When had this become Kate’s life? When had hiding and ducking away become something she did on a regular basis? Oh, yes. When she started dating Albert Grimaldi. It had been over a year since they went public with their relationship and ever since she couldn’t find a moments piece from paparazzi trying to find some reason to slander her name or his name or their relationship. It really was rather annoying and in some ways Kate was almost beginning to understand why her mother had become a shut in. It was actually starting to become so bad that Kate had no other choice but to avoid reading any kind of tabloid on any news stands. They kind of had a tendency to take the things she did and misconstrue them, which was surprising because Kate didn’t really do anything that was all that scandalous. Other than being seen going into the known school of mutants time after time. But her being a mutant was kind of old news.

Kate nonchalantly weaved into a crowed as they entered the Met to lose her current tail. She had been enjoying a nice weekend day shopping on Madison Ave when suddenly out of nowhere had come a pack of camera wielding Parana.

As she entered the museum she breathed a sigh of relief and showed her membership card. Honestly, this was probably the best place she could have hidden in. Kate adored the Met and actually donated almost a hundred thousand dollars to it last year alone. Of all the places she could hide this was probably one of the best. As soon as she entered she made a b-line for the medieval exhibit where she could hide in one of the interactive architecture displays she loved so much.

Evelyn caught all kinds of people lurking around the museum from time to time. To the average worker, they looked pleased enough to be there, but there were always signs when it wasn't necessarily someone's original plan of action. Somewhat flushed faces, outfits that don't quite match the atmosphere, shuffling through wallets a little longer than other patrons to find memberships... things like that tipped her off. The woman who arrived today did little more than sigh with relief and casually glance back out the door, but it was enough. Even without a good look at her face, the hyper-aware mutant who was just leaving the front desk to make her rounds took note of it, and filed it away for later.

Sometimes, the most entertaining part of her job was solving the mysteries about the patrons who entered.

Today Evelyn was going to check on a few of the displays that were still in the finishing phases of getting restored after the fiasco that tore apart the museum not too long ago. This sent her unintentionally in the same direction as the woman the echoes noted, and her curiosity spiked again. Most of the regulars here had learned about the museum's damage and navigated through the worst areas at reflex. The woman's reaction to the slight damage of the architecture exhibit would tell another thing or two about her. She couldn't quite place why she looked so familiar though. People always looked familiar to Evelyn, but from the back of the woman's head, she really, REALLY felt like she should know why...

Clipboard in hand, Evelyn glanced down at the notes she had already memorized as she moved. She always felt weird walking in the same direction as someone... It always gave that awkward following vibe.

Kate loved the MET. She had chosen it as a large recipient of her donations over the years because it’s quiet halls full of beauty had become some kind of refuge for the girl when she needed an escape. Yes it closed and wasn’t always there but when it was it was the only place she wanted to be when she needed a breather from life. A good portion of her friends used the beauty of central park to work on their various musical projects. Kate chose the MET.

She navigated the damaged halls with ease. Showing a bit of a sad expression as she passed each fallen landmark along her way. She would have to talk to the curator about how funds were going on the restoral when she got the chance. She had a little left in her budget for charitable donations left and she wanted to make sure that the MET got it if they needed it.

She turned corner after corner feeling the presence behind her but not daring to look back at it. She hoped it was not another snake following her through the halls of her sacred place.

Kate entered into the medieval wing and headed straight for the old monastery display. She would hide in the balcony portion and work on the last bits of the musical score she had been told to transcribe.

As she walked up the stairs to her hiding spot she reached into her bag and pulled out a notebook of stave paper and the score itself. She smiled as the bench came into view and she parked herself on it.

The nagging in the back of Evelyn's mind continued as she approached the woman from the front of the Met. The echoes started filtering through known faces, eliminating based on body shape, height, deducing and trying to match with patrons who were common at the museum. Obviously, she knew her way around, which was something... Then as she turned to take a seat, Evelyn got a glimpse of the face, and the echoes were jerked to a halt as she finished their deductions.

Kate. Well, if that wasn't a surprise.

While Kate was a frequent at the museum, Evelyn mostly saw her from a distance. Avoiding customer service whenever possible and working mostly in the back, Evelyn didn't get to know many of the visitors personally, but Kate was one of the rare few she had reason to recognize. Although, their last meeting hadn't gone the best... Jealous, angry, Evelyn made a mess of the evening when she saw Gawain arrive at an event with Kate. Even now, slight echoes of those emotions moved through her, but they quickly dissipated. She trusted Mirror, and she knew Kate was just a close friend. That event was behind them, and hopefully any hard feelings would stay in the past.

