Author: SoThatHappened

Shaw woke up first the next morning, she had forgotten about the shoulder wound until she rolled straight onto it and almost yelled out in pain as she quickly flipped back onto her back, her hand shooting up and pressing down on the bandaging.

Glancing to her side, much to her shock Root was still beside her, and very much asleep.

Shaw pulled herself so she was sitting up, propped back against the pillows. It was just getting light outside, a pale gold light falling through the gaps in the curtains, a streak of light falling across Root's arm.

Shaw reached over and picked up a strand of Root's hair and wrapped it lightly around her finger as she stared at her sleeping wife, it was nice to see Root looking so peaceful and rested. She knew how long Root could hold out without sleeping, an hour nap here and there and then she'd be awake again ready to go, no matter how tired she actually felt. It wasn't healthy. It was probably why she'd been so moody. That and The Machine. Shaw sighed. That damn machine.

Root turned towards Shaw, her hand sliding out from under the covers and touching Shaw's fingers that were tangled in Root's hair.

"Hi" Root mumbled sleepily and Shaw smiled a little, feeling like perhaps they were finally out of the woods.

"Morning" Shaw said softly and Root puffed lightly.

"Can I stay here?" she mumbled.

"You can do whatever you want" Shaw said and Root cracked an eye open and looked at Shaw.

"I'm stay here" Root whispered sleepily and Shaw just nodded.

"Okay, go back to sleep" Shaw said running her fingertip down Root's nose and giving the end a light squeeze. Root snapped her teeth at Shaw before brushing her hand away and rolling away onto her back with a yawn as she stretched out before going back to sleep. Shaw looked at her a small smile. God she was beautiful.

Shaw got out of bed and went down to make coffee. There was no new calls or messages from Finch and she wondered whether he was giving them the day off after the whole debacle yesterday. She wondered if The Machine was talking to Root again, wondering if that's why she was suddenly sleeping so well. Or if perhaps Root had just stopped caring, and gave into sleep at her own will.

Shaw threw down some breakfast for Bear as she sat at the counter and drank her coffee, her eyes skimming over the newspaper. Bear practically devoured his food in two mouthfuls then sat expectantly staring at Shaw, his tail wagging.

Shaw lifted an eyebrow at him.

"Really?" she asked and Bear just tilted his head to the side and stuck his tongue out. Shaw rolled her eyes, finishing what was left of her coffee and holding a finger up to Bear.

"Let me change" she said to him before dashing up the stairs and pulling on some workout clothes before coming back down and seeing him sitting by the door with his leash in his mouth. Shaw grinned and hooked his leash onto his collar.

"Go easy on me okay sexy, my shoulder is a little achey" she said shutting the front door behind them, figuring Root wouldn't even know she was gone. She would probably be asleep the whole day anyway.

Shaw took Bear into Central Park, she didn't let him pull her past a gentle jog, feeling the strain on her shoulder with even the slightest movement.

Shaw thought about Root as she was running, and inevitably her brain bought her back to the annoying and improbable what if that one day she woke up and couldn't feel the way she felt about Root anymore. What if suddenly she reverted back to the way she had always been. Purely driven by action and not emotion. What would she do, what would Root do? Would Root leave her? Would she have to leave Root? What if they stayed together and then she did something...because she couldn't feel that connection to Root anymore. Something unforgivable like cheating.

She had to admit to herself that part of the reason she agreed to get a drink with Tomas was to put out of her mind once and for all that the potential of her doing something...sociopathic that could wreck her marriage was no longer a possibility, that what she felt for Root overran any other desire or stupid attraction she might have. Like cheating. With Tomas. Which had happened once before, even though it had hardly been cheating. There had been an attraction and she had gone with it, because she didn't care, or at least she fooled herself into thinking she didn't care, about Root at least.

But getting that drink with Tomas last night had proven her right. Sameen Shaw had been conquered by Root. There is no way in hell she could even consider cheating without feeling sick to her stomach, without knowing the emotional damage it would do to Root, and her would be enough to take her down. In a really bad way. What she felt for Root made her make all the right choices, it made her a good wife. Which is something she always thought was impossible. But what scared her shitless now, is that going away. Because this was like a bug in her code. She shouldn't be able to feel like this. It crippled the sociopathic demure that she had lived with her whole life. That she was used to.

Suddenly Shaw noticed she wasn't alone, someone was running along beside her. Before she turned to fight mode she glanced to see who it was and almost did a double take.

"Zoe?"

"Hey Sam" Zoe grinned keeping evenly paced alongside Shaw and Bear. "How's the Mrs? Heard she got pretty rattled last night."

"Is there no such thing as privacy" Shaw muttered then realised the irony in what she said. Zoe smirked.

"Don't worry, it's nothing flowers and sex can't make up for" she said and Shaw raised an eyebrow wondering where she was going with this. "I've met John's little therapist friend,"

"Is she still breathing?" Shaw asked and Zoe laughed.

"I don't take quite as much pleasure in murder, Sam" Zoe said "but fuck I hate the bitch."

"Is that what you chased me down to say?" Shaw asked with a smirk.

"No actually" Zoe said "I was actually going to ask if you wanted to double date?"

Shaw smirked "John know about this?

"No" Zoe smirked back "And I was going to ask your other half, but I can't seem to get hold of her."

"She's asleep" Shaw said and Zoe raised an eyebrow.

"I just think we spend so much time holed up together it wouldn't do us harm to have a night where we interact with other adults" Zoe said with a shrug and Shaw nodded.

"I'm gonna say yes, but only because I know it'll make John super uncomfortable." Shaw grinned wickedly and Zoe rolled her eyes with a smile. "And also Root digs that kind of shit" Shaw paused "to be honest it would probably be good for us too..."

