Aria (a psych fanfiction)

Chapter 7: Complications

Well, that didn't exactly go as planned...

Aria sat on the hard plastic chair, tapping her fingers against the table until Lassiter entered the room. Of course. "Lassie!" she exclaimed, as brightly as though they'd simply run into each other on the boardwalk. "Long time no see! I wish I could offer you coffee this time, but I'm kinda empty handed at the moment." He glared at her, unresponding. "Um, I do have a Crunch bar in my bag, if you're really that hungry. Or I could whip up something else. I mean, I don't exactly have a fully equipped kitchen in there, but I can be pretty resourceful, right?"

"Resourceful, huh?" He grinned, setting a grainy photo on the table. The image was black and white, fuzzy, extremely bad quality, but it was clearly a picture of a girl with long, dark hair crouched in front of the door of an apartment building. "Resourceful enough to illegally break into an abandoned building that was suspected to be the headquarters of a major drug ring?"

She raised her hands defensively. "Hey, it's not my fault! You see, this is why I should be in on these thing! I wouldn't have barged in there if I'd known you were staking it out. I mean, I'm not looking to obstruct justice or anything."

"Oh, really? Well, last time I checked, breaking and entering was a felony, and despite your intentions, you did obstruct justice. But that brings me to my next question: what exactly were you doing there last night, anyway?"

"I-I..."

"Lassie!" Shawn burst into the room, followed by Gus. Aria stifled a giggle at seeing that the both of them were still in their pajamas.

"Oh, God, more of you," Lassiter muttered, rubbing his forehead. "So, Spencer, we have video of your little cousin here picking a lock to enter a condemned building, disrupting a stakeout in the process. Care to shed some light?"

"Yes! Aria, Aria, Aria," Shawn said, crossing around to give the girl a hug.

"Wha - " Her protest was quickly stifled when her mouth was blocked by the fabric of his pajamas.

"We know you're upset, and that's totally understandable," Gus picked up where Shawn left off. "But running away isn't going to fix any problems."

"I'm sorry, what - "

Shawn interrupted Lassiter. "Lassie, some respect for the recently beavered."

Both the officer and the girl looked up at him with knitted brows. "He means bereaved," Gus explained hastily.

"Aria,"' Shawn continued, "We're so sorry about your parents." After a moment, Aria, finally catching on, began to sob, as did Gus.

"But," Gus choked out, struggling to compose himself, "they faxed over the will last night while we were sleeping."

Lassiter looked from one man to the other, evidently confused. "Would someone please - "

"Aria's parents died in a car accident," Shawn explained.

"They left Shawn to be her legal guardian," Gus blurted out.

"Wait, what?" the three others asked simultaneously, staring at Gus incredulously

Aria tried to untangle the situation. "Lassie, we need a moment. Please." Shawn and Gus followed her out of the room. She turned on them as soon as the door shut, crocodile tears still fresh on her cheeks. "Okay, what? Also, what?"

Shawn looked to Gus. "Gus, the plan was to say my dad was the legal guardian, not me!"

"Shawn, you said very specifically in the car that - "

"I did not!"

"Yes, you did."

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did - "

"GUYS!" Aria snapped. The two silenced immediately. "Okay, we have less than a minute to get back in their before Lassie gets suspicious enough to come out here. Thank you for getting me out of trouble, but the idea was that I end up far away from Santa Barbara, not stuck here with you guys as my parents!"

"Yeah, well, you were the one who ran off! You were supposed to give us a day to figure things out! That was the deal!" Shawn shot back.

"Look, I didn't feel safe here, okay? Too many serial killers for my taste, and it's easier for me to keep a low profile when I'm by myself, as in, alone! No legal guardian! Why couldn't you have just let it go?"

"Okay, okay, look," Gus said, trying to ease the tension. "Whatever the original plan was, Lassiter doesn't really trust you as it is. Any of us, actually."

"You think I don't know that?" Aria pinched the bridge of her nose. "Look, I'm sorry, I shouldn't be blowing up at you guys, it's just none of this..."

"I'll do it."

"What?" The girl looked up at Shawn.

"I'll...I'll adopt you, okay?"

"But...I can't do that to you guys. And I met you about a week ago. And, and, and this is just a bad idea, okay?" Aria protested. No, no, no, this was not supposed to happen.

"Well, it's not like we really have a choice now," Shawn pointed out. Gus glanced around them nervously to see if anyone was close enough to overhear their conversation.

"Well, we could...I mean..." she stammered, out of ideas. "And, Shawn, you have a girlfriend, right? What are you gonna do, wait until she gets back from Africa or wherever and be like, 'Hey, sweetie, we have a teenage daughter to take care of! Happy homecoming!'"

Gus nodded, shrugging his shoulders in agreement. "She has a point, Shawn."

"Oh. Right." As Shawn pondered the question, he found his mind wandering not to his current girlfriend, but to the image of a certain blonde-haired, blue-eyed detective. "Right! Gus, you know Abigail loves kids! She'll be thrilled!"

"So you're not even going to talk to her about it beforehand?"

"Psh. What she doesn't know for now won't hurt her. And she'll understand." Or she won't, and she'll break up with me so I don't have to. Win-win, right? "So," he continued, nodding towards the interrogation room. "Shall we break the good news?"

"But..." Aria had no arguments left. And, as Gus had said, they didn't really have any other options. "Fine." The situation was out of her control. Taking a deep breath, she conjured up some more fake tears and opened the door.

So, Aria's escape plan failed. And now she's stuck with Shawn as her legal guardian! I honestly don't know who to feel worse for...This scene was probably the hardest for me to write, so let me know if any of the characters are OOC in any way and I'll do my best to improve it. Thanks for reading! :)