Author's note: A Shoot fic set after season 5. Shaw isn't in this chapter, but no worries, she'll come in later. I don't own the show or any of the characters, but I do love them.

Root wakes up, but she doesn't know that she is Root. They tell her she is Ramona Shaw, and something about it recalls an echo in her tattered memory, but it doesn't seem quite right. She shrugs with a half smile, telling the woman holding her driver's license "If you say so." Ten days later, when they finally release her, she signs "R. Shaw" on the papers. It flows naturally from her hand, and she's a little more convinced.

Leaving the hospital is both a relief and a source of anxiety. The air at Mass General had been filled with disease, crushed hopes, and death, but at least she had company in the form of a parade of professionals. Before her discharge, Cheng checked her brain functions. David tried, unsuccessfully, to uncloak her past and the causes of her injuries. Betsy pushed her to walk to the end of the hall and back. Leslie sleuthed out what she could do to support herself, and where she could live after the address on the driver's license turned out to be a dead end. It's just her now, and she barely knows herself. For awhile, she holds out hope that someone will come for her – someone from her past who had been looking for her. They'll finally get around to checking Mass General, where they'll find her new address. She'll get an unexpected knock on the door… but it doesn't happen, and eventually she stops waiting for it. As silence and loneliness threaten to overcome her, she throws herself into her shitty job.

At the hospital, Leslie had quickly discovered that Root's typing was sickeningly fast and accurate. So she got set up with a job as a secretary to the director of Yankee Animal Rescue – Boston's premier combo animal hospital, rescue, and advocacy organization. The job is boring, but it keeps her busy, and she has to admit she is quite partial to its cause. Plus there is the added perk of the cutie from IT giving her bedroom eyes.

Natalia's dark long hair frames a lighter face with ice blue eyes. She is a rather petite woman, but looks like she can handle herself. And maybe, just maybe, thinks Root, she can handle her too. So the fifth time Natalia comes by to "check in" and unnecessarily upgrade the director's software, Root bites and shoots her a one liner.

"If you keep upgrading that software, you're going to end up with a hardware problem on your hands." She accompanies this with a less than stellar wink. Natalia looks confused and a little worried for a second, but then lights up with realization.

"I could buy you a drink later, if you want to talk it over."

Root hesitates then, no longer sure. Something about the interaction feels like a letdown, but she has been devastatingly lonely for as long as she can remember (a little over a month now), and a girl has needs. So as Natalia adds a questioning eyebrow to her smirking expression, Root caves and gives her an almost sincere smile.

"Why not. Swing by around seven, the director's usually done by then. Wear that dress I like – the one with the front zip"

"… Do you mean the one I'm wearing?"

"That's the one."

"Okay" Natalia gives her a placating smile "I'll see you at seven."

That evening, Natalia guides Root to a gay bar a few blocks from their office. The drinks are good and it's not too crowded. Natalia is happy to talk about herself, and Root does not need to reveal that she knows next to nothing about herself. The secretary learns that Natalia's father emigrated from Russia in the 70s and opened a small chain of restaurants featuring his prized beef stroganoff recipe, and that he and Natalia have had a rough relationship since she declared vegetarianism at the age of 10. Natalia tells her how she has always had a knack for computers, and breezed through MIT, but that helping animals is her true passion. With a stifled yawn, Root mentions that she likes dogs, and Natalia whips out her iPhone to show off pictures of Bradley, her prized husky. As far as Root is concerned, this elevates the date from kind of bad to almost good. She coos over Bradley's handsome face, brushing against Natalia's fingers as she navigates the photos, and Natalia tells her of his various accomplishments. He is a good dog.

Natalia walks her home, and they pause in front of Root's building.

"I had a good time today, Ramona" Natalia's bedroom eyes are back, but they aren't as appealing as before Root knew she was a bit of a bore.

"Yea, me too. I'll see you around at the office tomorrow."

"Alright" Natalia scratches a spot on her neck just behind and under her ear and she turns to go, but Root catches her wrist. Feeling a sudden tug at her heart, Root turns the smaller woman around, tips her head up by the chin and kisses her, without really knowing why. The kiss is soft and warm, but just as Natalia starts to deepen it, Root loses the feeling, and pulls away, again not entirely understanding herself or her actions.

