Well, that was something at least. Robert had closed his big mouth when he realized that Kevin hadn't known about the building collapse. Maybe it was time that Lee started telling Kevin about more of this sort of thing, especially as it seemed to be happening more and more often again, since he was just going to go and find out about it himself anyway.

Lee's mother was just staring at her now after seeing the pictures of the collapse.

"But sweetie," her mother said, voice a little slow in confusion. "You should have talked to them. With what you did, you'd be a hero."

"Exactly," Lee replied.

"What do you mean 'exactly'? You can still talk to them, I'm sure they'd love to add the hero of the day to that story."

"No, I meant exactly. They'd make me out to be a hero. That's not why I did it, or what I want."

Lee’s Mom seemed to be confused again after Kevin showed her pictures of the building. It was jarring to see. Moreso to know that he’d been in there and walked away with nothing more than some bruises and a somewhat upsetting new understanding of himself.

Lee’s Mom spoke then, and Tarin had a feeling he knew what Lee was going to say because she’d said pretty much the same thing every time he had suggested something like her Mom was suggesting.

Tarin knew that most of why Lee had been in such a hurry to get back into that building had been because she’d known that he was in there. A lot had happened that day, not the least of which being his wildly inappropriate declaration as the building was coming down. Lee hadn’t had to stop for the others though, she hadn’t had to direct the responders to the places where other people had been trapped in the rubble.

”Some people just do things because they’re the right thing to do.” Tarin said, ”Because they can’t stand to see something happen and know that they could have made a difference.”

That’s why they had been at that build site in the first place. They’d wanted to do something to help. It was also what made Lee so amazing, even if she didn’t realize and wouldn’t admit the fact.

Lee smiled over at Tarin as he added on to what she had said. Adding to what she had said. Because if she had wanted to be known for doing something 'incredible', she had any number of things she could have been much more public with. That she could have come forward with years earlier.

No, Lee did everything that she had with the Kabal, with Haven, at the Sanctuary because it was something that needed to be done. Lee didn't want any more acknowledgment for the building collapse, for Columbia, or Romania than for helping at the kitchen at the Sanctuary.

"What about the other people in the collapse? I'm sure that they'd love to thank you for helping to get them out so quickly."

"And what about what I want?" Lee asked, her tone starting to sound angry now. "Maybe after spending the majority of my life simply trying to find people and a place that accepts me regardless of my mutations and just wanting to have as close to a normal life as possible I don't want people only to appreciate the most 'acceptable' parts of my powers."

Lee took a deep breath and stood up. "I'm going to go get the food out of the oven so we can eat."

Without waiting for anyone to have a chance to react, Lee turned and made her way to the kitchen, leaving her parents staring after her.

Lee was still smiling and that was definitely a good thing, Tarin couldn’t help but think. It felt good to have said the right thing, and to know that Lee knew that he understood. As long as she knew that the things she’d done were important, that was enough, and Tarin thought he was actually starting to make some headway there.

Lee’s Mother though…just didn’t know where to stop. He’d thought it before, but as Tarin watched the interaction unfold he understood Robert more and more.

Who cared about the other people in the collapse? When was it enough?

Lee was talking now and Tarin could hear that angry edge her voice took on when people couldn’t or wouldn’t understand the point that she was trying to make. Surely this wasn’t the first time that this had come up, and Tarin didn’t think that Lee was overreacting in the slightest.

Before he could say or do anything, Lee was getting up and going to get the food out of the oven. Tarin knew a thing or two about convenient tasks in that kitchen and how well they served as a way to get out of a situation for a while.

Normally, Tarin would have immediately followed, but he hadn’t when Rachel had struggled to believe all of the things in the folder that Lee had compiled.

Instead, he looked over at Kevin for a moment, ”Why don’t you go see if your Mom needs any help getting things out?”. Kevin only hesitated for a moment before he got up and went to the kitchen.

Having now put himself in this situation, Tarin looked over at Lee’s parents. ”You know…who she is, and what she’s done really are incredible.” he said softly, ”But she can’t even admit that to herself because almost nobody ever listens when she says things.” he added, not knowing which way this was going to go. ”How is she supposed to accept accolades from anyone else when she doesn’t think that anything she does is all that special?”

Meanwhile, Kevin had made his way into the kitchen to see if he could help his Mum at all.

”Do you need any help?” he asked a bit awkwardly from the doorway.

They had watched Lee leave the room for the kitchen, but when Tarin suggested that Kevin go help his mum, both of her parents turned to him in confusion.

"She has turned out incredible," Lee's father agreed with Tarin. "Everything she's done has been amazing. How Kevin has turned out alone is testament to that. But that thing she did when the building collapsed? And Rachel said that she never would have even gotten that boutique of hers open if it wasn't for everything Lee did to help. And getting her degree as a single mother. How can she possibly think that none of that is special? She didn't even ask us for help with school, after we helped all of her siblings."

---

Lee tensed up slightly as she stood in the kitchen when she felt someone approaching. She knew it wasn't Tarin coming to check on her. Damn it, it was probably her mum coming to try and help. Didn't the woman realize that Lee had left the room to have some time away from them?

