Carlton Lassiter was in records, putting a file away, when he noticed a case file from 6 months ago. Well, a case they were able to finally close 6 months ago. The Yin Yang case caused a lot of trouble, especially for key members of the Santa Barbara Police Department. Carlton's own partner, Juliet O'Hara, was kidnapped and used as bait at one point and came very close to death. Luckily, they had one (fake) psychic detective, Shawn Spencer, who was able to figure out the clues each time and save countless lives. Unfortunately, Shawn and his partner, Burton Guster, known as Gus, were also taken hostage in the last act of this case. They were almost killed if it wasn't for dumb luck, something that Shawn seemed to have a lot of.

Thinking back on it, Carlton guessed that he should be somewhat grateful for that case. If he wasn't so worried about how his partner was handling things, he wouldn't have gone to check on her, and wouldn't have seen Shawn and Juliet kissing. That, added with all the other stress from the past few days, wouldn't have found him going to the local cop bar to drink, after a few hours at the shooting range did nothing to calm his nerves. Then he might not have met a complete stranger at said bar who managed to wiggle her way into his life and turn it upside down.

Elizabeth March, who goes by Beth, managed to not only get him to socialize with his coworkers more, including the annoying (fake) psychic, but also to loosen up. He found himself laughing, smiling and just plain old relaxing more than before. Through the many ups and downs of their short 6 month friendship, including dealing with a determined and slightly psychotic ex-boyfriend, several hospital visits and helping her move from Ohio to Santa Barbara, they became very close friends.

Closing the file cabinet, Carlton made his way back up to the bullpen. The last month had been pretty quiet at the station, not just because of the low crime rate, probably an effect of the high temperatures, but also because Beth and Shawn had left 3 weeks ago for a cross-country trip on their motorcycles to visit Beth's sister, who is due to deliver her second kid any day now, and sign the papers to close the deal on her house. Beth tried to convince him to come with them, but Carlton did not want to spend an entire month with Shawn and he absolutely refused to get on a motorcycle, especially after Beth tried to take him to the beach on her motorcycle. After finally being cleared for it after a car accident a few months prior, they were almost at the beach when a kid darted out in front of them and Beth swerved to avoid him. Luckily, they weren't going very fast since they were approaching a stop sign and both were wearing helmets, so no hospital visit was required; although Carlton was pretty sore for the next few days.

Carlton had not talked to Beth in almost 2 weeks. Since she had lived with him for almost 6 months, her pets joining them 3 1/2 months ago, he had gotten very use to her unique presence. When the road trip had started, Beth would try to call everyday, since someone had to brighten up his day (she said). But then she stopped calling. He got a voicemail last week from her. It was very short and she sounded tired but she reassured him that she was fine and hoped that he wasn't getting too "Lassiterian" with her gone. If it wasn't for the fact that Juliet was still getting calls from Shawn, Carlton might have thought that something had happened, especially since Beth seemed to attract trouble.

Shaking his head, Carlton pulled out his phone and dialed Beth's number. He had tried calling a few times over the last week but it had always gone straight to voicemail. As it went to voicemail again, Carlton noticed that someone was sitting on his desk. He was about to tell them to move it when he recognized the person. "Beth?"

Beth smiled as she turned around to look at him. "Hey Carlton! Are you surprised to see me?"

"I thought you and Spencer weren't getting back until next week."

"Well, a lot of things happened so we decided to come back early. We brought lunch!" She held up a picnic basket as she pushed out his chair for him.

Looking over, Carlton noticed that Shawn and Juliet were laughing as they ate from a similar basket.

When he didn't respond right away, she started fidgeting, "I mean, if you have other plans, I completely understand, you don't always have time for me. I can just go to Henry's since I know that Frisco would be more than happy to see me."

As she started to get up and collect her things, Carlton finally said, "No, it's fine. I'd love to have lunch with you."

Beth smiled and quickly wrapped him in a hug, "Yea! I have so much to tell you!" She pulled away and started to empty the basket. "I wasn't sure what you would want, so you can have either sub. We also stopped at a grocery store and got plenty of fruits, veggies and chips."

Carlton shook his head at Beth's enthusiasm as he grabbed Henry's chair and brought it over for her. Sitting down, he took the turkey sub before asking, "So what happened? I don't hear from you in almost two weeks, except a vague message on my voicemail, and suddenly you come back a week early with food; not that I'm complaining."

"Aw! Are you saying that you missed me?"

"No!" Carlton replied, trying not to blush at the look she was giving him. "I'm just curious."

Beth smiled as she sat down and began on her own lunch. "Well, first let me say that I'm sorry for not calling but my phone broke and I've yet to replace it. About two weeks ago, Shawn and I were just leaving Nashville, checking out some of the local talent there, as well as the Grand Ole Opry, when I got a call from Dan. Amy had gone into premature labor and was freaking out a little. I tried to calm her down as Shawn and I quickly changed course for Cleveland. Just my luck, I dropped my phone when we stopped for lunch and it, unfortunately, did not survive being run over by a kid on his BMX bike. Anyways, by the time we got to the hospital, Amy was fast asleep and her new baby was in the NICU."

