Scavenger Hunt Therapy
The team barely had time to catch their breaths and change their clothes to meet by the resort swimming pool for another round of physical therapy sessions.
Reese and Root were lounging on beach chairs sipping fruity cocktails; the tall male primary asset seemed to be getting more into the spirit of the work vacation. He seemed to be relaxing a little, still on alert for any possible danger. Team Rocket waited for the other couples and teammates to arrive. Since Root had been tardy to the first session of the day, Reese had grabbed her elbow to make sure she didn’t follow Shaw to change clothes. He wasn’t positive that Shaw was in Root’s room this morning, yet he was pretty positive. He thought it would be good for Shaw to finally act on actions he could sometimes see her stop in regards to Root. And well for Root, she might be even more annoying in a super psycho happy way for a while if she finally landed the petite primary asset. However, that was something he would very much like to see after all the hard and dangerous work they had been through as a team. And just because they work in the dark like he had told Shaw one time doesn’t mean they have to walk alone, and he sincerely hoped his two female teammates figured that out one day.
“Well, look at that,” Root pointed out to Reese that Finch and Zoe were walking towards them in their swimming suits. The hacker couldn’t stop a goofy smile while watching the awkward duo head towards them.
“Might not have been such a bad idea after all,” Reese put his fruity cocktail drink to click with Root’s who beamed out a smile to him.
Finch was nearly blinding everyone with his pasty white skin in his longboard swim trunks, no doubt hastily just bought in the resort’s souvenir store. Zoe looked elegant as always in a demure one-piece bathing suit that complimented her whole body, especially her breasts, which didn’t go unnoticed by Reese or Root.
“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Bushtit welcome to the pool party,” even though Root had her sunglasses on, her eyes were sparkling with glee having roped Harry into a therapy session; Zoe was a bonus for John.
“Can you just call me Zoe,” the fixer smiled at Root and sat down on the end of Reese’s long lounge chair. “And not add the Bushtit.”
“Bushtit has such a nice ring to it though,” Root gave back a slightly evil grin to Zoe, “the name contains two of my favorite things,” the hacker leered over at Shaw, who just happened to be walking up with her fake husband.
Root lifted up her head because she loved watching Shaw walk around in a bikini; it was a glorious parade that aroused all her senses. Even though both women were wearing sunglasses, they were only looking directly at each other. Shaw noticed that Root had put back on her red bikini, and she just wanted to tear it off again.
Fusco was in longboard shorts just like Finch, who he patted on the back when he got close enough, “Glasses, I liked how you sang for two minutes then just stopped abruptly, walked off the stage and said, ‘That’s all I know’. I should have done that,” Fusco ribbed Finch.
“And what deny us hearing Root harmoniously murder a Barbra Streisand song? That wouldn’t have been any fun,” Reese deadpanned to the detective.
“I didn’t murder that song. Maybe only shot the song in the kneecaps,” Root said with a wink to the detective.
“No, you zip tied it, machine-gunned it down and then launched about twenty rockets on it,” added Shaw as she stood over Root, leering at the hacker under the guise of her sunglasses.
“Well, we can’t all be such talented karaoke singers like you Shaw. Care to show us once again how it’s done,” Root looked up at Shaw while licking her lips.
Shaw sat down on the end of Root’s long lounge chair; she threw a tube of sunscreen in the hacker’s lap, who smiled at her. Root sat up entirely and scooted a bit further down the chair to reach Shaw better, not noticing that leaving her legs on the chair looked like the shorter woman was almost sitting between her legs. Root squeezed out the sunscreen and started rubbing it all over Shaw’s back, really massaging her shoulders and neck. Root made sure to get under Shaw’s straps as not to have an unruly tan line. Shaw put out her hand for some sunscreen, which Root squirted out in her hand, and she started rubbing it on her arms.
“Don’t forget your legs, unless you want me to do the honors,” Root leaned into Shaw’s ear and whispered, thinking back to just as a few days ago when she could only dream of having the petite firecracker between her legs and getting to kiss her.
Shaw didn’t want to admit the goosebumps that were popping up on her arms and legs with the hacker touching and breathing into her ear. Root continued rubbing and massaging Shaw’s back and neck, slow and hard lost in thought of being alone with her petite primary asset again. They needed to be alone again and soon. The hacker was pretty sure they both had an ache in their lower regions because of John’s interruption this morning. Shaw enjoyed the massage by rolling her head back and forth. They were both in a daze administering and receiving the sunscreen rub down that when they looked up and saw everyone looking at them. They then both pretended not to notice each other at that point and pretended everything was completely casual.
