OOM: Awkward Conversations Run In The Family

[sbpd_papabear]

After making arrangements with Karen for a weekend respite at Milliways, Henry slips back through the door and back into the hallway in front of the linen closet. After putting away the clean sheets, he sits down with a cold glass of iced tea to figure out just what he's going to do.

Shawn deserves to know, they're both adults and no matter what, he's gonna hear about it sooner or later. If he doesn't hear it directly from the horse's mouth he'll get it from Juliet or Gus... and that would only make it look like he's hiding things from him. And hell, he doesn't want to hide things from Shawn, there's just certain things that really shouldn't be talked about and Shawn's got a really bad habit of saying things he shouldn't.

After a few hours deliberation, he sends his son a text message:

Meet you at Psych office in 30 min, bringing dinner & beer. Me and you ONLY.

Comments

[psyched_you_out]

... This can't be good. When his dad insists on speaking to him alone, it's a pretty sure sign there's going to be something he won't want to hear.

I'll be here

[sbpd_papabear]

Henry arrives at the Psych office exactly at seven with three boxes of jerk chicken and a cold six pack. After handing over Gus' chicken and kindly reminding him he asked that Shawn be alone, he sits down on the couch and stares at his son a long moment.

And then cracks a beer.

And then throws him a plastic fork before digging into his own dinner.

Hey, nobody said he had to talk quickly.

[psyched_you_out]

After giving Gus a significant "call me later" look, he takes a seat and digs in.

Eating is so much better than talking.

[sbpd_papabear]

The problem with eating when you know you should be talking is that eventually, someone has to say something. And since this is Henry's conversation, he knows it'll be him.

After he finished his chicken.

And two beers.

And a nice conversation about the NCAA.

"So... I guess we should probably talk."

[psyched_you_out]

"You're not dying, are you?"

[sbpd_papabear]

Henry rolls his eyes and cracks the top of his next beer. "Only in the sense that we all are."

He sighs; "Look, okay... I know that you've been stepping out and going to the bar..."

[psyched_you_out]

That's not very comforting, Henry.

"... I have no idea what you're talking about."

For someone who basically lies for a living, he's still not good at lying to his father.

[sbpd_papabear]

Henry's kryptonite to Shawn's lies anyway.

"Yeah, cut the crap kid." He pushes up off the sofa and deposits his empty carton in the garbage before approaching the lockers and opening the first one - no luck, and then the second - who keeps a lacrosse stick?

"There's a door in the evidence room that isn't supposed to be there," he speaks easily, not even bothering to look at Shawn when a pair of boxers hooked over the end of an umbrella fall out at him from behind the next door. "I went through it the other day... and..."

He yanks open the right door, smiling when he sees the bar on the other side; "This was there."

[psyched_you_out]

.. Crap. Busted.

"Who else knows?"

[sbpd_papabear]

He licks his lips tentatively - that's a bit of a sticky issue and if Shawn were a little more in tune with his father's cues, he'd notice the nerves right away.

"Karen." He nods slowly; "She went through the front doors on a coffee run the same time I went through the evidence room door. And then the other day we went again."

He slams the locker closed - eyes fixed on Shawn.

[psyched_you_out]

... Yeah, something's going on there.

"So what, am I in trouble now? Last time I checked I was over the legal drinking age."

[sbpd_papabear]

"No, I just thought you should know that you, uh... shouldn't be surprised if you see me there."

He folds his arms and sighs; "And I don't know... maybe you can kind of tell me more about it."

[psyched_you_out]

He sets his half-empty take-out container aside and runs a hand through his hair.

"What do you want to know?"

[sbpd_papabear]

"Everything," he replies quickly; "whatever you know."

Watching that blank panicked look cross his face, Henry sighs and asks; "How long have you known about it?"

[psyched_you_out]

He squirms. No matter how much ground they cover in repairing their relationship, his father's questions still feel uncomfortably like interrogations.

"About six months, give or take."

[sbpd_papabear]

Henry crosses his arms in front of his chest and nods; "And Gus and Juliet - the same? You guys all go there together?"

[psyched_you_out]

"Yeah, we wound up there together the first time. We don't always go there with each other, though."

He takes his phone out of his pocket and starts playing with it, just for the sake of having something to do.

[sbpd_papabear]

"Shawn," he says sternly, giving him an intense glare. "This is important, okay? I want to know everything you know. I... I talked to this Sunshine lady a couple times and she filled in some of the details but what does it mean for people like us?"

[psyched_you_out]

He momentarily sets the phone down to look at Henry.

"If you've met her you probably know about as much as I do. As far as I know, people from all kinds of worlds wind up there. As long as you don't get stuck there, you can come and go as much as you want."

[sbpd_papabear]

"Who gets stuck?" he asks, the question sticking a little - the thought had terrified him to the point where he couldn't even broach the topic with Karen and he'd like to know more before he does. "Can anyone get stuck there? And what happens to people here if we get stuck there?"

[psyched_you_out]

"I'm not sure there's any real rules attached to it. From what I've picked up, people seem to get stuck if the bar thinks they should be there."

And if Henry thinks that's kind of creepy, well... he's not the only one.

[sbpd_papabear]

His face goes slack, that's... that's just not good. "And if I got stuck?"

He doesn't want to think about it, but he needs to know - would time remain still until he came back? Forever even?

[psyched_you_out]

"You know how time sort of stops when you're there, right?" He doesn't wait for Henry to answer. "I think it's the same no matter how long you stay."

[sbpd_papabear]

"Right..." his head drops for a long moment, taking that in, before he asks; "Okay, assuming nobody gets stuck there..."

Pausing a moment to collect his words in a way that won't give away anything he's ready to say yet, he eventually asks; "What about staying for like a vacation? Maybe a couple days holed up there? Sunshine said they rent rooms..."

[psyched_you_out]

"Yeah, they do..."

There's a nagging suspicion poking at the back of his mind, but the rest of his mind that doesn't want to think about any such thing is ignoring it.

"You could probably stay there for a while and no one would be the wiser."

[sbpd_papabear]

He nods slowly; "And if I wanted to take someone with me there, it'd be the same right? I mean, Karen and I met there the first time and then I brought her again and then we took a coffee break there this afternoon..."

[psyched_you_out]

"yes, and I'm not sure I like where you're going with this."

So much for ignoring it.

[sbpd_papabear]

Henry stops and raises an eyebrow, the hairs on the back of neck prickling up at that tone.

"What, just make sure that anyone who comes gets the same sort of rules and responsibilities. I mean, it's all fair, right?"

Not a bad save, not a good one.

He's suddenly really hoping that Shawn's desire not to know about his life will kick in before he finishes putting that thought together.

[psyched_you_out]

Oookay.... so letting that one go.

"Yeah, as far as I know it should work the same way for everyone."

[sbpd_papabear]

"That's good..." he nods, already starting to form an idea Shawn really wouldn't want to know about.

After a brief moment, he pats Shawn on the shoulder and says; "Anyway, you and Gus coming for dinner Sunday? I think I'm gonna pull out that bit salmon in the freezer."

[psyched_you_out]

He considers it for a bit.

"We can probably make it, yeah."

[sbpd_papabear]

"All right, well... I'll see you then. If not, you know at work tomorrow."

Awkward. Really, really awkward.

Henry pats him again and gives a nod before tugging his baseball cap and jacket back on and snatching his keys.

Yeah, that went well.