Elizabeth paced the floor before turning to look at John and Carson, the latter of whom was looking just about as uncomfortable as the former felt. "So you're saying that Rodney has come out of that dart in the body of a Wraith?" she said incredulously. John couldn't really blame her. He'd been exactly the same when he'd heard what was recognizably Rodney coming out of the thing's mouth. The entire experience was unsettling in the worst possible way.

"It looks like that," he said carefully, glancing down at the Wraith – Rodney, he told himself – in the isolation room. He still couldn't believe it himself. White hair, green skin, slitted eyes, life sucking hole on palm – but it was Rodney in there. Rodney who was currently looking completely dejected and staring at nothing, an expression that was all too human on the Wraith features. He swallowed and turned away.

"And do we have any idea how this will affect him?" Elizabeth said, a frown marring her features. Carson looked between her and John nervously before answering.

"The truth is Elizabeth, we have no idea. Dr Zelenka thinks that it's possible that both Rodney and the Wraith consciousness are sharing that body. But we don't know what kind of strain that could cause Rodney."

Elizabeth gave him a look. "You think that he'll need to feed… like a Wraith to stay alive?"

Carson hesitated, a look of concern on his face. John felt his insides turn cold. "Aye," he said finally. "It's possible."

Elizabeth sighed. "Alright. What have we got?"

"Zelenka said he was gonna try and run some tests on the dart. See if he can find some way to get Rodney's body out of there. But when I checked the transformer was pretty beat up," said John, trying to keep his mind off the fact that Rodney was a goddamn Wraith now. If he was going to have Ronon on his team, he was going to have to keep this one under his hat for a while. From what John had seen of the former Runner, he was not going to take kindly to having a Wraith as a teammate, no matter how temporary the situation was. "What I'm saying, Elizabeth, is that I have no idea how long Zelenka's gonna take to find a solution."

"Right. Carson, I think it's best if we keep Rodney in the isolation chamber for now. Keep an eye on him. I'm going to check on Zelenka," Elizabeth said firmly, nodding at them both and heading towards the door. John glared at her retreating back for a moment before following her.

"Dr Weir!"

She turned round as he hurried towards her. "You're not just gonna keep Rodney in there, are you?" he said in a low voice.

"I don't think we really have a choice, John," she said with a steely glint in her eye. "Whether we like it or not, Rodney is stuck in that body, and until we know more, he's a –"

"- danger to the expedition," John said, interrupting her through gritted teeth. "I realize that, but look. It's… still Rodney in there. And if I was him, I'd be pretty freaked out by now. Now I'm no shrink, but what he doesn't need right now is us running away from him."

Elizabeth gave him a piercing look. "You're offering to talk to him?"

John gave a non-committal shrug. "I've been in worse situations. Besides, I think it would be," he paused. "refreshing to have a conversation with a Wraith who doesn't want to kill me."

Elizabeth bowed her head to hide a smile, then looked John in the eye. He tried to keep his face impassive, despite the fact that part of him was already congratulating himself on having worn Elizabeth down. "Alright," she said. "But be careful."

"I'm always careful," he said with a smile, and headed towards the isolation room.


Rodney was still in shock. God help him, he was a Wraith. A Wraith. A life-sucking alien that could kill everyone on this base so easily, just like that. God, it wasn't fair. Why did these things always happen to him? How would he be able to work like this? That caveman runner, Dex or whatever his name was, would snap his neck at the first opportunity!

What was worse was that Rodney was sure he wasn't alone – he could hear something in the back of his mind. This could only get worse. Only get much, much worse.

"What are you doing in my mind, human?" growled a voice, and he jumped.

"Who said that?" he squeaked in his Wraith-voice. There was a snort of amusement.

"The one whose body you are currently borrowing, Rodney McKay."

"Oh. Oh, this is not good. This is so many kinds of not good," Rodney groaned.

"No. It is not good for either of us," the Wraith agreed.

John smiled sarcastically at the two marines standing guard outside the door before stepping through. Rodney was sitting on the gurney with his head in his hands. John felt a pang of sympathy as he stopped a few feet from where Rodney was sitting.

"Hey Rodney," he said as casually as he could. The Wra – Rodney, he reminded himself in annoyance, irritated that he was still calling Rodney 'the Wraith' in his head – raised its head to look at him.

"How are you, uh, feeling?" He cursed himself as soon as the words left his mouth. Bad Bedside Manner 07: Ask a question with an obvious answer. Great going, John!

"Oh, fine. Absolutely fine. I mean, several people are probably gonna want to shoot me on sight when they see me, but I'm fine." Rodney scowled and John fought the momentary urge to point his P-90 at the Wraith face in front of him. Damn, when had it become instinct to do that? Rodney was speaking again, the familiar note of hysteria in his voice. "In fact, you know what? I'm a green, vampire thing that can suck the life out of people with its hands, everyone's afraid of me, and I'm actually finding myself sympathizing with Ford right now. I think I'm about as far from fine as it's possible to be!"

