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This, he thinks, has to be a decent bachelorette party.

Maybe not for the average bride, maybe other people out there want strippers and sashes that read BRIDE-TO-BE and phallic decorations, but Peggy had made it very clear to John that she wanted none of that.

So he'd rented out a bar. An entire bar. The guest list isn't particularly extensive, they don't need the entire bar, but he'd seen no reason not to do it anyway. It means they have the entire place to themselves, they can control the music, and the bartender has only them to serve. And John has paid a flat fee for the bartender and the serving staff, plus given them a significant tip, so they're attending the party perfectly.

The bar is nice, with comfortable chairs and several pool tables, as well as a well stocked jukebox that he thinks has just about anything someone might think to play. Maybe not Dutch, she probably knows songs none of them have ever heard before, but there's probably plenty on the jukebox she'll still enjoy.

There are appetizers, lots of them, covering just about any option a person could want. The same goes for alcohol.

All in all, for someone not all that inclined toward attending parties, he thinks he's done a fairly good job capturing something Peggy will enjoy. And that's the point of tonight, giving her a party to celebrate her future and everything that's to come with people she enjoys spending time with.

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"Maid of honour," John corrects from where he's standing nearby, then smiles as he moves to join Peggy at the bar. He'd seen her come in earlier, but he'd given her a chance to actually view what he'd set up before coming over to say hello, not wanting her to tell him she enjoyed it just because he'd ambushed her without giving her a chance to take it all in. But she seems relieved and there's no scowl in place.

He thinks he's made her happy. Before Darrow, it had been a long while since he'd had cause to do such a thing.

"But I passed the test then," he says, leaning against the bar to order a drink for himself. "Would you have fired me if I'd failed to throw the proper party?"

"I thought perhaps you could have a temporary job change since you did such a lovely job," Peggy says warmly, because she is rather delighted with how everything's turned out. "You absolutely passed the test, I couldn't be happier with the setup."

She turns with her back to the bar so that she can properly watch the lay of the land, not caring if not a soul appears. This is everything she needs. "I wouldn't have fired you, but I think perhaps some mild British disappointment would have been in store."

John had dealt with Finch's mild and quiet disappointment well enough -- and completely ignored it, too -- so he thinks he could have dealt with British disappointment if he'd deserved it. Once he has his fresh drink in hand, he turns to lean beside Peggy, watching the people she'd wanted to attend. They're an eclectic group, which isn't terribly surprising.

"I'm glad you're pleased," he says easily. "But now I want to know if you're going to beat me at a game of pool."

Pool is one of those things John is good at because of his father, but he's willing to bet there's a good chance Peggy is better. She's exceptionally good at a number of things he wouldn't necessarily have expected and he'd like to play a game with her, see how well they may be matched.

Peggy can't help her rueful laugh as she looks to the tables. "I wish that I could pretend to be terrible and then hustle you, but I'm afraid I didn't spend much of my time with pool," she confesses. "Now, if we're talking about a game of darts, I'm far more adept."

She had been a sharpshooter to help with the work of the regiments, so she thinks her aim is better than her ability with a cue. "We'll have to play at some point tonight and loser will drink the rest of their glass, I imagine?"

"Darts and pool," John says. "We can do both. The night is young, isn't it?"

He's not sure if he'll be any good at darts. His aim is very good, but he's never really devoted much time to darts and he knows there's more to it than just having good aim.

It's a bar game, at least where he's from, and he thinks that alone ought to be a reason for him to know it well. As a young man, he'd spent too much time in bars. Far too much.

"This seems like I'm doing it wrong if this is meant to be some sort of churlish attempt at flaunting my freedom, but the truth is that with Daniel, he's quite approving of most of my madcap adventuring," she admits with a happy smile.

"I suppose that's how you know you're with the right person. There's no dread," she admits, wandering over to fetch some darts. "There's only excitement about what's to come for us. Did you feel like that? Before?"

"Before what?" John asks. "I've never been married."

He'd wanted to marry Jessica, he'd had every intention of asking her, but then the Towers had come down and his entire life had shifted. Leaving the CIA had been impossible for him after seeing that, after knowing how the world was going to change.

And he's considered it here in Darrow, wondered if it's something Karen might want, but for now he's content to simply live with her. That alone had been a big step for him, a significant change to how he's always lived, sharing his personal space with someone.

Edited 2018-09-08 14:52 (UTC)

"Not marriage," Peggy says, because she hadn't meant it quite so firmly. She's not sure how to put it, though. "Before diving in completely with one person," she says, wondering if that helps to clarify it in the way she means. "When you're sure and you want to settle everything with them."

"With Fred, it was all doubts and dread. With Steve, I never even got the chance," she admits, gripping the darts tighter. "I grieved for him for so long, I have to admit I didn't even notice Daniel at the start," she tells John.

