A/N: Here you go guys...I hope this will suffice! I feel like Guide's character is finally starting to evolve in this chapter. As always, reviews are appreciated!

"Let me see your arm," Jennifer demanded of Guide when they had stepped back into the living quarters in the upper decks. He grumbled audibly, striding quickly away and stripping himself of his utility belt. It clunked to the dining table while the doctor remained by the doorway, her hands on her hips. "Really, Guide? Are you still bothered by the fact that I wouldn't let you die?"

Another grumble followed suit, and Jennifer took the initiative to move toward him. Just as he reached the entrance to his private quarters and the door vanished into itself, the woman caught his uninjured upper arm. His reaction was immediate and intemperate; before she knew what had happened, Jennifer found herself mashed against the damp wall with a very aggravated Wraith commander's feeding hand quivering over her heart and his other hand digging into her shoulder to keep her in place. His claws ripped through the leather jacket he had earlier placed upon her himself, drawing blood from the delicate skin beneath. Jennifer's eyes locked onto his, her lips parted as quick puffs of air passed through them. For a long moment, they simply stared at one another, predator to prey, until, finally, the commander regained his composure. His feeding hand retreated to his side and, stiffly, he released her.

"You disobeyed my orders," he issued in a low voice, and it was evident to Jennifer that he was truly straining to contain his anger. "Were you any other you would not be reprimanded, but...dispatched...by myself or my Second."

Rubbing her chest where his claws had pierced, Jennifer continued to push.

"Well, I guess it's a good thing I am who I am, then. May I see your arm now?"

This time when her touch befell him, he did not so much as flinch. A great, heaving sigh filtered from his lips as the warmth of her hands seeped through his protective leather sleeve and into the cold skin beneath. His mental barriers fell, and she tugged him gently through the doorway and into his quarters, stopping to stand by the small reading table. Jennifer cautiously poked and prodded at the wounds dotting his arm. The blaster fire appeared to have skipped from his forearm to upper arm, leaving its final painful mark in the soft area between his chest and shoulder.

"Alright, strip," Jennifer demanded, her expression stern as she met Guide's eye. He merely studied her, his head tilting to one side, and did nothing. "I can't fix this with your jacket on, Guide, so come on, strip. I won't ask you again." She stepped back and crossed her arms over her chest.

"This injury does not require your attention," he said in response, his voice hoarse and tired. "It will heal on its own, in time."

"Maybe so, but I bet you'll be a lot more comfortable in the meantime without a gaping hole in your shoulder." She cocked an eyebrow at him, the persistent, obnoxious doctor in her rearing tall. The Wraith lowered his upper lids in a glare, and then grudgingly agreed.

"Very well," he snapped, shuffling and removing the jacket from his good shoulder first, and then gingerly shrugging the other in an attempt to reduce the pain of the motion. He wore a thin cloth tank top below the leather which conformed tightly to his physique, and Jennifer couldn't help but allow her eyes to swiftly rake over his form. A low chuckle rumbled in his chest as he caught the gesture, and it erupted into a laugh at Jennifer's reddening cheeks. "If you so wished to gaze upon me unclothed, Doctor Kell-err, you need only have asked. I would have readily obliged."

"Don't flatter yourself," the blonde countered, scowling. "If a patient is injured, it is much easier to judge the damage when it is not hidden from view. The fact that my patient happens to be...physically fit...is just an added benefit. Besides, you're not unclothed."

"Ahh..." he murmured as she moved behind him to examine the exit wound. She pressed softly on the area around the lesion, exploring the sensitivity and trying to determine if there were any lingering pieces of the blaster fire within. She felt him recoil ever so slightly at one particular location, knowing that his discomfort must have been intense to generate such a motion, and as a result, she quickly reached for the base of the tank top to pull it over his head.

The doctor's gasp was not lost to him as her hands brushed the raised ridges of his spine, and as the shirt fell to the floor, Guide turned his head to gaze at her over his shoulder without yet turning his body.

