For Our Eyes Only

Chapter 12

Today I might lose all three people I've spent the past eight years with.

I couldn't just go and find Gus, Lassie, and everyone else, so the chief suggested that I wait at the station until everyone came back.

I didn't want to wait. Waiting leads to boredom, boredom leads to overthinking, and I had plenty that I did not want to overthink.

Unfortunately, I didn't want to go back home, so I got the chief to give me the assignment of filing paperwork.

I was done in twenty minutes. I don't see how people manage to take an entire day doing that kind of stuff.

So I turned to Chief Vick. I talked to her about dogs, paced around her office until she looked like she was about to go crazy, and eventually just got to the point where I was purposely trying to annoy her.

She kicked me out of her office after a while.

I considered doing the classic "office supplies in Jello" prank from the Office, but decided against it. I'm not close enough to anyone here to do that and get away with it.

I resorted to sitting at Jules' old desk.

It was pretty organized- a silver metal pencil holder with pens and Sharpies and pencils with fluff and flowers where the erasers should be, a stapler perfectly aligned with an immaculate computer.

Wait. The drawer.

I opened all of her drawers, digging through them until I had seen everything.

Nothing worth using your dying breaths to talk about.

I leaned back in her chair and sighed.

That's when all of the cops came flooding through the door.

I kept watching the door, examining the faces of all the cops until I found both Lassiter and Gus.

A wave of relief rushed over me.

They were alive.

I stood up from Jules' desk and got my best friend's attention.

"Gus!"

He looked in my direction and walked over to me.

I met him halfway and slapped him across the face.

He clutched onto his cheek, appalled.

"What was that for?!"

"For risking your life, and creating the possibility of me losing the two people in this world that I actually care about enough to share my horrifically embarrassing story from the Christmas party of '05, both in the same day!"

"Look, Shawn, I'm sorry! But we got him! We got all of them! The cops are bringing them in now!"

I looked towards the door.

Guys in black were being brought into the station, hands behind their back.

I've felt a sense of justice before, but I had never felt it as strongly as I did in that moment.

It calmed me a surprising amount.

"Hey man," I looked back at Gus. "Thank you. Seriously. Now I think I'm gonna go home."