John winced, and was suddenly reminded that he'd given the order to shoot the dart down. Well that just complicated things so much, because now it was his fault that Rodney was in this position. "Okay, that was a bad question. Look, Rodney – "

"What I really need is for you to shut up!" Rodney shouted suddenly.

John blinked. "Okay," he said lightly, and Rodney looked at him with such a Rodney-ish expression of surprise and confusion that John had to look away.

"Oh, I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to," Rodney gestured at his head with one hand, "him."

John looked at Rodney, realization striking him. "You're sharing your brain with that thing?"

"Well technically I'm sharing it's brain, but… yes" Rodney admitted helplessly.

John took a step closer to Rodney. "You know they're gonna suggest getting Heightmeyer in here."

"Yeah, and that'll really help," Rodney said sarcastically. "Even if she doesn't faint in terror, our Wraith friend and I already know where we stand with each other. I doubt she could do much to help!"

"She won't faint in terror."

"Please Colonel. You're standing over there with one hand on your gun. Radek – Radek can't even bear to look at me. And I haven't seen Teyla, Elizabeth or Carson in here," Rodney said in despair. John realized that it was true and felt shame rise up in his gut.

"Rodney…" John searched for something comforting to say and found nothing. "Ok. Zelenka is busy working on the dart. Hopefully he'll be able to find some way of getting you back into your own body."

"I should be out there working with him."

"Rodney –"

"I know, I know I can't. Elizabeth has probably said I should be kept in here, right?"

John hesitated. "Elizabeth," he said finally, putting as much emphasis on Elizabeth's name as possible, "did uh, say that, yes."

Rodney looked at him and John swallowed again, because seeing Rodney on that face was still creeping him out. A lot.

"To keep people safe," Rodney said. It wasn't a question.

John nodded. But before he could open his mouth to say anything else, a buzz on his radio stopped him.

"Colonel Sheppard, this is Weir."

John turned his back reluctantly on Rodney. "Go ahead."

"How is he?"

John glanced at Rodney and took a step closer to the door. "Well… same old Rodney, really. I mean, he's a little, uh, creeped out but…" John thought about the best way to say this. "It looks like Zelenka's theory about sharing minds is right."

"Should we get Dr Heightmeyer in there?"

John glanced at Rodney again, who was very pointedly not looking at him. "I don't think that would be a good idea at the moment, Elizabeth. I mean for a start we don't know how much control Rodney has. I don't really wanna risk it."

"If you're sure, John…" Elizabeth sounded doubtful. "If you want to come up to where we've got the dart, Zelenka thinks he might be on to something."

"On my way." John looked at Rodney. "Uh, listen, I need to go and…"

"Yes yes yes. Go on and see what they're up to. See if you can get Zelenka working any faster," Rodney said impatiently. John was in half a mind to stay with Rodney and make sure that he didn't try and do anything stupid, but then he thought of Carson. Surely Rodney would be fine with him?

He smiled. "I'll threaten to take him off-world again," he drawled as he left the room, and felt slightly better about the whole thing when a small smile spread across Rodney's features.


Rodney sighed once Sheppard had left the room. Well, that hadn't gone so bad. At least it looked like one person in the city was willing to give him a chance. The Wraith had stayed oddly quiet throughout most of that exchange, apart from a rather irritating point where it had started screaming at him for control of the body and he'd done his best to ignore it. Now however, it seemed to want to talk.

"That human the Colonel is your friend."

"Yes," he said irritably, not in the mood to go into the extent to human relationships with a Wraith. "Not something you're likely to understand."

"But he was afraid of you."

Rodney shook off the small pang of rejection that statement gave him and snapped back. "No, he was afraid of you. I just happen to be unlucky enough to be sharing your body!"

A pause. Rodney hoped that the Wraith had decided to shut up, but he was disappointed when it started speaking again.

"Tell me Rodney McKay, how long will it take your scientists to get the beaming technology of our ship working?"

"A few hours if we're lucky, but more likely to be a few days."

"I hope for both our sakes it is the former."

"Really, and why's that?"

"Tell me, have you ever known starvation?"

Rodney felt the beginnings of a horrible cold feeling in the pit of his stomach. His Wraith stomach. His Wraith stomach that couldn't digest normal food…

"No," he said nervously. "Why?"

A humorless chuckle. "You are a scientist, are you not? I have not fed in several days. Consider this a learning experience. Perhaps you will feel more sympathetic towards the Wraith once you have felt their hunger."