Author's note: the events of this story take place after Season 3 of Person of Interest, which, sadly, I don't own. Please don't sue me for using it. This story isn't a crossover.

It had been years since Shaw had had an ordinary job with ordinary wages and kept ordinary hours.

She didn't like it.

Sure, she understood why it was necessary. If she didn't lead an ordinary, squeaky clean life, Samaritan would find her and some Decima operative would shoot her in the middle of the street. Shaw would rather live an ordinary life than have no life at all.

Still, she missed her old job. It had been interesting, and dangerous, and it wasn't boring. She didn't have to hide who she was.

Shaw was grateful that the identity that Root and her geeks had made for her was a doctor. At the very least, working in the ER was interesting. It was difficult to miss your old life when you're trying to stabilize someone who had been in a car accident.

For all that, she couldn't help but think that it was only a matter of time before Reese staggered in and asked her to patch up some unorthodox injuries, or Harold would turn up and say that he needed her help shutting down Samaritan. Shaw was positive that it was only a matter of time before someone at Decima realised what Root had done, fixed it, and then came after her. Understandably, this made Shaw a little paranoid.

She remembered when, a couple of days into her new life, one of her fellow doctors had tapped her on the shoulder. Only an extreme effort of will and a conscious knowledge that the kind of person she was supposed to be now wouldn't react with violence to a simple surprise contact stopped her from spinning around and punching him in the throat.

Shaw had got a little better after that. She didn't jump at shadows quite so much.

However, when Harold actually had shown up while she was working in the clinic, Shaw had been surprised. Even though it had only been two weeks since Samaritan had come online (she had been undercover longer than that before), she had begun to think that this was it. That they couldn't stop Samaritan, so all they could do was live under its radar.

She hadn't been entirely wrong.

"I'm working on a solution." Harold said quietly. "But it will take time. Samaritan may be an open system, but that doesn't mean that it's easy to access. You'll have to wait. I understand that may be difficult for you, Ms Shaw, but-"

Shaw waved away his words. "Yeah, Harold, I'm fine. But you and Root are supposed to be some kind of super geniuses, aren't you? Can't you come up with something? You built the Machine! Surely you can figure out a way to take another one offline?"

Harold looked at her coolly. "I didn't build the Machine in two weeks, Ms Shaw. And I had access to much better equipment than I do now. As for Ms Groves, I have no idea what she is doing. I don't even know where she is."

"What? You don't know where Root is? Can't you ask your Machine?"

Harold sighed. "What part of "act like ordinary citizens" are you having difficulty with, Ms Shaw? I must be the lowly IT person that my cover states me to be. At least until I know more. Be patient, Ms Shaw. We will find a way."

Shaw hadn't commented on that, and Harold had told her a little about what he and Reese were up to (apparently Reese was a guard in an armoured truck. Harold seemed to find this amusing, for some reason). Shaw asked how Bear was, and was told that he was well. She missed Bear.

Then Harold had left, and she wasn't sure that she would ever see him again. Not until he found a solution, at least.

Shaw disliked clinic duty. In the ER, she knew that what people really needed was a doctor with a clear head and steady hands. They didn't want her to be nice, they wanted her to save their lives. The people in the clinic, however, wanted her to be the epitome of a sensitive medical professional. Most of the time she wished she could just tell them not be so stupid, or take better care of themselves. She wished Root could've found her a hospital that didn't make her do clinic duty.

After almost losing it when someone who was clearly five months pregnant asked her timorously if she were pregnant, Shaw was just about ready to take Decima on singlehandedly.

Then Root came in. Afterwards, Shaw never had any memory of getting to her feet or moving to stand in front of Root. She was just there. "God, Root, what are you doing here? Tell me you're not going to kidnap me again. You are, aren't you?" Shaw hissed.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Doctor. I'm just here to have a check-up." Root said. Her face was carefully blank, but her eyes were dancing as though she had just told the best joke in the world.

Shaw snorted. "Yeah, sure you were. What do you want, Root?"

Root produced a hairband and quickly swept her hair back into a loose ponytail. "I had a stapedectomy a while back. Got a cochlear implant, too. Usually that doesn't bother me, but the last couple of days it's been feeling a little sore around there. If you wouldn't mind, Doctor…"

Shaw wasn't entirely sure why Root was acting out this charade, but if the other woman was actually in pain it was perfectly reasonable to go to a doctor. And she was a doctor. So there wasn't any harm in examining her ear.

The scar was fairly messy. Shaw wasn't surprised, given the circumstances under which Root had recieved it. "It's not inflamed." Shaw said. "I'm pretty sure it's not infected."

"Then why does it hurt, Doctor?" Root said.

Shaw decided to play along. "I'm guessing that you've recently had a big change in your life. Sometimes, things like that can make our bodies react in strange ways. The pain will probably die down once you adjust." She flashed Root a quick smile. "But feel free to come back if it doesn't. Just try not to kidnap a doctor at gunpoint in order to sort it out."

Root smiled. "I guess I should've seen that, as a psychotherapist." She said softly. "Thank you, Doctor."

Shaw shrugged. "It's not like I broke into Decima or anything. It's no problem."

Root began to leave, but hesitated at the door. Turning, she said "It's good to see you, Sameen. Tell Harold he's not the only one trying to fix things."

Root left. Shaw hadn't the faintest ideas of what to make of the meeting. When she had finished her shift in the clinic and gone back to the ER, she still hadn't figured it out. Nor had she by the time she got home.