Title:                 A Scanner in the Night, Chapter 2

Author:             Mysteriousgirl4

Rating:              PG for now, mentions of slash.

Genre:              Drama/Adventure/Romance

Pairing: Shawn/Lassiter

Word Count:    2,510

A/N’s:              This is a super long Chapter! Because of that and illness and school, it took longer than I wanted it to. My sincerest apologies! Hope I’m still eligible for that offer of cookies beggar_always! The last chapter was MUCH easier to write than this one. To be honest I’m still not really happy with it. Thanks to all you guys for reading and reviewing the first instalment! I posted a five chapter fic in the Boston Legal verse and still have not gotten one review. This unequivocally proves that Psych fans are infinitely better! Thanks to jadecastle6 who is my first reader and my beta. She is responsible for the mention of Lassiter and his holster. It’s a fantasy of hers. Just outed her! :D

In the previous instalment of “A Scanner in the Night”

Shawn’s felt the familiar stirrings at hearing the detectives’ voice, but that was overshadowed by worry. His dad had said something about those warehouses being used by drug dealers, and Lassiter was going in by himself. A bad feeling settled in the pit of Shawn’s stomach.

“This is north side patrol, have spotted two males, I have a heavy suspicion of narcotics possession and am pursuing on foot.”

“……North side patrol do you copy?”

 Shawn grabbed his keys and headed for the door. He locked the door quickly, jumped on his motorcycle and sped off in the direction of the Munesco Warehouse.

On a dark and deserted Santa Barbara highway, the stillness and quiet was suddenly broken by the roar of an engine. It tore down the road, going much faster than state laws dictated it should. Shawn found it somewhat ironic that there was not a police officer in sight to catch him speeding, but that he was breaking the speed limit in the hopes of finding one.

The rushing, cold air was whipping against the skin on his arms and chest. He’d been in such a hurry that he hadn’t even grabbed his jacket on his way out the door. Shawn’s could feel his heart thudding in his chest. He knew about those warehouses, Henry had always said to avoid them. How could Lassie have missed out on such a vital piece of information? There were drug dealers, gang bangers and all sorts of scary people around that place. And by the sound of it, Lassiter had gotten himself on the bad side of a couple of dealers. Shawn knew that if you got on the wrong side of a dealer, they wouldn’t have any second thoughts about killing you.

Shawn turned into the industrial estates, nearly losing control of the bike as he did so, and tried to push the hypothetical flashes of where Lassiter might be from popping into his mind.

What if Lassiter’s lying in an abandoned warehouse with a gash on his head? Or a stab wound? Or worse…

Shawn blinked hard and shook his head a little. He needed to think positive. He needed to think about something else. Because if he didn’t he wasn’t going to be able to hold it together, and he had to. Otherwise he’d be in no shape to face whatever was waiting for him.

After seeing how well he could count the amount of lights, signs and potholes he passed on the road, his mind once again drifted to the detective. But in his mind he saw the Lassiter he had been thinking about earlier that night. The Lassiter he had, only moments earlier, realised he had feelings for.

Mercifully, those images kept him occupied for the next 8 minutes.

He saw the warehouse in the distance emerging from the darkness. The faded sign on the side showing “MUNESCO”. Shawn pushed the gas pedal down a bit more at the sight of it. As he got closer he spotted the patrol car parked out the front of the dilapidated building, but there was no sign of the detective.

Shawn parked his bike about 20 yards behind the patrol car in the loose gravel car park and turned the keys to kill the engine. He got off the bike and walked over to the patrol car. Falling back on the talents his father had taught him, he tried to find any clue about where he should go or what he should do. After listening for a second with his eyes closed for a while and hearing no man made sounds, he noticed some footprints in the gravel. Shawn surmised they were roughly size 13 dress shoes. They had to belong to the 6’2” detective. Shawn steeled himself and followed the footprints over to the warehouse.

The place was big, and kinda scary. He didn’t know why Henry had felt the need to warn him away when he was a kid, it’s not as if he would have come near the place of his own free will.

Shawn groaned to himself when he realised that he hadn’t even thought to bring a torch, a stupid move on his part because the place was pitch black. What did he have on him that had a light? Wait, his phone! Shawn pulled it out and flipped it open, it emitted just enough light for him to see what was on the ground in front of him and a little bit further. There was scattered broken glass, nails and screws and other bits of random scrap metal littered all over the place. In short, this was the birthplace of tetanus.

