“Excellent point.” Tarin said with a grin when Lee pointed out that she didn’t use her room much anymore. Initially they’d ended up in his room because when Lee couldn’t sleep it had been easier for him to sleep in his own room. Now, it was just kind of what they did. Regardless, it did open up more space to store all of these hypothetical puzzles if the need arose.

Lee seemed surprised when Tarin said he wasn’t surprised she’d come up with the battery pack idea and he shrugged a bit as he found another piece and went to work on the next. “You’re smart and really good at approaching things from multiple angles. Why would I be surprised?” he asked in return, still trying to find where this particular piece went.

The second point Lee made was a good one too. Besides giving Kevin something to work on other than, ‘how much can we throw at my shield before it breaks’, the battery pack experiment would answer a few questions.

”Which questions were you thinking it would answer?” he asked, curious about her thoughts.

It was a little strangely amazing just how naturally and easily everything had fallen into place between her and Tarin. Lee had only been originally intending to keep a close eye on Tarin for a week or two initially, but had turned into them being roommates pretty much as soon as Tarin hadn't been trying to get her to leave him alone.

And from there everything had just come about so naturally. Their feelings, the relationship. And it had just happened that when she started being able to sleep with Tarin that it was in his bed.

Honestly, Lee wasn't even sure when the last time she had slept in her own bed was.

When Tarin explained his lack of surprise, Lee couldn't stop the slight flush from covering her cheeks as she looked down at the puzzle.

"I thought that it would answer whether the shield uses a certain amount of energy, or if it will use everything available within a certain radius," Lee said, her eyes glancing up at Tarin briefly though her head didn't move. "If he's only draining a single battery at a time, or every one in range. And possibly if there's an upper limit to the amount of energy he can draw in."

Lee and compliments. Tarin had to smile and shake his head just a bit as she blushed at the very suggestions that she was smart and good at problem solving. It was true. Lee was an excellent problem solver and generally had a fix for most things before they even occurred. When she didn’t, she was quick with decisions and solutions. Tarin didn’t say any of that though, there was no need to embarrass Lee further…no matter how much he liked it when she blushed. There were other, better ways to bring that about.

Lee explained which questions she thought the battery pack experiment would answer for Kevin and Tarin nodded slowly. The first one really was an excellent question. To the best of Tarin’s knowledge, Kevin hadn’t tried anything like that before, “That would be a super useful thing to know…if it isn’t an area of effect type thing and he only drains the phone or the battery pack, he can start figuring out if he can feel where the energy is coming from or choose deliberately.” . Nothing might happen at first, it might not ultimately be something Kevin could control, but it was a place to start.

The second question Lee asked was about limits. ”I’d assume that will change as time goes on….” Tarin said thoughtfully, “Surely there’s a limit…” he added with a frown, trying to decide if he knew what his limit was.

”What about you? You said his power was similar to yours in some ways, have you found an upper limit?” They may have talked about this once before, but if they had the memory was fuzzy, ”I know distances…but now how many…” he said glancing up for a moment before going back to the puzzle, ”It always starts to get scary and I stop trying because I’m scared I’m spreading myself too thin.”

Tarin understood exactly why she wanted to know whether Kevin's shield drained the power from just one or all devices. And what it meant he might be able to do in the future.

And, while Tarin was probably right in that any limits Kevin's powers might have would likely change as he got older, Lee wasn't so certain that there would be an upper limit of energy he could draw in. She really hoped there would be.

Lee was just about to point out to Tarin her lack of limits when he asked her that very question. "Never," Lee said, not happy about that fact. "Other than for when I crash, I've never discovered a point where I stop siphoning because I have too much energy. I'm still siphoning when I end up crashing. Still siphoning when I honestly start wondering how my body is still in one piece because of the amount of energy I feel. No idea how strong or fast I could potentially be because, well you saw what happened with Tony."

It was a lot, but that wasn't all of it. And what she hadn't said yet was the part that scared her. "I know I can siphon a lot faster than I did from you," Lee continued slowly. "But I also don't know how much I can siphon once a person is unconscious or what would happen if I did take too much. So I have no idea how quickly I actually can."

