All Hands On Deck

Shaw looked at Root; she saw the blood on her shirt, and her chest tightened in an uncomfortable way. And she felt super angry all of a sudden, she felt like a volcano of anger was erupting inside her chest.

“Here, just sit down. I’ll be right back,” Shaw gruffly said as she motioned for Root to sit in the sand under a tree. She then grabbed the reins of the horse and tied it up to a nearby tree. “Why must you always get shot? You’re the biggest klutz.”

“I had to move two inches to the left so…” Root realized her big mistake, her slip. Shaw might get angrier if she finished her sentence that she started without thinking, she blamed the actions inside the lava tube for causing fuzzy thoughts to spill out of her mouth instead of staying thoughts. She was so desperate for her favorite primary asset not to get hurt that when The Machine said in her ear that her movement would prevent Shaw’s more serious injury, she didn’t even hesitate before moving.

“What?” Shaw practically foamed at the mouth; she waited for Root to answer. “Why did you have to move two inches to the left…Root?” Anger was blaring off Shaw’s face and body.

The hacker weighed her options on which would less anger or scare off the petite firecracker. “Or the horse would get shot.”

“The horse?”

“You’ve got a thing for dogs and apparently now sharks, I like horses,” Root hoped she sold this lie.

“Wait here,” Shaw growled as she stomped off towards the lava tube.

Root sat on the warm sand; the wind blew in her hair. She meant to mention to Shaw before she walked off that the shot was just a graze on her shoulder, and possibly not even something that needed stitches. However, she was overtaken by the look on Shaw’s face. What just happened between them in the lava tube knocked her out more than the bullet graze. Root felt completely unsteady after finally getting a home run with her favorite petite primary asset, albeit a short one. She knew this was a temporary agreement, and that made her chest ache way more than her shoulder right now. Being with Shaw like that was something she would always crave like water and air.

Shaw came back with her both of their bikini tops in her hand. “Black or red?”

“Black, of course,” Root smiled at Shaw as she sat down next to her and lifted up the shirt’s sleeve to get a better look at the wound.

Shaw wrapped around the black bikini top to cover up the mild wound, making sure it had enough pressure. She looked at Root’s wound and was relieved it was a very shallow graze. Why didn’t she look before she ran off to the lava tube? Because anything involving Root made her brain sluggish, especially at this moment. Her chest felt less constructed now after seeing how minor the wound appeared on Root’s shoulder. The lessening feeling in her chest was a minor relief from all the other things going on in her body. From the adrenaline rush of shooting down the drones to the sex, her body was in a whirlwind.

Shaw’s hand betrayed her and ran up and down one of Root’s thigh, slowly in a comforting way. Root looked up and locked eyes with Shaw. The petite primary asset thought if this were any other time, she would just sit here and rant and lecture the hacker, right now she didn’t have to talk; she had a free pass to do something else. She then leaned over and kissed Root slowly and tenderly. The kiss took the hacker by surprise because she thought her favorite primary asset was going to lecture her on getting shot once again. She did not expect kissing, and certainly not kissing like they were making out to a Sade album without a care in the world. Root pulled Shaw down on top of her and tangled her hands up in the petite primary asset’s wild dark hair.

Suddenly, Root said in between kisses, “Harry?” Shaw pulled away from the hacker. Root tried to hold onto her, but the petite primary asset’s strength was no match for the hacker.

Shaw couldn’t believe she let the kiss go on for so long, and all she wanted was for the kissing to continue. And all she wanted in the world right now was damn freakin privacy with the hacker for more than 27 measly minutes. Shaw sat beside Root on the sand, pissed at herself for kissing the hacker instead of lecturing her. She was still so angry with Root for getting shot. Root looked at her with those eyes, all she could think about was kissing her, being inside her again. She shook her head as if hoping the shaking would discard the thoughts.

Root looked at Shaw and made a silent mouthing of ‘Harry’ while listening, “No, nothing’s wrong…I was out of breath from...drones shooting at us, then chasing us along the scenic beach on a horse.” The petite primary asset rolled her eyes at the idiotic description. “Shaw managed to shoot them all down. Got it, we will snag one. On my way,” Root’s face signaled the call had ended, and now she directed her eyes at Shaw, which immediately softened and became somewhat glossy at the petite primary asset. “The boys are on their way to pick you and a drone up, let’s take the mean one.”

