#shaw and genrika

[girl4music]

SHAW: “Now if you’re ever in trouble again, call this number.”

*hands her a slip of paper*

GEN:

*holds out her father’s medallion*

“Don’t sell it, okay? I know it won’t mean much to you, but it will mean a lot to me that you have it.”

*holds it out to Shaw further but when realizing that Shaw won’t take it, puts it into her hand herself*

SHAW:

*she looks at it then looks back at Gen*

“I’m just not wired for this kind of stuff, kid.”

GEN: “I know. I’ve figured you out. It’s not that you don’t have feelings. It’s just like… the volumes turned way down. Like the sound of an old tape. The voices are there, you just have to listen. Bye Shaw.”

SHAW:

*Gen goes to walk off but Shaw stops her and pulls her into an awkward hug that’s a just a little too tight*

GEN:

*smiles*

“You’re hurting me.”

SHAW:

*immediately lets her go and checks to see if she’s fine and then silently hand signals that she can leave*

Episode 5, Season 3 of ‘Person Of Interest’ and we’re getting Shaw backstory. Yes, baby, tell me who you are and why you’re like you are now. I want to know it all.

Emotionally disconnected from childhood trauma or perhaps even since she was born. Very interesting.

So let me guess. Love is going to be the breakthrough.

That’s going to be her arc. Learning to feel deeply again or even learning to feel deeply for the first time.

Oooo I’m excited. Characters like this are so psychologically intriguing for me. And it takes a certain kind of level of acting skill to be able to pull off the dichotomy of showing emotions in a character when they have to be emotionless as that character because it’s as the kid said - it’s not that feelings are not there, they’re just at a frequency you can’t pick up. And you have to really pay attention to the nuances. Subtle body language like in facial expressions. It’s hard to portray somebody like that if not that yourself. This arc will definitely showcase what Shahi can do and I’m very excited to see her range in acting skills because portraying emotionality is just as difficult as portraying physicality for some actors, if not more so because they’re not used to it.

As for Shaw herself - I can see she’s a very protective person for her own personal reasons that she may or may not be very aware of at the present time. So she’s likely going to undergo a lot of self-revelation and self-reflection throughout her arc as a main character if this episode is any indication. She’s going to unravel and it’s not going to be an easy process for her at all.

Similar to Root - she doesn’t have connection or attachment with humanity, so she prefers to either focus all her attention on another species/intelligence rather than involve herself in human relationships. And the thing about that is people like that almost always find a connection in somebody that is the very same even if it’s not healthy to do so because they have to navigate self-development all the while rejecting it.

And that is such an enemies-to-lovers trope. Oh yes. So, I can already see how Shoot is going to play out.

[couldcarefewer]

i can't make .gifs to effectively illustrate my point but

First responder to young Shaw in the car wreck in 1993: "Hang on, kiddo; I'm coming to you, okay?"

Shaw talking on the phone to a kidnapped Gen in 2013: "Hang on, kiddo. I'm coming for you."

First responder about to pull young Shaw out of the car wreck in 1993: "Ready to get out of here?"

Shaw as she undoes Gen's restraints after killing her kidnappers in 2013: "You ready to get out of here?"

GESTURES BROADLY

DO YOU SEE

[mswyrr]

I'm just not wired for this kind of stuff, kid.

I know. I figured you out. It's not that you don't have feelings. It's just like… the volume is turned way down. Like the sound on an old tape. The voices are there. You just have to listen.

Moments of Interest

Razgovor (3x05)

[inkstainedheartbeats]

Okay @scarlet-bitch (hope you don’t mind the tag) this is the very basic like timeline of that thing I mentioned. It’s a super crossover xD

—//—//—//—

1917

James “Bucky” Barnes is born March 10

Howard Stark is born August 15

1918

Steve Rogers is born July 4

1921

Margaret “Peggy” Carter is born April 21

1930

Eric Lehnsherr is born May 25

1932

Charles Xavier is born July 13

1939

Howard Stark starts up Stark Industries

1950

Nick Fury is born July 4

1954

John Winchester is born April 22

Mary Winchester is born December 4

1956

David Rossi is born May 9

1958

Henry Winchester stumbles upon a mutant/human co-op trying to force mutations in humans. He is saved by an undercover CIA agent and forced into Witness Protection without his wife and child. The CIA agent has betrayed the CIA and is instead working with the co-op.

The CIA agent, calling herself Abbadon, starts to subtly threaten Millie.

