Less than 24 hours ago, things had been a disaster. Well, they still were, the shop was still in horrible shape, but things weren't nearly as horrible as they had been. Somehow, that DocProf person at the mansion had managed to patch Tarin up so well that all he had was a bit of bruising on his arm after she had cleaned all the blood away. The cut itself that had been the cause of all that blood was gone.

At least because he was feeling alright, at least physically, Lee wasn't going to be the only one cleaning up the shop this time. Help with that, especially from Tarin, would be far more enjoyable. Still, with the work ahead of her, Lee had tossed on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt for the day. So much easier to deal with than a skirt.

"A million dollars," Lee said slowly as she walked into the living room, a cup of coffee in her hands, sitting down beside Tarin. Not that she really needed the caffeine at that point since she was already awake, but it was comforting after everything they'd gone through in the last day. "Why would someone write you a check for a million dollars?"

The crumpled rectangle of paper was still sitting in front of him on the table, and Tarin stared at it harder and harder, hoping to somehow make some sense out of the chaos that had been the last 24 hours.

The check was unmistakable, made out to him and for an absolutely staggering amount of money. Lee said they'd found the check near his body at the shop. Tarin subconsciously ran a hand over his arm, wincing only slightly at the large bruise that covered the better part of his forearm. Everything else was fine, the initial weariness that had set in after the doctor had healed him had worn off and all that remained was the bruise.

Who was this person who had left him the check. The signature was unreadable and Tarin wondered if a bank would even cash a check that large. Chances were there were channels that had to be gone through.

Lee walked out of the kitchen and sat down at the table with a cup of coffee in her hands and asked the same question Tarin had been asking himself since Lee had told him about the check.

Tarin looked up and over to Lee and leaned back in his chair, running his hands through his hair. "I want to know what I did for the guy that not only did he think it was worth a million dollars, but that made him angry enough to do what he did." Tarin didn't want to think about the shop, Lee had pointed out the fact that it had been a disaster...but just how bad was still to be seen. Tarin looked up at Lee again, studying her face, things had been so normal yesterday when she'd been taking care of him. None of the hesitation had been present, none of the almost obligatory fear of the past months.

"I'm glad you got bored Lee...I can't imagine what a nightmare the hospital would have been. My brain felt like a scrambled egg when I came around and god only knows what that would have meant in a situation like that."

Both hands. Tarin was running both his hands through his hair because of the cheque. Even if she hadn't already known this was a major thing, that action would have told Lee that. He did have a good point, though. Who in the world would trash the shop like that, and leave a cheque for a million dollars? Even if it was to pay for the damages, Lee didn't think the entire shop was worth a million dollars, never mind simply what had been broken.

But then he was examining her; not simply just looking at her, but really examining her as if something was seriously on his mind. So Lee looked back at Tarin, trying to figure out what it was he could be thinking. Before she was able to come up with something, Tarin started speaking, telling her that he was glad she had gotten bored the day before. That must have been it, the thought of being taken to a hospital with the shape he had been in the day before.

Lee smiled slightly, she couldn't help it. “So no more forcing me to take a day off?” She asked. If she hadn't been off for the day, maybe they wouldn't be at a complete loss for who had been in the shop, who had hurt Tarin. Who knows, if she had been there, maybe things wouldn't have gotten so serious, maybe the shop wouldn't have been trashed and Tarin wouldn't have been hurt.

“I'm actually just glad that Maya was there so she could take us to the Mansion.” As she spoke, a frown appeared on her face thinking back to the day before and how Tarin had been sprawled out on the floor. Reaching out, Lee gently squeezed Tarin's hand. “I honestly didn't know what to do when I saw you like that...”

Tarin couldn't hold back the smile that cracked when Lee pointed out that it would probably be wise if he didn't make her take days off anymore. The smile quickly disappeared though, if Lee had been there, she might have been hurt too, things could have possibly been worse. An involuntary shudder ran through him at that thought and he shook his head again, wishing that the cobwebs would simply clear and he could remember.

Lee looked back at him as he thought and he tried to read her features. She'd looked on the verge of speaking when he'd finally voiced some of his thoughts. Tarin nodded his head slowly, it had been a nice little slice of fate that the girl had been coming by the shop to let them know about their shop boy.

Lee reached out and took his hand and Tarin ran his the back of her hers as he sat at the table and thought, more, about what the implications of any other situation would have been. Lee said she hadn't known what to do and his eyebrows rose, "It was that bad?"

Tarin frowned, if the situation she'd walked into had shocked Lee that much, it probably was a really lucky thing that they'd ended up at the mansion. "I still can't believe how quickly and completely that doctor was able to fix me up. It defies all logic..." he said, still staring dazedly ahead.

