After Shaw's muscles had stopped spasming out of her control, Root looked up at her. She was still breathing heavily, her chest expanding and contracting with each deep breath. She had her arms over her flushed face, and Root wiped her mouth before climbing back over Shaw's naked body, still dressed, her jeans riding low around her hips.

"Take off your pants," Shaw murmured, still catching her breath. Root kissed her exposed tricep and saw that where Shaw had been biting her arm, there was a bruise forming. Root kissed that spot too, and Shaw's arm twitched at the contact, like it was tender even to that light touch. Her hands were still bound by the leather belt, but Shaw struggled against it, her breath coming in little pants again as she twisted her hands. Root watched her, knowing full well that Shaw would get out of the belt just fine. Shaw did, and let it drop to the floor with a clatter, then groped at Root's jeans, turning onto her side to face the taller woman.

"John's coming soon," Root said, amused. Of course she wanted to be touched by Shaw, but she didn't really want to risk being walked in on. Shaw tiredly put a hand on Root's cheek and rested her forehead against the taller woman's.

"You deserve some reciprocation," Shaw grumbled, her eyes closed. Root smiled.

"Is that supposed to make me worried?" Root asked lightly. Shaw opened her eyes and raised an eyebrow.

"If that's how you want it," Shaw said with a smug expression, her voice almost as gravely as John's. Root felt warmth spreading in her chest and her smile widened. Shaw took a deep breath, sighing and letting her eyes fall shut again, relaxed.

Root put her arm around Shaw's bare shoulders and pulled her close. A shiver ran down Shaw's spine as she pushed herself to Root's chest, one hand going to the dip of Root's waist, and she put one leg over Root's hip, hooking it and pulling herself closer, so their legs were entwined.

The warmth inside Root grew. It was the feeling of her chest expanding, inflating with pleasure, and it was becoming more familiar. And it was not just sexual arousal, Root recognized. There was that, of course. How could there not be when Sameen was still recovering from an orgasm in her arms? But that wasn't all this was. This wasn't heat between her legs and a racing heart, this was… different. She couldn't quite put her finger on it. Or didn't want to. She made a mental note of what had been said and done to make her feel this way so she could mull it over later. For the time being, she wanted to let herself just enjoy how comfortable she was, gently stroking Shaw's head, her leg between Shaw's.

"John really is going to be back soon," Root said softly. She was more surprised than annoyed that her voice wasn't as playful as she had intended for it to be. Instead, it sounded like an attempt to soothe Shaw.

"I just need a minute," Shaw mumbled. Root brushed loose hair from Shaw's face and felt a swell of affection overcome her when Shaw opened her eyes a little and gave a tiny smirk, one eyebrow raising a little again.

"You were right- I do like that trick," Shaw said. Root looked at her, confused, until Shaw continued. "With the belt."

Root grinned.

"I thought you might," she said, her nose wrinkling mischievously. Shaw exhaled a laugh and kissed Root. When she looked away again, Root could see tenderness in Shaw's eyes that she tried to hide by running her hand through her hair. Root noticed how red Shaw's wrist was, with deep marks rubbed in a ring from straining against the leather. Root took hold of Shaw's hand and softly kissed the inside of her wrist.

"We should get up," Root told her apologetically. Shaw groaned and sat up on the edge of the bed, slouching forwards.

"Boys really do ruin the fun," Shaw murmured, frustration in her voice. Root sat up, putting her hands on Shaw's bare back, running them down her arms as she swung her legs around to sit with one on either side of Shaw's body, her chest against Shaw's back. She kissed Shaw's shoulder.

"I know," she said, her lips still gently brushing against Shaw's skin, arms wrapping around her waist and hugging them together. Shaw crossed her arms over Root's, her hands on Root's elbows on either side of her. The gentle caress made Root take a quavering deep breath. She wanted so much to lay back down and be able to just look at the woman clutched against her.

But Shaw stood up abruptly, because Bear had just gotten up and started whining, trotting towards the stairwell with his ears up and tail wagging. She hurriedly grabbed her sports bra and shorts, pulling the bra on while she looked around for her underwear. Root stood up to look around for them but didn't see them. Shaw gave a little shake of her head, irritated as she pulled her shorts on without them, then took her tank top from Root's outstretched hand and wrenched it over her head, dabbing at her split lip with the back of her hand.

Root closed the distance between them and took Shaw's head in her hands. She quickly wiped the remainder of her lipstick from Shaw's mouth with the pad of her thumb, watching Shaw wince a little when she pressed the split in her lip, then turned and walked hurriedly towards the subway car, rubbing at her own mouth. Reese rounded the corner at the bottom of the steps before she'd made it to Finch's desk, but he didn't notice their hurrying around because Bear was circling his knees, sniffing with excitement at the plastic bag dangling from one of Reese's hands.

When Reese shooed Bear away, the dog ran off and picked up the PVC pipe, dragging it back towards Reese gleefully.

"I brought sandwiches," Reese said as Shaw approached him, retying her hair up into a fresh pony tail. "What happened to your arm?"

Shaw followed his eyes to the raw bruise on her upper arm and dropped her hands to her sides quickly, giving him an annoyed shrug.

