Apparently her question wasn't going to be answered until Luke found out how much they could afford, how much they had budgeted for it. And suddenly Tarin seemed to realize how expensive all this might be and was suddenly concerned with how much she had been planning on spending on the security system.

Heh, maybe he would have had an idea on what she was thinking of spending if he had appeared to be a little more open to the suggestion of the security system before that day.

"That's just the thing," Lee said, looking over at Luke. "I hadn't even thought of the idea of a panic door until you suggested it, so wasn't planning on spending nearly as much as it's bound to cost.

"But," Lee continued, her voice thoughtful as she glanced over at Tarin briefly. "I think it would be a very good idea to have that installed, so I don't have an idea of how much it might be. And the extra motors would probably jack the price up even more."

By this point, Lee's bottom lip had been pulled between her teeth as she thought. Yeah, she really had no idea how much a door like that, especially with reinforcing the surrounding door frame to make it actually useful would cost. That was why she had asked in the first place.

When she heard Tarin's question about how much she had been planning on spending, a small smile curled the corners of her lips up and she looked over at her husband. "I don't know," she admitted with a slight shrug. "I was figuring probably a thousand, maybe two."

Inwardly Luke winced though he refused to let the expression manifest on his face. The cost of the door and motors by itself would probably be near $2000 when the cost of instalation was added to the normal markup for these types of products. He could knock down the price all he wanted but just from getting to know these two a little bit he doubted that charity was what they were looking for. They wanted a normal life that they created for themselves.

"For the door, enhanced motors, dead bolt on the back doors, window and door sensors, two or three panic buttons and one alarm keypad beside each door you're probably looking at a cost somewhere around $3,000 or $3,500." Luke replied after a moments thought. The price was low enough that he actually was giving them a discount but still high enough that they could feel like they were doing everything themselves without any type of charity. Heck, if they wanted to haggle he'd even lower the price so that they thought they were getting a better deal but that was up to them.

"If that sounds a bit high I can always crunch the exact number and see what I can work out for you."

Tarin smiled over at Lee when she gave Luke the ballpark figure that she'd been thinking before the idea of a panic door had occurred to her. Again, Tarin didn't have a clue what that sort of thing cost, but surely it was going to be more than what Lee said. Luke was a business man after all, no matter how friendly he was. Lee's original figure was actually lower than Tarin had expected, though, so he just waited to see what would happen after Luke spoke again.

The man seemed to think for a few moments before he spoke then he came back with a figure higher than what Lee said they wanted to spend, but not by a ridiculous amount. With all the equipment, motors, and work that it was going to take, the number Luke suggested sounded very reasonable. Especially considering the fact that they really hadn't dented the money in the bank.

Luke was offering to crunch the exact numbers if they thought his ballpark figure was too high. Either he was a really good salesman or he was being more fair than he really even needed to be. Considering the fact that Lee had just outed them as completely ignorant as to what something like the panic dor they were talking about would cost, Luke could have through any number of figures at them, not offered to crunch further, and they probably would have just nodded dumbly. Not that either of them were dumb, but ignorance in the presence of a salesman was usually an expensive error.

"Actually, I'm not sure that the extra crunching is entirely necessary. I think the ballpark you just gave is something we could work out without too much trouble. We are talking about something to put between us and a potentially life threatening situation. It's worth the cost." It actually wouldn't be any trouble...but just like being ignorant in front of a salesman was bad idea, letting them know you had easy money was bad too. Tarin grinned, he liked Luke.

When Lee heard the number that Luke quoted for not only putting in the panic door, but with the extra motors, as well as for sensors for the doors and windows, and panic buttons, all she could do was blink for the moment. Yes, it was true that she didn't exactly have an idea how much it would possibly cost for all that, but she had figured that it would be a lot more than that.

That slight hesitation was all it took, and before she was able to open her mouth, Lee heard Tarin speaking. And what he said was probably better than her outright, without any question or hesitation, agreeing to Luke's price.

So Lee simply nodded in agreement with what Tarin had said, a small smile on her face as well. He actually seemed on board with the whole idea now, actually thinking that it was a good idea to have this stuff put in. That was a vast change from how he had been acting even earlier than afternoon, and Lee was very glad about that.

