Lee hadn’t even been back in New York for six months yet, and yet life had changed so many times, in so many ways, since then. She’d started working at Matt’s bar. That’s where she’d met Blaine, and they’d started a relationship. Neither of them had thought it would turn into anything overly serious, and yet it hadn’t taken long for them to fall in love with each other.

Even just with Blaine, so much more had happened between them than she had expected, even more than she had simply hoped. And after just two months of being together, they were going to end up as a family.

And then on top of everything else, there was Devon and Haven. Though she hadn’t really done anything other than start working in accounting at Haven, Lee had high hopes for what they’d be able to accomplish. Devon had some great ideas, plans for how to make the world a better place, only this time they didn’t have to hide in the shadows the same way she had had to with the Kabal.

The future really did look bright.

But work really did suck a lot more when she wasn’t able to wander across the room to chat with Blaine like she could at the bar, and so by lunch Lee was feeling the need to get out of the office. She knew that by that time, her boyfriend would already be at the gym working out, despite everything else that had changed in the last few months, Blaine’s three times a week workouts at his gym had remained the same and Lee had come to expect them. But that meant she was going to end up eating alone that day. And though she’d have loved to head for some Chinese buffet, recent experience told Lee that would be a bad idea. So off Lee went, trying to figure out what to eat as she walked down the street, her boot heels clicking on the sidewalk.

Sinclaire--or rather, Geoff--was settling into his new life quite nicely. So far, things were going well; currently he was just sitting tight in case something hit the fan. He'd managed to occupy his time with a little....research. Apparently, he wasn't the only one on this side who couldn't feel. Interestingly enough...the guy was a former fighter. It seemed as though this side wasn't friendly to mutants either.

Currently he wore a black leather jacket, complete with chains hanging down, and a pair of clean, well pressed blue jeans with his combat boots. With his short brown hair, he didn't look like a man to mess with. He walked down the street, looking for a bite to eat. Apparently his favorite Italian place didn't exist on this side. He did long for something similar though. Italian flavors really hit the spot. Sure, he was a soldier, but that didn't mean he couldn't have good taste.

Sadly, he couldn't find what he was looking for, so he stopped, looking around to get his bearings. "Well ****.... he grumbled, thinking. Well...there was a bar/restaurant type place up the road: The Missing Link. Seemed promising.

Lee almost walked right past him. Not only was she not expecting to see Blaine as she was walking along, but, and Lee blinked at this as she came to a stop, he had cut his hair? He hadn’t even mentioned the idea of getting his hair cut the night before, which seemed strange. This was such a change. Yet, other than his hair, it looked exactly like him.

”What made you decide to cut your hair?” Lee asked with a small smile as she stepped closer to Blaine. Tilting her head as she looked up at him for a few moments before her smile widened. ”It’s different, but it looks good, hon. But I thought you’d be at the gym by now.”

Sinclaire paused as the woman stopped next to him and addressed him. She obviously had him mistaken for someone else, maybe even the guy he was curious about. He knew nothing about this other guy except they shared a name, a power, and general appearance...so he likely wouldn't be able to keep an act up long.

"Last minute decision, he said with a shrug. " I'm running behind, thought about grabbing lunch though." He wondered how easy it'd be to get her to spill a little more info. He'd have to be careful, but he could handle it. He checked this woman out; whoever she'd mistaken him for was a lucky bastard, that was for sure.

"Glad you like it," he said with a smile, trying to lay on charm that he didn't possess.

It was a last minute decision? Well, even if it was very different, it did look good on him, Lee thought. Lee’s head tilted a bit more as she looked up at Blaine with a smile. ”Why didn’t you call me?” Lee asked when Blaine said he was thinking of grabbing lunch. ”You could have met me at work and we could have gone together.”

Having said that, Lee grabbed Blaine’s hand as she turned in the direction he had been walking. ”What were you thinking for lunch? I hadn’t come up with anything good,”

And already she was asking the hard questions. Why didn't he call? "I didn't think about it. Trying to hurry up and get to the gym," he replied, hoping it'd be good enough. She grabbed his hand, and he took a breath, looking down at her as he applied just a little pressure. What was too tight? Too loose?

