Everyone seemed to be getting upset. Well, everyone other than Tarin, which was somewhat surprising since it had been him to be upset in the first place, him who brought all of this up.

And then Tarin was there, his hand on her shoulder, telling her that they at least owed Luke a chance to explain. Lee took a deep breath to try and calm herself down, then let it out in a bit of a huff. Ok, sure, maybe Luke did deserve the chance to explain, but what about them? Didn't they deserve the chance for one thing, just one little thing in their lives to go smoothly?

And then, after he did explain, Luke was turning to leave, cursing at the spirit that was following him on his way. There was something that was pulling at Lee's mind as he walked away. That name he had said, Raina. It was unusual, unique, not something you heard every day, and yet Lee knew that she had heard the name before.

It was only after Tarin had moved forward, in front of Luke, and started to apologize, that Lee was able to place where she had heard the name before. In the camp, in a certain Camp Supervisor's office, Lee had been asked to make sure that a Raina...she couldn't remember the last name, got out safely.

If this was the same Raina, well that was an interesting twist she hadn't expected. But even in New York, how often did you hear a name like Raina?

Lee was about to say something about that, about Raina, when she heard Tarin expanding on what they had told Luke earlier about the 'incidents' they had had in the shop. About how they were far more serious than they had led on. About how Tarin would have died on at least one occasion if it wasn't for DocProf.

Lee's face took on that mask she used to try and hide the pain as she swallowed the lump that was suddenly in her throat. And while that mask didn't exactly do everything she tried to have it do, the pain from even just the memories was still visible, but it had helped keep her from crying on numerous occasions during that month at the mansion.

Tarin was asking Luke not to leave now, at least not yet, not before they could make up for how they'd treated the man. Even if the security was no longer for sale to them. So Lee stepped forward, not as close to the other man as Tarin had, but still closer than she had been because of his turning to leave. "So Raina did get out of the camps safely?" Lee asked softly. "I'm glad to hear that." For some reason, she hadn't thought of asking Rupert about that the first time they'd met after getting out of the camps, maybe because she had had more pressing personal matters, and then none of their meetings since then had exactly been conducive to casual chitchat like that.

Luke came to an immediate halt as Tarin stepped in front of him. The apologies were nice but Luke still didn't really know about hanging around. These complete strangers had just discovered one of the most intimate and painful memories that he had. This wasn't a story he had shared with anyone! Not Streak, not Sara, not even Sam. As far as he knew Raina had only shared the story with her brother Naveed. This wasn't something he wanted to discuss and it was most deffinately not anything that he wanted to discuss with complete strangers!

"All of us make mistakes and I can't really blame you." Luke said quietly, though it was quite obvious from his body language that he was still ready to walk out, "I'm sure you've seen a few spirits that were killed for the wrong reason."

Just as Luke was about to excuse himself to leave on at least slightly better terms than he had thought he would be leaving with, the magic word was spoken. Anyone that knew Luke would know that speaking the name of 'Raina' would automatically attract his attention. She was a special part of his life and if someone else knew her that meant they might have memories that would bring him even closer to the beautiful mermaid.

"You know Raina?" Luke asked curiously as he turned his head ever so slightly in Lee's direction. He wasn't 'looking' at her with his eyes but it was obvious that the woman had just seized his full attention. "You knew her in the camps? She did get out safely but it's not something we talk about much. That happened a while before I met her actually."

This wasn't going well. This wasn't going well at all. The apologies apparently just weren't going to be enough, and Luke wasn't going to budge. He was forgiving at least, but he was still going to leave. Tarin ran his hand through his hair in frustration, mussing it further and sighing.

"Mistakes, yeah, everyone makes them. It's what you take from them that matters. You know, whether you learn from them or just keep staggering around stupid. I usually try not to stagger." Hopefully that would be enough to show Luke that he understood the gravity of what he'd done. To the rest, "Yeah. I've met my fair share of wronged spirits. I've also met more than my fair share of wrong spirits. Discretion is 9/10ths of having this talent Mr. Jacobs." That was supposed to show that Tarin could be trusted to keep his mouth shut on the topic. It was true, with the things he'd seen, if Tarin hadn't learned really quickly to keep quiet, his life would have been hell.

