The relaxation caused by Tarin's words was visible as his shoulders dropped every so slightly. Jacen had been concerned about the whole situation but a humanitarian trip did fit with what he knew about Lee. Of course, he still didn't know that much about either Lee or Tarin, but if they were going on humanitarian trips then they had to be decent people.

"Sorry." Jacen apologized after a moment, "I just found out a couple of friends weren't who I thought they were and I guess I'm still a little edgy from it. Shoulda given you and Lee the benefit of the doubt. My bad."

The lies were coming more and more smoothly as time passed. If only Jacen could get rid of that slight twinge in his conscious. But come on, there was no reason for Lee or Tarin to hear about his breakup with Lori and since he didn't want to specify it had been a woman it was just better to make it sound like a couple of his friends had becoming something he didn't expect. Just like it was best for him to keep acting like he was a mutant. Until he knew what he was or how he fit in with the world there was really no reason to tell anyone but Kealey.

As Tarin leaned out to glance at the bar, Jacen turned to look at it a little more fully. He couldn't hear anything from this distance but as an accomplished flirt in his own right, there was no question what the bartender was currently doing. "You think we should give him a whole thirty seconds?" Jacen asked with a good natured laugh. "We're gonna have to ask Kealey what sort of emotions were going on in his head when she gets back. Is he just being playful or is he being lustful with those two ladies?"

There were times when Kealey's power would come in quite handy but even in those times Jacen didn't envy her. She had to bear a burden that noone could really understand. Sure, everyone had moments in their life when they felt overwhelmed by emotion but could anyone every get that Kealey felt that way almost every day of her life?

"Can I assume you two and Matt must be decent friends?"

Again, Lee echoed Kealey’s sentiments as they stood at the bar waiting for their drinks. ”I think we’re kindred spirits. It was really weird for a while, not knowing what people were feeling. Especially Jacen. I’ve always liked the feeling though…it’s nice to know how I really feel about things.” Kealey paused for a moment, then smiled at Lee, ”I’m getting better at doing it when I’m not around him, though.”

The banter between them and the bartender was fun, and the emotions Kealey was getting from him put her at ease enough to flirt back. Matt had an easy way about him and Kealey was honestly surprised that he had to flirt at all, surely this was all an act and he had a girlfriend hiding somewhere in the wings.

Lee and him continued to go back and forth, and finally Matt reached beneath the bar and pulled out the requested beverages. Kealey looked over her shoulder at the table and turned back to Lee with a delighted giggle. ”Good lord, they’re watching us over here like hawks.” she said, then laughed when Matt said, ”That’s because they know I’m a threat.”

The two women paid for the beverages, and made their way back to the table, Matt protesting the whole time that they were in earshot. Back into Jacen’s field the two walked, and Kealey couldn’t help but breathe a small sigh of relief as it felt like a switch was flipped and her abilities shut off. Making it to the table, Kealey slid into her chair and placed one of the beers in front of Jacen, ”I think we need to send you two if we need another round.” she commented with a smile, ”At least if you want speedy service.”

The tone at the table seemed slightly more somber than the easy rapport that had popped up between the two women. ”Did we miss anything good?”

Finally, Matt reached for their beer, setting it on the bar for them. Not bothering to wait, Matt had taken a long time after all, Lee reached out and grabbed one of the bottles, taking a sip as she heard Kealey comment about the men they had left at the table.

"Well obviously," Lee said with a smile as she handed money over the bar for the drinks. "But the time's not quite right yet."

The beer she had already started drinking in one hand, Lee grabbed one of the others for Tarin, and turned with Kealey to head back to the table. As they walked, it was obvious when they got close to Jacen; all of a sudden, the steady flow of energy she was feeling from around the bar just stopped. And, Lee realized, that invisible barrier must have been felt by Kealey too, since Lee heard the other woman give a soft sigh as soon as she had realized she had stopped siphoning.

"I'm not sure Matt would be that much faster if we sent them," Lee commented as she handed Tarin his beer and sat down herself. "He'd probably try to keep them up there for as long as he could so they're not here chatting with us."

But, they were back at the table, and they had beer (very important), so Lee just waited to see what Tarin and Jacen would say in response to Kealey's question. It was obvious that they had been talking while they were up at the bar, the question was, about what.

