Root stood in the darkness of what was now an abandoned store. Her shoulder ached, but she'd managed to at least bandage it up with Finch's help. The single bulb that hung from the ceiling illuminated the room dimly, showing the face of the man she now had tied to a chair. She hadn't been able to find any zip ties, but some rope had been good enough.

The man was the Samaritan operative that Shaw had recognised; Root and Finch had run into him during their escape. He had worked at the facility where they'd held Shaw, which meant he was at least somewhat involved in her torture. To Root, that meant he deserved everything she was about to do.

"Soon as you won't answer any of my other questions," she said, pacing up and down. "I'll ask you this instead. Do you remember Sameen Shaw?" The man, who'd maintained his silence up till now, replied with a cruel smile. "Of course I remember that bitch."

The man cried out in pain as Root shot out his kneecap. "You should really watch your language when you talk about Shaw in front of me, my finger tends to slip otherwise." She got close to the man, anger flashing in her eyes as she continued. "The next one," she said, pushing her gun into the wound, making the man crease up in pain. "Goes in your other kneecap. The third goes in your head."

"That's quite enough, Ms Groves." Finch emerged from the corner of the room, his face serious. "This is not how we operate."

Root huffed. "No Harold," she said, turning to face him. "This is not how you operate. Things are different for me and Shaw. We hurt the people who hurt us."

"Either way, I don't believe Miss Shaw would support this."

"Really?" Root couldn't hide the surprise in her voice. "Do you remember Jeff, Harold? The number who started working for Samaritan."

Finch gave her a quizzical look. "I do, but I don't see the relevance-"

"He shot me Harry. Shaw killed him for it. We get revenge for each other." Root spoke bluntly; there was no point in coating this nicely. Plus, they were pushed for time and she needed Finch to either understand or get out of her way.

They may have continued back and forth like that if the man didn't start laughing to himself in the chair. Root turned to him sharply, the renewed anger in her eyes promising death. "How badly did we break her?" Asked the man now that he had Root's attention. "To have gotten you like this."

Root fought the urge to blow his other kneecap off right there and then. Instead she approached him with a deadly smile. "How arrogant of you to believe you could break Shaw." Root waved her gun in the air as she spoke. "She broke out of your facility and helped take down Samaritan. Does that sound like a broken woman to you?"

"I watched the simulations," replied the man. "We saw everything she did, Root." The grin that appeared on the man's face made Root's stomach turn in disgust. "I hope she kills you in your sleep." Root had heard enough. She shot the man's other knee and a second later had her gun pressed against his head. Finch made a move to stop her, but the glare she shot at him made him think twice.

"Samaritan is gone," she said, pushing hard against the man's forehead. "So why are you still coming after us?"

"Samaritan may be offline," replied the man through gritted teeth. "But there are ways of bringing it back."

"Would you care to elaborate on that?" Asked Root.

The man stayed silent, but the Machine didn't. It told Root that the other Samaritan operatives had found them and that they needed to leave. "Looks like out time's up," said Root. She gave the man a final opportunity to tell her the truth, then leant down and spoke in a low voice. "You deserve a slow and painful death, but I'm getting payback for Shaw so I need to make sure you're dead. Consider yourself lucky."

Root took a few steps back, then shot him through the head. His face froze in an expression of fear and horror as his body went limp in the chair. Root left the body there, grabbing Finch's arm and guiding him to their escape route.

—

Shaw dialled the phone, only to receive no response once again. It had been hours. Root hadn't bothered to contact her once and she never picked up her phone. Shaw glared at the monitors; the Machine hadn't been very helpful either.

Grace was seated on the sofa, a worried expression on her face. Shaw couldn't stand social interaction at the best of times, but dealing with Grace had been particularly difficult. She hadn't recognised Root at first but after the gunfight she had no trouble remembering them both. She, quite rightly, had questions, none of which Shaw felt it was her place to answer. As a result, they'd spent most of the time sitting in silence, with Shaw checking her phone constantly for any sign from Root.

Shaw nearly let out a sigh of relief when there was finally a knock at the door. She motioned for Grace to move into another room, drawing her gun just in case. She honestly didn't know how to react when she opened the door to find Fusco standing there, Bear sitting by his side.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Asked Shaw, putting her gun away.

Fusco put his away too. "I could ask you the same question," he replied. "I've had Scooby Doo here for over a day."

Shaw glanced down at Bear, who let out a small whine. "It's complicated," she said, letting Fusco enter.

Fusco froze when he noticed Grace. "Isn't that Finch's fiance?" he asked Shaw quietly.

"I told you it's complicated," she replied through her teeth.

Grace looked at them both in disbelief. "You're the detective, from when I was kidnapped," she said, recognising Fusco as well. "Please tell me what's going on."

"Honestly," he replied, "I probably know even less than you. I was just told to come here."

