Chapter Six:

"Morning." Jenna greeted when she appeared at the breakfast table and joined the others. Helen liked to have a quick breakfast with everyone, especially if there wasn't going to be a morning meeting. Jenna thought it was a sweet habit. Though today, there was a slight darkness under her eyes and she looked preoccupied; though not by her late night redecoration. She picked a random chair and slumped down in it.

"Rough night?" William asked from across the table.

Jenna shrugged. "Nothing that I didn't expect." She mumbled grumpily, rubbing some nonexistent sleep from her eyes as she slumped in the chair.

Will looked her over sharply. In the very short time he'd known her she had never mumbled or seemed so... irritable. But it had only been a few days and she was bound to start feeling the proverbial jetlag eventually. Henry and Nikola noticed as well and they all shared a look.

Helen and one of the tenants came in with breakfast for everyone. Waffles with all the fixins; with a dark, odd looking drink for Nikola. "Dig in everyone." Helen said cheerfully as she sat down and took her own advice.

Nikola shook Jenna, who was just staring at her food. "Are you okay?"

His contact and concern seemed to shake her out of whatever she was thinking. Jenna actually seemed surprised to be sitting beside Nikola. "Yeah... yes I'm fine." She gave him a small smile and began to eat her food.

During breakfast, Helen caught up with everyone in scattered conversation; she was definitely a morning person as she chattered cheerily with Will and Henry. Nikola wasn't much better as he tried to; in his own way, patch things up with Henry about their dispute yesterday. It took Helen's interjection to settle the matter.

Everyone was almost done their delicious waffles when an unexpected person walked in. Looking much better and well rested, Biggie lumbered in the room which filled with surprised and heartfelt greetings. He smiled, pleased. Biggie and Jenna caught each other's eyes and they smiled at each other. "Thank you." He said softly.

"No problembigguy." She replied, looking much more cheerful than she had before.

Finished his breakfast, Will got up and slapped Biggie on the shoulder. "Good to see you finally up and about, man. Now if you'd excuse me, I have a session to prep for." He looked across the table at Jenna. "See you in a few minutes."

Jenna nodded as her mouth was full. Once her last morsel was swallowed, she rolled her eyes. "Oh yay. I can't wait." She commented sarcastically. Of all mornings to be in the mood she was in now.

"Oooh, it's not so bad." Biggie reassured. "He means well."

"I know." Jenna admitted with a sigh. "I just don't think I'm in the mood for playing twenty questions about how I feel." She leaned back on her chair and stretched.

"You agreed to it." Helen reminded sternly, with an amused undertone. She noticed the young woman was not in a particularly good mood and seemed overtired. Helen wondered if angeelanoids had to sleep as often as humans, or if they were more like vampires. Either way, Jenna seemed to be having trouble adjusting. Having no time to really find out, she wiped her mouth elegantly with a cloth napkin. "Well, one of our residents should be delivering her offspring soon, so that's where I'll be if anyone needs me." She gathered her plates and left.

Henry was next. He got up and leaned on the table beside Jenna. "Hey, maybe you can come by the lab later, Jenna. Waste some time helping me with a few things until Magnus gives you something official to do."

Jenna smiled. "I'd like that." She too got up and took her plates to where everyone was putting them to be washed.

Nikola followed with his empty glass. "And I'm going to go and empty a bottle of Helens finest Marlow while I gaze at my empty lab for inspiration." He sighed and took one of Jenna's now empty hands in his own. "Care to ditch the pooch and join me for a glass?" Nikola held her hand up and kissed her knuckles.

"We'll see." Jenna replied in amusement. "But I just want to get this first session out of the way. I was actually thinking of exploring on my own later. But I guess I have all day for that." She grinned up at Nikola, who now had her hand against his chest. "You have fun though." She added, suppressing a mischievous grin, wishing she could be there when he entered his lab; unfortunately she had to spend the first hour of her day with Will.

Nikola signed sullenly, before lightening. "Perhaps another time." He moved a sheet of her white hair to over her back and kissed her hand.

Jenna shook her head. "Your certainly going to be a handful aren't you?" she joked.

He just smiled, let her go and sauntered out the room.

Reluctantly, she started towards Will's office.

~. ~. ~.

