Not that any of Lee's plans in life had really ever worked out for her, but she had not seen this. In the last month, not only had she somehow managed to walk out of the camps alive and (mostly) whole, but then she had moved out of the apartment with Tarin, and now was leaving her brother's place after just a few days to head back north to stay with her younger sister until she was able to find her own place once more. The problem was, Rachel wouldn't be around to let Lee into her place for two days, so she couldn't really hop on the bus till the next day.

Her things were all already packed by the time those arrangements had been made, and Lee did not feel she was capable of being in the same vicinity as Robert for any longer than absolutely necessary before she finally left.

So she changed into a pair of jeans and grabbed a sweater (since she had no idea when she might be able to face going back to Robert's apartment that night), and had gone for a walk.

It didn't take very long, only about an hour, before Lee came to a shocking realization; all the time she had spent in Tarin's shop, followed by her imprisonment in the camps, had severely effected her fitness level. Whereas before she had met Tarin, it hadn't been uncommon for Lee to have walked around for a minimum of 5 hours a day, she was already starting to feel slightly worn out.

Grumbling to herself about yet another thing in her life that seemed to refuse to follow her plans, Lee decided to go find a bench to sit on and people watch for a while. Realizing as she entered Central Park that she was almost uncomfortably close to Tarin's shop, Lee wandered around for a few minutes. Luckily she knew what paths he favoured, so would hopefully be able to avoid him if he happened to decide on a walk at the same time she had.

Finally finding an empty bench that seemed out of the way, or at least away from the paths she and Tarin had ever taken, Lee sat down, pulling her feet up onto the bench with her and hugged her knees as she watched people walk past her.

There was a little family-owned grocery store across the Park and a few more blocks from Rupert's apartment. Every year, without fail, it managed a trick of modern shipping: it got eggplants in a good month before the chain stores. Rupert had made the trek on foot, and been rewarded: the little brown paper bag he carried, tucked under one arm, contained two of the purple gems. Eggplants. Fantastic. He was going to make eggplant parmesan, with a spaghetti side. Marinara sauce, of course. He couldn't make that from scratch, sadly: the tomato recall over that salmonella scare had reduced him to canned sauce. It was all right. He could manage. He had a block of parmesan in his fridge, which he'd bought with great hope yesterday; fresh grated parmesan could easily cover up the generic taste of Prego.

There was something Rupert had learned about himself, back in college: he could cook, or he could think. He couldn't do both at once. With the trial of Isabel Duskmoor due to begin in three days, and with the reporters beginning to find him for sound bites... Rupert was going to be doing a lot of cooking. Eggplant parmesan. These purple treasures were going to keep him sane for another night.

Naturally, he took Central Park trails back; the same way he'd went. It was direct, it was gorgeous in the springtime, and it seemed that even though the Registration Law had officially been overturned--he'd cooked minestrone soup, veggie lasagna, and a four-layered French silk pie the night that happened (the last not being a standing success, but tasting good despite its downfalls)--the muties hadn't gone back to actively trashing the place, yet. Yet.

He was walking with a slight limp--the Defendant had stabbed him in his thigh during the breakout, and while it was healing well, it still... pulled. Very, very unpleasantly. His right hand was a mess of strange fresh scars, like a piece of splintered wood had taken its vengeance on him. The hits he'd taken to his shoulder and arm didn't hurt him, as long as he didn't try to lift things above his head. All around, his second meeting with the mutant girl had gone significantly better than his first. All of his wounds were minor, and already healing. He hadn't even had to stay in the hospital--just a few stitches, and he was back to his apartment. Cooking.

He wasn't paying all that much attention to what was in front of him. That's why he saw the park bench, and he saw the woman on it, but he didn't register who it was until it was too late to inconspicuously pick another route. He briefly considered walking straight past her, leaving it to his off duty clothes--a Poison T-shirt and a pair of gray beater slacks--to camouflage him, but the path was mostly empty, and... he was trying to face up to his demons. As demons went, Lee wasn't the worst he'd ever met. She was tolerable, even.

"Hello," he greeted her, forcing an awkward smile onto his lips as he paused on the path in front of her. "So you made it out. How..." How many people had she killed on the way? How many humans? "...wonderful."

Lee wasn't particularly paying attention to the people passing her. Watching them, yes, but not overly paying attention. Pretty much just enough to know that the people were there, watching to make sure no one came too close to her, feeling the energy growing and fading as people passed, looking out for one face in particular.

