Robert stared at his sister as she got up and left not just the room, but the entire apartment without so much as a glance toward him after she had asked Tarin go explain this, whatever this was, to him. As he heard the door close, Robert turned to look at the man who he was now left alone with, not quite glaring, but really not far off.

Before Robert was able to say anything, Tarin spoke, trying to explain to him how this proved that it was hard for Lee to talk about.

Robert shook his head. ”If it’s so hard for her to talk about, and she hasn’t been able to tell her family in all these years, then why do you know? You’ve only been around weeks.”

Tarin just sighed when Robert spoke. So much for making it easy. ”Months now, actually.” he said.

”But to answer your question…I don’t know, Robert. You’ll have to ask her that. I just know that when Lee told Rachel about this, Rachel had a hard time believing the story and trying to convince Rachel was too much.”

There was no way Tarin wanted this to turn into a pissing contest. ”I don’t need you to like me, but you have to know how hard it is for your sister to accept help like this, so please just let me explain.”

Robert huffed slightly when Tarin pointed out how hard it was for Lee to ask for help. Even when she had been barely able to move because of her broken collar bone, and when she had had literally nowhere else to go after she’d gotten out of the camp, she had barely been able to ask him for any kind of help.

And it annoyed Robert how well Tarin already knew that to be true.

”Alright, so what was so hard for Rachel to believe that our sister can’t talk about?” Robert asked, crossing his arms across his chest as he turned on the couch to look at Tarin more directly. ”And how are you in a position to understand something that happened years before you were even here?”

Tarin hated sitting there with baited breath, waiting to see if Robert would allow him to tell him Lee’s story. Tarin did it though, he didn’t even get impatient as he waited because Lee needed him to do this. Hell, he’d do this a thousand times to avoid the look that had been on Lee’s face when Rachel had questioned the validity of the story.

Robert finally agreed to listen and Tarin took a deep breath.

”When Lee went in with the resistance group to help get everyone out, it was an absolute bloodbath.” Tarin said slowly and carefully, ”Right about the time they found the other Tarin and the rest of their people Lee got shot.” .

This was hard to talk about. Tarin paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. ”She was hit right in the chest and she died.”

”The reason that I have such a unique perspective is that whenever I connect with a spirit I can see and, to a degree, feel what they went through when they died. What your sister explained to Rachel is exactly what happens.”

Tarin paused there, but not for long because he wanted to get the whole story out before Robert could respond. ”She’s not sure exactly what happened next, but the other Tarin merged with a healer that was there and somehow they brought her back. I don’t know the details, she hasn’t shared them.”

Looking back across the couch at Robert, Tarin shrugged, ”There are others who can corroborate the story. You can’t see her face when she tells the story and do anything but believe her though. Rachel found out the hard way and I didn’t want her to have to tell it again.”

As Tarin started speaking, Robert tensed. His sister had been shot, while in a registration camp in another country, and she hadn’t thought to even mention it to him?

That wasn’t the end of it, not by a long shot.

Robert just sat staring at the other man, his face growing more shocked by each thing that he was told about his sister.

And he just continued to stare at Tarin after he had finished speaking, simply trying to process the information.

His sister. Had died.

Not dying, she had died. Of course he had seen how much difficulty she had been having the longer the conversation had been going on, but Robert had thought that was because of the issues he had with Tarin; she always got upset when they were talking about him.

”I thought merges were dangerous, all they did was hurt her.”

Tarin shook his head when Robert finally spoke.

”I think that until that point they always were.” Tarin said quietly. ”I don’t know if it was because that’s what he needed so that’s what happened, or if it was because the other guy was a healer.”

Tarin shrugged ”Lee honestly knows more about it than I do though. Until she told me about it I didn’t know it was a thing that could happen.”

The silence hung between the two of them for a minute and Tarin finally took a deep breath, ”I know it’s hard to believe all of it, but when Lee says she can take care of herself, she’s right.”

Tarin paused for a second and sighed, ”You’re right too though. She does walk right into things…”

Tarin didn’t wasn’t very sure about how or why things had happened how they had, why this apparent merge had saved his sister when every other one (and probably even more that he didn’t know about) had hurt her.

”You actually believe all of these things?” Robert asked after a minute. ”I’m not disregarding what you just told me, but…as you said, all of it is very hard to believe.

“How is it even possible for her to have done some of the things that she’s said? The two of you haven’t gone out and done any of these crazy things, have you? So how do you know so certainly that she can take care of herself?”

Robert sat there in silence for another few moments shaking his head. It was all just so hard to believe. Even more so trying to picture his little sister doing it.

