Cht 1

Little Monsters

Sitting on the window seat, looking out, looking out into nothing in particular on a clear early morning where the world has yet to awaken. Root leans her head on the window, her eyes closed as silent tears slowly, and uncontrollably roll down her face, despite still trying her hardest not to cry. As someone who lets herself feel everything, how could this not hit her hard?

Looking on, Shaw can't help but feel the void, she hated seeing Eeyore Root. Standing, watching, aching. Shaw lets go of the handle of the trolley case and walks over to Root. Root doesn't move, her head still leaning on the window. Moving closer, Root spots Shaw's reflection in the window, and finally moves, leaning her head against Shaw's stomach as she closes her eyes and wraps her arms around her, seeking warmth, finding comfort.

Standing and trying to absorb the weight of Root's sorrow, Shaw circles her own arm around her head, cupping Root's cheek and massaging it with her thumb. Finally, feeling that enough time had passed, Shaw gently takes Root's hand with her free one, and coaxes her to move, "come on, it's time to go."

Root slowly opens her eyes and looks up at Shaw... Squeezing Root's hand in encouragement, Root reluctantly gets up, and follows Shaw out the door. Pulling the trolley cases, Shaw locks the front door with a heavy sigh...

"What are you?!"

Shaw finds herself staring back at a wide eyed little girl in pig tails as she stares at her, mouth gaping open.

This question was once surprising, especially when she first arrived at the camp, but now she was accustomed to the curiosity, as Shaw stares back at the little girl's gaping open mouth. It's not everyday the locals got to meet an olive skinned foreigner. But then, later when they discovered Shaw had a wife... Now that, dropped jaws even wider than her appearance.

Shaw just chuckles, "I'm a Doctor" she finishes pointing towards her stethoscope and white lab coat.

"Is that why you have...?" As the girl stops, horror written all over her face as she points at the large needle now in Shaw's hand, before half burying her head into her mother, trying to hide from it.

Smirking in amusement, "yes, and this will make you feel better", Shaw tries to reassure, but the little girl wasn't convinced. Not one bit as the girl watches on, with one eye, in curiosity as Shaw places the bottle back onto the tray and is now pinging the syringe to rid it of air bubbles. Now ready, Shaw nods at the girl's mother, who reacts by gripping her daughter a little more firmly, in case she made a run for it. The little girl however, watching as Shaw walked closer, instantly froze, bear hugging her mother with eyes so wide her eyelids were in danger of getting lost in the sockets.

Now following the needle all the way, shifting her eyes from Shaw's hand, coming closer... Closer... Even closer.. Now on her arm and breaking the skin as the needle is plunged in. With a small jolt from the girl, it was over.

"There" as Shaw confirms, pulling the needle out of the girl's arm and wiping the injected area with a swab, wiping away the small dot of blood along with it, "all done".

The little girl continues to gaze as Shaw disconnects the needle from the syringe, then throw the needle into the yellow medical waste box, and placing the syringe back onto the tray alongside the small bottle of vaccination. With the needle now gone, the girl looks back up at Shaw's eyes, untangling her arms from her mother, and in surprise, "that was it?!" She asks, a little disappointed, disgusted and confused it was over so soon. All that fear for nothing.

Chuckling, Shaw nods and playfully shrugs at her in reply, before making eye contact with and smiling at her mother to confirm they were finished.

"Thank you" the mother says in gratitude before leading her daughter out of the medical tent.

As Shaw watches the mother and child leave, she couldn't help but feel satisfaction, as she is promptly called to the next patient.

Throwing out her apron and surgical gloves in the medical waste trash bin, Shaw wipes her brow with the back of her arm as she is finally able to leave the medical tent, not sure she will ever get used to the humidity of the jungle.

Turning, she passes a few more tents before reaching a little open space, the school. Catching Root's line of sight, Shaw watches as Root switches her attention from the book she was reading to her, and then back again to the book, before trying to peek up at Shaw again. Root smiles lovingly into her chest knowing that her Sameen is watching her.

Now near enough, Shaw sits down cross legged onto the grass, and listens with the rest of the children around her while Root continues with the story book.

