((OOC: This thread takes place after She's looking through me and before You were right all along.))

Lee had sat in the shop, curled up in the armchair, for hours after Tarin had stormed out. One of the biggest problems that Lee had as she was sitting there was dealing with the fact that as she thought about it, a lot of the things Tarin had said about her sounded true. Maybe she was taking things a little far with her paranoia, the thought of having a collar around her neck was absolutely terrifying.

But was Tarin right? Was she so scared that she wasn't really living any more, simply existing until she was caught?

The problem was, as if his accusations, the yelling hadn't been bad enough, there at the end Lee couldn't help but think that Tarin had looked more than simply upset with her. Of course, Lee realized as she sat there that it was hard to know for sure, she had been crying at the time, and Tarin had left just moments later, but he had looked almost disappointed, even disgusted with her. Which, each time she thought back on it as she sat there, started the tears afresh.

After about two and a half hours, Lee finally stood up and made her way into the kitchenette that was normally curtained off. After splashing some water on her face, Lee grabbed a Coke from the fridge, leaning against the stove as she drank.

Taking a slow sip, Lee couldn't stop herself from getting a little angry at the fact that Tarin had walked out like he had. Sure, it had been hours earlier, but the fact was that he had walked out. Just like he had walked out after their first fight, and Lee hadn't known if she'd ever see him again. Like when he had run after she had somehow ended up in his dream. Left like when he disappeared to Maine just before Christmas.

Sure, Tarin had said he'd be waiting at home for her, had actually called it their home rather than simply the apartment, but what if he had changed his mind? What if he decided that simply leaving the shop wasn't enough?

At that thought, Lee stood up straight. She was sitting here thinking, but what was Tarin doing? No, she knew Tarin, knew that he'd have been spending this time thinking, and most times that he thought like that, it was not good for her or their relationship. So what the hell was she still doing there at the shop?

Without even thinking it through further than that, Lee set the can down and made her way to the front of the shop. Grabbing her purse and jacket from the counter, she rushed outside, locking the door on her way, and rushed home.

Three hours. That's how much time had passed between when Tarin had left the shop and when Lee walked up to the door of the apartment. Pulling her keys out, Lee unlocked it and took a deep breath before stepping inside. "Tarin?" She called tentatively as she locked the door behind her once again and hung her coat up.

Tarin looked at the clock, again two hours and forty five minutes it had been since he'd left the shop and she still hadn't made her way home. Tarin had still been angry when he'd gotten home, really angry. There was nothing to hit in the apartment that he wouldn't regret breaking later, so he'd stomped around yelling at the various spirits that flitted in and out of his vision when they realized he had nothing to offer them at the time.

Was she really just going to stay in the shop all night? Was she really too scared to even leave at this time of night to come home? Tarin was beyond being angry at this point, he was discouraged and exasperated. Sitting on the couch in the living room didn't help anything, he could see the clock from there, see as another minute ticked off and Lee wasn't back yet.

He felt a little bad about the way he'd left things. Lee hated it when he left her during an argument, that's mostly why he'd done it tonight though. Tarin had wanted Lee out of her comfort zone. Wanted her to think about what he'd said, let it sink in a little. His jaw hurt, and two advil hadn't helped.

So, for that reason, Tarin Brooks was sitting in the middle of the couch with his head in his hands, dozing slightly 10 minutes later when the key turned in the lock. He didn't hear it, and he didn't hear Lee enter the apartment. It wasn't until Lee called his name that Tarin even knew she was home.

He was dozing, so the volume of her voice startled him and Tarin leaped up from the couch, backing up and tripping over his feet as he did.

It turned out that the floor was hard, Tarin found out a second later when his posterior met it. "You came back..." he said, looking up and over at her in the door way and not moving from his spot on the floor.

