Another damn trip to New York. If this client wasn't paying so much, Ash would have just said screw it and not bothered flying across the country again. But the fact was this client was paying much more than the standard rate for following his wife to New York on another of her 'shopping trips'.

So once again Ash had flown to New York and was once again following her around to try and find proof one way or another of whether this woman was cheating. Though, Ash was seriously starting to think that her shopping trips were exactly that, simply shopping trips.

At least until today. Ash followed the woman out of her normal shopping area and into a darker, worse area than he had yet seen her in. Ash was at a loss, not having an idea why the woman would be coming here, until he saw her walk into a small, dingy looking shop.

Hanging back for a few minutes, Ash debated his options: he could go in then and see what was going on, or he could wait and check afterwards. They both had their pros, and they both had their cons. If he went in now, he'd know what was going on and wouldn't risk losing her after she left. However, by going in, he would risk her seeing him, and it would be far better to avoid her getting a look at him as often as possible.

So Ash decided to wait. As long as she wasn't in there too long, he'd wait to check it out, and sure enough less than 20 minutes later she emerged. Waiting just long enough that she had made it a couple of doors down, Ash hurried forward, glancing at the signs that said 'Medium' and 'Contact the spirits of the dead', before pulling the door open and stepping inside.

And stopped dead as he looked around. This was nothing like any of the other shop and stores that the woman had visited; it had no designer clothing, no jewelry, nothing at all he would think she would step foot in. There really wasn't a whole lot in the shop by what he could tell, just a bunch of books on some shelves, crystals, stones, and incense, and an old register sitting on a beaten looking counter toward the back of the shop. But there was no one in sight.

It had been a pretty slow day if Tarin was honest with himself. The economy was starting to really suck and it seemed that people didn't necessarily have the money to talk to the dead. Business had been slower and slower and if possible the million dollar check from the man who'd beat his ass was looking more and more attrative to Tarin.

It wasn't just that though, at one point in time he'd felt like he was able to do at least some good with the things he did in the shop. That feeling was fading more and more as the his clients got more and more desperate for money. Nobody was coming in for help these days, just to try and find a family legacy.

Thinking of the devil usually made him appear and a woman dressed in expensive clothes made her way into the shop. Tarin had seen her before, a few times in fact, and despite the fact that she was married to some Texas millionaire...the woman had uncovered something about more money that a paranoid old uncle had hidden somewhere. What the woman wanted with the money and why her husband wasn't with her in New York, Tarin had no clue about...but she was there and she usually paid, and tipped, incredibly well.

As usual, the session didn't last very long, especially since there really wasn't a spirit to contact. Something was fishy and suspicious about the woman, so Tarin didn't feel bad taking her money. Judging by the cloths and bags she usually drug into the shop, she had the money to spare anyway.

The woman paid, and left, and Tarin spent a few moments straightening up, Lee was gone on a walk and he wanted her to come back to a shop that showed he really was capable of taking care of himself.

Moving to the back of the shop to grab a coke, Tarin heard the bell on the door ring but figured the customer could browse for a moment while he got his coke.

Digging in the fridge and dumping the coke into a glass didn't take long and soon Tarin was making his way to the front of the shop, "Sorry about that, how can I help..."

The words stopped coming and Tarin gasped audibly as his eyes fell on the face of the other man standing in the shop. Icy cold hit his legs and Tarin realized he'd dropped his glass which had shattered on the hardwood floor of the shop.

"Ash?" he said, eyes wide as he stepped forward.

After that first glance around, Ash moved further into the shop, lifting this book and that stone before setting them back down. Ash didn't think he'd ever seen anything like it before. But it wasn't as if he had really ever been in a medium shop before, so Ash had to assume that this was the kind of stuff that would be there.

Not even a minute after he entered the shop, Ash saw a man walk out of what must have been the back room of the shop. A quick glance before glancing around the shop again was all Ash gave him.

At least that was all Ash gave him until he heard the man speak. A slight crease forming between his brows, Ash turned to look back at the man, with his multi-hued hair and tattooed arms as he spoke, asking if he could help him. The creased brow wasn't because of the question, wasn't even because of the other man's appearance, at least not fully, the reason was because for some reason his voice sounded familiar though Ash couldn't place it.

But then recognition dawned on Ash's face a moment after it had on the other man's when he heard his name being said. The surprise on Ash's face only lasted for another second before it was replaced by anger. But rather than saying anything in return, Ash simply turned on his heel and stormed right back out the door he had just come in.

Ash was there, Ash had found him. Tarin could hardly believe his eyes as he stared ahead at his brother. His brother, his brother who hated him was standing in his shop. Why had he come? Did he want to make things right?

