Oh, she had seen the eye thing before had she? If it was possible to be sarcastic inside your own head, Tarin was doing a good job of it. He didn’t point out that he hadn’t closed his eyes for her comfort.

It was outrageously weird to have a complete stranger know so much about his powers and Tarin was finding himself more and more uncomfortable as the moments passed by and she said more things and made more assumptions.

Tarin realized that maybe he should be being a bit more empathetic. The woman was clearly in distress over not being able to find the Tarin from this side. It only made sense that she was going to do whatever she could to find him. Tarin knew for a fact that nobody was doing that on the other side right now. There probably wasn’t a single person who would ever even notice that he was gone.

The news Tarin provided apparently wasn’t good news and as the woman cursed and ran her hand through her hair, Tarin tried to decide if there was anything else he could do to help.

If the who had done what? Did this Tarin have enemies? Was being attached to his name going to be a problem in and of itself? These were things that Tarin hadn’t even considered.

As he tried to wrap his head around that idea, Tarin noticed the woman turning to look at Central Park. Where the rift had been. Where Tarin had walked through just a few days ago, not realizing that the move was permanent.

”A lot of people came across to sightsee. To look at another universe…” Tarin said. Not everyone had been trying to get away.

“It’s not like it closed on a set schedule…”

As well as this woman seemed to know the Tarin from this side, it seemed a bit odd that she had no idea what he’d been up to for the last several days.

“It sounds like you knew him well…he didn’t have any plans that might have taken him out of town?” it was a flimsy statement, and it probably wasn’t even going to be helpful, but for some reason Tarin just couldn’t stand there silent.

Yes, Lee knew that people had been crossing the rift to 'sight see' over the previous year. But that really didn't sound like Tarin. Not just before he had specifically made plans to have Kevin for Independence Day. Especially not with what he'd told her that he'd learned from spirits that had died over there.

"I know that it wasn't a known that it was closing," Lee said, shaking her head as she looked toward the park. "But I don't know why he'd even want to go there. Not with what we'd heard."

This other Tarin went on to ask if her ex-husband could have had plans that had taken him out of town.

Turning back to him, Lee shook her head. "If something took him out of town, it's nothing good," Lee said. She couldn't think of anything that would have taken Tarin out of town in the last few days without informing her that he would have done willingly.

"And he wouldn't have planned to leave," Lee continued. "Not after him wanting to have our son for the holiday and making the plans to pick him up this afternoon."

Tarin honestly didn’t know why anyone, especially a mutant, would want to go and visit the other side either. In all honesty, Tarin didn’t know why more mutants from his side hadn’t tried to do what Tarin had done. Regardless, it sounded like the Tarin from over here was smart enough to have realized that. It really didn’t go far to explain why he’d seemingly disappeared though.

The weird thing here was that Tarin actually cared.

The Tarin from this side being gone actually made things about a million times easier. There weren’t two people trying to occupy the same space. There wasn’t anything to worry about as far as the spirits were concerned, because if the other Tarin was gone, nobody could trace him through spiritual activity.

Something about knowing that the thing that made it easier for him was making it so much harder for someone else dampened the relief though. Maybe he had just gone on a trip. And left his phone in the airport when he got on the plane. And hadn’t been able to reach this woman at any point in the last several days to let her know what was going on.

The woman in question spoke again though and the Tarin from the other side of the rift blinked. The woman he’d been speaking to all this time certainly did know the Tarin on this side of the rift very well. Because the Tarin on this side of the rift had a kid. With her.

Since the rift had opened, Tarin had heard stories about how different a person’s life could be from the version of them that potentially existed on the other side. This…this just sounded like pure fiction though.

”That….” Tarin said, kind of at a loss for words, ”That does sound less likely.”

The man in front of her looked completely shocked at the idea that she had a child. Well, more than likely the fact that Tarin, the Tarin from this world, had a kid.

