Juliet cursed Shawn for planting that ridiculous idea in her head. She continued cursing as she pulled her gun out of her purse, thrown haphazardly into the corner next to her shoes by the front door. She hadn't gotten around to get a new gun safe yet, and it wasn't like she was living with anyone at the moment anyway. At least not until the day before, when Shawn had suddenly showed up at her latest crime scene – and then proposed to her in front of the San Francisco Police Department’s headquarters.

She looked down at the hand wrapped around the gun’s handle, the tight grip turning her knuckles white. If she moved it a bit – that was definitely not a tremor, she was not a rookie anymore – she could see the light from the living room catching in the single diamond embedded into the silver band. Shawn said it was his grandmother's ring, but the shiny look told her he at least had had it cleaned since obtaining it. She wondered if it had been handed down to him after his nana’s death. She made a note to ask him all about it later.

After she had dealt with this situation.

***

“He was totally following you around,” Shawn said teasingly. Juliet was torn between conflicting emotions of amusement and annoyance, and Gus hit Shawn on the arm. Bless Gus for always knowing how to reign his friend in.

Juliet pursed her lips as she watched the perp squirm. He was not much more than a kid in her eyes. They had cornered him after a 45 minute car chase all over San Francisco, after they had finally managed to coordinate their efforts with the nearby black and whites. Which had been a rather frustrating endeavor via cell phone. Maybe Juliet should invest in a portable police radio scanner, or ask Shawn what he had done with his. He had confided that little tidbit in her some time ago, and it had explained quite a lot in retrospect.

What she was much more interested in at that moment, though, was finishing processing this scumbag and his friend, whom he had roped into being his getaway driver. And getting her engagement ring released from evidence.

She still could not quite process that she was engaged. It didn’t feel official just yet, not until she got to wear the ring. Although having had it stolen had ruined the moment a bit. Maybe she’d make Shawn propose again, just for the fun of it. Third time’s the charm, right?

The guy creeped her out, and not just because he had confessed to having been fascinated with Juliet since seeing her on the local news after her first big case as the SFPD’s new head detective. Maybe a night in the holding cell would squash that weird fantasy of his.

“Not to worry, though, sweetheart,” Shawn continued, the teasing undertone in his voice subdued as he rubbed the now sore spot where Gus had hit him. “Gus has already researched our new apartment. Good news: it has no history of stalkers. Or ghosts for that matter, because we’ve all seen the movies, and we definitely don’t need yet another Paranormal Activity.”

Gus nodded his affirmative.

Juliet gaped at the two friends. First of all, it was her apartment. Sure, she had been hopeful after Shawn’s solemn proclamation earlier that week of closing up Psych and moving up north to be with her. But up until the moment he had called out to her over the corpse and the evidence tags, she hadn’t been entirely convinced he would actually go through with his promise. Not so soon anyway.

And secondly…

“Ghosts?”

Shawn grinned, and Gus looked as serious as ever.

“I also contacted Father Wesley and had him bless your address over the phone.”

Shawn clapped his friend on the shoulder. “Good thinking, buddy.”

The twinkle in his eyes made Juliet giggle.

***

She didn’t feel much like giggling now. Stupid Shawn and stupid Gus and their stupid talk about stupid ghosts. She didn’t believe in any of that, and still she found herself holding her breath when that hollow buzzing noise echoed through the living room.

She was so goddamn tired. With Gus staying overnight for lack of anywhere else to go, they had been up watching the Halloween marathon on TV till early in the morning, before she had finally ambled off to bed. Only a couple hours later she had found Shawn and Gus snoring open mouthed under a couple blankets, the bowl of popcorn now empty and half buried under a stray pillow. Without mercy she had yanked away their blankets, made them shower, and then threw them out of the house. She had lent Shawn her VW Beetle and commanded them to go back to Santa Barbara to return the stolen vehicle they had thankfully managed to get out of the impound late last evening. Shawn also had managed to bring all of a single rucksack filled mostly with food and some Nintendo games to pass the time on the train instead of his clothes, which were still stashed at their old house along with the rest of her stuff. They would need to get a moving van for the weekend. Maybe they could band together with Gus, who, much like Shawn, had up and left with nothing but the clothes on his body. Sometimes she wondered how the two of them had made it to their mid thirties.

