For a split second, the feel of Sameen Shaw's lips pressing so hungrily and real against her own had Root's mind shorting out faster than firing a calculated bullet into someone's kneecap as Root instinctively melted into the unexpected show of affection. Until Shaw's free hand tugged her just a little closer making Root's brain come roaring back online with a warning reminder of the first true time her sociopathic Persian kissed her like this.
The Stock Exchange.
When Shaw's so sudden kiss was only as a means of distraction before she was shoved back into Fusco's arms to watch dazed and horrified as her perfect partner tugged down the separating gate of the elevator as Samaritan's agents closed in on them.
"Welcome back." Shaw greets when the need for air nudges them apart. Her tone sinfully tempting as Sameen's forehead so gently nuzzles against Root's as the two catch their mingled breath triggering Root's hands to lift and fist as tightly as she could grip onto the dark edges of Shaw's dark tee shirt. Either to push her away or pull her closer Root can't decide.
"Shaw," Root whispered once more, her eyes searching Sameen's when instead of backing away as she'd expected Shaw lingers in that up close and personal range Root knew the real Sameen loathed.
With a wordless exhaled breath whilst Shaw's eyes search Root's the smaller woman eventually backs away with a click of her tongue in unspoken command for Bear to get himself out of range from the still-held weapon in the awakened hacker's hand. "As glad as I am for you to be awake, you hurt my dog, Groves and I promise I'll gladly put you into an actual coma next time." The had to be a Samaritan-created copy of Shaw growls as an equally grumpy Bear circles obediently around her legs.
Root's heart squeezed in sympathy at the warry confusion in the dog's eyes. The noticeable struggle at wanting to offer Root comfort but also obey Shaw's commands. But it's a gleam of something in the haze of the glaring hospital-grade lights that truly catches Root's attention.
How could it not when Root knows intimately how Shaw is by no means one for jewelry? Not that Root can catch a great look at the thing with Shaw using said hand to slide through her hair in a show of frustration so unlike the real Shaw.
Was that…. An arrow ring?
"Because I know that look." Shaw was arguing now as Root struggled to keep the gleaming of a had-to-be-melted-down bullet casing now sitting in glaring clime at Shaw's left hand.
An innocent enough placement given how Shaw favored her right when she got to trigger-happy. Then again Root had to remind herself her perfect partner did favor two at once more than a few times so something as glaring as a ring could be considered too much of a hindrance for the true Shaw to consider it an option.
"Can you really blame her?" someone new asks drawing Root's single-minded attention to the fact it wasn't just her, Shaw, and Bear as she'd first thought sharing the too-bright hospital-styled room.
The question immediately has Shaw pivoting around the glare at the asker. Once again, putting herself in Samaritan's path all in the name of protecting her. "Given she's thinking all of this is just one of Samaritan's mind-screwing tricks I'd say a fat hell no."
"Samaritan has stepped up with recruitment." Root muses under her breath noticing the question asker ended up holding Shaw's glare far longer than most before inevitably faulting under it earning a little more respect from Root as those dark eyes flicker to catch her staring around the unmoving barrier that was Sameen Shaw between them. "How the hell do you put up with this one?"
"Your kiddin' right?"
Even Shaw melted enough for an amused snickered smile at Fusco's comment as the man himself reenters the room now holding an ominous-looking briefcase in hand. At the sight of him, Root paled as the friendly cop gives a greeting wave as he hefted the case into a surer grip as he came through the door. "Hey, yeah Cocoa Puffs. Welcome back."
No. no. no.
Shaw had already confided in the few tidbits of information she'd shared about her time as a Samaritan captive she'd managed to keep Fusco off Samaritan's radar. Even after all seven thousand plus torment simulations.
And Root couldn't even keep him safe for a single session.
Samaritan's goons must have swept in at her literal last second after she'd gotten that irritatingly lucky shot with their sniper. It was the only reasonable explanation.
Now she was a captive of her crumbling enemy.
"Come on, man you couldn't have finished taking out the trash on your way back?" the one who was still something of a puzzle to the waking hacker complained providing something of a distraction from the realization Root had just made. The childlike complaint earing another soft breath of what could have been a laugh from Shaw as they like Root notice the obvious figure of a dead body laying as plain as day in the middle of the hallway surveillance video.
"You're the one who killed her that makes her your mess to clean up." Fusco argues setting the case in his hand down on the little coffee table the hospital room provided.
"She had it coming." Shaw defends "and if you ask me, you still went far too easy on her." the blunt layering of scolding praise of Shaw's words was like a sucker punch to Root's heart.
Was this some kind of Samaritan mind game?
Make Root jealous with this decoy agent seeming to be attempting to wedge herself between her and Shaw so Root would turn to her for advice on how to keep her perfect partner all to herself?
If it was then Samaritan must have more than a few microchips loose if it thinks Root will take the bait.
"Maybe so but given my options, I still think giving her a bite of the vixen was our best option. With the run-down Big Sis gave me on that one's heart troubles a touch more digoxin in her system won't send too much of a wave during autopsy."