"Do you need any help?”

Lee turned, surprised it was her son who had followed her to the kitchen. "That would be great, Kevin. Thank you," Lee said, giving him a smile. "Could you get plates and cutlery for the table?" Lee then turned and after finding the rarely used oven mitts, started pulling the containers out of the oven.

Tarin frowned thoughtfully as Lee’s Father spoke, listing several different things that Lee had done that he…they, had found incredible.

”I don’t get it either…” he said softly, looking towards the kitchen and trying to think back to what Lee had said before she’d left the room.

”All those things you just listed…they were all things that didn’t have to do with her powers, and the fact that she did all of those things…on top of all the work that she’s had to do over the years just to get out of bed each day…”

There was so much more, but it wasn’t his to say. ”Just…listen to her when she says something. You just said she’s incredible and she’s done it on her own all this time, I think you can trust her.”

Lee's father frowned but nodded as he listened to Tarin speaking. He thought he understood what Tarin was getting at. Lee wanted to be seen and recognized for what she was able to do herself, rather than what her powers were able to do. To know that she herself was accepted

At least that's what he thought. They had missed so much time with their daughter, and he didn't know her as well now as he would have liked.

"Even before Kevin was born, I was amazed at the woman that she had become. And that, quite clearly, she had done on her own as well.

"But he's right, Mary. We do need to listen to Lee better. We've already missed so much time with her, we can't lose more because we're not hearing what she's saying to us."

"You're right, we'll have to do better at that," Lee's mother agreed before looking back at Tarin again. "I know she has less energy in the mornings, but you keep talking like it's some miracle that she's able to get out of bed. Surely it can't be that difficult."

---

While Kevin was getting plates out of the cupboard and grabbing cutlery out of the drawer, Lee was carefully pulling the containers out of the oven and turned it off.

"You can take those out to the table, Kev," Lee said as she grabbed some potholders (those she knew where Rachel had left them, because they were kept in the same place as the tea towels) before starting to follow him with some of the still hot food.

"...some miracle that she's able to get out of bed. Surely it can't be that difficult."

"How can you honestly not realize what you did to me?" Lee asked, letting the containers drop onto the table harder than she normally would have as she turned to look at her parents. "When you would all finally get home in the afternoon, and you were mad because I was passing out and hadn't done any of the schoolwork you had wanted me to do that day, I wasn't being a lazy teenager or using my mutation as an excuse. I literally did not have the energy to stay awake."

Okay, maybe Lee’s Dad could understand. He spoke and Tarin nodded, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. Maybe he had managed to help just a little. Maybe Lee took after her Dad and Rachel was some kind of blend.

And oh yeah Robert took after Lee’s Mom because god damn she didn’t know when to stop.

Tarin took a deep breath and was about to drop the kind of truth bomb that would have illustrated the point super well but might have gotten him into trouble but it turned out that Lee had emerged from the kitchen at the literal worst moment.

Tarin knew it was going to be bad, the second that Lee opened her mouth.

It was bad.

Kevin was standing behind Lee, looking between her and his Grandparents and Tarin took a breath. Lee had talked about this before, but not in much detail and it was just awful. Tarin had seen Lee on a morning when she was low on energy. Imagining her like that on a daily basis made him almost physically ill.

”It’s definitely that bad.” Tarin said incredulously, looking directly at Lee’s Mom and shaking his head.

”She literally cannot make energy without people around. Surely you know that…”

Looking over at Lee Tarin didn’t say anything. He wasn’t going to correct her for partially misunderstanding what she had walked in on. Lee’s feelings were valid no matter what the conversation had been, and her Mother had really screwed up.

At least Lee's mum looked chagrined when she heard Lee speak. And she glanced at Tarin as he pointed out the fact that Lee was completely unable to produce her own energy.

"The mornings were so hard for you. We thought it would be easier if you didn't have to get up so early to go to school," Lee's mother tried to rationalize. "Plus, there were all the neighbours. It's not as though we lived in the middle of nowhere. And you were still able to see your friends af-"

"Mary, stop," Lee's father interrupted. "You're making things worse."

Lee didn't even properly hear her father's words, she was too shocked by her mother's sheer obliviousness. "Of course the mornings were hard! Every morning is hard. But I would have been fine after getting to school and being around people for a while. I was the entire time you were dragging us to doctors.

"And if any of the neighbours were even home during the day, the closest ones were still about 50 feet away. And were you going to say I could see my friends after school? You mean that same time of day you were upset because I couldn't stay awake? How in the world was I going to get there?"

Lee could feel tears prickling in her eyes, but she blinked them away. There was not a chance that she was going to allow herself to cry in front of these people. "But thank you for proving to me that the best decision I've made in my life was to leave. Because spending the next two years on the street was better than being in that house."

Lee’s Mom just kept talking and Tarin’s eyes widened as the woman showed that she had absolutely no idea what she was talking about even all of these years later.

Lee’s father tried to mitigate things, to get Lee’s Mother to stop, but it was too late. Lee had heard what her Mother had said and the flood gates opened.