An hour later, she retreated through the door of Williams's office and walked briskly through the hallway. It had been a very long hour, and Will was extremely stubborn. Jenna was surprised though, he had an uncanny knack for controlling his thoughts; even though he couldn't keep his observations from her, his conclusions were cloudy, only clear when he wanted her to hear them. Eventually their back and forth; both mental and aloud, became fluid, and he got her to tell him things she was certain she wasn't ready to tell.

She felt wrung out yet calmer then she'd been when she'd woken this morning. Jenna had to admit, he was good at his job.

Jenna was walking along the hall towards the labs, needing the time it took to walk there to make sure she was in control of herself before finding Henry.

Suddenly a pair of arms circled around her waist and she was picked up and twirled. Jenna looked over to see Nikola being very un-Nikola like. "Nikola, what are you doing? Put me down!" She told him, but couldn't help laugh. Though he did put her down, he didn't let her go. Before Jenna could react, his lips were against hers in a lingering kiss. After a few seconds, she recovered herself enough to gently push him away. She smiled up at him. "That's a pretty over the top way of saying thank you." He had caught her totally unprepared; she felt unbalanced and truthfully, a little giddy. What was it about him that made everything else disappear?

"When? How?" he asked, far too excited to form complete sentences, he let her go and gestured with his hands to accentuate his bewilderment. His eyes were bright in their excitement, making it even harder for her to formulate complex thoughts.

Jenna shrugged. "I was bored last night and I couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd fill that large empty room you call a lab. It may not be what SCIU still holds, but it'll do until we can arrange to get them back. I tried to duplicate some of your self-made tools... I hope I got them right. At least now you don't have to start completely from scratch." The look in his steel-blue eyes was making her stomach do flips and she wasn't sure what to do about it.

"Thank you." Nikola said sincerely. "I'm going to find some way to repay you." He added.

"That's not necessary, Nikola." Jenna smiled, taking a step back. "I didn't do it so you'd owe me anything." She began to walk away, but Nikola blocked her way.

Nikola smiled mischievously. "This wouldn't have anything to do with an idea you have, does it?"

Jenna pursed her lips. "Henry mentioned it to you."

"Ahh." Nikola shrugged elegantly. "He may have mentioned that you have a 'cool idea', but he wouldn't tell me more." He put a hand on his hip while the other was up by his chin. "I think wee little Hinerick was still sore after our little spat yesterday. Since then it's been eating at me, even more so when I entered my lab." He watched her pointedly. "Now, are you going to keep me in suspense, or relieve my raging curiosity?" Nikola took a step, closing the distance again.

And again her heart was misbehaving, and she was sure his vampire hearing picked up the change. Unfortunately if she took another step backwards, her back would be against the wall. "Well..." Jenna cleared her throat. "I was thinking that while this facility is spectacular, that it's really quite large." She watched Nikola nod and shift his hand from his hip to the elbow of the other hand. "It takes an hour just to get anywhere. The horizontal and vertical elevators can only do so much with what space we have… So… how about inventing a short range teleporter that can work within an EM shield?"

Nikola's eyes widened and he paced back a few steps, paused and turned back towards her. "It's never been tried, much less done."

"So it would be something right up your alley then."

At that, he smiled. "I suppose you have some idea how to start?"

Jenna laughed. "I do, but I need help with the more technical parts. I know what would work best for our needs without over complicating such a system; which would lessen the number of problems."

Nikola nodded. "I see..." his gaze drifted idly as his mind went over the things that needed to be done, even before the actual planning of such a device began. With hands on hips, he faced Jenna again. "I'm going to need to study how you teleport."

"Of course." She agreed nodding. It was her style of surfing the EM field and natural electrical currents that made her think about such a solution.

Frowning, Nikola tapped his fingers. "It's too bad John Druitt is gone. Having two people who have teleporting abilities would be helpful." He commented, glancing at her carefully.

Jenna bit her lip and tried not to break eye contact.

Nikola smiled. "Do you know something everyone else doesn't?"

She shifted uneasily. "At the moment, it's just a strong feeling... nothing more."

"About Druitt?"

Jenna nodded. She sighed resignedly. "I don't think he's dead. Trapped maybe, but not dead."

With a grimaced, Nikola shook his head slightly. "You certainly like making someone want to ask more questions then they get answers." He commented in a low voice. "Well, I have to figure out how to measure and record what happens when you teleport..."

"Ah, that should keep you occupied for a while." Jenna teased.

He gave her a short smile, still preoccupied. "Are you still going to help Henry?"

