They were finally back in the apartment. Finally. It felt absolutely amazing to be back at home with Tarin after more than a month of being at the mansion, and yet they were very quickly falling back into their old pattern, their old routines.

Sure, there hadn't been anything wrong with it, Lee had enjoyed the way that their day to day lives had gone, and now that Tarin was awake and they were back in the apartment, they were right back into the honeymoon stage that they hadn't quite left before the coma.

There was one thing that Lee did want to change, though, something that Tarin didn't seem too interested in. But too much had happened, too many close calls. She'd found him under a bookcase in the shop, and he'd been tied to a gravestone, for crying out loud! And he didn't think they needed to do something?

Lee had grumbled to herself about that for a couple days as she had continued to research into the various security companies; if she was going to do this, especially with what tended to happen in the shop, she needed to make sure she did it right, and not just go with any old company out of the phone book.

Finally, Lee settled on checking out Jacobs & Jacobs, and set up an appointment to meet one of their representatives at the shop. And Lee had gotten Tarin to reluctantly agree. He still didn't seem overly interested in the whole idea, didn't think they really needed it, but after hinting at what might happen if she was alone in the shop, he'd given her a look, but agreed. Apparently, he didn't think she was in that much danger, that she could just kick anyone's ass any time she wanted, like she didn't need excess amounts of energy to be able to do that, energy that she didn't always have.

But now they were actually at the shop, waiting for the person from Jacobs & Jacobs to arrive. They hadn't been spending as much time in the shop, it was not even really open, they were just simply starting to reschedule appointments with their regular customers. And as such, it was just her and Tarin in the shop at that moment, Lee sitting behind the counter, idly playing with a pen between her fingers as she waited.

Things had been hectic at Jacobs & Jacobs ever since Luke got back from his trip up north with Raina and her friends. Uncle Oliver had been huffy about his nephew abusing his privelidges and taking to much vacation time but Luke had simply done his best to ignore the older man. Besides, behind the scenes Deborah Langstan along with Luke's personal attorney were working out the details that would allow him to go public and announce his take over of the company. It was still a few weeks off but inside Luke was chomping at the bit to get it over with. Continueing to hide the fact that he was the majority shareholder when he had come to the decision that hiding was no longer the right choice was frustrating.

Finally, in order to try and over come the frustration, Luke had put his name in to go otu for some normal bids and sales assignments. While he had no plan on simply stating outright that he was a mutant, there would be no pretending to be blind either. All he needed to do was keep his sunglasses to hide his eyes and everyone would think that he could see as well as anyone.

***

He couldn't remember ever having been called out to a provide security for a medium's shop before, but there was a first time for anything. Maybe the person wasn't a very good medium so they needed to have security that would protect them from all the complaints. It was an amusing thought and Luke found himself chuckling as he walked up to the front door. Knowing he was expected, Luke pulled open the shop door and entered with bothering to knock.

"Hello." Luke said with a smile as he stepped in out of the sunshine, sunglasses firmly in place. Dressed in brown loafers, brown socks, pressed khakis, and long sleeve white dress shirt with the top button undone and the sleeves rolled up to his elbows he looked every inch the casual professional. Not dressy but still nice enough to fit in with most decor. "I'm Luke Jacobs. Would one of you be Lee Brooks?"

Lee heard the bell over the door ring, followed by someone saying 'hello', and looked up. They weren't technically open, and they didn't have any appointments scheduled for the remainder of the day, but she did have that meeting with the representative from Jacobs & Jacobs, so Lee had left the door open.

And then he went on to ask if one of them was Lee Brooks, after introducing himself as Luke Jacobs. "The Luke Jacobs?" Lee asked in surprise, stumbling slightly as she hopped off the stool she had been sitting on behind the counter. He'd actually been the reason Lee had decided to check out this firm first. A known mutant, high up in the company, who'd actually still been working there after registering with the government while she'd been stuck in the camp.

But where was his cane? Hadn't she read somewhere that he was blind?

"Sorry," she said as she walked around from behind the counter, waving her previous question off. She'd just been surprised that Luke Jacobs himself would have been the one to walk into their shop. "But yes, I'm Lee," she continued, holding her hand out for a handshake. Preferably a short handshake. She might be better with the whole contact thing, but that didn't mean she was all that comfortable siphoning through direct contact from people who didn't know.