Jacen apologized for not giving he and Lee the benefit of the doubt and Tarin had the good grace to be slightly embarrassed that he’d only told Jacen the half truth. Honestly though, what good would the bits and pieces about government takeovers and mind control do for the situation? None, and they’d just gotten through a slightly tense exchange.

“It’s fine.” Tarin said, waving a dismissive hand. “These days, you have to be at least a little suspicious of everyone. It’s sad…but true. I didn’t stop and think before I whipped out all that knowledge that it might sound odd to someone. As crazy as life is for me and Lee, it seems commonplace.”

Jacen asked if they should really even give Matt another thirty seconds and Tarin had to laugh, “I don’t know. He’s pretty suave. How susceptible is your girl to sweet talking?” Even as he spoke, Tarin noticed Matt bending and pulling the beers from behind the bar. “Ah, looks like they managed just fine without us.” He pointed out, then nodded his head when Jacen asked if he and Matt were good friends. He grinned slightly and shook his head at the memories.

“From back before Lee. We kind of played wingman for each other every now and then…well…probably more than every now and then…anyway…he’s always been shocked that Lee was able to turn me away from my former life of debauchery and one night stands.” Tarin said, deciding that a change in conversation was probably in order as the girls made it back to the table with the beer.

Tarin took his and immediately took a drink, happy to have something to sip on again as they mingled. Kealey asked what they had missed and Tarin shrugged his shoulders, “I was just filling Jacen in on our trip to Colombia,” he said, then filled Kealey in quickly on the particulars, “Lee and I went on a humanitarian trip to rebuild a school, things got more exciting than we’d expected.” He hoped Lee wouldn’t mind, and that she’d be in as discreet a mood as he was.

“What about us? Did we miss anything other than Matt gawking?”

"She can sense emotions, remember?" Jacen responded with a grin, "That's almost as good as reading minds when it comes to guys hitting on her. She'll be fine."

Thinking back to their first time at a club when Jacen was giving her lessons on how to flirt he suddenly started laughing. "Remind me to tell you about her first time at a club sometime." He said as the two girls turns away from the bar and headed back toward the table, "It's a good story, especially from her point of view."

Moments later the two women were taking their seats. "It sounds like the two of you did really well in Columbia." Jacen complimented Lee with a quick smile before turning his attention back over to the very attractive blond. "Were Matt's emotions OK or were they pushing the boundaries a little? Not that I could blame him with two attractive ladies in front of him."

Accepting his beer from Kealey, Jacen glanced over at Matt and saluted the man with an uplifted bottle before taking a swig and then setting the bottle back down on the table. He couldn't wait to hear Kealey's thoughts about the bartender. They could be interesting.

As Kealey settled back into her seat and took the first sip of her new drink, Tarin filled her and Lee in on what they’d missed while they’d been fighting their epic battle for alcohol with Matt. A humanitarian effort in Colombia that had gone poorly? A blond eyebrow rose at the story, Jacen seemed impressed by what had happened so it must have been exciting. Looking at the very petite woman next to her and her fairly small husband, it was hard for Kealey to imagine them holding their own in a fight. Apparently their powers were more powerful than they seemed and Kealey admonished herself for judging books by their covers

”Sounds fascinating.” she said, ”I’ll have to hear the whole story sometime when it hasn’t already been told once.” They were settling back in and Kealey was pleased with just how well the night was going. Tarin asked if they’d missed anything beyond Matt gawking and Kealey had to laugh, ”He does have a bit of a roving eye, doesn’t he?” she commented just in time for Jacen to ask if she’d felt anything untoward in his emotions. She thought for a second and shook her head.

”I think he’s a harmless flirt. He was having more fun than anything while Lee was shooting him down. Guys who are serious don’t usually take constant rejection that well, from what I’ve seen.”

Kealey took another drink of her beer as Jacen pointed out that he couldn’t blame Matt for flirting with two attractive women in front of him and she had to smile and chuckle. Setting the beer down, ”He is right you know. Even if we are kind of a study in opposites. I have a terrible time pulling off black.”

More exciting than expected. That was definitely an understatement for their trip to Columbia. And, though it seemed that Tarin had gone into a bit more depth about the trip with Jacen than he did with Kealey, the topic of conversation seemed to change rather quickly to Matt.

