"Oh thank God," the Chief muttered, masking her relief with frustration as her two favorite-not that she'd ever tell them so-consultants waltzed through the door. "Where have you two been?" she scolded, sounding more like their mother then she cared to admit. Next to her Lassiter was seething quietly; Juliet just looked relieved.
Shawn looked at her blankly before turning to Gus, "Gus, I told you to let everyone know we were making a smoothie run."
"What? You nev-"
"You've been gone for two hours," She cut off Gus's response, not wanting to hear them bicker. Gus glared silently, murderously, at his best friend.
Shawn nodded, "Yes well, the only place to get good smoothies is back by the Psych Office," Shawn shrugged apologetically.
Chief cocked her head. She wasn't sure how that was a two hour trip.
"Oh," Shawn added sounding embarrassed, "Oh my god, did you want one?" he shook his head in disappointment, "I told Gus to make an announcement at the crime scene, see if we could pick anything up for anyone," he glared at Gus.
Vick rolled her eyes, and batted them away. "Just…stay in contact from now on. We couldn't reach you and given the nature of this case," she sighed, "We were worried Mr. Spencer."
Lassiter made a coughing sound from the corner.
Vick glared at him. "Most of us were worried," she amended.
Shawn started to retort.
"Would you stop screwing around!" his father barked from the corner.
Shawn grinned and rubbed his hands together. "Ok, one. When did he get here? And two, you should have just called," Shawn explained calmly.
"Your phone was off Shawn," Juliet snapped sharply, arms folded across her chest as she stared at him. He needed to be more careful. This whole sick game was about him.
Shawn's eyebrows shot up as he stared at her. Jules never snapped. Seeing the quiver of fear in her eyes his expression softened, "I'll be more careful," he promised seriously. She nodded, not trusting her voice.
"Is this everyone?" a voice asked calmly from the doorway. The two consultants spun to look at the newcomer, a well dressed attractive young woman with jet black hair.
Gus shifted into his smooth Gus stance, whispering "Whaaat!" with a ridiculous grin on his face.
Shawn rolled his eyes. "Seriously Dude," Shawn hissed.
"What?" Gus muttered.
"Every time one of us tries to date someone involved in a case they end up being involved in the crime!"
"That's completely untrue Shawn."
"It's true."
"Katrina McCallum, Trish Conners, and April MacArthur at the aquarium," Gus counted off. "None of them were bad guys."
Shawn closed his eyes, "I can't do this with you right now." Shawn clenched his hands nervously, making a quip-even a tasteless one-was getting more difficult every minute.
"I believe you thought the same thing about your last criminal psychologist too Shawn," the woman from the door way retorted obviously not amused. Walking further into the Chief's office and closing the door behind her she put her hands on her hips and pursed her lips. Shawn stiffened; accusing Mary had hardly been his proudest moment.
Playing it off, Shawn allowed his shoulders to sag, "Were we really that loud?" he muttered to Gus.
"Yes," Lassiter hissed from his position leaning against the file cabinet. He pinched the bridge of his nose.
"As I recall that accusation didn't pan out," the woman added, crossing her arms and arching an eyebrow at the two consultants. "And Mary ended up dead," she gave them a once over and her frown deepened, "You two have really made it through two rounds with these psychos? From the way Mary talked about you I expected you to be…" her eyes flitted to his hair, "Better groomed."
Pursing his lips, Shawn chose to ignore the jab, his hair had been inexcusably bad since Juliet had been shot, "You knew Mary?"
She nodded, "He graduated at the top of our class," she grimaced, "I was second."
Gus flicked his thumb across his nose and gave a calculated laugh-smooth Gus was apparently here to stay-"Graduating second is still an impressive accomplishment," he grinned suavely. "I'm afraid we still haven't been properly introduced. Burton Guster," he extended his hand. Shawn rolled his eyes; Gus's business card with his personal number would be appearing from his pants any second.
That sounded dirty. Shawn grinned; glad he could still amuse himself at least.
