Lee honestly wasn't sure what to think any more. Even before she had met Tarin, she had thought that New York was it. The city had felt more like home than anywhere ever had since she was 13 years old. She had been comfortable, felt welcome, if not by the people, by the city itself. And then there had been Tarin, and for six wonderful months, life had never been better. She hadn't been able to even picture herself leaving New York, even in the middle of the Registration Act where she had been paranoid out of her mind, unless of course it had been leaving to go visit Texas with Tarin.

And now Lee was sitting on a train, alone, making her way to Toronto. When she had left five years earlier, Lee had thought she was done with Toronto, but here she was coming back, and to stay with her younger sister at that.

That was the problem with the train, it took too damn long and left too much time to think. Even with having the ear buds from the iPod Robert had gotten her for her birthday in and the music blaring, there had been far too much thinking going on during the 12 hour trip.

The other problem with the train was that it was a bit chilly. Her own jackets were all buried in her bags since she hadn't thought she would need them, so Lee had reluctantly pulled out the Social Distortion jacket she had put in her backpack after she had found it the previous day and was sitting there with it wrapped around her.

It still smelled like him, too...

Finally, Lee started to recognize some of the things out the window. Hamilton...shouldn't be too much longer, she thought. Mississauga...almost there. Once she saw High Park out the left window of the train, Lee started stretching. She knew they were almost there.

Despite how close they were at that point, it seemed to take forever for the train to actually come to a stop at Union Station. Slipping one bud out of her ear, Lee made her way off the train to look for Rachel before she went to get her luggage. Robert had said Rachel would be waiting to pick her up, after all.

(OOC - For this thread...the part of Rachael will be played by a chubby and adorable middle-aged rocker...a.k.a. I'm going to play Rachael as an NPC because solo threads get old after a while for Lee. So, picture Rachael as younger than Lee, looking something like Katie Holmes...you know, that peppy cheerleader fashionista look! Enjoy!)

Rachael was excited, despite the reason for Lee coming to see her. Because of the things that her parents had done, they'd never really gotten a chance to get to know one another. The brief phone calls had been nice, but not nearly long enough for Rachael's taste, and it had been nearly a month since they'd spoken at all.

Rachael frowned though as she stood on the platform waiting for her sister's train, which the board said would be arriving in 2 minutes. The only bad thing about this "visit" from Lee was that it meant that she and Tarin had called it quits. Rachael had spoken to him even less than she'd talked to Lee, but the way they'd been together had suggested something pretty much epic. Now it was over. Rachel decided as the train pulled up that if she thought Lee was unhappy about the way things had turned out that she would do everything she could to get to the bottom of the situation and make it better. If two people belonged together, after all, who were they to decide it wasn't going to work?

The train stopped in the station bay and Rachael did her best not to bounce on the balls of her feet in anticipation of her sister leaving the train. It was a while before she came off the train and Rachael knew almost immediately that her initial feeling about her and Tarin had been correct...she was even wearing his jacket...well Rachael assumed it was his since it practically hung off her sister.

Rushing forward and enveloping the older woman in a quick, but tight hug, Rachel stepped back and grinned, "Hey!" she said, then turned to watch the porters pulling bags out from under the train. Rachael waited for Lee to find her bags and grabbed the larger of the two before her sister could try and shoulder the load on her own.

"How was the trip?!" she asked happily as Lee grabbed the rest of the stuff, "Want me to take anything else?"

It definitely did not take long for Lee to find Rachel, especially since her sister seemed to already be rushing toward her as soon as she stepped off the train. Rushing toward her and hugging her.

Lee's whole body tensed at the contact. Luckily, Rachel pulled away almost immediately, so Lee wasn't left with the options of actually hugging her back (and thus voluntarily touching someone), or not returning the hug and hurting Rachel's feelings. So, while Lee was no where near pleased with the fact that Rachel had hugged her, it was probably about the best case scenario.

As they were waiting for the luggage to be unloaded, Lee couldn't help but notice how bouncy Rachel appeared. And Lee realized she had been similar when she had been younger, when she was in school. How had she been like that, she wondered. Lee couldn't even remember what it felt like to feel that happy and carefree, never mind acting like that.

