Disclaimer - Not mine!!
Notes - This is a sequel to my previous story Injured. This was written do to popular demans on the PsychSlash and ShawnLassiter communities on LJ. So enjoy!!

Nightmare

Carlton Lassiter was a man that enjoyed his sleep and when said sleep was disturbed, that usually meant death to those w\ho had interrupted it. So when his cell phone decided that 4;32 AM was the perfect time to start blaring some American Top 40 song that Lassiter had no idea what it was called or how it managed to get on his phone, and really at 4:30 in the morning he didn't really care to try and decipher it. He'd leave it for the morning. Rolling over and giving a death glare to the little electronic, Carlton ripped the phone off the nightstand and checked the Caller I.D. and his death glare intensified. Flipping his cell phone open with such force, it was a wonder that the phone didn't snap in half.

"Spencer! How in sweet merciful Justice did you get my cell phone number and manage to program your number into my phone?" Lassiter snarled into the phone.

Just hours ago, Carlton had left Shawn Spencer's apartment in a surprisingly good mood even though he had had to lug Spencer up two flights of stairs due to his injured state, after the pseudo psychic had been injured in a police pursuit by a fleeing suspect. The night had ended well after that, the suspect was arrested, had confessed, and was now sitting in a lovely jail cell with a view. The kiss with Shawn had just been a bonus. Though all of that had been nice now it seemed that Spencer was once again on his resist-killing-list, kiss or not. The silence on the other end of the phone was not making things any better for Spencer's case.

"Whatever joke you're playing isn't as amusing as your disturbed little mind thinks. You have thirty seconds to inform me as to why you are calling before I get in my car, turn on the sirens, and come and arrest you for disturbing the peace!!" Lassiter barked.

The silence on the other end continued.

Being the nice guy that people don't realize he is, Carlton gave Spencer an extra thirty seconds. His patience won and Spencer finally spoke.

"Y-you won't have to bother with the car and sirens, Lassie," Shawn muttered.

Lassiter stiffened slightly when he heard Shawn's subdued voice. It was nothing at all like the pseudo psychic .Shawn Spencer was incapable of being subdued; at least that was how Lassiter thought it worked. Spencer was always full of energy and usually bouncing off the walls as he spoke, like a five year old who was given one too many lollipops before bed. But at the moment, there was no bouncing five year old like Spencer talking but some sort of shell, masquerading as Shawn.

"Spen - Shawn," Lassiter started, deciding that it was probably better to use Shawn's first name than his last name, especially in uncharted territory such as this. "Uh… what d- I mean, why are you…?"

Carlton heard Shawn sigh over the line.

"I… Sorry Lassiter. I shouldn't have disturbed your sleep. I'll let you get back to sleep. Uh… G'night," Shawn whispered.

"Wait. Shawn," Carlton called but Shawn had already hung up.

Normally, Lassiter would disregard anything to do with Spencer or his affairs but there seemed to be something really off with Shawn tonight. First off, Spencer never contacted him unless it was to fake some sort of 'vision' that had something do with a case that he shouldn't be involved in and second, if Shawn was having some sort of personal problem, Lassiter would be the last on his contact list.

Lassiter was about to call Shawn back to get to the bottom of this so that he could go back to sleep when he heard someone in the hallway outside his apartment door. Lassiter got out of bed quickly and made his way to the door, removing the chain and unlocking the door and whipping it open, he was just in time to see Shawn Spencer heading towards the stairwell.

"Shawn!" Lassiter called loud enough for Shawn to hear but not loud enough to disturb any neighbors.

Shawn turned around to face Lassiter, shock written all over his face. He looked more rumpled than his usual beach bum fashion. Carlton noticed the dark circles under Shawn's eyes and the way he carried himself. He was lacking his usual confidence and is arms were crossed over his torso in a way that looked like he was shielding himself from an attack. Carlton's heart skipped a beat when he noticed the terrified look in Shawn's eyes.

"Come on," Lassiter sighed. "Get your ass in here before I change my mind."

Shawn nodded his head and brushed quickly passed Lassiter and into his apartment. Shutting the door behind him, Lassiter entered his living room and gestured towards the couch, indicating that Shawn should take a seat. Shawn, still in some weird state of un-Shawn-ness, obeyed Lassiter and took a seat.

The silence stretched on for a few moments as Shawn stared at anything besides Lassiter and Carlton stared in mild fascination at Shawn.

"I…I… should just go." Shawn moved to get up from the couch but soon found Lassiter's arms pressing into his shoulders and keeping him in place on the sofa. "L-Lassie?"