"If he still needs my help, yup." Jenna replied, pleased with herself. "I have a feeling you like to figure things out on your own for the most part." She paused as he nodded slightly. "I don't want to get in the way, so perhaps that glass of wine can wait."

Nikola nodded. "Alright then." He turned to go, but stopped and looked back at her. "I'll come find you if I need you." He offered and started down the hall, obviously absorbed in whatever thoughts were running through his head.

Jenna shook her head and giggled, and transferred herself closer to Henry's lab-not wanting to be rude by just appearing. When she walked in, she found Henry and a slight black haired woman embracing. The girl, obviously Erika looked up and saw her. "Sorry... I didn't know Henry had company." She gave the other woman a friendly smile. "You must be Erika, pleasure to meet you." She took a few steps and held out her hand.

As Erika looked her up and down, Jenna got the impression she wasn't wanted. If Erika had hackles, they would be raised. When her hand was not forthcoming, Jenna lowered his. "I'm... I'm Jenna. I'm new here..."

"Erika." Henry chided.

"What's she doing here?" Erika finally asked, sticking her nose up slightly. The female HAP was barely showing, but that didn't mean her hormones wouldn't assert themselves any less.

"I asked her if she wanted to help me out. I didn't know you would be here and I was trying to be friendly." Henry told her, at a loss.

"Its okay, Henry." Jenna said lightly, even though she had to admit to being a little hurt. "Your baby-mamma's here, so spend some time with her. I'll find something to do, don't worry." Jenna smiled and nodded at the other woman. "Good day, Erika." She wanted to say more, but didn't want to accentuate Erika's territorial instincts. Jenna walked out the way she came and decided to take her self-tour.

An hour later, she found herself outside, wandering over to the side of the building. When she turned the rounded corner, she stopped and caught her breath. Covering a good portion of the caverns 'corner'-an area of about 700 square feet, was being used for both a herbal and organic garden. "Oh my goodness..." she breathed, her eyes dilated in excitement. She had to investigate. The garden was surrounded with a low fence which got taller closer to the rock walls where the larger trees and plants were. It looked pretty packed within, with many types of plants, flowers and trees. There was a gate with an arch as the entry way; which she practically ran to and entered.

There was a stone pathway that wound through the various areas obviously designated for specific plants and plant groups. But much of the garden was over grown by weeds.

Though even weeds had their uses.

Jenna figured, seeing as she had some time to waste, she'd do a little gardening. She picked up a basket and a knee pad, picked a spot that looked particularly in the need of sorting and set to work.

~. ~. ~.

A few hours later, Jenna heard a couple of voices approaching, but ignored them and continued weeding the poor strangled herbs. She was finding it quite calming, getting down and dirty and back to the earth. Doing the chore reminded her of the days she would tend her own gardens, both homedicaly and spiritually. Even with everything she now knew and her new perspective, she found that she still found value in that spirituality; ecclectic that it was. Perhaps now she could even practice it better than she had while she was "normal" and mortal. Jenna spent most of the time thinking about it as she picked the weeds and put them into her basket.

"I see you've found something to preoccupy yourself with." Helens voice brought Jenna out of her daydream.

Jenna looked up to see both Helen and Biggie in the herb garden with her a few feet away. Both were smiling. She could tell they were very amused; that may have had to do with the way Jenna looked, on her knees, wrists deep in dirt with smears over her cloths and skin. She laughed and got to her feet. Wiping the dirt from her hands while she approached them, she replied, "It beats spending the day wandering around aimlessly." She grinned.

Biggie was looking over her work thus far, impressed.

"I take it this garden was supposed to be for Biggie?" Jenna asked a bit sheepishly.

Helen shrugged. "Well, yes. But he's been too injured for me to show him."

"It's very nice." Biggie commented, looking around. "Big. Will need more than one person to tend." He said, looking down at Jenna with a little smile.

Jenna smiled back. "I'd love to help out. It's a wonderful garden. And I'm probably going to be coming here often anyway." She said, looking around. "And climbing that tree..." Jenna gestured near the farthest corner where a large tree grew, its canopy reaching almost to a high balcony.

"When your through, Jenna, perhaps we can talk up in my study. I wish to talk to you about some of the duties I think would be a good fit for you." Helen smiled, and after Jen nodded in acknowledgment, turned and patting Biggie on the arm, the two went to explore the rest of the garden.

Smiling to herself, Jenna went back to finish her weeding.