She was feeling warm. She blinked again and registered the dull ach up the back of her neck and behind her eyes, making her vision swim. Her back burned and felt sticky against her top. She felt Roots cool hand press against her forehead.

"Come on" Root said, pulling her to standing. "Bed-time for you."

"Pffff. I'm fine…" Shaw said and tried to swat away the other woman's hands but missed. She swayed, black dots peppering her vision. Her legs buckled, collapsing her into Roots arms.

"If you wanted a cuddle, sweetie, you had only ask." were the last words she heard as things faded into black.

Xxxx

She surfaced momentarily, laid out on a sleeping bag, her face pressed into the material that smelled like Root. The gentle pressure of a warm wet cloth on her bare back which made her hiss in pain.

"Oh, sweetie." She heard an angry voice drifting through layers of cotton wool. "Should have killed him when you had the chance."

"The storm has broken. We'll make a move at sundown." A gruff voice said.

She felt the pin prick of a needle pierce her skin. She gripped the sleeping bag, gave a strangled cry and passed out.

Xxx

She felt movement as two strong arms lifted her up. She was swaddled up and sweating. Icy air hit her face and she struggled to open her eyes. They felt like they were glued together and it was like she was swimming through thick molasses. When she finally, through what felt like super-human strength, cracked her eyelids all she could see was white everywhere and it she winced. She was placed on something soft, somewhere warm and heard the slamming of a door. An engine roared to life. She slipped away once more as she was jostled about.

Xxx

Her ear was pressed against a warm thigh and she felt her mother's fingers threading through her hair. She was safe under the rumbling of the car. She thought she could hear her father humming as he drove in the front seat and she wondered where they were going and how long until they got there. She hoped it was home. Maybe she'd get a bed time story if she managed to wake herself up enough. She shifted and slid a hot hand out of the covers, moving across her mother's leg.

"Look, Sameen," her mother's voice said, only it wasn't her mother, "look out the window."

The voice was reverent. Shaw opened her eyes and waited for them to adjust to the dark. She looked up and saw the Northern Lights dancing in the sky like green, translucent snakes. They softly lit the face of an angel with wide eyes and pouting lips. She stared up until her eyes drooped again, the fingers in her hair soothing her asleep.

The car sped along the snow covered country road beneath the dancing heavens.

Xxx

She was ravenous and there was sawdust in her mouth. Her sinuses were stuffed, her back felt raw, her side ached but at least her fever had broken. She was propped up against the car door. They were a few kilometers outside of some god-forsaken town in the northern reaches of nowhere Ontario, parked outside the house of the person who owned the SVU she was in. It was 7.30am and the sun had yet to rise over this land muted by snow. The edges of the night sky were fading in preparation and it was so very, very still. Reese was having a chat with the middle-aged owner on his porch, probably suggesting that they had never been here and pressing more bright plastic Canadian dollars into his hand than was probably warranted. It was peaceful. Shaw's eyes had only drifted closed a moment when she heard the sound of the car door opening.

"Here. Drink this."

Root was holding out a steaming cup and Shaw took it.

"Chicken noodle soup." She said wrapping both hands around it.

"Yeah. "

Shaw blew on the liquid, feeling oddly touched.

"Thank you."

She took a moment, as she peered over the cup to really look at Root for the first time since her rescue. In the grey light or the burgeoning day she could see bags under eyes and the thin red capillaries in the white of her eyes. She wondered how long it had taken for her and Reese to orchestrate her rescue without the machine and without Finch.

"Why aren't you talking to Her?"

Root was looking out the window at Reese as he shook the man's hand before striding down the steps and kept silent.

"And what about Finch?"

At that Root turned and gave her an odd little smile.

"We couldn't risk Samaritan tracking us. So we're on radio silence until we get back to New York."

"So far so good, I guess."

"Yes. So it seems."

Before Shaw could dig deeper Reese was opening the passenger door and climbing in.

"The weather forecast looks good for the next twenty-four hours or so. We're on the move." He said. The man slid into the driver's seat and they're bumping along the snow covered road. By the time they arrived at the end of the road the sun was spilling over its golden light around the edges of the world.

Root was out the door and shouldering her pack.

"You good to walk?" Reese asked as Shaw pulled herself to standing and feeling the headrush of low blood pressure.

"I'm not crippled." She said.

"You've been malnourished, you have deep lacerations on your back, a couple of broken ribs and you just spent 24 hours delirious."

"So?"

"I could carry you."

Shaw rolls her eyes. "I'll be fine."

As the sound of the truck faded it was the sound of crunching snow and their heavy breaths, plumes of moisture falling from their lips. Shaw was struggling but she would be damned if she was going to let Reese carry her. They were walking across fields that edged the mouth of Moose River and Hudson Bay, as the sun was climbing, warming up the day and there was something magical seeing the snow catching the light, of lonely naked trees with their gnarled branches reaching out, of the transparent ice that edged the river. After months of darkness and artificial light something moved inside Shaw and she was so fucking grateful for the woman in front of her and the man behind and she didn't even know how to express that, words were inadequate. She couldn't tell if it was that or the stabbing pain that had her eyes watering.

