A/N: Here you go peeps, another epsiode for you all to enjoy! Special thanks to my wonderful beta (you know who you are) for all the hard work she's put into helping me make this story even better. As always, reviews make my day so it you love it, hate it, or absoultely can't stand it let me know. The only condition that I must place is that any negative reviews be submitted without any profanity, name calling or exsesive use of certain adjectives which are nearther kind nor flattering. I can assure you that such idiodic behavior does not speak well of you at all. Thank you and enjoy the chapter (and please remeber to hit the little button at the end)!!


Episode XIII: Vacation

The wraith paced around the room in which he had been incarcerated for over a year; the white walls and tiles were stark and uninteresting, and there was but one door to the room and no windows. The wraith often wondered that he had not been driven to insanity already. As it stood, the humans that had captured him kept him alive by allowing him to drain a variety of animals, and while their lesser life forces did keep him from starving he longed for the rush of ecstasy that followed one's feeding from a human.

The wraith's pacing stopped as the door opened and two of the humans that he had come to identify as scientists – although their methods were crude at best – walked into the room. Almost two years ago now, one of the scientists aboard his hive had led a mutiny against the Hive Commander and then plotted a course here, to this distant galaxy, to wage war against the planet were the Hive Commander's human allies made birth. He did not know the details, for he was fairly low on the command chain, but he did know that the hive's new leaders had underestimated the humans of earth. When he had been captured, he had underestimated their capacity to be cruel. It was not something he would do again. Standing stock still, he waited as they entered the room fully bringing with them a creature they called a pig.

"Feeding time," the female scientist called out, as though he were a pet of some kind. The wraith snarled but advanced, circling the unsuspecting creature that soon began to squeal as he realized he was being stalked by the greatest of predators.

Normally, the humans did not stay to watch the process as the wraith had no doubt that seeing him feed reminded them what his preferred food choice was. He was therefore surprised when the two humans instead stood back and took out computerized tablets with which to take observational notes.

"You wish to watch?" the wraith questioned, his voice raspy and tired sounding, like that of an old human. He hated it, it sounded week but the humans only fed him often enough to keep him alive. It is an unpleasant feeling, being constantly hungry, when the sustenance provided is only enough to stave off death and not enough to satisfy.

The male of the two humans looked up. "Oh yes," he said. "You're here to be studied and, so far, this is the only aspect of you that we haven't carefully observed."

The wraith snarled. Yes, that was true. They had taken everything from him; blood, skin tissue, and other fluids that he'd rather not discuss. They had even managed to take his pride from him, but they could not dismantle his need to survive. Something in the manner in which the human spoke, as if to suggest that he were but an object to be examined, snapped what little of his mind was left to him.

Coming round the meal they had intended for him to have one last time, the wraith pivoted on his foot quite suddenly, turning around and slamming his feeding hand onto the chest of the male human that dared to speak to him so. The female screamed and banged against the locked door as the pig began to squeal loudly in the background and his victim grappled uselessly at his arm as though certain he could dislodge the organ now draining his life away.

Bright, delicious life flooded through the starved wraith who hissed and purred in pleasure as the human's hair turned first grey and then white before finally, there was nothing left at all. Standing, the now rejuvenated wraith turned and leveled eyes filled with hatred at the woman that was no longer banging on the door but was now pressed against it sobbing uncontrollably.

"P-please," she whispered, tears cascading down her face, her hands wrapped tightly around the cross at her neck.

The wraith noticed this and knew, having had it explained to him once during the early days of his imprisonment, what it meant. Coming to stop in front of her, he leered down at the pathetic female and expelled a hiss of satisfaction.

"Your God cannot save you now," he said darkly before raising his hand to feed.

~xXx~

"So," John called out as he pulled out the map of Universal Studios and began to mark off the rides they'd already been to versus the ones they hadn't, "where to next?"

Kate peered over her brother's shoulder. "How about Jurassic Park?" she suggested. "We haven't been there yet."

Ronon turned towards them. "Isn't that that movie where some guy brings dinosaurs back to life and they eat everybody?"

Teyla nodded. "I do believe so," she said.

Kate leaned against her brother's shoulder. "So how 'bout it?" she asked, poking him in the side of his face.

"Hey!" John yelped, shaking her off of him and taking a few steps away. "Quit that."

Kate giggled. "Oh relax, John," she scolded him. "We're on vacation, have some fun."

He glared at her. "You poking me is not having fun," he retorted moodily. "Going to see the animatronics dinosaurs is having fun. Now let's go."

John started off but didn't get far as Kate caught up with him and began to poke him in any spot she could reach. "I think poking you is fun," she announced as John proceeded to spin out of her grasp and start running in circles around the statue of Jaws; Kate chasing him and catching him after only three laps.

"Awe, no stop it, leave me alone!" John complained as she took up poking him relentlessly. "Go poke Ronon!"

Ronon held up his hands, chuckling, and backed away from the Sheppard siblings. "Hey," he called out, "Leave me out of this."

Besides him, Teyla also could not contain her giggles at their antics. She was happy for them, as it had been a long time since either of them had had this kind of time together. "Do you think they will stop anytime soon?" she asked her friend, turning to look up at him to see that he to seemed pleased with John and Kate's sibling play.

Ronon shrugged. "Sheppard'll surrender eventually."

Teyla nodded. "Yes, it would seem as though Kate always wins."

As predicted, after a few more minutes of being attacked by his baby sister, John called it quits by waving the proverbial white flag. "Okay, okay," he said between gasps for breath, "when we get back to the hotel you can have the water bed."

Kate grinned and stopped her assault. "Fine," she said, turning on her heel and walking off, "onwards to Jurassic Park."

John straightened himself out of his bent over state and muttered to himself while following into step behind her with Teyla and Ronon joining in.

"She won," Ronon commented with a smirk, glancing towards Sheppard as they passed by several restaurants that, according to the two Earth natives, were outrageously expensive. "Again."

John glared at him. "Shut up," he said dully.

Ronon chuckled. "Admit it Sheppard," he teased, "you always let her win."

John sulked. "Not always."

Teyla snickered. "I do not believe that you believe that even for a moment," she said.

John scowled. "Well fine," he admitted, "but –"

Since they were there during the week in the middle of spring, there weren't as many people in the park as there normally would be. As a result, John was cut off when the four of them were engulfed by a white light halfway to the huge Jurassic park gates. When they materialized again, they were in a nicely furnished room complete with a long conference table, whiteboards, and overhead projector with screen, several chairs, and General Samantha Carter.

John frowned. "General," he said slowly, looking around, "To what do we owe the interruption to our much earned vacation?"

Sam winced at the thinly veiled reminder that the Daedalus had just beamed them straight out of Disney World. "Sorry, John, but duty calls," she said, folding her hands on top of the reports she'd brought with her and nodding for them all to take seats.

"Can't you just tell duty to take a hike?" John asked, lowering himself into a chair and leaning back; refusing to be formal considering that he was in shorts, flip-flops, a sleeveless shirt that said 'Air Force' on it, and sunglasses. The rest of his team and his sister followed his lead.

Sam sighed. "I would," she said truthfully, "but unfortunately you and your team are uniquely qualified to help with the problem."

Kate frowned. "What exactly is the problem?" she asked, kicking back and resting her feet on the table.

The general opened her mouth to reply only to get cut off by another bright flash of light that signaled the arrival of the rest of the team she'd been asked to assemble to deal with the threat. As soon as the persons within the Asgard beam, rematerialized the larger of the two individuals screamed loudly.

"SHEPPARD!!!!"

John groaned, his eyes widening as they fell on both Major Lorne and Todd, the clearly-unhappy-about-something wraith. "Well," he sighed, throwing up his hands in defeat, "There goes my vacation."

Kate, Ronon, and Teyla all snickered.

The wraith however, was not put off by the Colonel's tone and instead fixed the human with a glare. "Why have I been brought here?" he demanded.

John sent him an equal glare of disdain. "Don't look at me," he defended himself, pointing at Carter. "Ask her."

Sam cringed as the wraith turned and pinned her with the same death glare that he'd previously cast at Sheppard. "Welcome to Earth," she said with a sigh as a way to break some of the tension that was currently rolling about the room in waves. "Please take a seat."

Both Todd and Major Lorne sat, the wraith stiffly, before the former turned back toward the female General; his head cocked in question.

Sam opened her mouth, calling forth all her diplomatic capabilities as she did so and prayed that she didn't say something to piss him off. "I apologize for the lack of an explanation, but when I contacted Mr. Woolsey and asked for your assistance he assured me that you would be willing to help."

Todd sneered, the explanation lacking significantly in reason.

Kate snorted. "Woolsey lied."

Having previously not bothered to observe whom was in the room or not, the sound of Katherine's voice drew Todd's attention momentarily from the one called Carter, to the female seated on his left. His eyes widened as they took in her attire, more accurately described as the lack thereof, before lifting to her face.

"Katherine," Todd greeted, bowing his head slightly in acknowledgment of the truth of her statement. The gesture earned him a smile which increased his heart rate minutely, a reaction which bade him give pause as such had never happened before. Allowing his gaze to linger on her face, he dismissed the inquiry into his own response as something that could be dwelt upon later.

Farther down the table, John frowned. "Hey, Todd," he called, the wraith's head turning towards him with just enough hesitation for him to know that he really didn't want to look at him and would rather keep staring at Kate. "Stop –"

"If you say flirting," Kate interrupted him, "I'm going to throw my shoe at you!"

John looked sheepish and sunk down lower in his chair; a retreat that earned him snickers from nearly everyone in the room with the exception of Todd and the general.

Sam, meanwhile, was looking between Kate, her brother and the wraith in confusion. She had an idea that this wasn't the first time John had accused – or almost accused – Todd of flirting with Kate, which Sam had to admit was kind of disturbing. To their knowledge, wraith and humans were not capable of the kind of interaction that usually accompanied any type of playful sexual banter and the thought that they might be was a highly unsettling one. Although, she had to acknowledge that the way Todd had been looking at Kate before John had called his attention away gave strong evidence to support the possibility that their knowledge of wraith/human relationships might be seriously lacking. Or maybe the Atlantis team just knew something that she didn't.

Deciding that she'd only drive herself crazy if she continued to speculate over something that she really didn't want to know about even if it was possible, Sam returned her attention to the matter at hand. "Yes, well," she began and all of the room's occupants turned their attentions to her, "I apologize for Mr. Woolsey's lack of diplomacy."

Todd nodded, accepting her remorse.

Lorne eyed Carter. "He didn't tell me anything either," the major confessed, disdain for the man that was technically his boss coloring his words. "Todd arrived in Atlantis about the same time as Woolsey told me that I was going with him to wherever it was we were going. The gate was already dialed when we got to the gate room and the both of us only realized we'd been sent to Earth after we stepped through."

Ronon snorted. "That sounds like Woolsey."

Teyla nodded grimly. "Yes, unfortunately. He is not always forthcoming with information."

Hearing the members of Mr. Woolsey's premier team bad mouthing him made Sam Carter sincerely regret the fact that it was that man whom had replaced her. Her lament was compounded all the more because there was not a doubt in her mind that their opinions and evaluations of Atlantis' current director were wholly correct and accurate. She was glad that for all intents and purposes Richard Woolsey was just a figurehead while John was actually mostly in charge of Atlantis.

"Remind me to have a little talk with Woolsey when we get back," John said, glancing apologetically at Lorne. He didn't care that Todd had been left in the dark about what was going on, but there was absolutely no excuse for Woolsey to have left his second in command out of the loop.

Sam sighed and shuffled the papers in front of her. "I think I'll have a little chat with him as well," she muttered.

Todd looked around the room. "Mr. Woolsey's communicational shortcomings aside," he stated, choosing to rest his gaze on Sheppard for no other reason than he enjoyed watching the Colonel squirm, "why am I here?"

Across the table, Teyla also voiced her curiosity. "I too would like to know the reason why our vacation was cut short," she said gently.

Sam sighed and pulled out the report she'd brought. "As you are all well aware, when we defeated the hive a little over two years ago, we spent several months locating and killing those wraith that managed to escape the ship before it exploded."

Ronon grinned. "Yeah, it was fun," he said, recalling the three months they'd spent on Earth before the IOA finally agreed to send Atlantis back to the Pegasus Galaxy hunting wraith with great pleasure.

"Are you trying to tell us, then, that we missed one?" Teyla asked, having had an idea as to where this was going as soon as General Carter had mentioned the wraith attack on Earth.

"Unfortunately, yes," Sam stated matter-of-factly and with a touch of annoyance. "Several days ago an independent research facility in Brazil caught fire. The Air Force saw no reason to get involved despite our presence there because we believed it was accidental. However, we have since learned that the fire was set on purpose to destroy evidence of illegal testing."

Kate didn't like the sound of that. "Testing on what?" she asked, although she had a pretty good idea of what exactly they'd been running tests on. "Wraith?"

Sam nodded. "We think so yes. We think that this company, whom we've worked with before in backwards engineering several of the items brought back through the stargate, knew enough about aliens and the SGC to recognize that the meteor shower wasn't really a meteor shower at all."

"You think they realized that it was an alien ship blowing up?" John reasoned.

