Note : Written for Shoot week. Prompt : Gen ropes Harold and John in to help her play matchmaker.
There may be some spoilers for S4 if you haven't seen the trailer yet, but I'm not sure I'm directly refering to things we learned in it.
This story is a sort of sequel for my other story "Gen figures Root (and Shaw) out" but I think you can still read it independently. Only thing you really need to know is that Root's new first name is the same as Shaw's and it's Sam. So, consider this story as the second part of a series I'd call "Gen ships Root and Shaw", and it really is Gen-centric. Enjoy ! :)
Glancing at Gen's school one last time, Shaw was pleased that the kid hadn't managed to sneak up on her. The first time about a week ago had made her wary, so she had found herself a more discreet watching point. She hadn't managed to see the kid among the crowd of pupils this time either but at least said kid hadn't seen her, she thought and felt satisfied while walking away.
Gen watched as Shaw walked away and started following her cautiously, very decided to find out on which weird mission that required to be called by first names only the small woman was working on. It was going to be an awesome challenge for a future spy, she thought. Moreover, if she was lucky, she could work on her second objective too in the end.
Gen almost lost Shaw's trail a few times. Since they were both of small stature, it made it difficult for her to spot the woman in the crowded streets of New York – but on the other hand, she was herself well hidden among the passer-bys, a good thing given that the target of her spying was regularly checking if she wasn't being followed. The habit, Gen guessed, quite proud of herself for staying unnoticed.
In the end, she was rewarded with the sight of Shaw entering a building and not coming back. The tailing had taken longer than she had expected and she pulled a face when she took a look at her watch, but she waited anyway. She wanted to be sure that this was where Shaw lived.
After a few minutes, when she was convinced that the small woman wasn't going to get back out anytime soon, Gen went to look at the names of the people living in the building. One of the occupants had "Sam" as a first name and the kid smiled victoriously.
"Gotcha", she whispered before turning away and hurrying back to her boarding school.
She got impressed by the fact that she didn't take any wrong path on her way back. She had apparently gotten better at remembering itineraries, and she pat herself on the back about it. Improving her spy competences was always a source of happiness for her.
Gen arrived at her school late despite her efforts to hurry up and got scolded – yet another time – for that, but it didn't matter.
She had a name, an address and an itinerary.
Now she could do some real spying.
Gen got back to Shaw's place a lot after this day. Usually she would be only watching and not even seeing the target of her spying, some other time she would follow the latter as she was doing the shopping, but about a month later, as a result of her perseverance, she witnessed something interesting.
Shaw had walked to a park not far from her flat, being twice as careful as usual when checking no one was following her, had Gen almost got made several times. She blessed her tiny stature this day, and also the fact that it was a Saturday – she had her whole afternoon free – when she saw who Shaw was meeting.
Finch was seated on a chair in the shade of a tree, a chess set placed on a small folding table in front of him. Gen recognized him immediately despite the distance, and she got very excited. Something was obviously happening today, and she wished it had something to do with the mysterious mission the two Sams were working on. The vacant chair on the other side of the folding table was soon occupied by the small woman that Gen had been following, but the kid quickly realized that she was way too far to hear what they were saying and that she couldn't get any closer.
Cursing inwardly, she resolved to wait and hoped that Shaw would leave first so that she could go talk to Finch. She would need him for her second objective, which was now her priority since the first one, learning more about the secret mission, seemed to be compromised.
Gen got lucky and Shaw got up after about half an hour of talking, leaving Finch alone in the park.
He was staring blankly at the chess set, absorbed in his thoughts, and the kid easily sneaked up behind him.
"Hello, Harold."
Finch startled so much he almost fell off his chair, and Gen smirked. She would never get tired of doing that. No matter whom she was scaring, it was always fun to watch their reactions, and Harold's was one of the best she had provoked so far.
"Miss Zhirova, what are you doing here ?!" he whispered with a face somewhere between panicked and highly surprised when he turned around.
"I need your help", she simply stated while walking to the chair then sitting on it.
"That's not what I meant, how did you find me ?"
He looked so stunned and scared at the same time that Gen wondered if he was going to have a heart attack.
"A good spy doesn't reveal her tricks", she answered very seriously. "Moreover, that's not the point."
"Oh, but it is. Finding me is not supposed to be possible", he breathed, trying to hide how fidgety and panic-stricken he was, but Gen could see him glancing everywhere around them.
He was especially looking at the cameras, but the kid couldn't know that.
"Calm down, Harold. No one will find you the way I did, you can be sure of that", she said self-assuredly. "I don't know what your new mission is, but by how mysterious and weird you all are about it, it looks pretty serious", Gen frowned.
"What do you call 'new mission' exactly ?" Finch asked, concerned.
"The reason why you're all supposed to be called by your first name !"
