fandomhighdorms | First Floor Garage, Tuesday Evening

Jack had come down to poke through the renovations, to see if there was anything exciting. He was pretty pleased when he saw Sam in the garage and walked over, stopping with his legs against her back.

Leaning forward so he could see her face, he said, "You look like you're in your element."

[ooc: sp okay? Else I can send him away.]

She grinned at him, covered in grease and wielding a wrench. "Hi, you. Welcome to my mess. What's up?"

"Your mess looks like fun. Can I help?" Jack grinned and bent further forward so he could kiss her forehead. A clean bit. "I'm wandering. Exploring. You'd be proud of me, I built a better mousetrap today."

"We have mice?" Sam looked a little bit bothered by that. "Do they talk?"

"...and of course you can help."

"This was a hypothetical mousetrap, for Criminal Justice. I came up with one where the mice trap themselves. Apparently it was ingenious." Jack moved to crouch next to her. "Tell me what I can do?"

"Oooh, tell me?" Sam asked, immediately curious and trying to guess how it would work.

"And here," she pointed to the blueprints. "We're adapting this part, here. Making it more environmentally friendly, not to mention cheaper. Er, hold this? No, wait, let me get you a glove first, so I can solder without you getting burned."

She pulled a glove out of her back pocket and gave it to Jack.

Jack slipped on the glove while he explained his mousetrap. "Basically it was a shoe-box with a one way door. The mouse can get in, but can't get out. But it's a mouse, so it can chew through the cardboard. Unless it doesn't want to." He picked up the part and held it out for Sam. "Like this? Anyway, I made it luxurious inside, so even though it could get out, It wouldn't want to. So it traps itself. Neat, huh?"

"You made a little mouse spa?"

Sam snickered as she saw what he was doing, "And yeah, that's great. Oh, and have some goggles," she said, slipping her own on, then handing another pair to Jack and firing up the soldering gun. "Hold that still, please."

"Hey, mice deserve luxury, too. I'm just sorry I didn't have time to add the glitter." Jack pulled the goggles on and watched the soldering gun a bit warily as he held the part very, very still.

"Glitter? Was there a little beanbag chair, too?" Sam laughed as she carefully, but quickly, soldered the two pieces of metal together, her hands competent and sure. "I'm sorry I missed it."

"Nah, just shredded paper and a cookie. But I think it would have worked. Easiest way to catch something is to make it want to be caught. I kept it if you want to see it." He was relaxing as he watched Sam work, but he kept his hand still. "You're good at this stuff, aren't you? I mean, I knew that, but I've never really seen you working. It's kind of sexy," he added with a grin.

"There's no mouse in it, right?" Sam lay down on her back so she could get the underside of the joint. "I'm better than average...and you're insane. It's very cute, but you're lucky I'm crazy about you."

"There's no mouse. But they had them at the pet store - I could go and get one." Shifting sideways so his ankle brushed her hip, Jack laughed and said, "You're lucky I'm crazy about you, or I'd get offended and walk off in a huff. You think you're not sexy? Look at you, covered in grease, totally focussed on one thing, practically glowing with confidence and competence. It's sexy."

"No mice," Sam said firmly, with what anyone else might have called a shudder. She sat up and braced herself on her elbows. "I can honestly say that no one's ever said that to me before. And I'm done with that joint--but I need you to hold still for another few minutes, so it can set."

She flashed him a grin. "You're so much better than a set of clamps."

"Okay. No mice." Snickering - carefully so as not jar what she'd just soldered - Jack said, "And that's not the first time I've heard that, but last time soldering irons weren't involved."

Sam blushed bright red.

"Wow." Jack's snicker died away and he stared at Sam, a bit bemused. "You're very red. What do we do once this is set?""

"Next is putting on this converter, here," she got up and pointed to the sketch, trying not to leave a smudge, "but that'll be about nuts and bolts, not soldering, so I can make adjustments if it needs it. "

She ran a hand through her hair, making it stick up. "I wish I had someone to ask--I can't help thinking I'm trying to make it do too much, combining too many different kinds of technology here."

Jack craned his neck so he could see where she was pointing. "Does it matter how many different kinds? The end result's what matters." He grinned down at the part in his hands. "And isn't finding out if you can do it part of the fun?"

"Every new kind makes the integration that much trickier," Sam admitted, "and it's not like this kind of conversion has ever been done on a motorcycle before. I had to reinforce the frame twice already."

"Yes, it is, and I think you can let go of that now," she smiled at him.

"So why keep going with it?" he asked as he set the part down and walked over to stand next to her. "And point me to the converter. I feel like getting my hands dirty while you handle nuts and bolts."

"Because there's all this technology out there, and so many ideas, and it should all be compatible, if the laws of the scientific world are universal, they way I've been taught they are and the way they should be," Sam said, beginning to pace as she tried to explain. It had been so long since she'd played with science and machinery just because she could, and not because her life and the lives of those she loved were on the line.

"There's power in each new discovery, and being able to combine them into something no one's ever seen before, well, there's another kind of power in that."

Jank leaned against a work bench, eyes following her as she paced. "Sexy," he muttered very quietly under his breath, because she was, then louder, "I think I understand. The power of creating something that's never existed, but for it's own sake, not for what it can do, right?"

"Yes!" Sam stopped in her pacing and beamed at him. "That's it exactly! Pure scientific discovery."

"I'm not just a pretty face," he laughed, completely charmed by Sam's smile. "How can I help?"

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