Hi! Happy mother's day to all! And for some reason, I feel I should ask you to please don't try this "tests" at home. Dunno, just in case. Anyhow,

Enjoy.

M.

PS: There might be some excess of blood in this chapter. If you are sensitive to that, there are a couple of lines marking the start and end of that area. Feel free to skip it; it doesn't add much to the history line.

Chapter XXXVI

March 29th, 2004

Underground Sanctuary

Jack got out of his room and closed the door behind him and took a couple of steps away before he shook his head and knocked on Sam's door. He heard some movement inside and soon; she was opening the door with a bright smile.

"Sir," she whispered as she saw him on the other side of her threshold and blushed. Her mind wasn't cooperating with her lately as it kept placing images of them and what it could be for them and the previous night wasn't an exception.

"Carter," he frowned when he noticed the blush on her face. "Are you alright? You are looking a bit flustered."

"Ah, yes! Yes! Oh, I cranked up the room temperature at night, and then I forgot about when I went to the shower. Hot shower," she blabbered.

He was grateful he could keep his face straight because she had lost him at the mention of her showering, his mind filled with images of her under the hard pressure of water. "Breakfast?" he heard her say and blinked.

"Yes, that's why I'm here. I thought to check if you were still here before I went," Jack finished somewhat awkwardly shifting his weight to the balls of his feet before standing back again.

"Sure, I'm starving."

They walked in silence each lost on their thoughts, but somehow it seemed that the conversation of the previous day had made it less uncomfortable. To their surprise, when they reached the dining room for the first time since they had woken up in the Sanctuary, it was empty.

They both checked their watches before deciding it was still early and judging by what they knew about the Sanctuary activities; people should be having breakfast. Sam frowned.

"Well, she did say they were neglecting their duties before," she shook her head as they moved to get their breakfast started. They did it managing to behave and redirecting their chats to a safe topic: SG-1, Janet and Cassie.

"Shit," Ashley's voice came loud when she spotted them and grimaced when she noticed that had caught their attention. They frowned, it was easy to see she had some bruises on her and some cuts on her forearms as she threw cereal bars and fruits onto a tray. She grinned sheepishly at them. "Ah, 10 am, Nikola's lab." She finished and disappeared again.

"That was weird," Jack left out after a while.

"Not so much, if you take into consideration what we know. I'm guessing they were fighting Ashley, and Helen forgot to have some food before doing it. And that's why she was searching for it and still had bruises on."

"Why you call her Helen?" Jack's question came out of the blue.

"Ah, she told me to call her Helen? But you mean why not mom, right?" Jack nodded. "We've known each other for a month; it's kinda awkward to call her mom out of the blue. But to be honest, there are times where I can't help it. I'm struggling to find what to call her and Tesla." She blushed.

"Ah, I guess it makes sense," he nodded taking a sip of his coffee. "Have you seen them fight? I mean, besides the one time we all were there?" Sam looked at him before she nodded curtly. "Was it worse than what we saw?"

"Yes. Ashley is worst than what we saw before on that video."

"And the healing?"

"All that I know is that it gets slower as they fight. They can heal in seconds as they start, but it takes more time to heal as they progress. But, I'm not very well versed on it," she sighed. "Can I tell you the truth?"

"Always," Jack let out locking his eyes on hers

"I was terrified to know about me. They made it look easy, but as I saw them fight, I thought back to all those times where I had to fight out there, you know? And I wondered if they were mistaken, if it was a test gone wrong, I don't know cross contamination as they say in those police dramas."

"But?" He asked.

"I saw it," she confessed lowering her head and whispering. Jack frowned. "Not only the similarity with my mother when she didn't have any makeup on but I saw how my healing worked. I'd never paid attention to it before."

"What do you mean you saw it?" Jack asked raising her head with his hand.

"Remember that toxin that infected us? It capsulized inside my body," she saw the confused expression in his face. "Somehow I collected all traces of it in a ball inside my body."

"Oh."

"Yeah, so they took it out. And instead of giving me stitches, Helen glued the cut. And almost instantly my body changed it to my skin as if it never happened." She smiled. "It's awesome. I always thought I had some special angel or something when it came to stitches. But it turns out; it was me all the time." Sam finished blushing, and then as if she was trying to get out of that somewhat vulnerable position she had placed herself into, she checked her watch.

