AUTHOR'S NOTES:

This is for Moondragon23 on her birthday. Happy birthday and I hope you enjoy the heroic Shules feels you wished for. :)

I do not own Psych

Grenades.

Why did it have to be grenades?

His list of things he hated the most when it came to cases used to be; Levers, guns (usually because they were pointed at him), and cases that didn't involve some kind of restaurant. That whole list changed in the span of exactly three seconds to become; Grenades, grenades and, oh yeah… GRENADES!

It was bad enough that they were pinned down under a bridge, behind some concrete dividers that offered little protection unless they were crouched extremely low or lying down. Carlton and Gus were on the other side of the bridge, the former spraying as much cover fire as he could to get them un-pinned down. However, the two groups of bad guys knew that trick and kept on them, most likely realizing that they were either low on, or out of ammo by their lack of shooting.

Then, in a move that would have been too smart for the random bad dude Shawn usually had to deal with, the bad guys decided that if they couldn't shoot through the dividers... they'd just lob hand grenades over them.

Unfortunately it was two of them.

Fortunately, they most likely hadn't had any grenade training and threw them as soon as the pin was pulled, giving Juliet enough time to toss one back over and for Shawn to kick the other as far away as he could before pinning Juliet down and covering her.

The explosion, being so close to them, caused both Shawn's ear drums to rupture simultaneously. It rendered him instantly deaf. It also put a piece of jagged metal straight through his left side.

"AH! DAMMIT!" He screamed. Hoping it sounded manly and not the girlish squeal he'd heard echoing in his head. He coughed in the cloudy air, causing a fresh shot of misery to course through his side, but the heavy dust and dirt started to settle quickly.

Underneath him, Juliet took her fingers out of her ears and carefully slid out, wincing in pain herself but moving quickly, knowing they couldn't stay there if they wanted to live. The grenade she'd tossed back at them would most likely only give Carlton a momentary advantage and scatter the drug lord's entourage only for a short time.

Shawn tried to move as well, but he only managed to roll to his opposite side before he collapsed with a pained groan, resting his back on the small concrete wall that had been their saving grace. He glanced up and Juliet was there, looking at his injury with concern. Shawn noticed her hand was bleeding; it must have been the only part of her that hadn't been covered by his body. Vaguely he wondered through the pain if his back currently resembled ground hamburger. His ears and side were the most painful, but it didn't mean there weren't other injuries that would make themselves known if he tried to get up.

Juliet's mouth was moving, but her voice no more than a muffled buzz. He blinked the dust out of his eyes and watched her lips. "Can you walk?" Finally getting what she was asking, he nodded. "Okay..." Juliet mouthed. She paused giving both of them a chance to mentally prepare for the blinding agony they would be facing at the movement. She began pulling Shawn up with a wince as her injured hand and arm were jarred. His teeth were clenched in a silent scream as metal dug further into his side.

When he finally got to his feet, a wet sticky sensation started running down his neck and he wiped at it. His hand came back smeared with red and he realized his ears were bleeding. "Oh, that's not good." He slurred and stumbled forward, his equilibrium betraying him.

It wasn't often Shawn hated solving cases, but he suddenly wished to God that he'd never seen the small, almost imperceptible, sliver of the Serpiente drug cartel's emblem on the package of crack pulled out of a dead teenager's pocket last week. Someone had tried to rip off the label, hiding the cartel's involvement. Probably the teenager himself so he could re-sell it.

Shawn had faked his psychic vision for the SBPD, and let Juliet in on his revelation later. While the Chief had Juliet and Carlton interview known associates of the cartel, Shawn and Gus had put their heads (and months of drug related violence in Goleta) together, coming up with the exact time and place of the next shipment of the uncut cocaine.

So of course they HAD to go alone, calling Juliet and Carlton on the way, just in case. It ultimately ended up being the move that saved their lives, so far, but it also put Juliet and Carlton in grave danger. It had been the last thing Shawn had wanted. Now, here was his girlfriend, injured dragging him along, all while putting herself in the line of fire.

"I−," Shawn let out a pained gasp as he leaned against her. "I'm sorry Jules. Just lea−leave me. Slowing you down."