Lee didn’t know if she had a limit. Tarin’s brows rose in mild surprise as she explained that she still pulled in energy even when she was at a point that she felt like she was going to come apart because she had so much energy. Thank god she’d managed to learn to turn her siphoning off. Tarin had never seen her with anywhere near that much energy, but just being in the bar for a night or going to the airport to get Kevin had her unable to stay still…what would it be like if it was that much worse?

Lee also didn’t know how fast she could take energy and what would happen if she didn’t stop. It was morbid and Tarin didn’t bring it up, but he had also wondered the same thing before. It was a dangerous thing to ponder and the kind of thing that legitimately wasn’t testable.

Nodding his understanding Tarin wondered now if there was a limit to what Kevin could take in. Powers didn’t generally follow genetic rules like other traits did. “Right now it seems like he needs a power source to bring up the shield and that the energy comes from that source and not him. That might be a good thing to try to figure out though because I could be wrong. It’s hard to tell if he’s absorbing the energy and then projecting it, or if he’s just channeling it into the shield.” . How they’d be able to figure that out when the shield and the power drain on the battery was happening pretty much simultaneously, Tarin didn’t know.

Looking back down at the rapidly shrinking unaccounted for pieces, Tarin leaned back in his chair and studied Lee across the table for a few moments, “What about me?” he asked, ”Any angles I haven’t thought of that you haven’t brought up?”

Tarin was understandably surprised when she informed him that she had not yet found an upper limit to the amount of energy she could siphon. No limit in terms of anything powerwise, except for when she crashed.

As Tarin went on to ponder Kevin's powers some more, Lee nodded. That first bit they had pretty much figured out the day that Kevin got his powers.

But Tarin continued. Lee had just assumed that Kevin was absorbing the energy and directing it into the shield. He had managed to keep his shield up for quite a while at times, which had mad Lee think that he was unconsciously, gradually, using the energy to keep the shield up.

If Kevin was just channelling the energy from the battery straight into the field without him being an conduit for it, that opened up a whole list of other possibilities for what he might be able to do in the future.

"I hadn't thought that Kevin might not be absorbing the energy," Lee admitted her earlier thought. "That'll be something easier to figure out after he's been experimenting with the power pack, I'm sure."

When Tarin leaned back in his chair and just looked at her intently for a few moments, Lee looked right back at him, her head tilted slightly in curiosity. "About your powers?" Lee questioned, a small crease forming between her brows. Hadn't she already told Tarin all about the power differences between him and Kevin's father were? The merging, the astral projection, what had happened in Columbia…

But Lee had never sensed energy from a spirit outside of a merge. Except for that day with Tony. "Well, that day that I siphoned through Tony," Lee started, her voice slow an thoughtful. "You're only able to connect with spirits that are so close to you. I wonder if you would be able to channel your power through a spirit, not into the spirit to extend the distance that you can connect?"

It seemed that Tarin had given Lee something new to think about regarding Kevin’s powers. Tarin was strangely pleased about that, because Lee was always thinking about things. He was glad that he could give her a new perspective and Tarin nodded when Lee said they’d be able to figure out the second part pretty quickly once Kevin had done some experimenting.

Lee seemed surprised again when Tarin asked her if she had any thoughts about his powers. Sure they’d talked about them extensively, but they’d talked about her powers too and Tarin hadn’t known or realized until tonight that Lee didn’t have a cap on the amount of energy that she could hold. There were nuances and things that a person could miss when it was all happening to them. Getting outside perspectives helped sometimes and if there was anyone who knew his powers well enough to pick up on things it was Lee.

Apparently the day with Tony had been a first. Tarin let out a little ”Huh” of surprise at that as Lee continued to speak and think.

She was right, he could only link up with spirits if they were close. The further they got away, the more tenuous the connection became until it disappeared completely and Tarin was at the mercy of the spirit’s whim as to whether or not they’d follow directions.

Channel power through a spirit? ”You mean like a satellite point? Bounce it through a spirit to another spirit that was further away?” Tarin hadn’t ever thought about that before and his brows drew together slightly in thought as he mulled it over. Would it be possible? Maybe, maybe not. It was definitely worth a try though….if he was interpreting what Lee said correctly. ”You seemed skeptical when I asked, but I’ve never even thought of that before and it might be possible.” he said with a smile before leaning forward again and picking up another piece. ”I wish I had a similar perspective to offer you though…”

Tarin seemed surprised by her mention of siphoning from Tony that day, but they had talked about it a bit then, hadn't they?