Taking a deep breath, Shawn started to manoeuvre his way through the warehouse. Every ten steps or so, he would have to close and re-open his phone to re-activate the light and he kept having to duck and sidestep old bits of machinery and junk that filled up the space. As he worked his way deeper into the warehouse it occurred to him that maybe he should call out the detective’s name and see if he got a response.

He was only mildly put off by the thought that not only might the detective hear him, but anyone else hiding in the shadows would also be able to hear him.

‘But,’ thought Shawn, ‘maybe they will come after me and not Lassiter.’

Shawn took a deep breath and yelled:

“LASSITER!”

The sound echoed against the huge ceiling of the building and came bouncing back at him. It would have been comical had he not been scared out of his wits.

Shawn froze and listened for any indication that someone had heard him.

Nothing.

Shawn tried again.

“LASSIE!?”

Shawn listened in silence for a few minutes and then started walking again while taking a deep breath to prepare for his lucky third yell.

“LA-“

A hand clamped itself down on his shoulder from behind and the rest of that intended shout came out as a scared and frankly, girly scream. Shawn didn’t bother turning to see who it was, he even abandoned the cell phone light, instead he made his legs work as fast as he could, stumbling over broken machinery parts as he went. He didn’t even feel in control of his legs as ran. As a result, he tripped and went sprawling to the ground. Shawn felt his face get clipped by something sharp as he went down and landed awkwardly on his right leg. He groaned from his spot on the ground, rolled over in the dust and prepared to face his attacker who, Shawn guessed from the sound of heavy footsteps, had already caught him.

“Spencer?!”

An incredulous and familiar voice filled Shawn’s ears and, had he not been in a great deal of pain, he would have leapt up and hugged the startled looking detective leaning over him. He settled for an equally incredulous:

“Lassie-Face?!”

The face above him changed from looking confused and maybe a little concerned, to looking irritated and maybe a little murderous.

“What are you doing here?!”

Shawn held up a hand, indicating that he needed help getting up. Lassiter begrudgingly held out his hand and pulled the young man into a standing position. The young man answered while smacking dust off his clothes and testing out how much weight his leg could take.

“Saw the light on, thought I’d come and snoop around. What are you doing here?”

Lassiter looked more irritated than Shawn could ever remember seeing him; his jaw was clenched so tight it looked as though he was trying to crack a walnut between his teeth. Shawn caught himself thinking how cute it looked.

“Well, I thought I was here tracking a perp, but apparently I’ve been following you for the last 15 minutes! Meanwhile the perps have had plenty of time to get away!”

Shawn needed to know, and though he had been warned about it before, he spoke before thinking about it.

“So why didn’t you answer the radio call?”

Lassiter rolled his eyes, annoyed at being interrogated.

“Because I was running and….”

Lassiter’s eyebrows knitted together. And he suddenly went back to looking murderous.

“How did you know I dropped my radio?”

Shawn mentally smacked his forehead, twice. Once for mentioning the radio, and another one for not thinking of the dropped radio scenario before charging out the door. He quickly jumped to his default excuse.

“Who knows how the spirits work? Somewhere, somehow, some spirit wanted me to know that you suck at catching bad guys…”

Lassiter rolled his eyes

“Don’t give me that ‘psychic’ load. You were listening to the police scanner.”

He had to give him props for the deductive reasoning.

“…Yeah, I was listening to the police scanner.”

Lassiter took in a deep breath and stuck his finger in Shawn’s face, ready to start lecturing. Shawn wisely decided to cut him off.

“Oooh Lecture time, can’t wait. Can we get out of the creepy abandoned warehouse though? I feel like a lecture of this magnitude could use a better setting. Like maybe the International House of Pancakes? Could work in a 7-11 too, although there are not many tables, I think I’m gonna need to be sitting for this one…although the 7-11 might be the way to go because they have bandaids and I am bleeding… It’s a tough call to….”

Lassiter looked up at the sky as if to say “Why me, god?” then sighed and interrupted the younger man, which was no easy task once the man got on a roll.

“Spencer.”

“…Applebee’s does have dynamite potato skins and the seats are comfy which is vital for hours of sitting and being lectured at. Although there’s a chance that your ‘I’m so angry I might kill you’ face could scare the children and it is a family restaurant…”

“SPENCER!”

Shawn came out of his rant.

“Hmm??”

Lassiter sounded as though he’d given up the lecture for the time being. He grabbed the younger man and shoved him in the direction of the door.

“Go.”

Shawn dropped his voice to a whisper.

“Are you gonna follow me or…”

“Move!”