Which at this point seemed like an obvious to Lee. But things had changed A LOT since Lee had first met Tarin Brooks. For both of them. Twelve years earlier, neither herself or Tarin would have been able to see themselves in the kind of relationship that they had quickly found themselves in. Lee had thought that the possibility of marriage would never happen, and the simple idea of being pregnant had terrified her. And though they had never explicitly talked about it, at that point marriage and a child probably seemed like worst case scenarios to Tarin.

"That….That does sound less likely.”

"Hence why I was banging on the door to the shop," Lee replied. "And his apartment before that."

Sighing in frustration, Lee glanced back toward the shop before pulling out her phone. No calls that she had somehow missed. She then shot a quick text off to Matt. "Damn it," she muttered as she tucked her phone away again. "This is not good."

This was why she was banging on the door to the shop and she had apparently been to the other Tarin’s apartment before that and had no luck finding him there either.

None of the spirits Tarin had checked with had seen the other Tarin in several days. To this Tarin that was pretty much confirmation that the other man was…gone. The spirits hadn’t said that the other Tarin was dead but they’d definitely said that he wasn’t there. That could only mean he was on the other side of the rift, right?

They were at a bit of a stalemate now, the woman clearly didn’t know what to do. She kept looking at the shop and looking at her phone as if an answer was going to somehow manifest itself.

”This is not good.”

No. No it wasn’t good for her. Definitely not. As far a Tarin knew, the rift being shut was permanent, and anyone who had been over there was every bit as stuck as he was stuck on this side.

”I’m sorry?” Tarin said in response, again at a bit of a loss for words. ”Is…is there anything I can do to help….” he said. Again, why was he offering? Was it that weird sense of guilt that things seemed to be working out so well for him while this woman was trying to confirm something awful?

”I didn’t catch your name….”

The other Tarin uncertainly apologized, and Lee just looked at him for a moment.

That moment lasted a few more when he asked if there was anything that he could do to help.

In reality, they were complete strangers. He'd really just stopped on the street because she had been very loudly and publicly yelling through a locked door for her ex-husband. Really, the fact that he had already asked the spirits in the shop if they'd seen Tarin was more than she could have expected.

"Unless you dragged him across and made sure he got stuck there, you've got nothing to apologize for," Lee told him.

"God…" she groaned a moment later running her hands through her hair and taking a breath. "That's probably best case scenario, isn't it? That he got stuck over there."

Taking another deep breath, Lee let her hands fall to her sides as she looked back at this Tarin. "Keep an ear out?" she asked quietly. "If there's any news, or if he…appears one day?"

It was morbid, it was worst case scenario. But Lee knew that it was a possibility. Between Rupert, Tarin's powers, and the trouble that always seemed to somehow be attracted to the shop (or had it just been them?), it was a definite possibility.

"I didn’t catch your name….”

Right. Because she had been freaking out a bit when she'd found out what his name was. "Lee Smith," she said. "Sorry about that."

Had…had he said something wrong?

The woman just stared at Tarin when he apologized for what she was going through. Wasn’t that sort of thing done over here? Generic condolences when something awful happened and you were generally powerless to really do anything to help? The thought made Tarin apprehensive all over again, was he going to have to figure out strange customs on this side of the rift? He really hadn’t thought all of this through.

She spoke and Tarin immediately shook his head when she pointed out that unless he’d been the one responsible for the disappearance of the Tarin Brooks from this side that he had nothing to apologize for.

“I just meant sorry it was happening…” he said, a bit sheepishly.

It was starting to sink in now though and the woman was getting progressively more upset. Best case scenario was that her Tarin had gotten stuck on the other side? Was that the best case? Tarin didn’t know. His…their powers weren’t particularly obvious, but people…mutants…from this side were getting picked up off the street before the rift had closed. Tarin could only imagine what it was like for people who’d gotten stuck now that the rift was closed. He didn’t say that though. It would only make things worse and that seemed cruel.

The alternative though. The woman asked him to keep an ear out in case there was news…or the other Tarin showed up. Tarin knew she didn’t mean in the flesh. She meant if he showed up as a spirit because he was dead.

“I will…” he said, though how he’d get the message to her without any other info, Tarin didn’t know. He could probably figure it out with the help of spirits if he wanted.