Finally, Lee saw her luggage being unloaded, but before she could really grab anything, Rachel took the larger of the bags, Robert's hockey bag in actuality, and hefted it to her shoulder. Giving her sister a look and slight smirk, Lee turned to grab the other two items: her own duffel bag and the guitar case.

"The trip?" Lee asked, glancing as she started to slowly make her way out of the station. "It was long and boring." Another long look out of the corner of her eye and another smirk. Lee knew how heavy the hockey bag was. "I'm fine, but you sure you don't want to trade?"

Lee was...Lee...Rachael knew that she'd been through rough times as a teen...the way their parents had treated her sister had been absolutely unforgiveable and it was always clearly evident in the quiet and reserved way that Lee acted. There was no bounciness in the way she walked and Rachael wondered if that's how Lee always was or if it was the recent circumstances that had her acting that way.

"Long and boring huh?" Rachael said as she hefted the bag and cast a sideways look at her sister...jesus this bag was heavy. How did...Rachael almost rolled her eyes at herself, of course Lee would pack her bags heavy. Something made her think she needed to carry the bag though and she grunted slightly as Lee asked if she wanted to trade bags, "Nah...I got it." she said, only the slightest amount of strain in her voice as they walked. At least the car was close.

"I'm parked right outside, probably illegally and if they're not towing my car I've probably got a ticket. Just to warn you."

Sure enough there was a police officer writing a ticket as the two walked up to the car. Rachael simply gave him an apologetic look and took the ticket as she hefted the bag into the trunk of the car and finally took a second to breathe, "Did you pack that full of freakin' rocks? Just toss everything in there or in the back." she said as she climbed into the drivers seat, leaving the trunk open and hitting the power locks to unlock them for Lee.

"Well, it's not as though there's really a lot to do on a 12 hour train ride," Lee pointed out as she adjusted her grip on the things she was carrying. It was a tad awkward, normally Lee tended to carry her duffel bag on her back but she currently had her backpack there. At least she didn't seem to be having as much trouble as Rachel was, even though technically Lee was carrying twice as much as her younger sister was. Lee could only guess that since Rachel was the taller of the two, she felt she should be carrying more.

"You mean you actually put up with Toronto traffic and drive?" Lee asked, somewhat surprised, as they made their way outside. Even if she knew how to drive, Lee didn't think she'd do that. She had been expecting to take the TTC back to Rachel's place, or a cab, not to actually drive.

"Rocks?" Lee asked, a bit of a laughing tone entering her voice as she teased her sister slightly. "Nah. Got a lot of books, though. Just be glad I know how to pack this well, or it would have been five bags."

Tossing her duffel bag into the trunk with almost no effort, Lee set the guitar case in next and closed the lid. "Looks like you're doing pretty well for yourself," Lee commented as she slid into the passenger's seat beside Rachel. "Living here and still able to afford a car?"

In a way, Lee was more than a little jealous of her younger sister. Here Rachel was, living in Toronto, one of the most expensive cities in the country and she still had managed to get herself a relatively new car by the age of 21, where as Lee had rarely ever managed to be able to pull herself above the level of barely able to afford food, and now she had no where to go unless it was getting help from someone. Yes, things had been thrown at her to drag her back down recently, but that didn't change the fact that Lee had never been even close to the level of security Rachel seemed to have.

Lee was impressed with her...Rachael was thrilled in the giddy little way she was whenever Robert gave her praise growing up. It wasn't all true though and Rach intended to correct Lee's misconception as quickly as possible.

"I drive as absolutely little as possible..." she said, and turned the car on. "Especially in the city...and don't be too impressed Lee...the car isn't exactly mine. Mom and dad were getting a new car right around when I graduated. Instead of trading the old one in they gave it to me. The title isn't even in my name...so I'm kind of borrowing it."

Down the road they went, heading towards Lawrence where Rachael had her little town home. It only took about a half hour, maybe forty minutes to get there and as Rachael pulled into the spot behind the building which housed hers and three other of the town houses. Conversation had been sparse and Rachael got more and more concerned with the situation as time passed. Was this going to be how it was the whole time?