"You are not leaving until you tell me why you decided to call me at 4 in the morning, wake me up, and then decide to run away without even an explanation. Another thing, why call me? Isn't Mr. Guster your go to guy? Hell even your dad would be a more understandable choice." Lassiter questioned.

Shawn's eyes seemed to spark at the mention of his father.

"Gus doesn't answer his phone between the hours of 11 PM and 8 AM. Something about needing his beauty sleep and he doesn't have time for my random early morning calls." At this Lassiter rolled his eyes. "As far as Henry goes, I'd only bother to call him if I was running from a herd of zombies that were planning on making me into human sushi and they needed his famous sashimi recipe."

Carlton hid a small smile as he heard Shawn's answer. It was a very 'Shawn' response, confidence and smirky humor present like in every other conversation that the detective had ever had with Shawn. Settling into the chair across from Shawn, Carlton allowed himself to relax slightly as aspects of Shawn's normal behavior were coming through.

"As intrigued as I am about Henry's famous sashimi recipe, you want to tell me why you're at my apartment when you should be at home resting after getting injured yesterday?"

Carlton regretted his question as soon as he saw the shift in Shawn's eyes. His hazel eyes dimmed and his shoulders slumped as he put his head in his hands and sighed heavily. Shawn looked torn between opening up to Lassiter and trying to make a break for it. Deciding quickly, Carlton moved from the chair to sit next to the younger man on the couch. Hesitating only slightly, he placed his hand on Shawn's shoulder to try and calm him down a bit. He could sense Shawn's unease and see the gears turning in trying to formulate an escape plan.

"Shawn…" Lassiter started. "I… I'm not good at this sort of thing. Just tell me what's bothering you." He'd never admit it out loud but seeing Shawn so depressed and obviously in some sort of pain, made Carlton's chest constrict.

Shawn hesitated before looking at Carlton. He seemed to be searching for something in Lassiter's eyes. He must have found whatever it was that he needed from the older man because he released a breath and started talking.

"The reason why I called you…. Well it's stupid now that I think about it. I shouldn't have… I mean what was I thinking? Calling you at 4:30 in the morning… I didn't need to disturb your sleep. I mean, you need it, you're cranky enough without the early wake up call and you helped get my unconscious ass home and took care of me an—"

"Enough!" Carlton had had as much as he could stand. Turning to face Shawn head on, he took hold of Shawn's face and stared at him straight in the eyes. He saw Shawn's eyes widen in shock and felt him tense. "Look, we both know that you calling me at this ungodly hour was not one of your best ideas but it obviously wasn't something that could wait if it's got you in this sort of state. You're distressed. I've never seen you this unhinged, even at crime scenes. So please! Whatever is putting such terror into your eyes, please just tell me so I can help you."

Carlton had never pleaded with anyone to such an extent in his life before, not even his ex-wife when the marriage was at its end. He felt as much as saw Shawn relax and it seemed that his little bit of pleading had helped. Shawn made no move to remove his face from Carlton's grasp; instead he leaned into Carlton's hands and sighed.

"Like I said, it's stupid now that I'm here… with you, but at the time it was terrifying." There was a slight pause as Shawn shook his head. "This is going to make me seem so lame. Heh. I… had a nightmare, though it was more like a horrific dream."

"What happened in it, Shawn?"

Shawn looked at Carlton and the beginning of tears could be seen in the corners of his eyes.

"…You were dead. Everyone was dead." He shook with the force of his tears as he spoke. "There was this case that we were all working on. Gus, Jules, Vick, Henry, you and I. The case had something to do with some sort of mass grave that was found just outside of town and there was no evidence. We were all just standing around the grave, looking at all of the bodies and then the dream warped."

Shawn took an intake of breath as he got ready to continue. Carlton took his hands off of Shawn's face and wrapped them around his waist before pulling the younger man towards him. Shawn leaned into Carlton and tucked his head against the other man's neck. Carlton tried to repress the shiver that went up his spine as he waited for Shawn to continue.

"When everything came back into focus, there was only me. I was there, just standing at the grave and amongst the people that were originally found, there you were. You were just lying there, Gus, Jules, Vick, and dad were lying next to you, but you were in the center. All of you were… dead. Mangled, lifeless. God, it hurt so much. I couldn't do anything, I was frozen, and just standing there and my eyes couldn't leave your face, Las— Carlton.

"Then, all of a sudden this man just appeared. He sat next to your body and kept running his hands through your hair. I couldn't even move to stop him, I couldn't even protest. He merely stared at me and smiled. That's it; all he did was smile at me. In one swift movement he was behind me and had wrapped his arms around my chest and stomach."

Carlton stiffened at the thought of someone else having Shawn wrapped in their arms. This whole horrific nightmare that Shawn had had distressed and unsettled him greatly. Right now though, all Carlton could do was hold Shawn more firmly to his side as he braced himself to hear the rest of this dream.