So, when Tarin asked what had happened other than simply Matt gawking at them, Lee simply shrugged. "About the same as always," Lee said, her tone off hand as she lifted her beer bottle again. "He's still trying to talk me in to leaving you for him."

Lee was sure that that probably sounded strange, especially with the tone she used as she spoke, but it was just another of those common place things for them that would be odd to anyone else.

But Jacen was asking about what Kealey had felt from Matt, which really didn't seem like a whole lot. Kealey seemed to share the opinion that, while he was indeed flirting, Matt seemed to be doing it simply for the fun of it since she was playing along.

A study in opposites? At that thought, Lee looked over at Kealey once again. The other woman was tall, or at least quite a bit taller, and very fair, while she herself was shorter and darker, her skin fairly well tanned after the time in Columbia.

"Probably a solid three quarters of my wardrobe is black," Lee said thoughtfully, then shook her head. "I wouldn't have anything to wear if black didn't work on me."

As she took another sip of her beer, the table seemed to lapse into silence for a bit. The night had been going rather well so far, and to be honest Lee was still somewhat surprised by that; Tarin and Jacen seemed to really be hitting it off. But other than that, and the off-handed thought that she was pretty sure this was the longest time she and Tarin had spent in a bar together without making a public spectacle of themselves in one form or another, she wasn't exactly sure what else to say.

And then a thought popped into her mind, and turned back to Kealey. They hadn't talked about her much, the conversation had revolved around herself and Tarin a fair deal so far. "So how long have you been in New York?" she asked. "I mean, it is more obvious that you're not from here than it is for me and Tarin."

Jacen had taken Kealey to a club to teach her how to flirt? Tarin rose an eyebrow, he really did want to hear this story. Jacen didn’t seem like the type who would take a gorgeous woman to a bar to teach her to flirt with other people. Why had the blond needed to be taught in the first place? All questions that Tarin wanted answered, and all questions that had to wait because the women were back.

Tarin simply nodded when Lee pointed out that Matt had been the same as always, then nodded again when Kealey confirmed what Tarin had already known as fact. He and Matt had worked too closely together in the past for the flirting to be serious, and it would have come as a complete shock to his system if that would have turned out to be the case.

“Glad to hear it was nothing out of the ordinary.” He commented, waving at Matt and reaching out to wrap a possessive arm around Lee’s shoulders. Only for a moment though, then he released her and raised his beer in similar fashion to the salute Jacen had given. Matt wasn’t impressed, and waved them off before going to deal with some customers on the other side of the bar.

Well, thankfully the girls were back….so they could talk about clothes. Tarin resisted the urge to bang his forehead on the table. “I was hoping they’d get done with all that talk before they came back.” Tarin settled for commenting to Jacen before taking a long drink of his beer. The blond had made a point though, she and Lee really did reside at opposite ends of the female spectrum. Tarin realized his train of thought and shook his head…Tarin Brooks did not muse about such things.

Thankfully Lee returned to the topic of Kealey’s residence in the United States, a far more interesting conversation than who looked better in what color. “And more importantly, how was the beer in Ireland?”

Kealey and Lee were deffinately on different ends of the spectrum just like Kealey & Lori had been. In fact, Lori was pretty much from a spectrum all her own because she wasn't much like Lee either. That probably explained why Jacen had gone through such a difficult time deciding between them. Both had been attractive women but instead of goign with the girl he knew he could trust and that would give him of herself, he had made the stupid choice of excitement. "Note to self... always go with the girl you could take to meet your parents if you want a real relationship."

As Jacen was taking a sip of his beer he realized that Tarin & Lee were asking some very good questions. Obviously he knew that Kealey had been raised in a convent, her parents had died in a bombing, and the convent had eventually told her she needed to use her gift to better the world but he didn't know that much else about her past. How long ago was it that she had come to New York? Was she interested in ever going back to Ireland or did she want to make the U.S. her permanent home? Those were obviously very pertanent questions and he immediately felt more alert as he listened to whatever the young woman's answers might be.

"That's something I never thought to ask you." Jacen said, a slightly mischevous grin on his face since he already knew what Kealey's answer would be, "How was the beer in Ireland?" He doubted she'd really have an answer since he was pretty sure she hadn't done any drinking at the convent but hey, maybe he'd be surprised and find out that Kealey had a touch of a wild side to her.

