Rupert was looking out the window. Guards were heckling, muties were suffering, the sun was shinning. It was just another dusty gray Spring day at the Camps, much like any other. The cheerful yellow sunlight was lashing at the backs of the mutants working the quarry, and shining with unabashed cheer on that silent pile awaiting burial in the graveyards. It was a good day. The weekend looked like it was going to be nice, too.

Three items on Rupert's desk sparkled in the light. A coffee-cup, untouched; a cell phone, recently closed; and a gun, fully loaded. He was tossing a fourth item in his hands. Nothing much, really: just a friendly little dart gun, with garden variety bullets of the take-down-a-charging-elephant make. Or a little freak who damn well deserved it. He whistled a merry little tune, and tucked the dart gun into its holster under his coat. His hand brushed against a precious little rectangle tucked into his inner coat pocket: the master remote for every collar and bracelet in the Camps. A standard-issue item for Camp Supervisors.

Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day--

He was in the best mood he'd been in for weeks. His coffee cup was untouched, and lukewarm; he was jittery enough without it. He'd received a phone call a few days ago. This morning he'd received one last follow-up call. He didn't expect to hear from the woman again, after today. Good riddance. The phone call had been brief. Had he sabotaged the drug supply that had been sapping the inmates' strength? Damn straight he had. Was he still willing to press the button? Well he wouldn't have very well sabotaged the damn drug supply if he wasn't. Naturally things had been a bit more cryptically voiced than that, but Rupert liked to remember it in the condensed version. He picked up his cell phone, and tucked it into his pocket. That just left the gun.

It was a good gun. A very good gun. It had served him well through his years as a beat cop. It had waited for him without fail while he lay in a hospital bed, being pumped full of some other Joe's blood. It had quite willingly walked with him into situations too dangerous for either of them to be called sane, during his brief run as a Detective. He set a hand on its cool side, feeling a little dirty for what he'd just done. For the first time in its life, Rupert's gun was loaded with blanks. "I know, baby." He murmured regretfully, "I know." Just look at what those Resistance freaks had made him do. What they'd reduced his best defense against them to. Today was the day, though, and Rupert didn't intend to be left out of the firefight--given his history, that would look too suspicious. He was going to help these muties rescue their friends, sure. Be damned if he was going to go to jail for doing it, though. How do you shoot a freak and not actually kill it? With blanks. Or with a dart gun, if you really mean business. He didn't mean business with most of the freaks. Just one.

A flash of black hair caught his eye through the window. His head turned on its own; for a moment, he saw ethnic Inuit features on the woman's face, and a broken look in her eyes. Then his vision cleared. What he saw wasn't much better: Lee. He stopped feeling sick about his gun, but he didn't start feeling better. He'd heard she was here. He'd seen her name added to the inmate list. He hadn't seen her yet, though. Rupert picked up his gun, and tucked it into the holster at his waist. His eyes tracked her as she passed the window. The corners of his mouth twitched just the tinniest bit upwards: he picked up his untouched coffee, and upended it over that nice government-sponsored carpeting on his office floor.

Then he stood up, roughly shoved his window open, and yelled out: "Damn it, you lazy freak! Get your ass in here! I sent for you a half hour ago--the spill is ******* cold already! You better be ready to lick this stain out!" He probably could have left that last part off. Probably. He turned his glare on a nearby guard. "Hey, you! Yes, you! What, do you think they pay me to learn your name? Drag the new girl in here, would you?" He slammed his window shut before either the guard or Lee had a chance to reply. Things seemed to get done more quickly if you didn't give the other guy a chance to talk.

Moments later, the good little guard dragged Lee into Rupert's office. He even gave her a shove through the doorway, setting off her collar in the process. Charming. Rupert scowled at the both of them, thoroughly ignoring the pained expression that crossed Lee's face. "Oh, suck it up, freak, and get in here. Hey, Joe Blow--close that door on your way out. That's a good lackey."

The door shut.

Rupert glanced down at the pool of coffee, which was quickly spreading under his desk and closing rapidly on his dress shoes. "In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have dumped that next to the desk," he said demurely. Then he glanced back to Lee, gesturing cordially to the chair across from his own. The corners of his mouth were twitching into what could almost be called a smile, again. He picked up his feet, and put them on top of the desk. He laced his hands behind his head. Then he gave it up, and let his grin spread across his face full-force. "Lovely weather today, isn't it?" He was humming to himself again, quite unconsciously.

