D'aray is Copy Righted to me. Kavanagh and all the Stargate Atlantis stuff is Copy Righted the creator(s). This is ALTERNATE REALITY same as the first story and I am going to rate it PG 13 same as the last one, mainly for language. There is going to be bonding between Kavvy and D'aray in this though I don't intend their relationship to have much sex in it and likely won't write out what there is because I am still uncomfortable writing said sex. Also, despite what my Greg and Rodney fic may indicate (Don't worry, won't change it), I really don't think wraith would be that cuddly and I want to explore how they might respond to a relationship with a species that IS very affectionate. Yes, I believe Kavanagh is capable of being cuddly. :)

And you probably remember QuAt'Icka from my story with Greg and Rodney. For those of you unfamiliar with it, QuAt'Icka is a wraith term for 'Deserved Pain', is normally delivered as punishment and the individual is usually banished and left to suffer alone. It is used in this story to bind D'aray and Kavanagh together as a mated couple. QuAt'Icka changes a wraiths internal organs around, making them basically the same as humans. The process is of course painful since some organs have to be grown, others have to be gotten rid of and still others need to change in some form or another and so you can understand why this would normally be a punishment. Also, it's copy-righted to me.

Kavanagh had been led away from the mating chamber to the large vessel the wraith had arrived in with D'aray close by his side. Chunky stayed with them as they waited for a dart to come pick them up, the others would continue the mating ritual. The dart had arrived shortly and picked them up without question. Once on the mother ship, Kavanagh was taken away by two wraith and 'Cleaned up', which meant he was allowed to wash off the worst of the dirt on his face while his uniform was cleaned. Now the scientist was standing in a small room, wearing his newly cleaned clothes and freshly braided hair, thinking about how stupid it was that he hadn't just absolutely refused outright to come on that dumb ass mission with Major Sheppard and company. "New experiences," he muttered. Weir and Zelenka had both told him the mission would be good for him, give him some new experiences. Now, if he made it back, he was going to make them eat those damn words.

Then the mans thoughts drifted towards thoughts of D'aray, the wraith he had been unwittingly mated to. He wondered how it would be, being the mate of a wraith, if he could survive the relationship with all his limbs intact. Would he perhaps come to enjoy D'arays company? Would he want to hold him, touch him. Just be with him? Would it really be so bad? As far as wraith went, D'aray wasn't entirely unpleasing to look at, his eyes at least were captivating, bright and intelligent. May haps the wraith would like to talk about science, would be an intellectual equal. That would be a change, what about taking him back to Atlantis?

Kavanagh shook himself and blinked several times, he was thinking about taking a wraith, a WRAITH back to Atlantis after all! "Bloody fucking HELL I hate this!" he muttered angrily to himself confused about how he was feeling, was it really his thoughts, or was it induced by that mating circle? Without thinking about it, the man reached out mentally to brush D'arays mind that was always nearby, partly for reassurance, partly wanting to know how the wraith was feeling right now. Kavanagh was surprised to find he was the main focus at the moment, that D'aray was thinking of him, and not with absolute distaste. Then he realized the wraith knew he was there, it was as though they were eye to eye and the man blinked, severing the connection at the angry look on his mates face. Still shaking himself mentally, the scientist looked up as the web-like door opened, a wraith grunt had come to escort him to the bridge.

Kavanagh didn't know what he had expected, but a briefing was about the last thing. Chunky handed him a data pad and started explaining about a small, forest covered planet that was to be his home until his friends figured out the co-ordinates. D'aray was not present and Chunky said he had already been briefed about the planet. Kavanagh stared at the one armed wraith, wanting to argue about the unfairness of this humongous misunderstanding, but swallowed his words at the thought of what he likely could expect if they listened to him. He was learning a lot of humility and patience lately, some things he had erstwhile been unfamiliar with.

Studying the data pad a moment, he did dare to inquire how he was supposed to live for a week or more on this alien planet if his companions didn't make it within three days, and how was D'aray supposed to feed. Chunky merely started towards the docking bay, clearly expecting Kavanagh to follow him. Which the scientist did. He would have pushed for an answer, but he was distracted from it, he could feel D'arays mind all the time now, like they were brushing hands together. If he focused Kavanagh could tell how the Wraith was feeling and right now he was feeling, almost scared, someone was intimidating him. Kavanagh already felt slightly protective of his 'mate', and though the thought of being bound to a wraith was rather discouraging and disgusting, the thought of someone pushing D'aray around angered Kavanagh enough to change his perspective.

