Shawn wandered into his tiny apartment and took off his coat with a flourish despite the fact that there was no one there to impress. Practice makes perfect and he was sure he would need his awesome 'coat throw over shoulder' pose soon.

He popped a veggies and a microwave burrito into the toaster oven and microwave respectively and flopped onto his couch. He lazily turned on the TV before working himself into the most comfortable/most worn part of his couch. He grinned as Lassiter's face popped up on the TV screen. "We have apprehended the suspect after discovering that the dog involved in the case had no connection…" Shawn pumped his fists in the air in a mock victory cheer. He grinned wickedly, storing Lassiter's quote away for later use. The man had pretty much just admitted that he was right all along. Oh the mileage he could get out of such a line…

Shawn heard the microwave beep and sighed, not really wanting to get his makeshift dinner and mentally battled himself over whether or not he was really that hungry. After his stomach growled in the middle of his debate with himself he decided that perhaps food was a good idea. And by then the veggies he had stuck into the toaster oven announced that they were finished. Shawn sighed and got up, apparently the cosmos wished for him to consume something that wasn't a pineapple based fruity drink.

After a rather uneventful evening Shawn got into bed and fell asleep within minutes. Roughly three hours later his cell phone began to ring. He heard 'She's my cheery pie…' begin to play and half smiled half groaned as he realized it was Juliet calling him from her personal cell phone. He sleepily grabbed for his phone on the bed stand and almost fell over for his efforts. By the time Warrant had gotten to singing about "swinging where we want…" he had secured the phone into his hand and flipped it open. "Well, as much as I love a wakeup call from a lovely person such as yourself, I must point out the obvious and say 'Do you know what time it is?'" Shawn asked with good humor in his voice.

"Sorry Shawn," Juliet replied and the exhaustion was apperant in her voice.

Shawn sat up and looked concerned even though he knew Juliet couldn't see him. "What's up Jules, have you been to bed yet?"

"Not yet," she replied. "Actually, we have another case, a big one and…" her sentence was cut off by a large yawn.

"And?" Shawn asked as Juliet yawned into the phone.

"Well, something was stolen, a necklace worth about 4 million," Juliet explained.

Shawn whistled softly into the phone. "Wow, did the Lady of Sunset street get robbed?" he asked.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Juliet asked, obviously impressed.

Shawn gave himself a mental pat on the back for his accurate shot in the dark. Still, what with her recently deceased husband of some seventy plus years being…well deceased and all and her recent penchant for leaving the doors unlocked in case he 'came home' it really was no wonder no one had tried until now to rob the poor widow blind. "Well," he said in a low purr. "I am psychic after all."

Shawn heard a shuffle on the other end and suddenly Lassiter's voice could be heard, muffled and annoyed. "If you two are done flirting there are some rather pressing issues to attend to." Shawn winced as Lassiter's voice came full force over his cell phone. "Spencer, as much as I hate to admit it, we need your help so get down here as soon as you can."

Shawn raised an eyebrow. "Wow Lassie, we just solved a case and we don't even have time to bask in the afterglow? I thought you were different from the other men," he said in a falsetto southern accent and held the phone a couple of inches from his ear as Lassiter's last nerve audibly snapped.

"SPENCER GET DOWN HERE NOW BEFORE I COME DOWN THERE MYSELF AND DRAG YOU HERE!" Lassiter yelled.

Shawn grinned and pulled himself out of bed. "Okay, but only because it's you," he teased and chuckled as Juliet came back on the phone.

"I wish you wouldn't do that," Juliet sighed but he could almost hear the suppressed smile in her voice.

"Ah, he'll get over it," Shawn said breezily as he pulled on a pair of jeans and a shirt he had only worn for half a day a week ago. "So anything I should know about this case before I come down?"

"You'll see when you get here," Juliet promised. "Hurry though, the Chief is getting as bad as Lassiter," she murmured quietly into her phone.

Shawn grabbed his keys and headed for the door. "Noted and definitely filed away. See you in a few."

