NOTES: A big thank you goes out to AnimalLover32HaHa, fornwalt and nancyandedforever for their reviews of the first part. This is the second and final part of the story, I hope you enjoy the end. I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts about the ending, as it was a difficult but fun part to write. Thank you!

Part Two

I was sandy.

I wasn't sure how long I'd been sitting on the beach, but it had been for a while, and now there was sand all over me. I batted at it, and brushed at it, and shook out the fabric, and eventually started thrashing, and yet the sand remained. My efforts to un-sand ( de-sand? ) myself were getting more and more vigorous ( my inner Gus was horrified at the spectacle I was making ), but I managed to stop and flirt with a couple of girls in bikinis walking by. But my heart wasn't in it, and they only looked at me and kept walking.

"Oh God," I said out loud to anyone that might be within earshot. "You mean I can't even flirt with other women?"

I mean, let's be honest, I'd been trying to encourage Juliet's interest for three years. She'd always turned me down and usually by the time she was done telling me no I was already hitting on the next pretty girl wandering past. But not this time. Now on top of the guilt, my whole mojo seemed to be off. Those girls had definitely not been amused or impressed. And I was always both amusing and impressive!

My phone rang and I put a pause on my mental anguish. A glance revealed it was Chief Vick. I was immediately unsure of how to handle this situation, but after a moment I decided to pretend like nothing was wrong and see how that panned out.

"Chief, I sensed it was you," I said as soon as I'd answered. The chief snorted.

"Isn't that what caller ID is for, Mr. Spencer?" she asked.

"That's a very good point, Chief, and I'm glad you mentioned it because I actually played a part in developing caller ID. You see, my cousin was being stalked by this crazy girl in prison, and--"

"Mr. Spencer. Please. Spare me."

I clamped my mouth shut. Does she know? Did Juliet already tell her?

"I'd like to see you down at the station. How soon can you be here?"

Well, that didn't tell me anything. She didn't sound terribly upset, but she was a formidable woman, and she played her cards close to her chest. It was impossible to tell how much she knew, or didn't know, over the phone. I considered my options, the alternatives, and a couple of non-options just for kicks.

"Give me twenty minutes," I said, the considering part over. She agreed and we hung up, and I stared at my cell. Then I doubled my pace up the beach toward the Psych office, where Gus would be waiting to lecture me while he gave me a ride to the station.

- - -

"Shawn!"

Well, some things never change. I smiled at Gus as if he wasn't completely, totally angry with me. "How was the date, buddy?"

"First of all, that was not a date. Second, she was totally heartbroken that you left. I spent the next two hours trying to calm her down while she used my shirt as a tissue. And it was a silk shirt, Shawn."

"Gus, please, it was a silk-mix at best. She really cried?"

"Like a teething baby," Gus replied, his hands on his hips.

"Hm. Didn't seem like the type," I mused, although I had felt that twinge of guilt again when he'd told me she had been upset. I was really starting to hate guilt. Stupid emotion, really. "We have bigger fish to fry, Gus. The chief called and I'm sensing we may have a case."

"Oh no, Shawn, I am not letting you change the subject. What happened after you left? You owe me that much after you dumped Abigail on me."

Now how to play this one? I was criminally bad at pulling a fast one on Gus, he'd simply known me too long. So, with as much seriousness as I could muster throughout the whole of my body, I looked him in the eye, and I told him the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

And Gus just stared at me. And then, glaring at me the whole time, he gathered up his suit jacket and his keys, and he walked out of the door to the office.

"Gus!" I shouted. "Gus!" And then I ran after him. I caught him just as he was unlocking the car door.

"Shawn, I have never ever thought this was a good idea, not since I found out you put my name on the lease--"

"That was a little underhanded," I agreed.

"--But I stuck around anyway. I stuck around when you knocked down walls in the office, and when you ditched me at that bachelorette party and they covered me in whip cream, and when you left me alone in that asylum, and when we found that mummy in the van and you went running like a little girl--"

"I was getting something to wrap it in. Those things are very delicate, Gus."

"The point is, Shawn, that against my better judgment, I went along with this farce."

"Farce. Good word. A-plus for using it in a sentence."

"Shawn."

"Sorry." I made a 'zipping my lips' motion across my mouth and gestured for him to pray, continue.

"And after all of that, after almost losing my real job because of all of that, you go and blow it. To a detective." Gus stared at me. "I'm done, Shawn, I'm really done. You're not taking me down with you on this one. I'm going to go back to my office -- my real office -- and sit down at my desk, and do my work."

Well, he was upset. And not without good reason. I really had screwed it all up. But I knew he was all talk. Gus wouldn't leave me, we'd been friends for too long.

