oO0Oo
And So It Goes…
oO0Oo

The night passed quietly if not restfully for all of them.

In the morning, Shawn was moved to a regular room and once he was settled, regular visiting hours applied. His parents spent every moment in his room with him, and he was awake for brief periods and 'visited' with them. He was still in a great deal of pain, and talking took an incredible amount of effort, so he was given heavy medication which meant he wasn't exactly chatty, but he was healing.

The detectives were still working on their case, so they were limited in how much time they could spend with Shawn. But Juliet and Lassiter stopped in during breaks and Shawn tried to give the head detective a hard time about his arm being in a sling. He was also doing his best to deflect any mention of his heroics in the warehouse, which everyone took as a good sign.

Even Chief Vick stopped in to see how he was doing.

Juliet maintained a certain distance, which hurt – Shawn would have given anything to have her arms around him, but he understood.

He knew that he had hurt her deeply and that knowledge was even harder to bear than the space between them.

The fact that it was not a cold separation was a miracle, and so he marveled at her from a distance and loved her even more.

His main goal now was not to leave for parts unknown, - who cared what fracking was? But to get better so that he could, once again, pursue her.

He had every intention of winning her back just as quickly as possible. He was as nervous about it as a teenager on his first date, but knowing that she still loved him made all the difference in the world.

He would never hold anything back from her ever again.

oO0Oo

The next day, Gus didn't visit until the afternoon. He'd had to be at his other job that morning for some mandatory something-or-other, but after lunch he stopped by, and with his help, Shawn was able to convince Henry and Maddie to take a break. The two hadn't really left the hospital in days – and that was just silly now that Shawn was getting better.

Once they were gone, (Shawn carefully did not think about where they went – or whether they went anywhere together) Gus opened his briefcase and took out a Gameboy which he wordlessly handed to Shawn. Then he withdrew and set up his laptop, stealing Shawn's bed table to set it on, and he began to type.

Gus smiled quietly to himself as he wondered how many times they had done this same thing for each other – in different ways – over the years. When one of them needed it, the other was… there – just – there – for the other.

Shawn had done this for him in more ways than he could count.

Gus remembered doing this for Shawn when his friend had been sick; or sick with worry about his parent's fighting; or just wounded from life that had been too much for his unique mind. Gus had showed up like this and given him an excuse to just exist – silently – in his company.

The two sat together in quiet companionship. Gus typed, and listened. He looked up occasionally when the beeping of the game stopped as Shawn dozed. But the afternoon passed in relative peace.

At dinner, Shawn's mouth spent just as much time complaining about the food as he did eating it. The nurse who checked up on him shared a smile discreetly with Gus because both the eating and the complaining were very good signs.

After the half-eaten food had been taken away, their peaceful camaraderie resumed briefly until: "Gus, I'm bored." His voice was still soft, and it had developed a gravelly quality which Shawn personally thought was pretty sexy, but the important thing was that he could make himself heard and understood.

Gus smirked before looking up at his friend, secretly impressed with how Shawn's language skills were improving so quickly, "You want the tv remote?"

Shawn shook off the suggestion. He wanted to talk, "I can't believe this, Gus. This is just horrible."

He said it so despairingly that Gus frowned and worried, but he needn't have.

"They shaved my head," Shawn complained bitterly. "I know I have an incredibly well-shaped, manly and beautiful skull, but my hair - my hair was the envy of all!"

Gus tried not to smirk, "It'll grow back, Shawn," he observed calmly.

"I know! But sometimes weird things happen – like it comes in curly – or red. I don't want to be a ginger, Gus! What if I have to deal with being a ginger for the rest of my life?"

"You can always dye it."

"Then I'll have to worry about my roots showing and that is just too girly for words. – No, Gus. I couldn't stand it."

"You'll be fine, Shawn," Gus replied drily. "How's Juliet?" He tried to change the subject.

"Yeah. How about that? She knows and she doesn't hate me." Shawn mused softly, wonderingly, "I'm pretty sure she should hate me."

"Me too," Gus agreed calmly, causing Shawn to suck his teeth and glare at him.

"You two gonna – you know – work things out?" Gus asked quite seriously.

Shawn gave that some serious thought, and then responded, "You know? I really think we will?"

Gus smiled. That was – in his mind – as it should be.

Shawn took the conversation in a new direction, "Did you know Vick knew? Apparently she knew all along-" Shawn shook his head, "Should've seen that one!"

"She's the Chief for a reason," Gus mused, "She sees through lies on a daily basis. Plus she knew your dad."

"Yeah – I kinda forgot about that." Shawn smiled ruefully, "She looked a lot different to me when I was ten. She was a grown-up then, now she's a person."

"I'm pretty sure she was a person then, too."

"You know what I mean."

"And she's not going to arrest you? Or me?"

"Nope. Says we didn't actually break any laws. Can you believe it?"

"I guess technically, lying isn't illegal."

"Exactly. Neither is keeping secrets."

At that comment, Gus became just the tiniest bit uncomfortable, "Exactly."

"Guh-uss…?" Shawn drew out his name expectantly.

"What?"

Shawn just looked at him. They both already knew. It was – after all these years of being best friends – almost impossible to keep a secret from one another. Shawn could occasionally keep one from Gus, if he really worked at it, but Gus (excepting the spit-ball incident of '87) rarely succeeded – especially not when Shawn had help.

"Who told you?"

"Dude. The doc stopped by earlier." Shawn shook his head, "He is really excited about becoming famous because of this." He gestured at his head. "You'd think my being alive and kicking was something of a side benefit! But he may have mentioned that a certain pharmaceutical rep had something of an assist." Shawn smiled, "Are you gonna be famous, too?"

"You're not actually 'kicking' yet, Shawn, you can barely move." Gus pointed out, deftly deflecting the attention.

"Gus." Shawn's voice softened and he looked at his buddy seriously, "You saved my life. Thank-you."

Gus just looked back at him in recognition of a fact they both knew better than their own names:
If there was a way – any chance - for one of them to help the other – it would be done. Always. No matter what the cost.

Never mind that – at least in this case - Gus would not have needed to save Shawn's life if Shawn hadn't saved his first…

Then he got up, came over and sat on the edge of Shawn's bed. For a moment, Shawn thought he was going to get hugged, but he needn't have worried. Gus snatched the Gameboy away, saying dismissively, "It's not the first time and probably won't be the last. Now give me that. I gotta make sure you haven't beaten my high score."

Shawn grinned and tried to grab it back, but he was far too weak to make any real attempt, of which Gus took full advantage.

"It's my high score!" he protested.

"No, it isn't Shawn." Gus argued, pulling the game out of reach, "And this doesn't begin to make us even." And suddenly they were not talking about the game.

"Yes - it - does! – augh!" Shawn leaned forward to take one more swipe, but that was just a little too much for his head and the pain that had subsided to a dull throb suddenly spiked. He lay back and closed his eyes, his lips pressed tightly together as he rode out the pain.

Gus paused for a moment in concern, watching to make sure Shawn didn't need help.

When his breathing evened out and the heart monitor slowed down again, Gus's forehead smoothed and he stood and carried the Gameboy back to his former seat.

Shawn peeked at him, frustrated that he hadn't won the Gameboy back through sympathy.

Gus forced a grin that claimed he hadn't just been reminded of how close he'd come to losing his best friend. He began to play, "Let that be a lesson to you."

Shawn opened his eyes and glared.

"Plus? I think Juliet likes gingers…"

"Gussssss! They SHAVED my HEAD!"

oO0Oo
FIN
oO0Oo

Thanks for coming along for the ride.

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