"One of the employees came to us shortly after the fire to tell us that a team was dispatched after their satellites were able to track an object falling from the sky," Sam continued by way of showing her agreement.

"A dart," Teyla concluded.

Again, Sam nodded. "It would seem that way."

At this point, Todd had gathered enough information to form a conjunctive analysis of the situation and decided to comment. "And you believe that this company of yours has been conducting experiments on the wraith captured from that dart?" he tilted his head to one side. "You are certain?"

"Well, we weren't until two days ago," Sam said unhappily.

John didn't like how that sounded. "What happened two days ago?" he asked, almost dreading the answer.

"We got a report from a small town in Brazil about a body they found outside their village," Sam informed them, turning in her chair and picking up the remote for the projector. Pushing the on button, a slide show of various pictures, all showing the same dried out corpse, began to play across the screen.

Having now seen the evidence, John cursed his luck loudly inside his head using every curse word he knew and then starting all over from the beginning. "So," he started after his internal monologue of profanity had stopped, "What you're telling us is that there's a wraith loose in the Amazon."

As always, John Sheppard possessed the ability to take a complicated problem and boil it down it its most simplistic form. Sam missed working with him. "You and your team will be shipped out in the morning. The mission objective is to subdue the target at all possible costs," she informed them, confirming John's statement in full before turning to look at Todd. "I know this wraith was once a crew member on your ship and therefore once under your command. It's up to you whether or not we attempt to return him to the Pegasus or not."

"You are giving me a choice?" Todd asked, surprised that this female would be so indulgent when the only leniency he had so far encountered was from Sheppard and, even then, what clemency he was granted by his human ally was very infinitesimal indeed.

Sam found his surprise oddly patronizing as it artfully summed up the fact that, even though he was their ally and had helped them quite a lot in recent years, he was still classified mostly as a resource to be used as they saw fit. "I thought I might," she told him, hoping that was enough to make him see that not all of Earth's leaders thought so little of him or of the help he had provided them with over the past few years.

Todd considered this. "Depending on the rank of the wraith he may or may not have participated in the decision to mutiny against me."

John snorted. "Let me guess, you want to wait and see before we decide to take him back with us or not?" he asked, already knowing that this was the case. Todd's nod only confirmed it. "Okay," he said, turning towards Sam, "so what's the plan?"

Sam grinned, having wanted to tell them this part since they got there. "Well, since your vacation got interrupted I've made arrangements for you all to have dinner in the city. Courtesy of General O'Neil of course," she informed them, watching as Lorne, John and Kate all broke out grinning.

"Sweet!" John exclaimed loudly thinking that maybe dinner in Vegas was slightly better than getting to go on the Jurassic Park ride.

Sam smiled and stood up, gathering up her papers. "Alright then, I'll see you all tomorrow morning for departure. Have a good evening, try not to get too drunk, and don't gamble away the stargate like Dr. Hailmen did last year. Dismissed."

~xXx~

Because going out to eat in the city of Las Vegas was a big deal, and because all of their luggage was still in their hotel rooms, after Sam told them exactly which restaurant they'd be going to, John suggested a trip to Nellis' base exchange. After a squad of marines came to escort Todd to a secure room, the five remaining members of Atlantis' expedition had all piled into a car that had been provided for them by the military and were driven over to the base so that they could find suitable attire for the evening.

"How about this one?" Teyla asked, removing a dress from the rack and holding it up for Kate to see. "I believe that it is tasteful enough."

Kate looked over at it. In the Pegasus galaxy there was some unwritten rule somewhere that all dresses must be below the knee so the one that Teyla was currently holding up was not exactly her first choice but, as she looked it over, she thought that the forest green halter would indeed do Teyla justice. "I like it," Kate said after a while. "It'll look good on you."

The Athosian nodded and draped her selection over her arm after finding it in the right size. Moving forwards, Teyla walked behind Kate as her friend continued to search for a suitable dress for this evening's activities. Even though she could tell Kate was focused mostly on the task at hand, the alien woman could not help but think that the major's mind was elsewhere.

"What is on your mind?" Teyla asked gently as Kate paused and picked up a black dress that was entirely too short in her opinion before frowning at it and putting it back.

Kate sighed. "Nothing," she answered absentmindedly, going over to another rack and picking up a blue dress that might work. Farther examination yielded that the neckline wouldn't work so after silently wishing that she had just a bit more up top, Kate replaced the garment back where it'd come from.

Teyla did not believe her for a second. "Come, Kate," she prodded lightly, "I know your mind wanders."

Teyla's unobtrusive attempts to get her to talk about what really was on her mind made Kate smile just slightly, even when she was prodding at you Teyla was polite. "You'll think I'm being silly," she said, still not sure she was comfortable discussing her inner thoughts with anyone. Well, maybe Evan, but he was on the other side of the store with her brother and Ronon trying to find a tie that matched the dress shirt he'd picked out.

"One's inner most thoughts are rarely impractical," Teyla soothed as Kate finally selected a dress in a hue of deepest red and the two of them turned towards the shoe department. "If it is pressing enough to hold your attention so fully then it must be of some value."

Kate snickered. "You really want to know?" she asked over her shoulder before picking up pair of shoes to match her dress that had a heel low enough that it wouldn't kill her.

Teyla dipped her head low. "I would not have asked otherwise."

With a heavy sigh, Kate gave in. "It's about Todd," she admitted.

Teyla immediately schooled her thoughts lest she come to a wrong conclusion or assumption before Kate had imparted to her all of the details. "And what of him?" she asked, digging farther cautiously.

"I don't like the thought of him being locked up in a room with twenty-six camera's pointed at him and armed guards at the door while we're out having a good time," she answered heatedly, a touch of her true feelings for the situation coloring her tone. "I mean, Woolsey practically tricked him into coming here. The least we could do is offer him some sort of compensation."

Teyla considered this and came to the conclusion that Kate's assessment of the circumstances was not so terrible. "What would you suggest?" she asked, curious over what Kate's idea of adequate compensation for the wraith might be.

Kate shrugged. "He could always come with us."

Teyla raised an eyebrow. "Do you think that wise?" she asked seriously. "Todd does not possess the ability that Ronon and I do to blend in. I'm sure that neither John nor General Carter would allow him off base."

Kate huffed, deterred but for a moment. "We have image protectors. We can make him look human."

Teyla gave her a plaintive look. "I realize that you sympathize with him, but even if General Carter allowed him to the use of one of those devices are you quite certain that he could be persuaded to be civil enough to join us? Todd is not known for being particularly gracious nor does he embrace human eloquence well."

Kate took Teyla's protests under advisement. "He is capable of being nice," she told her friend. "He just doesn't do it often."

Teyla sighed. "You are set in this course of action aren't you?"

Kate nodded slowly. "We owe him something," she said knowing that this wasn't her only justification for wanting his company during the evening to come. Of course, telling Teyla that would probably not go over too well.

With great reluctance over this course of action Teyla gave her consent in the form of a slow and slightly jerky nod that showed her companion that she had her support in this. Her disinclination was born over two variables the greatest being that she had no desire to give Todd or Kate the opportunity to interact with one another in a social setting as she feared what might develop because of it. To date, they had only had the barest trace of social interaction as most of their dealings had been in combat or near death situations and she was most inclined to keep it that way. It was true that she had told both Ronon and Lorne that she did not believe that Todd would pursue Kate, and she still believed that, so long as she could be sure that the wraith's only attraction and want for Kate stemmed purely from sexual desire. Were he to be given the occasion to develop an equal fascination in her spirit, in her mind and personality, as he had already cultivated in her body, then Teyla could not see himself withholding from her for any length of time.

The second, less pressing concern was that if Todd were to indeed go with them then she could very much see both John and Ronon being in bad moods for the entirety of the night.

Almost as soon as Kate had gotten Teyla's support in her decision to ask Sam if Todd could go with them tonight, the boys came and found them. "Okay," her brother called as the reunited group headed towards the check-out lanes, "So, who's paying for all of this?"

Lorne snickered. "Well," he started, a smirk on his face, "You are the ranking officer here so by default you make the most money."

John glared at him.

Kate giggled. "He's right John," she grinned, loading her dress, her shoes and the accessories she'd picked to go with them onto the conveyer belt. "Besides, my credit card is still in Florida and I know for a fact that yours is in your pocket."

John glanced over at her. "Do ya now?" he asked, placing his hands on his hips as everyone else put down their goods too. "And how exactly do you know this?"

His sister offered him a shit-eating grin. "Because I swiped it from you this morning so that I could buy sunscreen before putting it back."

Lorne, Teyla and Ronon snickered while John shot her a mock scowl. "Why, you little thief," he exclaimed as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. Still shaking his head over her harmless pilfering, he forked over his credit card to the cashier along with his military ID. The grand total came to about fifteen hundred and John sighed as he folded up his wallet and put it back in his pocket. "Well, come on, back to Area 51," he ushered them along wanting to get the tedious part over with so that the fun could start.

~xXx~

"I can't believe Carter's letting him go!" John raged for the tenth time or so as he, Lorne, Ronon and Teyla waited around in the parking lot of Area 51 for his sister and Todd the very much unwanted wraith to finish signing his release papers.

Teyla sighed, having known that this would be John's reaction to hearing that Kate had managed to talk General Carter into allowing Todd to accompany them this evening. "Kate presented a valuable argument that General Carter saw fit to agree with," she reasoned, keeping her own ideas about this change in events to herself; she did not need a reason to irritate the Colonel farther.

John continued to pace back and forth in front of the rest of them. "Yeah, but still," he argued, "Why'd she want him to come with us in the first place?"

Teyla and Ronon didn't have an answer for him and Lorne held his tongue. He knew perfectly well why Kate wanted Todd to go with them and he specifically remembered telling her that pursuing anything would be a bad idea. Evan Lorne was under no delusions that Kate most likely didn't see the harm in carrying out this idea of hers, but he did. He knew almost for a fact that if she and Todd got to act out a normal social engagement that could almost be called a date if it wasn't for the fact that he, Colonel Sheppard, Ronon and Teyla were coming along too, then the chances of anyone being able to stop them from doing something stupid decreased phenomenally. He could have sworn that he'd talked to her about this, but apparently she'd only been sort of listening to what he'd been saying.

In lieu of pointing out how drastically bad this could all turn out to the Colonel, as that would involve disclosing that his sister had a crush on a wraith and that said wraith would probably not pass up an opportunity to sleep with her if it was ever offered, Lorne decided to try another approach in order to alleviate some of the tension that was threatening to ruin their evening.

"You know," Lorne started, and his suit and tie clad commanding officer stopped pacing in order to stare at him. "With Todd's mental abilities and all that he'd probably be pretty good at poker."

It took maybe half a minute for Lorne's words to sink into John's skull in a way that made sense. Of course, that might have had something to do with the fact that the Colonel had convinced himself that nothing about this new situation could possibly be constituted as a good thing and so his XO's logic took a while to make it past all of his mental road blocks. Once it did, however; John felt his face break out into a grin that quickly threatened to swallow his face. Suddenly taking the wraith with them didn't seem so bad.

"Actually," he said, the cogs inside his head already turning as he did the proverbial math, "This might not be so terrible after all."

Teyla looked confused. "What is poker?" she asked, wondering what about it could possibly bring John to change his opinion on their company for the evening.

It was Ronon, surprisingly, that answered her. "It's a gambling game," he looked over at Sheppard. "Do you think he'll do it?"

"I think we'll make him," John replied as he figured, under no circumstances, was he going to let Todd talk his way out of this one. If he had to put up with the wraith while he was still technically on vacation then the wraith was going to earn his keep dammit.

"Make him do what?"

The four of them turned, Evan's mouth dropping open in the process as both Kate and Todd walked towards them. "Damn Kate," the major exclaimed, his eyes traveling over his best friend, "You do clean up nice."

Kate blushed. "Why thank you Evan, you're sweet."

John, meanwhile, was busy staring at Todd. The image that had been programmed into the projector was one of a man with the same dimensions as their wraith ally but that reminded him astutely of an elf straight out of The Lord of the Rings. All six foot four inches of Todd had been polished to perfection; his white hair was smooth and was halfway pulled back, his clothes were elegant and neat, and the only way that John could tell it was still him was because he was wearing a scowl that would've made the most hard assed IOA representative cringe in dread.

John peered at him, a grin breaking out over his face at how uncomfortable the wraith looked. "Well don't you look nice and…normal."

Todd glared at him. "Not a word, Sheppard."

While a part of John's brain was aware that teasing Todd was probably not the best idea in the world, the majority of it wasn't about to pass up the opportunity. "What's wrong?" the smirking Colonel asked, "You actually don't look bad. You have eyebrows."

The human's mockery grated on Todd in a manner that only served to shorten his ability to stand Sheppard for any length of time. Growling, the wraith took a step towards the still annoyingly smirking human only to stop as he felt a hand place itself on his arm. Glancing back he saw Katherine looking at him with an expression that told him she sympathized with him but would not tolerate him causing her brother harm. Reluctantly, as he much wanted to wipe that infuriating grin off the Colonel's face, Todd stood down.

As soon as she knew that Todd wouldn't hurt John, Kate released his arm and took a step towards her brother. He was still grinning for all of a few seconds before she smacked him upside the head.