Grace turned to Shaw. "Please just tell me where that other woman took Harold."

Shaw rubbed her head. "Look, I couldn't tell you even if I wanted to. She won't pick up her phone and she didn't exactly tell me the plan in advance." Grace only looked more worried as she said that, so she thought it would be best to add something to give her some peace of mind. "Listen, Harold is safe with her. She's already taken a bullet for him once." Shaw had no idea if that had actually helped at all, but she honestly didn't know what else to say.

It was Fusco now who looked at her quizzically, and Shaw suddenly realised she still hadn't told him about Root yet. "Root's alive," she said with a small hint of a smile. "I found her."

"Well it's about time," replied Fusco. "I was beginning to worry something had happened." He realised his mistake almost immediately, panic flashing in his eyes.

Shaw shot him a deadly glare. "You better explain yourself, Lionel."

"Look, don't get mad at me." He swallowed hard. "I went to the hospital like I said, but she was there, recovering. She asked me to help her disappear."

Shaw did her best to hold back her anger. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You think I didn't want to?" Fusco shook his head. "She threatened to kill herself if I didn't help, told me you'd wind up dead if I told you."

Shaw sighed, shaking her head. "Oh, I'm gonna kill her."

"That would be a bit counterproductive, wouldn't it, honey?" Root walked into the safe house, Finch trailing close behind. He went straight over to Grace, who seemed relieved but still afraid. "Good to see you kept your bad timing," commented Shaw, drawing a smile from Root. "Where the hell have you been?"

"Taking care of business," replied Root, running a hand over Shaw's shoulder.

"That's vague and you know it."

Root ignored her comment, changing the subject. "Do you mind taking a look at Harold? I'm pretty sure he got grazed by a bullet during our escape."

"Or I could look at you," replied Shaw, fixing a Root with a stare. "Because I know you took one to the shoulder, and from the way you're standing I'd say you took one in the side as well."

"You know me so well," said Root, taking the seat Shaw gestured to.

Shaw began looking at the bullet wound in Root's shoulder which had been badly bandaged up. "So," she said quietly, "You ready to tell me what you've been doing all day and why you haven't been answering my calls."

"I'm sorry for not answering, Shaw. But as I said, I was busy taking care of some things." Root smiled, but it still wasn't good enough for Shaw.

"What things?" She hissed.

Root tilted her head. "It's nothing."

"Only if you consider torturing and killing a man nothing, Miss Groves," said Finch, walking over to them. Shaw raised her eyebrows.

"He makes it sound so much worse than it is," said Root, but she didn't elaborate. Shaw could see she wasn't comfortable saying anymore, well, at least while they still had company. Shaw paused her work on Root's shoulder and turned to Finch. "You know Grace has been asking me a lot of questions, Finch. Maybe you should answer some of them in another room." He got the hint, taking Grace into the next room.

"I'll give you two a minute," said Fusco, taking Bear as he headed towards the others.

"Thanks Lionel," replied Root over her shoulder. "For everything."

"Yeah no problem," he said. "Just glad to see you two lunatics happy again."

Root smiled softly at Shaw, who rolled her eyes back at her. Shaw moved to the wound in Root's side as Fusco left.

"So who'd you kill, Root?" Asked Shaw, though she still didn't get an immediate response. "Look I'm not judging you, I've killed a decent number in my time. But I did think you'd moved on from the whole murder business."

Root huffed. "It was the Samaritan operative, the one you pointed out. I thought he deserved payback after what they did to you."

Shaw paused. "Oh, that's unexpected, but okay. I don't know why you were so reluctant to mention it before, though. As far as I'm concerned that's a good thing."

Root glanced towards the other room. "Not everyone is as keen on my methods."

Shaw followed her eyes. "Finch? Who gives a crap what he thinks?"

"I do, Sameen."

Shaw finished her work on Root's wound and she sat back, looking Root in the eyes as she spoke. "Seriously, you've got to stop searching for Finch's approval. I know he means a lot to you but… but the truth is if it was Grace who was hurt, all those rules and morals he has, they'd be gone. He'd do the same, if not worse, than what you did."

Root smiled lovingly at Shaw, taking Shaw's hands in her own. "You know for a sociopath you're getting pretty good at comforting speeches."

"Yeah well this crazy psycho wouldn't leave me alone so now I've got all these emotions to deal with," replied Shaw, cracking a smile of her own. She looked over at the closed door connecting to the room where the others were. "Maybe it's time to let them back in so we can figure out what to do next."

Root cupped her cheek gently and planted a soft kiss on her lips. "Maybe they can wait a little longer," she said, pulling Shaw into an embrace and burying her face in Shaw's neck. Shaw held Root tight, feeling in that moment as if nothing else mattered, that maybe as long as she had Root, she might finally get a shot at happiness.