Thus, Lee was somewhat surprised when someone stopped in front of her, a paper bag in one arm, an awkward smile on his lips. Lee hadn't recognized him as he walked up, what with him wearing a different style of clothing than she'd ever seen him in before, and with the limp, but sure enough, there was Rupert Kelley standing in front of her on the path. The man who had told her, hours before hand, that the breakout was about to happen. The man who she had sat there and fought with while he had held the remote for her collar. The man whom she had told to just go ahead and shoot her.

The same man who, if he had shot her there in his office, would have stopped the merge from ever happening and would have kept her from killing those guards.

"Hi," Lee replied, trying to smile in return, but only managing to lift one corner of her mouth.

Rupert didn't seem very happy to see her, though, even through the awkwardness. For a second, Lee was going to ignore that, not bother asking about it so as to keep from upsetting Rupert, when she wondered what the point in that was. She'd already done far more to upset the man, at a time when he had much more power to be able to make her pay for it, and he'd done nothing. And really, what was adding one more person to the list of who was mad at her?

"Regretting your decision already?" Lee asked softly, not bothering to unfold her legs as she looked across the path at Rupert.

Well, at least the woman looked ever bit as happy to see him as he was to see her. Though honestly, there wasn't the loathing he'd expected at the sight of someone he knew was a mutant--there was just a hollow space where he knew he should be feeling... something. He'd spent the past three weeks and odd days since the breakout perfecting the art of not thinking. He supposed he didn't know what to think, anymore. She was a mutant. Great. There were reasons he should care about that; he knew there were. He'd been doing a damn fine job of not thinking about them, though. Deliberate apathy. He wished he'd discovered it months ago.

~ "Regretting your decision already?"

Rupert stared at the woman. He shifted his bag to rest under his other arm. It was a small weight, but it pulled at the stitches in his left shoulder. It made the healing scars on his right hand twinge, too. He'd been shuffling it back and forth the entire walk.

"Yes," he answered her, with unveiled honesty. He gave a small shrug, apologetic for his stunning lack of apology. "Yes, I definitely am. Have been." He nodded his head slightly, a sardonic smile on his face. "Since the first body I came across that I didn't recognize as a body, actually. Thanks for asking. And how have you been? Did Tarin find you at the breakout?"

Lee saw Rupert just stare at her for a moment after her question as he shifted his bag to his other arm. She must have startled him with the question. Not that that was much of a surprise; directed at him, especially from a mutant who had been in the camp, it probably wasn't a question Rupert had ever been expecting.

Finally, he answered, and Lee couldn't even pretend to be surprised. In fact, as he told her when he had started to regret the decision to turn the collars off, and images from the breakout flashed into her mind again, Lee couldn't even disagree with him. Yes, it had helped them all get out, but had it actually been the right decision, the right thing for Rupert to have done? Lee had no idea, so she simply nodded. They were both going to have to figure out how to live with what they had done that day, she figured.

But then Rupert went on to ask his own questions, ones which weren't necessarily easier to answer than her own was. "I've been," Lee started slowly. How had she been since the last time she and Rupert had seen each other? "Getting by," Lee finally settled on with a slight nod. There really wasn't any other way to describe it; she hadn't exactly been doing well since getting out of the camp after all. Compared to the camp, she'd been doing alright, but not compared to how life should be.

As she heard Rupert's last question, though, Lee sat up straighter on the bench. "You knew he was coming, and you didn't warn me?" Lee asked, a touch of anger entering her tone.

~ "I've been ...Getting by."

Rupert nodded at her nod; that was one way of putting it, that was for sure. He didn't know why she sounded as miserable as he was--though if his shrink asked, he was 'tired', not 'miserable'--but some small part of him was thankful that he wasn't the only one who wasn't exactly skipping for joy in the Springtime air.

Then the woman sat up straighter, and Rupert was put back on his heels:

~ "You knew he was coming, and you didn't warn me?"

Busted.

"Honestly," he began, launching into his weak defense with a carefree tone; "it must have slipped my mind. That was a busy day. What, did you not appreciate the chance to slap the cheating bastard?"

It had slipped his mind? Not only had Rupert told her about the breakout that day, not only had they talked about it, about his part in it, about the possibility of her saving his life if it came to that and she was able, but they had also talked about Tarin and how he had cheated on her. Or rather, how Lee had thought Tarin had cheated on her. With having talked about both those things, how could it have possibly slipped Rupert's mind that Tarin had been planning on coming for the breakout?