John winced, aware that Kate didn't hit him as hard as she could have and grateful for it. "Awe!" he yelped, rubbing his head and turning to look at his sister. She had her arms crossed and had raised one perfectly shaped eyebrow at him. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry."

Kate snorted. "Don't apologize to me; I'm not the one you pissed off."

John groaned; apologizing to Todd was like number five on his list of top ten things he hated doing most right after going to family reunions and talking about his emotions. Sighing as he knew full well that his sister wasn't going to let him get away with doing nothing, he turned back towards the disguised wraith. Swallowing the unpleasant taste in his mouth he took a deep breath. "Sorry."

Todd huffed. "As always, your sincerity is astounding."

John glared at him. "Hey, I didn't have to say anything. Take it or leave it."

The wraith smirked at him. "Oh, I am well used to your less convincing attempts at remorse Sheppard, never fear."

John sneered. "Oh yes, because when you say you're sorry you sound so sincere."

"I only give you what level of contrition you deserve, which usually isn't great," Todd replied dryly.

John opened his mouth to make a retort and got cut off by Lorne.

"Oh, look," the major said loudly, drawing everyone's attention towards him, "The limo's here."

Lorne's announcement did the trick and the tension was eased from the situation as the five of them all walked towards the long, black car with the seal of the United States Air Force on it and piled in. Once inside, John felt his eyes widen as he realized that their transportation for the evening came complete with a bar and a flat screen TV.

"Awesome," John exclaimed as he slid into the seat that had the most access to the mini-fridge and immediately pulled out a shot glass and, tilting his head back, downed a shot that he poured out of the first bottle he grabbed. The liquid burned on the way down and after he'd swallowed, John held up the bottle to see what exactly it was that he's just drank. "Huh," he said, "Gin."

Lorne slid in after him and frowned at his commanding officer. "Wanna slow down. Sir?" he asked as Sheppard went for shot number two, "we've got all night."

"Yeah," Kate agreed as she pushed Todd in before her and then got in behind him, directing him to the seat across from Ronon and Teyla facing the back of the car.

John ignored both of them and downed a third before screwing the lid back on the bottle and putting it away. "Hey," he defended himself, gesturing at Todd who looked as if he didn't quite know what exactly to make of the vehicle he'd been put in, "If I have to put up with him for the rest of the night then I sure as hell ain't doing it sober."

Sheppard's logic caught up to Ronon first and the Setedan leaned forwards. "Sounds about right," he commented, "hand me the bottle."

John forked it over and watched Ronon down half of it. "Whoa."

Lorne personally agreed; his eyes wide. "I hope to God that you can hold your liquor."

Teyla smiled. "I have seen him drink," she informed them all. "It takes quite a bit," she gestured over the small collection of Earth made alcohol, "More then you have here."

"Well hell!" John took the bottle away from him and fished around until he pulled out a bottle of Grey Goose. "Here, this stuff's better, try this."

Kate groaned. "I thought Sam told us all not to get too drunk."

Her brother shot her a look. "Now, Katie Beth, I know you can drink me under the table, so," he gestured at the bar, "pick your poison."

She scowled. "I'd rather not get drunk before we even make it to the restaurant."

John waved away her concerns. "One shot won't kill you."

Kate rolled her eyes. "With all due respect to our various brands of toxins, I'll have you know that I've grown to be rather fond of the stuff you find in the Pegasus."

Lorne had to personally agree. "Yeah, not only does it work faster but it tastes better."

Sheppard looked disappointed and, sitting next to Katherine, Todd couldn't quite determine why. What he could determine was that the foul smelling concoctions that both the colonel and the runner were consuming was apparently some form of alcohol and that if it's smell was any indication of its flavor, he was quite in the position to agree with both Katherine and Major Lorne. So, his curiosity peaked just slightly, he turned towards the woman sitting very near to him within the confines of this strange and far from steady mode of transportation.

Before he could ask his question of her, however, the vehicle they were in stopped. Seeing this as an end to their pervious conversation, Todd allowed the others to disembark first before following Katherine out of what he'd heard Lorne call a car. Once outside, his eyes widened.

"Impressive isn't it?" Kate asked, forcing herself to hide the giggle she desperately wanted to let out at the sight of Todd's face as he first saw the bright neon lights of Vegas' strip.

Todd could only nod. It was peculiar to him that humans such as this could possibly create such unique and eerily beautiful displays. He had not pegged them for being that appreciative of beauty.

The disguised wraith's wonderment made John absolutely tickled pink in joy, a feeling that was of course helped along by the shots he'd already taken. "Oh," he started, gesturing around at the various hotels, restaurants and casinos that lined the long stretch of road, "you think this is impressive, just wait until you actually go inside the building."

Todd opened his mouth to make a snappish retort about not being so easily impressed when he felt something link through his arm. Jerking his head to the left, he looked down in mild surprise at Katherine who now stood by his side. "What are you doing?" he asked her, feeling the unfamiliar and not yet explained sensation of having his heart rate increase just slightly.

Kate smiled at him, an action that only confused him farther. "Look," she said, and nodded towards her brother and Teyla. Todd turned and saw that the Colonel had offered the Athosian his arm and that they now stood in exactly the position that Katherine had maneuvered them into. Understanding, that this was a form of formal escort, Todd felt his body relax.

With Sheppard and Teyla leading the party, the runner and Lorne following in the middle and he and Katherine taking the rear, Todd allowed her to lead him into the magnificently tall building that seemed to be made of nothing but purest glass. Once inside, the wraith had to fight to maintain his composure because Sheppard had been right, the inside of the building was far more impressive then the outside. It was astounding what these humans could create and still be mostly oblivious to the rest of existence.

Besides him, Kate watched Todd as his eyes, in constant motion, moved about the lobby of the Hard Rock and took in all that he was now surrounded with. She found it endearing in a strange way how much beauty he seemed to find in her world even if he was keen on keeping that appreciation hidden. She couldn't wait to see what he made of the elevator.

"Okay kiddies," John announced as soon as they'd reached the elevators that would take them up to the restaurant. "These things are small and I'd rather not try and cram us all into one so, Kate and Todd you're on your own, everyone else is with me."

His sister rolled her eyes. "Gee," she scowled him, "Thanks John."

He smiled at her. "No problem."

Shaking her head is amusement and because they were still technically on vacation and she couldn't by rights stay mad at him, Kate stood back as everyone else crammed onto the first elevator before pulling a somewhat hesitant Todd onto the second one.

As the doors closed behind him, Todd turned to Katherine. "What is this?"

Kate grinned. "It's called an elevator. It'll take us up."

He frowned. "Up?"

Kate laughed at the expression on his face as the elevator started its climb. Once he got used to the feeling, Todd stepped away from her towards the glass and looked out over the lobby as the floor got smaller and smaller. Coming to rest beside him, she also looked down. "Cool isn't it?"

Todd nodded absentmindedly, his attention now on the female next to him rather than his odd, if impressive, surroundings. "Why did you wish for me to accompany you?" he asked. "It is obvious that Sheppard does not wish for my presence."

Kate shrugged. "Because if I didn't you would've been locked in some room somewhere with guards at the door and a whole bunch of cameras watching your every move," she looked at him, seeing through the disguise he wore to the face underneath that she had to now admit she preferred. "I just thought that with all you've done for us, you deserved better than that."

"Ah," Todd grunted, bowing his head to her logic, moved by the endless compassion that she seemed to display for him. Compassion, Jennifer had once told him, was not a weakness and he could see that now ever more plainly in the female standing so very near to him that he could feel her body heat radiating from her. In her, in Katherine, it was her greatest strength and Todd felt somewhat humbled by that.

The elevator stopped and Todd turned to her as the doors opened, presenting her his arm as he had seen Sheppard do rather than waiting for her to take it. The gesture seemed to please her and the wraith again felt the odd sensation of increased heartbeat this time incited by the smile she granted him. Truth be told he was quickly becoming used to the awareness whenever he was with or near to her.

The other humans were already seated when Todd and Kate joined them and separating himself form Katherine for but a moment, he pulled the chair she was to sit in back for her before sitting down himself. Only once he was seated did he notice the odd, if slightly infuriated, look that the Colonel was giving him.

"What have I done now?" Todd demanded, having been having a pleasant time, he was not in the mood to have the Colonel ruin it with false accusations of some sort or another.

John's left eye twitched. "You held out her chair," he explained, frowning. "Since when do you have manners?"

Todd snorted. "Believe it or not, Sheppard, the w…my kind have been known to carry on formally from time to time."

John didn't believe it. "Oh I seriously doubt you guys have ever –"

"Long ago, when we were still earth bound, our civilization was not much different than the period of your history that you call the medieval era," he glared at the Colonel, cursing him for his prejudice and the assumption that all wraith were uncivilized. There was more depth to them as a culture then simply war, it was just unfortunate that most of that depth had been lost to treachery and betrayal so that only a farce of it still remained.

John would have very much liked to snap back at Todd that somehow, even if the wraith did have some sort of manners that bordered on civility, he just couldn't see him ever being that courteous. Todd's very presence screamed warlord whom, historically speaking, weren't known for their manners or chivalry. Of course, the same could be said of most wraith, who on the whole reminded John of space vampires, some of whom just happened to be more vain then others. Todd, on the other hand, wasn't vain, didn't particularly care for fashion, as it had been explained to him once before that the set of clothes he wore were considered by most wraith to be out dated, and was just plain scary ninety-nine percent of the time. Even the other wraith were afraid of him, which was saying something.

Of course, he couldn't really say any of this due to the fact that it was all classified and they were in a public place. So, without any other options, John let the matter drop as the six of them picked up their menu's and began to peruse the various selections. "You are going to eat right?" John asked after a few moments, fixing Todd with a look that dared the wraith to say no.

Todd looked up at the Colonel over the top of what he suspected was a readout of the various course selections that were served here; none of which he could read. "I believe that it would be contradictory to our deceptions, Sheppard, if I were to do otherwise," he stated sourly as if to convey exactly what he thought over Sheppard's appraisal of his intelligence. He was the last person the human should be concerned over whilst in the middle of a charade as it was more likely that Sheppard would give something away then would he.

John nodded, went back to reading his menu for a few moments and then frowned, looking back up at the wraith. "Can you even read that?" he asked.

Todd glared at him but did not answer.

Before her brother could make an even bigger mess of things, Kate leaned over towards Todd and began to describe the various things that he could choose to eat. To his credit, Todd was mostly able to follow along even if the position that Katherine was now in did present him with a rather nice view of her assets. It was a situation that the wraith was most reluctant to point out because he knew then, that the opportunity to so regard her would remove itself. He also knew that Katherine would probably not be pleased with him as human females, he had learned, were far more modest then wraith and did not often enjoy the appraisal that they received from members of the opposite sex. Unless of course, the appraisal was from someone whom they intended to provide a view for, but Todd somehow did not think that Katherine would go through effort of any kind to entice his eye to wander. Desire her he might, he seriously doubted that she returned any of it beyond the simple acknowledgment of basic attractiveness.

If Todd thought he was being covert, he was mistaken. Across the table, both Lorne and Teyla were watching him watch Kate with a mixture of feelings, the most prominent one being unease. John and Ronon were too absorbed with the seemingly endless possibilities of delicious fare to be aware of their surroundings, and so this left Teyla and Lorne the opportunity to observe the wraith and the woman without the fear of drawing in the Colonel's attention.

Kate, Lorne could tell, was not as oblivious to where Todd's eyes kept going as she was letting on and he cursed the thought that she didn't seem to mind. "She knows," he whispered aside to Teyla quietly, making sure to keep his voice as low as possible so that the two of them were the only ones that could hear their conversation. Thankfully, the table was rather large and there was about a foot and a half of space between all of them with the exception of Kate who was more or less in Todd's lap.

Teyla nodded, frowning. "She does not seem to mind."

Lorne shook his head. "No, no she doesn't," he murmured, watching the wraith's eyes flicker downwards once more before deciding to disclose something to the Athosian that only he and Jennifer had previously known, seeing Teyla as a valuable ally that he could trust not to tell Sheppard. "She likes him."

Teyla's eyes flashed to Major Lorne's in surprise and a small amount of fear. "In what way?" she demanded, still keeping her voice low, trepidation beginning to creep up her spine at the implications of this development.

"The same way Sheppard likes you," Lorne informed her gravely.

Teyla hissed. This new information was unsettling to say the least. Whereas before she had thought that only Todd could be considered in this situation, now she was being told that he was not the only one that felt things that were inappropriate, considering the state of their alliance, their difference in species and the simple fact that they did not even share a galaxy of origin.

"Hey!"

The both of them were snapped out of their conversation and their thoughts at the loud interruption from the Colonel. Schooling both of their faces into ones of innocence instead of guilt, they both looked up at him.

"Yes John?" Teyla asked gently.

John frowned. "What were you two talking about all quiet like over there?"

Teyla, knowing that Lorne couldn't lie on the spot if his life depended on it – unless it was to Mr. Woolsey, but that was a different matter – answered before her companion could. "I had a question about the menu," she replied with a slight nod of her head towards the menus that both she and Major Lorne still held.

The accusation on John's face disappeared. "Oh," he answered lamely, going back to reading his own selections sheet, "okay, then."

