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Two things currently take up most of John's mental real estate, one far more agreeable than the other, but he can't simply ignore the less welcome thought, because to ignore it would potentially put someone's life in danger. And the two are more entwined than he would like, because while he surveys a young woman with her significantly older husband, a man whom John has heard numerous rumours about, he can't help but think that he and Karen will eventually be in a similar situation.

Not the same situation, not by far, but they're engaged now, and with a twenty year difference between them, he knows people might look at him the same way they look at one Patrick Brady. He's not the same. Not by far. Because Patrick Brady, from what John has been able to gather, has an addiction to gambling, is deeply in debt, and may have a tendency to take it out on his young wife when he gets particularly stressed about the amount of money he owes.

John doesn't like men who hit their partners. He doesn't like anyone who hits someone they claim to love, but he looks at a man like Patrick Brady and all he sees is Peter Arndt. He looks at a woman like Carolyn Brady and he sees only Jessica.

So he's thinking about Karen and the ring she's wearing now, the ring he'd bought her, and he's following Patrick Brady through Petros Park with the casual experience of a man who knows exactly what he's doing. And when he sees a familiar face, all he does is lift his hand in greeting and smile. He isn't doing anything out of the ordinary, after all, and anyone who knows him well enough will be able to simply fall in step beside him and help bolster the guise of being just a regular guy taking a walk in the park.

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John was tracking something or someone. Daniel wasn't quite sure which, but he could tell that much from the way John was moving. He wouldn't have interrupted except that John smiled at him, and so Daniel decided maybe it was time to walk with a friend.

It'd look less suspicious for both of them, really. Plus there was that little perk of interest, of doing something the SSR might have done. He missed that.

"Who we watching?" he asked like he'd ask who had won the game last night.

With a slight tilt of his chin, John gestures at the man walking a few paces ahead of them, close enough that they won't lose sight of him, but not so close that they can hear him. That's fine with John, he's already cloned Brady's cell phone. He doesn't need to hear everything right now.

"He's not a very nice man," John says mildly. "He owes a lot of money to some people who are even less nice than he is and his wife doesn't know. She just knows he gets stressed sometimes and can't help himself."

His voice is still mild, but he's sure Daniel can tell he's not pleased.

"And when he gets stressed, she needs extra makeup? I think we've all known a few men like that," Daniel agreed a little grimly, but still fairly conversationally.

He just kept walking, looking around casually. Two men, out for a constitutional, that was them. And his cane, that was extra camouflage. Everyone knew a man with a cane wasn't a threat and wasn't a cop.

Everyone.

"That's been the rumour I've heard," John says with a nod. "So we're just watching a man who can't seem to control himself. Learning his routines if he has them."

He pauses, then glances at Daniel. This isn't something he would say to just anyone, but he also isn't about to get Daniel into a situation he's not willing to be in. John isn't known for his honesty, but he can be transparent when it's necessary.

"None of this is authorized by the Darrow PD," he clarifies. "This is- call it a side project."

Daniel had sort of figured that was the way it was, and he was fine with it, so he shrugged.

"Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do and let the law figure it out later."

He'd worked for the SSR. They sometimes worked with the police, but sometimes not so much. He was okay with it, especially if John thought it was worth looking into.

John nods his appreciation for that. He hadn't expected Daniel to turn around and turn him in, had figured at this point they knew each other a little better than that, but it was still good to have that kind of support.

"I might not be the best person to investigate him," he admits as they walk. "I tend to take personal offense to men like this."

But he doesn't know how anyone could expect anything else from him. Not after Jessica. Not after her husband killing her and then covering up her death.

Everyone should be offended by a man turning his partner into a punching bag, but not everyone was. And maybe John was more offended than others, but Daniel didn't see that as a bad thing. He did respect that John knew his own limits, though.

"It's good that you know that," he said. "Lotta people aren't willing to admit their biases."

John smiles faintly, amiably, just two friends having a good conversation about nothing nearly as dark as their real topic. Ahead of them, Patrick Brady stops to take a call and at the same time, John realizes his shoe has come undone. As he sits on a nearby bench in order to do it up again, he looks to Daniel.

"I didn't always," he admits. "I had some good friends who helped me realize."

Although it hadn't changed what he had done in the end. Not to Peter Arndt, not to the member of the U.S. Marshalls who had been stalking his wife across the country in order to kill her. Knowing his bias doesn't mean he's any less likely to kill a man for that sort of behaviour.