Lee. Her name was Lee Smith. It wasn’t a particularly unique name, but somehow it fit the woman that was standing in front of him apologizing for not sharing it until now.

“You’ve got a plenty good excuse.” Tarin said, waving off the apology.

Taking his own turn to look over at the shop, Tarin sighed a little. If the other Tarin really was gone…it was far too soon to ask, but he’d keep an eye out here. If a for lease sign popped up or anything like that he’d be sure to pop in. The coincidence that the shop was in the same place was just too much to ignore.

It felt like he should leave now. There wasn’t another single thing that Tarin could do to help find the woman, Lee’s, Tarin…it wasn’t his problem either. Tarin had plenty of problems of his own and he didn’t need to involve himself in this person’s life at all.

But she had looked so upset a minute ago…

“Are you okay?” he asked.

Sorry that it was happening. That made a hell of a lot more sense. Because how, why would this Tarin have had any reason to do anything to him?

"Thanks," Lee said, giving the man a small smile.

And Tarin said that he would let her know if he heard - or saw - anything. Lee pressed her lips together and nodded a little grimly. Depending on what had happened, what Rupert had done with the body if he had ended up finally pulling the trigger, Lee knew that that might be the only way she ever found out. Because unlike when Tarin had been out of his body, Lee knew she wouldn't sense him now; she had only ever been able to feel energy from a spirit when it had been merged with him.

Death, whether her own or Tarin's, had always been a possibility. Lee knew that. She'd known it from the first day that Tarin had told her about merging and she had decided that she wasn't going to do to him what so many people had done to her because of her powers. It had come close. So many times. She had died in Romania.

Yet now, knowing that Tarin might be dead, and she may never know for sure…

"I will be," Lee told him when he asked if she was okay. "I'll manage." Like she always did. She'd push as much of everything she could down and lock it away, because unless Tarin miraculously showed up in the morning, she was going to have to explain this all to Kevin. And to Josh and Adele. Though she had no idea how she was going to do that.

She'd just stick with the rift story. Until and unless she had proof of anything else.

The rift, which had closed days ago. But this Tarin had only been near the shop tonight. "How did you know where his shop was?" she asked, a crease forming between her brows.

If it had starting sinking in before, it had sunk in now and Lee was trying to process everything that had happened, everything she had heard, and everything that she was thinking.

If she was close enough with the other Tarin that they had a kid, that she’d known about his powers, that she knew about merges, she had to be at least used to the concept of death. It was impossible for anyone to spend any kind of time around someone with the kind of powers that Tarin had without at least a familiarity with the concept.

Lee looked grim, but she wasn’t falling to pieces. In fact, she’d smiled a little when she’d thanked him. Tarin didn’t know what to make of it, but he supposed it made as much sense as was possible.

She would be okay. She wasn’t okay then. Tarin didn’t say anything ,it wasn’t his place and she had said that she would manage. She had a kid though, and she was going to have to explain to that kid what had happened. This Tarin was in touch with his family…

That wasn’t helpful. Those kinds of thoughts weren’t going to go anywhere and it wasn’t the sort of thing that made sense to dwell on.

Time passed and Tarin didn’t leave. Lee had said she was fine, but for some reason Tarin didn’t leave. Maybe it was the fact that despite how weird it was that he was talking to someone who seemed to know something about him…even if it was in an incredibly weird, round-about way.

Lee spoke and Tarin looked at her for a moment before he shrugged, looking again at the front of the shop, ”It’s in the same place.” he said softly, “I was curious. I’m still figuring things out.”

He was here because the shop was in the same place. This Tarin had had a shop in the same place on the other side of the rift.

Lee nodded. That made sense. But more than that, with what Lee knew about how Tarin had first found the shop all those years ago,

It somehow felt right that both shops were in the same place.

But this Tarin was still trying to figure things out. Because of course he was. He may have been from New York, and had had a shop in the exact same place, but he was also starting completely over. Because this wasn't his world.

