Finally, the last chapter I've written up until now, chapter 4! More will come eventually.

Lawyers: Our client does not own Psych or Supernatural or Charmed. Don't sue her.

Chapter 4

“Damn traps,” Carlton growled as he furiously brushed away the dusty substance.

One of his demon informants had told him about a secret storage area belonging to a man who had a connection to the yellow eyed demon. John Win-something, he couldn’t quite remember. The place had been fairly easy to find with the information he had been given, and with his ability to shimmer, he had no trouble getting in.

It was filled with combination between weapons, junk, and supernatural paraphernalia, but he wasn’t interested in that, he was looking for any possible information on the yellow eyed demon. Unfortunately, in his quest for this knowledge, he wasn’t as careful at avoiding the booby-traps as he had hoped and before he knew it, he was covered in angel spores.

Angel spores were a nasty little concoction created by hunters a while back. It was a demon’s worst nightmare. The spores infected demons like a virus and disabled all their powers, leaving them sick, defenseless and an easy target to hunt down and kill.

Carlton brushed away the last of the spores, but he knew it was pointless, he was already infected. He wasn’t worried about the hunter, John, coming after him because based on the layer of dust coating the storage room, it was quite clear the man hadn’t been there in a long time. However, he knew the next couple of days were going to be long and unpleasant.

Having already lost his ability to shimmer, Carlton broke his way through the exit of the storage area and walked back to his car to drive to the station. He figured he might as well grab some case files to look over while he was sick in bed, and while he was there, he could inform Chief Vick that he’d be out for the next couple of days.

“This whole trip was a waste,” he grumbled to himself as he drove. “I didn’t even find any information on the demon.”

By the time he arrived at the station, he could already feel the beginning effects of the spores. He wasn’t surprised by this though, he’d been infected once before when he was a teenager. He dad called off their hunting trip to take care of him. Symptoms begin pretty much immediately, but for the first day or so, they’re not really that bad, just little annoying things like coughing and headaches, after that though, everything rushes downhill like a rollercoaster.

Because he never asks for time off, Chief Vick gave him the next couple days off without question. So after grabbing a few case files, he headed out, but he only made it to the front doors before he heard called out:

“Lassi!”

He paused by the door long enough for Shawn to catch up before they both headed out together. As Shawn followed him to his car, he commented, “You’re leaving pretty early.”

“I’m coming down with something,” Carlton admitted. “I’ll be taking the next few days off.”

“Oh,” Shawn said, then smiled, “Hey, I told Gus about my transfer thing today and you’ll never believe what happened…”

Carlton mentally sighed. He loved Shawn’s enthusiasm, really, he did, but at the moment, he didn’t want to think about his unusual power and those glowing yellow eyes, not when he could feel his immune system breaking down.

“I’m going to have to cancel our meetings for the next couple of days,” Carlton said before taking a moment to cough into his sleeve.

“That’s fine,” he said nodding. “I could come over and take care of you.”

They were at his car by now and as he stopped in front of the driver’s side door with his hand on the handle, he turned to Shawn and shook his head.

“That’s okay, I’ll be fine.”

“If you’re sure,” Shawn said frowning, not looking convinced.

With his free hand, Carlton grabbed Shawn’s hand and squeezed it reassuringly as he said, “Yes, I’m sure.”

Shawn quickly glanced around the parking lot before looking back at Carlton and, with a strange glint in his eyes, pulled Carlton forward for a nice long kiss. It was a kiss so wonderful that Carlton actually felt a bit better. They pulled apart a moment later.

“Call me if you need anything,” Shawn said smiling.

Carlton nodded before getting into his car and Shawn waved as he drove away.

Shawn knew Carlton was having difficulties accepting his power, but he didn’t really blame him because he knew Carlton was trying despite the mild discomfort between them. Still, Shawn wanted to show him the positive side to his power and what better way to do that then to take away Carlton’s cold?

‘I’ll take care of his cold and he can enjoy his time off,’ Shawn thought as he drove his new bike back to his apartment. ‘Of course, knowing him, he’ll go right back to work once he realizes he’s not sick.’