"Yea, okay, I'll see you around tomorrow." Natalia gives her a true wink as she smiles smugly to herself, leaving Root standing there with a befuddled inward gaze. As Natalia rounds the corner, Root shakes her head to clear it. She wishes she knew more about herself, but so far despite all her searching, she hasn't found a single clue. Unless, she thinks, this is a clue.

Root hums to herself as her face screws up again. Glancing briefly back in the direction Natalia walked away, she shrugs, then turns to let herself into her apartment building. Whatever that was, it can wait for tomorrow. It hasn't been that long since she woke up from a month long coma, and long days followed by long and confusing nights are not her current specialty. It's time for bed.

That night Root dreams of toned olive arms and rough hands, but when she wakes up with wet cheeks and a pounding heart, the content of the dream slips away before she can grasp it.

Root and Natalia continue dating. Root keeps waiting to feel that tug in her chest again, but they've been seeing each other for three weeks now, and it still hasn't returned. Natalia never grew on her, and the sex was only so-so. Not one to waste time, she starts planning the eminent breakup. She's stuck on the puzzle of how to do it in such a way where she still gets to hang out with Bradley.

In the meantime, the director at her job has left for a two-week vacation, and Root is bored to tears, so she starts organizing everything in the director's office. The scattered papers are scanned, reformatted to type, and then digitally filed by overall type and case number. The paper copies are given to The Box. Halfway through the process, Root can't help but notice how much slower the director's computer is than hers. Curious considering how often Natalia installs software upgrades on it. So she starts to poke around.

An hour later, elbow deep in code, Root feels a tingle flutter up her spine when she finds the source of the problem. Bad code. Naughty bad and sloppy bad, it clearly stands out from the rest of the computer's stock programing. The code seems to serve two purposes. The first is siphoning a steady stream of money into an outside bank account. The second, she's pretty sure is money laundering. She's tempted to fix it right away, but has to admit to herself that this is a project best taken home where she can take her time and avoid alerting the perpetrator that she's looking for them. Root doesn't want to scare them away. She wants to catch them. Catch them, question them, and punish them for taking money away from sweet doggies.

"Sorry, old girl" she says, running a finger along the computer's casing "I'll fix you up later, but we need to do some sleuthing first."

After creating a neutered copy of the code to take with her, she finishes up the rest of her file organization, and starts packing up to head home. Before she can slink off to start her side project, though, she hears the clicking of Natalia's heels foretelling her eminent arrival.

"Hey babe" the shorter woman purrs. "There's fancy a new bar opening downtown - Volkov. We should go."

"I don't know. I have some stuff I want to do at home…" Namely, catch a sloppy hacker who steals from dogs, and maybe also draw up a short list of good break up restaurants.

"Well, as long as it's quick, you can do both. You'll need to go home to change anyway – it's a nice place. I'll pick you up at eight." Natalia gives Root's ass a good squeeze, then heads out before waiting for a proper answer.

Root decides eight o'clock is as good a time as any to break up with someone, and smiles after Natalia's retreating form.

As soon as she gets home, Root plugs the flash drive from work into the desktop she built from 'borrowed' spare parts, and gets to work. By seven o'clock, she's figured out that the sloppy code is Natalia's. The redirected funds are going to a bank account she has by a different name. 'Natalie?' Amateur. And the money laundering is for the Russian Mob. Interesting. The very same Russian mob backing the bar Natalia invited her to tonight? Very interesting. By 7:45 Root is dressed to the nines for her date, a solid Taser and a sharp knife packed into her purse. Sure, she could just break up with Natalia as planned, get her fired, fix the code, and redirect all the funds to their rightful canine protecting owners (plus a modest finders fee taken directly from that little fucker's personal account), but she'd lose her chance to check up on the Russian mob. She's not really sure what she wants to do with them yet, but she figures she'll start with introductions, then go from there. As she puts the finishing touches on her makeup Root makes a mental note to get a couple guns for any future forays into potentially dangerous situations. Still, guns or no, this date is going to be a lot more fun than she's ever had with Natalia before.