Stargate Atlantis: Season 7

by Lady Mayrid

Episode 25: Ronon returns to Atlantis with some news for Sheppard while Todd makes a decision that could cast him everything...

7. Blackout

A/N: I was going back over my previous chapters and I decided that I could make some of them better so I did. It being near Christmas and all, I started with this one so enjoy and don't forget to drop me a review and let me know if you liked the new version as much as the onld one. Cheers!

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Episode VII: Blackout

Humans were, in general, odd creatures with odd habits and the frequent tendency to waste large amounts of time in various pursuits of frivolity. Earth humans, Todd had decided, were just outright strange. In the four years that the wraith had associated himself with them he had seen them do a variety of unusual things which had made and still made little if any sense to him but which he had surmised held some cultural significance to which he had yet to be made aware. Their current occupation, however, seemed to have no purpose, at least none that he could determine, and therefore why Sheppard insisted that he be here to participate in it left him completely baffled.

"Sheppard," the wraith ventured having grown rather tired of walking around in the snow as wraith in general weren't particularly fond of the cold and he was no exception, "What are we doing?"

John glanced over his shoulder. "We're looking for a tree," he said.

Todd snorted. "A tree?" his voice dripped disdain as he stopped and gestured around. "Like any of these?"

John shook his head. "Wrong kind of tree," he answered and kept walking before he realized that the wraith was no longer following him. Turning back, he shot the alien a look as if to say 'well, come on'. The wraith sighed heavily before he begrudgingly started walking again.

"And just what kind of tree are you questing for John Sheppard?" Todd asked as he padded through the snow, cursing the human with each step he took.

John smirked, wondering how he was going to explain the concept of Christmas to the wraith before he realized that the concept wasn't the hard part it was all the Americanized and commercialized traditions that went along with it. Like the Christmas tree which was why they were out here, on the mainland, trekking though the forest in the first place. Not that Todd had wanted to come with him at all but boredom was a wonderful motivator and, after five hours of working with Rodney while the Canadian tried to figure out what the latest gadget they'd found did, John was pretty sure the wraith would have agreed to learn the cancan if it would have gotten him out of that lab.

Lost in thought John forgot to look where he was going and, having turned a corner in the woods, promptly ran face first into a tree. The rumbling laughter of the leather clad alien sounded behind him as John coughed and sputtered and spit out pine needles. Looking up he espied the prefect, albeit huge, Christmas tree.

"This kind of tree," John said in response to Todd's question as he circled the thing looking for the best way to cut it down.

Todd's mirth subsided as he eyed the large and imposing girth of the Forestfew tree wondering what was so appealing about this mundane and perfectly unremarkable plant that was the most common species of evergreen in the galaxy. "And what design to you have for this growth of flora?" he inquired, reluctant to admit that he was actually curious.

John dug his feet into the snow and proceeded to begin hacking the tree down with the ax he'd barrowed from the botany department for just this purpose. "You'll see," he told the watching alien. "I'd explain it to you but you'd get confused."

The wraith glared at him. "You doubt my ability to comprehend a simple explanation?"

John winced, wondering why Todd always took everything so negatively. "Well," he started as he lifted his ax and took another swing at the trunk, "It's not exactly a simple concept. There are many different layers to it, and variations on top of those layers so forgive me if I prolong your confusion in favor of waiting to give you an explanation that might actually make sense."

To that the wraith could say nothing and compensated by crossing his arms in both annoyance and as a ward against the cold, lapsing into a stony silence. After a few minutes of watching the human toil, the wraith got bored and wandered over to a snow covered bolder, brushed it off and sat. Meditation seemed in order and so Todd closed his eyes, attempted to clear his mind and concentrated. His attempt failed when Sheppard shouted something and the tree came crashing down.

"Right, that was fun," John said tiredly, breathing heavily as he reached for his radio. When he and Todd had gotten dropped off a couple of hours ago, John had told the jumper to go back to the city, change pilots and then come back, take up a perimeter and circle their general location until he called for them.

"Sheppard to Jumper, come in."

"Jumper to Sheppard," Kate's voice answered. "So Woolsey decided to let you put up decorations did he?"

"Yeah," John replied and frowned. "Hey?" he asked, "When did you and Lorne get back from that trading mission? I thought you weren't due back for another couple hours?"

There was a pause in which the radio crackled and John was pretty sure that the communication device was switching hands. Seconds later he was proven right as Lorne took over the task of talking to him. "Well you see, Sir," Lorne started and John could have sworn he heard Kate snickering in the background, "We had to cut the mission short."

"Why?" he asked, glancing over towards Todd to see that the wraith was pretending not to listen but John knew he could hear every word.

"The natives," Lorne replied, "They…ah, got a little too friendly with Tyler."

"It was great," Kate chortled. "Three of the chieftain's daughters tried to claim him and then it turned into this huge fight so we decided it was time to leave."

"Terrible," John muttered sarcastically. "I know I'd hate to have so many women fighting over me."

Someone snorted on the other end of the radio and John was tempted to assume that it was his sister as he could very much see his second in command, or any of the men in Atlantis, agreeing with him. Somehow he figured that the decision to leave had come from Kate rather than from either Lorne, James or Tyler. "Oh he didn't mind much at first," Kate explained, her voice dripping false optimism. "It was only after we learned that, if he were to actually take one of the girls up on their offer, he'd have to go through this trial thing."

"Kind of pass-fail," Lorne interjected. "If you pass you live and have thus earned the right to reproduce, if you fail, which is apparently is the most common outcome -"

"You die a horrible death involving these little beetles that are kind of a cross between a flesh eating scarab and a wasp," Kate concluded. "Seems the ritual involves you sitting in a tub full of them. The critters are particularly fond of certain parts of the male anatomy and your job is to fend them off as long as you can. If you outlast the timer you're good to go. If not the bugs crew your bits off."

John winced and instinctively cupped a hand over his troops while squeezing his thighs together. A glance at the eavesdropping Todd reviled the wraith to be making a particularly uncomfortable looking face and John wondered briefly if male wraith had the same features as male humans before writing that thought off as a highly disturbing possibility that he had no desire to dwell on. The thought that, anatomically speaking, wraith could possibly be compatible with humans was a preverbal Pandora's Box that John did not want opened and was therefore perfectly content to live in ignorance.

"Well," John replied, his voice sounding slightly pained for more than one reason, "I gotta admit that your retreat makes a hell of a lot more sense now," he looked up, blinking his eyes against the lightly falling snow. "Listen, I just found the perfect tree to go up in the Mess Hall. I need you to come get me."

"I suppose," came his sister's lazy reply. "Who else is there with you?"

John smirked, glancing over at the still slightly uncomfortable looking wraith who was currently lost in thought contemplating the various snow drifts that surrounded them. "Todd."

"Todd!?!" Kate yelped, obvious disbelief in her voice and, at her yell, the wraith in question snapped out of whatever trance he'd been living in and looked up towards John as Kate continued speaking. "How the hell did you talk him into that?"

The wraith quirked his head to the side in a kind of amusement that John personally resented his sister for as nobody else in the city seemed to possess the ability to make Todd the wraith that happy as often as she did. Shrugging it off as one of the many mysteries that he wouldn't be finding any answers to anytime soon, he answered, "I'm just that good."

As John waited for his sister's reply he was instead rewarded by the sound of the approaching jumper and so looked up, watching as it descended and then came to a rest on solid ground some twenty feet to his right. Looking in through the windshield, John watched Lorne wave at him as his sister gave him a look and shook her head, getting up and hitting the door release for the back hatch.

"Bullshit!" Kate yelled as she walked around the side of the jumper and stopped in front of her brother, her weight resting on her right hip and her arms crossed over her chest.

John grinned and eyed his sister. She was wearing dark-wash jeans, black snow boots and a hooded black puffer jacket with fur around the hood. "Where's your uniform?" he teased as a similarly dressed Lorne in jeans, his combat boots and a black hoodie with the words 'Semper Fi' written across the front in red letters stepped out of the jumper as well.

Kate smirked at him. "Didn't you get the memo?" she asked her brother, looking down at his black winter BDU's. "We're all off duty for the next three days," her smile got wider as she stuck her hands into her pockets. "Casual dress."

John frowned. "You mean I could've worn jeans out here instead of this thing?" he gestured down at himself. "Aw come on!" he sighed and looked up at Lorne, "You wanna help me with this thing so that we can all go back to Atlantis where it's warm?"

"Yeah," Lorne agreed and moved forwards to help his commanding officer.

Kate, meanwhile, had wandered over to the wraith whom had neither moved nor shown any outward signs of interest since they'd landed. Coming to a rest besides him, she looked up at him just as he turned his head ever so slightly so that he might look down at her. "So what did John say to get you out here?" she asked casually.

"Not much," Todd admitted with a slight roll of his shoulders, a gesture he had picked up through long periods of overexposure to the humans of Atlantis. "I thought perhaps nothing could be so bad as listening to another five hours of Doctor McKay talking," he frowned. "I was wrong."

Kate giggled. "Oh, you think this is bad wait 'til you get back to the city," she told him. "Fair warning; look up before you walk through a doorway. If you see this little green plant hanging on the ceiling, run."

Todd raised a row ridge, his face betraying his bemusement and slight levels of curiosity. "Is such a plant dangerous?" he inquired.

Kate shrugged. "Depends on your definition of dangerous," she said offhandedly. "If you mean will it hurt you? Physically no, but it has been known to damage several people's pride."

He looked at her. "Oh?"

A thought occurred to her. "John hasn't explained any of this," she waved her hand at the boys who were currently dragging the tree towards the jumper, "to you has he?"

Todd shook his head. "No."

"Ah, the plot thickens," Kate murmured before hopping up on the boulder behind her and then looking towards the wraith who was now at eye level. "It's called Christmas. It's a holiday back on Earth that, while having a religious backdrop, has mostly been Americanized. Anyways, there are a whole bunch of traditions that go along with it and that," she pointed at her brother and Lorne who were trying to wrestle the tree onto the top of the jumper and having little success, "Is one of them."

The wraith considered this and looked over her attire, finding the colors and patterns of the various materials to his liking. He had seen her out of uniform before, previously in a floor length gown and generous amounts of cosmetics and while he had been particularly well receptive of such formal attire that had left no delusion in his mind that Katherine was a desirable female; he rather thought he preferred her current attire to that of her robe. The clothes she wore now, while accentuating her rarely seen femininity and once more drawing his eye to her assets, also left open the option that she could still defend herself if such a need were to arise. This balance of deadly effectiveness and beauty suited her particularly well.

Retrieving his mind from its thoughts as they in themselves were as dangerous as the woman around whom they revolved, Todd moved his eyes from their current location back to her face. "And, in order to celebrate this…Christmas, you have been given leave to rest in leisure?" he inquired, honestly curious as he had never before spent any great amount of time with his human allies when neither he nor they were involved in harrowing or battle heavy circumstances.

"A rarity in this line of work but yeah," Kate shrugged and turned back towards him. "Woolsey isn't as lenient with days off and letting us celebrate holidays as Weir or Carter were and as a result we all have quite a bit of leave piled up. It took some convincing, and a petition, but we eventually talked him into letting us do Christmas."

"I see," Todd whispered although in all actuality he saw very little point in all of this other then it was a waste of time that could be better used. But even he had to admit that in the wake of this holiday the humans' moral seemed to have been lifted considerably. Perhaps that was the point.

"No, you don't," Kate countered, giving him a look and interrupting his train of thought. "You think that this is all a waste of time."

Todd snorted. "How perceptive of you."

