Well, here's the next chapter. I really don't have much to say except ENJOY!

Chapter 12

Juliet was walking restlessly back and forth across the waiting room, wringing her hands. Carlton was in surgery, though the doctors assured her that he was pretty well off for someone shot in the abdomen. The bullet had not hit any vital organs at first glance and he should make a full recovery in 4-6 weeks. Knowing Lassiter, he would try to be back at the station within 3 weeks.

"Juliet, you need to calm down," said Shawn. "Seriously, he's going to be fine. And you are making me dizzy from the pacing."

He stood up and gently guided her to a seat. "You need to rest. You haven't slept since Lassie was kidnapped and you took a bullet to the chest, remember? The vest may have been protecting you, but I'll bet it left a pretty nasty bruise."

Juliet sighed. Shawn was right, again. She leaned back in the hard waiting chair, which suddenly seemed surprisingly comfortable and before she knew it, she was drifting off.

Shawn looked fondly and the sleeping Juliet O'Hara.

"I've got such a great girlfriend, Gus," he confided in his best friend.

"Don't get cocky, Shawn. She agreed to go on ONE date with you. She's not your girlfriend yet."

"But who could resist this," Shawn gestured to himself.

"And I suppose that why you keep your girlfriends for no longer than a week."

"Juliet is different," Shawn murmured.

Gus was shocked by the level of care in his friends face. Shawn never showed that kind of deep emotion.

"Who is here to see a Carlton Lassiter?" questioned a nurse, effectively breaking the mood.

Shawn instantly reverted back to his child like state. "Oh, Lassie's awake!" he exclaimed, shaking Juliet awake. "Let's go see our favorite detective!"

When Carlton first started to regain consciousness, he noticed the absence of pain right away. Then he noticed the white walls, the antiseptic smell and heard the familiar beep of the heart monitor.

Was he back in the hospital? Was he still undercover and everything else was just a dream?

He heard the exclamation "Lassie!" and got a sense of deja vu. It was that idiot Spencer and his-tag along Guster no doubt.

He pulled himself up and gasped as his side felt a stab of pain. Reaching down, he touched the bandages firmly wrapped around his abdomen. So it hadn't been a dream, which meant Spencer had probably led them there. Carlton sighed, he probably should at least try to act civilized towards the fake psychic, he did after all save his life. The head detective groaned. Being in debt to that idiot was not something he was happy about.

"Carlton," a softer voice interrupted his thoughts. He looked up to see Juliet O'Hara standing there with a relieved smile on her face.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

Shawn was rambling about something but Lassiter wasn't listening to his babbling. He was looking at Juliet, who was smiling at him, but he could see the emotions roiling beneath.

"Spencer," his voice was gravelly. "Get out, now. Your presence is not conducive for my health."

At first it looked like the psychic was going to argue, but then Guster whispered something into his ear and he nodded as the pair of them walked out.

"How are you, O'Hara? Juliet?" he added the last as an afterthought. For now, he was going to call her by her first name.

"I'm fine," she sniffled. "Your the one who was hurt."

"And you took a bullet to the chest," argued Carlton. "Which, I know from experience, is not very pleasant even with a vest on."

Juliet looked at him, tears threatening to fall. She sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Is it always like this, when you're scared you're going to lose a partner? Back in Florida, I didn't actually know anyone who got killed, but I knew people whose partner's had died."

"Hey, hey," soothed Carlton. "You don't need to be worrying about me. I've survive numerous encounters, I'll survive ones to come. We just need to be focused on today."

He opened his arms, as an invitation and Juliet sank into them. He felt a few of her tears soak through his hospital gown, but Carlton didn't care. Sure, he wasn't a hugger, but for his partner, he would be anything, do anything to make her happy. Because he loved Juliet O'Hara. Maybe not in a romantic type of love, he didn't need another Lucinda, but more like a platonic love. Stronger than just friends. Like his sister. Incidentally, Juliet was a lot like her, cheerful and bubbly, but also strong and authoritative. And they both looked up to him, which did wonders to his self-confidence.

