Jacen wasn't completely sure how to go about showing the picture to people while maintaing at least some sort of discretion. He had been a military man that took care of the mission when it was given to him. Information gathering was for the guys at Intel. "Why didn't I ask them more questions?" He mentally cursed as he wandered outside the hotel and began to walk over to the nearby convenience store, "Then I might actually have some clue about what I'm doing!"

Making his way into the gas station, Jacen's mind was racing as he tried to come up with some sort of cover story that might work in this situation. "Lacen King." Jacen began, spinning of the best yarn he could come up with on this short notice, "I'm looking for this guy. Goes by the name Pulse. He skipped out on his bail down in Orange County and the judge wants him back in his court room by tomorrow. Seen him?"

The man behind the counter barely even glanced at either Jacen or the picture before turning his attention back to the latest issue of Playboy that he had been perusing. "Never seen him before. Rough looking guy. Try the bike shop next door."

Stepping into the bike shop, Jacen began to wonder if he could really use the same story in this sort of environment. While not all bikers wer fugitives they were also a close knit bunch and the idea that someone was going to drag one of their brothers off to jail might not sit with them to well.

"I work for Johnny Rico." Jacen said, doing his best to come across as tough hired muscle, "This guy goes by the name Pulse. He borrowed money from Rico and then ran off without paying it back. Rico wants a word with him. Seen him around?"

The glares Jacen was getting from the various people in the bike shop made him want to just slink out the front door but he stood his ground and just stared at the man behind the counter. Finally, when the silence became unbearable, the other man spoke up. "I've seen him riding down the road before but I never met him. He uses a street bike."

The next few hours passed by fruitlessly as Jacen found himself unable to obtain any better information. Frustrated to no end the man stalked back into the hotel and made his way toward the room. Anger and desperation were both simmering beneath the surface and for no particular reason he stopped one of the teenager maids that he was passing in the hallway. "Ma'am, do you know this man? He goes by the name Pulse."

"Oh my GOD!" The teen shrieked when she saw the picture, "Pulse! I LOVE him! He and his band play at the bar just down the street! He is SOOOO hot!"

***

It had taken almost thirty minutes to get the girl to stop jabbering about how awesome Pulse was but finally Jacen had managed to extricate himself from the conversation and return to his room. As he waited for Lee and Tarin to knock on his door after having completed their own assignment he had to smile ever so slightly. Finally he had something to go one.

Tarin sighed wearily as he made his way back towards the room that he and Lee were going to be staying in. Sometimes one spirit was far more exhausting to deal with than a whole group of them. Especially when the spirit was young and scared, and not completely convinced that she was dead.

The girl had been confused, and initially all that Tarin could get out of her was sniffles and run-on sentences about how much trouble she was going to be in for not reporting to work on time. Tarin had gently steered the girl in the direction of the blond she’d mentioned and eventually he’d gotten what he wanted. It was Pulse, apparently the guy was in a band and this girl and one of her friends that worked at the hotel were some sort of groupies. A fat lot of good it had done her.

Slowly, the girl had stopped sobbing and her voice took on a slightly dreamlike quality as she described what had happened to her. Tarin’s face dropped more and more as she spoke and he found himself getting really angry. Pulse and someone the girl hadn’t known had come to the hotel looking for the blond and she’d promised to do everything she could to help. And help she had…and then the bastard had killed her. It was like the story helped her realize it and Tarin shuddered as the mental link opened and he got the rush of images that always accompanied a link-up with a spirit.

The girl hadn’t known anything else Tarin could call exceptionally helpful though, just that the blond had been in a room, but had then left. Tarin committed it all to memory, pretty sure he wasn’t going to forget how the girl had died for a long time. This ‘Pulse’ character was one sick bastard, and for the first time Tarin wondered if they were dealing with someone more dangerous than they could handle. Then he remembered Jacen. Without his powers…Pulse would just be another asshole.

It had taken quite some time to get the girl calmed down once she’d figured out that she was actually dead and Tarin left her wandering down the hallway towards the front desk. There was nothing he could do to help her at this point, nothing was going to help her rest until the initial shock had worn off…so Tarin had headed back towards the room. The spirit had given him a room number, but Tarin figured he’d grab the others first, just in case.