Lee didn't hear anything, didn't see Tarin, when she first entered the apartment. Her heart jumped into her throat as her breath caught. Had he left? Had he decided to go? Even as she was scared about the possibility of Tarin having left, Lee felt her anger flare up. How dare Tarin leave, again, especially after he had told her that he'd be waiting at home.

And then Lee heard a noise from over by the couch. Turning, Lee saw Tarin sitting there, on the floor. Had he just fallen when she walked in?

Tarin's comment, which he made without even bothering to try and get up, kind of confused her. "Yeah, I came home..." Lee said slowly, taking a couple steps into the apartment. "Didn't really want to sleep in the chair when I have a bed here.

"Why?" Lee continued, her voice becoming even softer, her head tilted slightly as she looked at Tarin. "Did you think I wouldn't?" To be honest, even as she asked the question, Lee wasn't sure she wanted to hear the answer.

Tarin bit off the first three smart remarks that came to mind when Lee explained why she'd come home. Tarin remained where he was on the floor looking up at her, an unamused look on his face for a few minutes before slowly getting up. "I'm not really surprised..." He said, even though if the truth were told, he was surprised.

Lee was going to drag it out of him too. Tarin sighed where he was, then sank back down onto the couch. "I didn't hear you come in. I'd dozed off here waiting."

Why? Hadn't he thought she'd come back? Tarin sighed again and leaned against the back of the sofa, "I didn't know Lee. I honestly don't know what to think anymore when you get like this." He turned his head slightly to the side, still not looking directly at Lee, but examining her from the corner of his eye.

"I expected you to suck it up and get here tonight because of what happened, but any other time...after the last several months it wouldn't have surprised me if you'd decided to stay in the shop."

Tarin ran his hands through his hair again, leaning his forehead against his palms for a moment before looking up and over at Lee, "I can't live like this Lee. We have to find a way to fix this...we'll figure it out somehow, but you've got to realize all this panic and fear isn't worth it though..."

Tarin had dozed off while she had still been at the shop. Glancing at the clock as she slowly stepped further into the room, Lee could understand why. She hadn't realized that it had gotten that late. Yes, she knew that she had been at the shop for quite a while, and yes it had been dark when she left, but the truth of the matter was that it did get dark early at this time of year. The dark was not exactly the best basis for telling the time.

But as her eyes came back to Tarin and she heard his words, Lee was honestly shocked. Though most people would think that they hadn't really been together all that long, they had only met just under six months earlier, they knew each other extremely well. Or at least they had, Lee had thought they did. When, how did that all change, Lee couldn't help but wonder.

That wasn't the end of it, though. Tarin kept talking. He wouldn't have been surprised if she had stayed at the shop because she hadn't wanted to come outside? At this, Lee dropped her eyes to the floor and bit her lip. Had she really changed that much since the Registration Act was put into effect? Because Lee could remember that first night they had gone to the bar, the night of their first kiss. That night, she had insisted on walking back to her apartment from the shop, by herself in the middle of the night so she could work off the energy she had gotten from the bar. A walk that had been considerably longer than the one from shop to their shared apartment now. Yet Tarin wouldn't have been surprised if she had stayed there so she wouldn't have to make that walk?

Sitting down heavily on the nearby armchair, Lee was about to ask about that when Tarin's voice started again. And his words caused her to look up at him, to meet his eyes.

"How can we fix it?" Lee asked, her eyes dropping again as her bottom lip got pulled in between her teeth. "It's not like I can fight them, and that's the problem. I can deal with my fear because I know I can protect myself, but not now. That'll just get a collar slapped around my neck faster, and then I'm done for."

Lee blinked as she continued staring at the floor. Eve just that brief thought of it, very brief mention, had brought the tears up again. They hadn't escaped her eyes yet, but Lee could definitely feel them there. "I don't know what else to do, Tarin," Lee finished, almost apologetically, finally looking back up at him. "I just don't."

