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."

Comments

[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.