After a minute or two, it felt longer, Juliet pulled away, rubbing her eyes. Carlton caught the passing whiff of her peach scented shampoo, not as strong as it usually was, she must not have had much spare time to shower.

"Now, I want you to go home, get some rest, eat, do whatever you haven't had time to do while you were looking for me." he said as authoritatively as he could manage.

She opened her mouth to argue, "No 'buts'" he said firmly. "I'm not going anywhere. I promise. Oh, and while you leave, send that idiot Spencer on in with his friend, will you? They're going to barge in anyway."

"Yeah, about that," said Juliet. "Uh, well, while you were missing, Shawn kind of suddenly asked me out on a date. And, well, I said yes."

Carlton rolled his eyes. "I should have seen that one coming. Of course he would go for you."

"But, you're not mad," pressed Juliet. "I know you don't like him, but, well I don't want this to ruin our partnership or anything."

"It won't," reassured Carlton. "I may not like him, heck I may hate him, but I will put up with him, especially if he makes you happy. But one wrong move on his part-"

"Yeah, I think I get it," laughed Juliet.

"Oh, but does he?" asked Carlton in reply.

A mock look of horror filled Juliet's face. "Oh, please don't scare him off, Carlton, I really do want to give this a shot."

"Hah," he said, shortly. "I've been giving him grief for the past 4 years and he still won't leave. Do you think a little more should cause him to feel any different for you? Look, Juliet, I'm happy for you. You deserve a good relationship. I mean, granted, you could have done better than Spencer, but-"

"Alright, alright," said Juliet. "I can see you're trying to shoo me off. I'll tell Shawn to come on in."

"Get some rest, Juliet," he said seriously. "I mean it."

She nodded then walked out of the room. Carlton saw her talking to the two consultants, who had managed to procure a pineapple shaped balloon in the ten minutes they had been out of the room. She gestured to the door and said something which caused Spencer to start behaving like a child again. Carlton sighed as he saw the psychic detective entering the room.

"Lassie!" he said. "So glad you are ok! Gus and I brought you a little something to brighten up this drab room."

The detective was just the tiniest bit grateful. He really did hate the colorless room, and as obnoxious as the balloon was, it did bring a little warmth.

"So Lassie, how you feeling? The doctors say you'll pull through. Do you need anything? Pineapple smoothie, pineapple cake, bacon sandwich? People get weird cravings on anesthetic. I remember Gus started wanting fish fingers and custard after he got his appendix removed. That was a weird time."

"Shawn, you promised not to bring that up again! You know I don't like reliving that taste. I felt it in my mouth for days and it tasted disgusting once the drugs wore off."

The two friends argued back and forth, but Carlton wasn't listening. His stomach was beginning to hurt again and he felt exhausted. Getting shot really did a number on the body. He fuzzily saw Shawn and Gus looking at him before he fell asleep, once more tired from the events that had transpired.

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Shawn and Gus were arguing about the fish fingers and custard incident when they noticed Lassiter was having a hard time staying awake. They watched as he lost consciousness.

"Is everything alright?" questioned Shawn. "I mean, should we call someone?"

"No, he's just asleep, it's alright," said Gus. "He's just had a large trauma, of course he's tired. We probably should leave so we don't wake him. Don't want the nurses chewing our heads off for disturbing one of the patients."

"Look at Lassie," said Shawn, smiling. "He's so cute when he's asleep."

"You better hope he's really asleep, because if he heard you, he's going to hurt you," warned Gus. "Let's get out of here."

"Fine," pouted Shawn. "But before we go, I'm going to snap a picture."

He pulled out his Iphone and quickly snapped a photo of the sleeping detective then dashed out of the room.

"No, Shawn you can't!" yelled Gus as he chased after his best friend. "Lassiter is going to kill us!"

Well that, my dear readers, may or may not be the end of the story. I mean, there might be an epilogue, but it could be in a month, or a week, it depends on my level of inspiration. There's really not much more to write about, so I may just have an extra chapter of Lassiter returning to the station. Or, I may not. Anyway, Read and Review!