fandomhighdorms | First Floor Garage, Tuesday Evening

"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?"

She handed him a socket wrench and a tube of epoxy. "Here." Then she handed him a series of short hoses and connectors. "I need three longer hoses, of equal length, and the connections between them need to be sealed. Be careful not to glue yourself to anything, including yourself."

"I can do that. I probably won't even glue myself to anything." He found a clear spot and started laying out the hoses in three lines, rearranging them until he was happy with the configuration. "What are these for?" he asked as he started to unscrew the epoxy.

"The propulsion system," Sam said, tightening some bolts on the engine, then checking her figures again. "I might install cloaking later, but that won't be for a while."

"If you do? Make sure you park it somewhere you can find it again," he suggested while he squeezed a careful line of glue inside the first connector and started screwing the hoses together. "Hmmm, got a rag so I can wipe off the overflow? I don't want the wrench to become a permanent part of your bike."

Sam handed him a rag, biting at her lip as she concentrated. "You wouldn't believe how often that happened," she grinned, still looking at her figures, "only to be fixed when Daniel bumped into it."

"Thanks." Jack stopped and stared before he started wiping off the glue. "You're kidding," he said, glued the rest of the connectors for the first hose and began finger tightening them.

"Yeah, I am," she laughed.

Shaking his head, Jack laughed and tightened the connections, then started on the next hose. "I actually believed you."

"Unfortunately, last time I was near the project, the cloaking technology was still in the beginning stages," Sam said with a frown, "and it's kind of hard to forget where you left a ship the size of the great pyramids in Egypt."

"I'm guessing that's pretty big?" Jack quickly finished the last hose and wiped his fingers on the rag. "And how's that?" he asked pointing at the three lengths of hose.

"Yes, it's enormous." Sam stared at him, then shook her head with a smile, "You don't know about the Egyptian pyramids? Oh, I'll have to fix that before you meet Daniel, or your head will explode from the lecture."

"That looks great, thanks," Sam said with a nod.

"I do want to meet him. And I'd prefer if my head didn't explode, so that'd be great." Jack wandered over to stand behind Sam and stare at the schematics, resting one hand on the back of her neck. "What's next?"

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