((OOC: This thread is between Lee and Ash. Rather than making a bunch of very short posts for both, I'm going to post longer sections from both of their perspectives, but coloured differently to see who's who.))

Ash still hadn't made all that much headway with the case he was working. No proof thus far about whether the woman was cheating on her husband or not, and Ash was still no closer to figuring out why she had been in not simply a medium's shop, but Tarin's shop specifically. He had even called back to Ryan in Dallas to look into reasons why she would be visiting a medium, but no news yet, and Ash was not going to go back and ask Tarin about the reason.

Which left Ash with more of the same, following the woman to see what she was up to, who she was meeting, what she was doing. Though that didn't mean he was able to afford to eat in all the places that this woman went to, meaning that while she was sitting in an up-scale restaurant, Ash was across the street in a pizzeria, imagining the sirloin he'd like to be eating instead.

Normally, lunch was fairly simple. Either she or Tarin would run out quickly to grab something from one of the nearby stores or restaurants, whether it was Chinese, pizza, or just sandwiches. The problem was, after a while that got kind of old, and while they did both love the Chinese restaurant just down from the shop, it probably wasn't the best idea to be eating there four or five times a week.

But Lee had heard about this Thai place that was supposed to be extremely good. Since variety was the spice of life, and Lee decided that they hadn't had nearly enough of the good kind of variety recently, she decided to walk the extra five blocks to search out this restaurant. If they had good take out, maybe her and Tarin could go there for dinner sometime soon.

Before she had reached it, something caught her attention in the window of a pizza place; a man she was sure she recognized, staring out the window and across the street. As she was walking past, though, Lee was sure she had never actually met the man, and for a few moments couldn't remember why he seemed so familiar.

Lee had already walked past the door into the pizzeria when she realized why that man had looked familiar. She stopped dead. No, it couldn't be, Lee thought to herself as she glanced back, but at that angle, there was no hope of seeing the man from where she was. Still, what she had seen had looked very familiar. Despite how she couldn't believe what she thought she had seen, Lee turned back.

If she was wrong about this, boy was she going to make a fool of herself.

As she got closer to the table, Lee became more hesitant, unsure of herself. Finally, she came to a halt beside the booth, the uncertainty most likely evident on her face. “Ash?” Lee asked, her voice soft. “Ash Brooks?”

Ash jumped when he heard a female voice saying his name beside him. There shouldn't be any one, a woman in particular, who should know him here, was there? Not as far as he could think of, but then again, not everyone he had gone to school with had stayed in Texas; he had gone to college for business, and a number of the other students hadn't even been from Texas in the first place.

Turning his head, Ash looked over to see a young woman standing beside his table, looking to be somewhere between nervous and unsure about being there. And though she was quite a stunning young woman, she didn't seem at all familiar to him.

“I'm sorry, do I know you?” Ash ended up asking, a look of slight confusion still on his face as he looked at her.

He hadn't said that he was Ash, but at the same time he hadn't told her she was wrong. Lee took that to mean she had been right. But no surprise, he had absolutely no idea who she was.

“No, I know your brother, though,” Lee said, her expression becoming much more relaxed now that she wasn't so worried she was wrong about who the man in front of her was. But as she spoke and smiled, her mind was racing. Based on everything Josh had said, Lee knew that Ash wasn't happy with Tarin, though by the last time she had talked to Josh, Ash had had stopped leaving the room every time Tarin had been mentioned. That knowledge of dislike had only been strengthened by what Tarin had told her about his run in with his brother.

That left only the problem of figuring out how to work this, how to make it all work, how to talk to Ash, hopefully without him freaking out like he apparently had on Tarin.

Oh well, what did it really matter if she ended up upsetting Ash, as long as she got out what she needed to say first?

“Speaking of which, I need to talk to you about him,” Lee continued, taking a step to the other side of the table than Ash was sitting on. “Do you mind if I have a seat?” She then asked, though didn't wait for an answer before taking a seat.

