Sameen Shaw. Shark Wrangler.
“Shaw! We need to go!” Reese yelled again.
The bathroom door flung open, slamming into the wall, and Shaw stormed out, mostly dressed, clothes sticking to her body like wet glue and with wild wet, disheveled hair. Then Root stepped out completely soaked still in her yoga gear, looking very disheveled as well. Reese had a pretty surprised expression on his face; he raised his eyebrows to both of them. Shaw kept rushing past Reese while grabbing her hair and pulling it into a ponytail.
“NOT what you think,” barked Shaw to Reese. “And no peanut gallery comments from you. At all.” Shaw turned around and seethed at Root, who, in return, just smiled.
Root couldn’t believe that just moments before she held a naked Shaw in her arms. This mission was probably the best mission ever. She thought she would have to remind Shaw a few times that she saved her from cracking her head open, she saved her while she was naked. Naked was a big part of the story, and one Root planned to tell over and over to Shaw, with probably much assured annoyed vehemence from the petite firecracker. Not to mention that less than an hour ago, her and Shaw were so tightly wrapped around each other’s bodies in an intense yoga position, definitely best mission ever. Or at least the most fun mission ever. Root’s body felt like wild electric currents flooding her body when her mind kept flashing back to the yoga positions and especially the shower incident. She felt that her motherboard could be overloaded at any minute in the best possible way.
Before Root left the room, she grabbed a gun from one of her bags and put in the back of her yoga pants, which didn’t conceal anything. “Remind me not to wear yoga pants while working.”
Reese walked swiftly to catch up with Shaw with Root following. “Where are we going?” Shaw asked Reese while also having trouble concealing her weapon in her yoga outfit; she cursed herself for not going back to her room to get another change of clothes.
“Finch only gave me coordinates, that’s all.” Reese tapped his ear. “Fusco? Meet us out back near the beach.”
“Copy that,” said Fusco.
The team met up on the beach, looking around for Finch or for anyone that might be in distress.
Root tilted her head, “These are longitude and latitude coordinates. They are about a mile or two that way,” Root pointed to the ocean.
“We’re going to need a boat then,” Reese said while scanning the beach and his eyes falling upon a dock with several options. All four teammates headed toward the resort rental dock.
The resort had about every water vehicle to rent for fun from jet skis, to motorboats, to water skiing, parasailing, and even water jet packs.
“Looks like we got several options,” Shaw said while looking up and down and getting a wicked grin on her face.
“I’ll take the boat,” Reese locked in on a fast speed boat.
“I’ll take a jet ski,” Root eyed the jet ski while glancing over at Shaw, wondering if she would want to ride with her.
“Boring choice,” Shaw snorted without looking at Root. She was livid that Root not only invaded her shower but dared to enter her shower, what a perv. Not to mention, the tall nerd was probably going to hold it over her that she somehow saved her, which was untrue. And that they’re closer now because they shared some kind of dorky domestic thing as fluid evacuation; thank goodness not bowel evacuation.
“Got anything better?” asked Root while slightly leering at Shaw, who did, by the way, still have the skimpy yoga outfit and now was mostly wet from it, putting it on drenched and in a hurry.
“Reese you drive, I’m going to get a higher vantage point,” Shaw turned to Reese to nod to him, and he nodded back to her. She then moved towards the rental counter.
A guy at the rental counter approached the four intense-looking people, “Who’s ready for some adventure?” Reese, Shaw, Fusco, and Root just stared blankly at him. The guy thought to himself, a tough crowd. “Can I interest anyone in a ride on the water jet pack? It will be the most thrilling ride of your life.”
Shaw whispered to Reese, “More than parachuting out of a nose-diving plane into combat fire,” Reese returned a smile and nod to the former Marine.
The rental equipment guy went on his sales pitch despite the uninterested crowd. “This one is the hydro-powered jetovator; you can be flying over the ocean like a bird or Superman.” The rental equipment guy looked between the four people, two of whom were giving him pretty intense scowls, one giving him a somewhat pleasant smile and the last one looking confused.
Fusco’s face lit up like a kid on Christmas morning while staring at the water jet pack. “Now that sounds like a blast.”
“Have fun with that, Fusco,” Shaw snorted. She had seen the water jet packs a few times in action, and they were crazy hard to control. Fusco was about to be in for a wild ride and probably a few hard face plants in the water.