By the end of the day Juliet was exhausted. She left work on time for once, happy to catch a few last rays of sunlight. She had grown quite fond of the San Francisco street cars since moving here a few months ago, and without her Beetle she could take her time, walking the rest of the way to clear her head of the goings-on at the station, and grabbing a bite at her favorite Pakistani.

Shawn had called earlier to inform her he was going to be on his way as soon as he finished his parting Taco with Gus, who would stay for a few days longer to sort out his affairs. Following Shawn to San Francisco may have been a spur of the moment decision, but apparently he was determined to go through with it.

So with Shawn half way home by now and Gus not far behind, she felt content and happy. She still hadn’t told her family and friends about the engagement – Carlton would freak when she finally got around to call him. But her mother would have to be first.

When she got home though, she quickly forgot about her plans. Something felt off. She wasn’t nearly as observant as Shawn, but she was still a detective – head detective –, and damn good at her job. It was ridiculous: it was just a few creases in the rug. One of the boys had probably sleep-drunkenly stumbled over it that morning, and she hadn’t noticed. After the little sleep she had gotten last night it was no wonder, really, yet it was enough to throw her off. She hadn’t really felt awake until hitting the station’s kitchen for her first coffee of the day. It was frightening how much she turned into her old partner lately.

Juliet kicked off her heels, threw the purse next to them, and bent down to straighten out the rug. There was a sudden breeze, and a shiver ran down her spine. Juliet frowned. The AC was off, and she always made sure all windows were closed before leaving the house. She did a quick tour of the apartment to make sure, anyway.

Now she started to become as paranoid as her old partner as well – Shawn would have a field day if he were here. When she got back to the kitchen she sighed, rubbing her temples. It would be an early night for her.

Juliet bypassed the coffee machine and went for tea instead. After setting the kettle on the stove she went into the adjoining living room to put on some music, not a fan of the quiet. When Shawn was around it was always loud and lively, so when she was alone she liked to put on some background noise to keep her company. On the weekends that mostly meant brainless reality TV shows, but on a weeknight she couldn’t stomach that. The kettle whistled just when she settled on putting her phone on shuffle instead of choosing a particular album or artist, leaving it to chance to set the mood.

She got out her favorite mug, and, pouring the hot water, grabbed for the tin she stored her loose tea leaves in – only to grope at nothing. Looking up in confusion she found the tin gone. She was distracted just long enough for the water to spill over the cup’s rim. Juliet let out a strangled curse and bend backwards to avoid burning herself on the hot water running down the kitchen counter. She all but threw the kettle into the sink and sighed with frustration. Maybe she should go to bed right now instead. It may not even be eight yet, but she was obviously much more out of it than she thought. All her energy had been drained at work, and now she felt like the world’s biggest klutz. Thankfully she was not on call that night.

Juliet's mood lifted when she heard her current favorite song coming from the living room. Resigned to her fate she quickly mopped up the spilled water and put the mug back into the cupboard, humming along with the music.

Only the song had changed somewhere between picking up her cup from the counter and taking two steps to the left.

“What the…” Juliet mumbled and went to the doorway, peeking into the next room. There sat her iPhone in its dock, playing what was probably the cheesiest and sappiest song in existence which she had mostly forgotten she even had on it. Of course it had been Shawn who downloaded it to her phone, as a result of their ongoing “quest” to find their song, because, according to him, every couple needed one.

Then the music stopped altogether.

It took a few seconds until Juliet realized the power had been cut. The chill was back, and this time she wasn’t sure it was because of some phantom breeze.

