WHO: Root + Hera + Lee, Root + Victor, Root + Shaw WHERE: The Hangar, Oros WHEN: February 1-4th ish WHAT: Catch-all log post for various rescue mission related threads WARNINGS: Other than thermonuclear genocide? No other warnings as of yet, will edit the header if needed be.
She was supposed to have been on the same ship as Shaw, and they were supposed to be rescuing aliens from a nuclear apocalypse together, as if they were back home running missions for The Machine. But Sameen is already on her way to Oros and Root is worried sick-- she isn't ready to lose her again, not now, not ever-- and the strength of her emotions, added to the cacophony of sounds at the hangar, overwhelms her enough to make the whole world spin for a moment.
Root takes a deep breath. And another.
Inaction won't solve anyone's problems, and even though she was looking forward to spending more time together with Sameen, the truth is that she was serious about this rescue mission from the start, and she's still going to go ahead and do it. So she scans the hangar, trying to figure out if any ship is about to leave soon, and quickly makes her way over to someone who seems competent enough.]
Hi there. Are you heading to Oros? [She smiles politely, the urgency and worry in her voice glaringly obvious.] I lost the ship I was supposed to embark, silly me.
[ Hera would, quite frankly, prefer to use her own ship for something like this. She knows it better, knows all its quirks and mods, and no one flies the Ghost better than her.
But part of being a pilot is versatility, being able to work with whatever you're given, and Hera? Hera can fly anything, if given half a chance.
So here she is, inspecting the ship she's been given for this particular rescue mission - her face is set in a grim sort of determination, because she understands the horror of what's going on down there. She hates that she can't save more. She hates to know that so many will die, likely because of their interference.
She turns at the sound of a voice, however, and glances at the strange woman. Another human, or so she appears. What a shock. ]
Yeah, I am. I'm going to make as many trips as I can, and save as many as possible. Do you want to help?
[For her part, Root is doing her best not to think about the role everyone played in this huge mess, because if she thinks about that, her mind will inevitably take her to the day she and Sameen both signed up for the mission, but were thankfully declined. If the two of them had been chosen for this mission, the blood of thousands-- or is it millions?-- of innocent lives would have been on their hands, and that thought alone makes her physically ill, even though Root is quite far from being squeamish.]
Are you a pilot, then? I've never been inside a space ship other than this-- [she waves her hand at the hangar around them, to indicate the Eluvio] -- but I'll help however I can.
[Root takes her hand right away, giving it a firm shake. She's glad that Hera is a pilot; that means they can get down to business immediately, instead of wasting precious time looking for someone else to pilot the ship.]
Root, [she introduces herself, and waits for Hera to get into the ship so she can follow after. Root isn't about to just waltz into a completely unfamiliar space ship, after all; she really doesn't know anything about these vessels.] Count me in. Hopefully we will make it out of there with minimal radiation poisoning.
We'll have to cross that bridge when we get to it.
[ Finished with her inspection, Hera leads the way on board, flipping switches like an old hand, which she is. It never takes her more than a few minutes to figure a ship out - like riding a bicycle, if Hera knew what that was. ]
Indeed. Maybe we'll get to glow in the dark, too, [she comments off-handedly, watching Hera get familiar with the ship. She definitely seems to know what she's doing, which is comforting; Hera being female is also a bonus, because Root feels a lot more comfortable around women than she does around men. Even if said women are of a different species.]
You mean rescue missions? Yes, although I'm far more experienced with offensive or defensive kinds of missions. But I'm no stranger to rescuing people from imminent danger.
[Root nods. She's well acquainted with pain and suffering, all right, and although she's never dealt with aliens before, she figures that the reactions to despair and impending doom are similar between all kinds of species.
As they make their way out of the hangar, Root takes a moment to admire the vast expanse of space surrounding them. If only they were on a sightseeing trip.]
Define 'not very friendly'. Are they outright violent, or did they simply not enjoy being invaded and observed by random strangers?
We didn't invade - not my group. [ Hera feels the need to clarify this. ] We went to try and establish diplomatic contact. They didn't attack us, but they seemed very violent towards each other in general.
[To say Root's exhausted would be putting it very lightly: three trips and fifteen aliens later, she's all but running on fumes, having only been able to take small naps here and there. Despite the chaos of everything happening at the moment, the hangar is a most welcome sight, and Root breathes a sigh of relief when she steps out of the ship, glad that she's alive and unharmed.