Lee was in their room, still working on piecing together the shredded pieces of paper in the envelope, but she came with him when he said that he’d found something. Together they went to Jacen’s room and knocked, the door opened and Jacen surely saw two grim faced individuals.

“I don’t know about you…” Tarin said once inside, “But I found something…and that doesn’t bode well for any of us. This guy’s dangerous as hell, and he killed a hotel employee real recently. I think she had some info we can use though...” Tarin said, then tapped the side of his head, "And I know what we're dealing with."

The desk clerk hadn't been any help. He didn't seem to remember anyone even close to Lori's description. He didn't even have a clue what room she had been staying in. Though, as the clerk had pointed out while being apologetic, it wasn't as if he worked 24 hours a day; maybe one of the other people who worked the desk had seen her.

Which meant that Lee was going to have to come back again if the guys didn't turn up anything. And she'd have to be sure to tell the same story, that Lori was a girl friend of hers who'd recently ended a really bad relationship, but that she hadn't heard from the woman in a few days, so was getting worried.

But at the moment, Lee didn't seem to be getting anything from this desk clerk, and she didn't manage to get any information out of the two other employees she ran into on her way to the room. There was no answer at Jacen's door, and Tarin wasn't in the room that they were sharing, so with a shrug, Lee sat down at the desk, set the envelope she was carrying down, and got to work.

She was so engrossed in piecing together the small bits of paper that had been shredded back into something readable that Lee actually jumped when she heard the door open. Looking up, Lee saw Tarin entering, not looking too happy. And then it was time for Lee to be really shocked when she noticed the time on the clock; had she really been locked in the room by herself for a couple hours?? No wonder she had started yawning.

Tarin wanted to go find Jacen, though. That was a good idea, Lee thought, people would be good for her. Except, she realized a moment later, being around Jacen wouldn't help at all, since she wouldn't be able to siphon at all. And she was already yawning.

So Lee hopped up, as quickly as she could in her worn out state, and grabbed Tarin's hand as soon as she was close enough. If they were on their way to see Jacen, she needed a bit of a pick me up first.

And with that, they were out of the room and heading down to Jacen's door. Even before Tarin had knocked on the door, though, Lee knew Jacen was in there, knew because she suddenly stopped feeling the energy seeping in through her hand from Tarin. Well, it wasn't much of a pick me up, but it was better than nothing.

Then it was back to business. At least Tarin had found out something. That kind of made up for the fact that she really hadn't gotten any information. Even with all that time she had spent on her paper puzzle, she hadn't really discovered anything; while she had managed to get a good number of pages started with their reconstruction, she didn't have anything actually readable yet.

Dangerous. Well, Lee had already assumed that, but Tarin was making a big deal about that little point. "Mutant or psychopath?" She asked. Well, it was a valid question, and the answer would determine how they went about dealing with things, but the fact was Jacen might end up being shocked by how casually the question had been asked.

"And how 'bout you?" She asked, then turning her eyes on Jacen. "Did you find out anything?"

Jacen had been sitting quietly in his room for a good twenty to thirty minutes by the time that Lee and Tarin knocked on his door. His mind had been racing over the various possibilities of what might happen when they went to the bar but his mind kept circling back to the worst possible scenario. What if nothing happened? What if Pulse wasn't there? What if he ended up right back where he started. There were lots of questions that still needed to get answered and Jacen was quickly realizing that patience wasn't his strong suit. That's why he had worked in the Rangers instead of with Military Intelligence. With the Rangers, he always knew exactly when he was going to strike. With a situation like this, gathering intelligence, you never knew when things were finally going to brake wide open.

Finally the knock sounded and Jacen walked over to let in the other two. Closing the door behind them he crossed his arms over his chest and listened attentively as they provided whatever information they could.

"Mutant, my ability can take care of. Psycopath, your abilities and my combat training can take care of." Jacen replied shortly, waving Tarin and Lee toward the single chair or the bed as an offer for them to take a seat. In another situation or a later time Jacen might have thought that Lee was handling Tarin's statement far to easily but at the moment it didn't raise any red flags. They had been able to face bad guys down in Columbia so why shouldn't they be equipped to handle the scum of the earth?

