Tarin saw Lee tense and instantly felt a little bad. He hadn't meant to bring on that kind of reaction, but it was a little nice to see that Lee was still affected by the things that always used to work on her. The way she was looking at him made Tarin feel warm though, he couldn't help it. He tore his eyes away and and shrugged a little uncomfortably, "I didn't mean to...it just kind of happened." She spoke though, and Tarin couldn't help but look up and grin a little crookedly at her, "I never have, have I?" he said, "A good thing at times too, growing up with two brothers doesn't teach a man concepts like fair play."

Lee asked if he wouldn't rather just stay and rest and Tarin shook his head. "Maybe if I see what happened I can piece some things together." Lee seemed really concerned about the state of the shop and Tarin's eyebrows rose, "Was it really that bad Lee?" he said softly, brow furrowing as he tried to think again, shaking his head when he came up blank.

He wouldn't like the look of the shop? Tarin frowned some more, following Lee's eyes to their hands. "We'd better get going then, huh?"

Tarin had a point. He never had played fair, not since the first day they had met. So really, how could Lee expectt him to play fair now?

But now, with how he was smiling that crooked, knowing smile at her, Lee was sure Tarin knew exactly how his accent had just effected her.

"Ah," she said after Tarin had raised his eyes back up to her. "I'm not one of your brohers. Maybe you should learn how to play fairr with me." It made sense to Lee; who cared if Tarin liked her reasoning on this subject?

But Tarin wanted to go, wanted to see the shop, didn't want her to clean it all on her own. She had known he'd be against her suggestion even before she had said it. His reasoning did make sense, though. Hopefully he would remember something.

"Honestly, I'm not sure just how bad it is," Lee admitted. "There's a lot of books and papers, so it might look worse than it actually is. But there is blood. Again. I was a little more concened about you and the stranger than the shop."

"Why would I start playing fair now?" Tarin said, one eyebrow raised and the crooked, slightly arrogant smile still plastered on his face. "You've dealt with it well so far, I think you can deal. You don't always play fair either, with your boots and corsets and short short skirts." OKay, so maybe she didn't have the boots anymore, and maybe the corsets hadn't come out of the luggage since she'd moved back in...but the skirts were still short! Besides, they'd already established that Tarin wasn't playing fair.

Lee moved back to the shop, talking about the state of things from what she could remember and Tarin couldn't help but grimace a bit. "I'm still so sorry you had to go through that...again. Your life was probably so much simpler without me always putting you into dire situations." He sighed and ran his free hand through his hair.

Tarin looked at the clock and stood, reluctantly releasing Lee's hand and leaving the check where it was for the time being. "If there's that much mess we should probably get going...."

Lee frowned when brought up how she didn't exactly play fair because of her boots. Yeah, her boots which she hadn't seen since she had been captured by the Stalker, when she had been forced to change into that horrible 'uniform'. Who knew where they had gone, and Lee hadn't seen another pair like them since that day she had bought them four years earlier.

"You know, I don't see any corsets or short skirts," Lee pointed out, trying to ignore the fact that he had even mentioned her boots. "All I see is jeans, a t-shirt, and soon to be running shoes. So it's not like I'm not playing fair now, is it?"

But then Tarin was apologizing for what she had had to go through when she had found him in the shop, and Lee shook her head at him. "Yeah, cause having to look for a new job and apartment every month or two was a cake walk. Sure, things aren't always easy, but nothing in my life has ever been easy, you know.

With a sigh, Tarin was pulling his hand out of hers and standing up, saying they should probably get going to the shop if there was really that much work to do. Lee nodded and downed the rest of her coffee, which had been sitting untouched the entire time she had sat at the table.

"Alright, I'll be ready to go in a second," Lee said, standing up herself. Moving to the kitchen, she dumped her mug in the sink before quickly making her way to her room where she grabbed a black zippered sweater. It was getting cooler out, after all. Not cold yet, but cool enough that Lee didn't really want to be outside without a coat or sweater of some sort, especially if they might not be back before the sun disappeared behind the tall buildings.

Slipping her arms through the sleeves as she made her way back to Tarin at the front door, Lee then proceeded to dig her running shoes out of the closet. That was another problem that resulted from the loss of her boots, she had far more shoes now that she didn't have a pair that went with pretty much every outfit she owned.

