Lee had been in Toronto for a while. A month? Two? Lee wasn't exactly sure, but it had been a while for sure. And it had been hard, but she had been trying. She knew she was no closer to getting over Tarin, that pain of being away from him was still there, every day, not seeming to get any easier, but she was getting by, making due. She had a job, was going out, actually doing things. She wasn't happy, not by a long shot, but she was making due.

And then, despite everything Rachael said that Lee needed to do, Rachael started bugging her about going to New York, to help her when she was there for Fashion Week. Yeah, cause that would help Lee. She had come to stay with Rachael because she needed to get away from New York (and Robert) that badly that she couldn't wait long enough to be able to afford her own place somewhere. So why in the world had Rachael thought it would be a good idea for Lee to go back to New York?

Lee had fought tooth and nail to avoid it, to not go, but again Rachael pulled the birthday card, complaining that Robert had gotten her an iPod,where as she had made up for birthdays with just beer and guacamole. As far as Rachael was concerned, the least Lee could do was go to New York with her. It was for school, after all, she claimed.

For some reason, Lee had agreed, and reluctantly she had gone to New York with her sister, where the two of them had spent the previous two days walking from shop to shop, looking at fabric samples, giving comments on Rachael's ideas. At least the places they were going to weren't all that familiar. Sure, Lee had walked those streets a few times while she had been in New York, but she had walked along a lot of streets before she had met Tarin. The important thing was that they were not overly familiar, that they didn't really have much meaning to her. That she hadn't been there with Tarin before.

And then, that night over dinner while she had been flipping through some of her drawings and her new fabric samples, Rachael had asked about going out that night. This, Lee outright refused to do, it'd be too much. Until Rachael pointed out that she really wanted to check out the nightlife, but didn't feel comfortable going by herself, not in New York, and she didn't have anyone else she could go with.

So Lee had grumbled. Lee had complained. But Lee had gone to get ready, having a quick shower, blowing her now much longer hair straight, putting her make up on. It was the clothing, and the shoes, that took time to decide on. Finally, Lee settled with a simple black pleated skirt, a pair of Mary Jane's with a 2" heel (not as high as she liked, but she didn't have her boots and the shoes were cute), and a corset that nicely displayed the tattoo on her shoulder blade she had gotten two weeks previous. And no, Lee was not thinking about the fact that it was the same corset she had worn on Halloween when Tarin and her went out. Not thinking about that at all.

Finally, they were both ready, hopped in a cab, and arrived at the club Rachael had wanted to go to that Lee couldn't recall hearing about before. Walking in, Lee glanced around, spinning and glaring at Rachael when she caught sight of the stage. "What the hell, Rach?" She asked over the sound of the person currently up there singing. Badly. "I thought you wanted to go out. You didn't say anything about karaoke."

Tarin wasn't getting over her...it simply wasn't happening and probably wasn't going to happen. The dull, aching pain that had been in his chest since she'd left was still there. Business at the shop was starting to dwindle and Tarin was starting to think that he needed something to kick him back into his past glory.

The nightmares were getting worse too. The tub incident, as he'd started to call it to himself, had happened a week ago. The strange thing was, when he'd awoke the next morning Tarin had found himself sleeping on the couch where he'd sworn he'd fallen asleep the night before. The towel he'd thought he'd used was folded and dry, in its place in the linen closet and the tub was so clean and dry that he had to dismiss the whole thing as a dream. A graphic and disturbing dream, but nothing more.

Tarin sighed, staring at the television and trying to ignore the feeling of dread that wormed its way up his spine when a news report about a mutilated body found hidden off a bike path in central park flashed across the screen. He had to get out.

Thirty minutes, a shower, and three changes of clothes later, Tarin was walking out the door of his apartment. He was a nervous wreck, it had been almost six months since he'd tried something like this and the fact of the matter was that he was doubting himself.

None of the bars that he usually went to would do, Tarin told himself, there were too many memories there to distract him from what his goal was. In the past drowning himself in alcohol and women always seemed to work, why wouldn't it now?

So, off he went to a little place he'd heard of a couple times. It figured, as he walked in they were just starting karaoke night. Well this was better than ending up in a bar where he'd actually been with Lee. Inside he went, catching a whiff of something he thought was familiar as he passed by a couple of women struggling as vainly as he was to get inside, wasn't that lady with the long hair's top familiar too? Tarin shook his head, he couldn't spend the whole night seeing Lee in every woman he passed if he was going to get anywhere.