"Pulse is a member of a local band that apparently has quite a following with the teenager girls. He's the playboy of the group and, if my source is to be believed, every young female in the city fantasizes about what sort of things they could do together. He rides a street bike and his band plays at a bar just a block or two away from here."

Moving to take a seat where Lee and Tarin had left open for him, he regarded the two of them carefully as he tried to consider the situation as best he could. He didn't know what Pulse's ability was but apparently Tarin had that information. "Tarin, do you know if Pulse has an active ability? Would he sense when I got nearby?"

For once, Lee’s presence and her hand wrapped around his didn’t make Tarin feel better. That girl had been really messed up, believing she was living out a fantasy. Tarin could almost feel her racing heart beat, Pulse had kissed her and the way her heart raced had almost made her dizzy. The room had been empty, in the flurry of clothes and hands the young woman had hardly believed what was happening, she couldn’t wait to tell her friend. It was all so good, it felt like her heart was going to beat right out of her chest…it practically had. Tarin shuddered. Dangerous wasn’t even the right word. Lee’s question jerked him away from the mental pictures that were so vivid in his mind and he looked at her, wondering again how she managed to be so calm in situations like these. Psychopath or mutant, Tarin shrugged his shoulders. “How about both?” he said. The way Pulse had used that girl suggested something deeply wrong with him, and he had the power to boot.

Jacen explained how they’d handle the guy no matter what he was and Tarin nodded, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms in lieu of Jacen’s offer for a seat. Tarin was still too jittery from his encounter with the spirit to sit.

Jacen launched into his explanation of what he’d found out about Pulse on his information gathering foray. Tarin nodded, it seemed to fit almost exactly with what he’d found out from the spirit. Jacen sat down and asked the million dollar question and Tarin nodded, then swallowed before he started talking.

“I think it’s active. It was hard to tell though. I think it’s something to do with beats, he made one of the hostess’ heart burst.” He paused for a moment and frowned at the floor. Why did hotels always have to carpet their rooms with such busy patterns? “That would explain the teenage infatuation. If your heart speeds up every time you’re around someone, you must be in love, right?” Tarin said, brows furrowed as he shook his head, “He’s got brown hair…really shitty ink work. I’ll know him if I see him.”

Tarin paused again, shaking his head, “It was fast Jacen, and he’s got to be at least a little screwed up in the head. He tricked the girl into a room after they got information on your friend from her, she thought she was living out some rock star fantasy and he just used her then killed her. We’ll have to neutralize him fast.”

Both. Great. Lee'd dealt with psychopaths before, as she'd dealt with mutant powers. Dealing with both in a single body didn't sound overly inviting. But Jacen did have a point; his abilities would deal with Pulse's powers, and their skills, as well as minds, would deal with the fact that he was a psychopath.

Seeing Jacen wave toward the chair, Lee walked further into the room and sat down while she listened to what the two men had found out. Tarin, however, wasn't sitting. Instead, he was still standing by the door, his arms crossed. Wow, what he'd found out must really be bugging him, she thought.

At least Tarin and Jacen were able to get some information in their searches. That was more than she was able to do, since she'd still come up with nothing.

"Hopefully I'll get those papers put back together by tomorrow so we can actually read them," Lee said, though her mind was working, trying to piece together a plan based on what the guys had learned about Pulse. So far, he was the only solid lead they had, the only thing they knew for sure where to go with this.

"So we're going after him?" Lee asked, glancing up briefly at both Tarin and Jacen. Her husband was really not going to like the direction this forming plan of hers was taking, but she wasn't sure how else they'd be able to get him away from the rest of his band and the fan girls so they could neutralize them. "Anyone know when his next show is?"

It was beginning to make sense. If Pulse was able to control a beat, then no only would he be able to speak up a heart, but he could stop one. He could just make someone's heart stop so that the coroner would simply assume that an older person had died in their sleep. For a younger person it was sped up to simulate an out of control panic attack.

