Gotta be honest and say I thought I might get a few more reviews with the reveal last chapter. Little sad. No one was surprised? Then I'm not doing my job. *sigh*
"All I'm saying Shawn," Gus panted as he pulled himself up and over a rock,"Is that Jeffery hardly seems like he has all his screws." He turned around and offered Shawn a hand up. "He could be leading us up here to kill us!" Gus glanced at the sky; thank God the rain had temporarily stopped; that would have made this climb even more horrible.
"Please, Jeffery is hardly a killer Gus. As for your negative Nelly attitude about his sanity, that's why we are going with him to the cabin!" Shawn argued empathically. "I'm sure Millie is ok, and if not, well, we can just call Lassie to come save the day; it's been about a month since he last felt useful. He'd probably appreciate the pick me up."
Gus frowned, "You'd call Lassiter?"
Shawn's stomach somersaulted. "I…well, with how things are with me and…" he trailed off, running a hand dejectedly through his hair.
Gus frowned, "Shawn, what exactly is going on? Three weeks ago you said you didn't think you could be happy without Juliet, and now you are avoiding her like the plague."
Shawn swallowed and looked away. They continued hiking towards the cabin, Jeffery was leading.
"I just…," Shawn's face twisted as he looked at his best friend, Gus frowned, since when did Shawn Spencer look guilty, "I want her to be happy." He confessed quietly.
Gus nodded, "I know, but you want to be happy too," he added, reciting Shawn's words from their conversation during the Tom Fong incident.
Shawn shook his head, "No. Well, yes, ideally I'd be happy too but…" Shawn's tongue darted unconsciously across his lips as he tried to find the right words, "but I can't make Juliet happy. Not really."
Gus looked at him like he was that creature in Alien. Shawn sighed. "I can't be honest with her Gus. Can I? I lie to her every day. And on top of that…" Shawn shifted on his feet and sighed, this was territory he desperately wanted to avoid delving into, "Yin could come back," he whispered so quietly that Gus was sure he had misheard.
Gus blinked. "…Your nightmares." Shawn shook his head.
"Those don't matter."
"That's what this is about isn't it!" Gus realized, pointing a finger at Shawn who had resumed his hike in a hopes of ending the conversation. "Shawn you can't live your life with the fear of Yin coming back hanging over your head. He could come back tomorrow or he could be gone forever, you don't know."
Shawn paused and turned to him, his eyebrows knitted as he scrutinized his friend intensely. "Do you really believe that?" Shawn asked him in a voice barely above an angry whisper.
Gus deflated. "No. … No, I don't. It's not over," Gus admitted quietly.
The two friends stared at each other silently, the gravity of the statement hitting both of them. It was only a matter of when. Not if. Never if.
"Guys!"
Jeffery's voiced snapped the duo from their morose thoughts.
"It's right over this hill!" Jeffery said excitedly waving them up.
"This is crazy Shawn," Gus scolded again as the two resumed their typical banter.
"Gus, we got him to bring us up here as a gesture of good faith. We will be able to see that Millie is ok-"
"Yeah, assuming he didn't bring us up here to kill us." Gus scoffed again.
"And" Shawn continued as if he hadn't been interrupted, "We will know exactly where the cabin is if I decide to have a vision." Shawn explained.
Gus frowned and put a hand on his friends arm, "Shawn…what do you mean IF you decide to have a vision."
Shawn sighed. He knew he shouldn't have brought up that particular detail in his plan, "Gus, this is Millie's real father. He deserves to get to know his daughter and have her know that he's her father."
Gus gaped at his friend. "Shawn that is easily one of the most ridiculous plans you've ever-"
"What's so wrong with it?" Shawn asked sounding baffled.
Gus shook his head, "Jeffery still kidnapped Millie Shawn, and on this planet, that's still a crime. Besides, there is no reason that he can't get to know his daughter here. They don't have to flee the country to have a relationship."
Shawn sighed. "Well agree to disagree."
Gus ground his teeth angrily, "I will not support this Shawn. When we go back to town we are headed straight to the SBPD," Shawn started to argue, "And if you refuse to have a vision, I'll have one." Gus added as he stormed off.
Shawn shook his head, "Gus, you can't have a vision. It's not part of our routine!" Shawn stomped his foot before he followed his partner.
The cabin itself was fairly small. Shawn was impressed with how much it looked like the cover of a Lincoln Logs box. There was a small porch on the front, two rocking chairs on it, dirty windows, and…the front door was open.
Jeffery noticed that particular detail too and sprinted the final 30 yards to the cabin.