"And that's my husband Tarin," Lee continued, pointing over at him. "Did you want to talk out here, or would a table make things easier?"

Security. Tarin suppressed another irritated sigh at the idea while he scanned through the appointment book to make sure that they hadn't missed any of the customers whose appointments had had to be canceled while he was in his coma. It was a tedious process, all this rescheduling and Tarin's irritation with it built on top of his irritation at Lee's insistence that they get security in the shop to put him in a hell of a bad mood. So far, though, Tarin had managed not to take it out on his wife. They'd just gotten back to the apartment and out of the mansion and things had been too good to ruin them over something petty...like his ego.

She was just worried, and her points were somewhat valid. Valid enough that he knew better than to really put his foot down and argue. This wasn't important enough, they still had all that money in the bank, if Lee needed security to convince her the shop was safe. They would have security. If only the stupid little man ego voice would shut up in the back of his head...everything would be fine.

The problem was, that voice wouldn't shut up. The fact that all the bad things that had happened in the shop had happened to him might have had something to do with it, because he had a feeling if something had happened to Lee, no security system would be secure enough. If it were Lee's safety in question, Tarin was pretty sure their security system would have involved laser beams and nuclear missiles. But it wasn't Lee whose safety was in question. It was his. Still, she'd managed to put the bug in his ear that there was a possibility of her getting hurt by virtue of the business done in the shop. Tarin supposed it was enough...but not without another petulant sigh. She was taking it seriously too, he thought, tapping the pencil he was holding against the appointment book as he thought. Over the past few days she'd almost obsessively researched various companies before settling on the one who was apparently sending a rep over on this very day.

They'd been working all day and Tarin wondered if there was a set time that this person was planning on showing up or if they were just supposed to wait around all day. Almost as if to spite him as he had the thought, the door opened to admit a man in sunglasses.

The man, who kept his sunglasses on even though it wasn't all that sunny in the shop, introduced himself as Luke Jacobs and Lee hopped off the stool she'd been occupying next to Tarin. Lee moved forward and Tarin couldn't help but quirk an eyebrow as she offered Mr. Jacobs her hand, apparently Lee know of him and he'd made enough of an impression to warrant a handshake right off the bat. Kind of a big deal from Lee, she really must have done her research.

The man was all kind of polite and looked all kinds of professional, though Tarin wasn't a fan of judging anyone purely on the impression of their first appearance. Too many times had people taken in his multi-hued hair and tattoo'd arms and legs and cast him off as a punk. Whether or not Tarin particularly wanted the security system, the man would get the same chance everyone had to impress him. So when Lee introduced him, Tarin walked out from behind the counter too, as Lee asked whether the table would be easier or than out here.

"Nice to meet you." Tarin said as he approached, his hand outstretched as well, then he felt it. The tell tale rushing in his ears that signified that a spirit was close by. That could only mean one thing; Mr. Jacobs came with a friend.

Tarin looked around and found the spirit lingering in the corner of the front room, by the bookshelves. Slightly surprised at being noticed, he stood and walked towards where the three living occupants of the room were making their introductions. The guy was about Tarin’s height, maybe a bit taller with strange hair and piercings in his lip and eyebrow. Tarin opened the mental link a little bit, something that had been slightly easier to do with absolute control since he’d woken up and took in the rush of images from the man’s death. Intense. Apparently Mr. Jacobs was more than the casual businessman.

Tarin pushed the spirit aside for the moment, he hadn’t seen fit to speak yet and the time for judgment wasn’t now. There was a lot you could tell about a person by the spirits who followed them around, but just like everything else, a first impression involving a spirit could be as misleading as any other. “Yeah, whichever place is more comfortable.” Tarin said with a slight shrug of his shoulders, “Can I offer you something to drink? I’m afraid we’re limited to Coke or scotch here at the shop, but if you’d like either I can make it happen.”

"A pleasure to meet you Lee." Luke said with a smile as he gave her a quick but firm handshake. Professional handshakes were normally quick and since he was currently in a very serious relationship there was no way he wanted things between himself and another woman to come across as anything but professional.

"And that's my husband Tarin."