His jaw hurt a lot, his shoulders were tense, and his neck hurt every time he moved his head. Tarin wondered what he'd feel like if Lee hadn't stepped into the fight. He could admit now that it was difficult to fight with someone when you couldn't see them. It was almost funny, in some sick twisted not really funny way at all how they'd ended up at this point after the day had started out so well.

Tarin saw the reactions to his comments to Lee, could see that she'd really been thinking about it. The question was though...would it make any difference?

Lee had sank into the chair across from him and she looked at him, meeting his eyes from across the small space that was their living room. She didn't have an answer for him, Tarin didn't really have an answer either, but he could try.

"Lee..." he said slowly, scooting to the end of the couch that was closer to her, "Nobody ever picked either one of us out of a crowd before all of this registration nonsense. You know it's true Lee. It's not anymore likely to happen now...."

Tarin took a deep breath, compromise in situations like this was difficult, but he knew he was going to have to give a little to get anything, "I'll admit that being reckless...like today...doesn't necessary help matters....and I'll make an effort, real effort not to do that...I was just so mad Lee."

This hand started out as an apology, but that's where it ended up and Tarin sighed, "Just try Lee..."

Lee glanced up again when she heard Tarin moving to see him scooting closer to her. Even though she still had a worried, nervous look on her face, despite the fact that she was still chewing on her lip slightly, and the few tears that were still sitting in her eyes, Lee smiled slightly at that. He was moving closer to her, was speaking calmly again. He might still be frustrated, but he wasn't expressing his anger at her any more. Lee couldn't help but think that if this weren't one of their most serious discussions, and they had definitely had some doozies before that night, this would have been about the time that they started joking around with each other again. And that thought made her smile a little more.

The problem was Lee really couldn't say that Tarin was wrong. She couldn't think of a single time when someone on the street had discovered her to be a mutant. About the closest to that had been Jason, her former roommate, though she had already known that he was a mutant in that case, and had been playing around with her powers to pay him back for knocking her to the ground. Or the strangeness that had been that first meeting between her and Tarin.

"Maybe you're right," Lee admitted, her eyes dropping back to the floor. "But I'm not going to be able to stop being scared, and how do I know that being scared won't make me siphon more like I do when I'm angry? It's easier for people to notice when I'm taking more. It did take you and Robert to let me find out I had started naturally siphoning less, after all."

Hearing Tarin's last words, Lee took a deep breath too. How many times, about how many things over the last few months had Tarin asked her that question? Asked her to at least try. Then again, a large portion of their relationship was based on experimentation, so most of what they had was, at least in one way or another, as a result of trying.

Looking up once more, Lee nodded. "I'm not sure how sucessful I'll be, but I'll try," she promised.

Lee wasn't saying much, not saying much at all as they sat in their living room and tried to sort out how it was they were going to live. If Tarin were a different man he would have been railing against this existence, railing against the fact that they had to even have this argument. That Lee had to be scared about what a collar would do to her. His encounters with Rupert had changed Tarin though, not to a huge degree, but enough that he wasn't going to rail.

Tarin wanted to rail, he wanted to yell at Lee some more, possibly even shake her until she understood what he was trying to say. It was unreasonable, absolutely unreasonable that the most she could managed was 'Maybe you're right.' Tarin gritted his teeth and took a deep breath though, he wasn't going to fight with her anymore. The point of this wasn't to push Lee away, it was to make her see that she was safe with him. Obviously that was going to be a journey.

Lee was still worrying, worrying about her powers, about what the fear would do to her powers. Tarin just shruged, "Lee...you're terrified all the time and I'm not stuck in bed all day. You're worrying about nothing. As usual"

She was agreeing to try, agreeing to try like she had each and every time that he'd laid down the law and asked her to do something. This time he was practically begging. Lee didn't realize that her paranoia was just as likely if not more likely to get them caught than anything he could do.

"Alright..." Tarin said, then leaned back against the cusions of the couch, letting his head fall against the back. "Alright then...."