When he got back to his apartment, he took some Ibuprofen to deal with a rather annoying headache before plopping down on the couch and turning on the TV. He got through watching two half-hour shows before he realized just how hot it was in his apartment and got up to go check the thermostat.

“Hello, Shawny.”

He stopped on his way to the thermostat and slowly looked around the room. It didn’t sound like anyone he knew. When he spotted the man standing in a corner of the living room, his hands curled into fists, and he wished that he had some sort of weapon on him.

“Who are you?” Shawn growled.

“That’s right, you wouldn’t remember me, would you?” the man said with a grin as he took a step forward, and as he did, Shawn got a clear view of his yellow eyes.

“You were just a baby when I met you and your mother.”

“My mom?” he breathed.

Suddenly they weren’t in Shawn’s apartment anymore. Instead, they were in a nursery, standing together in a corner of the room while in the center of the room sat a crib with a Hawaiian themed mobile hanging over it and a woman leaning over the crib’s side with her arm stretched down into it.

Shawn stepped away from the man and slowly walked over to the woman and the crib. It was his mother. While he doesn’t remember ever seeing her in person, he’s seen plenty of pictures to know it was her.

“Mom?”

She didn’t hear him though, or see him for that matter. She instead kept her attention on the baby in the crib and smiled as she tucked the blanket around him. She walked out of the room a moment later.

“What’s going on?” he asked the man with the yellow eyes. “That’s me, isn’t it?”

“Keep watching, it gets better,” the man said.

So Shawn turned back around and watched the scene, and as he did, he saw another man appear in the room in a quick burst of flames like some sort of cheesy magic trick. This man also had yellow eyes, but he didn’t see Shawn or the man in the corner. The second yellow-eyed man walked over to the crib and cut a thin line on his wrist. Shawn watched in horror as the second man dripped his own blood into the baby’s mouth.

“What the hell is he doing to me?” Shawn snapped.

At this moment, his mom returned to the room, and when she saw the strange man standing over he son’s crib, she screamed. The man snapped his yellow gaze over to Shawn’s mom, and when he did, she was thrown against the wall. Pinned to the wall, she slowly began to slide up it until she was at the ceiling, but she didn’t stop there. Using some form of telekinesis, the man slid his mom onto the ceiling itself until she was positioned directly over the crib. Her stomach began to bleed.

Knowing that the neither the second man nor his mom could hear him, Shawn turned to the man in the corner and yelled, “Stop this! She didn’t do anything!”

He simply shrugged and said, “I can’t do anything, Shawny. This is just a memory, it has already happened.”

The second man flamed out and Shawn watched as his father entered the room and his mother burst into flames. He father grabbed his baby self and ran out of the room, but Shawn stayed behind, calling up to his mom. The flames spread until the entire nursery was enveloped in them, and despite it being just a memory, Shawn could feel the heat of the flames licking at his skin.

Burning him.

Consuming him.

He awoke on the couch with a scream.

It was almost two in the morning when Gus received a call from his friend. Apparently Shawn took on a cold from Carlton that he couldn’t handle and now he wanted Gus to come take care of him.

“Have Lassiter take care of you,” Gus growled into the phone, annoyed at being woken up.

“He’ll be mad that I took his cold in the first place,” Shawn whined. “I don’t wanna tell him. Please Gus! Don’t make me use my friend card.”

So Gus drove over to Shawn’s apartment despite the fact that Shawn owed him way more friend cards than he had. There wasn’t really anything he could do because it was so late, so after checking his friend’s temperature (100.5 °F), Gus gave him some NyQuil and sent him to bed.

The next morning, Gus woke to the sound of vomiting coming from the bathroom. With a grimace, Gus dragged himself off the couch, got a glass of water and headed into the bathroom. He knocked lightly against the door frame and received a miserable groan in response.

“Here,” he said, holding out the water.

Shawn blindly reached behind himself to grab the water and muttered a quick thanks before rinsing his mouth out with the water and spitting into the toilet. Gus looked away, feeling a little queasy by the whole subject of vomit, and waited until Shawn flushed the toilet.

When he reached down to help his Shawn up, he froze at the sight of his friend. Frankly, Shawn looked terrible. He was pale, sweaty, and his eyes were bloodshot, however, the thing that really worried Gus were the clearly visible veins around Shawn’s eyes, veins that were black. Something like that was definitely not normal.