1960

Harold Finch (Thomas) is born April 9

1962

Abbadon injects John with a prototype serum that is supposed to force a mutation out of him. It seems to fail.

Nathan Ingram is born June 6

Olivia Manx is born July 5

1964

Phil Coulson is born July 8

1965

Abbadon scares Millie, who believes that she has hidden John’s existence from Abbadon as the ex-CIA agent never threatens him, away. Millie leaves John with her sister Maisy. She takes on the name Maria.

Millie meets and falls in love with Howard Stark.

Nathan Ford is born August 16

Carl Elias is born August 18

1966

Robert Hersh is born May 7

Mark Snow is born May 22

1967

Anthony Marconi is born November 23

1968

Lionel Fusco is born March 17

James “Rhodey” Rhodes is born October 6

1969

Bruce Banner is born December 18

1970

Tony Stark is born May 29

Emily Prentiss is born October 12

1971

Clint Barton is born June 18

Aaron Hotchner is born November 2

1972

Joycelyn Carter is born March 7

Haley Hotchner is born July 16

1973

Derek Morgan is born June 6

1974

Pepper Potts is born February 12

1975

John Reese (Harris) is born May 4

1977

Elle Greenaway is born June 24

Penelope Garcia is born July 7

1978

Sam Wilson is born September 23

1979

Dean Winchester is born January 24

1981

Samantha Groves is born September 4

Sean Hotchner is born August 7

Spencer Reid is born October 28

1982

Maria Hill is born April 4

1983

Grant Ward is born January 7

Sam Winchester is born May 2

Nathan Ingram leaves MIT with an unfinished degree to start IFT May 29

Michael Cole is born July 10

Sameen Shaw is born October 25

Mary Winchester dies November 2

1984

Jessica Moore is born January 24

Will Ingram Finch is born August 31

Natasha Romanov is born November 20

1985

Devon Grice is born November 30

1986

Alec Hardison is born April 13

Dum E is created June 18

1987

Tony graduates from MIT June 5

Leo Fitz is born August 19

Jemma Simmons is born September 11

1988

Skye (Daisy Johnson) is born July 2

1989

This is the last year that Millie Winchester was seen alive. This is because she abandons the name and steps fully into her Maria Stark alias.

Pietro & Wanda Maximoff are born January 1

1990

Adam Milligan is born September 29

1991

Maria and Howard Stark die December 16

1992

Theresa Whitaker is born March 7

John Winchester drops his sons off with his half brother Tony Stark April 20

July 20 Tony manages to gain custody of his nephews.

1993

John Winchester suffers a mental break and kills Kate Milligan and kidnaps his son on October 3

October 11 Adam is dropped of with Tony which causes a scandal

1995

Caleb Phipps is born July 26

1997

Taylor Carter is born June 18

1999

Masha Ingram-Finch is born February 24

2000

Lee Fusco is born January 9

2001

Peter Parker is born August 10

2003

Genrika Zhirova is born December 13

2004

Lionel and his wife divorce

2005

Jack Hotchner is born October 7

“The Machine” goes online February and the next day sold.

2007

On February 5 Tobias Hankel kidnaps Spencer Reid.

2008

Henry LaMontagne is born November 12

2009

Tony is kidnapped by 10 Rings February 13

2010

The Ferry bombing happens killing Nathan Ingram September 26

Sometime during October or November Rick Dillinger is hired by Finch

Dillinger dies December 5ish

2012

May 4; Battle of New York happens.

[sillyposter21]

shaw+genrika / dennis+abby: bi sociopath and the little girl who makes them Feel Emotions

[julieverne]

Standing outside a broken phone booth with money in my hand (I've been downhearted, baby)

Shaw gets up at the insistent ring of the phone. In a world post-Machine, in a world post-Root, it's only the phone and Bear that make things bearable. She has a new fake ID every few weeks, has a new home whenever she needs one, but everything feels flat and dull, like it did after her father died.

Her father understood. He never asked more from her than she could provide.

And then he was gone, and she was expected to react and feel and the school keep calling CPS and Shaw felt bad about that sometimes, how hard it must have been for her mother. Sometimes Shaw thinks about letting her know she's still alive, but Shaw's mother is honest and she would lose her pension and might even be in danger if she reports that Shaw is alive, so Shaw settles for taking a flight home and watching from a rooftop. She remembers that laugh, one she rarely drew from her. She watches her mother hold her brother's kids, watches the way she holds him a little long when he leaves, as though half of it is for her child that isn't there. The child that is watching from the high-resolution lens a few hundred metres away. Shaw snaps the pictures, since they're in focus. She always thought they'd be happier without her, but Shaw can see the lines of sorrow on her mother's face that her father and she put there.