Harold decided it was better to try and figure out what Gen was talking about through roundabout ways since direct questions were only muddling everything up even more.
"Who told you about it ?"
"The Sams", Gen shrugged. "Well, they didn't tell me anything about it, I just know that there's a mission and that I can't call Sam the way I used to anymore because of it."
"I'm not quite sure I understand what you've just said…" Finch admitted slowly, staring at her with wide eyes and wondering if one of the Sams was Shaw.
"Anyway, that's not why I'm here", Gen smiled, getting all excited again. "Well it partially is but… It's about the two Sams. We need to get them together, Harold. Without help, Sam won't figure out the situation and even if Sam is very patient, in the long run, she'll get frustrated and unhappy. I don't want this to happen to her, she's very kind. It would be so stupid and sad, especially knowing that Sam feels the same way but hasn't just realized it yet. That's why they need our help !" Gen exclaimed. "Well, Sam wouldn't admit it even if she realized it anyway, but, you know what I mean", Gen added after a second of thought.
"Actually, miss Zhirova, no, I don't."
Finch looked totally lost, but Gen was so excited about the plan she had in mind that she didn't even realize how incomprehensible she had just sounded. The use of the same name for two different people didn't bother her the least bit since everything was crystal clear in her mind, but unfortunately for Finch, it was way more abstruse to him.
"If I have to call you Harold, you can at least call me Gen. And stop staring at me like that, you look like a goldfish", the kid complained.
"If you wish, Miss Zhi– Gen", Finch forced himself to relax, "but I think you need to explain what you mean with other words than 'Sam' or it's going to become complicated", he sighed.
"But I can't call her by her real name !"
"You can with me. It's safe", Harold answered. He had decided to get along with Gen's way of thinking in order to get answers faster.
"Okay. So, Sam has –"
"Miss Zhi- Gen !" Finch cut her off.
"But I don't know this Sam by any other name !"
Harold briefly closed his eyes. This was going to be a long day, he could feel it.
"Okay. Go on."
"I was saying that Sam has fallen for Shaw. And Shaw likes her too but she'll never admit it – you know, Shaw is Shaw – so we need to intervene."
Finch tried to forget for now about the fact that the kid was asking him to stick his nose where it didn't belong and focused on something else first.
"I don't know this Sam anyway, Gen."
The kid was pleased to notice that Finch had finally gotten in on naturally calling her by her first name.
"You necessarily do ! She's working the mission too !"
Harold was starting to feel the beginning of a headache but also knew that the kid would not leave him alone until she got an answer. So he felt compelled to ask.
"Can you describe her to me ?"
"Tall. Dark hair. Kind. Beautiful. Funny."
Finch still looked unable to understand who she was referring to.
"Tased Shaw on their first meeting ?" Gen tried.
"Oh my. You met miss Groves ?!" Harold flabbergasted.
"Guess so… Do you really call everyone by their last name ?"
"Yes", he answered a bit sheepishly while still trying to process what he had just learned. "An old habit."
"You should start living in the present, Harold, it's enjoyable too, you know", the kid said very seriously. "Anyway, I need your help to get them together."
"This is none of my business, Gen, and it's none of yours either. Besides, I'm not really comfortable with the idea of you and miss Groves interacting in the first place."
"Why ?" the kid frowned.
"She's quite unpredictable and dangerous", Harold shivered a bit as some memories came back.
"So, do you really want to see how unpredictable and dangerous she'll get when she'll snap out of frustration ? While Shaw would channel her", Gen noted wisely.
"… Point taken", Harold said with a horrified face, and the kid wondered what he had thought about to become that pale. "But how are you so sure miss Groves is… Feels that way about Shaw in the first place ?"
"I guessed it. She didn't deny it", Gen smiled.
Finch massaged his temples and sighed heavily.
"If I don't help you, you'll still try something on your own, won't you ?"
The silence was meaningful.
"Fine. I'll help you", Harold finally gave in.
"Awesome !" Gen exclaimed, immediately brightening back up. "I already have a plan…"
"I'm not sure what you're expecting of me, Gen", Reese frowned.
They were walking aimlessly in a street not far from the kid's boarding school.
"I need you to help me figure out a way to make Shaw more… Receptive to what Root has to say. I figured you'd be a better person to ask than Harold. He's a bit too…" Gen answered, lacking the good word to describe what she wanted to say about Finch.
"Uptight ?" Reese suggested with a small smile.
"Exactly. Then I'll explain which role you'll play on D-day. But first, I want to know if I guessed correctly. About their first meeting, when Sam tased Shaw."
"I'm not sure you're old enough to talk about things like that, Gen", John said with raised eyebrows, guessing that Sam was Root. "But there's already one thing you got wrong. Root did tase Shaw, but it wasn't on their first meeting."
