There was a noise. An annoying noise, but it wasn’t her alarm. Even in her mostly asleep state, Lee knew that. So she just groaned, not happy to have been disturbed. If it wasn’t her alarm, she didn’t have to get up. Plus, she couldn’t smell coffee, so it obviously wasn’t time to get out of bed.

Giving another little groan of annoyance, Lee went to roll over so she could go back to sleep.

And her eyes shot open with a gasp as she rolled onto the bruises on her back. That hurt. She hadn’t realized how much laying on her back would hurt because she hadn’t laid down since it happened.

Rolling back onto her left side, which hurt but much less so, Lee took a few slow, deep breaths. Whatever the noise had been that had started waking her up was…no longer making noise. Lee frowned. Had she dreamed the sound?

Then Lee heard her phone ringing. Still laying down, Lee dug her phone out of her pocket where she felt it vibrating, confused when she found a…blanket? In the way as she lifted her arm. Managing to get her hand free, Lee answered the phone without even looking to see who it was.

“Hello?” She asked softly, the sleepiness still clearly evident in her voice.

“Oh my god Lee. It’s about time! Is everything ok?”

“Rachel?” Lee questioned, her brain still moving slowly. “Yeah, of course. Why?” Lee stifled a yawn as she finished speaking.

“Because I messaged you our flight details three hours ago and you didn’t respond. And now, you didn’t answer the phone until the sixth ring the second time I called. What’s going on?”

“I was sleeping,” Lee sighed. She wasn’t sure why Rachel was freaking out so much. Then Lee remembered what little she had actually told Rachel on the phone Saturday morning to make sure that she got Kevin out of the city. “I’m fine. Promise. When do you expect to be back home?”

“We are back, Lee. Just trying to get a cab home.”

“Shit…” Lee muttered, forcibly pushing herself up to sit in the bed. Coffee would have definitely been good at that moment.

“Lee? Again, is everything ok? You said last night it was all…Taken care of?”

“It is. I’ll see you at home.” Lee didn’t even wait for Rachel to say anything else before hanging up the phone. She needed coffee. And energy. Fast. And then to get home.

Well. Lee was awake now.

When her phone hand rang the first time and she hadn’t answered, Tarin had stood from where he sat at the kitchen table and started making his way towards the room where she was still sleeping.

Tarin didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but whoever was on the phone didn’t seem to be delivering news Lee was excited to get.

The call didn’t last long though, and then Tarin heard Lee moving around. She was definitely up, but she didn’t seem very happy or well rested.

“Did I mess up?” He said by way of greeting, “you seemed so tired, and then you fell asleep and I figured you needed some rest….”

Lee heard the voice and slowly turned bleary eyes toward it. Right, Tarin.

Lee shook her head as she put her phone back in her pocket. ”No,” she said, her voice still quiet as she sat there trying to find the willpower to force herself to her feet through the lack of energy. ”How long…was I sleeping?” she asked, stifling a yawn while she spoke.

Lee closed her eyes, running her hands through her hair and just sat there for a moment. ”Coffee? Any caffeine?” she finally asked, letting her hands drop as she looked over at Tarin again. The thought of simply standing felt ridiculously hard at the moment, yet Lee knew that she needed to get home. And somehow get enough energy on the quick trip to make it through the rest of the day.

Yep…he’d messed up. Lee was too nice to say it, but he’d definitely messed up. She looked worse than when she’d laid down to sleep.

How long had it been? Tarin checked his watch, “A little over three hours…” he said softly, frowning as he tried to put together the pieces of what was going on.

Lee asked for coffee…he didn’t have any…caffeine…

”Uh…hold on…” he practically ran to the kitchen, pieces starting to fall into place as he moved. Lee looked more tired than when she’d gone to sleep, she was asking for coffee, caffeine…

He grabbed the energy drink from the back of his fridge. He always kept a few on hand for long days at the shop or people who called for an emergency meeting.

Heading back to the room where Lee was now sitting on the edge of the bed he offered her the can, “It’s all I’ve got…I’m sorry.”

She needed energy, energy that she usually got from people, “How can I help? Literally anything.”

Three hours. Well, that explained why she hadn’t seen Rachel’s message. And why it had taken the phone ringing for two separate calls for her to wake up enough to answer.

After she asked for caffeine, Lee saw Tarin heading into the kitchenette. Good. She just hoped that what he had had more caffeine than a can of coke. While she waited, Lee just sat there with her eyes closed until she felt him getting close to her, and she was raising her arm for whatever he had found before she had even opened her eyes. ”Thanks,” she said.

Glad to see that she’d been handed an energy drink, Lee immediately cracked the can open and started drinking, only lowering the can after she had downed almost half of it. ”Yes, I need sleep,” she said quietly, her hand resting on her lap as her eyes closed again. ”But not restful, there’s no energy.” When she finished speaking, she lifted her hand again to take another, though smaller, drink.

Ugh…he was dumb. So dumb. Lee had explained how her powers worked, and he’d stupidly just thought she’d need a nap to be right as rain. A nap with people pretty much as far away from her as it was to get in New York City. For three hours, when she was already low on energy.