"He's a killer." Jacen said quietly as he sat on the mattress, momentarily staring off into space as he began to make the connections. "He enjoys it. This isn't something he does simply for business transactions or out of necessity. He likes the killing. He enjoys seeing the expression on the girls face as they realize that their life is over."

It was a morbid train of thought but deep down Jacen knew he was right. After hearing his voice on the tape recorder and hearing Tarin's revalations from their friendly neighborhood Ghost, Jacen knew he was right.

Shaking his head to clear out the thoughts, Jacen did his best to just focus on the situation. He needed to handle this in a business like matter and not let it get personal. He couldn't separate himself completely but he had to pull back enough to get the job done.

"His band plays most every night if the room service lady I met is to be believed." Jacen replied quietly as he lifted his gaze to look at Lee, "You have a plan?"

Lee was confident that she could get the rest of the papers from the envelope put together by the next day. Tarin nodded, that was good. The more information they had going into this situation, the better. Knowledge was power sometimes, and even though they had a psycho and mutations to deal with, knowing why was sometimes almost as powerful as knowing how everything was going down.

Tarin could almost see the wheels in his wife’s head turning after she voiced what everyone in the room knew had to be the next step. They were going after Pulse. They were actually going after someone who could control the way a person’s heart beat. Someone who had apparently killed a lot of people. Jacen’s words confirmed it and Tarin nodded his head slowly, “That’s the MO for a psychopath like that. They don’t get off on the sex or the danger. They get off on kill.” Tarin knew first hand, he wasn’t going to tell Jacen that, though. They might be friends, and he and Lee might be going out on a limb to help, but that didn’t change the fact that Jacen was a cop.

Lee was still thinking, and the longer the thinking went on, the less she would make eye contact with Tarin when he looked across the room at her. Jacen asked if Lee had a plan and Tarin knew she did, she wasn’t immediately speaking though, he tried to figure out her train of thought. They had to neutralize Pulse, and it was going to be hard to do that in a crowded bar. There would probably be hundreds of teenage girls willing to throw their lives down for him…plus the risk of collateral damage was too great. That meant they’d have to draw him off alone…

Tarin’s head snapped up from where he’d been studying the carpet again, eyes narrowing on his wife as she sat on the chair in Jacen’s room. “No. Absolutely not Lee. Don’t even suggest it.” He said, going out on limb. If he was wrong, then Lee would set him down properly, if he was right, he was steamrolling before this plan could get rolling.

“Did you miss what I just said? He tricked that twenty year old girl into going into a room with him to live out a fan fantasy. Then he banged her, then he killed her. There is no way in hell you are putting yourself in a room with that man far enough away from Jacen that he could use his powers on you.”

This was not going to be easy, Lee realized as she head Jacen speaking. Not that many things in her life had exactly been easy, but this was different, this was actually going out and putting herself in a dangerous situation.

But a plan was forming in her mind. While they'd been in Columbia, Tarin had been able to control the spirits from about a mile away. And he'd been able to see what was going on. If this Pulse guy had really killed as much as Tarin and Jacen seemed to think, there had to be at least one spirit around who was willing to help. She wouldn't really be alone, then. Right?

And Tarin seemed to see where she was going with her plan. She wasn't looking at him, though, so Lee didn't see her husband's head snap up to look at her. She did, however, hear the tone of his voice as he forbid her from doing something she hadn't yet voiced.

"He won't be tricking me, though," Lee pointed out, her voice slow, quiet. She still wasn't looking up at Tarin. "And I won't let it get to either of those points.

"We'll find a spirit willing to help, so you'll know where I am, you'll be able to see what's happening, and if things get out of hand, you and Jacen can swoop in and save the day. But I dropped men in Columbia faster than I thought I could, so I'll be fine.

"Besides," Lee continued, finally lifting her eyes for one, very brief, glance at both Tarin and Jacen. "What other options do we have to get him alone so we can neutralize him?"