She isn't alone, however: she's holding a Fek toddler against her hip with one arm, the toddler's older sibling clinging to her other arm like a lifeline. Although Root is usually good with kids-- she just doesn't punish or discipline them, at all-- she's at a total loss when it comes to handling orphaned alien refugees.
Luckily, there's a familiar face ahead that seems to be doing a lot better than she is, judging from the group of Fek survivors surrounding him.]
Victor! [She calls out as she walks closer, and normally she would wave, but. you know. her arms are full.] These are the last we could bring, I-- could you give me a hand? The little one won't let go.
( Victor jerks his head up, a reaction to his name more than anything else. He's been running on empty as well, grimly determined and pushing his body in ways that are like and unlike his demands during the competitive season back home. He admires the effort Root's gone through, knowing that even as a toddler, any one Fek is no light burden.
The youngster holding on with its antennae to Root's side earns a glance, but he nods his head, offering an exhausted smile. )
Root, sure, just give me a moment...
( He comes over, reaching out to stroke down the length of the antennae that clung on so tightly, limbs being a sturdy gripping, but lacking many of the fine motor functions they take for granted as humans. He murmurs quiet nonsense, talking about coming here, it's okay, there are others who will help, you are not alone. Slowly, the toddler's antennae uncurl from their death grip on Root, reaching out and tentatively, then assertively, looking past him and staring intently at the adults beyond him.
They are very unlikely to be anyone this toddler knows, but the Fek are nothing if not accepting of all the refugees filing off the few ships that had been able to manage the trips down and back. Squirming, the toddler reaches out, and Victor moves to scoop them up much more like how one might hold a dog. Not that the toddler minds. Quadruped as they are, it's simply more of an alignment they're used to supporting. )
Mind walking us over?
( The antennae are running over his shoulders, neck, and then his chin, one tip prodding at his mouth and then flicking at his nose. He breathes out in a tired huff of amusement, and mild irritation as he closes an eye after getting his bangs tossed to the side, but it is what it is. He's still waiting to see Yuuri come back up. Until he finds his lover in all this mess, things just aren't going to be okay.
Not that they'd be okay after the fact, either. But it'd be better. Some important, slim margin better. )
Everyone's been running themselves ragged. From the newest arrivals... about when I arrived and after.
[Carrying the little Fek isn't an easy thing to do, but Root has carried heavier weapons before; she's never done it while exhausted, hungry and sleep-deprived, though. Victor doesn't look much better than she does, now that she's taking a closer look at him, but that's only to be expected, isn't it? A good number of people have been trying to fix the horrible mess that their interference caused. Not that saving a handful of aliens from extinction while their home planet suffers a nuclear holocaust fixes anything, but still.]
Sure, [she says in reply, unusually quiet. She watches Victor's interaction with the Fek in his arms with a little smile of amusement, but it quickly fades as her mind focuses on concerns far more pressing than inappropriate alien tentacle touching. She follows Victor in silence, letting the other Fek hold on to her arm for a little longer as she scans the crowd around them for Shaw.
She's so immersed in her own version of Where's Waldo that she doesn't even realize Victor is talking to her again. Root blinks, as if having trouble focusing on reality itself, and her tired brain decides that she might as well tell him what's happening.]
I'm sorry, I didn't hear what you just said. I-- [she catches a glimpse of long dark hair at the other end of the hangar and her eyes widen, until she sees that it's not Sameen, and she goes back to looking completely lost.] Shaw boarded a different ship for the rescue mission, and the emergency comm I set up for us stopped working just a few hours after she left the hangar. I don't know where she is, or if she's okay at all.
( She's distracted, and he lapses into silence, merely flicking his eyes back her way when she speaks. It's a direct sort of truth; one he can understand, even when she'd sent the woman she cares about down with much more of a lifeline than Victor had in his capacity been able to provide Yuuri, or be provided in turn. He'll look into that, he decides. They need something that will keep them in touch, no matter what's happening. A strong enough signal to make it through. )
Yuuri hasn't come back yet either.