Straight to the bar he went, shouldering into a spot next to an attractive and voluptuous girl with blonde hair, big eyes, and bigger....well, that was to be assessed later. Smiling at her sideways as he ordered a drink, Tarin waited, it didn't take long until the girl spoke quietly but obviously to him, "I don't think I've seen you here before..."

"You haven't, but I'm here now....do you always come for the karaoke?"

"What? I didn't know it was karaoke!" Rachael exclaimed, looking over at Lee with a look that she wasn't sure whether her sister was telling the truth or not. "But we're here now, so why not just have some fun?" Rachael paused as she looked over to the stage as well. "Besides, you're such a better singer than them."

"I'm not singing, Rach," Lee replied, glad that the song was finally over and that woman was done butchering the song.

"Aww, come on, Lee!" Rachael asked. It looked like she was giving her a slightly pleading look. "It'll be fun!"

"Go get drinks, Rach," Lee said, not even responding to the idea of singing. She was getting quite a bit better at that whole blatant subject change to avoid answering questions Calley had told her he used. "I'll go find a table."

Once Rachael had turned to make her way to the bar, Lee started moving, making her way through the bar, looking for an empty table. Which she finally found. It was small, it was in the back, but it worked for Lee. She wasn't exactly interested in being front and centre, in being out there for everyone and anyone to see. She had only come to the bar in the first place that night because Rachael wasn't able to take care of herself like she could.
---------
The bar was crowded, and Rachael was really okay with that. She'd felt like the whole time they'd been in New York, all they'd done was work and sit in the hotel they were staying in. Lee hadn't been keen on staying with Robert, which was fine by Rachael. The problem with that was...they weren't getting around the city at all, and there had been absolutely no opportunities to get Lee in Tarin's line of sight somewhere, she really wished she had the phone number to the apartment still.

It was nice though, they were out, they were at a bar and Rachael wanted Lee to sing. She had a great voice if her sing alongs with radio songs were any indication, and karaoke would be a blast.

Pushing her way through people was difficult, but finally she elbowed her way into a spot at the bar and ordered two beers. At least her sister had stopped being so funny about letting her pick up the tab every once and a while. As she waited on the bartender, Rach looked the bar over. It was nice, real nice and crowded, people were practically touching as they stood next to each other at the bar. Down the bar Rachael looked until her eyes fell on a certain person.

Eyes widening to the size of small tea saucers, Rachael's gaze jerked away from the man then stole back for a second, longer look to make sure she wasn't mistaken. No, no way, it was Tarin...and he was chatting up some blonde. Oh, this was perfect...if Lee saw that Rach knew she'd have to have some kind of reaction.

Thanking every kind of deity she could think of for her good luck as she paid for the beers, Lee was going to sing. Oh hell yeah...Lee was going to sing.
---------
A couple minutes later, Rachael made her way to the table, handing Lee her beer when she got to the table. "So, have you thought about what you want to sing?" Rachael asked. Apparently Lee's subject change hadn't been all that successful.

"I'm not singing," Lee said simply before she took a long drink of her beer.

"Come on, Lee," Rachael said, leaning across the table slightly. "I'll even get up there too, and I'm no where near as good as you are. It'll be fun! You were singing last night at the hotel, so what's the problem?"

Lee blinked. She'd been singing? She didn't remember, but thinking back...she had been listening to music to pass the time the previous night while Rachael had been working on some designs. And the more music she listened to recently, the easier it got for her. At least in the music aspect of things. Hmm, maybe she had started singing.

"Fine, I'll sing," Lee reluctantly agreed. "But you've got to sing two if you want me up there." This was Rachael's idea of fun, after all, not her own.

Rachael really wanted Lee to get up there and sing, to let Tarin see her and hopefully for Lee to see him while she was singing. Turning her head toward the stage to cover her glance over to the bar where Tarin was still standing, chatting with the blonde, Rachael made her decision. She had to get Lee up there, and would do just about anything to do that.

Turning back to Lee, Rachael nodded, and hoped her expression matched her sister's reluctant one. "Fine."

