I wasn't planning on posting this story so soon, but I'm very excited about it. This first chapter is a little shorter than normal, but the others will be a lot longer. I used a part of Blake Shelton's song Delilah in this first chapter, because it seemed to fit the scene (and Lassiter) so well. There is no romance as of yet, but you can safely bet it will probably be Lassiet. So read on and enjoy the first chapter of Round-About Way.

Thanks to Loafer, for being my guinea pig/captive audience, as well as unofficial beta. :D

Disclaimer: Not mine!

PsychPsychPsychPsych

It was extremely rare for Juliet O'Hara to drive while angry or emotionally distraught. In fact, she made it a point to never do it. It only led to trouble. But after the day she had, she couldn't help herself.

It had all started innocently enough earlier in the day when she spilt her coffee on herself on the way to work. Then she was nearly hit by an oncoming taxi, and when she walked into work, one of the heels on her shoe broke off, sending her flying into the arms of the nearest man: one Carlton Lassiter. He had caught her with a practiced ease, but when she looked up at him, he had turned several different shades of red as he stuttered out an apology. The rest of the morning was spent trying to reassure him she wasn't mad at him. And just when she thought they were okay and ready for lunch, all hell had broken loose when Shawn Spencer showed up and made his usual mistake of insulting Lassiter. But on this particular day, Juliet lost it. Dragging Shawn by the elbow, she pulled him into the nearest available room and told him they were over. When she finally emerged from the room, Lassiter was mad at her for fighting his battles, and she was so damn hurt, she burst into tears on the spot. The act shocked everyone long enough for her to get out of the building and to her car, where she proceeded to jump in and speed out of the parking lot. It wasn't like her at all to run, but the combination of the day's events along with her conflicting emotions pushed her to do something she normally never would have.

She ran.

Now she was currently driving past the city limits of Santa Barbara, and the sky had turned a charcoal gray overhead. It hadn't rained in almost two weeks, and now it seemed the sky would erupt with rain at any moment. So she rolled her windows up and turned the radio on.

You can't blame no one but you, Delilah

For what you find when you never ever look around

Reach out for the one right here beside you

And find the one that's never gonna let you down

Her hands gripped the steering wheel tighter as the sky finally opened up and rain began to beat against her windshield. Damn them both. Damn Shawn for making her care about him and then not being what she needed. Damn Carlton for being everything she needed, but not being available to her.

Damn them both-

The tires of the Bug squealed as she saw a stalled car up ahead and she tried to hit her brakes, but it was too late. She slammed into the other car at sixty miles an hour, and everything went black.

Lassiter was still at work several hours later, scowling at everyone who dared to breathe within proximity of him. Shawn had fled right Juliet left, presumably to chase after Juliet and browbeat her into forgiving him. The thought made Lassiter's foul mood even worse, if it was at all possible. But underneath all of that simmering anger, he felt guilty and remorseful. He never should have spoken to O'Hara the way he had, especially since she was only trying to defend him. He wished she hadn't, but she had because that was who she was. She protected her friends and loved ones, and it made him proud to realize she considered him worthy of being protected.

Pulling his phone out, Lassiter tapped a few buttons, forming a message he hoped she would accept as his olive branch.

I'm sorry for being an ass. Let me make it up to you with dinner tonight.

Satisfied, he hit Send and tucked his phone back away. Then he returned his attention to the open file on his desk.

Shawn spent the better part of the afternoon wandering around in a strange fog. Ever since he was in high school, very few breakups had had this effect on him. In fact, he could only think of two. Abigail, and now Juliet. But he had always thought the relationship he had with Juliet would be the one that stuck. He was crazy about Juliet, and he was so certain she felt the same.

At least, he had been certain. Now he was single again and quickly sinking into the murky depths of despair.

What had he done?

Lassiter was just finishing up the last of his paperwork and getting ready to go home to his empty condo when his phone began to ring. Hoping that it was his partner, he quickly grabbed it without checking the caller ID. "Lassiter."

"Is this Carlton Lassiter?" an unfamiliar voice asked.

Lassiter frowned. "Yes. Who is this?"

"My name is Jenny Carlisle. I'm a nurse at Santa Barbara General."

His stomach sank, but he tried to ignore it.

"A patient was admitted here a couple of hours ago, and we found your card in her pocket. We've found no other identification, and we were hoping you might be able to identify her."

Now he felt sick. He wanted to hope this was just some random woman he had helped once. He gave out hundreds of cards with his name and number on them. But his gut told him this was something more. "Do you have a description of the woman?"

"She's blond, approximately late twenties to early thirties…"

His ears started to ring, drowning the woman's voice out. Every fiber of his being hoped he was wrong. He would call Juliet and she would be safe at home, and probably still pissed off at him. But something deep inside of him screamed something was terribly wrong. He finally came back to the voice on the other end of the line. "I'll be there as soon as possible," he growled. Ending the call, he shoved his cell phone into his pocket and quickly grabbed his keys. Then he rushed out of the precinct, his mind a blur of thoughts and concerns. The persistent feeling that he was about to identify his best friend and partner wouldn't leave him alone.

For once in his life, he was praying like hell he was wrong.

By the time he arrived at the hospital, Lassiter was in a state of near frenzy. He stalked into the hospital and marched purposefully up to the closest nurse's desk. "Detective Carlton Lassiter. I was called here to identify one of your patients." He retrieved his badge and held it up for the nurse to see.

The nurse on duty scrutinized the badge. "Yes, Mr. Lassiter." She stood up and motioned for him to follow her upstairs, to the Intensive Care Unit.

With each step, Lassiter felt the knot in his stomach tighten. He didn't want to believe it, but he knew he wasn't about to identify a random woman whom he had assisted in the past.