Kate shrugged and went back to contemplating snowflakes. "You're not that hard to read."

The first thought Todd had to being told this was that he was becoming careless, allowing his frequent interactions with these humans to develop into a sense of familiarity which had in turn lulled him into believing that it was acceptable to no longer guard his thoughts and emotions. Were such a thing to occur it would inevitably damn him as, were the humans to learn the absolute truth of his mind, plans, ambitions and feelings, they would most definitely be less inclined to work with him then they already were. His worry was slashed, however; as he remembered whom it was that he was speaking to. Somehow, whether it be because he felt amity towards her or because he knew her to be like him, he did not feel threatened by the possibility that she would be able to see so easily through him. In fact, although he was reluctant to admit to it, even inwardly, the longer he knew her the more he wanted her to be the one human in Atlantis that reached such a level with him that he would no longer require the need to hide himself behind a veil of human politeness. The desire consumed him, flaring almost as strongly as the ever pressing need to understand her in her entirety.

"Am I?" Todd asked her, his tone light as he pulled himself from his thoughts. "Hmm, I shall have to provide you with more of a challenge in the future."

Kate smirked. "You're teasing me," she accused.

"I would not dare," Todd replied offhandedly, stiffening his spine so that he drew himself up to his full height as he looked down on her; a slight smile betraying the truth of her accusation.

Kate raised an eyebrow and then slid to the edge of her rock and leaned forwards, stretching upwards until her face was about two inches away from Todd's. A laugh tickled at her lips and at the back of her throat as she gazed into his eyes which had widened slightly at her advancement. "Really?" she queried, a playful overtone to her words and her body language. "I think you would."

Todd blinked at her, remembering the last time she had been this close to him. They had been in a cell and she had been sitting before him, her back pressed securely to his chest warming him and causing heat to rise within him even as he was supposed to be the one offering such warmth to her. The memory drifted through him of how easily they had passed the time together, conversing quietly whilst his wraith and her teammates had slept to pass the time until her eyes, too, had grown heavily and she had slipped into slumber. He had stayed awake some time after that, studying her breathing, the rise and fall of her chest, as she had shifted so that her head had lain pillowed on his shoulder. In sleep, the period of time in which all living creatures are at their weakest and most vulnerable state, she had trusted him to keep her not only warm but also safe. Her faith in him was as pleasant a thought as was the memory of her weight against him both of which he was sure were things that Sheppard begrudged him a great deal as the human had been rather less then pleased when he had espied them in that position upon waking.

Just as he was similarly less then pleased when, having completed his task of tying the tree to the top of the jumper, he glanced over and he saw them in this one.

"Hey!" John screeched as he turned and beheld the more then slightly horrible and heavily disturbing sight of his sister being less than two inches away from Todd the wraith. "Stop flirting with my sister!" the two of them looked at him. "Come on, let's go. There's a cup of hot cocoa in the mess with my name on it."

Kate snorted, letting her brother's accusation role off her back like water off a duck. Hopping down from the boulder once Todd had moved back and out of the way, she marched towards the jumper. Planting herself besides the craft as her brother clamored down from atop it, she looked up at him. "Flirting John?" she belittled him as he slipped and fell the rest of the way down to the ground landing on his ass and banging his head against the hull of the gate ship. "Seriously?"

The colonel grumbled as he got up and shook the white power off of him, rubbing his injured noggin. "Well, that's what it looked like," he defended himself. "He was like this close to you," he held up his thumb and forefinger, a small gap between them, for emphasis.

Kate huffed and stomped towards the back hatch.

John followed, not quite willing to let the matter drop completely as it was a subject matter that had been nagging at the back of his mind for some time now. "Don't you find it even the least bit creepy that you're the only one that he ever gets that close to? Voluntarily?"

"No, I don't," Kate remarked as she boarded the jumper and sat down in the copilot's seat, leaning back and putting her feet up on the dash as Todd took the seat behind her and Lorne, who was already seated inside as she and the wraith boarded, looked up at her from the seat behind the pilot's chair.

"What's going on?" Lorne asked as eyed her, "What's your brother complaining about now?"

Kate rolled her eyes. "He accused us," she gestured between herself and Todd who was, as always, sitting rigidly in his seat with his hands on his knees, "of flirting."

Lorne snorted in amusement just as the colonel boarded and closed the back hatch. "Really Sir?" he asked as his commanding officer moved to his seat and began to fire her up.

John glared at his second in command over his shoulder before turning towards his sister. "Alright so maybe I overreacted a bit," he threw a look at the wraith. "Sorry."

"Your sincerity astounds me," Todd rebuked, catching Katherine's bemused smirk out of the corner of his eye.

"Oh ha-ha you're fucking hilarious," John growled sarcastically wondering why, out of all the wraith in the whole damned galaxy, this one had to have a sense of humor.

Todd cocked his head to one side. "You're apology might hold more meaning for me if I knew what it was that I have been accused of."

Lorne threw him a look. "You don't know what flirting is?" he asked; completely baffled as to date pretty much every culture they'd come across had some sort of ritual involving playful, verbal banter that accompanied courtship. Even the Asgard which, of the many types of flirting they'd seen since starting the Stargate Program, had to be the absolute weirdest. It had never occurred to Lorne that the wraith might not have it but then, really, there wasn't all that much they did know about the mating habits of this particular species and in all honesty the major was happy to keep it that way. Just like he was happy to keep the fact that humans and wraith were sexually compatible and that Todd seemed to think Kate was hot to himself as well.

To the major's question, Todd shook his head once to either side. "No."

Lorne let out a breath and turned towards Kate as the jumper began the hour long flight back over the ocean towards the city. "Well Miss I-explain-things, explain."

Kate pretended to look offended as she rolled her eyes but turned towards Todd anyway. "Flirting is usually a playful or teasing way of showing romantic or sexual inertest," she turned away from him briefly to glare at the back of her brother's head. "Which we were not doing!"

"All right I get it, bad choice of words," John defended himself. "I said I was sorry."

Kate rolled her eyes. "Your sincerity was astounding," she paraphrased, mimicking Todd almost perfectly in tone and facial expression.

John blinked and looked over her, miffed. "Oh not you too," he ordered, "You are not allowed to sound like him!"

Kate crossed her arms. "Why not?" she asked. "He brings up good points."

John scoffed. "He does not!" he countered automatically. "Well…sometimes, but that's not the point."

"Well then, what is the point?" Kate demanded irritably.

"Yes," Todd echoed. "What exactly is your point Sheppard?"

"The point is that you two are already too similar as is," John explained. "I don't need her to be any more like you."

Todd scowled. "I hardly think Katherine is in any danger of being too like me," he responded knowing that his statement, meant to end this pointless argument, was a flat out lie. Katherine was, in point of fact, very like him and the longer he knew her the more he was discovering just how many similarities they had.

"If you say so," John muttered and turned the jumper just slightly to the left. "Now -"

"How about we just drop the subject before one of you decides to murder the other?" Kate intervened having grown tired of her brother's point making a while ago.

John slumped down in his chair. "Fine."

Todd grunted.

"Better," Kate observed and then pulled out her iPod from her pocket and stuffed her headphones into her ears. Adjacent her, Lorne did the same with his nano and the both of them proceeded to tune out the world.

Todd, having lost the ability to converse with Katherine fond that the idea of speaking conversationally to Sheppard was not an appealing one and so decided that he disliked whatever it was that was currently holding her attention. He frowned, eyeing the strange buds that were plugged into her ears knowing that it was these that were enticing her to ignore him.

"It's called an iPod," John informed the wraith whom he could see was studying his sister's earphones intently. "They're tiny but they hold like a thousand songs."

Todd snorted. "So it is a listening device?"

John nodded. "It stores music."

Todd slowly nodded his head, an old memory floating to mind of a melody he had not heard in a very long time nor would ever likely hear again. During the time in which the city of Atlantis had been floating offshore of the city that Sheppard had told him was named San Francisco, the wraith had been subjected to a great many of Earth's cultural stimulants including the mockery they called music. At absolute worst their songs were a horrible jumble of words with very little actual melody that were repetitive and nonsensical. At best, there were some instrumental pieces that he could stand to hear again if he was forced to but in general it was a listening experience that he never wanted to repeat. He did have to hand it to the humans though, on their ability to create so many types and styles of offensive noise and he wondered briefly what of those types Katherine was currently listening to and what types she enjoyed. Perhaps, thinking of their similarities, there was a genre that he had not yet heard that she found pleasure in that was not so grating as those others he had been subjected to.

The rest of the journey to the city was spent in silence and, as Sheppard lowered the jumper into its docking station, Todd stood quickly as he was in no mood to be dragged into helping Sheppard assemble whatever plans he had for the tree that he had been tricked into accompanying the Colonel to collect. His retreat only lasted so long before Katherine caught up to him.

"Hey Todd," the wraith stopped walking and turned towards the female.

"Yes?"

Kate made a face of barely hidden unhappiness. "In a hurry to go back to McKay's lab?" she asked as she took a step towards him and, stopping right in front of him, looked up.

"Not particularly, no," he told her, glancing once over Sheppard who had already climbed up on top of the craft and had begun to remove the stays that held the specimen of flora in place.

Kate grinned. "And I bet you have no desire to find out what my brother is going to do with that tree do you?" she asked, a glimmer of amusement in her eye.

The look he gave her was enough of an answer that she burst out laughing.

"You find my expressions amusing, Katherine?" he asked, torn between actual annoyance and amusement over her clear enjoyment of his facial lexis.

Kate shook her head. "Yes, actually I do," her honesty shocked him; she could tell by the slight widening of his eyes that he had not expected her to be so straightforward.

The wraith snorted. "Do you humans not find such amusement at another's expense discourteous?" he asked, crossing his arms and glaring down at her.

She smiled. "Yeah sometimes," she reached out and grabbed him by his elbow and started to pull him towards the stairwell leading to the control room. "Come along you, I'm cold and I bet you are too so let's go."

Curious and admittedly receptive to her touch, Todd allowed himself to be steered down a nearby corridor.

~xXx~

Since Woolsey had delivered the edict that for the next three days everyone except those few that didn't have some sort of winter holiday to celebrate were officially off the clock, the mess hall had become the veritable gathering place for all things of a social nature. Besides the fact that the kitchen staff was so besides themselves with the opportunity to concoct various traditional Christmas time foods, several other expedition members that were inclined towards the culinary arts had started to cook up batches of their favorite wintery snacks by the bucket loads. On a normal day, the buffet table that sat in a L along two of the spacious room's walls sat empty except for a couple of dishes that were set out to feed the scientists that never actually ate when they were supposed to and kept wandering in at odd intervals throughout the day. Now, however, there wasn't an inch of space left on the thing which groaned and creaked under the weight of all the Yule tide dishes, the multitudes of every type of cookie imaginable, and the holiday sponge cakes. Looking at it, one couldn't help but get a tooth ache.

"That's a lot of food," Lieutenant Laura Cadman, newly returned for a much longer stay then she normally endured in Atlantis, commented.

Jennifer nodded, sipping her mug of hot coco, "I'll bet anything that the dentists will be booked for the next month solid filling cavities."

"There does seem to be an abundance," Teyla observed, jumping slightly as Ronon came to join them, brining a plate piled with gooey looking squares with him and setting it down in the middle of the table.

"Ah, Ronon," Carson, who was visiting, asked, eyeing the plate full of what looked like brownies, "What are those?"

"I made them," the former runner looked proud of himself as he pushed the plate towards the doctor just slightly. "Try one."

Cadman's left eyebrow went up. "You made those?"

Ronon eyed her. "I can cook."