“What? Do y’all want our teammate here to get skin cancer?” Root scooted back up in her chair and laid her back and closed her eyes.
“Harry, you should be thanking me. Can you imagine how much our health plan coverage would go up?”
“We have a health plan, Glasses?” asked Fusco, hopefully to Finch.
“Does anybody else want some sunscreen?” asked Shaw, throwing the tube to Root again and standing up. She scolded herself for momentarily once again getting lost when Root’s hands were on her body, or just even being near the hacker.
“Lather me up, Cocoa Puffs,” Fusco said while he sat in Shaw’s recently vacated spot on the end of the lounge chair.
Root gave Fusco the same rub down and massage as she did to Shaw to not show any favoritism to certain teammates. The detective was surprised he got the same massage that Shorty did. Either his two female teammates were becoming friends, or they were totally doing each other on the side and didn’t want to be called out. He knew he was a good detective; he would solve this case.
Tinswell arrived shortly and announced to the couples they would be getting into the swimming pool to do a floating exercise, which did garner a few moans from a small sector of teammates. Couples were stationed around the pool, waiting for instructions. For some reason, both Betty and Fred were wearing arm floaties even though they were in the shallow end of the swimming area.
“Now, it’s back to a more mental part of therapy, we are going to do floating exercises with each other,” Tinswell was in a full complete short wet suit get up as she waded out into the shallow end of the pool, “Please, join me in the water everyone. Betty and Fred, please remove the floaties as this is a trust exercise about floating. And we are in the shallow end, so there’s no risk of drowning.” Betty and Fred still looked very skeptical. Tinswell sighed briefly, then added, “There are lifeguards stationed as well.”
Betty and Fred didn’t like this and gave mean looks while they took off their arm floaties and got in the swimming pool. Tinswell instructed for half of the couples to come into a group talk with her. She instructed them that when their partners floated, they would switch off with each other to see if their partner noticed a switch after a few minutes.
Darkened goggles were handed out to the other half of the couples so no one could cheat, they would have to rely on their other senses to take over. The darkened goggled floatees were to trust that whoever was holding onto them wouldn’t let them fall underwater, preferably their partner. The group of first floatees included Root, Fusco, Betty, Finch, Mr. Roth, and the younger woman. Tinswell maneuvered between each couple and helped orchestrate a smooth transition from person to person.
Root went through Reese and Zoe, picking them out eventually pretty easily despite being blindfolded. However, she knew immediately when it was Shaw’s hand under her back, and she couldn’t contain a huge smile on her face. The big grin didn’t go unnoticed by Tinswell or Joan, who paced around the pool writing notes on her clipboard.
Shaw jabbed her finger in Root’s back to try and get her to stop smiling, which only brought up a giggle.
“Are you okay, Sam?” asked Tinswell leaning over Root.
“Sorry, I just remembered a funny joke…there were kittens,” which got the hacker a few fingernails dug into her skin by her favorite primary asset.
When it was time to move to the next person, Shaw very discreetly ran her hand along Root’s ass and let it linger a little too long, which brought another huge smile to the floating hacker. What wasn’t funny was the hard pinch Shaw also gave, which required a stifled yelp from the hacker but also darkened her eyes as she watched her petite primary asset move to the next person.
Reese was practically holding Finch in the water as the less relaxed man tried to float but kept sinking into the water.
“Relax, Finch. Just think it’s like giving Bear a bath,” said Reese trying to get Finch to relax, who was a little anxious in the water and looked very awkward in anything other than a three-piece extremely tailored expensive suit.
“John, there is no talking. Send your calmness through your hands,” said Tinswell while helping Betty and Fred, who were having a rough time of things with the floating exercise.
“I don’t think that’s something I want to see,” joked Fusco to Shaw.
When the tables were turned, Shaw found it very difficult to just float and still be without treading water. Shaw knew immediately when Root had her hands underneath her, mainly because the hacker kept one hand on her ass the whole time, slowly trying to nudge in between her legs. Shaw ground her teeth squeezed her legs together to stop Root from playing around; the hacker would eventually get them caught if she kept up all this nonsense. Although, she found it more and more difficult to concentrate when Root was around in a bikini. Shaw had her eyes closed as instructed, taking the deep breathes, trying hard not to think about Root’s wandering hands. She slipped slightly lower into the water, and before she knew, Root scooped her up in her arms.
“Put me down,” Shaw grounded out slowly to Root, who was having entirely too much fun holding the petite firecracker hostage in her arms.
