"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13

.***.

Gus was used to saving Shawn.

Take the third grade for example, when Shawn was getting into a load of hot water for mouthing off to a bully (Gus was sure, even twenty years later, that Shawn's exact words had been, "I'm not sure t is even in your mental capacity to play kickball, Buddy, you'd better give that ball to me." Buddy hadn't known what the word capacity meant but that didn't stop him from hitting Shawn.) Anyway, Gus had shown up just in time to stop an all-out beating with Shawn stuck between three beefy fourth-graders. Sure, he'd brought the teacher, and Shawn had said later that the move was "So not cool" but at least Shawn had been alive to mouth off for another day.

And then there was high school. This was when everyone was starting to get into sports and girls and futures, when Gus began dating for real and Shawn…didn't. He just wasn't into commitment and would rather spend a Saturday getting into trouble with Gus than getting into a suit for a girl. Well, there had been a rumor in the ninth grade that Shawn was gay, a rumor that his relationship with Gus didn't help at all. Gus caught wind of this rumor before Shawn did, though, and talked Shawn into taking a date with a girl before the tiny flame of suspicion could reach the full-out fire of unsubstantiated truth.

Or all those times on cases when Gus had grappled with men with weapons and anger management issues, those times when Gus had covered for Shawn, lied to Shawn's father, to the police, to the world about his best friend's "psychic" ability.

But he did it, time and time again, and he kept showing up to the office with the big green letters on it. PSYCH. A pun for the two of them, another inside joke to add to the Shawn and Gus repertoire. Because the whole truth was that Gus would do anything for Shawn.

It was sad, but true: Shawn made his life interesting.

So, really, it was nothing out of the ordinary for Gus to step up to the plate when Shawn's life was in danger. Nothing out of the ordinary to take a steady breath, to work past the pain of the injuries, the pain of the broken bones that he'd already received in this case, and to save Shawn's life.

Even if it meant taking somebody else's.

The rest of the story is coming up ASAP. Just wanted to know what everyone thought of this idea.

Anyways, please review.