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Michael doesn’t exactly recall how the chain of events led him here, sitting in the basement of Head Detective Lassiter with his 80,000 kids and pregnant husband. One second they were investigating a series of murders and the next Lassiter was speeding towards his own him, which was less than 5 blocks from the last murder scene?
Sitting in a fully furnished basement of his new boss’s house is not how Michael thought he would begin his career as a Detective, especially when the person that was actually supposed to be training him called in sick. He remembers the Detective mumbling about “O’Hara never getting sick”. He remembers getting in Lassiter’s car and driving to the murder scene.
He remembers the weird phone call Lassiter got before the Tornado Sirens went off. He never heard what the person on the other side of the phone said, only Lassiter’s response.
“Lassie! Are you headed home soon, I sense a tornado coming along!’
“Shawn, that is absolutely ridiculous there has never been a tornado in Santa Barbara.”
“Yeah huh! Santa Barbara December 31st, 1878!”
“I’m hanging up now.”
“Wha-”
“Goodbye Shawn.”
“ I love you Lassie!”
“Uh huh, Goodbye Shawn.”
“ I know you love me too Lassie-Bear, It’s okay to say it we’re marrie-”
Quickly after the one sided phone call the sky began to darken and harsh rain started falling. Lassiter began to mumble something about heading back to the station when the Tornado Siren started going off.
“Stupid Tornado Siren, freaking psychic being right all the time.” Lassiter continued to mumble as he turned down a random street in, “That idiot!”
“Uh, Detective, Tornados are pretty common in Oklahoma, I’m pretty used to them. I’m sure it’ll be alright.”
So actually Michael does recall how he made it into Detective Lassiter’s basement, sharing a couch with a 9 or 10 year old boy playing a nintendo switch, and on the floor next to them is a little girl forcing a two year old boy into wearing a princess crown, and his twin watching silently.
Lassiter and Michael came running inside and immediately into the basement, only to be greeted with laughter from a very pregnant man. “Shut it Shawn!” Lassiter had yelled, causing the man to just continue with his laughter. Shawn gives them both towels and a change of clothes.
“Ah ha!” Lassiter yells running back into the basement, Shawn looks up from where he was playing with his phone. “I was right!”
“Right about what Lassie?” Shawn asks intrigued.
“There has never been a Tornado in Santa Barbara!”
“Oh on the continuance Lassie, as I said before December 31st, 1878.”
Michael furrows his eyebrows, he has never seen Lassiter act like this. It’s almost as if the two are flirting in some weird way.
“It’s on the contrary Shawn-”
“Pfft I’ve heard it both ways.”
“Santa Barbara December 31st, 1878 was a Cyclone, not a tornado.”
“Oh yeah Mr. Smarty Pants, what about the F0 Tornado on December 29th, 1991?”
“That was Lompoc not Santa Barbara.”
“Santa Barbara County.”
Lassiter narrows his eyes, “You can’t tell me that you psychically predicted a weather phenomenon that has never happened here before.”
“Why Lassie Bear, does that tu- make you proud?” Shawn wiggles his eyebrows.
Annnnnd Michael is done watching whatever that exchange was.
“Mr. Michael, sir? What’s a tornado?” The little girl asks tugging on his pant leg.
“Well, Little Miss Lassiter-”
“Lisha!”
After explaining to Lisha what a tornado was, Michael just sits and watches as Lassiter interacts with his children. Lassiter is a good father, stern, but caring. He listens to each of his children as they talk and answers any questions that they ask.
The oldest boy, Caleb, seems too smart for being 9 years old, even Lassiter struggles to catch up with him, but his husband Shawn is just as quick as Caleb. Alisha on the other-hand seems very curious, but not always understanding of what's being told to her, Michael isn’t sure she entirely understood what a tornado was. One thing she does know, and will continuously tell Michael, is that there’s another baby in her Daddy’s belly and that's where Henry and Jeb came from.
Eventually Shawn says that the storm is over and that they’re safe to return back to the station, how he even knew that is beyond Michael. But he guesses that if Shawn can somehow predict the tornado then it would make sense that he can tell when the tornado is over.
Michael had heard rumors about the Detective being absolutely brutal and cruel to other people at the Police Station and typically only okay with working with Juliet O’Hara, but today didn’t seem too bad. Lassiter is obviously a caring father and husband, he clearly teaches his kids and is a very good listener. He even immediately drove home when the sirens went off, protecting not only himself and Michael, but his family as well.
All in all, Michael doesn’t think Head Detective Carlton Lassiter is a bad person.
“If you tell anybody about what you saw today, your career is over.”