Title: The Placebo Effect

Author: Elwa

Summary: If you tell yourself a lie long enough, can it become true? Could Shawn really be psychic? Of course, he also tells himself he's happy but he's still taking the pills.

Genre: AU/supernatural, Hurt/comfort, friendship

Rating: PG

Warnings: drug use (in the form of medication, so not really, but still)

Spoilers: None really, but I might mention cases or information gleamed from any show of Psych season three and backwards.

Disclaimer: I do not own Psych. Just writing for my own enjoyment, not making any money, etc.

1987

The three kids huddled behind the bush, their breath coming out in ghostly vapors. The boy in the front raised the heavy binoculars to his eyes, adjusting them for a closer look. The others clutched their weapons close to their chests, shivering in the cold.

"Why are we doing this?" the second boy whispered, "It's freezing out here. And he's going to kill us."

"Gus," the boy with the binoculars cried, "Live a little. Besides, he totally deserves it for busting us on the water balloons."

"I didn't want to do that either," Gus reminded him, "It's too cold for water balloons. We could have caught pneumonia. We still might." He shivered.

"This is stupid," the third member of their party whined loudly, "Why don't we attack already?" The boys responded with loud 'shhhh's.

"You said you'd be quiet and not give us away if we let you come," Shawn said.

"Well you said it'd be fun," the kid answered, "You didn't say we'd be sitting in the bushes, freezing to death all night."

"I told you it'd be boring," Gus said, "You're the one who threatened to run to Mom if we didn't let you come."

"It's not boring," Shawn grumbled, "You just don't know how to go on a stake out. And it's not cold." The other two looked at Shawn in disbelief. Shawn ignored their stares and the fact that he was shivering and stared back defiantly before looking through the binoculars again.

"Shawn, it's freezing," Gus said, "Let's just attack already, before Mom comes looking for me and Joy."

"I'm not cold," Shawn answered stubbornly.

"Your friend is stupid," Joy told her brother, "It's zero degrees out here."

"It's not zero degrees," Gus answered with an eye roll before addressing Shawn again, "But it is freezing out here. Haven't you seen enough?"

"Not yet," Shawn answered, "And just tell yourself it isn't cold and you won't be. It's like a gazebo effect." This last comment came from a detailed talk his dad had given him once about his outlook after Shawn had whined once too often in one of their lessons. Shawn had been annoyed at the time and only remembered bits and pieces of the talk which he thought totally stupid anyway; how can just thinking you're not sick make you feel better? Not surprisingly, neither Gus nor Joy appreciated his mangled words of wisdom. When Gus and Joy continued to mumble about the cold, Shawn continued to stubbornly insist he was quite warm. Finally he tuned them out when the scene he was spying on started to get interesting. He watched for a few minutes, forgetting about annoying sisters and annoying friends and the cold.

"Hey," he called to the others, "Get ready, they're getting to the mushy bit. Finally."

"Whatever," Joy said, peering between the leaves of the bush while Shawn put the binoculars carefully away and picked up his own weapon. Before he could say anything cool to begin their mission, Joy got tired of waiting. She leaped around their hiding place with a battle cry of "Charge!" forcing the boys to follow with screams of their own.

Their unsuspecting victims leaped up, one with an angry roar the other with a high pitched shriek as their nerf bullets found their mark.

"Shawn, Burton, Joy, you are dead!" the teenage boy roared and the three children scattered, still screaming while the teenager's girlfriend watched.

It was only later, much much later after Mrs. Guster had sent him home and his father had busted him for stealing the binoculars and he was lying in bed tucked beneath a mountain of blankets, when he realized that perhaps what his father said was right. Maybe saying something often enough could make it true. Because for a while, a very brief while, he hadn't felt the cold.

