Once again Conner sat at the bar in the Irish Pub only this time he was not staring off into space. A concerned and bewildered look was upon his face and was staring a letting in one hand and covering his mouth with the other in a surprised fashion. He could not believe was he was reading in this most recent letter from his mother back in Ireland.

Heavy black boots kicked against the bar incessantly. Khaki pants were slightly dirty and his black button down long sleeve shirt had the sleeves rolled up and unbutton half way down his chest. He’d just gotten off work and got the letter when he arrived at his apartment. Now he was here in disbelief and drinking way too much. Conner was already on his second drink with now sign of stopping after only being in the bar but a few minutes. It was ten after eight in the evening and it seemed his whole world had come crashing down and split into thousands of pieces.

Wiping his hand down his face and pulling slightly at his chin he read the letter over again still trying to see if this was a really crude joke somewhere at the bottom. He even flipped the paper over a few times to see if anything would magically appear on the back explaining the situation a little better. The fact that he might have a half sister could not seem remotely possible. And even worse, mother wanted to send her to him!? What was he supposed to do? He’d never met the girl and what was he supposed to think of her? Not possibly as family could he? He didn’t even know her and they wanted him to teach her stuff that she couldn’t learn in school? What kind of stuff? It was all so vague.

In his sudden anger and frustration he through his glass onto the floor and it shattered into a thousand pieces. Needless to say the bar tender grew quite angry with him as well, but Conner apologized and said he would pay for the glass that broke and also for another drink. Let out a huge sigh he through his head down on the table and hit it a few times against the counter in frustration.

Jordan was having a shitty night herself. She'd been seeing the nicest guy and once again Ker happened. She loved her sister dealy, but one could only stand so much manipulation. She'd told Ker to get out, find a roommmate again, go away for a while. It was always this way with them, Jordan wanted so much to help and Ker wanted to undermine.

Jordan was on he fifth long island iced tea. She was just now to the point where she felt buzzed. Up until alittle while ago she'd been shaking with rage at her sister.

she set her drink aside and got up when the man began pounding his head on the bar counter. "You can hurt yourself badly doing that." she told him quietly taking a firm hold of his shoulders incase he decided to continue.

He hadn’t even seen the woman come up beside him. The note in his hand and the words written on them were still being read over and over again in his mind as he hit his head against the table. However he stopped when he heard a voice and a hand on his shoulder. Looking next to him there was a woman standing there and his cheeks flushed red in embarrassment for his actions.

”Sorry. Just frustrated.” Irish accent evident as he spoke and looked at his empty glass. Damn. He was going to have to order another drink. Sitting up straight again he pulled the letter towards him and shoved it into his pants pocket and placed an elbow on the counter and made a fist, resting his head against his fist. He let out a sigh and closed his eyes for a moment. Take a deep breath. Perhaps it was all a dream and the letter was just playing with your mind.

Realizing the woman was still beside him he gestured for her to sit down if she liked. Hazel eyes looked her over for a moment.

”Ever feel like the world you know comes crashing down?” His voice sounded exhausted and slightly agitated. How could his father keep such a secret from them? For a moment Conner actually felt bitter towards him.

"Sometimes." Jordan said in answer to his question. she patted his back lightly while he rested his hand on his fist. "I'll be right back." she said to him. She went to get her drink she'd left behind before rejoining him. "Did you feel like talking about it?" she asked him as she sat down next to him.

He kind of snorted for a moment when she said sometimes. At least he wasn’t the only one. Either that or she was just trying to make him feel better by saying she had something in common with him. That fact of the matter was though, that he doubted she would have anything as bad as finding out about a sibling you didn’t know even existed.

The woman left to go get her drink and returned to sit by him. He was surprised that she even wanted to deal with his crummy mood. Waving to the bar tender he asked for another Irish whiskey. He was definitely asking for it tonight. If he had anymore he was going to either start acting stupid or pass out. Even though he drank most nights he didn’t tolerate too much of the substance in large doses.

She asked him if she wanted to talk about it and he cracked a half smile.

”What are you a shrink?” Of course he was being sarcastic. Little did he know that she really was.

"Am I that transparent?" she asked him. "You were upset enough to hit your head on the bar, you got my attention." he was looking at her now, he wasn't hard on the eyes at all.

Dragging him home just to irritate Ker might be fun. Especially becasue a moody drunk man would be the sort of thing that Ker would shy away from, rather than being confrontational. Jordan made herself forget the train of thought. she was being petty.

" If you don't want to talk just say so." she said softly.

Whatever smile was on his face vanished as she asked if she was that transparent. She really was a shrink. For a moment he was dumbfounded and felt like he might have offended her or something and quickly drew his eyes away from her and back to his fresh drink.