It looked like Luke was going to leave though. Tarin couldn't help but internally curse himself for his previous actions. He was good at what he did, he didn't usually jump to conclusions like he had. Damn this paranoia, damn it to hell in a handbasket. Then Lee said the magic word.

The name rang a bell, Tarin didn't know from where, but somewhere in the back of his mind the name "Raina" rang a bell. Lee knew her though, from the camps. Tarin's head jerked towards his wife. Lee didn't talk about the camps. She'd never even talked to him about them at any length. Tarin stared in the same somewhat stunned silence and listened. There was nothing else for him to do. After all, he'd already managed to ruin the security consultation.

Nothing that Tarin was saying seemed to be having much of an effect. Well, Luke wasn't as upset any more, but that was about it. The man still looked ready to walk out.

At least he looked ready to walk out until she had asked about Raina. At the mention of her name, Lee saw Luke stop and turn slightly toward her. And she saw Tarin's head jerking to look at her too.

"No, not really," Lee said slowly, her voice quieter than it had been. "I just saw her around a couple times, and someone asked me to help make sure she got out safely if I could.

"But I didn't see her once the breakout started," Lee continued, her voice dropping even lower and a slight frown crossing her face as she remembered that day. "And then I didn't see her after the resistance got us back somewhere safe, so I didn't have a clue what had happened to her."

Wrapping her arms around herself, Lee looked back up at Luke after she realized that her gaze had dropped to the floor. "I'm glad she got out and that she's alright," Lee continued. "Though I'm not surprised if she doesn't talk about it, I heard she was there a lot longer than I was."

"She was taken during the mansion raid, though I'm not sure exactly when that was." Luke said quietly, providing a point of reference for Lee while admitting that even he didn't know exactly how long Raina had been inside.

"I was one of the fortunate ones I suppose." He continued as he made up his mind that Lee at least deserved a reason why she had never seen him around the camps, "I was classified as having a non-dangerous mutation so all they did was slap an armband on me and then lecture me about being a good citizen."

Sure Luke had been able to help provide funds for the legal team that had eventually helped overturn the Registration Act but everytime he heard from people that had actually been in the camps Luke found himself wishing that he could have done more. It seemed like what he had done had been so easy while everyone else had been fighting for their very lives.

"What about you two?" Luke changed the subject as smoothly as possible, "Did you two meet during or after the camps?" They had heard several of his own secrets so it was time for them to divulge some of their own. Fair was fair after all.

Wow. Lee really was going to be open about the camps. This was officially the most she'd ever talked about them to this point. Then again, they'd never really gotten the chance to go through the healing process together. Lee had been so damaged afterwards, she'd left so quickly. And then when she'd come back...the first thing she'd done was taser him. He'd probably deserved that, especially considering the fact that he'd seen her practically wrapped around that woman in the bar. Tarin shook his head at himself, it seemed like that was so long ago now. Again, he was reminded just how lucky he was.

Luke apparently felt lucky too, nobody had thought he was a threat. "I was lucky too. I'm good enough at convincing everyone I'm a fraud that I wasn't ever suspected." Tarin moved over to Lee, who had wrapped her arms around her middle and draped an arm around her shoulders. "Lee wasn't so lucky. That was probably the worst time of my life."

Raina had apparently been the magic word, and Luke didn't seem ready to run out the door anymore. In fact, he wanted to know a little more about them. Tarin nodded his head, it was more than fair enough.

"Before. A while before, actually." Tarin said, "It threw a real wrench in our marriage plans, in fact." He left out the part about the slutty red-head who'd attacked him in the back room and induced Lee to storm from the shop after tossing her engagement ring in his face.