The hacker pointed to the one that had shot at them. Root stood and made her way over to the horse; she untied it from the tree. And in one graceful swoop without a moment’s hesitation or her slight wound injury, she was on top of the horse.

“Wait, Root. Where are you going?”

“She’s telling me that I’m needed back at the resort for something she can’t hack remotely for some reason.” Root looked down at Shaw with a weak smile, “The boys will be here in four minutes…see you later?”

Shaw shook her head at the hacker; she felt her anger raging up. “Fine. Whatever,” she then stomped off to the drone to pull it under some trees for better hiding until the guys showed up.

Root felt a little awkward; Shaw seemed angrier than usual, however a different kind of angry than her usual flavor of anger. The hacker had no idea why Shaw had kissed her a few minutes ago; she hoped it wasn’t their last kiss. It wasn’t a kiss goodbye, was it?

*****

When Shaw got to the hatch, she found Root and Harold hunched over two laptops so immersed they didn’t hear her approach. Bear napped in his bed off in the corner, however, once he saw the petite primary asset walk in, he jumped up and trotted over to her. She smirked, Bear was indeed in need of a bath, probably the first time the dog had been really dirty; good job boy, she thought to herself.

Finch looked up, “Ms. Shaw, where…” before he could finish, Fusco and Reese entered the main room, struggling to carry the heavy, bulky drone.

“A little help here, Maybelline?” Fusco grunted while trudging slowly to the table with the large metal machinery.

“Hey, I shot it down, at least you can do is carry it,” Shaw snapped back with a little more fierce she intended. Her ride back to the hatch had given her some to think, and she had only gotten more pissed at the hacker.

Finch walked over to inspect the drone while Fusco and Reese also picked at the computer-flying gadget.

Shaw walked over to where Root was sitting and even though she still felt an intense rage at the hacker, she had to force herself not to reach out for her, she didn’t know if she was going to smack her or French kiss her. She comprised for standing behind her and leaning over her shoulder to see what the hacker was working on. As soon as she leaned over, she knew she had an effect on Root, who stilled and leaned back slightly, searching for any kind of contact.

“What are you working on?” Shaw purposefully leaned in further and said it with a low hum inches away from Root’s neck; she could feel the hacker shudder.

Root shifted in her chair, tried to compose herself, “Well, the first thing I did was destroy some footage the drones captured with their surprise infrared cameras.” The hacker turned her head a little and licked her lips; she couldn’t concentrate anymore with Shaw this close.

“Uh, what kind of footage?” Shaw lowered her voice.

“Two people engaging amorously in a lava tube,” Shaw knew that was going to be the answer, she slightly cringed only thinking that Finch saw it. “Harry didn’t see it…only Joan did,” Root joked at Shaw. “I stopped by the resort and handled it before the footage was fully uploaded to their servers. It turns out those drones were taking aerial shots of the resort for one of their social media features. However, one of them was hacked.”

Their faces were very close together, and although Root could feel Shaw’s anger coming off her body, she felt the petite firecracker was about to kiss her again if the boys weren’t there. Shaw had that same look of confusion and boiling anger from the beach. They were broken from their haze with Reese walking over to them. Shaw saw the tiny smile tug at his lips, that Reese’s knowing smile, as she stood up and distanced herself from Root.

“And someone added the bonus feature of firing power, but why?” Reese said while patting Bear on the head as the dog came up and nudged his hand.

The rest of the team joined them; Shaw noticed how close she still was to Root and backed up a little more. Why couldn’t she just stay away from the annoying hacker?

“So one of the drones was hacked, but for what purpose?” asked Finch, looking back and forth between his teammates.

“I’m going to take a shower.” The petite primary asset started to walk away towards one of the many bathrooms.

Shaw couldn’t focus on anything right now except having Root literally under her skin again like they were very shortly before in the lava tube. She needed a cold shower stat.

“Good idea Ms. Shaw, the four of you will need to be back at the resort for this evening’s luau in less than an hour,” Finch said while sitting back down in front of a laptop while his four teammates looked at him with angry, scrunched up faces.

“Another luau? Are you kidding me?” Shaw exclaimed so loudly, “Seriously, Finch.”