She has missions, and shooting people in the knee was John's thing, but they always enjoyed it so she carries on the tradition, and for a moment it's like he lives on in her. Shaw tries a few shots left handed, double handed, but even with The Machine in her ear she can't do the impossible.

The world fades into colour, now and then, when she drops in at Gen's school for a science fair. The little nerd has been put ahead a few years and she looks comically small next to her classmates. She's always prepared to be alone, never really expects Shaw to turn up to her invitations, but Shaw always does. She knows one day she won't because she'll be injured or dead, but she knows The Machine will take care of Gen, probably better than Shaw ever could. The best part is that Bear is still registered as a service dog, and Shaw is obviously a retired veteran, so Bear trots in patiently at her side and Gen smiles so broadly when she sees them that Shaw can almost pretend that half of that smile is for her. Bear is well behaved, and the kids leave him alone until Shaw slips off his vest, at which point every kid in the school enters a contest of being the person who distributed the most pats. Gen always, always, wins, but that's because Shaw cheats and takes her to the oval, where Gen chatters happily, running back and forth with Bear between sentences. The poor kid is used to constant disappointment that even cold, heartless Shaw turning up a few times a year makes her a role-model. But she keeps coming back, and at some point she realises it's not just for Gen's sake, for her well-being or whatever, or for the clout of her having someone show up to her school events, and it's not just to wear Bear out, snoring the whole way home contentedly.

There's nothing of Shaw in Gen, and that's why she comes back. This is something Shaw hasn't tainted, this is something good Shaw does, has done, will do. It's the legacy of that time in her life, that one time in her life where she felt like she belonged. Gen knows not to expect too much from adults, and because of that, Shaw always exceeds her expectations.

Those days aren't dull, Bear bounding with joy across a snowy field, tween laughter trailing behind him. Shaw sitting on a park bench, getting a lecture on the best way to tap burners, Gen's face pressed against one knee and Bear's chin on her shoes as he grovels for Gen.

But the rest of it - snowy days in NYC with no motorbike tearing up asphalt to impress her and whisk her away to Do Crimes, the voice with no inflection tuning in and out of her life, the new teams, which Shaw declined to join, running interference when she takes a risk or a bullet.

But right now her phone is ringing and she reaches for it clumsily, still half asleep, and knocks it onto the floor, hearing a smash. She groans, and then hears a phone ringing nearby; there's a booth on the corner, there always is, wherever she lives.

She tugs on gloves and a beanie and a coat, and Bear springs to attention, tail wagging at the idea of a walk. Shaw snips on his lead, feels the coins on her pocket. Feels the glue in her slowly-waking brain.

The phone isn't ringing any more when she gets there. Shaw lifts the receiver, pulls out a coin and starts dialling the last call number on the booth. No dial tone. Shaw looks down in the flickering street light glow and sees where the phone cord has been cut. Vandals. She hangs up, and Bear whines.

'Hey sweetie. You miss me?' The Machine says in Shaw's ear, and she wonders why she fell asleep with her earpiece in, why The Machine bothered with the phones. But then there's a warm arm wrapped around her, and Shaw braces herself out of habit, not waiting to be tazed or drugged. She hauls her company around into the phone booth, presses her against the useless phone (it's definitely a her, Shaw notes briefly, rearranging her grip).

Somehow, out of all possible things to happen, the thing that has happened, is happening, is that Root is pressed against a broken telephone while the coin Shaw inserted falls into the return slot. Shaw let's go of Root, who retrieves the coin and hands it to Shaw. Shaw turns away, lets Bear do his business and cleans it up before heading back to her apartment. Root hesitates, and Shaw looks back, inclines her head, and Roots face breaks into a smile that would rival Gen's as she takes the invitation, such as it is, and follows Shaw home. Root's expression isn't one Shaw has to analyse and divide and share with anyone else; she knows this one is all hers.

