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It's a relief to be back at work, so to speak.

It's true he and Finch don't have a team put together quite yet and it's true there's still a good deal of work to do at the warehouse, they'll hardly be running missions by the weekend, but at the same time he knows it's coming. The work he's doing now is mostly busy work, running errands for Finch when he needs them, getting supplies, fetching him his tea when he runs low, making sure Finch actually eats while he works, but it's good work. It's going to lead them to something bigger, so John does it all without question.

Whether or not Finch will be able to rebuild the Machine is something they haven't discussed. John is almost afraid to approach the topic, worried the first words he'll hear out of Finch's mouth are I can't. He'd never imagined he would grow to think of the Machine as he does, as a sentient helper, something -- no, someone -- to be missed as keenly as he misses Carter and Shaw, but here he is. And he does miss the Machine.

They'll get there eventually. For now, he does what Finch asks of him.

Today he's out picking up cell phones. It's an easy enough purchase, but in order to make sure no one detects any patterns to their purchases, John visits different suppliers, buying only one phone from each, using only cash. That's his plan, anyway, but after the second stop he spots a familiar face.

"Damen," he says. "It's good to see you."

He's worried about him and Laurent both in the aftermath of what had happened. John has been an operative for a long time, he knows he can deal with the guilt he feels over having hurt someone with Dutch's face, but he's worried about them, about how they're dealing with it.

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'Yes,' Damen replied with little hesitation.

It was unclear whether John was offering or if he was merely curious. Damen stood taller, his expression more serious to show the full intent of his questioning, to show he did not mean it as a mere means to further the conversation.

'I was a warrior back home,' he further explained. He was not just any warrior, of course, not when he led the helm of Akielos's grand army. Not when virtually no move was made without his approval. But he kept that part quiet; it held little merit in this world. 'I'm skilled in hand-to-hand and a great swordsman. Laurent as well. Do you think you could teach the both of us?'

Warrior isn't quite the term John is used to hearing, but he understands Laurent and Damen to be from a different world than the one he knows. What he's describing, though, isn't so much different from a soldier and further to that, John does trust Laurent. He doesn't know Damen, not beyond their encounter that night and this moment here today, but he trusts Laurent.

Ten years ago, that wouldn't have mattered. But ten years ago he doubts he would have trusted Laurent either.

"I think we can do that," he agrees. "We'll have to find somewhere private, because I admittedly don't have a permit at the moment." Finch will fix that given time, but until then, he can't very well head down to the shooting range.

'Permit?' Damen replied with a slight frown. He was familiar with the concept, but only in the realm of the selling of goods and taxation. Why a person would need permission for a weapon, he couldn't understand. 'Would I need one, too?'

Even after half a year in this place, there were a great many things Damen didn't know or understand. Laurent had spent weeks back in Vere accusing him of having little intellect, of being nothing more than an idiotic barbarian. Never had such words felt more accurate than when Damen had arrived here in this place. There were days where his ignorance felt nearly insurmountable despite his efforts.

"Not unless you wanted to be legally carrying a weapon. To learn and for it to be legal, you would both need a license, but that's just a matter of purchasing one. In order to carry, though, you'd have to take the required hours of training, pass a test, and have your permit."

John smiles slightly and adds, once more, "Though that's only for it to be legal."

He's had as much training as anyone can. He's had permits and licenses in a variety of names, some even in his real name, but in Darrow everything he has is strictly illegal. At least for the time being.

Damen listened carefully, fully aware that this was information he would need to know. He wondered if the same rules applied for carrying a sword, though he had yet to see a single person bearing said weapons in public. At least outside that one Halloween day where, as Damen had come to understand, they were nothing more than accessories to costumes.

'You don't strike me as a man particularly interested in legality,' Damen remarked with a small bit of amusement.

In truth, the idea was slightly unnerving. Damen had lived his life intent on order and rules, firmly adhering to right versus wrong. The man before him was a killer, highly trained, but not a soldier. Still, he had saved Damen's life and Laurent's as well. For that, if nothing else, Damen knew he could be trusted.

'Do I need to acquire my own weapon?'

John only shrugs at the first remark, knowing it to be true. It isn't that he goes out of his way to break the law and he likes to think, with Finch's guidance, he's done more good and bad, but at the same time he has no issue going above and around the law when necessary. He'd earned the vigilante title, the Man in the Suit. Carter had had every reason to refer to him as such until she finally understood.

"No," he says at the next question. "I have plenty for you both to use to learn. If you want to carry your own, then yes, you'll have to buy one for yourself, but if you want to go through illegal channels for that, I'm sure I can find a way to help you."