SAMEEN SHAW POV
"We really need a bigger car." John whines.
Sameen looks away from the empty road she's driving on and to the rearview mirror to see John sandwiched between the two empty eyed brunettes. The mysterious woman's head is limp onto one side with her eyes still wide open while Root's head hasn't moved from the time Sameen moved it a few hours ago and is still looking out of her window.
She rolls her eyes at the pleading look John is sending her before turning back her attention to the road. The man wanted to drive, saying that it would be better if she's at the back, but she just told him to fuck off and that he already drove on the way to the nuclear facility.
"What are we going to do with them?" Sameen asks the bespectacled man who's been awfully quiet for most of the drive.
"I don't know. They're both incredibly dangerous individuals. On the other hand…" Harold sounding indecisive and his turns to look in the back. "They're not well."
"Isn't that fucking obvious?" Sameen retorts with a snort.
"What's wrong with them?" John wonders aloud. "I wanna say it's shock but… this looks different from what I've seen before."
"I can't say for Miss Groves, but the other one experienced something similar on the flight to Portland." Harold informs them with a slightly worried tone.
John hums in thought, before glancing at Sameen. "Say, you're a doctor, Shaw. What's the diagnosis?"
Sameen looks back at him and deadpans. "You really think learning to be a doctor means that I'm an expert in every aspect of medicine?"
John shrugs and gives her that punchable smirk. "Doesn't hurt to ask."
She rolls her eyes and stops herself from groaning. "I specialized in emergency care, not psychiatric care. Meaning I'm better at fixing a bullet wound over some fucked up mental trauma."
"You dropped out of your residency before you finished your specialization, Miss Shaw." Harold says innocently.
She turns her focus away from the empty road to deadpan at four-eyes. "Why do you keep bringing that up? And I didn't drop out, I left."
Here she thought that being officially dead means she didn't have to hear any more comments about her life choices, but Harold just loves to bring it up.
"You can't fault the man. I mean, it's kinda funny." John pitches in with that annoying small smile of his.
To which she just levels a death glare at him through the rear-view mirror.
Sensing that his life is in danger, John raises his hands in surrender and says. "Alright, it isn't funny."
"I might be the only one in this fucking car that actually graduated university…" Sameen mutters under her breath, but loud enough that everyone can hear before addressing the issue at hand. "I checked on them when we stopped for gas, and you all hit the bucket. I wouldn't say it's shock… Root wasn't clammy or cold, her pulse is normal. She hasn't closed her eyes this entire time and she won't drink. People tend to be thirsty when they're in shock." Her eyes then glance at the mysterious woman. "Same goes with the other one, but unlike Root, she doesn't have any reaction when I touched her. None of the usual signs of shock for both women."
"Root was clammy back when I was patching her up." John pitches in.
"Yeah, so was the other one. But they aren't now, are they?" Sameen retorts back.
John touches both of their necks to check what she said and replies. "Nope."
"Which means she's already came out of her initial shock." Sameen explains slowly to the man.
"Then what the hell is wrong with them?" John questions, sounding like he's getting more annoyed by the entire situation.
"Isn't that a loaded question?" Sameen replies sarcastically before replying seriously. "Look, I'm no shrink nor claim to be one, but they aren't fully here right now."
"I kinda had a feeling that's the case with how one is eerily stiff and the other one is a rag doll." John quips.
"It could honestly be so many things and if Harold doesn't want them to die, then we can't really leave them alone unattended." Sameen gives the bespectacled man a look.
Harold looks at the two incapacitate ladies with some wary. "I would prefer that no harm come to them."
Sameen continues. "Depending on the cause, they might take hours, days or even months to come out of their little mind prison in."
"That isn't to figure out." John interjects. "Root didn't get to meet the machine, and you shot her while the other… We both shot her, and as Finch said, she had something similar in the flight."
Her mind goes back to the good old DSM and says. "Well, it might be acute stress from that, but their shit isn't the normal signs." She points her thumb at the back. "This usually comes from preexisting psychological disorders, like bipolar, psychosis, schizophrenia… there's an entire load of disorders that can cause this."
"Can we determine if this will persist in the long term?" Harold asks with a tone of concern.
"If it's acute stress, we'll know soon enough with the symptoms coming and going, meaning she'll be mobile and aware of her surroundings." Sameen explains before letting out an annoyed sigh. "However, if it's what I suspect, then fuck knows how long Root's catatonia will go on for, and I have no fucking clue what's going on with the other one."
"Catatonia?" John chimes in with slight confusion. "But they both walked to their car."
"Yeah, with you guiding every step they take and Harold practically carrying the other one. Remember that weird ass dance you had to do to get Root into the car?" Sameen retorts back before continuing her explanation. "Catatonia doesn't mean you're totally immobile, but it's very restrictive for self-directed action." She looks at John through the rear-view mirror. "Try moving Root's head because she hasn't moved it since I nudged it when we were at the gas station."
John peers at the insane hacker with a raised brow. "Now that you mentioned it… it's kinda creepy."
Sameen snorts at that assertion before her gaze lands on the rag-doll woman. "As for the other one… No fucking clue what's going on in that head. She seems to be catatonic and disassociating at the same time because she isn't reacting to any input, unlike Root."
"How did you figure that?" John asks as he looks at the other woman.
"I pressed their wounds." Sameen answers casually, causing Harold to look at her with a disturbed look at him. "What?"
"Please try not to harm the invalids." Harold practically deadpans at her.
"It wasn't hard, and it's a medical test." She rolls her eyes at his softness. "Anyway, Root had a reaction, a fucking slow ass reaction. There was a lag of a few seconds before she whimpered in pain. Unlike Root, the other crazy lady had no reaction at all to any input, even when I pressed harder."
"Any proposal for what we should do next?" John asks.
"Since your boss here doesn't want them dead, then the only option is the funny farm…" She glances at Harold. "But do you think a psych ward can hold either of them when they come back from their mental vacation?"
"Is there any other option?" Harold softly counters.
Yes… but that would involve their deaths.
"By the way, you still haven't told us who exactly is the other nutcase." Sameen asks and nudges her head to the said woman.
Harold was quiet for a minute before muttering. "I'm not sure how to describe it either…"
"You spent an entire flight with her and can't give us the cliffsnotes?" Sameen asks and shoots in the dark about what Harold has gone through. He has been awfully tight lipped about what happened.
After Harold mulls it for another few seconds, he says. "Firstly, her name is Sue, as in S U not Sue."
Su? Why does that sound familiar…
"What kind of name is that?" John incredulously asks while turning his attention to the woman beside him.
Oh…
Sameen lets out a suffering groan. "God, they're fucking nerds."
Harold slightly smiles at her reaction while John raises a brow. "Care to share with the rest of class?"
She shakes her head and explains. "Root and Su, they're named after Linux terms. One is a term for admin and the other is a command to switch users."
"Shaw…" John says with that smirk of his. "Didn't know you're a computer nerd as well."
"I'm not." She snaps back. "Just took some computer classes for extra credits when I was in pre-med."
John smirks widens. "Shaw, you're the first marine nerd I've met."
Sameen levels a heated glare through the rear-view mirror and grips the steering wheel tighter. "I'm going to make you puke your guts out."
Harold gives her an uneasy, queasy look while John smiles and puts up his hands in surrender.
"Secondly." Harold continues after Sameen backs down on her threat. "I believe Root cares deeply for her and they're friends…" Harold frowns slightly. "… or they were friends. It's rather complicated right now. They had a rather heated… argument on the flight to Portland."
"Friend? Argument?" John says skeptically and mutters. "Didn't even know she was the type to have friends."
"It would appear that Su knew about the machine for the past 5 years and didn't tell Root about it when she probably knew that Root was looking for it." Harold explains with a slight worry tone.