It only took a few moments for Tarin to realize that the other man in his shop didn't know who he was. Tarin's eyes widened and he took another step forward, then recognition dawned on Ash's face. A face that Tarin would never forget. A face that was older, much older than Tarin remembered it being, but over a decade and a half did that to people. It changed them.

The look that overcame that face changed quickly once recognition had dawned though and the sudden anger made Tarin recoil slightly and pause as the other man turned on his heel and simply exited the shop. Exited the shop without a word.

So the visit hadn't been intentional after all. Tarin thought as he stood in the shop. For some reason Ash had been in New York City and randomly walked into a shop...his shop. That meant something...that had to mean something.

Tarin was moving before he knew it, broken glass crunching under his feet as he ran from the shop as he had one other time. That time had worked out for the best, maybe this one would too.

"Ash...wait....seriously..." he yelled, finding the retreating form and rushing ahead of it, "Just...just don't run away..."

Tarin baked up as they both walked, "Don't walk away...something brought you into that shop...you need to see it through."

Josh had told him that Tarin had a shop in New York City, but Ash had had no idea where it was, or even what kind of shop it was. He had never really stayed in the room long enough to find out. But a Medium shop, wasn't that precious? As a child, Tarin had claimed to see spirits, and now he ran a shop where he spoke to spirits for people.

Then Ash heard Tarin's voice yelling from behind him, growing closer. His younger brother must have been running to catch up with him, but Ash didn't stop or even slow down. That didn't seem to bother Tarin, as he appeared in front of him and started walking backward as he continued to talk.

"Yes, something brought me into that shop," Ash replied, the anger at his brother, simply because he was there, still evident. "And she's heading that way, so I'm trying to catch up with her. If you don't mind..." Ash finished as he tried to step around Tarin.

It was definitely Ash. Tarin knew for sure as soon as he spoke. That voice brought back memories, so many memories. They might have been memories Tarin wasn't willing to relive yet, but they were still memories, and this was definitely his brother. His brother who definitely didn't want to talk to him.

Tarin stumbled slightly as Ash pointed out that his reason for being in the shop was walking down the street, in the other direction. Tarin paused long enough to look, "The tricked out chick with the shopping bags?" he said, catching up again and walking next to Ash.

"Follow her all you want, but unless you're privy to some seriously private details I doubt you're going to get half the information from her that you could from me. She's been visiting my shop since oh....August."

Tarin kept walking next to his brother, letting those words sink in. Who knew what he was doing there, why he was following this woman, but the fact of the matter was that he was there and Tarin was going to get a chance to talk to him.

"You come back to the shop with me and I'll give you all the information you want...but we're going to talk."

Tricked out, that was certainly one way to describe the woman he had been following. Not one that Ash would have used, it just proved how long Tarin had been gone, in New York, that he was using words like that. Well, that and the lack of accent his voice now carried.

And those tattoos and that hair? What had gotten into his head to do all that? Their mother was bound to have a heart attack if she ever saw him looking like that.

"And what kind of information about her could you have that I haven't gotten yet?" Ash snarled sideways at his brother, though the fact was there was at least one thing that Tarin knew that he didn't: why the woman had been coming to Tarin's shop. "Plus, I'm a little busy to stop and chat." Not that Ash wanted to sit and talk with his brother anyway, but that was beside the fact.

"I know why she's coming to my shop." Tarin said, still keeping pace next to his brother as they traveled down the street. "And if you knew that you wouldn't have wasted your time coming inside. Even if you do already know that, there's something you don't know or else you would have never set foot in there."

Ash said he was too busy to stop and chat, and the snarling look of malice on his face didn't seem to bode well either. Tarin didn't understand, "You didn't seem too busy a few minutes ago Ashley Brooks. You didn't seem too busy at all until you realized exactly whose shop you'd walked into."

Tarin was a little angry now, "Josh told me that you were angry...he won't tell me why though...God Ash...take a half an hour for your own brother."

Damn it, Tarin had a point there, Ash realized. Tarin knew why the woman was coming to the shop while Ash didn't know. And it was true, Ash could make the time to talk to Tarin, he could always catch up with the woman later if necessary, but the fact was he didn't want to. He didn't want to talk with Tarin if at all.

So Ash kept walking, trying to ignore Tarin as much as he was able to. Ignored what he was saying about how he knew why the woman was there. He was a damn investigator, he didn't need his estranged little brother to tell him stuff about his own damn cases.

