Lee have Tarin a small, tight lipped smile as he said he wished things with Robert didn't already ended up like in the floor a few feet from where he e had been standing.

” Thank you,” she said sincerely, then spoke over her shoulder at her brother. ”Not for long, at least.”

Then Lee sighed. ”I think I need a drink before dealing with her, too,” she told Tarin before making her way into the back of the shop. Once she'd made her way to the kitchenette, Lee opened the cupboard the Scotch had always been kept in to see if it, or some other alcohol was still there.

Tarin didn’t say anything to Robert, just followed Lee when she went to the back of the shop and into the kitchenette.

She needed a drink? What was she looking for?

Lee was opening one of the cabinets, clearly confident in what she’d find there, and Tarin could vaguely remember something from a long time ago.

”It’s in the back…somehow it felt weird to throw it out. But it’s old…” he said, crossing his arms.

He wanted to ask if she was okay, but Lee was trying to day drink in the shop after punching her brother in the face. The answer was pretty obvious.

”How can I help?” seemed somewhat better.

Lee could feel Tarin following her into the back, but he didn’t say anything until after she had stopped in the kitchenette and pulled the cupboard open.

It felt weird to throw it out? Lee finally found the bottle at the very back of the cupboard. While Lee had been expecting to find some kind of alcohol there since everything else in the shop seemed to have still been in the same places, she had not expected it to have been that bottle.

Hesitating only a half moment, Lee pulled the bottle out of the cupboard along with a glass. Older scotch was supposed to be better when you bought it, right? So this being old shouldn’t be an issue.

Only after she had poured some scotch into the glass and taken a sip (and remembered why she never drank scotch) did Lee turn back to face Tarin.

Taking another, smaller sip, Lee set the glass down before walking over to Tarin. ”If I knew that” she said as she reached him, wrapping her arms around Tarin and resting her head on his shoulder. ”This would all be easier to deal with.”

Tarin frowned when Lee pulled the bottle out, poured herself a glass, and took a drink. It wasn’t in disapproval or anything, just concern that this whole thing was clearly taking a toll.

He hated that all of this was happening because he was there. Sure, Lee’s siblings were adults who were responsible for their own behavior…but it still absolutely sucked that he just so happened to be the trigger for all this drama.

Lee approached and Tarin dropped his crossed arms, wrapping her in a hug as she leaned her head on his shoulder. Things just felt easier like this. He wanted Lee to feel better though…

”Well, if you think of anything let me know, and I’ll do the same. Have I told you lately that you’re incredible?”

As soon as she had come close, Tarin wrapped his arms around her, and despite how the afternoon had gone so far, a smile came to her face. It was kind of amazing how much better just this made her feel.

Maybe she should have hugged Tarin first instead of looking for the scotch.

And of course Tarin wanted her to tell him if she thought of anything that would help, but at least he was saying he’d do the same, so she nodded against his shoulder.

But then Tarin continued speaking and Lee pulled back to look at him. ”Not in at least a couple days,” Lee replied, her voice slow and confused as she looked up at him. ”But why?”

Why?

Tarin couldn’t help but chuckle just a little bit when Lee asked why he thought she was incredible.

”How much time do we have?” he said, looking down.

”We’re not going to have video evidence this time, but all that training has definitely paid off.” he said.

”You’re just going to have to accept it at some point.”

Just then, the bell jingled again and as there were still plenty of time until his next appointment that probably meant it was Rachel. She had apparently hurried. Good.

”Ready?” Tarin said, reluctantly dropping his arms.

”How much time do we have?”

Lee blushed slightly as her head dipped a bit, but she was still looking up at Tarin through her lashes. ”Maybe. At some point.”

And then the bell at the door rang to indicate someone had entered. Had they been in the back that long, or had Rachel gotten there that quickly?

”As ready as I’m going to be,” Lee admitted. Then she reluctantly pulled away from Tarin and made her way back to the front of the shop.

Only to find Rachel kneeling down beside Robert, who had by this time managed to push himself up to a sitting position. ”Oh good, you can move,” Lee said, her voice sounding more sarcastic than glad.

”What??” Rachel exclaimed, turning to look at Lee. ”What in the world happened to him?”

Lee simply shrugged at her sister to start, not moving any closer than a few feet into the front of the shop. ”He tried to physically drag me out of here because he doesn’t want Tarin around me, so I punched him,” Lee replied, simply stating the facts.

”Wait, what? You punched him? How many times?”

Lee moved away, towards the front of the shop and Tarin followed, somewhat annoyed at Rachel’s presence and that fact that any of this was necessary.

Lee stopped just a few feet into the front of the shop and Tarin came up beside her, arms crossed again as he surveyed the situation.

Lee explained what was going on and she did a pretty good job of it. Robert had really overstepped and he’d gotten what was coming to him. What had been coming to him, probably for a long time.

Rachel seemed incredulous that a single punch could have put Robert in his current state and Tarin shook his head, ”Just the once. You’ve both got to really stop underestimating your sister.” Tarin said, tired of Lee having to explain herself over and over again to the people who should have been the most ready to believe her in the world.

Catching Rachel’s eye, Tarin shook his head, ”He was really out of line.”

Tarin answered Rachel’s question about her punching Robert before she was able to. Yet, Rachel still cast an incredulous look at Lee hearing that she had only hit the man once.

Again, Lee simply shrugged. The younger woman had been told so many times over the years about how strong she could be, had seen her knock a man out in a bar all those years ago with a single punch.

