Disclaimer: Credit to Jonathan Nolan, Greg Plageman, and the POI writing team. Bolded sections are straight from the episodes.
QUEENSBRIDGE PARK
Chapter 33: end of Panopticon
5 months later
Having spent a good part of last night saving a young man who had been taken hostage by a gang called the Brotherhood, Reese allows himself a little lie-in the next morning.
His current apartment is nothing compared to the loft Finch had given him for his birthday a few years ago, but he's lived in far worse places than a modest one-bedroom with mostly young professionals as neighbors.
He can hear someone moving in the unit next door. It had been empty for all the time he'd been living there, and he'd hoped that was by the Machine's design. No inquisitive neighbors for Detective John Riley. Until yesterday.
From what he can hear, it's just one person. A woman, judging from the weight of the footfalls. She had moved in when he'd been out helping their Number, the first Number they'd had in months. Apparently his new neighbor didn't come with a lot of baggage. Literally, and he hopes figuratively as well.
As he drinks his first cup of coffee, he opens his window and looks out on the street below. It's just a regular New York City street, mostly residential and mostly quiet except for on the weekends, when the 20- and 30-somethings filled the bars and restaurants on the street level.
He watches curiously as Bear suddenly perks up, sniffing at the air. The canine trots over from his doggie bed and barks. Reese quickly commands him to be quiet, since he's pretty sure Bear breaks the apartment's pet weight limit.
Since they'd been forced to live their cover lives, Bear had been staying with Finch — Professor Whistler, that is. But Finch had handed over Bear's leash after their latest argument, when he refused to help with the Number. Finch had helped out in the end, but Reese is pretty sure they're still fighting.
Ignoring Tall Man's previous order, Bear barks again. Then he leaps out the window.
Elena Cassidy unearths a coffee mug from the pile of boxes she's currently living out of. She'd always prided herself on her coffee-making abilities (as a secretary, it had practically been a job requirement). But right now she has to settle for whatever comes out of the small Keurig that's the only appliance on her tiny kitchen counter.
Up until a week ago, she'd been in Rome preparing for the next semester of school. But then a fellowship at the Guggenheim had opened up that was just perfect for the thesis she had started working on with Grace's guidance.
And before she knew it, she was on a plane back home, moving her scant belongings into a tiny one-bedroom and about to start working part-time at Bloomingdale's to supplement her stipend.
Elena glances at her watch. She'd woken up early enough to enjoy her first cup before she has to start getting ready for work. She opens her window and looks out on the street below.
All she gets is two warning barks before a Belgian Malinois leaps through her window.
Pretty Lady! It's Pretty Lady! Bear frantically licks her face as they tumble to the floor.
Coffee flies everywhere, and her back collides painfully with the tile floor as the dog lands on her, but Elena is more surprised than hurt.
"Bear?!" she exclaims. "Is it you? What on earth ...?"
Out of the corner of her eye, she sees someone climb through her window. Luckily, she's landed near the garbage can where she'd stashed the Glock that Joss Carter had given her months ago.
In Elena's defense, the black polo and slacks he's wearing is so different from his usual look that it takes her a moment to realize she's pointing a gun at John Reese.
"John?"
"Elena."
They stare at each other in shock for a full minute before the world starts turning again. Reese has to physically drag Bear off Elena, who quickly puts the safety back on her gun and abandons it in a puddle of coffee as he helps her to her feet.
And then Elena Cassidy is hugging him.
He can't remember the last time someone's hugged him.
Actually, it was her, when they'd said goodbye in front of her apartment building in Italy.
Despite how unused he is to the gesture, he feels himself relax in her embrace, and return it.
"I thought something had happened to you," she says, voice slightly muffled against his chest.
"I'm all right," he assures her.
He feels her shake her head. "I had no way of finding out if you were dead or alive or ... just didn't want to talk to me anymore."
"It was never going to be that, El." And she feels a thrill at his use of his nickname for her. "But something did happen. Had to go underground for a while."
She pulls away to look up at him. "And now?"
"Still underground." His hand goes to his belt, and he flashes his badge at her — honestly, it hasn't gotten old yet.
Her eyes grow large. "You're a detective?" she says incredulously.
He looks affronted. "Detective John Riley, narcotics."
"You're a narc?" She looks him up and down. "Okay, new job, new look. That makes sense. I guess."
"What about you? What are you doing back here?"
"Oh my God, work!" she exclaims, seeing the time. "I have to get dressed!"
They're both suddenly very aware that she's only wearing a floral silk robe. She turns to flee to her bedroom, but he catches her just in time to keep her from stepping on her upended mug and spilled coffee.
"I'll take care of it," Reese assures her as he sets her down on the other side of the mess. "It was Bear's fault after all."
So as Elena flits about completing her morning routine, she tells him all about the fellowship and her thesis, and Reese listens as he cleans up the spill and her Glock, and answers her questions about how Lionel, Sameen, and Harold are doing.
"So are you headed to the museum now?" he asks as she emerges in a blue dress that suits her perfectly. Her hair is longer than when he'd last seen it, now reaching to the middle of her back.
