Here's a little something to hold you guys over till tonight. (I'm so excited about tonight I couldn't wait to post a chapter!)
Shawn breathed deeply into the oxygen mask, pulling the blanket around his shoulders tighter as he shivered; the mud and rain were starting to take their toll. The onsite paramedic had cleaned and bandaged his head wound and while a visit to the hospital had been 'highly advised', well, Shawn Spencer had never taken advice well.
He looked over at the smoking remains of the forest. The rain had ended up helping, and the firefighters had miraculously managed to limit the damage to a 3 mile radius. The only house in that radius had been Adam Jordan's cabin. And so far, clean up efforts had only discovered one body; that of Jeffery Grant.
Shawn coughed weekly, feeling a dull ache in his back from all the hacking he had done. He ran a tentative hand over his head and groaned; his hair was plastered to his head with mud.
A weak grin spread across his face as he watched Gus sneak away from the medics that were trying to convince Gus to put his oxygen mask back on. Judging by the way his friend was slowly moving towards him; Gus had obviously flipped the jackal switch.
Meanwhile:
"Millie?" Juliet asked sweetly, approaching the girl as a paramedic helped lift the oxygen mask from her face. "I'm Detective O'Hara." She introduced herself to the trembling young girl. "Your mommy and daddy are on their way." The girl nodded mutely.
"What about Jeffery?" the girl asked quietly. Juliet froze, feeling a conflicting torrent of emotions bubble up inside her as she thought of the crazed man who had almost cost Shawn his life; a man who Shawn still firmly believed had started and ended the day wanting nothing more than to be a good father to Millie.
"Jeffery is…he…" Juliet struggled. What could she say? What did she have the right to say?
"Oh," Millie said quietly, hanging her head and sniffing. "Is he…gone?" the girl whispered, her voice wavering.
"I'm sorry," Juliet offered lamely, feeling helpless as she shivered; the after effects of a massive adrenaline rush and the brief, yet much too long, emotional hell of thinking Shawn had died during his jump hit her like a tidal wave. Silently she moved to the girl, hugging Millie tightly as the young girl sobbed silently into her arms. Juliet ran a hand mechanically along her back, shushing her every once and a while as she stared over the girls shoulder towards the other paramedic van.
Shawn was standing up shakily, reluctantly accepting Gus's help after he had nearly fallen for a third time. A blanket was wrapped snuggly around the psychic's shoulders, but even from her vantage point she could clearly see him trembling. Juliet felt a hollow feeling grow in her chest. She hadn't even had a chance to talk to him since she and Gus had found him alive. He had been whisked away by the paramedics and, as Lassiter had wasted no time reminding her, she'd still had a job to do.
She vaguely realized that Millie had stopped crying, and Juliet felt another wave of emotion, this time guilt, wash over her. She should have been more sympathetic; this girl had helped save Shawn. Millie, sick from smoke inhalation, had put her hand to her head and…Juliet froze, remembering the instant when the girl had seemingly channeled the very psychic they had been trying to save.
"Millie," Juliet whispered quietly, trying to find the words for the question she felt she needed but didn't want to ask.
"When you were trying to remember where the ravine was really skinny…you put your hand to your head, like this," Juliet said slowly, mimicing Shawn. Millie nodded, "Where did you…why did you do that?" Juliet heard herself whisper.
Millie's tear stained face lit up, "Shawn taught it to me, he said it helped when he needed to focus," she explained innocently, a sparkle of hero worship in the young girls eyes, "He was so cool. He played with me and Mr. Beary," she squeezed her muddy bear tightly to her chest; Shawn had somehow managed to hold onto it throughout everything.
Millie continued rambling but Juliet didn't hear a word. Her pulse was pounding in her ears again as she stared at the hunched trembling shoulders of her favorite eccentric screwball and his best friend as the duo stood silently at the edge of the ravine. Millie's words raced through her head. Juliet felt dizzy. The young prodigy had revealed to her two secrets completely by accident. One, Shawn Spencer had seen Millie before he had led the SBPD to her, and two, when Shawn put his hand on his head he was focusing.
Which meant…
He was faking?
No.