"She never said that you could not," Teyla said gently, glancing at him. "But I will admit that I am surprised that you took such initiative."

The Setedan shrugged. "Try one," he ordered his fellow native of the Pegasus galaxy as he grabbed a napkin off a table nearby, put it in front of Teyla and dropped one of his cakes onto it.

Teyla, much too polite to decline, took a bite. Her eyes lit up.

"Well?" Cadman asked.

Teyla swallowed. "They are…quite good actually."

"Really?" Cadman echoed her disbelief before reaching across the table and grabbing one, shoving it into her mouth. A blissful expression crossed her face moments later as she turned towards the newlywed doctor. "Oh my God, Jennifer you have to try one!"

Ronon smirked, leaning back in his chair proudly.

"Aye, they are good," Carson was quick to agree after about two bites, "Delicious."

The former runner opened his mouth to say thank you but was cut short by the sudden hush that usually heralded Todd's arrival to any given place followed by the loud, bright laugher of Kate Sheppard. Turning in his chair, and noticing that half the people in the mess were doing the same, Ronon saw the two individuals enter the room and head straight for the table that was currently dispensing wintery drinks in great abundance and without stop.

"Who's that?" Cadman asked knowing instinctively that the wraith was the infamous Todd even though she'd never met him before and, therefore, found herself curious over the woman.

Carson looked up. "Aye, that'd be Kate right?" he looked at Jennifer for confirmation as he had only met the woman once before and briefly at that. "Colonel Sheppard's sister."

The doctor gave a slight bow of her head whilst besides her, Cadman processed this. "I didn't know Colonel Sheppard had a sister," she looked over the woman who was holding a steaming cup of something and was currently trying to get the wraith to take a cup of his own. "What's she doing?"

The occupants of the table studied the scene. "I think she's trying to get him to try whatever it is she's drinking," Jennifer guessed.

"Bet you anything he ends up doing it," Ronon crossed his arms, leaning back in his chair.

Cadman looked at him. "Why?"

"Todd as a tendency to do what Kate asks," Teyla informed the young marine. "It is strange. He is…kinder to her then he is to any of the rest of us."

"He likes her," Ronon shrugged.

Cadman eyed him. "He likes her?" she repeated, glancing back towards the beverage dispensers to see that the wraith was now holding a cup and was looking down at its steaming contents dubiously as if he doubted the drinkability of whatever was in it. She looked back up at Ronon. "What exactly do you mean by 'he likes her'?"

Carson wanted to know too, having never thought of the Setedan as being particularly observant when it came to social behaviors. "Aye, do tell," the doctor leaned forwards expectantly.

Ronon looked around the table. "I mean he likes her," he reached forwards to take one of his own cakes, nibbling on it he continued. "Like that meteorologist what's-his-face, Jones…likes Teyla."

Cadman's eyes nearly bugged out of her head. "You mean he has a crush on her?" she demanded, glancing up to see that by now the wraith must have finally downed a portion of whatever was in the cup because the woman, Kate, was wearing an 'I-told-you-so' grin on her face. "You've got to be kidding me!"

"I wish," Ronon said remorsefully, nodding his shaggy head towards them. "Watch 'em," he instructed, "You'll see it."

As one, the five occupants at the table turned and locked their gazes to the odd pair that was now headed towards them, both carrying cups. As they walked every now and then Todd would say something and Kate would reply. The fifth time or so whatever he said made the woman's cheeks tint pink and it was then, as the wraith grinned, that they all saw what Ronon had pointed out.

"Holy shit!" Cadman exclaimed as they neared, Todd standing back so Kate could walk through a particularly narrow row of chairs.

"Aye," Carson's eyes were the size of dinner plates. "This is…"

"Most strange," Teyla finished when the doctor seemed unable to complete his sentence.

Jennifer smirked. Alone of the others, Evan had told her what Todd had said to their friend the first time he'd met her. "You are desirable" the wraith had informed Kate after he'd watched her set her dislocated shoulder and it was a sentence that he'd repeated on their second meeting when she'd then been covered in blood. Finding out that the wraith's attentiveness for their Kate ran slightly deeper than an acknowledgement that her appearance stimulated him was not news to the newly married doctor. Neither she nor Even believed for a second that Todd was here because he couldn't get a hold of his hive. The wraith was in charge of about twenty of them so the probability of one of the others answering when his attempt to contact his primary one failed was pretty damned good. No, both the major and the doctor suspected that the reason he'd decided to stay had more to do with Kate than any other one variable.

Not that he'd ever admit it.

"Hey guys," Kate called as she and Todd finally achieved their destination. She looked around the table, nodding at each individual before landing on a face that she didn't recognize. "And you are?" she asked the strawberry blonde sitting to Jennifer's left.

"Laura Cadman, marine," came the reply as the woman looked up at the wraith who was currently hovering just over Kate's shoulder. "You must be Todd."

He grunted. "That is the name Sheppard gave me, yes,"

"Right," Cadman turned back towards Kate. "So, I heard something about the Colonel going out to get a Christmas tree?"

Kate took a sip from the buttered rum she'd managed to talk the kitchen staff into giving to her and that she'd talked Todd into drinking after she'd gotten him to admit to being cold. "It's huge," she informed them all. "He and Even are trying to get it in here as we speak."

"That'll be a fun sight to see," Carson chortled good-naturedly.

"Hmmm," Kate muttered as she took another sip, noticing that Todd's cup was empty. "Told you you'd like it," she smirked at him, one eyebrow raised in amassment.

The wraith gave her a look that was a cross between being patronizing and playful. "So you did," he rumbled, his voice more a purr than normal.

"Yes, well," Kate turned from the table and around to face the wraith and looked up. "In light of this, the next time I tell you to try something are you going to just do it and not argue?"

The table watched them, gazing between the two of them in rapt attention, amazed that the wraith was being this cordial with a human and that Kate was being this casual with a wraith. Everyone except Jennifer, that is, who was just clutching her coffee cup full of hot cocoa and grinning like the Cheshire cat.

Todd looked down on the woman who was once again much closer to him then he was sure Sheppard would have found respectable; the fact that she was so willing to allow such nearness endearing her to him ever more. "We shall see," he teased. "Perhaps I simply like to argue."

Kate snorted. "Growing up, arguing was a sport; between David, John and Dad they could go on for hours. Trust me," she eyed him impishly, "Start an argument with me and you'll lose."

"Is that a challenge?" Todd asked, a smile breaking his lips that showed all of his pointed teeth.

Kate mirrored his expression and, crossing her arms and shifting her weight to one hip she looked up at him saucily. "Do you want it be?"

While the two of them were bantering, Ronon had taken to pointing covertly between the two of them and nodding while Cadman sat with her elbow on the table and her head propped up on her hand watching the show. Teyla looked stunned and Carson amused whilst Jennifer tried very hard not to burst into manic giggles. Unfortunately their conversation was cut short by the arrival of Colonel Sheppard who, with the help of about twenty marines, had managed to drag the Christmas tree into the room.

"TREE TIME!" the colonel shouted over the entire mess and everybody looked up in time to see that a huge, colossal pine tree was now standing erect in the farthest corner of the room. "Who wants to decorate?"

The wave of people who surged towards the tree allowed Kate to eye those around her before nodding covertly at Lorne from across the room and then grabbing both mug and Todd and vacating the premises as she was in no mood to help her brother hang lights and makeshift ornaments on a tree.

"Now where are we going?" Todd asked of his escort as she joined with Major Lorne and quickly began to edge down the stairs away from the commotion. It amused him that not once since having left the jumper bay had Katherine asked him if he wished to continue to remain in her company but rather just assumed that he preferred her presence over that of any other. Her assumption was correct, but that did not stop him from finding enjoyment from it that she wished to remain with him for an extended amount of time.

Lorne shrugged. "Somewhere other than here," he looked at Kate. "Your room or mine?"

Kate snickered at the double meaning laced into those particular words. "Mine," she answered as the three of them veered left. "Just because I think John said something about him," she gestured at Todd, "Not being allowed in my room and therefore is less likely to go looking for us there."

"Sounds good," Lorne replied and was the first to reach the transport. Squeezing them all inside he pressed the necessary portion of the screen and waited for the doors to close.

The doors opened again in a corridor that Todd recognized immediately as being the one in which his temporary quarters, the ones he had been assigned to use while in the city, were located. Following Katherine and Major Lorne down the hallway, they passed by his room only to immediately come to a stop before the apartment located just next door to his own. Frowning, the wraith watched as Katherine waved her hand over the door controls and then entered; he and the major following her.

Three steps into the room that was laid out exactly like his own and Todd realized whose quarters they were now in. The giveaway, he decided, was the large picture of a much younger Sheppard attired in what Todd had come to know as his dress uniform standing at attention while a female child clung to his leg, holding his hand while looking up at him adoringly. Stepping closer, he peered at the captured image that hung over the bed.

"Nancy took that picture the day John graduated from the Air Force Academy," Kate explained and Todd turned from his contemplation of the picture to look at her. She continued, "It's my favorite picture of him."

Todd released a huff through his nose and turned back to the picture briefly before fixing his eyes on Katherine whom was now seated next to Major Lorne on the cushioned seating arrangement Sheppard had told him was called a couch. "The child," he questioned, "Is you?"

Kate nodded. "Yeah. John was twenty-two when he graduated so I was like, nine in that picture."

Lorne glanced at the picture. "You were cute."

Kate eyed him. "I was cute?" she teased, throwing him a mocking smile.

Lorne backtracked. "Not that you aren't cute now," he stumbled. "Well, maybe cute isn't the best word. You're -"

Kate burst into laughter. "It's alright Evan, I was just playing."

He glared at her. "Right little imp you are."

Kate smirked. "And don't you forget it," she giggled, looking up at the wraith who was looking at the both of them with an odd expression on his face. "Sit down," she admonished him, smirking when the wraith did as he was told and sat down on the short side of her L shaped couch. She looked around at her two guests. "So, what are we going to do for the next…well the rest of the day?"

"At least 'til dinner," Lorne amended and then shrugged. "I don't know, got any board games?"

Kate thought about it. "I have monopoly," she offered, turning to look at Todd. "Has my brother ever taught you how to play any of our games?"

Todd snorted. "Sheppard once attempted to instruct me in the proper use of something called a game boy."

Lorne laughed. "Yeah, that sounds like Sheppard," he stood up, glancing behind him at Kate. "All your board games are under your bed right?"

She nodded. "Yeah," she leaned back, making herself comfortable. "Be careful though. There are some dust bunnies under there that'll eat you if you get too close."

Lorne chuckled and walked over to her bed. Lying down on his stomach, he proceeded to rummage around under her bed. "Sounds like you need to make friends with a vacuum."

Kate shook her head. "Cleaning is not exactly how I'd like to spend my free time."

Having retrieved the aforementioned game, Lorne got up and walked back to the couch, setting the box down on the table. "I know the feeling," he started to set up the board, glancing at Todd as he did so and finding that the wraith was watching him intently, curiosity written all over his face. "So I figure we'll play a practice game so that he," he jerked a thumb towards Todd, "Can get the hang of it. Sound good?"

Kate nodded and reached for the game pieces, getting up and stepping over Evan so that she could sit next to Todd. "Go sit over there," she instructed Lorne who got up and moved without saying a word leaving her to turn to Todd and start explaining how the game of monopoly worked to the very confused and extremely intrigued alien.

~xXx~

Todd spent the majority of the next day in Dr McKay's lab despite the human's insistence that he didn't require any assistance.