Within minutes the rental equipment guy had all four of the team decked out on extracurricular water vehicles, and all four of them were speeding off, well except for Fusco, who was flailing around with the water jet pack. Fusco looked like a fish flopping around; he was spurting off in several different directions. The detective was controlling his screams for his own pride’s sake, as he shot up in the sky and then repeatedly slammed back down into the ocean.
The boat and the jet ski were speeding off in the same direction. Reese driving the boat and every so often looking up and behind him to check on Shaw parasailing, she was attached to the boat like a long floating umbilical cord and gliding high and above. Shaw was about 500 feet, no more than 800 feet high above the speeding boat. The high vantage view did give her a better way to find out the threat; Shaw scanned over the ocean to find whatever Harold had sent them out to find and save. She was positive her ‘flying’ experience was going better than Fusco’s water adventure. Shaw hoped somehow The Machine was getting footage of Fusco being a water crash dummy for the water jet pack.
Shaw then spotted what she thought they were looking for out here in the ocean; there was a tiny rowboat that looked lost and adrift in the sea with a man and woman in the boat. She also noticed two sharks circling the small rowboat.
“Hey Reese, I think I see the threat. Two sharks are circling that rowboat up ahead. And it looks like the engine is dead. They don’t look to have any oars.” Shaw hated to admit, but this parasailing was kind of fun. And it was also kind of amusing to see Reese and Root below her.
“Copy that Shaw headed their way.” Reese sped up the boat.
“I think I get there faster,” said Shaw as she pulled out one of her knives and cut the line tethering the parachute to the boat. She glided for a few seconds and aimed for the boat the best she could. When she felt like she was close enough, she then cut the parachute cord, dropping dozens of feet into the ocean—landing right in the middle of the circling sharks, scaring them off momentarily. The man and the woman in the boat looked utterly shocked.
“Shaw! What are you doing?” yelled out Root, speeding that way in the jet ski.
“Gonna have to agree with Root on this one Shaw,” Reese said concerned for the safety of his teammate as he slowed down the boat to reach Shaw and the stranded little boat.
Root stood up on the jet ski while still driving and brought up a gun to aim at one of the sharks as she got closer; this action also scared the couple as they crouched in the boat covering their heads.
Shaw saw this action and yelled at Root, “Root! If you shoot the shark, I’ll never speak to you again,” Shaw hoped that Root could hear her.
Root was shocked when Shaw yelled at her. What? She knew Shaw loved animals, but this might be taking it too far. However, she knew this was a way more severe threat than ending her or throttling her or shooting her; Shaw meant business on this one.
“Shaw! Two sharks are circling you,” Root yelled back, in hopes of reasoning with Shaw.
“Sharks are endangered. And they’re cool. Don’t you dare shoot!” A shark approached Shaw fast as she trod water.
“Uh, Shaw. You might be endangered soon.” Yelled out an exasperated Root, by this point, she was almost upon the boat and Shaw.
Shaw rolled her eyes, even though a massive shark was headed towards her. Root was breathing heavy, hoping she was going to get there in time to pull Shaw out of the water, since it appeared the couple was too shell shocked to do anything. Just as the shark came right upon Shaw, the little firecracker gave it a massive head butt. When the other shark swam Shaw’s way, she punched it right in the shark’s big nose. Suddenly, the jet ski zoomed up way to close to Shaw’s head for comfort.
“Are you trying to take my head off?!” yelled Shaw out of frustration, at this point, she was going to lose a limb because of Root and not a shark.
Shaw grabbed onto Root’s outstretched arm and pulled her up on the water ski. And Root sped off, leaving the circling sharks in the distance. Then double backing to make sure Reese was there to help the couple.
“Did you just punch a shark?” Root yelled over the jet ski engine.
“It was just a tap.”
Root shook her head. “Sameen Shaw. Shark wrangler.”
Reese came over through the communication link, “I’ve got the couple, and I’ll tow the rowboat back. See you two onshore.” Reese as always super-efficient and the most eloquently and brevity of speech.
Shaw rolled her eyes, while also sizing up the jet ski and itching to drive. “I wanna drive now.”
“Let me stop,” Root loosened her grips on the accelerator of the jet ski.
“No, keep up the speed, just move,” Shaw motioned to Root.