“I agree, Finch, these sessions seem counterproductive now,” Reese crossed his arms against his chest. “Where’s Zoe?”

“Not if the Roths are involved,” Finch said with a piercing stare to his Mayhem Twins. “Ms. Shaw there will be a full course meal. I believe they are roasting an entire pig. And Ms. Morgan is out on a field trip researching different companies on the island that could have been responsible for the drones.”

Shaw went off to the shower with a loud huff. The rest of the team began taking the drone apart piece by piece. Not long after Shaw departed for the shower, they all heard muffled yells coming from the bathroom.

“What is she yelling?” asked Fusco. No one seemed concerned; they sounded like angry yells and not distress yells.

“Sounds like shampoo,” Root said while trying to continue to focus on her task while not thinking about her favorite petite primary asset naked yelling for shampoo. She would much rather be shampooing Shaw’s hair and her whole body than picking at code from a drone. “She probably just needs someone to take her shampoo.”

“Not it,” said Fusco and Reese at the same time.

“She’s your wife,” Root smirked at him as she continued to type.

“Fake wife, thankfully, can you imagine being married to that full time?” Fusco said, then glanced at Root, who had a daydream smile dance across her face.

“Well, somebody better take her some if she comes all the way out here, which she probably will …she’s going to be really…” before Reese could finish, Root spoke while continuing to type on the laptop.

“Wet…” All three men stared at Root, who continued to type on the laptop, pretending to be unaware of their stares. “Uh…I meant super angry.” Then they heard Shaw yelling something with a combination of shampoo, shooting, and knees. Root sighed and stood up. “Harry, where are all the toiletries located?”

“That must have been the only bathroom not fully stocked, hall closet to the right,” Finch said with a grateful tone.

Root found some shampoo and entered the bathroom Shaw was showering in; there was steam billowing out. The hacker sauntered in, and before she opened the shower door, “Don’t spray me in the face this time. I come bearing the gift of shampoo.”

“Conditioner too?” barked Shaw.

“Of course,” Root opened the door and immediately began drooling while lustily staring at her favorite primary asset completely naked with water cascading down everywhere. The hacker took a moment to stare hard unabashedly at her favorite petite primary asset. “None of the boys wanted to do this special delivery. Their loss, my immense gain.”

Shaw grabbed Root’s shirt and pulled her in the shower. They both stood there for a minute, staring at each other, the water spraying behind them. Shaw looked down at Root’s lips. However, a very welcomed lip onslaught didn’t happen, much to the hacker’s disappointment. Shaw held tightly onto the hacker’s shirt while intensely staring in her eyes.

“Don’t you ever take a bullet for me again. Understand?” Shaw tugged harder on Root’s shirt. “I will shoot you myself.”

“I’ll take any shot I can get with you,” Root remarked back without thinking of the consequences to her words or actions.

Shaw tightened her hold, pushing it up closer to Root’s throat, in her meanest growl yet, “I will end you in the bad way if you do.” Shaw dug her nails into Root’s throat, “Understand?”

Root nodded, even though she hoped her eyes didn’t betray her. She could never let anything or anyone harm Shaw. The petite firecracker stared at her with wild, confused eyes. Root slowly ran her hand up her Shaw’s arm and caressed it.

“Get out unless you’ve got more than 27 minutes and you’ve cleared out the peanut gang from the hatch,” snarled Shaw, it was taking all her willpower not to start undressing the hacker.

“See you after the luau?” asked Root as she exited the shower stall but held the door open, still gawking at Shaw.

“You better,” Shaw yanked the shower stall door shut.

Root existed the bathroom, closed the door, and leaned on it for second on the other side. So Sameen was furious for her diverting a bullet, yet she did say she would meet up later, so that was encouraging. Although it could be a payback of some sort, either way, she got to spend more time with her favorite primary asset, alone. When she came back and took her chair and started typing on the laptop again, her male teammates couldn’t help notice her hair was slightly wet, and her clothes were almost soaked. They all turned and made confused faces at each other.

“So the delivery went well?” Fusco almost chuckled at the disheveled state of his female teammate.

“No, Lionel, she doesn’t like that brand of shampoo. She sprayed me with a hose,” Root didn’t look up at them, and held tight to a serious poker face; she did love messing with the guys.

“Glasses, there’s a hose in your bathroom?” Fusco looked like he believed his nutty teammate.

