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While they waited, Shaw fidgeted with the draped neckline of her dress.
“So, what's the plan again?”
Reese turned to her, with an annoying not-quite-smile on his face. “The same as it was the last three times you asked. And you look fine, by the way.”
“I didn't ask,” Shaw snapped. Then she frowned. “Should I have done something with my hair?”
She touched one hand to the loose curls which tumbled over her bare shoulders and down the back of a long, black dress. Nothing about her outfit felt right. Nothing about any of this felt right.
“I could put it up,” she said. “There's still time. I could -”
“Shaw,” Reese said firmly. “Your hair looks fine. You look... great.” He paused for a moment. “You know, it's normal to feel nervous.”
Shaw laughed. “I'm not nervous.”
It was true. A nervous person would be rashly considering calling things off and walking away. Shaw was quite calmly planning the best way to change her identity and leave the country without being detected.
A plan which was being interrupted by the almost-fond way Reese was looking at her. She was about to open her mouth to complain when his focus suddenly shifts to something behind her. She turned and followed his gaze through the open door, focussing in on a man pulling up across the street.
“That's our guy?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Finally,” she huffed. “Okay, let's get this over with.”
“You're going to be fine,” Reese told her. “Like I said, everyone gets nervous on their wedding day.”
The priest let them into the church with a smile on his face, chatting away about nothing in particular. Shaw did her best to ignore him except when she was asked a direct question.
“So, will your guests be arriving soon?”
“No guests!” The words came out sharper than she had intended, and the priest looked shocked. Shaw forced a smile onto her face before continuing. “We're a very private couple.”
“Don't mind her,” John remarked. “She's got cold feet.”
Shaw glared at him, but he seemed unperturbed.
“Ah, the pre-wedding jitters!” Shaw might have punched the priest if he hadn't been necessary to the proceedings. “Don't worry dear, I've seen this a thousand times.”
“I really doubt that,” she muttered, but he pretended not to hear.
“I'll tell you what I tell everyone I marry: there's no shame in backing out now. But if you think about what marriage really means – about spending the rest of your life with that one special someone – then deep in your heart, you'll know your answer.”
What marriage really means? It took all of Shaw's willpower not to roll her eyes. Marriage didn't exactly hold a special place in her heart. She hadn't dreamed of this day as a little girl, and she wasn't going to leave this church headed for a nice house in the suburbs with a picket fence and a baby on the way.
As for the rest of her life – that had never been long to begin with. She'd made her peace with that long ago.
It was only lately that she'd realised that maybe other people might see things differently.
Well. One other person.
And while this had seemed like a great idea when Root had suggested it, now that she was here in the emptiness of the chapel, it suddenly seemed like she might be making a lot of promises that she hadn't realised she was making. Promises she didn't know how to keep.
“They're on their way,” Reese said, looking up from his phone. “You ready?”
“As I'll ever be.” Even to her own ears it didn't sound convincing.
John smiled, and took her by the elbow to lead her down the aisle towards the altar.
“Just don't bolt until she gets here,” he murmured in her ear.
“Why?” Shaw asked.
He smiled. “Because then it won't be my fault.”
“Okay,” Shaw chuckled. “In that case, I guess I can stay.”
When the church door finally creaked open, Shaw almost jumped. She had only been waiting at the altar for about three minutes, but it was the longest three minutes of her life. She went to turn, but the warning look on Reese's face stopped her.
Then, after a couple of seconds, he nodded.
Sameen turned around, and saw Root.
Harold was there too, of course, walking her down the aisle. But Root was all Shaw could look at – all anyone could have possibly looked at. She was wearing white, but not a wedding dress – it was a sundress, with a broad skirt and short sleeves. Instead of roses or lilies, she carried a large bouquet of daisies, and wore several more woven into her hair like a crown. She caught Sameen's eye and smiled, and her face seemed to glow with happiness. In some ways, she looked nothing like herself – but at the same time, she looked more like herself than she ever had before.