( Is what he says instead of platitudes. They're adults. They know the world, or worlds, and how there are few certainties, even if probabilities might determine outcomes long before chance or luck have room to play. He hups the toddler up, bearing with both antennae circling his shoulders. He ends up carefully crouching down to deliver the toddler to the ground, the adult Fek shifting as one to look down at him and his young burden; a few look to Root after, antennae weaving in distressed patterns alongside the wide expanse of their necks. )
The waiting doesn't get easier. Even when you know, logically, they should be okay.
( The toddler is collected by the elder Fed, hustled into a nest of legs and caresses and weeping water-sacks under eyes, all measures of comfort being given freely and without hesitation. )
After her ship arrives and she leaves a group of frightened Fek with Victor and the others, Root searches frantically for Shaw, scanning the crowds for her favorite girl regularly enough to be considered obsessive, and running to every ship that makes it to the hangar in the hopes that, this time, Shaw will be the one to walk out. She waits for hours, trying and failing to reach out through the emergency channel she created for their communicators-- Please, talk to me!-- and feeling almost as hopeless as she did when she saw Sameen get shot down by the Samaritan operatives at the stock exchange. A glimmer of hope sparks within her when she realizes that maybe the grumpy Persian has already made it to their living quarters, and she runs all the way there, a rushed Sameen, how dare you leave me behind escaping her lips as she opens the door--
But Shaw is nowhere to be found.
Bear walks over to her and whines softly, and she reaches down to pat his head with a shaky hand. Root tries not to panic, she really does, but she's downright terrified as she considers the possibility that she'll never see Sameen again. After all, they don't have the best track record when it comes to being separated from each other: Root didn't survive the last time it happened, and the time before that, Shaw was captured by the enemy and tortured relentlessly for nine months. But she still holds on to hope, clinging to it as desperately as she did during all those terrible months, and runs back to the hangar just in case Shaw arrived during the time she was with Bear.
She didn't.]
Edited 2017-02-06 05:13 (UTC)
gonna wing this, as I'm not sure the results yet of rescue but ...
[ They got separated before the launch. Shaw got to the hangar bay first and amidst the chaotic bustle to get the rescue underway, she boarded a cargo ship with Ax and Marco and was out the bay doors. She didn't think it was a big deal. They could still stay in communication, mostly. And even when the comm cut out, there was no need to panic.
Shaw doesn't panic, anyway. There's no switch in her that flips when normal people should feel anxious or fearful. Besides, Root already knew they were going down to the surface where nuclear bombs were going off. Being together wouldn't have guaranteed either of their safety. In fact, the odds of survival were probably better if they went apart.
But such is the logic of her practical mind. She's focused on the mission. It's just like before, on Earth, except with higher stakes. The Machine never would've let it come to this. Oros doesn't have the advantage of a benevolent ASI to prevent bad things from happening. And the aliens on Oros were having a very, very bad day.
She returns from her final trip. They barely made it out of there before the window closed. Last trip, last survivors, just these five. The aliens look bewildered and in shock. Shaw looks upon and wonders if she would feel anything if she actually were in their shoes. The destruction of Earth and every living thing on it: would that be enough to move her? Maybe some day, she'll find out.
Meanwhile, the ship finally staggers into the hangar bay and begins to offload its endangered cargo.
Shaw gives off a brief wave to Ax and Marco before making her way off the ship. ]
[Time passes and various cargo ships come and go, bringing with them a steady but small influx of aliens, nothing more than a small handful when compared to the thousands (if not millions) of lives being slaughtered on their home planet. Root tries to count them, tries to take mental notes on how many ships have arrived and how many aliens they brought along, but she can’t: the only thing she can focus on is Shaw.
Only four cargo ships left, she hears someone say as they walk past her, and that anchors her to reality once again, so Root listens in. One of them nearly got swiped by a blastwave, no idea if they’ll make it through or not.
She never had a heart attack, but she imagines this is what it must feel like: something twisting painfully inside her chest, constricting her heart and lungs until she can’t breathe anymore. Root feels even more lost than before, walking around the hangar like a child that doesn’t know her way home, but the arrival of three more ships makes a spark of hope flare up in her chest.
Sameen isn’t on the ship that lands first, and neither is she on the ship that docks right after that. She’s not there, and although Root’s faith in her favorite girl is absolute, not even Sameen Shaw can survive nuclear bombings. She reaches for her communicator, because maybe this time their communications will stop acting up--
And then she sees her from a distance, stepping out of the cargo ship like she didn’t just escape a thermonuclear holocaust, like they haven’t been unable to communicate with each other for days. Root blinks, unsure for a moment if what she's seeing is real or an illusion created by her sleep deprived and utterly exhausted brain, but she soon realizes that Sameen is as real as she’s ever been, and relief hits her so strongly that she sways on her feet for a moment.
