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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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"I don't know," John answers thoughtfully. "I thought so once."

But Jessica has been dead for a very long time now, longer than he likes to think about, and the urge has never really struck him since then. Which isn't to say he doesn't want to be with Karen in the long term, because he very much does. Living with her is a bigger step than he's taken with anyone before. Even he and Jessica had never gotten that far, despite how badly he'd wanted to marry her at the time, and he feels like sharing his space with someone, sharing his secrets, is a more intimate gesture for a man like him.

"Karen and I moved in together," he says. "And what about you? Do you think you'll get married?"

"I don't think so," Dutch says after a moment of thought. "That's not to say I don't love those I'm with but marriage is -- "

She'd been married once and it had ended so, so badly. She doesn't think she's scared to try again but she doesn't think it's needed to be connected and attached to someone.

"Marriage is good for some people. I just don't think it's really for me."

John nods thoughtfully, knowing what she means by that. There are times when he wants nothing more than that normal life, the one where he gets married and has kids, works as a homicide detective until he retires and then gets to enjoy the grandchildren he would have by that point.

But he's not that man.

"I know," he says. "Sometimes I want it, but most of the time I'm very aware that my life doesn't allow for something so normal."

"Yeah. And especially here?" She knows that some people would see this place as a motivator but she also sees it as a detriment. That she could decide to marry someone and the next day they're gone. She's lost people before but it never gets easy and it would be especially cruel here.

"I don't know if I could handle doing that and losing them," she says with a sigh.

John nods, thinking of Karen, of how difficult it would be to lose her. He would survive. He's survived losses just as painful as he knows that would be. But he would be undeniably changed. Just as his father's death had changed him, and Jessica's, and Carter's. As losing Shaw had changed him. Losing Finch.

He wouldn't be John Reese as these people know him now.

"Sometimes I want to ask Karen if it's something she wants," he admits. "But what if she says yes and then I can't give it to her?"

"Hopefully she'd understand," Dutch says but she understands what he's saying. That he wouldn't want to hold her back from something she really did want.

"I am glad for those that want to take that leap, though," Dutch says with a nod. "I don't know if I'll ever be able to but I'm happy for Peggy and Daniel. I hope they get to enjoy themselves for a very long time."

This place has a way of making happy endings impossible, but John isn't about to say that at a party like this. He wants Peggy and Daniel to be happy, he wants them to have a long, productive life in Darrow, he wants them to have whatever they want. And if there's a time for him to believe it's possible, it's tonight.

"I'm glad they're happy," he says. "Peggy seems excited to marry Daniel."

And that's what matters the most at the end of it. Daniel is a good man, Peggy a good woman, and John has no doubt they'll make the most of whatever time they have in this place.

"Well, I hope they'd be happy since they're getting married," Dutch says, giving him a nudge with her elbow. "If they hated each other and were deciding to spend the rest of their lives together, I'd be concerned."

Maybe that was a thing somewhere else but she can't see Peggy especially marrying someone she disliked.

"Let's hope it lasts. When I say that, I have no doubt they're love with last but it'd be nice if this city let them alone."

"She wasn't particularly excited about the first guy she was set to marry," John answers with a shrug. But then, Peggy is a very different woman now than she had been at the time from what he knows.

He nods, though, when Dutch talks about the city. Because it's the thing they really have no control over, no matter what they do. They can't stop this place from taking them, from giving them memories they'd never had before, maybe never wanted.

"I hope so, too," he says.

"And I suppose that's all we can really do," Dutch says, sighing. She's used to having more control than that, used to being able to stop things from happening if she wanted to. But, she has nothing like that here. No one does. The only person who can bend the city to its whims is the city itself.

"Hope and pray, if that's your thing," she adds. "It's not mine but I know some people like it."