"Those are good friends," he agreed. He paused next to the bench, casually, resting his leg unobtrusively. Also looking at the target, of course, looking at his clothes, his shoes, his phone. They all looked fancy, but not new, like he'd bought them awhile ago.

"That man definitely owes someone money. He's twitchy."

"Not very nice people from what I can gather," John agrees. "So in the instance I do something to remove him from the situation with his wife, I might make a few enemies in the process."

He's not terribly bothered by that. He can deal with those men just as easily as he can Patrick Brady. And John has more friends in Darrow now than he used to. He's not the only one who can deal with them.

Daniel would have shrugged, if he hadn't been trying to be casual. Instead he made sort of a shrugging expression. John was maybe trying to warn him that if Daniel stayed aware of this, he'd be risking something, but Daniel didn't have much to risk at this point. And he wasn't gonna just walk away from something one of his few friends thought was important.

"You gotta break a few eggs when you make an omelet. Or a few heads, maybe."

"Kneecaps have always been my preference," he admits with a little grin. It's not something to joke about, but not killing people when it wasn't necessary has become something John is very particular about. He knows it's due to Kara and the way she treated him, like he had to be a murderer in order to get his job done, but he knows now that such a thing isn't true.

Most criminals don't go anywhere once he kneecaps them. Except jail.

"I appreciate you walking with me," he says. "Helping me keep an eye out."

"Not a bad preference," Daniel agreed. Incapacitating but not killing was preferable in a lot of situations, and kneecapping was enough to keep a person down unless he was on some crazy Hydra drugs or something.

"Hope no one does that to me any time soon, though. I'm running low on kneecaps."

He nodded when John thanked him.

"A lot less suspicious to have two fellas walking behind someone interesting than one. I mean, there might be some assumptions about us here, but that's okay too. People assume things and then they don't think any more about it."

John would do his best to make sure no one did anything at all to Daniel. Over the time they've known each other, he's become important, one of John's few friends and one of the few people he trusts and that means, in whatever sense he can manage, he feels that he needs to keep Daniel safe. Not because he needs John's protection or because he's weak, but because it's one of the only ways John knows how to show his affection.

He laughs a little when Daniel says people might make assumptions and then shrugs. "Given that I just asked Karen to marry me recently, she might not appreciate that too much, but I can say there's no man in Darrow I'd rather people make assumptions about."

"Did you really? Hey, congratulations!" Daniel said happily. John and Karen just worked, in a way that Daniel and Peggy had worked, and he was glad they'd gotten to that step. Marriage wasn't everything, and they'd still be committed without it, but it was good that John was willing to do that again, for one thing.

"Uh, I'm guessing she said yes, or you wouldn't be telling me about it?"

John laughs and says, "She said yes."

He had known she was going to say yes, they had spoken about it before he bought the ring, and he knows that might not be the most romantic way to get engaged, but he had felt it was important to be on the same page before going forward with something that big and life changing. It seems like Karen had agreed, because she had seemed pleased to have the conversation about it prior to the actual engagement.

"We haven't really discussed any details yet, but I expect next summer."

"Glad to hear it," Daniel replied seriously, although he hadn't really worried about it, like he said.

"If I'm still here next summer, I'll be there. And if I'm not, I wanted to be there."

The way it went here, no one could guarantee they'd be anywhere. It was like war but in some ways worse.

John knows neither of them can promise they'll still be here. He knows the world in general doesn't work that way, but in particular Darrow makes it difficult to make promises. But there's no sense in not making plans, he figures.

"A friend of mine would have said to ignore the possibilities of things going wrong and make plans anyway," he says with a faint smile. "So consider this your invitation."

"I'll put it on my calendar," Daniel promised, and he meant it. It was a promise. If he was here, he'd be there. No question. And if he wasn't here, he might or might not even remember that he was supposed to be there. No one really knew what happened when people left, whether they remembered being here. He wasn't sure he wanted to or not, especially if he came back to a time when he and Peggy weren't involved.

"How long we watching this mook? Are you waiting for someone to approach him or you just wanna know what he does with his days?"

"Getting a feel for his routine," John answers. It's a little more than that, but he doesn't need to tell Daniel about having access to Patrick Brady's cell phone. At least not quite at the moment. Nothing worth noting has come in yet. "We're probably about due to take our leave if you want to get lunch or a drink."