*****

All the couples were instructed to wear the clothes delivered to their rooms, a somewhat traditional Hawaiian attire for the evening. The men were to wear something resembling a grass skirt while the women were given strapless sundresses. Fusco and Reese were not happy. In fact, they were extremely grumpy; they had to wear grass skirts. Both men wore long shorts underneath the grass skirts. And neither men were happy about not wearing a shirt, for different reasons.

Fusco arranged his grass skirt when Shaw came out of the bathroom in her strapless sundress. Her recently shampooed, luxurious hair flowing past her shoulders and slightly darker skin from a tan. Fusco admitted his fake wife was a real breathtaking beauty. He smirked to himself; he couldn’t wait to see Coco Puffs’ reaction. He still didn’t know if his fake wife was into reciprocating any of the innuendos Looney Tunes was putting out, even after the whole jellyfish thing. However, he did think he spotted something on his fake wife’s neck that wasn’t there earlier. So maybe instead of just giving out hickeys in her crazy jellyfish stage, maybe his fake wife now was receiving them from Nutella. Or maybe it was a bullet graze from the drones, hard to tell.

Shaw took one look at Fusco in his grass skirt and shirtless belly and started cackling. “Whoa, Lionel Fusco in a grass skirt, never thought I would live to see the day,” Shaw snorted while looking up and down at her fake husband.

“And you won’t if you mention this to anyone back at my precinct, Shorty,” Fusco huffed while repositioning his skirt. “How do you women wear these all the time?”

“I don’t,” Shaw walked over and helped Fusco position the skirt properly.

“You know Fusco, you’re kind of pulling this off.” Shaw still cackled some more. “Oh man, I can’t wait to see Reese.”

“He better be wearing it, or I’ll kneecap Mr. Kneecap,” Fusco said, putting his arms across his chest. “Why can’t I wear a shirt? What if I get cold?”

“C’mon on Papa Bear, let’s take a shirt for you just in case,” Shaw grabbed a shirt and motioned for Fusco to head to the door when the detective passed by his fake wife she slapped his bare belly. “The sooner we get this over, the sooner we can go to sleep.”

Shaw meant the sooner she could get Root alone naked and spank her ass for taking a bullet for her.

*****

Shaw and Fusco walked out onto the beach where the luau was, and all the couples were milling around, as they arrived, the conch shell was heard several more times. They didn’t know how Reese and Root always managed to beat them. Over by the bar stood the tall couple looking poised in their forced outfits. Reese looked extremely uncomfortable shirtless, and in a grass skirt, Root appeared stunning as usual in her strapless sundress; her hair appearing more curly, probably due to the humidity. As soon as the hacker saw the petite primary asset, her face lit up like a Christmas tree. Shaw thought to herself, damnit Root, did the hacker have to have that same reaction every time she saw her? It had only been 45 minutes since they last saw each other, and here was the hacker drinking her in with her eyes like she hadn’t seen her in years and dying of thirst. Granted, Shaw didn’t want to admit she was parched herself and needed a Root drink. The petite primary asset shifted, almost losing her balance and grabbed onto Fusco. The detective smiled to himself, Coco Puffs cleans up well too, he thought, and clearly, it affects his fake wife.

Root walked over to their teammates, while Reese waited for his drink at the bar. When Root got closer, Fusco couldn’t help but notice that his two female teammates seem to be sporting matching bite marks on their necks. It was easy to see since they were both wearing the strapless Hawaiian style dresses. Seeing Cocoa Puff’s neck, he was going with bite mark and not bullet graze on his fake wife’s neck.

“Did the two of you getting matching neck tattoos?” Fusco looked back and forth between his two female teammates, and the bite marks did appear on very similar locations on their necks, “Or something attack you both at the same time, in the same spot?”

“Did you not hear me earlier, we were attacked by drones,” Shaw growled at him so as not to be heard by the other couples, the doctor and especially Joan.

Thankfully, at that moment, a server came around offering lei to put around everyone’s neck, and the petite primary asset jumped at the chance. Shaw positioned the lei to cover up Root’s bite mark on her neck. She glared at the hacker until she did the same thing with the lei around her own neck.