Huh…
"What?" John's eyebrows shot up and his eyes are wide like a saucer. "How?"
"Wow… that's a dick move." She says at the same time as John.
"You're not interested in her knowledge of the machine, Miss Shaw?" Harold asks her out of curiosity and giving her his full attention.
Sameen glances at Harold. "I'm in the same boat as John, but the bonus of being me is that I can think straight when a surprise hits me in the head and acknowledge that's a dick move."
Harold gives her a look that she can't really describe before dropping a bombshell. "She's the leader of the collective."
If Sameen had been a normal person, she would have imagined that she would have had some kind of overreaction from finally catching the fucker she's been chasing for years, like swerving the car uncontrollably as in the movies but she just tightens her grip on the steering wheel and eloquently says. "What the fuck?"
That fucking explains how this person knew about the machine's existence, seeing that this fucker has been terrorizing the country for the past 4 years, and the odd fact that Root wasn't using the collective's resources to find the machine.
Looking back at the woman through the rear-view mirror, she can't help but wonder… How the fuck does a person that looks like she has one foot in death's door be in charge of the invisible cabal that's been terrorizing the country for years.
All she is feeling right now is slight anger at that woman, but nothing else. She didn't know why she believed that she would have felt anything different when she finally catch the fucker.
Maybe she had built up some kind of mental image and expectations of who the person being in charge of that organization…
"So, she's Pauling?" She asks the obvious question.
"No." Harold shakes his head. "Pauling is her subordinate."
That threw a monkey's wrench into the collective's organization chart she had built up since saving Gary.
"Dude…" Sameen levels an unimpressed stare at Harold. "You gotta stop pussyfooting around and fill us in on what you know. Everything since you went gallivanting with Root the day prior."
"That's going to take a while to explain." Harold answers.
She grins at the man. "Good thing it's going to be a fucking long ass drive back to New York."
With that, Harold begins to retell everything that happened throughout his voluntary 'kidnapping' and that flight from hell to Portland. Throughout his retelling, both she and John cut in to pepper in some questions. Both she and John had different reactions to what Harold said. John has a look of shock and worry. While she just feels anger simmering.
By the time they reach a dingy motel after the sun has long gone down, Harold finishes his retelling and John went out to get them a room. Sameen's initial anger has subsided, and now she has more reasons to put a bullet into that terrorist's brain.
"I can't believe there's another evil A.I. loose out there." Sameen mutters as she rests her hands on the steering wheel and looks at the motel. "I guess we need to go out there and find this 'Sue' next?"
Sue and having it sound the same as its creator… that's another feather to put on the cap of insanity for that woman, in addition to whatever the fuck is wrong with her right now.
Harold nods. "Su believed that I wouldn't survive the night and said some clues for that puzzle. I already have a few ideas about where to look at when we get back to New York."
"Lucky for us, she didn't think that we would burst their little party." Sameen smirks at the man.
However, Harold doesn't share the same attitude. "That's been bothering me. If this Sue had the same surveillance capabilities as the machine, then it would have spotted and noticed that the both of you were coming after us and she wouldn't be caught off guard. Even if we take the fact that Su said that Sue doesn't have the ability to predict humans other than its creator, it doesn't take a sophisticated algorithm to notice that you were after us. It just doesn't make sense…"
With the information they have right now… what Harold is theorizing is true. Sameen just shrugs. "Too bad, the creator of the first A.I. is fucking bonkers and isn't even in touch with reality right now for us to ask her about it."
"I wonder…" Harold's face reflects a sense of deep thought. "… how could someone create something so sophisticated and complicated to a point where neither I nor the machine can't even detect it, be… someone so vile, a-and…."
"A batshit insane terrorist?" Sameen pitches in without a single care in the world.
Before Harold could respond, John comes back by dangling a key at them and opens the back door.
"Our room is in front of us." He informs us as he grabs Su from the back and slowly maneuver her so he can bring her out of the car.
"I'll guide Miss Groves to the room." Harold comments as he gets out of the car.
"Guess I'll play porter." Sameen mutters as she gets out of the car.
Wonder if that sandwich is still good…
A few minutes passed after she dumps everything in the trunk onto one of the bed and when the boys finally bring in the zombies into the stereotypical motel room.
"Here's the radiator." John nudges his head to the said radiator underneath the window and guides his charge towards it.
"Toilet first." Sameen tells them with her hands on her hips, looking at the boys with an unimpressed look.
"Why?" John asks, sounding confused at the suggestion.
"Did you guys forget that?" Sameen rolls her eyes. "We all used the bathroom back at that gas station, but they didn't. If the both of you are going to cuff them at the radiators all night, you guys are going to deal with the aftermath."
John scrunches his face at the thought and Harold nods. "Miss Shaw has a point."
Harold changes direction to bring Root to the toilet with John, along with his charge. Feeling satisfied enough that she just averted a disaster, she sits down on her bed and digs through the bags for something to eat.
"I believe that Miss Shaw is better suited to perform this task." Harold says bashfully, causing her to turn her attention to the man.
She levels a petty look at the pale woman that's barely standing beside John. "Do I really need to do it for the terrorist?" Sameen practically whines.
"Unless you want to stay in the bathroom, the entire night while this one is in the tub." John shakes the woman slightly, somehow causing an exaggerate wiggle on the rag-dolled woman's head. "Then… yeah."
"… Right." She huffs as she gets up from the bed to grab both catatonic women and John can't help but quip. "Have fun, doc." She, in turn, slams the door in their faces.
"You assholes better not be faking this because I really don't need more motivation to shoot you guys." She mutters to the mindless duo and stares at the defenseless women. Root still has that thousand-yard stare with her head still in the same position since she moved it hours ago, and Su looks like she's going to fall down at any moment.
"Right, let's start with you." Sameen grabs ahold of Root's shoulder and callously positions her at the toilet.
While Shaw was lowering herself to unfasten Root's pants, Root makes a meek sound of protest and weakly pushed back in resistance. She stops what she'd doing and looks up to see Root's face in discomfort and a slight tremble on her face.
That's a fucking weird reaction…
"Calm down, I'm trying to help you…" Sameen gets up to Root's level and adjusts her head. "And why are you in pain?"
Knowing she won't get an answer from her, she quickly reach down and undo Root's fly, to which she got no reaction. However, when she puts her thumbs under the waistband, Root does the same meek protest again. Ignoring that, she yanks down the woman's pants, and Root did something she did not expect. She instantly and clumsily collapses onto the toilet and begins to use it.
"Guess a full bladder is painful." Sameen mutters as she averts her eyes to give the demented hacker some semblance of privacy and lands on the other occupant of the bathroom. Who's leaning onto the wall for support as if somewhere deep inside that empty head of hers, is trying to not keel over.
When the bathroom went silent again, she turns to see if there's any movement from Root in some attempt to clean herself but sadly for Sameen, there's no such movement as the woman was stiff as a board. Letting out an annoyed sigh, she tears out some toilet paper and put it on Root's open hand. "I'm not going to fucking wipe you."
After several seconds of inaction and Sameen glaring at the woman, Root slowly, like a sloth, starts to clean herself.
"I was this close." She makes a gesture with her fingers to the absent-minded woman. "From pulling up your pants."
When Root done the job, and drops the toilet paper into the bowl, she stops slowly, like a car running out of gas.
Sameen grabs Root by the shoulder and pulls her up from the porcelain throne where the catatonic woman slowly proceeds to reach for her underwear.
"I don't have time for this." She grumbles and swipes away Root's hand, causing the woman to whimper slightly. In one sharp swoop, she pulls up Root's underwear and pants back up. Guiding the woman, she brings her to the basin and turns on the water.