"One second I couldn't hardly think, my eyes wouldn't focus and I don't even want to think about my arm...the next I was pretty much fine..."


Tarin looked down at the check, it seemed like it was looming, huge in front of him. "What do we do about this?"

Tarin did smile when she asked about him forcing her to take days off in the future. Unfortunately, the smile didn't last long, the look that replaced it not even close to reassuring.

It was only when she felt Tarin rubbing the back of her hand that Lee really noticed that she had grabbed his hand. Grabbed it and was hanging on on her own, without thinking about it, without worrying about it. Just touching him as if it were nothing, as if it were completely normal and natural. And it really did feel that way.

But then he was questioning how bad it had been when she'd found him in the shop, and Lee frowned, though she didn't remove her hand from Tarin's. "You weren't waking up, your head was cut, bleeding," Lee said softly, quietly, her eyes looking at their clasped hands on the table. "You've been like that before, though that's more than enough to terrify me, but then with how your arm was...

"You needed help, but I didn't know how bad a hospital would be for you." Lee took a deep breath then looked up at Tarin. "I'm glad you're feeling so much better now, though. I remember how much it hurt when my collar bone was broken."

But Tarin was looking down now. Not at her hand on his, but at the cheque in front of him. What were they going to do about it? "I really don't know," Lee admitted. "If it's real, you'd probably need a bank account to cash something that big."

"Don't you wish sometimes that we'd met at a coffee shop somewhere in the suburbs and were living a mundane little courtship that was unremarkable in every way?" Tarin said, when Lee explained the state she'd found him in at the shop. "I wish you didn't have to be used to something like that."

Lee didn't seem to mind that he was still holding her hand and he continued to do as he had been, thumb running over her hand, feeling the bones and skin underneath. Lee's explanation was spot on to the injuries, but Tarin couldn't help but wince a little when she mentioned the collar bone injury she'd sustained.

"You weren't lucky like I was...I deserved dealing with all these injuries the old fashioned way and more for that." It was still a sore spot, it probably always would be.

Lee had moved on now, back to the check and Tarin sighed and nodded his head. "As far as I can tell...Rupert cleared my name of any suspicion from before...and I'd already had my background checked into when I started looking into other lines of work. I don't think a bank account would be a terrible idea at this point." Tarin paused for a moment, realizing that he was talking about just taking the money outright. He stopped and sighed.

"Should I even take the money Lee? I mean, obviously it was intended for me, but what if accepting it is agreeing into some kind of contract I'm not going to be able to live up to. I don't have a clue under what circumstances I was given this...this...this fortune."

The talk of money triggered something in Tarin's memory and his head swiveled to Lee, "Did you still have that card I gave you when you left?" He said, the memory for once not painful. "If I'm not mistaken there was a small fortune on it as well."

Tarin leaned back in his chair, thinking for another moment, "Then again...it's so much money Lee...We'd probably never have to work in the shop again..."

Lee smiled sadly as Tarin asked about other realms of possibility for their relationship. "Yes and no," Lee said after a moment, smiling down at Tarin's thumb running over the back of her hand. "It would be nice, but somehow I can't see us in the suburbs, despite how much we might want that calmness and normalcy."

But Tarin felt he deserved to suffer through the pain of recovery. Of course he did, he always felt it was his fault, was constantly feeling the guilt of each any everything time she had gotten hurt, even if it hadn't been his fault. "No you didn't," Lee told him decidedly. Not that she'd actually be able to change his mind about it, she hadn't managed to so far. "But I'm glad you don't have to deal with it."

At least it seemed a bank account was a possibility, something that he felt was worth setting up at that point. Though she had long gotten over the worry of Tarin running again, the thought of him actually having a bank account was still reassuring, felt like a step in the right direction for them.

"I'm not sure," Lee whispered with a slight shrug of her shoulders. "It would be so much easier if we knew who gave you the cheque."

Lee took a deep breath as she thought for a couple moments before Tarin continued, her brows furrowed. "The card?" she questioned, then pulled her hand away from Tarin when he mentioned how much he thought was on it, swatting at his uninjured forearm. "A small fortune? What the hell, Tarin? It was bad enough that you gave it to me, but a small fortune??"

Lee shook her head and grumbled slightly before turning back to Tarin. "Of course I still have it. And if it really has that much on it, it's barely been touched.

Shaking her head again, Lee looked Tarin directly in the eyes before speaking again. "Especially if it has that much on it, and without knowing what else goes with the cheque, do we really need it? The shop does do more than enough to provide for us, after all."

"I know..." Tarin said with a sad little smile, "The circumstances of our lives don't allow for much more than constant chaos, do they?" he sighed, "I do wish it could just be you, me, and the quiet sometimes. Things would be easier I think."