Tarin had heard the phrase "going through the motions" from coaches in various sports throughout his early childhood. From what he could gather at the time, between spit flying and explicitives yelled on the football field was that 'going through the motions' was a bad thing. Doing what you had to do to get a job done, but not putting any heart into it. Tarin was going through the motions....sorry coach.

The blonde was gorgeous, if a little thicker in the head than Lee had been. Obviously she didn't need brains to get by. In the past she would have been exactly what Tarin was looking for, she was exactly the type that wasn't going to have a problem getting up the next morning and walking away. Suddenly though, that simply wasn't as appealing as it should have been.

There were lots of single women in the bar that night and Tarin couldn't help but allow a few of them to catch his eye as they walked by. Most of them were brunettes or had very dark hair, but this one was too skinny, that one was too fat, this one had buck teeth, that one's lips were too big. Tarin realized that he was ignoring the blonde and turned to apologize only to see that she'd obviously caught him at his game and moved on to other prey.

There was a new woman standing next to him now, she had chestnut hair and large brown eyes, and she was smiling at him. Tarin smiled back and took inventory, she was a lovely young woman, definitely closer to his age than Lee had been, but maybe that's what he needed.

"Come here often?" he said, turning at the bar so his obvious attention was on her.

She smiled, and shook her head, "I just got out of a long relationship. I'm looking to spread my wings a little."

"Ahhhh." Tarin said, a suave grin crossing his features, "As it would happen, I just did to, and I'm looking for the same thing. Can I buy you a drink?"

Lee had finished her beer and was contemplating getting another one by the time Rachael convinced her to go up and sing. Rachael did have a point, though; if she was going to have to go up and sing two songs, they'd have to get started pretty soon. Plus, Lee wasn't exactly eager to make an even bigger fool off herself by singing when she had had much more alcohol in her

So fine. With a slight grumble at Rachael and a small glare, Lee had let Rachael drag her up, and they decided on songs. And it was a good thing, too, because apparently there was a bit of a line.

Finally, it appeared they were ready for Lee's song. Shooting Rachael one last glare, Lee got up on stage. She refused to think about how the last time she had sung karaoke, despite thinking she had sucked, that it had been fun. She refused to think about that because it had been with Tarin. No, best to compare it to her competitions when she was a kid. At least the critics here didn't have as much training as the ones she'd been subjected to when she was younger.

Stepping up to the microphone, Lee let the first bars of the song drift by, her eyes closed as she prepped herself to sing. It was slow, it was calm, but that suited Lee; she wasn't in the mood to sing an upbeat or faster song anyway.

And then the intro ended and Lee opened her mouth. She was higher than the original song, but she alway had trouble singing as low as that guy did.

"Restless tonight
Cause I wasted the light
Between both these times
I drew a really thin line
It’s nothing I planned
And not that I can
But you should be mine
Across that line..."


((OOC: Song is "One Thing" by Finger Eleven, for anyone who doesn't know.))

Things were progressing nicely here. The woman he'd met when the blonde had given up on him was chatty, but not overly stupid, and most importantly she was just trying to get out on the town to officially get over the relationship she'd just ended. That's what Tarin was looking for right now, no commitment, but not just some piece of arse either. This lady was nice and pretty and lonely....kind of like him. She still didn't have the grey eyes he'd loved to look into or the other little things that had made Lee so special...but she'd do for what he thought he needed.

"Let me get you another drink...." he said, and did, the karaoke night was really in full swing now and while Tarin wasn't paying close attention to the singers, but they were really pretty good for the most part. The woman, Jenn, she said her name was, took the drink gratefully and downed it in two gulps, much to Tarin's surprise. So much to his surprise that he didn't notice the woman getting on stage, all he noticed was the brunetted advancing on him.

This wasn't like the redhead, it wasn't nearly as predatory and as the space closed between them Tarin got the feeling she didn't do this much. It was a nice kiss, no fireworks, no....Lee'ness...but it was a nice kiss, then he heard the song. Breaking away from the kiss, but not moving his arm from where it had snaked around her waist, Tarin's head jerked to the stage. And there she was.

A thousand different emotions crashed down on Tarin at once. The woman in the doorway of the bar, with the long hair and the shirt...the corset. Tarin's throat almost completely closed off and he completely missed the look of confusion on Jenn's face as he stared. Fate was a cruel son of a bitch...Lee was there on stage...and she was singing.