Shaw grabbed onto Root’s shoulders firmly so she could lean up and slide a leg over Root’s shoulder to sit in her lap. Her aim wasn’t to put her ass directly or quite literally shove it in Root’s face, but the jet ski hit more turbulence than she predicted, and Shaw’s bottom slammed into Root’s face as she was sliding down into her lap. Shaw intended to move in front of Root so she could drive. However, this was also turning out to be a nice little bit of payback for yoga and the shower incident. Because even though Shaw couldn’t see it, she almost felt that Root was physically getting hotter.
“This isn’t the time Shaw. Although, once again, I appreciate your initiative,” Root had to stifle a giggle. And if her hands weren’t needed to drive and accelerate the jet ski, they would be on Shaw’s ass right now holding her in place and not letting go.
“The water is damn choppy. Move back, I don’t want to sit on your lap,” Shaw tried to shove Root with her bottom, but all that did was just press both of them together more forcibly much to the tall brunette’s delight.
And Root let out a loud gasp, it was like an arousal boost injection straight into Shaw’s bloodstream, not that she needed any more boosters.
“You are sitting on my lap Sameen,” Root continued to keep control of the jet ski, barely. She found it increasingly difficult to concentrate on anything but Shaw and how her body wanted with every molecule and cell to press, push and grind further into the shark wrangler as much as humanly possible.
“Root, scoot back,” said Shaw more fiercely with a head tilt. The head tilt always seemed to convey that Shaw meant a more serious tone.
“I do love your sass,” Root finally scooted back, although only about an inch or two. Root was pretty much pressed up against Shaw, much to the shorter woman’s irritation yet also her somewhat suppressed arousal, which she was battling with as it was rising higher and higher in levels with the prolonged contact with her teammate.
“Either scoot back, or I’m knocking you off, and you become shark chum,” Shaw’s command this time got Root to scoot back maybe one more inch at most.
Shaw tried to grab the handle controls from Root, but as she tried to put her hands on the accelerator, the tall brunette wouldn’t let go. So much to Shaw’s annoyance, her hands were on top of Root’s hands. “Move your hands, Root.” So then Root moved her hands to Shaw’s hips, where she held on tightly. “Not there.”
“There’s nothing else to hold onto Sameen,” Root shouted back over the jet ski engine. Her statement was mostly true, so Root wasn’t about to let go of Shaw’s waist until they were closer to shore. Although, as they got closer to the beach, Root continued to lower her hands until they were almost resting on each side of Shaw’s ass.
As they got closer, they could see quite the spectacle near the shore with Fusco shooting in almost every direction on the water jet pack. His unintentional waterbactics show had garnered a small crowd on the beach. Hopefully, for Fusco’s sake, the battery on the pack was going to wear out soon or short circuit. Shaw headed to the beach a little too fast, hoping to try a stunt before they hit the shore. She revved up the jet ski engine as they came dangerously close to the dock, which caused the jet ski to push vertical. Shaw jumped off onto the deck, and Root plummeted into the water. And thankfully, the jet ski slammed onto the deck, avoiding hitting anyone. Shaw looked pretty pleased with herself as she walked off the deck over to the beach.
About the same time, the rental equipment guy yelled to cut the engine for the water jet pack, so Fusco also plummeted back into the water from a few feet up in the sky. Root swam over and slowly walked out of the water onto the beach. The yoga outfit glued to her body and not leaving much to anyone’s imagination, especially Shaw, who stopped to gawk at her teammate for a little too long. When Root flipped her hair trying to shake the water out, Shaw reprimanded her brain for putting this action into some kind of slow-motion erotic sequence like out of a teen’s hot fantasy with an erect nipples close up for a money shot. She hated to admit she was riveted watching the tall, beautiful brunette exit the water dripping wet while fussing with her long hair. And when Root turned her eyes to Shaw, it was almost like taking a sex bullet straight to her groin area. Root smiled her high wattage smile directly at Shaw, the one she saved for special occasions. Shaw had noticed, and it made her stomach feel tight and other muscles clench. Then Shaw remembered she hadn’t gotten to eat anything yet, so it was probably just her stomach growling, she wanted to delude herself for as long as she possibly could.
Root didn’t care for being thrown off the jet ski, although she admitted walking out of the water with the look Shaw was giving her might have been worth it. The petite firecracker was standing on the beach unsuccessfully, not staring at Root, which made the tall brunette’s stomach feel airy and warm. She heard splashing behind her and saw Fusco stumbling towards her.
