”What are two lovely ladies doing all the way over here by yourselves?”

Lee didn’t even look at the man who had stepped up to their table, she simply rolled her eyes as she looked at Rachel.

”And without drinks at that? My name is Tristan. And you beauties are?” When neither Lee or Rachel answered, he continued speaking. ”What are you two of you drinking tonight? I happen to know the owner, so if you want, I can get us the real top shelf stuff they don’t normally serve here.”

Lee’s face took on an expression of faux surprise as she looked over at Rachel. ”Did you hear that? He knows the owner. Can you believe that?” Only then did Lee turn to look at the man who had decided to approach them, any and all indications of surprise or interest gone. ”We’re not interested, and our drinks are already taken care of.”

”Oh, do you have some other friends here for a ladies night? Like I said, I know the owner, I can hook us all up.”

Well, if nothing else Tarin was making much better progress getting back to the table than he had when he went to go get the beers.

Eyeing the table where Lee and Rachel were, Tarin couldn’t help but notice the man who had walked up in the absence of himself and Matt and Tarin had to chuckle a bit to himself. That was a terrible idea.

Tarin wasn’t really the jealous type, and he knew that Lee could absolutely handle herself with the creep that was still trying his luck with Lee and her sister. He was still a little ways away, but Tarin honestly couldn’t wait to see what happened next. The second Lee needed or asked for help, he’d be there…but that was unlikely to happen.

_____

”Come on. Let me buy you ladies a drink. Clearly you’re being neglected, you don’t even have anything”..

This guy clearly did not know how to take a hint. Even when said hint was a blatant and obvious no. The only thing more obvious would have been a flashing neon sign.

Taking a deep breath, Lee looked over at this guy again, a look of complete annoyance on her face, though her voice was calm as she spoke. ”First of all, we said ‘no, we’re not interested’. That should have been the end of it right there.


“Second, if you actually knew the owner, you’d know that he wouldn’t be accepting of this kind of behaviour in his bar. Even more so from someone he ‘knows’. Hell, he didn’t accept this kind of behaviour in this bar before he owned it.”

Not even pausing long enough for this guy, Tristan? To be able to interject, Lee continued. ”Third, she’s the owner’s girlfriend,” Lee said, pointing across the table at Rachel. And seeing a look of pure shock on her face as she glanced over before turning back to the guy. ”I’m his business manager, and you clearly do not know the owner. Now, I think it’s time for you to leave.”

While he had been pushy before, now the man was looking angry. “Bitch. You can’t tell me what to do.”

”Lee! What are you doing?!?”

While Rachel sounded nervous, Lee didn’t even spare a glance over at her younger sister this time. ”In here, actually, I can. Now are you going to do this the easy way and walk out the door on your own? Or are you going to cause a scene and make me deal with you before the bouncers manage to get here?”

Lee paused, her eyes unfocused for a moment as she paid attention to something that was not directly in front of her. ”Oh, and decide quickly. My boyfriend’s back with my beer.” Lee indicated vaguely over her shoulder without looking. “And I’d much rather be drinking it than doing all of this.”

Lee watched as the man looked past her. She couldn’t know for sure whether he knew who Lee was talking about; she didn’t dare take her eyes off of Tristan to look for Tarin herself. But guessing what he’d look like at that moment, carrying three beers, Lee could only assume the man could pick him out from the crowd.

“Oh, is he too chicken shit to come over?” He asked, continuing to stare over Lee’s shoulder for a moment before turning his eyes back to her. ”He looks like he would be.”

”Not at all,” Lee replied as she slid out of her chair to stand in front of him. Not noticing that Rachel was looking like she was about to panic, frantically looking around the bar for the bouncers or Matt, since Tarin could clearly see what was going on and was just standing back.

”He knows I can take care of myself, and will enjoy watching me deal with your pathetic ass far more than stepping in himself. Now, get moving or I’ll make you move.”

“I’m not going anywhere, bitch. I don’t hit women, but for you…” He was pissed, Lee could tell by the look on his face. And by the fact that as he finished speaking, he very obviously pulled his arm back for a punch.

It was only now that the bouncers were realizing that something more than talking was happening at their table. A few of them had previously taken note of the man who’d approached after Tarin and Matt had left, but Lee hadn’t called them over and appeared calm, so to them it had just looked like a conversation.

”Oh, don’t worry, you won’t be hitting me,” Lee told Tristan even as she was dodging out of the way of his fist. Though she may have been moving slightly faster than the average human.

And then she dodged a second punch. ”I’ve had enough of this,” Lee said as a third punch was thrown. Grabbing his arm, Lee pulled him even further forward, letting go as she tripped him.

As the man hit the floor, Lee turned and knelt with one of her knees in the small of his back as she grabbed his arm again and pulled it behind his back.

