Jim had just assumed the effects of the toxin were total, that the children's awareness was as blotted out as their reactions and their engagement with the outside world. The possibility that they might not be so dampened internally... it's too much to bear, he pushes the thought aside at once.

"I'll take the samples back to Hellsing, let Bones have a crack at them. If they turn out to be magical and not alien then someone else there will be able to advise us."

He doesn't miss that the girl has at least started moving a little. "Thank you, at any rate. For trying. That's more than I knew before."