"All that's done and over with now, though. It's amazing what kind of staying power people like us have. We're all putting together normal lives again. Well, as normal as life can be when you're like me." Tarin shrugged, his arm still around Lee, "That's what all of this is about..." he said, meaning the security system, "We're trying to make our lives as asfe and normal as possible."

Lee nodded when Luke explained when Raina had been captured, though what he said didn't really help pin point a time frame for her. She couldn't help but wonder whether Raina had gone back to the mansion after getting out of the camps. Lee had spent the last month there, and didn't recall seeing the woman. But then again, she had spent so much of her time in the infirmary...It was possible that she had secluded herself so much that she really had no idea just how many people might have been there.

And then she felt someone touching her, and Lee jumped before she realized that it was just Tarin wrapping his arm around her shoulders, trying to be there for her and comfort her. Closing her eyes for a moment and swallowing, Lee then leaned her head against Tarin's shoulder as she stood there talking about how he'd managed to stay out of the camps, but she hadn't been so lucky.

She hadn't meant to jump like that when he touched her, she hadn't done anything like that for quite a while actually, but just with thinking about the camp again, and not really paying much attention as she spoke to where he was...

"Yeah, we were actually engaged before I was caught," Lee explained, her voice still quiet. Just because it had all worked out, just because they were now married and Lee knew how much of a mistake she had made, didn't mean she liked thinking about it.

As Tarin continued speaking, Lee's eyes moved over to his face, looking at him in slight surprise. That's what all this was about? If she didn't know any better, it almost sounded like he was fully on board with her idea for getting the security system. "Yeah, a 'normal' life," Lee said with a slight, sad frown on her face. "I'm really starting to wonder if that's ever going to be possible. I mean, look what happened here just trying to get a security system..."

So these two just wanted to live a 'normal' life. Really, Luke couldn't blame them for that desire since he himself had wanted that exact same thing for much of his life. He had even been fortunate enough to live a relatively normal life for years but now he was beginning to understand that he wasn't meant to live that kind of life. That was the reason for the upcoming press conference and take over. Once he was publicly known as a mutant there would be no turning back but he wouldn't have it any other way. Sara and Raina had both been forced to live through hell because of their more visible mutations and Luke didn't see any reason why he should get off easy. Not anymore. Now was the time for him to step up and let the world know that mutants weren't all bad and that often times they could be prosperous members of society.

"Normal is a good dream and if you're willing to put work into it you can achieve it." Luke said quietly as a ghost of a smile touched his lips, "But even if you ask a regular human, noone can actually define what normal really is. Normal is what you make of it. It's fine to want to have a life that doesn't focus just on your abilities but the key is to remember that those abilities are part of who you are. As long as you include them in your definitions of normal, you'll be fine."

Turning around to face the rest of the shop, Luke increased the power on his sonar, once again sweeping the whole area to refresh the mental layout he had. "So... with the kind of trouble you've had before do you think a panic door or something along those lines would be a help? We could easily set it up that if you press a button from inside your apartment a steel door or shield would slide down and seal off the doorway from intruders."

If these two wanted a normal life and a security system to help them achieve that normal life then Luke was going to do his best to help them. There would be no passing judgement about how they were running from their true gifts or anything like that. Just from the few things they had said it was clear they had already dealt with more than most people could handle so they had obviously earned to right to ahve some semblance of 'normal' in their life.

Tarin listened intently as Luke spoke about their powers and defining who they were. His smile grew at the same time. The more he knew Luke, the more he knew this was his kind of mutant. Luke wasn't ashamed at all, he was himself and he realized how vital that was to his impression of self, Tarin was grinning when he spoke, "Believe me...I know how much my mutation defines me. In the good and the bad ways. By normal I don't think either of us is trying to hide or deny who we are. We just want the same things everyone else wants...house home..picket fence..." two and a half kids... The last was unspoken. To this point, Lee had been incredibly touchy about the situation.

Apparently Luke had decided to stay. Tarin was glad of the fact if he was honest with himself. Lee had really wanted this and it was odd how distressed she'd gotten when she thought they'd been duped. Then Luke asked about the problems they'd had and about a panic door. Tarin almost did a double take...a panic door?