"Must have hit it on something," she said, dismissive. Reese's eyes narrowed as they traveled to the evidence that Shaw's wrists had been bound, then up to her face. She pulled her wounded lip into her mouth and raised her eyebrows, as if that would keep him from seeing the split.

"What happened to you?" he asked with concern, stepping a little closer to get a better look at her. Shaw stepped back as casually as she could.

"You look…" Reese started, but paused when he saw the warning on Shaw's face. He shook his head thoughtfully, a little frown forming when he finally chose the words to describe her, "…like you've had a rough day."

Root smiled at John's choice of words and walked out of the subway car reapplying her lipstick, as if she'd just finished something on the computer and was casually coming to see what they were up to.

"You could say that," Root said playfully, rubbing her lips together and pocketing the lipstick. Shaw gave her a seething look. Root wasn't surprised that Shaw wanted things kept discreet, and decided to play this off like it was just the usual flirting. With an extra dose of violence.

"Sometimes you have to use force to get people to…" Root paused, looking for the best way to phrase her next words, a grin on her face as she eyed Shaw, who was looking up at her with dark eyes. "Well, to get them to do what you say."

John raised his eyebrows and followed Root's eyes to Shaw. Root could almost feel the gears in his mind working to figure out what exactly had happened, and was glad that the team was made up of people who were habitually less than forthcoming; John didn't look like he was going to ask any further questions. This was one of the games Root liked to play with herself- seeing how little she could say to reveal the whole story without actually revealing anything at all.

"I'd have gotten you something to eat too, but Shaw didn't say you were here," John said, walking between them towards the subway. Root smirked at Shaw behind Reese's back and got an annoyed twitch of the mouth in response. Root smiled wider, letting her teeth show, bright white between her red lips, knowing that the twitch was a suppressed grin.

Reese put the plastic bag on Finch's desk, pulling out a long sandwich wrapped in paper and tossing it to Shaw. She unwrapped it and took a bite without looking at what was between the thick pieces of bread, sitting down heavily on one of the seats mounted inside the car. Root sat down beside her, her knee touching Shaw's.

When she looked over at Shaw slyly, she watched Shaw's eyes open wider, her eyebrows raising on her forehead as her jaw stilled, mouth still full of food. This wasn't quite the reaction Root was expecting, but she didn't know why Shaw was giving her that look until the shorter woman motioned with her head at Root's lap.

Root followed her gaze and saw the wet spot on the thigh of her pants leg. From Shaw. She pulled her leg up to her chest right as John turned, leaning against the desk as he took the first bite of his sandwich.

"Any idea when Harold will be back?" Reese asked. Shaw was looking at her sandwich disappointedly, and Root was tracing the edge of the spot on her pants with one painted nail. Shaw shrugged.

"He just said you might get back first," Shaw said through her mouth full of food. "Where did you get these? Is this even real meat?"

John was annoyed by this question, and smirked ingenuously.

"If you told me what you wanted, that would make this a lot easier," Reese said. Bear came and sat by John's feet, begging for food.

"You see, Sameen? All you have to do is ask," Root said gleefully, tilting her head to look at Shaw. Shaw glared at her. John and Bear were having a stare-down of their own, and Bear licked at his mouth hopefully until John relented and gave him some of the deli meat from his sandwich.

"Subtle," Shaw grumbled to Root while Reese was distracted. Root smirked, pleased with herself.

"I'm sorry that I'm late, I had to choose a circuitous route to get back," Harold said, entering and eyeing the bag on his desk. He picked it up passive aggressively and put it on a nearby seat. Bear immediately went to the bag and started nosing at it.

"Pfui," John commanded, and Bear pulled his face away from the bag immediately, looking over his shoulder at John, who shook his head.

"I'm fairly sure that I was being followed," Finch said, his voice carefully steady as he removed some small containers of fruit salad from the bag, eyeing the aging fruit before turning and handing one to Shaw.

"Samaritan?" Shaw asked, swallowing hard to get a large bite of sandwich down and reaching out to take the fruit from him. Bear turned at her voice and came over, putting his head on her thigh.

"Yes, I believe so," Harold said, and then paused when he got a look at her wrist. His eyes immediately went to Root. "I would appreciate it if I didn't have to worry about you two fighting all the time."

Shaw avoided his eyes, becoming extremely interested in petting Bear's head. Root smiled up at Finch.

"Oh Harold, you know how it is. Girls will be girls," she said sarcastically, leaning playfully into Shaw's space. Finch was not impressed, and Shaw shooed Bear and took another bite of her sandwich, pretending she hadn't heard or noticed that Root's arm was pressing against hers.

Bear went to Root next, putting his head between her legs. Root tried to push him away but he wouldn't stop, so she put her legs down to keep his head out of her crotch. He sniffed at the wet patch on her leg with interest and she pushed at his head again, but he simply snuffled and rested his chin on her knee. Root put a hand on his head, and he sat down, his head still on her thigh, looking up at her with eyes that were too smart.

