Shaw liked order, she liked control, she enjoyed Kentucky bourbon and as an Axis II sociopath, she'd even go as far to say she loved guns; more specifically the Colt M4A1 assault rifle, that was the only baby she wanted to rock in her arms, along with a reload magazine and an anti-flash muzzle break of course.

"I can understand the parents, but why the hell did its number come up?" Shaw growled into her ear-piece as she stalked down the apartment hallway. Root followed quietly behind her as she stepped over the dead parents like they were nothing more than strewn clothes, rummaging through the ransacked apartment looking for any clues in connection to that thing. She never understood why people liked babies, if it wasn't for neurological chemical encoding people would eat them, or enslave them. Although, they wouldn't be much use in hard labor camps thanks to their poor muscle mass, she thought.

"It would appear the parents both worked for your former employer Miss Shaw, any ideas why the ISA would want to harm the child?" Harold's voice crackled through their ear-pieces from the safety of his library.

"To clean up the mess, no one wants the orphan of two special-ops agents growing up asking questions about classified business," Shaw hummed, rooting through the kitchen cupboards as she looked for more clues. "My guess is that if we didn't bust into this place when we did, the kid would have been next." she mused, cocking a glance to the two operatives they'd killed in the hallway.

"Oh my, this..." he trailed off and the dull metronome of his fingers typing against the keyboard filled the sound. "This is bad." Harold panicked.

"Let me guess, more operatives?" Shaw rolled her eyes, jumping up from behind the kitchen sink with her M4A1 loaded in her hands.

"No, not that, she would have told me." Root shook her head and bounced the crying baby she'd plucked from the crib in her arm, she pulled a gun from it's holster with her spare hand just in case the machine was wrong and she had to kneecap the next person to barge through the front door.

"Samaritan has issued instruction to it's operatives to capture the child. It wasn't the ISA that did this, the parents were just collateral." Harold said with confusion, they'd dealt with some interesting numbers before but never one so young. Never one important enough for Samaritan to identify as relevant.

"So what's the plan? Drop Baby Annabelle here off at child protective services and head back to the subway?" Shaw asked with indifference, opening a holdall bag as she started throwing baby clothes and diapers inside.

"Her name is Samille." Root swallowed the deep burn of annoyance that licked the insides of her throat back down, bouncing the child unnaturally gently whilst she did it. She was a reformed killer for hire and the analogue interface of a god-like super intelligence, she certainly wasn't used to bouncing babies, but she taught her that every life mattered and Samille was important and right now, they were all she had. Though she wouldn't admit it, Root always had a soft spot for kids and Shaw knew it. She saw it right down in the way her pupils dilated and her mouth widened into a grin at every sticky, disgusting toddler that babbled at her on the bus.

"Oh no," Shaw shook her head, pointing her finger towards the taller brunette as she took a step closer. "We're not getting attached to this thing, it doesn't get a name. You either call it Baby or It and if I hear anything else come out of your mouth... I'll put it in the holdall." she snarled, turning on her heel to throw more items in the bag.

"I'm afraid it's not as simple as dropping the baby off, Miss Shaw." Harold sighed into their ear-pieces, the machine had already told Root what the logical course of action was the minute Samaritan had issued orders to its operatives, the absurdity of it was hilarious to her, but she could see the logic if she tried to look at the bigger picture.

"Well make it that simple, Harold."

"Miss Shaw, Samille needs a cover identity and protection until we can figure the finer details out. Unfortunately, Samaritan has infiltrated nearly every government bureau and turning her over to CPS until we know why it is she's being sought after isn't an option-"

"Do not suggest what you're about to suggest."

"I'm afraid it's too late, Samaritan has reviewed the buildings security footage and marked both of your cover identities as targets, I need you both to go into hiding for now and protect the baby." Harold ordered.

"We've got company," Root rolled her eyes and interrupted all of it, "We need to leave now, eight Samaritan operatives coming up the east-stairwell and the elevators are off." she relayed the machine's intel from her cochlear implant, "The window, now." she already started to move as the noise of pounding against the front door greeted them.

