***
Salvus
Shaw has pondered, many times, what they’re supposed to do after Samaritan is burned down, and the Machine can run, maintain, and upgrade Herself. The same old world would no longer need their small group. Then what?
Of course Lionel would still be a policeman. The police, that’s what a society would always need.
John would like to continue as Lionel’s partner, till the day he finally falls.
Finch would go to Italy, find Grace, and spend the rest of his life with a loved one under the splendid Apennine sunshine.
As to herself, she’s been thinking about going back to being a doctor. But she needs a nod from Root and the Machine on such a decision. After all, she’s the Machine’s most trusted asset now. John has tried that “up and go” thing once and failed spectacularly. She wouldn’t want an unnecessary drama like that.
Root ever so lightly knots her eyebrows when she asks: “Sweetie, you know I love it when you play doctor. But are you sure you are ready to fix people now instead of killing them?”
She is. Snatching Root from the grab of death and taking care of her since is the most difficult medical task in the world and she’s achieved just that, without losing her temper even once. She’s good at killing people but also can heal. She’s sure of that now.
She has to start anew all over again, with the internship. She’s meticulous and very hard-working. In three years she’s become the director of the emergency surgery department of her hospital. The Machine assures her that She’s had nothing to do with her extraordinary professional progress. She is not the one who told the superintendent that Dr Shaw is a dear friend of a mysterious Mr Finch, an important patron of the hospital far away in Italy. Root tries to convince her that she’s totally won that promotion on the merit of her professional prowess alone. Shaw chooses to believe her just one more time as she strokes the long scar on Root’s chest, a piece of stitch work left by her own hands.
*
It is Root who doesn’t go as Shaw has predicted. She’s always thought that Root would be the one most unable to adapt to a post-AI apocalypse, peaceful, no need for an analog-interface, boring as fuck world.
Actually, Root surprises all – well, in a totality of four – of them. Root, the woman who never seems to understand the meaning of the word “stop”, has come to a revelation after experiencing a death and a resurrection, in the year when Samantha Grove is 37 years of age. She calmly declares that she wants a retirement.
Shaw has a talk, a short but solemn one, with the Machine. About Root’s choice.
“Is there a possibility that she’s wrong?”
The Machine pauses for two seconds, which means she’s run out of calculating all the possibilities there could be.
“No. A normal life is her genuine wish.”
Shaw sighs in relief.
It is her genuine wish too. That one scare is enough for a lifetime.
*
But she should have known from the start that it is impossible for Root to just stop.
Work at the hospital is a demanding one. Most of her days have an early start and end very late, and she does not have much energy left to pay attention to what Root’s been up to. Neighbors in their building mostly love the nice, sweet lady that is Ms Groves, seeing her as just another middle-class housewife with a passionate love for and refined taste in gardening and ballet. That’s basically how Shaw perceives it too. Root spends much of her days taking very good care of the various plants on their large balcony, a dog (they’ve completely taken over the custody of Bear) and two cats (which are later additions to their household). She kills what’s left of her time, all dressed up and looking gorgeous, in museums, galleries, music halls and opera houses. The other women in the building would talk about the happily-married life of Samantha without trying to hide their envy. “Look at how Dr Shaw spoils her wife,” they would say. “Oh did you see that dress she wore the other day? So pretty.”
“I have to disagree,” someone interrupts. “I saw Samantha in leather jacket and pants once, riding on a big bike. Believe me, she’s much more attractive in that outfit. It. Literally. Kills.”
That evening Shaw has to sit Root down on the sofa to talk about it. “So you went out riding the motorcycle.”
Root pouts her lips in that childish manner, an indication that she knows very well she’s done something wrong but just refuses to admit.
“You promised me, Root. Not just me. All of us. Harold. John. Lionel. Even Bear.”
“What could possibly go wrong?” She grumbled.
“Do you know how bad your balancing is, with only one ear left?”
“She won’t let anything bad happen to me, you know that.”
“No, I don’t,” Shaw presses her hand firmly on Root’s. “And I won’t allow it.”
Root moves closer to her and rests her head on her shoulder. “Can I have my computer back?”
Shaw stares at the ceiling and concedes. Marriage is all about compromise, that’s what she’s been told by everyone.
*
They get married on Thanksgiving Day in the same year the war ends.
At that time Root is not out of the woods yet. During one of the very brief moments she’s lucid, Shaw proposes. Root types “I do” in Morse code on her bed sheet. Bear is the only living being present to witness the ritual.
