You are that plan and no one else knows. If Lance senses they are lying about the cure... Jules is done for and I can't live with myself if that happens.

Text me when you get this. I'll tell you what to do. I'm counting on you buddy."

Mick finished and looked up at the confused faces. They had seen Shawn was texting someone earlier. It must have been Gus. He reached in Shawn's pocket and pulled out his phone. Sure enough the last text he sent to was to Gus.

(Whouse, Bdoor. Wait 4 NOW. U no WTD.)

Morgan looked at the text. "Ok, well that can't get any more cryptic."

Shaking his head and remembering the text Shawn sent from the truck of a car, Carlton answered, "We've worked on less before."

At this point Gus was starting to get worried for Shawn, and a bit queasy. The wound wasn't healing and he was losing a lot of blood. He pushed the nausea down and took of his shirt, pressing it to the wound. "We need to get him some blood, and Juliet and Henry need a hospital."

John then entered the warehouse, slamming the door open loudly. He walked up to the group quickly, wordlessly glancing at his team and they nodded that they were alright. Juliet however was furious. "What is wrong with you? How could you shoot him? Why didn't you wait till he was clear?"

"He gave me this before I went on the roof. Told me to open it when I got up there. By the time I was in position we had gone silent on the comms and I couldn't say anything." Juliet read the note and handed it to Gus.

"Don't open until in position" on one side and "Shoot him in the heart no matter what" written on the other.

"How does he do this?" Carlton exclaimed in frustration. "Damn it Spencer."

Mick stood up. "We are going to have to call the cleaners in on this one." Morgan and Carlton shifted uncomfortably. Mick had told them about Cleaners. They were a type of vampire clean up crew. They were the ones who officially executed rogues like Aaron was and cleaned up human killings. Accidental or otherwise. "We can't have all these humans here when they get here though. They know about Beth but this many people may attract some unwanted attention."

Sarah stepped forward. "Chuck, Casey and I will take them to the hospital. Morgan has a packet of blood in the car, I am not sure how far that will get him but it is something. Gus can come with us if he likes too."

"I'm staying with Shawn." Gus said quickly.

Juliet looked at Gus with tears in her eyes as Chuck helped her to her feet. "Take care of him."

"You know that's right."

As the injured were carried off and Morgan ran to get some blood, Carlton looked down at Shawn's pale form then at the headless vampire a few feet away. "What happened with Spencer back there?" He asked Mick, who was eyeing the empty vial of cure sadly.

Mick looked up, realizing Carlton was saying something to him. "Usually sires stay close and their fledglings for months, even years after a turn. They have to be there in case something like this happens, but with you guys we didn't have that option. That is why we tried the crash course this last week. You guys are still learning your limits and it looks like Shawn reached his."

Carlton winced at the memory of himself almost killing the two agents that burned down the station. Even though they deserved it, as an officer he would have felt horrible if he would have gone through with it. So he was now wondering how Shawn was going to react when he comes to and remembers what he did. The young man had killed someone and he was going to have to live with that for a long, long time.

END NOTES:

Man, I agonized over Shawn killing someone. I really did but one of the things about Moonlight vampires is they can go off the deep end.

In the series Josef has known Mick for decades and still had to force himself to not bite him at one point. So to stay true to the crossover I figured it was something that would make sense.