"Thiiiiiis is the niiiight it's a beauuutiful niiiight…" Gus groaned and buried his head deeper and deeper into his pillows. There was no way Shawn was actually outside his bedroom door singing… "aaaaand they caaaaalll it bellllla nooteeee,"

Gus growled feraly into his pillow as Shawn continued to sing outside of his apartment door.

"Looooook at the skiiiiiies, they have staaaaars in their eeeeeyes…" Shawn continued and Gus wrenched open the door to see Shawn sitting by his door, his eyes closed and in full 'annoy Gus' mode. Shawn looked up as he heard the door open and opened his mouth. "On this looooovely beeeeeella noooootteeeee…" he continued.

"Shawn," Gus said quietly, trying desperately hard not to yell at his friend to spare whatever neighbors he had left that weren't awake. "Why in the hell are you sitting outside my door at 3:30 in the morning singing songs from Lady and the Tramp?" Gus hissed angrily.

"Well, I thought 'this is the night' and then 'it's a beautiful night'" Shawn replied. "Then I realized that they were song lyrics and who doesn't want to be woken up to the song that plays when he rolls the meatball over to her. Come on, it's so cute…"

Gus made to shut the door but Shawn was on his feet in a flash and had stuck his foot in the door before Gus could even blink. "We have a new case," Shawn explained quickly. "Like, a new 'police asked specifically for me' case," Shawn said.

"Good night Shawn," Gus hissed and tried to shut the door but Shawn swatted him away from the entrance.

"Good day," Shawn corrected. "It's the morning now."

Gus glared at his best friend with every ounce of venom his poor beleaguered mind could muster at 3:30 in the morning. Shawn pouted back and even actually stuck out his lower lip. "Come on, pweese?" he asked cutely.

"Shawn, I'm going to count to three…" Gus said quietly.

"Oh come on, you know I can't do a case without you," Shawn said quickly. "And this one is gonna be big, I know it!"

"Shawn, I don't care. I'm not about to head down to the police station at 3:30 am because you got a call. I'm not the psychic and I need my beauty rest," Gus continued. "So good night."

Shawn went from 'sorta pout' to 'full on pout' mode in about two seconds. Gus glared at him as his eyes grew slightly misty and his body sorta shrank in a 'oh woe is me' position. Gus could have sword Shawn's eyes got bigger. "No," he told Shawn sternly as he would a five year old. "Absolutely not." Gus looked at his friend again and now Shawn let his lower lip ever so lightly tremble. God how did he do that? "I'm not going and that's final, Shawn," Gus hissed.

~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~

"Lassie-face!" Shawn said cheerfully as he strode into the police office at 4 am. Detective Lassiter suppressed a growl at the sickeningly cheerful greeting. They had just woken him up at 3 in the morning and he still comes in all sunshine and birthday cake. He would swear to his dying day that Shawn Spencer was placed on the earth to drive him, Carlton Lassiter, up the wall and into a mental institution.

"Hello Spencer," he replied through clenched teeth. "What, pray tell took you so long?"

"Well, I had to go pick up a friend," Shawn motioned to Gus who glared at Carlton through heavy lidded eyes. Carlton actually felt bad for the poor guy but he did his best to ignore it as he led them to the Chief's office.

Vick glanced up from some papers to see Shawn and a very upset Gus standing over her. "Mr. Spencer I believe I called you, not Mr. Guster."

"Aw, Chief you know I can't work without my magic head here to help me," Shawn said sweetly as he sidled his way over to take a look at the papers the chief was working on without her noticing. He glanced down quickly then resumed his place next to Gus with a smile on his face that told Gus he knew everything he needed to.

"Be that as it may, I don't want many people knowing about this case and I'm sure Mr. Guster didn't appreciate the wake up call," the Chief sighed.

"I didn't," Gus snapped at Shawn.

"Yes…" Shawn said slowly then put his hand up to his head. "I see…" he began. "An old woman…missing her…metal…treasure…"

"The widower Mrs. Branston has been robbed," Vick said with a sigh. "You already know that, and so do we."

