Tarin didn't say anything for a while after she said that of course they were going to be ok. He simply sat there looking straight back at her. Looked at her in such a way that her confused expression grew even more confused than it had been.

When Tarin spoke, Lee's confusion disappeared, although that didn't mean she was happier. A small frown appeared on her face as she looked at Tarin, trying to figure out how to say the jumbled thoughts coursing through her mind at that point, or more specifically, the jumbled and often contradictory thoughts that had been running through her mind since even before she had returned to New York.

"Me too," Lee admitted honestly, yet sadly. "I didn't know if we'd ever end up like this again. Even when I was there, I knew Toronto was horrible, but every day I realize that even more.

"But I need time, Tarin," Lee continued, her eyes slipping shut rather than looking at him. "I know I wasn't there for that long, but there's still times when I'm not expecting a touch, when I'm surprised, that I expect to feel the shock. At least once a day, sometimes more."

Sighing, Lee opened her eyes to look at Tarin once more. "It is getting better. I mean, it's not as often as it was at first, but it's still there, and I don't know when it'll go away."

Again Lee sighed, then leaned forward to rest her head on Tarin's shoulder. "I am glad I'm back, though," Lee said against Tarin's neck. "I don't think I could have been happy in Toronto. You're my chance to be happy, Tarin, so can't we just be happy and not focus on the bad all the time?"

Lee was frowning now, something Tarin was never a huge fan of. He hadn't been trying to upset her with his words, he just wanted her to know where he was coming from. Why he let himself get down from time to time. It was almost even worse when Lee agreed with him, but he'd already known about her skepticism when they'd first come back together in New York. She'd stayed originally as a favor to him, he'd practically begged her not to leave him. It didn't matter though, she was there now, of her own volition, consequences be damned.

"Well, I'm glad you came back." he said, reaching out to push a stray strand of hair behind Lee's ear. "Even if it was on a fluke."

She was asking for time again and Tarin instantly felt guilty, shaking his head at her words, "I'm not asking you to give up time. I just wanted you to understand what I was feeling, why I'm all weird right now. I've told you a hundred times Lee, take all the time you need...and ten seconds was too long for you to be there Lee. If I could have traded places with you, I'd have done it in a second." Tarin paused, scowling at the memories, night after night of sleeplessness. The desperation he'd felt when he'd tracked down Rupert, the anger, the helplessness when it was confirmed that Lee was in the camp. "I spent every waking moment trying to find a way to get you out. I even thought about getting myself caught so if nothing else I could be there with you." It was easier to talk about it now, easier to bring up the memories. "Then Rupert gave me that number...and it was like they had all the answers. I couldn't wait...but I didn't have a clue. I hurt people that night Lee..and I wanted to hurt them.

"I understand Lee. I really do." Tarin said, looking at her, intensity almost flowing from him as he tried to make her understand. "And you can have all the time you need...and I'll try not to get so morbid...but you have to understand that it's been hard for me too. I love you and I need you and I'm willing to do what it takes."

Lee's head was on his shoulder now and Tarin lightly ran his fingers through her hair. Lee said he was her chance to be happy, "It's the same for me," he said smiling, "My life was just a string of useless days and nights until you."

It was quiet then, and Tarin let his attention turn back to the movie which had progressed considerably since they'd started to talk, "Uh oh...looks like the wedding is off...again...I have to give them credit for unpredictability...we're only 40 minutes in and the wedding's already been off and on twice."

Lee's eyes were closed, so she didn't see Tarin shake his head when she said she needed time. She did hear his words, though, and at first they were reassuring - Lee wasn't sure she'd ever get tired of hearing Tarin say he'd wait forever for her - but then he continued on about the camp, and Lee's frown deepened once more.

"I'm glad you didn't get caught," Lee whispered as she looked at Tarin. "I don't know what I would have done if you were there too. You don't know what it was like. And it's not like it would have been a comfort you being there, we wouldn't be able to touch any more than the guards could touch me without pain...

"And I wanted those guards to pay for what they did too," Lee pointed out, the pain from her time in the camp and the horror from the night of the breakout creeping into her voice. "Not just to me, but to everyone. I wanted them dead, and they're dead..."

Closing her eyes again for a moment, Lee took a deep breath then looked at Tarin once more. "But it's over, it's in the past," Lee continued, tor tone more level.