Juliet pursed her lips in that cute way she does when she was really frustrated with him, and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling him along even harder. She was grumbling something that he wasn't able to catch, probably along the lines of calling him stupid for trying to play the hero.

They were almost to the other side of the bridge and back under cover, before their retreat was cut off by one of the gang members... holding a pistol right at their heads.

"Don't move!" Shawn saw the man say. He must have been one of the ones who had ran or jumped out of the way of the grenade, and spotted them when they made a break for it.

With his arm around Juliet Shawn could feel her start to shake. He wasn't sure if it was from adrenaline or fear, but he wasn't too proud to admit, at least to himself, that he was definitely feeling fear. Trying to control his own shaking, he focused on the man's features, watching carefully for that split second of intent that was on everyone's face, right before they pulled the trigger.

He chanced slowly lowering his arm from around Juliet and said, "Man, don't do this. You could go away for life. Think of your girl, Sharon."

Surprise registered on his face and the grip on the gun loosened. Shawn had noticed the tattoo baring the name "Sharon" and the ring. In his experience with shooters, which he'd had a lot of recently, throwing them off with a girlfriend/wife's name tended to work.

"Sharon is my dead sister!"

Oh well, plan B tended to work too. He widened his eyes and looked behind him, doing his best to look terrified. Which wasn't hard at that moment.

"OH MY GOD LOOK AT THAT!"

The gang member's gun didn't falter but he looked away.

Screaming in pain, with his survival instinct in full gear, Shawn pushed Juliet to the ground, which was better than being shot, and jumped at the man, who turned around just as Shawn got to the gun, and pulled the trigger.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Gus screamed at the top of his lungs. It was so loud it Carlton could hear it above his own gunfire as he peeked around the corner of the bridge, shooting at the leader of the cartel, Sosano Balsa. He was surrounded by at least seven of his men. Three of which were pinning down Shawn and Juliet.

"Goddamn it Guster I will shoot you dead if you don't shut your hole right now!"

The other man's screaming turned into choked sobs. "I don't wanna die! Please I swear I won't double dip nachos again... or steal my co-worker's lunches!"

Carlton scoffed, but mentally catalogued Gus' confession for later, the stealing from co-workers, not the double dipping, he chanced a glance back at him. "Make yourself useful and hand me a clip!" Gus hesitated with a disgusted look, not wanting to reach into Carlton's pants, but pulled out one of the clips anyway, handing it over.

As fast as the detective was at reloading, the momentary lapse in gunfire let one of the group stand up for a second and quickly duck down. Carlton didn't see why, until he caught sight of his partner also taking the chance to pop up from behind her cover.

There was no time to figure out what had happened, or revel in the fact that at least his partner was still alive, before two large explosions went off, followed by plumes of dust and dirt. It obscured the entire scene from his view.

"O'HARA!"

"SHAWN!"

Carlton and Gus screamed in horror.

They'd had grenades. Carlton berated himself for not thinking of that. He could have done something, shouted a warning, anything.

Not thinking of the consequences, Carlton rushed forward, slid down the embankment, and got closer to see if his partner and her idiot boyfriend were still alive. To his surprise, Gus was right behind him. They slid next to an old, busted up car on concrete blocks and waited, hearing absolutely no gunfire. Only shouts of pain and orders to get back to cover echoed under the bridge. The grenade had scattered the assailants, but not for long. The air was already starting to clear, and when he peeked over the car's hood he could make out Balsa in the haze of sand.

Carlton growled low in his throat and gripped his gun until his knuckles were white, waiting for an open shot. "If they killed her I'm going to..." He couldn't finish the sentence. She wasn't dead. She couldn't be dead.

Gus flinched and Carlton ducked back down a gunshot rang out in the relative silence. The shot sounded further away, closer to where Shawn and Juliet were... but the echo underneath the bridge may have been messing with the acoustics. That or he was just hoping that wasn't the gang finishing them off.

That's when the screaming started.

Shots seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere all at once. Shouts of pain in the enclosed space created such a cacophony of agony that both men had to cover their ears to drown it out. Soon, the sound of painful moans became more prominent as the gunfire from the gangsters' guns slowed down, then dwindled to nothing.