She was drinking the energy drink and trying to explain, but Tarin knew that wasn’t going to work in any real capacity.

Whelp. There was nothing else for it.

Making sure to keep a comfortable distance so this didn’t get weirder than it was already going to be, Tarin sat on the edge of the bed and held out his hands.

“I take it from that phone call that you don’t have a lot of time to spare. Since it’s my fault you’re in this mess…I’ve got nothing but time for a nap for the next few hours.”

Lee nodded when Tarin started speaking. “Not your fault,” Lee replied, her eyes still closed. “I shouldn’t have laid down…”

Only when she finished speaking did she open her eyes and look at Tarin, a little confused. He had time for…

Then she saw that he was facing her more directly sitting on the bed, his hands held out, and she looked back up at his face. “Really? You don’t mind?” Reaching her empty hand over, Lee lightly (and only slightly hesitantly) placed her hand on one of Tarin’s. The moment she touched him, she could feel the energy flowing into her. Nowhere near as much or as fast as it had been while she did this when he was merged, but with how low her energy was it felt like a lot.

“Thank you,” she said after a minute, already sounding more awake. Though she didn’t move her hand. “Yeah, that was my sister. Calling from the airport. The airport here, so I need to get back home.”

“Not even a little…” Tarin said with a smile as Lee actually took him up on his offer. It didn’t really feel like anything was happening and he’d been being sincere. While she’d slept he did everything he could do.

It turned out that it had been Lee’s sister on the phone and that she was back in New York with Kevin. No wonder Lee was in such a hurry to get home.

“Well, I’m just glad I can actually do something helpful,” he said, “I should have known better, but you looked so peaceful I just couldn’t wake you up.”

There was one more thing they needed to handle though, fishing out his phone with his free hand, Tarin said, “Give me your number so I can text you to give you mine, otherwise you’re going to have to come back to let me know how things went.”

Even after all the energy that she had drained from him earlier in the weekend, Tarin had no hesitation or issue with letting her take some more now so she could wake up. Even during all the years that they had lived together, all of the times that Rachel had complained she was taking too long to get ready because they had to get somewhere earlier than Lee was normally functional in the mornings, Rachel had never once offered for her to take energy. She hadn’t even suggested that it might be ok.

Yet Tarin, who had been drained to the point of exhaustion recently enough that the time could still be counted in hours, had offered the moment he’d been reminded that her body didn’t produce energy on its own. Lee couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across her face.

“You have no idea how helpful. Just this,” she replied, putting a little pressure against Tarin’s hand with her fingers. “This short time, is giving me more energy than sitting in a coffee shop for at least half an hour during the morning rush.”

Then he was asking for her number so he could text her, so that later she wouldn’t have to come back to the shop (with Kevin) to let Tarin know how everything had gone at home. A very good idea since there was now far less time before Rachel and Kevin were back than she had expected. So Lee said her number to Tarin slow enough to type in.

At which point Lee somewhat reluctantly pulled her hand away. “That should be about enough to get through at least most of the day,” she said, her tone appreciative as she gave him another smile. “Again, thank you Tarin.”

As they sat there for a few moments, Tarin mentally digested the fact that Lee had seemed surprised by his offer to let her take some energy. Energy that she needed in order to function so that she could go back to her place and pave the way for him to literally move in.

Had nobody ever done that before? Even if they had, Tarin had a feeling it hadn’t been a regular occurrence.

“It’s what you needed.” Tarin said simply, shrugging his shoulders and unable to stop the answering grin from spreading across his face. “I’m glad I could help.”

Lee rattled off her number, and Tarin managed to get it into his phone to shoot off a quick, “Hi” text in her direction. A notification a few moments later made Tarin chuckle just slightly, “I guess we know you didn’t give me a fake.”

Then, much more quickly than Tarin would have guessed Lee would need, she was pulling her hand away and saying that she had enough energy to get through most of the day.

She thanked him again and Tarin just smiled, genuinely happy to have been able to help in such a simple way.

“You’re welcome Lee, but like I said, it’s no big deal at all. This sort of thing is what friends are for, right?” At least Tarin figured this was the sort of thing friends did. He’d never really had many. A few acquaintances, a couple of short term….girlfriends….? Tarin supposed if anyone qualified, after the last 48 hours Lee had to be a friend.

“I guess just let me know when the coast is clear? Warn me if I have to meet anyone?”

Apparently for Tarin, it didn't matter which one, it really was that simple; she needed energy to function, energy that needed to come from outside of her body, energy that he was capable of providing, and so he did. Happily.

Lee couldn’t help the soft chuckle when Tarin commented on his text being announced on her phone. “I mean, if you’d asked me at a bar, I may have given a fake number,” she told him with a small shrug. But as he continued speaking, Lee’s smile turned a little sad. “You may think it’s no big deal, but most people either think that it is, or they don’t even realize how something so simple as that was can change the entire beginning As she finished speaking, Lee’s eyes drifted to the can she was still holding, and she raised it to her lips for another sip.

Then Lee took a deep breath as she looked up at Tarin again. “I should get going, if I’m going to beat them back to the apartment,” Lee said, then nodded in agreement to his questions. “And of course I will. Want me to take anything over with me now?”