"Look, you're just slowing me down," Rodney complained loudly for the hundredth time or so. It was almost dinner time and Rodney was hungry, tired and extremely frustrated. "Just, go away so that I can think."

Todd eyed him darkly from the corner of the room into which the Canadian physicist had regulated him some hours before when he kept insisting that Todd was always "in his way". "Go away?" the wraith echoed the doctor. "You cannot dismiss me, Dr, as you can those pathetic excuses for scientists that you call assistants."

Rodney frowned. "Hmm, well, at least we agree on something," he looked up. "I mean we agree that my assistants are worthless."

Todd growled in annoyance and stalked towards the human that was bent double over the device that they had discovered some days ago. "If you would let me -"

"It's not like you even know what it does," Rodney interrupted him, using the same argument that he'd been using all day. "Besides, it's not like this thing has an instruction manual that I can just whip out. I have to run very precise tests that will allow me to determine, through trial and error, what this device – HEY!" the scientist broke off, his eyes narrowing as Todd reached for the artifact. "I said don't touch it!"

Todd glared at him. "You have not been able to, so far, correctly determine the function of this machine -"

"I said I was working on it, weren't you listening?" Rodney yelled angrily, trying to grab the device before Todd picked it up and missed.

Todd, who contrary to Dr McKay's belief, knew exactly what this machine was capable of doing but had so far been denied even the opportunity to explain, set the pilfered apparatus down on a lab table near him and proceeded to remove a panel that was hidden at the back of the device. Having done so, the wraith expertly maneuvered the components and keys within the machine, calibrating them as he had seen various Lanteans do thousands of years ago. In response to his ministrations, the device began to emit a low hum and, pleased with himself, Todd reaffixed the panel and turned to the completely flabbergasted Dr, crossing his arms and smirking down at the human.

Rodney stared at him. "How'd you do that?" he demanded.

Todd's smirk got wider. "I have been a scientist longer then you have been alive," he reminded the human. "And upon occasion, I have come across technologies such as this one. My understanding of them is, therefore, greater than yours."

"So you managed to turn it on," Rodney reasoned, annoyed. "That still doesn't mean that you know what it…what are you doing?"

While the ever egotistic human had been speaking, Todd had turned and walked over to where the Dr kept a depleted zero point module on top of one of his filing cabinets. The wraith didn't know why he kept this particular one, but he was glad for it and happy to leave the human confused as he retrieved it and walked back to the device. Standing over it, aware that McKay was watching his every move with both curiosity and supreme annoyance on his face; Todd inserted the depleted power source into the recently activated machine and heard it click into place. Stepping back, he turned the machine around so that the human could see the lights on the front of it go up and down.

Rodney was in shock. "That thing," he pointed at the device, "It recharges ZedPM's?"

Todd cast him a very annoyed look as if to say "duh!" before going back to standing there with his arms crossed and a bored expression on his face.

Ignoring the sour wraith, Rodney was ecstatic. "Do you have any idea what this means?" he asked excitedly, moving around the table he'd been sitting at for the better part of the past five hours and rushing towards the now charging ZPM. "This is probably the single most important discovery since…since…"

"Lost for words are you?"

Rodney spun around. "Kate," he said, eyeing the woman that had suddenly appeared in his lab and was currently leaning again the door frame with a scowl on her face. "What are you doing here?"

Kate snorted and took another step into the room, pushing herself off the doorframe as she went. "Well, to be honest, I thought I might hide in here for a while," she explained darkly.

Rodney frowned. "Hide?" he repeated. "From what?"

Kate growled. "My brother has figured out a way to soup up his damned mistletoe."

Todd frowned. "And this is bad?" he asked, curious.

Kate glared at him. "Terrible," she jumped up onto one of the tables, ignoring Rodney's protest and turned towards the wraith. "You see, John's not stupid, although he'd like for people to believe he is. When he was at the Academy, he studied engineering and applied computer programming; got a degree both."

"Wait, hold on, stop," Rodney interrupted her, "We're talking about Sheppard right? John Sheppard? Since when does he have a degree in anything?"

Kate cast him a look that clearly told the scientist not to insult her brother. "Anyway," she glossed over Rodney's interruption and continued with her story. "My brother has decided to use his misguided genius to trip out all that mistletoe that he has squirreled away all over the city. He's rigged the lot of it with these little mini force felids. You get trapped under it and you're stuck there until someone else comes along. Meanwhile, he has it so an alarm will go off that'll let him know he's caught somebody."

Rodney paled at the thought. "Let me guess," he swallowed. "Sheppard won't let you go until you've…ah…done the deed."

Kate nodded. "Yep and it's got to be real. No pecks on cheeks; extra points if there's tongue."

"I do not understand," Todd said, causing the two humans to look at him. "What is so terrible about this, contraption, that Sheppard has invented?"

Kate sighed. "Mistletoe is that little plant I told you to look out for. Tradition goes that if two people get caught under it they have to kiss each other, well my brother's taken it a bit too far."

Todd frowned. "I see."

Kate made a face. "Yes," she turned back to Rodney. "So can I hide in here? John keeps trying to get me caught under the damned things with Mathew."

Rodney's face screwed up in contemplation. "Mathew, isn't that that new captain that just came off the Daedalus ?"

"Yeah and apparently John has it in his head that we should get together," she scowled. "I really hate him sometimes."

Rodney could sympathize but at the moment he didn't want to. "Hey Kate," she looked at him. "I'd let you stay here and all but I have to get this thing down to the ZedPM room," he pointed at the now glowing machine behind him.

Kate frowned. "Finally figured out what it does did you?" she asked.

Rodney nodded and grinned. "It's great, it recharges depleted -"

"That's nice," Kate cut him off, hopping down from her perch and looking up at Todd who had magically appeared just slightly to her left. "So, care to join me for dinner?"

"I do not require the need to eat," Todd reminded her having thought that he would just go back to his quarters for the remained of the evening.

Kate waved away his response. "It's a figure of speech," she informed him. "Basically I'm asking you if you'd like to keep me company while I eat."

As the thought of spending yet more time with Katherine was vastly more appealing than spending the evening alone in his Spartan quarters, Todd nodded once. "That would be acceptable."

Kate grinned. "Great, come on, let's go."

Todd followed her out of the lab and towards the transport, surprised when Katherine walked right past it. "We are not taking this?" he asked as he instead followed her to the stairs.

Kate looked back at him as she started to descend. "It's all part of my plan to avoid that mistletoe I told you about. John's got some hanging outside the transporter as soon as you walk out into the mess."

"Ahhh," Todd hissed as he continued to follow her. Fortunately, Dr. McKay's lab was only a few floors above the mess hall and so that by the time they got there he was not so very tired.

"Hey Kate!" Laura called out as soon as she saw the woman emerge from the stairwell, waving her over towards the table where she, Jennifer and Lorne were sitting.

Kate saw her and headed their way, Todd following, only to not make it. Apparently, her brother had gotten craftier with his hiding places than she had thought because nobody would have thought to look up at the high vaulted ceiling of the dining hall. Fifteen feel from their destination and Kate found herself inside of a glowing force field. To add insult to injury, Todd got trapped with her.

"JOHNATHAN!!!" Kate yelled angrily even though her brother was, predictably, nowhere to be found. Angrily, she crossed her arms and huffed as her friends got up from their table and came to join her.

"This is inconvenient," Todd muttered from behind her as he reached out and tested the strength of the containment field. It proved to be quite able and Todd let his hand fall back to his side, pointedly keeping his mind away from the fact that Katherine stood less than six inches in front of him, so close that he could feel the heat from her anger coming off of her in waves. Her proximity, as always, drove his mind to wander this time to the explanation she had given him about what was expected of two individuals caught in this situation.

He would not mind kissing her. He would mind getting shot however, and that was exactly what Sheppard would most likely do should he act on the desire that had formed within his mind given their situation; a desire that reason quickly overrode.

"I don't think this is what the Colonel had in mind when he said he wanted you to get caught under one of these things," Lorne smirked as he looked in on the trapped Kate and the annoyed looking Todd.

Kate glared at him. "This isn't funny, Evan," she admonished. "Don't you dare laugh!"

Lorne chuckled. "Oh but it is," he insisted. "It's hilarious," he looked over the two of them, his inner mischief superseding his common sense. "You know; maybe you should just kiss him and get it over with."

Todd thought he felt his heart rate increase slightly at the suggestion and he looked down at Katherine in order to gage her reaction.

Kate stared at Evan as if he's grown a second head. "You're kidding right?" she asked him and, when his smirk only widened, she snorted. "As much as I'm sure kissing Todd would be an apt way of giving John what he so richly deserves, I really don't like the idea of giving my brother a reason to shoot him thank you."

Laura giggled. "So the only reason you don't want to kiss him is that you know your brother will shoot him if you do, right?"

Kate let out an exasperated groan. "Laura," she patronized the woman that she had quickly become friends with, "He is standing like two inches behind me. Can we not?"

Laura dissolved into giggled while Todd thought that the female brought up a good point. The only reason that Katherine seemed averse to doing that which would free them was because she disliked the idea of perpetually causing him bodily harm which, in light of this revelation, might be worth it in the long run. The idea was quickly abandoned as the figure of Sheppard appeared at the other end of the mess hall. The human took one look at their situation and let out a loud and explosive stream of explicatives.

"What the -" John hollered as he came over to his sister, Todd, Lorne, Cadman and Jennifer. He gestured wildly at the two trapped individuals. "How did this happen?"

Kate glared at him. "Oh the usual way," she said sardonically. "We were walking along and then poof, now we're caught. Let us out."

John matched her look and sent it back to her. "Why'd you get caught with him?" he demanded.

Todd rolled his eyes, a gesture that he normally abstained from doing but that he thought was appropriate given the circumstance. "If you think that this was premeditated, Sheppard, then you are sadly mistaken."

John had the good sense to look chastised. "Alright fine," he reached for the controller so that he could shut off the field. He pushed the button, "There, you're free," he looked at them and then reached forwards, grabbing Kate and dragging her a good five feet away from Todd.

"HEY!" Kate protested loudly, reaching her arm away from her brother and rounding on him angrily. "What the hell?"

John didn't back down and instead crossed his arms stubbornly. "Five feet minimum distance between the two of you," he ordered.

Kate glared at him. "Like hell!" she yelled. "You can't tell me how close I can or cannot stand to him John."

Her brother looked at her. "Don't you think it's creepy being that close to a wraith?" he asked.

His sister let out an exasperated cry. "He's not gonna eat me," she said heatedly, advancing on her sibling who took about three steps backwards. "Although, I might let him eat you if you don't stop being so damned paranoid."

John gulped. "Been there done that," he sighed when her expression didn't change. "Oh fine," he gave up, "I don't care how close you get to him just don't, please for the love of God, sit in his lap again."

Kate scoffed. "I wasn't in his lap and it was your idea, oh brother mine," she poked him in the chest. "You told him to keep me warm."

John looked at the floor.

"Katherine is correct, Sheppard," Todd commented, feeling that as the conversation involved him he ought to make his allegiance known. The colonel looked up at him.

"Alight, I'm sorry," he mumbled, refusing to look at Kate before he glanced down at his watch. "Hey look, it's time to go."

Kate eyed him. "Go?" she asked, "Go where?"

Her bother smiled at her. "Its present wrapping time," he announced, looking meaningfully at Lorne who nodded before he turned back to his still slightly annoyed sister. "No girls allowed."

Kate rolled her eyes. "Fine," she said darkly, glancing towards Todd. "Can I keep him?"