"Alright, let's go," Lee said, grabbing her purse as she stepped to the door. But Tarin had already opened it and was holding it for her before Lee had had a chance to reach. "Thanks hon," Lee murmured as she stepped through the door into the hallway.

"That's all I see right now...I've seen the other things in recent history Lee." Tarin said, giving Lee a look that almost begged her to argue. He was smiling though, there was no malice or threat behind the words. In all honesty he was teasing Lee, something there hadn't been near enough of again.

Time to go. Tarin stayed seated at the table while Lee bustled around getting ready to go to the shop. Tarin frowned slightly at the coffee in front of him as he listened to Lee getting in and out of her closet. Did he really want to go to the shop and see what was apparently going to be the carnage that he'd been found in the day before?

Yeah, he really did. The fact of the matter was that Tarin wasn't going to be able to rest until he knew for sure that he hadn't been doing anything wrong when he'd been attacked. The idea that it was a simply robbery was completely ludicrous, they'd been over that. No robber in their right mind would leave a million dollar check just laying there. No, Tarin had been paid to do something. Had it had something to do with the fact he'd told Lee to stay home that day? Tarin pushed that thought away again, he didn't have any trouble remembering anything until lunch on that very same day, not before. If the motive had been established before lunch, he'd remember it.

There was only one thing for it, Tarin thought as he rose and moved to wait for Lee by the door. He'd put his shoes on before he'd sat at the table. Opening the door and pulling out his jacket, Tarin winced slightly at the pressure on the bruise as he slipped his arms in to the sleeves. It was going to be a long day if the shop was half as bad as what Lee was describing, even worse if it was really as bad as the description.

Tarin held the door, of course he did, that's what he always did and Lee thanked him. "Any time, of course." He said, the followed her down the stairs and out into the street, half hoping that by the time they got back to the apartment, the check would be gone. A simple figure of both their imaginations, and they could go back to things as usual.

The other half though...the other hope was excited, and Tarin tried to hold it back. A million dollars! They would never have to work in the shop again...as long as it was good, clean, legal money...there wouldn't be a thing wrong with it.

Tarin didn't know, time would have to tell, but until then he was going to be a very conflicted person. That was definitely for sure.

Tarin was teasing. Even if she didn't see the smile, she could have told by the tone in his voice. Alright then. Lee could deal with Tarin's teasing, in one of two ways. She could either tease back, or she could ignore the teasing. Normally, she'd jump right into teasing Tarin in return, that'd always been the sign that problems or fights were over and things were going to be alright. But they weren't exactly fighting, and Lee really wasn't in the mood for more teasing and joking, not with what they still had to do that day, not with the fact that Tarin kept bringing up her lost boots.

But after Tarin had held the door open for her and they had both walked through, they locked up and made their way down to the street. And then proceeded on the short trip to the shop.

To be honest, though, Lee didn't know if it was really a good thing that Tarin was coming with her to clean up. Sure, this didn't seem to have been a merge, so it was a different situation, and sure he might actually start remembering something about what had happened if he went and saw the shape the shop was currently in, but Lee was still conflicted about the whole idea. After a merge, even if Tarin hadn't been passed out for hours while she was needing a way to get rid of all the energy swirling around in her, Lee wouldn't really want Tarin's help cleaning things up; he already felt bad enough, was guilty enough, beating himself up about what had happened enough that Lee didn't really want that to get worse because Tarin had seen the damage first hand. He gave himself a hard enough time over things that weren't his fault then, that Lee didn't want it made worse this time because he saw what had happened to the shop.

It wasn't his fault, was it?

No, Lee shook her head silently. It wasn't his fault, maybe even less his fault than when he was merged and she never blamed him for that. But she couldn't exactly stop him from coming to clean the shop up with her. It wasn't like she had been up all night anyway with nothing to do, so had gotten it done before he'd woken back up.

Because of all this thinking, it had been quite a quiet walk to the shop, but finally they reached it. The blinds were drawn, though Lee didn't remember doing that the previous day. Had they already been drawn when she'd gotten there and just not noticed? But she was still able to see in through the door as she waited for Tarin to dig his keys out again, and Lee wrapped her arms around herself, pulling the sweater closed tighter. It definitely didn't look any better than she remembered it. "Looks like we've got our work cut out for us," she murmured.

The walk to the shop was quiet, but not really too quiet. Tarin was thinking the whole way, almost trying to will himself into remembering what had happened in the shop the day before. It wasn't working.