”Didn't know it was that easy to get an attractive lasses attention.” He said playfully with a renewed smile on his face. Chugging his new drink, he had finished almost have of it before setting it back down on the counter. This was definitely not going to be a good night for him. Of course he had been driven to drink so much. Could you blame him for that?

”I’m still trying to get over it me self.” Irish accent heavy on his stinky alcohol breath. A sigh was let out and his smile was returned to a sorrowful frown. He didn’t like to frown but he didn’t know what other emotion to have towards the note. In fact he was rather in shock still.

"Bad news then?" she asked him. He was quite the flatterer she had to give him that. Her green eyes watched him as he frowned. She reached a finger to touch his cheek, "Don't do that." she said softly at his frown. It made her sad to see it, he had such a dazzling smile. It was like when rain clouds blot out the sun, when he frowned. Her finger satyed at his cheek and she stared into his eyes, he did look so terribly sad.

”I’m not sure if it’s bad news or not. It’s….complicated news I guess.” Eyes darted back and forth on the counter as if trying to think over what he was supposed to do with this new development in his life. However the sensation of her finger on his cheek made his face fluster red once again. She told him not to do that. What? Frown? It was the only logical explanation as he had just started to frown when she said that. So to satisfy her he gave her a slight half smile though his mind was still rummaging about in that letter. He looked up at her stunning emerald eyes with his hazel ones. They were quite charming in their own way as the over head lights reflected against the pale color.

He reached his hand up to rest on hers that was near his cheek. Placing a gentle grip around it he pulled the hand away from his face and stared down at the ground for a moment after turning towards her.

”It’s just…I found out me pa has been lyin’ to our family for almost two decades now. Shockingly we weren’t his only family. Appears there was another family that he was the pa of now I’ve found out that I have me self a half sister who’s just turned fifteen. And they are sending her here to live with me! I don’t know why. They said I’m supposed to teach her something that they can’t, but I can’t think of anything that could possibly be learnt here that can’t be learnt at home.” Obviously he wasn’t thinking about his unusual ‘talent’ for absorbing stuff as it wasn’t a common talent and it didn’t even cross his mind that a half sister might have it as well. His twin brother didn’t even have the gift.

”Of course me mum’s ranting in this letter so I don’t even know if she’s actually talking about something serious or just having a hysterical fit.” Pulling out the letter he shook it in his hand and crumbled it slightly, tossing it to the table and took another rather large gulp of his whiskey.

Jordan can think of a lot of things you simply cannot learn in school. Some of them she won't mention in public. She could understand from the sound fo things, that he was like as not feeling very betrayed right now.

"Is your mother normally prone to hysterical ranting?" she asked softly. She was perhpas a little too buzzed, normally she would not have ben so forward to have touched his cheek like that. She was sorry she had, it seemed to embarrassed him, which hadn't been her intention.

”Sometimes. But only when something upsets her a lot or she thinks we are hurt usually. I definitely think that this development would warrant some ranting from her though.” Another sigh was let lose as he looked away from Jordan and looked at the crumbled pieces of paper on the counter that was the note he had just received from his mum.

”Maybe it the truth, but why would me pa want to have two families? It doesn’t make sense. Was he not happy with me brother and I?” Shoulders sunk a bit lower; his spiked black hair even seemed to sag a bit in his distraught manner.

Reaching out for the note he grabbed it and leaning over he reached down for a blue duffle bag was next to his stool. Opening it he put the note on top so he wouldn’t accidently wash it with his pants. With the bag open a pair of ice skates were evident and a nice pair at that. Closing the bag again he rested his head on the table.

”You must think I’m really pathetic eh?” His eyes were staring at the counter only a half inch from his eyes; nose was being squished against the counter.

"Pathetic, Nah. I think you've had enought to drink though. For that matter so have I. If you still want to talk I suggest we walk to the diner not far from here. I can't be foxed when I start taking patients in the morning." she tells him with a smile. She doesn't say that the slight air of pathetic somehow lends him boyish charm.

”Oh?” He looked at his empty third glass. Indeed he’d had a bit too much to drink.

”Alright. Let’s go to this diner. I’m hungry now anyways.” He added with a sheepish grin. Paying the bartender for his drinks plus the broken glass he stood up and grabbed his duffle back and threw it over his shoulder, muscles flexing rather nicely as he did so.

Jordan walks to the ciner with him. She normally would have eaten at home, but Ker had riled her so much today she'd started in on the drinking early. Not smart but it was better than killing her sister.

When they got inside the diner, it was not terribly busy. A nice developement in Jordan's oppinion she was quite hungry. "Where should we sit then?" she asked him.