“I felt you sinking,” Root continued to cradle Shaw, which was infuriating the petite primary asset; however, she didn’t want to cause that big of a scene with the hacker because of Tinswell being nearby and other innocent bystanders. “Dr. Tinswell? Should I lower Sammy back into the water or place her safely in the arms of her husband?” asked Root as fake innocently as she could, she briefly looked down at Shaw who had a murderous look going on towards her.
“Yes, good instinct Sam. Let’s transfer over your concern for Sammy to her husband directly. Lionel, can you come over here?” Tinswell motioned for Fusco to come over to where Root was cradling Shaw.
Fusco tried not to chuckle because seeing his badass fake wife being held like a baby in Cocoa Puff’s arms was enough to send him into hysterics. However, the pair didn’t look that out of place despite the silly pose. His fake grumpy wife did look good being in Looney Tune’s arms, especially since he could tell Shaw had one arm wrapped around Root’s back, probably stabbing her in the back to let go. The detective approached the pair cautiously.
“Now Sam, gently place Sammy in Lionel’s arms,” instructed Tinswell to Root as all the other couples looked on.
The other four teammates watched on with concern in hopes that their petite firecracker teammate didn’t murder the two other teammates who were holding her at the same time.
Root smirked while she held Shaw, she ran her hands over her petite primary asset’s body under the disguise of handing her off to her fake husband. Shaw tried to hold down her anger while being transferred from the bane of her existence’s arms to her fake husband. Yes, she didn’t want to admit she much rather stay in Root’s arms, especially since they were both in bikinis, so every time they moved, there was skin on skin contact. Reese, Finch, and Zoe looked on with amused yet concerned faces during the exchange. When the transfer was over, Shaw told Fusco to let go so she could try floating again.
Once everyone had a go at floating, or not as in Betty and Fred’s case, Tinswell directed everyone to a new exercise.
“While we are in the water, we are going to practice something very advanced…tandem surfing,” Tinswell with her hands raised as if she hadn’t finished her thought yet.
“Did she just say tandem surfing? Is she fucking nuts?” asked Shaw to Fusco.
“We aren’t going to tandem surf, of course, that would be too dangerous. Only skilled surfers could manage that beautiful union between two bodies. I do think we could practice the form, and it might give us some intimate exercises to practice with our partners,” Tinswell motioned to Joan, waiting by the side of the pool.
“I don’t need any more intimate practice with Fusco,” whispered Shaw for her fellow teammates to hear but nobody else.
“Hey, Shorty, it’s not been fun for me either,” snapped back Fusco, then the detective leaned over just to Shaw, “Besides, I know you want to practice with Cocoofff!”
Shaw punched Fusco in the gut so hard underwater where no one could see that he doubled over lowering his face and submerging half is head in pain; everyone looked at the fake couple.
“Papa Bear, are you okay?” Shaw rubbed Fusco’s back then whispered to him, “Lionel, her name is Root.” Shaw splashed some water into Fusco’s face, and then slapped his back with a firm slap.
While Shaw and Fusco were fighting, Tinswell had walked over to the stairs leading out of the pool to grab a full-length surfboard from Joan; she gently lowered it into the water.
“Lionel, you and Sammy will be our first couple to practice coming together on the board,” Tinswell motioned for Shaw and Fusco over to the floating surfboard.
“I don’t think I could bear to watch that,” Root whispered to Reese.
“Jealous?”
“No, I like Lionel. I don’t want to see him dead,” scrunched up her nose as she spoke of the possible doom awaiting the detective in yet another hands-on exercise with his fake wife.
Fusco very ungracefully hoisted himself up on the board, making many big splashes in the pool. Then Shaw was instructed to climb onto his back, making sure the surfboard didn’t tip over and dump both of them off in the pool.
“We’ll just take a pass on this one,” Shaw said suddenly, to everyone’s surprise, even her own.
“Sammy, are you afraid of the water? Is that why you clung onto Sam for dear life?” asked Tinswell earnestly.
“I’m right there with you, young lady,” Betty blurted out towards Shaw, “these water exercises are dangerous.”
Shaw gritted her teeth, of course, she wasn’t afraid of water, she could outswim any of these idiots; she didn’t want to climb and straddle Fusco’s back. She was going to give Finch major payback for all this silly ass stuff. Although, yes, on the flip side, she had gotten some seriously needed horizontal action with Root, so maybe only minor payback with getting his tea order when ordering and hiding all his posh vests. She wasn’t going to get any closer to being alone with Root again any time soon if she stalled on these silly ass exercises, so she made her way over to Fusco and proceeded to climb up on his back while he balanced himself on the surfboard.