Yeah…this guy was making a huge mistake.

Tarin could see Lee getting more and more angry as he approached with the beers and the guy who had walked up to the table refused to take a simple no for an answer.

When no didn’t work, the man switched to insults. Typical and boring and simply unimpressive. Tarin had never really understood that tactic. It not only destroyed any chance there’d been with the original woman, but anyone else who saw the way you were behaving wanted anything to do with you after the fact. It was a total bust on the night.

This guy apparently needed to learn the hard way though.

Lee mentioned him and Tarin grinned as he made his final approach with the beers. Lee had been able to pick him out from the crowd again. That was so cool, Tarin thought even as the asshole took a verbal shot at him. Did he really look chicken? How did one look chicken when they were carrying three beers?

Lee was right anyway. Tarin was going to enjoy this next part. A lot. Lee kicking absolute ass in that outfit was going to be seared into his mind for years.

It didn’t really matter now thought because the bouncers were starting to move and the asshole
was throwing punches. At Lee.

Now that had Tarin paying attention as he come up beside Rachel and set down the beers.

”Aren’t you going to do anything?” she said and Tarin shook his head. ”Watch. I’d just be in the way.” he said as Lee slipped past all of the punches and used the man’s size against him to pull him to the ground.

The bouncers were arriving now, taking over from where Lee had the man pinned. ”See.” he said, ”Our job is to have her beer ready and tell her how amazing she is.”

”Get off of me, bitch!”

”Now why would I do that before the bouncers get over here?” Lee asked, digging her knee into his back as he moved under her.

”Are you alright Lee?”

Lee looked up to see one of the bouncers standing above her, another approaching through the crowd that was looking in her direction. ”You didn’t call us over, so I didn’t think…until the punch.”

Now that the bouncers were there, and they clearly knew and listened to Lee, Tristan was silent.

”It’s alright John. Just get him out of here,” Lee said, putting a little extra pressure on Tristan’s shoulder as she got up. ”I don’t want to see him in here again. I’ll pull stills on Monday.”

”Of course. We’ll take care of him.”

As John and the other bouncer leaned down to haul Tristan to his feet, on each of his arms, Lee turned around to see that Tarin was at the table with Rachel.

With the beers.

”Good. I was hoping I was right about you being back, but didn’t dare take my eyes off him at that point with this many others around,” Lee said as she walked the short distance back to the table.

The bouncers got through the crowd much better than Tarin had and they were much larger than he was .

If it wasn’t specifically their job to move like that, Tarin might have been a bit jealous. As it was, when they relieved Lee of her burden and she stood to make her way back to the table, Tarin just smiled and handed her and Rachel their beers.

Rachel, meanwhile, was gaping a bit at her sister. Tarin nudged Rachel a bit with his elbow and the woman jumped. ”You're forgetting our second job.” he said quietly.

”That was amazing!” Rachel said, and Tarin’s smile grew to a grin. ”There you go.” he said, then made his way back around the table to Lee.

”That really was amazing.” he said, ”Sorry I didn’t help, I knew that guy’s night was about to be ruined and I didn’t want to add insult to injury by shattering his image of your chicken shit boyfriend. You good though?”

Lee smiled in thanks as Tarin handed over her beer and she immediately took a sip.

Rachel, however…Rachel was still just sitting there, staring at her in shock. Until Tarin nudged her with his elbow.

And despite the fact that she had just taken a man down in a bar ‘fight‘ without breaking a sweat and with very little apparent effort, Lee blushed slightly when first Rachel, then Tarin said that she'd been amazing.

”Me? Yeah, I'm fine,” Lee replied, her voice still calm, and surprisingly close to how relaxed it had been prior to Tarin leaving to get drinks ”Like I told him, he didn't touch me. Are you ok, Rach? You were freaking out a bit there.”

“What the hell was that?” Turning her head as she was taking another sip, Lee saw Matt approaching the table.

Tarin nodded, eying Rachel as she tried to wrap her head around what her sister had just done.

Lee said she was fine and Tarin nodded, ”Good then.” he said, moving closer, but giving Lee her space in case the adrenaline was still flowing.

Lee was asking Rachel if she was okay and Tarin almost found it funny. Lee was the one who had been in harm's way…even if the actual threat had been very minimal.

Rachel was nodding her head slowly, and took a long drink from her beer. ”You really do know how to fight.” Rachel said.

”Like she said.” Tarin said, but he was looking down at Lee when he said it with a proud smile on his face.

“What the hell was that?” Matt said as he made his way back to the table.

”Lee being amazing…and in those heels”

Tarin moved closer to her after Lee had said that she was alright. Closer, but not as close as he had been before going to get the beer. So as she watched Rachel and waited for her answer, Lee moved over and closed almost all of the distance between her and Tarin, stopping with less than an inch between them without looking.