Lee's eyes had opened at some point while she was singing, but she wasn't looking at the screen the lyrics were playing across. She knew the song, it was one of the ones Robert had added to the playlist on her iPod thinking she'd like, and she'd listened to enough since her birthday that she knew it. All looking at the screen would do would take her out of the flow of the song and mess her up.

So Lee was looking out at the bar, seeing but not really seeing the people out there as she sang, other than her occasional glares at Rachael for making her get up there and do this.

"...I promise I might
Not walk on by
Maybe next time
But not this time

Even though I know
I don’t wa-"

As Lee's eyes travelled the bar, they fell on a very familiar head. His hair wasn't nearly as vibrant and bright as it normally was, the last dye job clearly growing out, and he was looking thinner and more tired than she remembered, but it was without a question him. Instantly, Lee's voice died mid word, her eyes locked on Tarin across the bar. "Tarin..." she whispered, a mix of pain and longing, her voice barely audible even with the microphone.

Lee felt like she couldn't breath as she stood there, the music continuing to play, now unnoticed by her, as she stared into Tarin's eyes. Tarin, who was currently standing at the bar with his arm around a woman's waist.

If she felt like she couldn't breath before, it now felt like a knife was twisting in her stomach as she quickly turned and made her way off the stage. "What the hell?" Lee asked as she passed Rachael, not even pausing to wait for her sister's reaction. "How dare you pull this on me!"

Lee hadn't even gotten three steps past Rachael when she felt a hand on her arm, trying to pull her to a stop and heard a voice. A rather deep and slurring voice. "Get back up there, sweetie. You're good."

Lee didn't even stop to think about what she was doing. She spun, tearing her left arm out of the man's hand even as her right was coming up, making solid contact with his face. "Don't touch me," she hissed, then turned to glare at Rachael as she saw her sister reaching out as well. "You either. How many times do I have to tell you?"

With that, Lee turned again and made her way through the crowd toward the door, fighting herself the entire time to not look back over at Tarin where he was standing at the bar. And she was almost successful. Lee made it almost the entire way to the door, was almost out of the bar, before she lost control and looked back, looked at Tarin. Still standing there with his arm around the floozies, waist.

Yes, she had been the one to decide it was over, she was the one to say they couldn't be together. She didn't even let people touch her now because of what happened, and he was already out looking for his next catch. Lee couldn't help it, the tears sprang up into her eyes before she could stop them as she forced herself to look away.

It really was better this way, she told herself, tried to make herself believe. She wasn't hurting Tarin anymore, couldn't hurt him again, and he himself had thought that living that way was the safest way for him. The only way, until he had met her.

So be it.

She said his name...it was barely whispered but he heard it and Tarin nearly threw up on the floor his stomach flopped so hard. The woman next to him was completely forgotten as his eyes locked onto Lee. Hers were locked on him too and he stared at her, trying to convey what he'd been feeling for the past...god it seemed like years. He was so lost, she didn't look lost...she looked pissed.

She was off the stage before she probably even knew what she was doing and Tarin involuntarily flinched. There were no stalkers to carry her off, but he would have put money on the fact that Lee didn't know how fast she was moving.

Rachael was there too, and Tarin wondered idly what had brought her back to New York, but then Lee was yelling at her, like she could have possibly known that he would be there. Then some unlucky bastard made the mistake of reaching out and grabbing her. Tarin didn't move, the last thing Lee would want was his help...and she didn't need it, just like she hadn't needed it before.

The bar let out a collective, "oooo" when she decked him in the face and the guy dropped like a pile of rocks. They were almost at the door, Lee with Rachael in tow. Rachael looked back and the look on her face was almost gleeful until she remembered how angry Lee was with her at the moment. She waved and stepped outside past Lee. Lee who had turned and looked at him for the first time since she left the stage. Then she was gone...she was gone and he hadn't gone after her...how could he go after her?

A slight squirming at his side brought Tarin back from his thoughts and he realized he still had his arm around Jenn. Oh god...Lee had seen that. Fresh guilt flooded Tarin as he stood there, but then he sighed, she'd been the one to leave him...she hadn't been jealous, just angry to see him.