"We should get going; Nikola's lab is in the other building."

They strolled to the other building, enjoying the garden and the warmth before they entered it. Sam knew the building would be colder from her experience being in it. But Nikola would always notice when she was about to freeze, and invariably ended up turning the heat up for her. At least in his lab.

"Whoa! What the hell happened?" She asked as soon as she spotted a still bruised Nikola and reached to check him.

"Argh, you know how it is," he rolled his eyes trying to avoid her hands on his face. "Fatal injuries, internal organs then external wounds and last but not least important, the beauty fix." He grinned his lip swollen and his left eye black and closed. "Give me five, your sister showed up here a few seconds ago with my solution," Nikola finished with a sigh nodding towards an empty blood bag.

"It doesn't look good," Sam said touching Nikola's battered face, making he groaned under her touch.

"If you allow me to drink it, then I'll be all nice and proper in no time," he grinned. Sam took a step back, and he raised the glass that smelled suspiciously metallic. "Živeli"

"Is that?" Jack frowned as Nikola enjoyed his drink. The color was returning to his face, and the bruises quickly faded as he neared the end of the glass.

"Helen's blood, yes" he finished licking his lips effectively taking any traces of her blood, and whatever had happened that had left him looking like that. Jack grimaced. "I am a vampire, Colonel. We do drink blood."

"Where's the Doctor?" He frowned in concern.

"Ah, that's what you see in him," he whispered to Sam with a knowing smile before he stood up. "At the infirmary," Nikola smirked.

"Is she hurt?"

"Yes."

"What are you doing here then?" Sam asked with a frown.

"Don't you know her?" He raised his eyebrow. "It has to do more with me than with her. She's probably tending William at the moment."

"What happened?" Sam tried once more just as Ashley appeared with a still battered Helen in tow.

"Ah, there was an incident, and we had to intervene. It is solved now." Sam raised her eyebrow.

"I'm getting back to the infirmary," Ashley said, and Helen nodded.

"It doesn't look it went well."

"Well, it took all three of us to distract it until containment was possible since it happened before any of us had managed to grab breakfast, one thing led to another," Helen trailed.

"That's why Ashley snuck up into the dining room in search of food?" Helen nodded.

"Yes, there are other injured besides us."

"There are several things you'll need to know to understand our current predicament," Nikola said. "No matter how well a place runs, there will always be rebels. Now, on the injuries situation, Ashley and I were needed away because of Helen's injuries. To fast track our healing we needed her blood which was oozing from several wounds."

"Nikola forced Ashley to teleport them here. But since she didn't sustain any vital damage, she jumped back and noticed I wasn't healing properly which prompted her to fetch some food. When the tray was placed almost in front of my nose, I could heal all gaping wounds which allowed me to extract the amount Nikola needed." He grimaced again.

"Since I smelled her fresh blood, my body would only take her blood to heal fully. Which trust me is highly annoying. You got here with seconds after Ashley left to find Helen and tahdah! Here we are, do you have any more questions or can we start already?"

"Why her blood? And not food?" Jack asked, and Helen tried not to grimace.

"Would you believe me if I say we are mates?" Nikola grinned, and Helen rolled her eyes. "I don't eat, Colonel. I am a vampire. And why her blood, well, we theorized that it has to do with her DNA structure, she's not an Akhkharu, but she is the closest thing to one."

"Then why not Sam's blood?" Jack asked Nikola chuckled.

"I might be a vampire, Colonel. But incestuous that I'm not. That's a creation of humans, marrying family for power purposes," he added in disgust.

"The Akhkharu couldn't drink family blood, so to speak," Helen said, as she tried to come up with a way to explain it. "It would be like cutting your limb off and cooking it for your dinner."

"But Ashley can take yours?" Sam frowned.

"Yes. It is a different situation. You wouldn't be able to get my or Nikola's blood, because you are part Akhkharu from his side. Ashley isn't, and I'm not. Thus she can benefit from the elements in my blood to help her control her skills. You won't, or at least, we theorize you wouldn't."

