Chapter Text
In one universe, Henry and Madeline Spencer give birth to a healthy baby boy. Henry just managed to solve a case and arrive at the hospital in time for his son to be born. Shawn Spencer was welcomed to a tired mother and three police officers peering curiously at him.
In another universe, Henry was called to a new case right after receiving a call from his wife that she was in labor. Madeline gave birth surrounded by nurses instead of family and was physically and emotionally exhausted by the time the Spencer baby was born. Her child was put into her arms and birth records were filled out in a hazy blur.
There wasn't any family there to challenge the name and the nurses had long since learned that you did not want to pester a new mother on her child’s name. So with all of the authority that a slurred “it’s spelled the normal way” carried, the healthy baby girl was named Shan Spencer for all legal purposes.
In all universes Burton Guster and S. Spencer become inseparable friends.
In both universes, Henry Spencer taught his child how to become the best detective possible. Baby Spencer had an eidetic memory and all of their father’s games honed it to make sure that everything was noticed.
Shawn hated the “games”. He saw them as yet another way of Henry controlling him, molding him into the kind of person that was everything Shawn wasn’t. He rebelled against the idea of being a detective. He rebelled against the idea of following his father’s footsteps. He rebelled against everything that his father stood for and swore to Gus over twizzlers and pineapple gummy bears to never be a part of the police force.
Shan never made up her mind about the “games”. Henry had never figured out what to do with a daughter and was usually awkward in showing her that he cared. It was only when he was training her that she was able to see that he was trying so hard. She didn’t particularly like the “games”- they were too repetitive and easy to be anything really but boring-, but she did love her father.
Shan never really rebelled against being a detective. She insisted that she didn’t want to be in the police force to her father whenever he tried a little too hard to make her the best detective. She knew that Henry loved her, but also knew that if she didn’t push back he would forget that she had her own ideas and dreams.
It was when she was fourteen years old that she got the closest to swearing off the force entirely. But then there was a man with roaming hands and a lack of understanding what noor age of consentmeant.
So she fought like the wild thing that her uncle had always called her to be. She bit and scratched and kicked and punched, but he didn’t seem to register anything. Then he was gone and she was left leaning against the wall of a park bathroom as a familiar detective slammed him into a sink and listed off his rights.
“You okay, Spencer?” Detective Vick asked her. Shan nodded, quickly fixing her clothes and reapplying her blue lipstick.
(Several of the drag queens that were usually in the precinct had become fond of Shan after all the times that she had to go to work with her dad when her mom was busy. They had taught her how to pick-pocket new cops and cause distractions that seemed natural. One night they taught her how to apply make-up like armor and lipstick of a striking color was always an essential element.)
The detective studied her a second longer before nodding. “Get in the car and I’ll drive you to the station. You need to make a report.” They both ignored the man’s protests and rationalizations.
Shan sent a brief text to Gus saying that she was going to miss lunch and went to the station.
(After that she knew she was going to be a cop. And that she was taking up kick boxing.
She even managed to drag Gus along to the first few lessons by laying out her plan to fight any aliens she came into contact with before they stole all of the pineapple. She was lucky to have a friend that appreciated the golden god as much as she did).
In one universe, Shawn was sixteen when his parents got divorced. He stayed living with his dad but made it clear that he sided with his mother. HIs mother hugged him tightly when she left but gave no explanation beyond vague comments.
In another universe, Shan was barely thirteen when her parents got divorced. Her mother left in the middle of a school day; Shan came home to a note explaining absolutely nothing in place of her mother. Henry came home that night to Shan reading it for the hundredth time.
She handed it to him and slipped out the front door for Gus’s house.
In one universe, Shawn left home the night before he graduated. He drove out of town with the moon at his back and didn’t stop until he was long out of the state. The next decade was filled with working odd jobs and meeting people all over the world.
He sent postcards from the cities he went to; sometimes collecting dozens of postcards before finding a post office that worked internationally. Henry collected each one and put it in a box with the rest, but would never mention it to his son. Gus hung them all over his dorm rooms and later apartments. He mentioned it to Shawn after the other man had called him from the roof of a skyscraper in Hong Kong and after that Shawn had taken to writing even more absurd stories on the cards.
Gus was never 100% sure if the stories were false or not. (It was hard to tell with Shawn).
In another universe, Shan graduated early but didn’t tell anyone. She went to work at a smoothie cafe instead of school. It worked for three months before Henry found out and showed up at her job to drag her back home.
For years later Henry would regret his actions.
For years later Shan would become furious at the lack of trust her father had showed her.
They had argued, getting as close to physical blows that they ever had. Henry accused her of dropping out of school and throwing away her future. Shan accused him of doubting her intelligence and doubting her. Each screamed at the other and pulled the most hurtful comments they could think of.
She had stormed out with the door slamming behind her. Her bike wasn’t starting so she had moved to Henry’s truck and sped away in the truck. Two hours later she was sitting in a jail cell, watching her (ex)boyfriend walk out without charges pressed and hearing her father tell her that she was going to be charged for grand theft auto.
A week later she blew a kiss to Gus and sped away on her bike to wherever she would get before her full tank of gas ran out.
Shan worked different jobs and met different people. She sent postcards back home (two copies sent to Gus with the silent understanding that one would be given to Henry. Gus always followed through but often gave the half-hearted complaint of stubborn Spencers).
By his twenty-first birthday he had been traveling for nearly three years. Shawn was loving the adventures, loving the thrill of landing somewhere new with no expectations. He was still in the early days of the traveling, still barely ten states in on a tour to see all fifty. It would have been twelve, but he had had the chance to travel photographing Europe with a gorgeous brunette and had eagerly put a pause on his plans.
By her twentieth birthday she had been traveling for nearly three years. Shan was loving the adventures, and not quite ready to go back to Santa Barbara but more than ready to chase of dream of detective again. She took a course on criminology at an online college, then attended a lecture from the FBI, then found herself showing off moves from her kickboxing classes and running tests that were once again disguised as “games”.
In both universes Gus went home on his 25th birthday to have his S. Spencer in his apartment.
The day after his birthday Gus would wake up with glitter, paint, sand, and confetti all over his skin and clothes and multiple slips of paper with phone numbers stuffed into his pockets. A note from Shawn was on the table, complete with a Santa Barbara postcard, telling him that he would be back next year.
The day after his birthday Gus would wake up with glitter, paint, sand, and confetti all over his skin and clothes and multiple slips of paper with phone numbers stuffed into his pockets. Shan was still sleeping beside him, clearly having taken a shower before she fell asleep that morning. She would stay living in his apartment for a month before she could find one of her own and neither would mention telling Henry she was back. He would only find out three months after she had returned when he got a call from friends still working at the police force questioning why he hadn’t mentioned that Shan was psychic before.
(Much later Shan would go to her childhood house. Henry would be there- Gus would forever deny telling him that he should stay home instead of fishing that weekend. They would hug and show more emotion than either were comfortable with. Both would apologize and assuredly notcry at finally seeing the other again.)
Both universes had S. Spencer opening a Psychic consulting agency with Gus.
Both universes had everyone finding out that they were not psychic in ways outside of their control.
Both universes had S. Spencer’s with pasts that couldn’t quite stay in the past.