“That’s it, I’m taking you to the hospital,” Gus said as he grabbed Shawn’s hand and pulled him to his feet.

“What?” Shawn said, pulling away. “No, Gus, no hospitals.”

He slipped past Gus out the bathroom door and dragged himself back to his bedroom; collapsing on top of his covers and refusing to move.

“Fine,” Gus sighed. “I’m calling someone though.”

Carlton couldn’t understand it. He had been infected by the angel spores, he was sure of it. Yet a day later he felt perfectly fine, as if he had never even been infected. It didn’t make sense. He had felt the symptoms coming on, but then they disappeared. He couldn’t have built up an immunity against the spores, it didn’t work like that.

His phone rang, and he picked it up with a sigh, “Hello?”

“Detective Lassiter? It’s Gus.”

“What can I do for you, Gus?” he asked.

“To make a long story short, Shawn can absorb injuries along with transferring them and yesterday he absorbed your cold,” Gus explained.

“What?!”

He didn’t…

“Yeah, except this isn’t your average cold, is it?” Gus said.

It’s Shawn, of course he did.

“I’m on my way over,” Carlton sighed. “Keep an eye on him.”

He hung up before anything further could be said and immediately shimmered into a demonic marketplace. He had discovered it a while back when he was undercover. The place was protected by dark magic so that no hunter or human could find it, however, Carlton’s demon half allowed him to enter it.

He headed straight for a small shop that sold a variety of different concoctions, including medicine for angel spores. He was really just getting it as a last resort because the fact is, angel spores only effect demons, so the medicine was made for demons. Carlton wasn’t sure what effects it might have on a human. The reason why Shawn was even infected at all was because he absorbed an active virus into his body. Had he just breathed it in like Carlton had, nothing would’ve happened.

After purchasing the medicine, he shimmered back to his house and then drove to Shawn’s apartment. When he reached the apartment complex, he raced up the stairs to Shawn’s door and only had to knock once before Gus opened the door and pulled him in.

“He’s getting worse,” Gus said as he led Carlton into Shawn’s bedroom.

As soon as they entered the room, Carlton broke away from Gus and sat on the bed next to Shawn’s prone form. He truly did look a sight for sore eyes. His cheeks were flushed with fever while the rest of him was as pale as a sheet. His hair was wet with sweat and along with the black veins around his eyes, he also had the veins on his arms and hands and running down his neck.

“I can take it from here, Gus,” Carlton sighed. “You can go home now.”

“Shouldn’t we take him to the hospital?”

“The hospital can’t help him,” Carlton said. “I’ve been sick with this before. All we can do is wait it out.”

“Are you sure?” Gus asked.

“Yes,” Carlton said. “I’ll take care of him, don’t worry.”

With one last unsure glance at both Carlton and Shawn, Gus left, but not before saying, “Call me if there are any changes.”

‘We’re going to have a little talk about how you use your powers when this is all over,’ Carlton thought with a sigh as he turned back to Shawn. He rested a hand on the psychic’s shoulder and gently shook him awake, “Shawn.”

“Carlton?” he asked groggily as his eyes slid open. “What are you doing here?”

“Gus called me.”

“Of course he did,” Shawn murmured, but judging from the small smile on his face, he wasn’t mad.

“Have you eaten anything today?” Carlton asked as he pulled the blankets out from under Shawn and covered him up.

“I don’t think I can keep anything down,” Shawn said queasily.

Carlton knew Shawn should get something on his stomach, so he made soup for the both of them. Kicking off his shoes, he sat down on the bed next to Shawn and passed over a bowl. Shawn looked down at the soup in distaste, but had a few spoonfuls nonetheless.

“So you can take injuries too,” Carlton said as he put the two soup bowls on the night stand.

“Yeah,” Shawn said as he lay back down in the bed and turned on his side, facing away from Carlton. He had hoped they’d discuss his powers under more positive circumstances, not now when he was so sick because of them. He didn’t want Carlton to see them as a bad thing.

Seeing Shawn close up, Carlton changed the subject, “How are you feeling?”

“Tired.”

