Looking back, that night at the bar had been great. And especially after the bar. Though at the time, once Matt had broken that moment, the tunnel vision, whatever you wanted to call it, there had been confusion and uncertainty. All because of the thought that they shouldn't like each other.

They had been able to behave themselves, even the very next morning, well enough that people didn't realize what was going on with them for two weeks. Well, other than Kevin realizing that she and Tarin liked each other based on how much time they spent together.

But they had been able to do that, yet tonight they were having issues even when trying to do a puzzle.

When Kevin questioned how they would be for the rest of the evening, Tarin invited him to help with the puzzle. Which…was actually a rather smart idea, Lee thought. Things should be much easier to manage if Kevin was in the same room.

"Why a puzzle? We haven't done puzzles in years."

Lee shrugged as she looked over at her son. "To do something different?" Lee explained. "And we didn't want anything too involved or difficult after the talk earlier."

Kevin didn’t automatically shut down the idea of the puzzle, he just seemed confused that they were doing one at all.

Lee explained things in the best way possible. Yes, they’d wanted something different to do. Different than kissing on the couch. It was still technically the truth though.

Nothing too involved or difficult. Yeesh, Tarin had almost forgotten about the conversation earlier. It seemed like it had been so long ago, but in reality hardly any time had passed.

”We’re doing a good job.” Tarin said, nodding down at the completed outer borders. ”Just need to fill in the middle.”

Kevin looked down at the puzzle on the table, then back up at his Mom and then shrugged and sat down, still eating the apple he’d grabbed out of the kitchen as he tried to figure out what was on the puzzle.

”Is that the Beetle Man one? I think I remember the middle was hard….” he said, leaning forward a bit to look at the pieces.

Kevin didn't say yes to the puzzle, but he also didn't say no. He just kind of stood there looking at the puzzle. And as Tarin said, they were doing fairly well with the puzzle.

But then he silently sat down, leaning in to look at the puzzle and its pieces more intently and Lee went back to trying to put more pieces together as Kevin ate his apple.

Only for him to ask if this was the Beetle Man puzzle from when he was younger.

Looking up from putting a few pieces together to form a foot, Lee looked over at Kevin and nodded. "Is this the one that was a little more difficult?" Lee asked. "You had a few of the superhero puzzles that looked similar, so they kind of blend together in my memory a bit."

Shooting a quick smile across the table at Tarin before going back to the puzzle. With everything that she had told him that day, Lee honestly hadn't really expected to see Kevin out of his room again that night. At least not for any real length of time. Yet here he was sitting at the table with her and Tarin while they did a puzzle.

And reaching out to try putting a piece in place.

Well, Lee thought, Tarin had to believe now that Kevin's thoughts or feelings toward him hadn't changed all that much (if at all) with what he had learned. He was even sitting between her and Tarin at the table.

"Maybe we could see about getting more puzzles, if we're likely to do this more often," Lee mused.

And for the next few minutes, the three of them sat working on the puzzle in silence.

At least until Kevin decided to speak. "How are you going to make sure that never happens to you, Tarin? Mum's sure that it's not going to happen," Kevin said, looking back and forth between the two adults. "Is that because of what you're going to do, or because of something else?"

Kevin sat down, continued to eat his apple, and examine the puzzle on the table. It turned out that Kevin recognized the puzzle and Tarin made a mental note to look into these superheroes that he was not familiar with. Maybe he’d missed a whole realm of something really entertaining.

Lee chatted about the difficulty of the puzzle and then for a little bit the three of them just sat there, looking for pieces and putting together the more obvious pieces that went in the center of the puzzle. It was honestly a very relaxing pastime, Tarin thought, now that Kevin was there between them and they really were focused completely on the puzzle.

It was honestly a relief. If Kevin had been freaked out or scared by what he’d heard from Lee earlier there was no way he’d be here, sitting between the two of them casually working on a puzzle.

It went on like that for a few minutes, and Tarin was starting to think that they might actually finish this thing tonight when Kevin spoke and Tarin’s hand paused halfway to trying the piece he was holding in a new spot.

