Work Text:
*1996*
All Shawn had needed to do was get what little stuff he had out of boyfriend, Greg's, apartment before he came back home, but he knew when he heard the door slam shut, he was too late.
"What are you doing my love?" His boyfriends soft voice asked, sending a chill down the younger man's spine as he felt Greg stalk closer. Shawn stopped shoving the last of his clothes in his backpack and turned around to face Greg.
"Nothing," Shawn squeaked, his eyes downcast. "I wasn't doing anything."
"Look at me when I talk to you, My love." Greg said through gritted teeth, grabbing Shawn's already bruised chin tightly, gesturing behind Shawn. "This sure doesn't look like nothing."
Shawn's eyes filled with tears and panic as he tried to shake his head vehemently.
"To me," Greg started, laughing darkly, pulling Shawn close enough to his face that he could feel Greg's heaving anger blowing into his face. "This looks like you're trying to leave?"
"No!" Shawn whined, trying to pull himself out of his boyfriends grip. "Why would I leave? I love-"
Shawn's sentence was caught off with a sudden punch to his cheekbone, he grunted as he hit the floor.
"What the hell!" Shawn shouted, cupping his bleeding cheekbone.
"For someone so smart," Greg shouted as he pulled Shawn off of the floor by his hair. "You sure are a shit liar!"
"Please Greg, I'm sorry!" Shawn pleaded as he was being yanked through the apartment. Shawn let out a sharp sob when Greg threw his battered body against the front door, his ribs slamming into the door knob.
"Sorry my ass, Shawn!" Greg shouted back, continuing to pull Shawn through the door and down the hallway by his hair. Shawn tried to pry Greg's fingers out of his hair as he made it further down the hall to the concrete staircase.
"Please! Greg, I won't leave anymore! Just let go of me!" Shawn continued to plead to no avail. They made it to the top of the concrete stairs and Shawn felt like he was completely fucked. "Please! Please! I won't leave again!"
"If you wanna leave so god damn badly, you should just go!"
The last thing Shawn saw before his body connected with the staircase was the smug fury in Greg's eyes.
*~*
When Shawn woke up the sky was a mix of pinks and oranges as the sun started to set. His muscles felt like shattering glass as he peeled his body off of the concrete, his shirt clung to his back and he couldn't tell if it was blood or sweat, but in this moment, he didn't care. He picked up his bag which had looked to be tossed down after him and painfully started his walk across Santa Barbara to the one place he felt safe, Gus' house.
Once he finally made it to his best friends home, he stopped momentarily to see if Gus' parents were home, thankfully for him, they weren't. If Gus might have conniption, but his parents would hold him hostage and call Henry.
Shawn's head pounded in time with him knocking on the Gusters' front door, but he chuckled in relief hear Gus say he'd be right there.
"Hi! Sorry, what do you-" Gus' voice trailed off as he took in his best friends current state. "Shawn?"
"Sorry, I would have brought pizza, but I didn't have the time."
"Oh my God, Shawn!" Gus exclaimed as he pulled Shawn into a bone crushing hug, Shawn faintly moaned in pain as Gus maneuvered the two of them into the foyer and shut the door. "What the hell happened to you?"
"Greg happened." Shawn mumbled against the crook of Gus' neck, using all of his upper body strength to keep Shawn upright as he tried to go boneless.
"He did all of this?" Gus was downright furious, he gently placed his hand on the back of Shawn's neck. Shawn nodded, the burning embarrassment in his core bringing tears to his eyes. "Shawn, I know this is probably the last thing you want to hear right now, but I think you should call your dad and tell him about this."
Gus was right, that was the last thing Shawn wanted to hear in this moment.
"I am not calling Henry!" Shawn groaned. "I can't face him like this! It's humiliating!"
"Okay, we won't call Henry," Gus said quickly, Shawn shakily moved to hold himself away from Gus' arms so he could look him in the eyes. "What do you wanna do?"
Shawn pondered that thought, what did he want to do? Other than get rid of this killer migraine, he didn't know.
"I think it would be a good idea for me to skip town for a while?" Gus couldn't tell if that was a question or a statement, but it still hurt to hear that Shawn was thinking of leaving. "Just until I think it's safe for me to come back and I can try my best to keep in contact with you and Henry, I promise."
Gus nodded in agreement.
"Fine, but I would like for you to do something for me first," Shawn groaned at Gus' request and pressed himself back into his friends arms. "I just want you to get checked out at a hospital before you go."
Shawn reluctantly agreed and let Gus lead him out to the garage and into his car to drive him to the hospital.