Carlton took his hands away from his ears and looked over at Gus. The salesman's scared expression was long gone, replaced by a look of surprise that probably rivaled his own. Had back up arrived? Was their a chance that their friends had survived the shoot out and the grenades?

"The hell with this." Carlton sneered. They had to see what happened. He pulled his boot gun and handed it to Gus. There were only five small bullets in it, and he only had seven left himself. It wasn't much, they'd have to make them count.

One, He mouthed, and Gus tensed up, realizing what he had planned.

Two, They got their feet under them.

"THREE!" Both of them popped up shouting fierce war cries that died out almost instantly.

Six cartel members were down for the count. Each with a hole in one of their kneecaps and their shooting hand was bloodied. Their guns lay completely forgotten a few feet away from each man, as if they'd been thrown, or knocked out of their hands.

"What in the world happened?" Gus exclaimed as they walked around either side of the car, meeting in the middle to survey the scene. They saw movement to their left and turned their guns towards it, spotting Juliet getting shakily up from the ground.

Carlton immediately put his gun away, and they ran up to help her. His heart was about to burst from his chest in relief. "O'Hara! Oh my God what happened?" He put his arm around her waist to steady her. He took in her injuries, and noticed her arm was bleeding. He quickly ripped his jacket sleeve off and started wrapping it to stop the blood as she looked around at the disabled men in disbelief.

Carlton's brow furrowed, confused at her reaction, "O'Hara, didn't you−?"

She quickly shook her head and looked behind her, at Shawn. He was on his right side, holding his left in a tight squeeze, while curled up into a ball. Smears of blood trailed from his ears. Clutched in his hand, was a Glock 19, and right next to him... was the seventh cartel member.

Unlike the others though, he wasn't moving. Blood pooled around his chest and it was clear he was dead.

Gus kneeled down next to Shawn with only a sideways glance at the body He was more concerned with his friend's wellbeing at the moment. "Shawn, Shawn are you okay?" He moved Shawn's arm out of the way and saw a piece of metal jutting out from his side.

At the touch, Shawn flinched away and pointed the gun straight at Gus' nose, his hazel eyes held an animalistic fury. An instant later, they softened and the gun lowered when he realized who was there. "Gus? Oh man..." He collapsed back down groaning. "Did we win?"

Carlton was in shock. The sheer talent and training it would have taken to hit every man in the hand and the knee with, at most, fifteen bullets in the gun was just to insane to fathom. "Spencer, you did all this?" He asked incredulously, but Shawn didn't react to his voice. Putting things together, with the bleeding ears and not recognizing Gus' voice, Carlton figured out that Shawn's hearing was injured.

Juliet went to Shawn, making sure he could see her, and gently took the gun from his hand. "It's okay, we won." He reluctantly let the gun go and Juliet went to stand guard over the downed men.

Shawn turned to look at Gus and gave his usual smirk "If I lose my," He swallowed hard and shuddered in pain, "my kidney− you better give me yours." Gus rolled his eyes, and Carlton didn't blame him.

Sirens sounded in the distance, getting closer. Carlton had luckily to get a call out for back up before the shooting started. As usual though, they came a little too late. With a sigh, took off what was left of his jacket, bundling it up and placing it on Shawn's side. "He'll be fine once he gets to the hospital."

Juliet nodded gratefully and stayed standing with the gun, shouting at the men to stay down if they got it in their heads to move towards their weapons. Carlton smiled. She was using her "upper case mad" voice. It was usually only reserved for the worst criminals, and Shawn when he got her good and pissed off.

Two minutes later, six other officers relieved Juliet of her guard duty. Some keeping the men down while the others cuffed them. Finally, she was able to relax and knelt next to Shawn, gripping his hand tightly. He smiled up at her and she leaned in to kiss him. "I love you Shawn." Her lips brushed against his and she whispered, "Thank you for saving me." Even though she knew he couldn't hear it.

Carlton cleared his throat, uncomfortable at watching the tender moment between his partner and Shawn. He pointed towards the other officers, "I'm gonna go... interrogate Basta." He quickly turned around and headed from the touching scene, hiding a pleased smirk.

