AUTHOR'S NOTES: Aftermaths are so much fun aren't they?

Chapter 15- When the Smoke Clears

Morgan returned a few short minutes later with the single blood pack, knowing it wouldn't be enough but it was better than nothing. Gus had backed off a bit to let the vampires try to coax Shawn back to consciousness. The psychic did not look good at all. A large puddle of blood had leaked out from his back, soaking his shirt and was spreading on the concrete.

Mick had called the cleaners but the closest ones were almost an hour away. "Mick wasn't kidding when he said Santa Barbara didn't have many vampires." Carlton thought. He watched as Shawn instinctively swallowed the blood and groaned when the stream stopped. "He's going to need more isn't he?"

Mick nodded solemnly. He told the cleaners to bring blood with them but if Shawn didn't get more soon he may wake up feral again. Gus saw Mick glance in his direction. "What?"

"He needs more blood." Mick asked delicately.

Gus' mouth went instantly dry. He would be lying if he hadn't thought of this survival scenario before but he knew that if Shawn found out who he fed off of he would feel guilty forever. "I don't know if he would want me to." Gus admitted but felt unsure as he looked at Shawn, sweating and grimacing on the floor.

Beth walked over to Gus and put her hand on his shoulder. Her large blue eyes boring into his own brown ones. "I had to do this to save Mick once. He felt bad about it later, but you will be saving him a lot of pain." She knew it wasn't going to be easy for either of them, but it was the best option they had at the moment. If Shawn appeared out of control in front of the cleaners it could be disastrous.

Taking a deep breath Gus knelt down, favoring the arm that he had landed on earlier. "What do I do?" Shawn was still not fully conscious so Mick made a small scratch on Gus' wrist and put it under Shawn's nose. Instinct did the rest. He bit down as soon as the blood was brought close enough. Gus winced and fought not to get sick. He turned his head away and ended up catching Carlton's eye. He saw respect there and it made him feel a bit better about the situation.

Beth knelt by Gus' side for moral support. While Carlton, Mick and Morgan walked over to Lance's body. "How are we going to explain this to the cleaners?" Morgan asked looking down. "Aren't they supposed to be some kind of scary vampire cops or something?"

Mick smirked, "I know some personally. I called the ones in I trust and they shouldn't ask too many questions. It would be a long shot for any of them to know Lance personally. He may be old but he stayed in Europe, so we could just say he was a human working with a vampire to murder other vampires. Even if we took Lance alive they would have put him to death for what he did."

Noises from the floor turned their attention to Shawn. He was starting to come around. He still had not let go of Gus' arm but it had only been a couple minutes so the man was in no danger of losing too much blood yet. Shawn's face scrunched and he was obviously figuring out something was in his mouth. He sniffed and froze, no longer biting down. "Uh oh..." Carlton knew Shawn was in no way going to be happy about this.

"What?" Gus, who had his head turned away, looked at Shawn, who had flinched away from his arm and was struggling to sit up. "Shawn, its ok, stay still."

Shawn opened his eyes slowly. He glanced up and blinked disbelievingly at Gus before looking down at his friend's arm, which Beth was quickly binding with a piece of cloth she had ripped from her sleeve. "Gus... what?" Shawn's brain tried to catch up with what he was seeing. When it finally did, Shawn felt like he was going to be sick. He had just bitten his friend. He started sputtering and attempted to grab his shirt and wipe off his tongue before Mick and a butt load of pain stopped him. "Ah!"

"Take it easy man, you lost a lot of blood." Mick said, keeping Shawn from getting up. Even if the bullet went in and out it had still been silver and would take a bit to heal the damage.

His vision still clearing, Shawn shook his head and grabbed at Gus. "Gus..."

"I'm here buddy." Gus leaned in and Shawn gripped the front of his shirt roughly and pulled him forward.

Bringing his friend practically nose to nose he growled, "Never do that again. No matter what. Got it?" Gus nodded vigorously and Shawn let him go. "But thanks buddy." He lay back, breathing as deeply as he could to deal with the pain. "What happened?" He asked the group.

