A/N: Well here we are with chapter 3. More of what Shaw endured while being held by Decima will be revealed, along with what happened after Root knocked out Sameen. Don't worry though, we'll eventually get back to the present.

Archival File: Day 35 after the capture of Sameen Shaw. Location: Head Interrogator's Office

There was a loud BANG as the wooden door rebounded off the wall leaving a sizable dent in the plaster and marring the brass knob.

Sitting at his computer the office owner looked up to see a fuming Martine with a closed cell phone clenched tightly in her hand. With a sigh he paused the game he was playing. "Need I remind you that it is considered polite to at least knock before entering someone's office?"

Martine's hands slammed down atop the wooden desk as she leaned in close violating the man's personal space. Any concern she had for her cell phone was long forgotten thanks to the news she had received. "What kind of game are you f***ing playing at! I just received notification that the mission for tonight has been scrapped. By you no less!" Straightening her back she reared her arm back and hurtled the phone at him.

With a groan he picked himself up off the floor. He had not even seen the phone coming at him. Already he could feel pain lancing up from his cheek where he had been hit. Turning his attention to Martine he was not at all surprised to see that she looked blurry. "Ok, I might have deserved that. But really it is for the best."

Turning from her he briefly scanned the room for his glasses and spotted them over in a corner of the room. One of the lens had popped out and the temple on the left side had snapped at the hinge. Grumbling her picked them up and the temple and set them down on the desk as he opened a drawer and began hunting for tape.

"I fail to see the logic in planning an abduction for over a week only to cancel it hours before it is to be executed. Especially when you said it would help in breaking Shaw." The brief spot of violence had allowed her to calm down somewhat and regain control over her emotions.

"The reason I canceled it is because whomever is working with her will make the connection between the abduction of her deceased partner Cole's family and realize that she is alive. As such they will undoubtable increase their endeavors to locate their erstwhile ally. Which will result in us having to take action to make sure she is not found. All of which will make her realize that they have not given up on finding her." As he set to work taping the temple back onto his glasses, a temporary fix till he could get his spare glasses from home, he fell silent as he focused on the task.

Martine thought over what he said and could see the logic behind it. If Shaw thought she had been abandoned and no help was coming then it would be harder for her to hold onto hope in the long run.

"Furthermore I decided that they would be ill suited for the kind of emotional manipulation that will be required with Ms. Shaw. Especially if we want to turn her to our side. Now I know you'd be more than happy to torture her in an effort to extract every last scrap of relevant information she knows, but as you should know all too well that simply will not work with her. Especially since she would be long dead before we could even begin verifying even a tenth of it."

"So you plan on turning her against them then. And just how do you plan to pull that off? She's not going to give into Stockholm syndrome if that is what you are hoping. She is more than smart enough to not fall for any pathetic mind games or manipulations you dream up."

At first Martine thought he was having a coughing fit until she realized he was chuckling. Short and bitter it felt wrong and out of place. There was a glint to his eyes as he looked up at her through the crooked frames. For a brief moment he looked more mad then sane.

"Trust me. What I am planning is nowhere near as pedestrian as that. Who knows, by the time I'm finished maybe your name will tumble from her lips as she dreams."

Martine gave him a pointed glare as she turned and left without a word. Like before she made sure to slam the door closed just to spite him.

Once Shaw was zip tied to the radiator the group left the subway car in order to tend to their wounds.

Thankfully Mr. Reese was able to patch up his knife wound with the little medical knowledge that he had gained over the years. Poor Harold unfortunately passed out from pain when Root reset his nose with disgusting CRACK.

"Can you tell me why Harold thought I needed to be drugged?" Root asked tiredly. The events of the past few hours had left her feeling drained physically and emotionally. She sat down heavily in a nearby chair. When Bear rested his head in her lap she managed to work up enough energy to pet him in an effort to ease the dog's worry.