Fortunately for all involved, any awkwardness was immediately pushed away as the waiter approached them. "Hello," he began and all of the table's occupants looked up, "My name is Tyler and I will be serving you this evening. May I get you anything to drink from the bar?"

John grinned happily. "Yes," he answered jovially. "I'll have a Black Russian, on the rocks please."

The waiter nodded and turned towards Teyla. "And for you, miss?"

Teyla hesitated, not really all that familiar with Earth mixed drinks as the concept of mixing various types of alcohol with other things to improve the taste was alien to her. She did, however, know of one drink that both Jennifer and Laura had made for her on more than one occasion that she rather liked. "I'll have a painkiller please; I believe that is what it is called."

If the waiter found her lack of conviction curious he made no indication of it and simply nodded, turning towards Lorne with an expectant look on his face.

"I'll have what he's having," Lorne pointed at the Colonel. "And a glass of water."

"Rum," was Ronon's request and the waiter nodded once more before turning to Kate.

"Toscana White Terre di Tufi 2003. Bring the bottle and two glasses," she directed, nodding towards Todd to indicate to the waiter that she was ordering for him as well.

With a nod and a smile, the waiter retreated with a promise for quick service, leaving them all once more to their own devices. John turned towards his sister. "The whole bottle?" he asked, amused.

Kate shrugged. "I've had it before at one of Mom's little tea parties. It's the closest thing I can think of to anything that they might have in Pegasus."

John nodded in understanding. "Ah," he replied before looking back towards his sister. "How is Mom anyway? Have you talked to her recently?"

Kate shook her head. "I tend to avoid the rest of the family, John, you know that. I hate them more then you do."

He snorted. "Oh, I doubt that."

Kate sniffed. "At least you got married," she complained. "If I have to listen to Aunt Gloria talk about how proper young women grow up to marry old, fat rich men and then forget how to close their legs while they punch out brat after brat again, I think I'll shoot myself."

John chuckled and raised the glass that the waiter had just placed in front of him. "One of the perks of being born a girl, eh, Katie?"

Lorne looked between the two of them, confused. "Huh?"

John sighed. "Our family is what you'd call well off," he explained, nodding towards Kate. "It's their solid opinion that Kate's an absolute failure because she's past the age of twenty five and isn't married and doesn't have at least three annoying brats running around causing havoc."

Unfortunately, Lorne understood exactly what type of family the Colonel was talking about. "It probably doesn't help that she's in the military does it?" he asked, feeling sorry for the both of them at having to have been raised like that.

Kate shook her head. "Not really, no," she sighed. "I think Dad told me once, verbatim, that no respectable man is going to want a wife that he can't protect."

To this, Teyla frowned. "I do not understand," she turned towards Kate. "Would not your father be pleased that you can take care of yourself?"

Again, Kate shook her head. "No. In his mind it's a woman's job to be subservient to the man. The fact that I can defend myself is a turn off."

"Dad's opinion of us was always bad, even when he died," John continued to explain. "If he'd had his way I'd be running the company with David while working on wife number three and Kate'd have married Travers or some other respectable sort and started punching out kids."

Kate laughed at the disturbed looks on everyone's faces, even Todd's, before turning to her brother. "Hey," she called, "be fair, David's only been married twice."

John snorted. "Yeah and only one of his kids is legitimate."

Kate rolled her eyes. "Be nice," she reprimanded her brother. "He did marry her afterwards…eventually."

"And divorced her three years later," John reminded her, thinking about how much he'd hated their brother's second wife. "At least my marriage lasted longer than three years."

Kate smirked, John did have a point. For as much as their family considered them both failures, at the very least her second brother had been a better husband for longer than her eldest brother had been on either occasion.

As interesting as this conversation was, and as enlightening as it was a rare occasion when either Sheppard talked about their family life, there was one part of their conversation that had Teyla confused. "I'm sorry," she interrupted, causing all attentions to turn towards her, "but there is something about which I am unclear. What does legitimate mean?"

Across the table, Todd had to admit that that particular word in the entire conversation had made the least sense to him as well.

"It's a fancy way of saying that a child was born inside of wedlock, that it's parents were married when it was born," Lorne explained before either Kate or the colonel could.

Teyla frowned. "And it is frowned upon to conceive and birth a child while not bond?"

John nodded. "Generally speaking, yes," he looked pensive. "There are a few exceptions to the rule though."

Ronon, curious about the conversation for the first time, turned towards Sheppard. "Like?"

"Same sex pairs," Lorne suggested, as it was the first exception that he could really think of that had any kind of wide acceptance. Surprisingly, Todd seemed to understand the concept while Teyla and Ronon looked at him in confusion. It occurred to him, then, that in civilizations whose populations were constantly culled and thinned almost to the point of extinction, the need to reproduce would win out over anything else and so such things might not exist to the humans of the Pegasus galaxy. It disturbed him, somewhat, that it might to the wraith.

John picked up on it too. "Okay," he started, pointing first at Teyla and Ronon and then at Todd, "I figured that it might be a Pegasus thing, but why do they look confused and you don't?"

Todd snorted as all eyes turned to him in curiosity. "There are few females among my kind, Sheppard. Use your imagination."

If Todd had expected Sheppard to become confused, the wraith was sorely disappointed. "I thought that's what the worshippers were for?" John countered, frowning. "Not to mention –"

Kate cut him off. "If you're about to talk about the companion trade, can we not and say we did?"

John looked sheepish. "Right, sorry Kate."

Katherine nodded and took to staring at her plate while Todd's head snapped towards Sheppard in alarm. "You know of that?" he demanded, not at all happy that they would have learnt of this particular facet of wraith life when he had done all within his power to keep the knowledge from them.

John nodded. "Had an unfortunate experience a while back, nothing big," he fixed Todd with a look. "Kinda would've liked a heads up though. It would've been nice to know that you and us can…do that."

Fortunately for Todd, he was saved the trouble of coming up with an answer as their waiter returned for their orders. Lost in thought, concerned about what he now knew that his human allies had been made aware of, he didn't much pay attention to what Katherine ordered for him until it was placed in front of him a few minutes later. As the others around him commenced the consumption of their meals, Todd found himself confused by the utensils placed on either side of his plate.

"Katherine –"

Kate smiled, finding it cute in an odd sort of way that Todd had no idea how to use a fork. She wondered if the memory wasn't locked away somewhere inside his mind and that it simply had been too many thousands of years since he'd used one that he would remember how. Scooting her chair closer to his, she took his hand in hers and went about teaching him, discovering once more that while he looked human the illusion only went as far as his features. Touching him, Kate was pleased to find that he still felt like a wraith and her fingers grazed lightly over his feeding slit as they attempted to get his fingers to properly grip the fork.

Todd felt his body stiffen in response to Katherine's casual brush of her fingertips over his feeding organ. The light touch of her hand which he knew was meant innocently was received as anything but. That particular part of his anatomy was extremely sensitive, and even at so slight a touch he could taste her, the memory of his hand placed over her heart in Ford's prison rushing forwards and stirring his lust with a force that he had not counted on. If such an insignificant brush of her skin over his could cause this reaction in him then Todd was curious as to what a more substantial and meaningful touch would draw from him. A great portion of him wanted to find out but his common sense, thankfully, prevailed as he knew that it was damning to even think such thoughts.

Katherine was out of his reach.

"Well I'll be damned," John commented, after his sister had scooted her chair back over to its original place and Todd had taken at least one bite. "You can use a fork."

Todd's thoughts vanished and he glared at the Colonel. "I am not as incapable as you seem to believe," he snapped.

John ignored the warning in Todd's tone as he usually did. "Yeah, I know," he said as if he didn't actually believe it, but was just stating such for Todd's benefit. "Still, I wish I had my camera."

Todd growled, unable to help the natural response to such banter even though he'd been told before they had left the base that he would have to contain his more animalistic qualities.

John glared at him, putting his own fork down. "Hey," he reprimanded, "no growling."

Todd's back stiffened in indignation as he felt his temper flare dangerously. The pressure of something relatively small settling on his left arm called his attention away from Sheppard and he looked to his left to see that Katherine was once more touching him although this time in a less incriminating manner. Her hand on his arm soothed him and bade him calm down and he was glad for her reassuring presence. Sheppard was getting on his nerves.

"Calm down," Kate said gently, removing her hand from Todd's arm and returning it to her own cutlery. "Eat your food."

Unable to do anything else, Todd complied to the command and managed somewhat gracefully to manipulate the eating utensil from his plate to his mouth. The fare was different than anything he had ever tasted as every now and then the wraith did eat normally if only because it provided a comfort and a reminder to those days when they had all been young and the world less complicated. He was no different, although the instances of him consuming solid food grew rarer as the centuries stretched onwards.

"Well?" Kate asked, after a good portion of the steak she'd ordered him was gone.

Todd turned to her and offered her a small smile and a nod of his head. "It is palatable."

Kate snickered. "Can't you ever just say something is good and be done with it?" she asked him, retuning his teasing smile with one of her own. "Or do you always have to be difficult?"

Lorne laughed outright before Todd could answer. "Didn't you get the memo Kate?" he asked his best friend and saw her glance towards him. "Difficult is what Todd does best."

Laugher went around the table and even the wraith joined in with a light chuckle while shooting a look of regret at Katherine that he had not been able to answer her with his planned response. Such things, anyway, were best done when not in the company of so many others when Todd was free to act himself around the one human that he wanted very much to know him in his entirety. Katherine was the only human that he felt could accept him in that capacity, even if it was in another that he truly wished for her acceptance.

The rest of the meal went smoothly enough and when at last their plates had been cleared away and their glasses emptied, Ronon turned towards Sheppard.

"So," the Setedan asked, "what now?"

John smirked. "Now, we go downstairs," he informed his friend.

Todd frowned. "What is downstairs?"

Lorne stood up and turned towards the wraith as his commanding officer gave the waiter instructions to sent the bill to General O'Neil. "A casino," he informed the alien, as the ladies both stood and placed their napkins on the table, all of them heading in a group towards a different set of elevators then the ones they'd used to ride up here.

As they all boarded the larger elevator, John turned to Todd. "Don't look so sour," he scolded the wraith. "You'll love it."

Todd frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. "I very much doubt that."

The elevator doors opened and Todd was greeted with the bustling sounds and lights of the Hard Rock Casino. The wraith stiffened as both Sheppard and Lorne grabbed him by the upper arms and began to march him towards a set of tables around which human males were staring intently at handfuls of rectangular paper. Every now and then his mind would brush against one of theirs and the intricacies of the game, poker, would display themselves in his mind. As Sheppard and Lorne forced him into a seat and the runner took a seat across from him, Todd looked around him and decided that he'd just make Sheppard happy and then be done with it.

Then maybe the Colonel would leave him be.

~xXx~

Three hours later saw Teyla having a wonderful time at the slot machines, Lorne, Ronon, Todd and John had progressed to Black Jack, and Kate had taken to sitting at the bar sipping a cocktail and watching them all. She didn't know the specifics, but she did know that Todd had made her brother a hell of a lot of money in the past couple of hours after he'd figured out how each game they'd dragged him to was played. A smile lit her face as she looked up from her drink and saw the wraith extract himself from her brother's company and head her way. As he stopped besides her table, she turned to greet him.

"Done taking everyone's money?" she asked playfully as he rested his hands on the table and looked back out over the floor towards John, Ronon and Lore who were busy cleaning house.

Todd turned his attention towards her and tilted his head to the side. "The game is interesting but unfulfilling."

Kate snorted. "It helps when you don't read everyone's minds so that you know what they're going to do next."

"Sheppard told me to," Todd reminded her.

She laughed. "Yes, because you always do what my brother tells you to."

Finding the irony in the situation, Todd allowed her a smile. "I believe this circumstance is different."

Again Kate laughed and glanced once more towards her brother, best friend and Ronon. As she looked, her brother cheered and with a smile she turned back towards Todd. "You've made him very happy."

"There is a first time for everything," the wraith responded thinking of the strangeness that anything he could have done would please the human so greatly. Turning to look at Katherine, he regarded her. "I do not understand all of your customs, nor do I see why you must waste so much time pursuing such pointless flights of frivolity."

"Well, we don't live as long as you do," she reminded him which caused his head to turn back to her. "We try and enjoy the time we have"

Acceptance washed through Todd at her flawless logic and he nodded. "I can understand that, yes," he moved forwards, taking the seat across from her and leaning back to regard her. "As you know, from your time spent on my hive, the wraith do not often partake in such pursuits of frivolity. Even the games we play serve a purpose; they test us in our ability to plan and coordinate attacks and retreats strategically. Nothing we do is without purpose."

Kate frowned. "Where's the fun in that?"

Todd snorted, amused. "There is none, at least none that you would understand. There was a time, long ago, when we wraith did have small amounts of what you call 'free time' but such a time as that has long since gone. I certainly do not remember ever doing nothing for hours as your brother seems content to do."

Kate looked at him, really looked at him and found herself studying a creature who had seen and done more then she could ever imagine. He saw her looking at him and in curiosity turned his head towards her. "What do you think of our planet?" Kate asked, turning the conversation away from talk of fun towards the thing she had been burning to know since she first saw his eyes widen at the sight of all the Las Vegas light.