That wasn't possible.
Meanwhile:
With Gus's help Shawn had managed to stagger to his feet and the duo had walked to the edge of the ravine silently.
"Something is wrong with me man," Shawn whispered.
"Well that's what happens when you run into a fiery inferno Shawn, you get inhale smoke and then you get sick," his friend explained with a role of his eyes.
"I'm not talking about that," Shawn scoffed, his usual flippancy gone.
Gus frowned, "You made a bad call. But…"
"No," Shawn furrowed his eyebrows, "Well yeah…definitely," he paused, pained as he thought of Jeffery, of what had almost happened to Jules, to Millie, and to Gus because of his lapses in judgment. He never should have left that girl alone at the cabin, "When I was alone in there…I kept trying to focus…and all I got was static." He turned to his friend, "Gus…that's never happened before," Shawn admitted sounding terrified. He'd never wanted his 'gift' until he had needed it, needed to know how to get out of the literal hell he had trapped himself in.
Gus paused thoughtfully before he spoke, "Shawn, you've never been that deprived of oxygen before either. You don't know how that affected you."
Shawn nodded. That was true, but there was a gnawing feeling in his gut that said it had nothing to do with that.
"I think my dad saved me," he added quietly.
Gus raised an eyebrow.
"I started hearing voices and it wasn't till he yelled at me that I remembered the gap in the ravine."
Gus nodded; Oxygen deprivation and hallucinations made sense, and when it came to Shawn and his father Gus had learned long ago that anything was in fact possible.
Silently the two friends stared at the charred, blackened remains of the forest.
Shawn shivered. Jeffery had been found somewhere in there. Angry and driven mad by a lifetime of moments that he couldn't escape.
Gus surveyed his friend quietly. Something was still wrong; his friend was way too subdued. "Shawn?"
"I just can't believe Jeffery snapped like that. He just…I don't usual misread people that badly." There was an underlying note of fear in Shawn's voice.
"Jeffery and you both have a scary good memory Shawn. That's as far as the similarities go," his friend affirmed calmly.
Shawn's lips twitched in a small smile of relief. The fear had crossed his mind, and of course Gus had known that.
"I know man," the psychic whispered, still sounding unusually contemplative.
He turned and stared down the hill. His father had finally arrived and was yelling at everyone in his path-Shawn was actually surprised it had taken his father as long as it had to get up here.
"All the training and the tests he put me through …Jeffery didn't have anyone to teach him to focus. My dad channeled…all of it." Shawn's voice was low and deadly serious. Their push and pull, his rebellion against his father's foresight and planning had made him someone who lived in the moment and didn't dwell on all the past ones. Whether intentionally or not-and for Shawn's sanity he was certain it was unintentionally-his father had pushed and formed him into someone able to cope with his ability.
Henry was in front of him, yelling and screaming. On any other occasion, Shawn was sure he would have enjoyed the lovely shade of purple his father was turning, but instead, he felt an unusual wave of gratitude spread through him. The younger Spencer shivered; that was definitely a feeling he was taking with him to his grave.
Just A Little Ways Down The Hill:
"Oh! I'm having a vision!"Shawn declared loudly. He blinked rapidly around the house, "I have to go over there!" he pointed up the stairs and sprinted up them two at a time.
His antics at the Jordan's house echoed loudly in Juliet's head. She knew he had faked that vision to avoid her. Feeling light headed, a memory hit her suddenly. She was bowling with a date and Shawn had come up to her, rambling about going semi-pro wearing shoes made of Legos.
"I'm sensing you will face a lot of hmm… rejection."
"Work-wise or…"
"No…no, not work wise."
It had almost been like a joke to him then. But Shawn had faked that vision too. He hadn't tried to hide it. But what if…Juliet wrapped an arm around her middle defensively, feeling the world spin and begin to unravel.
What if it was always a lie? Was that even possible? If Shawn Spencer wasn't psychic,-Juliet felt a bit of bile rise up at the thought-it he had been lying since the beginning then…
Then what?
Shorter then the last chapter, for sure, but I am thinking it makes an impression no?
Review and the final chapter of the first 'ACT' can go up fairly quickly.