[l-justnoiseinthesystem-l]

DONE

I had this gem buried in my downloads:

Title: Build till we've blistered our hands

Author: Nic Fic (AbbyBanks)

Rating: General Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Category: M/M

Fandom: Person of Interest (TV)

Relationship: Harold Finch/John Reese

Character: Sameen Shaw, Lionel Fusco, Grace Hendricks, Genrika Zhirova

Additional Tags: Post-Cannon Fix-It, Post-Episode: s05e15 Return 0, John Reese Lives, Pre-Relationship, love Confessions, Pinning, Sharing a Bed

Language: English

Series: Part 2 of The One Moment, Paar 1 of POI works

Stats: Published: 2022-05-24 Chapters: 11/11 Words: 32836

Summary: Eighteen months after Samaratin was defeated and a missile hit Midtown Manhattan, a series of ringing payphones take Harold back from Florence to New York. There he finds out what's changed in his absence - and how much is still the same.

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/31416575/chapters/77698946

Personal thoughts: Loved it, basically a fix it where everyone bar root lives, theres a new surprisingly legal team machine and everyone is happy for a change.

Downside is that it's only available for registered ao3 users (has the blue lock)

can you please recommend me your favourite s5 fix it fics I am in dire need

[ettadunham]

[π] person of interest quarantine rewatch ➥ 3x05 разговор

[ennobaka]

POI ladies spin off when

[a-st-art]

【Sketches ✕ #PersonofInterest】

⚫ shoot me on ☕ (azahararm) & get a sketch  every $3

[night-dark-woods]

ID. a series of gifs of Sameen Shaw from Person of Interest.

from episode If-Then-Else, talking down the subway. she says, "Life is crap. Welcome to the human race. But the good news is, you're not alone."

from episode Allegiance, pushing her opponent out a second story window so she can ride his body down to land safely.

from episode Razgovor, hugging Genrika while pursing her lips and staring into the distance.

from episode 6,741, on the phone with her hand covered in blood. she says, "There's a homicide in progress; I'm about to kill Bobby Jackson." Bobby says, "What?!" Shaw says, "Looks like your number's up."

from episode Last Call, talking to Finch and saying, "Would you really want someone to call 911 and get me?"

from episode Provenance, where a cop tries to arrest her while she's sitting at a bar. Fusco comes in to grab her instead, and Shaw smoothly finishes her drink.

from episode If-Then-Else, holding off Samaritan operatives and hitting the elevator button.

from episode Synecdoche, hands raised as she calmly says, "Oh, I can see just fine. That guy has a bum leg, the one by the door still has the safety on, and she hasn't stopped shaking since you raised your gun. Don't worry, it'll all be over soon."

from the last episode of the show, showing her back disappearing into a crowd. End ID.

ShootWeek: Day 2 ↳ favorite Shaw moments

bonus:

[lisagarlandd]

[writershapeholeonthedoor]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Person of Interest (TV) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Root | Samantha Groves/Sameen Shaw Characters: Root | Samantha Groves, Sameen Shaw, Genrika Zhirova, Original Characters Additional Tags: Family, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Domestic Fluff, Love, True Love, Idiots in Love, Romance, Cute, Cute Kids, the twins are back, watch another day in this little weird family Series: Part 2 of The Five Of Us Summary:

Root and the twins share a passion, but they always find a way to make it a mess.

[poistills]

Moments of Interest

Razgovor (3x05)

[presumenothing]

no longing for the sun

Sameen Shaw’s unterrible, pretty okay, not-too-bad week.

(or: my exchange of interest fic for @keita52, also on ao3! post-finale, canon compliant, running in the same vein as my two previous ficlets. and of course – title from that quintessentially shaw song, future starts slow.)

i.

Shaw tells Fusco about the Machine coming back online, of course.

His face as he processes this is priceless, really, and Shaw wishes she’d thought to record it as he asks, “Cocoa Puffs too?”

Shaw’s made sure to get nicely drunk before even starting this conversation, so she only shrugs.

“Hello, Lionel,” says Root, a little tinny from the speaker of Fusco’s handphone. “Miss me?”

“…not particularly,” he says, eyeing the phone like it’s suddenly turned into a venomous spider, before turning it off and wrapping it in the layers of his discarded jacket.

Shaw could point out the dozens of other phones and miscellaneous devices still scattered around the pub, much less the earpiece she has on even now – she really could, but then again she’s hardly one to talk about being logical over the Machine’s and Root’s existence anyway.

Whatever, Shaw decides, and wonders if she should get another plate of chips.

(Much afterwards Shaw chews ponderingly on a lone chip and says, “I guess Root’s the Digital Interface now. Since she’s… in the cloud now, or whatever the hell this is.”

“Sure,” Lionel responds slowly, sliding her drink away before offering to drive her home.

Shaw responds in turn by reacquiring the glass with extreme prejudice, and downing both their drinks before taking him up on that offer. It’s too cold to walk back to the subway at this hour, even for her, and bloody Uber drivers never knew how to shut up anyway.