“Hello?” she called before internally smacking her forehead. She shook her head at herself and made for the breaker box located in a little cubby just off the kitchen. The fuse had tripped a couple times before, so she knew what to look for.

She didn’t notice the long curtains in the living room moving.

After the speakers started up again, Juliet went to the bedroom to change into her pajamas. She liked the cozy feeling of fall, when she had a good excuse to stay home. During summer, she’d feel obligated to make the best of the remaining sunlight, but now that the days became shorter she much rather wasted her free time with a good book or Netflix.

She grabbed her current read from the night stand, and one of Shawn’s hoodies he had left behind after his last visit a couple weeks ago. She wouldn’t get anything else done today either way, if she couldn’t even make tea without flooding her apartment. So she curled herself into the crook between the armrest and back of the couch, focusing on the story instead of the uneasy feeling that had grabbed hold of her ever since entering the flat earlier.

She had barely made it through the first chapter when she heard the buzzing noise for the first time. Instinctively she looked towards her phone, but she knew it was set to actually ring when receiving a text or call, and the screen was dark. She frowned and strained her ears, but the sound did not repeat itself.

She got up and looked around for the second time that evening, moving towards the corridor off the living room.

She was about to round the corner when the front door slammed shut.

She froze, her heart banging painfully in her chest for a moment, until she got herself under control. She inched closer to the wall, readying herself to peak around the corner. The buzzing noise cut through the soft music still playing in the background once again, making her turn around, now fully alert. It took less than a second to cross over to her purse.

She stood in the darkened corridor for a few minutes, letting her imagination run wild. She felt her heart pounding in her chest, unable to will it into submission.

There was no such thing as ghosts. Besides, it was still a few hours to go until midnight.

She opened the door and peered outside. She was on the ground floor of a three story apartment complex, stairs leading up to the other floors left of her entrance, and the pedestrian walk right in front of her nose. She looked up at the railing above her flat but didn’t hear any footsteps. Across the street an older man stepped out of his home, watching her suspiciously. She hid the gun behind the door frame and nodded with a forced smile. When the door was – securely – closed again, she leaned against it for a moment.

She must really be starting to lose it. She looked down at the Glock in her hand and, after some consideration, stuffed it into the hoodie’s pocket.

Juliet headed for the bathroom. High wired as her mind was, the shadows forming in her apartment suddenly took on humanoid shapes, freaking her out more than she was ready to admit, although her rational mind told her repeatedly she was just imagining things. She clicked on the overhead lamp and jumped when she heard that buzzing noise once more. She set her jaw and listened. There was an echoing quality to it, making it impossible to determine where it had come from. For a couple minutes she searched the couch’s cracks and the various cupboards for the source, but didn’t hear the sound again. She turned up the volume on the loudspeakers. A splash of water was what she needed right now, before she went completely crazy.

The bathroom was smaller than what she was used to from back in Santa Barbara, and felt downright cramped at that moment. She took a few deep breaths between splashes, urging herself to calm down and go about this rationally. Was someone pranking her? Did Shawn and Gus set something up last night? She wouldn’t put it past them. If she turned off the tap more forcefully than necessary, she didn’t acknowledge it.

When she reached for a towel, her eyes fell on fingertips pressed against the frosted glass window.

Juliet gasped, taking an involuntary step back, towel pressed to her chest. The oval shape of a head danced in front of the window, the glass too thick to allow any details. The fingers tapped against the glass with the motion. But just as she finally got a grip of herself and reached for her gun, they vanished.

She kept her position pressed against the shower door a bit longer, until she remembered all the cliché’d horror movies Shawn had made her watch and spun around, gun at the ready, towel falling to the floor. She moved to the center of the room, breathing now labored and, to her dismay, hands shaking just the tiniest bit. All of a sudden the music seemed too loud, drowning out any other sounds that may have warned her, and agitating her racing mind even further. The walls seemed even closer than before.

