Chapter Text
Todd can’t sleep tonight. He tosses and turns in John Sheppard’s comically small bed, trying to find just the right angle to curl up and doze off. It doesn’t come. The sheets are twisted up with his limbs, bunchy against his skin. It's too bright in here for his sensitive eyes, and this room is too hot, then too cold. Sheppard isn’t here to monitor it, and Todd doesn’t have an ATA gene.
It's been fine in the daytime, so far, but there's something about being alone here in the dark that makes all the sensations ten times as grating.
He tries clumping the blankets into a circle on the floor and nesting there but, somehow, that’s worse. After what feels like an eternity of trying he gives up, sweeping everything off the bed with a swish of his hand and body slamming the mattress to the floor for good measure. He smirks at the ribbons his nails made of the fitted sheet, kicks the cursed thing, and grabs his coat off the floor where Sheppard had thrown it two nights ago during their goodbyes.
He was to be on a mission with his team for a week, leaving the Wraith here among strangers.
True, he could send for a dart and return to his Hive. He could wait, for the only thing worthy of his attention to return, from the comfort of his own quarters. But instead, he stayed in this room for two days, trying. Trying what? He's not sure. To sleep alone maybe? Or to stay on Atlantis independently, and not feel unwelcome. From the look of the mattress and the door he locked, he failed.
Wraith don’t yawn, but Todd can feel exhaustion behind his eyes. it sends prinks up his spinal column and into his brain. He resists the urge to lay back down again, opting to throw his arms to the ceiling and pop the vertebrate upwards in a wake-up stretch. He checks Sheppard’s digital clock. It reads 0200 hours. With a grunt, he does a quick search of everything labeled under “New Lantean Primitive Invention” in his mind. If his memory serves him correctly, and it always does, that means it's nighttime.
What kind of species needed a device to tell them the time of day? could they not just look up and decide for themselves? Todd found time constricting. One week, that meant seven twenty-four-hour periods which meant one hundred and sixty-eight hours which meant thousand and eighty minutes which meant six hundred and four thousand eight hundred seconds until Sheppard was back. What a nightmare. Was it not simply better to say “see you later” and leave?
Longing yet again for his Hive, and the simplicity of never needing to rely on the movement of a planet around a star, Todd decides to go for a run.
He could simply go back to his Hive but he'll go for a run instead.
He shrugs his coat on, then slips on the fingerless leather glove Mr. Woolsey had asked him to wear over his hand mouth when he walks around the city. He’s not sure why he’s doing it now when there are no Mr. Woolseys around to enforce the law, but he’s doing it. Perhaps it is a habit, perhaps it’s for if he runs into a human on his excursion, maybe it’s because he finds the uselessness of it hilarious. Such a pathetic thing, a leather restraint.
He hears the Wraith on his Hive talk. His underlings like to joke that he’s domesticated. That his human name and frequent visits to Atlantis have turned him from a true Wraith into something…slightly more human. Todd has ways of dealing with those Wraith...but, are they entirely wrong? He looks down at the glove, snarling at it. It isn’t his fault though, that he wants to be accepted by his lover’s people. He spent decades under the complete and brutal control of humans, is it his fault that with these, he wants to feel secure?
Pushing all that aside, he pokes his head out of the door. He’s looking around for any immediate guards. It’s not that he isn’t allowed out of Sheppard’s room alone, not officially anyway, but he’s pretty sure he falls into the category of “shoot on sight” if spotted prowling around in the dark of the night.
Perhaps one day, after he and Sheppard court for long enough, the people of this city will feel secure with him roaming free. He senses that day is far off.
There are no guards in sight, strange since at least one usually loiters around here. To “protect” Sheppard, as if Todd would ever harm the object of his affections so much as to necessitate protection.
He gives it no further thought and pads down the dimly lit hallway, still too bright.
Within seconds, he’s picked up into a steady jog. He lets the feeling of running fill him up. Each breath he takes, he images the exhales chasing away fatigue, replacing the pickle with the tingle of newfound energy. He’s barefoot, so as to not wake the whole city with the thump of his metal-tipped boots, and the floor is cool on the undersides of his feet. If he were in his Hive he could close his eyes, let it tell him where to go, where to turn, and where to stop.
Not here, here it's eyes open, stay alert, don't drift.
What’s keeping him here? He shakes his head and keeps running. He’ll do the perimeter, maybe twice or three times, or until the sun comes up and life begins to stir again. Until 02200 hours becomes 0600 hours, and he is no longer welcome. He takes a right turn and heads to a long. stretch of balcony that overlooks the endless ocean.
The doors open with his hand to a pad, cool air rushes in, along with the pungent scent of sea spray and ocean life. He lets the scent settle on his sensory pits, inhaling deep through them. The water carries notes of choral, several different schools of fish, and thick plant matter. Not exactly pleasant, but not horrible.
Out here, it's darkness. Beautiful, pure. And up above, the sky is painted with shining stars and glowing planets. They envelop the darkness, turning the atmosphere into a glittering sea. He could touch them, he thinks, if he were taller.
He cannot help but look up at the towering spires that rise from the base and soar over his head, reaching up to the sky to greet the twin moons that rest among the stars.
