Tarin yawned as he moved around the shop, shutting things up and off. Lee and Garrett had already left, Tarin thought it was silly to keep three people around to do the work of one. Lee was getting the food for the night and Tarin's stomach grumbled as he shut off the light in the front of the room.

Next came the front door, Tarin slipped out and locked it, then shouldered his messenger bag and started home. It was still nice out and he made his way down the street at a brisk pace. Things had been going well lately with Lee, business was good, probably even better than usual, Tarin was in a good mood.

It was only about a 10 minute walk to the apartment and Tarin hoped that Lee would already be home when he got there...with the food, and his pace quickened, but there was actually spring in his step. Tarin made it to the doorway and dropped his keys in his eagerness to get the key in the door and unlock it, then it was up the stairs and to the door of the actual apartment. That door was easy to get open and he almost skipped into the apartment, "Honey! I'm home!" he called out.

Tarin had told Lee to go on and leave a bit early that night, saying he'd finish up and close up shop if she'd go grab dinner on the way home. That worked for her, so Lee grabbed her purse and left the shop, making a quick detour a couple blocks over to the restaurant.

It didn't take her long, their order was rather simple and straightforward, and about 10 minutes later, Lee was once again making her way home. How weird that was; even when she had been in Toronto for a month, she hadn't thought of Rachael's place as home despite the fact that she was living there, but already she was calling the apartment home again.

It wasn't far, that's one of the things she and Tarin had made sure of when they had been looking for the apartment for him. Up the stairs and into the apartment Lee went after unlocking the doors. After flicking on the light and taking her shoes off - oh how she missed her boots! - Lee set the bags of Chinese food on the coffee table and made her way into the kitchen to grab some drinks.

And that's where she was when Lee heard the door open, heard Tarin's voice, and felt some energy starting to flow into her as he got closer. Apparently, he hadn't had very much left to do at the shop after all.

Things weren't even close to being back to normal for them, there were quite often tense and awkward moments still, but Tarin was still trying to get them there again. Yet, Lee couldn't help the smile when she heard the absolute happiness in Tarin's voice as he told her he was home.

Lee was just about to head back to the living room, two bottles of beer in her hand, when she remembered that Tarin still had issues with chopsticks. Turning, Lee quickly grabbed him a fork out of the drawer, then made her way back to the living room.

"Well, dig in," Lee told him, the smile still on her face as she held the fork out for him.

Lee actually looked pleased to see him when he exploded into the apartment. She even went to get him his food and brought a beer. Tarin looked at the beer like a man stumbling on an oasis in the middle of a desert. "You are an absolute goddess. Absolute." he said, reaching out and taking it, along with the fork.

Tarin grinned at Lee from the lower vantage point and waited for her to sit and eat before he dug in with gusto. "I'm back to thinking that New York CIty is an absolute miracle Lee. Food this good couldn't come from anywhere else."

Tarin looked over at Lee as he continued to eat and wondered how far they were as far as getting things back to normal were concerned. Tarin wasn't impatient about it, he knew it was going to take a lot of time, but he just wondered.

"Did ya get home alright and everything? No problems at the restaurant?"

Lee couldn't stop the slight blush from springing to her cheeks as she heard Tarin speaking as she brought the beer and fork back to the living room. It wasn't even just his words, it was his tone as he spoke, the love that she heard in his voice. It was just so saturated with feeling and sincerity that the blush was there before she could stop it.

"Yeah, it must be a miracle or something," Lee agreed as she sat down and reached for her chopsticks and a carton of food, though it wasn't the food that Lee was talking about. Even when things weren't right, like they weren't right now, she was still able to be happy like she was that night. There was just something about the city.

Or, Lee couldn't help but think a moment later as she took a bite, maybe it wasn't so much the city, but more Tarin that made things that way for her.

Glancing sideways, Lee saw Tarin looking back at her. "Yeah, everything went fine, no problems," Lee told Tarin after she swallowed her mouthful of food, then smiled teasingly at him. "Apparently they are wondering where you are, though, since I seem to be the one always going for food."

It was back to eating then, Lee was quite hungry, so she focused on the food in front of her, only pausing to take a sip of her beer. And as she ate, Lee thought. This was probably the closest they had had to a normal night since she had been back in New York. They both seemed to be actually happy, it really was comfortable sitting there silently eating.

And as she finished eating, Lee debated with herself. She had already decided if things were going to work between them, she was going to have to try a little harder. So, Lee thought, why not try that night? Things were already feeling as close to normal as they had been, closer to normal than Lee had thought they would be by this point. Hopefully those feelings of normalcy and comfort would make it easier for her.

