Again Sam seemed to have forgotten the whole dinner thing as they stood there, forgotten about the fact that he had asked to pay for dinner to make up for having knocked her over outside. Luckily, he quickly recovered and pulled out his wallet.

And pulled out a hundred.

That was somewhat surprising to Lee. She knew that two buffet dinners didn't come anywhere close to $100, but from what he said, that was all he had.

That wasn't the most surprising part to Lee, though. When Sam went on, saying to just add her take out order to the bill he was paying, Lee flashed a look at Sam, her eyes hard.

"You don't have to do that," she told him, her voice soft yet firm. "I wasn't even going to pay for it myself. Let him pay for his own food."

It was true, Lee had had no intention of actually paying for the Chinese with her own money, even if she had actually had more than $5 with her at that moment. Her Plan A had been to use that bloody Visa card Tarin had forced her into taking, a card which she was still planning on giving back to him before she left this time. And, if there wasn't enough money left on that card, Lee had grabbed enough cash from the apartment to cover the food.

"I'll get it," Lee said with a nod, her eyes softening as she continued to look over at Sam. "You're already paying for my meal, you don't need to pick up another four."

Sam felt like a loser pulling the hundred. But that was all he had. Lee had refused his offer to pay for all of it including his. Questions popped into Sam's head like who was he and why did she have such an effect on him. Questions best left for later Sam decided.

“Lee really I don’t mind, it’s the least I can do. I said I would pay for it all and I mean it.” Sam was serious when he said this but then quickly loosened up a bit and raise an eyebrow “Look Lee it sounds like your taking care of this person, and to me sounds like you had a little problem. So let me pay for it.” He handed the woman the hundred and got his change back. Then turning to Lee “aww to late already got the change.” He smiled and chuckled a bit after he said this cause he go his way.

Lee raised an eyebrow as Sam said he would pay for it all. "No," she said, correcting him. "You said you'd buy me dinner. Not me and everyone else I was planning on feeding." Well, the one other person, but she had ordered enough food for four.

Lee couldn't really argue with what else Sam said, though. She was currently taking care of Tarin, since she had been the one to drain his energy to the point of exhaustion a couple times. And Lee's scalp was still sore from the 'little problem' that had been the merge. But she had been up for days because of energy lots of times, she had had to deal with Tarin being merged with spirits, and the aftermath of that, before. Still, it took her a couple moments to come up with something to say in reply to Sam, and by that time, he had already handed the money over and was getting his change.

"Fine then, be that way," Lee said, rolling her eyes at Sam as she turned and walked over to sit in one of the few chairs near the door of the restaurant while she waited for the food. Hadn't he just seen for himself that she could take care of herself? Why did guys have to be so stubborn and insist on things like this all the time?

Sam walked over and waited with Lee “Look I didn’t mean to offended you. Just the way I am, my old boss said it was the biggest flaw I had. I act on impulse, paying and opening the door are just some of the corny examples.” Sam finished with a smile. “Besides it doesn’t look like you need my help, I just like feeling useful.” Sam now changing the subject, “so you said you had to much energy, and you haven’t had sleep in three days, is that part of your gifts?”

Sam grabbed his right arm which he was sure was bleeding. In a calm voice, “I think I got knifed.”

Opening doors, insisting on paying for things...As if it wasn't bad enough that she was out on a date with Sam, unplanned though it had been, but now he was arguing his right to pay for food for her ex-fiance if so so chose.

Lee took a deep breath and looked over at Sam. "You didn't offend," she told him. "It's just, you really didn't have to do that. But thanks."

When Sam went on to ask about the energy and not sleeping in days, Lee grimaced. "Gifts?" She scoffed. Not once in her life had she ever thought of what she could do as a gift. For a time, she had come to accept it, even be content with what she could do, but it had never been a gift.

She had lost that brief contentment.