“Hey, easy there, Shorty. I know you don’t weigh much, but be careful of your pointy joints,” whispered out Fusco to his fake wife. Shaw then took the opportunity to push her elbow into Fusco’s back while he grimaced in pain.
Joan then lowered five additional surfboards into the water for the other couples. All the couples were instructed to follow Shaw and Fusco’s lead. The rest of the group followed with the man on the bottom and the woman on top.
Root lowered herself onto Reese’s back, “Sorry, about this John,” she whispered in his ear.
“Not as sorry as Zoe is going to be to Harold,” John looked over his shoulder to Root, “Shaw looks like she’s making Fusco pretty uncomfortable.”
Before they could say anything or taunt them, the two fake couples saw Zoe and Finch exiting the pool. Shaw rolled her eyes; she knew Finch had gotten them out of this exercise, not cool, she thought.
Shaw looked over to Root and Reese; once again, the tall duo looked like they were doing the exercise pretty effortlessly. Root was hanging over Reese, with her hands playing in the water. However, Reese did look pretty uneasy with the hacker draped over him; Shaw didn’t want to acknowledge that the expression ‘lucky bastard’ flitted through her brain. She didn’t like seeing the bikini-clad wet Root laying on top of her fellow teammate, no matter how much he once despised her.
Everyone’s task of balancing on the surfboard and not falling in the water was broken by Tinswell’s further instructions, “Let’s Paddle together. Let’s paddle back and forth from one end of the pool to the other end of the pool,” the therapist motioned her hand back and forth between both sides of the long pool.
“In the deep end?” asked a scared Betty with Fred shaking his head in a ‘No’ gesture underneath her on the surfboard.
“We will beat everyone here,” said Fusco with a challenging look in his eyes towards his teammates, “Ready Buttercup?”
“Please, Lionel. We’ve got height and wingspan working for us, plus our speed,” Root taunted back to her teammates.
“Oh, it’s on,” Shaw said as she furiously started padding toward the other end of the pool, “Two laps!”
“Go John Go!” barked out Root to her fake hubby.
Before Tinswell could even say anything, two of her couples were speeding off and paddling as hard as they could trying to beat each other. The Roths, the younger couple, and Betty and Fred just stayed motionless on their surfboards. The other two couples competed against each other fiercely; they started causing so many waves in the pool that Betty and Fred started yelling at them until Betty fell off her surfboard, and Fred called out for Tinswell’s help.
Root slid off her surfboard quickly and swam after Betty, pulling her over to the edge.
“She only did that because you two were losing,” Shaw said to her fake hubby and Reese.
“Whatever helps you sleep better at night, Shaw,” teased Reese with a slight smirk to his fellow petite teammate.
“I’m sure Cocoa Puffs helps too,” Fusco said, and as soon as the words left his lips, Shaw jammed her elbow hard into his back. “Okay, okay. I think you’re destroying my back nerves.”
*****
After Betty was calmed down, they moved onto their next exercise, which was more hand-holding. And Zoe and Finch were brought back into the exercise since it wasn’t physically demanding as Finch as said the last one was for him and his bad back.
“I know we just did a calming trust exercise, however now we are going to do one very similar here on land,” said Tinswell while she pointed all the couples to stand facing each other on yoga mats once again.
Root walked in front of Shaw, and their eyes met, it was a cliché but painfully true despite the petite primary asset’s best intentions, she couldn’t not stare into the hacker’s big luminous spellbinding eyes and feel her breath quicken.
Tinswell instructed the couples to stand facing each other with their arms raised to their waists in front of them and palms up. Then they were instructed to place their palms in their partner’s hands. Tinswell watched all the couples closely, really walking around and examining them hard. She walked over to Joan too and had her assistant make several notes.
“I’m going to be very honest and raw right now, I hope we can all take it in,” Tinswell said very solemnly towards all the couples.
The team looked to each other then back to Tinswell, whose eyes were scanning all the couples.
“There is one couple in this room that does not love each other at all.” Tinswell’s eyes roamed over the couples. “They are just co-workers and very inefficient co-workers at best. Their energy is completely off, they will never succeed in business together.” Tinswell seemed very sadden by this revelation; she didn’t linger on any one couple, letting everyone to speculate on which pair it might be.