Finally deciding that she was finished eating, Lee set the container back on the table and glanced at Tarin again and saw that he was also finished eating.

This is normal, you've done this how many countless times? Lee told herself. Still, she swallowed nervously as she slowly leaned back against the couch, angling herself slightly so that her head came to rest against Tarin's shoulder. "So," Lee asked, already fighting the worry that was building in her at touching Tarin. "Did you want to get a movie, or should we just watch TV tonight?"

It really must be a miracle, Tarin thought as he watched Lee sitting next to him. It was a miracle that he was alive, a miracle he wasn't in jail, a miracle that Lee was sitting next to him this close, and a miracle that she was smiling again. It seemed like it had been so long since he'd seen her smile like that. He smiled too, the mood was infectious back and forth, they were happy...really happy for the first time in...how long?

Lee commented that the ladies at the Chinese restaurant they frequented were wondering where he was and Tarin couldn't help but laugh, "They only want me back because they like to pinch my butt and tell me if they were thirty years younger they'd give me one hell of a run for my money." he said, then shuddered with exaggeration, "The scariest thing is...I believe them."

Tarin was pondering over the whole situation some more as he finished off his food and set the container on the floor, flipping the television on and sitting back against the couch cushions arm stretched across the back. What happened next made Tarin believe in the miracles even more.

When Lee first scooted over, Tarin wondered if she had slipped while trying to get up or something, then she leaned her head on his shoulder and his stiffened body relaxed next to her, arm staying where it was when what it really wanted was to wrap around her.

Tarin could tell she was uncomfortable and his chest swelled with pride and love at the way she was trying. She asked whether he wanted to go get a movie or stay in for TV and Tarin couldn't help but thing it would take an entire herd of wild horses to drag him away from the apartment at that moment.

"I'm going to go with the TV option...if that's alright with you."

Lee shook her head as Tarin explained why he figured the women at the restaurant were missing him. "Guess I've missed most of those exchanges," she said. There had been numerous times before she had left that he had gone to get food on his own, like she had just gone to get the food herself that night.

"Hmm," Lee went on to muse, slowly chewing. "Maybe I should be the one to go for food from now on. Don't want the younger girls, who wouldn't be held back because of the age, to start getting that bold."

Her head leaning against Tarin's shoulder, Lee took a slow, deep breath trying to calm her worry. It didn't work. But despite the worry still raging inside her, Lee still felt herself relaxing as she leaned against Tarin. How was she feeling so relaxed like this, Lee couldn't help but wonder as her eyes sought out the TV Tarin had already turned on.

And then she heard him saying that he thought TV would be good, as long as it worked for her too. Lee thought about it for a moment, then nodded. TV worked. TV meant that they didn't have to move. Lee thought that if she moved now, she wouldn't be able to get back to this point again, moving could very easily break the magic, the comfort, that was letting her actually stay touching Tarin. "Yeah, TV works for me too," she told him with a slight nod.

Tarin grinned over at Lee as she said that maybe she should go and get the food from now on to prevent the younger girls from doing teh same thing the matrons did. "They keep their girls on a tight leash Lee. They won't even let them out of the back rooms when I come into the shop."

She was relaxing, it was taking a while, but Lee was slowly relaxing against him. Tarin kept that arm where it was across the back of the sofa and did his best to stay still. It was weird to think of Lee as so jumpy, but he knew that one wrong move would ruin the entire moment...somehow destroy the magic that had flowed into the room on the tail of the Chinese food and his good mood.

TV was good for Lee too, at least that's what she said and Tarin settled, relaxing again against the cushions of the couch and next to her, attention moving to the TV. If that's what Lee was comfortable with, that's what he'd be good with.

OOC - Lee, i went ahead and posted out of turn...hope you don't mind too much.

Things were going perfectly still, Lee was relaxed against him, Tarin could smell her hair and feel her body as it leaned against his. Definitely a step in the right direction. It had been over a month since he'd just snuggled with someone like this and he realized now how right it was. As he sat there, eyes trained on a TV he wasn't watching at all, he let himself think about that night, the night he'd brought the woman back here from the bar, the night he'd unknowingly brought her to her death.

Things hadn't felt right from the beginning, it had simply been about physicality. In the past that was something Tarin would go out of his way to find in a woman, especially in a bar situation.

KNOCK KNOCK

Tarin's head jerked up and towards the door, glaring at it like it was something living that he could beat into a pulp after ruining what had been an almost perfect moment. Nobody ever knocked on their door, they didn't live in an apartment complex, so there wasn't a lot of foot traffic past their door. That made Tarin think he needed to open the door.