"You seriously want to take the fire escape? How lame." Shaw rolled her eyes, climbing onto the escape stairs after them but somewhere in the pit of her belly the fire was growing, the sixth sense that told her she was about to get to fire her gun.

Root used the sheet she'd torn from the clothesline to fashion a sling for the newborn baby, wrapping her tightly against her chest in the material as operatives from below began to fire into the emergency stairwell at them. Bullets ricocheted dangerously close to them and Root did all she could to protect the little one from the brunt of it. Sameen covered Root and the lump under her jacket, pulled them behind her body and stared down the barrel of her fully automated rifle and took out two of the operatives like it was nothing more game sport.

"Hey kids, mama's home." Shaw joked under her breath, returning fire to a sniper hidden in the opposite block of apartments. She turned with expert stealth and fired blindly into the glass of the apartment three windows down. The reward was the screams of the would-be sniper she'd capped in the shoulder.

"How did you know there were agents there, even she didn't know." Root scrunched up her brow and kicked down the fire escape ladder, shielding the child wrapped to her chest from the shots that whizzed past them from below.

"Because that's where I would've scouted us out." She tersely explained, leading the way down the ladder towards the street below.

They dropped the small jump from the bottom of the fire-escape ladder and hit the ground of the pavement, sprinting towards the car as bullets flew past them with Shaw covering them. She fired little shots here and there, one at the window and two at the door, none of them were hits and as if time wasn't a fleeting resource she found enough of it to curse herself for missing.

A bullet skimmed past her and Root finally lost her temper. Between her and Shaw, she was supposedly the reckless one, the careless one, the one who would cut intestines out and make someone wear them as a necklace until they told her what she wanted to hear... the last part was possibly true but as for the rest, she was the calm and collected one and she knew as much. It was hard not be with the voice of God in her ear. But nothing could cool the rage building deep in the pit of her stomach where the dark stuff lived, that their enemy would fire at them knowing she had a newborn baby strapped to her chest. What separated these battles from the kind of shootings on street corners was the cold, clinical professionalism displayed by both sides. Firing at a newborn baby wasn't professional, it was an act of careless volition, one that wouldn't go unnoticed.

"Get Samille in the car, I've got a message to send to Greer." she shouted over the gunfire to Shaw as the smaller woman opened the passenger door, Root took cover behind the interior side of the frame from the enemy fire and unwrapped the baby from the sling she had fashioned, placing her tiny body in Shaw's stiff and uncertain hands.

"How about you get in the car with the baby and I'll deal with this." Shaw tensed her jaw, her arms outstretched with the newborn as Root grabbed her bag of magic tricks from the footwell.

"Aw. That's cute." Root flashed Shaw her trademark smile as she grabbed a grenade from her bag and pulled the pin, throwing it over the door-frame. It rolled under the chassis of a blacked out escalade down the street and exploded underneath the gas tank, sending smoke billowing so high the snipers in the building could no longer aim at them through the black cloud. "Mommy, get in the car and leave Daddy to handle this one." she winked, throwing her bag over her shoulder and striding into the midst of chaos.

Shaw stiffly held the screaming baby in her arms, the U.S Marines never prepared her for this, the ISA never covered how to hush a newborn baby in it's torture training exercises on Guantanamo Bay. Shaw didn't do emotions, but if she did, she'd describe this as the closest thing to fear.

"Shut up." she said awkwardly at the baby, climbing in the back seat with the child in her arms.

"Miss Shaw, try rocking the baby." Harold suggested over the radio before another round of angry baby squeals cut him off.

"Shut. Up." Shaw ordered again, her voice was harsher, more certain of her demands this time.

"She's a baby she doesn't understand—"

"I wasn't talking to the baby that time, I was talking to you." Shaw corrected him, placing the howling child belly up on the dog bed beside her as she resigned herself to the insufferable wailing until Root came back to fix it. "Root do you need backup?" Shaw asked through her ear-piece, it was the closest she would ever get to asking "Are you okay?" but the taller brunette never seemed to mind, she understood Shaw, understood the mysterious language they spoke in with a learned fluency. They cared about it each other beyond the murder-attempts and kidnappings. They cared about each other in a way only they could.

