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Tarin was trying to reassure her by listing everything they had figured out in order to do this. The list of ingredients, the directions with each step spelled out for them. And unlike with the pie, they were making sure to have two of everything to start with so they could try again.

Though, Lee supposed, when they ended up ruining the second attempt, they could always just order dinner.

He was trying to reassure her, yet he also was questioning her comment about burning water. Lee shrugged. ”I don’t know. I’m just that talented?” she said jokingly. ”You’re always saying how amazing I am. I’m an amazingly bad cook.”

A casual 10k? It really hadn’t looked all that casual the previous lap when he was trying to keep up with her.

”Sure he can, nothing against that,” Lee answered with a shrug. ”Just don’t normally see someone doing that at midnight, that’s all.”

The man continued more seriously. And very…carefully spoken in how he chose to explain himself. Insomnia, but only kinda, because of a ‘condition’ that exercise helped with. It all sounded rather familiar.

Now that she was actually able to see him, Lee noticed that the man she was jogging with was a fair bit younger than her. Back when she was around how old she guessed he was, Lee also had the frequent tendency to choose her words extremely carefully to explain things while not exposing her own ‘condition’.

Then again, the Mutant Registration Act had been in force at the time.

”How 'bout you?"

”Insomnia as well,” Lee admitted. Which was technically true. When she had this much energy, Lee could not sleep. Not unless she crashed, but thankfully that hadn’t happened in years. But Lee also just was not tired when she had energy like this.

”Running is the only reliable thing I’ve found to help with that,” she continued. ”So I either run or I give up the idea of sleeping that night.”

“And no, nothing like that,” Lee continued. ”Simply because of the insomnia. Probably similar to your ‘condition’.”

Well before she was able to see him, Lee sensed another person up ahead of her. Another runner, Lee guessed based on how quickly she was approaching them. At a much more rapid pace than if it was someone simply walking.

As Lee got close enough to actually see the person in the night, she was surprised to find that it was the same man who had tried to keep up with her on the last lap.

And as she was just able to make him out, he was looking back and already had a hand up in greeting.

Lee knew that she wasn't being loud enough for him to have heard her already with time to turn and recognize her. She had never seen another runner look back at her at that distance in all the years she had been running in this park.

At least no one with normal human hearing.

As she caught up to him, Lee slowed her pace down to match his this time, pulling an earbud out. ”I did not expect to see you still out here,” Lee said as she came up beside the man on the path. ”I have to say, you’ve piqued my curiosity. What has you out here running yourself into the ground like this?”

It had certainly been a strange encounter, the man struggling so hard to keep up with her as she ran. At a pace faster than she had ever run with Tarin. And even after all of the years that Tarin had been training and running, he was satisfied with that pace and distance. Except for the rare day when Lee needed to ask him to either slow down or end the run early. Though, it was possible that that had more to do with her not making sure she had the energy she needed than anything with the running itself.

It didn’t take long for Lee to put the encounter out of her mind. She was not expecting the man to still be out for a run when she made it back to that side of the park, and since she was out earlier than for her normal night time runs, Lee honestly never expected to see him again.

Since it was earlier, if you considered midnight-ish to be early, Lee did pass more people than she was used to, both those walking or running on the path around the park, as well as sensing people off the path, further into the darkness of the park. Meaning that Lee had to actually pay attention to her surroundings more than simply with her siphoning as she ran.

It was rather annoying, to be honest as she wasn’t able to just zone out and lose herself in the music from her earbuds as she ran or work through something she needed to think about.

About 40 minutes after she had left the man behind on the path when he couldn’t keep up any more, Lee finished her second lap of the park and started on to lap number three. Though, with how she was currently feeling, three laps might not even be enough to get to sleep that night. Damn airports.

Lee shook her head as she turned to look at Tarin again. Hadn’t she already told Tarin how she had found him so quickly? ”I was searching for where I could feel people’s energy before I could get back in,” she told Tarin softly. ”The kitchen was toward the back, so I knew that the 4 people I felt closer to the front weren’t you.”

But then Tarin was describing what it was like when he was trapped, how small it was. And pointing out that he didn’t have issues with places like this office or the shop, which were definitely on the smaller side.

”There is obviously something about elevators that is different from those other places. What thoughts and feelings come to mind when you think about getting in an elevator?”

As she looked at Tarin, Lee could tell that he was listening. Really listening.

When Lee finished, she felt Tarin squeeze her hand. And when he spoke, Lee smiled slightly at him. ”Thank you,” she whispered.

Then Tarin turned to face the doctor.

And actually started explaining more of the problem, where it had started. Alluding to, but not explaining the ‘training’ he had received when he was younger.

Lee gritted her teeth as he mentioned that part, but otherwise said nothing as she sat there looking at Tarin. It was hard for him, Lee had known it would be before they had even arrived. But he was actually talking now.

”Well, that certainly explains why you have difficulty with small places,” Dr Rossi said with a nod. ”How long were you trapped during the building collapse?”

Lee knew that Tarin hated people comparing him to her ex-husband, and Lee was always quite vocal about the fact that they were different people. So Tarin had a point. But then again, he didn’t because she did know that they were different people.

”I know you’re not him, Tarin, and know there are differences in how you use your powers, in how they work. That’s why I’m not worried about it happening in the future. Before, I was always worried, at least in the back of my mind, about when the next merge was going to happen. Not if, when.

“I’m not worried about that with you, Tarin,” Lee said, looking up at him again. ”I’m not worried because it hasn’t happened to you before. I’m not worried because I know you have better control.”

Lee sat and looked at Tarin for a few moments, giving his hand a squeeze. ”There is no ‘when’ in my mind. The only time there was an ‘if’ was that day.”