Ash blinked and grew worried when the woman said that she knew his brother. Normally, such a statement wouldn't have caused such a worry, but he was in New York after all, and after the incident with Tarin, who knew what lengths his brother would go to. Plus, he thought that Josh had said something about Tarin having a girlfriend, though Ash had never really listened enough to catch a name or description.

And then the woman was sitting, not even waiting for him to answer her question about whether it was alright, and telling him that she needed to talk to him about his brother. “What's so important that you need to talk to me about Josh?” Ash asked. At least he was hoping it was about Josh.

“Who said I wanted to talk about Josh?” Lee asked. “You probably know more about what's going on with Josh than I do.”

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Ash tensed. He had been hoping that she was talking about Josh; he wasn't sure how it was really possible that a woman he'd never seen would know something about his older brother that was urgent enough that she needed to search him out like she seemed tohave and talk to him, but he had been hoping. But if it wasn't Josh, that left only one brother, Tarin, and that was something he didn't particularly want to talk about. He still wasn't even talking to Josh or their mother about Tarin, so why would he to this woman?

Standing up, Ash reached for his pocket to grab his wallet to grab some money for the food he hadn't actually eaten, but was stopped before he could take even a step away from the table by a hand around his wrist.

“We are going to talk about this,” Lee said, her voice firm as she tightened her hand around Ash's wrist. “We can talk here, go back to my apartment, or head over to the shop so Tarin can explain, but we are going to talk about this, Ash. Where is up to you, but I'm not leaving, or letting you leave, until we talk this out.”

Ash looked down at the hand on his wrist before glaring at the woman still sitting at the table. “I have nothing to say to him,” Ash said through gritted teeth. “I thought I made that clear when he was chasing me down the street.”

“Well that's good, cause all I really need you to do is listen,” Lee replied, not moving her hand from where it was on Ash's wrist. “Now, are we doing this here, or are we going to talk at my place?”

Ash just continued to glare down at the woman for a minute after she spoke after she said she needed to simply talk to him about Tarin, not that he needed to say anything in return. “And just who are you to be ordering me around and talking to me about my brother?” Ash asked, not sitting back down, but not pulling away yet, either.

“I haven't met the woman yet, but with how your brothers act, I'm sure your mother didn't raise you to be this rude to your future sister-in-law,” Lee replied, then moved her hand off of Ash's wrist to grip his hand. “Lee Smith. Now are you going to sit back down?”

Ash tensed again when the woman, Lee she introduced herself as, grabbed his hand. So what was this, Ash wondered. I wouldn't stay and talk to Tarin, so he sends her after me? The problem was, she did have a bit of a point, his mother would be horrified to find out he was treating someone like this. Tarin, well he did deserve it, but this Lee didn't.

Still, that didn't mean he wanted to sit there and talk about Tarin, but sit he did. At least for the time being.

“I know what it's like to have a brother try and butt back into your life,” Lee said softly, a slight frown on her face. “Believe me, I know. But he is your brother, Ash. If for no other reason than that, you owe it to both of you to listen to why he left.”

”I don't owe him anything,” Ash growled. “He left, didn't even tell us why.”

Lee sighed and shook her head slightly. “He did,” she replied. “I'm not saying it was the right thing to do, and I truly wish he never had to go through any of what he did, but in a way I'm glad because we never would have ended up together otherwise.

“What was the story she told everyone after Tarin left?”

All Ash could do for a moment was blink at the woman sitting across the table from him. She went from saying that she was glad Tarin went through what he had to asking what story 'she' had told everyone. What 'she' was Lee talking about?

Maybe Lee was a little on the crazy side herself, Ash couldn't help but wonder. She was with his younger brother, after all, there had to be some explanation.

Ash wasn't answering. It looked like he was thinking, but he wasn't saying anything to her question. But how could Lee be much more specific about who she was asking about without giving away that she didn't know the woman's name?