"Nah I'm good. Stop worrying about me and take care of the baby, Sameen." Root lightly scolded her over the private line, gunfire and explosions in the background as Shaw imagined her decimating all of Samaritan's forces single handed.

"I don't know how, okay? I'm not child-proof, I might accidentally kill it." Shaw crossed her arms, side-glancing the crying baby who laid on Bear's bed.

"Pick her up gently in your arms like you're carrying unstable explosive materials, if your arms aren't loose and your body is stiff, she'll sense it."

Shaw paused for a moment, rolling her eyes and sighing before she caved in and held the baby to her chest as gently as she knew how. "Now what, it's still crying."

"Think positive thoughts, rock her gently."

"Positive thoughts?" she rolled her eyes, "The baby's a damn clairvoyant now?"

Before Shaw could mutter the expletives she wanted to mutter the passenger door swung open next to her, she grabbed the gun from the car's console and pointed it at the intruder ready to fire without thinking.

"You know, I really thought stay in the car with the baby was supposed to be the easy end of the bargain..." Root rolled her eyes, gesturing for Shaw to get in the front as she grabbed the screaming baby. "Don't worry Harry it's taken care of, we heading back to base?" Root asked whilst she hushed the crying baby, holding her to her chest and humming gently. "I know, I know." she cooed at the angry little thing in her arms, "She's not very cuddly, but she'll get better, I promise."

Shaw keyed the ignition and slammed it into reverse, backing all the way out of the street at break-neck speeds.

"Slow down, babies aren't known for their resilience and durability." Root shot her a stern eye.

"For once, I am in agreement with Miss Groves." Harold commented in their ears, "Get to LaGuardia Airport and dump the car, they'll be a private jet waiting for you and Mr Reese will meet you with supplies for the baby. It's not safe for any of you in New York anymore, you're going into hiding for the time being."

"No way," Shaw growled, throwing a hateful glance in the mirror at the baby.

"Relax," Root smiled and held the baby tightly to her chest, asleep blissfully. "We go to the Midwest for a month or two and spend some time researching Samaritan's plan, let things cool down here, and when we come back you'll never have to sell another bottle of illuminizer at the make-up counter again."

Shaw rolled her eyes and tightened her jaw, driving dutifully towards their given location. "Fine," she conceded with a deep sigh that blew the dust from her lungs. "I'm not going to be another counter girl, do you hear me Harry?"

"Quite clear Miss Shaw, the machine will allocate you new identities for your cover, I will simply make sure you have the resources at your disposal to stay safe and comfortable whilst you're away." he explained, Shaw felt a pang in her heart as she listened to Bear whine in the background, like he knew this was the moment he wouldn't see her again for a long, long time. She felt like whining too, she didn't sign up for this.

"What's our cover anyway?" Shaw sneered and already knew the answer.

"I would of thought that would be obvious, Honey." Root smiled from the backseat, before wincing in pain as they drove over a pothole.

"No way." Shaw barked into the headset. "Girlfriends? Seriously that's the best your God machine could come up with?"

"Actually, if you want to get specific, you've been married for three years; together for eight and you're transferring to your new home due to your job, please remember Miss Shaw, this is only temporary." Harold tried to reassure her as he tapped away incessantly at his keyboard in the background.

"Harold can you have John bring a first-aid kit?" Root winced again as they took a fast turn, "I've got a bullet stuck in my shoulder and I don't know how I feel about Shaw having a scalpel to hand for the next few hours."

"Loud and clear." Harold added. "Miss Shaw, are you on board?"

"Fine." Shaw bit her mouth and hissed, wondering why she agreed to these things. "But we get different names; Sameen, Samantha and Samille makes us look like a freakin' cult family and secondly, I'm not living in Iowa or worse, North Dakota."

"Well, the good news is the machine can give you slightly more varied names..." Harold explained.

"And the bad news?"

"North Dakota, here we come." Root grinned.