“Geesh, there are two Coco Puffs now,” the detective looked pretty wobbly, so Root reached over and took his arm. Shaw watched her two teammates struggling before shaking her head and walking over to them and taking Fusco’s other arm.
“I’m glad your wife is here,” smiled Root at Shaw.
Fusco was leaning heavily on Shaw for support and breathing heavy, he then tried to shake the water out of his ears; like a dog shaking water off after a tortuous bath. Shaw leaned as far away from him as possible while he did this, so did Root.
Reese caught up with them after having docked the boat; he looked a little concerned for Fusco.
“Where is the couple?” asked Shaw.
“They left as soon as we hit the shore,” Reese said, “I checked with Finch, they were just two locals who got stranded.” Reese patted Fusco’s back. “They did say thanks to the insane woman who dropped from the sky to scare off the sharks.” Reese couldn’t help but throw Shaw a smirk.
Suddenly, Joan appeared almost out of nowhere. “There the four of you are. I’ve been looking everywhere. The next group session starts in thirty minutes. See you there,” as Joan was leaving, she squeezed Root’s arm then and Reese’s arm.
“She’s not subtle is she,” said Shaw as she winked to Fusco, who smiled back to his fake wifey.
*****
Shaw decided she would rather smell like the ocean and get something to eat than to try and shower again before the group session. Thankfully, Root did go and change out of her skimpy yoga clothes and was now wearing khaki shorts with a flowery summer vacation style top of shirt, so it was less distracting Shaw thought. Fusco was back in a tracksuit, and Reese chose food over changing too like Shaw.
All five couples were seated this time at long tables. Joan walked into the room, her arms full of supplies, most notably huge white poster boards.
Then Dr. Tinswell breezed in and went around the room, touching everyone’s shoulder.
“We had physical visualizations this morning with yoga; now we are going to have mental visualizations. We are going to dig deep into our dreams and make them come alive,” said Dr. Tinswell as she took a very deep breath and closed her eyes. “We are going to make vision boards to guide us through life and our dreams. To make our dreams become our life.”
It was a quick draw on who tapped their ear their fastest, Reese or Shaw.
“Finch? Finch? Are you there?” They both turned and looked at each other. Reese took the lead much to Shaw’s grimace, “Finch? What’s your ETA? I can be there in 2 minutes.”
“I wasn’t aware that I called you Mr. Reese,” Finch’s voice was a flood of relief to all four teammates even though he wasn’t calling them into action. “There is no new information. I’m still pouring through the security cam footage and scrolling through data. Please, stay in your covers. And watch over The Roths.”
Finch’s voice was gone. And before they knew it, Joan was handing everyone a whiteboard and setting up an arrangement of markers, ribbons, glue bottles, glitter, paintbrushes, stacks of photos, seashells, and many other arts and craft items to the team’s horror.
Root thought to herself, she could usually find the silver lining in something, especially if she was near Shaw doing something, but this might be too much. She looked over to Reese beside her, and he looked truly miserable. Shaw turned around briefly to glare at Root as if this was the hacker’s fault. Fusco was the only one that didn’t seem that bothered by the task. Well, the older couple seemed intrigued, and the younger couple was showing off their virtual vision boards from Pinterest.
“So let your imagination and your dreams come alive. Let your heart lead. Let your heart see the visions,” said Dr. Tinswell as she motioned for everyone to start working.
Dr. Tinswell and Joan walked through the room and watched over everyone as they worked on their vision boards for the next hour. The two women offered help or answered questions and sometimes exchanged strange looks with each other every time one of them passed by Root’s vision board.
“Okay, now we are going to share our vision boards with our partner,” said Dr. Tinswell. “They are the ones that will nurture, support, and live our dreams with us,” said the doctor with a warm smile on her face.
Reese turned to Root, who angled her vision board for him to see, it was mostly abstract art if he had to pick something to say. There were outlines of people and even a dog against a black background; inside the outlines instead of features, there were letters and numbers; Reese guessed code. The art or vision of someone that loved and breathed computers, and he had to admit it was interesting looking. He feared it might be a Shaw shrine of some sort.
“You want to make robots?” guessed Reese to Root. “Or people would be better off being robots.”
