AN: Just a brainstorm I had while watching the Stargate SG-1 series finale, Unending. Yes, I did transcribe the entire scene between Daniel and Vala and yes, I did steal Shawn and Lassy to deliver the lines. I don't own hardly anything in this story at all! Please R/R. Enjoy.

Shawn Spencer and Carlton Lassiter sat talking together in one of the SBPD's interrogation rooms. They'd just wrapped up a nasty triple murder and both of them were feeling it. They sat in silence for a little while, a record while for Shawn, then Lassiter spoke

"I guess, no matter what you do," he said slowly, "at the end of the day, life's too short." He sighed heavily and leaned back against the wall. Shawn looked at him with a new look in his hazel eyes and suddenly that look made Carlton nervous.

"I agree," said the psychic, and he closed the distance between them. As Carlton looked on, semi-stunned, Shawn pulled off his green T-shirt and grinned at the detective.

"What are you doing?" asked Lassiter in confusion.

"Something we should have done a long time ago." Then he ran his hands around Carlton's waist, untucking the perfectly tucked-in shirt of the head detective. Lassiter jumped and tensed. He followed Shawn's hands and caught them. "Don't do that," he muttered, face going red.

"Why not?" Shawn said with a playful smirk. He tried to go on, but Lassiter grabbed his hands and flung them away. Spencer staggered back a pace and stared at Lassiter strangely. Had he misread the signs that badly? Lassiter rubbed his hands together and looked away. He forced himself not to pace. "We've known each other six years," Shawn said forcefully. "Six...years! Dude, you've got to be feeling the same tension I am."

"Yes!" barked Lassiter, a little harsher and more desperate than he wanted. It made Shawn giggle annoyingly and he said simply, "Yeah, well, I don't see many other open options around here, do you?" He waved back at the main offices. Lassiter wouldn't look at him.

Shawn's face fell. "Unless... you really don't like me?"

Lassiter turned on him. "Do you want an honest answer to that question?" His eyes burned and suddenly Shawn, who had been so confident not a moment before, was afraid of the real answer.

"No," he said quietly. He sat down and picked up the shirt he'd flung away a minute ago. Lassiter stalked closer and jabbed a finger at him.

"No, seriously, you started this, do you want an honest answer to the question?"

Shawn gave a weak smile and started to pull on his shirt. "No, don't worry about it," he said softly. Any other time, Lassiter would have noticed the hurt look on Spencer's face, but now he didn't even look. The question had flustered him far more than it should have.

Carlton leaned on the table and looked into Shawn's face. "Do you believe I could have any kind of serious feelings for you? Huh?"

Shawn froze; stopped trying to pull the shirt over his head. Slowly the other man looked up at him. His eyes were unreadable. "I wasn't suggesting you have serious feelings, Carlton." That didn't improve Lassiter's mood. He shot up, making Shawn flinch. "Oh!" The detective began to pace furiously.

"Oh, so we sleep together once, then what?" The dark-haired man stopped and gestured back and forth between the two of them. "We work together!" He laughed incredulously and resumed pacing. "You know, even saying that part out loud sounds unbelieveable! I mean, come on!"

Lassiter stopped pacing and faced Spencer accusingly. "I can't even imagine what a relationship with you would be like! I mean, yes," he held up his hands in surrender, "yes, you've proven yourself trustworthy on a professional level and for that I am very proud of you," he said with only a little sarcasm tainting the words. Shawn didn't look at him. He faced the wall silently, listening to the detective rant.

"But on a personal level? Spencer, come on, give me a break! I mean, at best, you're an emotional, unstable, wreck!" Lassiter sat down on the table and put one hand on his chest self-deprecatingly. "And I'm not saying I'm much better. I'm not saying I'm much better."

Carlton sighed wearily. "There was a time when I thought I would never get over my wife. I mean, the idea of..." He paused and hovered over the words before finally saying in a rush, "being hurt like that again." Sensing he was getting too deep into his own problems, Lassiter sprang up and began to pace the room again.

"But I've finally gotten to the place, I finally, for the first time in a long time, have gotten to the place where I actually feel like I could get close to somebody again." Blue eyes whirled on Spencer with frustration bursting behind them.

"But not in a million," he emphasized, "a milllion, million years would I ever possibly consider that person to be you!" Spencer still wouldn't look at him and that just made Lassiter even angrier.

"I mean, we are so completely opposite and wrong for each other it's not even funny! And the worst part, the worst part about that is, you know that!" Carlton pranced about, mocking Shawn's 'psychic episodes'. "And this whole flirty sexual thing that you do, it's just your way of having a laugh at my expense. So I'm so sorry," he said insincerely, clasping his hands in front of him, "if I'm not more appreciative of that and I'm so sorry that you're bored! But don't you dare pretend it's anything else!" he yelled at him.

Shawn didn't say anything. His hand came up to his face and Lassiter watched him do something surprisingly like wiping tears away. "Don't act like you're hurt," Carlton warned, determined to nip that guilt trip right in the bud.

Spencer pulled on his shirt and sniffed loudly. Lassiter huffed in annoyance and walked over to sit on the table next to him. Shawn turned away from him and put his face in his hands. Lassiter's heart sank. 'Oh my God, I think I actually hurt him,' ran through his mind. He laid a hand on Shawn's shoulder gently.

"Just give me a minute," Spencer said hoarsely. The psychic took a few deep, shuddering breaths and Lassiter couldn't believe it. He had been serious. And everything he'd just said...

"Look at me," he prompted gently, touching the side of Shawn's face tenderly. The hazel eyes that met his were red and it was so obvious that Shawn had cried silently all the while Carlton had been ranting...

Lassiter couldn't believe he had been so stupid, couldn't believe that he hadn't known how serious Shawn was trying to be for once. Couldn't believe he had said the things he did.

Carlton didn't know how to make up for the hurtful things he'd said. So all he did was kiss the psychic. Softly and sweetly, the kiss picked up quickly and they held each other for a long time.

Finally they came up for air and Carlton looked Shawn in the eye. "You better not be messing with me," he said with a smile. Because this time, he knew, it was no joke.