Author's Note: This story is a 'drabble' written for a friend over on LJ.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, and I am not making any money from these stories.
Warning: Non consensual disciplinary spanking of a child by a parent. I don't advocate this in real life, only in fiction.


Playing Opossum


1985

Shawn sat down to breakfast Saturday morning with a smile. His mom set a plate of pancakes down in front of him and said, "Here you go."

"Thanks mom."

Shawn ate quickly, wanting to go out and play with Gus. Gus had some new walkie talkies that they were going to try out. "Don't eat so fast sweetie."

Shawn took two slow bites, and then continued to stuff them in his face. Once he was done he got up from the table and said, "I'm gonna go play with Gus. I'll be home for lunch."

"Don't you remember Shawn? I promised your Aunt Ruth that we would go visit her today."

Shawn had forgotten, "But Mom, Gus has new walkie talkies, and his mom said we could take them to the park."

"Maybe you'll have time to do that this afternoon when we get home."

Shawn frowned and thought about it for a few minutes. "Why should I have to go when Dad doesn't?"

"Because Dad's at work and you know it."

"I don't WANT to go visit her. She smells like old person, and her dog always tries to bite me."

Shawn could tell his mom wasn't happy. She put her hands on her hips and said, "Your Great Aunt Ruth is a very nice person. She has always been kind to you, and when you were born she made you…."

Shawn cut her off and said with annoyance, "…the blanket I slept with for three years, and I wouldn't go to sleep without it. I know."

"Don't you take a tone with me. You're going and that's final."

Shawn crossed his arms and glared at the table while thinking 'Great. The whole morning spent with smelly Aunt Ruth, and her awful dog. Can this day get any worse?'

"Go put on some nice clothes."

"Moooooom." Shawn whined.

She gave him a look and waited. Shawn rolled his eyes and headed up the stairs. He muttered, "Worst Saturday ever."

Once upstairs he went into his parent's bedroom and picked up the phone. "Gus?"

"Hey Shawn, are you headed over?"

"Sorry, I can't. I have to go to my stupid aunt's house."

"Dang, I really wanted to try these out."

Shawn thought about it for a second. "Maybe we still can. I'll call you back in a little bit."

Shawn hung up before Gus could answer. He ran to his room, put on his hated 'nice clothes', and looked under his bed for his baseball glove. He found it and put it in the middle of his floor. He picked up his desk chair with some effort, and tossed it to the floor with a loud Crash! He immediately yelled, "Owww!"

He heard his mom moving downstairs and yelling, "Shawn?! Shawn are you okay?"

He quickly picked up the chair, set it upright, and then sat down on the floor where the chair had been and held his ankle. A few seconds later his mom was there, crouching down next to him with an arm around his shoulders. "Shawn honey, are you okay? What happened?"

Adding strain to his voice, and hoping he sounded close to tears, Shawn said, "I tripped on my baseball glove. My ankle really hurts Mom."

She gave him a quick hug and a kiss to the top of his head, before she said, "Let me see."

He let go of the ankle and held it out for her. He let her move it around a little before making his body jump as he said, "Ow!"

"I think you sprained it. Come on, let's get you up on the bed, and I'll get you some ice for it."

She helped him stand up, and limp over to the bed. He looked at her and almost got out some real tears as he said, "I'm really sorry mom. I know you were looking forward to going to see Aunt Ruth."

"It's not your fault Shawn. Accidents happen. I'm just really glad that you're okay. You sit tight, and I'll get you some ice after I call Aunt Ruth and let her know we can't come."

He nodded and put on an 'I'm gonna be brave and not cry' face for her. The second he heard her on the stairs, he got up and peeked out his door. He listened gleefully while she called her Aunt and apologized for not being able to come. Then when Shawn heard her in the kitchen getting some ice, he ran into her bedroom and dialed Gus who answered, "Hello?"

"Gus, come to my house in ten minutes with the walkie talkies and ask to play."

"But Shawn I thought….."

Shawn hung up and tiptoed back to his own room. A few seconds after he was sitting down again she appeared in the doorway holding a bag of ice in a dishtowel. She walked over to him and helped him take off his nice shoes. Then she gently put the bag on his ankle and said, "Okay, you hold that there until I tell you not to. It will help it not to swell up."

Giving her a genuine smile, Shawn said, "Thanks Mom."
***********

Exactly ten minutes later Gus knocked on the front door. Shawn's mom answered. "Hello Mrs. Spencer. I was wondering if Shawn could play."

"I'm sorry Gus, but Shawn hurt his ankle. I don't think he's going to be up for playing today."

Gus looked confused for a second and then said, "I could keep him company for a while if you don't mind."

"That's very nice of you Gus. I'm sure Shawn would like that very much."

She opened the door wide, and Gus who was at her house fairly often, went up to Shawn's room. Gus went and sat on the bed next to Shawn. "What happened?"

"I sprained my ankle." Shawn held up his fingers and did quotes in the air as he said 'sprained'.

Gus frowned, "Why would you do that? Now you'll be stuck inside all day."

Shawn took one of the walkie talkies out of Gus' hands and said, "Beats visiting Aunt Ruth and Poopsie. You go out back, and I'll stay up here. We can be secret FBI spies."