Regardless, that really was kind of minor compared to the idea that Lee had given for Tarin's powers. "Yeah, I mean something like that," Lee confirmed what she was saying about using his powers through a spirit to be able to connect over a longer distance. "Or something like that, anyway. I mean, I don't exactly know how it works when you connect with a spirit, but it might be possible?"

Tarin continued speaking and Lee shook her head. "Not sceptical," she told him. "Just a little confused. I had thought we'd pretty much already talked about everything."

But Tarin was smiling as he went back to working on the puzzle. Wishing that he had a thought about her powers that she hadn't figured out yet. Lee didn't get back to work yet, though. She just continued to sit there in thought. "But you already gave me the idea about working on my energy blast, and offering a pick me up when I'm worn out after," she told him.

"Though," she continued, her voice still very much thoughtful. "I guess depending on how you think about it, that day with Tony wasn't the first time…"

Lee did mean sort of like a satellite. Tarin thought about it for a few moments and tilted his head to the side. It was kind of like how Lee had pulled energy through the spirit. Could he do that?

Tarin wasn’t going to try right now, that would require spirits in the apartment and he didn’t want to even suggest to them that coming close to here was okay. It was definitely something he was going to mess with the next time he had time at the shop though.

Lee pointed out that she hadn’t been skeptical, only confused because they’d talked so much already. That was fair, Tarin supposed, ”I didn’t know if you had anything you were holding back for whatever reason. I figured this was as good a time as any to ask.”

Maybe he didn’t have specific ideas about her powers, but Lee pointed out that Tarin had definitely given her the idea about being able to actually work on her energy blast, and of course he’d be there to help her out if she tried. She went on to say that Tony hadn’t actually been the first time she’d done that.

”I thought you’d had to have done something like that before…” Tarin said, referring to his earlier surprise. ”When have you done it before?”

Tarin thought that maybe, even after everything else that they had talked about regarding both of their powers, maybe she had been holding something back from him. Which seemed weird after how open they had both been with each other.

On the other hand, if there had been something worse than it might have made sense for her to hold back. Everything that she had told Tarin since that early spring weekend had been a lot.

Lee didn't even want to think about what could be worse than what she'd already told Tarin about.

"When Kevin's father was in the coma, out of his body, whatever you want to call it. There were times when I would feel energy, as though someone was there, but there was no one."

Lee paused, thinking back. The first few days of that whole thing were a blur in her memory thanks to the combination of the emotions and being exhausted.

"It wasn't always there. The feeling would come out of nowhere and then disappear again. It turned out that it was him, in his out of body state, but I thought I was going crazy. At least when it happened at the mansion, I was able to tell myself that it was probably just someone on the other side of the wall or something."

"When it happened at home, though, where I knew I was alone, and I knew what I felt when the neighbours were home…"

Lee shook her head slightly and looked across the table at Tarin. "That's when I started working on my people radar. To try and figure out what the hell was going on."

Lee explained that when Kevin’s Dad had done the whole out of body thing, which was still kind of terrifying when Tarin thought about it, she’d been able to sense energy when he had been around.

That was interesting, and gave Tarin a whole slew of new questions.

If what Lee said was true, and there was absolutely no reason to believe she could be wrong, that meant that Tarin had been right about spirits all this time.

”That’s super interesting. It also means that spirit energy is different than regular people energy….” he said, frowning slightly as the words came out far more clumsy than he intended. Thinking for a moment to reframe his words Tarin shook his head, ”You probably already figured this out…but it’s more proof positive that spirits really aren’t people. Whatever they are, they’re different.”

Tarin thought about that for a few more moments, tapping the puzzle piece in his hand against the table. ”So generally even when they’re totally solid you can’t feel a spirit with your people radar, but you could feel Kevin’s Dad when he did the whole out of body thing? Was it just that first time or all the time? I know you could feel me through Tony…but could you feel the spirit on the Empire State Building?”

Tarin didn’t know why this was so interesting, but it really was. Maybe there was something Tarin was missing there and his subconscious was trying to tell him it was important.

Lee nodded as Tarin spoke. Spirit energy was different than what living people had. At least in terms of what Lee was able to sense and siphon.

"I could sometimes feel him there," Lee confirmed. "Not even regularly. It was very occasional, and I only realized that it was him after he woke up."