Gazing at Root, Root continues to read while she tenderly holds one particularly small boy, as he sits on her lap. His back is leaning into Root's arm and chest as he sits on one of her legs. His own legs dangling on either side of hers, as he looks down into the book, looking at the pictures. Shaw sees his chest labour to rise, and then fall again. With every breath, he struggled to breath. So frail. And it was days like these that would remind Shaw how lucky she is that Root was still here, with her. That was all that mattered, as the children start to shout out excitedly, following the story of the Gruffalo.

"Goofalo?!... What is, Goofalo?!" Asks one of the children, her hand out stretched into the air as she sits straight, pushing down onto her crossed legs, and into the grass.

Giggling, Root watches as another child takes over, "monsta!... Gogalo mosta!"

"Mouse, eew! Yucky mouse!" Calls another child excitedly as she points to a spot under an oddly shaped tree in the corner.

Finishing her story, the children then become distracted with the brilliantly timed arrival of Dr Reynolds as he stomps over slowly, arms raised up like he had claws, "rrrrrrrgh!... The Gruffalo is coming to get you" as he stomps through the children, causing them to scream and scatter. He bends down in time to scoop some children into his arms and squeezes them into a hug as they try to wriggle free. Squealing, others had already managed to run away excitedly, running around the grass, they wait for him to chase them. A few orphans run towards the two teachers standing near by, and they too, join in, trying to catch the kids as they run around merrily. "The Gruffalo is coming to get you..." Catching them the children were tickled.

Shaw watches as Root remains sitting, rocking the frail little boy as he giggled at the fun. As Root hunches down to cuddle and kiss him on the cheek, Shaw doesn't know why watching Root made her feel a twinge deep down, but it did as her lips part slightly, her breathing shallows.

Root drops the book and starts giggling herself as she gazes back at Shaw. There it was, Shaw, who also had not moved from her sitting position, had three toddlers on top of her. One little girl had clambered on top of Shaw from the side, hugging her while she rested her little head on her shoulder. The little boy who had jumped on Shaw's back, was now choking her as he hung onto the base of Shaw's neck with his small arms, leaning into her, trying to clamber further up for a piggy back ride. While the third child is standing in front of Shaw, combing her hand through Shaw's hair. Then once satisfied, she draws the contours of Shaw's face with her fingers, examining her, curious as to why she was so different from everyone else. As Root gazes on at an amused Shaw, Root couldn't help but think just how cute the whole thing was.

An assistant rings the bell in her hand to indicate that break time was over, and the children stop playing and run back to the teachers, forming an orderly queue as they held hands with each other. "Bye bye!" As some of the children shout in unison at the adults, waving, as they walked back into the school building.

With some ill children still in the playground, a couple volunteer nurses come back to collect them, and return them back to the medical tent for further observation. Reluctantly, Root hands the frail little boy in her arms back to one of them. And continues to pout as she watches him be carried away.

Shaw moves in and curls her arm around Root's waist, then pulls Root forcefully into her before planting a passionate kiss on her lips. Kissing and continuing to feed the gossip around the camp.

Her attention now back on Shaw, Root circles her arms around Shaw's waist, and cuddles her as she leans further into the kiss, before breaking it with a smile and opening her eyes again.

As they fumble back into their small single story two room brick apartment in the camp, already drenched in so much sweat. Root quickly turns on the small solar powered fan while Shaw goes to grab a couple of bottled water, but with no main electricity, that was just warm too. Stripping down, they crawl in under the mosquito net hanging over their bed as the high double digit temperatures were not enough to stop these two from keeping her hands off each other. Root indulges in sucking on Shaw's lips as she crawls on top to sit on Shaw's lap. Combing through Shaw's shiny straight hair, emulating the little girl, Root continues to admire how beautiful her girl is, drawing with her fingers the contours of Shaw's face. Satisfied, Root stops and digs her nails into Shaw's shoulder, before biting down on her neck, and then sucking on it. 'Hmmm...' As Root stops. Pulling her nails out, Root replaces the sharp nails with her head, resting her head on Shaw's shoulder and closing her eyes, cuddling further into Shaw, continuing to take comfort in her embrace.

Shaw, accustomed by now to Root's oddity, continues to sit still and let Root take what she needed, what she wanted. She would at most, stroke Root's back every now and then to let her know she's still there...

Watching Root sleep peacefully again after such a long time, Shaw was relieved that taking Root away from New York is paying off, as Root, very slowly but surely, had started regaining her strength again with each passing day.