Lee saw Tarin tense as she told him that maybe he was right. Despite how he seemed to be trying to stay calm as he talked to her, Lee could tell he was getting frustrated and angry still.

But then Tarin pointed out his view that all her worrying was pointless and without reason. Again. Lee glared at him; at least that seemed to finally help get rid of the tears in her eyes. Sure, ok, maybe she did worry to a bit of an extreme at times, she could admit that, but how could Tarin possibly tell her that she was worrying about nothing? How were the collars and the camps nothing? Especially after Rupert had pointed out that the camps were even worse than they imagined they were.

After she had agreed, at least to the best of her ability, to stop worrying and stop being paranoid, Lee saw Tarin lean back against the couch. He really didn't look all that pleased with her answer, nor did his voice sound too happy.

Lee really did not want to fight any more, though, at least not that night, but she was pretty sure that any more discussion on the matter would invariably lead to another fight. "I think I'm going to head to bed," she said instead, her voice soft, as she stood up.

He was still tired, the very lightly dozed nap he'd had before Lee had gotten home had done nothing for Tarin's nerves or the exhaustion the last few days had caused. It was a definite that Lee had never, ever taken the amount of energy from him that she'd been forced to take the night of the merge. The resulting conversation with Rupert had been nearly as exhausting and then following days at work had been hard. Nearly impossible. Now his jaw was throbbing, his body was a little sore, and the tension of the day was absolutely wearing down on him.

It was silent after he'd spoken again, not that he'd really expected Lee to answer him after the vehemence of her argument earlier. At least she was thinking though. Even if it was only to humor him, to make the fighting stop.

Lee rose and the noise from the chair she'd been sitting in caused Tarin's eyes to open. Normally he'd have been startled at the early hour of retirement for Lee, but he knew that she'd hardly slept since the night of the merge. The built up energy had been too much to allow her to rest and maybe the fight today had taken enough out of her to allow it.

Tarin knew the argument wasn't over, probably not by a long shot, but he also knew that nothing was going to be solved on this particular night. So a quiet, barely clipped, "Good night." was all he said to her as she made her way to the second bedroom of the apartment.

After she was gone, Tarin sat on the couch for another twenty minutes, going over the details of the day in his head over and over again. If he ever saw that David character again, Lee or no Lee present, he was going to rearrange the bastard's face. His hands clenched into fists at the mere thought and he hissed through his teeth at the pain his bruised knuckles caused. That was satisfying though, he'd bruised them on David's face.

Realizing he was still exhausted and that there was no reason to be sitting in the living room, Tarin rose and made his way to his bed, undressing and flopping into the sheets with absolutely no ceremony, sure that sleep would come as soon as his head hit the pillow.

It was not to be so.

Two and a half hours later, Tarin flipped from his back to his stomach for what seemed to be the three hundreth time since laying down. His words from his argument with Lee kept coming back and the cold , detached way he'd acted made him almost sick to his stomach when he thought about it now that the anger had completely faded away. Now there was just regret. He'd even been nasty when Lee had gone to bed, offering her nothing more than a simple good night. That was not the way one treated the love of their life. No matter how silly and irrational they were being at the time.

Finally, tired of the pretense of sleep and casting off any worry that he'd be depriving Lee of much needed rest with the follow through of his immediate plan, Tarin grabbed a pair of sweats and a long sleeved t-shirt off the floor of his bedroom and silently padded his way towards Lee's.

Even though he figured she was asleep, Tarin knocked softly before he entered the room and then stood close to the doorway as not to frighten her.

"Lee?" he called into the room, softly and just a little bit sheepish, "Lee!" he said more firmly..."I can't sleep...can I stay in here with you?"

Yes, Lee knew Tarin was angry, but how he said good night to her was still surprising. So short, so distant. Lee couldn't help but think that Tarin had only spoken at all so as to tell her that he had actually heard what she said and knew that she was leaving.