Feeling claustrophobic she practically fled the room, moving back into the main part of the flat.

The kitchen was completely dark now, shadows moving in front of her mind’s eye. Had the photo frames hanging on the wall always been this crooked? The continued buzzing noise drove her crazy. Biting the inside of her cheek she imagined Carlton yelling at her to goddamn focus and stop panicking like a civilian, to get herself together already and analyze the situation rationally. But she was too damn tired for reason, and that freaking ring on her finger blinked at her tauntingly in the overhead light. Had it been stained by the guy stealing it? Had it been an omen? Had she been cursed?

She laughed hysterically when an image of Gus asking Father Wesley to bless the apartment over the fucking phone flashed through her head. Who did such nonsense anyway?

She had to call someone. She still hadn’t told her mother about the engagement, after all.

She looked over to her phone just as it went off.

God, what was she, one of those sorority girls she lived with for a week for that undercover stint a few years ago? Head detectives didn’t flinch, no matter how scared and confused they were. Juliet set her jaw and went to pick the phone up, practically ripping it out of its docking station.

“Shawn,” she said rather breathlessly, not exactly what she had hoped to sound like. “Are you psychic?”

The irony of her off-hand question wasn’t lost on her. Neither was it on him, going by his gleeful greeting.

“So what’s up? Do you miss me?” he asked en passant, but she knew him well enough by now that, even over the phone, she could hear a hint of concern in his voice. It made her wonder just how badly she had failed at keeping her own tone level despite her emotions running wild.

For a second she contemplated telling him off. She was good at that, and usually he got the hint. But then the buzzing cued again, much closer this time, and she really really wanted to tell someone, and if she couldn’t even admit to her fiancé to being scared, then what did that tell her about being ready to actually marry the guy?

“This is all your fault!” she blamed Shawn right off the bat. Definitely not what she had meant to say. “You and Gus and your stupid horror movies and–”

“Juliet.”

She pressed her lips to a thin line. Her breathing had picked up without her permission. Her free hand was clenched into a fist, and she made an effort to relax it.

“What’s going on?”

Juliet felt like an idiot. Here she was, head detective of the SFPD, shivering like a scared child afraid of the monster under her bed. She hadn’t meant to let Shawn know about any of this. She didn’t need him to make fun of her. But when he asked once more, the obvious worry creeping into his voice was genuine. She could hear a car door slamming on his end, and imagined him sitting in her little green car at some rest area along the 101, chips and other junk food on the passenger seat. She knew she would still find the crumbs a week from now and admonish him for it. And he would just sit there with that amused little smirk he wore whenever she was mad at him that infuriated her to no end. Because he could never take anything seriously. So how could he ever take her seriously?

Juliet pinched her nose. This was so not the issue right now. She leaned heavily against the cupboard next to the loudspeakers. She had only been engaged for a day and already completely fell apart, seeing and hearing things, and since when had she ever been so damned emotional anyway?

She told him, all of it. All the little things that had been off in her apartment, about the… thing she had seen in her bathroom window.

She could hear the smile as Shawn asked her to close her eyes.

“You want me – what?!”

Shawn chuckled. “Trust me on this, works every time.”

Juliet frowned at her phone. She just confided in him how fucking scared she was, and he wanted her to closer her eyes?

“Think about it, Jules. Not about what you saw, but what you heard.”

She didn’t particularly look forward to relive that memory. But this was Shawn, and as much of a human disaster as he was on a good day, he generally somewhat knew what he was doing. So she thought back to what had been happening not five minutes ago, saw the shapeless face dancing in front of the frosted glass, heard the fingers tapping against it – and the voices. Faint and muffled, almost inaudible over the music blaring from the living room.

“The bathroom faces the sidewalk,” Shawn said matter-of-factly. “There’s lots of joggers, like that guy in the flat above yours.”

Juliet didn’t ask how he knew that when he had only been to her place a couple times before.

