Chapter 2: Finchmas

15th December, 2014

Shaw strolled into the subway with a large box.

"You're looking pale, Finch," Shaw said, as Finch unpacked the UV lamp. Shaw tossed some vitamin D gummies on the desk. "I'm worried about your bones."

Finch looked up at Shaw awkwardly, felt her appraising gaze on the way his neck caught as he turned, and wondered what would have happened if Shaw had become a doctor. He knew why she wasn't; he also knew that an AXIS II disorder made for awfully good surgeons, due to their ability to disconnect completely from the fact that they were working on a living, breathing human and focus on the tissues and sinews that ran through the human body end to end. He wondered what his life would have been like if someone like Shaw had operated on him, after the explosion. He wondered if Shaw was just itching to cut him open, lay him flat and cut away at his overgrown cartilage, tease loose his trapped nerves.

"It's very kind of you, Shaw," Finch said humbly, and watched as Shaw fidgeted, obviously uncomfortable. This strong, independent and incredibly violent woman was embarrassed about being worried about his bones.

"It's winter and it's freezing down here. You ever coming above ground?"

"I need to stay with it... her," Finch corrected himself, and Shaw sighed. Root popped her head out of the carriage.

"Shaw's right," Root said. "I can watch her a couple of times a week and you can take a walk in the park. Maybe even uncover your arms?" Root asked with a flirtatious tone.

"I'm out," Shaw announced. She tossed a pack of multivitamin gummies on the desk as well. "Stay safe," she yelled behind her as she left.

Root came out of the carriage, looked over the vitamins.

"You know, she has a kind heart, underneath it all," Finch said to Root, who merely smirked and went back to The Machine.

15th December, 2017

When Shaw woke up, Gen was sitting on her bed, reading a book, Bear sprawled across the both of them. Shaw groaned.

"Privacy kid, y'ever heard of it?"

"You said last night we were going to the museum of natural history," Gen reminded Shaw, and Shaw groaned again. Bear licked her face and Shaw sat up slowly.

"Gen, it's 6am. It doesn't open until 8, you nerd."

"I read that parking is a nightmare," Gen said.

"Not if we take the subway," Shaw countered, but she sat up and stretched. Gen's eyes widened as she caught sight on a scar on Shaw's shoulder.

"Right. Privacy," Gen said, jumping off the bed. "When are we leaving?"

"If you get the coffee started, we can head out after 7. There's a great breakfast place on the way I've been meaning to take you, but I need a shower and to take Bear to his sitter."

Shaw knocked on a door, still yawning. Lee Fusco opened it, and Bear immediately leapt up to put his paws on the teenager's shoulders.

Lee laughed. "Good to see you too, buddy," he said. Lionel came to the door behind him, rubbing his eyes.

"Thanks for taking him for the day," Shaw said.

"You know I got your back. Kid ok?"

"Yeah, I'll bring her by when I come for Bear if you'd like?"

"We can put something together for dinner, if you have the time?" Lionel countered, hand absently stroking Bear's head.

"Sounds good. You sticking around for the holidays?" Shaw asked Lee, and he nodded happily. "We can catch up tonight then, Gen's pretty excited about the museum so I'd better get her on the rails."

The Fusco door shut behind her as she walked away.

Museums weren't Shaw's thing; too many people, not enough exits. She liked the dinosaurs though, and the rest of the skeletons, but the taxidermies freaked her out. Gen was attracted to the space rooms, excitedly talking about the properties of certain meteorites like Shaw understood, which she did a bit. She'd been following Gen's school reports, had been doing a bit of reading but it was beyond her the way that little brain retained every piece of information she'd ever come across. Thornhill still made generous donations to the school, now that Thornhill was back on its feet, but Gen had won every scholarship available to her. The school should be paying her, Shaw thought for a moment, then snorted. It wasn't long now, even with Gen only being 13, before universities started sending her offers.

Gen was fascinated by the old technology room as well, and Shaw pointed out the old PS3's, the first gen.

"I had... a friend... who built an entire supercomputer on them," Shaw said, swallowing in the middle of her sentence. "Your aunty Sam, I don't know if you remember her."

Gen read the card, which explained that there were still several systems like the one Shaw had just described still running in multiple countries, even with the obsolescence of the original OS that allowed for the odd use of the consoles, due to a patch that had been distributed globally; the main use of the supercomputer clusters was medical research in which hundreds of TFOP were required.

"She did that," Shaw choked out. "She released her hack to the larger community and they ran with it." Gen looked up at Shaw, took her hand and led her away from the exhibit.

Shaw's face hardened again, and Gen let go of her hand, wandered over to to an interactive console, an old Macintosh running Oregon Trail.

"I remember playing this as a kid," Gen said excitedly.

"I think everyone does," Shaw said, and looked away. "Some sort of shared human experience."

15th December 2014

Root kicked her feet up on the table, letting a script run on The Machine as she perused a book, one with a garish blue cover with a skeleton driving a sled on it.

Finch came in and tutted at Root's feet on the table. Root swung her feet down and turned to look at Finch.

He coughed uncomfortably. "Miss Shaw is a good person," he started.

"I know," said Root, and she turned back to her book. Finch looked over the code Root had been working on.

"Did you manage to push the update to the PSN?" Finch asked.

"Slipped it right through the back door, along with a secure OtherOS update. We should be able to add a few more consoles, switch out the YLOD ones tomorrow. I'll do the patching tomorrow night." Root looked up at Finch again. "Shaw was right, you do look pale. You go under the lamp, I'll wake you when I leave so you don't burn."

Finch let his hand rest on Root's shoulder for a moment.

"Miss Shaw is not the only one with a kind heart, Miss Groves," he said, touched by her concern. Root's hand covered Finch's for a moment, then she went back to her book. Finch heard her reading aloud to The Machine and chuckled to himself.

15th December, 2017

Shaw stood up from the kitchen table, stretching.

"Time to go, kiddo," she called as she walked into the longue room. She stopped when she saw Gen, asleep sitting up with a Switch controller in her hand. "Big day, huh?" Shaw shook Gen's shoulder, put the controller on the coffee table.

"She's been out for half an hour," Lee said, still playing Mario Kart. "At least this way I get to win a race." Shaw smiled as she hefted Gen into her arms.

"Come on, Bear," Shaw said as she carried Gen out to the car. Fusco walked them out, opened the car door for Shaw.

"Bring her around any time. You know I'm not good with the video games, Lee keeps kicking my ass. Does him some good to learn how to lose graciously."

"Thanks, Fusco," Shaw said. Fusco patted the bonnet and raised a hand as Shaw backed out of the driveway, and Shaw raised a hand to him in return.

Notes:

In case it is not clear, Root is reading Hogfather by Sir Terry Pratchett (GNU).