Tarin took Matt’s attitude and flirting in stride and both he and Jacen felt the need to salute the man with their beverages. Kealey actually felt a little bad for the bartender as he turned away and went to work with customers. Apparently this was normal, though, and Kealey settled herself back into her seat and listened to the conversation.

A solid three quarters of Lee’s closet was black? Kealey mused over this while sipping at her beer, ”Well, maybe one day you can teach me how to wear it. Maybe all this time I’ve just been going about it wrong…and maybe I can show you a side of pastels that you didn’t even know existed.” she offered. The idea of something like that actually sounded more fun than it had a right to sound. Kealey still got precious little girl time, especially since Elle had tried to set her up at the Sanctuary, and having a girlfriend again sounded like fun. Hopefully Lee would be up for it, the woman seemed friendly enough, after all.

The conversation swung in her direction again and Kealey felt her cheeks pinken suddenly as all three faces at the table turned and waited for an answer to the question that Lee had so innocently posed. Unused to being the center of that much attention, the blonde took another drink of beer before smiling apologetically and starting to speak.

”Well…” she said quietly, ”I’ve been in New York for about a year. Not nearly enough for the accent to fade in the least.” she said, grasping slightly for something else to add to the conversation without launching into the incredibly long story that went along with her getting on a plane in Dublin.

”I grew up more sheltered than you could possibly imagine, and initially came here looking to do something specific, then return home.”

She paused and smiled for a second at how funny it is how things ended up, ”As it turned out, that specific thing has turned out to be more and more general as time has passed and I really like it here. Assuming I can work everything out with customs, I don’t plan on leaving again anytime soon. What about you two? I’m starting to wonder if anyone is actually from New York.”

Tarin said he had something even more important to ask and Kealey raised an eyebrow before bursting out in laughter at the question that came from his lips. After taking another sip of her beer and taking a deep breath to compose herself, Kealey put on an apologetic look and winced slightly in anticipation of her words.

”I told you. I grew up incredibly sheltered. You don’t want my opinion on Irish beer because this is my first beer of any kind.”

When Kealey suggested that maybe sometime she'd be able to teach the Irish woman how to wear black, and in exchange she would introduce Lee to pastels, Lee's eyebrow rose, though she didn't say anything. There was a definite lack of pastel-type colours in her wardrobe for a reason.

So she'd been here about a year. That seemed to be a fairly common time period as people got settled in the city before they really started branching out and meeting people. Or, at least it was a common time period for Lee, and a good majority of the people she met.

"I wouldn't expect that to be enough," Lee commented. "Tarin's been trying to get rid of his accent for over ten years now, and thankfully, he still has lapses from time to time." As she had continued speaking there, a small smile formed on Lee's lips, and her eyes eventually drifted over to look at Tarin.

Kealey continued, on, though. Very vaguely at that. She'd lived a very sheltered life over in Ireland, then come over here to do something specific, which turned out to be more general as time went on?

Lee could only pretend to understand that. She could, however, understand Kealey's love of the city, and her desire to not leave. "Well," Lee said, a slightly teasing, joking gleam coming into her eye. "If you do have issues with customs, marriage is a great way to get a green card."

But then Kealey was asking about them, where they were from since no one seemed to be a born New Yorker. "New York's home for us," Lee replied with a slight shrug. Well, it was. "I've been in the city for about three years, though, give or take. Was born in Canada, though, about two hours north-west of Toronto to be more exact, but I haven't been back there in about 10 years."

Kealey's explanation about how long she'd been here seemed to open up questions from the guys, too. Well, mainly one question, to which all Lee could do was roll her eyes, even as she heard the other woman laughing. Of course that's the first place that their minds would go, thinking about how it would be to drink in Ireland.

Though apparently this was the first time that Kealey had drank beer. That revelation surprised Lee. The Irish woman had to have been at least her age, how could she have not even tried beer before that night? Wasn't drinking beer, and starting at an earlier age, more acceptable and pervasive in England and Ireland than it was in North America?

Well, Lee decided to keep her mouth shut on that regardless because she was sure that between Tarin and Jacen, Kealey was about to get more than enough of a response.

