Forever the Joker

Shawn Spencer was a man of many different traits: he was sweet, kind, smart, caring, and funny. That was how much people would describe him – funny. Shawn was the man who would always make jokes, even when in the most dire situations because that was his way of coping. He liked to crack jokes to make everyone smile and make life just that much funnier. His dad, former Police Officer, Henry Spencer, had always said that his joking matter would get to him one day. And it appeared that he was once again correct.

Little did Shawn Spencer know, one day jokes would be what would end up killing him.

--

Shawn and his partner Burton ‘Gus’ Guster were on the verge of closing one of the biggest cases of their careers, which incidentally was also one of their most dangerous. They were tracking down a serial killer who had over ten victims to his name was planning his latest murder for that night. That’s when Shawn, Gus, and Detectives Carlton Lassiter and Juliet O’Hara planned on busted the man who called himself ‘The Steel.’

Shawn stared at himself in mirror before he was ready to head out and meet Gus at their office. His longtime girlfriend, Aurora went up to him and hugged him long and hard. He hugged her back and kissed the top of her dark head.

“I’m scared for you,” she whispered softly as she let go of him, “something feels different about today. I can just feel it.”

Shawn stared at her, unsure of what to say. If he told her he wasn’t scared, he would be lying to himself and her.

“I know, babe,” he smiled weakly at her, “but you know I’ll be alright because we’re going out tonight for fries quatro quesos dos fritos tonight.”

Normally Aurora would be smile or joke back with him, but today she wasn’t. Today felt all wrong.

“Shawn, please don’t. Not today,” she put her hand over face and tried to hold back her tears,

“Shawn, I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“Sorry,” he closed his eyes for a brief second, “I’ll be okay, I promise you that. I’ll be home tonight and everything will be back to normal. Nothing’s going to change.”

“Shawn Spencer you better mean that,” she grasped onto him again, “I won’t feel any better until you guys are all done.”

“Just go out and have fun today and don’t worry about anything babe,” he kissed her softly, but with a sense of urgency, “I’ll see you tonight my love.”

“I love you Shawn Spencer,” she whispered as she opened the door for him.

“I love you Aurora Devinish,” he gave her one last smile before walking down the driveway of their house and disappearing out of view.

Just because his words seemed sincere, didn’t mean she felt any better about the bust. She had a nagging feeling that something would go wrong.

Aurora pulled out her phone and dialed Henry Spencer. If anyone could reassure her, it would be him.

“Aurora, hi,” he said when he answered the phone, “how are you? Did Shawn do something stupid again?”

“Hi Henry and no, at least not yet or anything that I know about,” she laughed softly.

“What’s up kiddo?”

“I’m worried about Shawn and Gus,”

“There’s always something to worry about with those two,”

“I know, but today something feels wrong,”

“Well, there’s really nothing we can do,” Henry sighed thinking about his son’s safety, “we just have to hope that he doesn’t do anything stupid.”

“I know,” she whispered, “let’s hope he doesn’t feel the need to crack any jokes tonight.”

“He always does, that boy needs to learn to keep his mouth shut,”

“Let’s hope that he already learned.”

“Why don’t I come over and we can both worry together,” Henry suggested.

“That sounds like a good idea,” she smiled to herself a little bit, “I don’t know what I would do without my Spencer men.”

--

“Shawn,” Gus called after his best friend, “stay back here. Jules and Lassie are coming.”

“We can’t just wait for them, Gus,” he half whispered back at him, “he could have murdered that guy by then! There’s no time to waste.”

“Shawn. Nothing will happen,” Gus wasn’t so sure about that, but he didn’t want his best friend since practically birth to be in the line of fire.

“Gus, come on,” he insisted and pushed into the house. He could hear some commotion going on upstairs, so he followed the sound and took the steps, two by two.

He saw a light on down the hall, so he sprinted towards it. Gus was hot on his heels, dialing both Lassiter and Juliet so they would bring more back up and come faster.

“Hasn’t anyone told you it isn’t nice to kill people?” Shawn asked as he walking into the room. It was most likely the man’s bedroom, seeing as he was tied to the bed, with his would be murderer standing above him.

“Well, well, well, Shawn Spencer,” the man who called himself The Steel laughed, “I was wondering when you’d get here.”

“Were you now? Because I was also wondering when I would get here,” he smirked, “and now I would like to speed this up since I have a date tonight.”

“I don’t think you do,” the man turned around to face him fully. He wasn’t very scary looking. Average, as though he could be your neighbor down the street, but Shawn knew he was dangerous.

He knew his reputation.

“Hmm, well I do. So why don’t you just surrender because in about two minutes there will be tons of cops here and you escaping will be unlikely,”

“That may be so, but for me it’s all going according to plan Mr. Spencer,”

“How so,” Shawn could hear Lassiter and Juliet and Gus coming up the stairs.

“Sometimes it’s not about escaping,” he pulled out his gun. Shawn could see it was cocked and ready to go, “it’s about sending a message. I’ve read a lot about you, Mr. Spencer. You seem to have cheated death several times.”

Shawn gulped as he realized what could happen any second, “I guess that all depends on one’s opinion. And what message would that be?”

“You know, for someone of your talents, I’m surprised you haven’t caught onto my plan. I was never going to murder this man. There was only one target the whole time. Just one.”

Shawn’s eyes widened as he knew what the man meant, “me,” he breathed out softly.

“No one escapes death,” he said quietly as he pulled the trigger and shot Shawn in the stomach, knowing he would die a slow painful death. Shawn made no sound as he fell to the floor clutching his stomach. He knew what was happening, and he knew what Aurora had sad was true.

Just as the bullet hit him, Gus ran in with the two detectives, “freeze.”

“You’re too late,” the man smiled as he held his hands out to be cuffed. Lassiter’s face fell as he realized what this meant. He couldn’t stand to watch the scene so he pulled the man out and got out of the house as quickly as possible.

Gus and Juliet dropped to their knees and they too realized what it meant as they looked at Shawn’s rapidly bleeding midsection.

“Oh Shawn,” she whispered.

“It’s okay, Jules,” he tried to smile but even that caused him pain, “I still get the last laugh because now he’s off the streets.”

“Shawn-“

“Gus, it’s okay. You’ll be alright, you know exactly what to do from here buddy. Just look in the desk drawer back at the office.”

“I love you Shawn,” he wiped a few tears from his eyes.

“I love you too Gus,” he said quietly, “do me one last solid.”

“Anything,”

“Call Aurora and my dad for me. Don’t let them see me like this,”

“I will.”

“Goodbye Jules, goodbye Gus,”

Gus pulled out his phone and made the calls he had wondered if he would ever have to make.

Unfortunately now he had too.

--

“Gus? What’s up?” Aurora asked as she answered his call. She put her phone on speaker as so she
and Henry could both hear what Gus had to say.

“Hey Gus,” Henry said.

“I’m so sorry Henry, I’m so sorry,” his voice cracked as tears streaming down his face. He couldn’t do it.

“Gus! GUS! What happened?!” Aurora screamed into the phone.

“Shawn- he’s dead,”

Everything seemed to be in slow motion.

Aurora screamed and dropped the phone as she started sobbing. She couldn’t control herself anymore and fell to the floor in a set of hysterics. Henry’s own eyes filled up with tears as he pulled

Aurora up and clung to her and they cried together.

Their worst fear had finally come true.

--

Shawn Spencer was dead, all because he couldn’t keep his jokes to himself.

The called Steel was right – it wasn’t about the fact that he was caught, it was about the fact that everyone died. No one was spared that fate, no matter how immortal or special they seemed.