*~*
Frankly, it took forever to get Shawn checked into a room without alerting the authorities or his emergency contacts, but eventually, Gus had managed to get Shawn into a room.
"Can you do something for me?" Shawn whispered to Gus when he was finally given some breathing room from being tended to by eerily calm nurses checking every square inch of his body.
"What do you need?"
"I have a business card in my wallet, in the front pocket of my backpack ," Shawn instructed quietly, pointing to his bag which sat next to Gus. "Say that you're calling for me, that'd I'd like to report something, that under no circumstances is he allowed to tell Henry anything, and go home."
Gus nodded and did everything that Shawn had asked him to do, tapping his foot on the linoleum as he waited for the person on the other side of the line to pick up.
"Lassiter."
"Hi! I'm calling for Shawn Spencer..."
*~*
Carlton sees Shawn before Shawn seeing him and the sight of Shawn nearly made his heart fall out of his ass. Shawn's small frame looked event smaller half curled up on the hospital bed, the cocky attitude he had fallen in love with a year ago looked to be beaten out of him with bruises varying from brand new to a yellowing fade, and every stitched cut on his face and body shattered the officers heart all over again.
"Shawn?" Carlton asked in disbelief, knocking on the rooms door softly.
"Officer Dumbass," Shawn smiled brokenly, he leaned forward to pat on the edge of the bed, signaling that it was okay for Carlton to sit on the bed with him. "I was starting to think you weren't gonna show."
Carlton sighed as he sat down where Shawn told him to. "I came as soon as I hung up."
"Sorry about that by the way," the younger man murmured, running a bandaged hand through his hair. "I would have called you myself if I wasn't being nonstop examined by nurses."
"Your friend said that you wanted to report a crime?" Carlton cut to the chase, trying to mentally prepare himself for everything he was about to here.
Shawn slumped against the pillows behind him, mumbling something along the lines of 'you really know how to kill a mood'.
"Yeah," Shawn grumbled a little louder as Carlton pulled a tape recorder out of his jacket pocket. "A years worth of domestic assault and attempted murder."
Carlton barely had the chance to start the recording before Shawn launched into every event between him leaving Henry's house the year prior to the events that happened earlier that landed him in the hospital bed in what he said was near perfect detail. By the end of Shawn's recollection of his abuser, Shawn was in justified tears and it took every ounce of of Carlton's self control from hunting down the bastard.
Shawn apologized again, wiping at his eyes and trying to calm himself down before his heart monitor started alerting nurses.
"You have nothing to apologize for Shawn," Carlton said as softly as he could with his anger bubbling under the surface. "You didn't do anything wrong and you didn't deserve anything that bastard did to you."
"He knows where Gus lives," Shawn started to panic as he quickly changed the subject. "If he finds out that I lived or that I plan on skipping town, he gonna go after Gus first!"
Carlton scooted closer to Shawn and let him fall into his chest, rubbing a comforting hand up and down his back, placing his chin on top of Shawn's head.
"Shawn, I promise to you that I will do everything in my power to make sure you and you're friend stay safe." Carlton knew that he shouldn't make promises, but he would be damned if he let Shawn or his friend get hurt .
"Thank you." the younger man whispered into the officers chest. Looking out at the Santa Barbara night sky, Carlton made a silent vow that he was gonna make sure that it was going to be cold day in hell before Shawn's abuser was released from prison.
"I should let you go so you can file this report shouldn't I?" Shawn weakly laughed, pulling himself out of Carlton's arms.
"I guess I should take this down to the station." Carlton smiled sadly, his eyes travelling to Shawn's busted lips and then quickly back up to his eyes, they sat in a comfortable silence for a few seconds before Shawn spoke up again.
"Hey officer dumbass?"
Carlton hummed in response as Shawn slid closer to him.
"Think you could give me a kiss goodbye? Please?"
Carlton carefully closed the distance between them. Even as gentle as their unexpected makeout session was, Carlton could faintly taste blood as they managed to split the scabbing skin on Shawn's lip. Shawn brought his hand up to cradle the officers cheek as they pulled apart and placed their foreheads together.
"You're still a really good kisser." Shawn whispered, Carlton chuckled softly in agreement and gave Shawn a peck on his not bruised cheek before standing up from the bed and pocketing the tape recorder.
"Be safe Shawn, please?" Carlton said, walking toward the door, stopping to look at Shawn one last time.
"I will officer, don't worry about me." Shawn reassured, licking at the blood pooling at his lip. "And hey, Maybe I'll see you again when I come back?"
"Hopefully... Call first though." Carlton smiled as he walked out of the hospital with the intent to fulfill his promise to ensure Shawn's safety.