Her head on his shoulder, his hand running through her hair...Once it had been common place for them, but now such a situation was unusual, rare. Still, Lee couldn't stop the smile from appearing on her lips as she felt the slow, regular movement of Tarin's finger's through her hair. "Again?" Lee asked, her tone slightly incredulous. "How many tries is it going to take them?"

"At least I could have explained..." Tarin said quietly and gently, speaking words he'd wanted to say since Lee had come back from Toronto, "At least you wouldn't have had to sit there for so long, thinking those horrible thoughts...and you forget Lee. I see the spirits whether I'm using my powers or not. I could have made life in there hell for the guards. Don't frown anymore though Lee. It's all over." Tarin said in what he hoped was a reassuring tone of voice as Lee talked about the camps. "We're not going to revisit that anymore. It's time we both moved on from there."

They weren't going to talk about the camps anymore, or what had happened when they'd finally found each other. Those were dark moments, dark days. Things that Tarin definitely didn't want to think about when they'd come so far. The dark cloud of depression from earlier had lifted and Lee's encouragement was slowly filling him with hope for the future. Lee agreed, at least she was determined to agree because after what he could only call a calming breath she almost echoed his words.

Lee didn't seem to mind his playing with her hair, so Tarin continued, the rhythmic motion making his fingertips tingle as they moved through her hair. She obviously hadn't been paying attention to the movie either, though, because as he spoke she seemed surprised and even incredulous at the fact that the hapless couple on the screen was separating again. "Yup" he said in answer to her question.

"As many as it takes apparently, there's still approximately an hour and five minutes left in the movie." Tarin said, having picked the rental box up off the couch beside him. Setting it down he felt around for, and found Lee's hand, gripping it in his own, his thumb running over the back slowly. "Though...I have to say, I can't fault them for not giving up. You usually only get one chance at being happy, when you get another, you should definitely make use of it."

He could have explained. He'd tried to explain when he did show up at the camp, though maybe if he had arrived in the camp some other time, sometime when they weren't in the middle of a battle ground, she might have actually listened, at least at some point to what he was saying.

But then Tarin was telling her not to frown any more, that they weren't going to talk about the camps any more, they were going to move on. So Lee looked at him, not frowning, but not smiling either. "What do you think I've been trying to do since getting out?" Lee asked softly. He did have a point, though. Especially since her normal method of 'getting over stuff' involved her not talking about it at all, pushing it into the past and not dealing with it any more. It really was time to fully move on.

The next bit of conversation was normal, talking about the movie, about how many times the wedding in the movie would be called off in the next hour.

At least it was normal until Tarin leaned back against the couch again after looking at the movie case and grabbed her hand. It was unexpected, despite all the contact they were already having, but at least Lee didn't jump when she felt Tarin's hand on hers. She just looked down at his hand, his thumb rubbing over the back of her hand.

"I can't either," Lee finally said, glancing up at Tarin before dropping her eyes back down to their hands. As she looked down, Lee couldn't help but wonder how many tries they'd need before they finally got married, if it actually ever happened. Not that that was something she felt able to talk to Tarin about yet.

Lee didn't react, but she didn't move away or shrink back into herself either. That was definitely a good sign. Maybe she wasn't going to shut down anymore when something went wrong. That would change things infinitely for the better.

"I know Lee..." Tarin said when she said that she'd been trying to move on since she'd gotten out of the camps. "But have you really? I'm not saying this confrontationally...but isn't everything you'd tried until recently just playing into what they wanted? You've been so scared of yourself, and everyone else. You've made leaps and bounds recently and I know it probably gets old hearing me say it...but I'm proud of you for it."

She didn't jerk away when he grabbed her hand, it hadn't been a sudden movement, but probably not something she was expecting either. She looked down, and if Tarin could have seen her eyes, he would have put money down that they were surprised at her own actions...or lack there of.

Lee couldn't blame the couple on the movie either. She also believed in second chances when people were really supposed to be together. "Part of me is amazed at the time they're wasting by being apart like this." he said, hand halting in Lee's hair and falling to her shoulder. "But, then I top and thing about it and realize that when two people are really meant to be like that, it's not the time that they're apart that matters, but the time that they're together. Because nothing else ends up mattering."

Lee blinked when Tarin asked if she had really been trying to move on and get over what had happened to her at the camps. How could he really even be asking that?

But then he explained, and Lee could do nothing but blink at him again. Could that be true, or was Tarin just spinning it in such a way that it sounded like it could be? She had hated what her powers did to people long before she'd been thrown in the camps, though. She had just...started being more careful about not touching people since then. Did that mean...?