Lingering at the base of the stairs, she leaned against the wall where Kate could see her, but wouldn't feel her space was being invaded. "The museum is still a little rough. Our restoration expert took some vacation time, but hopefully after the holidays she can touch things up more." Evelyn said professionally as she approached, clipboard in hand.

Kate sighed deeply as she flipped through the score to the page she had left off on. Pulling out a pencil she immediately jumped right into making notes. It was a little hard to write so she found herself sliding onto the floor to use the bench as a table for writing on. It was an odd place to be caught in but the museum tended to be empty on a random weekday since the attack. Everyone was waiting till it was fixed or was a little to scared to go near it yet. It was interesting how one little thing could change a place so much.

Kate let out a small gasp as she heard a familiar voice off to her left. She looked and saw a pretty blonde. She smiled kindly even though she was a little unhappy to be disturbed. But this was Mirror’s girlfriend and the last time they saw each other things hadn’t gone well. She had kind of forgotten that she worked here when she had chosen it as a place to hide. They however needed to clear the air and this was probably as good of a time as any.

“Hello Evelyn. It’s good to see you. I will be happy when this place is back to normal. Though I am rather enjoying the less tourist traffic.” Kate didn’t move yet not sure if they were going to just say hi or if this was going to branch into a real conversation.

It was always hard not to surprise people when they were focused on something, and Evelyn wondered momentarily if she should have spoken up. Maybe Kate just wanted to have time to herself. It was too late though and whatever second guessing she had would just have to go away.

"Good to see you too. It's been tough seeing everything like this, but we've been working hard to repair things. So long as no one else decides to destroy the place it should be back on it's feet. Although I don't miss the school groups..." Evelyn admitted. She looked down at her clip-board and scanned the room again. She scrawled a few notes about the pieces nearby and pushed her hair from her face.

"At least busy work is better than dealing with people." She added.

Once she had gotten her heart to calm Kate looked around the room for any signs of smoke. So far the fires had only really shown up when she was angry but it was only a matter of time till they started responding to her other emotions and this was not the place where she would want that to happen. She let out a sigh of relief and returned her gaze to Evelyn.

Kate smiled at the girl still not moving from her seat on the ground. She wasn’t exactly sure what she should be doing right now. This was more than a little awkward thanks to their last encounter. “I keep asking the curator if there is anything else that you need and she keeps telling me no. Personally I can’t wait till the renovations are over. I want the museum back to where it should be.” She sighed fondly at the thought of things back to normal. It had upset her so much when the attack had happened. She had immediately marched down here and handed them a check for one hundred thousand dollars telling them if they needed anything else let her know. This was her favorite place and it wasn’t aloud to end up falling apart.

Evelyn shrugged slightly at Kate. After working here as long as she had she knew the curator had her own way of doing things, especially where the museum was concerned. While they always appreciated money, at this point there wasn't much it would do to fix things. It would take talent to fix things, and dollar bills could only bring so much of that. "I'm sure we'd let you know, but most of what's broken it just going to take time to repair. The paints pretty much got up and started walking around. Not much you can do when there are characters just missing from a canvas... Each repair has taken a lot of time to put together, and a lot of effort to get right. It's slow, but steady."

Evelyn took some time to note the progress of nearby pieces. Her eyes and echoes scanned and learned, watched and noted. With the damage and changes, she was looking at the overlapping memories of what the museum was once, and how it was now. It was a slow flipbook of damage she hated to see.

Kate sighed looking around her and following Evelyn’s gaze from painting to painting. Kate knew that it would take more than just per money but in this case it was all she had and she wanted to help. It was killing her to know that some of this work could be lost forever. “I understand, but it doesn’t stop me from wanting to do everything I can to help. I’m a musician not an artist.” If playing would have helped she would have done it in a seconding but it didn’t and it wouldn’t. So money was once again the only solution she could give.

She let out another sigh as she moved back to writing the score and waiting for either Evelyn to speak or to walk away. Kate wasn’t sure what the girl would want to do after the events of the party but if she were to bring it up Kate would surely be willing to speak about it.

Evelyn momentarily zoned out with the images overtaking her thoughts. Days, months, years spun together in crystal clear images. Normally she managed the memories better, but today the edges leaked together, like colors on a paint pallet blending, mixing, mingling. She liked order in her life: everything had a place, a purpose. Without order, she would live in chaos with her thoughts.