Present Day

"I'm a psychic." Shawn had lost track of how many times he had said that. Mostly this statement got him looks of confusion, annoyance or awe. Very seldomly there would be a darker look of hatred or fear, granted usually by the bad guy of the week after he had poked a hole into their carefully fabricated deceptions, but also by the occasional religious zealot who regretted the end of witch hunts. More recently he had been getting nods of acceptance by those who had grown used to his antics. Even Lassiter had stopped with the eye rolling in public. This time, the person he was speaking to had settled on confusion.

"You were in a hurry because you're psychic?" the cop asked, a tad bit of impatience in his voice. The confusion was leaning towards annoyance.

"Head psychic for the SBPD," Shawn elaborated in his 'the spirits are pulling at me and it's slightly painful' voice, "I'm being drawn someplace, pulled if you will, by a cry for help." The officer's expression doesn't change. It was just Shawn's luck to get pulled over by one of the few cops he wasn't familiar with.

"You should really let me go," Shawn added, "Before it's too late!"

"You threatening me?" the officer demanded, his eyes narrowing.

"No, no, look," Shawn answered, stumbling for something to convince the guy and, if he was lucky, get out of a ticket, "I'm a psychic and the spirits tell me I need to be somewhere or someone will be hurt!" He let his eyes dart over the man, taking in every detail and processing them then turned his head away, clutching it while he scrunched up his face into what Gus liked to call his 'psychic constipation' look. From the corner of his eye he thought he saw a swirl of dark red and white but when he turned his head again the uniform was its regular policeman blue. The man still looked annoyed.

"I'm sensing…I'm sensing that you just moved here, transfer…" Shawn gasped out (he looked too old, too sure of himself to be a rookie and Shawn was positive he had never seen him before), "You come from, from Texas," he continued (belt buckle, not standard issue for the SBPD, featured longhorns, the state was just a guess but from the twitch of surprise in the man's eye, a good one), "I see, I see you left, because, a death…(black band around his wrist), you wanted a new start, by the ocean because…because she died and…dolphins." And he stopped, because really he was starting to get carried away if he was coming up with something like dolphins from thin air. He abandoned his psychic stance to see the man's reaction, hoping for awe rather than annoyance. Apparently he had gone a bit too far, though, straight into hatred.

"What do you know about Anna?" the man demanded, suddenly grabbing Shawn roughly by his shirt. He would have knocked him right off his bike if he had let go.

"Hey, hey, dude!" Shawn cried, and then the second police officer was running from the car to see why his partner had suddenly become violent.

"How did you know about her?" the first officer screamed, not releasing his grip, "Who told you about it?"

"Hey, Mike, what are you doing?" the second officer cried, "Let him go!"

"He knew about Anna!" the officer answered, his voice an insane mixture of anger and pain, "He knew about the dolphins!" Shawn considered bringing up the 'psychic' line again but in light of the fisted hands digging into his ribs he decided to let the second officer handle it. Luckily, said officer did, in fact, recognize Shawn and said it for him.

"It's all right," the officer said carefully, trying to defuse the situation, "That's just Spencer; he's a psychic. And a civilian, come on, let him go." He leaned in and said something softly, meant just for Officer Mike's ears. Shawn caught something about Chief Vick. Slowly, Mike unclenched his fists. Shawn took a steadying breath, still trying to play himself off as totally cool despite the way his heart was racing. Mike wandered back towards the squad car under the other officer's direction.

"Sorry about that," the second said once the first had reached the car, "He's going through some things, you know?" He sounded slightly nervous; probably didn't want Shawn to report them to the chief.

"It's perfectly all right," Shawn answered, hiding his own nerves behind an all-knowing demeanor, "I can sense his pain. Carry on then, and look after him." The officer nodded once, obviously relieved, and returned to his car. Shawn breathed out his own sigh of relief. For a second, the anger radiating off the officer had truly scared him. Still, at least he had gotten away without a speeding ticket.

Author's Note: Just thought I'd mention, I have no idea how old Gus's siblings are in relation to him and Shawn. I'm not sure if canon even mentions it, but if anyone knows differently please let me know. Not that I plan to have them show up after this chapter anyway, but still. And constructive criticism is always welcome.