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Juliet and Lassiter stared at the man in the holding cell, their mouths open in silent disbelief.

It just wasn’t possible.

And yet, there he was, looking right back at them.

“I’ve always known there isn’t a god,” Lassiter grunted, crossing his arms over his chest as he shook his head, refusing to accept the sight. “If I ever doubted it, this is proof. No way in hell a just and loving god would ever let this happen.”

“This isn’t funny, Carlton!” Juliet hissed, elbowing her partner, her eyes still locked on the man in the cell. “Who is he? There has to be a logical explanation for this!”

“There is,” the man spoke up, running his hand through his hair. “I keep telling you! It’s not my fault you won’t believe me.”

The man stood up from the bench and slowly crossed the cell, leaning against the bar. His familiar hazel eyes locked with Lassiter’s. “I’ll tell you again if you want. I’ll tell you in Spanish. I used to be on a Spanish-language soap opera, you know. Do you want an autograph?”

“No you weren’t!” Lassiter growled, grabbing the cell bars almost violently. “Damn it, I don’t know what the hell is going on, but you’d better start talking! Who the hell are you?”

The man remained calm, grinning roguishly as he stepped back into the cell, spreading his arms innocently. “I told you, Lassie. But I’ll tell you again. I’m Shawn Spencer. From two years in the future.”

 

 

*                            *                     *                                              *

 

Shawn stared through the one-way mirror, his eyes wide.

For once, he didn’t have a smart-ass remark.

He didn’t believe what he was seeing, either.

“If he’s really me,” he said finally, at a complete loss. “It’s nice to know I still have my hair in two years. I guess those Spencer bald genes are beatable, after all. Thank you, Mom.”

No one laughed at the quip.

Not even Shawn.

Gus shuddered. “Oh, God. There’s two of them. Two Shawns. What did the world do to deserve this?”

Shawn rolled his eyes, looking offended. “You know I can hear you, Gus.”

Lassiter just nodded in agreement with Gus’s statement. “That’s what I said, Guster. Patrol found the other Spencer sleeping in an alley this morning. They picked him up for vagrancy, but they can’t ID him.”

“What about fingerprints?” Gus demanded. “You have Shawn’s prints on-file from when he was arrested. Are they a match?”

Lassiter and Juliet exchanged glances before answering.

“We don’t know,” Lassiter answered slowly, choosing each word carefully.

“Why not?” Shawn wanted to know. “Couldn’t you read the computer print-out, Lassie? Did you forget your old man glasses again?”

Lassiter scowled at him. “There wasn’t a print-out!” he snapped. “We couldn’t take his prints!”

“What do you mean you couldn’t take his prints?” Shawn snorted. “Was his ticklish or something? Because I’m not ticklish…well, except for one spot on my tummy, but that doesn’t count.”

“He wasn’t ticklish,” Juliet stepped in when she saw her partner’s face getting redder by the moment. “We couldn’t take any prints because he…didn’t have any.”

“He doesn’t have any fingerprints?” Gus gasped.

“Dude,” Shawn snorted, rolling his eyes. “We’re gasping over fingerprints now? Seriously? Shouldn’t we save the gasping for more startling revelations? Like that Lassie’s going to have puppies, for example.”

“I think your doppelganger not having fingerprints qualifies as a startling revelation, Shawn!” Gus shot back. “Don’t you understand what’s going on?” He pointed at the man in the interrogation room adamantly, his eyes narrowing at his best friend. “That guy in there is walking around claiming to be the future you!”

“Gus, please,” Shawn waved him off breezily. “Obviously, he’s lying. We all know time travel is impossible. They haven’t even invented a flux capacitor yet.”

“He didn’t need a flux capacitor,” Juliet told them. “He didn’t even try to explain how it happened. He doesn’t know. He just remembers waking up in the alley. He didn’t even know he’d time traveled until he saw the date on the paper.”

“If he really time traveled,” Gus challenged, his brow wrinkling. “Shouldn’t he have remembered that? I mean, if he’s really from the future he would have already lived through this once as Present Shawn.”

“Maybe we’re trapped in some kind of rip on the space-time continuum,” Juliet suggested. “So we’re in an endless loop, reliving this experience over and over again but never remembering it. Maybe we already solved this case and we don’t even know it!”

“This isn’t a damn book!” Lassiter growled. “We’re not debating plot holes! If that psycho in there is walking around willingly pretending to be Spencer, there has to be something going on! We have to figure out what the hell he’s playing at.”

“Maybe he’s just a fan,” Shawn offered.

The others just snorted.

“What?” Shawn scoffed. “I have fans!”

“No, you don’t,” Gus informed him. “He’s up to something. He probably wants to steal your identity and kill you in your sleep.”

“Then, I guess I won’t sleep with him,” Shawn retorted.

He paused for a moment, considering the implications of what he just said.

“I think I just took Oedipus to a whole new level,” he sighed finally.

“There’s an easy way to settle this,” Gus pressed on, deciding it was best to just ignore Shawn. “DNA testing.”

“He won’t let us without a court order,” Juliet told him.

“Why not?” Shawn asked.

“He says he has a fear of pointy objects,” Lassiter grunted.

Shawn and Gus looked at each other.

“Okay…” Shawn murmured slowly. “So, he’s a well-researched psycho.” He stepped towards the door to the interrogation room, squaring his shoulders as if he was about to face the firing squad.

Gus grabbed his arm, pulling him back. “What are you doing?” he hissed. “You’re not going to talk to him!”

“Why not?” Shawn demanded, shaking free of Gus’s grip. “Maybe he can tell me who wins the Super Bowl next year. I could take my dad for hundreds! Well…it’s my dad, so…dozens!”

He pushed open the door and stepped inside.

The other Shawn looked up at him, their identical eyes meeting.

Gus shuddered again. “I saw a horror movie that started like this once,” he murmured. “Everyone died.”

Juliet sighed, looking at the two Shawns. “Let’s hope this ends better than that.”



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