Shaw has one rule: never get involved with a psychopath.
It's as simple as that. Then she meets Root.
When they are standing in the elevator and the doors won't close, she knows they are truly fucked.
John is out cold, Finch's brilliant mind seems to be failing him by not coming up with an escape plan when they need it most, Fusco doesn't know what to do (as per usual) and even Root is awfully quiet, probably waiting for the Machine to figure something out.
And when Shaw sees the red button across the room, she knows what is to be done. It's the sensible thing to do after all; Finch is too important to be sacrificed, Fusco has a kid and Root is the Analog Interface of the Machine. There's really no other way and Shaw knows it, and a second after she says out loud what everyone is thinking, that one of them has to step out and stay behind to press that button, Root speaks up, her tone angry and something else, something that Shaw can't quite place.
"If you think I'm gonna let you…"; she says in that annoying voice of hers that drives Shaw crazy, because for god's sake, she's an adult, not a stubborn child that needs to be coddled by someone.
"Oh, for god's sake", she snaps, and spins around, ready to fire a hurtful response back at Root, some mean comment that will hurt her, just the way Shaw likes it, but then she looks into Root's eyes and she feels her angry maskerade fall before she can do anything about it, and in a sudden rush of madness and genius she grabs Root by her jacket and pulls her close, lips crashing together.
For a moment, Shaw selfishly thinks she could just stay here forever, kissing Root and not caring what is about to happen to them. But while she can be cold and violent and rude, she is never selfish, and her instincts kick in. So she does what she does best, pushing people away, and this time she does it literally, shoving Root hard and fast towards Fusco, who, for once, gets the hint and puts his arm around her waist, ready to hold her back should she try to rush forward and out of the elevator. Root does no such thing. She just stares at Shaw, unable to form a thought, to process what just happened and what's about to happen.
And Shaw is glad that Root does nothing, if she were screaming or crying it would only make things that much harder and she can already barely do what she has to, because it will hurt Root. But if hurting Root means she will live, that is a prize Shaw is willing to pay, so she uses the rare moment of Root being quiet to close and lock the outside doors of the elevator.
And while she tries to hate Root for doing this to her, for making her feel things, she just can't. She wants to say so many things, things she has been afraid of saying out loud since their first encounter, but Shaw has never been good with words, so she does the only thing she is really good at: acting. She turns around and focuses on the red button on the other side of the room and starts to move in its direction, shooting a Samaritan agent or two on the way.
When she reaches her destination, her courage doesn't falter. She pushes it, knowing that by doing so, she has sealed her own fate.
Shaw has never been afraid of death, neither of what comes after (if there is something to come after) and she used to think she would die without regret, die the way she lived; hard and fast. And even now, when the moment is quickly approaching, she has one regret only: that this kiss between her and Root, hard and fast, will be their first and last.
But Shaw is proud and going down while mulling over her feelings is just not the way to go for her, so she steps back into the middle of the room and faces towards its end, where several Samaritan agents are coming towards her.
She shoots, once, twice, maybe thrice, until the first bullet hits her. She feels a familiar pain in her stomach region, right where that fucker hit her, but while she stumbles a little, she manages to stay upright for the moment. However, a second and third bullet soon find their way into her weakened body and that's when Shaw knows, the end is near.
Shaw has never been afraid of death, no, but as she feels her body convulse and drop to the ground, she wishes nothing more than to look towards the elevator, to catch one last glimpse of Root, the woman she loves so much that she hates her.
But she can't help but remember earlier that day, when she was on the subway with the idiot that wanted to blow it up and what she said to him: If you want to die, that's okay, but die for something you love. This is it. This is the one thing, the one person Shaw cares about: Root. So she has to stay strong, and brave until the end, just for Root.
And god, she wishes Root would just stop screaming, because it's irritating and shouldn't she, Shaw, be the one screaming, pierced with three bullets, about to die? That's a question Shaw will never get an answer to, because she hears them, feels them coming closer, the Samaritan agents after her.
And she knows who's up front, she knows who's the one most eager to shoot and kill her. Martine Rousseau, that bitch who tried to kill Root in the hotel lobby not so long ago, as Harold told her.
Even when they are standing above her, Shaw refuses to back down and look away. A last act of bravery, that's how she wants to go, so she looks the woman standing above her with a wolfish smile straight in the eye.
The elevator doors finally close and it's quiet, for a second, until a last shot breaks the silence, and everything turns black.