Jacen was silent as he watched the husband and wife begin what was probably a common argument. Obviously he completely understood where Tarin was coming from but at the same time he knew was Lee was saying. Did they even have any other option? There was no way that Jacen could ask Lee to perform this sort of mission but there was still one question that was left unanswered. "Can I even accept the help since she's offering?"

"Look you two, I'm not going to pick sides and say that either of you are wrong, but you're not." Jacen finally spoke up, "Lee, if I were in Tarin's position I'd probably be saying the same thing. He loves you and doesn't want to see you hurt and, god forbid, he doesn't want to lose you."

Standing back up, Jacen walked over to Tarin and placed a hand on the man's shoulder while looking into his eyes, "But I can't tell you Lee's wrong either. She has the power to defend herself, you've told me so, and for the life of me I can't think of a better option. The women that Pulse has killed have been unsuspecting while Lee would be going in prepared with the two of us as back up."

Dropping his hand, Jacen stepped away, giving the couple clear line of sight to continue their conversation, argument. "Lee, I appreciate the offer but I don't want you doing this if Tarin's not supporting you. This is gonna be hard enough as it is, if you're distracted, it may be even more dangerous."

He was right…Tarin’s jaw clenched at Lee’s answer because it proved that he was right. It looked like he wouldn’t be squashing it outright, though. Lee spoke, and while she explained, Tarin kept staring at her hard. Lee, however, stared hard at the carpet in the hotel room. It figured that she wasn’t looking at him, he thought as he heard a few more details of her plan.

Tarin tried to ignore the fact that he knew of a spirit who would be probably be more than willing to help, that was besides the point. Lee was not putting herself into this situation. Of course he and Jacen would be able to swoop in and save the day should a bad situation arise, but it was a moot point because Lee was not going to be participating.

Then Lee spoke, asking what other option they had and Tarin scowled even deeper. Before he’d latched onto the train of Lee’s thought he’d been running over the situation and come to the same conclusion she had…even if he hated the very thought of it with every fiber of his being. No, she wasn’t doing it. Then Jacen spoke.

Truth be told, Tarin had completely forgotten that the other man was in the room, and his first instinct was to snap. Then Jacen took Tarin’s side and Tarin gave his wife a high and mighty, ”I told you so.” look. Then Jacen spoke again…on why oh why had the other man had to keep talking…and he did the whole brother-in-arms hand on the shoulder thing and looked Tarin in the eyes.

Dammit…dammit dammit dammit. Why had they come if Tarin was just going to naysay every idea that involved Lee being in danger. Every idea was going to put Lee in danger…and Jacen was right. If they went into this situation distracted, they were going to be in even more danger. Tarin had seen Lee drop people pretty damn quickly, and if Pulse’s head swam anything like Tarin’s did when Lee turned her power up, he wouldn’t stand a chance.

Jacen moved away, and Tarin stared at Lee some more, his expression softening slowly as the logic worked on his brain. Forward he moved, squatting down in front of Lee’s chair and forcing eye contact.

“You’re sure you can do this? You can do this and be okay?” he said, heart speeding up a little bit at the memories the spirit had branded into his brain. “If you say you can do this…I’ll trust you, and we can move forward. I don’t like it, but I’ll throw in.”

Then he turned to Jacen, “Sorry about that.” He said, turning to look back at Lee, “We knew there were dangers involved, and it’s not my place to forbid Lee from doing anything. If she says we’re good, we’re good.”

Jacen was talking, saying that they were both right. Of course they were both right. They shouldn't be doing what she was talking about them doing, it was too dangerous. But, of what options they had, it was the least dangerous. Far less than if they were to try and take Pulse while he was still around all his band members and fans. That, certainly, would not go well.

But even after Jacen had finished speaking, Lee was still looking at the floor, so didn't see the expression on Tarin's face softening at all. She didn't look up until she heard him moving toward her, until through her lashes she saw him squatting in front of where she was sitting in the chair.

"Of course I can do this, hon," Lee whispered, finally looking up at Tarin, then swallowed because of what she was about to say. "I don't think you actually know half of what I've had to do, in Columbia and other times." She hated bringing stuff like that up, but the fact was she had had to do a lot of stuff because of Tarin's merges before.

