By reason of Insanity?

Lassiter crosses his arms before his chest, looking into the interrogation room on the other side of the mirror. Spencer sits on the table, waiting. His eyes are darting around, nervously, again and again. He´s his old self again, unsure. At least it seems so.

The door opens and the psychologist steps in.

"Hello, Shawn." greets the man who´s supposed to diagnose Spencer. „My name is Dr. Morey, DA´s psychological expert. You remember me, right?"

Shawn shakes his head, his gaze helpless like a little boy.

"No?" Morey asks. "But I remember you clearly. We met during a case about a certain suspect called Rying Bainsworth. Lying Ryan as they still call him."

Spencer lowers his eyes, thinking.

"You doubted my diagnosis." Morey recalls and Spencer inhales, raising his chin a little.

"Right." he says. "I remember." He clears his throat, uncomfortable. "I also remember that I was right to doubt it. He was telling the truth." And finally he manages a halfhearted chuckle. "Strange that they sent you here, to figure out what´s wrong with me." He faces the mirror, his eyes still pleading. "Are you sure you can´t get Dr. Manny here?" he asks, honestly begging. "He knows me so much better. He could figure out what´s wrong with me."

Dr. Morey shakes his head. "I´m afraid you´ll have to deal with me, Shawn." He says and sits down, oposite of Shawn. He regards him through the thick glasses on his nose. "Your colleagues said you acted … strange last time they talked to you." he tells him.

"Yeah, that´s the thing." Shawn retorts. "I didn´t talk to THEM. I talked to Lassie. And then he left. And now I talk to you."

"So you can´t remember barking at your father?" Morey asks with a professionally raised brow.

Shawn raises both brows in response, honestly startled.

"Barking?" he repeats and laughs, at least tries to. "You sure it wasn´t the other way around?" he asks. "That´s how it usually goes."

"So you´re saying your reaction was some kind of revenge for livelong treatment?" Morey tries to deduct.

"I´m not saying anything!" Shawn shouts at him, burying his head in his hands. "God, I … I can´t remember, okay? What´s happening to me?"

"Do you remember why you´re here?" Morey asks. "Why you were arrested?"

Shawn looks up, thinking for a moment. "Lassie said … he said, they think I … I killed a woman." His next words are barely a whisper. "Or even more."

Dr. Morey nods. "I tell you what I think." he says. "I know, it´s kinda unorthodox to diagnose fast forward but after what your friends described and what you tell me now … I think we´re facing a classical case of mental disorder."

Shawn looks at him with a blank face, eyes glassy as if he´s close to fall asleep.

"In English?" he asks and Lassiter chuckles.

"A split personality." the psychologist explains patiently and Shawn laughs, weakly.

"You´re kidding right?" he says. "Like that chick in Heroes?"

The doctor eyes him with an intense stare, as if he tries to imitate a psychopath himself. It seems to have exactly that effect on Shawn, because he skips back, irritated. He chuckles nervously but the smile dies on his face.

"Can I talk to Jack?" Morey asks him, and the way he says this, creeps out even Lassiter. He can hear Juliet, suppressing a sob. "Is he there?" the doctor asks Spencer. "Jack? Are you in there? Can you hear me? Would you talk to me, Jack?"

Spencer´s face has fallen and he stares back at Morey with terror, his eyes big as if he just realized something too horrifying to express with words. A few moments pass and Lassiter realizes that Spencer is zoned out.

Morey doesn´t say anything, he just waits for Shawn to figure out his answer. And eventually it comes. Shawn´s face changes, the fear is gone all the sudden and he looks at the doctor with new gained confidence.

Morey moves his head, attentively. "Jack?" he asks and Lassiter feels the hair in his neck standing up.

Shawn smiles, chuckling. "Stupid name." he says. "They should have called him Moriarty. Or the Killing Sherlock. Wiping out all the traces was pure genius."

Lassiter suppresses a shiver. He´s sure he isn´t the only one who feels a cold hand around his chest at those words. But he can´t bring himself to look at the others. He can´t tear his eyes away from the scene in the interrogation room.

Morey doesn´t seem to be disturbed at all.

"Is that why you did it?" he asks Shawn, eying him with great interest. "To prove how good you are?"

Once again Shawn smiles. "I never thanked my dad for all the training he put me through when I was a kid." he says and then he faces the glass, as it seems looking directly into the eyes of his father. Henry, who has paled just like everyone else in the viewing room.

"You see that, dad?" Shawn speaks. "I´m the product of your good work."

Lassiter glances at the older Spencer but Henry´s eyes are fixed on Shawn´s, like hypnotized. And he inhales, very slowly.

...

Chief Vick sighs, heavily. "So it is true." she speaks heavily. "He really did it."

"Even if he doesn´t know it." Dr. Morey says. "Or better yet, a part of him doesn´t remember."

Everybody in the room is taken aback over this revelation, shocked or aghast. Everybody but Henry. He only huffs.

"Stupid. Shawn´s not crazy. You should rethink your profession, doctor. Mental disorder. That´s just ridiculous. There was no case in our family about something like that, neither at my side nor his mother´s."

"Sometimes it doesn´t need a genetic disposition …" the doctor tries to speak up but Henry ignores him.