Root doesn’t know when she starts walking, isn’t consciously thinking about putting one foot in front of the other. She’s on autopilot, moving through the small crowd as if in a trance, her shoulders bumping harshly against whoever crosses her path and doesn’t move away. Her steps become faster until she’s all but running to the other woman, crossing the distance between them as quickly as her tired limbs will allow.
She stops a few feet away from Shaw, her focus as sharp as the blade she always keeps in her pocket. Root is happy and relieved and grateful and so fucking pissed off, and it shows on her face, her eyes still red from having cried not too long ago. She wants to hurt Shaw in ways she would (probably) not enjoy, wants to scream at her until her throat is raw and no sound comes out. There are many things Root wants to say, too, from I hate you for what you did to don’t leave me again but she ends up communicating a little differently: she closes the distance between them and throws a punch at Sameen’s perfect jaw.]
Don’t you dare do that again, [her voice is so low that it sounds almost like a growl, but the effect is ruined by the sheer worry in her eyes, or the way her lower lip trembles. Root grabs Shaw by the jacket, her hands fisting on the fabric] Don’t you dare leave me behind.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
√ rescue mission: Root + Hera + Lee
She was supposed to have been on the same ship as Shaw, and they were supposed to be rescuing aliens from a nuclear apocalypse together, as if they were back home running missions for The Machine. But Sameen is already on her way to Oros and Root is worried sick-- she isn't ready to lose her again, not now, not ever-- and the strength of her emotions, added to the cacophony of sounds at the hangar, overwhelms her enough to make the whole world spin for a moment.
Root takes a deep breath. And another.
Inaction won't solve anyone's problems, and even though she was looking forward to spending more time together with Sameen, the truth is that she was serious about this rescue mission from the start, and she's still going to go ahead and do it. So she scans the hangar, trying to figure out if any ship is about to leave soon, and quickly makes her way over to someone who seems competent enough.]
Hi there. Are you heading to Oros? [She smiles politely, the urgency and worry in her voice glaringly obvious.] I lost the ship I was supposed to embark, silly me.
no subject
But part of being a pilot is versatility, being able to work with whatever you're given, and Hera? Hera can fly anything, if given half a chance.
So here she is, inspecting the ship she's been given for this particular rescue mission - her face is set in a grim sort of determination, because she understands the horror of what's going on down there. She hates that she can't save more. She hates to know that so many will die, likely because of their interference.
She turns at the sound of a voice, however, and glances at the strange woman. Another human, or so she appears. What a shock. ]
Yeah, I am. I'm going to make as many trips as I can, and save as many as possible. Do you want to help?
no subject
[For her part, Root is doing her best not to think about the role everyone played in this huge mess, because if she thinks about that, her mind will inevitably take her to the day she and Sameen both signed up for the mission, but were thankfully declined. If the two of them had been chosen for this mission, the blood of thousands-- or is it millions?-- of innocent lives would have been on their hands, and that thought alone makes her physically ill, even though Root is quite far from being squeamish.]
Are you a pilot, then? I've never been inside a space ship other than this-- [she waves her hand at the hangar around them, to indicate the Eluvio] -- but I'll help however I can.
no subject
Hera Syndulla. If you're willing to come along and help round people up, we might be able to make more trips.
no subject
Root, [she introduces herself, and waits for Hera to get into the ship so she can follow after. Root isn't about to just waltz into a completely unfamiliar space ship, after all; she really doesn't know anything about these vessels.] Count me in. Hopefully we will make it out of there with minimal radiation poisoning.
no subject
[ Finished with her inspection, Hera leads the way on board, flipping switches like an old hand, which she is. It never takes her more than a few minutes to figure a ship out - like riding a bicycle, if Hera knew what that was. ]
Have you ever done anything like this before?
no subject
You mean rescue missions? Yes, although I'm far more experienced with offensive or defensive kinds of missions. But I'm no stranger to rescuing people from imminent danger.
no subject
[ Hera nods, and within about five seconds they're up and out of the hangar, and she's setting a course for Oros. ]
I have the most experience with the Trilks. They're not very friendly.
no subject
As they make their way out of the hangar, Root takes a moment to admire the vast expanse of space surrounding them. If only they were on a sightseeing trip.]