As her sentence trailed off Zoe looked at her curiously.

"Everything okay with the favourite couple?" Zoe asked and Shaw just looked at her.

"Yeah" Shaw said with a nod "Yeah it's...we're fine"

"That doesn't sound convincing" Zoe said "What happened?"

"You mean aside from last night" Shaw sighed and Zoe just looked at her waiting. "I don't know..." Shaw knew exactly what it was and Zoe knew she had the answer too.

"Can I ask you something?" Shaw said.

"Anything."

"Do you ever get worried that one day you'll look at the person you've chosen to spend the rest of your life with and not feel the same way towards them anymore?" Shaw asked and Zoe's eyes widened.

"Oh honey" she said and Shaw frowned. "Who doesn't?"

Shaw quirked an eyebrow shocked to hear that response.

"Really?"

Zoe almost laughed. "People probably freak out about that every damn day."

Shaw stared at her shocked.

"You can't prevent that shit from happening" Zoe said to her "And if it does happen it was probably a long time coming, not just all of a sudden."

Shaw frowned "okay but...I'm"

"You're worrying about something that will probably never happen" Zoe finished for her and started to slow down. "This is my exit" Zoe said as they approached a park exit. Shaw just stared at her wondering how she seemed so sure of what she was saying.

"Seriously Sam, if you two were gonna fuck each other up, it would have happened once already" Zoe said as she started to leave. "Oh, and one more thing"

"What?" Shaw asked.

"What would you get John for his birthday?"

Shaw smirked. "A hawaiian shirt."

Zoe rolled her eyes. "Right, I should ask Root"

"She'd get him dictionary, and add a K in" Shaw said with a smirk and Zoe laughed.

"I'll text you about dinner" Zoe called out as she ran off "And don't overthink!"

*

Shaw had barely made it back into the house and let Bear off his leash before Root pounced on her. Shaw almost threw an elbow up in defence, mostly out of fright considering she had assumed Root would still be in bed asleep.

"You left" Root said softly moving into Shaw's space grabbing her by her ponytail and jerking her head back hard, a firm grip holding Shaw's head back at the perfect angle for Root to be able to kiss her. They looked at each other for a split second before Root did just that. Root kissed her hard, pushing her tongue into Shaw's mouth, getting lost in a momentary passion until Shaw groaned. She was still sweating from the run, and Root had a little too much pressure on her wound. Root released her and Shaw took a step back. She stared at Root with dark eyes, suddenly extremely turned on. Root's smell still lingered on her, sleep and sweet kind of vanilla.

"I'm guessing you have more energy now" Shaw said and Root grinned, biting her lip.

"All fuelled up" Root replied and Shaw just looked at her, there unfinished conversation from last night somewhat forgotten.

"Upstairs?" Shaw asked and Root just shook her head.

"Down here" she said and walked into the living room grabbing Shaw's hand and towing her behind.

"You're gonna wreck our couch" Shaw said and Root smirked.

"Actually you're the one that put a hole in the last one" Root said and walked straight over to the pool table, pulling herself up onto it and letting her legs swing a little. Shaw followed her over and stopped in front of her knees and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh you wanna ruin the pool table instead?" she asked and Root grinned.

"It's not like I got this because either of us enjoy playing pool" Root said.

"I might" Shaw shrugged and Root rolled her eyes.

"Not as much as you're gonna enjoy this" Root said and wrapped her legs around Shaw and tugged her closer, her hands taking Shaw's face and bringing their lips together gently. Shaw let out a small exhale as they kissed, she'd missed this. Their closeness. Root's touch. Kissing. Kissing was her favourite part. Root was so soft, yet she could easily be so mean. Biting and nipping, but not today. Today she was soft. Gentle. Tracing Shaw's lips with her own, carefully kissing every inch, letting it linger, tasting her lips, savouring. Shaw's hands found Root's hips. She wanted them so much closer. One of Root's hands was tangled in her now loose ponytail, her other hand pointing south against Shaw's stomach, her middle finger edging under Shaw's exercise tights. Shaw could feel the heat between her legs, she wanted Root. There was no further foreplay from Root today, suddenly she was inside Shaw. Driving two fingers in deeply hitting the exact spot that made Shaw moan into Root's mouth and dig her fingers into Root's hips.

Root couldn't help but smirk, she loved hearing Shaw moan. She drove her fingers in harder and deeper and Shaw moaned again.

"Does that feel good, Sameen?" Root said breaking away from their kiss, her lips pressed to Shaw's ear as she whispered the words.

"Mm, fuck" was all Shaw managed as Root did it again with her fingers, perfectly timed, a second and a half apart. Just enough for Shaw to recover before it happened again. But in a split second when she wasn't moaning her brain started thinking about her conversation with Zoe. And just like that, she was distracted. Shaw suddenly grabbed Root's hand and pulled it from her pants.

Root looked at her with wide eyes, and concern.

"What?" she asked almost desperately.

"Just wait" Shaw said resting her forehead against Root's shoulder, still holding Root's wet fingers. She pressed her crotch against Root's knee and growled in annoyance feeling the arousal was still there even at the most gentle touch, but her mind was just...elsewhere. So maybe it wasn't just her that worried about losing feelings for someone, but it was a almost unbearable thought thinking one day this might just go away.

"Sam what is it?" Root asked sliding her free hand down the back of Shaw's head and neck, grabbing it gently and pulling her head back so they were looking at each other.

"I just," Shaw looked at her and could see the confusion and anxiety building behind her light brown eyes. "I need to talk to you."