Rachel was fine, but somehow still surprised that Lee could actually fight. Even after everything they had gone over in the file Lee had created. Tarin, however, just sounded proud? Looking up at him with a smile, the blush came back as she saw the look on his face as he was smiling at her.

Then there was Matt’s question. And while Tarin’s response made the blush intensify slightly, Lee expanded on it. ”That was someone claiming to know the owner as they hit on your girlfriend.”

Lee then took a breath and shook her head in confusion. ”But seriously. What do you all think I’ve been doing going to an MMA gym to train for 6 years? Run on a treadmill?”

Lee moved closer and when she did, Tarin closed the space between them and slid his arm behind her back and around her waist.

She was blushing at his praise and Tarin just kept looking down at her and smiling, holding her close.

Matt was back and Tarin didn’t look away from Lee as she explained the situation to the other man.

“We have bouncers for a reason, Lee.”

”They got through the crowd way better than I did.”

Then Lee was being exasperated because once again Rachel seemed disbelieving of Lee’s prowess.

”She’s taken down men way stronger and better trained than that amateur.”

”I realize that, Matt. And I did start by just telling him to leave. But if anything happens again, I'll let the bouncers handle everything.” Then she added quietly ”if I'm in a pencil skirt.”

And then Tarin went on to tell Matt that essentially this had been nothing for her. Which, well, was true. Lee simply shrugged as she looked over at Matt. ”I could have taken him down on his first punch, but I thought he’d either stop or that one of the bouncers would have gotten here faster.”

Lee leaned against Tarin slightly as she took a sip of her beer.

“You’ve taken down…” Matt started, looking at Lee almost as though he didn’t know the woman standing in front of him. “How often do you do stuff like this?”

”Not that often,” Lee replied. ”And other than the occasional sparring match, it’s not like I go out looking for trouble. But trouble, apparently beyond belief,” Lee’s eyes darted over to Rachel as she said this. ”Tends to like finding me.”

Why was it always so hard for the people closest to Lee to wrap their heads around the fact that she could do some pretty amazing things?

Now Matt was looking at Lee like she was someone he didn’t know. Looking down at Lee again, Tarin tried to figure it out. It was the easiest thing in the world for him to believe that Lee did amazing things.

The rest was true too though. With a few notable exceptions, Lee hadn’t ever seemed to go out looking for trouble. Lee had simply found herself in trouble more often than not.

Rachel caught Lee’s look at her and nodded. ”It sounds like it does.” she agreed.

Well, that was something, Tarin supposed.

Matt just shook his head. “Yeah, try to let the bouncers do their job.”

”Of course, Matt,” Lee replied. Which should be pretty easy to do, Lee thought. Trouble didn’t generally find her here. Even when everything else in her life was out of control and going wrong in this bar things always seemed to remain…normal. The worst she generally had to worry about here was some guy hitting on her (and then taking no for an actual answer).

”Though, speaking of sparring,” said as she turned to look at Tarin. ”We should probably try to get that in at least once more before Kevin gets home because he’s going to want to go to the gym almost immediately.”

”Why are the two of you sparring together?” Rachel asked. ”Tarin just said that he’d be in your way if he had tried to help you.”

Tarin supposed it was a fair request for Matt to make when he asked Lee to let the bouncers handle things next time. Matt couldn’t have customers fighting. Nobody wanted to go to a bar like that. Bouncers were expected to take care of issues.

Lee brought up the sparring and Tarin nodded, ”Just let me know when and where.” he said, knowing Lee was probably right about Kevin.

Rachel asked why he and Lee were sparring and Tarin shook his head.

”Oh, I don’t fight.” Tarin said, taking another drink. ”I would absolutely be in the way.”

Tarin looked to Lee to see how much she wanted to say about the whole thing.

Lee nodded when Tarin said to just let him know when. But before she was able to say anything, Rachel asked about Tarin sparring with her.

”Yeah, Tarin generally keeps his distance, but for this sparring match, it’s absolutely necessary for him to be there.” Lee turned to look at Tarin only to see him looking back at her.

Giving a bit of a shrug, Lee looked back toward Rachel and Matt. ”I had complained about never getting a challenge the rare times I could get one of the guys at the gym to spar with me,” she explained. ”So Tarin went and found someone who’d…” Lee glanced back at Tarin to make sure she was describing it properly. ”The underground fight scene?”

After waiting for what he said, Lee turned back to Rachel and continued. ”With Tony not feeling pain because he’s already dead, I don’t have to actually hold back with my powers when we spar. And Tony hasn’t pulled any punches either, so it’s been a great challenge. For once.”