One glance was all it took. Shaw's doubts melted away, and she felt at peace for the first time since they'd arrived in this town. Root understood her, just as much as she understood Root. Their wedding might be as strange as they were, and their marriage too – but that was all Shaw ever wanted.
That, and to see Root's smile, as many times as she could, in whatever time they had left.
“To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, 'til death to us part.”
Until the priest asked Harold for the rings, Shaw hadn't even thought about them. She had left all of the planning to Root, and so the first time she saw the ring was when the priest handed it to her.
It was a slender silver band, carved with some kind of pattern. It took a moment for Shaw to recognise what the decoration was: a circuitboard.
She glanced at Root with one eyebrow raised, and Root smirked back at her. Then again, what had she expected? This was Root, after all.
“With this ring, I thee wed,” she repeated after the priest, sliding it onto Root's finger. Root smiled down at the ring on her hand, and Shaw bit back the urge to ask aloud if hers matched.
She didn't have long to wait for an answer. The ring that the priest gave Root was a little broader, and undecorated, almost unremarkable – at least at first sight. While the priest recited his little speech, Root tipped the ring to the side, revealing the same circuitboard pattern carved on the inside, where no-one but Shaw herself would know it was there.
It was perfect.
“With this ring, I thee wed,” Root recited, slipping the ring onto Shaw's finger with a smile that said something like there's no getting rid of me now. A part of Shaw was thinking I'm as crazy as she is, but a much louder part was thinking thank goodness.
“What God has joined together, let no man separate,” the priest continued. “I now pronounce you wife and wife. You may -”
And that was when all hell broke loose.
Half a dozen men burst through the door of the church armed with semi-automatics. Shaw heard Harold ushering the priest to take cover behind the stone pulpit as she ducked in front of the pews, reaching for the ankle holster hidden by her long gown. Reese was beside her, covering the back door, and Root -
Shaw glanced across at the opposite row of pews to see Root's white dress hiked up around her waist, revealing a .45 tucked into her white lace garter belt.
The sound of shots brought Shaw back to the present, and she let off a couple of shots over the top of the pews, hearing a cry of pain in response.
“You know,” she called, as Root took out two more of the gunmen, “when you asked me to marry you, this isn't exactly what I had in mind.”
“Really?” Root replied. “'Cause this is exactly how I pictured it.”
The attackers hadn't been expecting resistance. In under a minute, all of them were on the ground, groaning over various injuries. Shaw got to her feet, just as the priest emerged from hiding. He stared at her, horrified.
“Uh, sorry about this,” she said, gesturing vaguely. After a moment she realised she was still holding her gun, which probably wouldn't help. “The service was lovely, really. And now that donation you received yesterday is safe.”
“How did you -?”
Root interrupted the priest's response, taking Shaw by the hand.
“Sweetie,” she said. “We were interrupted.”
“What?”
Root grinned. “You were about to kiss the bride.”
She put her hand into Shaw's hair and pulled her down for a kiss. No-one clapped or cheered, and no-one was crying except for a couple of the would-be thieves who were whimpering in pain. But it was a kiss which promised some kind of future together, and that was all Shaw could ask for right now.
After a few seconds, Harold coughed awkwardly, and the two of them broke apart.
“Congratulations,” he said. “I'm sure myself and Mr. Reese can finish up here, if you two wish to leave now.”
“Yeah,” John added, “you don't want to miss your flight.”
“Flight?” Shaw asked.
Root squeezed her hand and let go, walking towards the door. Shaw followed her.
“I booked us a honeymoon,” she explained over her shoulder. “I hear Columbia is lovely this time of year.”
“I love you,” Shaw said fervently.
Root laughed. “I should hope so, under the circumstances!”
As they made their way out of the church together, Shaw glanced down at the ring on her finger. It was strange and new to see it there, but she didn't want to take it off.
“You realise we're not technically married,” she said out loud. “I mean, we didn't exactly use our real names.”
“Does that matter?”
Shaw looked again at the ring which kept Root's pattern close against her skin.
“I guess not,” she said, and she took Root's hand as they made their way into the future.