Chapter Text
a/n hello beautiful POI peeps. Listen up. This is about to be some cracky ass, full of laughs, don’t question the plot because there is none, four chapter series because my friends and I have no chill. Welcome to part one. The introduction. The set up. Also, some notes you need to know: shaw and her gay ass did kiss root and was shot but they got her back in like 48 hours, Samaritan had gone super nova psycho and the machine is crippled. That’s about it.
They stood behind the wall as bullets blazed past their ears, landing into the concrete behind them.
“I’m down to three rounds.” Reese called out to the three people behind him as he swept in front of their barrier firing those remaining shots. Shaw did a mental check in her head and realized she was at about the same.
“Has your all seeing other half given us an out yet or should I start digging my grave now.” Her question was directed at the woman who was never quite paying attention to the danger of the situation. Her face lit up and Shaw knew a plan was about to come together.
Root wordlessly grabbed Shaw’s gun out of her hand and held it with her other one. “Thanks sweetie.” She was around the corner before Shaw could protest, firing careful shots at the oxygen tanks behind their enemy. After the first two shots, the room exploded with tunnels of fire. The team was safe behind the concrete barriers but only just so. When the heat subsided, they followed Root’s erratic path down several hallways, into a tunnel system, and out through a sewer main. When they finally reached the cool night air, they were somewhere outside of Brooklyn.
“We need to keep moving.” Root continued at her break neck pace, not giving a moment for the people slowing behind her.
“Come on fruity pebbles, you’ve been pushing us for twenty minutes. I don’t think they are following us anymore.” She turned towards the heaving detective, cocking her head to the side.
“We aren’t in a dead zone. Samaritan gives the word and there will be a hundred of operatives just like them on our location in minutes.” They walked another fifteen blocks until Root turned into an alley way. She shot the lock off of the back door of a Chinese restaurant, using her last bullet. They climbed another flight of stairs before they were in the dimly lit hallway of some less than savory apartments. The cigarette stained walls were chipping away and the single light in the hallway flickered on and off. Instinctively, Shaw tried to obtain a morse code message from the sixty watt bulb but it didn’t mean anything. After what felt like hours, Root led them into an apartment that had a burnt orange couch, two chairs that belonged in the fifties and a bed with a mess of sheets.
Without asking, the boys collapsed on the couch. Reese looked down at the blood on his shirt trying to determine what was his and what wasn’t. Fusco followed suit, finding the smudge on his tie was actually just ketchup from a slaw dog. “Root what are we doing here?” Reese’s voice had the usual deep lithe to it.
“Things are not going as planned. The machine is still repairing itself from Decima’s attack. She needs time before she can even be useful giving us reliable numbers.” Root walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a large bundle of files.
“We can’t just sit on the sidelines,” Reese argued.
“We don’t have a choice John. If we want to be useful again, we have to survive the next month…until the machine heals herself. That means getting out of town now” She handed out folders to each of them, excluding Lionel.
“I though Samaritan couldn’t see us.” Finch stepped in.
“She can’t but she’s gotten smarter. She can pinpoint who we are based on how we scatter together, our patterns, our basic profile. We have two options here Harry. One…”She held up a finger. “We split up like we did before, don’t interact with each other at all and hope that if Samaritan does find us we can put up a fight alone…or two.” A second finger. “We use these covers and leave for the month, together. We come up with a plan to defeat Samaritan while we aren’t getting shot at every five seconds.”
“Miss Groves is right. We can’t keep trying to defeat Samaritan like this. It’s like putting out a forest fire with a garden hose.” Finch stood up behind Root, taking off his hat and wiping the sheen of sweat from his brow. “If this is what the machine has determined our best option is, I am inclined to agree.”
“I’m with her,” Shaw added, referring to Root not the machine. Reese huffed in agreeance and opened his own folder.
“No.” At the first glance of the paper, he was already out. “It was bad enough you got me being a cop here, I’m not going to be a damn barista for a month.” He threw the folder on the counter.
Shaw couldn’t hide her snicker. “Please, tell me you did that for me,” she whispered into Root’s good ear.
“These are going to be low profile jobs. I was assigned the same place as you. It isn’t going to be fun but it is what we have to do to survive.”
“And what about her,” he argued. “What does Shaw get to do?” Shaw peeled open her own folder and nearly dropped it, echoing the same no as John.
“I will kill them.” She directed her comment to Root. “You can’t put me in charge of high schoolers.” Finch took the file out of her hand concerned. It had her listed as Sam Wilson, substitute teacher for twelfth grade biology.
“I do believe Miss Shaw is correct, putting her in charge of youth could be detrimental for all parties involved.”
“Hey.” Shaw snatched the folder back, insulted. “You know what? I’m going to prove you wrong. I can last a month and not threaten a single one of them.” Shaw, Finch and Reese began bickering among themselves over their respective identities. Finch didn’t have much room to complain as he would be working in computer software, something he was actually comfortable with.
Fusco finally had enough and butted in. “Why don’t I get a crappy cover?”
“You’re staying here. Samaritan hasn’t definitively linked you to us so you will be our eyes in the city while we are gone.” Root handed him a burner phone. “Any communications you have with us need to be within the shadow map and on this encrypted phone. Don’t bring anything else with you.”
“I’m gonna miss the trip to small town America with the four of you. Maybe there is a God.” He got four glares in response and if Shaw had her gun still, she would have probably shot near his knee caps for good measure.
“This isn’t a vacation, Lionel.” Root was adamant. “We are going to lay low and hopefully return with a plan to win this war.”
“So, this machine you keep talking about got you a condo in the burbs?” He questioned.
Root scanned over her master file, something she hadn’t carefully reviewed before. This was always the emergency exit plan but she never thought they would have to use it. “We will all be staying together, actually. The Wilson siblings and their spouses just bought side by side town houses.”
“And which Wilson sibling are you married to?” Shaw cocked her head to the side. Root undid the tie on the last manila envelope and poured out four rings. She handed the boys theirs first and held the last two in her palm in front of the impatient Persian.
“I know this isn’t how we planned it, but will you do me the honor?” Shaw reluctantly grabbed the ring and stuffed it on her finger. Reese laughed at her and whispered a comment that Root couldn’t quite hear, but had obviously pissed Shaw off more.
“I don’t know why you’re laughing,” Shaw quipped back. “If I’m married to Root…that means you’re married to Finch.” His face dropped instantly.
Fuso perked up. “I lied, take me with you. This is going to be priceless.” Reese turned around and socked him in the arm, knocking the officer into the couch.
“Where the hell are we going again, Root?” John turned towards her, his resting pout intensified.
“A town the machine has identified as one of the only places in three states that doesn’t seem to have any of its video surveillance connected to a main system. Samaritan has no access.” Root scanned down the paper.
“Root, what’s the name?” Shaw edged her towards an answer, knowing the woman liked to beat around the bush.
“Rosewood, Pennsylvania.”