There had been a number of times over the last few months when Lee had mentioned that she missed doing some of the community outreach work that she’d done in the past.

Since in the run-in with Michael, Tarin had worried that doing that would include reconnecting with the group that Lee had worked with in the past. Even if Lee had said that she’d only done small scale things, the fact that Michael had called them militarized police and hinted at the fact that they had a larger agenda than food banks and simply helping the community was nerve wracking for Tarin. From what she had told him, Lee seemed to attract danger when she was involved in things like that and she’d really been though enough. It had been a moot issue so far though, and they’d just gone about their days.

Tarin saw the first flier one night when he was walking home from the shop.

It was one of those volunteer things where people got together in large groups and built or renovated old buildings into affordable housing. This group, in particular, seemed to cater specifically to mutants. Tarin didn’t have any particular skills in that area and as far as he knew Lee didn’t either…but he could hold a paint brush or carry things, so he had taken a picture of the flier. Once home he’d looked the place up, pitched the idea to Lee, and here they were on a warm and sunny morning.

”A ball cap and a hard hat in one week? What did I do to get so lucky?” he said, grinning over at her, ”Gonna let me take a picture today too?”

Lee had been a little surprised when Tarin had brought up the volunteering idea. They had talked about the fact that Lee missed making a difference like that, and Tarin had asked if he could tag along, but that was about as far as things had gotten.

But here Tarin had something that they could do, now, to help. And even better, it was geared towards helping mutants get places to live.

When the day came, Tarin had basically been able to just dress as usual. Lee, however, had to do things differently; a skirt was not exactly appropriate for a construction site. So jeans and a t-shirt it was, with her hair pulled back in a braid to keep it out of the way.

” Not sure what it was you did,” Lee said, giving Tarin a small smile in return. ”But it must have been pretty big and important.”

”Mmmhmm” Tarin said, when Lee pointed out that he’d clearly done something to earn such a boon.

Lee hadn’t said anything about the picture though and Tarin wasn’t going to push his luck.

The other volunteers were gathering around in the little space they’d been been told to stand and as Tarin looked around he couldn’t help it when his eyes fell on a familiar face.

”Uh, Lee…” he said, nudging her a little with his shoulder, ”Is that your brother?” he asked right as he made contact with the other man.

Yep. That was definitely Robert…if Tarin hadn’t been completely sure, the instant glimmer of dislike in the other man’s face was enough to confirm the suspicion. Hopefully he had the sense to stay away. Nope, he was already making his way towards them.

Thankfully the foreman and the volunteer leadership chose that exact moment to start talking. It was demolition day, different groups would be handling different things. Walls had been marked for demo and nobody was supposed to take down any walls or framing that wasn’t marked a certain way. In fact, the only people who were supposed to take any of that down were people with the organization. The volunteers were there to gather and carry out the building waste. Fun stuff.

Groups were established based on proximity and because Robert had moved towards them in the little crowd they all ended up together. Great.

Now they were getting gloves and bags to package stuff up and Robert made his way fully over, ”Hi Em. I didn’t know you did stuff like this.”

Lee hadn't answered Tarin about the picture, but honestly, Lee was already planning on getting a picture or two of Tarin before the day was over, so Lee supposed that she could let Tarin get a picture of her with the hardhat on. She just wouldn’t tell him yet.

But then Tarin was nudging her shoulder and his tone was more tense than she had heard in…a while.

It made sense as Tarin continued speaking, and as Lee’s eyes moved in the direction that he was looking, she tensed slightly as she saw Robert starting to make his way over.

Unfortunately, the people who were in charge decided that it was a wonderful idea to put Robert into a group with her and Tarin for the day.

And Robert thought it was a good idea to come up and talk. ”Well, we already established that you don’t know me very well, haven’t we?” Lee asked

Realizing that she really didn’t need to be so harsh, Robert was being quite civil with Tarin standing there beside her, Lee took a deep breath. ”Most of what I’ve done in the past hasn’t been in the city, but I do try to make the world better when I can.”