And I think to myself
What a wonderful world...

Lee wasn't having a great time since coming to the camps. Not by a long shot. She was constantly hungry, there was by far not enough food to go around, though Lee hadn't been nearly bad off enough to get into the tiny bit of food that was in the 'survival kit' Neena had given her shortly after arriving at the camp. Plus, Lee had gone hungry before on numerous occasions when she hadn't had the money to actually buy food.

The hunger combined with the constant lack of energy made things worse, though. Because of the collar, Lee hadn't been able to get that little bit of extra energy she normally had been able to through the day by making occasional brushes against people around her. Not without setting off the collar, and like the hidden food, Lee hadn't been that desperate yet.

So she was going around, day after day, being forced to work here and there around the camp, without a full stomach, and without full energy level. Still, Lee knew it could always be worse. For the most part, the guards didn't touch her, at least not with their hands. Most of the time, the guards that were around her often opted for pushed her and hit her with sticks or clubs or whatever rather than feel the transference of the collar's shocking her. And yes, that meant she had a number of bruises covering her body, in various stages of healing, but most of them didn't hurt her as much as the collar did.

That day had actually been going well. She had only been hit a handful of times, the guards surprising leaving her alone for the most part that day, and the sunshine helped keep her warm. That was until she heard a voice yelling at her. Though she had only heard it on one other occasion, Lee recognized the voice and froze as Rupert, the cop and supervisor of the camp who knew about her powers yet hadn't turned her as he yelled at her to clean up some mess.

While she knew that on some level, at least to some small degree, she could trust Rupert, she still didn't like the man. And she knew that he didn't like her because of the fact she was a mutant. Yet, here he was, yelling out the window for her to get into his office and clean up some stupid coffee spill, that had apparently been sitting there for half an hour? Why the hell hadn't he simply cleaned it up and saved himself the trouble of having to deal with being in the same room as a mutant?

Unfortunately, Rupert wasn't going to let her get out of it, of course not, and he started yelling at a nearby guard to drag her inside since she hadn't started moving fast enough. The other unfortunate part about it was that this wasn't one of the guards who were normally around her, and he grabbed her by the upper arm.

Wincing and clenching her teethas the collar sent a painful shock through her body at the contact, Lee wrenched her arm out of the guard's grasp. "I'm going," she growled as she walked ahead of the man.

Apparently that wasn't enough for him, though. He grasped her arm tightly again, and gave her a shove through the doorway, almost strong enough to make her loose her balance, as she reached Rupert's office.

By the time Lee recovered from the shock and stood straight again, really not that much longer after she had been shoved into the room, Lee heard the door close behind her and she glared at Rupert. "Clean up your own damn mess if you're clumsy enough to spill your coffee," Lee told Rupert, but then froze as he looked up at her and gestured at the chair on her side of the desk.

If that had shocked Lee, it was nothing compared to what she was thinking when Rupert, more casually and kindly than she had ever heard him speak, commented about the weather. "Uh," Lee stammered, honestly not sure what to think at the moment. "Yeah, it is a nice day." Or at least it had been before he had yelled to get her into his office. But he was now sitting there, feet propped up on his desk, and Lee risked sitting down where he had indicated.

"What's so special that you're actually willing to be near me?" Lee asked, her voice less harsh now. "The collar doesn't actually stop my power, you know."

~ "Clean up your own damn mess if you're clumsy enough to spill your coffee."

Ooo, that glare could freeze ice cream. Rupert let the comment slide: today, he was going to let just about everything slide. A man who was committing high treason against his race really didn't have much reason to not let things slide. High treason, or a snippy attitude: which was worse? Yeah, Lee's little outburst wasn't even close to balancing those scales.

~ "Uh. ...Yeah, it is a nice day."

Call him presumptuous, but Rupert was pretty sure Lee had just been taken off guard. She even sat down. He felt a little like he should be offering her tea and biscuits.

~ "What's so special that you're actually willing to be near me? The collar doesn't actually stop my power, you know."