Entering the docking bay, Kavanagh could see a wraith with stringy dreads getting up in D'arays face. A hot flare of anger enveloped the human and he clenched his fists. The dread locked wraith was clearly trying to bully the slightly smaller wraith about and was jibing him about being mated to his food. Chunky noted the humans ire and waited with a critical eye. Kavanagh didn't notice he was being evaluated though and stalked forward, intent upon showing the upstart wraith exactly how weak this human was.

-----

Chunky, actually called En'Atun, had figured that the dread locked wraith, a long time enemy of D'aray, might try to start a fight and was interested to see how the human handled this. If everything went according to plan, he and D'aray would be rescued within days of being 'dumped' on the planet and then the wraith would have clear co-ordinates to Atlantis via the Gate. However, the dread locked pilot wraith, Treaka, was being a little more nasty than usual, disregarding orders to leave D'aray be. The disobedience would serve to show whether the wraith and the human would be able to survive the days it took the mans friends to find him. If D'aray could accept this human male, then he might be able to mesh into the mans life back at Atlantis. He would be the perfect spy.

-----

To Kavanaghs advantage, the last thing Treaka expected was to have anyone, let alone a human, grab him by the arm and yank him away. Thus the dread locked wraith simply stared as Kavanagh turned the tables and got up in HIS face, "Unless you want a wraith stunner shoved up your ass and fired, I suggest you back off and keep your hands to yourself." the scientist snarled, his nose inches from the shocked wraiths. D'aray looked equally surprised and may haps a bit impressed, as though perhaps this Calvin Kavanagh wouldn't be so bad after all.

Turning his back on Treaka as disdainfully as only Kavanagh and perhaps Rodney could, the man looked at his new mate, not certain what he was waiting for, just knowing he had to. D'aray nodded slightly and started walking towards a wraith dart and after a slight nudge on his mind, Kavanagh stepped up by his shoulder, keeping pace. To the scientists surprise, D'aray slipped his hand through Kavanaghs arm, showing to Treaka his acceptance of the man.

En'Atun smirked and fingered the severed stump of his left arm, then turned a glare on Treaka. The pilot looked up at him once, then down at his boots. Satisfied the one armed wraith jerked his head towards the Dart and started forward. Treaka went straight to the pilots seat and mutely began setting things up. Only D'aray saw the quick glance sent in the humans direction and he noted that Kavanagh, whom he thought of as Calvin, would now have a lifelong enemy. 'Great,' the wraith thought, looking at his mate with a slightly less critical eye, 'Something we can share.'

There were two rather bulky wraith drones aboard the dart as well as the aforementioned passengers and they were apparently there for show more than anything else.

When the dart landed on the planet in a large clearing, everyone, including the grunts, had departed. The drones had arranged themselves either side of the hatch and Treaka had stepped to one side. En'Atun strode forward about ten feet from the dart, then turned and ordered Kavanagh and D'aray to come forward and stand before him. The two did so, Kavanagh noting with surprise that D'aray had suddenly mind linked to him with an almost childlike intensity, apparently anticipating something terrible that the man couldn't fathom. Outwardly the wraith's face remained impassive and indifferent though he took Kavanaghs arm again, in a death grip this time.

En'Atun seemed to note everything D'aray was trying to hide because he half smiled as he ordered the mated wraith to remove his coat, which he did, shooting a glance over his shoulder at Treaka who sneered but subsided at the ire in the look shot at him by the scientist. D'aray handed his jacket over to Kavanagh. Nothing was worn underneath the coats, which the man realized was lined with something resembling silk.

Kavanagh wanted to ask what was going on, he didn't like the trepidation emanating through his connection to his mate. But D'aray indicated mentally that he should not interfere no matter what and that he should do all that he was told. Kavanagh decided to accept that, for now.

En'Atun stared coolly at the human for a moment, apparently considering something, then he ordered the scientist to remove his jacket and shirt. Kavanagh frowned and pushed his glasses up his nose, but a mental nudge supplemented by a glare from D'aray got him moving. The scientist removed his glasses and handed them to his mate for safe keeping before placing the wraiths coat on the ground and then removing his own jacket and shirt, setting them down as well. D'aray mutely handed the glasses back and Kavanagh replaced them high on his nose, resisting the urge to hug himself protectively. He felt very vulnerable in front of Treaka.

En'Atun nodded very slightly when, without warning, he slammed his one remaining hand against D'arays chest, causing the other wraith to gasp in surprise. Kavanagh stared in open mouthed surprise and shock, he could feel everything D'aray was feeling and could tell he wasn't being drained, but god he was in pain. It reminded Kavanagh of the time he got into a nest of fire ants when he was in college. "Stop," he whispers, then louder and more forceful, "Stop it!" and he started forward, intending to drag En'Atun off D'aray.

