Juliet knew that it was going to be a difficult day from the start, but she was unprepared for just how difficult.

She got tangled up in the sheets as she tried to get out of bed that Thursday morning (as much as she loved Shawn, his sleeping patterns could be very annoying). She tripped out of the bed and gave herself a nasty bruise on the bedside table as a result. The coffee machine in the kitchen (the one they had bought just last week) wouldn't work, and she couldn't find the blouse she had been planning to wear with her new pants. Shawn could sense her irritation growing as the minutes passed and made less wise cracks than he usually did, which she was grateful for. With the mood she was in, he probably would have gotten hurt.

They drove to the SBPD, getting stuck behind a three-vehicle crash for nearly twenty minutes, and burst through the door just as Chief Vick was beginning the day's presentation.

"Glad you could make it," she said dryly as they snuck to the back of the group.

"My fault, Chief," Shawn said immediately, squeezing Jules' hand. "I had a crisis of the soul this morning. An existential crisis. Whatever you call it when the coffee machine breaks down."

She rolled her eyes and continued her presentation. "Anyway, as I have already said, four people have already died at this hotel." She gestured to the bulletin board behind her, which was already filled with the photos of the victims and speculations on the connections between them. The heading said Sunrise Inn. "There appears to be no other connection between the victims besides the fact that they stayed at the Sunrise. Their room numbers, floor numbers, age, sex, occupation, all varies. Whoever this killer is, he doesn't seem to have a type. The owners are shutting down the place for the week to allow us to gather the evidence we need and interview their entire staff. I'm going to need everyone's focus on this one. The owners are very respected in Santa Barbara, and they are depending on the SBPD to bring the criminals in."

As the group broke up to prepare materials and get ready to drive to the hotel, Juliet approached the board and examined the photos. Two male and two female victims, ages ranging from 18-54. Each one had their throat slashed and had died in the bathroom of their hotel suites. The doors had been locked—the victims had either failed to check out on time or had been discovered by a family member. The deaths had occurred within the past six weeks.

Shawn looked over her shoulder, scanning the information. "This looks like a bad one," he said quietly. She glanced over at him. Usually he had made about twelve jokes by now and at least five 80s references with Gus. In fact, she hadn't seen Gus at all yet this morning. She glanced around, curious.

Seeing her glance, Shawn said, "Gus went to a theme park with Rachel and Max."

Juliet nodded and gazed at the board again. God, so frustrating. Most serial killers had a set type of victims, and they rarely took them from the same place. But every once in a while you got a whack job that was just smart enough to leave no evidence and get away with it more than once. And, of course, every so often it wasn't a whack job at all, but Jules hadn't seen that sort of a case in Santa Barbara for a while… and she could live never seeing anything like that again.

"Sleeping Beauty, awaken, for it is I, your Prince Charming!"

She blinked a few times. Shawn was smiling at her. "She has awoken!" he exclaimed. Then his expression grew serious again. "Everything okay? Is something about this case freaking you out?"

"No, no, I'm fine. Let's get going." She pulled him over to her desk and quickly strapped on her gun and handcuffs, stuffing her badge in her pocket.

She grabbed the keys to Lassiter's car on her way out and found him stalking back in, having forgotten them for the fiftieth time. Smiling, she handed them over and he snatched them with a growl. "Let's go catch this psycho. Spencer, back seat. And if you so much as breathe on the upholstery I swear to God…"

Shawn made a show of sucking in his breath. Lassie turned and stalked out of the station, evidently in a worse mood today than usual…just her luck. Once he was gone Shawn released his breath, rolled his eyes at his girlfriend, and followed her to Lassiter's car.