Then she raised her voice to a more normal level. "I'm sure, Tarin," she continued. "The hard part will be pretending I like him to get him alone, but I'll be fine."

Jacen was quiet as he watched the couple apparently work out their differences. He knew at least a little bit about how Tarin was feeling since this was the exact reason he hadn't asked Kealey to come with him. There was no way he could have asked the young woman to put herself into danger like this and yet here he was askign someone else's wife if they would. It made him feel like such a heel.

"I'm sure, Tarin. The hard part will be pretending I like him to get him alone, but I'll be fine." Lee's voice broke through Jacen's own internal dialogue, though it didn't really pull him away from it. This area that Lee said she would struggle with would have been Kealey's strong suit. With tens of screaming teenager girls all loving Pulse, she could easily have used that emotion to act the same way. Suddenly Jacen was realizing that he might have made the wrong choice by not telling Kealey about what was going on. She was perfect for this part of the job whether he wanted to admit it or not.

"Why don't you two go get some rest. Lee, you should be able to get all the energy you need at the club. I've got to pick up a couple of things so I'll meet up with the two of you about 7:00. That should get us over to the club right as things are starting to heat up." Jacen finally spoke, rising to his feet and giving the two of them the best smile he could offer under the circumstances. "And thanks you two. I appreciate all the help."

***

At about twenty minutes until 7:00 Jacen found himself standing outside of Tarin and Lee's hotel room door and knocking to alert them of his presence. He was dressed in semi-casual club wear with black sneakers, black denim jeans, and a black and gold stylized dress shirt. The shirt fit loosely and was untucked to hide the inside the waist band holster in Jacen's back that contained his Glock 9mm. Also attached to the side of his belt was a small receiver with a wire than ran under his shirt and up over his shoulder. The ear piece to the receiver was currently hidden under his shirt but was still easy access to pull out and then slip into his ear.

"Hey you two." Jacen said once the door was opened. Stepping inside he did his best not to think about how nice the two might look and instead focus on the business side of the situation.

"Tarin, this is a receive and ear piece for you." He said handing out the apropriate equipment, "Lee, this is a miniature microphone. It's up to you on where you conceal it."

The microphone had both a sticky tab as well as a small magnet clip. It was about half the length of a woman's hair pin and just a touch thicker. While not as good as government inteligence equipment these were the best on the consumer market. They had set Jacen back a litte over a thousand dollars but he didn't care. Getting Lori and keeping Lee safe were his two chief priorities at the moment.

"You get your choice of safe words or phrases. Pick something that would seem natural but that you won't say unless you want Tarin and myself to move in and get you out of there. Any questions?"

Part of Tarin had hoped that caving would be just the thing to make Lee decide that her plan wasn’t the best course of action. Reverse psychology and all that jazz. It hadn’t worked, she’d just assured him that naturally she’d be fine. Not only had she done that, but she’d brought up the things she’d had to do in the past. Tarin nodded his head mutely, eyes dropping to the floor at that…how many times had he tried to hurt Lee? It didn’t matter that he’d been out of control of his body during those times, he’d still tried to hurt Lee, and worse. She’d come out relatively unscathed each and every time. Same with Colombia, she’d taken out all of those soldiers on her own.

Rest, Jacen was suggesting that they get some rest. Tarin stayed where he was for a moment, staring at the floor and hating himself just a little bit. It was hard to swallow. After knowing him for a couple years, Lee felt ready to take on a dangerous psychopath. He stood after a moment, though, and held out a hand for Lee to take. She did, but only after a moment’s hesitation. Ugh.

7 pm. That would give them time to rest before they simply launched into this plan of Lee’s. This plan where she was going to seduce a psychopath. Tarin didn’t like it at all, he was bound and determined to go along with it, though. Jacen thanked them as they left, and Tarin gave him a mute nod and a tight smile that probably mirrored the one already on Jacen’s face.

The knock on the door came, no sooner than Tarin had expected and as Lee put the finishing touches on her outfit, Tarin opened the door to admit Jacen. The other man came into the room and started talking about details for the mission they were getting ready to embark on. A receiver and earpiece were held out to Tarin and he took them from Jacen, watching as Lee took the mic. Where was she going to keep it? It nearly made Tarin sick that she was dressed that way for someone else. This was going to be even more difficult than he’d originally thought.