Shawn turned around and started heading for the door, hearing the sounds of the detective following along behind him. He grinned to himself. It wasn’t his fault that Lassiter made it so fun to tease him.

With the detective giving Shawn semi-helpful instructions like “Left, moron!”, they were out of the warehouse and back in the car park in no time.

Shawn looked around the brightly lit gravel lot and cursed under his breath several times in quick succession. Lassiter was now standing next to him and was looking at the parking lot with a confused expression on his face.

“How did you get here?”

Shawn kicked at some gravel and sighed.

“Motorcycle.”

“Well, where is it?”

“Good question. I figure that your bad guys stole it while I was very politely providing them with a distraction. Dammit!”

Lassiter snorted, then shook his head.

“Guess you’ll be needing a ride then huh?”

Shawn looked to his side at the man standing next to him. The warehouse had been almost pitch black and he could now see the detective quite clearly in the glow from the streetlights. He was wearing the short sleeved officers uniform that Shawn had been picturing earlier that night, and his hair was slightly rumpled. Shawn felt a grin spread across his face and he replied.

“You’d give me a lift even after I let your bad guys get away?”

Lassiter shrugged.

“They got your bike, I figure we’re even.”

Shawn almost did a double take. This was much more relaxed than he had ever seen Lassiter. He had been right about Lassiter sounding different on the scanner. The lines that usually crossed his forehead were gone and he seemed almost…friendly. It was unnerving.

“Okaaay…. who are you and what did you do with Lassie-Face? And can you make it permanent?”

Lassiter walked over to the car and turned back.

“Fine, walk.”

Shawn quickly backtracked.

“No! I’ll take the ride.”

He winced a little at the connotation of what he’d just said. The detective walked over to the car and got in. Then he got back out and said:

“Get in then!”

Shawn realised he had been frozen on the spot.

“Right!”

He jogged over and slid into the car through the passenger side window. Lassiter sat in the drivers seat with his eyebrows raised and stared until the younger man was seated.

“The door wasn’t locked.”

Shawn blinked.

“I know, I think I was a NASCAR driver in a previous life. Couldn’t resist the urge.”

Lassiter looked as though he was about to start another lecture and then thought better of it.

“If you touch this steering wheel I will decapitate you. Are we clear?”

Shawn performed a mock overzealous salute.

“Yes SIR!!”

The detective groaned before starting the car and they sped out of the car park.

During the next 4 minutes of awkward silence Lassiter kept his eyes on the road and Shawn’s mind started to wander. He found himself sneaking glances over at the detective, appreciating him in a whole new light since his earlier revelation about his little man-crush. He wondered if, given the opportunity, would he want to kiss Lassie? Shawn discreetly studied the detective’s mouth and decided that hell yes, he would. Those lips looked intriguingly soft when the man was relaxed and not sneering. Plus there would be an opportunity to run his fingers through that over combed hair. His mind started to concoct elaborate scenarios where the two of them would find themselves in such a situation. Around the time he was picturing what Lassiter would look like wearing nothing but his holster, the man himself decided to speak.

“Why were you listening to the police scanner at 2 in the morning?”

Shawn was startled at the voice invading his daydream, but didn’t let it show.

“Vigilance is my middle name Lassie! I can’t sleep while the city needs protecting! I’m batman.”

He said that last bit using his best superhero voice. But the detective seemed undeterred.

“There are never any big busts going on at this time of day, just patrol officers reporting in and out. Why would that interest you?”

Lassiter had that wrinkle over his brow he got whenever he was trying to work something out. Shawn started to get a little nervous that Lassiter would figure out what was going on, for once. So he adopted his most over the top girly voice and saved the detective the trouble of figuring the truth out by saying:

“Okay fine, you caught me! I listen to the scanner to hear your voice cause it’s soooo rugged and manly! I’ve been harbouring an unrequited crush on you. I dream of crawling naked into your sock drawer…”

Lassiter stared at Shawn with suspicious eyes throughout this outburst and then scoffed.

“Yeah, right. Not buying it Spencer.”

Shawn settled back in his seat and smiled to himself, there was a good reason he told Lassiter the truth. Because when you tell someone the truth straight out they rarely believe it. He shrugged and threw the detective the most lascivious look he could manage.

“Well you can’t blame a girl for trying.”

Shawn could swear that, right before Lassiter sneered and turned his eyes back to the road, he saw a flicker of something in the detective’s eyes. Shawn had seen more than enough horny people to recognise lust when he saw it. He smiled to himself, this night was just starting to get interesting.