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She’s only just walked into the subway station when a mass of fists and brown hair collides with her. It takes her a second to process this and then Root starts yelling at her,
“You IDIOT! You couldn’t have come up with a SINGLE IDEA other than oh lets throw myself in front of the combined might of Samaritan and get myself fucking KILLED?!” (To be perfectly honest, while lying strapped to a Samaritan bed, Shaw had come up with several better ideas than getting herself captured by Samaritan, but at that point it was a little late.)
“…and she wouldn’t fucking tell me ANYTHING, and we all thought you were DEAD Shaw! And then you just walk in here after MONTHS…” (Well okay she had a point, but the whole double agent thing was risky and making contact could have easily screwed over one or both of them so Shaw really thinks she should get points for trying to keep herself alive. Her trying to get herself killed appeared to be Root’s biggest complaint right now.)
Shaw considers trying to make that argument, but at this point she’s not sure Root is likely to respond to logic. She blocks the worst of Root’s punches, (really, it’s a bit too easy - she taught Root to fight better than this,) hoping that she’ll tire herself out eventually. She glances over Root’s head at the boys who both are wearing identical expressions of…confusion maybe? Whatever it is, they’re clearly not planning to jump in anytime soon.
The next time Root’s fists fly at her, she grabs her wrists and tries to get her to hold still for a minute. Root struggles weakly for a few more seconds and then goes limp, falling to her knees. Shaw can see silent tears streaking down her cheeks, and suddenly wishes Root was trying to beat her up again. Violence was significantly easier to deal with. With no idea what to say, she squats down next to Root, and awkwardly puts a hand on the back of her shoulder. For the second time in as many minutes, Root hurls herself into Shaw’s body, crying in earnest now and clinging to her. The boys look downright amused now, probably at the look of confusion on Shaw’s face. Gingerly, she wraps her arms around Root’s sobbing shoulders. Remembering Gen’s complaint, Shaw keeps her arms loose, and simply holds on as Root sobs into her shoulder.