Tarin just stared at Robert for a moment when he spoke ”Why wouldn’t I believe her? Tarin said, “Your sister is the most honest, open, and kind person I think I have ever met. Why would she tell anything other than the truth? Besides, you’ve seen the video and I’ve seen her spar and train a few times.” He wasn’t going to mention the way he knew first hand that Lee was every bit as strong and capable as she said.

As for the rest, Tarin sighed. “Where I come from it is not safe for mutants to live very openly. There weren’t camps or registration acts, but it was far safer to keep a very low profile. I’m very risk averse. Lee also wouldn’t do anything to put Kevin at risk so she hasn’t even done any volunteering stuff for a long time.”

He shrugged at Robert, ”She had mentioned missing making a difference and I saw the fliers for the building thing. Thought it was a way to do something local that was safe…”

There had been so much tension between the two of them since they had reconnected that Robert hadn’t been able to see that part of her as much, but it sounded exactly like Tarin was describing the Emily that he had grown up with.

But it wasn’t so much that Robert thought she had lied about anything she had told him; it was that it was all so to believe. Even with seeing the video that Kevin had shown him countless times.

Tarin was answering every one of his questions, and as much as he was predispositioned to him, it was obvious that the man was telling the truth.

That wasn’t the only thing that was obvious as he continued speaking. He’d found out about the building project, something that should have been safe, as a way for Lee to make a difference and help.

Robert sat there eying Tarin for another moment. He hated the idea. ”You really care about her, don’t you?” He finally asked.

Robert was quiet for a long time as Tarin spoke and as the quiet stretched out Tarin started to feel self-conscious. Had Robert believed what Tarin had told him? How was Robert going to react to Lee when she got home from getting her coffee?

When Robert finally spoke again he asked a question that was both incredibly easy for Tarin to answer and incredibly difficult for him to answer.

”More than anything.” he said as honestly and directly as he could, looking Robert right in the eyes. There wasn’t anything else to say.

”More than anything.”

Yup, Robert hated it. Hated it just as much as he had with the other Tarin.

But he had tried encouraging her to leave, tried forcing her to. All that had done in the past was add to the tension between them. And in the shop when he had tried, she’d actually hit him.

That, plus everything he had heard about that day…Lee could obviously take care of herself better than he had ever imagined.

Still…

”Speaking of that building project,” Robert said. ”What was that after he had dug you out? Lee practically shoved me away from the two of you.”

Well. Things had been going well.

Robert wanted to know what had happened at the building site.

Tarin took a deep breath, ”I’m claustrophobic.” Tarin explained, ”And it was really tight in there. I’ve never had a merge like the one Lee described happen before.”

Tarin paused for a minute, not wanting to admit this to Robert.

”I don’t know for sure, but I felt really weird and was worried that it would happen if anyone touched me.” he admitted.

”So I made sure nobody did until I was sure it was okay.”

Robert’s body tensed up as he listened to Tarin. One of those merges could have happened then, and Lee had been right there.

Robert was shaking his head as Tarin finished speaking. ”You were going to, and you let Lee stay that close without even warning her?”

----

The conversation with Robert had been getting very uncomfortably close to how she had died in Romania. But Tarin had suggested that she take a walk, and had offered to tell Robert while she was out of the apartment.

So she had left , walking a couple blocks to get a coffee. And, short though it was, the walk outside had helped. Plus, coffee had always been comforting. Lee wasn’t sure why she hadn’t thought to have had some for the whole talk with Robert.

Walking up to her apartment door, Lee hesitated outside. This part of the talk with Rachel hadn’t taken nearly this long. But then again, it had gotten to be too much and Lee had gone to the kitchen before Tarin sent Rachel home. What if they weren’t finished yet?

Lee shook her head slightly to herself. Tarin had had more than enough time to explain. If Robert couldn’t understand, that was on him. She, they, had tried.

Taking a deep breath, Lee opened the door and walked in, closing the door a little more loudly than normal while making her way toward the living room more slowly.

”I did warn her.” Tarin said, shrugging slightly. ”That’s why I said you were right about her walking into things.”

Lee’s keys rattled in the lock and the door opened and Tarin, coward that he was, was relieved when the door shut a little more loudly than normal.

”You can ask her yourself.” he said, ”But, I think you’d be smarter to talk to her about other things.”

”You can ask her yourself.” he said, ”But, I think you’d be smarter to talk to her about other things.”

The simple fact that Tarin was suggesting that Robert ask her about something told Lee that they were finished speaking about the topic she’d left to avoid. Lee had to admit, she was curious about what else the two men would have started talking about while she was gone. Especially since it still sounded rather…well ‘friendly’ was the wrong word, but things didn’t feel nearly as tense as they normally did when Robert was in the same room as Tarin.

”Ask me about what?” Lee asked as she quickened her pace into the living room, sitting back in the chair as she glanced back and forth between them.