FTEC, Thursday (9/16)

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully, having thought it over at yesterday's support reserves meeting, was currently re-doing the inventory on drugs, bandages, and medical equipment, in case of another attack.

The nurses were now calling her the Littlest OCD.

[the clinic is open, Scully is OCD, but I don't have any.]

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[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

He'd been extended an invitation to come take a look at the clinic at the welcome picnic, and though he'd been terribly remiss in taking Miss Scully up on that invitation during the past couple weeks, he figured now was as good a time as any. "Hello?" he called, looking around for a place to hang his hat as he stepped inside.

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"Hello? Do you need help-- oh, hello, William." Scully smiled, and tilted her head. "I've been looking forward to you visiting." She saw the motions with the hat, and held out her hand. "I can put that someplace it won't get lost."

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

"I do apologise for not making the trip sooner," he said, handing over the hat gratefully. "The past few weeks have been rather... overwhelming." It was an understatement, of course, but he hoped she'd understand.

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"You have nothing to apologize for," Scully said easily. "And I can imagine. At least you're getting to stay in your room, and not being forced to camp." She smiled at him and put his hat on a shelf in the closet, asking, "Where do you want to start?"

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

Having a room to himself (or mostly to himself, in any case) was an experience in and of itself, really. "I've been doing some reading on the topic of blood types, fascinating stuff really," Will said enthusiastically. "Your clinic would have the equipment to study such things, am I correct?"

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"Definitely," Scully said, smile widening slightly, and leading him down the hall. "Would you like to type your own blood (http://waynesword.palomar.edu/aniblood.htm), for reference? I can donate a sample of mine you like as well."

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there was no mistaking the way his eyes lit up at that prospect. "I'd appreciate that," he told her.

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully got out a microscope, slides, separation and clumping re-agents and a syringe. "So how are you liking this place after three weeks?" She asked. "And congratulations on being Mr. Holmes's TA. I think."

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

"I won't deny, some things about this place are very... strange," and he hadn't even been subject to real weirdness yet. "But on the whole it's been quite exciting. I've learned a lot, especially from Mr. Holmes himself as it happens."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"What's the strangest thing you're getting used to?" Scully asked, setting out the slides and getting a pair of neoprene gloves to hand over to him. "The magic, or the 21st century?"

She pricked her finger, and expertly siphoned off an amount large enough to place on the slides.

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

"Magic?" William frowned a bit as he mimicked her own actions to take a sample of his own blood. "A few people have mentioned such things, but I'm afraid I can't put much stock in... in the occult." And yet he was willing to accept time travel.

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"You haven't run into any of our classmates who claim magic powers yet?... Personally, I tend to just think of it as another, advanced mutation that allows most of them to access strange abilities, most of the time," Scully admitted. She smeared the slide with her blood, then reached for the A re-agent. "I've seen too much to believe it's a charade."

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

Well, there had been Alexander. And Elphaba, with her oddly-tinged skin. And, okay, in Jono and Cally he'd been given solid proof of pyschic phenomena.

"The- telepathy- I've seen evidence of," he admitted, taking the other bottle of re-agent.

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully tapped a few drops onto the slide, and said, "It can be unnerving. Although I haven't met anyone who's used their powers in a way I'd consider irresponsible." She put a clear cover on it, then checked her watch. "We have a couple minute before we can observe the effects. Of course, a much more specific blood test, to test for paternity or identity, that could take days to run completely."

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

"Such advances must have drastically changed the face of criminal investigations," William mused.

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"Exceedingly. Especially in the last fifteen years. We can identify victims based on much smaller remains; prove blood relationships aside from parentage... Identify traces left on a cigarette, in some cases," Scully said, folding her arms. "And yet. Lawyers and criminals still find ways to attempt to refute evidence." She cocked her head. "Do you want to be a 'consulting detective' like Professor Holmes?"

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

"I hadn't really thought much of my future before coming here," William admitted. "Beyond the usual childhood dreams, I mean. Didn't see much point in it. But the idea of detective work- of using science to solve crime- it's very intriguing."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"Instead of the uncertainty of witnesses, and time tables, and the hope someone will confess," Scully said dryly, then put the slide with her blood under the microscope. "This is my blood with the A re-agent. Notice the clumping. I'm type AB, so it'll have the same reaction when we add the B re-agent."

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

"Oh, that's simply astounding!" William said, as he bent over to take a look. "What's the magnification on this?"

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"Two hundred times the naked eye." Scully smiled, watching William's reaction, pleased. "It is amazing, isn't it? I never get tired of being able to prove things this way. Although I'm still amazed that anyone attempted transfusions and had it ever work before they discovered this."

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

"Statistically speaking, it had to have worked some of the time," William pointed out with a slight frown.

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"Forty to fifty percent. Although that's not helped by the circumstances under which they were trying it; they'd hardly heard of sterile conditions, never mind the blood typing," Scully said, shaking her head. "I'd prefer not to have those odds. Although mine are better than most, since I can accept any kind of blood."

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

"While it's true the conditions I grew up in are hardly as... ideal... as these, the doctors I've encountered in my life so far have all done their best to ease suffering and promote good health," William remarked as he placed the slide containing his own blood under the microscope and took a look. "No clumping," he observed. "Which rules out my being AB or B, then."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"Try another sample, with the other re-agent," Scully said, offering the bottle. "And I mean no disrespect to them; I'm standing on their shoulders, after all. I wouldn't have the knowledge I have, if some of them hadn't kept looking for smallpox vaccines, or Florence Nightingale hadn't enforced clean conditions. The Victorians kept looking for answers, sure they could find them." She tilted her head. "And now I'm wondering what they'll call people from 2010, at the end of the next century."