So without another word, Lee turned and went into her bedroom, and without even turning her light on, changed into her pyjamas. Not her nice, light, comfortable, and much preferred summer pyjamas, but rather her warmer winter ones: heavy cotton pants and an old t-shirt.

Turning her alarm on even though she was sure she wouldn't end up needing it, Lee crawled into bed and lay there. Then rolled over. Then shifted again. Her mind was desperate for sleep at this point, but her body still wasn't cooperating with that plan, not after all the energy she had siphoned three nights earlier when the spirit had merged with Tarin. She hadn't slept since she had woken up the morning before she and Tarin had gone to see a movie, more than 80 hours earlier. And Lee knew that, because she had actually counted the hours that morning as she had sat restlessly on the couch waiting for Tarin to wake up.

The biggest problem was that with having the fights, first with David, then with Tarin, Lee had siphoned even more energy, making it even harder for her to be able to get that much needed sleep. So even though she had known as she probably wouldn't sleep, Lee had still come to bed, deciding to at least get some rest while she tried to force herself to sleep.

After an hour, Lee reached over to her bedside table and turned her clock around; looking over at the time at least once every five minutes really wasn't conducive to sleep or rest, after all.

So Lee laid there, shifting around every so often trying to get more comfortable, and trying to not consciously think about anything. That also wasn't very easy, since her mind kept going back to the various things both she and Tarin had said during their fights that day.

And then, though Lee wasn't sure how long it had been since she had retreated to her room, she heard a soft knock on her door, followed a moment later by Tarin's voice. Lee didn't answer him right away, simply turned her head quietly to look at the man standing in her doorway.

Lee knew that if she wanted to have any chance of actually falling asleep that night, she should send him back to his own room. It wouldn't exactly be the nicest thing to do, but him simply being there would only add to her energy level, thus making it that much harder for her to actually fall asleep.

"I thought you were still upset with me," Lee murmured. Then she shifted over in her small bed and pulled the blankets aside so that Tarin could crawl in beside her. "Company would be nice, though. Nights are really long when you can't sleep."

Tarin felt a little bit guilty as he waited for Lee to answer. He really had no right to ask Lee to let her sleep with him after the way he'd treated her earlier in the day. There was also the fact that he was going to steal sleep from her. He was giving her energy standing where he was in the doorway, coming closer and sharing a bed would take even more. It had been 80 hours since he knew she'd slept, was it right to keep her from more?

Lee spoke and Tarin winced a little bit, she was obviously still smarting from the fight earlier and he sighed. "Upset is a bit of an understatement..." he said as he padded in his socked feet across the room. "I did, however, handle things the wrong way. Yelling never accomplished anything. I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings too much."

He was by the bed now and Lee's second words had sunk in. She hadn't been sleeping at all. Pulling the long sleeved t-shirt over his head as he stood by the bed, Tarin sat on the edge of the bed for a moment. "You sure? I know it's been days since you slept. If you've got a chance of sleeping, I don't want to keep you up."

He wanted to stay though. Fighting with Lee made him so uncomfortable, it was like things just weren't right in the world when things weren't right with the two of them. Despite his offer to leave if Lee wanted to sleep, Tarin swung his legs into the bed and curled up against Lee, "You can always join me if you're lonely at night, you know that, right?"

Lee frowned into the darkness when Tarin commented that him being upset was an understatement. But she hadn't sat up when he came into the room, and it was dark, she wasn't worried about him seeing it. "It startled me," told Tarin quietly about his yelling earlier in the day. It hadn't exactly hurt her feelings, made her angrier, yes, because of what he was saying, but hadn't hurt her feelings.

But Lee wasn't exactly sure what else to say, especially since by this point, Tarin was sitting down on the edge of her bed and speaking again. Lee could tell that despite his words, Tarin wanted to stay. She knew that if she asked him to, Tarin would leave, but she could almost detect a note of pleading in his voice as he asked to stay. Plus, he wouldn't have been there if he hadn't wanted to spend the night with her.