"You're right," I said, and I was serious. "You're right about all of that, and I'm sorry. I wasn't going to leave last night, I didn't want to do that to Abigail again, but I just…I had really upset Jules. And then went I went to her place this morning, to apologize and see if I could fix it…" I had to stop for a breath. "I knew that if I didn't tell her the truth that, that…that she might…" I was getting into all that touchy-feely serious stuff and it was unfamiliar territory. But so much had happened over the past 48 hours…if I couldn't be vulnerable with my friend now, well, when could I be?

"I want a chance with her, Gus. A real chance. Which means she had to know the truth."

Gus was cracking. I could see it. He was still angry, but the look in his eyes had changed. My sincerity was softening the blow a little, I could tell, and after a long moment he took a breath and nodded. Then he got in the car. It was the first good thing to happen all day, and I smiled as I jogged around the other side and climbed in.

"Alright, Magic Head, let's go see what the chief wants," I said, buckling my seat belt with what could only be optimism. Not a lot, but enough.

"I wasn't kidding, Shawn, I'm going to my office. I don't want to be there when the chief arrests you for lying."

"Gus, please, don't be a diabetic aardvark," I said. "You can't get arrested for lying. Besides, this could be a case."

"Or it could be you getting arrested," Gus insisted, and he had a point. That was the other distinct possibility.

"Guess we'll find out when we get there. Come on, Gus, she's waiting!"

- - -

It had been a case.

A lame one, but still. A case. Which meant that Juliet hadn't told yet. And that was a surprising but very welcome turn of events. As I came out of Chief's office, I looked around for her. And then there she was, coming back to her desk with a steaming mug of coffee. She looked tired, but she was in a clean suit and her hair was pulled back neatly and she had a stack of paperwork on her desk that she was actually working on. My brave girl, doing her best to keep her game face on. I felt that familiar tide of affection for her, only it was stronger now.

I handed Gus the file. "It was the third cousin, who in an interesting twist is also the sister-in-law," I said, and then I left him trying to puzzle out that fun family tree while I approached Jules.

"Jules."

She looked up and a lot of emotion flickered across her face, and I was reminded suddenly that she carried a gun and perhaps I needed to tread lightly here.

"What are you doing here, Shawn?"

"Chief called. We have a case." I paused and let my cheerful smile fade. "You didn't tell her," I said, and there was more than a little gratitude in my voice.

Juliet broke my gaze and began sweeping files into her desk drawer. I noticed that gun she carried was dismantled next to a stopwatch, and I recognized it as her old stress reliever. She really was taking this hard.

"Why didn't you tell her, Jules?" I was trying to be gentle, and I wanted to touch her, but I kept my hands to myself.

"I wanted to," Jules said at last. "But…we need you. Whatever you do, it works."

Ah. It was professional, then. I tried not to be disappointed but my heart ached knowing that she'd been protecting the department's arrest record and not me.

"I see," I said. She looked up at me again, and I met her gaze for just a moment before my eyes dropped to my shoe tops.

"I have work to do," she said, and I started to walk away. And then I stopped and turned back to her.

"No." I stood firm, arms crossed over my chest.

She blinked. "No?"

"No. Come outside." I didn't wait for a 'no.' I took her arm and she came along, not wanting to make a scene in the middle of the station, although she was obviously uncomfortable. Well, I was uncomfortable too, but I always made scenes in the middle of the station. And we were going to do this my way.

We got outside and I said, "Ow, my corneas," because the sun really was much too bright. Juliet, unimpressed, stared at me with her hands on her hips. She looked just about ready to stomp back inside, but I pretty confident that she wouldn't leave. She wanted to know what I had to say, I didn't have to be psychic to know that. Of course, it would have been handy at the moment. But I digress.

"What do you want, Shawn?"

"Last night…well, there's no use cushioning the blow. It really was bad timing. And you took the whole thing well. Too well. I mean, so well that I thought maybe I'd just imagined that you'd asked me out. Except for that kiss. Do you have any idea what that kiss did to me?"

"It was a kiss on the cheek, Shawn," she said, although she was clearly surprised by the emotion in my words, if not the theatrics.

"Yeah. It was only the best and worst kiss on the cheek that I've ever had. And then I was standing there and you were walking away and I almost followed you. I mean, I was so close. But there was Abigail. And I'd already ditched her once. So I went back, and Gus ruined the whole thing by being in the backseat but it didn't matter because you'd already ruined it by asking me the one thing I've been dying for you to ask me for three years."

I paused for breath. Juliet was struggling to form a response.

"And you know what? Even though I was trying to do the right thing by her, I left anyway. Because the right thing by her was the wrong thing by you and I couldn't handle that. So I made some lame excuse about giving my dad a sponge bath--"

"What?"

