Laying down on the hospital bed Lee stared up at the ceiling as DocProf started his poking and prodding. They'd talked about this, how she'd been forced to see doctor after doctor when she was young. How she'd been poked and prodded, stabbed countless times with needles to take blood and have IVs. She'd been tested for who knows how many illnesses and conditions.

They'd talked about this just on the drive to the mansion and how she didn't like doctors.

But Lee had told Tarin that he could fuss, a bit, which is all he'd done, and that she was doing better, trying to do better with getting help. So Lee just lay there focusing on her slow, steady breathing as she felt DocProf’s fingers touching and pushing each rib.

Until one of those pokes hurt, and Lee inhaled sharply before she could even think about stopping it.

”It hurts there?”

Lee nodded without looking at him. ”Yeah, it does,’ she admitted.

Watching Lee as she laid back and stared at the ceiling, Tarin felt a small twinge of guilt at the fact that he’d kind of pushed her into all of this. They had just talked about their mutual dislike of Doctors and this sort of thing.

So yeah, he felt kind of bad.

Until the Doctor pushed on a spot on Lee’s side and she gasped in pain. Suddenly Tarin didn’t feel bad anymore. Suddenly, Tarin almost felt panicked. They’d been so close to just going home. Not only had Lee ended up having at least one broken bone in her hand, she had a bruised or broken rib too.

Broken ribs were tricky, they could seem pretty benign, and then cause huge problems. People could think they’d bruised their ribs, then suddenly not be able to breathe. From there it could get worse. Tarin had seen it get worse.

Crossing his arms, Tarin took a deep breath as he watched the doctor work. Today had been different from the first time Lee had asked him to facilitate a sparring match with a spirit. Today she’d felt like she had something to prove. Lee was an excellent fighter though, and she was smart. Lee would learn from this and he’d have to trust her to do so…but she was just going to have to put up with his fussing. This was not the place for that conversation though.

”I don’t think there was anything else.” He said.

DocProf finished his examination of her ribs, but that had been the only place that there was pain. And the whole time Lee continued to state at the ceiling. Even when DocProf gently placed his hand over that rub and Lee felt the warmth as his healing worked.

Only as he took his hand away, it felt just marginally better, not like every other time he had healed her and the pain was gone. Lee frowned, finally moving her eyes as she looked at DocProf in confusion.

”It’s mostly just bruised,” he said in explanation as he stepped back to give Lee room to sit up. Which she did immediately. ”There was the slightest bit of a hairline fracture, small enough that it likely wouldn't have been seen on X-ray. That is healed, but the bruising is going to continue to hurt.”

Lee nodded. Soreness was fine, she had expected to be sore for a few days at least already, even before she had sparred. But the fact that she'd technically had a broken hand and rib…Lee didn't think Tarin was going to let her forget that any time soon.

And as she looked over at him she realized he was looking none too happy, standing there with his arms folded in front of him.

”I honestly think that is all, doc,” Lee said as she looked over at the older man.

DocProf looked at Lee for a couple moments before he spoke. ”If there is anything that makes you start worrying.” He then shook his head before correcting himself. ”Causes either of you to worry, you come back, alright Ms Smith?”

The Doctor did his healing thing again and explained that Lee was mostly just bruised. Tarin let out a little sigh of relief at the news and the vice grip in his chest loosened a little bit. It hadn’t been near disaster that they’d courted, but it was still scary that there’d been more serious injuries lurking there than either of them had realized.

Lee looked over at him and Tarin was not glowering, not the tiniest bit, he was worried. And relieved.

The Doctor had said that Lee was going to be sore, and Tarin supposed that was reasonable. The Doctor also seemed to be studying Lee a bit more intently than he had been previously. Then the Doctor commented that they should come back if there was anything that worried either of them.

Tarin nodded, ”Don’t worry.” he said, ”We’ll be back if we need to be.”

Tarin confirmed that if there was anything else worrying, that they would be back. DocProf nodded to Tarin. ”I’m glad she has you looking out for her, Mr Brooks,” DocProf said before turning back to Lee. ”I will be in my office if you need anything before you leave, Ms Smith.”

With that, the man stepped away from the bed and walked to the back of the infirmary where his office was tucked away.

After he'd gone about ten feet, Lee looked over at Tarin before reaching for him to gently pull him closer to her.

Lee's eyes dropped to her hand on Tarin's arm, the one that had been hurt. Her injuries hadn't been major, but they had been worse than she'd thought. ” Thank you,” she said softly, only looking up at his face once the words were out of her mouth.

The Doctor spoke again and Tarin just kind of blinked, stunned into staring at the older man’s back as he made his way back towards the office. Up until this point, nobody but Lee had said anything to suggest that his involvement with Lee was a good thing. In fact, most of the people in Lee’s life had seemed dubious about the idea…at least from Tarin’s perspective. Rachel was an exception…but that was Rachel.

The Doctor continued to walk away and then Lee was reaching out and pulling Tarin closer, he moved easily as she pulled and sat down on the edge of the bed again.

