Gus stayed with Shawn while Henry headed to the storage yard. He called Lassiter on the way.

Frey was the priority. They looked for Smitty at the station, but he was off duty. A few officers were assigned the task of locating him and bringing him in.

The call went out. The storage yard was surrounded. Every officer of the SBPD who could possibly be there had showed up.

Vick, Lassiter, O'Hara, and Henry gathered around the hood of Lassiter's car to plan. Soon they were ready. Tensions were running high.

Henry pulled his pistol, checked and loaded it.

Lassiter saw him. "Chief." There was no way he was letting Spencer be part of the actual arrest, but he knew he could never stop the man.

Karen agreed. She put a gentle hand on Henry's arm and felt the tense muscle there. "Henry."

He growled. "You're not keeping me out of this, Karen."

She squeezed his arm gently. "I understand. I can only imagine what I would feel if the man in there had hurt Iris."

At that, at least Henry met her gaze.

"Can you honestly tell me you are in full control of your emotions and prepared to act as an officer of the law right now?" she asked quietly. "I know I wouldn't be."

The arm under her grasp relaxed a fraction.

"Let them handle it, Henry, please. For Shawn's sake." She left the whole lecture about needing a clean arrest to ensure a conviction unsaid.

He took a breath, then purposefully cleared and holstered his weapon. He glared at Lassiter and O'Hara, silently demanding their promise of results.

Lassiter met his gaze evenly and nodded once. There was no way Frey was getting away. Not this time.

They moved in.

Henry rubbed a hand over his scalp and walked away. The wait was already killing him. He needed some space to breathe. He walked out of the yard.

As he passed the gate house, he felt a pistol pressed to the back of his head and heard a growl.

"Make a noise, and you die."

Then he felt his own weapon pulled from its holster, and he heard it clatter to the ground and get kicked away into the bushes.

oO0Oo

Surprisingly, it wasn't Frey who had taken Henry captive; it was Smitty. He forced Henry to get into a nearby car and drive them away from the storage yard. When they'd travelled a decent distance, he had him pull over and park at the side of the road.

"Smitty, what are you doing?" Henry asked.

Smitty shook his head, his gun still pointed at Henry, "I know this doesn't end well for me. I can't control Frey anymore… I never could."

Henry watched for any possible opening, a distraction, some way to disarm the man, but the gun never wavered.

"I just wanted to explain… This was never supposed to happen."

"It never is!" Henry chided. "This is what happens when you work with criminals."

Smith frowned and shook his head. "You don't get it! I was never a good cop. Never. It was just so much easier to let things slide. Then I got a reputation… My partner eventually figured it out, but by then we were friends… Our wives were friends… He couldn't turn me in. He transferred out. That's why you were there that day. He put in his request and then called in sick until it came through. I was supposed to let Frey go as usual that day, but you were there, all gung-ho and perfect." He spit the words.

Smitty continued, "I tried to screw up the investigation, but you were too good. Frey got convicted. His kid got killed. Then you moved away, and I figured that was it. It was over. When Frey got out, he moved away too. I figured I was in the clear. I even tried to clean up my act… But then you moved back." He managed to say the words as if everything was Henry's fault.

"When Frey heard your kid was back in town and you two were working together? He lost it! He moved back dead-set on giving you all the pain you had given him. It took a while for him to plan it and set it all up, but then he took your kid. He forced me to help him, keep him up on the investigation, or he would rat me out. All I did was warn him when you were coming for him." He grinned when he saw Henry's eyes narrow. "Yeah, I tipped him off this time too. He's not at the storage yard. They'll just find an empty boat… again."

Henry's heart stopped when he realized Frey was most likely headed to the hospital.

"You should have seen him when he heard Shawn survi—" Smith never finished his sentence.

Henry made his move. He struck out, knocking Smith's gun hand to the side. The gun went off. Henry felt the bullet whiz past his ear as the window behind him shattered. They struggled for a moment, but Henry was focused on only one thing. He managed to get the door behind Smith open. He shoved him out onto the pavement, threw the car into gear, and peeled out.

He had to get to Shawn before Frey did. He had to.

The rear window shattered as Smith fired after him. He ducked and swerved around a corner.

Belatedly, he fumbled for his phone.

Lassiter answered in a frustrated growl. "Frey's not her—"

"He's at the hospital. Smitty tipped him off. Get there. Now." He tossed the phone onto the seat beside him and pushed the accelerator to the floor.

oO0Oo

When he reached the hospital, Henry bumped over the curb, leaped out of the car, and ran. He took the stairs two at a time up to Shawn's floor and burst through the door. He immediately spotted Frey coming out of a storage room in a white coat. He was just draping a stethoscope around his neck. When he saw Henry, he went for his gun.

Henry got to him before he could aim it, and two furious fathers clashed, one bent on revenge, the other on protection.

Henry knew Frey was likely the better fighter, so he focused on simply delaying and disarming him. He didn't have to beat him. All he had to do was keep him occupied until backup arrived.

Frey was focused on taking Henry out. He needed to get to Shawn, and Henry was an obstacle to his goal. The two men struggled for control of the pistol.

Henry was beginning to realize that Frey might be stronger; at the very least, he had a crazed hatred on his side. The pistol slowly began to turn toward Henry.

He saw it, but it didn't really matter as long as he could keep Shawn safe…

Frey suddenly twisted. Henry lost his grip on the gun. He heard two shots.

