"Bear!" Sameen called with a smile through the busy airport terminal.
She quickly spotted the shepherd dog as she walked through the crowds of tourists towards John who stood unwavering in the center of the check-in area with supplies. Root lagged behind, a swaddled baby in one arm and a bullet in the other. She didn't care too much though, too consumed with relief that Harold had the forethought to send that damn dog. Shaw almost seemed more human when she was around his furry wagging tail. Then again, Root always did have a thing for women of the non-human persuasion.
"Everything you need is in the bag, I guess this is goodbye for now ladies." John frowned.
"I'm taking Bear," Sameen demanded and there was no mirth to her as she petted his head. "You want to send me half way across the country with Coco Puffs and Baby Annabelle? Fine, but I get the dog too."
"Given the circumstances of your new cover identities, perhaps that wouldn't be a terrible idea… just please remember, leftover Reuben sandwiches do not count as dog food, Miss Shaw." Harold hummed in their ears.
Root stepped forward and examined the stroller John had brought with him, "Jesus Christ, John. Where did you find this thing? A yard sale?" she asked, noting the wear and tear to the stroller.
"Not quite," he smirked, pulling the blanket forward so both women could see the weapon and armory contents of the stroller. "I found it in the parking lot, thought you might need something to hide a stash in."
"And here I was thinking I'd have to check my Colt in as carry-on baggage." Shaw sighed with relief, tossing her revolver underneath the blankets.
"Did you not think we might need space in the stroller for, I don't know, the baby?" Root asked them both through a narrowed gaze, gently rolling her bloodied shoulder to relax the nerve.
"Oh quit being so precious." Shaw growled, holding her hands forward. "I'll hold it and you push the stroller until we can get the bullet out."
"Remember what we talked about Sameen, gentle hands and no shaking when you hold the baby," she encouraged the smaller woman, passing her the tiny sleeping child swaddled in blankets.
"On that note, this is where we leave you both. The brown envelope on the bottom of the stroller contains your new identities and burner phones, I will send bank wire information in due course." Harold explained, his voice hesitating slightly on the other end as he came to realize this was goodbye for the foreseeable future.
"Reese." Shaw nodded.
"Shaw." He smiled back, before turning on his heels and walking towards the exit.
"What now, Sweetie." Shaw practically retched as she turned to face Root, unable to acclimatize to their new cover as they walked with Bear dutifully at the side of the stroller.
Root smiled as the machine whispered intel into her ear, pushing the armory on wheels through the airport terminal as she began to count down. "In three, two, one…" she whispered.
"Mrs and Mrs Lark?" a voice called for them, belonging to a petite uniformed woman presumably from the airline.
"That would be us!" Root grinned.
"Well this is disappointing, I thought you were counting down an explosion."
A look of relief washed over the young woman's face as she radioed confirmation that she'd found the couple back to her office. "I'm so sorry about the confusion, we have your jet ready on the tarmac, if you'd like to follow me I'll take you there now."
"That would be great." Shaw forced a smile, falling in step behind her as she lead the way.
"Is there anything I can get you both?" she asked, turning over her shoulder as she glanced curiously at the dirty rickety stroller."I see you must have already shipped everything to Fargo, nothing to check in right?"
As if on command the baby began to scream in Shaw's arms, wailing and crying in that tone that made the sociopath want to throw her on to the conveyor belt and check her in as stow away baggage.
"Formula," Shaw said indifferently, stiffly holding the wailing newborn with a dead expression. "And bottles." she added as an after thought.
"Oh, and if you have a steak knife and some vodka, that would be great too." Root offered her brightest smile, pushing the squeaking stroller quickly behind them as the stewardess glanced at the shepherd dog that strolled off its lead next to her.
"How do you get it to sleep?" Shaw asked with a slight air of intrigue as she unbuckled her seat-belt and grabbed the first aid kit from the overhead compartment.
Root smiled and glanced down at the sleeping baby as she traced her fingers over soft rosy cheeks and thatched dark hair. She'd always been a pro with kids, maybe in a different life she would of had some herself, if she had a different body, one that was up to the task. "Babies just need to feel safe and loved, I hold her to my chest so she can hear the hum when I talk and my heart beating and I guess I just hope for the best." she shrugged her shoulders.