“I could get you a self-driving car instead.” Root pauses, a crackle of silence over the earpiece. “A literally self-driving one.”

“Yeah, I got that,” Shaw answers aloud, and rolls her eyes at the sideways look Lionel gives her.

Root pouts audibly. “Why, I just thought you’d like a ride, Sameen,” she whispers, and Shaw coughs, choking on thin air.)

  ii.

Shaw’s parked across from their latest Number’s office building (or rather, she’s in a car that’s parked there, but details) when there’s a knock on the passenger window.

She glances over to see a familiar face peering through the window.

Her hair’s pulled up in a messy bun that had probably taken much more effort than all appearances would suggest, but that is most definitely Zoe Morgan looking back at her, eyebrows half-raised in an obvious question.

“If this is your way of telling me to get out more, I swear,” Shaw mutters under her breath, reaching over to unlock the door.

Root hums thoughtfully. “I just thought you could do with some company. Well – some other company, I mean,” she adds as Zoe opens the door.

Shaw huffs a breath of profound annoyance, but shakes her head when Zoe looks over in askance. “Not you,” she says shortly, gesturing at her earpiece.

“Ah,” Zoe says, looking almost bemused. ��This happen to be the same friend of yours who called me?”

“Probably,” Shaw answers quite honestly – she knows that Zoe was around when Finch and Reese first met Root, but it’s not something she ever had much reason to know about in detail before, and she’s hardly going to ask now.

(She’s also aware that the Machine uses different voices sometimes when the situation calls for it. It’s the only way they’ve been able to upkeep the various identities necessary for the work, since Shaw doesn’t have any near the same level of enthusiasm Finch had for juggling three dozen fake covers like some bizarre nerd circus act.

It’s always Root that talks to her, though.)

Out the corner of her eye Shaw spots someone heading for the building opposite. Too tall to be their Number, but he’s the first one she’s seen with a matching lanyard looped around his neck, and Shaw has seen more than enough trouble to recognise it in the nervous dart of his eyes.

She doesn’t snap a picture. They’d reestablished access to a good half of Harold’s many accounts now, at least, because his contingency plans were the type that could survive even a robot apocalypse, to no one’s surprise. But fancy zoom lenses still rank pretty far below buying more servers in terms of getting back up to some kind of proper operating capacity, so Shaw carries only a compact camera in addition to her handphone, and it’s too far to get a good shot with either one from here.

Root can probably pull up the lobby surveillance feed later if they need it anyway, she decides.

Shaw does make a note of the time, though, as she grabs a bag of pretzels from her backpack and opens it. “I’d have thought you would be in some fancy business brunch at this hour. No fires to put out among the city’s richest today?”

Zoe laughs lightly, and reaches into the bag when she holds it out. “There’s always something to put out, it just scheduled for a late lunch instead. Imagine my surprise when I got a call on my rare morning off.”

Right. Shaw doesn’t roll her eyes, but it’s close – if Zoe Morgan does surprise any more than Shaw herself did, she definitely hasn’t seen any evidence of it.

She crunches somewhat viciously on another handful of pretzels instead. “Let me guess, your mysterious caller gave you an equally mysterious address?”

“Happens about as often than you’d expect, in my line of work. So I followed the directions, and…” Zoe shrugs elegantly, slanting a faint smirk at Shaw. “Fancy finding you here at the end of it.”

“Yeah, fancy that,” Shaw grumbles, but it’s unexpectedly hard to maintain a proper grudge in the face of Zoe’s easy grin. “Don’t expect me to pay you for your time though.”

No wonder John had liked her so much, Shaw finds herself thinking, and scowls even harder. Dammit.

“Of course,” Zoe agrees, looking entirely unfazed. “I’m hardly on the job now, am I – unless there’s something I don’t yet know about?”

Shaw blows out a breath, sends a tiny puff of dust flying off the dashboard. Maybe she should leave the card of a decent car washing service pinned to the steering wheel before she goes.

Beside her Zoe is quiet.

“No,” Shaw says finally. “Not on this one.”

Zoe’s a smart lady. There’s no need to mention what else there is – or had recently been, rather – that she might not know about. “Whatever happened… wasn’t pretty, was it.”

Shaw blinks hard, stares out the window. “It’s over, at any rate.”

Zoe’s breath catches, just a touch louder than usual. “Well,” she finally says, “you obviously know how to reach me if you need me. At the usual friends-and-family discount, of course.”