Frey went limp and fell.

Henry looked up to see Shawn standing at the far end of the hall in his hospital gown, pointing Henry's pistol at Frey.

Their eyes met.

Shawn's gun hand dropped to his side. His shoulders slumped. His knees gave out, and he collapsed.

Lassiter and O'Hara charged through the door behind Henry and took in the scene before them. They saw Gus come out of the room behind Shawn just in time to catch him as he crumpled.

The entire altercation had lasted less than a minute.

The hallway filled with people.

Henry still stared at Shawn now being surrounded by medical personnel.

"Where's Dobson?" Lassiter shouted.

Henry knew Dobson was the officer assigned to guard Shawn's room. "Check the storage room," he said, not taking his eyes off Shawn.

Juliet bent and checked Frey for a pulse just as the nurses reached him. "He's alive."

Frey was quickly taken for treatment, and Henry was glad the criminal would live to see trial. He smiled a little, proud of his son. The two men had been struggling. Shawn had fired, twice, from the other end of the hall, a good fifty feet away, missed Henry, hit Frey, and didn't kill him.

Henry was thankful to see Shawn being helped, not carried, back into his room. He was mostly moving under his own power.

"He's just unconscious," came Lassiter's voice from the storage room. "Looks like Frey hit him over the head."

The doctors had yet another patient to treat.

It was finally over.

oO0Oo

Two days later Henry was approaching Shawn's hospital room. He paused at the sound he heard coming from inside.

It was laughter. He could hear Shawn's laugh mixed with others', and he felt sudden tears burn. He quickly blinked them away, took a deep breath, and just relished the fact that it was over.

Shawn was being released into his care today.

Taking Frey down was all the cure Shawn needed. Since that day, his son had been driving the hospital staff crazy with his desire to go home. His doctor finally relented as long as Shawn stayed at his father's house and severely limited his activities.

Shawn had also completely embraced the idea of his limited immunity and switched back and forth between begging his dad to build him a bubble and Lethal Weapon quotes regarding the diplomatic variety.

Henry leaned against the wall outside and listened to the conversation inside. It seemed Nurse Peyton was regaling the others with a story.

"So I'm on my way to Shawn's room, right? I needed to get him up and walking around—important after surgery, you know—and I'm thinking it's not going to be easy to get this guy out of bed. But what do I see? Shawn, coming out of his room on his own—and he's got a gun! I couldn't believe my eyes! It was totally like something from a movie! Shawn was such a superhero."

Henry shook his head. The last thing his idiot son needed was an ego stroking like he was getting at the moment, but he couldn't bring himself to interrupt.

There was another burst of laughter from inside as he heard Gus and Juliet's voices protesting Peyton's rosy descriptions.

Henry smiled to himself, turned, and slowly walked away. He had planned on taking Shawn home himself, but, under the circumstances, maybe it would be better if Gus and Juliet brought him over. They were having such a good time he couldn't interrupt.

Frey's wounds were not serious. Shawn had aimed to disable not kill. It was just another one of Shawn's secrets that he always hit what he aimed at. Frey had already been transferred to the prison hospital where he would stay until trial, and then he would be imprisoned for aggravated assault, kidnapping, first- and second-degree attempted murder. He would be locked up for a long time. Smitty, too, would face trial and inevitably be convicted. The evidence against him was overwhelming.

oO0Oo

When the laughter had finally died down, Peyton brought out the clipboard that contained Shawn's discharge papers. She explained all the instructions and limitations in detail, but, of course, Gus was the only one who really paid attention. Shawn signed them, and Gus collected them.

Juliet made her excuses. As much as she had enjoyed her visit, she really needed to get back to the station. There was a lot of paperwork to fill out, and she was going to personally ensure that every 'i' was dotted and every 't' was crossed. Frey was not going to get off on some stupid technicality.

She smiled at Shawn. "I'm really glad you're okay." And then she left so they could get packed up.

Gus tossed Shawn's few belongings into the overnight bag he'd brought while Shawn got dressed. Peyton retrieved the wheelchair from the hall.

Finally they were ready to go. "Don't take this the wrong way, Shawn, but I really hope I don't see you any time soon." She smiled.

Shawn smiled back and tried to come up with something witty, but he found himself thinking about a certain blonde detective instead.

"Thanks for everything, Peyton," Gus told her politely and pushed his buddy out the door and down the hall to the elevators.

Shawn was busy looking at everything as they traveled through the parts of the building that had become all too familiar to his friends, but which he himself had never seen. And then they were out in the sunshine.

Shawn would have grabbed the wheels to stop his forward travel, but he didn't have to. Gus knew. He set the breaks on the chair.

Shawn closed his eyes and turned his face upward toward the sun. He was okay. He was normal again. His sight was back. His fear was gone. He still tired easily, but that wouldn't last. A few days of his dad's cooking, sleeping in his old bedroom, and he'd be back to 100%.

"Hey, Gus?" he asked softly. "You know what today is?"

"Yeah, Shawn," Gus responded quietly, but Shawn could hear the smile in his voice. "Yeah, I do."

It was the twenty-seventh day since they'd rescued Shawn from the cellar, and somehow it felt right. It felt complete.

Shawn opened his eyes, stood up, and walked the last few steps to the Blueberry.

"Shotgun!"

oO0Oo

End

oO0Oo

Thanks for sticking with me to the end. Please leave a review if you have a moment.
Thanks! Papaya