She was glad he didn't have to go through all the problems that went along with healing. Tarin knew Lee understood how he felt, what it was like for him when things like that happened. She couldn't really get it though, and she wouldn't understand that he really did wish that he'd had to go through it all, as if it would even things out somehow.

The benevolence in Lee's voice faded though when he brought up the card that he'd slipped into the pocket of his social distortion jacket. She jerked her hand back and launched into a tirade that left Tarin sitting with his eyebrows extended to his forehead. She finished speaking and Tarin waited for a minute, holding back smile, "Now Lee. If you thought that I was going to let you walk away with notihng after all the time you'd put into the shop, you were out of your mind. Besides.." Tarin paused and the smile faded, "I was still holding out hope that you'd come back."

Lee swatted at him and Tarin reached out and caught her hand again, "Which you did. Even against your better judgment."

Lee pointed out the fact that the money on the card would probably be enough to sustain them along with the shop and Tarin nodded his head, mulling that idea over a few times.

"I want to get out of the shop. If it turns out there's nothing dirty about it. I'm going to keep it." He turned his gaze back to Lee's, "We're going to keep it."

"That would be nice," Lee said softly. Not having to really worry about anything, not powers, not spirits, just being able to be alone with Tarin, just the two of them. "Not the suburbs," Lee continued with a shake of her head. "But I think I'd really like that. The peace and quiet like that, I mean."

But Tarin smiled at her reaction to the fact that he'd given her the visa card with so much money apparently on it. He smiled. "Of course that's what I thought," Lee retorted. "I didn't ask for anything. I didn't want anything."

Yet, despite what she was saying, and the fact that she went to hit him, Tarin grabbed her hand and started rubbing his thumb on the back again. "So what? You gave me the card so I'd come give it back?" The fact was, even if she'd been against the idea at first, Lee was glad she was back in New York, back with Tarin.

Tarin wanted out of the shop, though, and Lee's brow furrowed. Yes, he'd said that same thing on a number of occasions, but he always went back. Even when the shop had been closed and he'd looked into getting a different job, a real job, he'd still gone back to the shop because it'd felt so weird for him to not be there.

Apparently Tarin had made up his mind to keep the money by this point. As long as there seemed to be no other conditions to keeping it, anyway. So Lee nodded.

She had to ask, though. It was a big decision, and since he had been the one to decide that the shop was half hers, she had a right in making the decision too. "Out of the shop all together, or just the spirit side?" Lee asked. Because really, with adding in all the extra things in the shop, it could be possible to keep the shop, yet have Tarin not need to keep communicating with the spirits on a daily basis.

"Just the two of us..." Tarin said quietly and nodded his head, a million different possibilities swirling around as he looked at Lee. "Maybe some cows...and about a million stars." he continued wistfully. "Maybe...in a couple months...if you're up to it....we can work on that trip to Texas." he said, suddenly feeling a little shy as he looked sideways at Lee.

Lee had the wrong impression about the card and Tarin shook his head infinitesimally, "No Lee..." he said, still quietly, still almost avoiding her eyes, "I gave you the card so that you'd never be in a position where you couldn't make ends meet. I knew you could take care of yourself, that you had taken care of yourself, but I didn't want you to be vulnerable. It was the very least I owed you."

Tarin mulled over that for a while, almost reveling in the feel of Lee's hand in his. She was thinking about what he'd said, what he'd said about the shop. And when she spoke, Tarin actually smiled. He'd made her the half-owner of the shop in a spur of inspiration the day Garrett had shown up to work for the first time. Lee had jumped in with the same devotion she had with everything. Now she was wondering what that meant for hte business.

"The spirit side for sure Lee." Tarin said quietly, then looked up and met her eyes for the first time in a while, "The last few months have me terrified. One of these times I'm not going to get lucky and realize what's happened and ask for help...or there's not going to be someone coming to see me by chance. I don't want to keep putting myself...or the people I care about in that situation."

Tarin was looking uncomfortable. No, not quite uncomfortable, but unsure of himself, of what he was saying, as he looked at her out of the corner of his eye. As he was talking about maybe working on planning a trip to Texas.

But really, just the two of them, under a million tiny stars, in the back of a pickup truck in Texas...That thought was what got her through her time in the Camp even when she wasn't planning on seeing Tarin again.

"I think I might like that," Lee told Tarin with a small smile on her face.

Tarin was still sort of avoiding looking at her after she accused him of why he gave her the card in the first place. But how he explained it, even though she was still upset about the fact that he had given her the card in the first place, even though it had happened so many months earlier, well, Lee really couldn't argue with his reasoning. She had started working in the shop without actually being paid after her shoulder healed rather than going to look for another job because of the Registration Act.

Ok, so maybe he had had a point in giving her the card, since by that point in time she hadn't even had a dollar to her name.