Professionalism was even more important when the potential client's husband was also there. Turning quickly Luke gave the other man a quick smile as he reached out to take the proffered hand that Tarin was holding out. "Nice to meet you as well Tarin."

Even in the short time that it had taken for greetings to be exchanged Luke was making mental notes about what their shop might need as his sonar swept through the building. If he wasn't mistake it even looked like there was an apartment connected to their shop. The big questions would be just how many actual entrances there were. Was there just the front store entrance or was there a back door as well? Would they want a system that separated the apartment and shop into separate zones or would they just want one system that covered everything?

"Really we can work on this anywhere." Luke answered as he swiveled his head back in Lee's direction, looking at her but not directly at her since he didn't have true sight, "A tour of the building here would be a good idea but other than that we can work on things pretty much anywhere."

Apparently Tarin was doing his best to try and be cordial with the salesman but Luke had been listening to people's voices for long enough to know that something was slightly off. Normally it was the man that was unsure about getting an alarm system so it was now up to Luke to sell him on it.

"I'm fine right now, but thanks for the offer." Luke said to Tarin with a quick smile, "I have to admit that you impress me Mr. Brooks. Most men aren't willing to admit that they can't always be at home to protect their possessions. It shows a lot of wisdom on your part."

Luke took her hand and shook it in greeting, not that that was any surprise; she was the one who had issues shaking people's hands, not the rest of the world. Thankfully, it was one of those quick, firm, very businesslike handshakes that was over almost as soon as it had started. That was good, that kept her from feeling weird touching the man for so long, kept her from having to end the handshake herself.

Then Tarin was stepping forward and shaking Luke's hand in greeting. That was good, that eased Lee's mind slightly. He'd been so against this idea, maybe not outright saying he didn't want it, not actually arguing with her about it, but Lee knew Tarin wasn't sold on the whole security system idea. At least he hadn't forgotten how to be civil.

Glancing over at Tarin, giving him a slight smile as he was finishing up that handshake, Lee noticed that he wasn't properly looking at Luke. Instead, he was looking toward the far corner. Like, really looking there. Glancing over herself, Lee didn't see anything, though. Had their guest brought a visitor with him?

But Tarin wasn't saying anything about it, so Lee turned her attention back to Luke as he said that they could talk anywhere, but that a tour would probably be best. Lee nodded, then glanced around the shop quickly.

Before she was able to start the tour, however short it was bound to be because of the size of the shop, Tarin had asked if Luke wanted anything to drink, and Luke had replied. Then went on to explain how Tarin impressed him. With every word that Luke said from that point forward, Lee grimaced more.

"Actually, Mr. Jacobs," Lee said, stepping in before Tarin could say anything. "I'm not giving him much of a choice in the matter. We've already had a couple of...incidents, and I'm sick of cleaning up after. Hopefully with a good system in place, it'll be enough of a deterrent that we won't have that problem any more." At least for the kind of people who upended bookcases over Tarin. Maybe not so much for the spirits...

"But, about that tour," Lee continued, perking up slightly in an attempt to put some distance between what they had just been talking about. "The shop's rather small, you'll notice. We have a bit of merchandise for sale out front here, but Tarin does most of his work in the back room."

As she spoke, Lee slowly started making her way to the back. If it was a tour, he'd have to actually see it rather than just have her talk about it, right? "There is a door back here that leads into the alley, but other than taking the trash out, it stays closed and locked."

OOC - Luke, if I took any liberties that aren't alright...PM me and I'll fix it up right away! I haven't had a chance to read the thread with the NPC yet, so I"m a little out of the loop. I tried to be vague...but I'm not sure how well I did.


Damage control. Tarin wondered if Lee had always been this good at it or if it had been a skill she’d developed after meeting him. It was almost sad, how she scrambled to diffuse the situation before Tarin could get upset. It also drained about 90% of his irritation with the situation. Obviously this was important to Lee, more important then he’d guessed. She was going out of her way to make sure his manly sensibilities didn’t get hurt and Tarin was suddenly a little embarrassed with himself. That didn’t change what he’d seen from the spirit though, and his suspicion remained. It wasn’t so bad without the irritation though. Suspicion he was used to, especially around people who brought spirits into his presence. Spirits whose deaths they’d been responsible for. Tarin smiled forcing himself to relax.