Sitting back and turning the puzzle piece in his fingers, Tarin thought for a few moments to figure out how to best answer Kevin’s question.

”Well. The only times it’s ever been a possibility are when I’ve been in tight spaces for a long time.” he said, looking at Kevin lovely. ”So I’m working on that. I’m talking with someone to figure out if we can help with that so that even if I’m in that kind of situation we don’t need to worry about it.”

There, Tarin looked at Lee and shrugged, “We’ve talked about how important it is to know your powers and where they come from. I’m working to figure this part out so that I know what to expect and how to control it better.”

When Kevin spoke, Lee looked up at him. Then over at Tarin as it looked like he was trying to figure out what to say. But unlike earlier in the night when they were talking about this, when Kevin was asking questions, Tarin didn't look nearly panicked.

That was good. And he answered after a few moments.

When Kevin looked over at her again, Lee nodded in agreement.

"Talking to someone? What does that mean?"

"Just what it sounds like," Lee told Kevin gently. "I've been through and done a lot in my life. At one point, I needed more help to deal with it all than your dad was able to give. So I went to speak with a doctor who had experience treating mutants."

"As much as I wanted to, I didn't think I could help Tarin with everything that he needed after the collapse. So I asked him to see the same doctor." Lee turned to give Tarin a smile.

Kevin was, understandably, a bit confused about what Tarin had meant when he said he was talking to someone. Tarin still didn’t love to talk about this aspect of what he was working on, but Kevin had a right to ask these questions and a right to answers.

Lee answered this one though and Tarin nodded as she explained about Dr. Rossi. They’d been several times to see the woman and each time had felt like Tarin was having a piece of his soul ripped out. It was a cathartic type of pain though and somehow every time he’d left, he’d felt a little bit lighter.

When Lee was done talking, Tarin looked over at Kevin, “My life hasn’t been particularly easy either, and your Mom was definitely right. Things were really hard after the collapse, and sometimes you just need an outside perspective.” Tarin said, as if Lee hadn’t had to literally drag him to the first meeting at Dr. Rossi’s office.

It was easier to talk about this that Tarin thought it probably should be. Maybe it was because everything about the therapy situation was so…open and raw. Simply saying that it was a thing that was happening was fine.

“The thought is that if we can figure out why I get so upset, we can figure out how to help me handle it better. If I can do that, then things won’t get to the point where a merge happens.”

Kevin looked at the two adults as they talked, back and forth between Tarin and Lee. Kevin knew that there were a lot of kids at his school, well his old school, who went to therapy. Even some of the kids.

But Kevin was shocked to hear that his mum had needed to go to therapy. She always had everything under control.

While Kevin didn't understand why his mum had needed to go to therapy, he nodded. Then he turned to look at Lee. "Is that why you're so sure that it's not going to happen, mum?"

"In part that," Lee said after a moment's thought. "But also what I know about him and his history."

Kevin frowned at Lee, then looked at Tarin before turning back to his mum. "What do you mean? Is this stuff that dad figured out? Is that why it didn't happen again after I was born?"

The more they talked, the more uncomfortable Tarin got. Kevin was clearly confused and the answers he was getting from Tarin and Lee weren’t doing a whole lot to answer his questions. The nuances of therapy and childhood trauma were lost on Kevin, which was exactly how it should be…but also made it really difficult for a kid his age to understand or empathize.

Kevin was directing most of the questions at Lee, Tarin noticed, which made sense because it was Lee who he trusted more in this scenario. Tarin couldn’t blame Kevin, especially after what he’d just found out.

Tarin didn’t know if he was supposed to interject at this point or what. Kevin was asking questions about his Dad, and looking at his Mom and Lee had said something about knowing Tarin’s history. Had Tarin told Kevin that he hadn’t ever actually experienced a merge before?