John mulled over the request before deciding that he really didn't want Todd to spend anymore quality time with his sister then he already had. John had been less then pleased upon finding out at dinner the night before that the wraith had spent the majority of the day holed up in Kate's room; it really didn't matter in his mind that Lorne had been with them. "I don't think so," he said eventually, eyeing the wraith out of the corner of his eyes and noticing that he now looked slightly disappointed, a good sign that he'd made the right decision. "I think us guys will teach Todd the fine art of wrapping things."

Kate snorted. "Right, have fun with that," she turned and jested for Laura and Jennifer to follow her. "Come along girls, I smell a girl's night in."

And so, the girls and boys of Atlantis plus one unhappy wraith, went their separate ways; Todd glancing wistfully behind him wishing fervently that he'd be spending time with anyone other than Sheppard.

~xXx~

Some hours later found the wraith still incarcerated inside Sheppard's quarters with all the other prominent males of the city standing in a corner whilst he watched the humans do a very poor job of wrapping various parcels in brightly colored paper. Currently, most of the packages were wrapped and the humans were all sitting around discussing who had gotten whom what although every now and then a side comment would be made and they would go off on a tangent. Todd tried to ignore them for the most part.

"So Colonel," Lorne turned towards his commanding officer, the image of Kate and Todd standing under the mistletoe coming to the forefront of his mind, "How goes it on the match making front?"

John shrugged. "Dismal," he sighed. "You know I rigged those mistletoe traps with the primary intent of getting my sister and that new guy Phoenix to you know…but so far she's being…" he glanced towards Todd who seemed to be ignoring them, "difficult."

"Well yeah," Rodney cried, crossing his arms and sitting down on Sheppard's bed. "If you were trying to fuck around in my love life I'd be being difficult to."

"Now hold on," Carson interjected before the Colonel could speak. "Ye're playing match maker for your sister? That's a bit much don't ye think?"

John shook his head. "Kate hasn't ever had a stable relationship and she hasn't been with anyone since she left Travers standing at the alter -"

"Kate almost got married?" Ronon asked, having not known this. "Why'd she call it off?"

Todd, who had refrained from participating or even listening to the conversation, could no longer hide his interest at the mention of Katherine; although, the talk of males that the colonel considered potential mates for his sister left a sour taste in his mouth that he couldn't rightly explain. "I believe she found the male she was to bond with unsuitable," he interjected, recalling the conversation he and she had had over this.

John starred at him. "How the hell do you know?" he demanded.

The wraith eyed him. "Katherine and I have discussed this," he said blankly. "I believe I was named after the male she was to become mated to."

John sputtered. "Holy shit," he announced. "Kate never talked about what happened with anyone, not even me," he eyed the wraith. "She talked to you about this?"

Todd glared at him. "That is what I said."

John opened his mouth to retort but closed it as a loud, insistent banging began at his door. Cursing, he got up and walked over; waving his hand over the door control before eyeing the woman standing there. She looked irked and was wearing pajamas - a black tank top with the word 'Naughty' written across the front in red letters, red and black plaid sleep pants that he thought might be his with matching slippers - and an epic looking frown.

"Kate," he asked, "What are you doing here? I thought I said -"

She looked dramatically down at her watch. "It's been four hours!"

John frowned. "Oh."

Kate nodded. "Oh is right, now," she peered around her brother, eying her target before returning her gaze to John. "I'd like to borrow Todd if you don't mind."

John looked skeptical, remembering why it was that he had decided to bring Todd with him to their wrapping party in the first place. "Why?" he asked.

Kate glared at him and leaned against the doorframe, crossing her arms and her ankles. "Does it matter?"

"Yes," John countered, "As a matter of fact it does. You spend way too much time with him."

She rolled her eyes, opened her mouth and that's as far as she got before the lights went out and the entire city was plunged into darkness.

"Okay," Carson sounded from somewhere over by the window. "What just happened?"

"I have no idea," John muttered as he turned around, took three steps and promptly ran into something solid. "Ow."

"Sheppard, do not move," Todd commanded as the human bounced of his chest and stumbled backwards.

"I can't see anything," Rodney complained loudly.

Kate sighed. "No shit genius," she admonished as she walked around her brother and through the various other occupants of the room until she got to John's curtained windows. Pushing back the coverings, a meager amount of light provided by the double moons and the stars fell into the room. "There," she said, turning back towards the crowd of people. "That's better."

John looked around, walking over to his windows and pulling one open. Sticking his head out he looked over the blackened city. "The whole city's out," he informed them with a worried frown.

"Well that's not good," Lorne said as he went to stand besides his commanding officer, took a quick glance around the darkened Atlantis, before turning back inwards and pinning McKay with a potent stare. "What the hell happened, McKay?"

Rodney sputtered indignantly. "Why are you asking me?" he demanded.

"Because," Lorne rationalized, "Ninety percent of the time when something like this happens it's your fault."

Rodney opened his mouth to make a rebuttal before closing it, knowing that Lorne was for the most part right. "Well fine," he said haughtily. "But this," he waved at the blacked out city, "This I didn't do."

"Well alrighty then," Kate said mockingly pulling her head back into the room and turning to face the boys and the wraith. "So all of the lights in the entire city have gone out and we don't know why. Who besides me find this disturbing?"

Lorne raised his hand while Rodney, meanwhile, had gone over to Sheppard's computer which, because he has head of the military, was plugged into the main grid. "Ah guys," he called from the Colonel's desk, "We have a problem."

John walked over. "What?" he asked, looking at his screen and noticing something. "Hey, I have this thing plugged in," he complained. "Why is it telling me that it's running off its battery?"

Rodney sighed. "Because it is," he explained; a worried note of panic beginning to color his voice. "According to these readings nothing is on, not even the backup power."

John frowned. "How is that possible?"

Rodney shook his head. "I don't know, look," he brought up the main power grid which was reading zero, "In the past when our power has gone out there's always been some kind of backup system running; keeping the main systems up, broadcasting a distress signal or something like that…"

"Wait," Carson started forwards in worry, "We're not broadcasting a signal now are we?" he asked.

The Canadian shook his head. "No, that's just it. Nothing is working. There is no backup power, no distress signal. It's like the city's dead. There's no power on anywhere; it's all been completely cut."

John nodded, understanding. "So," he repeated, "We have a problem."

"Yeah!" Rodney yelled and looked around at them all. "Look, I realize that not having any power is a bad thing but right now," he turned and pointed at the screen, "Its fifteen degrees outside -"

"And we don't have any heat," Kate finished already feeling the chill beginning to set in as she wrapped her arms around herself and rubbed her arms.

John cursed, running his hand through his hair in thought. "Okay," he said, an idea forming in his mind, "The jumpers all have their own power sources right?" he asked, needing to hear the confirmation even though he already knew the answer.

Rodney nodded. "Yes, but I don't see -"

"Our radios should still work," John continued over the protesting scientist, "So we tell everyone to go to the jumper bays. Ten people to a jumper or something like that, tell them to crank up the heat while we," he gestured around at himself, his sister and Rodney, "Try and figure out what the hell happened."

"How do you know the radio's work?" Ronon asked.

"Because they run on batteries and aren't dependant on the city's power source for operation," Kate explained before her brother could even open his mouth, she frowned. "I'm kind of surprised nobody's tried to call us yet."

As if on cue, John's radio crackled. "Colonel Sheppard?" Woolsey's voice sounded through the room.

John pressed his radio. "This is Sheppard."

"Colonel what's going on?" the director demanded, his voice already betraying his panic.

"The power's out," John explained. "And I mean totally out as in there is zero power in the city right now expect for the stuff that runs on batteries."

There was a pause, and then they heard Radek. "Does Rodney know what happened?" the Czech asked.

"Why it always my fault!" Rodney yelled into his radio.

"Because it usually is Rodney," Radek replied, "You've got to admit. Ninety percent of the time when something like this happens -"

"It's because of me, yeah I know," the scientist grumbled.

"Right," John said and then turned back to his conversation. "It's bad, we've established that but," he looked around the room, "We have a plan."

"A plan?" Woolsey asked sounding, as usual, skeptical of anything that didn't come straight out of a manual and that was just thought up on the fly. "And what might this plan of yours be Colonel? Has this ever happened before?"

"Not exactly," John replied truthfully. "We've had power outs before but McKay says that this is a total blackout. So we figure we get everyone in the city to one of the three jumper bays. The jumpers all have their own power sources so they shouldn't be affected. Get in groups, turn up the heat and hang tight while me, Kate and McKay try and figure out what the hell happened."

"I'll get on it as soon as possible, Colonel," Woolsey replied and then the line went dead.

John turned back to the group of people in his room. "Alright, you heard the man," he looked at Beckett, Ronon, Lorne and Todd. "You guys get to the jumper bay. Nearest one is at the end of the west pier," he turned towards his sister and the scientist. "Come on, let's go fix the city."

~xXx~

"None of this makes sense," Rodney complained. They were down in the ZPM room and nothing; absolutely nothing he tried was working. The Canadian was growing desperate.

John peered over his shoulder. "Still nothing?" he questioned. They'd been at it for an hour now and the temperature was rapidly dropping. John rubbed his hands together to warm them before going over to see if his sister was having any luck.

Kate cursed as her cold, stiff fingers failed to grip the stylist on her barrowed tablet and she slipped, slicing through her finger. Waving her hand about and then sucking on it, she looked up at her hovering brother. "I got nothing," she complained, glancing up towards Rodney. "Do you really have no idea what could have caused this?" she demanded, tired, cold and in desperate need of a band aid.

Rodney glared at her. "No, I don't have any idea what could have caused this!" he shouted at her. "You know I'm getting really tired of being blamed every time something breaks in this city."

John sighed. "Okay we get it, this isn't your fault," he squeezed his sister's shoulder to show that she wasn't the only one suffering. "The fact is that you know how this city works better than anyone so, do you have any idea, anything at all, about what might have happened?"

Rodney snarled. "No," he shook his head. "Look, I don't know how many more times I have to say -"

"Have you plugged in anything recently?" John interrupted him, a headache already beginning to form as he rubbed his forehead. "How about that device that Todd helped us find? Did you figure out what it does?"

The scientist let out an exasperated sigh. "Of course I figured out what it does," he snapped at Sheppard. "It's a device that's supposed to recharge depleted ZedPM's and, while being useful, I seriously doubt that it has anything to do with why we don't have any power."

John groaned and turned back towards his sister whose face was screwed up in concentration. "What?" he asked her.

She looked up at him, pausing before she turned towards Rodney. "Did you, by chance, turn it on?"

The physicist glared at her. "Yes, I turned it on, even hooked it up to the main power grid but that's not the point, it's not working either so there couldn't possibly be any connection to…" he trailed off, his face going blank in concentration.

The Sheppard siblings looked at each other before turning as one to lock their eyes onto the furiously thinking Dr. Rodney McKay. "What?" they chorused.

"Its booby trapped," he looked up at them, the pieces of this highly inconvenient puzzle falling into place the more he thought about it.

John frowned. "What's booby trapped?"

Rodney rolled his eyes astonished at how dense the military leader of this expedition could sometimes be. "The ZedPM re-charger," he snorted. "I don't know why I didn't think of that before, of course the Ancient's wouldn't have wanted the wraith to be able to use their technology so they probably put some sort of, ah…biogenetic scanner into their technology so that the wraith couldn't use it."

John eyed him. "I thought you said you turned it on?" he questioned irritably.

Rodney frowned. "Well," he started defensively, "I would have figured it out eventually, but -"

"So you didn't turn it on, Todd did," Kate interrupted Rodney's ego trip.

The scientist glared at her.