"Is it okay?"

"Oh yeah. I mean, she was 3 weeks early, so they kept the baby in the NICU for 5 days, just in case."

"You keep calling her 'the baby,' shouldn't she have a name by now?"

Beth smiled as she patted Carlton's knee. "Right you are detective. Amy wanted to call her Anna, but I told her that naming kids with the same first letter might seem cute, but actually makes it harder to learn names, especially if they want more kids. After going back and forth through the list of names they had picked out, they decided on Margaret Anna Gilbert, after our paternal grandmother and Dan's mom. So her nickname is Mag, same as her initials, or Maggie."

Carlton couldn't help the smirk as he asked, "You thought of that, didn't you?"

"Yep!" Her smile grew wider. "Anyways, Adam was so confused when he first got to see Amy after Maggie was born. He went running up to her and started crying, 'Mommy, mommy! Your stomach! You okay?' It took us almost 15 minutes to calm him down and then he was afraid to touch Maggie once she got home. He stuck to Shawn more than anyone else while we were there, and Shawn actually seemed to enjoy it."

"Really? I don't see Spencer as much of a babysitter, especially when he acts like such a child himself."

"Well, as long as he didn't have to do any of the gross parts, like changing a diaper, Shawn was perfectly content to play with Adam." She laughed.

"If you say so," Carlton commented as he grabbed some of the fruit. "So, if you guys were having such a good time, then why did you leave so soon?"

"Because my parents came back from their cruise. After only one day with them, I wanted to scream, especially when they started questioning Shawn and my friendship." Beth rolled her eyes. "We stuck around for a couple more days before splitting. Since I was so worn out from helping out Amy, we didn't visit any of the sites on the way back. I made Shawn a promise that we will try again over Christmas break."

He shook his head, "You always seem to mess up people's vacations."

"Hey!" Beth swatted his arm. "It's not my fault that Maggie decided to come early! Or that Shawn stuck around instead of continuing the road trip without me like I told him to. I mean, he did check out some of the places within a few hours away, but it was totally his choice!"

"Whatever. At least this means I don't have to take care of your cats anymore."

"Aww! You mean you didn't enjoy having Murphy and Salem all to yourself?"

Carlton snorted, "Salem I didn't mind since he spent most of the time hiding from me. But Murphy, I swear that cat is heavier than an elephant and more stubborn than a mule, especially when he lies on my stomach! I had to keep my bedroom door shut so I could get a full night of sleep. And some days I woke up to find that he had somehow opened the door and was sleeping on me!"

She giggled at that. "That just shows how much he loves you!"

Carlton growled and was about to comment when Police Chief Karen Vick came out of her office. "O'Hara, Lassiter, in my office, please."

Nodding, Carlton turned to Beth. "I'll be right back, don't …"

"Don't wander off without an escort, I know!" Beth smiled as she started packing up the leftover food.

Shaking his head, Carlton quickly followed Juliet into the Chief's office.

Once the door was closed, Karen began. "I got a call yesterday from the San Luis Obispo county sheriff. There have been 3 disappearances in the past month from one of the resorts near Pismo Beach. Since they don't have many officers experienced in undercover work, he asked if I could spare a few."

"I'll do it." Carlton offered right away.

Karen smiled, "I'm glad to hear that but I want both of you to go. Here's what we do know: each of the victims would disappear for about 5 days. When questioned, they couldn't remember anything about when they were gone and the only marks on them were rope burns on their hands and ankles. All of the victims are males in their late 30s, early 40s and were at the resort with a significant other. The significant others were never hurt since the victims disappeared when they were alone."

"So let me get this straight," Juliet asked. "You want Carlton and I to pose as a couple and see if he gets picked off? Isn't that a bit dangerous?"

"O'Hara, I can handle myself." Carlton reassured her.

"That's more or less the plan." Karen said. "Unfortunately, both of you have, shall we say, interesting reactions to going undercover. O'Hara, you get too involved with your assignments and Lassiter, you can be a bit obvious. So based off what I have noticed over the last few months, I've picked out different partners to ground yourselves." She sighed. "O'Hara, you and Mr. Spencer will be posing as a newly wed couple on your honeymoon. You will arrive tomorrow morning and scope out the place a little before Carlton arrives the next day."

Carlton frowned, "Wait, so who's my partner? And please don't say Guster."

Karen tried to hide her smile. "No. Unfortunately, I don't think that you can pull off a same sex relationship with anyone, especially not Mr. Guster. Even though I'm a bit hesitant, I believe that Miss March would be a more appropriate fit, don't you think?"

Carlton looked out the office at Beth, who was talking and laughing with Shawn, before asking, "Are you sure? I mean, she's a civilian, wouldn't it be dangerous? And I don't think that she would feel comfortable playing my wife, especially in such a public place. We're just friends."

Karen smiled at his protectiveness. "Carlton, I wasn't thinking marriage. What do you think of an engagement?"