“She doesn’t put her wifely foot down often, and a couple of the…incidents we’ve had have ended up with me getting hurt. It probably is for the best that we do this, even if it does hurt my manly sensibilities a little.”

Lee was in administrative mode, so Tarin took a step back and let her take over. This was one of the things he loved about Lee, she could be so assertive, so sure of herself. She knew the shop as well as he did, so there was no reason for her not to be. Tarin let himself fall into the background while Lee walked and talked. Besides, this gave him a chance to find out more from the spirit.

Tarin looked at the spirit and it looked back, obviously puzzled that it was being seen.

“Es que tu parles le francais?” [/color]

Tarin looked at the man blankly, he got frustrated and muttered to himself in what Tarin could only guess was French for a few moments before giving his attention back to Tarin.

“You saw what this man did?” he said finally. The English was heavily accented, but not incomprehensible. Tarin nodded, eyes drifting to where Lee was still giving her tour. “I did.” He said softly, “I was hoping you’d enlighten me a bit more.”

”I was defending myself against this man. He is a mutant and I was a petty thief. He could have let me go! Or taken me to the police, but it was as you saw. I would not let him stray too far with your wife.”

Tarin looked at the spirit. They rarely lied, they were too disconnected from human emotion to lie. Nonetheless, Tarin moved into the back of the shop where Lee had taken Mr. Jacobs. If what the spirit said was true, he really didn’t want the man doing anything for them. Especially not making the shop safer. Tarin sighed, hopefully Lee wouldn’t be too mad at him for what he was about to do.

“Mr Jacobs.” Tarin said, just a little uncomfortably. “I’m not sure how much you know about our little shop…or what I do here.” He paused and cast an apologetic look at Lee, “But I’m the real thing…as in, I can really do what I say I can.” He almost brought the spirit up, but the man had only been in the shop for a few minutes. Tarin figured he’d wait to offend him until he was more comfortable with the idea that he was in a real medium’s shop.

It was interesting to hear that Lee was the one that was being all gung-ho about the security system but Luke wasn't particularly susprised. However he surprised that she felt the need to step in and explain the situation while apparently calming Tarin down. That meant that Luke must have read the other man wrong. Normally comments like that helped a man accept the situation but obviously they didn't have the same affect with Tarin.

"It's always good to keep the wife or girl friend happy." Luke said with a quick smile to the other man, "My lady can keep me pretty busy sometimes."

On some levels the tour was uncessary as Luke's sonar continued to extend, sweep through all of the rooms. Really the only thing that would completely cut off his sonar was a solid concrete wall or a solid metal door. Thankfully the interior of a home didn't normally have those which meant he could get a good idea about the house long before a tour could be completed.

"Do you lock your back door with just a regular lock or have you invested in a dead bolt for it?" Luke asked right after hearing Lee speak about it. If they were smart they would have already gone with a dead bolt but it often amazing him just how many people thought a normal door lock would be more than enough to secure an entrance.

“Mr Jacobs.” Tarin's voice suddenly broke in, drawing his attention away from the tour, “I’m not sure how much you know about our little shop…or what I do here. But I’m the real thing…as in, I can really do what I say I can.”

Raising an eyebrow slightly Luke just looked at the other man for a moment as his mind tried to process the situation. Didn't all medium's claim to be able to see spirits? Didn't all medium's claim to be the real thing? What made this guy any different than any other one out there. Unless of course he was a mutant and then really anything was possible.

"So... you're X-Gene positive?" It was much easier to believe and focus on the fact that this man might be a mutant than the idea that he would be able to see spirits. Heck, how many people even believed that there really were spirits?

Luke asked about whether they had put a deadbolt on the back door as they made their way into the back room, and Lee's head cocked to the side as she looked over at it. It was one of those heavy metal doors, definitely not an original part of the shop, but certainly a good upgrade. But Lee wasn't sure she'd even be able to get a deadbolt on that door, even if she was energized. Well, it had to be possible, but would it even make a difference to how hard the door would be to force open?

"We've just been using the lock that's on the door," Lee said slowly. If Luke was asking about a 'regular' lock and a deadbolt, this probably wasn't the kind of lock he was referring to.