Fusco still amused, teased on. “So drones grazed you both in the exact same spot on each other’s corresponding necks? Are you sure they shot at you, or did they suck on your necks?” Fusco couldn’t help an evil smile across his face; he did love egging on his petite, fake wife about her not so secretive thing now it seemed with their fellow female teammate.

“Drones are precise asshole,” Shaw walked over to the bar to join Reese. Fusco and Root smiled at each other.

“They are Lionel. You saw this, right?” Root showed Fusco her graze on her shoulder. If Shaw wanted to keep playing the platonic co-workers charade, she would help if it meant she could strip the sundress off one petite primary asset after the luau.

The luau progressed first with a massive dinner with the pig’s underground roasting, and then as soon as everyone was finished, Dr. Tinswell announced the activities would start. Shaw inwardly and outwardly groaned.

“Instead of the Polynesian show we are going to continue our growth and work together on our journeys and relationships,” Tinswell waved her arms around and made sure to make eye contact with everyone except Shaw, who was still laser-focused on eating. Then Fusco poked her, and she looked up and nodded to the doctor.

“We are going to play pass the orange, we wish we could use a coconut or pineapple to honor the game while in Hawaii, however, that would be painful,” said Tinswell while Joan walked over with a bowl of oranges.

“No shit,” Shaw let slip out, Fusco elbowed her. “I’m going to kill Finch myself when we’re free from this therapy nonsense hell,” said Shaw while still shoveling food into her mouth, always the last one eating. Her fake husband pulled her plate away as she growled at him, then she realized they had to stand up and join the other couples.

“First, we tie everyone’s hands behind their backs,” said Tinswell while Joan went around tying everyone’s hands behind their backs.

“I already like this game,” smirked Root to Shaw, who rolled her eyes in return.

When Joan came around to tie Shaw’s hands together, she did it roughly and very tight. “Is that good, Sammy?” asked Joan in a rather condescending tone.

“It’s kind of loose, but it works,” snarked back Shaw to Joan.

“We are not dividing into teams, this game is simply to explore how you work better with your partner than with anyone else,” said Tinswell while she watched all the couples. “You will start with your partner and end with your partner, pass the orange to everyone in the circle.”

Shaw groaned that meant she had to pass the orange to the older couple, the younger ones, the Roths, Reese, Fusco, and Root; maybe she could feign food poisoning right now. Wait, that meant she had to pass with Fusco twice; although, that did mean she would get to see Fusco pass with John, which could be fun to watch.

John started with the orange under his chin, Root leaned in and deftly grabbed it with her chin so precisely and swiftly she didn’t have to linger leaning on his body at all. Shaw and Fusco gave each other quick glances as if to say, ‘have they been practicing?’

Fusco was going to go next, but then Shaw nudged him out of the way, not that she needed the physical contact with Root or anything immediately. When Root turned around and saw Shaw was next, her eyes lit up; she leaned to position herself against Shaw. The petite primary asset knew for a fact that Root was letting the orange slip on purpose before she even launched herself over. The orange slid down to Shaw’s cleavage almost immediately, and the tall hacker plunged her face into her chest in the charade of retrieving the wayward orange; while also letting her tongue lick Shaw’s chest in the crevice between her breasts. Shaw almost let out a moan; instead, she forced herself to clear her throat. Root withdrew her tongue, just in case watchdog Joan came over to them. Then Root discretely managed to let the orange slip further down, Shaw clenched her knees together and stopped the fruit from hitting the floor.

“Do you want our team to lose?” Shaw whispered to Root. She had lost track; they weren’t competing against each other.

“If it means I get to bury my face in your crotch, then yes,” Root whispered back to Shaw.

“C’mon Sammy, pick up the pace, or we’re losing,” cheered on Fusco, he knew exactly what Coco Puffs was doing, and by the languid movements of his fake wife she was enjoying it, or she would shut it down. “Oh, wait, we aren’t playing teams, take your time,” said the detective in amusing tone.

Joan made her way over to Root and Shaw. Joan rolled her eyes because she knew that these two fakers would somehow end up paired off at some point in this game. And she knew it was just for the sheer thrill of rubbing against each other like dogs in heat. She had to make Dr. Tinswell see the truth behind these cheaters. Even though admittedly, she would have helped Sam and John if they had wanted her assistance in that area. Especially Sam. Why someone like Sam would have chosen the wife of an auto parts dealer who wore hideous tracksuits was a complete mystery to the therapist’s assistant. Just as she was about to call out to Tinswell, Root spun around and launched herself onto Joan with the orange.