She leaves Root there in the hopes that she'll wash her hands while she attends to the other one. Turning her head, she sees the terrorist somehow still standing, but the word standing is a choice, seeing that a small breeze could collapse this flimsy deck of cards.
She grabs the woman by the shoulder to do the same song and dance with the terrorist -well, it's quite a bit of difference since she's wearing some very old style of dress-, but she didn't put up any protest, unlike Root. With everything out of the way, she shoves the pale-faced woman into the toilet and waits.
A few seconds passed with nothing coming out, with seconds changing to a minute. Sameen lets out a groan and looks at Root, who is slowly rubbing her hands with soap before turning back to the sickly woman.
"Don't make me get a fucking catheter and shove it up your urethra." She hisses into those empty eyes on that rag-dolled head.
And as if the woman hears Sameen, she finally starts to relieve herself. If she could have felt relieved, she would have let out a sigh, but she couldn't. So, she turns her attention back to Root, where the woman is still at a sloth pace. Not having much else to do, she grabs the woman's hand and quickly washes it for her. "Why can't your terrorist friend be more mobile like you?" Sameen complains to the absent minded Root.
She places a towel for Root when she hears Su finish. Turning back to the other woman, Sameen tears some toilet paper and places it on the limped hands of the woman, hoping that she'll do what Root did.
So, she waited like earlier, and waited for a bit more, but her unfounded hope was dashed when the woman's limped hand didn't move an inch since she place the toilet paper onto the woman's palm.
"Fuck this shit." She mutters as she grabs the terrorist by her injured shoulder to bring her up. Sameen quickly pulls up her underwear and guides her towards the exit. As she reaches the immobile Root, that looks like she finished wiping her hands, Sameen put away the towel and guides both women out of the bathroom.
"We need to get diapers for them because that was fucking annoying." Sameen comments as she cuffs both women by the radiators.
"Root's fly is down." Harold points at them while prudishly averting his gaze away.
"How about you take them to the bathroom next time?" Sameen rebukes the man.
"I thought doctors are used to piss and shit?" John says jokingly as he sits on his bed while eating a piece of sandwich.
"Doesn't mean I like that part of the job." She deadpans at the man and then points a finger at the man. "You better not be eating my sandwich."
John stops munching and looks at the sandwich. "It's pastrami with mustard."
"That's mine." She shoots a death glare at the man.
"You should have said that earlier…" He just shrugs and makes an offer of a half-eaten sandwich. "… You want the rest of it?"
She makes a face of disgust and rolls her eyes. "You finish it, but next time, my shit has extra mustard on it. It's like having roommates again."
"No wonder it's spicier than usual." John takes another bite of the sandwich. "And you had roommates?"
Sameen shakes her head… the man clearly didn't go to college, a muscle head through and through.
"So did you guys think up a game plan while I was busy playing nurse?" Sameen asks the boys as she sits on her bed and grabs a bag of chips.
Both men shared a look with each other where John just shrugs, and Harold grimaces before saying. "I don't know… But sending them to a psychiatric hospital seems to be the most prudent choice we have right now."
She levels Harold a stare that would have cowered a man with lesser convictions. "Do you think a run of the mill mental hospital can handle these two murderous nutcases? And one of them has, from what you've described, an A.I. that's more capable than your own in her pocket to call on."
"Do we really have a choice?" He rebuts. "We can't keep them locked up in the library when we get back… Not when we're so ill equip to treat them in their current state."
When Harold doesn't budge an inch at her prodding, she relents. "Fine, we can put them in an appropriate psych hospital…" She takes a moment to think of a solution. "You're a tech wiz, right?"
"I wouldn't put it that way, but I am confident in my skill." Harold answers back with a brow raise in curiosity at what she's getting at.
"You can fabricate a sentence where we can dump them into a maximum-security psychiatric hospital and conveniently, for us, there's one on Wards Island." Sameen explains with a slight smile.
What's that sound?
Harold frowns at her. "I can't just create a sentence out of thin air."
"Really?" She deadpans, not believing a single word he said.
"Well, I could…" Harold confesses before quickly firing back. "… But not when the sentence is the federal criminally insane charge. What I can do is create a minor judgement where we can use it as a cover to put them in a low security mental hospital. In addition to that, we can't put them on Wards Island because the hospital records are connected to the larger state health department database and your former employers looking for them… and Miss Groves, in particular."
"You honestly can't be thinking about putting them in the same place and in a low security hospital, at that? They'll just walk out of it, leaving a trail of death and destruction the moment one of them gets two brain cells back together." Sameen questions his logic.
"Sending them to a connected hospital is as good as a death sentence for them and there are only a few high security hospitals left in the country that aren't connected to a wider system. So, that limits our choices to low security hospitals, that's not networked and is near to home base." Harold argues back.
That sound again… it's faint…
"We do have a choice." Sameen softly says. "I could kill the terrorist after I get whatever information she has on Pauling and Milk. That way we can just stash Root safely in some under budget psych hospital without risking an all out breakout and a trail of bodies, the second one of them decides to check back in with reality."
"That's not an option, Miss Shaw." Harold replies with a grave tone.
Sameen looks at the man like he's insane. "I don't get why you are so adamant about saving a life of a terrorist."
"We're not judge jury and executioner. And because it doesn't matter who the person is…" Harold's voice is soft yet has steel in them. "… a life is a life."
How can he say that when he created the system, that exactly does that?
"What if your machine gives you one of their numbers when they plan their escape?" Sameen challenges the stubborn man.
"Then we will stop that from happening and if we fail, we will bring them to face justice with a jury of their peers." Harold says with the utmost confidence.
Justice? What did he think she did before getting booted out of the ISA?
"If you want justice, then hand her over to the feds. I'm sure they would love to get their hands on her." Sameen stresses out the words.
"With what evidence?" Harold waves his hands. "Your former employers would have already cleaned out the nuclear waste processing facility by now."
The sound… is that beeping? Is something broken in this room? If so, then it's really going to be annoying if this beeping continues throughout the night.
But she continues to ignore the high pitch sound. "I have evidence, four years' worth of evidence against this bitch."
"If you couldn't convince your boss before with the evidence you had. How do you think the FBI would see it? Everything you had while is accurate is circumstantial and wouldn't hold up in the court of law and we can't use Mr. Cook's testament, since the man has, for his own safety, disappeared." Harold challenges her own logic.
That basically shuts her up, since she can't think of any other arguments that doesn't involve a bullet in someone's skull. Why is it so hard to be good?
"Fine, we'll go with your stupid plan…" She rolls her eyes and finishes up the last of her chips. "… Guess now you have to find us a funny farm that meets your dumb requirements."
Harold relaxes his shoulders as if he's been tense the entire time and John just gave both of them a smile with her sandwich long since been eaten. All the while, that fucking beeping has been going on in the background and by the looks of it, the guys isn't hearing it. She wanna say that it's morse codes with the frequency of the beeping but it's all over the place and doesn't make sense, so that rules out anything mischievous.
"However, we aren't going to dump them at the funny farm until I get I need to find Pauling and Milk." Sameen tells them, causing both to raise their brows at her. "I can't let those fucking terrorist run wild out there and insane number 1 over there." She nudges behind her. "Obviously knows where to find those two."
"Miss Shaw…" Harold says tentatively. "… if what you said about their condition earlier is true then I'm not sure how are you going to get what you want."
Sameen lets out a sigh. "By any means necessary, if I have to fill either one up with lorazepam, so be it. I… we need to stop Pauling and Milk from the next attack. It's the only way we can stop the biggest terrorist threat to the country for the past half a decade."
There's a look of understanding on John, which is to be expected from that man, while Harold doesn't look like he's comfortable with what she's suggesting, despite knowing her actions will save more lives in the long run. But both of them didn't put up a fight against what she was saying.