The six teammates all discreetly looked at each other; obviously, it was one of them. Without words being spoken, everyone seemed to gesture to Fusco and Shaw, who both scoffed and turned towards Zoe and Finch. Meanwhile, Root and Reese smiled to each other, smugly thinking it couldn’t be them.
“There is one couple in this room that have a love so strong that I rarely see …it’s very…very…rare.” Tinswell slowed her speech and took a deep breath. “I hope the two people involved continue to honor this rare bond... because bonds…and love like that …don’t happen that often,” the therapist was moved to tears on this revelation.
The six teammates all discreetly looked at each other. Everyone looked between the other three couples, mainly the younger one and Betty and Fred.
“Betty and Fred called it,” whispered Shaw to Root.
The hacker had a melancholy look on her face, could she and Shaw be the couple who don’t work well together. Well, technically they aren’t one of Tinswell’s couples, so she’s probably thinking of Shaw and Fusco the hacker kept musing. It couldn’t be her and John; she thought they were coming off pretty convincing when she wasn’t flirting with Sammy.
Joan stood off to the side, taking her notes, the energy between all the couples felt a little different after this announcement from Tinswell. It almost felt like an Agatha Christie detective had announced there was indeed a murderer in the group.
*****
There had been non-stop exercises all day for the couples. The teammates didn’t have any time to talk game plan involving the possible threats on the island. Before they could catch their breath, throw some clothes over their swimsuits, grab a snack break on the beach before starting another exercise. Fusco and Shaw looked like a couple in one aspect; they were both huddled around the snack table, stuffing as much food as they could into their mouths before the next exercise started.
“This exercise is to see how well each couple works as a team to beat other teams. If being a team means splitting up to achieve certain goals, then that works too. All of you have to find what works best for you as a couple, as a team. Your most intimate team member of your life,” Tinswell said to all the couples.
There was something about how Tinswell said the word ‘intimate’ made Shaw kind of queasy. The therapist then explained that all the couples were going to spend the rest of the afternoon doing a scavenger hunt together.
“There are clues all along the beach, at the resort and local businesses within a close range. You will need to find the clues, build, and solve a puzzle. This is a timed exercise to see how well you work together with your partner under pressure.”
Finch whispered to his teammates, “Zoe and I will keep watch on the other two couples, focus on the Roths.” Everyone nodded to Finch. “We were told since we were a late addition, there weren’t enough clues for us.”
“True shame,” said Zoe very unconvincingly with a smile she couldn’t hide.
Suddenly, Tinswell started the timer and instructed everyone to begin the scavenger hunt. The Roth man took off running fast down the beach after Tinswell hinted the first clue would be down the beach on a tree. The Roth wife stayed back letting it slip their strategy was for her husband to find all the clues then bring the pieces back to her; it would be faster that way; she would only slow him down.
“That is a good strategy, honey bear you would only slow me down,” Shaw said to Fusco with a smirk to her fake hubby, “I’ll run ahead and see if I can find the clue and let you know.”
“Ditto, I’ll do the same. I’ll do the running,” replied Root to Reese.
“Run after Shaw. I’m not surprised,” Reese whispered to Root.
“Do you want to run down the beach with your bum knee?” Root tilted her head for added effect towards her fake hubby. He shook his head no in return.
Root and Shaw started running down the beach, easily outpacing everyone else, but then again, it wasn’t much competition as Betty had been allowed to walk, and the younger woman wasn’t very athletic. They needed to catch up with Mr. Roth, though; he wasn’t that far ahead of them.
When they caught up to Mr. Roth, he looked at a coconut tree with a very confused face. There was a note attached to the tree with a riddle. Shaw read it very intensely and then paced and forth a few times with Root watching her intensely.
“Got it,” Shaw said with her face lit up. She then turned to Root, “Give me your shirt,” Shaw demanded of her teammate, who gave her a hard raised eyebrow. Shaw then took off her shirt, standing in her bikini top and shorts, waiting for Root’s shirt. Mr. Roth looked between the two women feeling a charged air between them.
Root took off her shirt and handed it over to Shaw, looking over to Mr. Roth, which restricted her from adding an innuendo. The petite primary asset took one shirt in each hand, wrapped them tightly on her hands then started climbing the tree. High up the tree, there were some odd-looking coconuts. Shaw knocked five of the odd-looking coconuts down to the ground and then climbed back down the tree. Unwrapped the shirts from her hand and handed Root’s back to her.
“I’m glad you protected those hands,” Root leaned into Shaw under the motion of putting her shirt back on.