But really, Lee realized, what would that foreknowledge have done? Tarin still would have come, and because of the collar, Lee still wouldn't have had the chance to think about what had happened, wouldn't have had a chance to realize anything than what she thought she already knew. The only difference would have been a bit less surprise when she had actually seen him.

"He probably would have preferred it if I had slapped him," Lee said, tightening her arms around her knees. "I think I came close to actually killing him with my powers that day."

Rupert relaxed slightly as the mutant woman didn't seem inclined to brain him with any handy Central Park rocks for his glib attitude.

~ "He probably would have preferred it if I had slapped him. ...I think I came close to actually killing him with my powers that day."

Rupert ran a hand through his curly black hair, shaking his head slightly as he stared at the woman. "First off," he finally answered, "you don't tell a cop something like that. Second," he continued, rising one eyebrow, "don't you think that was a little harsh? The law frowns on wronged lovers committing attempted murder, in case you hadn't noticed."

He let out a breath, looking down the path again. Not that this conversation wasn't fun, but his eggplant parmesan wasn't going to make itself. His apartment was only a few blocks away once he'd crossed out of the Park, just like Tarin and Lee's. They lived close to each other. Not in the same apartment, thankfully. His eyebrows knit together as something occurred to him. "You aren't still staying with that bastard, are you? You're too good to stay with someone who treats you like that." He stated it like the fact it was. It didn't matter if she was a mutant; no woman should stay with a slime ball who couldn't see how much she was worth. It made him more than a little angry that Tarin had cheated on her--Rupert had pegged him as a good man, and he didn't like having his terrible people sense thrown back in his face like that.

Rupert did not look impressed by what she had told him. Why would he be impressed? Lee wasn't exactly impressed by it, either. Rupert's words did do a lot to explain why he wasn't impressed by the revelation, though.

"It's not like I meant to do that," Lee explained. As she went further, as she explained more, though, Lee's eyes closed. She didn't like even thinking about this, though most times she couldn't stop herself. "Me and Tarin...merged. Apparently, my siphoning is even stronger then than when I'm just touching someone. He was worse off than that night you were at the apartment."

Taking a deep breath, Lee opened her eyes and looked up at Rupert as he started speaking again. "Which bastard are you talking about?" Lee asked, unable to keep the small smile off her lips as she asked the question. The smirk quickly faded, and her eyes closed once again. "Turns out I was wrong about what happened, but I'm still not there. I've been staying with my brother. Luckily, I only have to put up with him for another day."

~ "It's not like I meant to do that. ...Me and Tarin...merged. Apparently, my siphoning is even stronger then than when I'm just touching someone. He was worse off than that night you were at the apartment."

Rupert tried not to look as damn uncomfortable as he was at the mention of not only Tarin's power, but Lee's power. Truth be told, he let that subject drop because he'd really rather not know what, exactly, a 'merge' was. Tarin had explained it, a little, and he had ideas. He tried not to think about those ideas too hard. Freaks could be... freaks.

~ "Which bastard are you talking about?"

Rupert raised his eyebrow. "You've found another one already?" Some women sure could move... quickly. His brows furrowed as she continued on.

~ "Turns out I was wrong about what happened, but I'm still not there. I've been staying with my brother. Luckily, I only have to put up with him for another day."

Rupert gave a snort. "That pleasant, huh? Is it safe to assume your brother is the other bastard?" Even though he wasn't particularly interested, he added, almost as an afterthought; "So I take it you've got a hotel near here for the night, then?" He gave a low whistle. "I hear those can be expensive. Good thing you're only staying for the night." On the subject of moving on, and quickly... Rupert shifted his weight, towards his apartment, and away from this conversation. There was something he had to be clear on first, though: "By you being wrong; do you mean he didn't actually cheat on you?" If Rupert's people sense had actually been telling the truth about Tarin, then it was pretty damn likely his pastor was going to get up on the pulpit this Sunday and tell the congregation that Hell had frozen over.

Lee's eyebrow raised slightly shortly after Rupert's did, though hers was more in confusion than anything. Another what, she couldn't help wonder for a moment. Then it clicked, and Lee's face hardened slightly, the confused expression completely gone. It was no wonder why she hadn't realized exactly what Rupert was talking about, her mind just didn't think that way, at least not when referring to herself. She had only ever had two boyfriends, had only kissed three people in her entire life who weren't family. Even without her current worries about touching people, going out and finding someone else now wasn't even a possibility to consider.