Whelp. There went the day. Tarin had to be grateful that at least Robert hadn’t hit him on sight and they’d made it a solid couple of minutes with no threats being made.

Lee spoke though, and if she was setting the tone then things were going to be chilly. That was good because it was already shaping up to be a warm day.

Lee pointed out that most of her work in the past had been outside the city, perhaps a bit more gently and Robert nodded, ”Rachel told me. She said she didn’t tell me everything, but…we need to talk. No today obviously, but…yeah.” he said, probably more awkwardly than he’d ever said anything to Lee.

At this point their little group was being led to the row of townhouses that were currently being worked on. They were old and Tarin was reminded a bit of the kinds of places he’d lived his teenage years. When the buildings were abandoned and waiting for groups like this to swoop in, the people he’d been with had broken in and stayed. It was good that this group was doing this.

In they went and Tarin could see all the markings on the walls and studs that the fireman had talked about and there was already plenty of debris that needed cleaned up along with the bags that had been described. This had been a kitchen at some point and once they had their instructions, It was time to get to work. They could hear the crews above taking down walls and swinging hammers, but it looked like they hadn’t made it down here yet.

”This building gives me Deja vu.” he said, loud enough for Lee to hear but not loud enough for Robert, who was working across the room. Another strange thing that Tarin was just noticing was that there was an unusual amount of spiritual activity around. They were plenty far away but when places like this got demoed it sometimes stirred things up still, it might be worth looking into.

Rachel had told him. Lee wondered what it was that Rachel had told Robert considering Rachel hadn’t seemed to believe much of what Lee had told her.

Lee took a slow breath as she looked at Robert. She had said that she probably should talk to him, explain some things, but that didn’t stop her from still being mad at him.

”As long as you actually start listening to what I say,” Lee told him. ”Rather than what you think is going on, we can probably do that soon. Just, keep in mind Robert, Tarin will be there.”

Lee had a couple reasons for that; first and foremost, if Robert didn’t want to, or felt he couldn’t be around Tarin, Lee really didn’t want to talk with the man. But also because, depending on what Rachel had told Robert, and what was said, Lee knew she’d need Tarin there.

Having known what they were planning to do that day, and remembering how useless she’d been with the rebuilding some days, Lee had made sure she had lots of energy for this.

But as they were getting started, Lee heard Tarin speaking to her. She knew what, and when, he was talking about. Despite everything else they had done, Lee was glad that group had kept Tarin completely off the street when he first arrived in New York. ”It’s much more than what I had most of the time in Toronto,” she replied in a whisper.

For his part, Robert had just nodded when Lee said that Tarin would be there and said, ”Alright Em. I’ll wait for your call.”

What they were doing was hard work, but it was definitely good work. Affordable housing in New York was a constant problem and when Lee pointed out that this was a lot nicer than a lot of places she’d lived in Toronto Tarin had to shake his head. ”I’m glad we’re doing this, helping. Hopefully one day nobody else has to go through any of that…” There wasn’t much else to say, not when they had work to do.

And they had plenty of work to do. Tarin realized as time passed that maybe he should have taken that picture of Lee earlier if he was planning to do it because very quickly they were filthy and sweating. Those spirits were still there, pushing gently but insistently at the mental barrier Tarin had established.

Standing up for a minute and trying to find a spot of clean shirt to wipe his face, Tarin frowned and glanced at Lee, ”Gonna get weird for a minute,” he said softly. ”I want to check something out.”

Lee just blinked at Robert's back as he turned to get to work. He wasn't arguing about Lee saying Tarin would be present or trying to push setting a day and time right then. He'd be waiting for her to call.

Lee couldn't stand there and stare at Robert all day in shock, though. And unfortunately, she couldn't stand and watch Tarin work all day, either. There was more than enough to clean up.

