Long overdue, I know, but here they are - the final chapters. I hope you enjoy and thanks for reading.
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE: I just need a minute
"Root…." muttered Shaw through a series of sharp, raspy breaths "Always a damn smart-ass…"
Shaw felt Root's mouth curve into a smile. "It really is you…" exclaimed Root excitedly.
Although Root's reaction had stirred waves of conflicting emotions, which were difficult to ignore, Shaw's attention was currently focused on the familiar set of physical symptoms that were beginning to overtake control of her body.
Her head began to spin. Fatigue enveloped every muscle and her lungs struggled for air. She began to cough violently but each cough made it all the more harder to breathe. The wrist watch that monitored her vital signs flashed aggressively and Shaw attempted to calm her raging pulse before Hall's super computer shut her down once again.
She pulled down her surgical mask, removed her cap, placed both of her palms on the wall in front of her and rested her forehead against them. She closed her eyes and began a silent countdown from a hundred. Every five seconds, her core muscles tightened but she fought the urge to cough and focused on controlling her breathing.
Shaw's technique appeared to be working but it was consuming all of her attention. It was only when she felt a series of miniature vibrations in the floor beneath her feet that she remembered Root's presence beside her. Then, Shaw felt the softest of touches on the center of her back that burned despite the fabric of her surgical scrubs.
"Sameen?….." whispered Root, her tone shaky and somewhat frightened.
A little startled by Root's imposing presence, Shaw attempted to stand upright but when she lifted her head the room began to spin and she quickly buried it back into the crook of her elbow against the wall. She inhaled a couple of shallow breaths before she felt Root's hand wrap around her waist.
"Come with me…" commanded Root into Shaw's ear and proceeded to guide Shaw towards the hospital bed.
Root had removed Shaw's shoes, covered her body with a multitude of blankets and secured an oxygen mask around her face. The warmth combined with the oxygen flooding her lungs meant that the stress in Shaw's body was finally beginning to escape.
Shaw felt the soft touch of Root's fingers against her forehead. She turned her head towards Root with half-open eyes.
"I just need a minute…" she mumbled heavily, her breath spreading inside the oxygen mask.
Root smiled, her eyes glistening with happiness. Lovingly, she brushed away a few strands of hair from Shaw's face.
"Take all the time you need, Sweetie…"
Shaw felt a soft, warm kiss on her forehead and fell into a deep sleep.
Several hours later, the first rays of sunlight grazed the side of Shaw's face, causing her to awake. She registered an annoying ache in her neck and the sound of multiple voices around her. She removed her oxygen mask, perched herself on one elbow and reached out to massage her neck but the sight of Finch, John, Root, Fusco and Bear stopped her from doing much else.
They all stared at her, the same silent questions reflected on all their faces. Unlike his owners however, Bear barked and jumped excitedly, causing John to release his leash. Bear landed on Shaw's lap in her hospital bed and proceeded to lick her face.
"Always good to see you too buddy…" she said with a giggle whilst giving the dog a lengthy rub.
"Boy, you sure have a habit of coming back from the dead…" mumbled Fusco with a beaming smile.
Unaccustomed to so much overwhelming emotion, Shaw glanced up at her friends with a timid smile and said, rather reservedly "It's good to see you guys…"
As the men grunted reserved greetings, Root dismissed Bear and took a seat on the side of Shaw's bed. Her head cocked to the side, her eyes so wide and bright, her tone ever so slightly teasing, Root said "Hey…"
The sound of Root's voice hugged Shaw like a warm blanket on a cold winter's night and she found herself drawn into the moment. Observing Root's soft wavy hair and that damn leather jacket that made Root, Root, Shaw smiled gently, her eyes never leaving Root's. "Hey…" she replied confidently.
Root's hand touched Shaw's forehead. "Feeling better?" she asked.
Shaw nodded slowly "Yeah…"
"Excellent!" announced Finch excitedly, oblivious to the silent conversation taking place between the two women. Purposefully, he approached Shaw's bed, causing Shaw to turn an inquisitive brow towards him. "Perhaps you can help me talk some sense into Ms Groves. She has discharged herself from hospital against medical advice….or any advice for that matter…"
Shaw turned to Root with a disapproving frown and a purposeful pout of the lips. "What a dumb-ass idea, Root…."
Avoiding eye contact with anyone, Root shrugged casually. "I don't need any more doctors…"
"Root, you fainted only a couple of hours ago…"
"And you could barely breathe a few hours ago…" argued Root petulantly. Then, she perked up as if a crazy idea had unexpectedly flown into her mind. "I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours…" she added with a hint of tease in her tone, but the expression in her green eyes was deadly serious.
Shaw bit her lip thoughtfully as her eyes jumped about between Root and the others. She sighed heavily and began addressing everyone in the room.
"Since Samaritan HQ, I've been living in a hospital room at the Pentagon, in Washington DC..."
"Control HQ…." mouthed Root knowingly to no-one in particular.
Shaw nodded. "When you bought me there the first time, Control was carrying out a secret clinical trial into synthetic heart implants. I was her first patient. She gave me some kind of bionic heart implant and saved my life.…"
"I knew Control was up to something in that basement…" stated Root begrudgingly, as if reprimanding herself. " I tried to snoop around a couple of times, but they had no paper trail and I could never get alone time to hack into the electronic records…"
"hey…" spoke Fusco suddenly, much to the surprised stares of everyone else. "…..did you have this piece of experimental junk in your chest the time you and I were in the electric substation playing about with computers?"
"Yeah, I didn't know it at the time, but one of the side effects of Control's little side project is that the function of the implant can be compromised by intense magnetic fields. That's why I collapsed at the electric substation….the magnetic field was too intense for the implant…."
