Chapter summary: Juliet doubts Shawn's fashion sense, makes Gus get on his knees and realizes what she has in common with Demi Moore.

"You Have No Sense Of Fashion..." (V)

Shaking her head at that exchange she had witnessed from the observation room, Juliet laughed and went back inside. She was having the worst day she'd had in quite a while, first with the case, and then to top that off now her parents were getting divorced and her mother was moving in with her, at this point she was certain things couldn't get worse. But still, Shawn and Gus managed to make her laugh through all of that. They were obviously amused themselves when she entered the room again and Buzz was in hysterics. "Did IQs just drop sharply while I was away?" (36) She cut into the laughter and sat back down with a smile on her face that disappeared again though as soon as she saw the kids' photos.

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." (37) Shawn winked at Juliet, seeing that she was enjoying the playful banter too but that the case was heavily weighing on her mind.

Gus nodded in agreement with Shawn. "We don't even care whether or not we care." (38)

"Snap out of it!" (39) Juliet then shot at the guys and pointed at the photos. They really needed to get more information and she hoped that maybe Shawn had had a vision while she had been talking to her mother. "I just need to know one thing: where they are!" (40)

Hearing the desperation in her voice and also having noticed the upset look she had tried to hide when she first walked in again Shawn decided to stop fooling around for now and get on with the case. He of course wanted these kids to safely return to their parents again as soon as possible himself. But from what little he knew so far there wasn't much he could tell her. Though to him it didn't look like Lassiter's theory about the kids just running off was the reason they were missing. He didn't know why they had disappeared or where they were but he agreed with Jules, there definitely was something sinister behind it and he was determined to find out what. But in order to do that he would have to do some actual investigating and see the scene of the crime.

Closing his eyes and holding the photos to his head he sighed and looked at Jules, shaking his head to let her know that he hadn't divined anything yet. But at that moment one of the crime scene photos caught his eye. Abruptly he scattered the contents of the file all over the table and glanced over all of the photos, in particular the ones that had been taken with the dead hostages where their bodies had been found. Quickly he compared that to a photo of the remaining hostages who had survived the ordeal and the dead people's clothes jumped out at him. One woman was wearing a neon green blouse, one man was in scrubs, another man and woman were both wearing the same 'Scenic Santa Barbara' tee-shirts that were sold to tourists at every gift shop in town and the third dead woman was quite heavy-set and had apparently never heard about the fact that horizontal stripes weren't exactly slimming, judging by her short shirt.

"What? What is it?" Juliet asked, for a moment forgetting about the quote situation, as Shawn suddenly started rummaging around with the photos, tapping a finger on the photo of the surviving hostages. "Who is it? What's goin' on?" (41) Realizing Shawn might not have understood her she expressed her curiosity in a quote this time.

Shawn started holding up the photos and reports of the file to his head like he had done with the kids' photos earlier and then either tossed them aside wildly, not caring where in the room they landed, or carefully put them back on the table.

Slightly cringing Juliet watched Shawn toss most of the file around, glad that Carlton wasn't here to see this right now, or else he'd probably shoot Shawn for it. "McNab!" Motioning at the latest witness statement that flew through the room she looked at the officer and gave him the quiet order to start gathering the discarded documents and photos again and put it back together the way it had been.

Right away Buzz started collecting the items again and Gus got on the floor too to help him undo Shawn's damage to the case file.

When Shawn was done with his exercise only the photos of the dead hostages were lined up on top of the table and the photo of the survivors was below them. "Sometimes, style can get you killed." (42) he said, pointing at the woman in the neon blouse.

"Style?" Looking at the woman's outfit Juliet made a face regarding that statement. "Do you prefer 'fashion victim' or 'ensembly challenged'?" (43) But then she noticed the common thread with the victims. All of them were wearing something that even though it would make the 'Project Runway' judges throw up, would also make them stand out in a crowd. With that she came to the same realization as Shawn. "They killed the five people that were most noticeable among the hostages!" She exclaimed, looking at the photo of the survivors who clearly didn't fit in that category. "McNab, go see if we got the autopsy reports by now. Gus, keep cleaning up." Snatching whatever he and Gus had gathered already out of their hands she started putting the file back in order as she read over everything again.

While McNab right away hurried off to obey her command, Gus snarled and crossed his arms. "What am I, your maid?"

Looking up from the file Juliet narrowed her eyes at Gus. After all they still were on a tight schedule here, and she had to go over the file again with Shawn in hopes that they would find something else they hadn't noticed yet, which left Gus to pick up Shawn's mess. "The most important thing is that we work as a team, which means you do everything I say!" (44) With a determined, stern look she let Gus know that it would be better for his health not to argue with her again. Though she didn't have to talk movie to Gus, she chose to do it so Shawn would understand too.

Though Juliet's implication that he better listen to her himself, or else, wasn't lost on him, Shawn ignored that for now because he was way too amused by his friend's reaction. As the slightly scared Gus gulped and obediently got back on his knees right away, Shawn laughed, an image of Gus in a female servant's outfit flashing up before his eyes. He definitely had to somehow convince Gus to dress as maid next Halloween. With a smirk he looked at Jules, impressed and amused by what happened. "Shocking abuse of authority. (45) Thanks, Jules. I owe you." (46)

Upon hearing Shawn call her by the nickname he had given her, Juliet frowned, wondering if the movie thing was over now, until she remembered where she had heard those words spoken before. "Of course..." Groaning she rolled her eyes. It really was a surprise that one hadn't come up sooner. "'St. Elmo's Fire'. 80's brat pack movie with Demi Moore as Jules... I guess it was just a matter of time before you pulled out that one, huh?"

There was no limit to how much Shawn loved that she knew that, especially from such an unspecific quote. But since she hadn't used quotes to speak, he had to pretend he hadn't understood her, so he looked at her as if he was dumbfounded by the string of words that had left her mouth.

Just as Juliet opened her mouth to elaborate what she had said in movie-speak, Officer McNab came back into the room, albeit empty-handed. "Sorry Detective, no autopsy results yet." He said and was glad to see that Shawn's partner meanwhile had collected all of the scattered papers already.

"Damn!" Under her breath Juliet cursed at that announcement and angrily flipped a couple of pages from the file.

Shawn knew that if there was anything else in that file he would have spotted it by now, they definitely weren't going to make any more progress from just going over it again. "I don't think we're getting anywhere doing this." (47) With that he pointed at the file in Juliet's hands.

Since Juliet agreed with that she nodded and got up. It was time to look at this from a different angle and she already knew what she wanted to do next: she really wanted to see these autopsy reports, hoping that maybe there was something else, other than their non-existent fashion sense, that would stand out about the victims. So their first destination now was the morgue. "Being dead does not mean one cannot be helpful." (48) And with that she strode off determinedly.

Titles List:

V - "The Devil Wears Prada"

36 - "Aliens"
37 - "Gone With The Wind"
38 - "The Neverending Story"
39 - "Moonstruck"
40 - "Aliens"
41 - "Buried Alive II"
42 - "Confidence"
43 - "Clueless"
44 - "Chicken Run"
45 - "Clerks"
46 - "St. Elmo's Fire"
47 - "Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid"
48 - "Casino Royale"