Gently leaning into Lee, then leaning back to create some separation, Tarin pushed up off the couch and looked down at Lee. "That was incredible Lee. You can't possibly know how proud I am at how hard you're trying...really. I'll get the door."

So to the door Tarin went, curiosity and slightly frustration still mingling inside of him. The door opened easily as it always did and when it opened, Tarin's eyes widened to the size of the saucers in the cabinets. It was the dead guy...the dead guy from the roof of the ESB.

"Holy cow...you're alive!" Tarin exclaimed, hands falling to his sides in shock, "I thought that day on the Empire State Building that I'd never see you again. Come in, come in!" he said, waving the young man into the apartment, "Lee! You're not going to believe this!"

The more time that passed, the more Lee relaxed against Tarin as she sat there watching TV, and the more and more right it felt. Really, how wrong could this really be, part of her mind wondered, trying to convince herself. It wasn't really as though she were taking all that much energy just sitting there like that, and it felt so good.

And then there was a knock on the door. Lee jumped. And then Tarin was moving, getting up off the couch, though before he went to get the door, he looked down at her. Saying how proud he was that she was trying as hard as she was. Lee couldn't keep the slight blush off her face at that as Tarin turned and moved to the door.

Only to end up being more shocked once he got there than she had been to hear the knock. Sitting up straight at his words, Lee looked over at the door and blinked. She felt the energy coming from the door, that was for sure, but only one person she thought, not two. Yet she saw two people standing there, Tarin inviting the other guy into the apartment, exclaiming something about how he couldn't believe the guy was alive.

Lee's brow was furrowed in confusion as she watched this, not knowing what was going on. She had been doing so much better with her people radar in the last week or so, still not good out in public around a lot of people, but had been great with it in around the shop, the apartment shouldn't have been any different. So she didn't know what was going on. Unless having leaned against Tarin like that had messed things up?

Still, she should have felt something more than just Tarin's energy, right?

"Uh, Tarin," Lee said slowly, quietly, standing up so she felt at least a little less defenceless, though the lack of feeling this guy's energy was more than throwing her off a little. "I can't feel him..."

Tarin waited for Lee to come forward, but his eyebrows shot up as she made her way to the entryway of the apartment. "You can't..." Tarin frowned slightly as he looked at the guy in the doorway, he wasn't a spirit, Lee could see him and Tarin hadn't made any kind of link whatsoever.

The guy didn't remember him either, "Of course I remember you...but the last time I talked to you...you were way more dead...I think..." Tarin said, "At least nobody but me could see you on the top of the Empire State Building."

Tarin cast Lee a look, frowning again and trying to figure out how to explain how he'd met the young man in the doorway, the young man whose name was completely escaping Tarin's memory at the moment. "I met him the day you moved out." Tarin said quickly, then frowned a little more deeply, "I went to the top of the building...to think. I actually wanted to talk to the spirit lady up there...but she was gone...but he was there."

Tarin turned to the guy, "So you don't remember anything? You were by far one of the more happy-go-lucky spirits I've met. You were talking non-stop about love and offered to show me where there was literally a hole in your chest. Then there was all this wind and you kind of got sucked away....I wondered what happened. I guess they brought you back."

The man walked a couple steps into the apartment as she got up, and Lee tensed. From what he was saying, he didn't remember Tarin, yet he had found him, remembered, somehow, that the shop had at one time many many years earlier been a clock shop.

The dark haired young man, who was now stepping into her apartment, looked shocked to see her there, yet he raised his hand in a slight wave. Lee was still far too unbalanced to respond in kind.

Hearing Tarin's partial comment, Lee shook her head. "Nothing at all," she whispered. It was so weird. The only other time since she was a child that Lee remembered never feeling energy from someone had been the one dream of Texas Tarin had been having that she walked into. But this couldn't be a dream, or at least not in the same way, because she was still feeling energy from Tarin.

But by this point, Tarin was explaining to her how he knew this guy. He had first met him the day she had moved out, great memory to bring up...on top of the Empire State Building looking for the spirit there, great company on such a day...

...And he had been a spirit?

Lee blinked a few times as her eyes darted back and forth between Tarin and the other guy. "You're dead?!" Lee exclaimed. Lee supposed that did explain why she didn't feel any energy coming from him. But it didn't explain how she was actually seeing him. Only Tarin could see spirits, she couldn't, at least not unless they got energy from him. And Lee was sure that wasn't the case, this guy wouldn't have been able to knock on the door without Tarin giving him energy, and Tarin was not acting like it was being pulled from him forcefully.

"What's going on here?"