"I'm guessing that was your former other half..." the woman said, and Tarin looked down at her apologetically, "Uh...yeah..." he said roughtly, then ran a hand through his hair, "Coincidence can be a real bitch sometimes....right now is one of those times."

Tarin moved his arm, figuring the woman would want to leave and get on with her night out of the company of someone with so much baggage. She surprised him, she stood on her toes and kissed him again, full on the mouth.

"Coincidence can be a real bitch, let's get out of here before she rears her ugly head again."

Something in the back of Tarin's mind told him that what he was about to do was a bad idea. Probably the psychopath crowing with glee at the prospect of having a woman in the apartment alone.

Something else told him that he might as well be cheating on Lee, the way she'd reacted to seeing him had to count for something.

He ignored all of those thoughts though and nodded, his smile not coming so easily now. "Yeah...my place is pretty close. Want to come over for a drink?"

They both knew they weren't going for a drink, but her nodded assent was enough and they made their way out of the bar and into the night.

Lee was out the door, on the street, and walking, shaking her head and trying to blink the tears out of her eyes. Rachael had to have planned that, Lee couldn't help but think as she marched down the sidewalk. With all the little comments her sister kept making, about while she couldn't understand how Lee had simply walked away from what she had had with him, that she needed to get over him and move on, Lee knew she had to have planned it. Why the hell couldn't Rachael just leave her alone to do things on her own?

"Come on, Lee, wait up!" She heard Rachael calling from behind her.

Turning briefly, Lee saw Rachael rushing along behind her, fifteen feet back and growing larger with every quick step that Lee took. No wonder she had been caught, she really couldn't control herself when she was upset.

"I can't believe you'd do something like that to me," Lee said to Rachael, more pain in her voice than anger at that moment. Tarin had seemed shocked, too. He'd just stood there staring at her in surprise. But he also hadn't taken his arm from around the woman's waist. It was one thing to know that Tarin was going to move on, go back to his one night stands he'd had before they had met, but to actually see it was a different matter all together.

"I didn't know, Lee! Wait!"

"I'll see you back at the hotel," Lee said, turning back to the front and continuing to walk, quickly.

"Emily!" Rachael called, but Lee ignored her. Rachael was a big girl, she could manage to get a cab back to the hotel on her own. And so Lee walked, and thought, and tried not to think. She couldn't seem to get the image of Tarin out of her mind, how tired he had looked, how much thinner he was. His hair, longer than she had ever seen it, had still been styled, but the colours were muted, growing out, almost as if it hadn't been dyed since the last time she had picked out colours and helped him with it. She shock and surprise on his face as he saw her on the stage.

Lee hadn't wanted to see Tarin again, that's part of why she had agreed to go to Rachael in Toronto. Well, she did want to see him, but knew it was a bad idea, knew that she couldn't see him again, not without it being even harder than the day she had moved out had been. At least he had given her the ring, she thought, her hand unconsciously lifting up to touch it where it hung on the chain around her neck. At least she knew her ring wouldn't end up on another woman's hand.

She hadn't even really been gone that long, Lee realized, and he was already back to womanizing, prowling the bars for someone to take home with him. Though, she thought, it really shouldn't surprise her, considering that first night she was supposed to have met him at the bar and ended up not making it, he had taken someone home. Sure, they hadn't started dating at that point, but if he was able to move that fast, from her to another woman in the course of a couple hours, it really shouldn't be surprising that he was back out there.

Lee needed to get out of New York, though. After what had happened, Lee knew she didn't want to, couldn't, handle another run in with Tarin. The problem was, she and Rachael were still supposed to be in town for another few days for Rachael to finish up her stuff. Hopefully that card Tarin had snuck into her bag had enough money left on it to pay for another train ticket.

*fades to light*

Tarin groaned slightly in his sleep and rolled over, trying to keep the light from the morning sun from shining in his eyes. The entire night had been completely unexpected, from seeing Lee in the bar, to the woman he’d met still wanting to come home with him. Well…that had at least gone well enough. It was still like going through the motions though and Tarin now fully realized why that lifestyle had began to wear on him even before he met Lee. Now, after Lee, it wasn’t going to work…he’d have to try to move on in different ways, maybe finding someone to regularly date. One night stands weren’t going to cut it.