"It is included as part of the tests; we'll need to know if in any case, Helen could help you." Nikola pointed. "Which is a possibility given that she isn't Akhkharu and we did remove most of those traits."

"Okay."

"Shall we start?" Helen asked turning towards Sam who nodded in agreement. "Very well then, Colonel I will ask you to please don't intervene," they walked towards the secondary room.

"Intervene in what?" Jack asked loud enough to be heard. Nikola pointed him the mic rolling his eyes.

"Nikola turn the heat on a bit. Samantha, I need your forearm," Helen smiled. Sam extended her arm towards Helen, and before the Major could react to it, Magnus cut her forearm from elbow to wrist."

"What the!" she heard Jack shout and a string of swearings and gruntings as they both turned around to see Nikola holding him still.

"Heal it, Samantha," Helen said, but her daughter's mind was everywhere but into healing. The Doctor sighed and grabbing a gauze cleaned the wound before she uncapped the superglue and proceeded to glue the cut together. Like the previous time, the foreign substance was replaced by new skin. "Hum."

"What?"

"I'm not sure if you will be able to concentrate on your healing with him out there worried about you," Helen pointed, cleaning the last remnants of blood out of Sam's forearm before she walked Sam towards a device and nodded.

"Look up, Colonel," Nikola said outside forcing him to look to the monitor that was showing Sam's completely healed forearm. Helen walked towards the comms and turned on her side.

"Colonel, we need you to remain calm. As you can see, she can heal herself fairly quickly when there's a foreign substance in her body. Now, we do need to be able to help her find her threshold and controlling her healing skills. Sadly, there's no other way to measure her healing skills than by inflicting some wounds."

"Carter? Did you know about this?" Sam looked at Jack and then nodded once. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"And say what exactly, sir? Look, I'm going to my biological parents home to get cut, hurt and attacked so we can check my limits? I need to do this, no matter how painful it can be. I need to know that if a System Lord takes me into custody and harms me, I can resist and how long."

"She also needs to know how to keep the look of the injuries," Helen pointed. "Take it from me, it's not a good idea to be beaten up, and the next day show up looking impeccable again. It only makes the next beating harder. Ready to try again?" Helen turned towards Sam who nodded in agreement.

"Yes."

"This time it will be a smaller cut, it's difficult to explain how healing works. It is normally done as part of a brain function. You can try the following, when I cut, try to imagine the area is hot and hurts. That might trigger the localized healing; you won't have much time because the size of the cut won't be big enough and as it is the only unhealthy part it won't take your brain a lot to figure it has to heal it. Ready?"

"No?" Sam said but extended her arm again. Helen placed the scalpel on her forearm and pressing it enough to make it deep and reach the vein, stopping the cut when it was an inch long. "Ouch," Sam hissed.

"Did it hurt?"

"Yes."

"Good, stay with me, Samantha. You can see your blood; you can feel the way it is pouring out of the cut," Sam nodded. "Well, now try and remember how it looked before I cut it." The wound closed. "Good."

"Was that me?"

"Yes and no," Helen grinned. "It was your body healing it. Your pain threshold must be high, at least if we go by ours, do you remember when Nikola explained how healing worked?" Sam nodded. "I'm going to do another cut, and then I'm going cut through your wrist with this, I will leave the scalpel inside the wound. Once the cut is either consciously or unconsciously closed, I'm going to pull this. Don't worry; after that, you'll need food."

"Wait," Sam said stopping Helen's hand. "Is this the only way?"

"Sadly, it is. But don't worry we can take it all the slow you need, I'm aware of how uncomfortable these cuts and scrapes are and how annoying it is the feeling of them. But it's only by trial and error that you get to do things like this." Helen winked at her before she raised the sleeve of her right hand and sliced a piece of skin out, grimacing of pain when doing it. But as soon as she peeled her skin out of the muscle, new skin replaced it. This time, a colorful butterfly appeared tattoed on Helen's wrist.

"That's a tattoo?" Sam looked at it in awe.

"Indeed it is. It took a lot of willpower to keep it uncovered as they tattoed it. But by the time I paid for it, I had only white skin there." Helen smiled, closing her fingers and pressing them randomly, making the butterfly look like it was flying.