"Your home is bountiful, full of life and spirit," his eyes sought her face and, as his gaze lingered, he saw her eyes come up from the table to catch his. "I can see why you and yours protect it so fiercely."

Kate offered him a small smile, dropping her eyes back to a contemplation of her drink."It's a funny thing," she began, her voice soft, as if she were speaking from far away, "I was born here, on Earth, but it's not my home," she lifted her eyes to the wraith who watched her with such intensity. "My home is a hundred thousand light-years away from here, in another place, among other stars."

Hearing her speak of his home as her own brought a warmth to him that he could not explain and, like so many of his reactions to her, he did not wish to. To stop and contemplate over how many different things she made him feel would be to admit that she made him feel such things at all; that she awoke within him emotions long since buried or in some cases, ones that had never been felt by him at all. It was a strange thing to feel considering whom it was that was eliciting these emotions and responses in him. Katherine, indeed, was very unique and possessed about her such a quality of grace that Todd could help but to find himself drawing ever nearer to her in whatever little ways that he could.

~xXx~

"He looks greener than usual," John yelled out to Lorne over the roar of the wind as he eyed the wraith sitting across from him, feet firmly planted on to the floor of the transport plane whilst his hands gripped the shoulder harness much more tightly then was necessary.

Lorne nodded, turning towards his commanding officer. "You didn't tell him we were jumping did you?"

John snickered and shook his head. "If I'd have told him that we never would've got him on the plane."

Lorne smirked. "No," he agreed, his smirk getting wider as the plane hit some turbulence and shifted to the right just slightly which made Todd's eyes close and his grip on his shoulder harness tighten still. "Probably not."

Across the cargo hold from them, Kate didn't find Todd's discomfort quite so amusing as her brother and best friend did. The wraith was used to air and spacecraft with inertial dampeners, so the turbulence that they were currently experiencing was probably not at all fun for him. Sending her brother a glare as he leaned over to no doubt snicker some comment to Lorne, Kate reached out and pried one of Todd's hands off of his shoulder harness and held it tightly with her own.

As the unsteady and ill constructed air transportation vehicle jerked violently for what had to be the hundredth time or so, Todd concluded that Sheppard really was trying to kill him. The sudden touch of something to his right hand made Todd's eyes open and his head turn to his right, seeing as he did so that Katherine had taken one of his hands in hers and now held onto it as though to reassure him that he was not going to in fact die. Not for the first time her touch calmed him although nowhere near enough that he could begin to enjoy the flight that Sheppard had told him before they'd taken off would be 'fun'.

"Don't worry," Kate said aside to Todd, leaning towards him so that she wouldn't have to yell over the noise of the engines. "We should be coming up on our drop point; it'll all be over soon."

Todd could only nod.

Back on the other side of the plane, John had finally noticed that Todd no longer looked quite as nervous as he had minutes before. "Hey," he said to Lorne, "He looks calmer."

Lorne turned his attention towards the wraith to see what could have possibly eased some of his tensions away and, having found it, frowned. "Look at his right hand," he informed the Colonel.

John blinked and then glared. "Hey Todd!" the wraith looked up at him. "Let go of my sister!"

Kate rolled her eyes. "You're an asshole John, you know that!"

"I don't care!" the colonel protested, fixing his gaze on Todd. "Let go of her hand!"

Having realized by Sheppard's comments how Katherine's reassurance must appear to the other male, Todd attempted to extract his hand only to find that Katherine had clamped down on it rather hard so that he could not pull away. Curious, he looked at her and saw that she was glaring at her brother quite strongly.

"Chill, John," Kate reprimanded her brother, refusing to let Todd draw away.

Her brother glared at her. "You are aware of the implications of you holding his hand right?"

Kate let out an exasperated sigh. "I am, but he's not."

"So?" John countered, not seeing were she got off rationalizing the fact that she was holding Todd's feeding hand in both of her own rather tightly. If it was him, he'd be freaked out.

"So, in ignorance lays innocence, John, get over it. I'm trying to calm him down," Kate retorted as the plane turned sharply to the right, so that her brother and Lorne were now technically higher up then she was. Todd's grip on her fingers tightened in response.

Realizing that he was probably overreacting, John let the matter go and turned towards the cockpit. "Hey, Masters!" he called to the pilot, "we there yet?"

"Approaching drop point now, sir," the Captain called back to him as he angled the plane downwards a few degrees. "Opening back hatch."

A gush of wind roared through the cargo hold as the hatch lowered and John unbuckled himself and stood, looking down over the treetops of the forest below. Turning to look around at him team, his eyes glancing over the now really nervous looking wraith, he called out, "Alright, who's jumping first!?!"

Todd felt his internal organs do a strange little dance at the human's words. "Jumping?" he repeated and felt the loss of touch as Katherine pulled her hand away from his and began to unfasten herself from the seat next to him.

Kate looked down on him, offering him the most reassuring smile that she could. "It's not as bad as it sounds," she assured him before she pulled on her eye protection and went towards the cockpit.

John frowned. "Uh, Kate, the back of the plane is this way," he pointed.

Kate ignored her brother and once she'd reached the front of the hold, turned around and looked at Lorne. "Wanna race?" she called, "First one to the ground wins."

Lorne jumped up and went to stand by her. "Not a chance you'll beat me," he countered and took up starting position.

John frowned. "What are you doing?" he asked.

They ignored him. "One," Lorne yelled over the wind, "Two, THREE!"

John's eyes widened as the both of them then broke out into a run towards the hatch and the Colonel just managed to get out of the way before they both dove off the back of the plane. Looking after them, noticing that neither one had pulled their chutes yet, John Sheppard shook his head.

"Crazy Marines," he muttered before turning back towards Teyla and Ronon who had come to join him by the hatch. "Alright, you remember how to do this right?"

They both nodded soberly.

John nodded. "Alright, Teyla you first."

She looked at him briefly before complying, leaving Ronon standing beside Sheppard. Glancing back at the wraith who had not yet unbuckled himself from his seat, Ronon gave Sheppard an apologetic look.

"Good luck with him," the Setedan commented before making his jump.

John groaned and the plane turned, circling around for another pass over their landing zone. "Yeah, really," he muttered to himself before turning and walking back towards Todd. "Okay, you're next."

The wraith glared at him. "If you expect me to –"

"I don't expect, you're just gonna," John interrupted him, forcing the wraith out of his seat and, taking a firm hold of his arm, marching him towards the back of the plane. "Come on, you saw everyone else do it, it's not that hard."

Todd's eyes narrowed to slits.

Having figured out that Todd wasn't going to go easily, John let out a sigh. "Okay, on your way down; after you jump wait about ten seconds and then pull this blue tab," he instructed the wraith, indicating the pull tab that would open his parachute.

The wraith crossed his arms stubbornly. "I am not –"

John lost his patience and, having maneuvered Todd so very close to the edge of the plane, gave it up and pushed him. Watching Todd fall was quite comical and not for the first time on this little vacation, John wished he had his camera. Peering over the side of the plane after the appropriate time had passed, John saw that Todd had apparently listened to him for the first time ever because there were now five open chutes instead of just four.

"Thanks for the ride!" John called to the pilot who gave him a thumbs up before he, too, jumped.

He caught up with Todd about halfway down. " See," he called out to the now slowly descending alien who had his arms crossed and was glaring at him with enough malice to curdle milk, "That wasn't so bad."

Todd snarled. "You pushed me Sheppard."

John shrugged. "Well I had to get you out of the plane somehow and you weren't moving so…"

The wraith just snorted; a clear sign that he was hardly amused. By the time they landed, however, his sour mood had lessened somewhat and he was quite pleased with himself when he managed to touch the earth with grace rather than falling over as the runner did. Unfastening himself from the harness to which his chute was attached, Todd stepped out of it and looked around. The forest was dense and absurdly hot and humid making him suddenly wish that he had agreed to wear the uniform that Sheppard had attempted to get him into before they'd left.

Unfortunately, Sheppard seemed to read his mind.

"Bet you're wishing you weren't wearing so much leather now, huh?" John snickered as he began to roll up the wraith's parachute when it became clear that the alien wasn't going to do it himself.

Todd turned and glared at him. "I am not," he said stubbornly, not wishing to give the human the satisfaction of knowing that he was right.

John rolled his eyes. "Sure, whatever, we'll see how you feel in a couple days."

The wraith just turned away from him and went back to contemplating the surrounding foliage. His conclusion, after having a thorough look around was that he was going to be miserable in a very short amount of time. Todd hated water or more specifically he hated being wet and didn't even enjoy the pastime of swimming. This might have had something to do with the fact that one of his brothers had once tried to drown him when he had been still quite young but Todd attributed the dislike more to the fact that space was dry and therefore the unusual circumstance of being surrounded by water was unsettling. Here, water droplets clung to everything.

"Guess you've probably figured out by now why it's called a rain forest."

Todd turned and espied Katherine standing not far away and wondered when she had come to meet with he and Sheppard. "Yes," he answered her, tearing his eyes from her face and returning them to the various green and leafy things that surrounded him.

Kate smirked, recalling the last time she'd seen Todd wet before and remembering that he hadn't liked it at all. "You don't like water do you?" she asked him, curious.

Todd shook his head. "Not particularly, no."

John stood up, having finished packing away both his and Todd's chutes. "Well, get used to it," he told the wraith while shouldering both their packs as he had a firm feeling that Todd would refuse to carry his.

The wraith sneered at him. "It would seem I have no choice."

John nodded, looking around as Lorne, Teyla and Ronon all came to join them. "That's right," he glanced back towards Todd, "you don't." He looked around. "Who has the radio?"

"Here," Kate fished the survival radio that was also a GPS tracking system out of her pack and handed it to her brother. "There should be an AWACS in the area. Use frequency 287.35; call sign Goliath Victor. They're supposed to be giving us a heading."

"Do they have any idea what they're tracking?" Lorne asked, blinking his eyes against the light drizzle that had started up suddenly.

Kate shook her head. "No," she turned to her brother, "They're calling the wraith target x."

"Well, that's original," John complained as he keyed the radio to the frequency his sister had given him. "Goliath Victor, this is Capybara zero seven Ground on two eighty-seven decimal thirty-five, signal check over."

Lorne gave his commander a look. "Capybara?" he questioned looking around to see that he wasn't the only one that found being called this strange. Teyla and Ronon looked likewise confused.

"It's the largest rodent in the world, indigenous to the Amazon, favorite food of the anaconda, which is consequentially the world's largest snake," Kate informed them and had to try very hard not to laugh at the look on Lorne's face. "What's wrong, Lorne?"

"I hate snakes," Lorne shuddered. "Especially twenty feet long ones that could swallow a grown man whole."

Kate waved away his concern. "Oh, relax, the chances of us running into a twenty foot snake are slim to none," Lorne looked relieved. "Fifteen feet is much more likely."

Lorne paled and John turned towards the two of them, smirking as the radio crackled and they heard back from the plane.

"Capybara zero seven Ground this is Goliath Victor, we have you loud and clear, over."

"Likewise," John called as he waved his hand at Kate and pointed to her head and watching her nod in understanding. "Listen, we just landed and we need the coordinates for our target."

"Copy that ground," the plane replied. "Coordinates for target x are as follows: four degrees forty-six feet twenty-one inches south, fifty-nine degrees forty-three feet twenty-nine inches west, elevation 159 feet above sea level, over."

"We copy Goliath," John replied, "Ground over and out," he turned to Kate, "You got all of that?"

Kate nodded.

"Here," John handed her the radio, "Plug the coordinates into the GPS and let's move; we've got a lot of ground to cover."

"We gotta go south a good way," Kate called and pointed in the direction that they would have to take as she passed her brother the radio with the coordinates and their current position now logged into the mini-computer.

John nodded. "Okay," he looked around at his team, "rule number one: don't get lost. Rule number two: stay in groups, nobody goes anywhere alone. Rule number three: don't touch anything with bright colors."

Teyla frowned. "Why touch nothing with bright colors?" she asked.

Kate turned to her. "In this forest, bright colors generally mean that whatever it is is poisonous."

Lorne snickered. "Oh, yeah, this is gonna be such fun."

John couldn't help but agree with his second in command's sarcasm. "Right, let's move out. Teyla, Ronon stay with me at the front, Todd stay with Kate and Lorne at the back."

And with that they began to whack and hack their way through the jungle

~xXx~

They made good progress all things considered and by nightfall had only a few miles to go in order to reach their target which, thankfully, hadn't moved much all day. John wondered if this had anything to do with the variety of predators that inhabited the rainforest and the Colonel was briefly curious about what a wraith would make of a jaguar or a wild boar. Dinner probably, John's inner voice said and the Colonel chuckled softly at his own joke before calling a halt just as visibility started to become a problem.

"Camp time," John called as they all wearily stopped and unloaded their packs, dropping them where they stood as they all sat down on various rocks and fallen trees in the little gully he'd found for them to make camp in.

"Thank God," Lorne cried as he settled himself on a nearby boulder and proceeded to take off his shoes and socks, ringing out the water and then laying them next to him to dry.

Kate giggled. "Something wrong Lorne?"

The major glared at her. "Not all of our uniforms are water proof like yours little miss weapon x."

Kate snorted. "Ah, you're just jealous," she smiled and then turned to her brother. "So, what's the verdict on shelter for the night? Did the SGC pack us some or are we building our own?"

