AN: After an appearance by Goose in Draw, cht 2-3, I thought it would be fun bring back some of the other recruits also from fanfic Continuation, Season 6 for a cameo. So for those of you who haven't read Continuation, Goose, Jenna, Ausman and Reina were apart of a group of seven new recruits for Team Machine. They were trained by Fusco, Reece and sometimes Shaw when she bothered to show up.
Cht 11
Santa (Part 1)
Baby and Toys department, 5th floor, Department Store, NYC:
Humming as she walks along the aisle littered with baby clothes, products and toys, Root pulls Shaw along as she holds firmly onto Shaw's hand. Halfway between a smile and a grin, "look Sweetie!" Root coos, chuckles and smiles as she also tilts her head towards Shaw. Root then proceeds to pick up a boys outfit with matching green cap. The cartoon dinosaur on the sweater of the outfit stares cheerily at Shaw. "How adorable will he look in this?" Root asks while also squeezing Shaw's hand even tighter making sure Shaw doesn't sneak off.
Feeling the weight of Root's grin bearing down on her, "uh, nice?" Shaw lifts her brows to her forehead and shifts her eyes from the disgustingly cute green monster print on the sweater and back to Root. Root may smile like an angel but as Shaw continues to stare at Root she knew better by now that sometimes it's not worth risking Root's wrath. So instead Shaw forces a smile while her eyes were clearly not amused.
Chuckling Root finishes teasing Shaw and places the outfit back on the rail and continues to browse, pulling Shaw along as another kid runs by behind them screaming and drowning out the melodic 'buy more things' tunes being played in the background within the department store.
It was December, and following the spirit of things, Christmas songs were being played to add to the festive spirit. At least that's what it's suppose to be as the toys department is buzzing full of children and parents. Of parents screaming at children and vice versa. Staff losing their patience while trying to both assist and ignore the rowdy children messing up the shelves and displays which they have just so painstakingly finished stacking and re-stacking.
A continual mashup of added giggling, laughing, crying, buzzing, firing, shouting and playing of children as they run around excitedly, toys in their hands, all of which increased the noise levels within the department even further.
Dazzled, it was also hard not to be blinded by the extreme light level emitting from the Christmas decorations with it's flashing lights, including many fairy lights as they all flash intermittently and out of sync throughout the entire store. Shaw was almost tempted to grab a pair of shades to block it all out before Root mimicked Shaw's glare of disapproval at her. Shaw didn't know whether she was more impressed with Root using her iconic disapproval glare back on her, or the fact that Root appeared to have complete control over Shaw and Shaw didn't mind that, not that Shaw would ever admit it.
Finish this off with hundreds of shoppers crammed into a tight space makes for a pressure cooker separating those without patience and timing those with, how long their patience will last as check out queues only got longer and longer as the evening wound on. It was chaos but this was what Christmas is about, the time of year when chaos is the norm.
Shaw stands in the middle of the aisle and closes her eyes, inhaling a deep breath before exhaling a long sigh again. Dropping her shoulders and her tension, Shaw opens her eyes again to see Root walking back towards her. At some point Root had let go of Shaw's hand, and at some point Shaw also realised that Root's hand had become her crutch.
What was happening to her, Shaw wonders...
Reaching Shaw, Root places a hand on Shaw's cheek and smiles lovingly, longingly, even happily down at Shaw as the mashup of noises start to fade and the children running screaming start to look like they're dancing around them. Shaw was no longer able to see what the colour of the lights were as she swallows not realising how slow her heart beat had become. Calm and cool like nothing in this world mattered but the one thing in front of her...
Suddenly breaking her concerned expression, Root grins, "what do you think about this, Sweetie?" Root asks as she uncovers her hand and shows Shaw the pacifier thermometer now sitting on top of Root's palm.
Exhaling a loud sigh once again Shaw drops her head into her chest and closes her eyes again, nope, this was gonna still be a long day... As all the screaming, flashing lights and chaos flood back and overload Shaw's senses.
Central Park, NYC:
"Heads up, Jen" Ausman calls over the comms as he continues to pant having trouble keeping up with the perp as he slides on the iced paths along the Park on this freezing cold evening.
Standing in a corner just outside of Central Park near one of the exits, after hearing the call over the comms in her ear, Jenna lifts her head just in time and catches eye contact with their perp.
"Yup, I see him" Jenna confirms as she tries to walk discreetly towards the perp now exiting the park.
Spotting Jenna the perp stops speed walking and starts to full pelt run down the opposite side of the street from her.
"Oh, come on!" As Jenna moans as lifts her feet and starts to chase after him, nearly knocking over a suit as she turns.
"Hey! Watch it lady!..." The suit shouts, "crazy idiots out in force tonight" the suit continues to mumble as Jen ignores him and continues to chase after her target.
Though it was below freezing outside, shoppers, tourists, families, professionals just finishing work, vendors and even charity collectors were out in full force as they all buzzed around the bustling stalls, lapping in the shop window displays and indulged in the winter entertainment, soaking in the atmosphere that the Christmas holiday spirit brought with it.
Continuing to run, dodging people like they were traffic cones, Jenna had no time to take in the wonderful vibrant shades of red and yellow colouring one particular department store's window display. Depicting a candy wonderland of childhood and child like memories, this display was in stark contrast to the blue and white colours of another window display from another store further down the block. With white owls flying through the wonderland of winter's night to return home to their nests, this display brought with it the warmth of family.
"Heading towards you Rei" Jenna confirms as she pants and sliding every so often on some black ice that lined parts of the sidewalk.
"Hot chestnuts!" A vendor bellows as his warm breath and steaming hot fire full of chestnuts turn instantly to steam.
"Hmmmm..." Jenna groans as she eyes the chestnuts, running past the stall. This was no time to eat.
Surprisingly conspicuous in his Santa outfit, even though both Ausman and Jenna had at this point ran past several other civilians dressed as Santa already, Reina spots the perp Santa easily, and running towards her as she stands ready near the Empire State building waiting to cut him off.
"Dang" Reina mumbles as she perks up at the action, "he's made me" Reina confirms over the comms. Annoyed with herself Reina watches as the perp spots her and then abruptly changes direction again. "Heading West, 5th..." Reina starts as she too starts running to chase after the perp.
Turning his head back, perp Santa now spots two women chasing after him, and who knows where the dude was. Facing forward again, still running, perp Santa looks around for an alternative to shake off these random strangers, 'who are these guys anyway?'
Ring, ring, ring...
"Ho, ho, ho... Meeeeery Christmas!" As a man dressed in a Santa outfit standing in front of a Santa's workshop window display rings his bell. "Meeeeeery Christmas!" He continues to greet, "thank you Ma'am, Merry Christmas!" He thanks as another woman places a donation in his charity bucket. "Help make a child's dream come true..."
No time to admire the large window display of Santa's workshop nor the distracting non perp Santa, Reina runs, no make that squeezes past the other pedestrians admiring the window display and making donations, and pushes through the swing doors and follows perp Santa into the department store.
Stopping to give herself a moment to reorientate herself, Reina is soon joined by Jenna who runs in and stops beside her.
"Anything?" Jenna asks both Reina and The Machine as they both wait to hear if She can see their perp via the CCTV cameras.
"There!" Reina points as she makes for the escalators heading up. Except this was more easily said than done as she continues to push and dodge awkwardly around shoppers.
Stepping past several shoppers with arms full of presents herself, Jenna shuffles round to the escalators on the opposite side of the ground floor department to try round and head off the perp.
