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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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"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.