Cht 1

Too much sugar

With hours of exposure to the whirling engine, the wind whizzing by and the air conditioning unit constantly buzzing, hearing was no longer necessary as Shaw watches while ripping open the plastic bag and placing another thin airline blanket over Root, tucking it in carefully around her. The cabin was dark but for the aisle lighting and the occasional reading light spotlighting the passenger below it. Apart from the usual white noise, it was quiet, disturbed only by the occasional shuffle or cough as fellow passengers share and breathe in the same recirculated air. Satisfied, Shaw slowly stands from her long squatting position by the side of Root's bed seat. Shaking out her legs, Shaw walks to the other side of Root's bed seat to where Gen was, also sleeping peacefully. Switching off Gen's reading light, Shaw removes the headset from her head gently and places them in the seat pocket in front of her. Gen stirs lightly at the small disturbance before settling down again, quiet as the plane continues to hum.

A small slither of a smile in contentment creeps up on Shaw, and she finds herself at peace as she turns to walk back down the aisle to return to her own seat.

"Where are we going?" Not moving from the breakfast bar, adamant that she was going to finish her breakfast, continuing to huff, "you gave away Bear and took Gen out of school" as Shaw continues fuming slumped in her bar stool, leaning heavily on one arm.

Putting down her mug, Root saunters over to Shaw. Massaging Shaw's shoulders as she reaches her, Root continues to sooth, "Sweetie, Bear's with Reese, and we couldn't go without Gen!"

"Exactly! You gave our boy away" Shaw continues to grumble as Gen wanders past behind them and into the living room. Gen's hands were full of stuff as she desperately tries to reach her case without dropping anything, "and make us look bad for taking our daughter out of school, for a vacation!"

Chuckling as Root leans close into Shaw's ear, whispering, "baby, even when grumpy, you're still good mom."

Turning her head slowly, Shaw faces a proud and smirking Root. Unimpressed, Shaw remains impassive as she returns her attention back to her breakfast.

Slowly placing her hand on Shaw's chin and turning Shaw's head back to face her, Root kisses Shaw deeply... Pulling away again, "Sweetie, I know you're tired, but I promise you'll love where we're going" Root tries to enthuse. "and Reese will return Bear when we get back."

"And school is lame" Gen adds,"I've done all the assignments already" as she tries to stuff all her items into an already full case.

Watching Gen, "Gen, honey, I don't think you need all those things..."

Buzz... Buzz...

Hearing the door buzz, Gen drops everything and jumps excitedly as she looks out of the living room window and down onto the street, "taxi's here!"

Slumping into Root's arm, Shaw had fallen asleep on the way to the airport. Back to back long shifts were starting to take it's toll on Shaw, as Root continues to watch over her in concern. 'Must talk to Harry when we get…..'

Root is abruptly interrupted from her reminiscing thoughts of earlier this morning as she looks away from Shaw, who was sleeping opposite her on the other side of the small aisle, and turns her head to the side to greet Gen, who has now looped her arms around Root's neck.

Smiling and placing a hand on Gen's hugging arm, "hey Sweetie, you OK?"

Pouting, "mmm..."

"We're nearly there," as Root pats and then lightly squeezes Gen's arm, "you can get some proper sleep when we get to the hotel."

Lifting her sleepy head from Root's shoulder, and away from the reading light above Root's seat, Gen turns her head to Shaw, who was still sleeping, soundly. With mischief written all over her face, Gen unravels her arms and takes the two steps to the other side of the aisle and sits down next to Shaw's bed seat. Carefully, Gen lifts her finger and starts to lightly tickle Shaw's nose.

Shaw scrunches her face, stirs, then continues sleeping as Gen releases her holding breath. Laughing silently, Gen does it again. This time Shaw uses her hand to swat whatever was near her nose, grumbles lightly and continues sleeping.

Root watches on as she shakes her head. Those two just can't help teasing each other...

"Ma!" Gen calls in shock while Root chuckles at Shaw's approaching figure. "We're gonna miss our flight!"