Carlton got up off the bed and Shawn looked over his shoulder to see him walk to the end of the bed. “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to let you get some sleep,” Carlton said. “I’ll be in the living room if you need me.”

Shawn frowned, “You don’t have to go.”

“I’ll just keep you up.”

Shawn shook his head, “No you won’t… Stay with me?”

Carlton hesitated at the foot of the bed. The hunter in him wanted to stay and watch over Shawn, protect him, but the demon in him saw this as the perfect situation to take advantage of Shawn, saw him as weak and vulnerable.

‘I can control myself,’ Carlton thought as he walked back over to the side of the bed, and as he lay down next to Shawn, he told himself that he was there to protect him and keep an eye on him. He’s not taking advantage of him if he’s lying on top of the covers.

He had drifted off next to his boyfriend without meaning to. Something had woken him up and that something shifted under the covers next to him. While they slept, Shawn had pressed up against Carlton with his face resting against the detective’s chest while he in return had an arm wrapped around the psychic. Carlton would have laid there and enjoy the quiet moment had Shawn not been radiating heat.

Sitting up in the bed, Carlton shook Shawn by the shoulder, trying to wake him up, but to no avail. Calling out the psychic’s name, Carlton lightly smacked Shawn on the face a few times. Finally, Shawn groaned in response and his eyes fluttered open.

“Wha?”

“I need you to sit up,” Carlton said as he hopped off the bed and walked around to Shawn’s side.

As Shawn slowly slid up in bed and leaned back against the headboard, Carlton grabbed the Ibuprofen and half full glass of water Gus had left on the night stand. He took out two pills for his drowsy boyfriend and handed them to him along with the water. After making sure that Shawn took the medicine, he went into the bathroom and looked through the medicine cabinet for a thermometer.

He came back a moment later with the thermometer in hand and with a quick command of ‘open up’, Carlton stuck the thermometer under Shawn’s tongue. When it beeped, it read 105.3 °F.

“Shit,” he hissed before sticking the thermometer into his pocket and saying, “Come on, get up.”

As Shawn slowly swung his legs over the side of the bed, Carlton reached down and draped one of Shawn’s arms over his shoulder. He pulled Shawn to his feet and they both shuffled toward the bathroom. About halfway there, Shawn stopped and groaned.

“What is it?” Carlton asked.

“I think ‘m gonna be-“ was the only warning he received before Shawn threw up on Carlton.

The detective grimaced but continued their trek to the bathroom, all the while saying to Shawn, “It’s alright, let’s just get you to the bathroom.”

When they finally reached the bathroom, Carlton sat Shawn down on the floor, leaned up against the wall, before turning on the bathtub facet to fill the tub with lukewarm water. He sat near the tub and ran his hand through the water to make sure it was the right temperature.

Suddenly he heard a thud and looked over to see Shawn on the ground convulsing. Acting quickly, Carlton slid Shawn to the center of the bathroom and tossed the few objects in the room he might hurt himself on out the bathroom door. Then, sitting with his back to the toilet, Carlton waited for the convulsions to stop. A minute later, Shawn fell still on the tiled floor.

“Shawn?” he called as he crept toward his boyfriend.

He was breathing fine.

“Shawn?”

“Hmmm…?”

Carlton sighed in relief. He was okay, just exhausted and feverish. Speaking of which, the bath was ready. He turned off the water and very carefully lifted Shawn up and into the lukewarm water. As soon as he did, Shawn’s eyes snapped open and he struggled in the water, pushing at Carlton’s hands.

“Ghost!” he yelped. “Lemme go! Lemme go!”

“Shawn!” he snapped as he grabbed the psychic’s face with both hands. “It’s me, Carlton. You’re okay, I’m just bringing your fever down.”

His struggling stopped and he stared up at Carlton with glazed eyes, “Carly? Wha’ happened?”

“You’re sick, remember?” Carlton said as he grabbed a nearby washcloth and soaked it in the water. “I’m bringing your fever down.”

Shawn watched through half-lidded eyes as Carlton wiped the sweat off his face. He wrinkled up his nose and mumbled, “You smell bad.”

Carlton glanced down at the vomit of his shirt and said humorlessly, “I’d imagine so.”