Gus smiled, "What's our mission?"
***************

Gus and Shawn played happily most of the morning. Then at lunch Shawn's mother asked him to try and walk on his ankle to see how it was doing. Shawn knew there would still be time to go see his aunt if his ankle was feeling better, so he took one step and then fell to the floor groaning in pain. "It still hurts."

Shawn could tell his mom was worried and said, "Okay honey, why don't you just get back in bed, and I'll bring some lunch up to you."

"Okay." He felt a little bad at seeing how worried she was, but then reminded himself that it was her fault in the first place for wanting him to go visiting with her. As soon as he heard her down in the kitchen, he got the walkie talkie and said, "Gus do you read me?"

"Loud and clear."

"Did you have lunch yet."

"Yeah. I'm headed back to your place right now."

Shawn got up and went to the window. He could see Gus walking down the street. Shawn said, "You're being followed by a suspicious looking man wearing a green hat."

Shawn snickered as he saw Gus turn and look behind him. "Not really Gus, just in the game."

Gus looked up towards Shawn's window and said in the walkie talkie, "Not funny Shawn."

Gus kept walking and Shawn leaned on his windowsill bouncing on the balls of his feet while watching Gus turn the corner to go to the front of the house. Once Gus was out of sight, Shawn turned, and he was about to jump onto his bed when he saw his father standing in the doorway with his arms crossed wearing his uniform. Shawn gulped and quickly picked up the foot attached to his 'injured ankle', and limped over to the bed. "Um… Hi Dad. What are you doing home so early?"

Gus' voice came through on the walkie talkie and said, "Shawn, did you know your dad's home? Shawn?"

Shawn turned it off and looked up at his dad. Henry held out his hand, and without a word, Shawn handed him the walkie talkie. Henry went out and down the stairs. Shawn got out of bed to his doorway to listen in. He heard the front door open, and heard his father say, "Hi Gus, here's your walkie talkie. Shawn can't play for the rest of the day."

Gus could tell things had gone wrong, as they often did when Shawn was trying to pull some stunt. He was just happy not to be part of it today. "Okay Mr. Spencer. Thanks."

Shawn ran back and jumped in his bed when he heard the front door close. He could hear his parent's voices talking softly in the kitchen, but it was too low for him to make any of it out. A few minutes later Henry was back in Shawn's doorway looking disappointed and kind of angry.

Shawn looked down at his bed and waited. Henry walked in and sat on Shawn's bed. He said, "Let me see the ankle."

Shawn put his foot in his dad's hand. His dad rotated the foot while watching Shawn. Shawn said, "Ow?" but it didn't sound convincing even to his own ears.

Henry put the foot down and sighed. "Why Shawn?"

Shawn looked at his dad hoping he would understand since he wasn't overly fond of Aunt Ruth either. "Mom wanted to ruin a perfectly good Saturday morning by visiting Smelly Aunt Ruth. She didn't even ask me if I wanted to go. And you know Aunt Ruth would want to kiss me, and then I'd have to pet Poopsie while he tried to bite me. Then she'd offer me something nasty like warm milk or week old cookies with dog hair on them, and mom would want me to be polite and have some. And I.. I just didn't want to."

Sighing because he did understand, Henry said, "Sometimes in life we all have to do things we don't want to do. I know visiting Ruth isn't fun, but it's important to your mom, so you should be willing to do it for her. Your mom does lots of nice things for you all the time, and she doesn't ask for much in return."

Feeling a little bad about it Shawn had to agree, and looked down at his bed, "Yeah."

Henry continued, "Your mom was really worried about you today. She thought maybe you'd broken your ankle, but she didn't want to worry you, so she called me so I could come home at lunch to look at it to decide if we needed to take you to the doctors."

"Oh."

"Shawn?"

Shawn looked up, "Yeah?"

"It was wrong of you to worry your mom like that, and to lie to her about your ankle just to get out of visiting. You made her cry."

Shawn shook his head once and looked out towards the hallway thinking about that. "She cried?"

Henry nodded. Shawn looked back at his dad with real tears in his eyes and whispered, "I'm sorry."

Henry squeezed Shawn's shoulder once and said, "You can tell her that when we're done."

Shawn looked up at his dad with panic and shook his head no. Henry picked Shawn up and put him over his lap. Shawn yelled out, "No Dad!"

Henry started swatting. Shawn yelled through it, "Ow! I'm already sorry! Ow! Dad!! I won't do it again! Owwww! Honest I won't! Owwww! Dad pleeeeease stoooop!!"

Henry didn't spank Shawn all that often, so when he thought Shawn had messed up badly enough to deserve it, he made sure to do a thorough job of it. He kept swatting until Shawn's pleas turned into crying, and then gave him a couple more swats before picking him up and putting him on his feet.

Once he was standing, Shawn's hands went back to cover his butt. Henry pulled him into a hug, and waited for Shawn's crying to slow down. Once it had, Henry pulled Shawn away and held him at arm's length. "I have to go back to work. You be good for your mom."

Shawn nodded and then felt another hand on his shoulder. He looked up and saw his mom standing behind him, and saw that she had red eyes too. He turned and hugged her as he started to cry again. "I'm sorry Mom."

Henry shared a look with his wife and she gave him a quick kiss before he left to go back to work. She sat down and picked Shawn up so he could sit in her lap. She wrapped her arms around him in a hug and said, "I forgive you sweetie."

Psych pictures courtesy of In a Dream Screencap Archive

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