John frowned as he reached into his pack and pulled out a tarp, some five-fifty cord and a bag of stakes. "Well, they gave us some things but not much."

Ronon grunted. "So we build our own."

Lorne sighed. "Looks that way," he looked around and spotted two trees standing fairly close together. "Hey Sheppard," he pointed, "Think the tarp will stretch that far?"

John looked. "I think we'll make it stretch that far," he stood and shook out the tarp, frowning as it unfolded all of the way. "No way this is big enough for all of us."

"We could make him sleep outside," Ronon jerked a thumb at Todd who growled; the wraith did not like being wet.

John shook his head. "Naw, I want to live, thank you," he turned towards Lorne. "Hey, see if anyone else has another tarp."

Lorne reached for his pack. "I got nothing, Sir."

"Nor do I," Teyla replied.

"I have one," Kate pulled a second tarp from her pack, turning towards her brother. "What do you think, three and three?"

John nodded. "That'll work. You and Lorne get to have him," he gestured at Todd who snorted in derision at being referred to in such a manner.

"Fine by me, it's not like I haven't slept with him before," Kate grinned, throwing the wraith a smirk that he returned as he recalled their first mission together.

"What!" John yelped, all he possible connotations of that phrase intermixed with what he knew of wraith/human interactions and the indefinable way that Todd always looked at his sister causing his heart to literally leap to his throat. Spinning wildly around he glared daggers at his giggling sister and the smirking wraith who dared to joke about this highly disturbing possibility.

Lorne knew that joking about Todd and Kate in that particular situation was probably not a good thing, as the Colonel didn't attention to be drawn to the already delicate situation. Personally, Lorne couldn't quite imagine what his commanding officer's reaction might be to finding out that Todd actually did harbor those types of inclinations towards his sister or that Kate, on some level, returned them. Somehow, the major could quite see the man crying, and he knew that he would if he found out that a six-foot four inch tall life-sucking alien who was in serious need of a tan had taken a sexual interest in his sister. He'd kill him and unfortunately for them it was a little acknowledged but well known fact that they depended on Todd for a lot and would probably all be dead without him.

In light of this, Lorne thought it would be best if he explained the joke to the Colonel before the man had a heart attack. "She means literally, sir," he said plainly and the Colonel calmed down just slightly and looked at him. Lorne sighed, "First mission we went on, you know the one where we found Michael's newest lab? Anyways, none of the other boys wanted to share a tent with him so Kate volunteered to sleep with him. I don't think she realized what she said until after I pointed it out."

John deflated, relief flooding him with the knowledge that it was just a private joke that hadn't been explained to him. "Oh," he said quietly and then eyed the wraith apologetically, feeling that in this instance he owed him an apology that didn't have to be coerced out of him. "Sorry, it's just that when I hear that term -"

"You think of mating," Todd interrupted him; not really wanting to go into any sort of depth on this subject with the colonel right now because, truthfully, he had often wished for exactly what the human male feared.

John stared at him. Having not recently explained to Todd all the different ways in which to imply the act of having sex, he wondered how it was that Todd even knew what the term 'sleep with' meant. He certainly hadn't told him and he'd have liked to think that nobody else had either as somehow the thought of what exactly someone would have to be discussing with him for that topic to come up was disturbing. "Wait a minute, how do you know what -"

"I explained it to him John," Kate interrupted her brother, turning to her pack and beginning to take out the various supplies needed for making camp.

John frowned. "How did that conversation come up?"

Kate shrugged and tied off both ends of her five-fifty cord to two trees that were separated by maybe five feet. "As often as he hangs around us I thought it might be nice if he understood more than a fourth of what we say," she draped the tarp over the rope and then started to stake down the corners creating a makeshift tent.

Before the Colonel could make a comment that would most likely make both Todd and Kate mad at him, Lorne intervened. "She has a point Sir," he commented, pulling his boots back on over on his now partially dried socks. "As often as he's around us, it might be nice if we don't have to constantly stop and explain our terminology to him."

John shrugged. "Yeah, every now and then it does get to be a bit annoying," he glanced over at the wraith that was currently sitting on a rock. "Maybe we should just buy him a dictionary."

"You would first have to teach him your language," Teyla pointed out as she knelt in an area between the two basic tents and began to build a circle of stones so that she might make a fire for cooking.

John considered this. "I keep forgetting that he can't read. English, I mean," he amended as the wraith opened one eye and turned it on him in a glare that almost hurt. "I know you can read other things."

Kate snickered. "Nice save, big brother."

Ronon grunted in amusement. "You should watch what you say, Sheppard."

John looked at the ground. "Yeah, I know," he said dejectedly before perking up. "At least I'm not as bad as Rodney."

Kate laughed. "Nobody is as bad as Rodney," she giggled before throwing her pack inside the tent she'd be sharing with Lorne and Todd and going over to help Teyla start dinner. They got the fire started easily enough but they all frowned when they pulled out what the SGC had packed for them to eat.

"I hate MRE's," Lorne complained, glaring at the package of dried food, "Somehow, no matter what it is, it always tastes like corn stew."

The other military members all smirked and agreed, Kate turning towards Teyla. "We could go find something," she suggested. "Like that octopus looking thing that you made Jennifer eat that one time."

Teyla grinned at the memory of the time she had shared in circumstances much like these while in the company of the then Dr. Jennifer Keller. "Her stomach has improved because of it," she informed Kate matter-of-factly.

Lorne snorted. "Mine would too, after that," he looked around. "So what's out there that won't kill us if we eat it?"

Kate shrugged. "I don't know; jaguar, snake…"

"You want to eat a jaguar are you crazy?" John yelped. "How the hell do you plan on catching it without it eating you?"

Kate glanced at Todd, who seemed to find their conversation amusing. "Well, we do have him," she nodded towards the wraith, "I seriously doubt anything in this forest could be as bad as him."

"What about those fifteen feet long snakes?" Lorne asked. "If they can swallow a human whole, I don't think they'd have much trouble with him."

Todd was curious. "You have creatures capable of consuming an adult human whole?" he smirked. "And yet you fear my kind."

John looked at him. "There's a difference."

Todd cocked his head to the side. "Oh?"

"Think about it," Kate interrupted before her brother and Todd could get into another argument, "If an anaconda tried to eat him, all he'd have to do is drain the snake dry before it could kill him. I stand by what I said about him being the most deadly thing out here."

Lorne considered this. "Okay, I'll give you that one," he sighed. "So, who's going hunting and for what?"

Kate stood up, removing a dagger from her boot as she did so, took aim and threw. John yelped and Evan screamed when a boa, still green and so therefore still young, fell out of a tree with her dagger in its head and landed in Lorne's lap. "There," Kate said with a huge grin on her face, "Dinner."

Teyla chuckled as she took the animal from Lorne and began to gut and clean it while the major scrabbled as far away from it as he could get and took to glaring at Kate. "That was so not funny!" he cringed.

Kate laughed. "Yes, it was. I didn't know you could scream that loud."

Evan glared at her before looking around and finding that both Ronon and Todd seemed to find the situation funny as well. Deciding to just let the matter drop, he sat back down and waited for their impromptu dinner to cook through all the way before he timidly tasted it.

John gulped his down without a second thought. "Well, after last night's dinner, this stuff tastes horrible but on its own, it's not bad."

The others agreed and Kate tore off a bit of her portion and handed it on a fork to Todd. "Here," she said, "Try it."

The wraith eyed her speculatively. "I think I will pass."

Kate pouted. "I killed it, I want you to eat it." When he made no move to take the fork from her, she continued pushing. "Please?" she asked, utilizing the same wet-eyed look that had always worked on John when they were younger.

Todd was well aware that everyone was looking at him and wondering the same thing. Katherine's request could well be considered flirting by human standards and, having had the meaning of the word described to him, he could also interpret it to mean much the same by wraith standards. Either way, as he looked at her, he realized that he couldn't deny her that which she asked of him regardless of the consequences whatever they may be. Taking the utensil from her, feeling her fingers brush over his as he did so, Todd was reminded vividly of how his body had reacted the night before to her touch over his feeding slit. Still focused on her gaze, he swallowed the portion of the animal that she had killed and then handed the fork back to her.

"Well?" Kate asked.

"I agree with Sheppard," Todd told her, returning his gaze to the fire knowing as he did that letting his eyes rest on her face was becoming problematic in the best of circumstances.

John laughed. "Ha! Will wonders never cease?" he exclaimed loudly before everyone fell amicably into conversation.

It was sometime later that the fire had been extinguished and the humans had all settled down to sleep that Todd sat awake, his back resting against one of the trees to which the cord that supported the shelter under which both Lorne and Katherine slept was tied, staring up at the stars. A movement startled him and he lowered his gaze to find that Katherine had woken and was now seating herself near to him.

"What's on your mind?" she asked him, her voice low so as to not wake Lorne or the others who slept not far away.

Todd turned to her, lowering his gaze from the heavens so that he might catch her eyes. He blinked, finding that the stars above him which he had been contemplating were reflecting back at him from her eyes. "You know that the wraith can communicate without words to one another across vast distances?" he asked her, wondering if she knew anything at all about the connection he had to his brothers.

Kate nodded, her face turning sad as she gazed at him. "You can't hear them, can you?" she questioned knowing already that this was the source of his disquiet.

Not for the first time, Todd marveled at her ability to understand an idea that must be foreign to her. "No, I cannot," he sighed, leaning his head back against the tree. "Always they are there, in the background, reminding me of their presence. Here…"

"You're alone," Kate concluded, her voice telling him that she felt nothing but compassion for him in this situation, not pity and not sorrow. That she did not see this as a weakness.

His gaze returned to her, holding her eyes to his even as she moved so that she was seated next to him. When she was settled, he at last let his gaze fall away from her face as he felt her lean towards him and rest her head on his shoulder. Just like that they sat and the stars above them twinkled and during this time, Todd realized that her presence more than made up for the lack of his fellow wraith and in the wake of this acknowledgement he felt the overwhelming urge to protect her strike him. His protectiveness had been raised to the surface before when he was near her but never so strongly, so completely.

As he realized that Katherine had succumbed to sleep, he also became aware that his want for her was changing. Where at first it had been merely attractiveness born from visual stimulation, then to desire for both her body and her spirit, now it was moving towards something else; something that he did not know as he had never felt such as this before. Katherine was growing to mean much to him, becoming important and paramount in his mind as well as in his desires and the pity of it was that he could never have her.

A frog croaked right next to Major Lorne's head, and while the creature's mating call did nothing whatsoever to disturb the woman or the wraith, it did wake up the sleeping major, who came back to the realm of consciousness with a start. Not quite sitting up, Lorne twisted around, instinctively looking for anything out of the ordinary. He found it sitting not too far away from him, and as his eyes slid over both Kate and Todd, his wide and disbelieving pupils taking in their arrangement, a strong feeling of unease crept over him.

The wraith looked so at ease, as if Kate resting her head on his shoulder while she slept was an occurrence that happened regularly, and as he thought about it, Lorne realized that it had happened at least once before, when they'd been down in Ford's cells. The fact that Kate felt comfortable enough to trust Todd to watch over her while she slept spoke volumes. She shifted and buried herself farther into Todd's side, seeking warmth. Lorne watched in awe as he wraith cast a look over her of such fierce protectiveness that the Major knew in that instant that something had changed. Whatever it was, it was small, maybe even minuscule, something that Lorne would have missed had he not saw it reflected in the alien's golden cat-eyes and he had to admit that it concerned him. He had no idea what would happen if Todd ever develop serious feelings for Kate.

With that, Major Evan Lorne rolled over and went back to sleep. It would have to wait until morning.

~xXx~

"Todd, don't move."

The warning, the wraith thought it sounded like Sheppard, called him from the realm of sleep and pulled him back into the world of the conscious. Blinking, the wraith opened his eyes and looked up at the Colonel who hovered over him realizing that he had not moved back into the tent during the night but had instead remained outside. As a result, in the hazy mist filled and muggy morning, Todd realized that all five of the humans were surrounding him, looking down on something that was apparently on his chest.

Lowering his head, Todd espied a strange creature about the size of his hand sitting perched on his sternum. The wraith frowned, having never seen such a creature before. It was hairy, brown and appeared to have eight legs. He wondered what it was and why Sheppard looked so fearful. "What is it?" he asked, taking the Colonel's advice and not moving.

Kate rolled her eyes, amazed that her brother could make such a big deal over something so tiny. "It's a tarantula," she informed Todd who looked up at her from the same position of rest he'd been in when she'd woken up to find him staring up at the stars the night before.

Todd frowned. "And what exactly is a tarantula?" he inquired, returning his gaze to the small animal that seemed to have taken a liking to him.

"It's a spider," Lorne answered shrugging and turning to his commanding officer. "It's not poisonous, but if it bites you it'll hurt like hell."

Hearing that there was even a remote chance that the thing might be dangerous even on a small scale – and because the excuse gave Ronon a reason to shoot Todd – the Setedan pulled his gun, set it to stun and took aim.

"Wait, no -" Kate and Lorne started at the same time but it was already too late, Ronon had fired and Todd was now stunned. The two marines looked at each other and grimaced, Todd wasn't going to be happy when he woke up.