Shawn groaned, “Feelin’ nauseous.”

“Don’t you throw up again,” Carlton warned as he unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it out the bathroom door. “Better?”

Shawn smiled sleepily as he lifted a wet arm out of the tub and pressed his hand against Carlton’s chest with his fingers splayed. “Yeah.” He trailed his fingers from the detective’s chest over to his shoulder and commented with a frown, “That’s a pretty bad sunburn you got there. Does it hurt?”

“No,” Carlton muttered and adverted his eyes, unable to look at Shawn as he commented on the red marks he inherited from his mother. He felt as if Shawn was staring at an embarrassing tattoo.

“When do you even have time to suntan?” Shawn asked curiously.

“I find time,” he said vaguely as he soaked the washcloth again and wiped down Shawn’s face.

Shawn returned his arm to the tub and closed his eyes. He was quiet for a moment, and just as Carlton thought he had fallen asleep, Shawn mumbled with his eyes still closed, “I dreamt of burning pineapples over a crib.” He paused for a moment before continuing, “And men with yellow eyes.”

Carlton froze and stared at him with wide eyes. Shawn opened his own eyes and looked over at Carlton, not noticing the man’s surprised appearance, he asked, “My eyes glow, did you know?”

Carlton lied and shook his head ‘no.’ Shawn smiled lazily as he said, “Pretty glow. Like suns. You know, my eyes glow.”

Carlton pulled the thermometer out of his pocket and stuck it under Shawn’s tongue. When it beeped, it read: 104.8 °F, and Carlton sighed. They were going to be there for a while.

“You glow too…”

Carlton rested the wet washcloth on his boyfriend’s head and said, “That’s nice, Shawn.”

Shawn closed his eyes again and sighed, “I wish you didn’t hate my powers…”

This time he really was asleep and Carlton leaned against the tub with his arms resting over its sides.

‘Looks like I’m gonna have to do some damage control when this is all over.’

Shawn’s fever eventually went down, so Carlton dried him off, got him in clean clothes, and put him back in bed. Shawn had been barely conscious for the whole thing, so it was a bit of a process, and even though he was pretty positive Shawn would be out of it for a while, Carlton didn’t feel comfortable leaving him alone while he shimmered back home to grab a clean shirt. In the end, he just wore one of Shawn’s.

It was well past lunch time and closing in on dinner, so Carlton made some soup and sandwiches. When the food was done, he woke Shawn up long enough to get him to eat half a bowl of soup an a couple bites of a sandwich. The psychic was out like a light again shortly after. It was now several hours later and Carlton was faced with yet another problem:

Should he sleep on the couch, or should he sleep in the bed with Shawn?

Granted, they were dating and he had done it earlier that day, but Shawn had asked him to stay. He was sure if Shawn was awake, he would tell Carlton to just get in the bed, but what if he was wrong about that? Sleeping under the covers was different then sleeping on top of the covers. Of course, if he slept on the couch, Shawn might get another fever and he wouldn’t know.

He had to take care of him. After all, it was his virus Shawn was sick with.

That settled it then, he would sleep in the bed with Shawn. Besides, it was just sleeping, nothing else. It could be something else… but no! He wouldn’t succumb to his demonic urges.

“God, I’m damaged,” he muttered as he shut off the lights in the apartment before walking into Shawn’s room.

He paused by the side of the bed for a moment before slipping under the covers next to Shawn and before he knew it, he had the younger man protectively wrapped up in his arms.

He woke up quite suddenly at around five in the morning when he felt Shawn tense up and twist uncomfortably in his arms. He cracked one eye open and wondered for a moment if Shawn was just a restless sleeper. However, the pained moan that escaped his boyfriend’s lips said otherwise.

Slowly sliding Shawn out of his arms, Carlton reached over to the nightstand and turned on the lamp. As soon as light flooded the room, Shawn grabbed a fistful of Carlton’s shirt and pulled him closer.

“Carlton,” he rasped, pausing to groan in pain. “Hurts.”

Carlton whipped the blankets off of them and when he did, his breath caught in his throat. The black veins had spread throughout Shawn’s body. The spores had never been this bad before, not for him or any other demon he’s ever met.

