A/N: My online BFF is to thank (or possibly to blame) for this, for having gotten me hooked on the Smithsonian National Zoo's panda cam...
When Finch came back down to the Subway, he was expecting to see the usual sight that had greeted him at every entry since their narrow escape from the Samaritan agents at the substation: Root sitting at the computer, hard at work on their joint effort of rebuilding the Machine. While she was still working today, one of the monitors now showed something quite different from coding.
"Ms. Groves," Finch began, "do you mind explaining what the National Zoo's panda cam has to do with the Machine?"
Root turned to look at him, and smiled charming as she turned back to the black-and-white video feed of the sleeping pandas. "Absolutely nothing," she said, her voice oddly cheerful.
"Then why are we now dedicating a significant portion of system resources to watching them?"
"Because they're cute," she replied. At Finch's glare, she added, "Oh, don't be that way, Harry. If your system can't handle adding a couple of video streams, then you've failed as a computer engineer. Besides, we've been at this a while, and it's good to have a diversion every now and then. Look at Bei Bei sleeping in his mom's paw... isn't that simply adorable?"
Finch shifted his gaze to the screen. The panda cub was stretched out along his mother's arm, his little head resting in her paw. Both animals were sleeping soundly; Finch had to admit the sight of them was both endearing and soothingly peaceful.
"Why do we have two streams of the same thing?" he asked a moment later.
"If Mei Xiang leaves the den, the other camera switches to her," Root explained. "Then we can watch both of them at once. And sometimes, if we're really lucky, they'll switch one of the cameras to Bao Bao – that's the cub that was born there a couple years ago. She's really fun to watch, very energetic and playful."
"Yes, I remember hearing about her when she was born," Finch remarked. "She was big news." At that moment, Bei Bei let out a big yawn, and he couldn't help smiling.
Root glanced at him and grinned. "See, I knew you'd enjoy this."
They watched silently for a few more minutes. After a while, Mei Xiang turned over, holding Bei Bei to her chest as she did. The cub wound up upside-down, growling unhappily, with one back foot moving in circles as he attempted to wiggle his way upright. Both Root and Finch laughed as Mei let out a huff and proceeded to shuffle him around until he was upright again and once more resting contentedly on her arm.
When Reese came back down to the Subway, he was expecting to see the usual sight that had greeted him at every entry since their narrow escape from the Samaritan agents at the substation: Finch and Root sitting at the computer, hard at work on their joint effort of rebuilding the Machine.
Today, however, while their coding work was still up on most of the other windows, both of them were staring fixatedly at a single monitor showing two matching video streams of a sleeping panda and cub.
"Um..." Reese wasn't quite sure what to make of this unusual turn of events. "Is the Machine finished?"
"Taking a break," Finch replied passively, his attention still focused on the screen.
"Watching pandas," Root added, also sounding somewhat distracted.
Reese looked at the screen again. He wasn't quite sure what the appeal was – it would be different if the pandas were awake and actually doing something – but he decided he wasn't going to overanalyze it. The past couple of months had been stressful, listening to Root and Finch arguing with each other over how best to rebuild the Machine. If watching a panda and her cub sleep was what it took to keep the tension level down in the Subway, then Reese was all for it.
He sat at the far end of the desk and proceeded with his own meditative exercise: the disassembling, cleaning, and reassembling of the multiple weapons in his arsenal. As he worked, he occasionally looked up at the pandas. Admittedly, there was something oddly relaxing about them... his peeks at the screen starting coming more frequently, and for longer periods of time...
And then one of the feeds changed. Root let out a happy squeal of "It's Bao Bao!" and Reese's disassembled rifle was instantly forgotten as all three of them watched the screen, enthralled by the playful panda's antics.