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Her patience amazed him? But the grin that was giving her made Lee just smile back at him. Lee knew that she wasn't always patient, that there were some things she had zero patience about. "Well, when it's something important, I can be patient," she told him, her voice more serious than it had been.

Lee hadn't necessarily meant the question about what they could do to celebrate immediately when this game ended, just that night in general since it was still so relatively early. But now Tarin was teasing back, even with the Mets getting an out.

"Watching the second game is definitely an option," Lee said, grinning over at Tarin. "But there's also nothing saying that you need to start thinking again for quite a while."

Then the Mets got another run. Seeing Tarin turn to her, Lee smiled again. "What did I tell you?" she simply asked.

At least Tarin's faith, and more importantly his excitement for his team had returned. And even though they were heading into the bottom of the 9th with only a single run lead, he seemed to again believe that the Mets were going to win.

When Tarin reached for her hand again, Lee gave his a squeeze in return. Three quick outs wasn't really asking for too much, was it? "They can do it," Lee whispered back.

Lee rolled her eyes slightly when Tarin said the reason she'd put the hat on so early was believing in the magic. That had certainly not been the reason she'd put it on so early. Not that she actually believed that there was magic with it.

Even if it had been rather uncanny how the Mets had started winning more as she had worn the hat more during games.

But there was a slight smile on her face even if she was rolling her eyes at Tarin.

"And I don't," Lee murmured as she turned back to the TV. Though there was a slight flush creeping up her cheeks as she sat there.

No, Lee hadn't put the hat on because of any potential magic, or because she thought it looked remotely good on her. Lee had put it on because of how happy such a little thing always seemed to make Tarin.

Feeling Tarin's arm move around her, Lee leaned slightly against him as yet another inning went horribly.

Then came the eighth inning. Almost the end. And a fresh pitcher was brought out as the Mets went up to bat.

And not only did the first batter hit the ball, he made it to second base. And then home when the second at bat also hit.

Tarin pulled his arm away as he leaned forward, and Lee could swear she could feel him getting excited again. Hesitant because of how the rest of the game had gone, but excited.

And it seemed that the Mets were really starting to do it as they scored another run and the pitcher got changed again.

"What have I been telling you?" Lee asked Tarin in reply, but if she was being honest with herself, Lee was a little surprised at how well the Mets seemed to have turned the game around.

As the Mets tied up the game, Lee's own excitement was growing, and she leaned forward as well.

Then they took the lead. Like really took the lead. Smiling happily, Lee turned to look at Tarin as yet another pitcher was brought in. Laughing softly as she heard his sudden disbelief. "Didn't I tell you they were going to win?" Lee asked, still looking at Tarin rather than the game. "But you didn't believe me."

Ashton ended up turning his full attention on her, away from the room in front of them, and started to speak.

To apologize for taking what she had been saying, particularly about the X-Men, too personally. That he had been getting defensive. And that he even agreed with some of the things she had been saying about them. Which really did seem weird for him to be taking offense to what she said.

"I get it," Lee said, her voice less harsh or judgemental than it had previously been. "They do help a lot of people. I'm still not sure what I would have done a few of the times that they've helped me in the past." Like when her husband had been found comatose in a graveyard mere weeks after they had gotten married. Or with everything regarding her pregnancy and Kevin's birth.

"Some of the X-Men are actually among my oldest and closest friends," Lee admitted. Even if she hadn't stayed in touch as well as she should have over the previous 6 years in an attempt to keep things as safe and normal for Kevin as possible.

"But I've always had…" Lee paused as she thought about how to word this properly. "Concerns. About how they run missions and handle things in the field. And now I've got a teenage boy who's just started school here who wants nothing more right now than to join the X-Men. And if trouble finds him even half as easily as it always seemed to find his father and I…" Lee trailed off with a frown.

Tarin, it seemed, was not a big fan of Queens. Not that Lee had really had much interest in the area herself. And Lee hadn't had a reason to go there in years, so she doubted there would be much of an issue in the near future.

Not that it mattered at the moment. Right then, what mattered was Tarin, and the game they were watching.

