"Ms. Harris, would like to take the day off?"

Shaw's boss's voice reached her through the fog of her daydream where all she saw was Root. The illusion dissipated and she found herself back in her office.

"Sir?"

"I said, would you like to take the day off. You seem a little, well more than a little distracted." Victor York said to her with a knowing grin on his face.

"What, no Sir, I'm good. Here is good."

"Well, I would understand if you would like to leave. It is Thursday after all and I am sure you must be looking forward to your evening … appointment."

"Yes Sir, but if I leave right now I wouldn't know what to do with myself. So, its best if I stay… occupied." Shaw replied hesitantly.

"That's an excellent decision, Ms. Harris. Now while you are still here could you get me the file for Arcsys Solutions, because you just got me the calendar from your table." Victor held out the desk calendar still grinning.

Looking sheepish, Shaw took the calendar and went back to the file cabinet to get the file. A few moments later she was once again standing in front of her boss, this time with the file.

As Victor was studying the files he noticed that Ms. Harris was trying to say something.

"Is there something on your mind, Sam?"

"I was thinking, Sir, that maybe it's time to reorganize the filing cabinet."

"Really?"

"Well, it's just … I need something to do."

"In that case by all means go ahead, as long as we can still find things tomorrow."

Shaw, satisfied that she had something to fill her time with, went to work on the filing cabinet.

As Shaw tried to occupy her time by going about her inane assignment of reorganizing an organized cabinet, Root had taken to drawing lazy circles in her notebook while she pretended to hear her client's problems.

It was the longest day of both their lives, but finally evening came and Shaw pulled up in her Fiat 8V outside Root's apartment building. Root buzzed her in and Shaw made her way up to Root's apartment. When she reached, the door was already open. Shaw stepped in and found Root in her PJs and cotton T-shirt talking on the phone. Upon seeing Shaw walk in she put the phone call on hold.

"Hey, you" Root said with a smile as Shaw walked into the living in a brilliant white dress.

"You're not ready yet? We are going to be late" Shaw asked, seeing Root's current attire.

"Five minutes" came the reply as Root went back to answering the phone, "Take a deep breath Mr. Owens. It's going to be fine. You will get to see Emma once she gets back. Look I hate to be abrupt, but I have another appointment. As I said, take deep breaths and just think about Emma. Everything will be alright. Good night Mr. Owens"

Root finally disconnected the phone.

"What was all that about?" enquired Shaw.

"The man's going through a divorce. His wife ran off with his pet poodle just out of spite."

"He was missing his poodle?" asked Shaw rather incredulously, "I thought Emma might be his kid or something."

"Oh no, they have kids. They sent them off to a boarding school. They are fighting over who keeps the poodle. They couldn't care less about their kids" Root explained the absurd situation.

Shaw rolled her eyes in disbelief.

"Exactly" said Root in agreement, "and people think I judge humans harshly. Huh"

There was a moment of silence between them which eventually Shaw broke. "Get dressed."

"Oh yeah, give me ten minutes" saying that Root ran into her bedroom and closed the door behind her.

Shaw was left alone in the vast living room.

A moment later Root's head popped out of the bedroom from behind a drawn curtain, she stared at Shaw for a second and said, "Just wanted to say, wow."

"Wow, what?" Shaw was a little lost at this sudden comment.

"You look, wow. Practically edible" Root replied as her eyes ran over Shaw's body.

For a brief moment Root thought that maybe Shaw actually blushed. Shaw completely understood the full connotations of that compliment but she hid her smile by checking her watch.

"Thanks, now get dressed. We're getting late."

Root's head disappeared behind the curtain. Shaw had just about turned around, when Root's head appeared again.

"What are you, a cuckoo clock?" asked a slightly irritated Shaw.

"You know I was thinking, maybe we don't have to go out. We could always just order in" Root suggested with a sly grin on her face.

"Root, I didn't buy an eight hundred dollar dress and borrow my boss's million dollar race car just so we could order in. Now get dressed or I'm going to come in there and kick your ass."

Root knew from Shaw's expression that the ass-kicking threat was quite real, but she was in a playful mood and decided to mess around with her grumpy date just bit more.

"You wouldn't dare" Root mockingly challenged Shaw. In return, Shaw took half a step in Root's direction and Root quickly disappeared back into the bedroom. And Shaw, smiling, was finally left alone in the living room.

Sameen walked around studying the apartment. Root definitely liked a life of luxury. She figured her practice must be doing well or maybe she had a fair bit of cash stored away from her days as a criminal mastermind.

The living room was tastefully decorated. On the walls were a few paintings by the renaissance masters. For a while Shaw thought they might be copies, but upon closer inspection she realized that they were the real deal. There was book shelf on the far left wall. Root seemed to be an avid reader. There were quite a few books on psychiatry and other branches of medicine and biology. Shaw recognized most of them from her days as a resident surgeon. But there were other books dealing with technology and its impact on humanity and especially a few books on the advent and rise of Artificial Intelligence. She browsed through the book shelf for a while and turned around and spotted a massive TV on the opposite wall. She walked up to it and saw that the glass shelf below the wall mounted TV was littered with a variety of computer games. There were also a couple of gaming consoles and a huge array of gaming accessories including a couple of joysticks, a steering wheel, a gun and even a guitar. Sameen wasn't surprised that the hacker would also be an avid gamer.