“Oh gosh, sorry, Joan. I thought you were Lionel,” the orange was slipping under Root’s chin, so she was rubbing almost her whole body pressed up against Joan. “You don’t mind playing with me, do you?”

The hacker batted her eyes at Joan, who started breathing heavily and appeared speechless to the flirty onslaught.

Shaw couldn’t help roll her eyes and teeth ground on their own, seeing the hacker that up close and personal with the annoying therapist’s assistant. She did admire Root for taking the initiative because this action would shut Joan up for a bit, hopefully.

Root continued to move up and down, keeping the orange from falling.

Joan looked like a deer caught in headlights, engaging and not pulling away from the alluring, extremely attractive couple participant, even though she had no business partaking in the couple activity.

“Joan, are you showing by example?” asked Tinswell with an accusatory tone in her voice.

Tinswell’s assistant stopped her grinding onto Root; she froze in place. Joan didn’t want her interaction with Sam to end, and yet she knew she had to drop the fruit.

“Yes, Dr. Tinswell.”

Joan slowly moved away from Root, and the orange fell to the sand. The assistant looked completely flustered, red in the face and sweaty; she looked up to Root’s mischievous eyes then followed Tinswell to check on the other couples.

Shaw walked over and picked up the orange, she jabbed her thumb into the center roughly and started peeling the skin off. “Was that necessary?”

“I think it will get her off our backs for a little while,” Root said while smoothing down her dress and staring at Shaw.

“I thought she was going to come on your front,” Shaw deadpanned as she took a piece of orange and sucked into her mouth, slowly and exaggerated for Root’s torture.

Before Root could get too lost watching her favorite primary asset suck and lick her way through a piece of fruit, she noticed that her fake husband and Fusco were doing the orange dance. Seeing her two male teammates try to pass the orange off to each other was too amusing for words and wrong in so many ways.

“Please, tell me She’s getting footage of this somehow,” Shaw leaned and whispered to Root.

“Oh, she is. She just told me,” Root whispered back with glee in her eyes.

All the couples barely had time to recuperate from the orange game when Dr. Tinswell announced the next activity on the agenda.

“Now we are going to do the ceremonious walk of hot coals, or I as like to call it, our love burns so brightly it enflames our soul,” once again,

Tinswell made her voice louder and waved her arms for dramatic effect.
Both Root and Shaw’s eyes light up when they saw the hot coal walk off in the distance.

“Now this looks like fun,” Shaw couldn’t help the playful smile on her face.

“I’m not doing that, I’ve got enough corns and calluses on my feet,” said Fusco walking next to fake wife.

“You’re such a charmer,” Shaw snorted to her fake hubby, then she leaned into him and lowered her voice, “Look, coals are terrible at transferring heat, it’s like sticking your hand in an oven; it’s not going to burn you instantly, just keep moving. Don’t run though, just walk fast; running through it could actually hurt you,” Shaw tried for a reassuring tone; she then awkwardly squeezed Fusco’s shoulder.

All the couples lined up on both sides of the hot coals walk, aka the burning love walk. Almost everyone in the group looked apprehensive except for two people.

“Who would like to go first?” asked Tinswell to the whole group.

“I will.”

“Me.”

“Why am I not surprised our two crazy chicks volunteer first to walk through fire,” Fusco leaned over to Reese, who had a blank slate on his face.

“Sam, you go first,” Tinswell motioned for the hacker to take her place at the start of the walk.

Joan walked over and touched Root’s arm, “Good luck Sam.”

Shaw looked away so she could roll her eyes about the irritating assistant and her stupid crush on Root.

Root said while removing her scandals, “See you on the other side, hubby.”

The hacker leaned over and surprised John by kissing him on the mouth quickly. He smirked, raised his eyebrows, and stole a glance at Shaw, who sneered at him.

Root stood in front of the hot coal walk in her sundress, moonlight washing over bringing out auburn highlights in her hair and making her eyes glow even more. The hacker’s skin was getting a golden tan from being on the beach almost all day. Once Shaw looked at her, it was hard to take her eyes off of her. Root held up her dress with one hand and then proceeded to walk across the hot coals gracefully as if she were just walking across a room to get a book.