"Yes, but it would appear something else was missing from her house…" Shawn said with a slight grin on his lips. "Perhaps…an urn?" he asked. "With…ashes?"

Vick looked up, surprised. "How…nevermind," she said. "That's still not why you're here," she told him.

"Then why are we here?" Shawn asked.

"You mean you can't tell us, psychic?" Lassiter asked with a smirk on his face.

"It doesn't work that way," Shawn said elegantly. "And…you know Lassie I could have sworn we've had this conversation before because I am getting déjà vu like crazy over here, look I even have goosebumps," Shawn said holding his arm up for proof.

"Put your arm down Shawn," Gus said irritably and pulled his friend's arm down. "Chief, what happened?"

Vick silently praised the fact that Gus was there so they could move on with their lives. "Yes well, a note was left at the crime scene," she said and handed it to Shawn. "The only thing we see is 'Shawn Spencer' the rest is gibberish to us."

Shawn glanced down at the note and saw a huge block of text and his name placed neatly at the top as if it were a letter to him. Only it didn't say anything he could read.

"Can you…divine anything?" Chief Vick asked using the word carefully.

Shawn looked at it again and saw that parts of it were popping out to him. In fact it looked like a code something… familiar but not too familiar. Suddenly his mind kicked into high gear as he ran through all the different codes his father made him memorize when he was little. It wasn't just one code, it was like…five all mashed together in one super code.

"Mr. Spencer?" Vick asked.

Shawn actually stroked his chin as he looked at the paper. "Um, can I have a couple of minutes? And by minutes I mean like an hour. And a paper and pen would be awesome," he said. "The spirits are feeling…uh…slow today and I would like to write down their message so I don't forget."

Chief Vick raised an eyebrow but nodded.

Gus sat by Shawn and watched his friend scribble furiously on the paper that was provided. "Dude, is it really that hard?" he asked, impressed with his friend and the note writer.

"Yeah, this is like an alphabet code on steroids," Shawn muttered as he ran his fingers through his hair. He erased something furiously and wrote something in its place.

After another half an hour Shawn looked at his handiwork. He blinked and then paled at the message. "Dude…" he said softly.

Gus leaned over his shoulder. "Dear Shawn Spencer. I have seen you on the news recently and I must say you astonish me. The mere fact that you can decipher this message shown a level of intellect and perception I previously thought only I possessed. Therefore I propose a contest. Of course the first will be easy so we can feel each other out. I have hidden the widower's husband's ashes in a city locker by the bus station. The combination is 2-35-65. That's it, this note was the real test. I promise there are no strings attached. The necklace, in case anyone is wondering was actually taken by her maid. You might wish to look into that. Best of luck, and I look forward to battling you again. Of course things will be much different next time. Well wishes. Your Friend in the Shadows," Gus read out loud.

Gus and Shawn looked at each other. "That's messed up," Gus said quietly. "Intellect?" he asked after a few more minutes. "Psh…yeah right…"

Shawn looked at the floor for a little longer and Gus looked at him. "What are we gonna tell the chief?" he asked.

"Make something up, get her the ashes back," Shawn said simply.

"What if it's a booby trap?" Gus asked.

"Nah, he said he wasn't," Shawn replied. "This is the kind of person who gets kicks from escalating things. Never start off with a bang if you want it to last."

"But…" Gus said.

"We can still warn her," Shawn replied. "But…wow…"

"Shawn, he's serious, what are we going to do?" Gus asked.

"I don't know yet," Shawn admitted. "But dude…you know what this means?"

"You have a crazy person after you?" Gus asked.

"No…" Shawn said and then grinned wildly. "I have an arch nemesis!"

Another chapter! Ha, and in record time too! Amazing what procrastination can do for you huh? In my need to not do chemistry ya'll get a new chapter. W00t! Heh, hope you enjoyed Shawn's questionable taste in music in this chapter. Hugs and kisses to my reviewers!