“Excellent, John,” Reese got the high wattage smile from Root, “I thought it would be great if we could recode or reprogram some people. However, making robots works too.”
Shaw turned around to look at Root’s board. And to see the smile that’s usually reserved for her and felt a twinge of anger.
“Looks to abstract to me,” Shaw shrugged, “Is that a child?” There were at least five outlines in the vision board that were prominent upfront along with the dog.
“No, that’s you,” smiled Root to Shaw.
“Why am I so much smaller than everybody? I look like a kid,” Shaw huffed.
“You are pretty petite,” Root said even though she knew she would get a full shot of anger directed towards her. Shaw rolled her eyes and went back to concentrating on her board.
Dr. Tinswell came back to their side of the room and looked at Fusco’s vision board, “Lionel, that’s a very nice vision board.”
Fusco’s used a lot of the arts and crafts accessories; he threw in some photos, some ribbons, and even seashells. He had a picture of a nice home, sports car, vacation spots, and then a huge photo of Karoline Kurkova.
“Who is this Lionel?” asked Dr. Tinswell as she pointed to the Karolina Kurkova photo.
“Oh, no, she’s not my dream woman if that’s what you’re thinking. That’s my Sammy all the way,” Fusco leaned over and kissed Shaw on the cheek.
Shaw was completely unprepared, or she would have moved away, she did manage to keep a tight smile on her face for show while inwardly she wanted to wipe her cheek.
“I just didn’t have a photo of Sammy to put on the board, so that’s just a place holder.” Fusco smiled at the doctor and his fake wife. “Let’s see your board pumpkin.”
Shaw then showed her board to Fusco, while Root leaned over her table to get a good look. The vision board was divided into several sections; each section had a drawing that represented something. No photos were used, these were all drawn by hand or painted by brush, and they were all beautifully done. One box had a drawing of a steak dinner with a glass of whiskey; one box had a drawing that was clearly Bear, a very well done likeness. One box had a drawing of a gun going off that was very artistically done with gunpowder spraying everywhere. One drawing was of a medal being held by a young girl. One drawing was of a sports car racing down a street. And the last box was a drawing of an iron and an apple.
There was silence at first, while Fusco studied the board and a kind of awe. In fact, everyone seemed a bit speechless by the quality of the artwork done by Shaw and in such a short amount of time.
“Sammy, this is exquisite. You are a true artist,” Dr. Tinswell beamed at Shaw, which caused the former Marine to almost blush.
Root was surprisingly quiet. Shaw did sneak a glance at her and saw nothing but a warm, genuine smile from the hacker; it caused her stomach to tighten. However, lunch was way past due, so that could have been it too.
“I agree, Sammy. This is really beautiful. Let’s take it home and hang it up,” Fusco almost sounded completely believable. Shaw didn’t know if she wanted to strangle Fusco or give him a quick hug.
Reese watched Shaw and saw she was a little out of her comfort zone, so he propped up to show off his vision board. His vision board was done pretty much like Fusco’s; both of their boards were done as if anticipating a teacher’s expectations. Much like Fusco’s board, Reese had a similar kind of ‘normal’ theme going on with generic photos of family, friends, home, vacations, and kids. All very neatly done but nothing personal on it, except the dog did look a lot like Bear.
“Excellent work, everyone,” said Dr. Tinswell after she had seen all the vision boards. “Now we break off into our journaling time and our private sessions. And then tonight there will be a luau on the beach.”
The four teammates filed out of the room, leaving behind their vision boards except for Fusco grabbing Shaw’s.
And when Shaw saw Root was leaving hers behind, she remarked, “You’re not taking your board?”
“Did you like it?” Root asked while giving a small smile to Shaw.
“It’s kind of freaky. It could probably scare off kids if hung in the right place,” Shaw said while staying nonchalant as she exited the room.
The teammates parted ways to get changed finally and grab some lunch. Root and Reese had just closed their door when there was a knock. Root opened the door to see Fusco holding Shaw’s vision board.
“Thought you might want this Vincent Van Cuckoo,” Fusco handed over the board and patted Root’s arm. “What’s with the iron and apple? That box is weird,” said Fusco as he walked away.
“Thank you, Lionel,” Root smiled at him. She closed the door and headed into her room while gazing at the board, specifically the box drawing of the iron and the apple. She thought to herself; there were some hidden depths to one Sameen Shaw when she wasn’t punching sharks.