But she knew just about everything else. Lee knew that she was one of Tarin's only friends after his powers emerged, knew that they went to prom together, even knew what she looked like, at least from Tarin's memory. The only thing Lee was missing was a name.

“Well, wasn't she the last one to have seen him before Tarin left home?” Lee asked softly, her head tilted down toward the table, her eyes glancing up at Ash's face every couple seconds. Lee knew how hard that last day had been for both Tarin and his high school girlfriend, knew much better than she should have been able to know. It wasn't one of the worst memories, wasn't one of the worst merges, not by a long shot, but images of Tarin's first merge still haunted her dreams on occasion.

“What did she tell the cops when they found her there?”

”You mean Debra Lynn?” Ash asked, his brows furrowed. What did she have to do with anything, especially now? And why would she have anything to do with why Tarin left?

Seeing Lee nod, Ash thought a moment. “Not a whole lot,” Ash said slowly, eyeing the woman across from him. “Just some rambling craziness about the truck hitting her, but there wasn't a scratch on her.”

“Which is totally unbelievable, isn't it?” Lee cut in, her eyes rising to look at Ash again. “But nonetheless true.”

”True?” Ash asked, an incredulous tone in his voice, before he jumped when he heard a noise from the waitress beside him, bringing his pizza to the table. “Thanks,” he said absently before turning back to Lee. “How the hell could something like that have been true?”

“And how the hell can some people fly?” Lee asked in return. “Just because you don't understand how, doesn't mean it's not possible.”

Lee did have a bit of a point there. Ash didn't understand how or why he was able to control the shadows and form them into shapes. But Debra Lynn wasn't a mutant, nothing even remotely similar had happened since that day. And with what little he had actually heard Josh say about Tarin's powers...

How could that have been true, though, Ash continued to wonder. Tarin had claimed to see ghosts, wasn't that what Josh had confirmed after his own visit to New York the previous year? What the hell did anything like that, if it were true, have to do with being able to get hit by a truck and not have a single scratch on you?

Lee could tell that she was getting through, at least on some level. At the very least, Ash seemed to understand the fact that such a thing as what this Debra Lynn girl had said was possible, even if he didn't have any idea why it was important.

“I know things were already hard for Tarin,” Lee continued softly, her eyes on her hands clasped on the table in front of her, but glancing up every so often to make sure that Ash was still there, still listening. “Everyone had thought he'd gone crazy after your father died. He might have for a bit, but he did see the spirits.”

Taking a breath, Lee let it out in a sigh before looking back up at Ash and continuing, her voice even quieter than it had just been. “That's not the worst part of his abilities, though,” she told him. Lee knew that Tarin would shoot her for talking about this, especially to his brother, but she had to make him understand somehow, and with how angry he was, Lee knew that he wouldn't understand unless he knew.

Ash listened to what Lee was saying to him. Really listened, unlike how he had ever acted when Josh had tried to talk to him about this, or when Tarin himself had tried to talk to him. And Ash couldn't exactly explain why he was really listening. Maybe it was because of how she was describing things he knew the woman hadn't been witness to himself – he would have noticed someone this stunning living back home when they were younger – or maybe it was her tone of voice, the slight pain mixed with caring he heard there as she talked about it... He'd listen, keep his mind open to the possibility like with how some mutants were somehow able to fly, but he wasn't going to guarantee he'd believe it. Or that he'd be willing to talk to Tarin after, for that matter. But he was listening.

“Somehow, in really stressful situations, Tarin is able to...merge...with anyone who touches him,” Lee continued. “The two people combine into one, who looks different, who's a mutant...

Ash just blinked at the woman sitting across the table from him. Really, what else could he do? Yes, it was one thing for flight, one thing to believe it was possible despite not knowing how it worked, but how in the world could she expect him to believe this crock?

“I know, it sounds insane,” Lee said after she saw the look on Ash's face. “I didn't really believe it either until I saw it for the first time. But look at it from his point of view. Not having a clue what's going on, having just been beaten by the football team. Then Debra Lynn touches you, and suddenly you're not you any more, and she's not her, but somehowboth of you are one person and you can't control what's going on.