At least he was ignoring Tarin until he told him to give him a half hour. Stopping, Ash spun to stare at Tarin, the anger burning in his eyes as he looked at Tarin. "You want me to take a half hour for my brother?" Ash hissed. "What the hell are you playing at? What about the last fifteen ****ing years, Tarin? How can you expect that after all what you did?"

Memories were a touch and go thing with Tarin. They always had been and they probably always would be. There were the good memories of Ash, with Josh and himself, they were all climbing trees, or shooting coffee cans off fences. Then there were the memories that involved all three of them, Tarin huddled in some corner of their room, terrified by the spirits surrounding him while his brothers watched from their beds, varying degrees of confusion on their faces.

They'd acted like nothing happened when he'd come home from the mental hospital, Tarin was sure his mother had carefully instructed them there, and the next few years had gone pretty much as usual. Tarin knew sometimes, and from time to time when one brother or the other would get too angry and call him crazy. Then there was the memory that made all the others pale in comparison...the beating...the pick-up truck...the woman behind the wheel.

Those were the memories that were coming to the front of Tarin's mind as he walked down the street and Ash berated him. Tarin actually stumbled slightly when Ash brought up the fact that he'd left. After everything that he'd done.

It took a second for him to recover. Tarin paused and took a couple of deep breaths and ran his hand through his hair. It wasn't going to be this easy though, Ash wasn't just going to walk away. Tarin took off again, catching up to his brother.

"Yeah Ash...I want you to take a half an hour out of your busy life which is obviously much more difficult than mine could have ever been to listen to what I have to say. Josh listened, and Josh understands. Frankly, you have no idea what I've done, and if you'd just listen, then things might make a little more sense."

Tarin didn't answer right away. In fact he didn't even react right away, so rather than wait, rather than giving him what he wanted, Ash turned and started walking again.

But then Tarin did seem to have recovered, having followed him again, demanding that Ash spend even just a half an hour talking with him. Claiming his life had been so hard. Like that was anyone's fault but his own, because he left.

"Josh only thinks he understands," Ash muttered as he continued along the street. He knew that Josh couldn't fully understand. From what little he had actually heard from Josh, Tarin wasn't actually crazy, but a mutant like he was. Josh didn't understand, he hadn't years earlier when he had found out about his powers, Ash was sure he couldn't possibly understand about Tarin. Sure, he tried, sure he thought he understood, but he didn't.

"And you only think you did the right thing. But all you really did was chicken out and ran away."

"You don't know shit Ash..." Tarin said, getting angry now as he walked with his brother down the street.

Tarin knew that Ash was angry about him leaving, knew that he'd hurt people by leaving, but he hadn't had a clue at how deep this particular hurt had ran. All this blame, calling him a chicken.

Tarin was moving faster now, not the least bit concerned about the fact that he'd left the shop unguarded, getting ahead of his brother and stopping so that he had to stop. Stop or run smack into him.

"I didn't want to do this out here Ash...I wanted to explain to you somewhere quiet, but you. Won't. Listen."

Tarin paused and glared up at his brother, "I left because I was terrified Ash. Nobody had ever believed me before and there was no reason they would have then. You don't have a god damn clue what happened to make me run."

Tarin paused and looked away, jaw clenched and a muscle twitching in his cheek. "I was dangerous Ash...I'm still dangerous. Think of me like a time bomb...why can't you just listen?"

Suddenly, Tarin realized where he was and what he was doing. A few months ago he'd have probably been in a stalker's clutches by this point, on his way to the camps. Now he was standing in the middle of the street airing his personal business. What would Lee think?

"Whatever. When you pull your head out of your ass, you know where to find me." Tarin said, then reached out, two hand shoving his brother backwards before stepping around and heading back towards the shop.

"You don't know shit Ash..."

"Like hell I don't know shit," Ash spat back at his younger brother. "I know a hell of a lot more than you think, and you might know that if you hadn't left home, if you hadn't stayed away with virtually no word for the last fifteen years."

At this point, Tarin hurried around in front of Ash, and stopped dead. Ash had just enough time to bring himself up short so he barely missed running straight into the other man, and proceeded to glare at him some more while Tarin ranted.

"Dangerous, you were terrified," Ash said, shaking his head slightly. "And yet you live in New York City. You were worried about being dangerous in Texas, but New York, that's a different matter."

Before Ash was able to say anything else, or make even the first move to step around Tarin and continue on his way, Tarin was talking. And shoving him backward. "Oh, grow up, Tarin," he said to his brother's retreating back. "And don't hold your breath for me to come back. Maybe in another fifteen years."

With that, Ash continued down the street in the way he had been going before Tarin followed him out. He still had a bit of ground to make up to find the woman again, and he had his anger he desperately needed to get under control.