"Oh no," He whispered, panting.
"What?" Gus freaked.
"I told her to stay here until I came to get her, but she was begging me to take her to the lake." Jeffery ran a hand over his face. He turned and looked at the detectives, "I didn't want to lock her in. I mean, what if something happened and she needed to get out," Jeffery explained apologetically.
Shawn nodded in understanding, "Just calm down and tell us where the lake is Jeffery," Shawn said coolly. The panicked and disheveled man took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
"Ok…ok…the quickest way to the lake is along the ravine," Jeffery said, keeping his eyes closed. "It's that way." He added, pointing deeper into the forest.
"You let a little girl walk along a ravine to get to a lake?" Gus said sounding appalled. Gus shot a glance at his partner as if to say 'see you should not even be considering trusting this guy'. Shawn resisted the urge to role his eyes, mainly because he was, begrudgingly, inclined to agree.
Jeffery shook his head, "No! Of course not. We always took a small path through the woods to get to the lake," he sounded horrified at Gus's accusation, "I just said the fastest way was by the ravine." He explained.
Gus and Shawn exchanged looks.
"Oh." Gus said quietly. Shawn grinned.
"Yeah see Gus. The ravine is just the fastest way," Shawn nodded as his smile stretched clear across his face.
Gus stared after his best friend angrily as the fake psychic started off in the direction Jeffery was already headed.
At the Lake:
The ravine had in fact been an extremely fast way to get to the lake. It had also made even Shawn Spencer more than a little queasy. The ravine was a good six feet across in most places, and the drop, by Gus's estimate, was about 60 feet. Shawn shivered; with the jagged rocks at the bottom…it wouldn't be a pretty way to go; which was, of course, why he made Gus walk on the outside nearest the edge.
Gus breathed a sigh of relief when they had moved inland, away from the perilous drop and towards the lake. Jeffery however, had seemed oddly unfazed by the perils of the ravine, but then again, Shawn thought, he had been around them for years.
Upon seeing his daughter however, the man did seem to relax, "Millie!" he yelled to the small girl skipping rocks on the lakeshore. Shawn paused as he watched the two interact; Jeffery ran to the girl and scooped her into his arms, Millie turned, grinning and hugged the balding man. They looked so…happy. "What are you doing out here?" the butler scolded.
Millie, obviously a princess, had the foresight to look at least slightly guilty, "I'm sorry Jeffery, Mr. Beary and I just really wanted to go," she whined, tears coming to her eyes.
Jeffery gave her a slight, knowing smile. "Mmhmm," he nodded. They stared at each other for a minute quietly, and with a huff Millie gave up her ruse. "Don't do it again." Jeffery scolded. Millie nodded.
Shawn felt his stomach knot; how was it that in the midst of all the illegal activities, this father/child relationship seemed so…normal? He swallowed hard, pushing back memories of his own childhood as he watched awkward, bumbling Jeffery come alive as he joked and played with his daughter.
Shawn cleared his throat, "Nice set up you've got out here," he said, gesturing to the large playhouse on the edge of the lake.
"Jeffery?" Millie asked uncertainly as she took in the strangers accompanying her long time caregiver.
"Oh, yes, Millie, this is Shawn Spencer and his associate Charles Xavier," Jeffery introduced.
Millie frowned as Shawn and Gus bent over to shake her hand, "Charles Xavier is a comic book character," the girl said skeptically.
Shawn grinned gleefully and turned to his partner, "Gus, I love her. Can we kidnap her too?"
Gus glared furiously at his best friend. Sometimes it was best to not say anything; it encouraged him too much.
Ignoring the two friends Millie turned back to her father, "Jeffery, now that you are here can we play house? Please!" she begged.
Jeffery looked at his two companions guiltily, "Millie, I don't know if now is really the ti-"
"I'll play," Shawn said, raising his hand. Gus cast a quick glance at his, typically childphobic, friend in surprise. Shawn grinned, following the giddy little girl to the shore.
Gus shifted his attention to Jeffery, who stood silently watching his daughter play with the overgrown man child.
"Millie seems really calm given the…circumstances," Gus said conversationally, avoiding the term 'kidnapping', since unlike Shawn, he wasn't convinced that this guy was completely harmless. Jeffery nodded. "But she's still calling you Jeffery. Haven't you told her?"
Jeffery looked at him like that creature in Alien. "How exactly am I supposed to broach that topic with her? Millie's bright but…she's still just a seven year old." Jeffery mused as he watched the two on the shore giggle and sip lake water like tea, his tone of voice again rising slightly in a way that didn't seem entirely sane.