“When you're finally yourself again, there's a wrecked truck, on fire, because it hit whatever you became when you merged, there's sirens in the distance, and Debra Lynn is crying and screaming not to touch her.

“Really, Ash,” Lee finished, her eyebrows raised as she looked at him. “Can you blame Tarin for running? What would you have done if you were young, and scared, and in a situation like that?”

The more the woman said, the less believable the story became. Was she as crazy as they had once thought Tarin was? Ash really didn't know what to think. He knew that things weren't exactly straightforward and understandable when it came to mutants and mutations. His own was a perfect example of that, even he didn't know how he was able to make shadows solid enough to touch things, but somehow he could.

But that's the story they had come up with to tell him? It did fit, at least it fit the bits and pieces of facts about what Ash knew had happened, but did that make it the truth? It was impossible for Ash to say, especially with how impossible the whole story sounded.

“That's why he left?” Ash finally asked after a minute or two of sitting there in silence simply staring across the table at Lee. “So why did he wait 15 years before he tried to contact us?”

Lee sat and simply returned Ash's stare as she waited for him to respond. It was crazy, it was insane, it was unbelievable, but the merging was real. Lee could only hope that Ash would accept that, and yet would never have to actually see it for himself.

Finally, though, he spoke, and Lee nodded to his first question. “Like I said, can you blame him?” Lee asked in response. “Why'd it take so long? He was scared, though I doubt he'd actually admit that. Worried about what everyone back home would think, what they'd say, what they'd do. And he was scared of himself. He didn't want to hurt anyone else if it ever happened again, but it would have been worse if he was at home and ended up hurting one of you, so he stayed away. And the longer he was gone, the harder it was for him to come back.”

Could he blame Tarin for leaving, if that had really happened? Honestly, Ash had no clue, he was having a hell of a time even believing such a thing was possible, never mind that it had happened to his little brother and that was why he had left home at 18.

Finally, though, he was able to speak. “You really believe this insanity?” Was all he managed to get out.

“Completely,” Lee said simply to Ash's question, the serious expression that had been on her face having changed to an almost dead look. “Mutants don't tend to exactly have easy lives, especially in this city.”

Hearing Lee's comment, Ash's body tensed again and his jaw clenched. He knew that mutants didn't have things easy. He'd seen things about the camps, he'd seen how mutants in Dallas had been treated, too. Not that things had been easy for him either, despite the fact that very few people knew about the fact that he was a mutant. In its own way, that had made his life difficult too, hiding what he was even from his family.

But Ash didn't say anything. To say something about Lee's comment would have outed himself, something he was not eager to do after managing to hide his mutation from most of the world for the last 20 years.

Lee noticed that Ash didn't seem all that...happy...with her last comment. Or maybe it was just a look remaining from everything else she had said so far. It was a hell of a lot to take in, after all.

“Think about it,” Lee said gently, leaning back in her seat as she looked across at Ash. “Tarin really does want to talk to you, to get to know you again. But, I should probably get going, leave you to your pizza. Tarin's waiting for me to come back with lunch.”

Taking a breath, Lee stood up, but paused for a second as she looked down at Ash. “Despite the subject matter, it was nice to meet you, Ash,” Lee said with a small smile. “I really hope I'll see you again.”

With that, Lee turned and started making her way out of the restaurant, but stopped after a couple steps and turned back to face Ash. “Oh, she's greedy,” she said, as if this was a complete after thought that she wasn't overly interested in it. Which, she really wasn't interested in the woman who had been coming to the shop with more and more regularity, but from what Tarin had said, Ash was trying to figure her out. “Apparently her uncle or something died last year. She's looking for some sort of fortune or something he hid.”

With a shrug and slight smile, Lee turned once more and left the shop, continuing on her way to that Thai place she had been heading toward.