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As Lee looked up at Tarin in the dark, in the quiet, the stillness of this spot, telling him about how she had always hated being carried, she realized something.

She had already told Tarin that him carrying her to this spot hadn't been that bad despite her general feelings about being carried. It hadn't felt great because the idea had been uncomfortable.

Lee had only actually been carried like that a handful of times before. And she had hated each of those times, with one exception. And that time she had been carried, a much shorter distance, had only been acceptable, alright, because of the unique situation.

Tonight, with Tarin carrying her through the dark between the trees, had not been such a special, unique time. And yet, Lee had been alright with him carrying her.

She hadn't hated it.

"It's ok. Why would you have thought of it?" Lee said when Tarin apologized. "How often do grown women get carried?"

Standing there, Lee reached a hand out to grasp Tarin's. And, Lee realized, she felt safe as she stood there looking up into Tarin's eyes. It was too dark to see the colour, but Lee knew that they were the same green as some of the leaves on the trees around them.

She felt safe, but not just because of her powers and what she knew she was capable of. But more than that, Lee realized that under the initial discomfort, Lee had felt safe and protected as Tarin had carried her.

Safe but hadn't felt helpless.

How could she feel helpless when Tarin had never once doubted what she was capable of? If anything, Tarin thought that she was more capable than Lee herself believed.

"Next time we come out here," she finally said, her voice still soft to not break the silence of the night. "I may need to wear heels again…"

As Lee led them the very short remaining distance to 'her' spot, Lee discovered for sure that Tarin had been right; the ground really wasn't all that bad, but she was having a bit of trouble with it because of her heels. Walking all the way in and out of there on her own two feet that night would not have been easy.

"Normally, I hate being carried," Lee whispered as she came to a stop as the view came into sight.

She had been planning on saying more, but the thoughts were momentarily wiped from her mind. It was amazing here during the day, quiet and peaceful with a good view of the Lake, but this just went beyond.

After a couple minutes of just looking out at the water, at the building lights beyond the park, at the reflections, the darkness, Lee finally turned to look at Tarin with a happy smile. "Thank you,"

When Lee told Tarin that this was where she would venture off the path to head to that spot, he moved forward to take a look at the ground in the darkness. And came back bringing up the last time they had fallen. Through her door. Because they couldn't stop kissing long enough to open the door properly.

Lee couldn't help a slight laugh at that memory. Though a moment later, Tarin was scooping her up in his arms, causing Lee to gasp and tense slightly. She had told him that he could carry her, but that didn't stop her instant discomfort with it.

Wrapping her arm around Tarin's neck as he started walking, Lee took a breath to relax herself.

And as they came out of the trees by the edge of the lake, Lee looked at Tarin with a smile. "That actually wasn't too bad," she said, only unwrapping her arm from around Tarin's neck once she was sure of her balance after he set her down.

As Tarin spoke, all Lee could do was look up at him, the crease between her brows deepening. The problem was, Lee couldn't really argue about any of the things that Tarin said she did. It certainly hadn't seemed like it, but each day had given her more experience and more practice that had eventually allowed her to better manage her siphoning and energy. And practically as soon as she was no longer simply surviving anymore, hiring people for the shop, directing them to the mansion when they're evicted so they don't end up being homeless.

Going to Columbia.

Nothin Tarin had said about her was untrue. And he thought that every bit of it was impressive. Lee could tell by the look on Tarin's face as she was looking at him. It was a similar expression he had had when Lee had told him stories of other things she had done, stories of the things that had ended up in that file.

Lee really didn't know what to say as Tarin finished speaking, she just turned in his arms and wrapped her own around him. She had just been trying to tell him about why she had spent so much time walking around Central Park when she was younger, and somehow it had ended up as him deciding that what she had done to simply survive for a decade of her life was incredible.

And Lee really wasn't sure what to think about all of that, so she just stood there and hugged Tarin for a long minute.

After what felt like forever, but was probably only a minute or so, Lee pulled back and gave Tarin a small smile as he said for her to lead the way to her favourite place.