He was no stranger to intimacy, but...he was generally rougher and there was never anything sweet about it. And these things were generally few and far between. On top of that, this seemed to be an actual relationship, with dates and *gag* feelings...

"I don't know. I thought about hitting The Missing Link," he said with a shrug.

He was just trying to get to the gym and hadn't thought to call her? ”Fair enough,” she said. Well, with how impromptu the haircut was, that made sense.

When she grabbed Blaine's hand, it didn't surprise her that he looked down to see what she was doing. What did surprise Lee was that his grip was bordering on too tight. Blaine hadn't held her hand this tightly in weeks. So Lee shifted her hand slightly, trying to loosen the grip slightly without actually telling Blaine it was too tight.

When Blaine mentioned what he was thinking about, Lee glanced over to see the sign, nodding after a moment. ”I've never tried it before, so sure, why not?” Lee said with a shrug as she started walking toward the door.

He watched her hand, her body language from his peripheral vision, and adjusted his grip accordingly. Being observant really paid off, but he knew his nonexistent acting skills weren't going to get him through this. He'd have to be smart. Gather intel quickly and get out before she can get suspicious. Maybe lunch date wasn't the brightest idea, but he didn't have much choice now.

With a silent nod, he led her to the restaurant, to be greeted by a cute young woman with brown hair. That turned orange when she saw them, her hands flickering a little. "Hey Uncle Blaine! Aunt Lee! Uhm....I mean welcome to The Missing Link....table for two?" she recited, still getting used to the formalities of working the door instead of waiting tables.

Sinclaire had actually started to check her out in that blinding yellow-green shirt and short shorts until she called him Uncle. Great...

With a new life, the woman led them to a booth, and Sinclaire sat and plotted his next move as he looked over the rather simple menu that mostly consisted of wings, sandwiches, burgers, and anything you could deep fry. Oh and beer. Beer was good. Well, bourbon was better, but it was what it was.

As they walked, Blaine's grip loosened slightly on Lee's hands, which made it easier to walk comfortably with him to the restaurant.

Or, rather, the bar, Lee realized as they walked in and she saw the interior. Not exactly what she had been thinking of for lunch, but they were already there. And then Lee saw Skye, her hair turning orange, and a smile sprang to her face. So this was where Skye was working.

”You win, Skye,” Lee said, though she still had a smile on her face. ”That's a worse uniform than any I ever had to wear. And yes, is just the two of us.”

Following Skye to the table, Lee sat down across from Blaine and picked up the menu. This wasn't going to be able to be a long, casual lunch since she did have to get back to work, so it'd be best to decide quickly.

It really didn't take long. Garlic bread to start with, that was decided the moment she saw it in the menu. After another minute, Lee had decided on a chicken club with onion rings. Setting her menu aside, she looked over at Blaine, a small smile still on her face. ”Do you think you know what you want?”

Luckily, Lee did most of the talking with the...Skye, giving him time to think, and maybe not screw this up. Luckily it'd be a quick lunch, so he didn't have to keep up this facade for long. Already, his eyes zoomed in on the menu. It didn't take him long at all to figure out what he wanted.

"Yep. I've got it figured out," he said as the waitress, a woman wearing an identical uniform to the Skye chick, with fiery red hair, equally red eyes, blue skin, and...four arms. She had a slender build and rocked the uniform quite nicely, but he didn't let his gaze linger too long. His "hun" was right across from him after all. Though the thought did occur to him that this would be a good place to inform his superiors of; mutants running around everywhere? Likely scrambling to make a living? SUPER could likely put them to use...

"Hi there, my name's Nancy, and I'll be ya'll's waitress for the afternoon. What can I do ya for?"
What banjo-infested swamp did this lady come out of... was Sinclaire's only thought.

