Root struggled to sleep that night. She'd become so used to coping with only a few hours sleep that all of this opportunity for rest that she now had felt like too much. Ideally, she would have passed the night doing stuff with Shaw, but she'd practically passed out on the bed the moment they'd got in. Instead she'd just lay awake, a soft smile on her face as she watched Shaw sleep.

The Machine occasionally chattered in Root's ear throughout the night, but she avoided responding through fear of unintentionally waking Shaw. She could only imagine Shaw's anger if her sleep was to be disturbed. The one-way nature of her communication with the Machine meant conversation was severely limited and Root was beginning to grow bored and restless as a result.

She was about to get up when Shaw started tossing around beside her. Her arms and legs jerked and spasmed like she was having some kind of fit. She was mumbling something to herself, but Root couldn't make out any of the words she was saying. She could just see that Shaw was distressed, which gave her a small sense of panic because she had no idea what to do to comfort her.

At the very least Root had a good idea of what was going on. Shaw had warned her about her troubles at night, but Root just hadn't expected them to be so… disturbing. She could see Shaw was in pain, and every part of her desperately wanted to take that pain away, she just didn't know how.

Root reached over and placed her hand gently on Shaw's arm in an attempt to soothe her. It didn't do much, but Root could feel now just how much Shaw was trembling as she convulsed. Root couldn't bear to watch Shaw suffer this much in her sleep, so she shuffled closer to her and rolled her over so they were facing each other.

Root shook Shaw and called her name to try and wake her up. It didn't appear to be working at first, but then Shaw's eyes shot open, the sudden motion leaving Root a little startled. Shaw stared directly at Root but her eyes were blank and emotionless. There didn't seem to be any level of recognition in her expression.

"Shaw?" said Root, her voice wavering as she spoke. "It's me, Root."

Shaw tilted her head to the side and studied her, then after a moment recognition flashed in her eyes. Root's face lit up as she was overcome with happiness at knowing she hadn't completely lost Shaw. But that joy quickly turned to concern as Shaw's recognition turned into an angry frown, and a moment later her hand was clasped around Root's throat.

Root didn't struggle against Shaw's grasp; she knew it wouldn't make any difference. She also feared that if she did resist, things could rapidly escalate into a conflict that could result in at least one of them getting hurt. She had to remind herself that right now it wasn't Shaw who was strangling her, that in this moment she didn't have any control. Shaw was in there somewhere, Root just had to get her out.

Root did her best to smile despite the grip that grew tighter around her neck. Instead of trying to pull Shaw's hand away, she reached out and cupped her cheek.

"I know you're in there," she croaked, gasping as Shaw tightened her grasp even more. "I'm not going to fight you, Sameen."

Root tried to say more, but the words caught in her throat and wouldn't come out. Her eyes began to water, but she kept her gaze firmly fixed on Shaw as she pleaded silently with her. Root could feel herself losing consciousness, but she fought to hold on as long as she could to give Shaw time to come back to reality.

At first she'd been so confident that Shaw would come to her senses, and although she still trusted Shaw, she couldn't stop a certain amount of fear from seeping through. It was that fear that may have saved her life, because the moment it appeared there was a change in Shaw's expression. Her eyes shifted down to her hand and horror spread across her face as she suddenly realised what she was doing.

Shaw immediately retracted her arm and clutched it tightly to her chest. Root crashed onto the mattress, coughing and gasping for air. She lay there for a moment as she gulped down much needed air and was able to steady her breathing. She ignored the persisting pain in her neck as she turned her attention to Shaw.

Shaw was frozen in shock, staring down in disbelief at her own hand.

"It's alright, sweetie," said Root in a raspy voice, laying a reassuring hand on Shaw's arm.

Shaw was shaking her head and avoiding making eye contact with Root. "No, it's not," she said, her voice barely more than a whisper. "I didn't think I would hurt you… but I did."

"Felt more like foreplay to me," replied Root in an attempt to lighten the tone of the conversation. Of course that was difficult to do when the pain was so clearly evident in the marks around her neck and in the sound of her voice. Shaw certainly didn't buy it.

"This isn't a joke, Root. I had no control." Despite her blunt tone, Shaw sounded scared.

"See I don't think that's true," said Root, causing Shaw to raise her eyebrows quizzically. "If you wanted to kill me, really wanted to kill me, I would have been unconscious in seconds. But I wasn't." Shaw didn't appear to be in any way convinced by what she was saying, so Root continued. "I think, that when you have these episodes, there's a part of you that fights back. And I believe that if we work together on this then eventually you'll be able to stop them altogether, because you're stronger than you give yourself credit for."

"You know your persistent optimism can be really annoying sometimes."

"It works though," said Root with a smile.

"I guess..." replied Shaw with a reluctant smile of her own. "But I did still almost kill you."

"To be fair you have come closer in the past." Root attempted to laugh, but it was too painful. Shaw was quick to notice her flinch from the pain and she frowned with concern.

Shaw reached out and began to tenderly feel the area where she'd grasped Root's neck. Root remained still while Shaw examined her, though she did cringe a few times when Shaw touched an area that was particularly painful.

"I'll need to make sure there's no internal injuries," said Shaw once she was finished. "And you'll need to tell me if you experience any other symptoms."

Root rolled her eyes. "As much as I love your attentiveness, I'm sure we can deal with all that later. For now, I think we both need some time to recover."

Shaw still looked concerned about Root's injuries but she didn't put up a protest. She was probably too tired to argue. However, it became clear that the thought of going back to sleep and possibly reliving the events of the night all over again frightened her. She shifted around nervously, not wanting to go back to sleep but not wanting to reveal her fears to Root either.

"I can't do it," she eventually said, more to herself than to Root.

"I wasn't really sleeping anyway," said Root, reminding Shaw that she wasn't alone. "We haven't got any new numbers at the moment, so we might as well make the most of the time we've got alone together."

"I'm not really in the right mindset for sex right now, Root," responded Shaw.

"I didn't mean that," said Root quickly. "I'm not even sure I'd be able to anyway." She rubbed her neck as she spoke, wondering how long it was going to be sore for.

Root moved closer to Shaw so she could pull her into a tight embrace. "You can just lay here with me," she said, planting a kiss on Shaw's forehead and idly running a hand through her hair.

"I guess that wouldn't be so bad," replied Shaw with a grin as wrapped an arm around Root and leaned deeper into her embrace.