Taking Tarin's hand again, Lee started walking back toward the bridge, speeding up slightly once they had made it onto the path again. To the bridge, over the bridge. In silence as Lee tried to figure out how almost falling down the stairs because she barely had the energy to move her feet the weeks that her neighbour in Hell's Kitchen had worked nights was impressive.

After crossing the bridge and coming to the point where the path curved to the right, Lee stopped them and looked up at Tarin again finally. "I just keep walking straight here, heading off the path," she told him. "So if you think we won't both fall, I guess we can go see what it looks like at night."

Lee couldn't help but smile when Tarin said he was pretty sure that she had run more than he had. "Remember, I didn't really run at all for 6 years there," Lee reminded Tarin. That really was very dependent on, well, in so many ways her relationship status. Unless she went out to the bar or something like that, Lee didn't really have the need to run. She could manage her energy from just day to day activities by just adjusting when she would go home.

But then she felt Tarin's arm tightening around her, and him reminding her that he could keep her company if she wanted. At night. When he would otherwise be sleeping. Did he think that on nights when she couldn't sleep, but didn't have so much energy as to need to run 3 laps around Central Park that she still came out and walked around for hours?

"Oh hon, I know," Lee said, looking up at Tarin with a grateful smile. "And I really appreciate that. But I haven't needed to just walk around here for hours at a time in ages.

"No, years ago, I ended up here most days." Lee explained. She had told Tarin vaguely that she hadn't been good at managing or judging her energy levels when she was younger, but she had never really explained what that really meant for her.

"Maybe I hadn't learned to manage my energy as well yet. Or maybe I just simply burned through the energy I siphoned faster then. Plus it was so hard to get up in the mornings. Worse than you've seen. Neighbours weren't often as close during the night as yours and Kevin's rooms. But I had trouble falling asleep with even as much energy as I could when we started dating.

"Whether I was working or not, I spent most of my day out somewhere. Once I felt human and functional again in the morning, Central Park was great; there were enough people around to keep my energy pretty steady without it being crowded like the streets often are. And a hell of a lot cheaper than coffee shops, restaurants, or other attractions.

"But in addition to not knowing how to manage well, I also didn't dare risk cutting it too close with how much energy I went to sleep with. So I knew around the level I could fall asleep with and would go home at night with slightly more than that. Spend about an hour at home, including showering because that was not a possibility in the morning, and then go to bed with my alarm set for at most 8 hours later."

Lee took a breath then looked up at Tarin with a small smile. "Literally countless hours spent wandering the paths or sitting near but not too close to crowds."

Looking back now, it was a little sad and very lonely. But at the time, it was the only way that Lee had figured out how to survive. And so she had done it. For years. In multiple cities.

"How far is it through the trees? And just how dark?”

Lee looked back up at Tarin, a frown and confused look on her face. "I mean it's not that far," she said after a few moments. "But I'm not sure how dark it would be. There's quite a few trees."

Quin had quit the force a while before all that had happened? Yet it was only after that they were bemoaning what a loss she was? Lee couldn't help but wonder at that point what had made Quin quit that the NYPD was hoping to gloss over and get her back as an officer by offering the academy again.

And that was why she was here. Because even when just trying to live a normal life, you apparently had to be ready to fight for your life.

Unfortunately, Lee knew about that all too well.

"So. We going to do this?”

"We sure can," Lee said, shaking out her arms a bit. "Is there something specific that you want to work on, or just general sparring?"

Lee smiled and leaned her head against Tarin's shoulder again. "Like I said, depending on how far you want to walk," Lee replied as she just stood there, comfortable and content with Tarin's arm around her. "But even if you don't want to walk all that far, there are still a few things that I can show you."

There were quite a few other places that Lee could take him, Lee thought. Even in the immediate area there were a couple of things that Lee thought Tarin would appreciate.

Though as Lee glanced off to the side, in the direction that they would be going next, she wondered how her heels would do in the grass.

And she was going to find out, Lee thought, because Tarin was wanting to see more. "Alright," she said, looking up at him with a smile before reluctantly stepping slightly away and taking Tarin's hand again. "It's this way." Lee started walking once more, off to the side of Bethesda Terrace toward the grass.