Burton "Gus" Guster (heardaboutpluto) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2022-02-26 18:51:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !completed gdoc, !log, [plot] future kids take 7, juliet o'hara (be_sensitive), ~2022 february, ~burton guster (heardaboutpluto) |
Who: Burton Guster, Juliet O'Hara, and a child that will never exist
What: An unpleasant conversation
Where: Gus's place
When: backdated to Day One of kidplot
Warnings: references to character death
Status: complete
Weird things happened on a pretty regular basis in Madison Valley. After a year and a half, Gus kept thinking that nothing could surprise him and every time something did, he regretted having that thought. This morning was one of those times. With his work at the boys club, it wasn’t completely unexpected to have a kid looking for him, but one that called him ‘dad’ and his best friend’s wife ‘mom’ was definitely a shock.
He texted the kid directions to his apartment and was anxiously awaiting both his arrival and Juliet’s. A million thoughts were spinning through his mind and it felt like there was a boulder in his stomach. This was going to be interesting.
***
Juliet had heard about the whole children from the future and different timelines thing, but she never gave it much thought, thinking she wouldn’t have anything to worry about. Only the dome took that as a challenge, because now here she was all worried about it after seeing a boy who was calling her mom. To make matters even more tense, the person who the kid saw as dad wasn’t her husband, but Gus, who was Shawn’s best friend and a close friend of hers.
In the back of her mind, she was worried about Shawn, knowing she’d need to have a long talk with him. First was talking with her son and getting the story of what happened, or more specifically, how Gus and her came to be a thing, because that was not something she ever thought she’d hear. Juliet was on edge, with no idea how this meeting was going to go, and she wasn’t one to get nervous, yet here she was. After a third time of Juliet losing the courage to knock, she finally forced herself to knock on Gus’ door, waiting for an answer. Her stomach was doing flips and the guilt was eating away as if she had really cheated on Shawn, even when Gus or her would never ever do that, but the guilt was still hitting her hard as if she had done something.
***
She didn’t have to wait long because Gus was standing on the other side of the door, pacing back and forth, and immediately yanked it open. “Juliet,” he said, stepping aside to let her enter his apartment. He felt awkward around her, which was silly, since it wasn’t like either of them had actually done something wrong. Whatever circumstances led to them having a son in some universe, it wasn’t their fault.
“There’s coffee,” he said. It was tempting to add some whiskey to it, but he knew that he needed to keep his wits about him. Especially if their son was anything like his namesake.
He didn’t even get the door completely shut when a young man peered around it. “There you are,” he said, relief obvious in his voice as he came inside without waiting for an invitation. “This place is beyond weird. It’s like I stepped inside a comic book or something.”
***
"Hey," her tone sounded slightly surprised at how quickly he was there, which she figured meant he had been pretty much right behind the door. Then again, could she really blame him? Juliet was still trying to wrap her head around the whole ordeal. Normally she hugged him without a second thought, but instead she just walked into the apartment, feeling awkward. That was a feeling she never felt, especially around Gus since he was like family considering this was Shawn’s best friend. An apologetic look showed up on her face, looking at him as if this was somehow all her fault. Both of them hadn’t done anything, and here she was feeling guilty as if the two really had some love affair going on.
It was silly, she knew it, but she couldn’t help how she felt at the moment. All Juliet knew was that she’d get over this feeling of awkwardness after a day or two, which was all that mattered. "Thanks, I’m going to need all the coffee I can drink cause today will probably be a very long day…," she had been about ready to add ‘especially when she got home to Shawn’ as she headed into the kitchen, but that was cut off by spotting the little boy who was claiming to be their son, peered into the apartment.
Ignoring the coffee for the moment, she headed back over to the entrance area as the boy came in. "Hey..Shawn," she smiled at the boy, feeling very weird calling the kid by her husband’s name, pushing a piece of her hair behind her ear to distract herself for a moment. "Weird is a good way to describe this place and since you like comics, then I’m sure there are some people around here you might know," Juliet offered, hoping to ease her own nerves and maybe make the situation less awkward. "Like who, mom?" He asked, heading into the kitchen as if it was his own. Looking over at Gus, she raised her eyebrow as she mouthed, ‘remind you of anyone’ based on the lack of boundaries, but then again, the kid probably thought it was fine with both of them here.
***
Unable to imagine what circumstances would lead to him and Juliet having a child, Gus was amused by the fact that their son didn’t have any trouble making himself at home. He gave Juliet a little shrug, though he was clearly amused.
“There are a lot of superheroes here,” he said. “And people from Harry Potter.” He assumed that he would have read those books to any child of his.
Gus had so many questions for the boy, but he wasn’t entirely sure where to start.
***
Juliet would’ve been shocked if the boy seemed confused by Harry Potter, knowing how big of a fan Gus was about that series. Okay, yes, she was as well, but probably not as big of one as Gus. The look on the boy’s face and how his attention shifted back to the two at the words Harry Potter confirmed what she already figured. An amused look appearing on her face at how the young boy looked like it was Christmas morning from who was around this place.
Moving to take a seat on Gus’ couch, she swallowed briefly before deciding to ask the question that she was sure on both of their minds. Though she had already worded it in a way that she hoped wouldn’t cause any issues.
“I’m sure this has to be confusing, but how about you tell the both of us about you? I’m sure you can already tell we’re different from your parents,” she hoped. Maybe that would be of some help in trying to explain all of this to their son..
—
Shawn came back into the living room with a bottle of juice and slumped on the sofa next to his mom. “Okay, well… what do you want to know?” he asked.