Shaw shrugs, and then as she reaches them, turns her head to look at the queue beside Gen. Clearly the business class line was the only queue that was being boarded at the moment, everyone else were still standing or sitting in the boarding gate lounge, waiting. Turning back around to face Gen, intending to tease her, Shaw stops as she spots Gen's eyes on her hand.

Eying Shaw's pretzel, Gen takes a lunge for it, only for Shaw to turn her shoulders slightly and block her from stealing it out of her hand. "Ma! Share!" Gen shouts before stopping abruptly as a white paper bag is pushed towards her face. Grabbing it, "yeah!"

"Hold this" as Shaw pushes the cinnamon pretzel into Root's hand as Shaw grabs both her own and Root's trolley case and joins the queue to start boarding.

Gen fumbles with opening the paper bag and grabbing her trolley case to follow Shaw, "Ma, wait for me!"

Root is left looking on at her two adorable firecrackers while munching on the pretzel now in her hand, before finally sauntering over to join her family.

As the three make their way past the boarding gate and along the jet bridge, it doesn't go unnoticed by Gen that Shaw had just given Root her mostly uneaten pretzel. And it didn't go unnoticed by Root either that Shaw had just shared her food with h...

Fuzzzzz...

Root is again interrupted from her reminiscing thoughts of earlier today as the cabin lights come on while the PA emits:

"Ladies and Gentleman, this is your captain speaking, ah... I hope you all have had a good rest. We will be arriving in ah... Just over 2 hours. The weather forecast for ah... Bucharest is currently 12 degree centigrade, 45 degrees Fahrenheit.. Ah.. There is to be light rain with strong winds so I hope you have all packed your jackets. In the meantime, we will be serving..."

Root looks back over to Gen and Shaw, witnessing just in time as Gen falls on top of Shaw. Shaw had caught Gen's wrist and pulled Gen towards her. Instead of trying to wrangle her wrist free, Gen instead decides to jump on top of Shaw.

Shaw retaliates by tickling Gen. Gen can't help but giggle and squeal , "Ma!" As Gen struggles to get up and away from Shaw, "stop it!" She pleads between the laughing...

Watching them, 'Sameen is going to be a wonderful mother to our son too...' As a warmth drifts over Root, making her grin involuntarily, and widely. Not realising how long she had drifted off into her own world again, Root snaps back to attention with two pairs of eyes staring at her. Both Shaw and Gen were up and sitting on the bed seat.

Pretending to whisper to Shaw with a side tilted mouth and moving only one side of her face, "Mom's laughing to herself... You think it's serious, or should we only start worrying if she starts talking to herself too?!"

As Shaw continues to gaze at Root, Shaw nods with concern to answer Gen's question. Both Shaw and Gen's facial expressions remain neutral.

Looking between the two, Root pouts before catching a glimpse of a third pair of eyes just behind her shoulder.

"Ma'am, would you like some breakfast? We have a choice of Romanian, which is scrambled eggs and salad, or American" as the air hostess looks on expectantly at Root.

Chuckling softly, "Romanian please."

Refusing to go back to her seat, Gen remains seated next to Shaw as they battle for space while they eat their breakfast. As they finish, Gen grabs Shaw's OJ and places both her and Shaw's bottle onto Root's tray.

Smiling sweetly again, Root was in danger...

Shaw continues to gaze at Root as Gen speaks to Shaw while also looking at Root, "I don't think we should continue spoiling Mom," Gen teases, "she's probably at high risk now."

Root raises her brows questioningly at Gen.

"All this sugar, it's clearly affecting you. Diabetes is a huge problem you now" Gen deadpans. Before stopping, tilting her head slightly to think about it, then chuckling to herself, "pun intended" as Gen finishes her punchline with a proud grin.

Shaw stops gazing at Root and turns slowly to Gen, "nerd... And so wrong."

"What?" As Gen shrugs, "it's funny."

Suppressing her laugh a little, "you're right, Sweetie" as Root continues to chuckle, "but now that I'm addicted" as Root takes one of the bottles and opens it, "I need a hit" and drinks from the bottle. "Hmmm" Root grins, "soooo sweet," she continues to tease.