A few moments later, the equipment was concealed and Jacen was telling Lee that she needed to come up with some sort of phrase to let them know if she was in trouble. Tarin sighed and scowled at the floor, then shrugged his shoulders, “It doesn’t necessarily have to be words…it could be a hand signal or something. I should be able to see everything that’s going on.” Dammit.

Tarin did not look happy as the words came out of her mouth. Not at all. But after Jacen said that they should probably get some rest before everything that was bound to happen that night, Lee just nodded.

Then Tarin was holding his hand out to her, offering her a hand up from the chair she was in, and all Lee could do for a moment was blink at him. With how upset she knew he had to be about this plan, he wasn't fighting against it any more? And he was offering her a hand up like this?

That hesitation only lasted a moment, though, before Lee reached her hand out, giving Tarin's a slight squeeze, before letting him help her stand.

And back to the room they went, Lee pulling Tarin by the hand she was still holding over to the bed, sat down beside him, and proceeded to curl up with him there. Now that they were alone, though, it seemed Tarin felt it was time to voice his opinion about what she was going to be doing, and he wouldn't exactly listen to her requests to stop, after insisting that she would be fine. So Lee simply leaned against him, taking comfort that she knew she would need later from his arms around her, and tried not to really listen to him.

Unfortunately, Lee knew that she couldn't stay there forever. She still hadn't really cleaned up all that much from the travelling, and definitely needed a shower before attempting to pull this off. So about six o'clock, Lee headed into the bathroom to shower.

At least her and Tarin had worked out a nice little system for this over the time they'd been living together. She showered first, which really didn't take too long because of the years where she'd had to make sure she did things like this quickly because of lack of energy in her apartments. Then, while she was figuring out what to wear (since her selection here in Florida was incredibly limited) and getting dressed, Tarin went in for his shower, only for them to then switch again so she could do her hair and make-up.

So, by the time Jacen was at their door, around quarter to seven or so, Lee was in the bathroom just finishing up her hair and make-up. She'd let her hair curl, so it was still slightly damp as she stepped out of the bathroom to see Tarin being handed some sort of equipment. Her heels, which almost looked like they were made to match her grey plaid dress, were silent on the carpet as she walked up to the men as Jacen handed her something small.

A microphone and earpieces for Tarin and Jacen. That was a good idea, Lee thought as she disappeared back into the bathroom. While the plaid on her dress did make the thing rather busy looking, she couldn't find a single place where she could put the mic that would be innocuous. So instead she attached it to her bra; it wasn't as if she were planning on letting things get that far anyway.

Then Jacen told her that she could choose her own safe word, which would alert him and Tarin that things were going bad. At which point Tarin pointed out the fact that he should be able to see everything that was going on.

Taking a deep breath, Lee nodded to the cop. She had been so sure before, but now, as they were standing here getting ready to leave, it was sounding more and more like the worst idea she'd ever had. Then again, Lee had never really had the chance to sit and think like this before going into a bad situation, she was just there, or she rushed in before she'd had a chance to sit and think for a couple hours like this.

"A safe word..." Lee murmured, her eyes drifting over to Tarin of their own accord. Yeah, this sort of thing was definitely more difficult when she had time to think about it before hand. And when it wasn't Tarin she was going in to save.

It would be so much better if this trip down here to Florida was more like their previous ones, in a slightly nicer hotel, preferably one with room service. Or better yet, at home, since they had bought some strawberries a couple days earlier, and still had a container full of chocolate sitting in their fridge. Berries which would most likely have gone bad by the time they got home...

"How about 'strawberry'?" Lee asked, turning her eyes back to Jacen. It wasn't something she would ever consider eating without Tarin around, not with how their nights generally went when they shared strawberries, so it was something Lee was sure she wouldn't just say, but something she'd likely be able to slip in if needed.

"Now, can we get going?" Lee continued. "The sooner we get started, the sooner we can get this thing finished."