Hi guys! Good news, I have written five chapters on this story! I just wanted to say that this chapter may have some grammar/spelling mistakes because I can't find the button that does the spell/grammar check :-) No really, I don't know where it is. There's some new layout for me and I don't know what I did with it.
Anyways, enjoy this next chapter!
When Lassiter walked into the station, the last person he expected to be sitting at her desk, was there.
"O'Hara? What are you doing here?" He was getting angry with her.
"It's six am!"
Juliet looked up from the file she was reading. She had bags under her eyes, but stubbornly kept her gaze at Lassiter.
"I couldn't sleep, so I decided to come here and do some good. Want to help?"
She tried desperately to sound normal and not like she hadn't slept for the past two nights.
"No, I don't want to help! O'Hara, did you even sleep last night?" He didn't know what to do with her.
"It's not important. If you don't want to help, please leave me alone."
Lassiter wanted to say something, but decided that he didn't want to argue with her. He opened his mouth again, closed it and went to get a cup of coffee.
An hour later when Chief Vick walked into the station, Juliet hurried of to the bathroom. She didn't want the Chief to give a lecture about sleep. She went in, locked the door and sat down on the toilet-seat.
"What am I doing?" She asked herself.
"I'm that much of a coward that I'm not even going to face my boss?"
The door outside opened and Juliet quickly pulled up her legs so nobody could see that she was in there. For ten minutes, she sat there. She leaned her elbow on her knee, but what she didn't realize was that her leg had fallen asleep. She slipped off the toilet seat and fell onto the floor.
"Ouch!."
"O'Hara?"
Juliet sighed. The only person she didn't want to meet was now knocking on the stall door.
"I..I'm okay."
"You sure? Open the door"
Juliet reached for the lock and turned it. The door swung open and Chief Vick stood behind it.
Juliet quickly stood up and tried to gather herself. She cleared her throat and said:
"Um...Hi Chief."
"O'Hara." The Chief greeted with a nod.
"May I ask what you were doing in there?"
Juliet quickly tried to come up with an excuse, but couldn't come up with anything that didn't sound crazy.
"Nothing Chief. Excuse me, I have some files I need to complete." She turned to leave, but Chief Vick grabbed her arm.
"Juliet, have you slept any last night?" Karen carefully decided to use Juliet's first name. She tried to sound more like a friend than a coworker.
"Yeah." The answer wasn't far from the truth. She had slept, just not more than half an hour.
Chief Vick looked her and Juliet quickly realized that she wasn't fooled.
"Okay, just get back to work. And O'Hara, if you're tired, go home."
Juliet nodded and went back to her desk.
After lunchtime, Juliet had accidentally fallen asleep four times. Each time, Carlton had given her a nudge to wake her up and given her a look that clearly said: 'You're tired, go home'.
And each time Juliet would straighten herself and work even harder and faster to try to prove him wrong.
Chief Vick was observing them from her desk in her office. Each time Lassiter had looked at Juliet, his whole face was concerned and she couldn't blame him. Juliet looked dead-tired. Her hair was sticking out from her ponytail and her pale face had dark circles under her eyes.
Karen felt sorry for her. She was so tired herself and she hadn't been strapped to a dangling chair yesterday. Juliet however...
Karen made up her mind and stood up. She walked firmly to Juliet's desk and stood there until Lassiter gave Juliet another nudge and her head flew up from her arms.
"Oh, sorry Chief. I-I was just..."
"O'Hara. Go home. You're done for today." Karen kept her voiced firm and cold. She had learned from experience that this voice often got good results.
Juliet opened her mouth to argue, but closed it without saying anything. She bowed her head. After a few seconds she looked up to see that Chief Vick still was standing over her. She carefully nodded and slowly began collecting her things. She kept throwing looks at the Chief, but to her disappointment she was still standing next to her.
Lassiter was sitting quietly and watching the scene in front of him. He felt so sorry for Juliet, but he agreed with Chief Vick. Juliet was tired and she needed sleep. But, he thought to himself, Juliet probably wasn't going to go to sleep when she was alone in her apartment. When Juliet was done, he started packing his things too.
"Where are you going?" Juliet asked him.
"I'm coming with you." He answered matter of factly.
"No, you're not. You're tired, just go home and rest. I'll be fine." She sounded so sure that if Carlton had his eyes closed, he would have thought she was totally fine. Of course, he knew she wasn't totally fine. But maybe she needed her space.
"Alright. Call me if you need anything."
Juliet said goodbye to him and began walking out to her car. She could feel everyone's eyes on her back. It was as if they felt sorry for her. She's not a coward. Or maybe she was... She was beginning to feel like she had done the night before. All her thoughts were swimming in her head and she almost felt light-headed. Maybe she needed to take some time off.
She drove for about half an hour before realizing what she was doing. She parked outside an old cafe and was so focused on her own things, she didn't notice the blue Toyota echo that was parked on the other side of the road.
"Shawn! I'm not ordering the 'Valentine's day special' just so you can eat the pineapple in the dessert! Besides Valentine's day was almost two weeks ago!"
"Gus, why not? I ordered it the last time and you loved the heart shaped crab cakes, which you didn't let me eat by the way. And..." Shawn opened his mouth to continue but stopped when he saw Juliet sitting at the far end of the cafe, just staring out the window.
"Dude." He said and nudged Gus. "Come on." They quickly took their jackets and Gus' pharmaceutical bag and made their way to Juliet's table.
"Hi Jules!" Shawn said while they both sat down. He gave her his famous smile that usually made Juliet melt. She looked up and tried to give them her normal smile,but failed miserably.
"Oh, hi guys. What's up?"
Gus picked up the menu and starting looking through it.
"Not much. I have a meeting with my boss after lunch to discuss some new clients."
Juliet frowned.
"You still work at the pharmaceutical company? I thought you quit when you started working in 'Psych'."
"Someone has to pay for everything Shawn does right?" Gus said and gave Shawn an annoyed smile.
"So." Shawn said.
"Why aren't you at work?"
Juliet quickly looked down and frantically tried to come up with an excuse that didn't tell the truth.
"Um... I... There wasn't much work to do and I was tired."
Shawn immediately knew she wasn't telling the slightest bit of truth but didn't say anything. Instead he exchanged meaningful looks with Gus.
Gus looked at the clock and said, "Sorry I have to go to that meeting now." He collected his things and said goodbye to Juliet and Shawn and then walked out to his car.
After a few moments of silence, Shawn spoke up.
"You know I'm here if you want to talk." He put his hand over hers and squeezed it. She looked up for a second and looked like she was going to talk but then pulled her hand away. She laughed weakly and straightened up a bit. Shawn looked at her with pity and it was killing her.
"Thanks, I appreciate the help but I'm fine. Just a bit tired. I gotta go, do you need a ride somewhere? I know Gus has the blueberry."
Shawn realized he'd lost her for today. Damn, he should have been more careful. But instead of saying anything he nodded.
"Yeah. You're going back to the station? I have to get a check from Chief."
They began walking out when Shawn stopped.
"Oh I just have to do something. Wait for me in your car, I'll be there in a sec."
Juliet shrugged and went to her car. Shawn ran back to the counter and ordered two pineapple smoothies. He'd noticed that Juliet hadn't had any lunch and he didn't want her to stop eating. He paid for the smoothies and at the same time bought a chocolate chip cookie too.
I hope you liked this chapter, the next one will come hopefully when I find the spell check button :-) Oh, and Merry Christmas psych-os!