Mick knew this was normal. Once the rage subsided it took a while to remember what happened. "What is the last thing you remember?"

Shawn closed his eyes. "I remember getting shot, but before that...Oh my God! Where is my dad? Jules?" Shawn pushed Mick away and sat up, crying out in agony.

"Shawn! Shawn it is ok. They got taken to the hospital by Chuck and Sarah." Gus held onto Shawn's shoulder to steady him.

"You're here, so you got my message right?" Gus nodded. "That means you gave Lance the cure." Shawn's shoulders slumped and he winced at the movement. He really hoped it hadn't come to that. The cure was gone. Glancing at Mick, Shawn felt the need to apologize. "I'm really sorry man, about the cure you know."

Mick nodded and mumbled, "It's not your fault." Shawn knew better than to push it any more than that for now so against his nature, he stayed quiet.

"Um, guys. Is there anything we should do or uh, hide before the cleaners get here?" Morgan asked.

Mick shook his head. "Gus already has the syringes and there shouldn't be any other problem."

"The cleaners are coming?" Shawn knew what they were intimately. During training, Josef had one talk to him. Being such a young sire was uncommon and frowned upon so he got the third degree about how much he would die if he ever let Carlton slip up. They were sufficiently scary enough to get the point across. "Why are the cleaners coming? Lance was killed with a bullet, not by a vampire." Then Shawn remembered Lance's associate and glanced around the room. He noticed the headless vampire and gave a whistle. "Which one of you guys did that?" He gave them such an innocent look.

The other vampires all looked at each other, uncertain if they should tell him the truth. Carlton knew that hiding the truth from Shawn would just make it worse in the long run. He felt that way after everyone hid that Shawn was his real sire. He glanced apologetically at Gus, who didn't know what Shawn had done either. Thinking it better to plunge right in he said, "Spencer... you did it."

Gus shook his head, shocked. "There is no way."

Shawn looked at Carlton confused. His mind didn't want to register what the detective had said. "What... I did it?" Shawn painfully raised his finger to his temple and closed his eyes. There was a haze blocking his normally clear memories. He squeezed his eyes tighter and a memory broke through the fog. Evil laughter, Mick's knife and the tormented look on Lance's face. Shawn's eyes popped open and he turned to the side, dry heaving. His vampiric body not letting him expel the much needed blood he'd ingested, but it wasn't for lack of trying.

Mick stood and went over Carlton, making room for the people now comforting Shawn. Morgan was trying to tell him that by taking out the associate he probably saved Chuck and Sarah's lives, but Gus' crying was not helping matters. "You know, you'd be the one who would have more luck at this." Mick said seriously. "Sires need their fledglings just as much as fledglings need their sires, plus with your bloodline it may bring him some comfort if you were there for him."

"Why me? I barely even like Spencer." Carlton mumbled uncomfortably.

Mick looked at him angrily and poked the detective in the chest, "Get your head out of your ass. Anyone can see you are friends. I've seen how he acts around Gus and they are best friends. Shawn's competitiveness is always in jest. I know that and I only met him two weeks ago. You have known him for years." Carlton hung his head and said nothing. "You should have seen him during the training, constantly worried about how YOU would feel if he smoked you at everything. Think about it, if he is your sire... how did you beat or match him at every single test?"

Carlton got a bit miffed at that. "You are saying that Spencer cheated to be worse than me?"

"He admitted to me that part of it was not wanting you to know he was your sire, also because he knew how you would feel about that, but he has been trying hard since this happened to make the transition easier for you. To make you feel better because he thinks this is all his fault. I think it's time you returned the favor don't you detective?" Now that made Carlton feel like a dick.

"Ah hell." Carlton complained and knelt down by Shawn, who was still bent over trying not to be sick at what he had done. Carlton tried to put a comforting hand on Shawn's back but there was no place on the back of his shirt that wasn't covered in blood. He looked down at the ruined clothing and got an idea. Taking of the ballistic vest and the vest on underneath he offered the latter to Shawn. "Here Spencer, put this on. No one here wants to see you bloody, or half naked."

