For a few minutes after Michael left the shop, Tarin just sat at the table, thinking.

The whole interaction had been a bit surreal and now that it was over the impact of what had just happened was starting to sink in.

There was a somewhat ancient being who was looking for someone in the city. This being was willing to commit acts of destruction to accomplish what it wanted.

This same spirit was able to forcibly remove spirits from its presence, and it had apparently spirituality lobotomized a spirit that got too close to its “‘wibbly wobbly magic”.

Tarin needed to find out what that meant and his first instinct was to call back that original spirit and have it go get the one that had gotten messed up.

The problem with this was the fact that Tarin had never come across a spirit in that condition before. What if the spirit was insane? What if the spirit was somehow connected to the being that had mentally hurt it?

This was potentially dangerous. The same instinct that pushed him to look into things pushed him to do it now so that Lee was as far from it all as possible.

Pulling his phone from his pocket, Tarin stared at it for a few moments. Lee kept telling him that he didn’t have to do things alone, and Lee knew how to handle herself…especially where spirits were concerned.

Unlocking the screen on his phone, Tarin pulled up his conversation with Lee and sent a quick text in case she was busy or at the bar.

”Hey, are you busy? Michael stopped by the shop for a favor and I think I’d like your help with something.”

It had been a perfectly normal day. They'd woken up, Lee had had her coffee. She and Tarin had gone for their run while Kevin was still sleeping (he was claiming to still be on Texas time, Lee suspected he was playing video games too late).

Then after Tarin had left for work, Lee had convinced Kevin to venture out of his room by taking him to the gym. Which had gone quite well. And they were on their way home for a well deserved late lunch when Lee got a text from Tarin.

"Hey, are you busy? Michael stopped by the shop for a favor and I think I’d like your help with something.”

Lee frowned as she read that. She knew what some of the jobs Michael took on were. She'd helped plan everything for Romania and knew what jobs Michael had been hired for. Any favours she could think that Michael would need were not the kind of favour Lee imagined Tarin would be willing to give.

What kind of favour?

Just heading home from the gym with Kevin. I can be there soon.

Lee had planned on having lunch with Kevin, but that one text, the comment about Michael needing a favour, had changed that instantly. After getting Kevin situated with lunch and going over the rules again for while she was gone, Lee left to head to the shop.

It didn't take Lee too long to get to the shop, but as she approached she saw that the sign said closed. That definitely did not help the worry she was already feeling.

Pulling on the door, lightly at first in case it was locked so she didn't make a fool of herself, Lee opened the door and stepped inside.

To see Tarin sitting at the table. Lee just stood there looking at him for a moment as the door closed behind her. Three beers on the table, though the one in front of Tarin wasn't open.

Nodding once, Lee turned to lock the door. "How bad is it?" Lee asked as she walked to the table and sat across from Tarin.

”A very specific kind of help. We can talk about it later if now is a bad time…”

Lee didn’t think it was a bad time, or she had caught on to the fact that Tarin didn’t usually ask for this kind of help and it might have been important.

Tarin felt kind of bad for interrupting Lee’s time with Kevin, but soon enough she’d said she was on her way and Tarin just stayed where he was at the table until he heard the door open and she entered the front of the shop much like Michael had a while before.

”How bad is it?” Lee asked as she sat down and Tarin frowned a bit as he looked back.

”Not really sure.” he said thoughtfully.

”There’s apparently a very old Egyptian mystic running around trying to find a King of some sort.”

”Michael wanted me to ask around and see if any spirits knew anything. It seemed pretty low risk so I did. That was all fine, but what the spirit said…”

Tarin paused for a minute, idly tracing the grain of the table and kind of wishing he’d just looked into this himself for all the reasons he’d ran through before. Too late now.

”This mystic can repel spirits. They can’t get close to her, and the spirit that was talking to us said that another spirit who had gotten to close was spiritually lobotomized.”

Tarin looked up at Lee now. ”Ive never heard of anything like that.”

Tarin frowned when Lee asked how bad things were. That was not a good sign, and she let her arms rest on the table as she listened.

An old Egyptian mystic looking for a king? Sure, why not? After all the other extremely weird and unbelievable things that Lee had heard about and lived through, Lee just accepted that this was true.

And all Michael had wanted Tarin to do was ask the spirits if they knew anything? That didn't really seem bad. Seemed relatively safe, actually. It's not like Tarin didn't speak to spirits regularly because of his work, after all.

But then Tarin continued. Repelling spirits didn't sound like too big of a deal; Tarin did something similar to keep the spirits away from him, didn't he? Though the fact that this was a mystic apparently and not a mutant or medium was worrying.

Lee leaned back in her chair as Tarin continued, her arms sliding off the table as she moved back and slid onto her lap.

When Tarin looked up at her, Lee shook her head. "Neither have I," she said quietly, the crease between her brows firmly in place. "Not that I've ever really talked to a lot of spirits, but I've never even heard mention of that."

Lee's eyes dropped to look at Tarin's hands for a moment before she looked back up. "What did you want my help with?" she asked. "Did Michael ask you to do something else?"