As the second inning progressed, Lee shifted closer to Tarin on the couch, still holding his hand. The game was certainly not going how she thought it would when she'd been so sure that the Mets would win. They hadn't even managed to get a single base hit yet, but the other team currently had two players on base. Great.

At least the inning ended without scoring.

The third inning started much better, getting someone on base finally. Hearing Tarin speak, Lee turned to look at him with a small smile. Yes, she had needed a lot of explanations in order to understand the game. But her need for that had dropped as the months went on.

And this was something that Lee had understood pretty early on.

But the game wasn't going great, and Lee suspected that this explanation was at least in part to reassure himself, so Lee just smiled and nodded. "Well, hopefully we get to a couple of them this inning," she replied.

Except, other than that base hit, the inning didn't go much better than the previous two, and soon the Mets were taking their places in the field.

"It's still okay," Lee told Tarin as she curled her legs up beside her on the couch. And the other team got someone on base. "We haven't scored, but they haven't either…"

As Lee finished speaking, the next batter made a good hit, and Lee's words tailed off slightly.

Tarin didn't have a seat number picked out because he couldn't decide whether an aisle seat would be a good idea or not. Which was very fair. And just further proved that Tarin had thought about this a lot before she had even considered asking the question.

Not that it was actually surprising that Tarin had thought about this a lot. He thought about everything important to him a lot. And this was baseball.

"I don't know about for baseball," Lee said. "But it definitely is a different feeling when watching hockey when you're closer to the rink. Though you do feel the energy of being at a live game no matter where you are."

But then Tarin's attention was taken by the TV. Turning, Lee saw that the game had (finally) started. Part of Lee was hoping that now Tarin's ridiculousness would be a little more restrained since there was the game that he could now focus on. But as she glanced over at him when he spoke, another part hoped not. It was good seeing him this excited.

"Good. Are you happy now?"

Tarin grinned when she said she hoped he was going to end up being more ridiculous. With everything that had happened in the last couple of months, how tense and serious things had been, Lee really hoped that this happiness that Tarin was exuding would last much longer. It didn't make those other things go away, but it did make them easier to deal with. Especially at the moment.

"And I put the hat on well before the game," Lee pointed out. "That's got to count extra."

It had to count for extra. Lee had put the hat on much earlier than she ever had before a game. Almost as soon as they had gotten home earlier.

And as they waited for the game to actually start, Tarin sat there on the couch fidgeting. Lee knew that feeling of being literally unable to sit still. It hadn't happened nearly as often the last few months after she realized that she could (and should) shut her siphoning off so she didn't end up awake all night.

Though, after the museum, Lee had felt literally unable to stay still for a couple days.

“I don’t know if I can watch….”

"Of course you can," Lee said as she turned on the couch to look at Tarin more directly. "You'd be upset with yourself if you didn't want."

Distraction was what Tarin needed, at least until the game started. Not something that would distract him for long, just a few minutes.

Then Lee got an idea. "If you could be there today," she started. "If you had tickets and could be sitting anywhere in the stadium, where would you want to be sitting?"

It looked like Will was about to answer her question when she followed it up by asking him to be honest. And he was then silent as he fidgeted some more with his shirt.

Lee hadn't gotten a real answer from the young man to this point through the texts that they'd sent. He'd avoided the question, he'd been sarcastic, made jokes, and avoided some more. What had happened had been huge, and serious, dangerous, and Will had stepped out onto the street that day with Quin planning to go look for her laptop.

Yes, she and Tarin had been planning on just going to start cleaning up the shop, but Michael had already asked Tarin for help before that day, and with Michael knowing what she had been a part of in the past, it wasn't unexpected that she had been called for help when things were happening in multiple places.

As Will finally started speaking, and was actually answering her question, Lee nodded. And listened for what he wasn't saying.

"I know, it's a lot to try and come to terms with," Lee agreed. "All of my…lets just call them 'unbelievable situations' started off much more mundane and easier to understand than an ancient mystic resurrecting her pharaoh and an army. Is there anything I can help with?"

After all, spirit merges were just an uncommon, random Friday night compared to what happened at the museum.