"He is not crazy." he just goes on. "No. NO. There´s another explanation for what´s wrong with him. I want a tox screen. Or, or whatever. It´s something. Something we can take care of. Maybe he´s just … just …"

"Crazy?" Gus offers the word, when Henry doesn´t know how to finish and the older Spencer glares at him.

"He is your best friend, Gus." he shouts at him but other than usual Gus doesn´t flinch away.

"That´s why I know the difference." he shouts back and points at the psychologist. "The guy he talked to, was not Shawn. Not towards the end of it. Tell me that this was your son in there."

For a while Henry just stares back at Gus, almost hatefully. "My son is not a psycho." he declares at last, his voice dangerously low.

"Then what do you think he´s doing, Henry?" Lassiter asks. "Pretending? Pleading insanity, to get away with multiple murder?"

Next to him, Juliet exhales a shaking breath and closes her eyes.

...

In the holding cell, Buzz McNab finds Shawn Spencer sitting in a corner, crouching, hiding his shaking fists behind his knees. The sight is shocking in such a profound way, that he doesn´t know what to do other than stare at him, with an open mouth.

Shawn´s head moves sideways to meet his gaze. His eyes are dry but scared, desperate.

"Buzz." he whispers, his voice quiet and quavering. "What´s happening to me? I feel as if I´m falling apart. Inside." he turns back to his fists, shaking stronger than ever. "Am I to die, Buzz? I´m dying, I know it. I can feel it happening. He´s killing me from the inside. Right now."

He grabs his chest, gasping.

"Stop it." he cries, not at Buzz, and gasps again. "Don´t."

Gasp.

"Don´t kill me."

Gasp.

"Buzz, help me."

The last breath he takes in is so strange, stopping somewhere in his throat as if there was a block in it, that keeps the air out. He starts choking and Buzz gets scared.

"Help!" he shouts over his shoulder, quickly unlocking the door. "We need some help here!"

...

When McNab´s voice echoes through the station, everybody in the chief´s office swirls around and starts to run immediately. None of them even thinks twice about what could have happened.

When they reach the holding cells, they find McNab in Shawn´s cell … in front of him, on his knees. Shawn is behind him, his arm around his neck, holding something to his throat that looks like a sharpened spring from the cot. The pointy wire sticks dangerously deep into the officer´s skin, right beneath his jugular. Shawn is smiling, evilly, even when Lassiter pulls his gun.

"Let go of him!" he shouts but Shawn takes cover behind McNab´s head. Lassiter doesn´t have a clean shot anymore.

"You better let go." he replies calmly, increasing pressure to McNab´s throat. "Now."

Lassiter grits his teeth but drops his gun.

"Shawn, what are you doing?" Juliet asks, shocked about what she sees.

"Making a point." he tells her, playfully poking his hostage´s throat.

"You won´t get away from here, Spencer." Lassiter says. "You know that."

"You think that´s what I want?" the man behind McNab asks in response and chuckles, his eyes darting over to Henry. "What do you think? DAD? What do I want?"

"Shawn." Henry speaks up, his mouth opening and closing a few times. "Stop this." he demands, but his voice is too weak to be authoritative.

Shawn smiles toothily and nods.

"Sure, dad." he says but does nothing to change the situation. Eventually he cocks an eyebrow at his father. "Let me guess, dad. You doubted that any of this could be real. Not your Shawnie. Not the guy you raised. Your product." He chuckles, a long while. "Well. Surprise."

"Spencer." Lassiter speaks, when Henry can´t. "Just drop the spring. Let McNab go and this will end not too badly for you."

Shawn holds his gaze for a long time, without saying a word. "You promise?" he asks, eventually.

Lassiter frowns. Shawn smiles.

"Didn´t think so." he says and then, without a warning, he stabs the wire into McNab´s throat.

Blood splatters down his uniform at once and the officer grabs his throat, desperately trying to save his own life. Shawn jumps back, letting go of him at last. Outside the cell at least three people try to open the door at once and even though it is a ridiculously big jumble, Lassiter has the time to notice Shawn´s reaction to his own deed.

His eyes are big and his mouth stands open. He jumps back to McNab, grabbing his shoulders and a moment later he takes out his shirt, quickly bundles it and presses it over the wound.

By now the door is open and they all rush into the cell. Shawn skips back on his own but Lassiter grabs him anyway, pushing him against the wall, while O´Hara tries her best to stop the bleeding on McNab´s throat. It takes ten minutes for the ambulance to arrive and as unbelievable as it is, McNab is still conscious when he´s brought out.

Shawn stands against the wall the whole time, watching terrified and more than worried. Lassiter looks into his eyes and sees nothing but the Spencer he´s known for years. Minus the characteristic smile maybe. But no cold blooded killer.

This changes when they close the cell behind him. The terror vanishes from his eyes, replaced by eery calmness and his hands grab the bars. He smiles out to them again, mostly at his father.

"How´s that about your boy, dad?" he asks. "How´s that about doubting and ignoring facts? And mistakes. It´s pretty hard to ignore something like this, isn´t it? Something so striking. You can´t ignore me anymore, dad, I´m right here."

Lassiter somehow manages it to take his eyes off the man in the holding cell and glances at Henry. But Henry only stares at the man, that is not talking with his son´s voice anymore. And he can´t look away.