Lee took most of what Tarin had said in stride, he shouldn’t have been surprised knowing what he knew about what Lee had experienced. It was still a bit weird when she seemed to know so much about his powers and things that had to do with them though.

The spiritual lobotomy on the other hand…she’d never heard of that. Even a mention of it, and the way that she leaned back and her arms slid from the table Tarin could tell that she was at the least unsettled by it.

Lee’s eyes dropped in confirmation of that unsettlement, but they came back up to look at Tarin and she asked what he wanted her help with.

Tarin almost told Lee to forget about it then. He almost completely dropped the idea himself…but if something was going down, more info was better than less, right?

”I want to talk to that spirit.” Tarin said, face more grim than usual, ”But I don’t know what to expect.”

He waited for a moment to let Lee think and then continued, ”I can’t help but think that in this situation, more information is better than less.”

She asked what Tarin had wanted her help with, but he hesitated slightly. Was it that bad? Did she think she'd be upset? Was he found to change his mind and not tell her like when things got too emotional or overwhelming for him?

No, it wasn't any of that because a moment later Tarin was speaking, telling her what he was wanting, planning to do. Well, it was bad, but not that bad.

Lee wasn't particularly happy with the idea. She knew that most spirits were not as good spirited and cooperative as the woman at the top of the Empire State building was. And Lee knew that there were spirits who were certainly difficult. And dangerous.

Tarin had told her on numerous occasions that he had tight control over his powers and that the spirits he actually interacted with tended to do what he wanted them to. He had really only had the trouble he had on Hart Island because of the sheer number of spirits.

But this was also a situation that neither of them had ever heard about before, never mind had any experience with. Like Tarin said, there was no way to know what to expect.

Tarin was also right in that more information was better. They couldn't even attempt to avoid what this Egyptian mystic was trying to do if they had no idea what it was.

"You're right," Lee said with a slight nod. "Do you know how you want to do this?"

Lee responded and Tarin nodded too. More information was better. If they knew more, they could better decide what to do if things got worse.

Tarin had a plan. He’d been thinking about his plan since he’d sent Lee the first text.

”At first I just want to see it. Send another spirit to get it and bring it here, so I can try to figure out what we’re working with.” he said. ”Depending on how that goes, I want to try to link up. I don’t know what I’ll see if I do that, or how the spirit will react. I don’t know how strong it is.”

Tarin smiled a bit before he said the next part. ”I want you to hold my hand.” he said, ”If you feel anything weird, you’ll know what to do.”

Tarin already had a plan. To be honest, that did not surprise Lee at all. He had probably been thinking about what he planned to do, and debating with himself if he really wanted to do it, since he had heard what happened to that spirit.

When Tarin continued, Lee couldn't help the slight smile in response to Tarin's. "For someone who claims to not know what he's doing, you sure know how to bring the romance into everything," she teased.

Then Lee turned more serious again. "Did you want to do this sitting or standing?" she asked. "And tell me if it starts pulling your energy. I might not feel that."

Lee smiled back at him and Tarin felt a little bit better about the whole thing. If they were going to do this, they were going to do it together. She spoke, and he actually chuckled a bit as he shook his head, ”I promised I’d let you know whenever I had a free afternoon…”

Lee wanted to know if they should stand or sit and Tarin frowned as he thought about it for a few moments before he came to a decision and nodded.

”Sitting. Just in case I go down.” he said, then nodded to Lee when she said to let her know if the spirit started pulling his energy. Tarin hadn’t thought about that possibility and he blinked, then thought for a moment, then nodded solemnly, ”If that happens, hit me, pay attention, and act accordingly.” Tarin shook his head at that.

”I don’t think that’s going to happen, nothing like that has ever happened, but if I can’t break the link it might be the best option…”

"You did…" Lee said, a smile on her face as she shook her head slightly. This was definitely not what they had been planning for when he had an afternoon free, but it was true nonetheless.

Tarin wanted to sit in case he 'went down'. That was probably a very good idea because normally in situations like this with spirits, Lee would have had more than enough energy to be able to lower Tarin to the floor without hurting either of them. That wasn't a guarantee today.

But if they were sitting, she also wasn't going to be doing this with a table between them. So Lee got up, moving her chair around the table until she was beside Tarin, then sat again facing him.

And Tarin wanted her to act accordingly if he went down. He was assuming that if he passed out, he would wake up merged. Though honestly, Lee thought, that wasn't that far-fetched a possibility. "I know what to watch for," Lee told him with a nod, the earlier smile gone. "And I'll do what I need to."

He didn't think that the spirit would pull his energy from him, because he'd never had that happen. Lee, however, had. "Just…If it happens and you can't immediately break the link, tell me?" Lee asked as she reached her hand out for Tarin's. "Because the spirit can't take energy that isn't there."

Taking a deep breath, Lee gave Tarin a little smile then leaned in to give him a kiss. "I'm as ready as I can be. So whenever you want to start."

No more smiles now. The topic was grim and it honestly felt a little weird to be talking about it all.