"As informative as that is Mary Poppins, put the baby on the sofa, you've got a bullet with my name written all over it." Shaw smirked, tapping the butt of the metal blade on the mahogany table that separated them.
Root wrapped the baby in blankets, placing her gently in the corner of the leather sofa on the other side of the aircraft. 'Watch her, Bear.' she ordered the dog and he obediently jumped onto the sofa and laid down with his nose nearly touching her tiny feet.
She swallowed and turned back to Shaw, grimacing as the reality occurred to her that she would have to suffer the bullet extraction in silence unless she wanted a screaming baby on her hands whilst Shaw performed a whipple stitch in her shoulder.
"This part is going to sting, in fact, all of it is going to kind of suck." Shaw admitted without much concern. She peeled Root's bloodied t-shirt from her body and gently pressed her fingers around the entry-wound, earning a deep hiss from the other woman. "See, sucks right?"
"Let's just say it doesn't feel as good as the last time your hands were on my body." Root tried to ignore the deep gnaw of Shaw cleaning out the bullet wound with vodka.
"Not around the baby, Root."
"At least we have some progress, before she was just It."
"I was referring to Bear, not the thing." Shaw tensed her jaw, eyes black at the mention of the child. "This part is going to extra suck, there's some Fentanyl in the hold-all, do you need it?" Shaw asked gruffly, dousing the tip of the steak knife in vodka as she prepared to pries the bullet out of Root's body.
"Fentanyl sounds fun, but no." Root swallowed. The day she fell unconscious around an armed Sameen Shaw with a baby less than ten feet away would be a cold day in Hell.
"Suit yourself." she quirked her lips, digging the tip of the blade into the wound as Root bit back a scream. Her breathing grew jagged and shallow as she tried to stay as still as possible, she clenched her eyes closed, the feel of the knife digging around inside her flesh, pressed against the joint, just about touching her nerve as Shaw fiddled for the bullet made her knuckles turn white. The sound of metal clinking against the mahogany table was the signal she needed to start breathing again, hands trembling, she took a gulp from the vodka bottle in front of her. "I thought you said it would hurt?" Root played it down.
"And yet I'm guessing it still probably sucked less than the time Control took a scalpel to your stapes bone." Shaw mused, threading a needle.
"You were there to fix me up after that one too." Root smiled as Shaw began the arduous task of sewing up her wound with fishing line. Root didn't remember much when she lost part of her hearing, especially after all the drugs they pumped through her body.
She couldn't be sure to this day whether it was a hallucination or not but she distinctly remembered tanned arms carrying her out of the building and into the car, curled in someone's lap all the way back to library with her head lolling against their shoulder, breathing in the sweet smell that clung to their shirt whilst their hand stroked her hair, whispering sweet little things that she couldn't quite remember in her good ear.
She thought it might have been John but last time she checked, he didn't wear perfume.
Root was asleep on the sofa with a tiny little bundle of blankets lying peacefully asleep on her chest too, both of their mouths hanging slightly ajar. Shaw tried not to give any merit to it, yet even she stole the occasional glance at how cute they were. Finally, she tore herself away and sipped on her scotch, playing with the brown envelope in front of her that contained their identity details. She bit the bullet and pulled out the files and began to read.
Captain Sarah Lark:
Former U.S Marshal, transferring to the Fargo Police Department to head up their Homicide Division with a twelve year impeccable service record.
She glanced over the information, pocketing her burner phone as she flicked through the birth certificates, passports, security numbers, it was all there and although she'd never say it, the thought scared her a little of touching down in Fargo a completely new woman for what could be any length of time.
Samantha Lark:
Newly appointed Head of Application Development at MalCorp IT, impeccable references from Microsoft, Avanade and McAfee. Extremely passionate about SaaS development and Resource Efficiency Applications.
Boring, Shaw thought. She rolled her eyes and knocked back her drink and took another glance at the kid that had landed them in all of this. It wasn't that she hated children, they just didn't register on her radar, they didn't exist in her universe, and rightly so. What place was there for a baby among guns, violence and torture? Babies were stupid, this baby was stupid, she decided.