"However, I can only have it if I'm in control of my healing," she said as she looked at it and it started to disappear bit by bit until there was no more butterfly. "The moment I lose control, I lose it too."

"Oh, I didn't know about that one, ljubav," Nikola interrupted them. "Is there any other tattoo I should know about?" Helen looked at Nikola and then glanced towards Jack.

"No, the only one you need to know about." She added, and the Colonel understood the vampire didn't know about her stint at the camp.

"Are you ready, Samantha?"

"No," She said extending her arm and closing her eyes not to see what her mother was about to do. Sam grimaced as she felt the blade digging her skin, and cried once Helen pushed the scalpel until it came out on the other side leaving the handgrip stuck in the wound.

"You know the extent of the injury, you can feel it. There's no real need for you to see it, try to will it into inexistence," as the Major frowned; the curve of Helen's lips twitched upwards.

"Healing 101?" Will said as he entered. Both women turned around to see him. His hair was sticking in odd places, he had the left eye closed, a bruise starting to form around it. His left arm was hanging from a sling. Sam frowned at his state. "Well, some of us aren't as lucky on the healing thing," he smiled and frowned when Carter wobbled from blood loss.

Helen moved around her and embraced her from behind giving her support to keep Sam steady. The cut now entirely gone, but blood continued trickling down the scalpel.

"You are doing great, Samantha. I'm going to pull it a little." Helen said grabbing the blade with two fingers and pulling it slowly outwards. The Doctor looked at the Major with trained eyes and noticed Sam was getting paler.

"I'm sorry, Samantha," she said and looked at Nikola before she pulled the scalpel through at once. Blood poured out of the wound, as Helen pressed it tightly with both hands, while Nikola rushed to keep the now fainted Major from falling to the ground.

"What can I do?" William asked.

"Pass me some gauze, I need to check the wound," she said calmly and smiled reassuringly to Jack who had also joined them. "I'm curious, Colonel," Helen raised her eyes for a brief moment to look at him before she lowered her gaze to the wound. "You've been taken prisoners before, am I correct?"

"Yes."

"How long did take for her to be back to her unharmed self? Has she fainted before? How badly was she injured?" Jack frowned. "Nikola, be a dear an pass me some thread."

"Are you going to suture?" the vampire asked, quickly passing her what she requested.

"Yes, to help her speed the healing."

"It shouldn't take this long, Helen," Nikola whispered worriedly.

"Try to remember my tests," she smiled surely. "Colonel?"

"I remember her fainting only once. She got injured several times, but I can't bring myself to remember how long it took for her to recover. What I do remember is that she was almost always the first to leave the infirmary."

"What about broken bones off-world?"

"I saw her with dislocated parts, never saw her with anything broken. She was zatted twice once…" Jack trailed off.

"Zatted?" Will asked as they waited for her to get back to them. "Should I call Ashley to fetch some blood for her?"

"Did she had a decent breakfast?"

"What?" Jack shook his head. "Yes. A zat it's a Goa'uld gun; normally being zatted twice means you die."

"No, William, we shouldn't need the blood. Nikola, can you activate blood scans?" He pointed to a screen. "As I thought, she should get back to herself in no time."

"How long was she unconscious when she fainted before?"

"I don't know for sure, normally we all get zatted once. Uhm, getting zatted once means you lose conscience when that happens, our belongings are usually taken, watches included. It is almost impossible to know how long it was."

"But you did mention a time when she fainted," Helen trailed looking at him in a way that asked him to tell them more.

"Yes. I don't know for sure what happened, Carter was taken away and for what we knew they modified or tried to modify her DNA," Magnus and Tesla frowned. "When they returned her, she was pretty sick. I had seen people turning into water puddles after they returned from whatever they did to her, but she only fainted. She looked pretty sick." Jack clenched his jaw; that time burnt into his mind. He thought he might lose her. Helen and Nikola noticed and gave him space to keep himself together instead of pushing him for more information. "Someone in the compound who had undergone the same procedure developed an improved memory. He remembered exactly what was done to each person and he undid it."

"It surprised me," Sam said not opening her eyes, "when Janet told me about the structure of my DNA. Because on that machine it was a double-stranded version."

"Was it of Goa'uld origin?" Nikola asked.