Shaw looks over – Zoe’s eyes are red but dry. Nothing a little makeup can’t cover. “Yeah?”

“Well.” Zoe tilts her head, her smile regaining that edge of sharpness. “Only if you bring the dog.”

Shaw snorts. “Only if you’re off-duty, then. Unless you want to turn up to that lunch covered in dog hair.”

The corner of Zoe’s smile twitches. “Fair enough,” she concedes.

(Another thing you learn in my line of work, says a text later that night. Very few things are ever really over.

Shaw doesn’t reply, only snaps a photo of Bear with his tongue lolling out and sends that back instead. “Stop giving my number to random people,” she mutters aloud.

“Well.” Root’s voice somehow conveys a shrug just from the words alone. “No one asked you to reply.”

Shaw pulls a face at her handphone camera.)

  iii.

She’s walking away from the house of their Number’s ex-boss’ former chaffeur-slash-sometimes-chef (long story, don’t ask) when the payphone on the next street corner rings.

Shaw hadn’t even known that they still had payphones in neighbourhoods like this one, posh enough that even Harold might’ve even thought twice before buying a house here – not because of the price, mind, but he’d never been one to like ostentatiousness to match.

Anyway. Shaw spots the surprisingly unremarkable phone booth but doesn’t hurry to it, only lengthens her strides a little.

The phone’s still ringing when she arrives, of course, and habit makes her lean slightly against the side of the booth rather than turn her back on the street, however empty it might be.

Shaw picks up the receiver. “I know I said no to the cochlear implant, but there’s no need to ring me just to make a point, y’know,” she says without hesitation.

“I dunno, I thought it’d be nice. Just like old times, you know?” Root says, but before Shaw can figure out what the hell that means she’s already continuing. “Anyway, I thought you’d want to be standing still for this, at least.”

Her eyes search automatically for the nearest camera, and she raises an eyebrow at it. “What, I win the lottery or something?”

“Well, if that’s something you’re interested in…” Root answers, but even the lilt of teasing sounds slightly distracted. “I finally finished going through the last of the data from when ICE-9 hit.”

“I remember, you said that it’d scrambled all your timestamps or something?” Shaw frowns slightly, before realisation hits like a shot to the gut. “Did you – ”

“Yes.” Root doesn’t even wait for her to finish the question. “Harry’s alive, Sameen.”

Shaw suddenly understands the unevenness in her voice. Feels it herself, even.

“I found footage of him heading to the airport,” Root continues, the words coming out in a rush. “Plus a matching withdrawal on one of his older accounts. Harold Martin’s.”

Of course. Because Harold, for all his brains, could be the most sentimental of idiots sometimes.

“He’s gone to Italy, then.” To be with Grace, Shaw doesn’t need to add. (At least she damn well hopes he has, or she might just go to Rome or whatever specifically to kick his ass. Before dragging him to Grace’s doorstep herself and knocking on the door.)

“Most likely,” Root agrees. “Though seeing as most of the airlines are still floundering over their sudden throwback to the dark ages, further details will have to wait.”

Shaw doesn’t argue. It’s good as confirmed, for her, but she understands why Root – why the Machine would want to be sure. “What about John?” she asks before she can stop herself.

Root’s quiet for twenty whole seconds, which is already an answer in itself, really.

Shaw waits anyway.

“His last transmission was from the same coordinates that the missile was aimed at, minutes before it hit, and I haven’t been able to find any records of him past that point,” Root finally says, voice soft. “I’m sorry, Sameen.”

No news is no news, she’d told Lionel. And that’s still true, except – well.

For all that they’d been opposites she and John had been more alike than anything else. And Shaw already knew what she’d done, what she’d chosen at that bloody Stock Exchange, the same choice she’d make again.

Possibly that’d been their problem all along, Shaw thinks as she looks up, blinking hard into the glare of the afternoon sun. They’d all walked into this ready to die.

They just hadn’t been prepared to lose each other.

(“I bet that last call was to Harold, wasn’t it,” Shaw mutters under her breath, and Root doesn’t answer, which is just as well.)

  iv.

Shaw arrives at the principal’s office to find Gen sitting outside, a streak of rusty brown against her white uniform sleeve. Dirt, not blood, Shaw checks with a swift glance.

The mulish expression on Gen’s face still brightens immediately at the sight of her, though she doesn’t call Shaw by name, instead flicking a glance towards the blonde woman sitting behind the desk.

Smart kid.