Sitting the puzzle piece down, Tarin frowned, looking over at Lee. She was going to have to field these questions too. Tarin didn’t know the answers and wasn’t sure how he could interject. Hell, Tarin wasn’t sure how he could make the situation better at all. The honest truth was that Tarin didn’t know why Lee was so confident. The very concept of a merge like that happening seemed to terrify Lee on a very deep level. He unwavering confindence in the fact that it wasn’t going to happen to Tarin was intimidating sometimes…because what if it did? Lee had simply said they’d deal with it anytime Tarin brought up the question…but still.

Again, Tarin thought that he wished there was more he could offer here…but at the moment there wasn’t so he just looked over at Lee, at bit helplessly, as they sat.

Kevin was confused as he looked back and forth between her and Tarin. And unfortunately, Lee knew that she wouldn't be able to clear up all of the confusion because while she knew a lot about Tarin's powers, and Kevin's father's, she didn't know everything.

"Your father and Tarin learned about their powers very differently," Lee explained. "Tarin started doing the working out and mindfulness and all that because he found it helped him with controlling his powers. In your father's case, we had no idea that that would help at all."

"For your father, the spirits were just…always there. It took many years, but he learned how to ignore them for the most part. Tarin," Lee continued, looking over at Tarin for confirmation of what she was saying. "Figured out a way to keep the spirits from getting too close."

Lee turned back to Kevin to see that he was paying close attention to her. "Same powers, but different ways of learning about them and using them. Tarin has a lot of control because of that work he puts in mentally. Your father had a lot more control after that astral projection coma thing."

Lee answered Kevin’s questions and she answered them well.

Out of everyone that Tarin had met on this side of the rift, with the exception of Lee, Kevin had always had the least trouble recognizing that just because the two men shared a name and powers, Tarin and Kevin’s father were completely different people. Kevin had never made assumptions or associations or anything like that, but the power thing was a bit difficult for the teen to wrap his head around.

That made sense.

Lee sterilized the explanation a bit, but drew parallels where they made sense and articulated the differences well where parallels didn’t exist.

When she pointed out that Tarin just kept the spirits away, Lee looked to him for confirmation and Tarin nodded. It was still wild to him that the other Tarin hadn’t done anything like that….that he’d just dealt with spirits being around him all the time. How had he managed that? It was, of course, a moot point, and a question that probably wouldn’t ever be answered but Tarin still found himself curious.

Kevin’s attention was still raptly on Lee as she spoke and explained but Kevin frowned as she finished, then looked back at Tarin.

”So you don’t see the spirits all the time?” he asked.

Tarin shook his head, ”I do, I just make them stay far enough away that they don’t bother me most of the time.” he said. “It’s kind of like your shield but instead of energy it’s all mental. The spirits just can’t come close whether they want to or not. That’s why I don’t have trouble with the first type of merge. If they can’t get close they can’t even try to do that.”

Tarin hoped that made sense. It was hard to explain exactly how he kept the spirits away, he mostly just did.

When she finished speaking, Kevin turned and asked Tarin about seeing the spirits all the time. Which Tarin explained.

And that explanation actually made things clearer to Lee as well. She'd known that he kept spirits far enough away that they couldn't try to link or connect with him. But she had never really asked Tarin how far away they were and until the day of the building collapse, Lee had just kind of assumed that they were kept far enough away that he couldn't see them. At least enough that they were not in the same room.

That day, when Tarin had mentioned that the two spirits had been trying to get his attention, she had realized that must not have been the case, but with everything else that had happened that day Lee had never asked Tarin about it.

"And dad did, right?" Kevin asked once Tarin finished speaking. "He saw the spirits all the time? He heard them, too, didn't he? I remember a couple times when I was in the shop with him, dad saying for an empty room to be quiet."

Lee had not consciously realized that Kevin's father had him in the shop, which was a strange thing for her to have not realized since he had been living there when she'd moved back to New York. And the more time he had spent in the shop, the more frequently and insistently the spirits had always seemed to bother him and try to get his attention.

"He could hear them as well," Lee confirmed for Kevin. "Like I said, he was able to ignore them most of the time. Like we do with sound from the people and cars outside. It's there, but you don't pay attention to it. But sometimes, like when he said that, the spirits were louder or pushier than normal to be listened to."