Putting the car into park, Rachael turned it off and turned to Lee with a grin, nothing to do but keep tryin, "I'll take the guitar and the smaller bag this time...you can get your bag of rocks...or dumbells...or books...whatever it is."

Lee kept her mouth firmly shut when Rachel told her how she had gotten the car. Their parents had given it to her. Gee, wasn't that nice of them? They had given Rachel a car when she graduated university, even if it had been their old one. Instead of doing things like that for Lee, they had pulled her out of high school and pretty much kept her a prisoner in her own house. Wasn't it just lovely how parents treated their children?

But Lee didn't say anything about it. Rachel was helping her out, giving her a place to stay so she wasn't on the streets again and didn't have to deal with Robert. She figured that cursing their parents for giving Rachel a car would be a bit much.

Because of Lee's insistence to not rant about their parents, it was a very quiet ride. She really didn't have a whole lot to say, after all, and knew that the more she did talk about, the more likely it was that the conversation would move to areas she really didn't want to talk about.

Rachel, on the other hand, didn't seem nearly as comfortable with the silence, as she kept trying to drum up conversation topics throughout almost the entire drive.

Luckily, it really wasn't a long drive, barely over a half hour, and they were pulling in behind a building. "You sure about that?" Lee questioned as they got out of the car when she heard Rachel's offer to take the smaller duffel bag and the guitar this time. "It's really not that much lighter, you know."

Reaching the trunk of the car, Lee started grabbing her stuff, making things much easier for herself this time by slipping her arms through the handles of the bag and actually putting it on her back to carry.

"So, where's my room?" Lee asked, grabbing her backpack by the strap as she waited for Rachel to decide that both the duffel bag and guitar case would be too much to carry. And then she had a moment of slight panic. "Please tell me I have my own room," she whispered. At least at Robert's, though she hadn't actually had a bedroom to sleep in, she had definitely been in a different room at night. Quite a distance away from him. At this point, after everything that had happened recently and how she was currently feeling about her powers (again), Lee didn't know how she'd handle having to share a room with someone.

"I can manage..." Rachael said as she climbed from the car and watched Lee pick up the huge, heavy, mountainous bag out of the trunk with absolutely no problem. Simply ridiculous that Lee was so strong, and a little unfair to be honest.

As soon as she'd thought it, Rachael felt guilty. Lee had never asked to have the powers that she had and they'd really brought her nothing but grief over the years. Envy was not something she was probably used to...especially from her family.

Lee was talking now, though she seemed to be slightly panicked about the rooming situation. Even though she'd been gone from Canada a long time, Lee obviously remembered how expensive it was to live there. Especially in a multi-leveled dwelling.

"Of course you have your own room. I know how you are about that...I think Tarin even mentioned you having your own room at your apartment or something. One of my roomates just moved out last week to live with her fiance. You can have her room."

By this point, Rachael had grabbed the bag and the guitar case out of the car and made her way to the back door where she set the guitar down and fumbled with the keys a moment before getting it opened. As she walked into the small but bright kitchen and turned on the lights, she looked around.

"I guess Jess is out for the afternoon. You might remember Jess, she's a couple years older than I am...she's from home. She works a night job at a local security company answering phones while she's finishing school. I know she has today off, and by now she's probably up and out spending every penny of money that's not devoted to rent on clothes. She's not a design major."

Rachael closed and locked the door, safety first after all, then led Lee into the living room, showing her the coat closet and turning down a small hall, "This is the master bedroom, I get it because I pay the most rent...up here..." she said, starting to huff and puff a bit as she drug the bag and guitar up the stairs "...is your room..." she said, dragging the stuff into the bedroom to the right of the stairs.

"Over there is Jess' room....and in the middle is the bathroom. If you don't want to share with her, you can bring your stuff downstairs and use mine." Rachael gestured out the door again, "Linen closet is out there, there's spare towels in there...they're all pink...again if you don't want to use those there's a closet down in my room..."

Rachael set the stuff on the bed, which was dressed in plain white sheets and a plain blue comforter, "I think that's pretty much it Lee...do you want me to stick around and help you unpack or do you want to settle in on your own?"