Four days later, Shawn sat on the couch at his dad's house, watching a movie. His old man, sitting on the chair across from him, was drinking a beer. On one side of him was Juliet, on his other side was Gus, who was happily munching on popcorn. They'd unanimously decided a relaxing night was just what he needed to get his mind off of his injuries.

Surprisingly, Henry had put aside his hatred of subtitles for the time being, so Shawn would be able to follow along and enjoy the movie without his hearing. (As if he couldn't have just filled in the audio himself, he'd seen the film before.) Still, it was the thought that counted, and it brought a smile to his face that he cared so much. Plus, he did figure he looked pretty pathetic with cotton balls sticking out of his ears.

Juliet moved closer to Shawn and he shifted uncomfortably as the motion of the couch caused his stitches to pull. He'd have them in for a while, and at the moment he had a brace on so he wouldn't move too much. At least they'd been able to save his kidney, even though Gus did say that "humans can survive just fine with one kidney" or something brainy like that.

His stomach on the other hand, took the brunt of the metal shard and he had to avoid any alcohol, spicy, or seeded foods until it healed. It meant no more jerk chicken for a while, or beer, or popcorn. He looked at the people around him, envious and hungry.

As the bowl of scrumptious white fluffs was passed in front of him from Gus to Juliet, he tried to take advantage of the situation and reached covertly towards it.

"Not happening Shawn." Henry glowered at him, as if reading his mind.

Frowning in disappointment, he turned to Juliet and caught her eye, earning himself a knowing smile. "You know you shouldn't, Shawn."

Shawn sighed and nodded. As crappy as his health, and food, situation was he'd go through it all again, if it meant that Juliet had gotten out of there anything had happened to her, as melodramatic as it sounded, he'd probably have gone crazy. A hell of a lot more insane than he was during the "Clay Pigeon Massacre of 2013", when his dad was shot.

He tried to stave off that thought. Shooting was the last thing he wanted on his mind. That's why he was here, to relax and forget, as if he could.

It had already been a long day with a lot of explanations. Besides his father, Juliet and Gus were the only ones who weren't surprised by his ability to do... what he'd done. When he'd gone to give his statement that morning, the Chief had told him away from prying ears that he'd definitely saved Juliet. Probably Gus and Carlton too.

As it was, the grilling at the station would have been a lot more relentless, if Carlton had any say in the matter, but the Chief told him to step off until Shawn had more time to heal. Surprisingly, the usually hard-assed detective backed down. If Shawn didn't know better, he'd think that he'd earned some respect from him.

"Spencer, you're lucky you were gut wounded or I'd have you tied to an interrogation chair for a week." A long finger had pointed at him, as if the action would make his statement a bigger threat.

Shawn smirked and raised his hands in surrender, before wincing and putting them back down., "Only the spirits can answer that one Lassie, and they aren't talking."

Carlton made his patented 'sour patch kids" face' but his stance relaxed. "Yeah. Anyway, let me know when "the spirits" are feeling chatty. I'll be right here."

Shawn cocked his head, wondering if that were a threat, or an offer to talk things out if he needed.

The detective turned to leave and took a few steps away before turning around and reaching in his pocket. "Guster, this is for you. You know what it's for." He handed the pharmaceutical salesman a paper that looked suspiciously like a ticket to Shawn and made the "I'm watching you" gesture.

As soon as Carlton left, Shawn turned to Gus with a glare, "What did you do?"

"It's personal Shawn." His friend answered haughtily as he stuffed the paper into his pocket and headed for the exit, before remembering that Shawn needed help walking and that he'd have to stay next to him.

"Worst. Exit. Ever."

"Shut up and walk Shawn!"

No amount of pleading and pestering had gotten Gus to tell him what the ticket was for, and he'd tried all afternoon. The "Vault of Secrets" was shut tight, and that didn't happen often.

Normally Shawn wouldn't have cared so much, but it was something to do to get his overactive mind off of replaying everything in his head over and over again. As "heroic" as it had been, it still ate him up inside that the young man he'd tried to negotiate with had died, even if it wasn't "technically" his fault. When Shawn jumped at the guy, he'd tried to twist the gun out of his hand, and it had ended up going off when it was pointed at the man's chest.