Approaching the nurses' desk for the Intensive Care Unit, the nurse who had brought Lassiter upstairs spoke quietly with another nurse. The second nurse nodded and walked around to Lassiter.

"Hello, Mr. Lassiter-"

"Detective," he growled, flashing his badge again. "Head Detective Carlton Lassiter."

She raised a light eyebrow, but nodded amenably. "Detective. I'm Jessica Hayes."

"Look, I appreciate the formalities, but right now I need to see the woman you all are unable to identify." The hard edge to his voice never left as he spoke.

"I see." She raised her hand, indicating for him to follow her. He did, and she led him into a room with a large observation glass that took up most of the wall. In the room was a single bed surrounded by minimal equipment measuring a heart rate and other vital signs, and there was a steady hiss and hum thrumming in their ears.

Lassiter could only breathe as the nurse grabbed a file and began reading from it. He could see long blond hair, fair skin…

"…female, late twenties to early thirties with head trauma, broken ribs and internal bleeding…"

He moved closer to the bed, drawn by some unforeseen force to the woman's side. Her face was bruised and cut, as well as her arms. Her blond hair was spread out on the pillow beneath her head, framing her in a strange halo. His heart rose up in his throat as he finally placed his full focus on her face.

"Juliet…"

The nurse regarded him with a curious look. "You do know her?"

The room began to spin around him. "Yes," he eventually managed. "Her name… Her name is Juliet O'Hara. She's my partner." His blue eyes took note of a large white bandage on her temple.

"Are you sure?"

Whipping around, Lassiter stared at her, his cobalt eyes cold and furious. "Of course I'm sure! She's my partner and my best friend! What the hell happened to her?"

Hayes nodded, squirming slightly under his intense stare. "From what the officers who responded to the scene could tell, she hit another car which had stalled in the middle of the road. Her head slammed against the steering wheel, causing a concussion." She looked at her patient's file, her expression changing slightly. "Right now, she's been placed in a medically induced coma due to the pressure on her brain."

Retrieving a pen and notepad from the pocket of his jacket, he scratched down several names and phone numbers. Juliet's family had to be notified, but he didn't want to leave her alone, especially in her condition. "Her parents live in Miami, Florida." He shoved the piece of paper toward the nurse.

Hayes took the paper and read over it. "I'll call them and appraise them of the situation."

"Thank you." His voice was cold.

Clutching the paper, Hayes walked away, leaving Lassiter alone with his wounded partner.

Maryanne O'Hara was in the middle of preparing lunch when her phone started to ring. Lloyd was watching a ballgame, so she grabbed the phone and answered it. "Hello?"

A few moments later, the phone slipped from her phone as panic gripped her.

"Lloyd!"

By the time Hayes returned to the room, Lassiter was sitting in a chair by his partner's bed and watching her with a strange look. He barely registered the nurse's entrance. He was too focused on Juliet and trying to figure out how to handle this situation and the storm that would inevitably hit when her family arrived from Miami. Not to mention Spencer… His mood became even more foul at the prospect of dealing with the supposed psychic. He would try to make this whole ordeal about him, like he did in any given situation.

Asshat.

"Detective Lassiter?"

Lassiter looked up and was handed a clipboard and a pen.

"We need you to fill this out, please."

He quickly recognized it as a questionnaire about Juliet's medical history, and he hesitated. What did he know? He wasn't exactly family, but he did spend more time with her than anyone else. His eyes scanned over the paperwork.

Person to contact in case of emergency? Medical proxy in charge of making decisions? He quickly put his name down, because he did know that he was listed as her NOK and proxy, even though he wasn't a blood relative. It was a common thing for partners to do. If he was ever incapacitated, she had power of attorney for him, as well as the ability to make medical decisions for him if he could not. It was all about trust, and he trusted her.

He just hoped that she trusted him enough not to get mad for putting his own name down on the paperwork in his hand.

Lassiter had been with Juliet for three hours, only leaving once to call the chief, when Nurse Hayes appeared at his side again.

"Detective, there is someone in the hall for you. She says that she's your boss."

Lassiter huffed and put his book down. He didn't want to leave Juliet's side for anything, but the chief would demand to know what his plans were about returning to work. Crime didn't take a break, after all. Not even when his partner was lying comatose in a hospital Intensive Care Unit. Getting to his feet, he followed Nurse Hayes out into the hall, where Chief Vick was waiting for him. "Chief."

"Carlton. How is she?"

"She's in a medically induced coma right now," he said flatly. "There's a lot of pressure on her brain, and they want to relieve some of it before they try to bring her out of the coma."

Vick looked stunned. "Do they know if she'll have brain damage?"

Brain damage… He hadn't even allowed the possibility to enter his mind. Juliet was young and strong; she would recover from this and be just fine. But brain damage… If she had suffered any amount of brain damage, she would no longer meet the requirements to be a police officer. She would be forced into retirement due to it. "No… they don't know anything yet."

Her phone went off, and she swore softly. "I have to get back to the office, but I'll be back tonight. Call me if anything in her condition changes, or if you need anything, okay?"

"Yeah." Turning on his heel, Lassiter went back to his partner's beside and sat down. Then he hesitated before reaching out and gently taking her hand.

"Juliet," he started quietly. "I don't know if you can hear me, but I'm here. Your parents will be here as soon as they can. But I'm not going anywhere." His thoughts were jumbled and racing, but he felt the need to talk to her, to remind her she wasn't alone. As long as he was alive, she would never be alone. Ever. "I don't care what happens. I'm not leaving you." His thumb absently moved over her cool skin.

"I'm not leaving you, Juliet."

To Be Continued...

A/N: Lots of things coming, and coming fast! Thanks for reading, and please review while I study for a ridiculously big history test. *sigh*