Element of Surprise

Part 9: Private Brotherly Talk and the Element of Surprise

*Daddy's okay,* Caine told his brother. *I'm okay now, too. So what did I miss?*

*Nothing,* Caleb replied. *Jax is silent.* Caleb looked over to their cousin. *He's been concentrating on that metal ball for over ten minutes*

*Daddy was pretty shook up. Had a bad dream Uncle Jason helped him. It disturbed Caine that his father was unloved by someone he called stepmom. 'I'm glad I'm loved.'

*He's okay now?* Caleb asked.

*Yeah. Daddy wants to forget what happened.*

"It scared him. I would want to forget, too*

*Can you help him forget?* Caine asked.

Caleb nodded. *I can make them fade so they don't have as much of an impact.*

*I can crawl up steps. You can follow me later when Daddy is sleeping and help him forget his bad dreams.*

Caleb squealed in excitement. *You climbed the stairs? Wow! I want to try.*

*Okay, but we need someone to watch us, so we don't fall. Mommy watched me.*

*We could wait until mommy goes back up the stairs. We could follow her. I wish I could take Daddy's bruises away*

*Mommy can do it, but Daddy wanted ice on his bruises. He did not want to tire Mommy out.*

*I wish I could do it,* Caleb looked down at his hands.

*You're meant for different kinds of healing,* Caine said. *We just need to discover it.*

*I hope we do soon. I'd like to know.*. Caleb saw their Uncle Jason come into the sunroom with needles and vials. *What's Uncle Jay doing?*

"Taking blood for his homework. He has to know the difference between human and meta blood.*

*Uhm, isn't Jax considered a meta?*

*He might, but I think Uncle Jason has to be a meta or Aunt Sasha has to in order to pass on that power, but I have not seen them have meta powers.*

*Neither have I,*Caleb said as he watched their Uncle Jay take blood from their mom.

The twins watched Jason go over to their Aunt Sasha drawing blood from her as she sat reading a book. Then he made his way over to the circle.

"Alright babies, Uncle Jay just needs to take a bit of blood from you guys. Is that okay?"

Caleb crawled over to Jason. *Me first!*

*You like needles?* Caine was surprised.

*I don't, but since it's for Uncle Jason, I guess it wouldn't hurt.*

*Come on Jax,* Jaylyn coaxed her brother. *Don't be shy. It's for Daddy.*

Caleb crawled into Jason's lap as he sat on the floor. He got the needle ready and stuck Caleb with it, drawing the blood into the vial. *Cool!*

"Alright, who's next" Jason said.

*No, I don't want to.*

*I've never known you to be a scaredy pants,* Jaylyn teased her brother. *You warned us about the owls.*

*I'm not scared, I just don't want to.* Jax watched as his Daddy took blood from Haley, then from Caine.*

*Well, I'm going to do it. It's to help Daddy be a nurse.*. Jaylyn crawled over to her Daddy.

"Hey Princess!" Jason got another clean needle ready and attached a vial. He stuck his daughter with it. She winced a bit as he took the blood. "You're brave." He kissed the top of her head. When he was done capping the vial and placing the dirty needle in the portable sharps waste can, he prepared another needle, this one for Jax. "You're the last one."

*Jax is scared,* Jaylyn said. *Go easy on him.*

"I will." Jason placed his daughter down and she crawled over to Haley. Jason went over to his son and picked him up. "Hey my little punk rocker."

Jax looked away trying to hide his fright.

"Can I take a bit of blood from you?" Jason asked, watching as Jaxon fidgeted a bit. "Hey, it's just a quick prick and daddy will be done. Please?"

Jax felt scared, but since it was for his daddy to become a nurse, he held his arm out shakily.

Jason sat Jaxon in his lap and showed him how he was putting the syringe and needle together along with the vial. He wrapped a small piece of tubing around Jax's arm, found the vein and inserted the needle, just as he had with the others.

Jax scrunched his face as he felt the prick.

"Sorry that this hurts a bit, but when daddy's done with his homework, I'll play the electric guitar for you."

Jax nodded his head despite the tears forming in his eyes. It wasn't that long when his father was removing the vial, and then the needle.

"See, you did great, thank you."

Jaylyn saw a worried look in my brother's eyes. 'He's scared about his special power, that Daddy will find out about it. I tried to tell him he should tell Mommy and Daddy.'

After Jason put his son back down on the floor, Jax crawled over to a pile of blankets and covered himself with them. Jason didn't think anything of it, but continued to place all the vials into the little carrier. His next step was to collected samples from everyone else. He found each of the family members and took blood from each of them. The last person he had to collect blood from was Dick.

Jason knocked on his door but no one answer. He peeked in and saw that Dick was out like a light. It made it easy for Jason to draw blood. Dick didn't even move when Jason stuck him with the needle.

'That means he's really freaking exhausted.' I just needed to determine the blood types and if they are human or meta.'

Jason went down to the cave and created a chart on a piece of paper attached to a clip board. Jason already made a mark next to those he suspected was meta. Metas had an extra element in their blood. It usually was visible through a microscope. 'I don't think I should share that with my professor. It's only for me to know. I'll at least write down each person's blood type on the worksheet for the assignment.'

Jason started with Bruce's and then worked his way down the list. Once I got to Sammie and Caleb's, he noticed how they were different from everyone else's. He noted their differences on his private notes. Not everyone was going to know about Samantha's Atlantean heritage. He noted their blood cells were slightly off, but noticeable enough to consider themselves meta's. True metas had the extra element. It was considered not an adapted trait, but a sudden change. For the most part, Atlanteans were considered evolved humans because they had to adapt to a new environment over time, becoming like a new species of human. On the homework sheet, he wrote Samantha's and Caleb's blood type and that they were human. There were some things that needed to be kept secret. Then it got down to his children. Jason looked at Jaylyn's blood. There were no irregularities, just normal human blood. He also wrote her blood type. Then he took out Jaxon's blood. He did the normal blood type test then placed a bit onto a clean slide. He put it under the microscope and looked through the eye piece. Jason saw something he was not expecting. He had to do a second slice and look again and nearly fell over. 'WHAT!?' He did a third test just to be sure. It was still there. 'That's impossible.'

Continues with Part 10