"Yeah, like Tarin said, I'm sure we'll be able to come up with that," she told Luke. "For something as important as this, we'll figure out the money."

But, if it was really as cheap, and as simple, as Luke was making it seem, the only thing was it'd take time to replace the door frame, maybe they could even get this done faster than she had been thinking, too. "How soon do you think you'd be able to get your guys in here to start?"

Tarin and Lee seemed to be OK with the price and quite obviously that was the most important thing about a situation like this. Luke didn't need to make a huge amount of money when he went out on sales calls... that's what he had high paid salesman for. No, he was out to take care of the customer and give them a good deal especially if they happened to be fellow mutants.

"You're making it to easy for guy like me." Luke said with a slight chuckle, "You have no idea how often we get to deal with customers that from the very beginning are fishing for their senior citizen discount, or their discount because their rich, or whatever reasoning they come up with. Apparently they figure that since an actual salesman comes out it means they can haggle. They would never dream of doing something like that in an actual store but with a salesman, they'll do their best."

It was readily apparently that Lee was obviously the more detail oriented of the two as she immediately brough the subject back down to get an aproximate time table. In fact, if Luke was a betting man he would have been willing to put down money that she was the one that handled the books for this little shop. Sure Tarin had the power to talk to spirits but without a level headed mind like Lee's to see to the business details, he'd be bankrupt in a week or two... tops.

"I'll have to check with the office to get a clear idea of scheduling but we should be able to get someone out here within four to five days." Luke said with a smile, slightly amused by the thoughts and observations he'd been putting together in order to build a better picture of the two mutants he had met. "Think you two can manage to stay out of trouble for about a week?"

Lee was in agreement. That was definitely a good thing as far as Tarin was concerned. It would have been weird for them to sit and squabble over the finances, Tarin was getting a little uncomfortable with the situation though. Suddenly, he wished he'd taken a little more interest in Lee's security idea. More and more he was looking like a bystander in this whole thing while Lee asked the pertinent, important questions. He had to look like a joke. Tarin shrugged it off, it was one of those 'reap what you sow' types of situations and the only thing he could do was learn from it.

Luke seemed happy with the fact that he and Lee liked the price range they'd been given and Tarin chuckled slightly as he pointed out that most people were out to get discounts for any and everything they could possibly get. They'd already gotten the quote and Luke seemed trustworthy enough so Tarin spoke, "Truth be told, we might have driven a slightly harder bargain a few months ago. One of the more recent incidents resulted in something of a windfall. We thought this might be a good use for some of the money. Well...Lee did. Truth be told, I kind of blew it off considering the fact that most of the problems we have involve people who just walk in off the street during business hours...the panic door idea swung my vote though. That's why you'll have to forgive me for seeming like I'm playing catch up here."

Then Luke was talking details, details having to do with when his guys could come in to do the work. A week? Tarin's eyebrows drew slightly together and he made his way back to the front of the shop, "Let's check the book." he said, pulling it from under the counter, "A week should be fine..." he said, flipping through the appointments and checking to confirm his suspicions about the regulars and the other appointments people had set up in advance. "Any kind of estimation on how long it's going to take them to work? I'd like to disrupt business as little as possible, and people aren't going to want to do readings while workers are drilling, and hammering, and sawing." Tarin paused and thought for another moment.

"Do your guys work on weekends? We could probably handle paying a little extra if that's not the usual case, or we can work around it on our slower days...it's just that when people get up the courage to come in here and do this, rescheduling their appointments has a slight tendency to scare them off. So if we could avoid that, it would be best."

Luke seemed happy that they were ok with the quote he'd given them. Honestly, Lee wasn't sure why; she'd been willing to pay half of that for just the security system if it came with the right things, so throw in everything else, and it sounded like they were getting a deal.

Either that, or Lee's research had been way off.

But then Tarin was speaking, and Lee couldn't help but laugh slightly as she shook her head. "You know, I figured that you would have learned that lesson by now," she told him, her tone slightly teasing. "If I think something is a good idea, then chances are, it is, hon."