Back to the shop, Tarin seemed pretty set about shutting down the spirit side of the business. It did make sense; he'd been worried about that for a long time. A large part of the reason for him getting the apartment in the first place had been in the hope to separate himself from the spirits when he wasn't actually working.

Nodding, Lee squeezed Tarin's hand since he had grabbed it again. "I guess it's a good thing we've been adding to the shop, then," Lee said, then grinned at Tarin. "You know what that'll mean, though? You're going to have to actually start using the books, not just me."

"Yeah?" Tarin said, hope springing into his voice as he raised his eyes to Lee's and smiled. "You think you would?" They were healing, getting better, it had been a slow process, but it was happening gradually. Lee was comfortable with the idea, really comfortable.

"Well...once we figure out this money situation, maybe we can start making plans." he said softly, still afraid that he might spook her, that the whole little magic spell they were under might end.

Lee moved on, back to the shop and Tarin nodded idly as she mentioned how lucky they were to have been expanding things in the shop recently.

"You're really into this idea now, huh?" he said, leaning back into the chair again and watching Lee as he held her hand. It was easier to look at her now, somehow her agreement to the Texas idea felt like a breakthrough. Some of the pressure was gone now, he wasn't as afraid that a single wrong step would ruin things.

Tarin moved his eyes and sighed as they fell on the check again, "You don't think I was doing anything wrong...do you Lee?"

Lee nodded when Tarin questioned her being interested in the Texas trip. He really seemed happy, excited, about that fact. "Yeah, I think I really would like to go," she confirmed. "Just remember what I said last time about what would happen if you don't take me out to see the stars."

Despite the threat, Lee was smiling slightly. Stars, a pickup truck, a long, dark night.

But then Tarin was questioning how 'in to' the whole retail aspect of the shop she now seemed to be, and Lee shrugged her shoulders. "Well, it does keep me more occupied at the shop than I was before. More for me to do and all that. And as long as sales pick up soon, we'll be able fine with you not doing sessions."

Again, Lee shrugged, though she the more she thought about it, the more she was actually leaning toward having the shop be more sales rather than readings. Though he did like helping people, more often than not, what he did in the shop just caused him annoyance and headaches. If they were able to not need him to do that...things would be so much easier.

Next thing Lee knew, Tarin was sighing, and she frowned at him slightly in confusion. At least it was confusion until he spoke, stating what it was that had started bothering him.

"Well, that would explain why you were so insistent that I take the day off work," Lee said slowly, then squeezed Tarin's hand. "But no, I don't think you would have been."

Lee frowned even more as she looked across at Tarin. "Though, maybe the person in the shop wasn't so innocent," she suggested. "Maybe they wanted you to do something, and...reacted when you refused?" Well, that certainly was one example that would explain the shop's condition. "You still don't remember anything?"

"I'll show you all the stars you want to see..." Tarin said, a slow smile crossing his features as his accent made a brief appearance, just for fun. Tarin wondered how Lee would react, he just couldn't help himself.

The shop, back to the shop. It would keep Lee more interested in doing things there, giving her something to do. Tarin shrugged his shoulders, "Yeah, for the time being it's probably a good idea. They know to go there though. Eventually I want to phase it out. Especially if all this money works out. Why work like that if we don't have to?"

Lee had her own ideas about what had happened in the shop, and it did make sense that he would want her out of the way if he was up to something that could have been dangerous, "No..." he said, shaking his head slowly, "That doesn't make sense though. I'd remember something about it...I don't remember a thing."

No, Lee's second idea seemed far more plausible and Tarin nodded his head slowly, trying to pull up something from the previous day. All he got was murky darkness. He shook his head again and leaned his forehead into his hand. "I just wish something would trigger my memory so I could tell if this was safe." he shrugged, "I guess we're just going to have to wait and see."

As Tarin spoke, Lee's body tensed, her hand tightening on his. He knew what his accent did to her, he knew. It wasn't as strong a reaction as what his cowboy hat did, but Tarin still knew she wasn't ready for all that. Yet, despite not being ready, Lee had to fight with herself to not jump up, not lean across and kiss those lips that were smiling ever so invitingly at her.

But the fact that she even felt that way said something, right?

After taking a couple deep breaths once Tarin had stopped speaking, Lee finally relaxed a bit. "You don't even know how to play fair, do you?" She asked in a whisper.

Something to trigger Tarin's memory, something to help him remember what had happened in the shop the previous day and why he now had this cheque for a million dollars would be very useful.

"You sure you don't want to just stay and rest today?" Lee asked carefully. Though she had an idea how Tarin would react, she had to ask. Still, she lowered her eyes to look at their hands before she continued. "You probably wouldn't like the look of the shop. I probably don't even remember just how bad it is..."