It's your sixteenth birthday and you're running. Fast. That government agency that you definitely thought would be just like Agent Cody Banks? Turns out it was a lot less fun. Also you got significantly less cool gadgets than you had expected. They had given you one thing though, the ability to kill and not get caught; and right now, the not getting caught thing was really coming in handy. You were absolutely their worst nightmare, the most skilled in your class by far, and you had turned against them. With a smirk on your face, you look straight at the camera in the warehouse you were in and shoot it, immediately going to hide in the massive maze of boxes.
Four days pass and you feel yourself starting to weaken, you know they know where you are, and you know they're trying to starve you out. You're calm, not frightened, never frightened. You hear footsteps and you're slightly surprised, you thought they would wait longer before coming after you. You pull out your gun, take two shallow breaths and come out from hiding to deliver two clean headshots. You roll and deliver another shot, this one hitting a man directly in the throat, blood splatters and he makes a gurgling noise before hitting the ground. You turn around and fire again, nodding to yourself when you hear another body drop. Then you hear footsteps, lots of them, coming from each possible direction; you take out 4 men and run out of ammo, one goon is running towards you and you chuck your gun as hard as you can at him, knocking him out cold. This actually gives you a moment of satisfaction, but before you can go inspect your work you're being grabbed from behind. You turn and look and see that this dude is smiling, he's literally smiling at the prospect of killing a sixteen year old girl. He shoves you to the ground and takes aim, you sigh and shrug, at least you got these sixteen years and four days.
A deafening bang rings through the warehouse and you brace yourself, but are surprised to still be alive a second after the sound stops echoing. You look up and there she is, smirking and walking towards you.
"Nice to finally meet you Sameen," she offers her hand with her words, raising and eyebrow when you grunt and stand yourself up. About one second before you ask her what the hell is going on, a bullet whizzes past your face, coming into contact with a seemingly invisible man's head. You look back and forth between the dead guy and her, wondering how the hell she could have heard him and more importantly, how the hell she had such excellent aim without even looking at the guy.
You decide against questions and follow her to the van, still wondering the entire time who it is she's talking to when she speaks. It's definitely not you, and you wonder if whoever it is on the line is who allows her to do things like shoot without looking, or open these electronically locked doors without touching the keypad.
"Sameen I know you don't have a lot of information yet, but trust me, we're going to keep you safe," you grunt in response and shove your hands in your pockets, following at her side. She looks down at you and smiles, a real one not a smirk.
"I'm Root," you look up at her for a second and nod, before climbing into the van with her. The ride in the van is fairly short, and you arrive at a nicely furnished apartment, presumably a safehouse. Your first instinct is to scope out all the easiest exits, and look for any hidden or potential weapons. Root laughs quietly to herself as she watches you,
"You really do reek of government training. You'll like Reese," you roll your eyes and continue your search. Once you've finished you join her in the living room, where she hands you a bag and a plate of food that seems to have come out of nowhere.
"I know you're probably exhausted, here's about a weeks worth of clothes. Have some food and get some rest, we'll talk about everything in the morning. You're grateful for the food but slightly skeptical, that is until you take the first bite. You haven't had steak in ages, and before ten minutes you've devoured the entire thing. You grab a shower and head into the bedroom, laying down on the first bed you've felt in months. Except you can't sleep, of course not, of course this is one of the times where your insomnia has hit in full force, it's not like you haven't slept in four days. You get up after about an hour and go back into the kitchen to get some water. Root is at her computer, she has on glasses and looks extremely focused. You watch her for a few seconds before she looks up, closes her laptop, and joins you at the sink. She grabs a cup of her own and stands behind you, placing a hand on your back and lightly tugging at your shirt to get you out of the way of the sink.
"You really ought to rest Sameen, you look exhausted," she's not wrong. You begin to walk back to the bedroom but for some reason you don't understand, you turn back to her for a split second. She leads you to the bedroom and lays down next to you, ever so slightly touching your arm with her hand.
"Sleep Sameen. Please," something about her voice, with the shaky worried undertone, makes you trust her just enough to be able to fall asleep.
After a couple months of living with Root, you've learned a lot about both her, and the people, or maybe things, that she works for. There are little things about her that you had picked up immediately, like she is deaf in her right ear. For a while you thought she simply was ignoring you when you spoke, but you soon noticed it only happened when you stood on her right. When you asked her what happened she smiled and shrugged, but she did let you see and touch her cochlear implant, which was pretty cool. Root drinks her coffee black, and drinks probably six cups a day. She rarely ever sleeps, but when she does there isn't a force on this earth that can wake her. She likes to touch you when she talks, sometimes lightly on the shoulder, other times, like when you're trying to read on the couch, she likes to play with your hair. You suspect it has to do with her being deaf, a loss of one sense being made up for by another. You don't mind the touching, in fact it seems to bother Finch more than you even notice it.