Well, if the rift didn't open again, this was his world now. But it hadn't been. His shop, his place to live, they didn't exist here.

Lee glanced over at the shop again before looking back at him. "What have you figured out so far?"

Lee took a moment to think, and she looked back at the shop before she turned to him and Tarin shrugged just a little bit when she asked what he had figured out so far.

”Things are…different here.” he said carefully, not wanting to drive the point home that things on the other side were bad. “It’s going to take some getting used to.”

What else had he figured out?

“The Mets are still bad?” he said, realizing it sounded like he had absolutely no idea what he was doing or what he was going to do.

”I’ll figure things out.” he added, ”Always have before.”

Things were different here. Lee couldn't help but think that that was an understatement, at least with her limited knowledge and experience with people and the way things were on the other side.

It was also a very noncommittal answer.

He went on to make a comment about…some sports team being bad on this side as well. Lee knew that the Mets were a New York team, but they didn't play hockey and that's about as far as Lee's sports knowledge went.

Followed by a very familiar phrase. 'I'll figure things out', meaning he really had nothing figured out in terms of a job or place to live. At least that was always how she had used the phrase.

"So you haven't found anything yet," Lee said, but as she spoke, her eyes moved back to look at the shop. Which if Tarin really was gone would just sit empty.

Tarin frowned when Lee accurately pointed out that he hadn’t really figured out anything yet.

How dare she be right.

”That’s what I was starting to do tonight….” he said, just a little bit more candidly, ”Trying to find out if there was a place here or if I’d need to find somewhere else.” Was that what he’d been doing? Would he have picked up and gone somewhere else? Could he have?

They were what-ifs that Tarin probably wasn’t going to have to answer and he wasn’t going to explain all of that to Lee. Again, it seemed wrong to point out things that were going to work out for him when they were so negative for Lee and her family.

”I’ve seen on TV that they’re helping folks like me out at certain spots in the city. That was going to be my first stop tomorrow.” It spoke volumes to Tarin that he was able to discuss it so nonchalantly. Changing universes wasn’t the most difficult transition he’d dealt with as far as when, where, and how he was living.

That was why this Tarin had come by the shop that night, he had been starting to try and figure things out.

That made sense, in a way. There were obviously differences between his world and this one. Some differences were major, like how this man looked completely different than Tarin, despite having the same name and powers. Other differences, Lee had heard, were very small.

The only way he would have found out what, if any, differences there were about the shop would have been to come here.

And he was planning to go to one of the places that had been set up to help those who'd gotten stuck here.

"That's a good start," Lee said, moving her eyes back to look at Tarin from where she'd been looking back at the shop.

But he wasn't the only one who had things to figure out, Lee realized. If Tarin was gone, there was the shop and his apartment to deal with, his bank and investments, his stuff…

"I need a coffee," Lee decided. "Your shop, you did the same thing? A medium shop?" Lee asked before starting to walk again towards the park and a vendor she knew was open late.

It was a good start. That’s why Tarin had decided to do it. There were practical things that he had to take care of that necessitated going to one of the aid stations that were popping up around town. The fact that there was going to be paperwork and he was going to have to get an ID and all that made Tarin…uncomfortable, but he reminded himself that things were different here.

In lieu of commenting on all of that, Tarin just nodded. This was already weird enough and Tarin didn’t need to come across as some kind of paranoid freak.

In fact…he’d probably been overstaying his welcome in Lee’s presence for a while now and she had things to figure out. Tarin was just about to excuse himself from her company when she mentioned she needed coffee and then asked him about the shop…his shop before she walked away.

Looking at this shop again for a moment and wondering who on Earth drank coffee at this time of night, Tarin considered just heading back to the hotel but then sighed and turned to catch up with Lee.

“I did.” he said once he caught up. “For a few years now.” A bit less recently because he’d gotten spooked and had been spending a lot more time out on the island. For good reason, it had turned out. Tarin didn’t really want to talk about all of that though. “I saw a sign on a run one day and just kind of wandered in…way better than working random jobs.” he said, keeping things generic.