As if by telepathy Root stopped and from a pocket she pulled some heavy duty painkillers and she gave them to Shaw. She swallowed them dry and they continued. She thought she was going to faint when they finally rounded a clump of trees and there it sat, bobbing on the ocean, a tiny white and red seaplane. She would have snorted at their getaway vehicle if she hadn't felt like it she would keel over.

At the water's edge Shaw's strength gave out. She rested on a boulder while the other two unearthed an inflatable row boat that they'd turned upside down and covered in a white tarpaulin. Reese pulled her up and pretty much carried her over, depositing her in the boat. Shaw tried to grumble but everything hurt and it came out as more of a pained sigh. She leaned against the rucksacks and listened to the sounds of oars splashing in the water and looking at the blue of the sky. Root sat by her and her cool hand edged under her hat to rest on her forehead, moving to her cheek with an intimacy that Shaw couldn't quite bring herself to hate .

As she climbed into the seaplane she felt stitches pulling in her back. She collapsed into the single back seat. It faced sideways, wedged between the back of the cockpit and the pilot's seat and the rucksacks sardined her in and she waited as Root and Reese filled the tank with gas, deflated the boat, moving silently and efficiently like the well oiled team they had become. Through slitted eyes she watched as Root finally climbed in and turned around, gently placing ear mufflers on her head.

"Safety first." She murmured before turning back to begin the pre-flight checks. The single engine roared to life. Shaw's stomach churned, falling away as gravity pulled on her. She dozed fitfully the feeling of nausea growing stronger until she mumbled urgently, reaching for anything to throw up in. Reese swiveled around and held her hair back while she regurgitated the chicken noodle soup into a plastic bag he held out for her. After washing her mouth out she curled up in the chair and slept.

The sun was almost at the horizon when she awoke again. The drone of the engine racketed about. As she shifted she saw that Reese was conked out and it was Root, still awake, holding the flight stick and guiding them home. Shaw watched the silky honey brown wave of her hair. A finger lifted to touch a strand that fell over the back of the seat. Root jumped, Shaw's hand snapping back and the plane wobbled a moment before Root brought it back into line. She turned around, her eyes warm and smiled tiredly at her.

"We're landing soon!" she shouted over the din. Shaw looked out the window and saw the landscape had shifted from endless white to frosted rolling hills, barren trees and nestled lakes. They landed on a small lake and ferried to a jetty, cutting off the engine and letting the silence finally settle. Reese was awake now, rubbing his face.

"Where are we?" Shaw asked.

"Just south of Syracuse in New York state."

At that moment Reese quite suddenly swung the door open and was climbing around the plane to stand on the jetty. He pulled out a gun and aimed it at a man who had walked into view, his shot-gun trained on them.

"You better explain yourself!" The man called out, "or I'll shoot."

"I wouldn't do that because I've got a jumpy finger and I don't miss my mark." Reese warned. "Now I'm going to pull out a envelope from inside my jacket and there's $2,500 in it for you to say thanks for lending your seaplane."

"I didn't lend nothing to you."

"All the same. You let us get out of your hair and it's yours. Don't call the cops we'll wire you another $2,500."

Root had climbed out of the plane and pulled her own gun, drawing level with Reese. Shaw went to climb over the to the front seat in her instinct to back them up but she moved and her back burned hot and her aching ribs left her breathless. She cursed and pulled out her gun, aiming it though the open door. She could see the man wavering. The barrel of his gun dipped a few degrees and Reese took this as a sign, lowering his own weapon and inching forward, holding out the envelope he'd slowly extracted from his breast pocket. The man took the envelope, leafing though the contents and then waved them off with his gun.

"Get out of here." He hissed and stood like this until they'd removed their gear and were walking across a field headed south. So much fucking walking and the pain in Shaws side seemed amplified from the injuries and the simple fact she'd been holed up for so many months in a tiny cell. By the time they reached the Black SUV hidden off a dirt road behind some trees, the sun was gone and only a hint of light remained in the sky.

"Can you drive?" Root asked Reese and her question came out uncharactiristically flat. She didn't wait for an answer before collapsing into the back seat, eyes closing and her breath deepening even before they'd pulled out onto the dusty road. As they drove to New York, Shaw looking back to Root's sleeping on the back seat, at the street lights moving in stripes across her face and Shaw didn't think she'd eve seen her looks so...vulnerable. She looked so decidedly human, her arm curled to her chest, propped up against her rucksack, face in an uneasy rest. There was a furrow between her eyebrows and Shaw wanted to smooth it away with the pad of her thumb because it shouldn't be there.