Looking around the diner he was glad that it was relatively empty. That last thing he needed was someone thinking he was sissy for pouting about this new development in his life. Sure they could go on with their happy little lives. They don’t know how lucky they are not have to suddenly have a half sister that you’ve never met before only to learn that you are the on that’s going to be looking out for her when they send her to America. What was this girl’s mother thinking about this? She obviously couldn’t have been going along with this willingly could she? Sending her daughter off to some stranger that they have never met and expect to trust him.

”Somewhere away from what little people there are. Don’t want to spoil their happy evening now.” A half smile was on his face as he looked around and picked out an empty booth in the back where nobody else was sitting. Walking over to the booth he sat down and slumped against the back.

"Ruin things for the little happy people, never, I could prescribe them prozac you know." Jordan says slidingi nto the booth. across from him. The waitress brought them menus and asked what they wanted to drink. Jordan ordered coffee.

"So your dad had a secret life, am I understanding that part right?" she asked the brooding Irishman.

Her comment managed to make him laugh in his gloomy situation. The waitress asks them what they would like to drink and after Jordan has her coffee he tells the woman that he just wants a plain ice water. That hopefully will wake him up a bit.

”Yeah. Appears he was married to me mum for a few years and then married another woman at the same time and never told us of each other’s existence. No wonder he had a lot of ‘business trips’.” Business trips was accompanied by the hand gestures of two fingers on both hands moving up and down.

”Seven years after me and me twin brother were born it seems as though he had a daughter with his other family and so I have this half sister that I have never met before. And yet they are sending her to me. Why? I don’t get it.” He let out a huff in frustration. He was so adorable when he was frustrated (when it’s an innocent frustration at least).

"They're sending he to you. You've no idea why? There's nothing special about you?" Jordan asks, it could be taken many ways, but she means in a magic way. She is an innish shrink.

He's more than adorable, it's good he's so caught up in his own plight he hasn't noticed she's flushed, part of it is from the alcohol, and part of it is from him. Certainly being tipsy does make her more inclined to let her eyes wander over him though.

Eyes were shot in her direction immediately as if he wasn’t even drunk at all when she spoke of him possibly being special at all. Was she innish? Did she know? Or could it be that obviously? Hazel eyes looked her over for a moment with a raised eyebrow. Most likely she would have, of course, interpreted the fact that he indeed has a secret that he didn’t tell anyone. The only people that knew were his parents and his twin.

”I don’t know.” Of course he was reluctant to tell anyone. Even though he was drunk he still wasn’t stupid enough to give up his one secret. Not yet anyways. Good thing she had stopped his drinking when she did, because if he had anymore to drink he probably would have been more than relaxed and spilled out about his little talent. It wasn’t a common one. At least he didn’t know of anyone else that had it.

"Well I believe you'd know if you were." she told him. Though she'd noticed his look. Curious. "Some of my patients are somewhat special, that is why they come to me." she offers.

The waitress came with the drinks and wanted to know if they were ready to order. Jordan was she wanted the meatloaf sandwich plate.

Needless to say his cheeks turned a reddish color as she told him he’d know if he was. Rats. He really shouldn’t have had that third drink. Of course he’d know if he was. Dumb move.

”Oh? How are theses patients special?” Perhaps if he worked his way to knowing that she had dealt with others that had gifts then perhaps he might loosen up enough to tell her of his own unique talent. Of course it wasn’t completely unique anymore as his half sister had the talent as well, but he didn’t know that yet. So he still remained with the fact that he was the only one that had his certain talent for absorption.

When the waitress came he ordered that steak dinner with a salad on the side without dressing. Had to eat somewhat sensible or he’d gain too much weight and therefore throw off his balance when he skated.

"Let's just say to most they would seem crazy when they in fact are not." Jordan answers his question.

”I suppose I would sound crazy to most if I told them. It would definitely ruin my career if I spoke of it to anyone in my professions.” Professions as in plural. No doubt he had more than one job. Well, one wasn’t exactly a job more like a career, but it didn’t make nearly as much money as being a massage therapist. That definitely was solid and when things went downhill for ice skating it was nice to fall back on his other job.

”I imagine you’ve heard quite a few things. But I must ask, in my stupidity I’ve forgotten to ask what your name is lass. Me names Conner.” He said stretching out hand over the table for her to shake if she wanted to.

She shakes his hand. "Jordan." she tells him. Then, "So there is nothing unique in your family, your bloodline, that gets passed down? " Honestly she is guessing she's dealt with so many were's lately, she half suspects he is one. Jordan has good instincts but they skew from time to time.