"We theorized that it must have been from Ancient origin."

"The slimy sons of…"

"Nikola!" Helen stopped him. And he huffed.

"Pardon, my almost French. Remember we mentioned the experiment that made the Akhkharu immortal? Oh, dear. When I ended up in Bhalasaam courtesy of your boyfriend," Nikola rolled his eyes. "I found a book where they claimed some ancients had stolen some machines and information from that experiment; the book said they were trying to make humans immortal too."

"Why did you never mention this?"

"Well, we weren't talking at that point, remember? Anyhow, the pieces they had stolen were only byproducts. When they were creating this machine, they only tested in humans, and thus they didn't need to adjust for the unique structure of the Akhkharu until the first Akhkharu offered herself. She as any other of her species knew their DNA was different and there was a machine modified that allowed them to see the full spectrum of their DNA and the Akhkharu knowledge on their own species was what allowed the Ancients to alter the sequence."

"So you say this machine that almost killed me, is the one that originated the immortality for the vampires?" Sam said finally managing to sit up, pinching the bridge of her nose when she got dizzy from seating too fast.

"No, only one machine was modified, and the Akhkharu destroyed it once they were all done. Mostly because they didn't want any other people playing with their DNAs, which let me tell you seems something wise. It could be, however, one of the many machines that got lost, and thus it didn't acknowledge the differences, making your DNA look like a simple one."

"But she did change something, and it got me feeling awful."

"I'm only theorizing here," he raised his hands. "Helen you are by far better in biology than I'll ever be."

"Well, as Nikola says, I can only theorize," she said. "I'll say they modified something in your DNA, effectively breaking some of the bridges between the different strains. Probably, your condition resulted from your body trying to asses if this change was for the better or not to keep it or replace it. But as I've said before that process can take time. I suppose if they didn't know better what they were touching in your DNA, they could've as well killed you by trying to improve something that was already better."

"Well, it felt like I was being killed from the inside," Sam grimaced. "I fainted; what was the result of my tests?"

"Not conclusive, yet," Helen said. "You healed the first part rather quickly, but the combination of the bigger wound and the amount of blood you lost was too much for a first try. However, when I took the object completely out, your body did react and even if not immediate as it would with Nikola, your healing was quite fast. Let me get rid of those stitches; you won't need them."

"Okay"

"How are you feeling?"

"Lightheaded."

"The Colonel mentioned you had a decent breakfast; may I ask what it entailed?"

"Coffee, a cheese sandwich, hum, oh! A glass of orange juice and half an apple."

"No wonder you fainted," Helen said with her eyebrows raised high. "That's not exactly what I would call a nutritious breakfast for you, at least not when we are doing this type of test. I can provide you with a list of meals that will be better, and we can try again tomorrow or the day after."

"Cool."

"There was one question the Colonel couldn't answer for us," Sam nodded. "Whenever you were hurt off-world, how long did it take for you to recover your unharmed form?"

"I'm not sure, sometimes takes longer. But unless we are captured for long, it never lasts more than a day or two."

"And I take that food consists of military MREs?" Sam nodded. "Well, your diet will help you to keep the bruises for longer, which is good for your safety. The moment you get back to a decent meal your body gets time to readjust and heal properly. I'll even risk theorizing that you do fall into a 'death sleep,' but only when your mind allows it. That be, either when you are purposely unconscious, or when you are back at the safety of your own home."

"I thought it couldn't be controlled," she frowned.

"It can be, at least you can control when it starts. What isn't possible to do is to control how long does takes. I'm with Helen on that one, you probably do enter it, but never noticed because you only went to bed and woke up. I'll even go as far as theorizing that you won't enter it if you happen to share your bed."

"How can I know?"

"Well, since no one can confirm you've done it. There's no way to prove it has happened before; we certainly will be getting you to a point in which you enter it. We can turn on the scans in your room when we get to the fights to see if your heart and respiratory rates lower to the ones corresponding with the death sleep."

"Sounds like a plan," Sam grinned. "So, what now?"

"Now, you stay here while I grab food you need to stop looking this pale once you are back to normal then we can try a mental test."

"Mental test?" Jack frowned.