"Right," Kate said. "So, since Todd turned it on, what are the chances that when we plugged it in it assumed that the city had been compromised and shut everything down?"

Rodney nodded and waved his hand around dismissively. "Yes, yes I've already worked that part out," he explained in a harried voice that left the Sheppard siblings in no doubt that he resented their ability to not be able to read his mind which meant that he had to stop and explain things to them. "We've seen the Ancients put traps on their technology before. One of the things they feared most was Atlantis falling into wraith hands; it's why they submerged the city. There must be an automatic shut down code somewhere in the city's main programming that shut down all power output as soon as we plugged in the re-charger."

"Okay," John said enthusiastically, "So this is all Todd's fault. Great, I can live with that."

Kate rolled her eyes, annoyed. "He couldn't have known that this would happen. John."

The colonel looked at his sister. "Yeah I know," he admitted. "But for argument's sake I'm going to blame him. Besides," he continued flamboyantly, "Todd's used to taking the heat whenever something goes wrong. He'll get over it."

Kate huffed and crossed her arms, not at all beyond showing her brother exactly what she thought of his use of their wraith ally as a constant and convenient scapegoat.

John eyed her, feeling slightly annoyed that she was always so quick to defend Todd; they didn't treat him that bad. He had his own room, was allowed to pretty much move about the city as he pleased provided he was with someone and was treated with some amount of decorum. His thought ended abruptly when he realized that he'd gotten off topic.

"Moving on," he announced, "How do we fix it?"

Rodney looked down at his tablet, already starting the necessary reboot process. "I just need to complete the system's purge – which can only be completed from the control room – and then we'll be good to go."

John smiled. "All right," he exclaimed. "Some good news," he started to gather up the flashlights that they'd brought down here from the equipment room – prying the door open had been almost as much of a bitch as trying to find the damned thing in the dark. "Come on," he called out to them as he started towards the door, "Let's get this over with."

~xXx~

Inside the west pier jumper bay conditions were miserable. All along the four levels of jumpers that stretched along both lengths of the hundred foot room the gate ships were lit up, their back hatches open and their heating systems turned up to maximum so that the actual enclosed space of the bay was semi warm; still cold but bearable. The true misery involved the fact that Todd, who would have been only too happy to find a corner into which he could inscroll himself and sleep or meditate until Sheppard turned the power back on, had been corralled into residing in the jumper packed with the rest of the city's commanders and so far the one called Woolsey had yet to cease whining.

"What's taking them so long?" the balding human demanded as Todd watched him pace back and forth before the lowered hatch of their jumper, "Honestly," Woolsey began again. "They should be back by now."

Teyla sighed, her latent wraith DNA giving her the ability to sense Todd's growing agitation and she was personally astounded that the wraith hadn't snapped at the man yet. "Perhaps there was a complication that Rodney did not foresee," she attempted to waylay Woolsey's worry.

The bespectacled man shook his head. "Then why haven't they radio -" he paused as Todd sat suddenly bolt upright, his eyes wide and his nostrils flared. "Todd?"

The wraith ignored him; for some time now a presence had been sitting on the edge of his mind that he had not been able to distinguish. He had thought it to be the Athosian whom, he had noticed, had gotten particularly good at disguising her mental abilities and awareness from him. But now, as consciousness and perceptiveness began to creep up his spine, he began to suspect that it was another; and they were not alone.

Turning his gaze to the Athosian he tilted his head to one side, wishing to confirm his suspicions before he alarmed the humans. "Do you feel that?" he asked.

Teyla closed her eyes and pushed her mind forwards; seeking. She found what she was looking for at the very edges of her consciousness and opened her eyes to look into those of the wraith. "I feel a presence, multiple presences," she fixed Todd with a look. "They feel like you."

Todd nodded, knowing that this would be the case.

Woolsey, meanwhile, was completely confused. "What's going on?" he asked, looking between Teyla and Todd in question.

Teyla sighed. "There are wraith in Atlantis," she explained wearily as she would have liked to think that Mr. Woolsey might have been able to reach that conclusion on his own given the context of her and Todd's discussion.

Woolsey's eyes widened. "Wraith, in Atlantis?" he looked around. "How is that possible?"

Pushing the many levels of disorientation, confusion, hunger and anger to the side, Todd stepped out of the jumper and raised his feeding hand to taste the air – a practice that he had not needed to implement since before the end of the war. "Before the Great War," he began, wondering as he did just how much of the truth these humans would be able to handle, "When the Lanteans first began to fear us, several key officers among our ranks were taken as prisoners and secreted somewhere within this city to be studied and experimented on. I negotiated their release but, I suspect, not all of them were returned."

Jennifer frowned. His explanations, while enlightening and believable to some extent, made no sense given what they knew of the Ancient's war with the wraith. "I thought the wraith started the war?" she asked.

Todd snorted, lowering his hand and turning back to the humans seated within the gate ship. "Yes, the Lanteans would want you to believe that."

Woolsey stared at him incredulously. "So, what you're telling us is that not only did the Ancients start the war but that they kidnapped several of you to experiment on and that some of those wraith are now loose in the city?" he frowned. "I don't believe it."

Todd growled, leveling his gaze towards the human and snarling. "Believe what you want, it makes no difference to me. What you need to know is that there are now several wraith from my time stalking through your city without the knowledge of the time that has passed; to them the war has yet to be finished and they will use their anger, frustration and hunger to do as much damage as possible. A wraith from my time is far more deadly than any of those that you have met save for me."

"Your time?" Ronon asked contemptuously. "Why does that matter?"

Todd eyed him. "The wraith of a hundred thousand years ago were very different from those whelps that you encounter today; indeed there are few of us left. They were more brutal, feral almost in their ferocity as battle was an integrated part of our society. Only the strong survived and these, I can tell, are very strong."

"And how, might I ask," Woolsey leered, "Would you know what wraith life was like a hundred thousand years ago? That was a bit before your time I would think."

Todd sighed. The subject of his age and the importance he had in the galaxy because of it was not a topic that had been so far breached and he was inclined to keep it that way. However, he also knew that Woolsey would not let the subject go and he needed the human leader's compliance if he was to provide any semblance of protection.

"Among wraith," he started, "I am known primarily as the Eldest. The pseudonym suits me for I am the oldest wraith to still breathe and there is not a wraith alive today that has not heard of me," he paused, a smile ghosting his face. "Still, putting the name to my face, that is sometimes difficult."

Then entire jumper full of people looked at him, Lorne speaking first. "So," the marine ventured, "You're like the King Author of wraith?"

Todd looked towards him. "I do not know who that is and so you're analogy makes little sense."

"King Author," Lorne alliterated, "He was this roman knight that united the tribes of Brittan and became their first king. The point it that he's more myth and legend then reality which is kind of what I'm guessing you are to the other wraith."

The wraith nodded as this was a fairly accurate description of him. Stories of the Eldest were discussed in whispers and hushed tones in the very deepest parts of the hives. He'd heard some of them, been sitting right in the middle of the discussions listening to the young wraith tell tales of the events of his life like they were legends and remained anonymous. Very few wraith alive knew his given name and only a handful more could see him and know him and place him as the Eldest. The ambiguousness that surrounded him helped him to move and operate under the knowledge of those that would like nothing more then to see him fail; the fact that quite a few wraith now referred to him by his human name of Todd helped tremendously. In the current state of affairs of the wraith now, it was not good to be well-known.

Lorne, in the wake of this realization, felt rather humbled and, as he looked up at the wraith who was currently trying to scry out his fellows, he suddenly felt glad that out of all the wraith in the galaxy they'd managed to befriend it was him. The major had a feeling that before their job in this galaxy was done they were going to end up needing him.

Woolsey was less impressed. "Well," he began, "Since you are so advanced in years is there anything -"

The director was cut off as the entire city began to shake and Woolsey, along with several others, were thrown off their feet before the shaking stopped. Glaring up from the floor, the head of Atlantis saw that the wraith had managed to remain standing and, as he pushed himself up he demanded, of no one in particular, "What the hell just happened!"

The others shook their heads; even Todd was ignorant of this. What he was not ignorant however is that the other wraith had managed to get a lock on prospective prey and were headed their way very quickly.

"Get everyone inside of a ship and close their hatches," Todd instructed Woolsey who at first did not move which made the already impatience wraith snarl. "Do it!" he commanded of the human who still did not move and was instead staring at him in hatred.

"Why should I listen to you?" Woolsey asked, not inclined to be manipulated into one of Todd's traps again. "In fact, why should I take any of your advice?"

"They will die if you do not do as I say!" Todd growled, taking a step forwards and grabbing the impudent human by the throat, shoving him against the side of a jumper and pressing closer. "I cannot protect a hundred people from hungry wraith unless they cannot get to them."

Woolsey blinked and then gulped air as he was suddenly released. Sinking to the ground, having had his life flash before his eyes, he was hauled back inside the jumper by Ronon who looked down on him disgust before turned towards the wraith.

"The other ones," he said, "They're on their way?"

Todd nodded. "Yes. They know that there is a large volume of humans here."

Ronon nodded and turned towards Lorne, who had already moved to the cockpit and reached for the radio that would allow him to speak to the other jumpers. "Everyone, we've got company coming," Lorne announced, his voice echoing throughout the bay. "Everyone who doesn't want to die a horrible, gory death get inside a jumper and lock the back hatch!"

All around them the sound of the jumpers closing and sealing themselves could be heard and Todd stood back, nodding briefly to the Runner and Major Lorne whom both, in their eyes, thanked him before they too were cut off from his view. Alone, locked out from the others whom had all turned out the lights in their crafts in favor of darkness, the wraith who was ally to these humans stalked the room.

~xXx~

John, Kate and Rodney were halfway to the control room when the city shifted and threw them all off their feet.

"What the hell was that!" John screeched as he pushed himself off the floor and looked around. "Rodney," he asked the still slightly dazed looking scientist, "You all right?"

"Just peachy," the Canadian scowled sarcastically as he rubbed his head. "What was that?"

"Ah guys," Kate called, having managed to stay mostly upright by grabbing hold of a windowsill, had pulled herself up only to espy a terrifying sight. "We've got a problem."

John sighed, really not the mood to have anything else go wrong. "What now?" he demanded as he made his way over to his sister and looked out over the city, his eyes widening at what he saw. "Oh crap."

"What?" Rodney demanded, sliding into a sitting position and resting his back against the wall.

John turned towards him, panic written clear across his face. "The city's sinking."

"WHAT!" Rodney yelped and flew to his feet faster then he'd ever moved in his entire life. Now, standing besides Sheppard, he stared out at the sight of the sea water rising over the edges of the piers, "How -"

"The generators that keep the city afloat," Kate murmured, turning towards her brother. "They went out the same time as everything else only the city is just now starting to go under. It's the Titanic effect."

"Great," John threw his hands up into the air and spun away from the window, "Now what!"

Kate had another thought. "Hey guys," she looked around at them all, "Aren't the majority of the city down in the west jumper bay?"

John nodded. "Yeah, it's the biggest and…" he looked terrified, "It'll be the first to flood."

Rodney looked between the siblings. "We have to tell them," the color drained from his face. "Jennifer."

"I'll go," Kate volunteered, already taking off in the direction they'd come, turning back towards the scientist before she disappeared around a corner. "I'll make sure she's safe Rodney I promise."

The scientist squeaked and nodded.

"Buck up," John told him as Kate disappeared down the hallway. "Come on, we've got to get the power turned on so we can stop the city from going completely under."

Rodney nodded and allowed the Colonel to drag him off towards the control room.