It didn't sound so outlandish after a few moments though...in fact, being able to cut himself or Lee off from the rest of the shop made almost perfect sense. It also made sense if Lee needed to separate herself from Tarin... "I think that actually makes a lot of sense. Our problems don't really originate from break-ins. Usually people come in...don't like what I tell them...and things go south from there. Being able to seal them, or us...off would be good." he said, casting a pointed look at Lee as he said the final part.

Tarin caught something Luke said, hesitated, then spoke again, "Would it matter that we don't live in the back here? That's where I actually do all my readings. We have an apartment elsewhere...which, thank god, we haven't had too many problems at..." as long as you didn't consider a bloody murder or a merged spirit trying to toss Tarin out the window problems...

Normal was a good dream, but not even humans could define normal. Was that something like normal was relative? It was a nice ideal, a nice thing for Luke to try and point out, but regardless of who you talked to, Lee didn't think anyone could describe what they often lived through as being normal. How could anyone think that walking into the shop and seeing Tarin unconscious and bleeding was normal?

Tarin knew what she was getting at with the whole 'normal life' comment, though. That was the kind of normal life that Lee was wanting, though maybe not so much the white picket fence since they were living in New York.

A panic door? Lee blinked at Luke for a moment. That was definitely not something she had thought of before this moment, she had been thinking just of a security system. But as Tarin started speaking, and she started thinking more...

A panic door that could lock them in somewhere, or keep them away from someone else? "Would a panic door still work here, then?" Lee asked after Tarin had asked if it would still work even if they didn't live in the back of the shop any more.

"So what all would we have to do to get the panic door put in?" Lee asked. "How hard would it be in a shop this old?

"How would it work, exactly?" Lee continued, already planning for when she might have to actually use it. "Once we close the door, how would we get it back open, and how hard would it be?"

"A panic door would work in any situation as long as it separates one room from another and either stops an intruder or slows down the intruders enough that you can escape through another exit." Luke explained, not really looking back at the other two as he continued to focus on what his sonar was 'seeing', "It would be installed much like a pocket door. We'd take out the framing around the door and replace it with all metal frame and studs which would allow it to be more secure. A panic button would cause the metal door to slide across the opening, sealing off one area of the house from another. There would also be a reset button on the secure side of the door though it wouldn't be right next to the door so that it wasn't obvious to jus anyone."

Focusing his sonar a little more fully on the area arounds the doors, Luke made careful study of exactly what kind of drywall and studs had been used to build it. "I'd guess it would take one or two days to do the install for the panic door. I personally would suggest keeping the shop closed for that day or two but that would of course be up to the two of you."

Turning back around Luke allowed a slight smile to appear on his face. Over all the shop was relatively secure but there were still small things that could be done that Tarin and Lee had most likely never thought of. "I'd of course go ahead and put in a basic alarm system that was attached to the windows and doors. Along with that maybe install one or two panic buttons that send out a signal that you need assistance immediately. Plus we really need to install a dead bolt on that metal door in back."

Lee was on the panic door bandwagon too, it seemed and asking all the right questions that Tarin had missed. Another reason she was so great, she always thought of the things he didn't. The fact that the shop was old as hell hadn't even occurred to him. Mental thumbs up to Lee.

Luke didn't seem to think it would be too much of a problem though and as he explained the way the door would work, and the other security measures they could put in to hep, Tarin hopped more and more on board with the idea.

There was just one more question that needed to be asked, and Tarin really didn't know how to ask it, at least not without fully outing the dangerous extent of his powers.

Luke was still going on about more basic alarm systems and things like that, but Tarin was mulling over different ways to say different things. Different ways to get out what he wanted to get out.

"So..." he said finally, "How fast would that door shut...Let's say that there was someone out in the front of the shop when something happened...could one of us theoretically get away from that person, get through the door, and shut it before they could catch up?" He was talking about a merge of course, and Lee's tendency to stick around to a point that was far beyond dangerous. He avoided her eyes, Lee probably wouldn't like this direction of conversation. But hey, at least he was being discreet.