“He always stretches before going on his runs, I meet him every now and then,” Juliet continued his line of thought, feeling incredibly stupid. Although in her defense, it was a bit odd to use her bathroom window as a brace instead of the wall like a normal human being.

And the door – when she had entered the apartment earlier that day she had been so preoccupied by the stupid crease in the rug she had no recollection of the door properly closing behind her. It simply slammed shut at the most inopportune time.

Just then the buzzing sounded again, and she felt her shoulders tense despite her current revelations. She told Shawn as much, and he started giggling.

“Look into the lampshade.”

Juliet frowned and turned towards the corner of the room where the new IKEA lamp had been assembled. It didn’t come with a light bulb, which she hadn’t known at the time of the purchase, so it wasn’t plugged in yet. Buying a bulb had been on her to-do list for two weeks now.

“Gus has been looking for his phone all day today…” Shawn said offhandedly, but she could hear the mischief in his voice.

Juliet growled. “Did you do that?!” she asked incredulously as she crossed the room and reached up into the shade. Sure enough, she retrieved a Blackberry which, just as she held it in front of her, buzzed with the battery symbol blinking furiously. She didn’t know smart phones still did that – hers always switched off without warning as soon as it hit the 11% mark.

“Am I going crazy?!” she asked, only half joking. Getting worked up over such stupid coincidences…

Shawn hummed in amusement. “See what happens when I’m not home to protect you?”

Juliet called him a misogynistic bastard, but only got another laugh in reply. She needed sleep. And a vacation, possibly in Miami, and even more possibly without Shawn.

“C’mon, all of my annoying traits combined could never make you leave your fiancé behind,” Shawn said, reading her mind like he always did. Just like he always called exactly when she needed him to. And always knew just the right thing to say to make her day better.

“Anyway, I’ll be home in about half an hour, so you relax and before you know it you’ll be in my strong, muscular arms, safe and sound.”

Juliet huffed, but if he was offended he didn’t let it on. And despite all her reluctance to admit it – when she ended the call, she did feel much more secure. She knew he had her back, no matter what. He was a wimp and a chicken, but he always came through for her.

She couldn't help wondering when she had begun to depend on this man-child so much. She had always been proud of her independence, still was. But maybe sharing their insecurities and fears was exactly what their soon to be wedded life was supposed to be like.

There was no apprehension anymore when Juliet turned off the loudspeakers – and Gus' cell phone – completely, savoring the peace and quiet now that her mind had stopped playing tricks on her. She did one last sweep of the apartment to make sure that this time she actually did close all the doors and windows.

When she peeked into the kitchen her eyes widened: there was the tea caddy, on the far end of the kitchen counter where it was not supposed to be. Of course Shawn had a tendency to moving her stuff around and generally making a mess of her neatly organized living quarters, so she should have expected it. How could she have missed that?

A bit later she sat in bed with a steaming mug of her favorite tea and her book, and it only took a few sips for the pull of sleep to finally make her surrender. She traded the book for her phone to watch the minutes tick by and could not remember when she closed her eyes.

She was stirred a bit by the front door opening some time later, and smiled when soon after Shawn entered their bedroom and lay down behind her. She hadn’t realized how hunched her shoulders were until she felt him put his arm around her, relaxing in his embrace.

Maybe it was okay for a detective to like to cuddle, and maybe it was okay that she hadn’t really liked the apartment all that much while she had been living in it alone. Maybe being strong also meant relying on your partner, and having the courage to confess in him when she felt scared.

Through her drowsiness she could still hear the soft chirp of her phone, signaling the arrival of a new text message. She had forgotten it was still in her hand, her brain too muddled to function properly anymore. It was a bit unsettling, really.

With a small sigh she lifted the covers a bit to get a proper look at the screen, and froze.

“Traffic, gonna be a bit longer. Love you! S”

She didn’t dare breathe when the arm around her waist tightened, and oblivion conquered.