"But no, normally I don't feel a thing from spirits," she continued. "I could be surrounded by spirits and not feel a thing, regardless of whether they're solid or not. Other than that one time with Tony, the closest I've come to sensing a spirit is during a merge. And that's less being able to feel it's energy directly and more the fact that there's more energy than I would expect, especially after siphoning."

It really was rather strange. She had been around spirits who were solid quite a few times over the years. Never had she experienced what she did that day with Tony where she had been able to siphon Tarin's energy through the spirit.

Thinking back about what was different about that particular time, Lee remembered she was wearing out during the sparring match, not having as much energy as she would have liked for it. Especially since she was unable to siphon from her opponent even a little to help keep herself going.

"I was siphoning more than I normally do around spirits," Lee said after a few moments as she continued to think it all through. "I was getting tired, so I upped my siphoning hoping to be able to get something extra if anyone came close enough. And all of a sudden, I was able to feel some energy coming from Tony."

Lee explained further and Tarin listened raptly, trying to wrap his head around what it all meant. She could feel him sometimes but not all of the time. In the grand scheme of things, Tarin figured it didn’t matter because this particular skill was something he couldn’t do. But the questions that it raised about the very nature of how Tarin’s powers worked were going to stick with him.

Tarin thought back to when they’d spoken about this before and tried to remember how the whole thing had played out, “You said he couldn’t get back into his body on his own….” he said, voice trailing off as he tried to figure out how the two things could be connected. Why could Lee only sense the energy part of the time? Had he been closer to being in his body at the time?

The fact that he’d likely never have answers to these questions was a bit frustrating. “What was different?” Tarin said softly, more to himself than anything, shaking his head as no obvious answers came to mind.

Lee did have a bit more context to add to what had happened with Tony, ”You were also touching him.” Tarin added when Lee said she’d been tired, amped up her siphoning and been able to feel the energy Tarin had been feeding to Tony through the mental link.

”Mind if we try that out again sometime?” he said, curious. ”Obviously feel free to say no…I just…” he paused for a moment “When I find things out about my powers I need to figure them out…” he needed to understand how they worked so he could control every aspect and not make mistakes. Mistakes were dangerous in lots of ways.

Tarin brought up what she'd told him about how Kevin's father couldn't get back into his body on his own. "He couldn't. Not until after he learned how the spirits reached out to connect with him. Then it took trying that while Slate tried to heal him again. And thankfully DocProf was there."

What was different when she had been able to feel the energy? Lee frowned slightly in thought as she tried to figure it all out.

"I think, a lot of the times that I felt it, I was upset or having a hard time? But I would think that would make me less likely to pay attention to my siphoning."

Tarin was right, though, she had been touching Tony when she'd felt the energy. That had also been the first time she had really touched a spirit.

He wanted to try that again? That was…Actually that wasn't such a bad idea. If they used Tony, well Tony was far more 'dangerous' to her when Tarin's energy wasn't being drained from him.

"Yeah, we can try that again," Lee said. "Anything in particular you wanted to do with it?"

How the spirits connect with him? As unbelievable as it seemed, Tarin hadn’t ever really thought about it from the other side. Did that mean that the connection from the spirit side was different from the connection on his side? Would Lee even know that?

”I hadn’t ever thought about the fact that it might be different from the other side….” Tarin said, staring off into space a little bit as he mulled that over in his head. Surely there were spirits he could ask about that. Maybe the weasley little one that had helped when Michael showed up. That spirit hadn’t been very strong and had seemed more than willing to answer questions.

Lee had been super upset or having a rough time when she’d been able to feel the energy of the other Tarin? This Tarin couldn’t really wrap his head around how that would be different, why it would help if she wasn’t paying attention to her siphoning. ”So maybe you were more…open to that kind of energy?”

It wasn’t a no from Lee, in fact, she agreed to testing out her siphoning through a spirit again. Lee did want to know why Tarin was interested in trying. He shrugged a bit, ”For one, I’m curious if I can stop you from doing it without severing the link to the spirit.” Tarin said, ”I probably can’t, but it’s worth a try.”

Why else did he want to try, ”I’m also curious if it feels any different. You probably would have noticed the first time around…but you were otherwise occupied, so maybe you didn’t notice.”