But before she was able to expand on that further, or move closer to the door to show him, Tarin was speaking up. Now? Really? Lee knew that Tarin wasn't all that happy about the idea of the security, but did he have to do this now?

Taking a deep breath, already rubbing her right temple, Lee turned and looked at Tarin. Then gave him a slight shake of her head and roll of her eyes. Why did he always have to do this? Why? If he thought that telling Luke they were mutants would make him decide not to work with them....

"So... you're X-Gene positive?"

Lee sighed. "If that's the 'politically correct' way of saying mutant, then yes," Lee said, her voice more terse than it had been yet that day. Though, she had continued to look at Tarin, and only turned back toward Luke at this point. "So I thought, after reading a bit about you, that Jacobs & Jacobs would be a good company to go with."

The security guy at least had the good grace to figure out that he’d misspoke when he’d tried to stroke Tarin’s ego. Talking about pleasing women, now that was something Tarin could relate to. “Well, if she’s anywhere near as dear to you as Lee is to me, you’ll know that something like this isn’t nearly enough to bicker over.” Besides, Tarin thought, Lee was going to be way more pissed when he brought up the spirit.

Why did Lee have to look at him that way? Tarin almost visibly winced at the eye roll and the hand she raised to her temple. Sure, Tarin had done this once before…it had ended in a fist fight when that jerk with the invisibility trick had shown up in the shop. This wasn’t about machismo though, this was about the fact that there was a spirit in the room with them, claiming that Mr. Jacobs was responsible for his death. In fact, now that he’d started speaking in English, the guy wouldn’t stop. Tarin turned and gave him a look, and he fell silent for the moment. He’d heard one side of the story.

Lee spoke, confirming that he was…x-gene positive? Tarin kind of blinked at the term…that was like calling someone short, vertically challenged…wasn’t it? Tarin didn’t want to waste his time, if Jacobs was a murdering fraud then Tarin didn’t want him in the shop any longer than necessary. He hadn’t done the research, so he didn’t know anything to prove otherwise. Waving a dismissive hand at the euphemism, Tarin got to the business at hand before Lee could get more irritated at him. Hopefully she’d understand after she heard what he had to say, “Yeah yeah, I’m a mutant…whatever. I just told you that I can really do what I said.” He said, moving to lean against the wall where they’d walked into the back room. “The point is. I’ve got a spirit here who says you killed his body.”

Gauntlet down. “You’ll have to forgive my rudeness, “ And Lee will have to forgive me bringing this up… he thought as he cast Lee an apologetic, slightly pleading look, “but you have to understand that if what this guy says is true, I don’t think we’re going to be able to do business. He seems to think it was a cold blooded kind of thing. French dude, lots of metal in his face.”

Awkward silence. Tarin looked at the door that led to the alleyway behind the shop, “Oh, and no, there’s no deadbolt. Just the regular lock. I always figured that since it was such sturdy metal I’d know someone was coming in soon enough to do something about it.” The problem was, nobody ever broke into the shop. They usually just walked in the front door and the ass kicking proceeded. Don’t tell Lee that, though, the security system would fix all their problems.

So apparently Lee & Tarin weren't a big fan of the phrase, X-Gene positive. Not really a big problem to Luke since he was more comfortable saying mutant. However, without them being the ones to start a conversation with the word 'mutant', legal would have had a fit with his discussing something that could be so offensive for some.

Slowly turning so he was facing Tarin, Luke's face took on the look of an emotionless mask. Lifting his sunglasses so that they perched on the top of his head his cloudy eyes stared unseeing in Tarin's general direction. "There's no need to look so grim Mrs. Brooks." He said quietly, not even bothering to look voer at the woman as his sonar swept over her face picking up the expression she was currently wearing, "As I'm sure you found out in your research I myself am a mutant... as well as being blind. And if it doesn't seem to forward, you look much nice with a smile on your face."

"As for my Parisian spirit," Luke continued his 'eyes' never leaving Tarin, "Has he told you his name?" There was only one man that Luke could think of that even closely resembled Tarin's description and quite obviously he was dead. The idea that a spirit originating from such a creep could now be following him was slightly unnerving but he refused to let it show. If Greg wanted to see just how happy his life was now that he was with Raina he was more than welcome to. It wasn't as if he'd ever be able to touch either of them again.