They’d been so ignorant. Tarin sat in mute horror, listening to Lee as she spoke, his heart breaking for her as she tried to explain to her parents why what they had done had been so wrong.

They’d shut Lee away in the house, under the guise of not knowing what to do, willfully ignorant to the fact that what they were doing was the worst possible thing they could have done in the situation they’d been handed.

When they’d been at the lake the night of their rooftop dinner, Lee had said something that Tarin had struggled to understand at the time. He understood it now because he’d have given pretty much anything to change what she had gone through.

They’d never really talked about Lee’s time on the street, but they’d talked about how cold it was in the winter when you didn’t have anywhere to go. Lee had also explained more than once that she’d had to become a very quick judge of character to survive.

And it had been better than being at home. With her family. Tarin could see the tears welling in Lee’s eyes and he stood, closing the distance between them. He wanted to hug her, or hold her hand, or do anything to help, but sometimes you just couldn’t help. So Tarin stood close by, there if Lee decided that she wanted or needed him.

Behind them and to the side, plates clattered as they were dropped on the table from probably a bit higher than the should have been and then Kevin was there too and the three of them were just kind of standing by the table looking at Lee’s parents. ”What do you need?” Tari asked softly.

There was a reason that most of Kevin's trips to see his grandparents had been with Rachel or Robert. And a reason that the few times Lee had taken him up there, they had stayed in a hotel on the other side of the city. Since the day she had dragged herself out of that house with a backpack stuffed to almost overflowing with clothes before she had even turned 16, Lee had not set foot back inside. She hadn't even been in the neighbourhood.

It had obviously been the right decision.

Tarin was getting up and making his way over to her, and a moment later she could feel Kevin getting closer, but Lee kept her eyes locked on her mother.

"I'm sorry, Lee. We should have-"

Lee didn't even let her father finish. "Get out of my home."

It looked like Lee's mother was going to say something else, but Lee's father gave her a hard look as he grabbed her arm. "Don't," he said as he started leading her out of the living room to the door.

Lee just stood there, not moving, still looking in the same place until she could feel that they were in the hallway. Only then did Lee let out a shaky breath, her eyes closing as she sank to the floor, the tears spilling over.

Lee didn’t say anything to him, so Tarin just stayed close in case she changed her mind. Lee’s Father started to speak and Tarin felt just the tiniest bit bad for him as Lee cut him off, but not nearly bad enough to say anything or stop what was about to happen.

Lee told her parents to get out of her home and Tarin watched in utter disbelief as her Mother started to say something. Lee’s Father was smart enough to stop his wife from speaking though and kept hold of her arm as Lees parents made their way to the door.

Tarin followed them with his eyes as they made their way out and was going to follow to lock the door, but he could see that Lee was still staring at where they’d been sitting and she hadn’t moved.

Something in his gut told Tarin not not to leave, so he stayed where he was until the door shut. Lee let out that shaky little breath and as she sank down to the floor, Tarin followed. This time he did reach out, planning to pull her close if she’d let him, ready to just be there if she wouldn’t.

The lock clicked and Tarin’s eyes flicked up briefly to see Kevin by the door, turning to make his way back towards the table, uncertainty clear on his face as he sat in one of the chairs.

The moment that Lee felt Tarin reach for her, she was turning, her arms wrapping around him as she buried her face in his shoulder.

And she just sat there crying softly for a couple minutes.

Lee had rarely, if ever, actually cried in front of Kevin and while she had been able to hold it back while her parents were in the apartment, that had been about all she could do.

After a couple minutes though, Lee sniffled and pulled back, wiping the tears off her cheeks. "I…" Lee started, then took a deep breath and tried again. "I didn't mean to say all that."

Lee turned into him and Tarin wrapped his arms around her as she buried her head in his shoulder and cried.

Lee had cried a few times since they had known each other, but it had never been like this. As Lee cried, Tarin whispered what he hoped was comforting nonsense against her hair, his arms tight around her until she started to pull back.

Loosing his arms slightly so that she could do that, Tarin looked down the short distance as Lee started to speak, she seemed in slight shock at what she had said and Tarin just shook his head.

”You said what you needed to say.” he said, ”And what they’ve probably needed to hear for a long time.”

Tarin was quiet for a moment, then said, ”I’m so sorry…”

Even though she had tried wiping the tears from her cheeks, it really hadn't dried the tears and there were still a few falling, adding to the wetness. Lee had told Tarin about what things had been like when she got her powers, before she'd left for Toronto. She'd told Kevin's father. She'd even talked with Robert about it a little over the years.

Not once had she gone into the details, and re-experienced the feelings, like she had just done.

Tarin thought that she had needed to tell her parents what she had, that they had needed to hear it for years. Which, considering they hadn't figured any of it out in the over 25 years since she had gotten her powers, they probably had needed it and much sooner. But she hadn't wanted Kevin to find out, especially not like that.

'Oh god…Kevin…' Lee thought as she realized he would have heard everything.

Lee turned, still sitting on the floor, to see her son sitting in a nearby chair at the table. "Kev…I didn't want you to…Are you okay?"