You also learn bigger more important things. Root, Finch and Reese save people; you're not exactly sure where they get their intel, but you've heard the word "machine" uttered on more than one occasion. Reese is the brawn of the operation, that much was obvious about a minute after meeting him, his posture and presence ooze military. Root and Finch are nerds, they work with computers and are really good. Sometimes you like to sit next to Root on the couch when she's coding to watch her. She changes in these moments, it's probably the version of her you like the most: she's cold and calculating, and she moves with crazy accurate precision. It's the only time she's ever not smiling or smirking or even looking human, it's the only time where you really understand her.
Even though Root is half of the brains of the operation, she really likes fieldwork, which is why she was the one to have found you in the warehouse. She carries two guns, which is kind of ludicrous but also something you like, and you're pretty sure she's a sadist. Finch still hasn't let you go out into the field yet, but Reese has told you about Root when she's on a mission. She changes, sometimes you see it when she comes back to the apartment, covered in a mixture of her own and someone else's blood, sporting a glean in her eye. Root isn't like you, she isn't dissociative when she's taking a life, she enjoys squeezing every ounce of pain from a body until they no longer can bear to live. Sometimes, like tonight, you stitch up her wounds, and you notice how she seems to come down from her high. She watches your handiwork carefully,
"You're pretty good at that Sam, you should be a doctor." Your still focused on your work, barely even hearing her.
"I know." She chuckles at that and winces at the antiseptic you apply to the wound once you've closed it. She goes to bed immediately, and when you follow suit a couple hours later she is dead asleep. She's gone in the morning, having made you breakfast and left a stack of medical textbooks on the table. Over the next few weeks new ones keep appearing, you devour them.
Half a year goes by and you've figured out what the machine is, and Root's connection to it. You spend more time in the library with the gang, and have begun to develop some coding skills of your own. Just about every day you beg Finch to let you go out in the field, and just about every day he says no. He knows you have the abilities, and lately even Reese has been lobbying for letting you out. The amount of numbers you all have been receiving is out of control, and Finch knows you should be in the field. Finch worries though, and lately you'd been overhearing a lot of conversations such as the one you were eavesdropping on right now.
"I'm simply suggesting Ms. Groves, that you and Ms. Shaw spend some more time apart. I don't want her following you on missions and putting herself in danger. You do have a tendency to be.. reckless.. when you work."
"Oh Harry, she'd just rather spend time with me than the big lug, plus," she looked up on top of the bookshelf you were perched on definitely just to read and not eavesdrop, shooting you a knowing wink.
"it would be impossible to keep her locked up… At least against her will anyways." You had learned early on that it is very difficult to hide from someone who has a robot overlord in their ear. You climb down and stand next to Root, who throws an arm around your shoulders and pulled you in a bit closer, a gesture no doubt done to antagonize Finch.
Later that night you find yourself in bed with Root who was definitely pretending to be asleep, and you start to think about what Finch had been saying. Maybe you are actually growing attached to Root, you do still share a bed with her after all. But whatever you feel is different than what Root feels for you, or maybe just a much less extreme version. You're jostled from your thoughts by Root,
"Sameen,"
"What,"
"Stop moving so much," you roll your eyes but comply, lying stiffly on your side. You feel the bed rustle as she scoots closer towards you, and reaches a hand out to trace some patterns on your back. After about three minutes you realize she's writing lines and lines of code on you, which is actually kind of comforting.
In the months leading up to your seventeenth birthday, Finch finally realizes he may actually need you in the field. You train with Reese every day, and enjoy it immensely. He's very quiet, lets you play with all of his weapons, and is an excellent sparring partner. You come home every day exhausted and satisfied. You finally begin sleeping and eating regularly again, probably for the first time since before you left home for the government. You know that sooner or later, Finch is going to have to actually let you stop training and start working.
Root is very pleased with your progress, you see her beaming with what seems to be pride every time you come back from a session with Reese. Finch continues to worry, because she spoils you rotten. If you so much as mention in passing that you'd like something, it appears within two days, with the exception of food, which she leaves to get you immediately. You tell her over and over that you can do these things yourself, and that you don't actually need all the crap that she gives you, but she rolls her eyes,
"Why don't you let me decide that Sameen." You roll your eyes right back at her and hop in the shower. When you come out she's coding again, you dry your hair and grab a couple glasses of water for the both of you. You sit next to her on the couch,
"Can I watch?" you ask her quietly, sometimes Root can be easily startled when she's too in the zone. She smiles softly and scoots up against the armrest of the couch, allowing you to sit between her legs and rest her laptop on your own. She reaches around you and immediately starts typing again. You know that when she's like this, she barely even processes that you're present. Her fingers fly across the keys, making a nice consistent clacking sound that you've recently learned thoroughly relaxes you. Your eyes begin to fall shut, and you fall asleep leaning against her, listening to her build new worlds for her god.