Fires Aren't Your Friend

Part 2

Carlton groaned in annoyance as he sunk into his chair and saw the amount of paperwork that awaited him. He hated days like these. The ones that dragged on and on and that were only made worse when he could only look at Shawn and not touch him. Carlton and O'Hara had spent most of the day going to and from numerous crime scenes and interviewing what seemed like thousands of people.

"This backlog of cases is going to kill me," Carlton growled in frustration.

In all his years as a cop and then a detective, Carlton had never experienced such a flux in crime. The number of crimes had increased in the last three weeks but thankfully a majority of them were less serious crimes, arsons and robberies mostly and others that didn't result in any loss of life. There was very little in the ways of worse crimes, such as murder. Though in Carlton's book, a crime was a crime and it didn't matter if there was or wasn't any loss of life.

"Lassiter?"

Carlton diverted his attention from his mountain of paperwork to see O'Hara approaching his desk. "What is it?"

"I just thought I'd let you know that I'm heading out now," she said sweetly and smiled at the head detective. "You should head home as well, you look completely beat."

"Gee, thanks O'Hara for those oh-so kind words but I have work to do," Carlton snipped and returned his attention to his computer.

He heard O'Hara sigh and then the clicks of her heels as she walked away. He knew that he shouldn't be so hard on her but crime never rests and neither did Carlton. No matter how much he'd rather be resting at home with a certain psychic wrapped tightly in his arms.

Carlton smiled only slightly as he continued to type up his reports. It was funny how he had disliked Shawn at the start of younger man's job with the police, almost to the point of hate. Though, Carlton had never hated him. But now, the two of them were lovers and had been for the last five months.

That night five months ago, when Shawn had almost gotten himself shot, something had snapped in Carlton. As soon as the scene had been cleared, he had dragged the psychic away and kissed him. When he had realized that Shawn was still and unresponsive, he had backed off and had thought he had blown everything. But then Shawn had returned the kiss with even more intensity.

After that, it had been a little awkward for Carlton. He hadn't been in a relationship since well before his failed marriage and especially with a man. But there was just something about Shawn that made Carlton want to be with him, no matter what.

The sudden sound of his phone ringing brought Carlton's mind back to the present. He looked at his report and saw that he had yet to type a single word of it. Carlton sighted and answered the phone.

"Detective Carlton Lassiter, speaking," he said professionally.

There was a beat or two of silence and he was just about to hang up when he heard something. It was faint but Carlton hadn't missed it.

"Carl...ton..."

The detective sat up straight and pressed the phone to his ear more firmly. He listened carefully and hoped to hear something, anything else but he heard nothing. Carlton couldn't figure out who would be calling him at the station this late. Juliet as already gone for the night, Chief Vick was in her office, and Shawn –

Please don't let it be Shawn!

He checked the caller I.D. and noticed that it was indeed Shawn and he was calling from the Psych office, which was odd since he should have been at home.

"Shawn! Shawn, can you hear me?" Carlton yelled - panicked - into the phone, not caring in the least about who might overhear him. There was nothing but silence on the other end of the line.

Something was wrong, terribly wrong and Carlton could feel it. Without a second's worth of hesitation he slammed the phone down, grabbed his keys and raced to the Crown Vic. He couldn't get the car started fast enough and when he did he sped out of the station's parking lot, sirens blaring and lights flashing.

He had never been so thankful to be a cop in his life. The drive from the station to the Psych office usually took fifteen minutes but Carlton made it in less than four. When he reached the building, he got out of his car and gasped in horror. The entire building was on fire and Shawn was still inside!

"SHAWN!"