And while most of the debris they were cleaning up was manageable in terms of size and weight, there were a few things that Lee’s extra energy came in helpful for. Like the long piece of counter that still appeared to be in half decent shape.

As she was making her way back after moving that, Lee saw Tarin wiping the sweat off his face. A smile on hers as she saw that, Lee made her way over to him.

Only for a slight frown to appear as she heard Tarin's words. ”We’ve got company?” she asked simply. No need to broadcast everything about their powers, after all. ”How many?”

As they’d worked, Tarin had caught himself staring a few times as Lee hauled around things that probably should have been too heavy for her. It was a hundred kinds of amazing.

They’d made eye contact a few times and smiled, and once Tarin made eye contact with Robert and just shrugged. If this wasn’t an object lesson on just how strong Lee was, he didn’t know what was.

The noise upstairs had moved right above them and Tarin could hear the sledge hammers taking down walls and whatever else.

When he brought up the spirits to Lee she immediately caught on and Tarin nodded thoughtfully. ”Quite a bit, and they’re being pushy.” he said, ”Just make sure your brother doesn’t think I’m crazy over here talking to myself.” he said, then reached out to the couple of spirits that were closest. It wasn’t a full connection but enough to instruct them to come closer.

Once they were close enough, Tarin studied the two. The men were definitely blue collar guys, maybe in construction.

”What’s up that you needed to get in here so bad?”

”You guys need to get outta here.” The first one said and Tarin rolled his eyes a little, ”You guys need to move on, this isn’t your place anymore…”

The sounds upstairs continued, bits of dust falling down as more hammer falls sounded.

”No, it ain’t about that, building wasn’t built to code. Tons of rot in the supports…”

”What?” Tarin said, say that again…

They had quite a bit of company, Lee wondered. She nodded as Tarin asked her to make sure that Robert didn’t think that he was crazy and talking to himself. Though, if Robert actually thought that knowing what Tarin’s powers were, well, Lee had wondered about this intelligence a few times.

The weird thing was not that Tarin appeared to be talking to himself, but rather the fact that he was actually interacting with the spirits at all. Other than the woman on the Empire State Building, Lee really hadn’t seen Tarin willingly interact with any. He’d told her before that he was generally able to keep them at a distance and they didn’t bother him.

Unless he invited them.

So Lee was quite curious about what was so important that Tarin was speaking with these spirits.

Unfortunately, the side of the conversation that Lee could hear told her absolutely nothing.

”What?”

Lee waited a moment, then another as she stared at Tarin. ”What are they saying? What’s going on?”

”The whole things gonna come down like a house of cards. You need to get your people outta here.” the spirit said, expanding on his earlier comment.

Another smack and thud, more dust from the ceiling and Tarin looked up as somewhat loud creaks and pops started to sound through the kitchen.

”What are they saying? What’s going on?”

Tarin looked over at Lee, close enough that he probably could have reached out and touched her if he’d wanted. Back to the spirits he looked as they looked too.

”Too late…it’s coming down…” the spirit said as cracks started to form in the ceiling.

From there, things moved very very quickly.

Tarin made eye contact with Lee, ”I love you.” he said, then made the connection with the spirits.

”Get them out of here.” he said, channeling as much energy as he could manage into the two spirits who blazed out of the room, one snagging Lee and one snagging Robert as the entire floor above them and part of the roof above that started to collapse inward and Tarin dove for the little alcove in which the refrigerator had once stood.

She’d asked Tarin what was going on, what the spirits had said. And he’d looked over at her, but he didn’t say anything before he turned his eyes back to what she could only assume was a spirit.

And yet, still nothing to explain to Lee what in the world was going on with the spirits Tarin had felt compelled to speak with. It seemed almost as though it was getting dustier in the kitchen, but they had been moving a lot of things around which had kicked up a lot of dust. It had been at least this dusty when doing the reconstruction in Columbia. Lee would make sure they brought something to cover their faces the nex-

”I love you.”