Then Lee was thanking him and Tarin shook his head, ”I’m sorry.” he said, ”I know you hate all of that…”

He did know that and he’d kind of pushed, but Tarin took a deep breath, ”But it could have been so much worse.”

”Next time…we need to plan better.” he said carefully.

Tarin moved closer easily when she pulled on his arm, and when he sat beside her, she leaned her head against his shoulder.

She really did hate what had happened. Well, the hand hasn't been so bad, really not much different from when Tarin had taken a look at it. And when DocProf had healed her rib was alright, though Lee did wish more of the pain from the bruise had left. But the actual poking…

”It was worse than I thought it was, than it felt like it was…” she said as she wrapped both of her arms around his that she was leaning into. ”I know I've teased you about the fussing, but…thank you.”

They had to plan better for the next time? Lee straightened up a bit so she could look up at Tarin. ”I’m not planning on any more punches like that.”

Lee was thanking him again and as she wrapped her arms around his arm.

”I just…” he said, staring out into space a little bit.

”I’ve seen people think they were okay… Have thought people were okay, and they weren’t.” he said, leaning his head against Lee’s as they sat there in the Mansion infirmary.

Lee leaned away a bit and Tarin could tell that she was looking up at him, so he turned to look down at her as she said she wasn’t planning to punch anything that hard again.

Tarin nodded, relaxing just a fraction. ”Okay.” he said.

”You feeling okay now?”

Tarin had seen, had thought, that people were in and it turned out they weren't. Lee tightened her arms around Tarin's. She knew exactly why those people had been hurt, and even that bit of thinking about that, it made Lee angry.

Before he'd shared that, Lee had been thinking that she should take Tarin's opinions on whether she should be looked at by a doctor or not.

But Tarin was asking if she felt ok, and Lee nodded. ”I really am,” she told him with a small smile. ”I just want to get home with you. And I probably should ice a couple of these spots soon.”

Lee’s arms tightened around his, and Tarin sighed a little bit. It wasn’t particularly fair that his issues spilled over and Lee ended up in situations she didn’t like. Tonight though, it had paid off…

Lee was ready to go though and when she smiled, Tarin smiled back and nodded. The doctor had said that Lee was going to be sore, and getting ice on the sore spots as soon as was practical was going to be important to head the worst of it off at the pass.

”Let’s go then.” he said, standing up, but keeping Lee’s hand in his.

Tarin agreed that they should head home. Lee just sat there beside him for another moment before she slid off the bed and was about to grab her bag when she had a thought.

Turning to look at Tarin. ”I can go ask where the stairs are,” she offered. Because she really didn’t have an issue if they had to take the stairs, she just hadn’t been able to, and still couldn’t remember where those stairs were.

”Then when we get home, you can start fussing and making sure I’m doing everything I need to.”

Lee pointed out that she could go and ask about the stairs and Tarin sighed. He really wanted to tell her that it was fine, that he was fine, that it was stupid that this was something that they even had to talk about. It was a damn elevator for God’s sake and he was a grown man.

It wasn’t that he thought it was dangerous in the elevator. Hell, half this place had just been rebuilt. It was literally a safe haven for a militaristic group of vigilantes that included a… Tarin stopped thinking for a second as an idea occurred to him and he remembered the contact details he’d obtained when he’d come on the tour of the Mansion with Kevin and Lee.

Still. How much of a hypocrite was he if he refused to admit that there was an issue there?

Realizing that he’d just been standing there thinking, Tarin shrugged as casually as possible, ”Either way is fine. It’s not very far.” Besides, the hallway was just as bad and they’d probably have to walk through more of it to get to the stairs.

”And good. Because I fully intend to fuss all night.”

According to Tarin’s words, either way was ‘fine’. But she had seen him on the way down the elevator just a short time ago as well as the night before when she had needed to distract him to help keep him calm. He was clearly not fine in the elevator.

As she was stepping past Tarin, her bag still where she had set it, Lee heard him say that he was intending to fuss all night. ”Good,” she said softly, a small smile on her face as she made her way back to DocProf’s office.

It didn’t take long to ask the single question, and a minute later Lee was returning. ”Alright, let’s go,” she said as she went to grab her bag so she could lead the way to the stairs.

Tarin left it up to Lee, so of course they were going to take the stairs for his benefit. As she walked back to the office to ask how to find said stairs, Tarin sighed a little bit thinking he should have just said that the elevator would be fine.

It would have been fine. It was going to be fine.

The problem was that all of these issues with tight spaces had started coming up again after Lee had come across him in the park and Tarin didn’t know what to do other than just pushing through until things got better.

That’s how it had worked before, and he’d done well for years. Hadn’t had any issues…at least none that were so plainly obvious.

Until that day at the Empire State Building where it had felt like he was a kid all over again.

Lee was coming back now and Tarin gave her a slight smile, then picked up the bag she’d been going for and slung it over his own shoulder.

”All night starts now.” he commented, then followed her out of the infirmary and towards the stairs.