“Like I’ve told both of you, I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself,” Lee explained. Again. ”And like I’ve been telling him,” the anger came out as she spat that word. ”For over a decade, if there was somewhere that I didn’t want to be, I wouldn’t be there for him to try to drag me away.”

”But this, Lee?” Rachel pointed to the already swelling, red cheek on Robert’s face. ”Isn’t it a little excessive? I know he can be a bit of an idiot, but still.”

Lee actually stood and thought for a moment before she answered her sister. ”No, I don’t think so,” she said with a shake of her head. ”If anything, it’s long past due. After all the years of him not believing me and thinking that Kevin’s father abused me, he automatically assumed Tarin had done the same when he came to pick Kevin up the other day. So he pushed his way into my home and sucker punched Tarin while Kevin was home.

“Then today, he shows up here uninvited, I’m guessing to either ‘convince’ him to stop seeing me since I refused, or to beat Tarin again. And as soon as I came in, not knowing what was even going on, Robert grabbed me by the arm and tried to physically drag me out. So no, I don’t think it was excessive. Though, I didn’t mean to give him another concussion.”

Lee was still angry, and Tarin watched her curiously as she interacted with her sister.

It was a point of contention for Lee that after what had happened today that Tarin hadn’t been angry. He took a minute to examine his feelings and try and figure out if maybe he was just being pedantic…but he really wasn’t angry. Tarin was sad Lee having to deal with the situation at hand, annoyed that her sister and brother were patently opposed to giving her any kind of credit, and exasperated that this situation kept escalating.

Lee described what had happened from her point of view and while it never would have gotten far enough for Robert to actually put hands on him again, Tarin had to think that Lee’s intuitions were exactly spot on.

It did make Tarin feel conflicted that Robert had just assumed that he would hurt Lee. That as a person that’s who Tarin fundamentally was. That somehow this was all some elaborate ruse to allow him to continue his nefarious plans, even from another world.

Stepping just a little bit closer to Lee, so that they were almost touching side by side, Tarin just nodded his head.

”The only one in this room who has been physically violent towards anyone else, unless it was in self-defense, is him.” Tarin added, nodding towards where Robert sat on the floor.

Rachel just stared at Lee as she spoke, the shock about some of what she was hearing evident on her face.

”The only one in this room who has been physically violent towards anyone else, unless it was in self-defense, is him.”

As Tarin spoke, Rachel’s eyes moved the small distance from her sister to him. Then she turned to look at her brother, swatting his shoulder. ”My god, Robert! Do you ever listen to anyone other than yourself?”

”Apparently not,” Lee replied. ”So can you hurry up and take him home or something? Because I’m …I really don’t want to look at him anymore today.”

”Come on, you idiot,” Rachel said as she started pulling on Robert’s arm to get him to stand up. ”Unlike the sister you royally, and very understandably, pissed off, I can’t carry you.”

Well. Rachel was definitely better than Robert, even if she was nosy as hell. She even swatted Robert to emphasize the point and Tarin couldn’t help but nod slowly in approval.

Robert, for his part, was at least smart enough…or concussed enough to keep his mouth shut, even as Rachel started to work to pull him up.

On very wobbly legs, Robert got to his feet. Good, Tarin didn’t think there was any chance that him or Lee would have helped if he couldn’t have managed and that would have gotten awkward after a couple of hours.

Now that Robert was standing again, things were awkward and Tarin watched, somewhat uncomfortably as Rachel led Robert out the door, still talking 100 mph. It wasn’t going to help his headache at all, but Robert deserved every word.

There weren’t any parting glares of loathing or anything dramatic like that. They just left. It made everything just a little more sad and real.

For a few moments, Tarin just stood there and looked over at Lee before reaching out and grabbing her hand.

”Stay for a while? Unless you need to get back to work?

It definitely took longer than Lee liked for Rachel to get Robert out of the shop, but at least he was helping her. It was much faster than if he hadn’t been able to get to his feet.

But finally they got out the door. Lee stood there and took a deep breath. Then smiled when she felt Tarin’s hand on hers. ”I would love to stay,” Lee replied with a smile as she turned to look at him. ”That’s why I came in the first place. I was running on the far side of the park when I got your text.”

Lee looked up at Tarin for a moment before stepping close and stretching up to kiss him softly. ”What did you have in mind when you let me know about your free time?”

Well good, she wanted to stay.

It felt like an age ago that Tarin had texted her to say that his afternoon had freed up a bit. She’d been on the other side of the park and had run all the way here to see him, only to be greeted by the scene that had then played out in its dramatic fashion.

Lee stretched up to kiss him and Tarin kissed her back wrappings his arms around her and held her tight for a moment before letting go.

What had he had in mind when he’d texted? ”I don’t know, what did you have in mind when you ran two and a half miles to get here after I texted?” he teased, his smile just the tiniest bit smug.

He thought for a moment though and the smile faded a bit as he dropped his forehead to rest against Lee’s, ”You’re really okay though?”

”what did you have in mind when you ran two and a half miles to get here after I texted?”

Lee couldn’t help but blush a bit. ”I was still going to run at least that far anyway,” Lee said. ”But I didn’t have anything specific in mind.”

But then Tarin frowned a bit as his forehead rested against hers. Lee sighed and shrugged. ” Am I upset that I punched him?” she asked before taking a moment to think. ”No, not at all. But I am a bit upset at myself for not realizing sooner just how little he trusted or believed me about anything. Even our parents have done better than he has.

“And I still don’t want Kevin knowing anything about the merges, or what Robert thinks,” she continued, her eyes slipping closed as she stood there. ”But I’m not sure how to tell him how big the issue is that means his uncle won’t be coming over anymore.”