Tarin was not exactly being polite any more, not like how he had started out. With as well as she knew her husband, Lee knew that he was barely restraining himself to be as polite as he was currently being to Luke. Not that that was all that polite in reality, but at least it wasn't outright rude or harsh.

But then Tarin finally got to the heart of the problem, more than just the fact that there was a spirit with the man, and Lee blinked in surprise. Ok, so maybe Tarin did have a bit of a reason for acting this way.

Before she was able to say anything, Lee saw Luke finally lifting his sunglasses, revealing milky eyes, as he told her that she shouldn't look so grim. Again, Lee blinked in surprise. The man was blind, as the couple mentions about him she'd found had said, yet here he was, walking without a cane or guide dog, and knowing what her facial expression was? Yes, he was a mutant, but how was that possible?

The problem was, Lee had no idea what to do at this point. She had researched the various companies, thought, especially with Luke being a known mutant and in the upper reaches of the company, that that might just be the best one for her and Tarin to go with, and then in walks the very man who had made her decision, and according to what Tarin was translating for a spirit, Luke was a cold blooded murderer.

Did she know how to pick them or what?

And what was even worse, Luke wasn't even denying it. He was simply asking for a name, it seemed so he could narrow down which spirit it could possibly be. Oh, wasn't that great. Had she picked a serial killer, who didn't even know off hand which murder victim might be haunting him?

"Does it matter whether the spirit gave Tarin his name?" Lee asked, glaring at Luke. Couldn't anything ever go smoothly for them? This was supposed to help ease her mind, not create more problems trying to get the security system. "You either killed the man or you didn't, and I'm guessing since you haven't denied it, that you did.

"Or," Lee continued, and even as she spoke, she wasn't exactly sure why she was doing it, other than the fact that she was upset, at Tarin, at Luke, at the spirit. At herself. "Would it be easier to believe that we know what the hell we're talking about if you see him?"

Blind? The guy was blind? Well he sure as hell got around better than any blind person Tarin had ever seen. And if he’d been going for shock value with the removal of the glasses he failed miserably. Tarin’s eyes got all weird when he really used his powers, it’s not like he was going to gasp and stare in shock like he was at a freak show. How did the guy get around so well though? He admitted he was a mutant and Tarin nodded his head slowly. That made sense. It might have been nice if Lee would have clued him in a little though.

Jacobs was obviously trying to catch Lee off guard though by telling her she looked much nicer with a smile on her face. That was the truth, Tarin thought, but it didn’t look like that was going to happen any time soon. How he’d known Lee was looking grim though, that was interesting too. Tarin started to find himself hoping the spirit was a liar. Lee didn’t seem to feel the same way though.

Well, at least she wasn’t mad at him anymore. Tarin couldn’t help but b e a little pleased with that revelation as the conversation in the back of the shop progressed. The problem was, she’d gone from zero to pissed in absolutely no time. Luke, on the other hand, seemed to be taking everything in stride. That was interesting. He was either a very guilty man, or a very innocent one. Tarin had been ready to find out just which one he was. Lee, on the other hand wasn’t so keen on the idea.

“Lee..the man at least deserves a chance.” Tarin said softly, moving to lay a hand on her shoulder as she completely balled out the man that she’d invited into their shop. “Name?” Tarin said simply, turning to the spirit who suddenly didn’t seem nearly as interested in talking. “Hmm. He seems to have a frog in his throat.” Tarin said, then frowned slightly at Jacobs.

“You’ll have to forgive my ignorance, but I’m not quite sure how your powers work. Would it help if I made it so you could see him?”

"Well, seeing as how I don't really see anyone or anything I really have no interest in your trying to revive a spirit, unless of course you can promise me that he'll feel pain when I punch him in the nose." Luke said rather grimly as he crossed his arms over his chest, suddenly feeling like he was being attacked on all sides. No longer were Lee and Tarin customers but instead they had no joined the ranks of enemies out to try and get either him or Raina.