"Yes, my brother is that other bastard," Lee confirmed Rupert's guess. But then he went on, asking her about where she was staying that night and commenting on how hotels around Central Park tended to be on the expensive side. "Uh, no," she said slowly. She hadn't really thought this part of getting away from Robert through, had she? "Not exactly."

Hmm, this hadn't exactly worked too well, had it? Lee had been so concerned with simply getting away from Robert that she hadn't exactly thought about where she would stay until she left the city. Yes, all her stuff was still at his apartment, but it wouldn't be hard to drop in quickly and grab it on her way to the station. She had to return his key anyway. But that still left 12 hours, during which time, she should be sleeping.

"I guess," Lee started slowly, not really looking at Rupert as she thought. "Well, hopefully he'll be asleep when I finally head back so I won't have to actually deal with him again tonight."

It really was her only option, she realized as her eyes dropped a bit more. Well, that or where she was now, but as she looked at the bench she was sitting on, Lee didn't think it looked that comfortable.

That's where Lee had been looking when she heard Rupert's next question. Instantly, Lee's eyes shot up to Rupert, a pained look in them, before dropping again. "No, he didn't," Lee whispered. And that was part of the problem; she hadn't believed Tarin when he first said that he hadn't been cheating, had refused to believe him.

~ "Uh, no... Not exactly."

Rupert watched Lee, his eyebrows still furrowed, and a slight frown on his face. People said his expressions and body language gave him away; clearly, they hadn't met Lee, here.

~ "I guess ...Well, hopefully he'll be asleep when I finally head back so I won't have to actually deal with him again tonight."

She was making more eye contact with the wooden bench than she was with him. Never a good sign. His frown deepened.

~ "No, he didn't."

The pained look and the whispering didn't help. Rupert switched his little brown bag back under his left arm, with a hmph. His gaze shifted from the woman to the bag while he did it. Then, keeping with his long-standing tradition of digging himself deeper in some form or another with every damn conversation he had with a freak, Rupert looked back up and said the stupidest words he'd said in weeks:

"Do you like eggplant parmesan?"

He didn't ask it because she was looking lost. He didn't ask it because she might need someone to talk to whose opinion she didn't have to give a damn about. He sure as hell didn't ask it because he was a good guy. He asked it because words came out of his mouth before his brain could catch up with them, sometimes. And maybe he was getting tired of only having conversations with the lawyer for the Prosecution, and of having leftovers pile up in his refrigerator. He awkwardly turned his gaze down the path, in the direction of his apartment.

"It's what I'm making," he explained, his tone a bit more defensive than the statement actually warranted; "if you want to kill some time, and save some money on take-out. Assuming you're not exactly going to be catching dinner at your brother's." Rupert was becoming a professional at killing time. As for take-out: given his cooking habits, the take-out would actually be cheaper, in the long run.

Another question, and once again Lee's eyes snapped up to Rupert. Did she like Eggplant Parmesan? What kind of question was that for Rupert Kelley, police officer and former supervisor of the mutant camps, to be asking a her, a mutant? Mind you, the last time they had seen each other, he had shut off her collar, and as far as she could tell, had only turned it back on to keep the breakout a secret from the guards until it actually happened.

Before she was able to say anything about his question, Rupert was starting to get a little defencive, saying that that was what he had been planning on making that night. And at the same time offering her the chance to save money on takeout by sharing some of the Eggplant Parmesan he was making.

Wow, Lee really had kind of shut her brain off, since apparently food for the evening was another of the things she hadn't exactly figured out yet. Why wasn't it that easy to shut thoughts of Tarin out of her mind?

"Honestly, I can't say I've ever tried it before," Lee admitted. For a moment longer, Lee sat on the bench looking over at Rupert as she fought the urge to ask if he really was alright with her going to his place for dinner. Like with the breakout, it seemed like something he'd likely regret later. But then her stomach grumbled in hunger, and she decided not to question it, but rather to accept the offer.

Unfolding her legs for the first time since she had sat down, Lee stood up somewhat stiffly. "Killing time sounds like a great idea," Lee told Rupert. "And I already owe my brother more than I ever wanted to, so not eating more of his food would be nice."