All three looked at the coconuts and saw pretty quickly they were plastic, and they unscrewed revealing something inside them. Mr. Roth took his coconut and the other two to give to the remaining participants. He said he was going back to find his wife. Root and Shaw alone on the beach. They opened up one of the coconuts together.
“Well, look at what Tinswell thought up now,” Root held up a small narrow tube-like object with twisty letters and numbers, “It’s a cryptex, this is kind of cool. We need to figure out the code to open it to read the scroll inside.” The hacker’s face lit up while deep in thought, trying to figure out what the code might be, “If Tinswell programmed these, they might have something to do with love or…”
Shaw grabbed the cryptex away from Root and smashed it to pieces with a large rock on the beach. She pulled out the scroll to read it. Root had an irritated look on her face.
“You can figure out the next cryptex,” Shaw just shrugged while reading.
“There’s not going to be two cryptex in one scavenger hunt,” said a slightly bummed out Root, leaning in to read over Shaw’s shoulder.
“I’ll get you one for Christmas, geesh. Happy?” Shaw said nonchalantly while reading and starting to decipher the next riddle on the tiny scroll, completely unaware of what the real context of what she just said to a hopeful Root.
Root did indeed feel very happy; Shaw was going to get her a Christmas present.
“And will the note inside your cryptex be all your favorite kinks?” leaned into Shaw and whispered in her ear.
Shaw then realized they were somewhat alone on the beach, so she leaned back into Root, “Maybe,” she said while licking her lips and staring at the hacker’s lips.
Root then tried to kiss Shaw, but her petite primary asset stopped her, “We’ve got a lot of clues to find, c’mon.”
Shaw grabbed Root’s hand and pulled her along the beach. After, an hour both women were looking very hot and sweaty from running around finding clues. They headed back to the resort, the last clue heavily indicted; it was hidden in the spa at the resort, specifically the couple’s steam room.
When they arrived, they meandered through the spa walking past numerous changing rooms. They paused in front of the steam room.
“Okay, we got the troll doll, the bandana, the tiki statue from the blind dog, the hug from the old woman at the fruit stand which was totally unnecessary…what are we looking for now?” asked Shaw not even grumpy, she looked engaged and somewhat happy. She grabbed the tiny scroll and started rereading the text over and over again to decipher it.
“I thought the hug was sweet,” Root smiled adoringly at Shaw.
“Okay, the next part says…” Shaw seemed so lost in deciphering the riddle she didn’t notice how hard Root was staring after her.
“Sameen, do you like riddles and scavenger hunts?” Root watched her petite primary asset squirm a little and shift from one foot to the next. “You do. You’re enjoying this.”
“No, I’m trying to complete this silly ass task quickly so I can go take a nap,” Shaw snapped back to Root, although as exhausted as she was from all these crazy activities and exercises what she wanted was alone time with the annoying hacker more than nap. Or cleaning her guns. Or playing with Bear. She shook her head, wondering how her list of desired off time pleasures could have gotten so out of whack.
“She’s telling me that we are head of the other teams. We could take a little break,” Root tugged at Shaw’s shirt and moved closer to her, invading her personal space once again.
Shaw had a look on her face that she was doing mental calculations and strategizing.
“Okay, quick break,” Shaw looked around to make sure no one was coming through the hallways.
“What do you want to do on this quick break?” Root asked while leering at Shaw and running her hand across her petite primary asset’s waist and landing on her ass.
Shaw rolled her eyes while reaching out and grabbing Root’s hand to pull her along down the hallway, “You, nerd. Let’s go.”
Root blushed and felt even more heat course through her body and deposit in her lower regions if that was even possible.
Shaw tried to open several doors along the hallway; finally, she stopped at one and picked the lock. She flung open the door to reveal a massage room with a long table and a couch. The petite primary asset then swung her hand attached to the hacker to push the door close and lock it. As soon as the door closed, Root and Shaw started pulling on each other’s clothes and tearing at each other. They hit the couch, and Root straddled Shaw’s lap.
“Sameen…” Root breathed out heavily in between deep kisses with Shaw; they paused for a second; their mouths parted briefly, but their lips almost touching, “…I need you inside me.”
“Uhh...Root…” Shaw unbuttoned Root’s shorts and slid her hand down into the hacker’s bikini bottom, feeling the warm wetness envelope her whole hand, “…me too.”
Shaw couldn’t believe her ears; did her mouth just whisper that out loud? She cursed her brain for begging to Root, although she felt the need to have some part of the hacker’s body deep inside her. Once again, she cursed the island too; maybe there was voodoo involved. Was there Hawaiian voodoo?