Gus took the vest as Mick and Morgan helped Shawn to his feet to make changing shirts easier. "See Gus," Shawn wiped away some moisture off his face. There was no way he was admitting that the wetness was tears. "I knew Lassie would give me the shirt off his back one day."

The group smiled at Shawn's humor and Carlton stood up looking annoyed but he was secretly relieved. "Very funny Spencer."

Everyone's eyes fell to the largish hole in Shawn's torso that was glaringly visible once he removed his jacket and t-shirt. Despite Shawn's joking, it had to hurt. He quickly started putting on the vest to stop the stares he was getting. Taking a few tentative steps, Shawn purposefully avoided looking at the associate's body but he did go and look at Lance's. The cold stare came back to his eyes as he looked at the body on the floor in front of him. "All that contempt for humans, and you end up dying as one." Shawn gave an amused snort, "Now that's irony."

The group had gone silent as Shawn looked down at the corpse, processing what had happened. That made the warehouse door opening with a bang all the more surprising. Everyone, still in defense mode turned around and faced the people filing in the door. Mick was the first to relax, realizing the cleaners had arrived.

Gus didn't know what he was expecting, but he wasn't expecting two of the most beautiful women he had ever seen walk in wearing shiny black body suits. One was blond and one was brunette, their hair was up away from their faces in neat ponytails. The only thing stopping him from going into player mode was the fact that he knew these women could kill him with their pinkies. Mick had told him and Beth to stay out of the way when the cleaners did their work. They weren't fans of humans knowing about them.

The brunette approached Mick with a smile. "Mick, you haven't called in a while." She scanned the bloody chaos of the room. "Though when you do it always ends up interesting."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Mick smirked and moved aside so she could get a look at the others in the room. "These are the guys I told you about. Carlton Lassiter, Morgan Grimes and Shawn Spencer."

The cleaner nodded at each of them and her eyes settled on Shawn. She sniffed and walked up to him, pushing aside the vest material he had not yet zipped up. Shawn yelped as the cloth brushed against the bullet hole. She looked up at him and said "Silver." It wasn't a question. She reached into the satchel she was carrying and pulled out a couple of blood packs, waving them enticingly. "Mick said you would need these. Now I see why." Shawn took them gratefully. He moved off behind the freezer to drink them though, the shame from feeding on Gus had not faded at all.

The blond cleaner had busied herself ordering around some men who came in with cleaning supplies. This made Carlton and Morgan smirk a bit. They hadn't really thought about them being literally cleaners.

After giving Shawn the blood, the brunette went back to Mick. "So you going to explain this one or leave me another mystery?" She smiled warmly at Mick and Beth glared at her. Hearing Beth's heart speed up she acknowledged the blond. "Hello there Beth." She smiled and winked.

Mick knew her flirting was harmless, she had done it for years but he didn't want Beth to get riled up. "Sorry, this isn't one we are going to share. I just stuck around to let you know the vampire who was killed was responsible for the arson fires around the state. He had to be taken out, and you won't have to worry about any loose ends either."

"If I get asked about this one from the higher ups I am sending them straight to you Mick. Other than that, my lips are sealed." She flicked Mick's collar and went to go join her co-worker who was currently directing the men to haul away the bodies.

Mick let out a breath as she walked away and felt the need to go to Beth who was fuming. Shawn was just coming out from behind the freezer. His color looked a lot better and he would be ok as long as he got some more blood later. "Everything is cool. Let's leave them to do their work." He caught Shawn's eye. "We'll go see how Juliet and your dad are doing." Mick put his hand on Beth's back and guided her out of the building. Carlton and Morgan lagged behind with Morgan making comments about how if they didn't have girlfriends and stealing glances at the cleaners.

Shawn hobbled to the door and Gus put an arm around him to steady his steps. He winced with each movement. "You never know how many muscles are used for walking until half of them are practically hanging out of you."

"Your muscles are not hanging out of you Shawn." Gus grunted as he helped Shawn walk.

Shawn let out a breathy laugh. "I've felt it both ways."

"No you haven't Shawn."

"You gotta admit though, what I did took guts."

"Shawn, that's completely gross"

"Well now at least we know that vampires can be holey."