After landing hard on his side, Shawn was in so much pain he could barely think about anything besides getting himself and Juliet out alive. He realized he still had the gun in his hand and he gripped it tighter, turned, aimed, and fired. Over and over he fired. His father's words, that had been drilled into him for years, repeated in his head with each man he took down.

Disarm, and disable...

Shawn felt a hand on his knee, and his eyes popped open. He hadn't realized he'd fallen asleep. "Are you okay?" His dad mouthed at him.

"I'm fine." He nodded, reassuringly.

Henry, squeezed his knee comfortingly before going back to watching TV. It was all the sympathy he'd ever get from the old man, but it was enough.

"Shawn?" Juliet looked at him expectantly, "I want to talk to you, in the kitchen, okay?" Shawn frowned, hoping he really wasn't in trouble for the popcorn thing. It was just so hard to be on a soft food and liquid diet.

"Sure Jules." He answered as Juliet leaned over and helped him up. After they both rose, Gus eagerly grabbed the popcorn all for himself with a satisfied grin.

Once they were both in the kitchen, Shawn started explaining immediately. "Jules, I'm sorry! I promise I won't try to eat any more junk food."

She raised an eyebrow at him, and he slumped in defeat.

"Or try to steal Gus' Doritos. In my defense, he's a lot more mobile than I am right now, so it's his own fault that he left them in my reach..."

Juliet put a hand on his shoulder and made sure he was facing her, so he could understand her. "Shawn, this isn't about the food."

"Oh." Shawn was really hoping it was about the food, because the only other thing she'd want to talk about would be what happened. They'd avoided the conversation most of the week, as neither of them wanted to dwell on it when Shawn was in the hospital.

"I know it's been a crazy couple of days, but I just really wanted you to know that−" She paused, as if trying to figure out the right words. Taking advantage of the silence, Shawn quickly kissed her, pulling her hips towards his out of habit which caused his side to twinge painfully.

Not his smartest idea.

"Ow..." Shawn whined pathetically, his lips still connected with his girlfriend. He felt her chuckle and she pushed him gently away.

"Don't try to distract me Shawn Spencer." Shawn reluctantly backed up with a pout. "I know we promised to protect each other." He tried to open his mouth to speak but the reprimanding scowl she gave him stopped it. "But, I don't want you to die for me. I'm a police officer and I justcan't have you..." Her quivering lips stopped him from being able to understand the rest.

This wasn't right, she wasn't supposed to feel bad that he'd saved her. "Jules, no. Don't cry sweetheart." Shawn grabbed her and pulled her close and the contact seemed to help her calm down. She sniffed, her head resting on his shoulder. "Jules, I can't promise I won't do something stupid if it means I can save you."

Juliet looked up at him and pursed her lips, obviously trying not to get emotional again.

"I know how hard it would be to live without all this..." Shawn gestured to himself and she laughed. "...but I love you Jules. I couldn't let you get hurt."

"You're insufferable Shawn."

He shrugged, "You know, we could compromise."

"How?"

"Well, I promise not to die if I can help it." That earned him more laughter.

Juliet brought her face closer to his. "You mean that?"

"Oh yeah. Totally mean it." Their lips came closer.

Then Henry, who should win the "worst timing ever" award, popped his head in the kitchen, causing Juliet to jump back and look at the door. He followed her gaze and saw his dad was not a happy camper.

"Shawn! Get back out here! If I'm going put up with words blocking half my screen, you can at least watch the movie!" He said a few more things, but Shawn as too busy rolling his eyes to catch them.

"Alright, I'll be right there." He turned to look at Juliet again, "Rain check?"

With a sideways smile she turned away from him and he couldn't see if she answered or not.

He hobbled along after her complaining, "Jules! C'mon don't leave an injured guy hanging! I'm gonna need some serious physical therapy with this you know! Maybe even a diet regimen of pineapple smoothies to get me through this one... Jules?"

END NOTES:

I hope everyone enjoyed it!

I'll hopefully be posting the big story I've been working on soon, so keep a look out :)