Shaw gives her a nod, and heads past her to extend a hand to the woman – secretary to the principal, confirms the plaque on her desk, and really, only Finch would be able to find a school where even the principal needed a secretary.

“Samantha Partridge,” she says, manner as brisk as the blazer she’d swapped her usual leather jacket out for. “You called about Gen?”

“Miss Partridge.” The woman’s severe bun is even tighter from this close up, enough to give Shaw a headache just from looking at it. “Indeed. We take disciplinary matters very seriously here at Fitzhugh Quinnell Preparatory, as I’m sure you’re aware, and your ward here was involved in an altercation with several other students earlier.”

Shaw resists the urge to look back at Gen, and only says flatly, “Was she.”

The secretary’s minute frown intensifies, clearly not having gotten the response she expected. “I don’t know what values your family espouses, Miss Partridge, but we will not tolerate such behaviour from our students. Any further incidents would easily be grounds for expulsion.”

Shaw’s voice goes even flatter. “I don’t think so.”

She doesn’t know what strings Finch pulled back then to get Gen in this school midway through the school year, but she’s willing to bet that whatever it was probably involved a metric crapton of money.

From the shift of the secretary’s expression, she’s either aware of this, or just too accustomed to dealing with people with more zeroes in their bank balance than letters in their name. “Be that as it may – ”

Shaw’s almost reluctantly impressed by her persistence nevertheless, but she’s really not in the mood for this right now. “Does Gen need to see the principal or not?”

“She’ll be required to have a meeting with the school counsellor tomorrow,” begins the secretary.

That sounds exactly like no to Shaw’s ears, so she coughs pointedly. “If that’s all, then, I’d like to talk to my ward now,” she says, and hightails it out of there with Gen in tow before there’s any answer.

It turns into Gen tugging at her hand instead quickly enough, turning down a corner until they’re in a corridor of empty classrooms.

Gen watches quietly as she jimmies the lock of the third door on the left, which opens onto an immaculately well-kept music room that’s conveniently soundproofed.

“Shaw! You really came!” Gen says once the door’s closed behind them.

Shaw eyes her expression, excitement mixed with disbelief, and sighs, stretching out an arm. “C’mere,” she mutters, and Gen promptly rushes over.

She’s put on quite a bit of height, Shaw can’t help but notice, and the curls in her hair have straightened out into waves. It looks good on her.

“Let me guess,” Shaw says not quite dryly, when a full minute’s passed and Gen still hasn’t let go. “You picked the fight intentionally just so I’d come, didn’t you.”

“The number you gave me for emergencies wouldn’t connect,” Gen says, half-muffled by her blazer.

“Right, sorry ‘bout that, we had some pretty major issues a while back,” Shaw answers, before the implications register and she reaches for Gen’s shoulders. “Wait. You got into trouble?”

“Not really? But one of the girls in my class had someone blackmailing her parents, I think, and I wondered if you and Harold could help. So I tried calling, and…” Gen peers up at her, a little uncertainly. “You’re not mad, are you?”

Shaw gives in to the urge to ruffle her hair. “Of course not. Wouldn’t have given you that number if I didn’t want you calling me, would I?”

“Okay.” Gen nods, her arms tightening around Shaw’s waist before she finally lets go. “I was really worried. I’m glad you’re alright, Shaw.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Here, I’ll give you the new number to call,” she adds as she reaches for her handphone.

(They’d never given out their actual phone numbers, of course. But unlike the contact details they used for temporary covers, the ones they gave Numbers redirected back to their phones through some overly complex system managed first by Harold and then the Machine – until Samaritan had come along to fuck everything up, of course.

Shaw herself had only passed the one number to Gen. But she knows that John had handed them out like candy, and even Harold had given out a few himself, so she makes a mental note to tell Root to check if those numbers are still connecting.)

Gen’s still tapping deftly at her phone as she asks, “Are you free this weekend?”

“Assuming no one decides to try murdering anyone e–” she manages to say before Root hums meaningfully from her earpiece, and Shaw rolls her eyes. “Yes, I’m free. Most probably.”

“Good.” Gen pockets her phone, and grins. “Can we have a sleepover?”

Shaw blinks. “Look, I don’t know what they teach at this posh school of yours but I’m not twelve – ”

“Thirteen!”

“ – not thirteen, I’m a responsible adult. Who doesn’t do sleepovers.”

“Have you ever done a sleepover?”

Shaw sighs deeply, and ignores Root’s laughter in her ear. “…no.”

