musicalluna

Title: 079 Starvation - 100 Days
Fandom: Psych
Author: MusicalLuna
Rating: eT
Characters/Pairings: Shawn, Gus, Juliet
Genre: Hurt/Comfort
Warnings: None
Complete: Yes
Summary: Shawn doesn't eat when he's busy.
A/N: This had a different ending initially, but I showed it to centipede and she said it was too similar to another of my prompts, which made it boring. Hopefully this is better. ;D
Disclaimer: I don't own Psych or the characters. Yet. My lawyer and I are working on that... (J/K! Don't sue me!)

The closest Shawn ever comes to starvation is the rare occasion when he simply forgets to eat. Which is about as often as he forgets to breathe. Even when he was living out of his backpack and sleeping on the handlebars of his Norton he never once missed a meal.

Nowadays he’s finding it much more difficult to maintain this standard of feeding, because as he gets more and more involved in the cases he’s working, it’s more and more difficult to remember he needs to eat when he’s really absorbed in the work.

Or, as the case was this time, justifying the pause in his efforts.

He’d found it impossible to reconcile himself with the idea of stopping to eat when there was a little girl out there in the hands of some idiot kidnapper who hadn’t bothered to check whether or not his victim’s parents even had any money to give. Shaky hands and a cavern where his stomach should be simply provided additional motivation to find the girl.

Four and a half days had gone by and the only thing Shawn had eaten in all that time was a single hamburger (only because Gus had forced it upon him) when they finally managed to track down the girl and her kidnapper.

He was so intensely focused on getting the girl back unharmed that it wasn’t until after she had been returned to her parents and they had gone back to the station that he finally succumbed to his hunger.

Muscles pushed too far on too little fuel finally refused to continue listening to the mind forcing them to work, and he found himself captive of his own body in Juliet’s chair as the junior detective herself and his best friend discussed the case they had just closed.

"I’m just glad it’s over. I can’t believe it ended so well," Juliet admitted as she moved toward him and he found it disturbingly hard to focus. His brain felt like it had sprouted wings and was flittering uselessly around inside his skull.

"Yeah," Gus agreed, "It’s pretty amazing."

Juliet’s gaze fixed on him and her expression began to take on an exasperated tint. "Shawn, I’m going to need my chair. I have work to do."

He smiled weakly in return and said, "I’d love to give you your chair Jules, but I don’t think I can."

Her hands moved to her hips, her eyes narrowing. "And why not?"

"I think I’m stuck," he said sheepishly.

Gus rolled his eyes. "Shawn."

"No really," he insisted and then held out his hand, which shook violently as he worked to hold it up. "I don’t think my legs will support me. They’re on strike." His hand dropped back into his lap.

Juliet’s eyes had widened. "Shawn, what’s wrong? What happened?"

"Nothing happened," he said evasively. "I just…may have missed a few meals the last few days."

Gus, who had figured out what was going on, said irritably, "He hasn’t eaten in four days."

Juliet gasped. "Shawn! Are you crazy?"

He shrugged sheepishly. "Jules, the spirits can be very demanding and—"

"I don’t care what the spirits want! You can never do this to yourself again!"

"But—"

"Ever!"

"If it means that much to you—"

"Killing yourself will not help us out, Shawn," she said severely. "Now come on. Gus and I are going to get you something to eat."

Shawn sighed pathetically as they hauled him onto shaky legs. "No protests there."

He’d say this for near-starvation: it sure made the recovery meal taste spectacular.