"I'm a spy, my age doesn't matter", the kid shrugged. "And it was on their first meeting, I'm sure of that. I know some details about it, I just want to know if I pieced them together in the right order."
John dropped the age subject when he realized Gen probably knew way too much already.
"That can't be. I saw Shaw shoot Root months before Root kidnapped her."
"Root ? You mean Sam ? And… Wait. I think we're not talking about the same thing. You mean Sam managed to tase Shaw twice ?! Now I know why Shaw is so grumpy around her !"
"I'm learning something here too, Gen", Reese said, a bit amused. "And yes, when I say Root, I mean Sam. It's complicated."
"Stop saying that. I'm old enough to understand."
"Yes, but it would take too long to explain. So, about that plan. What am I supposed to do ?"
"Harold will send you both on a mission. It's out of town, you'll need to get on a car-sleeper train that doesn't stop all night to go there. When Shaw is in the compartment, you get out."
"It doesn't seem too complicated", Reese nodded with a small smile.
"But I also need your help with something else. I know how to make Shaw listen to Sam now."
"That is to say ?" John asked after a moment of silence.
"I need to buy something and this time I'm absolutely sure I'm not old enough for that. So you'll do it for me."
Root's phone buzzed twice. It was a text from an unknown number.
6/27. 8:39 pm. Train 2856. Car 14. Couchette 91.
This kind of efficient and straight to the point messages had become usual lately, with the Machine being a bit limited in her options to talk to her because of Samaritan, and she wasn't surprised at all. She just grabbed her bag to check that nothing was missing, smiling in expectation to be finally doing something different from her boring life the following day.
"No, Sam, you're not sleeping on the top bunk. It's mine, I picked it first", Reese smiled, his bag next to Shaw's on said bunk.
"You can dream of that", the latter hissed.
They were both still holding their bags' straps, staring at each other with their eyes narrowed, and neither of them moved for a while.
"She's coming, John, get out", Reese heard Gen say in his earpiece.
"Fine. Take it. You're such a sore loser, I wouldn't want to wake up with a knife on my throat sometime this night", he eventually smiled.
Shaw looked at him, half-offended and half-angry, but John didn't care. He took his bag off the bunk and put it on his shoulder. "I'm going to get ready. Don't burn everything while I'm not here."
The glare Shaw shot him made him smirk and he went out, returning to the bike compartment where Gen was hiding at the end of the small corridor.
"Did you manage to slip it in it ?" the kid asked.
"Yes. In the side pocket."
"Perfect. Now we just have to wait."
They watched as Root entered the car and moved to the right compartment, then as she stepped into it.
"Go for it, Harold", Gen said in her phone, all excited.
The door of the compartment slid close.
"What the hell ?" Shaw asked when she saw Root step into the compartment.
"I can ask you the same thing", the latter retorted while the door was silently closing and locking up behind her.
"What are you doing here ?" Shaw scowled, obviously not happy of seeing the hacker.
"She put me here."
Root's phone rang at that exact moment. She picked up.
"Turn on the speaker", an excited voice said.
"Who is this ?" the hacker frowned.
"It's Gen !"
"Gen ?" Root repeated, surprised.
"Gen ?" Shaw repeated, wary. Is this your doing ?"
Root put the phone on speaker.
"Yes ! You two obviously needed some time together, so, I'm offering you some."
"Let me guess", Root chuckled slightly, "the text was from you ?"
"No, from Harold. He wrote it after booking the tickets for you. He assured me you wouldn't find it weird, even if I did."
"And Reese…" Shaw started, annoyance obvious in her voice.
"I'm here", John said, his voice betraying a small smirk.
He heard a mumbled answer that sounded suspiciously like "I'm gonna kill you".
"The train doesn't stop during the next eight hours. That should do, right ?" Gen said with an obvious bright smile.
"Nuh-uh. I'm out of here", Shaw growled as she tried to open the door and failed.
"That's not happening", Gen laughed. "Harold is currently in a cybercafe from where he has hacked into the closing system. Have fun !"
"I really like that kid", Root said for herself in a low voice - too low for Gen to hear her but loud enough for Shaw to make out what the hacker had just said and comment on it.
"Gen, stop this. Now", she let out through gritted teeth.
"Wait for it !" the kid kept on, not impressed the least bit by Shaw's tone. "Look into the side pocket of your bag."
Shaw warily did as she was told and found a taser.
"I thought you'd appreciate a little revenge", the kid said before she hung up, and Root let out a small chuckle. Gen really understood how the smaller worked, she thought. For a child that age, what she had planned out was quite impressive.
"Now I really like that kid", Shaw smiled predatorily at Root who quickly licked her lips, her expectation mixed with a tinge of worry and excitement.