Sanctuary

[musicalluna]

Title: Sanctuary
Fandom: Psych
Author: MusicalLuna
Rating: T
Characters/Pairings: Shawn/Juliet
Genre: Romance, Hurt/Comfort, angst
Warnings: None
Complete: Yes
Summary: Shawn takes Juliet to a special, private place.
A/N: Procrastinating from finishing Kidnapped, I've been asking for prompts/ideas and Jenn gave me this one.

Enjoysies. :D
Disclaimer: They're not mine. Probably better they aren't.

 

Shawn turned, one foot on a rock at the edge of Santa Barbara beach, and held out his hand. "I wanna show you something, Jules. Come with me?"

Juliet smiled and accepted Shawn’s hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Of course."

Shawn returned the smile, but it flickered, and she could see tiny lines around his eyes that usually only appeared when he was worried or stressed. She couldn’t help being a little concerned, but he seemed intent on showing her whatever it was they were going to see.

Following him onto the rocks framing the beach, she climbed carefully after him, relying on his sturdy hand around hers. After about five minutes of creeping along the rocky shore, they came to a small stretch of beach bordered on either side by the rocks. The sharp ten foot rise in the shore behind the small beach gave it a private, secluded feel.

"Wow," Juliet breathed as they walked onto the sand and she reached down, slipping off her shoes. The sand was soft and warm beneath her feet. "Shawn, this is fantastic."

He smiled faintly and, with his eyes on the sand, said, "Yeah. This was where I role-played Quasimodo in the bell tower and claimed sanctuary when I was in high school." His tone almost sounded jocular, but something in his voice gave him away.

Juliet’s head tilted slightly and she stepped closer to him, squeezing his hand. "Sanctuary?" she said softly.

Shawn cleared his throat, his eyes still skipping around the shoreline, avoiding looking at her, and he dropped down onto the beach, stretching his feet out into the edge of the surf, his toes playing in the wet sand.

Juliet followed suit, sitting close beside him, her hands wrapped around his. Shawn hadn’t said anything yet but she could already tell exactly what sort of emotions were associated with this place and while it made her heart ache that he had needed a sanctuary like this where he could be completely alone, she was overwhelmed by the fact that he had brought her here and was exposing himself like this.

For a long time the pair stayed quiet, Juliet lightly tracing her fingers over Shawn’s hand, keeping her own eyes on the blue water stretched out for miles in front of them and waiting for Shawn to make the first move.

Without warning, he said hastily, his voice low, "I used to come here when my parents fought."

Juliet turned her head carefully to look at him and stayed quiet, simply giving his hand a gentle squeeze, offering her silent support.

"I had to get out when they fought. There were still times when I couldn’t anticipate their fights and there was no where to go, but whenever I could get away, I came here." He paused, his free hand moving to cover his mouth for a moment before he continued, his voice raw. "I didn’t want to remember them yelling at each other. Yelling about me. It was better to go somewhere quiet. Somewhere there was nothing to remember."

Now it made sense to her why the sound of the waves always put a faintly melancholy edge into him. He associated the sound with running away, with his parents fights, with their divorce.

Shawn’s mouth twitched in a slight smile. "Not even Gus knows about this place. I could never tell him. He was always really good about everything, even though he didn’t quite get it, but I could never tell him I came out here to get away." The ache in Juliet’s chest only increased. He had brought her here. No one else knew about this private place where he spent some of his darkest moments, and here he was, sharing it with her, rehashing terrible memories for her. Her throat tightened painfully and she pulled his head closer, kissing him slowly and deliberately and trying to convey how much it meant to her, what he had done.

He returned the kisses without budging, letting her direct him, her arms warm and reassuring around his body. He let go, letting her hold him up, letting her keep him close, letting her be the strength he didn’t have. It was all too much, being here again, with her.

He laughed thickly when they parted, his head bowing between their interlocked figures, and muttered, "Wow. Sorry. This is…totally pathetic."

"No, Shawn," she replied, bending her head beside his and letting her hands rub slowly along his back. "No it’s not. You’re stronger than you’ve ever been."

Shawn snorted, but when he tilted his head slightly so that their eyes could meet he said softly, "Of course I am."

He didn’t have to say more.