Root's wide-eyed glare swung towards him as her hands curled into slim but determined fists. "You knew she collapsed and you didn't tell me?" she shouted.
Fusco sunk lower into his wheelchair whilst a sharp intake of breath from Harold interrupted the moment, much to Fusco's relief. "The magnetic field interference at Samaritan HQ would have been far worse than at the electric substation…" stated Finch as his soft and sympathetic eyes landed on Shaw.
"It was…" agreed Shaw and paused reflectively, remembering the moment with a pained expression. "The magnetic field at Samaritan HQ initiated a controlled shut down of my heart implant by a central computer at Control HQ. It's a precautionary measure, to ensure the implant doesn't fail completely. It sent my body into a coma and alerted Agent Hall with the co-ordinates of my location…."
"AI-controlled heart implants…." mouthed Finch and began a frenzied search on his laptop. "I remember reading something about this. I believe this technology has been tested in several countries around the world…"
"Tested?" asked John as he arrived to stand behind Finch so he could get a glimpse of the computer screen. "As in …..Past tense?" he added.
Absorbed in an information buffet, Finch's gaze methodically scanned the screen in a speedy, repetitive horizontal pattern and it was a long while before this cycle was broken. "It seems that the long term prognosis of this type of treatment is rather poor…." he finally explained, whilst looking at Shaw from beneath his glasses "Current data suggests a 96% failure rate…."
"That would explain why Control did the trial in her basement, instead of going through the proper channels...…" stated John thoughtfully.
"Well obviously those stats are wrong…" said Root, whose earlier excitement had transformed into a despondent demeanor.
"A little inaccurate perhaps, but they aren't wrong…." stated Shaw flatly whilst purposefully ignoring Root's piercing stare. "I'm on my second heart…..third if you count the original one…" she added with a partial chuckle.
Fusco giggled also and added "Always knew you were a persistent little pain in the ass…."
Shaw grinned, grateful for the humorous reception to her recital, but Root leaned in closer and her silent but reprimanding expression bought Shaw back to her tale.
"Hall took me back to Control HQ where I had open heart surgery. Bionic heart implant 2.0; apparently resistant to magnetic field interference. The first week of recovery was tough. I couldn't stand for more than 5 minutes at a time. I was on IV meds for most of my day. Then, it was days of non-stop physio, scans, meds and cardio tests and now here we are…." she paused and smiled mockingly "my first venture into the wild, complete with a shiny wrist accessory and a suitcase of injectable and probably never to be FDA-approved meds…."
"So Hall has been keeping you alive all this time without expecting anything in return?" asked John with a curious frown.
Shaw shrugged casually "I guess. It's not like I had a choice in this John. My situation is now dependent on her, whether I like it or not.…"
John and Finch engaged in some kind of pondering glance as if telepathically exchanging thoughts regarding Shaw's information. Meanwhile Shaw stole a glance at Root.
Although Root's perfectly shaped curls blocked the majority of her face, Shaw could tell from Root's droopy and hunched posture that Root was formulating a plan. Potentially a plan, Shaw was sure she wasn't going to like.
By way of distraction, Shaw placed a soft hand on Root's forearm and gently said "Your turn…."
Root either didn't hear the instruction or decided to ignore it. She folded her arms and continued to fight with her inner thoughts. Shaw sighed impatiently, which prompted Finch to say. "There was an incident with Mr Greer at the subway…"
"Yeah…" grunted Fusco "Greer got dead and we got shot. Crazy Puffs there got to show off some moves…."
Finch offered Fusco a quick reproaching glance for his lack of finesse and turned back to Shaw. "After the shooting, I managed to shuffle some funds around so that I could get everyone into this hospital and we have been here ever since…" his voice trailed off cautiously and his eyes slowly shifted to Root.
Once again, Shaw gently tugged at Root's arm and much to her relief; Root complied with the silent request.
"After I recovered from the shooting, I was moved to the psych ward. Every night and every day I had nightmares of you, dying and in every dream there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn't sleep. I became so emotionally tired and desperate for rest that I took a few too many sleeping pills…." explained Root, rather hurriedly, like someone uninterested in the subject and bitter about having to discuss it.
"The Machine alerted us to Root's possible demise and John raced here to find that she had overdosed…." added Finch "Although she assures us that she had overdosed by mistake…"
"Is that true?" asked Shaw, hoarsely, her eyes ever so slightly shining in the light.
"It's true…" stated Root honestly, her calm and confident eyes finally meeting Shaw's "…I was just so lost in the nightmares, I wasn't really conscious of what I was doing…"
They held eye contact for a long while, before Shaw swallowed an imaginary lump in her throat and turned to Finch. "So The Machine is back up and running?"
Whilst Finch hesitated with his answer, John shrugged dismissively "Seems to be…"
"Actually I was assisting John and The Machine with a new number when you found me…" chimed Root with a genuine smile.
Shaw shook her head alongside a soft chuckle. "It never ceases to amaze me how much of an effect that beat-up piece of computer junk has on you…"
"She's still a little fragile, but I'm sure it's nothing Harry can't handle…"
"Harry?" queried Shaw with a raised brow "You're not gonna weigh in on this?"
"I'll do as much as I can to help, but there's only so much one can do from 200 miles away…" Root shrugged casually and her eyes rolled dreamily alongside her cheery smile "Long distance relationships never work…"
A strange, rather intense atmosphere filled the room; the kind when one can sense the arrival of a storm but cannot quite see any signs of it. A moment later, Finch coughed softly and announced "Mr Reese, Detective….I believe we have a physio appointment to keep…."