Amelia brushed Todd's hair out of her face, and looked up at Keller.

"There has to be something you can do," she pleaded. The expression on Keller's face told her otherwise.

"I'm sorry," Keller replied, shaking her head. "He's taken so much damage that his healing abilities aren't even kicking in. Maybe if I had an OR, and experienced staff... God, I don't know if even then. His physiology is too foreign. He's not built like the drones we've autopsied. He even has a navel. There are two very different types of Wraith, and we know almost nothing about his type! That's why the retrovirus never worked the way it should." Keller became animated with excitement. "In fact , nearly all of our medical information comes from what we've gotten from drones. Even the tests and experiments Carson ran on Michael and the others that were given the retrovirus were conducted with procedures developed from drone data. If we could extensively examine a Wraith of Todd's type, we would be able to correct the mistakes we made-"

"Dr. Keller, I understand your passion for the subject, but that's a problem for another day," Amelia pointed out. "He's dying right now."

Keller's face fell. "He needs to feed," she said softly. 'That is the only way he'll survive. He may be even too far gone for that."

Amelia touched Todd's neck, feeling for a pulse. It was sluggish and uneven, and she couldn't feel his breath on her shoulder anymore. His skin was cold; the blood soaking into her already stained shirt only slightly warmer. She felt as though she were holding Kelly's corpse again, and tears sprang to her eyes. Less than a day since she had left Atlantis, and she had been kidnapped, assaulted, seen a friend murdered, shot at, damn near eaten by a door, and now she was losing another friend.

"Colonel Sheppard was fed on, wasn't he?" she asked. Keller looked at her with confusion, then dawning horror.

"No," she said. "Oh, no. You can't be suggesting..."

"He rescued us," Amelia pointed out. "We owe it to him. If we both fed him, he wouldn't have to take much from either of us."

"No," Keller shook her head, but she seemed uncertain now. Amelia took Todd's feeding hand and ran a finger along the now pale pink slit. Tiny teeth lined the tissue just under the skin. What was the name of that movie, she thought beginning to giggle hysterically. The one about teeth in a vagina?

She pulled herself together and gritted her teeth. Get it over with girl, she told herself sternly. The sooner you get this done, the sooner the three of you can look for a way home.

Amelia pulled the scoop-neck of her shirt lower and placed Todd's feeding hand over her heart. For a tense minute, nothing happened, then his claws twitched convulsively and buried themselves into the flesh of her chest. She hissed through her teeth. The palm of his hand pressed against her skin, and the tiny teeth bit hard, injecting the feeding enzyme into her bloodstream.

Then came the pain.

Amelia tried to scream, but the sudden agony was too overwhelming. All she could force out were soft whimpers. She felt the years being ripped from her flesh, muscles withering and weakening. The numerous tiny aches and pains of normal aging hit her all at once, and if she could have spoken, she would have begged to die. With the last of her willpower, she tore Todd's hand away, and sagged against the wall, panting with pain and exhaustion. She glanced at Keller, who stared back at her with shock.

"How bad?" she croaked. Keller shook her head, unable to speak.

"Dr. Keller, please."

"Fifties," Keller whispered. "He took twenty years in less than a minute." She reached for Todd, then drew back. "I can't, Amelia. I just can't."

Amelia swallowed hard, and hesitantly brought Todd's hand up to her chest again. The long fingers curled around the palm, hiding the feeding slit, and Todd sat up slowly.

"What have you done?" he asked, taking in Amelia's aged appearance and bloody chest. Though the feeding wound had already scarred over, the puncture wounds still ran red.

"His bullet wounds are healing now," Keller said. "I think that did it."

Todd touched a diminishing bullet wound on his abdomen, his eyes never leaving Amelia's face. She looked away, unable to bear the intensity of his scrutiny.

"Amelia," he began, then stiffened. His head whipped around, and he stared intently toward the stairs leading to the second floor.

"Todd?" Keller said. "What is it?"

"I thought I heard something," he replied, his yellow eyes narrowing. He glared up at the ceiling. "I think we should find what we need and leave quickly."

Todd picked up his blood soaked vest and made a disgusted sound. He tossed the ruined garment to the floor and pulled his coat over his bare shoulders.

"I don't know why you did what you did," he said, not meeting Amelia's eyes. "But I thank you."

Amelia nodded stiffly, then froze as the sound of a door slamming shut came from the long hallway to their left, followed by footsteps. She pulled herself painfully to her feet, using the cold wall to steady herself. Down the hall the lights began to dim, as the footsteps drew nearer. Todd pulled a small stunner out of his coat, and pointed it toward the sound.

"I don't see anything," Keller whispered. "Where are those footsteps coming from?"

"I am standing beside you, Dr. Keller," Todd said, not taking his eyes off the empty hall. "What makes you think I have any more of an idea than you?"

"Oh."

The footsteps stopped as abruptly as they began, and light flooded the hall again.

"That was interesting," Todd mused. He turned back to Amelia. "Are you feeling up to investigating, or would you like to stay here and contemplate your current cronehood?"

Amelia pushed herself away from the wall and stretched slowly. Her body ached, but she was slowly adjusting, and she had no desire to wait helplessly while whatever inhabited the unsettling building came for them. The sooner they found a control crystal, the sooner they could return to Atlantis.

"Let's go catch some ghosts," she laughed. Todd nodded approvingly, and moved slowly down the hall. Keller touched her shoulder, and looked up at her sadly.

"We've been working on a treatment for feeding victims," she said. "But we're still years away from one. We don't understand the process well enough to develop anything effective. Amelia, what I'm trying to tell you is that there is nothing I can do to help you gain back the years you've given him."

Amelia squared her shoulders, trying to hide her sorrow. Deep down, she had hoped Keller or the brains at SGC were close, that she would have to endure the premature aging brought on by feeding for only a short while before a treatment could be administered. To hear otherwise nearly brought her to sudden despair.

"I understand," she replied, sounding calmer than she felt. "That just means I'll have to find a way to get Todd to replace what he took, once we're safe."

"Amelia." Keller grabbed her arm, and Amelia winced at the unexpected pain the doctor's light grip sent through her limb. "For him to give back those years, he has to feed on someone else. Can you really live with yourself if he did that?"

Amelia pulled away from Keller and hugged herself tightly.

"Don't ask me that right now, Doctor," she whispered. "I'm afraid of what my answer might be."