Lee breathed a sigh of relief when Rachel confirmed that yes, she would be getting her own room. She couldn't help it. Despite all the time she had had to think on the train, where she would be sleeping once she got here hadn't been one of those things. Other than the argument over whether she or Robert would be sleeping on the couch (Robert had been adamant that it should be him, but Lee had won by pointing out that there'd be nights she had too much energy, like that first night she had been at his apartment, and wouldn't be sleeping), it had been so long since Lee truly had to worry about where she would be sleeping that she hadn't even thought about it.

Unfortunately, Rachel brought Tarin up, and the fact that when she had been living with him, she had still had her own bedroom. Lee honestly wasn't sure how Rachel talked about Tarin was better than how Robert did. Even if she had been the one to break things off with Tarin, that didn't mean she was alright with Robert acting like Tarin was worthless. Rachel, on the other hand, spoke of him in a way that made all the good memories flash through Lee's mind. She wasn't sure if one was better than the other.

"Thanks," Lee said softly as they made their way to the back door.

Then they were inside, in the kitchen, and Rachel was chatting on again, doing the whole trying to start up a conversation thing again. "Jess?" Lee questioned. How did Rachel expect her to remember who she was talking about? For the last almost nine years, Lee had done everything she could to not think about when she had been growing up, to not think about Barrie.

And then it clicked. At least if the Jess Lee had suddenly remembered was the same one Rachel was talking about. "Jess Lowry?" Lee asked, her brow furrowed in thought. Now that she was thinking about it, Lee remembered playing with a girl named Jess who lived down the street when she was younger. Like six-years-old younger.

By this point, Rachel was giving her the grand tour of the place, still lugging around both the guitar case and the duffel bag. Lee was quite impressed; she knew the duffel was heavy. She figured that Rachel would have given up on it by this point.

Finally they reached what was apparently going to be her room. It was quite bare, though did have a bed with sheets already on it. And though most people would probably consider the room a bit on the small side, it was larger than most of the bedrooms Lee had had over the years.

"It'd probably be easier on my own," Lee told Rachel as she also set her bags down. "I've got a bit of a system for unpacking. Shouldn't take me too long."

Lee seemed to take the tour in stride, and if she had a problem sharing a bathroom with Jess, she didn't mention it immediately. That was good, as much as she wanted to patch things up with Lee, sharing a bathroom wasn't on the top of her list of things she really thought she'd enjoy.

Lee didn't necessarily seem interested in reconnecting though, at least not at the moment and she insisted that things would be easier if she was able to unpack on her own. Rachael couldn't help but sigh a little bit at the fact that she wasn't all into the sisters things, but she let it go. Lee had recently left the love of her life, and if Rachael was going to do something about that, she was going to have to give Lee time to work things out and open up to her. In short, Rachael was willing to be patient...for now.

"Alright then. I'm going to go downstairs and watch some TV...maybe get a snack. Lemme know when you're done." and with that...she left the room, and her sister to unpack.

Lee nodded when Rachel said she'd be downstairs watching TV while she unpacked. "Alright, Rach," Lee replied. "I'll be down soon."

Once Rachel left, Lee turned to look at the room for a moment before setting to work. First thing first, she put the guitar case on the floor in the back of the closet, where it would stay and end up being covered with the duffel bag (and Robert's hockey bag till she could get it back to him) once it was empty.

That taken care of, Lee returned to her bags and started unloading things. Next was her coffee maker and alarm clock, which she set up on the night table beside the bed. She'd have to make sure there was at least some coffee in the house before she went to bed, otherwise she'd be hunting down a store to buy some.

The rest was easy. Coats, skirts, dresses, and blouses got hung up in the closet, the Social Distortion one being tucked back in the corner, her shoes arranged on the floor (Lee was still greatly upset about the loss of her boots from when she had been captured), and then pretty much everything else in the small dresser in the room.

That was pretty much it. Nice and simply, nice and quick. And the bonus was that her room was already much better equipped than she was normally able to manage.

Tucking her ring back under her shirt collar, the chain had slipped out while she had been unpacking, Lee made her way downstairs to ask Rachel about the coffee situation.