Kate, meanwhile, raced through the corridors at breakneck speed. She had a lot of ground to cover and no transports to make her journey faster. The cold air seared her lungs, her legs burned as she pumped them harder then she had ever had the need to before. Never had so many lives been in danger that she would have to save; the responsibility of the task astounded her.

The jumper bay was quiet when she finally made it, cold and dark. "What the…" she looked around, a figure emerging from the darkness like a ghost. "Todd."

The wraith stepped towards her, not at all happy that it was she that his fellows had chosen to pursue for he well sense that it was Katherine that the others had locked onto. "Katherine," he rumbled; his senses on high alert, concern for her safety flaring before he could extinguish it. "You are being hunted."

She frowned at him. "I'm what?" she asked before shaking her head a more pressing concern then her passable demise begging her to ignore her own safety in favor of the safety of so many others. "Look, I don't care, the city's sinking."

Todd's eyes went wide, this new matter more pressing then the other as it had the potential to end more lives. "You are certain?" he asked her.

She nodded. "Yeah, look I'll explain later but right now we need to get all of these people out of -"

A snarl cut her off as he hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, a cold spreading through her limbs as she turned. There, at the entrance to the jumper bay, stood two wraith who seemed to personify the very essence of brutal savagery. As they stalked closer, Kate felt herself back up out of sheer instinct to get as far away from these individuals as she could; her retreat lasted only a short while before she ran into Todd.

The Eldest of wraith could well understand Katherine's fear as she had never before encountered wraith such as these and he thought to assuage it by wrapping an arm around her middle and pulling her more securely to him; protecting her. Her back pressed firmly against his chest, he could feel her breathing return to normal and her fear abate as she settled into the cool, indifferent awareness that made her such a keen and deadly warrior. Releasing her, Todd stepped to one side as Katherine took to the other, both preparing themselves for the fight that was bound to come.

It was the larger of the two wraith, the one with a scrolling tattoo that began at his right temple and traveled downwards to his neck, that stopped in front of them first. Eyes darting back and forth, he looked between both wraith and human before finally landing on Todd. "High Commander," the wraith hissed, his voice raspy from hunger making the situation all the more dangerous.

Todd sneered but nodded nonetheless, a kind of cultivated civility that he had not practiced in a long while slipping back into place.

The wraith stalked closer, throwing a glance towards his unmarked companion whom was busy eyeing the human female in both lust and hunger, anticipation for both dripping from his thoughts in vivid detail. "Strange," the tattooed wraith started, tilting his head first left then right, as he eyed the ever stoic wraith whom commanded he and all others, "To find you here in the city of Atlantis."

Todd smirked. "The war ended, many thousands of years ago."

The wraith snarled. "You lie!" he screeched, his ever pressing hunger overruling all other senses and imposing upon the faith he had previously sworn to and only to the wraith that stood in front of him. "You betray us, you ally with them!"

Todd threw a look towards Katherine whom, he was relieved to see, had not moved her eyes from the wraith that stood in front of her. Turning back to the marked wraith, he attempted to explain. "She is not Lantean."

The wraith let out another hiss. "More lies," he growled. "I find it no wonder, Highborn, that deception comes so easily to you."

It had been many eons since Todd himself had been revered to as being a Highborn or had had that birth right mocked or attacked. For some reason, it made him angry and he advanced on the other maliciously. "Think what you want, common born," he sneered in malice. "But the truth is as I say. The war has ended, stand down and I will prove as such to you."

The wraith laughed. "Stand down?" he asked. "And why would we do that?" he stepped away from the High Commander and walked towards the woman who, at his movement, turned her eyes from her stalker which gave him the opportunity to grab her and hold her steady.

As the female struggled against the hold of his fellow, the tattooed wraith walked up to her and trailed a hand down her face languidly. "Such a pretty little feast," he purred, resting his feeding hand upon her chest in preparation.

He didn't get the chance. As the city shuttered and rocked again, Todd lunged forwards and grabbed the marked one by the back of his leather armor and pulled him away from Katherine. His enemy, for that was exactly what he had become the second he'd threatened her, flew away from him as Todd took up a stance before him, prepared to fight to defend the allies he could not afford to lose.

The tattooed wraith leapt to his feet and turned, snarling, towards the High Commander. "You defend the female?" he demanded, socked at the pure viciousness in the other's gaze.

Todd's eyes narrowed and moved forwards, letting his next blow do the answering for him.

While Todd was busy with the other wraith, Kate used the distraction to elbow the wraith holding her in the stomach. The force of her blow stunned him momentarily and he released her, his arms slackening as she grabbed one and flipped her opponent over her head. The wraith came up spitting mad and howling its rage as Kate took up ready stance and waited as the wraith rushed her. She ducked, his blow swishing over her head as she dropped into a crouch and kicked his feet out from under him. He landed on his back and Kate turned towards Todd, prepared to help him, only to discover that he didn't need it as was currently beating the other wraith into a bloody pulp.

Her attention elsewhere, Kate didn't notice that her wraith had managed to get up until he lunged at her and caught her around the waist, slamming her into one of the pillars that held up the next level of the jumper docks. Kate's head throbbed painfully and all she could see were stars before she was being dragged down and pressed fully into the pillar. Twisting, trying to get away, she saw an opportunity in the fact that she could see water lapping at the jumper bay doors. Kicking the wraith that held her, he loosened his grip on her just enough so that she could scramble forwards and press he door release for the jumper bay.

Todd's head turned and he dropped his opponent as water surged forwards and knocked both he and the tattooed wraith off their feet. The raging water swept them both backwards, slamming them into the far wall of the jumper bay and keeping them pinned there. Worried, Todd looked around and saw Katherine still struggling with her wraith who had managed to get her into a headlock. As the locking nature of the water subsided, Todd waded forwards to aid Katherine only to be dragged back by the other wraith who seemed to have a second wind. Now locked in his own struggle as the other attempted to reach his throat, he used his surroundings as a weapon and, pushing down, held the other under the water with every last ounce of strength he had left.

The tattooed wraith struggled and flailed, desperate for air until finally his body stilled and Todd released him. Breathing heavily, the still living wraith turned towards the spot where Katherine was waging a similar struggle only it was she that was being held under water. Pushing against the current, Todd moved towards her, reaching out and pulling the second wraith off of her and throwing him backwards with enough force that his body slammed into the door controls. With a thud the wraith struck the wall and the bay doors began to close.

Kate came up sputtering in the chest deep water that admittedly wasn't her best idea. Coughing and chocking, she felt two arms go around her waist and pull her still farther above the water. Looking up, she espied Todd looking down at her; the expression on his face almost but not quite worry. "Thanks," she managed to croak, her lips blue and numb from the cold; her entire body shivering.

Todd noticed the drop in her body's temperature and as a result, held on to her more tightly as he began to drag her towards the stairs that would take them to the next level. Climbing out of the now jumper bay sized swimming pool; Todd turned to her and lifted her face to his. "You are alright?" he asked.

Kate nodded, shivering. "I-I'm fine," she stammered, whipping the saltwater from her eyes. "We have to get to the control room t-to help J-John."

Todd nodded. "Yes," he agreed, himself growing uncomfortable as still more water ran off of him in rivets, the salt in the liquid making his skin burn. "I still sense that there are more wraith," he informed her, pushing away the pain as something that would have to be dealt with until their task was complete and Atlantis and her people were safe. "I believe they may be looking for Colonel Sheppard and Dr. McKay."

Course of action decided upon, both Kate and Todd shook off the cold and started off towards the control room. They didn't make it far before the other wraith caught up with them most assuredly not dead as the both of them had assumed. Having just rounded a corner three floors up from the jumper bay, it was Todd that was attacked, the other wraith leaping at him knocking Katherine away from him and into a wall as Todd turned to deal with his attacker. Unfortunately the other wraith had the advantage as his hunger, disorientation and anger drove him and caused his strength to multiply. As a result, Todd soon found himself in a situation that he had not been in since his days as a youngling first learning the art of war.

The wraith above him hissed in anger and anticipation as Todd felt the air being bled from his lungs. Desperately he fought to regain the advantage and eventually found it as he hooked his arm around the other's knee and pulled. The wraith fell backwards and Todd twisted around into a standing position, bearing down on the slower to recover other. As his opponent leapt up, Todd was ready and he caught the second wraith by slamming his feeding hand onto the other's chest. The force of the motion knocked the other off his feet and Todd used his momentum to slam other's back into the ground as he began to feed.

It was not the first time that Todd had fed from a fellow wraith and he had to admit that the life-force that flooded him now was more savory then any human he had ever tasted with the exception of one. Defiance, passion and strength were the qualities of one's essence that tasted best and this wraith had them in abundance; all wraith did. Humans, while able to quench a thirst, had them in lesser amounts and so did not satisfy as much as a feeding from one's own would. The only human that Todd had ever fed from that could match the essence of a fellow wraith was Katherine. Not even Sheppard who, Todd would admit, had certainly been the strongest normal human essence he had ever had, could not compare to the complete and total fire that his sister possessed.

The healing energy of his former opponent filled him, taking away the burning pain that had been induced by the exposure to the salt water and, when the second wraith was no more than a husk, Todd released his hold on the other's chest and stood, seeking Katherine.

He found her huddled into the wall where the now dead wraith's attack had thrown her. Walking over to her, Todd knew instantly that she was suffering adversely to having been submerged in the water for so long. The color had disappeared from her face and her lips were tinted blue a sure sign that her body temperature was dropping dangerously low. Coming to her side, Todd dropped into a crouch and pulled her inside the circle of his arms, making sure to press as much of her body to his as he could.

Kate jerked slightly as he reached for her, pulling her forwards. "W-what are y-you do-doing?" she stammered, the cold making it difficult for her to speak.

Todd soothed her, concentrating on raising his body's temperature to a level where his heat would be able to affect her. "The wraith are able to raise and lower our internal temperature to combat a variety of environmental conditions," he informed her, his voice a purr that echoed deep in his chest. "Be still a moment, Katherine, and I will warm you."

Kate relaxed into his hold. "W-what a nifty l-little tr-trick."

Todd chuckled only slightly. "Yes, it comes in handy upon occasion."

His arms tightened around her and Kate realized that he was better than her own personal heater. Wet though he may be, he was now incredibly warm, almost to the point where she was sure that it must be uncomfortable for him. "Doesn't being that h-hot bother y-you?" she asked, her limbs now just slightly warmer and her speech only slightly improved.

Todd looked down at her. "It is not particularly comfortable, no," he replied honestly. "But I find it more agreeable then the alternative."

Kate smiled against this chest, feeling the feeling return to her fingers and toes, her body warming. "Thank you," she whispered softly, gratefully.

Todd grunted and held her but a little while longer before he reluctantly released her. Drawing back, he regarded her and found that some of the color had returned to her skin and that her lips were no longer blue. Taking this as a good sign, and knowing that they could not afford to linger any longer, he stood and pulled her to her feet. Standing still for but a moment, he tilted his head towards her and instructed her with his eyes to look at him. "You are well now?" he asked, needing to hear her verbal confirmation that she was indeed no longer in danger of freezing to death.

Kate shook her head and remained silent as Todd stepped away from her, turning and heading once more towards the control room. "Come now," he called back to her, "We must be quick."

Steeling herself against the cold that was now manageable, Kate followed after him.

~xXx~

In the control room, John was impatiently holding onto a flashlight as Rodney, who had managed to restore power to only the basic control systems, shifted through the city's operating codes looking for the key that would let him initiate a system's purge. "Hurry up, Rodney," John called out to the scientist as he shifted his gaze to look out of the control room windows. "The water's over the piers. Soon the lower levels are gonna start to flood."