Kealey had only been in town about a year. Tarin smiled slightly at the memory if himself after living in New York for a year. It had been the longest he’d lived anywhere outside of Texas and he’d known then that he wouldn’t be going anywhere else. At least not of his own volition. Kealey pointed out her accent and Tarin had to laugh at Lee’s response and shrugged, “You can take the boy out of Texas, but you can’t take Texas out of the boy.” He said, accent slipping through slightly as he winked at his wife and shrugged at the rest of the table. “I can switch it off pretty easily by this point, though. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to conduct business up north when people think you’re southern.”

Tarin took a sip of his beer right as Lee pointed out that a great way to get a green card was to get married. He choked, then set his beer down, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand and working for a few moments to catch his breath. And Lee had said that guys had a way with making situations more awkward? “Yeah, that was the plan.” He said with a wide grin, “You should have seen the lengths we had to go to in order to convince the customs agents that we had a legitimate arrangement. They got the picture soon enough, though.”

Tarin didn’t know the last time he’d witnessed someone using so many words to actually say so little. Apparently Kealey had come to New York from Ireland with some sort of goal in mind, only to have it change, and now she was doing something else. Well, that made sense, he supposed. It was obviously also a topic that Kealey didn’t want to expand on, so Tarin didn’t push. Until Kealey pointed out that she hadn’t ever had beer before.

Tarin’s jaw dropped slack in shock as he stared across the table in quiet shock for a few moments. “Oh, come on. You’re joking right? You’ve got to be at least Lee’s age…and you’re from Ireland, isn’t the drinking age over there like, 18?”

Tarin was flabbergasted, but something about Kealey's words rang true and he took another, large swig of beer so he'd stop jabbering like a fool.

Jacen hid a grin as he took another swig of his beer. The reaction on both Tarin & Lee's faces were priceless and well worth his pretending ignorance for a few moments. Of course Kealey hadn't done any drinking while in Ireland. Last time Jacen had checked, which was never, he had been pretty sure that convents frowned on any sort of imbibing.

"Trust her, she's telling the truth." Jacen spoke up, deciding that he didn't want to embarass Kealey too much, "Like Kealey said, she grew up sheltered."

Reaching over, Jacen snagged her hand and gave it a quick squeeze before turning his attention back to Tarin. It was time to change the subject to something that wasn't focused on Kealey quite as much and give her a chance to recover. "I don't think I mentioned it to your wife, but she wasn't the first woman I bumped into at the park with special abilities. A few months ago I was jogging and came across this woman screaming bloddy murder with a knife pierced through her hand and this man faced her down."

It wasn't hard to pull a memory like that back to the forefront of his mind. He had been busy listening to music as he jogged but the scream had attracted his attention just as he came into the clearing. The look of pain on the woman's face was unforgettable but it kept morphing in his mind into the look of pleasure of hatred he had seen just a little bit later. "I reacted and knocked the man unconscious then helped the woman back to my truck so I could take her to a hospital. Out of nowhere she asked me about being a mutant and in no time her personality changed. She grabbed the bow and arrows from my back seat and threatened to shoot me. It took a few questions but I found out I'd been played. She's killed this guys friends and left only him alive then stuck the knife in her own hand so that I would thinks he was the one being attacked."

Lifting his beer, Jacen took a swig, trying to forget the look of glee on the woman's face after he had kicked her out of the truck and driven off to another entrance in order to try and help the man he had rendered unconscious only minutes before. "It was a good lesson I guess... not everything is as it appears. Just like Lee and Kealey are both a lot tougher than most people would give them credit for."

Grinning slightly Jacen glanced over at the women as a phrase propped into his mind that a friend back in his military days had always used. "Like they say... dynamite comes in small packages."

Kealey had been right in her suspicions, neither Tarin nor Lee was actually from New York and the blond had to grin when Tarin turned on his decidedly southern accent and explained that people had a tendency to stereotype people from the south. That was disconcerting to say the least. If people were harsh on members of their own nationality…how hard would they be on someone from another country all together? Kealey frowned slightly, maybe she needed to start working a little harder to blend in. Lee pointed something key out, though and Kealey smiled, ”I know what you mean about it being home. It feels right here.”