John turned towards Ronon and grinned. "You know that wasn't necessary right?" he asked the now smirking former runner who was currently putting his gun back into its holster.

Ronon flashed Sheppard a grin. "I know."

John returned the smile. "Okay, just checking," he turned away from the now unconscious Todd and the dead spider who, being much smaller than a human, couldn't take a stun from Ronon's gun and live through it, looked like it'd been fried. Beginning to pack up the tent from the night before and fish around in his pack for an energy bar that would have to serve for breakfast, he glanced back over his shoulder towards his friend. "You know he's gonna be pissed when he wakes up again right?"

Ronon shrugged. "As if I care," the large man said tonelessly.

Teyla frowned, looking up from where she was putting away the cooking gear that they had used the night before. "I do not think you should have shot him," she said, her tone betraying what she thought of the whole situation. "As it has been said, he will not be in a pleasant mood when he wakes and I very much do not wish to deal with an unhappy wraith for the duration of today's journey."

Ronon had the good grace to look sheepish under Teyla's gaze and busied himself with helping Sheppard pack up the tent.

It took Todd ten minutes to wake up and when he did, he jumped up snarling and started in towards the runner. "You shot me," the wraith growled; fury making his fists clench and unclench repeatedly.

Ronon looked up at him. "Would you rather have been bitten by that thing?"

Todd glared at him. "I find that that is hardly besides the point," he informed the runner. "Your actions were unnecessary."

Ronon started to reply only to have Kate intervene. "Alright that's enough," she called out, turning first to Ronon and then to Todd. "The both of you just let it go and get back to packing."

John stood up. "The packing's done," he announced, gesturing around at their now clear camp, the only indications that they had spent the night being the ring of stones around the ruins of a fire. "Come on, let's go."

Todd was still less then pleased about the morning's proceedings but kept his mouth shut as he fell into line between Major Lorne and Katherine as they once again began to journey deeper into the forest. The rain began early; they had only been walking for perhaps an hour before Todd was not only completely and utterly wet but also miserable. The situation did not improve when, at the front of their little train, Sheppard called a halt.

"What is it?" Todd asked, following Katherine as she moved forwards to see why it was that her brother had stopped.

Kate frowned and, having reached her brother, looked out over the swamp that stretched before them. She turned towards John. "Is there a way around it?" she asked, not really in the mood to go wading through murky, muddy water that had an untold number of nasty's living it in.

John sighed and shook his head. "No," he pointed to the left and to the right, indicating that going around it would take them days which of course they didn't have. Turning around so that he faced his team, he grimaced. "Let's move."

Lorne repressed a shutter. "Are we seriously going to walk through that?" he asked as first Sheppard and then Ronon and then Teyla began to wade into the murky brown sludge.

Kate glanced back at him. "Unfortunately, yes," she informed him and then went back to focusing on not falling over and going under as her feet began to sink into the clay-like river bottom making walking difficult.

Lorne's response was one or two choice curse words as he followed after Todd who seemed to have difficulty walking. "You okay?" he asked the clearly unhappy wraith.

Todd growled, his left foot becoming lodged in the bottom of the swamp and causing him to stumble only avoiding becoming completely submerged due to Katherine's sudden grip on his arm. "I am beginning to detest this place," he snarled angrily.

"Shh! Don't say that!" John called out from the head of the line. "This jungle can hear you, now it's gonna try and kill us."

Todd's foot got stuck again and the vampiric alien let out a frustrated hiss. "I believe that it has been trying to do so for some time now."

About halfway through the swamp, Lorne started to feel an odd sensation coming from his back that he was sure wasn't normal. Stopping in the waist deep water, the major twisted around and tried to reach his back but unfortunately couldn't reach very far down his neck before his tac vest got in the way.

"Damn!" he growled.

Kate turned towards him, frowning. "What's wrong Evan?"

Lorne looked up at her. "There's something on my back."

Kate sighed and nodded to Todd to keep walking as she turned around and started making her way back towards Lorne. Stopping in front of him, she turned him around and helped him take off his tactical vest before peering down the back of his BDU's. "Holy," she exclaimed loudly.

Lorne grimaced knowing that anything that made Kate curse was not good. "What?" he asked, dreading the answer.

Before Kate could answer a yelp sounded from up in front of them and the both of them turned to see John hopping up and down and swatting as a swarm of insects flew and buzzed around him. "I HATE BUGS!!!!" the Colonel screamed from ten feet up and then took off as fast as he could in an effort to get out of the water and away from his tiny tormentors as fast as possible.

Taking her brother's cue, Kate grabbed hold of Lorne's arm and started dragging him the rest of the way to the opposite shore.

"What is it?" Lorne asked desperately as he stumbled but didn't go down as Kate kept a firm grip on his arm, pulling him along behind her passing Todd and Ronon and Teyla along the way.

Kate winced. "Leaches," she answered reluctantly and heard her best friend yelp in response.

In the end, Lorne and Kate beat John to the other side of the swamp but not by much as the colonel came screaming and cursing onto the opposite shore in a fury of waving and swatting hands some seconds behind them. A minute passed and they were joined by the others and, her brother otherwise engaged, Kate turned to address them still holding onto Evan's arm.

"Alright," she said loudly so that she could be heard over her brother's cursing and Lorne's whimpering, "Teyla come here, Ronon help John; there should be bug spray in one of the packs."

The Setedan nodded and started to rummage through their backpacks in search of insect repellant while Teyla crossed over to where Kate was busy stripping Lorne from the waist up. "What do you need my help with?" the Athosian asked as Kate finally pulled Lorne's shirt over his head and revealed his back, covered in strange looking brown creatures that appeared to be sucking the blood out of him.

Kate turned towards the other woman and handed her a lighter. "Here," she ignited it for her. "I need you to burn these things off of him."

Teyla took it and crouched behind the major, lifting the lighter to the nearest leech. "What will you do?" she asked Kate.

Kate waved towards Todd, who walked over to her. "In light of all of this," she gestured around at them all, "I think it'd be best if someone scouted ahead so that we don't run into anymore…surprises."

A few feet away from her and being sprayed unmercifully with bug spray, John nodded. "That's probably a good idea."

Kate nodded. "I thought so," she turned towards Todd, "Come on, let's go."

She didn't wait for him to respond before heading forwards into the forest. Todd fell into step behind her and together they began to scan the trail in front of them for any unpleasantries. They'd been walking for a few minutes before Kate stopped, having heard a very faint growling noise that she knew for certain hadn't come from Todd.

"What is it?" Todd asked, peering around them, having heard the noise as well but having no idea what it might belong to.

Kate shook her head. "I have no id…" her voice trailed off as the bushes parted to her left and the jungle cat took a step towards her. "Oh crap."

Todd twisted around and saw the predator start towards them. It looked like a slightly larger version of a hellsa cat, a creature indigenous to several planets in the Pegasus galaxy. The only difference, besides its obvious larger size, was its color. Hellsa cats were a grey with black stripes, this animal was yellow with black spots and on the whole was more much more menacing.

The hungry cat approached them without fear and Kate wondered if it'd ever seen a human before knowing for a fact that it had never seen a wraith before now. Still, she wondered why it was that she could sense Todd's predator status and the cat couldn't. She would have thought that one look at the wraith would have sent the jungle cat scampering away.

Reluctant to just kill it, Kate and Todd instead backed up until the ground behind them disappeared and the next thing either of them knew they were both falling. They landed with a splash and both of them came up sputtering as they took to treading water. Looking up, blinking the water from her eyes, Kate saw the damned cat looking down at them from the edge of the embankment they'd just toppled off of. She glared at him; she could have sworn the animal was looking at them with an amused expression on its feline face.

"Is it impossible to stay dry, here?" Todd asked angrily as he fought to keep his head above water, his heavy boots doing him no favors as they attempted to drag him down.

Kate turned to him. "Yeah, I think it is," she laughed, tipping her head back so that she could get the hair out her eyes before looking back at the now drowned looking wraith. "You look miserable."

Todd scowled. "I do not like water."

Kate snorted. "I can tell," she smirked and turned to look back up at the jungle cat that was still looking down at them. "I would have thought it'd run at the sight of you."

Todd looked up as well, growling at the animal that he would have sworn was getting some sort of amusement out of all of this. "As would I."

Suddenly, the cat let out a growl that was soon followed by a mewling sound and then vanished from above them. Curious, Todd turned to Katherine, about to ask what she thought of this new development, only to see that her eyes had gone wide. "What –" he managed before Katherine lunged forwards in the water, grabbing his arm on the way and pulled him under.

Water closed over his head and Todd was forced to swim backwards as Katherine continued to tug on his arm in a way that let him know something was wrong. Finally, he felt her jerk him upwards and, as soon as his head broke the water, he gasped greedily for breath.

"Katherine –"

Kate ignored him and continued to haul him backwards towards the shore of the little pound they'd found themselves in. Todd went, trusting her enough to go along with whatever it was she was doing until finally he felt his feet touch the bottom of the pool. Standing, he turned around and saw yet another strange creature swimming towards them, this one with jaws so full of teeth even he felt fear grip him.

"What is that!?!" Todd demanded, digging his feet into the muddy bottom and wrapping an arm around Katherine's waist as he quickened their retreat, pulling them both up and out of the water before collapsing backwards onto the muddy bank. The wraith didn't exactly wait for her to answer him as he continued to drag her backwards, concerned more for her safety then his at the moment.

As Todd pulled her form the water, Kate tripped backwards slipping on the mud and landed on top of Todd before rolling over and executing a low-crawl that her drill instructor would be proud of before she felt Todd reach out and grab her arm, hauling her upwards and then dragging her farther away from the snapping jaws of the still advancing predator.

"That's a crocodile," Kate informed the wraith as they finally made it a respectable distance away from the animal and started back up the embankment, trusting that the crocodile was the reason for the cat's hasty retreat and betting on it not being up there waiting for them.

It wasn't, and after they'd reached the top, Kate turned to look over Todd and herself finding that they were now not only wet but covered in mud from the tops of their heads down.

Todd, too, surveyed the both of them. "Is there nothing in this jungle that is not out to kill us?" he inquired, honestly curious.

Kate chuckled. "Why do you think nobody lives here?" she asked him, turning and leading the way back toward the clearing where they'd left the others.

Todd snorted. "Indeed."

Their arrival back at the edge of the swamp prompted mixed greetings from their fellows. John, now covered in so much bug spray he'd like to think even an iratus bug might steer clear of him, looked up and immediately burst out laughing. Ronon shook his head, Teyla frowned and Lorne, who was getting redressed, demanded, "What the hell happened to you?" before looking over the woman and the wraith who were both completely covered in mud.

Kate sent him a glare that would have curdled milk. "Well, let's see," she started, putting on a look of mock pensiveness. "We were walking along when we got cornered by a jaguar, said cat then proceeded to back us over the side of a cliff into some very dirty water where we then almost got eaten by a crocodile," she blinked and turned towards Evan, a smile on her face. "How are you?"

Ronon grunted. "This jungle is out to get us."

John winched and sent a glare towards Todd. "I told you it could hear you," he blamed the wraith.

Todd growled and crossed his arms, the movement making a soft sucking sound.

Kate shook her head. "That's enough, John," she chastised her brother. "Now, the main river is about a five minute walk that way," she pointed towards the direction she and Todd had come, "I saw it before that damned cat popped out of the fucking bushes and sent us for a swim," she looked around at them all. "How about we get there and call it a day seeing as we're all miserable."

Everyone liked that plan, even Todd, and so they all got up and started walking. True to her word, it took five minutes to get there, and upon arriving, Kate set down her pack, rummaged around until she found a bar of soap and a towel and started towards the river.

John stopped her. "Hold on, wait, where do you think you're going?"

Kate turned back. "I need a bath," she said plainly, glancing over towards Todd. "He could use one too."

John eyed the both of them, possibilities he didn't want to think about running through his overactive mind. "No way in hell are the two of you taking a bath together," he exclaimed, crossing his arms and glaring at Todd who had taken to glaring right back.

Kate rolled her eyes. "Oh stop, do you have any idea how childish you sound right now?"

John sulked. "I'm not being childish," he insisted, "I just don't want-"

"I'm wearing shorts and a sports bra on under this thing John," Kate informed her brother patiently, as though she were talking to a particularly stupid child. "Just give him the BDU bottom's that I know you brought with you and let us go. We're starting to smell."

John sighed and crinkled his nose. Yes, the two of them were beginning to smell and it was awful. Grabbing his pack up from besides him, he pulled out the uniform he'd tried to talk Todd into before they'd left and unfolded it, handing the wraith the pants and waving at them to go on their way.

Smiling in accomplishment, Kate turned on her heel and walked determinedly towards the river, trusting Todd to follow. Coming out of the trees, she walked down the bank until they were out of sight of the camp before going over to a rock, sitting down and starting to take her boots off. She'd gotten one off before she looked up and noticed that Todd was standing only a few feet away, watching her with an odd expression on his face.

"Yes?" she asked, dropping her one boot down besides the rock and starting on the other.

Todd shifted uncomfortably, not at all sure how to proceed as he wondered if Katherine was at all aware of the situation she had placed them in. "How are we to proceed?" he inquired eventually, his eyes roving over her as the layers of material that kept her finer body hidden from his view were being slowly stripped away.