‘It’s because he’s human,’ he thought fearfully. ‘His immune system isn’t strong enough to fight the spores.’

Letting go of his shirt, Shawn writhed on the bed before curling up into a ball. A few tears escaped his eyes as he let out a pained sob.

“God, it hurts,” he cried.

Carlton really didn’t want to risk using the medicine he got from the demonic marketplace, but he didn’t know what else to do. The hospital couldn’t cure this, neither could any known human medicine. He didn’t want to try the ‘wait and see’ method either because truthfully he wasn’t sure Shawn would last that long. The medicine was his best bet.

Leaning close to Shawn, Carlton whispered, “I’m going to go get some medicine, okay?”

As he got up from the bed, Shawn suddenly reached over and grabbed hold of his wrist. With his grip tightening painfully on Carlton’s wrist, Shawn said frantically, “Don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me!”

“I’m not, I’m just going to the kitchen. I’ll be right back, I swear,” Carlton reassured him.

Shawn stared at him with wild, glassy eyes before dropping his wrist and curling back up into a ball. Carlton raced into the kitchen and grabbed the medicine he had left on the table before running back to Shawn’s bedside. He didn’t move when Carlton came back in and the detective rested a hand on his shoulder to get his attention.

“I need you to sit up and take this,” he said as he uncorked the small bottle.

It took a bit more persuading before Shawn uncurled and sat up in the bed. Carlton held the small bottle to Shawn’s lips and he drank the whole thing with one gulp, grimacing at the taste.

“That’s disgusting,” Shawn said, curling up on the bed again.

“Believe me, I know,” Carlton said as he climbed onto the bed, sitting with his back to the headboard, and pulled Shawn partially onto his lap. He pulled the blanket back over them and then wrapped his arms around the tense psychic.

Shawn squirmed briefly before falling still and asked quietly, “What’s happening to me?”

“You took on a sickness that runs in my family,” Carlton lied. “It doesn’t happen very often, but I knew what it was when I got it.”

Shawn’s breath hitched and he shuddered against another onslaught of pain. He whispered repeatedly, “Take it back. Take it back. I don’t want it anymore.”

Carlton would have loved nothing more than to take Shawn’s pain away, but the spores disabled Shawn’s powers just as they would for a demon. Being unable to do anything else, Carlton ran his hand through Shawn’s hair soothingly and gently rocked him until they both fell asleep.

When he woke up the next day, it was almost the afternoon, and at some point during the night, Carlton had slid down into a laying position with Shawn laying halfway on top of him. He breathed a sigh of relief when he looked down at his boyfriend. Shawn was breathing easily and most of the black veins had faded. The medicine worked. Not wanting to wake up Shawn and calmed by the fact that he was going to be okay, Carlton went back to sleep.

Shawn had cold-like symptoms for the rest of the day and the next before the angel spores were completely out of his system. Because Shawn didn’t remember much of what he had said while he was feverish, including his little comment about his powers in the bathtub, Carlton held off the talk he needed to have with his boyfriend. He would eventually confront Shawn on the issue, but for the moment, he wasn’t even quite sure what he would say. He couldn’t exactly tell him that his glowing eyes reminded him of the demon who killed father, that would make anyone feel bad. No, he had to come up with a different story that would explain his behavior. In the meantime, Carlton stuck around Shawn’s apartment to help him clean up any mess they made over the past couple of days.

Carlton held up the shirt Shawn had thrown up on before deciding it was a lost cause and throwing it into the trash.

“Sorry about that,” Shawn said as he put away the now clean dishes.

“It’s okay, you were sick,” Carlton said before turning to his boyfriend.

“I’m glad you were here with me,” Shawn said smiling. “Maybe we can do this again except without all the sickness stuff.”

“I’d like that,” Carlton said before glancing at his watch. “It’s almost lunch time, do you want to go grab something to eat?”

Shawn put the last dish away before closing the cabinet and saying, “Sure. Are you driving or am I?”

“There’s no way I’m getting on that motorcycle,” Carlton said as he and Shawn pulled on their shoes.

“Hey, don’t knock it till you try it,” Shawn said before he grabbed his keys and his wallet and following Carlton out the front door.

Chapter end notes: I completely made up angel spores.