Tarin couldn't help but notice how tense Lee was as she walked beside him though. She hadn't said a word since they left the apartment and Tarin frowned slightly in confusion, trying to figure out what it was that had her so worried. He didn't have to wait long for an answer as they walked up to the shop.

The blinds had been drawn and Tarin almost asked why someone had felt the need to do that when the situation was so tense...then he saw the inside of the shop through the doorway.

"Woah...." was all he could say, low as air whooshed out of his lungs. The carnage had spilled even into the front of the shop and Tarin fumbled slightly with the keys in his hurry to get into the shop and see the damage.

It was ridiculous....and Tarin understood in a mere moment why Lee had been so hesitant for him to come and help clean things up. Tarin moved towards the back room and suddenly stopped, staring through the doorway.

There were no intense memories coming back, but the sudden fear and foreboding rushing through him mixed with the carnage in front of him.

Tarin swallowed, probably audibly as his eyes scanned the destroyed room. The table was snapped clean in half and the crystal ball lay shattered in the middle of the room. That table was heavy...really heavy....as was the bookshelf.

The bookshelf was on the wall opposite of it's usual place and it too was broken. It had obviously smashed against the wall, the top half was broken and laying at a weird angle to the rest of the shelf and the books were everywhere. It wasn't that that made Tarin's stomach turn though.

Spreading out from under the books and soaking the edges of some was a wide pool of blood, now dried to a dark, rusty, brown.
"Woah...." Tarin said again, one arm going out to brace him in the door frame. "I didn't realize..." He said, looking around for Lee, "I mean...I knew it would be bad...but I thought somehow you were exaggerating...I was there?" he finished, almost disbelieving.

Even before they entered the shop, Tarin was reacting to how bad it was. Yes, the blinds were drawn, but he was still able to see in through the door as they got there, and was able to see for the first time the wreckage that was waiting for them inside.

But despite his shock, Tarin quickly let them into the shop, for once not holding the door open for her as he rushed inside. He probably didn't even realize in his distracted state; Lee didn't notice it herself until she had to actually reach out to catch the door from hitting her arm as it closed.

By the time she had followed Tarin into the shop, he was standing in the doorway toward the back room, shocked into stillness by the destruction. And now that they were there, when there wasn't a stranger standing behind the cupboard and Tarin wasn't laying passed out and bleeding, Lee finally took a good look around.

It was worse than she remembered.

Coming up behind Tarin as he started speaking, Lee nodded slightly and reached her hand out to rest lightly on Tarin's arm; he didn't look all that steady standing there.

"You were," Lee confirmed in a whisper. "Unconscious and still bleeding a bit when I got here. You sure you don't want to go for a walk or something? Maybe you could go grab us some coffees." That suggestion was two-fold: dealing with something like what they were currently facing, coffee would be a good distraction. But if Tarin were to leave, even for a short bit, that would give Lee a chance to at least clean up the blood which would hopefully make things easier for Tarin. She had dealt with much worse clean ups before, after all.

Lee was very quiet too, as they stood in the wreckage that should have been their shop. Details started to strike Tarin now, how some of the things he'd carried across the country for years were broken, torn, or simply destroyed. Who...or what had managed to do this kind of damage in what couldn't have been a long period of time. Tarin shuddered again, suddenly realizing that not only was he lucky that they'd ended up at the mansion so his injuries were healed...Tarin was simply lucky that he was alive.

Lee was giving him an out...but Tarin shook his head slowly, still kind of avoiding her gaze, unsure what to feel at the moment. He felt Lee's hand on his arm and Tarin turned his head slowly so he could see her, eyes moving slowly up to her face. "I don't think I want to leave Lee. This isn't your mess at all...and I don't want you cleaning it all up on your own."

Before she could say anything about the fact that she'd cleaned up messes like this before, Tarin spoke again, "And I know you've done it before...but it's not right...this part isn't easy either. I'm able to help today, so I want to help."

The memories weren't coming back, at least not yet and Tarin frowned at the large pile of books on the floor and the broken bookcase. It had been moved across the floor at such speed that none of the books had fallen off before the shelf had hit him.

Turning his body more fully towards Lee, Tarin studied her gravely, he wanted to reach out and pull her to him, hold her close. He was shaken and almost craved the comfort. He didn't want to make Lee uncomfortable though, so he sighed and stuffed his hands in his pockets, "Where do we start?"