A week. Yeah, hopefully they'd be able to stay out of trouble, wouldn't have any problems, for a week. Hopefully, they wouldn't actually need to use the panic door that was being put in.

And then Tarin was heading back out to the front of the shop, thoughtful...and grabbing the appointment book to flip through. He was actually using the appointment book, for the second time that day.

Tarin certainly had changed once coming out of his coma. Or, while his body was unconscious and whatever it was that had happened had been going on. He was actually doing things like using the appointment book himself now; Lee wasn't sure she had even seen him touch the thing before the coma unless he was pushing it away from her to try and capture her attention. He hadn't even had an appointment book in the shop until she had gone to buy one.

And now he was being all practical, asking if Luke's men would be able to work over a weekend to get everything done and installed. Lee grinned at him. This was much more like it, Tarin actually helping and thinking about how to get this done rather than the eye rolling and slight sighing she had been subjected to the last few day as she had done some research into security companies and systems.

"Well, we have made due without all that for this long," Lee said, turning back to speak to Luke. "But the sooner we can get it in, the better. Same with the least disruption to business."

"For weekends the installers normally make double time for their pay." Luke replied automatically without even having to really consider the question, "If you don't mind paying the upcharge I'm sure I can get there here over the weekend. With installing the panic door along with the rest of the security system you're probably looking at two to three days. So, say Saturday, Sunday, and maybe a little bit of finishing up on Monday. IF they did have to work on Monday it would just be the technical set up so there wouldn't be any hammering or dust flying around to disturbe your customers."

Maybe Luke's first impression about Tarin had been wrong. Sure it still sounded like Lee was the one that handled most of the books but as Tarin was warming up the idea he was starting to come across as more professional. Maybe he was a decent businessman when topics interested him. Lots of people were like that so why couldn't a mutant be the same way?

Slowly turning his head as though scanning the shop, Luke decided that it was time to change the topic off of business. Pretty much all the details had been handled so now he was allowed to be at least a little bit curious wasn't he?

"Do a lot of people have spirits trailing around behind them like I apparently do?" He asked inquisitively as he pulled his attention back over to Tarin, "And if they don't, do you just tell them there's nothing around or do you play along and just act like you're speaking to their dead relative?"

There was nothing accusing in how Luke was asking the questions. After seeing Tarin in action he didn't consider the man to be a con artist or anything along those lines but he did have to wonder how he could handle situations when there weren't actual spirits. Had he run into those or was there a spirit every single time? Were there really that many spirits running around the world that only Tarin could see?

Lee seemed as eager as eager to get the security system installed as a person could possibly be. Tarin winced slightly when Luke said his guys got double-time if they worked weekends. It wasn’t Luke’s fault, and it sure as heck wasn’t the workers’ fault, but it was still going to be considerably more money than they’d talked about originally. No matter though, they actually had the money to burn. It was funny to think about, actually having the money.

“Understandable Luke…” Tarin said, “And if you think the weekend works, then that should be fine with us too. Monday mornings are slow, and if there’s still work to be done, it shouldn’t be much of a problem at all.”

Luke could have left at that point, been done with the conversation and the interaction with Tarin and Lee, but he hesitated. Apparently curiosity had gotten the better of Luke Jacobs and he wanted to know more about the nature of Tarin’s business.

Tarin looked at him for a few moments, then leaned forward, resting his forearms on the counter as he looked thoughtfully at Lee. Was full disclosure appropriate here? Would someone like Luke understand the way that Tarin had ran his business. There was only one way to find out for sure.

“Enough do that you’d be surprised at how many there really are out there.” He said, quietly but honestly, “Countless more attach themselves to places and things. When I do the thing I do…I see their last moments, it’s been more helpful and more hurtful than you could possibly imagine.”

Then there was the second question. Tarin had a feeling that Luke was actually asking him what kind of man he was with that particular question. The problem was, Tarin didn’t exactly know. “Well…” he said, “In the past, especially when the registration act was in full force, I had to be bad enough at what I did that people didn’t get suspicious.”