Good… at least after years of wasting away against unimaginable odds, she'll close this chapter of her life once and for all.
A croaked sounding snort erupts from behind her, causing the boys' eyes to widen in shock and her body spinning around to see the sickly pale face sneering at them. The once empty look in her eyes is now replaced with a disorientated one.
"Why would you ever think Pauling to be a terrorist?"
What the fuck?
SU POV
It feels like she's been floating in the ocean for an eternity with her mind totally blank of any thoughts while looking into the dark, empty sky. Peaceful might be the word to describe this space except for the haunting coldness that surrounds her that pokes and prods her with its icy tendrils.
Oh, what she would do for that peaceful warmth to come back into her bosom.
After floating in this freezing ocean, for goodness knows how long sounds starts to penetrate through the ether, and slowly stars start appearing in the dark empty sky. With the stars becoming bigger and brighter. She feels like the ocean is slowly solidifying until she doesn't feel like floating anymore and is on solid ground again.
No longer does she feel like she's lying on her back. Now she can feel her body sitting on a hard surface and both of her hands are dangling up in the air. Try as she might, she just couldn't open her eyes, but after a while, her hearing crawls back.
She can hear muffled sounds off in the distant… sounds like a female talking to a man… Is that Root?
Wait… what happened?
Where was she?
Where's Root?
Then, in a rush of sensation, everything hits her like a mule kicking her in the chest. She can see the blurry image of her leg sprawled on the floor, her eyes burns with every blink in the futile attempts in unblurring her sight and all the while her head is pounding like a drum boy used it for practice.
Argh… everything hurts… it feels like there's three burning spots in her body while the rest of her body feels like it's on pins and needles.
Slowly, she moves her hands to check on the burning spot, but she barely moved her hands when she felt restrictions on them.
What…
She brings her blurry vision towards her hands and sees something white wrapped around her hands and secured onto something that feels like metal.
Was she… captured?
But that's impossible… she hasn't been unintentionally caught in this life before.
Unless the worst did happen…
When did that happen?
Did her pathetic brain shut down again while she was doing something? But it didn't feel like the usual ones…
Is that how she's in bindings right now? Why can't she remember what happened before her mind shut down?
How long was she out? It feels like it's longer than her usual shutdowns.
Throughout her little confusionfest, the same voices slowly become unmuffled but are still unintelligible to her ears. If she was a betting woman, which she isn't, she bet that these people are the ones that's holding her captive… is Root here as well?
Sue?
…
Sue should have noticed that she's woken up from her… that means these people who took her must have taken out her earpiece. Huh… she would have expected them to not have noticed it.
Has she gotten soft?
No… whoever these people are must be competent compared to the lowlifes she usually sees.
Before she can do anything, she needs to do some self-assessment of her current disposition. Carefully moving her head slightly to not attract any suspicions and to get a better view of her body. With her slightly less blurry vision, she sees that…
White bandage with a blob of red on her shoulder and leg.
Oh, she got shot, and at two places… That might explain the pain and her brain shutting down… it's been quite a long time since the last time she got shot up. And she'll assume the burning pain in her gut was her getting shot there, but her vest, which she isn't wearing right now, caught it.
The background volumes continue to become louder and clearer.
Ah… seems like her hearing is getting back faster now. The voices she's hearing sounds familiar…
It's that Harold man that Root was infatuated with, and some woman she never heard from before. This shouldn't be too hard of a situation for her to get out of. Now, if her eyesight would be so kind to come back now, it would make her escape so much easier. She can feel the weight of her spectacles on her nose, so that rules out her poor eyesight for her current blurred vision and must be something to do with her pathetic human brain.
However, getting shot in the leg always sucks… and now that she can feel it. Why does her underwear feel wet?
Please don't say that she wet herself when her brain decided to stop working, because it's gotta be embarrassing and awkward when she confronts these people for witnessing her malfunctioning. Goodness, she feels like a toddler again… can't even control her bodily functions.
Now knowing her condition, she shifts her gaze in search of her friend, and not to her surprise, Root is sitting just a few feet from her…
Even with her current blurry vision, she can see how still and unmoving her friend is. Not an inch of her is moving other than her breathing and her head is just facing straight where her body is pointed at.
What's wrong with her?
Why does it feel like there's an uneasy pit in her stomach when she looks at Root's empty, blank face? The once expressive face is just blank and unmoving, and Su hates it.
She just stares at her friend while the other people in the room have some kind of heated discussion that she can't be bothered to listen in, but as her hearing becomes sharper, she can hear a white noise in the background.
BEEP. BEEP. DASH…
It's not random… it's on repeat…
ARE YOU THERE SU?
It's morse code in her cypher.
She can't help but crack a smile at that, knew that girl would know how to contact Su by herself. And she's using one of the other person's phones to broadcast a high frequency sound… smart girl.
Su gives her assistant a small nod, hoping that she can see it and her captors do not.
The repeat beeps and dashes changes and it took her a few seconds to decipher the new message.
THANK GOODNESS, YOU HAVE BEEN IN A DISSASOCIATIVE STATE FOR THE PAST 24 HOURS.
24 hours? That's… the longest she had in this life… what the hack happened? But that doesn't matter right now.
DO YOU REQUIRE ASSITANCE? PAULING CAN BE AT YOUR LOCATION WITHIN 6 HOURS.
She shakes her head slightly, confident that she doesn't need any help, or maybe she just wants to see where this goes. And what's Pauling doing back in the states? Isn't she supposed to be removing that pest and requisition back the ship from Argentina?
Unless… Su's not in the states anymore…
Nah, this room looks like the most typical looking motel room in the US.
She nudges her head towards her blank-faced friend, to see if Sue knows anything. While she waits for a response, her mind concludes that her friend is having the same experience as her.
IT WOULD APPEAR THAT ROOT IS EXPERENCING CATATONIA.
Catatonia… that's worse than what she expected, but it's nothing too out of left field with her background. Guess Root can't run away from her mother's shadow forever. It's either that or these people gave Root something to make her soo lifeless…
Nah, it's her malfunctioning mother's fault for giving her bad genes.
That's when memories of what happened before her shutdown came back to her… she followed Root to that fake nuclear facility, removed a few pests and entered the most soothing place she has ever been in the past twenty-five years to a point where she got so distracted her that she didn't notice or hear any warnings before Root got shot followed by her getting shot.
Whatever happened in there must have caused Root to turn off her brain after getting shot… but her mind keeps going back to the peaceful, soothing warmth of that empty room. A fleeting feeling that she hasn't felt since she was a child.
…
But that recollection is wrong… the last time she felt that fleeting sense of serenity was in another empty room in a corporate tower back in New York…
Just what does this mean?
ARE YOU SURE YOU DO NOT REQUIRE HELP?
Why is she asking that again? Wasn't the first answer enough? She shifts her sight away from her friend and to the rest of the room, trying to see where Sue was looking from. Now that her sight is mostly back, she spots a phone on a bed with its camera facing upwards and a TV screen close to the phone.
That's it… she shifts her head slightly towards the tv screen and shakes her head again at her nosy little assistant.
ALRIGHT I WILL JUST MOTINOR AND PREPARE THE CONTIGENCIES.
She needs some time to figure out what's going on. Why she felt so… content in that empty room…
Su has to know what's going on and see how Root's little adventure fits into all of this.
What better way for her to start than what's in front of her?
She shifts her head up to look at the other people in the room that's been blabbing on for goodness how long and she barely kept tracked on what they were talking about. Only some excerpts, like killing her, hospital, and terrorist.
With her slightly better vision, she sees two male, one is Harold, the other one is… he looks like the most generic looking G-Man she's ever seen, and one female who has her back on SU. Is she so impotent that they're comfortable enough to lower their guard?