"Is there a problem, Doctor?" he inquired, his voice indicating genuine curiosity while his smirk suggested he already understood.

Her purpose momentarily lost, Jennifer's fingertips quivered over the prominence of the vertebrae, lips parted and a curiosity beyond the scientific overcoming her. It had been some time since she had associated Guide with the term "alien," but the sight of such strangeness brought it back to her with a startling intensity. The pale green flesh shown the blue network of his veins and arteries in crystal clarity, and she traced the pathways delicately, eliciting an answering quake from the great body before her. He turned on her then, utilizing the good arm to encircle her midriff and the bad to simply move his fingers through the battle-strewn gold of her hair.

He backed her to the table and dipped his forehead to rest against hers, his breaths as hitched and troubled as her own. Jennifer's eyes never left his, though he concealed the irises behind cross-hatched, green-skinned lids. Her mind protested at every instant of contact but her body betrayed her at every other, longing for the cool graze of his hand in areas neglected for longer than she cared to admit. Their minds swirled together with no particular effort from either, and Jennifer was shocked to decipher, among other, more prominent, emotions, an unease that wove deep into the fabrics of his being. Though he spoke none of it, nor did he project it to her directly, Jennifer knew such unease could be caused only by the new Atlantean presence on the Hive. Guide's eyes opened now, softening as their light met hers.

"I...and my crew...Jennifer, we must feed."

The doctor's heart dropped like a stone and her gut twisted. Her lips parted as an offended, fearful stare took over her features. Guide held her in his hands, trapped against the table, but he made no move to harm her. Instead he moved back, holding her at arm's length and wincing as a wave of pain rippled through the injured limb.

"Our research into alternative sources of nourishment is regrettably slow-paced, and with the addition of more humans to my vessel...well, it has become quite difficult to curb my need for satiation, and my crew's needs grow even stronger than my own. It will be hard enough to explain that we are housing additional ex-Atlanteans for an extended period—you can imagine what trouble would be wrought were I to continue to allow starvation in the ranks."

Fury coursed through Jennifer's body, and she shoved him away.

"Perhaps the reason our research has not progressed more rapidly has more to do with the fact that you will not allow yourself or your crew to even attempt to feed on any of the subjects we have captured, and less to do with the actual pace of the research itself!" she howled, enraged.

"You know just as well as I do that I am not willing to put my crew at risk until we have a more stable affirmation that the process of feeding on non-human entities will bode well."

"And when will that affirmation come 'round, Guide? Because I'm starting to think this is all just a big game to you, and nothing more."

The commander sighed.

"Jennifer..."

"How can you expect me to be okay with this Guide? You're asking me to be okay with you feeding on my kind! That's like me asking you to be okay with me killing Bonewhite so long as—"

"The candidates are terminal, Doctor!" Guide bellowed now, cutting her off, and Jennifer's mouth closed into a frown. Her eyes demanded answers, but neither her mind nor voice spoke the questions. The Wraith bent to retrieve his shirt and slipped it painfully over his head again. "The planet upon which my Hive has fed for many years now harbors a community of individuals whose bodies are failing them, and whom elect the course of death by feeding."

She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes, waiting for him to continue.

"I told you I have never killed without reason, Doctor Kell-err, and I did not mislead you. My Hive has visited this particular planet for centuries, and we have never ended a life that was not already prepared to end. These humans have no options left, and choose death to ease their suffering. In return for their gift, we bestow upon them a gift of our own—one day and one night of perfect health in which they are pain-free and able to visit their loved ones for the last time, or settle other matters prior to being taken. One day and one night in which they might act freely, without consequence. It is a dignified process, and though their sacrifice may not slake our hunger to the fullest extent, it more than sustains us, and protects their families from harm. If you still believe I am a monster, Jennifer, I shall take you there to bear witness for yourself."

Moved, but unable to completely reject her anger, Jennifer's nose rose upward.

"That will not be necessary."

With a simple nod, Guide ushered her out of his quarters, allowing the door to spiral closed behind her.