I'm taking a page from MusicalLuna1's book (and I hope she doesn't mind) and I'm going to use this space to post short Shules-y fics. Mostly because I'm doing a 100 fic challenge, and I don't want 100 fics cluttering up my profile. I'm freakishly orderly like that… so here they shall be. They're all stand-alones, but they're all Shawn/Juliet heavy. So enjoy.

Title: Friends are for…

Summary: Missing Scene from Scary Sherry from Juliet's POV. Shawn is there for Jules. For 100situations prompt #7: Friend.

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No one has ever tried to kill her before, much less in a situation like this. The candles. Naked Barbie dolls hanging from the ceiling with string. The axe… the shiny, shiny axe that soon might be stained with her own blood.

She hesitates, doesn't really want to hurt Alice, because she's obviously in pain from losing her friend, and doesn't know how to deal with it like a normal person, so Alice gets off a few swings and a monologue.

The adrenaline is pumping, her mind is racing, and that last swing of the axe came too close for comfort, and she doesn't want to end up like Scary Sherry, and Shawn called probably to warn her, and she hopes he's bringing back up… And suddenly she doesn't give a shit about Alice's pain, because she doesn't deserve to die this way, and from somewhere downstairs she thinks she hears Shawn and Gus arguing, and she definitely can't let either of them be involved in trying to neutralize the axe wielding co-ed. So a couple swings later, she finds her in, thumbs Alice in the eye (a dirty move, but effective) and wrestles the axe away.

She's only vaguely aware of the words coming out of her mouth, and Lassiter with his gun on Alice, and then Shawn is in front of her, looking at her like she's the crazy person, and he's gently pulling the axe from her hands… right, Alice is down, she doesn't need it anymore.

She takes deep breaths, Lassiter slaps handcuffs on Alice, and Shawn is there pulling her close, and she realizes that she is shaking and can't quite breathe.

"It's okay, Jules. It's all okay now," he's saying, and brushing his fingers through her hair.

She goes through the motions of the arrest, fills out the paper work, gives her statement, and through it all keeps her face indifferent, puts a lid on her emotions, because she won't, she can't, let anyone see just how affected she is by this. It isn't until later, when she's getting ready to leave the police station, that she realizes that Shawn has been waiting for her.

"I thought you might want a ride home."

"It's been hours. Have you been waiting all this time?"

He shrugs like its no big deal, but it is, and she feels her carefully constructed semblance of control fall around her feet, and then she's crying, and thank God for Shawn, because he knows that she needs to have this breakdown outside, preferably where no one she works with can see her. And when it's dark around them, and her face is buried in his t-shirt, she lets go.

"She tried to kill me! Like we were in a horror movie, and I was the stupid blonde who gets killed in the first five minutes, and everyone is saying, 'Don't go in there Juliet!' but she does anyway… and god, did you see those Barbie dolls? And all the candles? Where does anyone even get that many candles? That must have taken her hours! Hours and hours she spent thinking about how she was going to chop me up with that axe… God, she must have maxxed out her credit card."

His chest shakes under her face, and she realizes that he's trying not to laugh. And it is sort of funny, the whole night is, in a scary, ridiculous way, so she laughs too, and then the laughs are sobs, and Shawn is holding her tight.

"Want to come to the Psych office? Gus and I are having a sleep-over."

"A what?"

"Well, though it pains me to admit it, Gus and I don't deal well with scary… nightmares, you know. We're going to watch Die Hard, and wish we were as cool as Bruce Willis. I call it action movie therapy."

It sounds like the best thing she's heard all day, and she doesn't have to be at work until tomorrow afternoon, so she agrees.

Later, when the horrors of the day are dulled by cartons of Chinese food lying empty on the coffee table, and Shawn and Gus's smart-ass comments about the movie have faded away to tired silence, and she's curled into the couch cushions with a blanket that smells like Shawn's laundry detergent, Juliet reflects that she's very lucky to have befriended these two.

Shawn catches her glancing over at him, and wordlessly offers her the Tupperware of sliced pineapple.

"Thank you," she tells him, and lets her eyes say 'thank you' for more than just the fruit.

He shoots her a rueful half-smile, and replies, "That's what friends are for."

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