"And since I've only killed one man in my life I have a pretty fair guess about who you might be talking about." Luke continued, his voice picking up a dry sarcasasm, "This man from Paris is named Greg and he attempted to kill Raina, the woman I was speaking of earlier. I won't bore you with details except to add that he took great pleasure in describing and touching the birthmarks on her body that I would never be able to see. He ended up dead and that is perhaps the one time I ever would feel justified in taking a life."

It was time to go... there was no way that Luke was going to be comfortable trying to sell these people a security system since it was quite obvious they would never be comfortable buying their system from a killer. "If you two will excuse me I'll just take my spirit and go. Sorry to have bothered you." Luke said quietly, his tone ever so slightly apologetic but just barely, "Sir." He said with a curt nod in Tarin's direction before doing the same to Lee with a quick "Ma'am."

Pivoting quickly Luke turned and began to walk back the way he came as he pushed the glasses back down on his face. "And if you can hear me you f****** son of a b****." The cursing made it obvious to anyone that knew Luke just how angry he really was as he spoke just loud enough for anyone and anything in the shop t hear, "If it's even possible I will find a way to torment you every moment of your friggin' afterlife!"

This was not how Luke had wanted his day to go. After his spirit journey up north he had thought that everything would begin to make more sense but that didn't seem to be working out for him. Nope, instead of just dealing with the attackers that had escaped and were still out there somewhere waiting for yet another moment to snatch Raina, he now had to deal with the ones that had already died. Life just seemed to have a way of always trying to make things worse.

Defensive. The man was getting defencive. Tarin couldn’t tell whether or not it was defence because he was guilty or because he wasn’t. Obviously the distinction made all the difference in the world. At least as far as he was concerned. Tarin couldn’t help but smile at the comment though, he was witty. That counted for something, that and the fact that he’d made no move to harm either he or Lee even after Tarin had revealed what he knew about the spirit.

“Well, I was assuming you’d see him the same way you were able to see how much prettier my wife is with a smile on her face than an irritated scowl. I can make him every bit as tangible as you or me. Obviously your powers help you out some way, so I thought it might help with identification.”

Mr Jacobs wasn’t into the idea though, and as he explained the situation that had brought about the situation Tarin had seen in the spirit’s last moments, he found himself feeling worse and worse about the whole situation. He’d made the mistake that he hated people for making about him all the time. He’d judged without finding out everything about a situation. Tarin couldn’t even imagine himself in the position that Luke had found himself in, yes…he’d just been promoted from Mr. Jacobs to “Luke” in Tarin’s mind. Tarin’s jaw set at the very thought of someone, anyone else touching Lee.

This wasn’t what Tarin had wanted at all, he thought as Luke decided that it was time to leave. Obviously, after the way he and Lee had just treated him he didn’t think they’d want to do business with him. Tarin scowled suddenly and told the spirit to go away in no uncertain terms then raised an eyebrow as Luke lowered his sunglasses and made to curse at the guy. Uh oh, not only was he offended, he was angry. Tarin didn’t know why, but the story Luke told rang far more true than the one the spirit had spouted off.

Tarin took a few steps to put himself in front of Luke and put his hands out, palms up, hoping he'd guessed right about the man's ability to "see" and wasn't going to get ran into. “Please, just wait a second.“ he said, casting a look at Lee that asked her to trust him.

“Look. What just happened was incredibly rude on my part and I sincerely apologize for any offence I gave. I can't imagine going through something like that and I stupidly jumped to a conclusion.” This was going to be hard, Tarin thought. He’d been doing a pretty good job of ignoring the fact that he’d been in a coma since they’d gotten home.

“You’ll have to forgive our suspicion,” Tarin said slowly, “When I said earlier that a few of our situations have resulted in me getting hurt, I wasn’t completely honest about the degree of severity.”

Tarin paused again for a moment, trying to make himself say this to a complete stranger, “You see. My talents have a tendency to attract the wrong sort of person. If it wasn’t for quite a bit of luck, and Xavier's Sister School , I’d probably be dead twice over. Once for sure.” Tarin waited for that to sink in.

“So when I meet someone with a spirit tagging along that says they were murdered…I get a little suspicious. I can’t speak for Lee, but I’d like you to stay for a few more minutes. Even if you don’t want to sell to us anymore, I’d hate for you to leave thinking I’m as rude as I just acted.”