When Christmas comes around the next year, they hold a small wedding ceremony. Finch and Grace, who come all the way from Italy to be there, have a difficult time adjusting to the gloomy coldness of a New York winter. But the wedding is warm enough. Root even has a dance with Finch, during the whole time of which she successfully maintains her balance, avoids stepping on his toes (that actually is something Shaw would like to see) or tripping over her own skirt. John informs her that that is the second time he’s seen Root dancing with Harold in a formal dress. Shaw is upset, angry at herself for missing out on the first one. John’s repeated assurance, that the white wedding dress is much more beautiful than the black gown Root has worn for the other occasion, does not do a very good job at soothing her anger.
A naked Root buried in bed sheets on the wedding night is what finally makes her forget all about it. People are correct when they say that there is this one time, no matter how many you’ve had before or how many you’re gonna have later. There is this one time that is the most special.
Well, that’s true.
*
On Halloween the following year, they move out of the safehouse and into an apartment building. They have a home they can call their own now.
In the fourth winter, Gen spends her holiday with them in their home. When it draws to a close, the three of them sit down around a table for The Discussion. Root pops the suggestion, Gen says she is not against it, and Shaw finally gives her consent.
Genrika Zhirova becomes Genrika Groves-Shaw.
*
Year five comes. Shaw is genuinely surprised when she finds Root helping Gen with her college application. Gen is eyeing Princeton. She wants a major in neuro-biological electronics.
“Have I become a bad partner?” She asks Root, with a self-mocking tone. “The one that ignores her wife and kid on the excuse that she’s too busy? How come Gen is such a big girl now?”
Root just smiles and keeps her silence.
“I’d have thought that she’s on her way to becoming a hacker, you know, spending so much time with you here.” Shaw states as if she’s talking to herself.
“Your influence is more significant. She will become a doctor.” Root tranquilly responds.
*
Gen is off to college in year six. She calls home to say that she plans to spend the holiday with her new boyfriend in California. News from Italy is that Finch is suffering from a bad cold and not able to travel. Zoe tempts John to join her on a small private luxury island somewhere in the middle of the Pacific. Lionel has just managed to put the ring back on his ex-wife, and both parents join Lee in a trip to Canada to see a hockey game.
For the first time in many years, Root and Shaw enjoy a holiday without any disturbance. It’s just the two of them, in their apartment in New York, with Bear and the two cats. The cats play with Bear while Root plays with Shaw. In bed.
Root is insatiable. She wants and wants and wants. There seems no end of it.
Shaw is fine to give. She just gives and gives and gives. She does her best.
Till neither of them has any energy left. Just before Shaw falls into deep sleep, she thinks she hears Root whispering something like a question. She succumbs to a dreamless slumber before her brain can register the words.
*
It is the seventh Christmas they’ve had together. Root sits with bear in front of the fireplace, in which digital sparks of a flame are dancing nicely. She is opening the gift box Harold and Grace have sent from Italy as she calmly puts forward the question.
“I’m not real, right? I am a simulation of the Machine.”
Shaw remembers last year. And the year before that. This is the question Root has been harboring for a long time now. She doesn’t know what prompts her to finally ask. Neither does she understand how she has been avoiding it all this time herself.
“What’s the telling ……”
“Bear. Bear has not changed at all. How old must he be now, in the real world? Like a hundred?”
Shaw tries to give Root a smile but finds herself unable to. “In human years, may 80.”
Root hugs Bear tighter in her arms. “Is he still alive?”
Shaw shakes her head.
“Why is he the only one that does not age? Everyone ages: Harold, John, Lionel; Gen and Lee have grown up. Why is the Bear the only one not affected?”
Shaw cups her face with both hands and makes an effort to look deep into her eyes when she explains. “Haven’t you noticed? Neither are we. We haven’t changed at all.”
“Why?” Root starts crying.
“Because your database is closed. At this exact moment the Machine can produce a virtual you that is 99.6% real. Beyond this point it goes down. She can no longer observe your thoughts and actions. She cannot predict you, your freewill, your future, with the same accuracy. I won’t have it, any increase in the possibility of false presentation. 0.4% is unsatisfactory enough.”
“So you chose to stay, to be stuck here with me?”
“When I come to this place, I’m exactly the same as I was. So is Bear. That’s my request.”
*
The next morning Shaw gets up and leaves Root, who is still curled up on her side of the bed in a teary conversation with the Machine. She goes to work; deals with her daily tasks just as usual; and then goes home. She finds Root in much better shape. Her eyes are still red and puffed. But the tears have stopped.