A glance at Kate brought flashes of other memories, and her emotions just stirred more. It was always hard to let go old emotions when they kept twisting back to the surface. "I'm an artist, but it still doesn't help much in this instance. Heck, even my powers don't help much. I know how it's supposed to look, but no way to repair them... Touch ups, modern artwork, sure... but history... the right paint, canvas, frames...Sorry, I'm rambling." She glanced at what Kate was doing, and moved down the line.

"I'm sorry I really shouldn't bother you while you're working." Her cheeks colored and she turned her attention back to the clipboard. The memories faded slightly as she focused, the echoes mildly noting what the other woman was doing.

Kate chuckled finding the other girls passion for art refreshing. It was so odd to find someone their age that had such a refined interest. Though, by what she could tell Evelyn didn’t qualify as a normal girl their age. She gave off an air similar to Kate’s just much more American. It was refined and graceful but much more relaxed in comparison. Or at least that was Kate’s impression. She could have been completely wrong for all she knew but it was irrelevant.

She looked over at the girl and scooted over slighting to give Evelyn space to join her if she wanted. “It really is no bother. I am simply transcribing. I can talk as I do it. I feel we should get to know each other at least a little bit.” She inclined to the spot in on the bench next to her as if to tell Evelyn to join her. She honestly did want to get to know her. Just like she had with Twyla and Ami before her. Mirror was a very large part of Kate’s life no matter how much they talked. They were very important to the blonde and therefore she wanted to make an effort to know the people that were important to them. And at the moment that was Evelyn.

The echoes were perceptive, even if Evelyn herself perhaps wasn't. The invitation to sit was evident, and she paused, reading Kate's body language to see if it was genuine. The other girl didn't seem bothered much by Evelyn's intrusion, which was a relief at least. Evelyn slowly ventured forward and sat for a moment, fiddling with the clipboard.

"I'm afraid I'm not super talented at the whole 'getting to know you' sort of thing. I should warn you now... The echoes have a habit of.. finding things out on their own." Evelyn admitted. Lately she'd been more forthcoming about her powers, as if to soften the eventual blow they created when they invaded privacy. Not that they hadn't already made a mess of things with Kate, but the situation seemed salvageable.

The museum was quiet, and Evelyn didn't hear many patrons nearby, so the break was welcome, at least for the moment. She was still on the clock, but with all the chaos and overtime, her boss would be hard pressed to punish her when she was one of the few workers sticking around.

Kate smiled at Evelyn thankful she had accepted Kate’s offer to join her. She kind of enjoyed getting to know Gawain’s girlfriends. She was stuck with them and it was nice to know that they were nice you know. She enjoyed being able to make sure he was well taken care of too. There was no way in hell she was going to let him be treated badly by his choice of girl.

“Echos?” Kate really didn’t know much about Evelyn. She kind assumed she had seen the echos a bit the last time they met but wasn’t positive. It probably had to do with the girls mutation. Like Kate she may not have been fully able to control what it did for her and to her.

Evelyn blinked slightly as Kate asked about the echoes, and as a rush of memories from the night flashed back through her mind, she realized the exact explanation of her powers may not have come up. Flushing slightly, she looked away and rubbed the back of her neck. "Oh, the Echoes are just part of my powers. I sort of have...voices...in my head."

Dumb. Dumb dumb dumb dumb. There were better ways of describing that that didn't make her sound like a psychopath.

"Analytically voices..." This wasn't getting any better. Now she sounded like a robot. "It just helps me process things I guess. Sort of Sherlock Holmes-ish, hyper awareness."

She sounded like a nutcase.

Kate smiled and nodded in understanding. She of all people understood having a power that ruled you. A power that was involved in every moment of every day of your life. Though she imagined voices in your head were far less deadly then uncontrollable fire, but that was beside the point.

“Well that is quite interesting and I think I understand more then you know. My powers have a bit of that too. I just never tell anyone because I would sound off my rocker talking about some of my crazy dreams.” Kate had to stop herself she wasn’t trying to make Evelyn uncomfortable. Quite the opposite she was trying to make her comfortable. They were just in an uncomfortable situation and were going to have to fight their way out of it.

“Though, none of that is quite like you. I did always love a good Sherlock Holmes novel. Trust me he was a little bit crazy in a brilliant sort of way.”