The other couple was teasing each other and Kealey had to keep grinning at the easy way that they interacted. It was nice to socialize like this. It felt normal. Normal people did things like this out in public with friends. They laughed and teased and drank beer. Kealey glanced at Jacen, then around the table. These were things that everyone else was used to doing and it was brought into even sharper focus when Tarin and Lee reacted to her revelation that this was the first time she’d drank beer.

Tarin and Lee were absolutely incredulous and Kealey could feel her cheeks coloring as embarrassment flooded through her. Kealey didn’t know how old Lee was, but yeah, Kealey was at least as old as the other woman if not older. Suddenly, Kealey felt out of place in the bar. Neither Tarin nor Lee had meant to induce the feelings, Kealey knew that but it didn’t change the fact that she was still painfully ignorant. Kealey didn’t know what to say and she ended up just shrugging her shoulders uncomfortably.

Jacen spoke up and Kealey cast him a grateful glance, then smiled when he squeezed her hand. He didn’t elaborate on the topic of her ignorance and completely changed the subject. Kealey took a drink of her beer and settled slightly, listening to Jacen’s story and slowly feeling at ease again with the situation. This was even a story Kealey hadn’t heard and her eyebrows raised at the story of how a woman had pulled Jacen’s own bow and arrow on him.

”You really are a trouble magnet.” Kealey said, brows raised and her previous embarrassment forgotten in lieu of the story. ”Maybe you should find somewhere else to jog.”

Jacen continued and Kealey didn’t miss the look he leveled at herself and Lee. He mentioned how ill advised it was to judge a book by its cover and Kealey nearly laughed at the idea that anyone would call her tough. Then again, she had been through a lot in a relatively short time, and here she was drinking beer and sharing stories and jokes. Maybe, Kealey allowed, there was a bit more to her than met the eye.

”Well, I don’t know about anyone else…but I think that comment warrants a toast.” she announced, voice lilting slightly as a little bit of her Irish kicked in ant the urge to toast revealed itself, ”To small packages and the great things that have a tendency to cram themselves inside.” she said, eyes glittering before clinking bottles and taking another good sized drink.

Lee completely understood what it was Tarin was saying, now that they had spent some time in Texas. Though he hadn't actually lived there in years, Tarin was still very much a Texas boy, Lee had noticed in comparison to a number of others she had met while they were down there.

But why oh why did he have to pull his accent out like this? Lee simply stared at him, a look of questioning accusation on his face. Why? He knew what his accent did to her, and they really were trying to behave that night since Jacen and Kealey were there, to not end up all over one another like they normally did when at the bar.

And he winked. Yeah, because that was better. Lee just continued staring at her husband. Until he brought up a mention of how much they had to go through to convince those people that they were a legitimate couple.

That's when a smile appeared on Lee's face, though it was slightly embarrassed. "Maybe that'll teach them to believe people sooner," Lee said, her voice quiet, the almost embarrassed smile still on her face. "It was their fault for leaving us locked in that room with nothing to do for so long, though."

But yeah, enough had been said on that topic, Lee thought, so she let her mouth close just in time to hear Tarin's exclamation about Kealey having never drank beer before. She knew her husband, knew how he'd react to certain things, and in this case there was really no reason for the both of them to react to Kealey saying that she'd never drank beer before.

Apparently, something Kealey was even more embarrassed about than when her and Tarin had mentioned the trouble they'd had getting her green card. Which was ok when Jacen tried to change subjects, though Lee winced slightly when she heard what it was he was changing things to.

That was exactly the kind of thing that Tarin was worried about with her running in the Park, especially at night. Thanks for bringing that up, Jacen. As she sat and listened to the man speak, Lee started going over her arguments for Tarin about why he shouldn't outright forbid her from running in the park when Jacen continued, explaining how it had really been the woman who'd been doing the attacking.

Good. Tarin would have less of an argument with that. But one thing had struck Lee as strange, well, strange for her. "You just keep a bow in the back of your truck?" She asked. "I know you're a cop, but how's that a good idea?"

Then Jacen was commenting about her and Kealey both being tougher than one would expect, saying something about dynamite coming in small packages. All he'd really seen was a woman with the nerve to go running in Central Park by herself at night, and Lee doubted Tarin would have shared all that many details with the man about Columbia. "You have no idea," Lee murmured as she lifted her bottle to her lips for another drink.