"My shop, my mess," Lee pointed out almost absently. He was the one who kept trying to convince her that it was half hers too, except, it seemed, when it mattered at times like this.

Apparently that wasn't the end of it. Tarin was still upset about all the other times she had cleaned up on her own, times when he felt it should have been his job to do that. And he wanted to help this time. Nodding, Lee gave Tarin's arm a slight squeeze.

"Alright, we'll go get coffee later, then," she told him as she watched Tarin turn more toward her and put his hands in his pockets; not exactly a reaction she had been expecting from him right then.

"Where?" Lee then repeated, turning to look at the mess in front of them. That was a very good question. Where did they start? "Help me move the bookcase?" Lee asked before she started toward where it laid on the floor at that moment. "Then maybe you could start going through the books, see what's garbage and what we can actually keep, and I'll go look for something to clean the blood up with."

"Well, you're not cleaning it up on your own. I don't care whose shop it is." Tarin said, not peevishly but in a tone that he hoped invited no more conversation on that particular topic. Lee moved on to getting coffee later and Tarin relaxed just a little bit,she seemed content to let him stay now. That helped, a little, while another part of him simply wished she'd have bodily removed him from the shop.

Lee squeezed his arm and Tarin leaned his head back against hte door frame ad she explained wher she thought they should start. The bookcase. The bookcase that was heavy as hell and had flown across the room.

"Sounds like a plan." he said a little tightly, making his way across the broken glass and scattered bits of wood that peppered the floor. "My table...." He groaned a final time as he walked past what was left of it, and walked to one side of the bookshelf. It was snapped almost in half, the middle part bowed in.

"I think this is going to have to go with everything else that goes in the trash...I don't think this is something super glue is going to fix. I'm just glad that the bookshelf snapped in half...and not me."

Tarin ran his hand through his hair and over his forehead, swiping away the sudden cold sweat that had broken out. Casting a look to Lee, he smiled wryly. "Let's get this going so we can be done with it."

Tarin didn't want her to clean the shop alone, he was going to help. Well fine then, it wasn't like she could really stop him now, he was there with her, after all. Unless she actually threw him out of the shop, how was she supposed to stop him from helping at this point, and it was already going to be hard enough cleaning up without doing something like that as well.

Lee was already beside the bookshelf when she heard Tarin mourning his table. Looking up, Lee looked around and realized that the table wasn't there, at least not in a single piece. Some how, with the rest of the destruction in the shop, Lee hadn't even noticed it until that point. That was definitely a loss. That's the table they had eaten at for their one month anniversary.

As she leaned down to start lifting the bookcase, Lee had to agree; it was in much worse shape than she had originally thought. Though it had been tossed across the room, Lee had thought it was too heavy to really have any damage. Apparently she'd been wrong.

"I was already at a loss of what to do as it was," Lee said in a whisper. "I don't even want to think about how it would be if that had happened."

Lee voiced what Tarin was hoping to hear from her. He'd known how she felt about him for ages now, even if the words hadn't been spoken and the actions had been less than indicative since she'd returned to New York city.

The bookshelf was heavy, even with Lee's help and Tarin and Lee struggled some to get it out the back door and into the alleyway behind the shop.

Once back inside, the real devastation became clear. There had been so much blood. Tarin wondered idly just how big the cut on the back of his head had been, and was amazed again at the fact that there was hardly even a mark on his body to show what could have been.

Bending down, Tarin started to sift through the books on the floor. The ones on the top of the pile were mostly okay, with nothing more than a few bent or torn pages. As Tarin worked, he almost forgot that Lee was there.

Grabbing a book, Tarin pulled and the pages tore loose with a loud ripppp Looking down at the floor where the book had stuck, Tarin shuttered again. Dried blood had held the pages and they were dyed red where they were stuck.

"Ugh..." he said, leaning backwards out of the squat he was in to sit on his rear end.

"This is sick..." he said, running his hand through his hair again, then dropping his head into his hands.

They hadn't been working all that long, but Lee thought she had at least made a good sized dent in the gore covering the floor when she heard Tarin's voice.

Looking up, Lee saw Tarin falling back to sit on the floor, his hands running through his hair. Wiping her hands on the towel she had pulled out, Lee went over and ran her own hands through Tarin's hair, pulling him toward her, to hold him there. "I know, hon," she whispered. "I know."

It was going to be a long day...