"Whether you stay or not, I don't think I'll be falling asleep till it gets to that point again," Lee told Tarin with another frown. He was closer now, and she was pretty sure the frown was in her voice, so Lee didn't think Tarin would miss it this time. Not that it really mattered, since Lee figured Tarin would have a huge frown of his own on his face by this point. Since Halloween, when she had actually passed out from sheer mental exhaustion despite the energy level she had had at the time, Tarin had been adamant that that would never happen to her again. She was almost at that same breaking point, still feeling like sleep was never going to come, even if Tarin didn't spend the night with her.

Thankfully, Tarin decided to curl up next to her anyway, and Lee moved her head to his shoulder, snuggling up against him. "When it does happen," Lee continued in a whisper, her eyes closed as she pressed her forehead against Tarin's neck. "Wake me up after 8 hours? I'll go back to sleep again after that, however many times I need to, but I don't like the idea of sleeping more than 8 hours at a time. Please Tarin?

"And I'm sorry I've been freaking out so much lately..."

"I'm sure it did." Tarin said, scowling slightly into the darkness at Lee's admition that his anger had startle her earlier. "In hindsight it startled me too." he said, cuddling up to Lee as she moved into him. "The anger wasn't really directed at you, it just got pushed in that direction because the outlet I wanted got taken away."

Tarin's frown deepened into the dark as Lee explained that it was probably going to take a breaking point before she was able to sleep again. The last time that had happend had been quite some time ago. Tarin still didn't like to think about it, and the prospect of it happening again was even more distasteful. He considered leaving, despite Lee's words that it wouldn't matter if he stayed or left.

Tarin felt Lee turn into him, her face moving into his neck and he fought the urge to squirm when she spoke, her lips moving slightly gainst his skin. Her words weren't light though and he sighed slightly, "I'll try to wake you up after that long, but honestly Lee, when I pull an all nighter I sleep until I wake up...definitely not a measley 8 hours. You're not going to miss out on anything, and I can handle the shop for a while...but if you want me to wake you for some food or something, I'll agree to that. I hate it when that has to happen."

Lee apologized now and Tarin winced again in the darkness. "You don't have to apologize Lee...and I really understand why you're so scared. I just want us to have a life..." he paused, "We can talk about it later though. You really don't have anything to apologize for...I know you're trying. I'm sorry I took all that out on you. Next time just let me pound and get pounded 'kay? Then you can nurse me back to health...you can even wear a little nurse outfit."

Tarin had a point when he agreed that he'd try to wake her up after 8 hours. When they had been up late, for whatever reason, Tarin did have quite a tendency to sleep late. There was one little problem that he seemed to be forgetting about with his logic, though she couldn't help the slight rolling of her eyes when Tarin said he could handle the shop on his own. Of course she knew that; he had been running the shop, in various cities, on his own for years before they had met. It was really only in the last couple months that she had actually started helping with the shop, after all

Lee took a deep breath. "You also wake up with more energy when you do that," she pointed out. The same was most certainly not true for her. "And yes, please wake me up," Lee continued softly. "I need to know I'll actually be able to get up so I'm not worrying about that, too."

Lee simply lay there, her head on his shoulder, as she listened to Tarin tell her that she had nothing to apologize for, that he understood why, and that they'd talk about it later. That she should simply let him give and take a beating himself next time, and then she could take care of him after the fact.

Lee couldn't help but laugh even as a wave of relief spread through her at Tarin's idea that she wear a nurse's outfit. They were joking around again. It had started off small, but then again it always did. The important thing was that Tarin was joking with her again, meaning even if he was still angry, things were going to be good again, and they were moving back toward that point now.

"I honestly don't know about that outfit," Lee said, a bit of laughter still in her voice. "That might just give you too much incentive to go get into fights."