"I could feel him smiling against my ear, then he was whispering menacingly into it. 'See what you've done Shawny, you lead them all to their deaths. All because you had to get involved. Yeah, it started out innocent enough, calling in tips for the police because you figured out what happened by watching the news, you never thought that it'd escalate to this, did you? They're all dead now, because of you. Your dad, best friend, a sweet young detective, the chief of police, and of course… him.' I can still hear the words repeating in my head, that subdued voice filled with malice, telling me that it's my fault, all because I wanted to help out."

Shawn buried his face as much as he could into Carlton's neck. Retreating further into the sanctuary that Carlton's arms seemed to provide him.

"Is… is that how it ended, Shawn?"

"Pretty much, after he blamed me for your deaths, I woke up screaming. I was so freaked that the next thing I knew I was outside your apartment and I had already dialed your cell. I just… I had to make sure that you were still alive. It was such a vivid dream."

Carlton didn't know what to say now that Shawn had finally got it all out. He could feel him shaking against his side, in fear and it just served to make Carlton worry more. He knew he had to calm Shawn down, he knew that assuring Shawn that he was fine would only serve to make Shawn feel even more, 'lame' as he put it, since he overreacted but that seemed like one of the only ways that could possibly calm him down.

While trying to come up with some sort of words that would put Shawn at ease, Shawn got tired of waiting for Carlton so he shifted his position at Lassiter's side. He removed himself from Carlton's side and moved one of his hands to the side of Carlton's face. Slowly, he brought the detective's face to face his.

"If it's going to take you this long to try and come up with something to calm and reassure me, I'll do it myself." Shawn smiled one of his most charming smiles and leaned in.

Shawn's lips against his own startled Carlton out of his thoughts. He placed his hands on the younger man's face, tempted to push him away but not willing to loose the feeling either. This probably wasn't the best thing to be doing when Shawn was still somewhat frightened and still reeling from his nightmare. Carlton's thoughts about whether or not they should be doing this instead of talking stopped when Shawn maneuvered himself and made himself comfortable in the detective's lap.

Carlton snaked his arms around Shawn and rested them at the small of his back, pulling the younger man flush against him. Tilting his head a bit, Shawn was able to deepen the kiss and slip his tongue into the older man's mouth when he gasped. The first time Shawn and Carlton had kissed, just a few short hours ago, Shawn was half out of it and thought it was some wonderful dream. But now that he was fully conscious and could enjoy it, he was on cloud nine. His nightmare was shoved to the back of his mind, filed away and never to be looked for. Carlton was alive and Shawn was more than happy to confirm that he was still of this Earth if it meant he could stick his tongue down the detective's throat.

Carlton reluctantly broke the kiss, he took a deep breathe and looked Shawn over. He was rumpled, his lips were puffy, and he was incredibly sexy but his hazel eyes were still slightly dimed with the lingering fear of his nightmare and his eyes also showed his exhaustion. Groaning slightly to himself, he really did want to continue.

"Shawn?"

"Yeah, Carly?"

Did Shawn just purr his name? Damn it this was going to be tough.

"We should go to bed. I…"

"With pleasure, Carly."

There was that damn purr again!!

"No Shawn. I meant that we should get some sleep. Sleep!" Carlton blushed as he spoke, realizing what Shawn must have thought that he meant by his previous statement. As much as he wanted to…

"Ok, I'll let you go to sleep. I'll see you in the morning ok Lassie?"

Shawn made to get off of Carlton's lap but he was held in place by the detective. He looked at Carlton in confusion but the older man didn't release his grip.

"You're not going anywhere but to my room."

Shawn shivered and Carlton smirked. He could purr too.

After pushing Shawn off of him, Carlton got up and grabbed the pseudo psychic's arm and pulled him towards the bedroom. After reaching the room, Carlton grabbed a pair of pajamas for Shawn to wear and sent him off to the adjoining bathroom to get ready for bed. He changed and came out of bed to find Carlton waiting for him in bed and Shawn moved around to the other side of the bed and settled next to the other man under the covers. He tried to keep a bit of distance between their bodies but Carlton would have none of it and pulled Shawn next to him. Shawn rolled onto his side and settled his head onto the detective's chest.

"Much better," Carlton sighed. "Get some rest, Shawn."

"You too, Carly." Shawn spoke gently before adding, "Thanks, man."

Several minutes later Shawn felt Carlton slip into a deep sleep. He stayed awake for a little while longer, pondering on how their twisted work relationship and turned into such a personal and intimate one but he didn't get the chance to think to heavily on it before he fell into a peaceful and thankfully dreamless sleep.