Tarin opened his eyes, prepared to apologize, or say good morning, or whatever it was you did in this situation, but instead of seeing a sleeping form or a completely empty bed, Tarin opened his eyes to an absolute nightmare.

There was blood everywhere on the sheets on the headboard, puddeling in the canyons made by the sheets. Tarin tried to get out of the bed and succeed only in getting his arms and legs caught in the sheets. Out of the bed he fell with the sheets wrapped around him, he could smell the blood and as he frantically fought his way out of the twisted fabric he wondered if this was just another of those horrific nightmares he’d been having.

Finally free of the sheets, Tarin leapt up and tried his damnedest not to panic. There was even more blood than he had originally thought, it was smeared on the night stand and there was a trail of it as though something had been dragged. Looking down at himself, Tarin realized there was blood all over him too…and all over his clothes…clothes he definitely hadn’t been wearing when he’d gone to sleep.

Tarin, legs shaking, followed the train of blood to the kitchen, terrified of what he was going to find when he got there, but there was nothing. His hands were shaking by now and his stomach started to turn.

He barely made it to the bathroom before he was heaving. What had he done and why didn’t he remember doing it. Where was the woman, the nice, pretty, gentle woman he’d brought home with him the night before and why was there blood spread from one side of his bedroom to the other.

Slowly, pieces of a horrifying puzzle were starting to slip together in Tarin’s head. The nightmares, the dreams, they hadn’t been nightmares or dreams, they’d been reality. Something was happening to him while he slept and it was a with a cold and chilling realization that the final piece slipped into place and Tarin knew what had happened…why he had been so exhausted lately and why he’d woken up twice now in a room full of blood.

Concentrating and trying to figure out who was in his head and why they were there was useless, he was too panicked, but that was the only thing that it could be…he’d never do these things of his own volition…or would he?

He needed help and after he’d cleaned himself up in the bathroom, Tarin half stumbled to the phone, running his hand through his hair and feeling caked blood there. His hand left a bloody hand print on the phone as he picked it up and tried to coax his fingers into dialing the only number he could think of…the only number of someone who could help him…or stop him.

As he counted the rings, Tarin leaned against the kitchen counter and slowly slid to the floor, pulling his knees up to his chest. What was he going to do?

OOC- Alright, I'm Rachael again...and I'm going to post in purple so y'all can tell the difference between her and Tarin in this thread.

Lee might have been pissed, but Rachael had her fair share of ire built up too by the time she walked back to the hotel. Walked back to the hotel, in NEW YORK CITY, by herself. It was in the hotel room where Rachael stormed back and forth across the room, muttering to herself and preparing for the argument that was sure to come if her sister decided to come back.

Rachael stopped and thought about that for a moment, maybe she wasn't here because she was going to Tarin's to kick his ass...kick his ass then make up. Rachael slumped down on the bed...not likely.

It was a couple of hours...a long couple of hours before Rachael heard footsteps in the hallway outside the room. Then a quiet knocking was enough to make her look up, then walk slowly to the door, arms crossed in front of her chest.

She opened the door to face her sister, "Glad to see you made it back alright. It must have been scary walking around New York city by yourself at night when there's a killer on the loose." So there was as little sarcasm...it never really hurt anyone.

It had been a couple hours since Lee had left the bar. Left the bar where she had seen Tarin wrapped up in the arms of another woman. How long exactly, she wasn't sure because she didn't have a watch, but it was definitely a while. Long enough for her to at least start to calm down, work off a bit of the energy she had picked up in the bar, and make a decision: she was going back to Toronto the next day and was never coming back to New York.

So Lee made her way back to the hotel she was staying in with Rachael, but only realized as she was making her way up the elevator that she didn't have the key card, Rachael did. Getting off on their floor, Lee slowly walked to the room door and knocked softly. Hopefully she wouldn't be waking Rachael up, that would not help matters that night.

All fears of having woken her sister up evaporated as soon as Lee saw Rachael standing in the doorway a couple moments later. "There's always a killer on the loose," Lee pointed out dryly as she pushed her way into the hotel room. "Just like there always is in Toronto. Don't kid yourself, Rachael. And if you were that worried, you should have gotten a cab back here."