Tarin watched in slight awe as Lee continued to worry about the fact she couldn't feel the guy in the room. Tarin struggled with his name some more, it was something Russian, something he couldn't bring to the tip of his brain.

Lee was worried, Tarin could see it on her face and in her body language. "It's okay Lee...I'm sure there's an explanation..." Tarin said, when she actually questioned the fact that something was obviously going on. And there was an explanation, Tarin nodded his head,

"Yeah...I Think I remember you bringing up a stalker when you were offering to show me the hole in your chest. I declined. You were really lovesick about that redhead. You gave me advice..." Tarin mused, a small smile crossing his features.

He was offering to leave now, in fact, insisting after another moment and as he left, Tarin stepped closer to the guy, "You're not causing any trouble here..." he said, casting a cautionary look towards Lee, "It's just been a long time since Lee hasn't been able to feel someone when they came in a room. Maybe if you explained that, we'd feel a little more at ease and could talk more. I'd like to help you puzzle this out. Believe it or not you did me a great service that day. I was in a grave state of mind."

Lee was worried. More than worried. Why could she only feel Tarin standing there at the door and not this other guy? And why was Tarin telling her it was going to be ok, why was he simply curious about this guy rather than feeling any concern?

Despite Tarin's seeming relaxed nature during this encounter, Lee felt like something was wrong. Or, more wrong than simply her not feeling the guy. She couldn't put her finger on it, though, just a general feeling, like something wasn't right, or something would happen.

It's probably just because you're off balance, Lee tried to tell herself. Tarin wouldn't put her in danger, after all. Still, she stepped up her siphoning a bit. If there was going to be any sort of trouble, she was going to need more strength than her 5'3" frame naturally held.

"Explain it?" Lee asked, her voice sounding rather sceptical. She was still standing over at the couch while the two men were at the door. "Cause this seems like one of those things that is easy to explain. So tell me, then, if you're dead, how the hell can I see you, and if you're alive, why can't I feel your energy?"

Tarin was confused more and more as he stood in the entryway of his apartment and listened to the other man speak. "You're not sure about the redhead." Tarin said, absolutely baffled at the idea that someone could forget feelings that were obviously that strong.

"You were so sure that day..." he said, shaking his head slowly, "I'm so sorry that you can't remember how you felt about her...maybe you should look into it some more. You really felt it deeply and since it was something you were still so sure of after you were dead...."

Tarin blinked when the guy explained...then he blinked again...Lee was going to handle this well....NOT.

"Resurrected..." Tarin was starting to think that there was an echo in the apartment because he kept on repeating things the other guy was saying. Seriously.

Tarin didn't know what else to say...he kind of just slipped back into what he hoped was the background of the situation and waited to see what Lee would do. Tarin was actually kind of waiting on fishooks to find out what would happen...would Lee's curiosity overcome her paranoia of touching?

Tarin tilted his head to the side as the guy asked Lee if there was a way for her to check her energy. "Actually there is..." he said, "If she can feel me then she knows everything is working well."

Lee blinked. Resurrected? She questioned silently while Tarin repeated the word out loud. This guy had been dead, and not simply just saved or brought back, but resurrected? What did that mean? And why couldn't she feel him there, if he had been brought back to life?

But then the guy was moving forward, his hand held out as he said she could check his pulse if it would make her feel better, asking if there was a way she check to make sure things were working right with her powers in general.

Before she was able to respond at all, other than a slight tensing at the movement toward her, Tarin was answering the question. Lee was focusing at this point, though, so even though she didn't know how to explain it, she knew what she was feeling.

"I can," Lee said with a nod, cautiously turning her eyes toward Tarin for a moment. "And someone's in the hall, going up I think. But not him." Lee finished in frustration and confusion; why couldn't she feel him, he was standing right there in front of her. He was close enough that she could reach out and touch him even, and she couldn't feel his energy when she should have been feeling his the strongest.

She could touch him. It might not solve the mystery as to why she wasn't feeling his energy, but she'd feel it then; she had boosted her siphoning when he got there, so there was no reason she wouldn't feel it with contact. Swallowing, Lee carefully reached out her hand, her eyes glued to the young man standing in front of her, the tips of her fingers lightly brushing against his wrist so she could feel his pulse.

Before she had a chance to, though, Lee was stepping back quickly, her eyes wide, as she stared at him. Her fingers had barely been touching him for a second before she had moved away. Then she was shaking her head, honestly too nervous to move her eyes away from the man as she spoke to Tarin. "Nothing," she whispered even as her mind was yelling, asking how there could be nothing since he was standing right in front of her. "I can't feel him at all..."