Gus tried to stifle his alarm and remain calm as he continued his subtle interrogation, "So, what exactly does Millie think is happening here?"
Jeffery smiled, "I told her that I was sneaking her out here and I was going to sneak back to get her mommy. And we would come up here for a weekend together. Just like we use to."
Gus tried to move past the obvious insanity of the plan and forced himself to focus on the puzzle pieces, "But what is she going to do when her mom doesn't show?"
Jeffery smiled. "I did tell Alexandria. This morning at the police station. She's coming with us; when I call her she is going to meet us at the airport," Gus raised his eyebrows; assuming Jeffery was telling the truth, that would explain Ms. Bensen's sudden caviler attitude about her daughter's disappearance at the police station. The red haired man laughed elatedly, "We use to come up here when she was little. Alexandria and I would pretend the three of us were a real family. Now…now it's actually going to happen." He smiled faintly.
At the Tea Party:
"Now this is Mr. Beary," Millie said with a smile as Shawn nodded enthusiastically. "He's the host, so you haveta be nice to him," she explained as she hugged the large blue teddy bear tightly.
"As long as he's a better host then Chuckie would be, I'm think we'll get along," Shawn quipped, shuddering as he thought of the twisted toy.
Millie stared at him blankly, "Why would Mr. Beary act like one of the Rugrats?"
Shawn frowned, "Who?"
Millie frowned at him. Shawn nodded, "I'm sensing our age difference might end up being a problem."
Millie shrugged and went back to pouring the 'tea'.
Shawn sighed. It was probably best he start doing what he came to do. "Jeffery told me all about you." Millie looked at him skeptically, "You go to a special school," Shawn grinned, "Kinda like the X-men." Shawn paused as the girl giggled. "Your memory is pretty impressive."
Millie grimaced. "Ugh. I hate it. Even at school I'm some sort of freak," she muttered.
Shawn nodded, understanding all too well. "The worst part though, is that sometimes I can't even make it work." Millie explained, sounding irritated. "The other day I took a test in math and I had to do a problem with a polynomial piecewise function," the girl kicked the sand angrily as Shawn nodded as if he had any clue what a peace wise function was, "And I did the homework. I worked really hard, but when I tried to remember what the book said, everything just looked fuzzy." She pouted sullenly, "Like the picture was out of focus."
Shawn grinned; he understood that problem too. "Can I give you some advice?" Millie looked at him skeptically. "Try this," Shawn said, putting his hand to his head in his classic, 'I'm having a vision' pose. "When I'm trying to remember stuff it always helps me," he explained with a shrug.
Millie grinned and closed her eyes, moving her hand to the side of her head. Her eyes screwed together tightly in concentration before a large gap toothed grin spread across her face, "Its working! I can see the pages in the book clearly! It isn't fuzzy!" She jumped up and down excitedly before hugging Shawn. Shawn blinked in surprise before gingerly returning the gesture.
"No…uh…no problem," Shawn said awkwardly, patting the girl on the back. Millie pulled back, still grinning.
"Thanks Shawn," she added giddily, before turning back to pour more tea. Shawn grinned as he listened to the girl babble.
Millie had him playing tea party for well over an hour before the she started to sway in exhaustion.
Jeffery came over slowly, "Hey pumpkin, I'm gonna bring you back to the cottage now k?" He whispered as he lifted the small child into his arms.
"When's mommy coming?" The little girl slurred as her eyes dropped closed.
Jeffery grinned, "Soon Millie. I promise." Shawn and Gus exchanged glances as they followed the two back to the cottage and watched Jeffery tuck the girl into bed.
"Look, Jeffery seems like a nice, if not entirely sane, guy Shawn, but you know we can't let this happen," Gus whispered quietly, staring intently at his friends face.
Shawn's brow furrowed as he felt a wave of exhaustion hit him. Why couldn't this be simple? He ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah man. I know," he admitted quietly.
Gus nodded happily. He knew his friend would come around. Shawn turned to him as Jeffery kissed a sleeping Millie's forehead.
"I'm gonna need another smoothie before we head over to the department though," Shawn added.
Gus grinned in agreement, "You know that's right," he said as the friends gave each other a bittersweet fist bump.
Shawn sighed. Even Shawn Spencer hated being right sometimes; this case had sucked. And on top of everything, it had started to rain again. Why the Hair Gods suddenly hated him he had no idea.
I like hearing what people think! Please review!
I hope you enjoyed it.
Also, there is DEFINITELY more Shawn/Jules interaction coming up. Promise ;)