Author: SoThatHappened

A second gunshot echoed down the hallway and the man fell to the ground. Root stumbled backwards through the door followed by Shaw, her voice filled the stairwell.

"Fuck" Shaw groaned loudly, her eyes wanting to roll back in her head at the pain that was shooting through her hand like white hot fire. The sound of the gun shots echoing through her head.

Shaw tried to take several deep breaths, her eyes squeezed tightly shut, before she could face looking at her hand. When she opened her eyes, it was soaked in red, blood dripping into a puddle on the floor.

A bullet wound, straight through the palm of her left hand. Her breath caught in her throat as she looked over at Root, who was slumped against the wall, her face deathly pale, she was struggling to keep her eyes open.

"Root" Shaw said using her good hand to grab Root by the chin and force her to look Shaw in the eyes. Their eyes met, then Shaw looked down at Root's chest, and saw the blood soaking through her top underneath her jacket.

"Shit" Shaw growled yanking Root's jacket down to get a better look at the wound.

"It's okay" Root said weakly, and Shaw just glanced at her shaking her head. Pulling Root's top down by the neckline she saw a hole in Root's chest. Less than an inch from her heart.

Shaw felt like she might throw up. Her hand had saved Root.

"The bullet's still in your chest" Shaw said seeing energy draining from Root who was blinking slowly. "We need to get you to hospital."

"No, it's fine" Root said sleepily "You can do it."

Shaw looked at her, jaw clenched and shook her head. "I can't, Root."

"Why not?" Root asked, but Shaw wasn't listening, she looked down the stairwell and wondered whether she was actually going to make it down there with Root in time. Figuring it was the only chance she had she scooped Root up into her arms, despite the agonising pain that was rippling through her hand and started down the stairs.

"Reese" she growled into her earpiece, and seconds later his voice replied.

"Yeah Shaw?"

"Root's been shot, I've gotta get her to hospital, like right now."

Reese paused "Is she..."

"She'll be alright, bullet just missed her heart, it went through my hand" Shaw said feeling anger creeping up inside her.

"How the hell?" Reese asked.

"We both tried to stop each other from getting shot, fucking stupid girl tried to step in front of me" Shaw said shaking her head "She could have just let it hit my arm."

"You're forgetting she cares about you," Reese said.

"It's clouding her judgement" Shaw said bursting out into the lobby with Root, seeing an ambulance waiting out front with Reese in the drivers seat.

*

Shaw disliked hospitals. She had spent a lot of endless hours in them when she was training to be a surgeon. Exhausted hours, fluorescent lights, rushing everywhere. She was almost glad she had been kicked out. She couldn't even imagine what she would be like if she was in this place every goddamn week.

The smell was starting to get to her as she sat in the waiting room, her knee bouncing up and down impatiently. Her hand sporting a giant white bandage, with more than the average amount of painkillers dancing around inside her body to subdue the pain.

Shaw leapt to her feet when Root's surgeon emerged from the room across the hallway.

"Can I see her?" Shaw asked immediately.

"Yes, but" the surgeon tried to keep talking but Shaw stepped around her. "She lost a lot of blood."

Shaw pushed the door open into Root's recovery room and kicked it shut behind her, the sound causing Root's eyes to flash open.

"Nice gown, loser" Shaw said walking over to the end of the bed, looking at Root's hospital gown, that was pulled loosely to the side where Shaw could see the giant patch over her wound. Root looked exhausted, darkness rimmed under her eyes, she was pale, washed out, her lips dry, her hair messily pulled away from her face and the wound.

Shaw looked away, glancing down at the clipboard at the end of the bed and letting her eyes skim over Root's chart.

"How's your hand?" Root asked her voice hoarse.

"Fractured bones, six stitches." Shaw said and looked at Root. "Hurts."

"Sam, I'm..." Root began.

"Don't." Shaw cut her off and walked over to the window, peering out at the dull New York day. Root went silent. "That bullet almost hit your heart." Shaw said after a few moments and turned back to Root.

"I know, you're my knight in shining armour" Root said and Shaw just stared at her.

"It could have killed you." Shaw said.

"It didn't."

"It would have if I wasn't already trying to push you back." Shaw said and Root could only stare at her helplessly.

"Sam stop it, I'm fine" Root tried.

"You don't look fine" Shaw said and walked over so she was standing beside Root's bed, their fingers inches away from touching.

"Looks can be deceiving" Root tried, a faint smile twitching at the corners of her mouth but Shaw's face remained completely expressionless, if anything, she looked mad.

"You get to go home tomorrow." Shaw said changing the subject staring down at their untouching fingers.

"You don't have to stay here tonight" Root said quietly.

Shaw rolled her eyes. "As if."

"Sameen," Root said softly reaching one of her fingers out so it touched the top of Shaw's. "Will you at least look at me?"

"I'm always looking at you, Root" Shaw said lifting her eyes so they met.

"Come here" Root said trying to pull Shaw closer, but Shaw put her good hand lightly on Root's shoulder and kept her back against the bed.

"Don't try and move" Shaw said and Root just looked at her longingly. Shaw glanced at Root's lips before moving her hand away from the other woman.

"I'm going to get some food, want anything?" Shaw said, Root tried to hide the slightly wounded look on her face at Shaw's casual brush off.

Root just shook her head and watched as Shaw exited the room without so much as glancing back.