Finch got his own sandwich out of the bag and unwrapped it. When he turned back to Shaw with a plastic fork, she had already opened the fruit salad and was popping a dripping piece of cantaloupe into her mouth with her fingers. He looked annoyed as he turned back to the bag, and Shaw smirked as she chewed. He held a napkin out behind him without looking at her again, and she ignored it until he let his hand drop to his side.

"I didn't know you two were so close," Reese said, opening his own fruit and nodding at Bear and Root. Shaw glanced over and saw exactly where the dog's head was. She raised her eyebrows and took another huge bite of her sandwich, almost finishing it, just to give herself something to do. Root watched her stuff it into her mouth. John continued, looking thoughtful. "You're not even eating."

"Don't be jealous," Root teased. John ignored her and kept eating. Shaw shoved the last bite of sandwich into her mouth and started eating the fruit like popcorn, one piece at a time. Root watched the juice running down Shaw's hand, to her forearm. It was simultaneously gross and cute when Shaw swiped indelicately at her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Seriously, this food is terrible," Shaw complained through a mouthful of honeydew, slouching in her seat. She chucked her trash across the car into the trash can and Finch gave her an annoyed look but didn't reply.

"Yeah, you've made your opinion very clear," John replied. Shaw swallowed the large mouthful of food.

"I should have asked for a steak," Shaw mumbled, looking tired now that she had scarfed down all of the food she'd been given.

"You didn't," John said, clearly losing his patience.

"Yeah, I know," Shaw said, getting annoyed back. Root bumped her knee against Shaw's playfully.

"She was busy when you called," Root interjected, smirking. Shaw wouldn't look at her, just stared at John with fury written all over her face. Root couldn't help herself, even if the next statement wasn't technically true. With a sarcastic frown, she said, "It wasn't a great time to chat- she was a little tied up."

John smirked.

"You don't usually do so poorly in a fight, Shaw. You losing your touch?" He asked teasingly. It was clear that he thought the wounds on Shaw were from an argument. Shaw's tongue probed at her lip for a second, then she stood up and left without another word. Bear followed her, whining as he nudged his head under her hand.

"Looks like Bear drooled on you," John said, nodding at Root's lap. Root tried to keep her smile from getting bigger as she looked down at the spot on her leg.

"Guess he did," Root said. Shaw walked towards the bathroom with her new towel over her shoulder and soap products in her hands.

"She already had a towel," Finch said, confused.

"You gave her a hand towel. This is a bath towel. There's a difference," Root said lightheartedly. The door to the bathroom slammed shut behind Shaw and they heard the water start to run.

As soon as the water started to run Finch turned to Root and John with a serious look on his face.

"So you think it was Samaritan following you, not people getting revenge for our latest save?" John asked. Finch looked away, giving a short nod of his head.

"We have to be careful. Has the Machine said anything? Given any instructions?" Finch asked.

"I told you, She can't talk to me much. But She knew that Shaw had to stay down here, and She's doing her best to help us," Root said. "In the mean time, I think that all we can do is try to stay quiet."

"If we stop showing up to work, that's going to raise red flags," John said, voice gravelly. Root smiled tightly.

"I know. So we keep going to work, we keep doing what we're doing, but don't get noticed. Don't stand out. I can keep Shaw down here when I don't have an identity, but if she knows that something is up, she's going to want to get out there and help," Root said, her voice gaining that anxious edge that it did whenever she spoke about the war that was upon them.

"We can't keep her in the dark forever," John said.

"She's already bouncing off the walls down here," Finch said. Root stood up, her eyes bright.

"I will lock her up if I have to, Shaw is not leaving here until it's safe," Root said. "If they get to her-"

"They won't," John murmured, frowning.

"We already got split up once. We can't let Samaritan force us apart again," Root said, her voice rising, and she could feel tears pricking in her eyes. "None of us will survive, not Shaw, not you two, none of us. And neither will She."

All of them were quiet, the weight of Root's words sinking in. After a long pause, there were vibrations in Harold's pocket. He pulled his phone out.

"We have a new number," Finch said. Root closed her eyes against the tears that were forming. Finch moved to his desk and started typing. Root pulled her lip into her mouth and faced away from the screen. "Mr. Reese, I'll let you know once I have something to pass on. And…"

Root knew that he wanted her to look at him but she couldn't. He cleared his throat a little.

"Root?" He said solemnly. She turned her head to acknowledge him, feeling a sinking feeling in her stomach because Harold didn't ever use the name she asked him to. And here he was doing it, and that didn't mean anything good. "As long as you're not hearing anything from the Machine, could I trouble you to assist us?"

Root nodded. She turned around fully then, looking at the screen. As soon as she saw the address that Harold was looking up, She whispered in her ear. Just one word. 'Tonight'.

"I need to go there," she said, her eyes fixed on the address.

"Any idea what the job is?" John asked.

"No," Root said, solemnly gathering her things.

"Do you want me to come?" John asked.

"No," Root said off-handedly. John looked at the ceiling. "But I have a feeling I'll see you tomorrow."

John nodded once, and Root smiled and pat Bear on the head before starting to head to the stairs. She paused.

"I don't suppose I could borrow a gun?" She asked, turning. "I have a feeling things might get messy."