"Yes, check her brain activity and how exactly her neuron network works while doing some problem-solving. It's not invasive." Helen grinned. "Colonel, stay with her and make sure she doesn't go crazy while I bring her something to eat." She nodded to the other two males in the room, and they sighed.

"How are you feeling, Carter?" Jack asked as they shared an amused smile after observing Helen almost herding Will and Nikola out of the lab.

"Not bad actually, sir. Am I really not looking so good?" She frowned. Jack eyed her, she was a bit too pale, and there were dark shades around her eyes. "Hmm, so no? I'm going to be fine. I'm sure of it." She said extending her now uninjured arm towards him. "See, not even a scar."

"Yeah," he said caressing her skin softly and sending shivers down her spine.

"I'm lucky really, can you imagine how many people out there doing jobs like ours would be grateful to heal as I do, sir?" she chuckled, and Jack squinted at her. "I was always a bit reluctant to shower in the base because I've seen how people are scarred and I'm not. Some of them look at me like I was never on the line of fire."

"Your file says otherwise," He pointed.

"Yeah," she huffed.

"But?" Jack asked sitting next to her.

"There was one case, in which someone pointed to me and said that our relationship, how SG-1 worked, was the real reason why I was praised in my file. But that she was sure it was all fake because she had seen me changing and I didn't have injuries as she did."

"Well, we all know what happened, and your medical records show you had visited the infirmary on several occasions. There's nothing she or anyone can do about it."

"I know, she did present a complaint, and my file was reviewed. But as you pointed, there are entries in the infirmary that show I was tended."

"Wait, they checked your file? Why wasn't I informed about it?" He asked grimly.

"Because," she chewed her lower lip. "They were accusing you, Daniel and Teal'c of presenting false information on briefings. But they couldn't do anything about it due to proofs and situations where we worked with other teams, or the Tok'ra. That was one of the reasons why dad was in town when we were stuck here. They called him to cross-check information, and he provided it using a memory recall device."

"Hmm, and how is that thing now?"

"General Hammond said it was about to be done, and there was nothing there that could stain my career. But he also thought that these days of leave would help me not to cross path with the origin of the situation while they decided what to do with them."

"So, what you are not telling me is that me being here is not exactly helping the situation?"

"I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter, sir. There won't be any paper trail that could link you and I being at the same place for the duration of these holidays. So, even if they can imagine all they want there's nothing that can confirm it. Besides, if I really need more people jumping as a witness, I'm sure Helen can help me out."

"How can I help you out?" Helen said as she entered the room lowering a tray filled with food.

"Oh, nothing really."

"And hypothetically?" Magnus asked raising her eyebrow.

"A witness or several who can tell we aren't here sharing a room or doing things that won't be allowed under the USMC code."

"Ah, that should be fairly easy if it comes to that. However, if my time hiding taught me anything, it's that without paper trail there's no way for people to prove if something is real or not. And he said, she said cases are often rejected in favor of the one who has either more support or more evidence. Now, eat. We need you fully recovered before the next set of tests. Are you worried about the situation that might need witnesses?"

"Not particularly," Sam said. "Besides, I'm quite sure I'm not the only person in the whole world that doesn't scar. And showing them that I can get a cut that will close easily can be easily done as we saw today, and we can always theorize that it has to do with my stint with Jolinar."

"Oh, I can produce enough scientific background to explain your health situation. There are several studies done in several of the companies I own related to natural faster healing, with case studies and all. So if you want them, there won't even be a need to mention the Goa'uld into it, and it will allow you to justify any other wound you don't have."

"You can do that?"

"Yes, of course. I had to create a couple of cosmetic companies, or I would be broke by the sheer amount of what I've used so far." Helen grinned.

"Where are the guys?" Sam asked noticing that both William and Tesla hadn't returned with her.

"Oh, I've sent Nikola to search the tests. He's probably complaining somewhere in the vault but should be here soon. And William had an appointment."

"Here they are," Nikola said entering at that point with a box in his hands. "Uvek možeš da računaš na mene da se izgubim u tvom trezoru, ljubavi (1)" he wriggled his eyebrows with a mischievous smile.

"Nikola!" Helen admonished him rolling her eyes.

"Think about it, dear," he grinned, winking at her.