Treaka stopped the man, appearing out of nowhere and grabbing him by one arm, "Your turn," the pilot sneered, then pushed Kavanagh towards D'aray. Treaka got an annoyed look from En'Atun but he ignored it and the one armed wraith released the other for a moment, beginning to say something in what was apparently native wraith. Treaka grabbed the scientists right hand and turned the palm up as En'Atun continued speaking what D'aray mentally told the man was a marriage blessing. The pilot wraith then took out a small but sharp knife and slit Kavanaghs palm the exact length of a wraiths feeding slit. Before the man could do more than gasp in protest, En'Atun had pushed D'aray around to face his mate full on, ordering him to do something that Kavanagh couldn't understand and didn't have time to wonder about. Treaka had impatiently shoved the mans wounded hand onto the feeding mark upon D'arays chest. Kavanagh instinctively put his own hand and fingers in the same place En'Atun's had been, the slit on his palm lining up almost exactly with the mark by the wraiths palm-slit.

Treaka then pulled D'arays hand up and started to dip the knife into the other wraiths palm slit. Kavanagh winced as the knife bit deep, apparently deeper than need be due to En'Atun's snarl and D'aray's verbal protest but it was over and the one armed wraith placed the cut hand upon Kavanaghs chest. The man managed not to jerk away as he felt the teeth in the slit sink into his flesh but he wanted to scream. He could feel the blood seeping from both wounded hands and felt rather ill, his mate looked like he felt the same and Kavanagh was surprised to see fear openly upon the others face. Then a strange feeling began on his chest where D'aray had his hand, and another feeling, almost a pulling feeling from his own hand upon the wraiths chest.

"Oh god," the man whispered, he could only liken the feeling to the one described in the Vampire Novels he read by Anne Rice, where the two vampires fed upon each other at the same time, the blood flow cycling between them like a fountain. It was like that, a circuit between himself and the wraith before him, opened by their cut palms and their chest wounds.

Kavanagh couldn't have said how long this went on except suddenly he was kneeling on the grass, D'aray, also kneeling, and then falling backwards as he jerked away from the human. En'Atun ordered Treaka back to the dart, then bent over the newly joined pair, Kavanagh suspected he was the only coherent one of the two of them and applied his attention carefully. Sensing this was how he would survive he stared directly into the chunky wraith's eyes, unknowingly intimidating En'Atun.

The one armed wraith said there was a small building, long abandoned but likely in good condition on the other side of the clearing and he pushed a large package close to the human before him, telling him this was their provisions and should last the two for a week and a half, in case his friends were delayed. "Also, there are edibles upon this planet, I hear that the building has information on them. I wouldn't know." En'Atun said, apparently wishing to depart as soon as possible.

He did so after dumping two pairs of clothes on top of the supplies, sneering and adding a medical pack and a radio that looked like it came from Atlantis. Likely taken from a recent victim. Treaka sniffed and disappeared inside the dart, the other wraith doing the same. En'Atun was the last in and didn't look back as he closed the hatch. The dart lifted off and soon was lost to sight, the 'newly weds' were quite alone.

Kavanagh would have loved to stay awake and be the strong one, proving the wraith wrong, but he keeled over rather soon after En'Atun was through talking, joining D'aray in unconsciousness.

Awareness hurt, like a bitch really, but the sight that met Kavanaghs eyes when he finally managed to peel his eyelids back made it worth it since he figured he'd never see a wraith looking like that again. D'aray had covered him with a blanket from one of the packs and had slipped on his own coat again. The Wraith was sitting with the supplies a little to one side of him, cutting the chill wind that had picked up. And as an added bonus, D'aray had the scientists head on his lap His eyes were half closed, his face looked strained. The wraiths left hand was gently smoothing Kavanaghs forehead and easing the pounding sledge hammers behind his skull. The man couldn't understand the words, but the wraith was crooning something under his breath.

"Are you okay?" Kavanagh said, grimacing as he tried to sit up, D'aray looked away from the humans concerned gaze and lowered his eyes. The scientist noticed that the wraith was holding his right hand protectively against his stomach and recalled the cut on his own hand with a start. "Fuckers." Kavanagh spat as he reached for the medical supply kit and tried to open it one handed. Unasked D'aray held part of the kit while the human unclasped the hinges, the man gave his mate a brief smile of thanks that was not returned or even really noted.