It's really more his evening routine John is interested in anyway and that will require an entirely different type of surveillance. Something he'll have to loop Root into most likely.

"Sure, we can do that. If you need to take any pictures or whatever, though, I can need to tie my shoe or something," Daniel offered. He was even wearing shoes that tied, although most people wouldn't have noticed that one of the shoes was tied more tightly than the other, on account of he hardly ever took the shoe off that foot. He just took off the whole foot.

He's good at surveillance, Root will give him that. She's seen John at work. She's been the one on the other end of that tail, and she's been the one tailing John. They have a particular history. Which is why when Root sees John clearly at work, she's quick to join him, falling into step next to him... despite her own peculiar cover.

Maggie Hamilton has actually found a job at one of the city's daycares. There's paste in her hair and glitter on her face, and Root has just about had it with this identity.

"It's not nice to stalk people, John," Root says, looking up at him from behind Maggie's glasses, her eyebrows raised.

"It's not nice to hit your wife either, but Patrick Brady doesn't seem to mind doing it," he answers, turning to look at Root with what would look to an outsider as an easy, affectionate smile. She's a sweet looking young woman and there's really no better cover than that of a couple.

Karen can certainly attest to that. Of course, their sham marriage is going to become a real one in the near future, although with Root it will only ever be a cover.

"Or do you just feel left out?" he asks, then holds his hand out to her in invitation. "We'll stick out less together."

"But what would Karen think?" Root responds with a hint of a smile.

Truthfully, Maggie Hamilton has grown a bit boring. There's only so much intel you can gather as a preschool teacher. Root has her own projects in the works, so she's not feeling left out from John's little endeavor.

Still, even though she doesn't take his offered hand, she keeps walking in the direction he was headed, after Patrick Brady. Right about now, Root is really missing the Machine's voice in her ear.

"Karen told the hospital she was married to me the first day I arrived," John answers mildly. "I think she would take it all in stride."

They walk in silence for a time before John asks, "Are you enjoying Finch's warehouse?"

They both know Root will have better luck with the computers left behind than he will and he hopes it can be of some use to her. He misses having someone like Finch backing him up, someone who has access to more information than he does. He'll never say as much to Root, but the fact that he'd given her the key at all is probably an indication.

It's a bit of a loaded question.

"It's been... useful," Root replies, but the truth is, it's not Root's style; a stationary base of operations. She spend over a decade constantly on the move; Finch's idea of a foxhole is just a little restricting.

She's working on that part.

"Though I have to say, Harry certainly kept himself busy while was here."

His fingerprints are everywhere, from the way he has everything set up physically, to the subroutines already programmed in to everything. It's not something she'll admit, but Root looked for traces of Her code before she did anything else, and was disappointed to have come up emptyhanded.

"We needed to find our own work," he answers, looking from Root to Patrick Brady, his gaze sliding over the man as if he doesn't really see him. It's a simple tactic, but it always works, pretending as if a person is simply part of the scenery. It's how nearly everyone looks at everyone else and John had perfected it long ago. He doesn't want Patrick Brady, but still sees as he receives a text message and looks down at his phone, then curses under his breath and shoves his phone back into his pocket.

With a calm, easy smile, John turns his own phone toward Root to show her the text Brady received.

Four more days.

"Looks like there's a deadline on what he owes this month," he says casually.

"And I'm guessing that means Mrs. Brady has even less time than that," Root says, because if he's the charmer that John says he is, he's probably not going to have the best outlet for all of that stress. Root supposes he's lucky she didn't meet Patrick Brady two years ago.

But Root has to admit, it does seem like the kind of mission the Machine might have sent them on. A number deserving of relevance.

He'll have to keep a closer eye on them both over the next four days. John has no issue letting the man become a victim of his circumstances, which is perhaps not what Finch or Carter would have wanted, but neither of them are here to be the angel on his shoulder. He doubts Root will try to convince him to save the man, given what he does.

But he'll need to make sure his wife doesn't become a victim of his circumstances, too.

"Interested in a stake-out?" he asks, glancing at Root.

"Why John," Root replies with a pleasant expression, "All you had to do was ask nicely."

Root has no interest in protecting Patrick Brady from the people he owes, but it's hard not to agree with John when it comes to making sure his wife doesn't get caught in the mess. She figures the Machine would have thought the same way.

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