"What did he say?" Sam asked.

"Oh, nothing important. He likes going to the vault," Helen dismissed completely taking all the mischievousness out of Nikola's words. "How are you feeling now?"

"Excellent," Sam said.

"Hum, allow me to confirm if you are back to normal," she said turning to one of the many computers that were available at Nikola's lab. "Good, your blood count is back to normal. Let's start the other tests."

With Nikola's help, they reorganized the space where they were testing her before. The medical bed was moved to the side, and a table and chair found their way to the middle of the room. Nikola then brought the box out, and Helen smiled.

"Help me to disassemble them," she said, and they both worked quickly on whatever it was inside the box Nikola had carried. Once they stopped, they asked Sam to sit. Magnus moved another set of equipment closer to Sam.

"This is an electroencephalogram or rather an improved version of it," Nikola said.

"Yeah, I have used them before," Sam grimaced.

"We will have to attach the electrodes, to measure your brain activity as you go through what's in the box," Helen explained and sighing Sam nodded. They worked rather quickly on getting her all set.

"Nikola is going to pour out the contents of the box, in a bit. They consist of several wooden puzzles that we want you to try and solve. It will help us to understand the way your brain works under problem-solving conditions. Are you ready?" Magnus finished.

"Yes."

"Please keep eye contact with me, for three, two, one." They all flinched at the noise of several dozens of wood pieces colliding one against the other and hitting the metal of the table. "Go ahead." Nikola walked out of the room, and they stood watching her. It was not even a minute later when William entered the lab and frowned. Everyone was looking in silence as the Major sat at a table looking at a few dozens of wooden blocks.

"What is she doing?" He asked confused, Helen smirked.

"She's definitively yours, Nikola," she said eyeing him from the corner of her eye. His chest swelled in pride.

"And I still don't know what's going on here," Will shook his head.

"She is solving the puzzles," Helen said as it was the most normal thing in the world, not taking her eyes out of the screen that was lighting up like a Christmas tree.

"Or rather she solved them all," Nikola grinned proudly when he noticed the way Sam's lips curved slightly upwards.

"She hasn't touched a piece yet," Will rolled his eyes, and beside him, Jack nodded in agreement.

"Yup, she hasn't moved anything since they dropped those," the Colonel admitted, and Nikola rolled his eyes. Inside the room, Sam looked up towards them with an amused smile on her face.

"She doesn't need to," Nikola scoffed.

"Nikola seems to be correct, William. I too agree she has solved them all, " Helen grinned, pointing to the screen where her brain had returned to standard patterns.

"What do you mean? All I see is mixed pieces of what looks like several puzzles' ones in one big heap. How could she solve anything if the big pile is still untouched?" He frowned.

"Mindsolving, William. She doesn't need to touch the pieces to solve the puzzle. Quite like you don't need to see all the structure to know how it will result," Helen pressed the button that activated the room mic. "Samantha, have you finished all?"

"Yes," Sam grinned. "There was one particularly hard. But I figured the ball must go inside it," she finished with a shrug.

"Can you put them together for William's sake?"

"Sure, it might take a while longer to do it."

"It doesn't matter. It will help if you do, your brain activity is currently normal, but it wasn't before. I'm interested to know if by placing them together it will produce the same advanced activity or if it will remain normal."

"Sure," Sam grinned and extended her hand to the pile. As she picked through the collection, her brain activity grew and stopped as soon as she had finished the easiest of them all. Then the screen lighted up again as she grabbed the next couple pieces. As the screen turned on and off, the puzzles grew in complexity until there were only a bunch of pieces and a small ball.

"Ow, that's my favorite," Nikola grinned. "It took me a while to figure it out."

"I thought you would be bored by it now, Nikola. You can solve it with your eyes closed now." Helen grinned.

"It's not the solving the puzzle the reason why I'm fond of it." Helen smiled; she had made that puzzle for him as a birthday present. "Well done, Samantha." He said as she left the last puzzle on the table.

"Thanks. So what's the verdict?"

"Abnormal, just like your father." Nikola smiled brightly.

(1) Uvek možeš da računaš na mene da se izgubim u tvom trezoru, ljubavi: according to google it means: You can always count on me to get lost in your vault, love