By this point, Lee had made her way over to the side of her bed, where her bag was partially unpacked. Some things, she knew, she wouldn't be able to pack until the morning, like everything in the bathroom, but her clothing would be no problem. All she had to do was make sure to leave something out to put on in the morning. In the morning, wow, she had lots of time left to pack.

Rachael glared, actually glared at her sister as she pushed past her in to the room. It was disconcerting, the way she was acting, especially when she started packing her things.

"Oh hell no." Rachael said, slamming the door loud enough that it probably woke half the hallway. "Yeah, I could have taken a cab, but I didn't see any to hail right outside the bar...and I was trying to follow you for about five minutes since you went storming off by yourself into the night."

She paused for a second and crossed her arms, standing in front of the door. "I've about had enough of this. What was that in the bar? Acting all self-rightous like I'd planned for him to be there or something."

Rachael was pacing again, much like Lee did when she was angry and she stopped and shot an angry glare at her sister, "Look Lee, I'm sorry for all the crappy, horrible things that have happened to you in your life...and I'm sorry for the crappy, horrible thing that just happened in that bar....do you think for just five minutes though you could stop blaming me for what has happened?"

Rachael was angry now, and not thinking about her words, and the next ones were out of her mouth before she could stop them, "And what did you think was going to happen Lee? Did you think after you in no uncertain terms left him that he was just going to sit around and pine for you? Did you think that he wouldn't ever move on? Jesus, if it upsets you so much, you know where he lives...go and do something about it and quit taking your frustrations out on me. "

She was on a roll and she marched right up to her sister, super powers or no, this was sister business, "Now...unpack your things and get to sleep. We've got an early show in the morning. You are not leaving or so help me god I"ll do something drastic."

Lee turned when she heard Rachael's voice and the door slamming behind her. "I didn't need you to follow me, didn't want you to," Lee told Rachael. "I needed time to think.

"What was that?" Lee repeated Rachael's question, straightening up to look at her fully. "That was shock, surprise, anger, pain. And really, how surprising would it have been if you'd tried to arrange something like that? You're always saying you can't understand how I walked away. Even if it backfired on you, I know how he is, doesn't keep you from being responsible if you planned it."

That wasn't the end of what Rachael had to say, though as she spoke, it got harder and more painful for Lee. No, of course Lee hadn't thought that Tarin would just 'sit around and pine for her'. Well, Lee hadn't thought that because she had tried her best not to think about him whenever she could. "I knew he would," Lee hissed at her sister. Well, at any rate, she knew Tarin, knew what he had been like for so much of his life. It only made sense that he'd move on like that, really. "I never wanted to see it, though."

Then Rachael was marching up to her, telling her to unpack. "I didn't want to come in the first place," Lee pointed out, looking up at Rachael. "I told you that, and you still made me come."

Then Lee got a bit of a smile on her face, and actually laughed a bit. "You're going to do something desperate to keep me here?" She asked. "When? You need to sleep tonight, I'm not going to be able to. But don't worry, I'm not leaving till morning. There is a killer out there." Lee finished as she turned away with Rachael with a slight roll of her eyes.

"Obviously you needed time to think...otherwise you probably wouldn't have abandoned me in a city I don't know to run off and pout."

Rachael was even more steamed now, Lee wasn't reacting at all how she thought she should be. In fact, she was still blaming her for what had happened in the bar. She shook her head, a wry smile on her face, "You're giving me way too much credit Lee. Yeah, I might have hoped you'd see him while we were here...but I didn't even know how to get ahold of him to set something like this up. It's nice to have someone to blame though..."

Lee was now blaming Rachael for making her come to New York in the first place, "So you're going to leave New York and never come back over someone that you've supposedly kicked completely out of your life? That makes a whole lot of sense. You're completely over it."

Now Lee was laughing at her, Rachael really got angry. Just because she had powers did not mean that she got to be a big bully. Rachael looked at Lee's bag on the bed and narrowed her eyes before throwing herself on it, "Try and leave without your clothes or your purse!" she said, glaring in Lee's general direction.

"If you get to act like a big baby, then I get to as well. You want to go, then go, but you'll have to move me first. I'm sick and tired of this...I'll say what I said before again...if you've got such a huge problem with him, go and tell him. Otherwise take off your shoes and give them to me and I'll trade you for your pajamas."