She heard a slight rustling behind her and she turned around just as Root parted the curtain and stepped into the living room. She stood there in an elegant black dress with her hair falling over her shoulders. She did a little twirl to give Sameen a show.

"So, what do you think?" Root asked. Her eyes full of expectation.

Shaw was stunned. Her heart was already beating faster. Root looked ravishing. She had only ever seen her in her work attire or a pair of jeans and that leather jacket. This transformation had left Shaw momentarily breathless. Maybe ordering in wasn't such a bad idea after all.

She finally replied, "I must say, I'm amazed."

"Good" said Root. More than Shaw's reply, her expression had told Root that she had managed to have the desired effect on her date.

"So, shall we leave?"

Shaw broke out of the trance that Root's appearance had put her under and replied, "Absolutely."

They both exited the elevator as it reached the lobby.

"So where are you taking me?" Root asked as they made their way out of the building.

"Some place called "Morimoto". Victor said it's one the best in the city."

"Morimoto? Nice. I've been there once. How did you manage to get a reservation there in less than a week?" Root sounded impressed.

"I have friends in high places."

"Really?"

"Well, we represent the main financiers of the restaurant. Victor made a phone call." Shaw replied with a smile.

"You like him don't you." Root asked. Shaw looked up at Root to see if she meant anything by that, but Root's comment seemed genuine.

"Victor? Yeah, he's a good man. Which, considering our line of work, has always been a rarity."

They finally reached the car and Root went over to the passenger side and waited. Shaw got in and was about to start the car when she realized that Root was still standing there.

"Get in. What are you waiting for?" she asked Root.

"Well aren't you going to open the door for me?"

"What am I, the fucking valet? Get in or I'm leaving without you" Shaw was back to her usual grumpy self. Wasn't it enough that she had finally asked Root out? She didn't have to put up with this shit.

"Fine date you are turning out to be." Root flashed a mischievous grin and got in the car. She was really enjoying teasing Shaw. This was going to be great evening.

They had been driving for about fifteen minutes and had gotten into some evening traffic when Root noticed Shaw checking the rear view mirror. At first she didn't pay any attention to it, but Shaw checked it again a few minutes later. Root realized that now was as good a time as any to loop her into the situation.

"So, which car is it, Sameen?" Root asked.

"What?"

"Which car is following us?"

"How did you know? Oh, did The Machine tell you?" Shaw automatically assumed.

"Not really. We're not in direct communication anymore."

"Then how?" now Shaw was intrigued.

"Because they aren't following us as much as they are following me." Root said a little sheepishly.

"What. Since when" Shaw's voice was a little raised now.

"Oh, about five days now." Root answered matter-of-factly.

"And you didn't think it was important to mention this." Shaw was beginning to get really irritated with the hacker.

"Well, they are supposed to friendlies."

"And how do you know that"

"The Machine told me."

"I thought you couldn't talk to the machine anymore."

"I can't talk to her directly, but she can still send me messages." Root explained.

"Wait, hold on. How is she sending you messages if she can't talk to you? This is all really confusing" saying that Shaw pulled the car over to the side of the road. "Start from the beginning and explain everything to me. So how long have you been followed?"

"I told you, about five days now. And since The Machine can't directly talk to me anymore she sent me a coded message in a New York Times crossword puzzle."

"A crossword puzzle? What is this, a 70s spy movie?" Shaw remarked.

"Yeah, I guess, so should I continue or are you going to interrupt me again."

Shaw glared back at her date.

"Alright, so, yeah the message said that whoever was tailing me was harmless and that we probably had an ally of some sort."

"An ally? Who?" that had really peaked Shaw's curiosity.

"I don't know. The message didn't say." Root just shrugged.

There was a moment of silence between them as the traffic sped past them and Shaw was trying to digest all this information.

"Hold on a sec. How the hell did they find you in the first place? I thought you said we were hidden from Samaritan." Shaw finally came around to asking a very relevant question.

"Well, yes and we still are. But we are not hidden from everyone else. Anyone with enough time, resources and training could find us. You could find me, if you wanted to. Right?" Root explained.

"Yeah, I guess. But then so could Reese. So how many are there?"

"About eight or ten as far as I could tell" replied Root.

"A ten person team, that's quite big. Add in tech support and other resources we are looking at, at least a fifteen to twenty person unit. That's big. And you have no idea who it is?" Shaw asked.

"I can make an educated guess, but then so can you. Who besides Decima knows of our existence and has the resources and knowledge to put together an operation like this?" Root put the question to Shaw.

Shaw was quite for a moment but she narrowed that list of potential suspects down very quickly.

"No way." Shaw looked genuinely worried.

"Yes way." Root grinned as she realized that Shaw had come to the same conclusion as her.

"Control? But why? She works with Samaritan now."

"That's what I can't figure out yet. But as I said we might have a possible ally and if it's her then we just might have lucked out. Besides I figured, worst case scenario, I would be a lot safer with you." Root smiled at Shaw. "I mean you are armed right?"

"Of course, knowing our history, I would be an idiot to come unarmed." Shaw rolled her eyes as if it was the stupidest question to ask someone. Root chuckled in return.

"So what do we do now?" Shaw asked

"Well, I don't know about you but I'm getting hungry. So let's eat and then we can decide what needs to be done about our shadows." Root suggested.

"Yeah good idea, I hate fighting on an empty stomach" Saying that Shaw started the car and they were once again on their way towards the restaurant.