A/N: This came to me while watching "Miller's Crossing" again and I thought… Jeannie is a really nice person, so… why not?
"Rodney mentioned he is the same Wraith who… saved my life", Jeannie blinked and looked back at John.
"Yeah, Todd, keeps moaning about how ridiculous he looks in that jumpsuit. I would have left him in his Goth leather coat but you can never be too careful with him", he shrugged.
Jeannie frowned. The way he talked about the Wraith was odd, as if they were old acquaintances.
Though the mystery remained her frown was quickly lifted when her brother entered the room, eyes fixed on a tablet computer. He would have missed their table if she hadn't pulled him by his shirt.
"Oh, hey Jeannie", he greeted her, immediately lowering his eyes again. She lifted an eyebrow. If he was so transfixed on something that he even forgot to take food to his table it meant he was really excited about it. "Hey… Mer", she greeted hesitantly.
John stood up and stretched his muscles. "Well, I have to go, duty's calling", he said, picked up his tray and went off.
Jeannie leaned over to her brother to see what he was working on. From the calculations however she could only tell it had something to do with vacuum energy. "What're you working on?", she asked him. He finally looked up at her.
"For quite some time now we have been trying to create our own ZPMs, however the problem was with-" "With creating a fitting space bubble that could be used", she finished for him, Radek had told her all about the project. "Right, however now we've figured out how to regulate the size of it which means this time it could actually work", he sounded excited.
"Wow", she made, honestly impressed. "Where's my lunch?", he asked, staring at the nearly empty table. "You didn't bring any", she informed him. "Huh…", he made, then put the tablet aside and stood up to get himself some.
She looked over the calculations again. In that context they looked very promising.
When Rodney returned he purposefully set aside the computer and rubbed his hands, he was in lunch-mode, as Jeannie liked to call it.
"Mer, can I ask you something?", she asked carefully. "Sure, ask away", he waved his hand at her. "Col. Sheppard and… Todd. I mean… what went on there?", she wondered. "Long story short, the two were in a Genii prison and broke out together", her brother summarized. "That's… interesting", she lifted an eyebrow.
Rodney concentrated on eating while his sister poked thoughtfully at her yoghurt.
"I owe Todd my life", she suddenly said, as if just realizing it. "Yeah, but don't tell him that, he might take you up on it", he advised.
"I will get him a present", Jeannie decided. "You what? Are you crazy? He's a Wraith, why would you give him a present? Also, what are you planning on getting him? Some tasty American convicts who are on death sentence?", he threw her an odd glance.
"No, of course not", she defended herself. "Then what?", he still had that look on his face.
"I'll think of something", she said and stood up.
(A week later.)
Todd was dozing off in hiss cell when he heard steps. They were light so he guessed they neither male nor that annoying IOA woman who had talked to him, she wore heels that made a lot of noise when walking.
To his surprise it was someone he had never seen before. She was blonde, in clothing the humans called "casual" and carrying a light yellow box with a white bow on top.
He expected her to just pass his cell door but she didn't. Instead she stopped, asked the guards to give her a minute alone and then she was just standing there, looking at him, shifting awkwardly like she was searching for the right words to start a conversation with.
"What have you come here for?", Todd asked bluntly, to get things moving. Because while it was entertaining to watch human uncertainty, it didn't get him anywhere.
"Well… uh… how do I put this…? Do you remember the first time you were here on earth?", she asked.
He mentally rolled his eyes. How could he not remember? It had one of the few times he had been truly impressed by a human. He had never expected Sheppard to deliver him a human from his own planet for food so that another human from the same planet could be saved. That had made little sense to him but considering his lack of information that was not surprising.
"Well…", the woman started again when he did not answer, he had found that unsettled humans, "That time you saved a woman's life. You reprogrammed the nanites in her body and thus… That woman… was me", she revealed.
"So you have come to do… what?", he asked her, his curiosity peaked.
"Well, I wanted to thank you but since I figured that a thank you would be a bit useless seeing how you're being held captive by us, so I got you a present", she raised and slightly shook the box she was holding.
"A present", he said, his face revealing none of his surprise.
"Yes", said the woman and opened the door to his cell. She knew as well as he did that if he tried feeding on her he would be shot on sight as soon as they found the body. He wouldn't want that, neither would she. Instead he let her hand him the box.
"I didn't have your size so I had to rely on Sgt. May's visual judgement but I think she's fairly accurate", the woman informed him. He had found humans tended to fill silences with unimportant information.
He opened the box and inside he found a piece of black leather clothing. He took it out and unfolded it, it turned out to be a black leather mantle. He didn't know what to say.
"So, what do you think?", the woman asked.
"I.. appreciate the effort… thank you", he said stiffly, not betraying any of his emotions.
"Well… I'm glad you like it. I'll better get going, I promised… someone to be… somewhere… sometime… au revoir", she waved at him, closed the door again and went away.
He smiled.