Tses scanned the contents, and picked out the few antibiotics and disinfects that were available, and set some bandages aside. There wasn't a lot to work with, but it should be enough to patch them up at least. If living on the streets had taught her anything though, it was how to do first aid with limited supplies.

"Let me see your arm." She remarked, motioning to his injuries. She picked up one of the cleansing cloths, all too aware an uncleaned injury could quickly grow from minor to life threatening if it got infected. She didn't bother much with her own side yet. She was used to getting injured and could muscle through the sting of the wound for now.

Ty let her hold the first aid kit, thinking over some things as she looked through it. He didn't think he'd wanted to remember, yet he did. He told himself it didn't matter, but it did. Ty didn't do any of this today because he had to; he could have walked away whenever he wanted. But no, he saw it through.

And now, she was putting his own needs before hers. Obediently, he held out his arm to her. The bullet had grazed him, but it still left an ugly mark on his arm.

Tses was quiet as she quickly dealt with his injury. It didn't need stitches or anything fancy which was always nice. She wasn't sure she could stitch anyone else up. Too much squirming just complicated things. She was fairly careful with the disinfectants, although it probably stung, and then she used some of the bandages to wrap it tightly. It would probably bleed a bit still, but he wasn't going to die from blood loss. At worst he might get a scar.

The silence was deafening by the time she was done, and her own shirt was stained red from the bullet wound. She finally forced herself to look at the damage, wiggling the damaged fabric free and using a cleaning wipe to help clear fabric fibers from the cut. Like Ty, she'd been grazed, which was a relief when it meant avoiding dealing with internal injuries and stitches. However the gash was still fairly deep and she wasn't quite sure how to bandage the wide wound. Then she remembered the backpack, and moved over to grab that and fished around until she pulled out a few of her arm bands to sacrifice. The fabric was just long enough to wrap around her side and knot, and it wouldn't take much blood but the pressure should help start the clotting process.

The silence was unsettling. Awkward. He winced a little as she doctored him up, then watched as she tended to herself. He bit his lip, unsure of what to say. Part of him didn't want to say anything, just wait for her to get done, gingerly pull her close and kiss her. But what memories he had informed him that this was indeed a terrible, terrible idea.

The pain in his head was easing by now, but he couldn't settle the fluttering of his heart or the knot in his stomach. "I uh...I kept everything you sent. Even put them in a safe place where the kitten can't get to 'em," he said awkwardly.

"I used the jacket to remember. It showed me your side of the story for the most part. I'm sorry I tried to make you something you weren't. I should have loved you for who you were, not for who I thought I could change you into." He bit his lip again, closing his eyes.

Tses glanced up as he spoke, and tried to process what he was saying. But she couldn't quite focus on it. Isolated words moved through. Kept everything...kitten....jacket... But that deep emotional wound just kept bleeding and smothering everything else. She wished there were a bandage she could put over that instead. She wished there were something to do to make it stop hurting. She kept hearing the apologies, but no response would come. She swallowed, and shrugged her shoulders instead.

"It's ok... Lets....lets just get out of here..." She said, opening one of the back doors and shoving the backpack inside. Her eyes were stinging and she wasn't sure why. She never was much of a crier. But if there were a day to cry, today felt like it would be it. He felt so close again, like he was back, like he hadn't left. But he just used his powers...the memories he had weren't really his...it was like he was using hers... Somehow, she wasn't sure that was right. It was like cutting corners, like he still didn't remember in a way. He felt bad because he saw her side of things. She didn't want anyone to feel sorry for her. She never did. Her stomach churned and she shut her eyes, holding on tightly to the car door. She felt sick, like the world was spinning out of control.

Like the world was just spinning....tilting...

She passed out.

Ty sighed, this was even more complicated than when it started. He was trying, he really was, but it didn't seem to be doing any good. Maybe he should just give up. Maybe he wasn't meant to have a girl; he just screwed everything up. Maybe he'd just be better off alone. Just give up and go back to being the lone troublemaker he was more than likely doomed to be fore--

Wait...crap! In a flash, Ty rushed to catch her, but as he did, a sharp pain shot through his injured arm and he slumped to the ground, holding her limp, unconscious body in his arms, fighting back the tear from his pain.

When it died down, he looked at her, lying there in his arms. There had to be a reason he'd always fought for her, never gave up on her--well, except for that one time...There was a reason...somewhere. Though he vaguely remembered, it wasn't his own memories, per say. Maybe he cheated. His power was just an unfair way to remember things he'd forgotten.

"All I seem to do is cause you trouble...and yet you always end up in my arms like this. Fate, it seems, is a cruel tease," he mused to no one.

