Tricks, No Treats Part II

[musicalluna]

Title: Tricks, No Treats Part II
Fandom: Psych
Author: MusicalLuna
Rating: T
Characters/Pairings: Shawn, Juliet
Genre: Drama
Warnings: None
Complete: Yes
Summary: Sometimes one trick is one too many.
A/N: This is such a bad idea. Posting before completion = no-no. *DOESN'T CARE*
Disclaimer: No ownie.

The door scraped quietly against the frame as the intruder carefully eased it open and Shawn's eyes widened. “Jules!” he hissed through his teeth, gesturing her over with a sharp jerk of his hand. “Get over here!”

She hesitated, frozen for a split second and Shawn hissed her name again. She got to her feet, scrambling to his side and the pair of them ducked down behind his desk just as the office went black. “I told you!” she whispered furiously.

He wrapped his hand around hers, back pressed against the side of the desk. “Shhh.”

They listened, hardly daring to breathe as footsteps clomped slowly into the main office. Shawn edged to the left as they moved into the center of the office and peeked around the corner of the desk.

There, eerily lit by the green glow stick clutched in it's fist, stood a tall, grinning clown.

A smile flashed across Shawn's face and he quickly pulled back around the desk, turning to Juliet with wide eyes.

“What?” she mouthed, her own eyes rapidly scanning over his face.

“It's a clown,” he mouthed back.

Juliet stared at him for a long moment and then pushed up onto her knees to peer over the desk. She made a strangled sort of noise in the back of her throat and a second later she slid back down, shaking her head. She froze when Shawn grabbed her arm, pointing fiercely towards the back of the desk. The clown's footsteps were clumping slowly toward them again.

Juliet scrambled around the back of the desk, Shawn following and sliding behind it just as the faint green glow of the clown's light slipped around the corner of the desk. He watched, holding his breath as the clown's huge glossy red shoes continued on past, moving back towards the office's rear door. His head snapped back around at the quiet buzzing of a phone at his hip. Juliet's own eyes widened and her hands immediately lunged for her purse, quickly yanking out her cell phone.

“Jules!” he hissed, shooting an anxious glance back to where the clown had disappeared.

“It's Carlton,” she whispered back, flipping open the phone. “He can—”

“Lassie calls you at home?”

Juliet shot him an exasperated look, eyes flicking briefly back toward the rear door where something could be heard scraping loudly across the floor. She peered down at the screen a second later and Shawn was surprised to see her entire posture change, her spine going rigid and the lines of her face sharpening fiercely.

“Shawn, we have to get out of here now.”

He tilted his head, bewildered by the sudden change in her demeanor. “What? Jules—”

She grabbed his arm, tugging him toward the front door. “We have to get out of here, now. Back up is on the way, but—”

“Whoa, wait, back up?” Shawn whispered, dragging her to a stop between the arm chairs.

“Shawn, this isn't pretend anymore, now move!” she said, pulling on his shirt.

Shawn frowned, resisting the pull. “Anymore?”

Juliet began tugging his arm again, gritting, “Now really isn't the time, Shawn.”

“No, no, no. I think this is a great time,” he whispered back.

Juliet sighed heavily, shooting another anxious glance toward the darkened rear of the office. “It was supposed to be Gus and Carlton, but they're still on their way. I was trying to get you back for the ridiculous superstition tricks.”

Shawn gawked at her. “You knew about that?”

Juliet rolled her eyes. “I called Gus at lunch to confirm our lunchdate tomorrow. He told me.”

Shawn's mouth pinched. “He and I are going to have to have a serious talk about confidentiality.”

“Can we go now?” Juliet whispered, gesturing sharply at the door.

Shawn sighed, sulking. “Well, since you already know... I guess I should mention that I...hired the clown.”

Juliet's gaze could have cut through an ice block. “You what?”

He shrugged sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. “It was a safe-guard. You know, if the superstition stuff didn't work.”

Juliet glowered at him. “You are absolutely ridiculous, Shawn. I can't believe—”

Shawn jumped as his cell phone suddenly vibrated and he tugged it out, flipping it open to view the text he'd just received. His annoyed expression fell as he read. “Oh no.”

“What?” Juliet asked, tone still peeved.

He turned the phone, displaying the message for her. It read:

SORRY I COULDN'T COME. HOPE THINGS WORKED OUT.

Juliet's eyes were wide as she met Shawn's. “We have to get out.”

Shawn nodded vigorously, stuffing his phone back into his pocket. “Agreed.”

They made for the door, keeping low and close to the floor, Shawn leading the way in the darkened office. He bit back a curse when he stepped on something pointy and obviously not where it was supposed to be on the floor. Juliet urged him on with an impatient and anxious, “Shawn!”

When they reached the door, Shawn straightened up, wrapping his hand around the handle and then paused, turning back toward her. “Can I just say for the record that this was supposed to be the fun kind of freaked out and not the oh-god-I-really-think-we're -going-to-die kind of freaked out?”

Juliet glared and he shrugged weakly at her hands-on-hips P.O.ed posture. “I take that to mean it doesn't really matter.”

“Open the door, Shawn,” she grit.

He sighed and, reluctantly, pushed the door open. It clanged loudly on something after clearing just two inches.

“Spencer,” a voice growled from the back of the office.

Shawn's eyes widened. “Oh crap.”