Root followed the same action as her petite primary asset; she slid her down inside Shaw’s shorts, finding her bikini bottoms completely drenched. Shaw kept surprising her on just about everything on this island, but then again, she hadn’t had the opportunity to spend this much time with her petite primary asset before. Sure there might have been longer missions, but not missions that trapped them all in close quarters for more than a week.
Shaw stilled her moments, too caught and completely lost in what Root was doing to her. Her hand had a slow rhythm, however unable to match the hacker’s. She stayed deep inside of Root. Before she even knew it, she was coming hard, not quite holding down a loud moan and tightening her hold on Root.
Root thought to herself, so Shaw liked being inside of her. Was her petite firecracker a little puddle of a mess right now?
“I…uh…” Shaw felt like her brain was short wiring; she felt like she couldn’t form a comprehensive sentence.
Root stared at Shaw; she could see the confusion mixed in with something else her petite primary asset seemed to be struggling with, so she leaned in and kissed her. The hacker didn’t trust herself to talk in the moment; Shaw didn’t need words right now. Shaw probably rarely needed words that much; actions always seemed to speak more clearly to the petite primary asset.
Root was surprised again when Shaw returned slow, tenderesque kisses back to her. The hacker then had to squash some pretty big moans when her petite primary asset gained her footing and started up a vigorous pace of making her come as hard as she did. Root was taking huge gulps of air to catch her breath when Shaw started kissing her again. Her petite primary asset captured her tongue and started massaging and sucking. Root pushed forward and maneuvered them horizontally on the couch.
Then The Machine started talking, “Damn it, the boys are walking into the spa right now,” Root leaned down and kissed Shaw one more time, and the petite primary asset returned it full force. They reluctantly pulled away from each other and started dressing again, finding discarded bikini tops on the floor.
They exited the massage room just as Fusco and Reese came into the spa location.
“Where did you two come from?” asked Fusco, surprised at seeing his two female teammates just appear.
Root walked ahead; clearly, The Machine was communicating with her, and she needed some distance from squabbling teammates for a moment.
“Huh?” Shaw looked as flustered as someone like the petite primary asset could get flustered. She looked up ahead and kept an eye on Root as she exited the spa location.
“Hello, Shortcakes? What are you, stoned?” asked Fusco waving his hand in front of his fake wife’s face.
“She’s not stoned, she’s rooned,” Reese smirked to Shaw because she was distracted by Root, and not to mention his two female teammates looked more disheveled than just running a few miles. They looked more like a pair of lovesick teenagers getting caught making out in the back of a car.
Shaw shot Reese a death glare as she walked on following Root.
“Seriously, was that a closet? You know my head’s going to explode if I don’t say something,” Fusco held Shaw back and whispered to her with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
“One of the clues was in there…the Machine told us,” Shaw said, walking faster to catch up with Root and Reese.
“The Machine is helping you two cheat?” asked Reese, clearly his morals were above The Machine, helping him cheat in a silly ass scavenger therapy hunt.
“Please, that’s baloney. You two are all sweaty and rosy-cheeked and…,” Fusco said while Shaw aggressively rubbed her cheeks and discreetly smelled herself.
Root picked up her pace and headed towards the docks where the boat rentals were. She could see Joan off in the distance standing on the dock with her clipboard. The last clue must be there; maybe it was the finish line Root thought. Shaw caught up with Root; they both walked to the deck; they noticed dark clouds looming overhead.
“This isn’t looking good,” Root tilted her head up towards the sky.
“Maybe we will get the night off due to the rain,” said Shaw while she examined the stormy skies.
“We can only dream,” Root quipped back to Shaw.
Suddenly, there was a crack of thunder and a lightning bolt off in the distance. As they approached closer to the docks, they could make out a struggle on one of the decks. Then they heard screaming, and they started running full force.
Out on the pier, two tall guys were harassing Joan; she clutched her clipboard tightly as she screamed for help. Then one of the guys snatched the clipboard from Joan, and the other man hit her on the top of her head. One man pushed Joan off into the ocean, and then both men ran off the pier, jumped into a car, and sped away.
“I’ll go after the guys. You help Joan,” yelled Root as she started running towards the street where the car was taking off.
“Why do I get Joan?” asked an irritated Shaw.
“Because you’re the doctor,” Root yelled over her shoulder while continuing to sprint towards stealing a car to chase after the bad guys.
