The NYC residential areas were where you could find apartments, homes, hotels, and card board boxes.

Tses was currently located in the later most of those options.

It hadn't been her plan when she left the house that morning to end up in the box, but somewhere between fire escapes and roof tops, she had lost her footing and fallen the two stories straight into the recycling bin. Thankfully, the lid had been open, and the metal bin was overflowing with cardboard, which knocked the wind from her, and generally stunned her from the fall.

After carefully sitting up and assessing for any damage, she came to the conclusion she was unharmed from the tumble, and crawled to the edge of the bin, feeling like puppy trying to paddle through mud. Draping her arms over the side, she tried to get her feet planted to pull herself out. It was a rather awkward situation, and the card boards kept caving in while she struggled to climb. Her normal almost feline grace was lost as she finally squirmed her way free, and plopped onto the concrete on the other side. Sinking to the ground, she breathed as slowly as she could, trying to recover her lost oxygen, and while she sat she gazed down the alley way, watching strangers pass on the sidewalk only a few feet away.

It was always odd hanging out in these back paths of New York. You could sit for hours and watch people move past, and few ever took the time to glance your way. No wonder people got mugged or attacked from the side streets. People could be so unobservant. Reaching behind her, Tses plucked a piece of cardboard from the bin, and set it under her as she waited to recover from her rather unexpected spill. She was in no rush to get anywhere right now, so she just sat and watched the world go by, bored and only slightly pained.

Jacob was worried.

He had come into the city hoping to check in on Tses, hoping that he would be able to find her without too much trouble and propose his idea for expanding his business a bit through her direct help. He had recently expanded the shop and hired a few more mechanics to help, his senior mechanic, Bobby, his second in command and head of the shop when he wasn’t around. He had his custom twin pistols inside his leather jacket, his concealed weapons permit in his wallet, and was roaming the streets near where Tses lived, as she hadn’t been home. She had a single mechanical device on her last time that he had memorized, but he didn’t quite understand the purpose. It read through his ability as something that could expand or retract, but he couldn’t quite get a grasp on what it was yet… regardless, he was sure she had it on her, the device having been tucked into her boot when they met last. He did finally find her, locking onto the signature of the device and pulling his car around the block to try to intercept her path…

Just in time to feel the device plummet from a high altitude.

He hoped beyond hope that she had simply dropped it, but considering where it was usually kept, he considered that to be slightly unlikely. Pulling up near the alley, he parked, flipped on his hazard lights, and bolted from the car to the darkness in which cloaked the young woman. She was laying on the ground, her breathing coming in heaves, but she didn’t seem to be screaming in pain or anything as he ran up towards her. “You OK kiddo?” he asked, not really hiding his worry as he looked up from the only real perch around here that could have been the location of the fall. He was legitimately worried, and looked her over to try to see if there was any damage he could see. If she attempted to get up, he would lend a helping hand.

Of all the people to run into, Tses had to admit Colt had been one of the last people she expected. After he helped her deal with Kystler, life had gotten pretty chaotic and she was absorbed in dealing with being kidnapped, Ty's return, and trying not to get arrested for her past bank robbery. Now that she thought about it, he was probably the last person she wanted to face at that, especially after the fiasco with Harlan, but there he was, looking slightly concerned as he approached. She tilted her head to the side for a moment, and tried to figure out what had him so startled. She accepted his assistance and stood, brushing herself off and taking a deep breathe.

"Yeah, I'm cool. Just, you know, dumpster diving. Well, not intentionally, I was trying to do some rooftop jumping. Turning into rooftop falling... never a good way to spend the evening, but at least this time I didn't break anything. Back in Chicago I shattered my left arm on a fire escape that way....but you proooobably don't wanna here that story huh." She gave a little grin, then glanced down at her boots. She was wearing jeans today, but with her normal long sleeve shirt over undershirt in a combination outfit that was somewhere between what she usually dressed in, and a more casual outfit. "What brings you out at this hour?"

Jacob hoisted the young woman up to her feet with ease, the young woman lighter than a lot of people he helped up off their back. He listened, and wondered for a moment what might have been wrong… he remembered marveling at the fact that she was able to get onto fire escapes and everything else so easily, it wasn’t like her to slip and fall. Lucky she fell into a dumpster of cardboard though, and that was certainly a sign that she needed to be more careful, but he couldn’t help but wonder if something else was amiss.

“On the contrary, I would enjoy hearing that story sometime.” He said, referring to her arm getting broken. “I was actually in the area looking for you. I have some work for you if you want to start up on that legitimate job we talked about, but first things first… I can see you aren’t hurt, but are you alright? You don’t seem like you have your head in the game, and I don’t see you as someone who falls unless they are mentally elsewhere.” It was a simple enough icebreaker into the topic of ‘what have you been up to’. As a potential employee, she was someone that he needed to make sure was staying out of trouble. As a friend, he wanted to make sure she didn’t wind up a pancake on the ground.

Colt was one of those people that was hard to lie to. He had a way of knowing that something was up even before you said anything. Tses glanced away from him and chuckled slightly, rubbing the back of her neck. "I'll admit, I'm didn't quite have my head in things. Honestly, it's been a crazy month. You know, I may be trying to get better about cleaning up my act, but things from the past down really stay there all that easily." She sighed, and shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans.

