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It wasn't an important question, Tarin said after she had kind of not answered it.

"Honestly, I've never really thought about it before," Lee admitted to Tarin after a couple moments of comfortable silence. "I mean, I found out I was good at handling the books for the shop, then later managing our investments and accounts, so it was a practical decision when I went back to school."

"Then just kind of fell into working at the bar, and because he didn't want me to quit when the rift closed, Matt let me start working how I do now. As long as orders and payroll are always on time, it can be as flexible as I need it to be, for Kevin or anything else I want to do. So I really have never thought about what I'd do instead."

Why would she consider another job, especially one that would require strict working hours? Her arrangement with Matt ensured that she made enough for day to day. And while she'd had to draw on her investments interest payments rather than reinvesting it more than she'd wanted the year or had been just her and Kevin in the apartment, she'd been far from going broke.

"Though I guess with Kevin at the mansion now," Lee continued as they turned into the street the bar was on. "I can do some more exploring, see if I find anything I want to do to fill that time."

Lee had ordered a lot of alcohol to have on hand for the July 4th weekend that year. But they still hadn't even come close to running out like Matt had kept worrying about.

Lee was the worrier, but that man was almost impossible to make relax when it came to having enough liquor and beer in the bar.

"We did sell a lot this year," Lee confirmed with a bit of a nod as she looked up at Tarin. "More than I had thought we would, and I had already been expecting it to be busier than the previous two years. Still, we didn't come close to running out."

That's why Matt had her? Because he was an idea person and she was an execution person?

"He's also damn lucky to have me, because I never planned to work at the bar," Lee told Tarin. "Shortly after I moved back to New York with Rachel, we went out. Matt practically begged me to manage the bar for him. I guess his old manager had recently quit, and he had an actual vacation coming up in a week. Then I just…never stopped." Lee finished with a shrug.

Tarin thought that she was better company than his clients, did he? Normally she would agree with that. Normally these visits to the shop went very differently than this.

"I'm not sure that's true today," Lee said, smiling slightly as Tarin took her hand. Because this really wasn't anything like their normal meet ups during the day.

But Tarin didn't need to do anything else before they left. "We might as well go, then," Lee said with a slight nod. The sooner they left and the faster she finished her stuff, the fewer clients Tarin was going to have to cancel that day.

Turning to the door, still holding Tarin's hand, Lee shrugged. "Like Kevin's said before, it's really not that interesting or exciting," she explained as they made their way out of the shop. "Mostly inventory, payroll, and reconciling the money. Though, I do need to put a liquor order in for the weekend. You might be interested in how much alcohol I keep on hand for a normal weekend."

Tarin didn't say anything when she explained that what she needed to do at the bar would take a while. He didn't say anything, just simply moved his arms from around her.

And immediately pulled his phone out.

As she watched, Tarin tapped away on his phone. Then told her that he now had the next few hours free. Tarin had just actually cancelled appointments without hesitation so that he could walk her to the bar. Even though she had only felt that the adapted was outside of their building.

But that didn't mean the adapted wasn't following, just further away, the catastrophic worrying part of her mind reminded her.

"Thank you, Tarin," Lee said. Part of her felt that it was ridiculous that she needed to have him walk with her. But at the same time, knowing that he was going to be with her, Lee felt much more comfortable and safe about going back out onto the street.

"Should we go now? Or is there something you need to do here first?"

Lee had no doubts that Tarin would do better. That was not even a question in Lee's mind. When he had made mistakes in the past, or done something Lee hadn't liked, that had been it. Tarin hadn't done it again.

"Not the only one," Lee said with a slight shake of her head. "It is a good idea. I think it's just the idea of being watched on top of everything else right now."

It was his job to watch her. Now that part Lee liked.

Lee took a breath as she looked up at Tarin. "I'll feel better once we future out who this is and what they want," she told him. "I would feel better with it being them, though."

Tarin said that she didn't have to explain. Lee simply nodded against his shoulder. Maybe she didn't have to explain, but it was still something that she had needed to do. Something that she didn't think she would be able to stop herself from doing anytime she knew that an adapted was near.

Tarin also acknowledged he knew she wasn't used to feeling like she was then. But this, now, went far beyond simply being scared. Lee had been scared so many times in her life. She had been scared the day of the building collapse that Tarin had been hurt, or worse. Terrified after she'd found him and he said not to touch him. Scared and worried about what her powers were doing to Kevin through most of her pregnancy and his first few years. Terrified during the Registration Act.

This went beyond any of that. Lee felt scared and helpless. She knew what she was capable of in terms of her powers and to protect herself. But with an adapted, none of that mattered.

Lee tensed slightly in Tarin's arms when he continued speaking. He didn't want her to go out on her own anymore? Normally, the suggestion that she couldn't take care of herself, that she didn't know what she was doing, that she shouldn't be allowed to make her own decisions about what she did and where she went would be met with at least some anger and defiance.

A moment later, though, the tension left Lee's body and she nodded against Tarin's shoulder again. If this was Anton and she just hadn't seen him, or it was another adapted with a similar goal, Lee couldn't take care of herself. "Alright, I won't," Lee agreed.

After a few moments, Lee took a breath and started speaking again. "It's not just that I can't siphon," she explained. "I could have enough energy that I would be awake for a week. I can still feel all of that energy in me, but the moment I enter the field, I can't use any of it…"

When Tarin spoke, Lee just looked up at him at first. Why hadn't she told him sooner? So he didn't think that she was worrying excessively over something that was probably nothing?

Lee squeezed Tarin's hand as he went on to ask more questions. And then he went on to say that she had every right to worry about this. Closing the last little distance between them, wrapping her arms around Tarin as she laid her head against his shoulder. "I was trying to tell myself it was nothing at first," she explained. "We're bound to run across adapteds sometimes. I tend to head to the bar at around the same time most days, so when it happened Tuesday, I told myself I must be just crossing paths with them with their daily routine."

"So I left a bit earlier yesterday," Lee continued quietly, leaning into Tarin. "I'm not in the field long. It was really unnerving that it happened again, but I was trying to not worry. Then today, I left a good half hour later than normal, and was still in whoever's field outside the building."

Lee stopped speaking and slowed her eyes as she took a slightly shaky breath. "It's not him," she whispered after a few moments. "I've looked and haven't seen him. But…"