Kevin seemed satisfied with Tarin’s answer and turned back to his Mom with more questions about his Dad.

Not being able to keep the spirits away. Tarin shook his head a little bit as he thought about the day that Michael had stopped by the shop to ask for his favor. When Lee had come to the shop and they’d tried to dig a bit deeper Tarin had had to bring down those mental shields.

After that whole experience, Tarin had said that he needed to practice more in scenarios where he wasn’t able to keep the spirits away. Doing it that day for the amount of time it took for the spirits to find the ‘lobotomized spirit’ had been awful…Tarin couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have to exist like that 24/7. Did Tarin wish that things had been different in his early years? Absolutely. Was Tarin grateful that he had so much control over his powers? Absolutely.

Lee pointed out that in the shop the spirits got louder and pushier and Tarin nodded, ”They know that in that place there’s a chance they’ll get their way. I don’t know what it was like for your Dad, but I never interact with them outside the shop if I can avoid it so they just know to not be pushy.”

"Most of the time outside the shop, your father tried to not even acknowledge that they were there," Lee told Kevin after Tarin had explained. "Though for whatever reason, they rarely were around our apartment and he said that the few that were ever at the bar never really did anything to bother him; they kept to themselves."

Kevin started to nod, but then stopped and looked at Lee in confusion. "But you said only the strong, bad spirits try to do that," he said before looking over at Tarin. "Are the spirits that annoying that you just don't want to listen to them?"

"I'm sure some of them can be, just like people who are alive," Lee said as she realized she'd never actually told Kevin what happened when his father connected with a spirit. "My understanding is that a lot of spirits will try to link up to get their point across of what they want, and the images are rarely nice."

Tarin nodded as Lee explained. It sounded like Tarin and the Tarin from this side of the rift had felt the same way about spirits and interacting outside of the shop. That part wasn’t all that hard to figure out. It also sounded like whether he’d been doing it on purpose or not, the other Tarin had at least suggested that their apartment was not a welcoming place to be approached.

Kevin had more curiosity about the spirits, and Tarin nodded his head. ”It’s only the strong bad ones that try to take over.” he clarified, ”And there just aren’t that many of those around…” At least not that Tarin had interacted with, though it probably had something to do with the fact that he didn’t let most spirits get close enough to test that theory.

“In order to make them visible or so that other people can see or hear them I have to connect with them mind to mind.”

Lee had pointed out that the images from the spirits were rarely nice…they were never nice. Tarin didn’t share that knowledge often though.

“Spirits aren’t people.” Tarin explained, glancing at Lee. ”They might look like people most of the time and talk like people…but they aren’t people. Spirits are what they are for a reason and they’re completely singular in what they want. A lot of them will do anything to get what they want…no matter how normal they can seem.”

The information wasn’t particularly relevant to Kevin, but if he really wanted insight into how Tarin’s powers worked…this was the best way to explain.

”That mind-to-mind link lets me see what they’re thinking.”

Huh Lee thought as Tarin glanced at her while he explained. Kevin's father had said the exact opposite to that at one point. Was it in Columbia, or had it been in Florida? Regardless of where it had been, he had been exacerbated by how uncomfortable people were, possibly including her, about spirits being visible. Spirits were just people, he'd said. Dead people, but just people.

Tarin was saying the exact opposite to that, and Lee couldn't help but wonder why there was the difference of opinion. Was it because of the differences in how they'd grown up? Or because of the time Tarin had spent on Hart Island?

No matter the reason, it was not a conversation she was going to have then.

"You can actually hear what spirits think?" Kevin asked, frowning in thought. "No, I don't think I'd like that. I'm glad my powers don't suck like that. If my shield would stop draining my phone, they'd be perfect, nothing bad about them."

Lee gave a sad little smile as she shook her head at her son. "Everyone's powers had their bad parts."

"Not you, mum," Kevin said, turning to look at Lee again. "Well, the mornings suck, but you have everything figured out so well."

Lee sighed as she shook her head again. "There's a lot more bad things about my powers than you think, Kev," she said softly.