His eyes zoom to her chest — well, specifically, the name tag pinned there. It looks suspiciously similar to the one Shaw had been wearing the other day. To his utter glee, Shaw is now a sales girl at a department store beauty counter. But he feels a prick of trepidation now.
"No, I work part-time at Bloomingdale's," Elena explains with a roll of her eyes. "The fellowship is great, but the stipend is not."
Elena happening to rent the apartment next to his could be a coincidence. That she works in the same store as Shaw? This has to be the Machine's doing, and suddenly the gun he'd just finished cleaning seems so much more ominous.
"Are you expecting trouble, Elena?" he asks, gesturing at her gun.
"Trouble usually finds me," Elena teases. "No, Joss gave it to me the night ..." She trails off, trying to figure out how best to phrase it. "The last time I saw her. It seemed like a waste to keep it in a safe deposit box."
The gun feels different in his hand now that he knows it was Carter's. "I'm guessing this is unregistered?"
"Why, are you going to arrest me, detective?" she smirks.
"Not today," he retorts. "Seems a waste to keep it in the garbage can," he says dryly.
"It was keeping it from tipping over, but I suppose there's a better place." She looks around her empty apartment. "Where do people like you hide things?"
He smirks. Finch had asked him the same thing, early on in their acquaintance.
"Underneath," he answers.
Luckily she has a roll of tape handy, and he efficiently straps it underneath her dining table, where she can easily get to it if necessary.
"I have to run and catch the train," she says apologetically as he finishes.
Just then, Reese's phone beeps with yet another calendar alert, this time for a meeting in Washington Square Park in 45 minutes.
"I'm headed downtown actually. I can give you a ride. Give you a chance to catch up with Bear some more?"
It's an offer too good to refuse.
On the sidewalk in front of Bloomingdale's, Elena pops her head back in through his car window as she shuts the door. Reese glares at two men walking by who are giving her an appreciative look from behind.
"I like the new look, by the way," she says, nodding at his black polo and gray slacks. "But not as much as I liked the old one."
On that note, she gives him a last smile, and Bear a parting pat, before walking into the department store. The two men are still leering at her, so Reese throws the gear shift into park and is about to teach them a lesson when someone drops into the seat Elena had just vacated.
"Whatever you're thinking of doing won't be good for Detective Riley."
"Root," Reese greets reluctantly.
"She looks cute with longer hair," she observes, as they watch Elena enter the store and the men move on down the street.
"Elena is off-limits to whatever game the Machine is playing," Reese says sternly.
Root rolls her eyes. "The Machine doesn't have any interest in Little Miss Normal."
"She just moved into my building, and now she works at the same place as Shaw? Tell the Machine to stop, Root. She's not part of this."
"I'm flattered you think I have any say in what the Machine —"
"Root."
"Okay, geez," she rolls her eyes as she opens the door. "Go meet the Professor in the park so he can put you in a better mood. I'll check it out."
"I hope you mean the situation with Elena, and not checking out Shaw."
"Didn't they teach you knots in Girl Scouts?"
Shaw turns around from the bow she's just taped and stapled to a box and sees Root smiling at her from the other side of the beauty counter.
"Are you checking up on me?" Shaw demands.
"I worry about you, Sameen," Root says flirtatiously. "I also have a black-tie dinner tonight, and I need a new polish. Something bold. Oh, and you should check your calendar. I think you have a coffee date."
"No way. The Machine stuck me in this retail hell. There's no way I'm letting it near my love life."
"She has a reason for everything, even if sometimes it requires you to act like a well-adjusted member of society," Root says. "Trust Her."
"And this is the counter you'll be in charge of, with Sameen," the manager explains to Elena as he leads her over. "I'm hoping you can be a ... positive influence."
"I'll ... I'll try my best," Elena manages to say, eyes going wide as she looks from Sameen to Root.
"Cassidy?" Shaw hisses in surprise once the manager leaves to go yell at someone else. "What are you doing here?"
"Making a living. What are you doing here?"
"More like dying." Shaw rounds on Root. "What is this?"
"I'm not quite sure yet," Root mutters before turning to Elena and smiling. "Hello again."
Elena's gaze grows cool. "Branch, wasn't it?"
Shaw stifles a laugh, and Root tries not to let her irritation show. "Like I was saying," she says directly to Shaw, ignoring Elena completely. "Trust Her. You need to act like a well-adjusted member of society? Here's the textbook example." She makes it sound far from a compliment.
"Is this connected to why John is a detective now?" Elena asks in an undertone.
That catches Shaw's attention. "You've seen John?"
"He drove me here. We're neighbors."
Shaw rolls her eyes as she turns to Root. "Hey, come on, what is going ...?"
Only she's not there anymore.
"Damn, I hate when she does that," Shaw mutters.
"You all do that," Elena points out in exasperation. "What on earth is happening?"
"Beats me," Shaw sighs with a shrug as she hands Elena the box she had mutilated. "But I'm guessing you're good at ribbons, Cassidy. Make this look pretty."
A/N:
"Is that your perfume? I could smell you down the hall."
— Reese to Shaw in Panopticon, when they meet for the first time since Team Machine went underground