Define 'not very friendly'. Are they outright violent, or did they simply not enjoy being invaded and observed by random strangers?
no subject
√ aftermath: Root + Victor
She isn't alone, however: she's holding a Fek toddler against her hip with one arm, the toddler's older sibling clinging to her other arm like a lifeline. Although Root is usually good with kids-- she just doesn't punish or discipline them, at all-- she's at a total loss when it comes to handling orphaned alien refugees.
Luckily, there's a familiar face ahead that seems to be doing a lot better than she is, judging from the group of Fek survivors surrounding him.]
Victor! [She calls out as she walks closer, and normally she would wave, but. you know. her arms are full.] These are the last we could bring, I-- could you give me a hand? The little one won't let go.
no subject
The youngster holding on with its antennae to Root's side earns a glance, but he nods his head, offering an exhausted smile. )
Root, sure, just give me a moment...
( He comes over, reaching out to stroke down the length of the antennae that clung on so tightly, limbs being a sturdy gripping, but lacking many of the fine motor functions they take for granted as humans. He murmurs quiet nonsense, talking about coming here, it's okay, there are others who will help, you are not alone. Slowly, the toddler's antennae uncurl from their death grip on Root, reaching out and tentatively, then assertively, looking past him and staring intently at the adults beyond him.
They are very unlikely to be anyone this toddler knows, but the Fek are nothing if not accepting of all the refugees filing off the few ships that had been able to manage the trips down and back. Squirming, the toddler reaches out, and Victor moves to scoop them up much more like how one might hold a dog. Not that the toddler minds. Quadruped as they are, it's simply more of an alignment they're used to supporting. )
Mind walking us over?
( The antennae are running over his shoulders, neck, and then his chin, one tip prodding at his mouth and then flicking at his nose. He breathes out in a tired huff of amusement, and mild irritation as he closes an eye after getting his bangs tossed to the side, but it is what it is. He's still waiting to see Yuuri come back up. Until he finds his lover in all this mess, things just aren't going to be okay.
Not that they'd be okay after the fact, either. But it'd be better. Some important, slim margin better. )
Everyone's been running themselves ragged. From the newest arrivals... about when I arrived and after.
no subject
Sure, [she says in reply, unusually quiet. She watches Victor's interaction with the Fek in his arms with a little smile of amusement, but it quickly fades as her mind focuses on concerns far more pressing than inappropriate alien tentacle touching. She follows Victor in silence, letting the other Fek hold on to her arm for a little longer as she scans the crowd around them for Shaw.
She's so immersed in her own version of Where's Waldo that she doesn't even realize Victor is talking to her again. Root blinks, as if having trouble focusing on reality itself, and her tired brain decides that she might as well tell him what's happening.]
I'm sorry, I didn't hear what you just said. I-- [she catches a glimpse of long dark hair at the other end of the hangar and her eyes widen, until she sees that it's not Sameen, and she goes back to looking completely lost.] Shaw boarded a different ship for the rescue mission, and the emergency comm I set up for us stopped working just a few hours after she left the hangar. I don't know where she is, or if she's okay at all.
no subject
Yuuri hasn't come back yet either.
( Is what he says instead of platitudes. They're adults. They know the world, or worlds, and how there are few certainties, even if probabilities might determine outcomes long before chance or luck have room to play. He hups the toddler up, bearing with both antennae circling his shoulders. He ends up carefully crouching down to deliver the toddler to the ground, the adult Fek shifting as one to look down at him and his young burden; a few look to Root after, antennae weaving in distressed patterns alongside the wide expanse of their necks. )
The waiting doesn't get easier. Even when you know, logically, they should be okay.
( The toddler is collected by the elder Fed, hustled into a nest of legs and caresses and weeping water-sacks under eyes, all measures of comfort being given freely and without hesitation. )
I still worry.