"Besides the point and also made up. Come on, Jules. Keep up." I shook my head and refocused. "I got out of the car and I walked away. But I figured it was too late to see you, or that you wouldn't want to see me, and anyway I had a big decision to make. I mean gray whale huge. I mean iceberg that sunk the Titanic giant."

"And what was that?"

"I had to decide if I was going to tell you the truth. About being psychic. Working with the police…doing this thing I've been doing. It's been awesome. I know I act like it's all a big joke and sometimes it is, but I also really enjoy it. It's fulfilling and it means something, even when I act like it doesn't. And I knew that if I told you, well, that was the end of that. But it doesn't matter. Because if I didn't tell you than I'd lose you. I mean, either way I was probably going to lose you. But on the off-chance that I have a shot, I don't want there to be any secrets."

I was out of breath. And out of explanation. I mean, I'd done a terrible job. It was botched and rushed and messy and I still had a million things to add, but it wouldn't have mattered. I took a step closer to her, keeping my eyes locked on hers the whole time.

"Tell me, Jules. Do I still have a shot?"

Gus burst out of the door before she could answer.

"Shawn, the third cousin couldn't possibly have done it, she's a meth addict!"

I turned to him, completely exasperated. "Now, Gus? You really want to do this right now?"

Gus looked from me to Jules and back again, and he lowered the file and looked, dare I say, a little sheepish.

"Besides, of course the third cousin did it. Dude, everyone knew she was on meth. Clearly, she also sold it. She was supplying our vic and when she stopped, he threatened to go to the police. Ironic? Anyway. She got mad and killed him, then in one of her few moments of lucidity, took the body to a hotel room and staged his suicide. Badly. Any other questions?"

"You got that all from the statements?" Gus asked. Honestly. I don't know why he bothered. He'd seen me solve a case in five minutes flat before. It seemed somehow disloyal that he still questioned my abilities.

"And the crime scene photos," I told him.

Gus glared at me and then decided the show was over. He said, "I'm very sorry," to Juliet and then he retreated inside. Finally. Jeez.

I turned to her. She was looking at me and her expression was slightly shocked. Really? What was with the rampant disbelief? I'd done this sort of thing a million times before over the past three years. Why all the staring and the questions and the surprise?

"I don't know if it's less impressive now that I know the truth, or more so," she said.

"More so?" I suggested, and she gave me a look. But I was hopeful. At least she was still speaking to me.

"Shawn…I…" She stopped and I stepped forward, invading her space. We were close, breathing the same air close, and I took her hands and looked down at her and I didn't have to try to be gentle or honest or serious. She was important and I wanted to treat her that way.

"Jules, I know that you push guys away. I know that you're holding out for someone better." She opened her mouth, and I smiled a little and squeezed her hands. "It's okay, I get it. All I'm saying is that I am better. I don't take life too seriously, Jules. I actively try not to. But there's one thing I do take seriously, and it's you. No matter what happens, I'm going to be there. Probably with jokes and definitely with bells on."

She rolled her eyes, just a little, and I smiled wider. "At least you know it will always be fun."

"Shawn," she started, and I could hear the doubt in her voice, the fear of hoping for too much. But I wasn't going to let her down.

"I'm not going anywhere, Jules. Just ask Gus, he can't get rid of me." I bent my knees a little, to be at eye level with her. "Please. Let me show you how serious I am about this. And how much you mean to me."

Juliet looked at me, her eyes wide and beautiful and just as scared as I felt, and I brought her hands to my lips and kissed them both gently.

"Okay," she said. "Yes."

"Yes?"

"Yes."

"She said yes, everybody!" I cried, jubilant.

"Shawn," she said, looking around. "We're behind the police station. There's no one else here."

"Jules, I was speaking to the spirits," I told her, and winked. She just laughed and shook her head, and her smile was so bright and relieved. I couldn't blame her, I was feeling ready to walk on water. Or fly. Or teleport. They all sounded pretty cool.

"Let's just…go back inside," she said, still smiling as she led me back toward the station.

"Sure," I agreed. "There's just one more thing."

"What's that?" she asked, stopping just shy of the door. I positively beamed at her, and took the four or five steps closer to close the gap between us, and then I slid one arm around her waist and the other hand into her hair, and I kissed her. I put everything I had into that kiss, and I didn't let go until I was sure she felt just how much joy she'd given me.

And she kissed me back the same way.

"Alright," I said, when we'd pulled away slightly and I could breathe again. "We can go inside now."

Jules laughed and I smiled again, and after another stolen kiss -- this one much quicker, sadly -- we joined Gus and Lassiter inside. They already had another case waiting. And I had plenty of fresh material in the form of Lassie's tie.

Oh yeah. Got my girl, kept my job, and my father hadn't called demanding I come pick something up. Life was looking up.