"SHAWN!"

Giving Gus a wide grin, he figured he almost had his friend believing he was alright, but in reality he was far from it. Shawn knew everything wasn't his fault but it felt that way. He also couldn't help but remember his own maniacal laughter as he killed someone in cold blood. If he really had that much darkness in him, would his friends ever be safe around him?

"Shawn stop dragging your feet!" Gus complained. "It's bad enough I have to almost carry you."

"Aw c'mon, helping me isn't so bad. You never know, this bullet wound might just have a silver lining…"

Henry was in a lot of pain when he woke up. His whole body ached and he could only compare it to how he felt after being hazed during his first week at the police academy. He chanced a peek at his surroundings, wondering if he were still in that filthy hotel room just waiting for Lance to come back and finish him off. He never felt so much like a weak old man as when he wasn't able to save Juliet and himself from being taken from her hospital room.

The beeping machinery and white walls made him instantly realize he was back in the hospital, or for some reason Lance had decided to put him on life support. After the last two weeks he had, nothing would surprise him anymore. His question as to how he got there was answered when he looked around and saw his room was filled with people, and his roommate just happened to be Juliet.

An exhausted looking Shawn sat between the two beds while a ragged Carlton sat on the other side of the sleeping Juliet. He recognized Mick, who was pacing the floor but no one else looked familiar, a couple of them were asleep as well. Almost all of them were sporting injuries of some kind or in the case of the vampires, remnants of injuries. Torn clothes and bloody streaks on their flawless skin were the only indicator that Mick, Carlton and Morgan had been in a fight. Shawn was hunched over painfully which kick started the parental worry Henry was unable to shut off, even when he knew his son was neigh invincible.

"Dad." Shawn was the first to notice his father was awake and looking at him. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I was kidnaped by a lunatic vampire." Henry groaned.

Shawn shook his head, "The point of exaggerating is to actually exaggerate dad."

Henry gave an amused snort and looked over at his roommate. "How is your girl?" Henry made a weak head motion in Juliet's direction, doing his best to not aggravate his neck wound.

"Still hasn't woken up." Carlton interrupted. "The doctor visited and said she had a concussion. She is getting an MRI in the morning, and her wrist is re-broken."

"If the doctor was here, why didn't he kick everyone out? It has to be way past visiting hours and I don't think you could convince anyone that you are all my kids." Mick smirked. He was starting to realize who Shawn got his sarcasm from.

Shawn glanced at Sarah and Chuck who were sleeping and Casey who was sitting with his arms crossed keeping an eye on the hallway and anyone who approached the room. "Technically, I hired them as Jules and your body guards. They couldn't deny you guys protection, especially since you were taken out of here once."

"Whatever works I guess." Henry smiled and yawned, his eyelids seemed very heavy all of a sudden. Apparently another dose of timed pain killers was entering his system. He reached out his hand and received a gentle squeeze from Shawn as his eyes closed and he fell asleep.

Letting his father's limp hand go, Shawn leaned forward and put his head in his hands. He was so tired. Carlton stood up and walked over to him, shaking Gus awake on the way. He grabbed Shawn's arm and started dragging him towards the door but Shawn yanked his arm away. "I'm not leaving them."

Grumbling at the psychic's stubbornness Carlton tried to reason with him. "We need sleep Spencer, and we are not going to get it here."

Mick stepped in. "He's right, you two have been through hell tonight and need the rest. We'll keep an eye on them for you, I promise."

Casey grunted an affirmative. "Anyone tries to get in here they'll have to deal with me."

"Are you sure you guys are going to be ok? You and Morgan need sleep to." Shawn pointed out.

"I think I will be fine staying up late. You big time heroes deserve some shut eye."

Morgan's statement almost made Shawn laugh. Big time heroes. Looking at his injured loved ones didn't make him feel like a hero. Neither did hearing about them losing three detectives and two officers in the blast, but he knew they were right. Not sleeping wouldn't help anyone. Shawn walked over to Juliet's sleeping form. He pulled out his keys and unhooked the little pineapple he always kept on it. He gently took her good arm that had her hospital band and connected the keychain to it. Bending over, Shawn kissed her forehead. "Let me know if she wakes up."