Rupert's smile twitched into a momentary frown. Just what was the point of saying that last little sentence? She couldn't seriously be threatening him. He hoped she wasn't seriously threatening him. Any sort of vital injury to his own fine person at this point would be rather bad for both of them. ...Especially him. Let it slide; let it slide. Rupert's grin returned, slightly lopsided. He plopped his legs off of the desktop, and leaned down to rummage in one of his desk drawers. He sat back upright, victorious, with a crisp brown paper bag in his hand. "Here," he said simply, setting it on the desk in between them. It was his lunch. His stomach was feeling a little too wrung in knots for him to possibly be hungry, but veggie subs made from scratch at home should not simply go to waste. All that baby spinach, roman lettuce, black olives, finely sliced tomatoes, red peppers, cucumbers, humus... it would be a crime. It would be nearly as bad as wasting a perfectly good cup of coffee on the floor.

It was about that time that Rupert felt something wet and wasteful seeping up into his socks. The look on his face reflected his feelings about this curiously unique sensation. With a dignified air, Rupert stood up, and stepped away from the ever-expanding coffee pool. "I think you may be on to something," he said simply. "About me cleaning up my own messes. Though for the record, that wasn't me being clumsy--that was me covering both our butts so that the reason you're in here holds up to casual scrutiny." He leaned over to rummage in another drawer, and brought out a small pile of napkins. He looked at the puddle. He looked at the napkins. This was not going to work, but a man had to try: he crouched down, and starting sponging at the puddle with the napkins.

The puddle won.

Rupert's smile, no it was more a grin, was starting to unnerve Lee. Why was he this happy, and actually grinning at her? What was he thinking? Unless he was happy about the fact that he was about to really get rid of a 'mutie' as he called them, her to be more specific, and was happy about that fact. That thought caused a shiver to go through Lee's body.

Lee's brow furrowed as she saw Rupert lean over and start digging through his desk. She was even more confused when she was him sit up straight and set a brown bag on the desk in front of her.

For a full minute, Lee simply looked at Rupert across the desk, her eyes darting down to the bag every few seconds. Lee still wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but for some reason Rupert at least seemed to be acting if not friendly, at least kind. And though she didn't actually trust the man, but Lee thought she smelled something coming from the bag in front of her. Finally, Lee reached her hand out and took the bag, peeking in to see a wrapped sandwich. Her eyes darting back up at Rupert again, she was about to ask why he was giving this to her, but her watering mouth and rumbling stomach convinced her not to question it.

Pulling the sandwich out, Lee had devoured half of it by the time Rupert started speaking again, and Lee looked up at him in surprise and shock. "Why am I here?" Lee asked. Considering Rupert was now trying to mop up the spilt coffee with napkins, that was obviously not the reason. But somehow, Lee didn't think the reason was the sandwich she was eating, even if it was the most delicious thing she could remember eating at that point in time.

~ "Why am I here?"

Rupert looked up, briefly surprised. "Oh," he said simply. "I guess I haven't told you yet. Right. Well." He stood back up and, abandoning his soppy brown napkins in the little round waste basket next to his desk, he grabbed the back of his chair and wheeled it around the side of the desk and out of the puddle before plopping back down, his grin fully returned.

"Later today," he jumped ahead of himself, "the breakout. It's later today." He leveled a finger at her. "You're not allowed to tell anyone, though, since I wasn't allowed to tell anyone. My contact said they would take care of alerting you muties; I don't need some freak lecturing me about jumping the gun on this." He leaned back in his chair, still grinning. "Not as if there's anyone I could tell, besides you. No one else here knows that I'm playing for the Dark Side of the Force."

His brows briefly furrowed. "Speaking of which, when this all hits the fan: if you get the chance to discourage your little friends from killing me, that would be nice. I'm not planning on announcing my allegiance--I've got a life to go back to after this, and I don't need 'traitor to humanity' being tacked on to my reputation. Not that any of the other freaks would believe that I'm on their side, anyway." The furrows deepened. "I'm honestly not even sure if all of the Resistance members will know about me." A rather cold chill crept up Rupert's spine. "...Huh." He said simply, and with slight concern. Huh. Maybe he should have put a little more thought into this. The whole, 'not being killed by the people he was helping' thing. It was not reassuring that as soon as he pressed that button to shut off the collars, his part in all of this would be done.