That was pretty much an understatement, all things considered. Getting chased by a headless man, getting approached by someone you did a rather botched B&E job with, and managing to wiggle your way out of it... She was pretty sure most people would be a bit distracted by it all, but Tses managed to keep it together. She was just glad she'd thought to actually pick up a phone before everything happened. If Ty hadn't managed to call her... Who knows where they would have ended up. He was still pretty peeved, but she would be too. Because you know most people love trying to bail their significant other out of trouble and keep out of jail...

"Long story short, earlier in December before I even met you I may have uh, tried to rob a bank. It was dumb, I was stupid, we'll just get that out of the way now. Anyway, private investigator picked up the case and he happened to be using my 'touch-an-object-see-it's-entire-life-story' boyfriend during the case, links it back to me, Ty saves my butt... But I'm here! Not jail! So we're good right?" She gave Colt a look that was reminiscent of a nervous puppy. In many ways, she looked up to him. Ty was someone to hang out with and get in trouble, Colt was more of a role model. He was stern and he could be (in her eyes) a little bossy at times, but she knew he had her best interest in mind. It wasn't everyday you found someone who just plucked you off the street and tried to protect you from your dangerous x-boss. She wasn't entirely sure he knew what he got himself into though. She was a handful at the best of times. Something about her was still very childlike, and she had grown up without any real guidance since she was a kid.It seemed a little late to try and fix herself now, but it was growing that much clearer her current lifestyle wasn't functioning. Something had to give.

"I got a cell phone though! Nothing special, just a burner really, but figured a while back if I was going to actual meet people and make friends and be normal and all that gotta have some way to get ahold of me." Colt had tried to give her one before, but during their experience dealing with Kystler it never quite made it into her possession. Sure, her phone now was paid for by uh, her less than legal lifestyle, but it was a transition. Old habits died hard.

The physical motions gave away a lot about Tses, and she was one of the people, like most, that their body gave away their emotions before their words ever came to light. Looking away and rubbing the back of her neck, she felt ashamed, or perhaps, she felt like she just got in trouble, or at least, something of that nature. She began to talk, and he picked up on the fact that she was making an attempt at being honest, but things were getting in the way. Sounded like an excuse, but then again, Jacob had never been a wanted man… at least, not State-side. Regardless, he would allow her to explain her side, as he always did, and see if he could understand at least somewhat of where she was coming from.

Jacob listened, noting each individual part of the story in his mind into a mental list of bullets. A few things came to light that he needed more information on, but he would just address first things first. “Sounds like you had it rough, but you are owning up to it… that’s a good thing,” he said, trying to bolster her a little bit. “You know… you could have called me. I know I left you at least one of my cards, and seeing that you now have a phone, I wonder why you didn’t see fit to give me a ring… especially if you were in some trouble.” He hated to do that, but she needed to be reminded that he was someone who could, and would, help her if she needed it.

He had already proven it once.

His mind flashed back to Kystler’s body, sliding down into a hole that was well over twenty feet deep in the middle of a heavy forest, and getting covered in dirt. He had smoked an extremely rare bit of tobacco in his pipe that day, just to calm himself after everything that had happened, and then he went home and went to sleep. “Was anyone hurt during the bank incident?” he asked, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He might be able to help her a bit further, but he needed more information. Still, one more thing was bugging him. A private investigator hiring Ty to help him solve a case. It sounded extremely familiar… and he had to ask.

“Also… this private investigator… he sounds familiar. Does he have a name or do you know anything else about him?” Jacob asked, pulling out his wallet and looking for Harlan’s card, trying to remember the man’s face as clearly as he could. Jacob had a fairly good memory, but visual connections always helped out a lot too.

You could have called. Tses felt guilt momentarily. She hadn't really thought of calling, and even though she had a phone, she really just kept it shoved in her pocket like an accessory. She rarely used it for anything, and the thought rarely occurred to her to get a hold of people with it. But she always worried in some small way she hadn't wanted to call Colt... at least not right away. With her life pretty much falling to pieces, the last thing she wanted to do was go and ask someone to bail her out of trouble again. "It happened really fast... There wasn't much time to really call anyone. One second some con is knocking on my door telling me some PI is on the case, the next Ty is trying to call me and warn me..." Tses murmured, and ran a hand through her hair with a sigh.

"No one was hurt, all I took was a few little things from the safety deposit boxes. Hardly even $100 worth of crap. I was being dumb, wanted an adrenaline rush, got myself into trouble from it... And I don't really know his name, but when you punch him his head comes off.... would have been funny under other circumstances." She said, trying to resist a smile. That was about the only good thing about the misadventure. The guilt kept the smile away though.

"I'm just still bad at this whole 'relying' on people thing... I feel like it's always one step forward and two steps back... I'm not exactly the easiest person to be around at the best of times, and I try to get better about it but it's a learning curve... I'm trying." She said, toeing the ground. Her childlike nature showed through with the gesture, and she looked like an uncertain kid admitting they broke something really valuable. She was reckless, immature, dumb, temperamental... but she still knew all those things were just separating her from the people around her.