√ reunion: Root + Shaw
After her ship arrives and she leaves a group of frightened Fek with Victor and the others, Root searches frantically for Shaw, scanning the crowds for her favorite girl regularly enough to be considered obsessive, and running to every ship that makes it to the hangar in the hopes that, this time, Shaw will be the one to walk out. She waits for hours, trying and failing to reach out through the emergency channel she created for their communicators-- Please, talk to me!-- and feeling almost as hopeless as she did when she saw Sameen get shot down by the Samaritan operatives at the stock exchange. A glimmer of hope sparks within her when she realizes that maybe the grumpy Persian has already made it to their living quarters, and she runs all the way there, a rushed Sameen, how dare you leave me behind escaping her lips as she opens the door--
But Shaw is nowhere to be found.
Bear walks over to her and whines softly, and she reaches down to pat his head with a shaky hand. Root tries not to panic, she really does, but she's downright terrified as she considers the possibility that she'll never see Sameen again. After all, they don't have the best track record when it comes to being separated from each other: Root didn't survive the last time it happened, and the time before that, Shaw was captured by the enemy and tortured relentlessly for nine months. But she still holds on to hope, clinging to it as desperately as she did during all those terrible months, and runs back to the hangar just in case Shaw arrived during the time she was with Bear.
She didn't.]
gonna wing this, as I'm not sure the results yet of rescue but ...
Shaw doesn't panic, anyway. There's no switch in her that flips when normal people should feel anxious or fearful. Besides, Root already knew they were going down to the surface where nuclear bombs were going off. Being together wouldn't have guaranteed either of their safety. In fact, the odds of survival were probably better if they went apart.
But such is the logic of her practical mind. She's focused on the mission. It's just like before, on Earth, except with higher stakes. The Machine never would've let it come to this. Oros doesn't have the advantage of a benevolent ASI to prevent bad things from happening. And the aliens on Oros were having a very, very bad day.
She returns from her final trip. They barely made it out of there before the window closed. Last trip, last survivors, just these five. The aliens look bewildered and in shock. Shaw looks upon and wonders if she would feel anything if she actually were in their shoes. The destruction of Earth and every living thing on it: would that be enough to move her? Maybe some day, she'll find out.
Meanwhile, the ship finally staggers into the hangar bay and begins to offload its endangered cargo.
Shaw gives off a brief wave to Ax and Marco before making her way off the ship. ]
no subject
Only four cargo ships left, she hears someone say as they walk past her, and that anchors her to reality once again, so Root listens in. One of them nearly got swiped by a blastwave, no idea if they’ll make it through or not.
She never had a heart attack, but she imagines this is what it must feel like: something twisting painfully inside her chest, constricting her heart and lungs until she can’t breathe anymore. Root feels even more lost than before, walking around the hangar like a child that doesn’t know her way home, but the arrival of three more ships makes a spark of hope flare up in her chest.
Sameen isn’t on the ship that lands first, and neither is she on the ship that docks right after that. She’s not there, and although Root’s faith in her favorite girl is absolute, not even Sameen Shaw can survive nuclear bombings. She reaches for her communicator, because maybe this time their communications will stop acting up--
And then she sees her from a distance, stepping out of the cargo ship like she didn’t just escape a thermonuclear holocaust, like they haven’t been unable to communicate with each other for days. Root blinks, unsure for a moment if what she's seeing is real or an illusion created by her sleep deprived and utterly exhausted brain, but she soon realizes that Sameen is as real as she’s ever been, and relief hits her so strongly that she sways on her feet for a moment.
Root doesn’t know when she starts walking, isn’t consciously thinking about putting one foot in front of the other. She’s on autopilot, moving through the small crowd as if in a trance, her shoulders bumping harshly against whoever crosses her path and doesn’t move away. Her steps become faster until she’s all but running to the other woman, crossing the distance between them as quickly as her tired limbs will allow.
She stops a few feet away from Shaw, her focus as sharp as the blade she always keeps in her pocket. Root is happy and relieved and grateful and so fucking pissed off, and it shows on her face, her eyes still red from having cried not too long ago. She wants to hurt Shaw in ways she would (probably) not enjoy, wants to scream at her until her throat is raw and no sound comes out. There are many things Root wants to say, too, from I hate you for what you did to don’t leave me again but she ends up communicating a little differently: she closes the distance between them and throws a punch at Sameen’s perfect jaw.]
Don’t you dare do that again, [her voice is so low that it sounds almost like a growl, but the effect is ruined by the sheer worry in her eyes, or the way her lower lip trembles. Root grabs Shaw by the jacket, her hands fisting on the fabric] Don’t you dare leave me behind.