As she waited for Rupert to answer her question as to why she was there, Lee figured that she'd take advantage and finish the sandwich Rupert had handed her.

Because of that, the fact that she had just taken another rather large bite of the incredibly good sandwich, Lee almost choked when Rupert actually told her the news. Swallowing quickly and coughing a couple times, Lee looked at Rupert, her eyes wide. "It's happening?" Lee asked softly, staring at Rupert's grin. "Today? So does that mean...I'm guessing...no, hoping, does that mean?"

The sandwich, what little was actually left of it, was all but forgotten as Lee looked at Rupert. "So why are you telling me?" Lee asked, her brow furrowed. "If you're not supposed to tell anyone, and you don't want me to, why tell me?"

Lee leaned back in the chair as she took a deep breath as she saw Rupert's brow furrow as well. Now he seemed to be more concerned about what was apparently going to happen later that day. Though, as he spoke, and she thought about it, Lee could see his point. None of the mutants in the camp were at all happy with any of the guards from what she had seen, and Rupert here was in charge of the guards. Without them knowing that he was the one turning off the collars for the breakout, without them knowing that he was indeed helping them, it was likely going to be open season on the camp supervisor.

And he wanted her to help him with this, to 'discourage' people from killing him. Though, if he didn't appear to be a threat, people probably wouldn't be nearly as inclined to kill him, would they? And if he actually turned off the collars, allowed her powers to be used without pain...Was this why Rupert had told her?

Taking another deep breath, Lee eyed Rupert carefully. Her heart was already starting to pound. She couldn't believe she was actually about to offer this. Actually, after their only other meeting, Lee couldn't believe that she and Rupert were having this civilized and even friendly a conversation. "If they think I've already taken care of you," Lee whispered, gazing at Rupert to see his reaction. "If they see you're out of the fight, no one else will probably come after you. As long as my collar's off, I could 'attack' you before someone else does. You'd just be unconscious then, nothing more..."

Did she really just say that, offer to do that?

~ "It's happening? Today? So does that mean...I'm guessing...no, hoping, does that mean?"

"I hoped you've enjoyed your stay," Rupert quipped, his grin still in place, "but it's time to check out of your government-sponsored hotel."

~ "So why are you telling me? If you're not supposed to tell anyone, and you don't want me to, why tell me?"

"I..." Rupert's grin faltered. Why was he telling her? He didn't know, himself. He'd shuttered himself in his office after the phone call this morning; it was either that, or yell at guards and freaks all day to hide the fact he was in such a good mood. It wasn't exactly out of place for him to ignore everyone, either: he'd been doing it since day one around here. She'd just been walking by the window, and she knew about him: about what he was really here for. She was the only one in the Camps who did. She was one among the handful of people, total, who knew. That wasn't a reason to tell her the good news, though. It wasn't like telling her was accomplishing anything, and it was risking so much. "I don't know. No. I really don't." He wasn't about to let that bother him, though. It was a wonderful day out there. His smile came back. "Are you really complaining?"

And then the conversation got serious. Since they were contemplating the likelihood of his own death later that day, Rupert felt it was appropriate to stop smiling.

~ "If they think I've already taken care of you. If they see you're out of the fight, no one else will probably come after you. As long as my collar's off, I could 'attack' you before someone else does. You'd just be unconscious then, nothing more..."

He sat for a long moment, simply staring at the woman in front of him and doing his best to keep his mixed thoughtfulness, gratitude, and revulsion off of his face. It was a good idea. It seemed to take a lot out of her to offer it. It made his skin crawl. He opened his mouth, and did what he usually did when that hinge was open: he talked, without thinking too much first.