Kate ducked her head to hide a grin, sure that while he'd never admit it, Todd was embarrassed. Standing up and facing him, pulling her utility belt off and dropping it besides her boots, she nodded towards the BDU pants that he still held. "John brought two pairs of those," she informed him. "So I'll turn around while you put those on and then you get into the water. I know you hate it but you'll feel better when you're clean."

Deciding that her plan made sense, Todd nodded his head once and then proceeded to take of his bracers, shrugging out of his battle-coat and starting on the long leather robe he wore under it before he realized that Katherine had begun to unzip the bodysuit that she customarily wore. His hands stilling on the fastenings of his undercoat, his eyes glazing over just slightly as Katherine began to squeeze herself out of her uniform, wiggling her hips to and fro in a provocative manor that the alien doubted was intentional. He gulped as finally she stepped from her confinements and laid them out over the rock she had recently sat upon. Her back was to him as she walked towards the water and Todd allowed his eyes to graze over her form, only the barest scraps of cloth hiding her from his view, covering those parts of her that he longed to see.

She truly was as lithe and sinewy as she'd looked through her uniform, her skin tight over well defined muscles that dipped and bowed in the tantalizing fluidity of femininity. Katherine's body was hard and toned, rigid from her years serving as a warrior, her person as much a killing machine as was his but with a smoothness that his own sculpted form did not process. One could not accuse her of being supple or soft but neither could one accuse her of being anything other than perfectly female.

His fevered gaze watched as she descended into the water, waves softly lapping at first her calves, then her thighs and finally the smooth, taut skin of her lower back. Forcing his thoughts away from such a temptation, wondering how he was ever to get into the water with her, his deft fingers began again on the fastenings of his robe, divesting himself of it before starting on his shoes. His boots came off easily and he dropped them aside before glancing up at Katherine who was now shoulder deep in the water to make sure her attention was elsewhere. As aroused as he was currently, he did not want her first view of him, if she turned her head, to be one that clearly reflected the state he was in.

She would never forgive him.

Content that she was busy with the removing of the now caked mud from her hair, Todd was quick as he stepped out of his leather pants and into the terribly uncomfortable things that Sheppard called BDU's. But, as Katherine had pointed out, they would serve for now whilst he washed the dried mud and other organic filth from his body.

"Are you coming?" sang the question from the water and Todd grinned almost predatorily as he went to join her, thinking to himself that this was most likely as close to intimacy as either the two of them were ever likely to get with one another. The thought was mildly dissatisfying.

"The water is warm," Todd remarked as he continued onwards until the rippling liquid was lapping somewhere near his waist.

Kate nodded, sinking down into the water some five feet away from the nearly nude wraith. He had not seen her, but she had watched him as he undressed, taking the time to appreciate him without his knowledge. His body was perfect, at least in her mind, greenish-grey skin pulled tight over the bulk of him which looked as hard and solid as rock. She had taken the time to note, as more and more of his leather had come off, that his face was not the only part of him that sported a tattoo. He had one on his right arm from shoulder to nearly his elbow and another that graced the entirety of his back. It made him look dangerous and at the same time lust worthy in a primal sort of way. Suddenly, Kate was glad to be in the water as the liquid served to cool her as her thoughts turned feverish.

When Todd came up from his first submersion in order to wash away as much mud from him as possible, he caught the barest hints of an indefinable scent on the air that could only be coming from Katherine. Turning towards her, he cocked his head to the side as he tried to discern just what, exactly, it was. Unfortunately for him, the female in the water near to him was a perfect enigma, very good at hiding from him what she did not wish for him to see; she was very wraith like in that aspect. The thought made him remember that it was not only her body that he longed for but also her mind, her spirit and in simplest essence her. It was a scenario that the wraith had been unprepared for.

As Todd sat contemplating the various emotions he did or did not feel for her, Kate was busy vigorously washing and scrubbing her skin so that she could get out of this water and away from Todd as quickly as possible before she did something stupid. She was just about done when she felt something brush against her leg, the contact making her yelp and take a few steps backwards, dropping the bar of soap in the process.

Katherine's noise of surprise turned Todd's thoughts from the unthinkable back to reality and the wraith turned to her in question, his eyes flashing over the worry etched onto her face as she peered into the murky water around them. "Katherine?" he questioned, coming towards her just slightly, his predatory senses screaming that there was something stalking them, something that they could not see.

Todd's voice sounded distant and far away as Kate looked down, her eyes attempting to see through the muddy water. "I felt something move," she waved her hand over the surface of the water to clear away the soap bubbles, "Something alive."

"A predator?" Todd's mind leapt back to the last time they were both in the water, shuttering at the thought. "It is not another one of those, what did you call them?"

"It's not a crocodile," Kate assured him, deciding against telling him that if it was they'd have been eaten already. "It's something else."

Todd frowned. "What?"

Kate shook her head, unable to see more than two inches into the murky water. "I don't -" she stopped as her sharp eyes picked up on something lunging at her from within the water and with a scream she leaped backwards as the head of a very large snake, jaws wide and seeking her flesh, leapt at her.

"Holy shit!" Kate cursed as she stumbled backwards, the full extent of the animal's long, lithe body suddenly becoming visible just under the surface of the water. In her retreat, she felt something wrap around her middle and was jerked backwards, her back slamming hard into Todd's bare chest as the wraith held her away from the predator's snapping fangs.

"Perhaps we should get out of the water?" Todd rumbled, his arms tightening around Katherine's mid section as he began to move backwards towards the shore.

"That would be good, yes," Kate agreed as she felt Todd lift her feet off of the ground as the wraith effectively carried her out of the water.

As Todd settled Katherine safely on the ground and stepped back, Sheppard rushed forwards – having suddenly appeared out of nowhere, Lorne at his side - grabbing up the towel that Kate had left on the rock by her clothes as he went, and silently ordered her to cover up. Todd thought it was a shame, but, as the human male sent him a piercing look, he realized that it was most likely a good thing although, how much good it would do him had yet to be determined. Now that he knew exactly what Katherine looked like underneath her uniform, Todd had no doubt in his mind that he would no longer be able to look at her without thinking of what lay beneath.

As soon as Kate was back in her uniform and Todd, after much arguing with Sheppard, was in the BDU's that John had tried to get him to wear in the first place, Evan turned to Kate. "Now you know why I hate snakes," he told her with a grin as they made their way back to the others.

Kate snorted. "After that, I'll probably hate snakes too."

Evan nodded. "Did you see the size of that thing? It had to be at least thirty feet long!"

"The movie 'Anaconda' comes to mind," Kate agreed, looking up as Teyla and Ronon came into view.

"Hey guys," she greeted, coming to a stop and gesturing between herself and Todd who was still several paces behind them. "We almost got eaten by a giant man eating snake."

John joined her. "Yeah, after that, I don't know if I want to stop here for the night," he looked at Teyla and Ronon. "You guys okay if we keep going? There's still a couple hours of daylight left and –"

The Colonel was cut off as a growl followed by an ear piercing roar and then a scream split through the air and made the hair on the back of all their necks – the exception being maybe Todd – stand at attention.

"And that sounded like our target," Kate took over from her brother, turning to look at Todd who's scenery pits were flared just slightly. "I think he just found something to eat."

Todd nodded. "Yes, it does sound that way," he turned, his mind already focused on the task of tracking his fellow wraith. "I can sense his mind," he informed the humans. "He is afraid."

John took up the charge right behind Todd as the wraith began to lead them through the jungle. "Yeah, well, I'd be too if I were on a strange planet in a forest that will literally try and eat you."

Todd huffed. "Indeed."

John eyed him, trying to keep up with the wraith's strides. "Ah come on," he prodded, "Isn't there anything you're afraid of?"

Todd turned towards him. "No," he said bluntly knowing that even as he said it it was a downright lie. There were some things, things that Sheppard would never know of, that scared him senseless. Those things were horrors of a war that had been fought long before the conflict with the Lanteans, horrors that he prayed would never grace his home galaxy again.

As the six of them cut through the forest, their target getting ever closer, Todd realized that there was one other thing that he feared and that was Katherine in danger. Of course, he couldn't tell Sheppard this anymore then he could describe the Daemon to him.

Eventually they came out of the dense foliage into a clearing, in the middle of which crouched a wraith over the corpse of yet another animal that Todd had never seen before and didn't know exactly how to describe. The animal was nothing more than a husk by the time the wraith was through and it was apparent that he hadn't yet heard them. Todd knew he could use this to their advantage but before he could convey his plan to the others, the Setedan had already cocked his gun and taken up aim.

With a snarl the feeding wraith turned on his heel and looked behind him, noting the large group of humans spread out in front of him. "Come to take me back?" he hissed dangerously, ready to run before he'd let them take him back to his cell.

Ronon glared at him and took a step forwards only to have Kate step out in front of him. "Move, Kate," he yelled.

Kate ignored him and turned back towards the wraith. "We're not here to take you back to a lab," she told him, holding her hands up in a show of mercy. "If you'll let us, we'll take you home."

The wraith sneered at her. "Home?" he questioned, taking a step towards her. "And what would you know of my home, human?"

Kate leveled her gaze on him. "I've been on my share of hives," she informed him, taking a step closer.

Her use of the word 'hive' sparked an interest in him that made him pause and wonder if she spoke the truth. "You…are not here to capture me?" he eventually put forth, deciding that it might just be worth his wile to listen to what these humans had to say.

Kate shook her head but her brother beat her to an answer. "Depends on what you define as capture," John said and the wraith's attention turned towards him. "If you mean are we gonna lock you up then, no, if you mean are we gonna escort you back to the Pegasus then, yes."

Kate glared at her brother. "You're not helping John."

Todd had to agree with Katherine. While she'd been establishing dialogue with the wraith, Todd had discreetly prowled him mind and found the information he'd been looking for. This officer was young and had not been a part of the mutiny against him, had not even agreed with it and was still loyal to him although Todd doubted that the young wraith would recognize him if he saw him. Deciding that it was time to make his presence known, Todd took a step forwards.

"I agree," he sent the Colonel a glare to equal the one Katherine had cast him. "You are not helping the situation, Sheppard."

The welcomed speech of another wraith bade the younger turn towards this new anomaly. It also made him think as he had heard the name Sheppard before, it was the name of his true Commander's human ally; the Colonel John Sheppard of Atlantis. Now, looking over this older wraith, the younger was struck with an overwhelming sense of superiority and indeterminable age. Whoever this wraith was, he was extremely old, and by such a measure, equally powerful.

Todd took another step towards him. "You do not recognize me, do you?"

The wraith shook his head. "Should I?"

Todd grinned. "I am Eldest; I dare say you have at least heard of me."

The wraith's eyes widened and in the next instant he bowed. "Commander."

Todd turned a triumphant eye towards Sheppard. "See?" he mocked the human, "My reputation precedes me."

John scowled. "Well, you and your reputation can bite me," at the look on the wraith's face, John rolled his eyes. "It's a figure of speech, if you get anywhere near me with your mouth, I'll shoot you."

Todd made a face, as if the very idea of him doing such a thing made him ill. "I rather think you are safe, Sheppard," he said dryly.

With the boys back to glaring at each other, Kate stepped forwards. "Okay," she handed her brother the radio. "You call in the transport to pick us up and then we can all go home."

John took it, but looked at her. "I thought we might try and finish our vacation."

Kate shook her head. "Disney World is nice, but I'm ready to go home."

"As am I," Teyla agreed with her. "Your planet is wonderful, but I miss Torren and Kaanan."

"I miss killing wraith," Ronon deadpanned, sending a look of disdain towards Todd who raised an eye ridge in response.

While the Colonel walked a short distance away from them to go about calling in their air lift, Lorne sat down on a rock. "I miss Atlantis at night time, falling asleep to the sound of the sea and the twin moons."

"And you?" Teyla looked up at Kate, who may have started the conversation but had not yet told them what she missed most about being her in her native galaxy. "What do you miss Kate?"

Kate smiled slightly and glanced towards Todd, deciding that an honest answer was probably out of the question and so she settled for something else instead. "I miss my history lessons," she answered with a bow of her head.

Todd eyed her, having an idea that that was not what she was originally going to say. "If it would please you, I will give you such a lesson on the journey home," he told her, smiling down on her with a teasing smirk he had not employed in some time.

Kate looked up at him. "I'd like that."

Todd took a step towards her so that she had to tilt her head back to keep her eyes on his. "I bet you would," he almost purred.

It was this scene that John, having hailed the transport, walked in on and, predictably, flew off the handle. While he yelled at Todd and Kate yelled at him, Teyla, Ronon, and Lorne took to standing besides the other wraith who was watching the scene and shaking his head. The argument lasted for the hour it took the transport to get to them and well into the flight back to Colorado until Kate finally put a stop to it by throwing her shoe at her brother.

As the colonel took to starting up a conversation with Ronon and Teyla, Lorne couldn't help but watch the way Todd and Kate fell easily into a conversation about wraith history. The way he talked to her, the way her eyes would light up whenever a particularly interesting fact came up, especially in light of his nighttime observation of the pair, made Lorne honestly wonder if maybe, just maybe, Todd the wraith cared more for Kate then he had originally thought.

Maybe, just maybe.