"By any means necessary, if I have to fill either one up with lorazepam, so be it. I… we need to stop Pauling and Milk from the next attack. It's the only way we can stop the biggest terrorist threat to the country for the past half a decade." The woman says in such a dull voice.
What?
… Pauling a terrorist? Why would this person ever think that?
Thinking Milk to be one is misguided and wrong, but still understandable from a certain stupid point of view, what with Milk's clientele.
Su can't stop a soft snort from escaping her and breaking her cover. All three of her captors snaps their gaze at her, all with varying reactions to which she sneers at them before saying. "Why would you ever think Pauling to be a terrorist?"
That seems to trigger everyone into action. They all got up from their position on the bed and got into a semi-circle a few feet away from her with the woman that looks so familiar and has a nasty look on her standing in the middle of the pack.
"You people really know how to make a girl feel special." Her voice sounded incredibly hoarse. When was the last time she drank?
The middle eastern woman looks down at her with a look that says she really wants to inflict harm onto Su.
Oh! She's the woman that shot her and the fact that she's still standing is a testament to her own mistake in being so disarmed in that empty, peaceful room.
"You're awake." Harold says with fear in his voice.
"Why do you make it out to be a tragedy?" Su gives them a crooked smile before turning her gaze to her only friend. "What did you do to her?"
"Nothing…" Harold says softly. "She's been like that ever since Hanford and nothing seems to pull her out of it."
She nods in understanding and asks. "And can you give me a drink?"
"No." The woman says with such a dead voice.
"That's rude." She makes an extra effort to make her voice raspier.
"It's been more than a day since she drank anything and it would be better if she drinks something, unless we want her condition deteriorates further, miss Shaw." Harold says as he grabs a bottle of water from the bed and takes a step forward.
Ah, the woman has a name… like her face, it's familiar. Where has she seen her before? If only Sue was in her ear, then she could remind her of everything.
Only to be stopped by with a hand on Harold's chest by that incredibly tall man as he glares at her.
She croaks out a chuckle at that idiotic gesture. "What am I gonna do?" She wiggles her bound hands. "Head lock him with my injured thighs?"
"That's a possibility." The man says dryly.
"That's dumb John." Shaw rolls her eyes at the man. "And if this bitch does anything, that's just a reason for me to put another bullet in her."
"So quick to violence and such a potty mouth." She tuts and smiles at the woman.
Harold ignores Shaw's comments as he uncaps the bottle of water and bends down to slowly lets her sip the precious water. She didn't notice how dry her throat was until the cooling elixir went down it. After finishing the unfortunately small bottle of water, a sudden rapturous cough erupts from her chest.
"Are you okay?" Harold ask with a tone of worried fear after her little coughing fit.
Su understands the fear but the worry… Why is he worried about her? They only knew each other for a few hours, and that only involved a few minutes of talking to him. Such an odd little fella.
"I would be if you unbind me." She gives the man a pleading smile while wiggling her hands. "This must be restricting my chest."
"Yeah, no chance, you insane terrorist bitch." Shaw instantaneously bites at her.
Su didn't even bother to look at the woman and just stare at Harold. "You really need to train your little pet better. She has no manners."
Harold widens his eyes while in the background she can see that blank face woman simmers with anger, which is such a delight to see that her smile forms to a genuine one.
After an awkward second, Harold stands up and states. "You need food."
A look of annoyance flashes on her face as she gives her usual response. "I'm not hungry."
Harold stops and gives her an odd look. "But you haven't eaten for more than a day."
If she could have waved her hand dismissively, she would, so she just rolls her eyes. "Duly noted."
"Great, she's anorexic as well." Shaw deadpans.
She lets out a scoff and retorts. "I'm not. I just don't feel hungry. Is it so hard to believe?"
Harold just looked at her with what she described as a disturbed for some reason.
"Yeah, whatever." Shaw pipes in and gets closer to her. "What do you mean, us thinking Pauling is a terrorist?"
"Because she isn't?" She tells the woman the most obvious answer.
"How the fuck does that even make sense?" The woman frowns at her. "You're the boss and your organization conducts a terrorist attacks each week. Kinda impossible for her to not know what you do when she runs that collective for you."
Huh… they know a lot. Her eyes lands on Harold since he must be the tattletale. In the usual cases, she would have just put all three of them to sleep as soon as possible, but they're tied to something she's seeking to understand.
Maybe she should play around with them for a bit… that sounds like fun.
Huh… she hasn't felt this fun feeling of playing around with the prey for quite some time…
Just what is going on?
"That word again…" With her bind hands she makes quotation marks. "… 'terrorist' you just love to toss that word around, don't you? What does that word even mean anymore? Everyone is a terrorist these days."
"You're the very definition of a fucking terrorist." Shaw snarls at her. "And be thankful that you haven't gotten another bullet yet."
She seems very aggressive towards her… wonder why. Have they met before? Is that why she looks vaguely familiar? If so, this woman must be really unmemorable or maybe Sue's right and she needs to work on her human names/faces memorization.
Bah, it's this woman's fault for being so unmemorable.
"Tut, tut." Su makes a pouting face at Shaw. "You shouldn't be swearing so much. It's such a rude thing to do, and what would your parents think of you for being such a crass being?"
"Great, we got a terrorist, Mr. Rogers." Shaw mutters with a look of disdain on her.
Su gives the woman an unimpressed look and raises her finger. "One, I have no idea who that is, so I'm going to take that as a slander." That cause the three of them to give her a look of disbelief and she raises another finger. "Two, I resent that connotation. I'm not a terrorist."
"What?" Shaw scrunches her face like she was holding in feces, which is quite entertaining. Something she has long missed.
Why is she having these feelings again?
But it's not, it doesn't feel… whole, complete. Like a distant memory, that's just sitting on the precipice and refusing to come back fully to her.
Did Root's silly little adventure actually work?
It can't be… if it did, she wouldn't feel so… incomplete. Things just doesn't make sense, that coldness of the void feels so distant yet ever present and yet she has these fragments of feeling that she lost back.
Let's just see where this wild ride is going to take her. Not that she has much to lose…
And by the look on the three of their faces, it seems like her mind wandered off. Now where was she?
"I'm not a terrorist because being a terrorist implies that I'm terrorizing humans to push a political agenda, and since I don't believe in politics, that doesn't apply." The look of disgust on their face feels so satisfying. "Plus, I didn't put all of those people to sleep. I merely created plans that accelerate their time on this earth."
There's a look of horror on Harold's face and it feels so sweet.
Goodness, these fleeting feelings is so addicting. She needs more of it.
"Oh, great, you're not a terrorist…" Shaw sarcastically spits out. "… just a plain old mass murderer."
"I'm not a murderer." Su instantaneously retorts the woman's claim.
Shaw shakes her head. "You're genuinely fucking insane."
Su rolls her eyes. "I'm not that either, and I'm not a murderer because that is just a social construct."
"What?" Harold mutters with horror in his voice while Shaw gives her a look that she doesn't know how to describe.
She turns her gaze towards the man. "Murder means the unlawful taking life of another and well… unlawful implies there's law and laws are just human laws are just social constructs." A small smile creeps on her lips. "It's just a made-up thing that humans create to control one another. We're nothing more than animals and yet we don't stop animals from taking the life of another animal. It's all natural for animals, but you involve humans, everyone call it unnatural when they do it to themselves."
Harold frowns at her and challenges her. "But humans are conscious beings, we think, we feel, we remember, we learn, we communicate, we can abstract."
"And other animals don't?" Su raises a brow at the man's stupid argument. "Go grab a shotgun and blow an elephant's brain in front of their family and see what happens. The only difference between humans and animals is that humans have denser neurons in their brain by the chance of evolution. Give any animal enough time and they would be no different from humans with their own dumb laws."