Tarin looked at Luke and shrugged his shoulders, “Then, yeah, if someone was coming and they were greedy and they were trying to use me for something wrong…then yeah. I’d take them. Never for very much though. If someone showed up without a spirit, and they were genuinely hurting…I did what I could.”

Tarin stood and came around the counter to lean on it with his arms crossed, “I learned a long time ago how to tell what people need out of their meetings with me. I don’t have to pretend to be bad as much now…but if I’m too good…too many people are going to find out and I’m never going to have a second of peace.”

Double time for working weekends. That was definitely going to jump up the cost of all of this, but considering that what Luke had quoted had honestly been quite a bit less expensive than what Lee was expecting, the fact that they'd have to pay the workers double time wasn't that bad.

And then Luke went on to ask questions of a much more personal nature, questions about Tarin's powers and what they did there. So Lee was quiet, waiting for Tarin to speak, waiting for him to decide what he was going to say. At least there had been no talk of her powers.

Tarin still hadn't said anything, but instead he was now turning to look at her from where he he was leaning against the counter. All she could do as she looked back at him was shrug slightly. It really was up to him how much he told; Luke already knew that both of them were mutants.

Finally, he was looking back at Luke, and talking about his powers, how a lot of their customers did have spirits with them, but how if he was too good at what he did, they'd never get a moment's peace. He had said that on a number of occasions, at least a few times to her in the past, in the beginning of their relationship. She hadn't seen it yet, thankfully, but Lee could understand how it could happen. Despite how she didn't see the draw in speaking to the dead, never had, Lee knew that some people did.

Tarin was explaining things well, though. Times like this, he normally explained things so much better than she would have been able to, so she simply stood there and waited for Luke's reaction.

Luke was silent as he listened to Tarin speak about his power. There was no way that he was even going to begin to think about judging the other man for occasionally deceiving people. Everybody lied on occasion for some reason, whether it was to protect someone or to deceive someone. Heck, even Luke had lied to Sara and different ones in order to try and protect them from his secret. Lieing to protect both yourself, friend, or loved one was occasionally necessary. That didn't mean that he had to like doing it, but Luke still understood.

"So basically you get to see the best and the worst of life by seeing these spirit's last moments." He observed quietly, "That must have been hard to adjust to the first couple of times it happened."

Mention the time when Tarin's power first manifested made him think back to the first time his own ability had shown. "I was thirteen and in a boarding school over in Europe because my Uncle didn't want to deal with me." Luke said with a quiet chuckle, "It was a strange experience for me going from complete blindness and a cane to finally being able to 'see' in at least some sense of the word."

Thankfully, Luke had known even at that young age that he needed to keep his ability hidden. If he had told a bunch of friends or some of the teachers at the school then he might have been kicked out of school or worse yet, attacked by some of the people that had anti-mutant sentiments.

It was quiet in the shop now, as both Lee and Luke listened to him talk about the way his powers worked. Tarin was actually a little nervous, he wondered what this man was going to think about him. Leadership qualities. That’s what the man had, the type of charisma that couldn’t exactly be taught. Was it because he was blind? Tarin was almost embarrassed to even think about that possibility, but it was there, bidden or not.

Luke pointed out that Tarin probably saw a lot of the best and worse of life and Tarin shook his head, “Most people who die a happy death don’t hang around between life and…wherever else it is they go. Lee pointed out several months ago that I’ve become a pretty morbid son of a bitch. Things that would give most people that queasy little feeling in their stomach don’t even seem to faze me anymore.”

Luke was obviously more comfortable than he’d been before, when he was ready to leave, that made Tarin feel better. Kind of like some of his integrity had been restored. The man spoke, sharing the way that he’d found out about his powers and Tarin almost smiled. There should be more stories like that. Stories where the people involved actually benefited from the mutations that ultimately made them different. “It sounds like it would be an experience.” Tarin hadn’t ever been one of those people who wondered what it would be like if he had a disability, he’d always had enough to deal with in his life without something like that making things even more difficult.