"Humm. You know I actually hadn't considered that." Shaw growled in a way that only Root could hear the hinted undertone of something else in her voice. "Maybe I might be keeping you around a little longer."
"Fun as that sounds not even I'm crazy enough to think of coming between what the two of you have." The unknown one waves off "It's not every day someone survives getting so completely mind screwed by an evil AI to prove how strong she feels for someone else."
"Who says you'd be middle?" Shaw probes in a very un-Shaw asking the longer the two-hold eye contact.
"Says her for one." Root didn't need to look up to guess the speaker was attempting to get a look at her around Shaw's yet-to-move position from beside Root's bedside.
Okay maybe now Root will hesitate just a little longer before putting a bullet into this one's knees if not somewhere closer to a vital organ or artery given the chance.
"Okay, okay. Enough with the mushy chatter ladies. Especially when Cocoa Puffs keeps looking like you two are kicking the hack out of her favorite puppy with your medical-grade pillow talk."
Root hates just how right he was on the call-out.
"Anyways. Either one of yea' know how the heck we're supposed to open this thing?" Fusco interrupts drawing everyone's attention back on both him and the mystery case he'd brought in from the hall.
And just like that Root feels her heart shatter in her chest when she gets a clearer sightline to the newest puzzle in the room.
"Three combo lock. Must be hundreds of possibilities." The cop keeps going as if unaware of Root's spiraling thoughts. "and from what your old boss says not even their nerd group could crack this."
No.
Because not so long ago her God had been trapped in a similar-looking case.
"Root."
No, the Machine couldn't be trapped like that again.
On reflex and with a visible shaking hand Root reaches up to rub at the scared mark behind her ear. But she already knew before her fingers even grazed her own sink that her implant was gone. It had to be gone. She wasn't able to hear the comforting buzzing of static reminding her of its presence.
She was alone.
A warm hand intertwined with the one behind her ear. Coaxing her shaking, scratching fingers away from the mangled strip of skin. "Sammy, please. you need to calm down."
But she couldn't calm down. It wasn't that simple. How could she calm down when She was alone?
Root's blurring vision trained on that mocking case resting so innocently on the coffee table.
Her prison, made new.
They'd been so close. So close to setting her free.
No this was just some Sarmatian trick.
Weaken her with Shaw before going in for a quick kill in forcing her to see a tangible symbol of her God trapped and weaken to such a point that Root would automatically race to Her the second, she escaped and end up leading the also had to be crippled Samaritan right to what- if anything was by this point- was left of Her?
That had to be it. It was the only plausible reason she'd be allowed to live now.
"Dammit Root, don't you quite on me now." Sameen snarled from close beside her as Root's heart rate continued to climb whilst Shaw and the dark-haired one insisting on calling Root by her old name started moving in an awed kind of dance around her and each other to make sure the dark spots clouding Root's vision didn't overtake her completely.
"Come on Sam, hang in there."
But if this was a trick would this be her trade? Gaining a more feeling emoting Shaw only at the cost of Her?
Root.
"Took you long enough." Shaw cut in as the beeping code of the Machine chirped out like a lifeline amid the screaming warnings and beeping of Root's medical monitors.
Root, can you hear me? The Machine asks.
But unlike all the other times Root was asked that question, Root wasn't filled with the same calm elation. Her heartbeat now threatened similarities to the wind speeds of the time Root had needed to play that deadly game of Chicken with her God just so She would help her find out what had happened to the best thing besides finding Her to happen in Root's life since she was twelve years old.
"Maybe kiss her again?" the new one asks still rushing about in some sense of an attempt to slow Root's climbing heart rate.
"Are you serious right now?" Shaw deadpans
Root, your heart….
"It worked the first time with getting her heart rate down."
Then the bed dips as Bear carrying a familiar battered bunny slipper between his teeth nudges himself into her lap.
"Seriously dog?" But then the one Root was really considering stabbing in the hand if she got any closer steps in to attempt to usher the unmoving dog from the bed Sameen steps in with a jaw-ticked glare, going so far as to physically hold the other woman back with a warning but light grip on her upper arm when she dared inch closer to Root's bedside with a low "He's got this." as if any would need clarification.
The dog's head resting over Root's shoulder his nose nudging the ever-itching reminder of Control's attempts to get her to turn on her God as the dog in her lap leans into her providing a much-needed anchor as Root buried her face against Bear's shoulder.
"What?"
Shaw's low grunt of a question was nearly lost in the mingled sounds of the Machine's reassuring beeping messages and the slowing noises of the monitors around them the longer Root drinks in a little more of Bear's reassuring presence.
"….am always wanted a dog someday."
Again, Root had to make a conscious effort to remind herself this might just be a slow warm-up for Samaritan's attempt at unhinging her mind like they'd tried to do to Sameen.
"No way. He's, my dog." Shaw immediately defends earning a low giggled laugh from Root.
Maybe she wouldn't make it to seven thousand plus like Shaw had, for one if Samaritan was already this glitchy it didn't have that long, for another given how weak Root felt as she sagged a little more against her pillows, she had a nervous feeling she wasn't going to last much longer either.
But it was alright. She was alright with one final game of Chicken.
Her vs. Samaritan.
Who dies first?