”Pleasure to meet you.” His smile was wide as he spoke and then brought his hand back to his side after they were done shaking hands.

”Nothing in the bloodlines. Just me. Guess you could say I’m the odd one out.” He said chuckling. Apparently his mood was slightly becoming brighter as the alcohol still worked its way through his system. In fact he’d almost forgotten what they were talking about at the moment. Of course that would change when he opened his duffle back and found the crumpled up letter again. Either that or Jordan would mention something about it again that would make him remember.

The waitress brought the food and let the matter drop. They could both stand to sober up a bit. He might not even want to talk about it without the alcohol's depressant effects. She took her time eating, easier on the digestion and all. She was however getting tired in spite of her charming but broody companion.

His eyes lit up as the food was brought and he hastily, but politely, started to eat (mother was big on manners at the table). Unlike Jordan, he was not taking his time in eating and digesting. Conner had always known to eat quickly so he could get to his chores as a boy, but even though he no longer had chores it was still embedded in his mind to eat and get on with what needed to be done rather than lingering at the table.

Fork and knife went down on to his plate as he finished. Looking over to his dinner mate’s plate he could see she was only half way through. Taking another drink of his ice water, he finished it off and set the empty glass back down on the table.

Jordan continued to eat at the same pace. She finished about 15 minutes after Connor.

"I'm not keeping you am I?" she teased when she had finished.

He chuckled as he put his arms back along the top of the booth.

”Nope. Just keeping me from wallowing some more when I get home.” He smiled again at Jordan as she finished eating.

”Thank you for taking me away from that pub. I’m sure I would still be there passed out if you hadn’t.” He teased her about it, but most likely he would be. Either that or standing up on the counter dancing for everyone in his stupidity.

"Yes, you had enough at the pub. You really shouldn't drink alone like that. I hope You don't do it often." she reached over and gave his hand a squeeze. she looked very serious when she spoke.

All of a sudden it seemed he had become more alert and awake as she spoke to him and reached over and grabbed his hand. He squeezed her hand back gently as if saying he wouldn’t.

”I don’t drink that much often. It was a special circumstance.” His playful attitude had turned more melancholy as he spoke to reassure her he wasn’t joking. Conner really didn’t drink that much most of the time.

"Okay, good. Alcohol takes a toll on you quickly if you go at it heavy. Now don't get so gloomy. You ready to head home?" she asked. She didn't know if it was a good idea if he was going to brood more.

A hand was waved at her in gestures as he spoke. ”I’m not going to get all gloomy again. And I think I should take you home first. No use arguing about the matter.” His smile was back on his face as he stood up from his place, paid for his meal and then offered a hand to Jordan to help her get out of her chair if needed.

She accepted his help and paid for her own meal after standing. "Going to walk me home eh?" She grinned at him. That was an expectedly sweet gesture.

”Indeed I am lass.” He helped her up then picked up his duffle bag and swung it back over his shoulder with little effort even though it weighed quite a bit with all his equipment. Walking towards the door he rushed a bit a head and held the door open for her. Sometimes he could be a little too gentlemanly. Of course he needed her to go ahead and lead the way so he didn’t start walking in the wrong direction.

She lead the way, she didn't think he was psychic. He was very gentlemanly as he wlked her home. It took them about a half an hour to reach her house. "Did you want to come in, Or are you on a schedule?"

Looking at his watch teasingly he made all kinds of murmurs as if he was on a tight schedule and debating if he had enough time to ‘squeeze’ some time in.

”I guess I could ‘squeeze’ you in.” He laughed again. Perhaps he could just sit down and let the alcohol wear off as well before attempting to walk home which was in the complete opposite direction of the diner they were just eating at.

She led him inside. Thank gods, no Ker. She didn't care where her sister was at this point. She invited Connor to have a seat on the sofa in the parlor. she went to the kitchen and turned off all the lights Ker had left on out there and then sat across from him in one of the chairs on the other side of the coffe table. "You need to sit for a while?" she asked, he still seemed a bit buzzed.

Sitting down on the sofa he sets his bag aside and leans his head back on the couch for a moment. ”Nice place you’ve got here.” Of course he can’t really tell if it’s nice at the moment as the room is only just slightly spinning.

Picking his up off the back of the couch he looks over at Jordan who is sitting across from him. ”I’m thinkin’ so.” His head flops back against the back of the sofa and eyes close to make the room stop spinning. Who ever heard of an Irishmen not being able to hold their alcohol?

"Sleep on the sofa a while. I'll wake you up when I get up at 5 am." She gave his shoulder a gentel rub. "You wait here, I'll get you pillow and some blankets, mybe a taser incase my sister shows up." Jordan tells him jokingly.