Of all the questions Gus had, he knew some would not be appropriate to ask a kid, so he hesitated for a moment. “Why did we name you Shawn?” he finally settled on asking since that might give them a clue about how they’d ended up together. Especially since the kid hadn’t actually met Shawn.
“You named me after your best friend,” he said. “I never got to meet him. He died way before I was born.”
Somehow, Gus was not expecting to hear that and his jaw dropped. “Shawn died?”
***
Juliet was glad that Gus had asked one of the many questions that kept running through her thoughts. There were so many questions she wanted to ask, but she had no idea where to even start. When Shawn said what happened to the Shawn they knew, it felt like someone punched her right in the gut. It was never something she ever wanted to think about, even with all the dangerous situations he sometimes put himself in. It was a thought she always tried to avoid thinking about.
Part of her wanted to ask if the boy was joking, but she knew he wasn’t. It also filled in a lot of pieces of how she and Gus probably ended up together. Made sense to a certain degree, but her mind was still hung up on the Shawn died part. It took her a moment to put her feet back on the floor, focusing on the little boy in front of her.
"I know we probably didn’t give much details on what happened, but did we ever tell you any details on what happened to him besides he…died?" It was a lot harder to get out that word than she thought it would be, but she managed to do it.
Shawn enjoyed some of his juice before speaking again. "You guys said it was a case that Psych was working on and that he decided to work on it a bit himself," he trailed off a bit to return to his drink for a moment. While he was doing that, Juliet glanced back at Gus, knowing he’d know the cases they dealt with better than her. Seeing if any dawned on him from that vague description, hoping he’d say more after he had another sip of his juice.
—
Considering Shawn’s penchant for going off on his own, that could be almost any of their cases so it didn’t narrow things down for Gus. He was staving off a panic attack at the mere thought that something like that happened in any universe though and took a few deep, slow breaths while Juliet probed for more information.
He did remember that the boy mentioned Santa Barbara in his network post, so that at least narrowed it down to before they moved. “Did we say anything else about it?” he asked. In some ways, he hoped they had, because he was curious. In other ways, he kind of hoped they hadn’t burdened a kid with all that.
Little Shawn shrugged. “You never let me buy stuff from ice cream trucks,” he said. “Cause they made you sad.”
How could ice cream possibly make him sad? Gus had no idea and frowned, trying to remember if they had any cases involving ice cream trucks. “Oh my god,” he blurted out after a few moments. “The gas station. When Shawn got shot.” It had been when he was still with Abigail, Gus remembered, so that was another piece of the puzzle as to how it led to him and Jules getting together.
***
The guilt that Juliet had been feeling about having a child with Gus had subsided on hearing the news about Shawn. Now she felt like someone had torn out her heart and stomped on it, which had her concerned for Gus. Glancing over at him for a moment to see if she could see how he was doing with all of this. Juliet couldn’t imagine how he was feeling right at the moment, just as she couldn’t imagine how Shawn was going to take the news.
Trying to ignore what she had to do later, Juliet focused on the little boy, knowing it was the only thing keeping her together. When little Shawn made the comment on ice cream trucks, Juliet tried searching through her thoughts for any cases where she may have worked only to have Gus and Shawn join in to help, whether they wanted it or not. That was quickly cut short by Gus, turning to look at him with a confused look. Her eyes widened, remembering the case right away after what Gus said.
Juliet had the pieces slowly falling into place as she remembered what was going on during that time. Also, the memory of how close they had come to losing Shawn, along with the fear that she had felt around that, especially after the phone call she had received from Shawn. Turning to little Shawn, she smiled at him. "Why don’t you go find something for your dad to fix for you food wise while I talk to him for a minute, okay?" Once the kid was out of earshot, she moved over to Gus. "Do you feel up for watching him for a bit? I probably should go talk to adult Shawn before he does something Shawn like," she knew she wouldn’t need to expand because Gus knew him better than anyone.
—
Gus’s face was surprisingly pale for a black man after their son dropped that particular bomb on them, but he nodded, knowing exactly what Juliet meant. The last time the dome had done something that threw them together, Shawn hadn’t reacted well and this explanation absolutely required a face to face discussion.
“Sure, we’ll manage,” he said. “I should check in with Martha. Maybe I can take him over to see the TARDIS.” If his son was anything like him, that would be nerd nirvana.
***
Juliet felt bad about bailing, but she knew Gus would understand the reason. Bringing little Shawn around Shawn right now would be a very bad move, which was why she wanted to go address the situation. She hoped Shawn hadn’t had enough time to do anything; however, she knew him and knew that was wishful thinking.
"I’ll keep my phone on ring, so text me if you need anything, okay? Once I talk to Shawn, then I’ll text you to see how it’s going." Juliet was sure Gus knew she wouldn’t bail on him, but she still felt better about making that known. "I promise to try to make sure Shawn doesn’t do anything to you." The keyword in that statement was try. Turning towards the kitchen, "Shawn, your dad is going to watch you while I run out for a bit. I’ll see you a little later, okay?" She called, knowing if the kid had a problem, it’d vanish most likely very quickly if Gus decided to go check out the TARDIS.
—
Given the choice of dealing with Shawn, the child from some messed up timeline where everything went to hell, and Shawn, his best friend since practically birth, in this particular situation, Gus was perfectly happy to take the child and leave the adult to Juliet. Despite his having years more experience wrangling the man, Jules had some methods of keeping in line that weren’t options for Gus.
“Can we get nachos, Dad?” Shawn asked, wandering out of the kitchen in time to wave goodbye to his mom.
“Yes, we absolutely can,” Gus said. Nachos would be a good distraction for both of them.