Tinswell had made Reese move to put him in position at the end of the walk. So Root could stare at him through the walk, of course, she kept turning her head discreetly as possible to glance at her petite firecracker instead.

As soon as Root finished, Tinswell motioned to Reese to cue him, “Good job, honey,” the tall primary asset said with a squint in his eyes.

“Next up is Sammy,” announced Tinswell, who was about to continue when she noticed that Shaw was halfway through her walk.

Fusco had to stop himself from laughing; he jogged over to the end to high five his fake wife when she finished. “That’s my girl!”

“Sammy, we weren’t ready for your walk of love and truth yet. However, very well done. Very brave,” said Tinswell in a slightly annoyed voice.

“I could do it again,” Shaw said unpretentiously to some pretty shocked faces that anyone would want to walk on hot coals twice in one day.

“She could do my walk for me,” Fusco offered up.

“Lionel, just think of the story you’ll have to tell Lee,” Root said softly to Fusco, “Trust us, it won’t hurt you. Well, not too bad.”

“Really reassuring there, Cocoa Puffs,” Fuso looked a little scared, looking at the hot coals.

Fusco stood at the front of the hot coals’ walk and took a deep breath after deep breath. Shaw was at the end, looking at him.

“C’mon on big guy. You got this!” Shaw cheered to her fake hubby.

“You can do this Lionel, remember you’re named after a lion,” Root whispered to the detective before moving off to his side.

Fusco heard a whistle and looked to Reese, who nodded to him. And then he did it, Fusco walked briskly across the hot coals while saying ouch on every step down. When he finished, Shaw slapped him hard on the back, which felt worse than the hot coals on his feet; geesh, he thought the little woman was strong.

While people were milling around after their glorious walks across the hot coals, Root noticed that Shaw had wandered off down to the ocean. Root walked down to the ocean, where Shaw was dipping her feet in the water. The hacker watched the petite primary asset in the moonlight and never saw a more breathtaking view, she never dare say that to the woman for fear of getting shot again.

“How are your feet?” asked Root, as she got closer.

“Medium rare,” Shaw answered back, she had tied up her dress so she could walk out in the water. Root took off her sandals and put her feet in the water too.

“Just like how you like your steak,” Root said as she moved closer to Shaw.

“Root…don’t come closer,” Shaw wader further into the water, she didn’t want the hacker any closer to her body. She wanted to taste the hacker so badly, and this tropical moonlight stroll in the water wasn’t helping. The petite primary asset could see Tinswell, Joan, and the others talking and dancing not that far away.

“Why?” Root asked with a shy, seductive smile as she continued to get closer to Shaw.

The hacker reached out and took Shaw’s hand and was surprised she was able to hold onto it. Fusco’s voice shook the two women out of a daze, and petite primary asset jerked her hand away.

“Babycakes, the desert is here,” Fusco smiled at his fake wife as he approached his two female co-workers, who looked like they were holding hands. But Fusco thought to himself, Shaw holding hands? No way.

When they were all seated back at the table with desert, Shaw had three plates in front of her. Dr. Tinswell stood up and addressed them all.

“So far, this night has been very productive, and we will continue our productivity with sleep therapy next.”

All four teammates very quickly looked at each other with a look of sheer horror on their faces.

“What the hell is sleep therapy?” Shaw gritted through her teeth to Fusco.

“How in the hell would I know?” Fusco shot back to his fake wife.

“John, do you like the right or the left side of the bed?” asked Root of her fake hubby.

“The floor is better,” Reese said while tapping his ear, “Finch, we can’t check up on the Roths if we are being monitored all night long.”

“Sadly, if you took the floor that might result in more therapy for us,” replied Root to a very hard glared from Reese.

The hacker was extremely disappointed with this news; she was going to have to get The Machine involved. All these annoying sessions were too much sexual blockage for her body to handle.

“Gather anything you might need for the night and meet us Ball Room Six for our unconscious workshop,” Tinswell said while she motioned to Joan to follow her. “Our unconscious therapy might show the most illuminating discoveries.”

Shaw slammed her fist so hard on the table several glasses tumbled over. She tapped earpiece while looking at Root, “Finch, I’m done.” She needed to spend the night with Root plain and simple; and not with Fusco.