"A gift implies something good," Lee whispered, her eyes dropping to her hands as she spoke. "But yes, the energy is part of what I can do, like the speed and strength."

Lee paused to think. She was sure that Sam would ask more about that, would be curious about how the energy side of her power worked, how it was all interrelated. She didn't know how much she would say, how she would explain it.

Before she had come up with anything, Lee heard Sam's voice again, and her heart jumped up into her throat despite his calm tone. "You think..." She mumbled, turning toward him in her chair, her hand reaching out, though not quite touching him, just hovering an inch above where his hand was holding his arm. What would she be able to do to help, anyway? Without going into the bathroom, she couldn't even help him clean it up, and that would end up taking energy from him the entire time she touched him.

"How bad is it?" Lee asked, her eyes turning up to look at Sam again, her hand still hovering over his for another couple moments before she let it fall back to her lap. "Do you think you need to see a doctor?"

Sam laughed at Lee, “This is nothing look” he waved his hand by it and it was instantly covered in ice and the bleeding stopped. “Glad to see you worried.” He threw a smile so she wouldn’t get mad at him.

“Lee, my old boss used to say our abilities is a gift as long as we chose to use them that way the second we think them a burden they become a curse, which raises a question why do you hate yours so much?” Sam had wanted to ask this question for some time, but not knowing how to phrase it.

Lee lowered her eyes to Sam's arm as he moved his hand. And saw the bleeding stop as ice covered the wound. She kept her eyes there, on the not healed, but no longer bleeding knife wound, as Sam continued to talk. Tarin had tried to convince her of something like that, months earlier. And he had mostly succeeded...

At least he had until she had almost killed him with those powers, not just once, but then again the last couple days in his apartment.

"Not everyone's powers are so useful," Lee told Sam softly, nodding to where she was still looking at his arm.

But he wanted to know about her powers. Of course he did, everyone did till they found out what they were. But not just what they were, Sam wanted to know why she hated them. She hadn't said that, did she? Or was it simply that obvious that she hated what she did that he had picked up on it?

"It doesn't exactly engender people to like you when you're stealing their energy," Lee whispered, a sad look in her eyes as she finally looked back up at Sam.

Just then, the woman returned, putting a couple of bags on the counter and called over that the food was ready. Nodding, Lee tried to banish the sadness from her eyes as she smiled at Sam. "It was nice to meet you, Sam," she said, standing up. "And thanks again for dinner."

Sam smiled at her, she seemed so sad; her powers gave her a heavy burden to bear. “You know that stuff doesn’t bother me.” He was telling the truth Sam didn’t really care about her powers he was more worried about the person behind them. “Hey Lee” Sam stood up right next to her before she left “it was all my pleasure, and I would love to go out again if your up for it, maybe some place that doesn’t hold so many memories for you.” He extended his hand with a piece a paper holding then number to his cell, “if your up for another date” he said with a big smile.

Lee simply looked at Sam for a couple seconds in silence when he told her that her stealing his energy didn't bother him. Maybe not, not yet, but she was sure it would, when he found out more, when he actually felt her taking energy, then he would mind. Not that she intended to ever do that, but how many times had she intended it, and yet done it?

She was already turned toward her food, had already taken a couple of steps, when Sam said her name. Stopping, she turned to look at him, saw the smile on his face. He wanted to go on another date. Lee honestly wasn't sure what to think about that, though the fact of the matter was the dinner part, the actual 'date' portion of their evening together, had been fun. Still...

Lee took the paper from him, a strange combination of a smile and a frown on her face. "I'm not sure I'm quite ready to date yet," she admitted, her eyes flicking down to the paper, the number, he had given her before coming back up to his face. "But I did enjoy dinner. I'll give you a call. We'll figure something out."

She seemed unsure of the idea of another date, which was kind of an ego blow but she wasn’t ready yet and he didn’t feel like forcing her. Sam smiled his normal smile covering the fact that he may never see her again and said, “I’ll be looking forward to it.”