“I’m glad that you’ve adapted so well.” Tarin said, only slight irony in his voice. Truth be told, he was a little jealous. Here was a man who had mastered his power, at least to a point where he could really make it useful. He wasn’t running around hurting people because he couldn’t get a handle on himself.

“My story isn’t quite as pretty.” Tarin said, still leaning against the counter. “I was eleven…from what I hear that’s pretty young for manifestation. I didn’t have a clue at the time. My dad had just died and me and my brothers were sleeping off the shock in our room. I woke up and there was my dad.”

Tarin sighed at the memory, it was still a slight shock to his system to remember what it had been like, “Hovering right there, next to my bed. Needless to say…I flipped…scared the whole house.”

Tarin stopped there for a minute, an only slightly bitter smile crossing his features in the dappled afternoon sunlight in the shop, “They thought I was nuts. Some kind of post traumatic stress from my dad’s death. Enter the endless string of mental hospitals and psychiatrists…only, it didn’t stop with my dad. They even convinced me that I was nuts for a while. I’m from rural Texas and nobody had ever seen anything like me.”

The memories were affecting the mood, and Tarin really didn’t want to dredge up the past for Lee. From what he could remember, their conversations about the way her powers had shown up always brought up things that were painful.

“I’m over it though. My mom didn’t know what else to do. Suddenly she was all alone with three boys who were just hitting puberty and a ranch to run. How would they have known that it was anything other than post traumatic stress or me just wanting attention?” He was echoing Ash’s words now, that was great, time for a subject change!

“So, boarding school in Europe ?” he said cheerfully, “That must have been a trip.”

As Lee stood there and listened, she realized that while the tones were amiable and simply curious, not accusatory, she saw that the more that was said, the harder it was getting for Tarin. Especially when he went on to talk about that first time he had seen a spirit.

Stepping forward, Lee reached her hand out to lightly grab Tarin's, even though he had his arms crossed across his chest. Even if she didn't know what to say, even though she had never really known what to say any of the times that he had described what growing up had been like for him, Lee felt like she needed to show him support, show him that she was there for him.

And then he went on, explaining about how he had spent time in mental hospitals, and Lee simply squeezed his hand.

Finally, Tarin seemed to be done speaking, done explaining, and simply stood there for a couple moments in silence. They all seemed to be. "Just because it's obvious that something is going on, doesn't mean it's obvious what the cause is." Lee said softly. That was very true, at least in hers and Tarin's experiences, and that was about as far as she was really wanting to go into her own personal discovery of her powers at that moment. But the fact was that her family knew that something was going on for almost two years before they even thought of the possibility that she was a mutant.

"Europe?" Lee went on to ask, then glanced at Tarin briefly before turning back to Luke. "What was it like? I've only done Florida and Cuba, both when I was a kid, but I'd love to be able to do Europe."

"To be honest, in many ways Europe isn't that different from here." Luke said as he walked over to an open area on the counter and leaned against it rather casually. "Different languages are spoken and the architecture is a bit different but you find the same variety of people. Some good people that would give you their last piece of food just to make sure you aren't hungry and then scum that would try and steal that piece of bread just for kicks."

It had been a sad experience over in Europe, though 'bread' was not what the men had been trying to take. Payment for protection had been demanded and if money wasn't paid over then the farmer's teenager daughter was going to be the price. That was the day Luke had decided to learn how to fight. He had been helpless to stop anything but after the farmer had convinced them to give him a little more time, he had mae sure that funds were transfered to the framer. It was a temporary fix to the problem but it had been the best he could do at the time.

"It was after traveling the country that I decided to come back and join up with my family's security business again. I realized just how helpless so many people are and I wanted to do something to help. I didn't have a power that would help me fight against it, but I did have a family and company that gave me an option."

There was no reason to mention his identity as Wraith, or the fact that he was part of the X-Men. Those were little secrets that he preferred to keep to himself and a select group of individuals. Soon enough he would see about announcing to the world that he was a mutant but even then his secret identity would not be revealed. Nope, the crime fighting side of Luke was be a secret while the public face would be there for the world to see.

"It's not much, but I try to do what I can to help."