John isn't sure he does want to settle everything. With anyone. He loves Karen and he wants to be with her and he is in the relationship with as much of himself as he can be, but there will alway be parts of them both, he thinks, that will belong somewhere else. If he were to say as much to Karen, he thinks she would agree.

"I don't know if I would call it excitement," he says. But he and Karen aren't looking forward to a marriage, a wedding, at least not yet. He doesn't know if he's ever had the same experience Peggy is talking about.

"Contentment," he decides. "Which is more than I've ever had before."

"You do seem like a man prone to action," Peggy quips, which isn't to tease and make him feel bad, but she has noticed, of course. In fact, she likes it. The sheer delight of having someone that she knows will keep her life interesting in personal matters with Daniel and professional with John is a relief to her.

"Speaking of excitement, though," she says, throwing her first dart. "I don't intend to stop working with you just because I get married."

"I hadn't expected that to be the case," John answers mildly. Getting married might have once been a reason to settle down, as it were, and it might be considered the same still for some, but he doubts very much Peggy was ever a woman to settle down and stop doing what she wants to. Marriage won't change that. Daniel isn't marrying her because he expects her to just drop everything and become a housewife.

"And I hope you didn't think I had assumed you would," he answers with a faint smile. "What kind of feminist would I be if I worked like that?"

"Unfortunately, I've known enough men and seen their expectations to know that I shouldn't have too much faith," she says in a way that's cynical and a bit dismal, but it's the truth of the matter. She gives John a brief smile, though, in thanks for what he says.

"You're one of the very best, you know. I could never have expected anything like that at home," she shares. "I'd probably have been fired the moment I got pregnant, honestly."

"I'll expect you to at least take a small break to give birth," he says with a straight face, resolutely not smiling at the idea that he's one of the best of anything. John knows that isn't true, but he's happy to let those he loves think it, if they must. As long as it doesn't get them hurt.

"But I'm also not your boss," he points out. They work together as a team and they haven't had a true leader since Finch disappeared. John won't step into the role left empty by his friend, he'll never be able to be that person. "We're a team, not an employer and employee."

She does want children at some point, but the thought of being pregnant right now is a bit much for Peggy and she can't help her laugh, shaking her head. "I assure you, I'll take at least the week off," she deadpans.

"And I know you're not, but as much as I never liked it, I got used to working with someone giving the direction and the orders. Even when I was helping Howard, it was still for his cause." She hates saying it out loud because it makes it seem like she doesn't know how to lead for herself, but perhaps she doesn't?

Maybe she still needs to learn.

"Yet one more thing we have in common," John says with a small smile. He'd never learned how to step into a leadership role either. It's one thing to take directions from someone who knows what they're doing and it's something else entirely to be the one telling people what to do.

He can work by himself, he can formulate plans and enact them with ease, as long as he's the only one in danger. If something were to happen in Darrow and he threw himself headlong into the problem, he'd come out on the other side relatively unscathed, but he would have to do it alone. Directing others just isn't something he knows how to do.

"Two of us, both trying to seek each other's and someone else's leadership? That sounds to me like Dutch has a new job," Peggy quips, because as far as she's concerned, she wouldn't mind taking orders from the other woman, seeing as she would be quite good at it, as far as Peggy is concerned.

She tweaks one of the darts in her hands, fiddling with it as she studies the board in front of them. "What do you say? Shall we tell her about her promotion?"

"Are you sure you'd want Dutch to be our boss?" John asks, his smile growing. "She might work us too hard."

Dutch wouldn't want to be their leader either. She's smart and strong and he loves working with her, but as with everyone else, they're a team instead of a leader and someone who follows her directions. He thinks she would be better at it than she might realize, but he doubts she's going to take over any time soon.

"What about Karen?" he asks, only partly joking. "She always seems to know what to do."

"I like someone who keeps me focused on my work, but then, I was a bit of a workaholic back home," Peggy confesses, but that might have been because she preferred that to thinking about everything that she'd lost in the war. Spare time simply meant time for grief, which she has plenty of here.

"If you're fine to take orders from Karen, I am," Peggy can't help but tease, because she admires the woman quite a bit, though she is a touch surprised that John is so willing to go along. Then again, that is part of why she respects him so.

"Karen knows more about what's going on than I do most of the time," he answers, which isn't entirely true, he has great access to a lot of inside information. But Karen can discover things he would never even think to look at and people tend to tell her things they wouldn't necessarily tell a police officer.

"I would be more than fine with it," he says. "But I'm not sure it's a role she would really want either."

And he would never force her into it. Without Finch, they're just a different sort of team.

Peggy can't help her rueful smile as she settles herself towards the dart board to take her first shot. "Look at us, then. The lot of us wishing for a leader," she notes. It's something that she thinks she could eventually do, but it's a steep learning curve and she wants to put herself in that line of danger, not her friends.

"We could always take it in turns," she remarks, half a jest. "See what we can do about having weeks that belong to us?"

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