*

Shaw barely slept. She spent the night on the uncomfortable armchair with her feet kicked up on Root's bed. She had eaten copious amounts of frozen yoghurt and was distracting herself by playing Plague on her phone, creating a virus that would wipe out the worlds population seemed like the only way she could release any of her frustration without any real humans getting hurt. Plastic spoon stuffed in her mouth she tiredly stared at the screen of her phone when she heard Root's voice.

"Sameen, it hurts" Root said her voice muffled. Shaw was suddenly on her feet, out of habit pressing the back of her fingers against Root's forehead to check her temperature, before glancing at the drip she was hooked up to and seeing it was almost empty.

Shaw stuck her head out of the room and signalled the nurse.

"My wife needs another morphine drip" Shaw said and the nurse just nodded. "Like now, or she'll get annoyingly loud."

The nurse stared at her in mild confusion before quickly hurrying off down the hallway.

Shaw went back into the room and sat on the edge of Root's bed.

"You're being a wimp." Shaw said running her finger down Root's nose then pinching the end of it with two fingers.

"We can't all be as strong as you" Root said through clenched teeth, the pain in her chest obvious.

"It's not all that great" Shaw said looking at Root whose eyes were beginning to well up at the pain. "Hey, no, don't do that, she's coming with the morphine now." Shaw said giving Root's hand a light squeeze as the nurse came bursting through the door with a new drip. Shaw didn't take her eyes off Root as the nurse swapped the bags over.

"It hurts" Root whimpered.

"That's what happens when you get shot, honey" the nurse said giving Root's arm a light rub as the morphine started to flow again. Shaw almost smirked at the comment and glanced at Root as if to say I told you so.

"Better?" the nurse asked less than thirty seconds later and Root just nodded.

"What have you been doing this whole time?" Root asked once the nurse had left.

"Giving myself a brain freeze with frozen yoghurt, and killing people off with various bacterial infections" Shaw said sitting back down on the armchair.

"Sounds like quite the night" Root said with a small smile.

"Single handedly conquering the world" Shaw said and held up her injured hand "Literally." she added with a smirk and that got Root to smile.

"I guess this is going to put a damper on our whole rough sex thing" Root said and Shaw just rolled her eyes.

"Whose fault is that?" Shaw said and silence fell between them. Root blinked slowly, trying to hold her eyes open as sleep tried to take over.

"Go back to sleep" Shaw told her leaning back in the armchair and Root looked at her, before drifting off again.

*

By the time they got home some of the colour had returned to Root's face, and she was surviving on a combination of various painkillers to keep the wound at bay.

Bear sniffed around both of them before quietly settling down on his bed, and Shaw started frustratedly yanking off her jacket with only one hand. Root came up behind her and eased it off her injured hand.

"So are we going to talk about this?" Root asked and Shaw turned to look at her.

"What?"

"Don't pretend you're not mad." Root said leaning against the back of the sofa. Shaw clenched her jaw, she should have realised this was about to come as soon as they walked through the door.

"If we talk about it are you going to apologise?" Shaw asked folding her arms lightly.

"Why would I?" Root asked glaring at her "You wouldn't have made that shot, Sam, you were facing the other direction."

"You know that was a fucking idiotic move you made," Shaw said her voice low and angry "He would have hit the door, or grazed my arm at the absolute worst if you had just fucking stayed back."

Root just stared at her, almost in disbelief.

"Why can't you just admit you're wrong?" Shaw asked anger flooding her voice.

"I'm not going to apologise for saving your life" Root said and Shaw frowned.

"You didn't." Shaw said bluntly. "You almost got both of us killed."

Root looked pissed off and hurt at the same time, she looked away from Shaw, staring at the wall with a frown twitching between her eyes.

"This isn't working" Shaw said finally.

"What isn't?" Root asked cautiously, looking back at Shaw and knowing that look on her face was nothing good.

"You're making too many amateur mistakes" Shaw staring straight at Root.

"Sameen," Root's voice was almost a plea, she knew what was about to come and she felt her chest tighten.

"I can't do this," Shaw said. "You're not invincible, and I'm not worth your life."

Tears unwillingly welled up in Root's eyes, her teeth clenched together as she stared at Shaw who gave her one last look before turning towards the door. Root couldn't find words, she couldn't get past the pain, worse than the bullet wound, this felt like her heart was being torn from her chest. She watched Shaw walk towards the door, feeling like all she could do was watch her go.

"Please don't leave me," Root whispered as Shaw opened the door, glancing over her shoulder when Root spoke. Shaw didn't know what else to say, she didn't know what to do with the anger in her chest that was binding her like metal chains.

"Get some rest," was all that came out of Shaw's mouth as she slipped through the door and quietly shut it behind her.

"I need you..." Root said before dissolving into tears as she stared at the closed door, feeling everything inside her start to tremble. She let herself slide down onto the floor, Bear immediately coming to her side sensing her distress. She dug her fingers into his fur and tried to ignore the fact that he smelt like Shaw.

Root didn't cry, not a lot. She didn't usually have a reason to. But she couldn't stop the tears falling down her cheeks and hitting the wooden floor. She couldn't fix her breathing, she couldn't stop her hands shaking, or the gasps for air as her chest tightened and pulled and felt as though it was being ripped open. It hurt, more than the bullet. More than anything she had ever felt in her life. Shaw had become her world, and what were you meant to do when your world suddenly disappeared?