"The collar being off won't be a problem." He reached into his coat, and pulled the master remote out from its inner pocket. It had a few more buttons than the kind the guards carried, but its purpose was unmistakably the same: press the little red button, and the freaks feel pain. He turned it over thoughtfully in his hands, not really thinking of how Lee might react to him toying with it so casually in front of her. "When the attack starts, I'm shutting all of those things off. You'll be able to use your powers. All of you will." Except for one special little freak, but he didn't really feel it necessary to mention that. It was half of the reason he said what he did next, though:

"Thanks for the offer, but I'll have to decline. There are a few other things I need to get done once things get started." He tucked the remote back into its pocket; he turned his face away as he did, as if he really needed to watch his hands to put it away. It was either that, or let her see the look on his face. Let a mutant knock him out? Let her touch him, and drain his energy out? Like hell. Like bloody hell. It might be a smart idea, except for two key factors. First off, he didn't trust the other muties not to kick him while he was down. That was awfully idealistic of her to think that her fellow freaks wouldn't finish the job she'd started. Second, he didn't trust her. How could he? Who in their right mind was going to let a mutant knock him out? 'Why yes, Mister Foolish Human Pound Scum Camp Supervisor Who Isn't Useful Anymore, I'll be a good little freak and not kill you, even though you've made it soooo[/] easy.' Yeah. No. Honestly, he'd rather take his chances with being casually killed off than take his chances submitting himself willingly to her mercy.

Rupert's reply didn't actually answer the question she had been trying to ask. Well, not in so many words. But his smile, and how he told her it was time to 'check out'...He'd actually decided to turn the collars off.

Lee was so extremely happy and relieved by that fact. When he had burst into her apartment that night Tarin had almost gone out the window, Rupert had still been undecided about whether he would or not.

Apparently Rupert didn't have any better an idea why he was sharing this news with her than Lee did. But when he asked if she was complaining about that fact, Lee shook her head, a small smile crossing her face for the first time in she couldn't remember how long. "Not complaining," Lee said simply, then took a deep breath, almost relaxing breath, before continuing, her voice dropping down to a whisper. "It's nice to know I might actually get out of here alive. Didn't think I would."

Rupert was silent for quite a while after she had made her offer. He was thinking, of course he'd have to think about it. She knew he didn't like mutants, and he hadn't seemed to be too impressed being around her in her apartment so long ago. It was quite surprising to Lee that Rupert had been so content, for so long, being in the same room as her.

When he did open his mouth, Rupert finally put words to the answer Lee was hoping to hear earlier; he was going to shut the collars off. Lee just hoped that something wouldn't come along to change Rupert's mind at the last minute.

Despite her relief at hearing that news, Lee was a little nervous sitting there as she watched Rupert playing with the remote. If it was anything like the ones the guards had, Lee knew what else it was able to do, and just because Rupert was in on the breakout, didn't mean he liked any of the mutants, herself included.

Thankfully, Rupert put the alarm away before much longer, and he continued to speak. Lee couldn't say she was surprised to hear his answer, though she was somewhat surprised at how he had declined the offer. So formally, kindly...

Lee nodded as she let everything run through her mind once more, trying to prepare herself for what Rupert said was coming later that day. "So it's actually happening, today," Lee said, almost to herself. "You want me to stop them from killing you if at all possible, but without letting on as to why. Anything else you want me to do, since I'm the only one you can ask?"

~ "Not complaining. ...It's nice to know I might actually get out of here alive. Didn't think I would."

Rupert frowned at the woman. "What are you doing, aiming for a 'might get out of here alive'? There's no 'might' about it--you're getting out of here, and you're doing it today. Be damned if I have to explain to Tarin why his fiancé died on the day all of this was supposed to end."

~ "You want me to stop them from killing you if at all possible, but without letting on as to why. Anything else you want me to do, since I'm the only one you can ask?"

The question took Rupert aback. It wasn't like he'd purposefully brought her in here to beg for his life--he didn't know why he'd really done it, but he knew that sure wasn't it. He didn't plan on dying today, with or without her help. He just wouldn't mind her help if it happened to fortuitously present itself.

He did have one request, though. Something that the business he had to take care of during the breakout wouldn't allow for, and something that he couldn't do and still hope to maintain his cover, either. "There might be one thing," he said sedately, shifting in his chair. "I'm not sure if you can do it--not with looking out for yourself, too. If you can though... there's a woman named Raina. She's been in here much longer than you." From the day the Camps opened, in fact. She'd been caught in the initial Mansion raid. He'd caught her in the initial Mansion raid. "If you could make sure she gets out of here--that she doesn't do anything stupid--I'd appreciate that." He shifted positions again; he just couldn't seem to get comfortable. "Make sure she doesn't try to come here. After me. I'm not sure if she would, but she needs to just get out of here." It wouldn't be the first time she'd put herself on the line to save his sorry rear from trouble. Hell, who knows, she might ever be gunning for his head--maybe that was one of the things that kept her going. It wouldn't surprise him. It wouldn't surprise him if she didn't think of him at all anymore, either. Awkwardly, he cleared his throat. "If you even know who she is, that is."