She’s even prepared a dinner. In here, Root can cook delicious steaks but this time she’s obviously not at her culinary best. Shaw eats everything up nonetheless.
Root only starts to talk after she’s downed the last piece of meat. “Are you a real doctor?” She stares at Shaw with fawn-like eyes.
“Yes. Dr Sameen Shaw, director of the emergency surgery department at St Mary’s, New York.”
“Are we married for real?”
“Yes. But you said yes back then when you were 37, in a dire situation that you might very well die in a second. I don’t know if you have come to regret that decision or not.”
“Who knows,” Root somehow seems amused. “Maybe I’d like to go back to find the answer to that question myself.”
The dinner is finished in peace. They wash the dishes and clean up the kitchen range before they step into the shower together. And then they move into bed. They make love.
“It is good in here, isn’t it?” She asks Root, who is sweet and soft like a bunch of cotton candy underneath her.
“Oh Sameen …… it is. Dear God …… It is … wonderful ……”
*
Life goes back to normal. Till the next year, when Gen is back in New York for Thanskgiving and tells Shaw about the experiment her professors are conducting.
“There is a real possibility now,” she says, “that we can bring Root back. I think she should know. I think you should go there and tell her so.”
Shaw lets her fingers slide through Root’s cheek and comb into her hair. It’s still thick and wavy but no matter how Shaw arranges the locks, she can no longer hide all the silver ones now.
“I think Root already knows, Gen.”
*
“I want to be brought back.” Root says with a smile when they are celebrating their ninth virtual Christmas. She is snuggled up to Bear in front of the digital flames of the fireplace, dismantling one by one the gift boxes lying at the foot of the Christmas tree.
Shaw destroys a box of chocolate that Gen has sent from Italy. “No,” she darts a ferocious stare at her wife. “It’s too dangerous. You are safer here.”
Root stretches her arm and grabs Shaw’s hand in hers. She then threads their fingers into a tight interlock. “I want a real life.”
Shaw snickers. “Real? Let me tell you what’s real. Finch is a shriveled, small, old man. His memory has gone so bad that you doubt sometimes if he is a case of senile dementia. John is almost as obese as Lionel. Lionel hasn’t lost a single ounce of fat but manages to let go all of his hair. No Bear. And I am ……”
“Getting old? That’s what I want, Shaw. I want to grow old with you.”
“You are getting old, Root, in that so-called ‘real’ world of ours. We have grown old together.”
“That’s your experience. Not mine. Please, Sameen, let me have the chance to age.”
Sameen Shaw has tears falling down her face for the first time in nine years. “No, Root. I’m not ready. To lose again, not even just a piece of lifeless wood. I’m not ready for that. You stay put. Right. Here.”
*
Year ten sees Root, Shaw and Gen spending the whole holiday scrutinizing over the newest reports Gen has brought back from her project.
Finch alone is back in New York for Christmas. Zoe brings her newest love interest, a handsome young man to that luxury island in the middle of the ocean, which is the final blow that makes John realize that his New Year plan should be all about working-out. Lionel, miraculously, screws up his marriage, again. Holidays are hard for single men. All three of them show up at Root and Shaw’s house, but they are wise enough to keep their respective opinions on this matter to themselves.
They bring gift boxes though, large ones, which Root leaves at the foot of the Christmas tree intact. She’s made up her mind that she wants to open them with her physical hands, when she is brought back to life.
Shaw frowns. “Do you know how pathetically low the chances of you being able to move your arms are?”
“How can I know if I do not give it a try?”
“So it’s just like that? No more thinking about it? It’s very likely that we will never be able to enjoy our favorite sport.”
Root’s beaming as the sparks in her eyes waltz with those of the fireplace. “There is always death, Sameen. We can come back to this place when we are dead.”
*
Another year passes before Root is finally able to pick up and tear open those boxes. Removing two years share of gift wrapping proves to be too much work for her still fragile body. “Menopause sucks,” she complains to Shaw. “I should have chosen to be 37 forever.”
Shaw rolls her eyes. “You are not there yet. But one has to be responsible for her own decision.”
Finch and Grace decide to move their home back to New York. There is something that even the Apennine sunshine cannot make up for. They call it a sense of “belonging”.
John and Lionel retire together that same year. To show their respect for these two distinguished senior officers, their younger colleagues give them a police puppy as a parting gift.
A two months old male Belgian Malinois. He is re-gifted by John and Lionel as a Christmas present to Root and Shaw.
He already has a majestic name: Tiger. But everyone just calls him Bear.
-FIN-