The Library

[janet_fraiser]

Janet unlocked the library and walked in, setting her laptop down warily behind the desk and trying not to think about Hathor the last time she was in here. She took a drink from her extra-large mug of coffee and started working.

ETA: She popped out a moment later and stuck a note up on the door: "New teachers need to check out the Rules of Conduct and fill out a library card application in blue or black ink, damn it. Please come inside for a form. Thank you."

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[janet_fraiser]

Janet took a deep breath. "Apparently not," she said. "I'm a science geek." She struggled to keep the anger out of her voice. "If I see something I don't understand, and it's within my specialty, I look for answers."

A lab rat? How could he possibly think I would--Let's face it, Janet, he thinks you're a high school student. He probably thinks you want to get extra credit from the Science Club. "Unauthorized human experimentation is both unethical and illegal," said Janet. "Not to mention immoral. I hope you understand that I would not, nor could ever be, party to something like that." So much for the guy who told me I was wasted here. I guess he doesn't think of me all that highly after all. Rather the opposite, in fact.

[prof-methos.livejournal.com]

"Unethical, illegal and immoral are very subjective things. Specific to their place -- and time." Her hurt was almost palpable. "I'm five thousand years old, Janet," he said, very quietly. "Forgive me for being a touch paranoid?"

[janet_fraiser]

Ethics are subjective? You don't say. Janet let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "Five thousand, huh? I hate to say it, but I'm not that surprised." Her one-shouldered shrug and wry grin hopefully served to cover how awkward she felt. "The rate of genetic mutation in your mitochondrial DNA and your Y chromosomes was staggeringly different from normal, modern human results. I had to do a lot of reading up to analyse them properly."

"Here," she said, holding her hand out for the binder. "Let me explain a few of these things to you. I'm entirely too familiar with the glazed look of incomprehension I get when I start expounding on matters of a scientific nature." She looked up at him, not quite anxious. "That was supposed to be a copy for you anyway, you know."

[prof-methos.livejournal.com]

Methos blinks. "I do generally expect a bit of reaction to that. Mitochondrial? Isn't that what emo_padawan has?"

He takes the binder back, and grins wryly at her. "What should I do with this? Post the pictures on my wall? My very own family portrait gallery? But do they all have the same nose?"

[janet_fraiser]

Janet grins. "It takes a lot to faze me," she says wryly. She resists the urge to pull one of the genetics books out of her backpack and use the diagrams as visual aids. "Mitochondrial DNA. Those are mitichlorians. Or midichlorians. And I don't know about that, thankfully, or I'd have spastic fits about the so-called science of it all. It's a specific type of DNA contained in your mitochondria which is passed down only from your mother, not your father. Scientists have been able to use it to determine the genetic drift of various populations and from their research and the results I found, I was further able to find a way to refine their methods to determine your age. It mostly has to do with analyzing the genetic drift in your mitochondrial DNA, which doesn't match up with any modern population--" She stopped. "I'm boring you, aren't I?"

"Your nose is...prominent familial feature, I presume," says Janet, resisting the urge to snicker. "Though naturally I couldn't determine much of anything about your biological family."

She shifts a bit. "Look," says Janet seriously. "I don't blame you for being a bit paranoid, but I really am possessed of a nearly insatiable scientific curiosity. I'd like to know what's going on. If you don't mind."

[prof-methos.livejournal.com]

"I'm boring you, aren't I?"

"No, actually, I find this fascinating. What you're saying is, in a quantitative way, I got... frozen five thousand years back from the rest of the population. Was that what... alerted you?"

He looks at the pages in his hand. They are incomprehensible to him, but they mean something to her. A language he hadn't yet learned. He wonders, with a sarcastic laugh aimed at himself, if this is what an adoptive child feels when faced with the possibility of finding his birth parents. He knows who he is: an Immortal, one lucky and ruthless enough to have lived. Would having a scientific explanation make a difference?

No, it would make no difference. But that didn't mean he doesn't want to know. "I'd be... interested in what you could discover," he says finally.

[janet_fraiser]

"You find this fascinating?" asks Janet disbelievingly. "You're not humoring me? You're definitely not normal, then." She listens to his question, then shakes her head. "No, that came after. See, after a certain amount of time out of the human body, most red blood cells sort of--" She waves her hand slightly as she's talking. "--look different after a while. I'm simplifying. But the ones I found in your sweater didn't look any different. It confused me. I wanted to find out what the difference was. I didn't even realize this was something totally different from the zombie cell structure until later."

"You would?" asks Janet. He looks curious, maybe, but a bit shaken too. "I mean, I know I would, but--" She stops herself from starting another scientific discourse and grins at him. "Okay," she says. "Before you change your mind."


OOC: Disclaimer - I am pulling this science out of my ass, so if anything is wrong, sorry.