Spark in the Dark

Chapter 37

Shawn and Lyla hung around Fun Town for awhile longer with Piper. They passed Karen Oswald and her daughter, Tristan. Shawn waved at Tristan as they passed. When Shawn had been a teenager and Tristan just a toddler, Shawn would sometimes babysit her. Shawn stayed at Fun Town even after Lyla decided it was time to take Piper home. Gemma was still there, even though the guys had left, and Shawn found her so they could spend some time together.

Shawn had never seen Gemma as a mother figure and Gemma had never tried to be one. Gemma knew Tig had tried too many times to find a mother figure for Shawn and it had never turned out well. So, instead, she was always more like the cool aunt who would let her talk about boys and sneak her sips of alcohol at dinner without Tig noticing.

It had gotten dark and they were thinking about leaving when they heard some yelling. Karen was yelling Tristan's name. Neither Karen or her husband, Elliot, who happened to be one of the richest men in Charming, could find her. A few of them spread out to search for her. Shawn went to the far edge of the carnival and began to walk around. One side was completely surrounded by trees. When Shawn got to that part, she felt nervous, as if someone would jump out of the trees and grab her. Shawn dismissed her feelings as simple paranoia and continued walking.

Suddenly, Shawn stopped. She thought she heard a voice. Not a voice coming from Fun Town, there was plenty of noise coming from that direction, but another voice somewhere in the trees. Shawn stood there, just listening. She heard it again a few seconds later. Shawn walked into the trees and called out. The voice answered her. She rushed down a small hill and finally saw Tristan at the bottom of it. But it was not a site she would have liked to see. Tristan was on the ground with her jeans around her ankles.

"Oh my God," Shawn said and rushed to her side. Tristan was trying to stand, so Shawn helped her up. Then Shawn pulled up her jeans for her. Pulling Tristan's arm around her neck, Shawn helped her walk. They left the tree line and were at the edge of the carnival. Shawn saw Gemma and waved her arm to get her attention. Gemma saw and got the attention of Tristan's parents. Everyone ran over to them and Elliot lifted his daughter into his arms.

"Thank you," he said to Shawn before carrying her away.

Gemma waited until it was just her and Shawn, again, to speak.

"What the hell happened?"

"I don't know. She didn't say. But... she was down there and... her jeans were off."

"Jesus Christ."

"I need to go home."

"Cops are going to want to talk to you," Gemma pointed out.

"Pretty sure David Hale knows where I live."

* * *

Sure enough, Shawn was woken up the next morning by the sound of someone knocking on her front door. She could tell by the knock it had to be a cop. Only cops could knock that loudly and obnoxiously. She got out of bed and went to put on her robe, but decided to grab Juice's hoodie instead. Juice thought her robe was really sexy and that was not the way she wanted to look while talking to David Hale.

She went downstairs and opened the door see Hale.

"Do you think it's weird I knew it was you just by your knock?" Shawn asked.

"Good morning to you, too, Shawn."

"Not if you're an Oswald it's not."

"Can I come in?"

"Sure. Not much I can tell you, though."

Hale and Shawn sat at her dining room table and she told him everything she could. He asked questions, but Shawn really hadn't seen enough to be able to answer any of them. Eventually, he left, but not before telling her to call him if she remembered anything.

Shawn went back upstairs, planning to go back to bed, but that clearly wasn't meant to be as her phone rang as soon as she laid back down.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Hey," Jax's voice came through the phone. "Gemma said you found Oswald's daughter last night."

"And?"

"And I wanted to see how you were holding up. That couldn't have been easy on you."

"Who are you and what did you do with the real Jackson Teller?"

"So, you're fine then."

"Yea, I'm alright. I feel like shit for her, though. Hey, I'm off work today. Would it be alright if I went to visit Abel?"

"Yea, of course."

They talked for another minute before hanging up. Shawn decided it was too late to go back to sleep and got up to get dressed. If she couldn't sleep in, she might as well go love on baby Abel.