Tses had often wondered who she could have been if life dealt her a different hand. If she hadn't lost her parents, if she hadn't fallen into a coma, if her sister hadn't moved on without her. She wondered what she could have done if she stayed at the hospital, and waited for a family to adopt her. Waited for someone to love her. Waited to find out what it meant to be cared about.

Tses often wondered what would have happened if she hadn't run. If she hadn't run away from the hospital, from her sister, from her life. If she hadn't come to New York, and left Chicago behind. If she hadn't run into a red-haired mutant. If she hadn't let herself care.

But part of her wondered what would have happened if she didn't get scared. If she let go for the right reasons. Help on to the right people. Learned to make a life, make memories, make a future.....

The cats mewing next door had been particularly loud that day. Tses had never heard them so pious, and it caused her to wander out of her room and knock on the door frame. No one answered. Meggy always answered, and Tses didn't wait; she let herself in. The old woman was in her bed, sleeping, never to wake up again. Tses never knew anyone who died before. She never saw someone so wonderful so close, and suddenly gone.

The kittens didn't understand. There was no one to feed them, no one to care. Tses had no choice but to call an animal shelter, help report the death. Responsibilities she never wanted to deal with. But it was all she could do for her old friend. Then she sat and looked out across the city. No one came for Meggy. No one was around to miss her. No one but Tses. And Tses didn't feel like she was worthy of such a big job. Crawling back into her apartment, she felt tears in her eyes, and a heavy lump in her throat. She sat down, and she cried for Meggy. She cried for the kittens. She cried for her old life, she cried for herself. Then she looked out the window and the sunset, and there was nothing left to cry about. The room next door was still empty.

And the room around her was too.

She didn't want that. She didn't want to be alone. She just thought it was better for everyone. Like Ty thought it was better to forget. She thought maybe it was better to make the world forget her. She wanted to be a ghost. She wanted to vanish. But someone had caught her. And she didn't know how she felt about it.

Leaning against Ty, face pale and wet hair flat against her face, Tses didn't stir. There was too much to face if she woke up. It was safer asleep. She could just dream of something else....

Ty held onto Tses, looking at her face, her closed eyes. She looked peaceful. He couldn't find many memories where she actually looked peaceful, aside from sleeping. He closed his eyes, trying to focus, trying to grasp at the faint lines of memory to find something that was his own, that he didn't obtain after the fact. Something about the way he held her felt...right, as he leaned against the car.

Leaning down, he lightly kissed her forehead before his own eyes shut, leading him into a somewhat peaceful sleep.

When Tses came to, Ty was asleep, and she quietly slipped free from his hold and tried to clear her thoughts. It all felt....wrong. Somehow, none of this felt right. It just felt like pieces of a puzzle that looked like they should fit but they didn't. This situation seemed so close to ones in the past. But those days were gone. Moments like these should be to.

She couldn't leave though. She sat on the hood of the car and stared out at the water. It lapped against the docks, and more than once she wondered if she could just walk out there and try to find a different type of peace. She sat though. She didn't leave, she just sat and listened to the water.

Eventually, she heard Ty stir, and when she thought he was close enough, she spoke without turning her head. "When I was nine, I fell into a coma after our house burnt down. I was in that coma for a year, and most people figured I'd never wake up. The more I think about it, the more I think I wasn't meant to. I've always been a thief...I don't have memories where I wasn't taking something. Maybe, maybe I stole extra years out of life. Maybe it was never meant to be mine..."

The bandaging job she'd done on her side had pulled apart, and it was bleeding freely again. But she didn't move; she sat and watched the water. "I don't think you were meant to be mine either, Ty. You aren't the sort of person that should have ended up with someone like me. You needed someone who would care back. Someone who would know how to accept your feelings and return them. I've spent my life being greedy and trying to build what I came with all the broken pieces I've collected. But it doesn't feel right anymore... You shouldn't have remembered. I pushed myself back into your memories, and I'm sorry for that." This time, she looked at him. Her eyes were red, and her expression was solemn. Resolved. She hugged her injured side and sighed, turning back away.

When Ty stirred, he heard Tses talking. He was still semi-out of it, but he heard every word, soaked in everything she was saying. He didn't move, still a little sore from all that had happened today.

"I shouldn't have forgotten in the first place. I don't think you pushed yourself back in. In the end, I chose to let you back in. I could have just walked away when you didn't answer. Or when you weren't at your apartment. Or...dozens of other times. But I pressed on. Why? I don't know, I just felt that was what I needed to do. I don't want things like they were, I just want everything to be okay..." his voice trailed. That was it. He finally had it.

"I just want us to be happy. Doesn't matter if we're an item or not. We both need that...especially now."