“Great, we can figure it out together then!” Gen cheers. “And I want to meet your dog, too. I didn’t get to meet him properly the last time.”

“No more getting into fights, then,” Shaw says only half-heartedly. “I hate being called to the principal’s office.”

“Well, you get into fights all the time,” Gen points out.

Shaw can’t really argue with that.

(Heavens only knew how Harold had survived raising a tiny supercomputer terror, she thinks, if this is what semi-older-sistering one child is like. No wonder he’d been so stressed all the time.)

v.

She’s standing there in the afternoon sun, Fusco’s arm slung across her shoulder, staring up into the blindingly bright sky – except that the missile swerves sharply to head towards them – no, past them to a faintly smiling Root, standing just out of reach dressed all in black.

“Shaw,” she says – except that no, her mouth hasn’t moved and the tone’s all wrong, terse instead of smiling and Shaw jerks awake all at once, to the voice echoing just slightly off the subway’s arched roof. “Sameen!”

“Okay,” she mutters, breath drawing up short and shallow, then again, louder. “Okay, I’m awake.”

The wireless speaker beside the bed winks on, a circle of blue light. “You alright, sweetie?”

“I’m fine,” Shaw says, though she grimaces when she feels the cold sweat that’s soaked into her back.

(It still isn’t a lie, either way – if nothing else she’d stopped dreaming of being back the simulations. Reality might have gone to shit, but at least now Shaw remembers what it is most of the time.

Seeing the sorry charred remains of Decima into the ground personally had probably helped with that.)

She seriously considers getting up to change for a moment before flopping back down. Not like she hasn’t slept in far worse places, anyway.

Fifteen minutes later she finally gives up on sleep as a bad job for the night.

Shaw muffles a heartfelt ugh in the sheets – time for a laundry run tomorrow, probably – before pushing herself up.

She grabs a bottle of water and downs half of it in a long gulp. “Hey, Root.”

“Yeah?” Root asks, from the bank of monitors on the desk. Behind her the Machine hums, whirrs on steadily.

The lights flicker on as she walks. It’s – almost nice down here in the quiet of night, now that the worst of the damage has been repaired, but Shaw looks at the shadows cast long across the subway tile and asks, “Ever think about moving house?”

“Get our own place, that kind of thing?” Root laughs. “Why, I never thought you’d be the one asking to move in with me, honey.”

Shaw rolls her eyes. “No, I was just thinking of someplace where the closest delivery isn’t Chinatown.”

Root’s voice curls with amusement. “Well, I’m sure I can manage something. Though I’m afraid Harry never did prioritise the availability of nearby food places when he was buying property.”

Just tea shops, probably, Shaw’s about to say, when there’s a soft whine from behind, and she turns to find Bear whuffling softly at her.

She tosses the empty bottle into the bin and kneels down to scratch behind his ears. “Up for a late night movie, big boy?”

“Should I find something in Dutch, then?”

Shaw glares at the nearest screen, now scrolling through what looks suspiciously like Netflix all on its own. “Do that and you’re not getting any popcorn.”

“You don’t have any popcorn,” Root points out, very correctly. “And you finished the last bag of chips yesterday, so.”

“I could always get some,” Shaw grumbles under her breath as she straightens and goes to gather the blankets and cushions off the bed, piling them on the subway bench across from the largest monitor.

Snacks and laundry run it is tomorrow, then.

Bear jumps up and settles in beside her like a fluffy furnace of warmth, and Shaw waves a hand imperiously before pulling the covers up around them. “Come on already.”

“Well, since you asked so nicely,” Root says, low and close, as the lights fall around them.

(Shaw wakes up the next morning with a vague recollection of Root snarking constantly at the movie’s plot, plus the world’s worst crick in her neck.

It’s still the best sleep she’s had in a long time.)

[kuromikoneko]

Shoot Headcanons #4

I have no doubt in my mind Gen tracked down Shaw when she got more freedom at her boarding school, especially since Harold fled the country, though he was still her benefactor. Root of course is intrigued by this little self proclaimed spy who gets under Shaw’s skin so easily, even prompting a sly grin now and then, especially so when she learns the medal Shaw’s hung onto through the years was given to her by Gen.

So they let Gen hang out with them now and then, during school holidays, long weekends sometimes and often in summer time until eventually Gen works up the courage to ask one of both of them to adopt her. It takes some time, but she’s patient, knows Shaw needs the time to work through the idea and with Root well on board with her prospect she was confident it might happen. And of course it does, Shaw’s a softie like that.