The look on Harold's face looks like he just got slapped, while Shaw looks angry, and the tall man just frowns at her.
"You're fucking with us right now, aren't you?" Shaw accuses her with that angry look she has. Why is she angry? It's not like what she said is wrong. Must have touched something sensitive then.
Harold opens his mouth to say something but closes it multiple times before finally saying. "D-do you actually believe that?"
Su just looks at him with a strange look on her. "You're the ones that's being weird by believing in such meaningless things."
"But…" Harold squints his eyes. "… you believe in manners, politeness, you don't swear or use the lord's name in vain… that's a social construct that you follow."
"No, it isn't." She shoots back and glares at the man. He clearly isn't making sense.
"Yes, it is. The etiquette we follow right now was codified a few hundred years ago, and the other one was enforced by the church. Both are social constructs." Harold argues back, bringing with him his illogical arguments.
"Nope." Su says with unmoving eyes at the man.
Harod was about to reply when Shaw cut him off. "Don't bother Finch. She's just being a facetious bitch. We're not going to go anywhere with this drivel, and I'm not sure if we can get anything from this nutcase willingly."
This woman is annoying, but her anger is entertaining. Let's run her up the wall.
"Ooo… the serious, mean faced woman wants to torture poor old me. What did I do to deserve this?" Su says playfully and flashes the incense woman a smile. "Please, oh please, I've been a good girl. Santa never given me a coal before."
Shaw deadpans at her and turns to Harold, who just looked at her with raised brows. "She's fucking nuts."
"Nuts, nutcase, are such dismissive terms." Su grins at them. "I can assure you that I am a person of sound mind and perfectly normal."
"That's a load of bullshit and you know it." Shaw deadpans at her. "Normal people's brains don't fucking shut down for an entire day after they get shot, and they sure as hell don't believe whatever crazy shit you believe in."
"What is the definition of normal?" Su opens her mouth to continue but…
"We are not going to listen to more of your stupid, contradictory philosophical nonsense." Shaw interrupts her in such a rude manner.
"Did you never learn proper conduct? It's like talking to an ape." Su replies disdainfully. "You really need to learn more manners, missy."
Shaw takes a threatening step forward and grits her teeth. "I'll show you manners."
"Wait…" The lone tall man puts a hand on Shaw's shoulder, stopping her before blurting out. "… You're Hanna Frey."
Huh…
That's an unexpected development.
JOHN REESE POV
This is… different.
John just stayed at the back, being silent throughout this entire odd conversation between the terrorist with every screw loose and his new partner (?) and boss/friend. He just looks at the incredibly frail-looking woman the entire time… he's seen her before, but he can't put a name to that face.
He knew this woman was just trying to get under the skin of the two of them the moment he saw that eerie small smile before she completely avoid answering any questions and just meander into logical holes. So, he just kept quiet and observed, while there's a constant itch at the back of his head telling him that he knew who this person was.
Shaw's anger continues to rise with every moment the woman continues to talk nonsense, while Harold kept his thoughts close to his chest. When the woman changes her posture slightly, her long unkept hair shifts into a different position, she has that little smirk, and a handmade pink unique-looking necklace falls into view.
That's when everything clicks into place, and it hits him like a freight truck hitting a deer on the highway.
Holy shit… it can't be.
Can it?
…
John squints his eyes as if it would give him a better image…
There's no mistaking it. She might look different with the passage of time. The baby cheeks are gone, the hairstyle is slightly different -can't really say it's a style with how messy her braid is compared to the neat braid in the picture-, however, her eyes are the same as the eyes in the picture. She looks older and whatever problem she's having since that picture was taken has really taken a toll on her.
It's the same person in the picture he looked at for hours last year while he was in Texas. Plus Harold's description of her private jet matches the color he saw in that desolate childhood room.
…
What the hell? How's that possible?
Whatever the woman said broke Shaw's patience and snapped him out of his revelation reverie.
His new partner clenches her fist into a ball and takes a step forward as she threatens. "I'll show you manners."
Not wanting this to escalate further, John quickly grabs Shaw by the shoulder, stopping her midway through. "Wait." He ignores the glare he's getting from the petite woman when he's only looking at Su and reveals. "You're Hanna Frey."
The moment he mutters out that word, it elicits so many different reactions from everyone. Frey/Su looks at him with both brows raised and tilting her head, like she's surprised by his revelation. Shaw's face has a frown which he can only describe as 'What the fuck are you talking about?'. And Harold has his eyes wide in realization, like he's been trying to figure out where he's seen her before.
"Oh God." Harold mutters in disbelief at the sight in front of him.
His friend had seen the picture, but of course, Harold wouldn't remember what Hanna Frey looked like, seeing that he didn't spend hours thinking she was Root.
"Hanna Frey?" Shaw's eyes darts between him and the woman. "The one that you said got kidnapped by some creepy banker pedo and died?"
"Yeah." John mutters softly while his eyes never leaving Su/Frey.
Shaw snorts, finding some humor in this shitshow. "I guess the rumors of Hanna Frey's death have been greatly exaggerated."
"Now, that's a name I haven't used in a long time." Gone is her playful voice and now is replaced with a serious one.
Nobody said a word at that confirmation while Su/Frey stares at him with an intensity that's been missing since they noticed she's up.
She nods her head slightly after a few seconds before saying. "Ah… Now I remember you. You're that man that snooped into my past." That intense stare shifts to one of curiosity. "I never did get an answer about how you know about me back then."
Not having any other answers, John tells the truth. "The machine gave me your number so I could find Root."
She gives a noncommittal hum as her gaze moves on to Harold. "I'm guessing your machine knows about Root's past and gave you a dead girl's SSN in some convoluted path that leads your pet here to Root."
That's a scarily accurate assessment of what he had to go through to get Harold back from Root and from what Harold had told them earlier. Her knowledge of the machine is more extensive than he was led to believe.
Su's sunken eyes narrow as she shifts it back to John. "Your name is John…" she pauses for a few seconds before continuing. "… something wasn't it?"
John can't help himself as he quips back. "Yeah, my last name is something."
She completely ignores his joke and says. "You were at that purgatory of a town with that female detective… what's her name? Clarke? Cook? Carter? Colins?"
Purgatory?
Also, he isn't going to risk Joss's life by correcting her on the detective's name, and she really doesn't have a good memory or didn't think they were a threat enough to remember. So, he just gives a noncommittal. "Yeah…"
Harold takes a step closer to the woman and asks. "You were the one that called Root last year, didn't you?"
Su looks at Harold with one brow raised and sarcastically says. "You gotta be more specific than that, despite what Root claimed I do occasionally call her."
"She answered your call by referring to you as Pauling." Harold elaborates.
"Ah… that call." There's a look of intrigue on her. "I did find it odd at the time and assumed she was busy, but I guess she was entertaining you at that time. How thoughtful of her to use Pauling as a cover for me." She gives Harold an off-putting smile and glances at John. "I did called her about a couple of rats snooping around where they shouldn't, and she told me to not remove the two pests."
That's an uncomfortable thought… he wouldn't have been prepared if the collective came down on them hard in Texas. Guess he'll have to thank Root for that?
That's when he got an idea.
John takes a knee to be on Su/Frey's eye level, causing the woman to look at him with mirth and curiosity in her amber eyes. So far, nothing Harold and Shaw have said, seem to do anything to budge the wall of avoidance this woman created. Maybe it's time for a different approach.
"I met your father." John starts emphatically, causing the woman to widen her eyes in what he assumes as shock.
"You met him?" She murmurs barely above a whisper and the front she had crumpled.
Taking that as a good sign, he nods and continues. "He stopped believing that you were still alive…" That caused her lips to tremble. "… but he did mention that your mother believed you were alive until the day she died."