Shaw tore off her shirt and shorts and ran into the ocean. She swam as fast as she could towards Joan. Luckily, Shaw found Joan before she sank too far down. She pulled her the annoying assistant to the surface and held onto as she swam back to shore. Just as Shaw could stand and pick up Joan, she could see Tinswell and others running towards them. Shaw carried Joan out of the water and onto the beach. She laid her down in the sand just out of reach of the tide. She made everyone give them some space. She checked the annoying assistant’s vital signs and then made a frown when she realized she was going to need to administer CPR to all people Joan. Shaw thought who wouldn’t even appreciate it because it’s not Root. Shaw pumped her chest, then pressed her mouth to Joan’s and blew air into the other woman’s lungs. She repeated this process until she felt Joan start to respond. Joan then started spitting out water, and everyone applauded, Tinswell the loudest; so happy her assistant was okay.
Joan struggled to open her eyes, and when she did, she looked up to see Sammy of all people leaning over her and dripping everywhere from how wet she was, glistening skin thanks to the sun and extremely toned arms and legs. Joan continued to notice water droplets falling in between breasts constricted by a black bikini top. Joan closed her eyes again, so Shaw leaned down again; the assistant took this opportunity to latch onto the petite firecracker’s lips again. Shaw immediately pulled away with a very mean scowl aimed at the nearly deceased woman.
John and Fusco came running up on the beach to see Joan and Shaw locked in either a very brief kiss or CPR. As Shaw helped Joan stand up, the assistant took the advantage and put her arm around Shaw’s shoulder for balance. She then leaned in and gazed into the shorter woman’s eyes.
“I could use some help here,” said Shaw looking to Reese and Fusco.
“You saved my life. You’re so incredible,” Joan said in a completely love-struck teenager sort of way. “You carried me from the beach. I can’t walk, can you carry me again?”
“Looks like you got it under control,” said Reese with and smirk, “I need to go find my wife.” Reese headed off towards the parking lot with more lighting and thunder coming through the stormy clouds above.
“Don’t you dare leave,” growled out Shaw to Fusco, “A little help here, honey.”
Thankfully, Fusco grabbed onto Joan’s other arm to help carry the woman back inside the resort. Shaw did not want to be left alone with Joan, especially now that the annoying assistant had moved into a handsy hero-worshipping fan. She had met a few those before; it became annoying fast. Okay, so Root was kind of in that same category; however, the hacker made hero-worshipping fan look good.
As soon as they got Joan back to the resort and to the doctor’s office, the staff was having an emergency announcement that the resort was in a lockdown mode due to a tropical storm approaching. Guests were not to leave the property; the tropical storm was being reported as very dangerous.
Just as the emergency announcement was ending, Reese walked back into the lobby; he motioned for Shaw and Fusco to follow him. They went back to Root and Reese’s room, where Zoe and Finch were waiting for them.
“Finch, did you have any idea a tropical storm was going to hit so fast?”
“Not at all, Mr. Reese, it seems very peculiar. I know the weather is odd and unpredictable, but this particular tropical storm seems almost unnatural.”
“I couldn’t catch up with Root,” Reese said, addressing his team members, “She went after the guys that attacked Joan.”
“How bad is this storm? Do you think she can make it back to the resort?” asked Shaw to Finch.
“I’m not sure it all depends on where she ends up chasing those guys. Ms. Groves is very resourceful, I’m sure she will find a safe place to ride out the storm.”
Just then, the electricity went out at the resort, plunging the hotel room into complete blackness. Thankfully, it was only a few seconds before Finch’s battered operated lamps came on.
“Glasses do you always carry around back up lamps everywhere with you?” asked Fusco, impressed and surprised.
“Only to destinations where power outages are a possibility due to inclement weather,” replied Finch. “The hatch is full of battered operated lamps and many generators to keep everything running for quite a significant amount of time.”
Something clicked in Shaw’s brain, the hatch. She had a strong feeling that if Root couldn’t make it back to the resort, she might go to the hatch for some insane reason.
“Where’s Bear?” asked Shaw.
“He’s at the hatch, Ms. Shaw. He will be fully protected and safe there,” said Finch knowing how much the petite primary asset cared for their canine teammate.
“What if one of the generators dies, he might suffocate,” replied Shaw.
“Ms. Shaw, there are several back up generators there would need to be over a hundred tropical storms at the same time for that to happen,” replied Finch trying to ease her mind.
“I’m going to go check on Bear,” Shaw looked at Reese, who shook his head.
“Not a good idea Shaw,” said Reese while he handed her a flashlight.
“I’ll be fine,” and with that, Shaw took off into a tropical storm to find the hatch and hopefully, her hacker.