Rodney growled. "I'm going as fast as I can," he complained snappishly. "And can you please hold the flashlight steady!?!"

John groaned and turned back to the grumbling scientist, readjusting the light so that it highlighted the whole computer screen and not just half of it.

"Thank you," Rodney responded before giving a great yelp of joy. "Ha! I found it," he exclaimed triumphantly.

John looked over his shoulder. "That's great," he said, shivering. "How long before you -"

A low, menacing growl interrupted the Colonel mid speech and, as one, both he and Rodney looked wildly around the dark control room. "That doesn't sound good," John muttered as he removed the flashlight from Rodney's computer and aimed it towards the gate room below them. At first nothing caught the light but then, out of the corner of his eye, John saw movement and turned the white beam towards it.

"HOLY SHIT!" he exclaimed as the light landed on not one but three wraith who were looking up at him with hungry expressions on their faces. John didn't want to know how they got into the city, he didn't particularly care at the moment, and the sight of them pooping out of the darkness was enough to give him nightmares for the next month.

Rodney looked around wildly. "What?" he demanded, not quite sure why Sheppard suddenly looked so scared.

"Wraith," John hissed and then turned back around towards Rodney only to have his light fall on a fourth one standing just beyond the scientists. The wraith looked up startled and Rodney screamed just as John opened fire.

The wraith advanced through the bullets and got as far as the DHD before John finally killed it, letting the body fall where it may and turning back around to look down for the other ones. They'd moved, and, turning back towards the entrance to the control room, John heard them coming their way.

"Hurry up Rodney!" John called out as he fired blindly into the darkness, hearing an angry hiss that let him know he'd hit at least one. "Where's Todd when you need him?"

Spurred on by the sound of gunfire, Todd and Kate arrived seconds later, Kate immediately calling out to her brother. "JOHN!"

John paused momentarily in his firing. "KATE WATCH OUT!" he screamed before he resumed firing blindly into the darkness. "RODNEY, HURRY THE FUCK UP!!!"

Rodney groaned, always liking to brag about being able to fix things under pressure, found that being hunted in a sinking city by three wraith that had just popped up out of nowhere was just too much. "I'm trying!" he wailed, having taken refuge under one of the control consuls, as he punched away quickly on his tablet.

Moments later, his stress paid off and the backup generators and emergency lights kicked in along with the power to the gate.

John blinked as green light flooded the control room and suddenly he could see his targets, one of which was closer then he'd thought it was. "Keep going Rodney!" he ordered as he crouched down behind a control panel and took up aim.

Unfortunately for him, the wraith scattered now that they were visible and John cursed as he went after them. The three of them were backing down the stairs towards the gate when John stopped, aiming his P-90 at the nearest one. "Alright, that's far enough."

The three wraith hissed and turned around only to find yet another wraith and a human female blocking their escape. Looking between each other as if trying to decide what to do, they eventually focused in on Todd.

"High Commander," the largest of the three whispered and John's eyes narrowed, he hadn't been expecting them to recognize Todd.

Todd growled. "I understand that you are confused -"

One of the wraith took two steps down the stairs towards him. "You ally with the Lanteans?" he hissed, obviously angry.

Todd sighed. "The war with the Lanteans has been over for the better part of ten thousand years."

The only wraith to have not spoken yet, hissed. "You lie."

Todd glared at him. "Do I?" he said threateningly, advancing.

That was all it took before the wraith split up, each attacking one of the others. Todd ducked the blow from his attacker while Katherine was not so lucky and ended up immediately locked into combat fighting for her life. Anger poured though him at the sight of seeing Katherine being so brutally attacked yet again by a wraith that he doubted very much would simply kill her. No, were one of these wraith to win out over her in battle, death would be the last thing they offered her. Rage blinding him, Todd took two steps forwards and caught his opponent by the head, snapping his neck and stepping over the body, advancing towards the wraith that had just pushed Katherine forcefully into the stargate.

Kate hit the gate and ricocheted off, rolling to the side and managing to stay upright so that when her attacker came back towards her she was able to plant her foot to his sternum and send him flying away from her.

Todd caught the wraith as Katherine kicked him away, holding the other by the head, forcing him to his mercy. John, meanwhile had killed his wraith, shot it full of holes, and had, after taking one look down and the scene before him, scrambled up towards the control room. Practically falling over the DHD, John began to dial.

"Hold him, Todd!" John yelled as he quickly punched in the address to new Athos as quickly as he possibly could, looking down he could see that Todd was struggling to accomplish his request. John pushed the last button and then yelled, "TODD, DOWN!!!"

At Sheppard's order, Todd released the other wraith and dropped into a crouch as the stargate activated, the vortex shooting out over his head and catching his opponent before the other could get out of the way. As the wormhole settled into its normal harmless puddle, Todd stood and looked up towards Sheppard who gave him a thumbs up gesture that Todd had learned meant that he'd done a good job.

Seconds later the lights came on.

"Thank god!" John exclaimed, turning around and smiling at McKay who had crawled out from under the control panel he'd been hiding under.

As the city began to rise, Rodney looked up at the Colonel. "Always in the nick of time right?" he asked shakily.

John held out a hand to help him up. "Yeah, it always is."

Rodney looked around. "So where'd the wraith come from?"

John shook his head. "I have no idea," he turned and walked over to the balcony that looked down into the gate room intending to ask Todd about it only to find that neither he nor his sister where there. Footsteps sounded behind him and he turned, finding them both standing not too far away from Rodney. "So, Todd," the wraith looked at him and the Colonel opened his mouth to ask his question only to change course. "Why," he looked between the wraith and his sister, "Are the two of you wet?"

Kate laughed. "Well, you see, we got into a little fight down in the jumper bay and I thought it might be a good idea to drown them," she shook her head. "It wasn't my best idea."

John snorted. "So you opened the jumper bay doors? I thought nothing worked?"

Kate shrugged. "The manual override did."

John nodded, looking his sister up and down and frowning. "How come you're not frozen?" he demanded.

Kate blushed and looked down at the floor. "Todd," she replied.

For some reason John got the idea that whatever reason there may be for the fact that his sister wasn't going into hypothermic shock was something that he wouldn't be too happy about. "You know what?" he said, looking between the two of them, Kate who was looking at the floor and Todd who was looking at Kate, "It's Christmas so in the spirit of the holiday, whatever you did for her, don't tell me what it is and I won't shoot you."

Todd broke his gaze away from Katherine to eye the Colonel. "Much obliged Sheppard, I'm sure."

"Right," John nodded, turning to look behind him at Rodney before retuning his gaze to his sister and the wraith. "Well all of this has been tremendous fun and all, but I'd like to go to bed."

Kate snorted. "Bed sounds nice," she agreed.

Todd nodded. "Yes, rest would be beneficial to us all."

John grinned. "Just so you know," Todd looked at him, "We'll be waking you up so that you can open presents with us in the morning."

The wraith growled. "Must I?"

John nodded. "Oh yes, you must."

Todd snarled but he said nothing as the four of them began to head towards their quarters. He dreaded morning.

~xXx~

Somehow, and Todd had the vague impression that Katherine had had something to do with it, he did not get awoken by Sheppard so that he could sit idly in a corner whilst the humans unwrapped their gifts but was instead called upon sometime in the mid afternoon by Katherine. When his door chimed and he opened it to find her standing there he could not help smile down at her from his advantageous height.

"Katherine," he greeted, his eyes going over her form and noticing that she was no longer dressed casually but was now attired in her customary uniform. "Going somewhere?"

Kate nodded. "Yes and so are you," she informed him, looking up at him. "Your hive called this morning. Apparently they got into a little skirmish with another hive. I figured that you'd want to be taken to them so that you could help with the repairs rather than continue to stay here and suffer my brother's company."

Todd shook his head gratefully. "Your assumption would be correct," he tilted his head to the side. "When will you be ready to leave?"

"Whenever you are," she said, her eyes still locked on his. "Come on, I have a jumper standing by in the jumper bay."

Todd followed her out of his room and down the corridor. "You have drained the bay that was flooded?" he asked her as they walked.

Kate nodded. "Yeah, we did that this morning."

Todd glanced at her. "Before or after your…revelry?"

Kate smirked. "Woolsey made us do it before; honestly the man's an asshole. I hate him."

Todd grinned. "The feeling is mutual I assure you. He is my least favorite human within Atlantis."

The two of them boarded the transporter and, while Kate pressed the screen that would take them to the jumper bay above the control room, she asked, "Do you have a least favorite human outside of Atlantis?"

Todd sneered. "I do," he answered her, stepping out of the instantaneous transport and continuing towards the jumper bay.

Kate fell into step besides him. "Who?" she questioned, curious.

He glanced towards her. "His name is Koyla, or at least that is what Sheppard has told me. Your brother is familiar with him."

Acknowledgment appeared on Kate's face and she nodded, stepping past the wraith and heading towards the jumper that, as she had told him, was standing by. "He's the Genii that introduced you to my brother isn't he?" she inquired, wondering if Todd would be any more willing to talk about the experience then John had been. Glancing at him as she took her seat she figured that he probably wouldn't be.

As the hatch closed and the jumper began to lower into the gate room, Todd nodded once minutely. "He is yes," he replied in answer to her question, his mind travelling back to his years of imprisonment and his mood turning dark in the wake of it. As they shot through the gate and came out on the other side, he looked forwards and saw that what he assumed was his hive now loamed ahead of them looking very much the worse for wear.

He quickly changed the subject no more wishing to dwell on his capture then he wished to speak on the obvious damage to him hive. "You're…what is it called? Christmas was satisfactory?" he implored gently, looking to her out of the corner of his eye.

Kate nodded, guiding the jumper towards the open dart bay doors. "Yep," she grinned merrily, "Got everything I wanted."

Todd grunted. "That is good," he commented, standing as soon as she'd lowered the jumper into the dart bay.

"I have something for you," Kate called out before he could disembark and, surprised, Todd turned back to her. She held the object that she had fetched from a side compartment within the jumper out to him. "You're always telling me odd bits of information about the wraith," she handed it to him; "I thought I could return the favor."

Todd looked down at the heavy volume that she had given him, opening the cover of the book to see two loose leaf pages full of both the Lantean alphabet and what he assumed were the corresponding letters that belonged to her native tongue. "My thanks Katherine," he nodded to her and then was gone.

Kate watched him walk away before letting out a sigh and closing the hatch. Sitting down she lifted off and headed back toward the space gate.

Below her, Todd had stopped his retreat in the shadow of the hallway that led to the bridge. He watched her leave, his eyes still trained upwards even as he was joined by his Second, the wraith the humans called Kenny.

"Commander," Kenny greeted, coming to a stop before his superior and placing his hands behind his back respectfully. When his commander still did not look at him and instead remained posed, his eyes trained upwards at the now empty expanse of the dart bay, Kenny frowned.

"Commander?"

Todd's head snapped down and he looked at his Second irritably. "What?" he demanded.

Kenny bowed and handed his Commander a viewing screen. "Here is a list of all damages sustained during battle," he watched Todd scroll down the virtual page. "Below it are the lists of those systems that are currently being repaired, in order of their importance."

Todd nodded finding that, having spent so much time in Atlantis doing virtually nothing, being back into the tedium of everyday life was something of a disappointment. "Very well," he said, his voice grating as he looked over the screen more thoroughly. "I will see to these matters," he handed Kenny the book Katherine had given to him. "See that that is placed in my quarters."

The second bowed low and turned to leave whilst Todd left to run a full diagnostics of his ship, thoughts of Katherine dancing in his head as he walked, wondering when he might next see her.