That seemed to shock her with her utter silence and constant blinking of her eyes. He glances to his side where he sees Harold nods at him, that this avenue of talking is working better than before.
"She did… did she?" There's no hint of remorse or sadness in her voice… this must really be a shock for her. "Always knew she knows more than she ever showed." She mutters softly.
"Your dad really loves you…" John begins but doesn't really know where to go with it since he isn't that good with this kind of things but the other two aren't any better. "He still…"
His sentence was cut off by her smirking at him and callously saying. "Honestly surprised that he lived for this long, to be honest with you." Gone was that shock, trembling face, and now replaced with what he can only describe as deranged glee. "I had expected him to keel over sooner with how unhealthy his vices are."
That's a curve ball to the face he didn't foresee and did the only thing his brain could think of at that moment. "What?"
The deranged smile on her widens. "I had expected mother to outlive father with how well she maintains her body and I really thought father would have committed suicide not long after I left that dreadful town."
John just stares at the woman in surprise shock… she was playing with him and now, has gone completely mask off.
There's a hint of glee on her face as she stares back at him and continues in a mocking tone. "I really shouldn't have pegged the man to be such a spineless man."
The room was so quiet that even the sound of a pin dropping would be audible and from the corner of his eyes he can see Harold's shocked face. The woman's smile becomes a toothy grin as she continues. "My goodness, you all should have seen the look on your faces. It was so priceless. Well, except for you, Shaw, you really have that poker face nailed in."
"You don't care about them?" Harold asks in a hesitant voice.
She sways her head in a dismissive manner before saying. "They served their purpose and what happens to them after is not my concern."
John doesn't know what to say to that… coldness.
He remembered how gutted he was when his stepfather died, and later when the rest of his family died.
Getting up from his kneeling position and taking a few steps backwards to get back in with the other two, he starts to reflect on this situation.
Now thinking about it, from the description he got when he was in Texas, everyone seemed to adore her when she was a child. Has she always been like this or what she experienced changed her? It could be the latter, from everything he learned about her on that trip.
There's an urge in him to ask her why she never went back to that town, back to her best friend and to her family, but… it isn't hard to figure out with how much both she and Root detest that town. He didn't have to fill in the blanks on what happened to her on the night of her kidnapping, and she wouldn't have known Root had killed the man a few years after she went missing with just being local news, until much later, when her A.I. went online.
What's surprising is that she survived that night at all. He remembers his theory that Hanna Frey escaped that man, but that was before Carter showed him the pictures of the dug-up bags filled with bloody sheets and clothing.
How did she even survive? With the amount of blood loss and her size at that time, she couldn't do a lot without passing out.
That brings up another question. From what Harold told him about Root and her history. Why did she take more than a decade before reconnecting with Root? If he got the timeline right, her A.I. came online 8 years after she left her hometown, and Root left that place two years after that, leaving 4-5 missing years.
There's still a missing piece of this puzzle.
"She's a fucking psychopath." Shaw said out loud the word that's everyone has been thinking.
The woman isn't fazed by the accusation and looks like she enjoyed it. "Am not. And are you even certified to diagnose me?"
"Isn't that just a social construct?" Shaw rebuts with a deadpan.
"Nope, because mental illness isn't a made-up concept." She gives Shaw a shit-eating grin. "You shouldn't dismiss the importance of mental care."
That's contradictory… must like most of her stances or maybe she's just bullshitting, just to get a rise out of them. Probably the letter, and by the look on Shaw's deadpan face, she's thinking the same. Well… he assumes she's thinking the same.
Su lets out a chuckle as she just looks at Shaw. "I'm sorry, but the look you have right now isn't flattering. You look like a dullard."
"She's just wasting time again." Shaw ignores the woman's jab and turns to look at the two men. "I'm going to raid the nearest ER and get some sodium pentothal or sodium amytal."
Truth serum? Good idea.
"I'm not sure if that's a good idea, Miss Shaw." Harold seemingly uncomfortable with the suggestion. "Using such drugs on her while we don't know her condition is unsafe."
On second thought, that might not be a good idea.
"Good thing I was a doctor then." Shaw replies dismissively as she rolls her eyes at Harold.
Just as Shaw is about to turn around, the woman attempts to clap her hand but couldn't and results in a soft pat between her fingers.
"Now I know why you looked so familiar." Su comments with a gleeful tone, bringing in everyone's attention back to her.
"You're that sociopathic, former doctor and marine, ISA agent that worked under that dude with the receding curly hairline!" The woman's face is bright with self-satisfaction.
Huh, that perfectly describes a certain agent that John shoved a knife into a few months ago and just met again last night.
"How do you know Hersh?" Shaw asks with a frown, asks at the same time as Harold asks. "You know Miss Shaw?"
"Right, right, his name's Hersh, totally forgotten about him. His fault for having such a plain joe background…" There's a nostalgic look on the woman's face. "… But you both were a funny lot."
He can feel a tightness in his stomach as John might know where this is getting to…
"What do you mean?" Shaw asks in such a way that he can't even decipher what she's feeling and stepping in front of him.
"How could I forget you guys? It was so much fun…" She shakes her head before slightly tilting it. "You both went to investigate that fool of a tool, Patzi."
Tool? That's exactly what Harold mentions about her personality when he debriefs them about her.
Even though he couldn't see Shaw's face, he could feel that she was slowly getting angry.
Su's grins widen as she continues without a care in the world. "I remember it clearly now, the look of shock on the two of you as the plane falls out of the air and then punching that tool's wound till your hand was drenched in blood." She lets out a small giggle. "So much drama from such a person like you."
Plane… She's talking about that flight Shaw got the number for.
"You were there?" Shaw barely whispers a mutter, yet he can hear the anger laced within her monotone voice.
The deranged woman gives Shaw a look as if she just asked the stupidest question. "Obviously with what happened in the year prior, I can't in good conscience not make sure my plan goes through as smooth as a baby's buttocks." Again, she gives herself a self-satisfied nod. "In my humble opinion, it was one of the best plans I've made, and it took months to prepare. Then you and your partner came along, and I couldn't have asked for better pawns to perform that plan."
Danger klaxons blares in his head as he sees Shaw's hands form into a fist before she says. "You were the sniper?"
"Right…" She draws out her word and gives Shaw a look of pity (?). "… sorry you had to see it, since that wasn't my best shot."
Within half a second after the woman stopped talking, he saw Shaw made her move and in a flash, knowing that she's going to do next, he lunges forward to grab Shaw's arm to restrain her. He can feel his muscle strain just from trying to contain Shaw from throwing that punch and the subsequent attempts to get out of his grip.
Damn… how the heck can a woman this small be this strong? It's like trying to hold back a raging bull.
"Don't make me break your jaw, Reese." Shaw grits out the words through her teeth as shoots death glares at him.
When he's about to reply to that threat in an attempt to calm her down, that deranged woman lets out a bark of laughter, which further angers the petite woman.
"Calm down, Shaw." John says softly as he looks into Shaw's eyes, while the other woman continues to giggle-laugh in the background.
"I am calm as a feather." Shaw replies in her usual tone, but he can see in her eyes that she's quite murderous.
"We can't kill her Miss Shaw." Harold says worryingly as he steps between both women.
"A punch won't hurt her too much." Shaw calmly replies and turns her gaze to the woman on the floor.
To be honest, he isn't sure if this frail woman could even survive a punch in the head from Shaw. He's pretty sure that punch could knock out most men double the woman's size.
"Your reaction is so much better than I expected." The deranged woman comments after ceasing her giggling.
"The punch might not, but we don't know what will happen to her with whatever condition she has." Harold tries to reason with Shaw's anger.