Lee's eyes unconsciously lowered to look at the desk as Rupert started chastising her for her thoughts that she might get out of there alive that day. At least her eyes were lowered until Rupert brought up Tarin's name. At that, Lee looked up at the man across the desk with a glare. "Don't worry, you won't have to do that," Lee growled. "The ring was long gone before your guards even had the chance to think of taking it from me." Yup, long gone. Thrown at Tarin from across the shop as she stormed out.

Apparently, that anger increased the speed of her siphoning, though, as a shock spasmed through her body. An electric shock that was so much more powerful than the ones she had been getting when the guards touched her. Her eyes scrunched closed, Lee took a deep breath, or at least as deep as she was able to as she tried to calm herself down.

Finally, the pain subsided, though there was residual pain through her whole body. Opening her eyes again, Lee looked across at Rupert as he asked her to try and make sure that another mutant, a woman named Raina, got out of there alright, that she didn't come looking for him.

At first, Lee could only stare at Rupert in shock. Why would he want to make sure of that? She didn't even know why he was being this kind to her, why would he care if one specific mutant got out? Unless she was family or something.

"I'll do what I can," Lee told Rupert with a slight nod.

~ "Don't worry, you won't have to do that. The ring was long gone before your guards even had the chance to think of taking it from me."

The force of Lee's glare took Rupert aback. "Wait," he said, "wait. What? What happened? It didn't have anything to do with that my visit, did it?" It was an egotistical thought, to be sure, but it was the first thing that sprung to mind: he'd been worried since that night in their apartment that he'd gotten Tarin in trouble. Not in this much trouble, though. This much trouble... he sure hoped it wasn't because of him.

He sat bolt-upright, any guilty thoughts banished as Lee's collar went into action. His hand dodged in towards his remote, to turn it off; much like that time he'd offered to shake her hand, though, he hesitated half-way. Why was her collar going off? Just what had she been trying to do? By the time he shoved back those thoughts and forced his hand to keep moving, it seemed that the collar had shut itself off. He dropped his hand, hoping she hadn't seen him move it in the first place.

The look on her face following his request made him straighten up.

~ "I'll do what I can."

"Thank you," he said quietly. There didn't seem to be much else to say.

Lee heard Rupert's questioning about what had happened between herself and Tarin, but at that point in time was unable to reply through the pain.

"No, you're not the only thing he tried to keep a secret," Lee answered, her voice still a growl. But even though she had just gotten herself back under control, at least enough that the collar wasn't hurting her, she was getting angry again. This was the reason she had tried not to think of Tarin, at least outside her daydreams about Texas, since she had gotten to the camp.

"Why can't this damn thing just let me be angry?" Lee ended up exclaiming rather than answering Rupert's question right away, tears of anger and frustration springing into her eyes. "Is it really that much of a threat for me to be angry at someone who isn't even anywhere near here?"

Taking a breath, Lee looked back at Rupert as she blinked the tears away. "The problem is he didn't change," she told the man, a sad, somewhat sadistic smile curling the corners of her lips. "I should have known it was too good to be true when he said he'd wait forever for me to be ready. Of course he didn't mind the limits my powers put on us. He wasn't exactly missing out on anything since he was still getting some on the side."

That last thought, and the image of Tarin and the woman that it brought up, was simply too much. Her anger at Tarin had escaped its bounds again, and the pain from the collar flowed through her once more. Only this time, she wasn't able to reign it in nearly as easily as images of Tarin and that woman kissing kept flashing through her mind, and as the long seconds of torture slowly ticked past, tears of pain from both the collar and what Tarin had done to her flooded her eyes.

~ "No, you're not the only thing he tried to keep a secret."