"We were both worried about how you would react to seeing Shaw bound." There was a hint of guilt in his voice as if what he had done did not sit too well with him. Root thought he was done speaking when he was silent for a long minute but then he started again. "The Machine…told us that Shaw was important to you. She was worried that you would do something irrational and that it could get you hurt."

"Like it did not hurt me to have her walk back into my life and try to kill me? You and Harold thought she was dead, I..." She paused and was forced to choke back a sob. Wiping tears that were flowing freely from her eyes she struggled to compose herself and failed miserably.

Her body convulsed as she was wracked with sorrow. Hiccupping sobs left her breathing uneven. At the moment it was all too much for her. The pain she had endured these last few months from the hope of rescuing her lover growing dimmer. The guilt she had heaped upon herself for not staying behind or taking Sameen's place. Even the horror from the last couple of hours from this…proxy that tried to pass it off as her Sameen. It all merged to break what little self-control she had left.

Root had only cried this hard twice in her life to the best of her recollection. The first had been after the death of her mother. The second had been immediately after losing Shaw. She had managed to keep it together till she was safely back at her safe house and then she had broken into tears before even managing to unlock the door. It had taken her nearly ten minutes to compose herself enough to get inside her apartment, during which no-one had bother to approach her to see if she was alright. After that she had collapsed into bed without bothering to undress and remained there for the next week.

Attempts had been made to console her both by The Machine, Harold and even Reese. It had proven a wasted effort though since Root had been inconsolable. She had only eaten when forced to, since Harold would refuse to leave and had resorted to using Bear to pin her down long enough to at least get enough food into her so she wouldn't starve. The Machine had been silent for the first couple of days, perhaps hoping that Root would recover on her own, then she had received two words.

"I'm sorry." It had been delivered in Shaw's voice.

For a brief moment elation had filled Root and she had turned over in her bed to look towards the window thinking that her Sameen had returned to her victorious. Only the empty room had greeted her.

The Machine had then switched back to its usual voice and had tried to comfort her. She had tried to explain why she had allowed Shaw to be captured. The hours she had spent calculating various scenarios again and again trying to find some solution that would leave all of them safe and free.

"So you threw her away." Root had managed to scream. Her sorrow quickly turned to hate. "You know how much I cared about her. What she meant to me, and you decided that she was an acceptable loss!" Somehow Root had managed to sit up in her bed and she glared out the window in the vain hope that somehow She could see that anger on her face. "Maybe I was wrong. You are just as flawed as Humans."

The Machine was silent for a beat and then tried to say something but was immediately cut off by Root. So like a reprimanded child She had retreated to her room. She made no further attempts to speak to Root for the rest of that week and most of the next. It was not till Root herself had extended the metaphorical olive branch that the two began speaking once more, though things had remained tense and business like for the next couple of months.

During her week in bed Root had hardly slept. Various scenarios of 'What if' had occupied her at first. Ever action she, Shaw and the others had taken that day was dissected and examined in an attempt at finding something that could have been done differently. This would invariably dredge up memories of Sameen and the love the two of them had shared bringing with it grief and guilt. More than once Root had found herself shakily saying "I'm sorry Sam. I am so sorry. I should have been the one to stay behind not you. Why didn't I stay? When we work together nothing can oppose us."

Root had only found sleep through mental exhaustion. It would never be very restful though. The good dreams she had left her full of guilt and sick to her stomach. The bad ones left her disgusted with herself.

In them Root was back to the person she used to be, back before she had ever met Shaw. Comprised from the memories of her torturing people to extract information in each one Shaw was the poor soul left helpless to Root's nonexistent mercy. In those nightmares Root felt nothing for the woman she was torturing even as she broke the woman's spirit. Upon awakening Sameen's anguished cries had ripped at her soul and resulted in her more than once throwing up. Before the week was over Root had destroyed every mirror in her apartment since she could no longer stand to see herself.

A/N: Well that is it for this installment. Feel free to leave comments. Any suggestions on how I can improve my writing or this story are more than welcome. Thank you for taking the time to read this.