"Mary Raven," she said, ignoring the offered hand.
Juliet frowned, "You're…both…named Mary?"
"We also dated," she added, directing this comment at Gus.
Shawn grinned as he saw Gus wither and shift out of smooth Gus mode next to him.
Vick chose to step in, "When Mr. Lightly was…murdered, I started looking for another criminal psychologist to call. Mary-this one- is considered one of the best there is," Vick nodded respectfully to their guest.
"Thank you Karen," Mary smiled tightly, "But I'm afraid that I'm still not up to date on the Yin case. Yang, I was well aware of. Mary's fascination with Yang started when we were still in school, so I learned a lot about the case then," she nodded sadly, "but Mr. Yin has only recently revealed himself correct?"
Shawn nodded stiffly. And he'd done so in a very big way. His eyes darted momentarily to Jules.
"Well I wouldn't say he revealed himself," Shawn rambled, shrugging, "There was no frontal nudity," he explained.
Lassiter glared furiously at Shawn from across the room. Shawn grinned but remained quiet. The joke had fallen flat even to him.
Mary rolled her eyes, "As I was saying, I am going to need as much background as you can provide from the original Yin case."
Vick nodded, "Well, the people in this room are the foremost experts on Yin. If there is anything not covered in the reports, one of them will know."
Mary nodded, "Good. According to Yin's note, we now have less than 48 hours before Shawn is forced to make another 'choice'... I suggest we start trying to figure out what-or who-that choice is," without waiting for a response Mary exited the Chief's office icily, heading straight for the conference room and large white board.
"Is it wrong that I like her even more now?" Gus whispered, grinning suavely again as he watched her walk away.
Shawn rolled his eyes, "Yes Gus. It is very very wrong," he enunciated each word carefully, completely horrified.
"Would you two get serious," Lassiter scolded, stalking past them angrily, heading out towards Mary.
Shawn shook his head with a sigh as he followed the fuming Head Detective. Lassiter had never understood his process. If he didn't joke then Yin was truly in his head, truly messing with his system. And Yin was already in his head more than enough. Shawn licked his lips; it would be hard enough to win this round as it was.
Mary was staring intently at the pictures of the blood stained underbelly of the truck when they entered the conference room.
"If we may," Shawn started, clapping his hands together, "We," he gestured between himself and Gus, "Have an idea about what the note means."
Mary nodded, "By all means," she said dryly.
"The note says something about a new casting call-it's Star Wars," Shawn explained. "Yin/Yang, the force, two sides in constant conflict," he shrugged.
Mary raised an eyebrow, "That's…surprisingly probable. Not bad Shawn."
"It was actually my idea," Gus chimed in with a grin. Mary didn't even acknowledge the comment.
"It's as good a starting place as any," Mary ran a hand through her hair; biting her nail, "Yin is the side of chaos, so …" she started weeding through the stacks and stacks of files-looking for what Shawn wasn't sure. Shawn settled into a chair, making himself comfortable he took a sip of his smoothie and kicked his feet up on the table. Judging by the chaos of the room they were going to be there a while-and Shawn was way off on his sleep schedule.
'That's no moon,' Gus muttered, pointing to the night sky.
Shawn's eyes widened in delight, 'No, it's a giant Pineapple!' He glanced excitedly at his best friend, 'Let's get closer!' He held down their spaceships red button labeled 'Turbo' and they lurched forwards towards the massive floating pineapple.
'It's pulling us in!' Gus sounded terrified.
Shawn shook his head, still too delighted by their find to be worried 'Gus don't be a wilting wallflower, this is the find of a lifetime! If we worked at NASA this would totally make our careers!'
Something caught his eye and he frowned, 'Wait, what's going on over there?' The leaves of the pineapple were molting away, an angry yellow laser beam was buzzing where the leaves use to be. It was aimed straight for the Psych office below them. Shawn gasped as the laser fired, spewing pineapple juice all over Psych.
'Our insurance doesn't cover that Shawn!'Gus yelled panicking.