Lee’s eyes widened as she stared straight back into Tarin’s eyes. It was a surprise to hear, though she’d known. But why was he…

”Get them out of here.”

”No! Tarin don’t!” Lee exclaimed even as she felt arms suddenly appear around her, pulling her from the room.

”Tarin!” Lee yelled as she saw Tarin start moving, in the opposite direction, as more dust and…pieces of the building…started falling. A split second later, Lee lost sight of the kitchen as she was pulled around the corner.

Only then did Lee turn, seeing that Robert and herself were being quickly pulled outside by two spirits as a good half of the building they were in was collapsing. ”Tarin!” Lee yelled again as she started to fight against the hold the spirit had on her.

For a few moments everything was noise, dust, and pain as Tarin crashed into the wall inside the alcove. He’d seen the spirits hit Lee and Robert, surely they’d gotten out.

It felt like things fell forever and as Tarin curled into a ball he could feel things bouncing and crashing into him, until it was finally silent.

For a few moments, Tarin just stayed where he was, trying to catch his breath and figure out if he was okay. He hurt everywhere, and he’d definitely knocked himself in the head when he’d dove for the wall. He shifted and groaned and tried to sit up and only made it about halfway before he bumped into something.

Debris had bridged the space over him and turned the alcove into something like a cave. A cave smaller enough that he couldn’t sit fully up, couldn’t stretch his legs fully out, and could only stretch out one arm at a time.

Every now and then Tarin could hear things shifting and it was very dark.

Was it already getting stuffy? Was there air coming in or was there too much debris piled on him for air to make it though?

Taking a deep shaky breath and letting it out, Tarin realized he was in trouble.

Because the spirit holding her was unable to feel pain, and had managed to get a solid lock around her as it dragged her out of the building, Lee was unable to free herself from its grip. Lee was, however, slowly dragging the two of them back to the dust filled doorway they had just come out of.

”God damn it, Tarin!” Lee exclaimed, not quite as loud as she had been yelling. And also not aware of the tears that were rolling down her cheeks through the dust and dirt. ”Let me go!”

Lee made it about another foot fighting against the spirit before suddenly the arms latched around her middle disappeared.

And Lee fell face first onto the ground as there was suddenly no resistance struggling. Instantly, Lee was scrambling to her feet.

Only to run straight into Robert.

Trying to move around him, Lee found that Robert was following her, his hands on her shoulders. ”You can’t go back in there, Em,” Robert said as he looked down at her sister as he fought to keep himself between her and the building. ”It’s not safe.”

”That’s why I need to go back, Bobby,” Lee said, oblivious to the fact that the tears were coming heavier. ”I need to find Tarin.”

The air was not getting stale. The space was not getting smaller. He could breathe. He could think. Tarin chanted the words, almost like a mantra as he sat in the little space listening to the creaking of wood and debris shifting around him.

His claustrophobia had been getting worse since the day in the Empire State Building. The elevator at the apartment was next to impossible to tolerate and small rooms that were unfamiliar had been making him sweat. He hadn’t said anything though, he’d thought he could work through it.

”The air is not getting stale…the space is not getting smaller…” his voice sounded hoarse and strangled, even to him.

Tarin could remember the exposure training being pulled from bed in the middle of the night and shoved into a footlocker just a month after he’d come to New York. They’d drilled air holes in it, but it had been so dark and so tight. He’d panicked and scratched his nails bloody trying to get free. By the time they’d opened the lid he’d been half wild, hoarse for days from screaming, and afraid to sleep for a week.

Tarin could feel that familiar panic welling in his chest, like he was going to scream. He had to hold it together though.

Lee, had he managed to get Lee out? Was she safe? He could see her, the wide eyed look of shock on her face when he’d told her that he loved her. He should have taken that picture, he realized…then a thought occurred to him.

Shifting as much as he could and groaning at a hundred sore spots that showed themselves, Tarin managed to dig into his pocket for his phone…but it was smashed to bits and the display wouldn’t even come on.

”Dammit…”