primary_asset | (no subject)

John has been looking for Patrick Brady for the past six hours.

The call had come in then, Carolyn Brady begging for an ambulance, sobbing through a raw and ragged throat. John hadn't needed to see her to know Patrick Brady had nearly choked his wife to death tonight, and while she's still alive now, he knows it's time to move. For months now, he's been trying to do this the right way, he's been trying to get Carolyn to leave, to press charges, to ask for a protection order, but she's been resisting the entire way through. John understands. He knows it isn't easy for a woman to leave a situation like the one she's in, especially with a child in the picture, but he's been trying not to draw too much attention to himself.

He's been trying to do things the right way.

That ended the second he heard that call. John trusts the first responders to help Carolyn and her daughter, and he goes out on the hunt, pausing only long enough to collect the weapons he needs and to text both Karen and Root on his secure cell phone. He wants them to know where he is, what he's doing.

Three years ago, he wouldn't have been the sort to check in, but Darrow has changed a lot of things for John Reese.

He's been tracking Brady this entire time and he only now has a trail. He's kept in touch with both Karen and Root, knowing he might need either of them at a moment's notice, knowing they can do things he can't. Kara would have called him an idiot for relying on others, she would have called it a weakness, but John knows better now.

And as he carefully and quietly approaches the loading dock where he'd finally seen Brady disappear into just five minutes earlier, he pauses and takes in his surroundings. Waiting for one or both of the women he knows best.

Threaded | Flat

Karen has known for a while now that this day would be coming, that things would have to come to a head with Patrick Brady and his wife. Men like that don't just stop what they're doing, and women who are stuck with them often don't get out until it's too late. As far as she can tell, it's extremely goddamn lucky that Carolyn is still alive. It's not exactly surprising, not when she knows how closely John has been keeping an eye on the situation, but it is a relief to find out as much, to know that, for the time being, she'll be safe.

Likewise unsurprising is the fact that John is taking things into his own hands now. He told her once, what feels like such a long time ago, about what happened to his ex. Patrick Brady probably doesn't know how fortunate he is to still be breathing at all. She has a feeling that won't be the case for very much longer, and she's having trouble feeling particularly remorseful about that.

Having texted back as soon as she got John's text to let him know she'd meet him as soon as possible, she turns up not long after. Whatever is about to happen, it won't be his to deal with alone. "What's the situation?" she asks, her voice quiet. "He still in there?"

The truth is, Root has been keeping tabs on Patrick Brady every since she and John trailed him in the park.

It's been easy, really. Cell phones are ridiculously easy to track if you have the resources, to tap into if you know how. And she's written a subroutine into her rudimentary facial recognition software that has been keeping tabs on Brady as well. Root knows it's nothing like the Machine-- reading and interpreting data instead of true logic-- but it's been enough to get by. Enough to know before John texts to know he's probably going to need back up.

Which is how she finds herself at the loading dock.

"Oh John," she says, her voice pitched low, "We really have to stop meeting like this."