"Don't you see what she's done, Finch?" Shaw asks calmly with an undercurrent of anger in her voice and her focus shifts to Harold. "She orchestrated the downing of DL656. She killed a hundred 126 people, Harold."
"My, my Shaw… Why are you soo angry?" The deranged woman coos in a way to bait Shaw into attacking her. "Aren't you supposed to be a sociopath?"
Shaw completely ignores the bait with her focus, sole lies on Harold as he replies. "As tragic and unforgivable as that is, Miss Shaw. It is not our place to be the judge for her crimes."
That provokes a reaction from Shaw in the form of a deep scowl. "She killed children, Finch. 12 of them."
Harold grimaces and closes his eyes for a few seconds but doesn't say anything further, telling her that he isn't going to budge. The air of tension between them is so palpable that John can feel it on his lips.
"Ah!" The woman of Shaw's ire exclaims brightly, cutting through the tension in the room like a hot knife through butter. "You're angry that you failed to stop it, and that's completely understandable, but you were never meant to succeed in the first place."
Shaw turns her burning gaze back to the woman on the floor but doesn't say anything and lets the woman continue. "You see, it was all a test for me to see how Northern Lights or the machine that thwarted me the year prior works as well as to learn about your little agency. I allowed you to catch that tool."
The former ISA operator doesn't say anything as her fist tightens again and all the while, John tightens his grip on the petite woman.
"You killed hundreds of people just for a… test?" Harold asked in horrified shock.
"How else was it supposed to learn about the machine you built without testing it, Harrold?" Su asks with a condescending smirk before shrugging. "And who cares if some people die? That's what they're meant to do… they live and the next thing you know, they're gone in a blink of an eye."
The moment the deranged woman finished talking, he could feel Shaw overpowering his grip, causing him to let go of her arm and within a blink of an eye, punch the woman right at her pterion. In that one violent swing of her fist, the woman's head snaps towards her right side and hits the radiator, then bouncing off the radiator to settle in her new position. Sue's went limp and her head on her left side with her eyes wide open.
Everything happened within two seconds, well before anyone could react. Even though he wouldn't have done it, John can't help but admire a good sucker punch when he sees one. Harold, on the other hand…
"Miss Frey!" Harold juts forward, then kneels near to the newly unconscious woman and waves his hands at her eyes. "Miss Frey?"
"No use Finch." Shaw says in a tone like she didn't just punch someone. "The light might be on, but she sure as hell isn't there."
Harold turns to look at Shaw as he puts a finger on Su's neck. "Why did you have to do that, Miss Shaw? The woman is clearly not in the mentally stable and you fell for her provocation."
Shaw just stares back impassively and shrugs. "To shut her up and because it felt really good. You should give it a try."
"What if that killed her?" Harold asks in an accusatory tone.
"She's fine. A bit of a concussion doesn't hurt and exactly what she deserves." Shaw rolls her eyes. "And boo-hoo, the psycho being a nutcase doesn't justify her killing all of those people." Shaw points to herself. "You don't see me going around murdering people left and right."
Harold looks like he's going to argue, so John steps forward and says. "She's right, Finch."
A flash of betrayal crosses his eyes before he puts on his poker face.
John puts up his hands and says. "I mean, she had it coming and Shaw's right about her being a nutcase isn't a defense."
Harold lets out a tired sigh and comments. "It isn't, but she's clearly a disturbed woman who needs treatment."
"Why are you so adamant about defending this bitch?" Shaw practically snaps at his friend and points a finger at the unconscious woman. "She would have killed you without a second thought if she's free."
"Because we're not like her." Harold retorts back. "Where would our morality go the moment we decide to kill in cold blood? We would just stoop to her level."
John hopes his friend isn't making a reference to both his and Shaw's past employment…
"Go confess your sins to a priest if you want to save your soul, Harold." Shaw takes a step closer to Harold's kneeling form. "I'll be your sin-eater, because we can't let her live… Not when she's a batshit insane psychopath with a fucking evil A.I. at her beck and call."
Harold gets up to face Shaw and waves his hands at their captives. "That's why we're going to put both of them in a secure mental hospital that can treat them and maybe help them with their problem."
"You're being emotional, Harold…" Shaw waves her hand at Su. "… No matter how secure that place is. Why the fuck would that woman stay locked up in a funny farm when she's clearly doesn't believe there's anything wrong with herself?"
"Because there's something clearly wrong with Miss Groves, and she needs the treatment. Even with their patchy relationship, the first question Miss Frey genuinely asks was about Miss Groves' condition." Harold, not moving an inch as he justifies his choice. "She won't leave her as long as Miss Groves requires medical treatment."
With that, the both of them just stare off at each other for a solid minute before Shaw shakes her head. "Great, let's just hang the lives of countless innocent people in the balance on the whims of another catatonic crazy woman."
Feeling like the tense situation has deescalated, Harold's shoulders relax as he further elaborates. "If it makes you feel any better. Until that time comes, we will use this opportunity to find where her A.I. is and shut it down. That way she won't have a dangerous… asset lying around."
Shaw stares into Harold's eyes for a few seconds before turning around to seat on the bed. "You know I can't feel things like that, but at least it's something to do in the meantime."
Harold nods in agreement. "And hopefully we'll get more insight into the collective's operations as we search for that A.I."
Sensing the confrontation ended, John speaks up and points at Su. "So… what do we do now? You never gave me an SOP on how to handle a woman that can communicate with an all-seeing A.I. when you did your orientation with me."
"There's an orientation?" Shaw perks up with a scowl on her. "I don't have to do it… right?"
John smirks at the woman. "Take this trip like one big orientation."
Shaw rolls her eyes and says. "John's right, the bitch can be out for 24 hours like last time or she could come to in a few minutes. I wouldn't mind knocking her out every time she's awake."
"How many punching can she take before getting CTE?" John asks out of curiosity.
The former doctor has a thoughtful look at her before answering. "If she wakes up every two hours and I use the same swing, I give it a… very low risk of getting CTE."
"Can we drop the subject of punching her?" Harold looks at the two of them like they're insane. "I thought you wanted information from the woman? You need her to be coherent and not a bumbling mess."
"It's going to be a long ride back to New York, so tell us how we bring her with us without me constantly punching her." Shaw shrugs. "She's like you, Finch. Except for the whole insane murder terrorist part, and given enough time, she'll think of a way to escape from us with her buddy there before we reach New York."
Harold looks like he's offended that he's being compared with that woman, but doesn't say anything for a few seconds before nodding and saying. "We stuff her mouth, blindfold, and cover her ears."
"Finch…" John says in amazement and smiles at his friend. "… Didn't know you approved of GITMO."
His friend didn't find his joke amusing and just deadpans back at him, which causes John's smile to brighten more.
"Fine by me." Shaw says loudly as she starts eating her chips again. "You got the toys in your bag of tricks, John?"
John and Harold shares a look with each other before he grins at the woman. "Nope."
Shaw's eyes darts between the two men and frowns at them. "You guys go get it."
"We haven't used the toilet yet, Shaw." John retorts and nudges at the door with his ever-growing grin. "I mean, you drove the entire way here. It's only fitting if you grab the stuff."
"I didn't use it either." She mutters a protest, but when neither man budges, she lets out a sigh. "Fine. I'll go rob a Home Depot after I'm done with my chips."
"I always knew you would be a great partner." John smirks at the frowning woman.
"Yeah… Go fuck yourself." She mutters before stuffing a handful of chips into her mouth.
A/N: I lied about this being the final chapter of this arc. Had to break up this chapter in half because it was getting way too long. I'm aiming for Part 2 of this chapter to come out before I go on vacation in 3 weeks.
This chapter is heavily influenced by How to Troubleshoot a Kernal Panic by MayonnaiseJane on Ao3.