"Let's see...we'll have two beers, and I'll have the bacon cheeseburger, and an order of chili fries, extra mayonnaise and a dill pickle on the burger," he said after a moment, then looked to Lee.

Lee nodded when Blaine said that he had figured out what he wanted for lunch, but before she was able to say anything, the waitress came over and introduced herself. Blaine had said that the place he helped Skye get a job at was mutant friendly, but she honestly hadn’t expected it to be this mutant friendly. It was a pleasant surprise.

Though the pleasant surprise was cut short when she heard Blaine’s voice ordering. Lee’s eyes turned to look at the man across the table from her. He never ordered for her like this, if anything it was more likely for her to order for him. And he ordered beer for both of them.

Lee just stared at Blaine as he finished his order. She didn’t think that he would have, that he could have forgotten the fact that she was pregnant, and there’d been many other times when he’d grabbed himself a beer, yet had grabbed a coke for her.

Something was definitely off.

”I’ll have garlic bread to start, a chicken club with onion rings, and a water,” Lee ordered, though she was looking over at Blaine as she spoke.

The waitress looked at them, taking the orders. "So I take it those two beers are just for you, then?" she asked, looking at Sinclaire.

"Yeah, both for me," he repeated, not really complaining about that. He could handle two beers easy. But he couldn't help but think she was onto him. Something about the situation just didn't seem right; or maybe he just didn't like it. He couldn't be sure, but he sat in silence as she ordered for herself, and he contemplated his next move quietly.

This was all just happenstance, and he didn't really have much of a plan, and he wasn't exactly known for his deception skills. He was more up close, personal, and very, very, conspicuous. The soldier knew he was out of his element, but he couldn't turn back now.

Both beers for him. Ordered not only at the same time, but at lunchtime, before he went to work out, in public. Though Blaine had relaxed more about drinking, not being as worried about hurting her as he had once been, Lee couldn’t remember Blaine ever drinking more than three beers in a night, and only with the door locked.

”Well, you may as well,” Lee said slowly, still looking across the table at ‘Blaine’ as the waitress walked away to put their order in. ”If only I didn’t have to head back to work, I could have one with you.”

One final test, even though she was sure that this wasn’t her Blaine sitting in front of her. Though, as she thought back, Lee realized that there had been even more hints than she had noticed. But she hadn’t been paying attention, she hadn’t thought she needed to watch out for little things that were wrong any more.

Lee had thought that this part of her life was in the past.

Sinclaire had the feeling he was botching his act, but he had nothing to go on, but the woman didn't seem to be calling him out. However, he could tell that the atmosphere was rather tense. Maybe he could survive this date. He'd have to; there were too many witnesses, and he couldn't draw attention to himself.

He didn't notice that she was testing him; he couldn't read people in social situations. In a fight, or some sort of standoff, he'd have the situation figured out no problem. But here, he was out of his element, and definitely out of his league. "It's okay. I'll drink one for you," he said in an awkward attempt to be charming. It didn't seem to be working. Thankfully, Nancy returned with a tray on each of her four hands, setting their drinks down on the table. "Ya'lls food will be out shortly,[/color]" she informed sweetly before walking away, leaving the two of them in silence.

Lee nodded when he said that he’d drink one of the beers for her. Whether he knew it or not, he had just failed, because Lee knew there was no way Blaine would forget why she couldn’t have a beer. He was too excited about the fact that she was pregnant. Nervous and scared as well, but definitely excited and happy.

But it definitely felt tense at the table as they sat there in silence. Did he know that she realized he wasn’t Blaine? But what was she supposed to do in this situation? When Tarin hadn’t been himself, when he’d been merged, all Lee had to do was get somewhere private and siphon until he passed out. While trying not to be killed.

This was different, this wasn’t the Blaine she knew, he wasn’t in there somewhere. This was someone completely different, and Lee had no idea what he was trying to do.

By this point, the drinks had been brought to the table, and Lee nodded when she heard the waitress say their food would be out soon. ”What do you think you’re going to do with the rest of your day?” she asked. Maybe the answer would give her a clue.