Digging around in the box Kavanagh eventually produced what he would need and stopped the bleeding on his palm first, a temporary fix and awkward because he was right handed. Then he reached for D'arays hand, the wraith snarled and actually took a swipe at the man with his good hand, the talons barely missing the scientists face. "Knock that shit off would you, or would you like me to let you bleed to death?" Kavanagh realized as soon as the words left his lips that that was exactly what D'aray wanted, so he took a different approach, allowing all his pissy feelings from earlier to rise to the surface.

"Gimme your hand," the man ordered, not waiting for the wraith to comply before grabbing the large wrist with his uninjured left hand and pulling it out and over. The palm-slit was very pale, even for a wraith and Kavanagh actually knew something of this because he had gotten to study the dismembered hand and Steves hands back on Atlantis. Frowning Kavanagh suspected stitches were really what was needed, 'I'll kill that dread locked boot licker if I ever see him again.' he thought to himself, starting to clean the wound.

-----

D'aray was shocked into obedience, he hadn't expected Kavanagh to take charge like that. The change was taking over though, eventually it would make him too sick to be able to win a fight if it came down to it and the wraith gave up for now. He closed his eyes and swallowed the whimper of pain brought on by his guts feeling like they were imploding, and the stinging brown ointment his mate was dribbling into the ruined slit on his palm. His emotions would be screwed for days if the rumors about QuAt'Icka were true.

-----

Kavanagh sent his mind out to his mate even though his head ached like crazy, trying to understand what had just happened. D'aray was so ill with pain and some drug from En'Atuns hand that he didn't even seem to realize what the scientist was doing. In fact, in his confusion, the wraith caught hold of Kavanaghs reaching mind with his own in the manner of a drowning man, his own mind unintentionally laid bare for his mate to see whatever he desired. The scientist was carefull not to intrude upon most things, but he saw the information he wanted and nudged it ever so slightly.

QuAt'Icka was the word that seemed to blare itself in the mans face and Kavanagh could tell even before he was told that it was what had made D'aray cling to him in trepidation when they had first approached En'Atun, whom he still thought of as Chunky. Kavanagh gently probed for more information, finding he could do so and still properly care for his mates injured hand without a problem. He discovered that normally QuAt'Icka was a severe punishment wraiths reserved for the more horrible crimes against their own, here it was applied because D'aray had connected with a human and was considered tainted even if he did refuse to life bond to the human.

Blinking Kavanagh finished wrapping a bandage around the wraiths hand and tied a knot. Then he reached out and pushed the silver hair back off D'arays face, wanting to really see the alien face clearly. He was ready to pull his hand back if the wraith took umbrage but D'aray simply flinched and covered his face with his good hand as though trying to hide something. Kavanagh had seen enough though, he'd seen why this wraith let his hair fall in his face instead of tying it back like the others. A network of scars went all over the right side of D'arays face, not quite reaching the corner of his eye, they were claw marks and had apparently torn the right side of the wraiths face apart.

The scientist felt his mate pulling back mentally, retreating and trying to hide whatever it was that had happened, fearing ridicule and rejection, but Kavanagh stopped him, trying to show comfort and support in his actions. He slipped his hand under D'arays, covered the scars with his own hand and leaned forward, resting his forehead against his mates. "I don't like wraith, I don't even particularly like you, not yet anyway, but I've got my own scars and my past isn't pretty either. Will you trust me?"

D'aray opened his eyes finally and pulled his face back far enough to comfortably look into Kavanaghs eyes. He was silent a long time, the two of them just staring at each other. Then the wraith lifted his uninjured hand and lightly touched the mans cheek, just barely brushing the skin, "I don't understand you Calvin. A wraith would likely have killed me by now. Or taken advantage of me in my weak state. And I've seen that humans with wraith are no better." D'aray took a breath, still obviously in pain, the change caused by QuAt'Icka would last for nearly the rest of the day, "I accept you as my mate." he said, and leaned forward, laying his head upon the mans shoulder, obviously baring his neck.

Kavanagh could only call what he did next instinct brought on by the bonding he just done with D'aray. He leaned forward as well, pressed his open mouth to his mates neck and bit him lightly. Then he pulled back in surprise, blinking. What was happening, why was he, a human, doing this? D'aray sat up as well and looked at him, clutching his gut. Kavanagh let what happened drop for now and said, "We need to find that shelter we were told about," the man grabbed his t-shirt and pulled it on, then got to his feet. Noting the wraith barely made an effort, he leaned down to grab hold of D'aray, pulling him up as well, "And you need to lay down and rest," the scientist finished as his mate swayed and looked faint.