Lee nodded as she listened to Luke speak, explaining how they would go about strengthening the older walls here while putting the panic door in. And how there would be a reset button on the 'secure' side of the door.

That was the part that Lee wasn't so sure about, but that was the part she really couldn't ask about, either. How did she know, ahead of time, which side she needed to be 'secure'?

Thinking about it further, Lee realized that on almost any occasion she could think of needing that door, she would end up on this side of the door, in the back room. Whether she was pulling Tarin back here during a merge to keep them from being seen, which she had done before, or whether she was going to hiding back here from Tarin during a merge because she knew that she couldn't fight him. Or one of those times when someone came into the shop and didn't like what they had heard.

Then Lee heard Tarin asking questions about the panic door. He seemed be be getting more interested in the idea, but by what he was saying, Lee could tell he was focusing on it as a way for her to protect herself in the case of him merging and nothing more. And as the words came out, Lee turned to look at him, a hard look in her eyes.

It was a good question, though, something that they would quite possibly need to know even if it didn't come to a merge. Tarin had always been adamant that she always try to get away in the case of a merge, regardless of how it might possibly turn out.

Taking a breath, Lee turned to look at Luke once more. "And, just talking ballpark, how much would you say all that would cost?" Lee asked. They had money, sure, that's part of why Lee had been so adamant about getting the security system. This was more than what she had planned, but the more she thought about it, the more necessary it seemed. She just needed to know how much all this was going to cost.

"It'll close fast enough to keep out any normal speed human or mutant but if you think you're going to be dealing with mutants that are speedsters then we're going to have to come up with some custom motors to get that door closed even faster." Luke replied quietly, "One good thing at least is that even if someone is close enough to try and wedge an arm through the door, they're going to end up with a broken arm pinning them in place until help arrives. Unless of course they have inhuman strength. That's the only bad thing about the security business. It's impossible to plan for every single eventuality."

It was apparently at that moment that Lee began to realize just what kind of equipment they were talking about. Luke wouldn't have been at all surprised if she was the one that handled the books so it made sense that she would finally be the one to ask what exactly the bottom line would be for a project like this.

"What were you planning on spending?" Was Luke's immediately response as he turned his head so that his focus was on the lady of the house. He already knew what his plan was going to be. Whatever they had budgeted he would shave off 10-20% and then pay for whatever extra the system cost out of his own pocket. A friend of Raina's deserved that much consideration from him. Especially a friend of Raina's that had been through the camps and suffered as much as this couple apparently had.

It seemed like it really would be a good idea, this panic door. There could even apparently be extra motors added to make the thing shut faster if they were trying to escape something with super speed. Tarin frowned slightly, that was the problem with merges. There was never any telling just how dangerous the form he took would be...or what it would do. That was the most terrifying aspect. Even with all these precautions, what if he became something that could walk through walls. A panic door wouldn't do a thing to help then.

Luke pointed out the same thing and Tarin looked at him, startled for a second and wondering if his powers included any psychic abilities. He was just talking about the bottom line, though. The idea of whatever monster was trying to get them getting pinned by its arm in the wedge of the door sounded like a good thing. Then Lee asked the question that Tarin hadn't even thought of. Cost.

Even after the trip to Texas and their decision to elope and the few things Tarin and Lee had spent money on since getting home, a good chunk of the money Tarin had gotten for taking the worst beating of his life was still in the bank. Honestly, what better to spend it on than making sure that the same thing didn't happen again. Luke wanted a ballpark figure, though. What did something as complex and sturdy as they were talking about cost these days? Frankly, Tarin didn't have a clue, but he grinned anyway. Telling him that he had carte blanche wasn't an option either though. Tarin might have felt like he had money at this point, but it hadn't made him stupid.

"Lee?" he said, smile turning in her direction, "How much were we going to spend on this? You did all the research."