"No problem." Mick sat down on one of the couches they had brought from the hallway and settled in next to Beth. "Have a good rest."

Gus, Carlton and Shawn were just about to get into the elevator when they looked into one of the waiting rooms and saw Karen was still there and still awake. "Hold on guys." Shawn asked as he slipped into the small enclosure. She barely registered his presence. He could only assume that she had also heard about the officer's deaths too and was blaming herself. He knew that feeling well. "Chief? You ok?" He instantly knew how dumb the question was as soon as the words left his mouth.

"I'm just tired Shawn." She wasn't even using formalities at this point. She was just too worn out to care.

Shawn felt a pang of remorse and realized it was coming from Carlton. He waved the detective over and backed up to give him room in front of Karen. "I think you should be the one to tell her."

Karen expected the worst. "Tell me what? Is Juliet alright? Henry?" She had heard something had happened and they were brought in by a security team injured but alive. With her luck it had been worse than she thought.

"It's actually good news… well not good but ok I guess if you would call it…"

"Get to the point detective."

"We got him Chief." Karen's head rose and Carlton had her full attention. "The guy who caused all this, we got him."

Karen nodded. She still looked upset but some of the tension in her shoulders was gone. "Should I even ask what happened?"

Shawn gave a quiet, "No." Before walking out of the room.

"It's best if you just focus on the BCA agents we have in custody. There is no way they are getting out of this and it gives the courts someone to go after. Even if they were just pawns, they still killed with that bomb and should hang for it." Carlton took Karen's hand and shook it. "We're going to get some sleep. You should do the same, you have done more than enough."

"I'll consider it detective." Karen gave a sad smile and looked out at Shawn and Gus in the hallway. "I've seen that look before in a lot of cops Carlton, keep an eye on him so he doesn't internalize things. Lord knows he does it enough already."

"There's a reason she is the Chief." Carlton thought amusingly to himself, and nodded at Karen. "I promise." He walked out of the waiting room and almost enjoyed the quiet elevator ride down and walk to the parking lot.

Once they were about to go their separate ways, Carlton finally found his voice. "Spencer. You did a good thing today. I know it doesn't feel like it but the fact is, as a detective you have to take lives sometimes to preserve others' lives. Think of it this way. How would you feel if it was Bartowski or his wife had gotten killed instead?" Shawn actually thought about it and he could say he would have felt 1000 times worse. Carlton continued. "You don't have to be ok with killing, but it is better than the alternative." With that, Carlton climbed in his car they had retrieved from Henry's house before going to the hospital, and headed home.

Gus and Shawn watched him pull away, dumbstruck that Carlton seemed to actually care how Shawn felt. "You know that was a once in a lifetime thing right?" Gus commented as both of them got in the Blueberry. Shawn had been in no condition to drive after the warehouse, so the Psychmobile was left at his dad's for now.

"Once in an eternity for us buddy."

"You know that's right." Gus started driving to Shawn's apartment. "Is it ok if I crash on your couch? I'm too beat to drive home tonight."

Shawn knew Gus was only making an excuse to stay over to keep an eye on him, but it felt good that his friend cared. "Sure, I have a bed that I don't use…much."

Gus didn't want to think about what the bed was used for. "I'll take the couch." He said simply.

Shrugging, Shawn said, "Your loss." He was secretly glad he and Gus could still bicker. It was one of the only things in his life that felt normal. He almost wanted to mention that Gus didn't have to worry about sleeping on the bed. He and Juliet hadn't been alone in weeks except in his car driving to their date that night. "And what a crap-tastic day it turned out to be." Shawn grumbled and wondered if Juliet would even want to look at him anymore after what he did at the warehouse.

Brooding all the way back to his apartment he gave superficial banter and goodnights to Gus before collapsing into his freezer. Still thinking about Juliet and how he would do anything to protect her, he started to wonder if that included having to protect her from himself.

END NOTES: I tried to get across that even though no one blames Shawn for what happened. He is taking it really hard and feeling like a failure for not getting everyone out unhurt.