Rupert's eyes widened. Honestly, it would have been better if she had been angry over that incident in her apartment. If she was getting at what he thought she was getting at...

~ "Why can't this damn thing just let me be angry? ...Is it really that much of a threat for me to be angry at someone who isn't even anywhere near here?"

His brows furrowed; over the past few weeks, they'd been digging a regular trench. He didn't immediately understand what she was talking about. Why would the collar be triggered by her emotions? She was rattling on before he could work that thought out, confirming his suspicions:

~ "The problem is he didn't change. I should have known it was too good to be true when he said he'd wait forever for me to be ready. Of course he didn't mind the limits my powers put on us. He wasn't exactly missing out on anything since he was still getting some on the side."

Rupert's face twisted into a frown, a small tch coming from his mouth. It took him a long moment to realize that Lee was crying. It took a longer moment before he realized it wasn't just over Tarin: her collar was active again. That outburst about the collar and her anger finally clicked in his head. This time when his hand went for his remote, it didn't hesitate. He'd deactivated her collar before he'd even fully brought the thing out of his pocket. She wasn't trying to do anything. Apparently her mutation could be triggered by emotions; she was hardly the only mutie like that. Her power use didn't have anything to do with him. It was safe to shut that thing off. Sure it was. He set the remote on the table; away from his suddenly sweaty palm, and away from his irrational urge to turn the collar back on. Then he stood up, walked over to a shelf on the side of the room, and came back with a box of tissues. He set those on the desk, too. It seemed like a good compromise between handing them to her and not getting them for her at all.

Sitting back down, and tastefully dodging her teary gaze by looking towards the window, he said the first thing that came to mind: "It figures. Here I'd had Tarin pegged as a good man. I always have been a bad judge of character." For instance, he'd thought a ribbon-haired girl was innocent; he'd thought the founder of the Sanctuary was a philanthropist; he'd thought Raina was a human. The list went on. Tarin's exploits got tacked on at its end.

Lee didn't know what was going on. She hadn't fought her anger down, if anything, it was even getting stronger, yet all of a sudden, the collar just simply stopped. It didn't matter if she had been getting some control over her powers before being captured, Lee knew that she didn't have that much control. That's why the collar had gone off, twice now, when she had gotten angry.

Lee only realized why the pain, at least that from the collar, had stopped when she looked up and saw Rupert setting the remote on the desk. Not within easy reach for her, not by far, but it was there, out in the open. Looking up at Rupert, her tear filled eyes wide with surprise, Lee watched him move to the side of the room. And return with a box of tissues, which he set down on the desk in front of her.

As he sat down, his gaze averted out the window rather than at her, Lee's expression changed from surprise to one of more curiosity and confusion. After everything she had heard him say, the fact that he had even turned her collar off there was surprising. But to then go and get a box of tissues for her...with what she knew of the man, just getting the tissues for her was along the lines of someone else actually wiping the tears from her cheeks.

"You're not the only one," Lee said as she reached out for the tissues. Rupert really didn't seem to want to look at her right then, and Lee was perfectly alright with that fact. She wasn't extremely happy about the fact that she had actually started crying in front of the man either.

"But why?" Lee asked softly, wiping away the offending wetness. "Don't get me wrong, I'm very glad you shut it off, but why? I thought you hated me."

~ "You're not the only one."

The comment didn't seem to be the sort that needed an answer, so Rupert didn't give one. He just kept staring towards the window. He'd shut the blinds after he'd yelled out earlier; it really would have defeated the purpose of getting her in here if he'd let every passing person just glance in and see them having a merry little chat. The warm afternoon sunlight shone through in bright horizontal stripes.

~ "But why?"

Rupert was caught off guard. It was hardly the first time, and it wouldn't be the last. He glanced back her way, just in time to see her wiping at her eyes. He looked towards the window again, embarrassed.

~ "Don't get me wrong, I'm very glad you shut it off, but why? I thought you hated me."

"Hate you?" He parroted. "I... it's not that I hate you." He ran a hand through the hair over his temple, keeping his gaze averted. "It's just that you scare the crap out of me," he said with blunt honesty, a self-deprecating laugh escaping his lips. "How easy would it be for you to kill me right now?" His palms were sweating again; he rubbed them against his pant legs. "Don't answer that."