Lee moved the chair around the table so that she was sitting next to him and Tarin took her hand when she reached out, squeezing it slightly.

Tarin knew that Lee would do what she needed to do, and the more that they talked, the more Tarin realized that Lee had probably dealt with a situation before where a spirit had been able to take energy.

Tarin looked at Lee for a moment and then nodded.

She took a deep breath and then Lee leaned in for a kiss. Tarin kissed her back and wondered if maybe they should just scrap the whole idea. Lee was already here, they could have lunch, or go get Kevin and get some ice cream or go to the park and maybe toss the ball around for a while…

But then they wouldn’t know.

Squeezing Lee’s hand again, Tarin closed his eyes and concentrated as he had before, bringing down his mental barriers as he reached out to see if the spirit from before was still close by. Either it had known that he would want to talk more, or it simply hadn’t made it very far. Regardless, it was close enough that with just a little bit of effort Tarin could make the request for the spirit to come back to the shop, which it did. A little effort and the spirit blinked back into existence so that Lee could see and hear what it had to say.

”Can you find that spirit?” Tarin asked, ”The one that you said got spiritually lobotomized?”

”Yeah, it’s not like he does much these days. Ain’t much to talk with though…

Tarin nodded, ”I don’t care, go get it.” he said and gave a similar mental push to the one he’d given earlier to remove the spirits who had gathered in the shop. The spirit took off then and Tarin kept the link open as long as he could before it faded.

”He’s outside my range now…” he said, We have to wait and see if he actually comes back.”

Lee kept her eyes on Tarin as he closed his. After a short time Lee saw something out of the corner of her eye suddenly.

Turning, she listened as the spirit and Tarin spoke. Though there really wasn't much to the conversation as very quickly the spirit was heading off to look for this 'lobotomized' spirit.

Lee then turned to look back at Tarin after a few moments. She nodded as Tarin explained they just had to wait. "How long do you think if he does what you asked?" she asked, still holding Tarin's hand as they sat there. "How far is your range?"

How long would it take? Tarin shrugged, sighing a bit as spirits started making their way into the shop again. The spirits were noisy and obnoxious and distracting and it made it hard to focus, especially when the other person in the room wasn’t seeing or hearing anything. Yeah, he was definitely going to need to do a bit of practice with this, it had been too long.

”It depends on whether or not the other one is willing to come. If it’s not and I really want it, I’d have to go get it.”

Lee asked what his range was and Tarin leaned back in his chair, scratching the side of his face with his free hand as he thought.

”Last I really dug into it, about 140-150 ft?” he said ”But I can’t do a lot that far out. Closer is better. That’s why it took me a while to find Tony.”

It was interesting that Lee was asking and all of Tarin’s nervous energy had him wanting to talk rather than pay attention to the spirits wandering around the shop or standing around and staring, ”Is that different?”

Lee nodded as he explained he really didn't know how long it would take. And it really did make a lot of sense; all of the spirits she knew and knew of still had their personalities afterall. So it really did make sense that it would be up to whether this particular spirit wanted to cooperate or not.

As Tarin explained how far out he could stay linked up with a spirit, Lee tried to picture the distance. 150 feet didn't sound very far. But the idea of being able to see clearly down the sidewalk for 150 feet was unlikely.

But was it different? Lee's head tilted to the side slightly as she thought, her thumb idly rubbing on the back of Tarin's hand. "Honestly, I'm not sure," Lee admitted after a few moments. "The only time I can really remember him sending spirits to do something was in Columbia. But we were in the jungle, so they could have just as easily have been 500 feet away rather than 50 for all know. Plus, those spirits had been very eager to help."

Tarin nodded as Lee spoke, his free hand moving to the table again, fingers tapping as he continued to try and ignore the spirits milling around the shop. Yes, Tarin could have shoved them off, but they’d have just come back, or others would have made their way in.

Tarin wanted to get up, pace around the room while he waited, but he’d suggested that they sit and with Lee holding his hand he’d have to drag her around with him and he didn’t think that she’d like that very much.

They’d been in the jungle, the spirits had been eager to help. That caught Tarin’s attention a bit, not because the other Tarin had made the spirits do something, but that they’d been eager to help. The only time that was really the case for this Tarin was when he had something that they wanted, usually related to the way they’d died or whatever was keeping their energy tethered to this plane.

”I’m guessing they weren’t excited to hand out school supplies.” he said a bit wryly, eyes tracking a spirit that was stumbling aimlessly around the shop, crying and looking for someone. It wasn’t that Tarin wasn’t empathetic to the spirit’s plight, but he’d learned early on that most of the time there literally wasn’t anything to be done to help.

”I’m curious why it’s taking so long…” he said after a minute, ”Hey, you…” he said to a pretty nondescript spirit that was just kind of standing a little ways away, ”See if you can figure out what’s taking so long.” Tarin said, shifting around a bit in his chair.

The spirit took off and this time returned pretty quickly, ”They’re on their way, but the sick one is slow.” it said.

Tarin nodded and turned to Lee, ”It’ll be just another minute. Apparently a spiritual lobotomy decreases travel speed.”