If felt like the space between them went on for eternities. But then again, that space wasn't just physical. It had grown since he broke up with her. She forgave him, but she didn't forget. She wondered how much he remembered about that. What he felt. Did it matter? She didn't know.

"I don't know if I'll ever really be happy." She felt herself saying. It might have sounded melodramatic, but she didn't know. She lost everything. The only motherly figure she had in life. The guy she fell in love with. She left behind her house, her life really only resided in a backpack now. Who would miss her? Who would care? It was a cross road she was staring down. But she could move. She could only watch and wonder. Maybe she didn't need him to be a boyfriend again. Maybe she just needed him to be there right now. He was the only friend she had. She shut her eyes, and a shudder went through her shoulders. It just seemed like an awfully big, incredibly lonely world out there.

"You know, I've had that thought too," he replied. "I mean, I've felt that temporary, fleeting feeling, but in the end, maybe I'm just as miserable as before. I know I ****ed up. And what's worse is nothing I can do to fix this. The more I try, the more I **** it up. I can't fix it, but it's so broken I can't just leave it be."

Ty stood up, walking over to her to face her. "Maybe we weren't meant to be a couple again. I admit maybe that's as doomed as doomed can be. But I can still be there for you. I think I even like being that guy you can count on." He looked away.

"I wanted to save you. All I wanted was to save our relationship, like maybe there was something I could say, something I could do to make it all better. But there wasn't. Some mutants, some humans, they try to be heroes. They wanna save people. That's not for me. Maybe I'd do better without that self-given responsibility. Besides, you can't save everyone, because people don't want--or even need saving. Like you...you just needed someone to be there."

Tses listened closely as he responded, pushing aside her emotions. Her fear, her pain, her sadness. She slipped to the ground, wrapped her arms around him in a hug, and held tight for a split second before letting go. Stepping away, she flashed a sad smile, then leaned and picked up the backpack from the ground. Slinging it over a shoulder, she shook her head, and swallowed down the tears that were threatening to return.

"See, that's where you're wrong. You're going to be ok Ty. You're going to meet someone, going to learn from this, and eventually, you'll forget again. I think you found something in this city...I hope you make the most of it." She turned, squared her shoulders, and faced the road. She wasn't sure how far she'd get, if anywhere, but that didn't matter really. She lived on the streets. She'd survive if she wanted to. "I don't know if we'll run into each other again, but who knows. When it comes to gambling, I always loose." She shrugged, and started down the sidewalk. It was the closest thing to a goodbye that she could muster. Everything else felt like it had already been said, already spoken. She just had to gather the debris of her life and try to piece them together.

I'm swimming in the smoke of bridges I have burned.
So don't apologize, I'm loosing what I don't deserve.

Her hug lasted only a split second, as they always tended to, but Ty cherished every bit of that; he didn't care if it lasted only the blink of an eye. "I know I'll be okay, so will you. You're tough, strong. More than I can dream of being. Wait..." He ran to catch up before she was gone. "Before you go...I don't want to forget you. I won't forget you. Not again...You...you were my first love. That's something special, whether you see it or not. There's more to you than you think, deep down. I've seen it. Here."

Ty took off his favorite pair of gloves, his green fingerless ones, and held them out to her. "Take 'em. To remember me by, I don't want you to forget me either. No, we can't have what we did, but...you can still count on me to be there if you need it. Take care of yourself and I hope to bump into you again one day." Giving her a nod, and a soft, caring smile, he stuck his hands in his pockets and turned to walk away.

"I'll miss you, Tses."

Tses listened to Ty's words, then looked down at the gloves. Her face took a stricken expression as she saw the familiar green color, and the memories slammed to the surface. A disastrous date, a breakup, a night running from memories, trying to make sense of what happened. She shoved her hand out, trying to force them back into his palms. Tears sprung to her eyes and she backed away.

"I don't want them. I ca--Don't you realize....realize what it'd be like? Like the earrings... like the necklace.... the memories of you, they hurt. And worst of all are things like that because they're full of the memories of how things got screwed up....I missed you Ty. I spent months missing you. I lost you over and over again..." She shook her head, backing away, tears rolling down her face.

"Don't make me miss you more. I can't go through that again." She whispered.

She shut her eyes for a moment, trying to compose herself. She felt drained of anger, sadness. But still incredibly lost. It took a moment to compose herself, thinking through what he was trying to do, and then opened them, holding her arms close to her body and trying to compose herself. "You hold onto them. You don't have to worry about me forgetting. Because as sucky as some of the memories are, I chose not to let them go. They're still all I got. You were...You were all I had. And I really don't think I'd forget that easily."

The words stuck in her throat and she couldn't say anymore. She turned back towards the road intent to start walking. Standing letting the wounds in her heart and her side bleed was getting too hard.