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Shaw is yanked out of sleep by a scraping sound at her front door and she groans, reaching under her pillow for the spare glock she keeps on hand in case of emergency. She figures getting woken up at three am counts. After a moment of searching she grasps it, switching the safety off as she throws the covers back and flips on the light, blinking rapidly as it fills the room. She pauses, listing carefully and the sounds grow louder, the distinct sound of a key scraping a lock. Whoever was trying to break in obviously doesn't know her very well.
She moves silently through the living room and the sounds stop just as she's nearing the door. There's a muttered curse and Shaw slowly approaches, unlocking the door as silently as she can. She swings it open, pointing the gun at where the would-be intruder should be except no-one's there. Whoever it was is fast but not subtle she notes, tilting her head to the side as she listens to the clomping noise of high heels retreating down the hall.
There's only one person on her floor those could belong to.
Normally the person who woke her up would have hell to pay but it's late (or extremely early depending on your opinion) and she's too damn tired so instead she goes back inside, checking the locks twice but she doubts they would be back anytime soon.
Even criminals have to sleep sometime.
She flops onto her bed, forgoing her usual grace and is asleep within minutes, gun still in her hand. Let them try something now.
The next time Shaw wakes it's light outside and no-one is trying to break in. She takes that as a good sign, going through her regular morning routine. It isn't until she's about to go out for a run that she finds an envelope tucked under the door. She debates going to get her gun before deciding it would be overkill and she picks it up, tearing the envelope open as she pulls out a sheet of paper.
It's a letter, a page of delicately loopy handwriting which she doesn't recognise. Briefly she wonders if it's her colleague John playing a prank on her but she doubts it, that's more her style than his. A small smirk pulls up the corners of her lips as she remembers the (epic in her opinion) prank she pulled on her boss Finch and his police liaisons from the NYPD. Unfortunately she had to bring John into it in order for it to work but blue paint, feathers, packing beans and a well placed charge of explosives could be so much fun sometimes.
She reads through the letter pretty quickly and by the end she knows her original assumption about the high-heel wearing (and apparently mail reading since the note addresses her by name) woman down the hall is indeed behind the attempted break in.
Except it wasn't a break in according to the letter. Apparently she was drunk and had the wrong apartment. Shaw could almost believe that except the woman had managed to flee in high heels while drunk, which either meant she had some serious talent or she was lying. And besides that, if memory served correctly her neighbour had some serious height over her as is so why wear heels? Then again if she was really trying to break in Shaw doubted she would do it in stilettos. She ponders it for a moment but decides it isn't worth her time and puts the letter aside, putting her iPod on shuffle as she goes out for her run.
There's a bright pink sticky note on her door when she gets back and this time she recognises the handwriting from the letter. She snatches it off the door, mildly annoyed the woman had the audacity to leave a brightly coloured note on her door where anyone could see.
Before she even reads the note her eyes catch the word doughnuts and her stomach rumbles. She quickly reads the rest and annoyance is replaced by hunger. Her neighbour must really feel bad because according to the note she would be back at nine fifteen with a box of fresh doughnuts from the bakery down the street, which just so happened to be Shaw's favourite. She decides that perhaps the woman isn't so bad and besides, she isn't going to turn down free doughnuts. She checks the time on her iPod, noting her usual route took two minutes less and there's just enough time for a quick shower.
True to her word there's a tentative knock at her door at precisely nine fifteen. Shaw has just finished getting dressed and she can smell the delicious baked goods even before she opens the door.
There aren't many things in life better than hot doughnuts except maybe the new rocket launcher Finch recently got for the team (meaning herself and John, she had already threatened broken fingers if anyone else so much as thought about touching it.) It takes a moment for her eyes to travel from the bakery box to her neighbour, a tall brunette who greats her with a nervous smile that somehow manages to be mischievous at the same time.
"I'm so sorry about last night and I hope you can forgive me. I didn't know what sort you like so I got one of everything and hopefully you like doughnuts because who doesn't but I got you a bear claw as well just in case" she babbles, her words rushed. Shaw studies her a moment and she gives a hesitant smile, biting her lip. She's impressed: she knows she can be pretty intimidating but the woman holds her ground. She's so tall Shaw has to look up at her but she's too used to it to be irritated.
"I'm Shaw but you already know that" she says, gauging the woman's reaction. She blushes, transferring the box to one hand as she holds out the other.
"Sorry, I like to know who my neighbours are, safety and all that. I'm Root." Shaw sakes her hand, which is warm from holding the box. As much as she would like to interrogate her further she's hungry and since she frequently has her colleague Cole run background checks on her neighbours she can hardly hold it against her.
She takes the box, almost moaning in pleasure when she opens it to find a dozen doughnuts plus the promised bear claw. She's impressed, which is not an easy thing to accomplish and she lets Root in, placing the open box on the table as she selects a glazed doughnut. It's so fresh it practically melts in her mouth and she decides she likes her neighbour and, more importantly wonders if she can convince her to come over with doughnuts every week.
She takes a moment to study Root as she's eating. She's wearing skinny jeans and boots which thankfully don't have heels. Her hair falls over her shoulders in loose waves, her plain black jacket outlining her figure perfectly. Root in turn runs her eyes over Shaw but it's more flirty than anything else. Shaw rolls her eyes and she receives and entirely different smile in reply.
"So what do you do besides attempted break ins?" She asks, licking the remnants of doughnut off her fingers. Root swallows, pulling her eyes away and she smirks slightly.
"Freelance computer work mostly though I do enjoy the occasional trespass" she replies, her tone flirty. Normally it would annoy Shaw plus casual conversations were not something she would usually bother with but she's been lulled by the food and Root was tolerable, perhaps even interesting.
"So in other words you're a hacker" she's spent enough time around Cole to recognise the signs and the way Root's eyes widen in surprise proves her right. She wondered how the background check missed it but she supposes she shouldn't be surprised.
"What about you?" Root asks.
"Private security" she replies, the best description she can come up with for her job. Mostly it involved shooting kneecaps and protecting people depending on the clients, which Finch was always careful to vet. She nods and Shaw, unable to resist the smell picks up another doughnut. Seeing she was occupied Root takes the opportunity to look around the apartment, which John had described as sparse the one time she let him in. He ended up eating all her girl scout cookies, she would never make that mistake again no matter how many steak dinners he tried to bribe her with.
"You know, I'm kind of glad it was your apartment and not Mr Stinky's I mistook for mine" Root says and Shaw laughs around her bite of doughnut.
"I swear that guy never washes" she replies and Root nods in agreement. The one time she had come across her smelly neighbour from across the hall she had considered doing the world a favour by simply shooting him, it was that bad.
"Exactly, plus you're much better looking" Shaw gives her a look but it holds no real bite and Root's smile goes somewhere beyond flirty that Shaw doesn't care to analyse but she's pretty sure means she'll be seeing her neighbour again. She finds that, oddly enough she's ok with that. There's a first time for everything apparently.
"I'm starting to think you have an ulterior motive" Shaw says. Her tone remains casual but the look on her face indicates she expects a truthful answer. No-one could ever accuse Shaw of not being intimidating.
"I confess" Root replies, leaning into her personal space. Shaw holds her ground, raising an eyebrow in question.
"I've seen you around and I really", her eyes drop to Shaw's lips as she licks her own. When she looks back up her eyes are dark and Shaw watches her carefully. "Really wanted to meet you." She reaches around her and grabs a doughnut, taking a delicate bite much smaller than Shaw's.
"See you around" she saunters out and Shaw rolls her eyes, picking up another doughnut.
Yeah, she would be seeing her neighbour again.