The lock to Rupert's door turned with an ominously ordinary clunk. Well. This was just a fantastic idea, wasn't it? He pushed the door open, positioning his legs like a barrier as he walked through the opening, herding a certain wagging-tail tan and white miniature poodle/cocker spaniel mix back inside the door with the unconscious ease of long practice. He set his little brown bag on the kitchen counter just inside the door, and a bit to the left; to the right was the living room, with its reclining chair, old couch, small TV, large stereo, and plush pink dog bed. He'd returned the puppy LG--whose real name had turned out to be 'Wallace', of all things--and the annoying ferret back to the Mansion already, so thankfully, he didn't have to worry about explaining his petting zoo. It was just Flipsy now a days. The apartment had been... quiet, lately.

"So," he began awkwardly, "you can... make yourself at home, I guess. Feel free to watch TV. It'll only take about a half hour to make--I'm not making my own noodles, tonight. I'm not even making my own sauce." He gave a frown for how subpar his cooking sounded. His gaze shifted down to the little dog merrily dancing at Lee's feet. "That's Flipsy, by the way. If she bugs you, I can always put her in my room while you're here." It wasn't an offer he usually made. Honestly, though, he couldn't stop thinking that the little dog was getting awfully close to the woman, and miniature poodle mutts couldn't really hold all that much energy, could they? Contrary to happy tail-wagging and feet-dancing evidence.

Rupert moved into the kitchen, and set the oven to preheat at 400 F; he awkwardly busied himself with getting everything he would need together, quite aware that the woman would be able to see him from the living room, since all that separated the two rooms was a low counter. Personally, he could see the latest Church of Humanity newsletter he'd gotten in the mail. He'd left it open on the coffee table, to a heartwarming editorial on the Erickson v. the State of California Case entitled "How the Supreme Court Failed America".

Oh yes. This was just the damn best idea ever. He started busily washing the purple eggplants in his sink, furtively glancing over the rest of the apartment. ...At least all of his laundry seemed to actually be out of sight, today. Minor miracles. Let the time killing begin.

The walk to Rupert's apartment was quiet. And not that comfortable silence, but full of awkwardness. Lee honestly didn't know what to say, didn't know if there was anything she could really say that wouldn't result in Rupert telling her to get lost, so she kept her mouth shut.

When they finally reached Rupert's apartment, Lee was somewhat surprised to find it so relatively close to both Tarin's shop and apartment. Though he had been walking past that night Tarin had almost gone out the window, it hadn't actually occurred to Lee that Rupert might live nearby.

And into the apartment they went, Rupert shuffling a dog in ahead of him as he entered, so Lee made sure to get the door closed as quickly as she could. Well, at least as quickly as she could without moving too close to Rupert and risking touching him.

Then Rupert was talking, and that awkward uncomfortableness she had felt on the walk was still there in his words. Despite that, he told Lee to make herself at home while he cooked. Lee was perfectly fine with that, she wasn't exactly good in the kitchen, and she'd probably just end up in the way if she tried to help.

Lee's eyes had wandered down to the dog jumping around her feet by this point, but looked up at Rupert once more in surprise as he went on to introduce the dog to her. "You actually make your own noodles?" Lee asked, a bit of awed surprise colouring her tone.

If that was the case, Lee most certainly needed to get out of Rupert's way while he cooked. Her almost complete lack of cooking skill would probably end up making Rupert worse if she was too close. So Lee slowly made her way further into the apartment, reaching down to scratch behind the dog's ears with a soft "hiya Flipsy," as she carefully stepped past the bouncing animal.

Finally, Lee made it to the couch and sat down. Lee figured that the TV would be a good idea, it would allow Rupert to ignore her being there, at least for the moment, if he chose as well as giving her something to do while he was cooking. And, if she could find a hockey game, Lee thought that would be a safe bet. Sure, she didn't know Rupert very well at all, but as far as she had seen over the years, even if guys weren't huge fans of a sport, most would at least be willing to watch a game.

It was while she was looking for the remote that Lee noticed the paper sitting on the table, and the title at the top of the sheet. Taking a couple moments to glance over the article, hoping that maybe it wasn't what she thought, Lee could only stand it for a couple of seconds. She knew Rupert hated mutants, knew that he greatly disliked her for that same reason, but really...

"The Church of Humanity?" Lee demanded of the man in the kitchen as she turned on the couch to look back at him. "What the hell are you thinking?"