'Gus, don't be ridiculous, think of all the money we'll save on pineapple flavored drinks!'
Gus contemplated this before nodding, yeah, it would probably even out.
'Let's go back! I'm thirsty,' Shawn said, hitting Gus on the arm. Gus nodded and turned their spaceship around, landing it gently on the pier.
Shawn frowned as he looked around. Where had the Psych office gone? 'Gus, what-'s…?' Where was Gus? 'Gus!' he yelled. He pursed his lips, 'Fine, if you don't want another pineapple smoothie, more for me,' he murmured, heading off towards the office. Crap. He forgot. It wasn't there.
Shawn sighed, what was he suppose to do now? He surveyed his surroundings again. Why was he in a desert? He squinted against the bright sunlight and coughed as sand whipped around him. Shawn grinned. He could see a pineapple in the distance-the Psych office was probably that way.
'Where are you going Shawny?' a bubbly voice asked him, causing him to jump. He spun around and Yang was standing there, in the middle of the desert.
Shawn shook his head, 'You're dead, you can't be here!'
She looked at him sadly, 'Dead? Am I Shawn? Am I really?' she grinned then, as an idea struck her and she started walking towards him, slowly, an evil spark in her eyes, 'Or maybe I am…dead.' She licked her lips, 'But maybe if I'm struck down I become more powerful then you could ,' Shawn stumbled backwards, his back suddenly hitting the side of a clock tower, Yang was inches from his face 'Possibly imagine,' she whispered, licking her lip again.
Shawn swallowed hard, trying to push her away. 'I'm glad I attracted serial killers who know their movies,' he quipped. He couldn't decide if Yang was more or less terrifying as a ghost.
Yang laughed, 'You haven't seen anything yet Shawn,' she promised. Her expression shifted suddenly, 'Let me help you out here Shawn, I'll give you another hint, just for fun,' she giggled, leaning closer.
'It's never,' suddenly Yang was replaced by Yin, his hands on either side of Shawn's face, the black mask stretching as the words poured from his unseen mouth, one hand moved, reaching for the edge of the mask, 'the usual', the mask was off, 'suspect'.
His father was standing right in front of him.
Shawn woke screaming, the entire conference room turned towards him. Juliet frowned in concern; he'd only drifted off a minute ago.
Before she could move towards him though, Henry was at his son's side. Gus was close but hanging back; nightmares weren't really best friend territory when a father was there.
Shawn's eyes were crazed, still half asleep. "Shawn, it's ok kid. You're awake now," his father calmed tentatively. Shawn hadn't had night terrors since he was a kid.
Shawn blinked rapidly, the crazed look not leaving his eyes, that phrase in Yin's note-it was what his dad had told him countless times as a child. He was Yin, "It's you," he spluttered, pointing to his father.
"Yeah Shawn it's me," Henry affirmed with a frown, not sure what his son was playing at.
Shawn pushed his chair away and stood shaking, "You're Yin! It's you," his voice rose hysterically.
There was a pregnant pause before everything exploded. Shawn leapt towards his father , grabbing fistfuls of his shirt, screaming in his face, "Is this a test, a game to you!" Lassiter jumped towards Shawn and with Gus's help pried Shawn's grip off of Henry as Shawn kept screaming, "No, it's him! Never the usual suspect! Really Dad! You didn't think I'd remember! Really!" Shawn screamed as Lassiter hoisted Shawn off the ground as he charged again, his eyes crazed as Henry stared at his son, completely at a loss for words. Suddenly Shawn's head bopped and swayed then with a pained groan he collapsed against Lassiter.
Everyone was silent a long moment before Lassiter spoke, "His nose is bleeding. I didn't hit his face," he turned to a shaken Gus, who still had a restraining arm on Shawn, "Guster did you?"
Gus shook his head, no he hadn't.
Lassiter groaned; Shawn had had two concussions in little over a week; this wasn't a good sign, "Crap. We need to get him to a hospital."