Damn it... Lee thought as she stared at Tarin's hand holding hers. She wasn't dead, she wasn't still locked up in the camp, but maybe she hadn't been as free of those humans as she had thought she was.

Looking back up at Tarin, a slight crease between her brows, Lee looked at him for a moment before she spoke. "So Maine and Toronto don't matter since we're together now?" She asked. And yes, she had just unintentionally made the actual leap from talking about the fictional couple in the movie to actually talking about the two of them. But really, wasn't that what they'd been talking about almost the whole time anyway?

The difference was, now anyway, Lee knew that she and Tarin did belong together, even if it took forever to actually get back to where they had once been. She knew it even more strongly and surely than she knew the couple in the movie would end up together in the end. They had been through so much at that point, so many hard, horrible things, and yet still they wanted to be with the other, how could that not be meant to be?

So why bother talking about something that really the only thing that could change it was time?

Having decided that, Lee leaned forward and gave Tarin a soft kiss. "How about we just watch the movie?" Lee asked once she had pulled back enough to speak. "We already missed it in theatres, let's not miss it again."

"Of course they matter Lee, and remembering what those times were like can be useful. Dwelling on them doesn't do us any good though."

Tarin paused for a moment and regarded Lee...well the top of Lee's head anyway. "And now that we're together, we don't need to worry about the time we had to spend apart...because we've got all the time in the world to be together. Though I can't say that I can imagine ever having had enough of you."

Lee picked her head up then and looked at him, then kissed him again. Tarin's head was still spinning when she said that maybe they should watch the movie considering the fact that they'd missed it in the theater. Tarin's body had other ideas though.

Hand moving down from Lee's shoulder and up from Lee's hand, Tarin wrapped his arms slowly around Lee, not moving her any closer, but closing her in the circle of his arms. She was more than strong enough to move away if she wanted, but he hoped he'd stay.

She was close enough that he could feel her breath on his face and he leaned an infinitesimal amount closer, "Lee darling..." he whispered, eyes on hers, "That's why they invented a rewind button." Then leaned forward and kissed her, softly. It was up to her where they went from there.

Lee was somewhat relieved when Tarin said that those times did matter. No, not relieved, that wasn't quite the right word, but it did give her a similar sense.

And then he said he didn't think he could ever have enough of her, and Lee couldn't help it, she blushed, the colour rising up her cheeks quickly. Yes, they were getting back to normal, things were less strained, but Lee had blushed so few times since coming back to the city.

A blush that stayed on her face as she felt Tarin's arms wrapping around her. Not actually pulling her closer, but definitely encircling her, something that, like they blush, they had done very little of recently.

A blush that then only intensified as she heard Tarin speak again, his voice barely a whisper, as he looked in her eyes. Before she was able to say anything, do anything about the blush on her face, Lee saw Tarin leaning forward, felt his lips pressing against hers.

For a couple rather long seconds, Lee didn't really react, she simply sat there, still blushing. And then her body was moving, reacting, before she realized it. Lee's hands moved up, wrapping around Tarin's neck, pulling herself closer as she threw herself into the kiss.

Lee looked relieved, it was interesting in a way. Tarin had thought those times, the biggest shame he could think of, would be something Lee wanted to forget. It made sense in a funny way though, those were good memories to remind them just how easy it could be for things to fall apart.

Lee hadn't moved, even though he'd wrapped his arms around her. She hadn't said anything either though, and Tarin had held as still as humanly possible...well until he'd kissed her anyway.

Even after the kiss, Lee hadn't moved for what felt like an eternity. An eternity that really didn't feel all that bad considering his arms were wrapped firmly around her and that his lips were pressed against hers. Then it happened.

Before Tarin could even process what was happening, Lee had literally thrown herself into the kiss. It wasn't just a kiss anymore, it was the kiss. It was the physical manifestation of the turning point that Tarin had been hoping for, no praying for since Lee had walked in the door the night he'd been handcuffed to a chair.

It took every ounce of self control Tarin had not to throw himself into Lee with abandon equal to hers, but some wise sense was screaming at him over what his every instinct told him to do that taking things too far would be a horrible idea. So instead of doing what he really wanted to do, Tarin just wrapped his arms tighter around Lee and pulled her closer, finally remembering to breathe again as he decided to ride this out as long as he could.