Atlantis isn’t a Hive, Todd cannot communicate with it, but within its structure, he swears he hears murmurs, whispers of the distant past. Its walls carry memory, he knows this, its towers stand the test of time.
In its heyday, it had been unstoppable, a war machine and city that rivaled the most menacing Hive. He’d done battle with it, lost more than once. Do the dents of his arsenal still ripple within its body? Would it remember him if they could speak?
With a small smile and shake of his head, he picks up the pace, content just to be out in the open and breathing fresh, cool air. There's never any sense in dwelling on the past.
The balcony ends and he, regrettably, heads back inside. It only takes a moment for his sensory pits to register where he is. The lingering scent of this night’s dinner is a telltale sign of the mess hall. Roast meat with herbs and spices, root vegetables, dense sweet bread, these scents mingle much nicer. Perhaps if he ate, he would feel hunger in their presence.
On a whim, he decides to switch it up and head towards the middle.
The further he goes, the stronger the smells become. He picks up hints of cold fruit, coffee, and…something else. Something entirely new. It’s almost…sweet smoke, with a mix of frost, and spice of trees that grow in the mountains. But these trees do not smell like any he has seen before.
Curious, he picks up the place. Could smoke indicate a fire? Or perhaps warriors have invaded from the sky, bringing their nomadic scent with them. He flexes his palms, his movements become irregular, practiced to avoid detection as he races toward the center. A part of him is hoping for an invasion, it would be a feast and a chance for real exercise.
When he finally turns into the heart of the smells, he stops dead in his tracks. There is something glaringly different about this space. Ribbons of bright green, red and white swirl around the columns of this ancient city, culminating in bows that bust from the top. Gold and silver, puffy rope hangs from the archways, underneath big, round, green, polymer things that light up the darkness.
Perhaps the most obvious change, though, is the gigantic tree, also made of the same polymer, that stands in the center. Todd has to look away, his eyes assaulted by a myriad of colorful bulbs that wrap around the tree from bottom to top. Through his hand, he observes it’s covered in shapes; round, oblong, square, that hang from its branches.
Had all this been here yesterday? He would have noticed, right?
Crouching low, hand still held in front of his eyes, he circles it, looking for…something. He’s not sure what., exactly, but he doesn’t trust this…object. He knows from experience that beautiful things can be deadly. Perhaps it is a Trojan Horse, the one Dr. McKay had referenced once. Why would such a weapon be here though? They couldn't possibly be Trojan horsing themselves...could they? Then again, with the New Lanteans anything was possible.
It resembles a T'iac tree, from a planet he'd culled back in the day, but the T'iac decorated with forest found objects, and only before a sacrifice
He’s so lost in his inspection that he doesn’t hear footsteps approach. It isn’t until Jennifer Keller speaks that he notices she is there at all.
“You found the tree,” she observes softly from only a couple of paces behind him.
He prickles, jaw clenching in anticipation. He cannot tell if it is because she is female, or because she is so close to his back, but his heart picks up involuntarily.
“Oh…” He hears her retreat by several steps, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you”
That only prickles him further but in an entirely different way. Does she believe he is scared? Because that could not be further from the truth. He simply does not enjoy being snuck up on.
Realizing she’s waiting for a response, he utters a “you did not,” and goes back to inspecting this…tree. Maybe she'll go away.
The bulbs give off a small amount of heat, a sign of a primitive lighting system. If that is the case then this fixture must be from Earth. But why would the New Lanteans bring such a thing here?
Keller speaks again, much to the Wraiths dismay, “Couldn’t sleep, huh?”
With an annoyed huff, he gives her a side glance. It is because she is female that he even looks at her at all. There's something there, deep in his DNA, that urges him to at least show a modicum of respect. Even if the human females he finds himself around lately detests the more overt body language he’s had to train out of himself. Their scent around him screams uncomfortable, fearful, or angry even, and he has learned that addressing them politely only leads to a more concentrated version of those emotions. He gets the sense that they would prefer he snarl at them. He will not snarl at Keller.
What is she even doing here anyway? should she not be asleep as her species requires? And why come here if she was going to wander, does it have something to do with the tree?
“I couldn’t sleep,” she continues with a soft smile.
She doesn’t approach him, only stands there with her blond hair fanning out and her arms behind her back. She’s out of uniform, wearing a loose-fitting grey top and matching sweatpants. Her brown eyes appear amber in the light coming from the tree. Most notably though, she looks and smells of exhaustion, a familiar scent. All Atlantis personnel reek of it, especially Sheppard. Why these humans are so poor at taking care of their own energy levels is beyond him.
Though, perhaps, he should not judge as he is also up at this hour, a bone-weary type of tired slipping back into his brain now that he has stopped running.
“It seems counterproductive to come out here if you are attempting to rest,” he says back, casually, when he realizes she’s not leaving.
“Look who’s talking,” she gestures to him with a pointed look in her eyes.
He just shrugs and turns his attention back to the tree. Upon closer in section, some of the squares contain images of…what looks like the New Lanteans with strangers gathered around them. He picks one up as gently as he can, unsure of what the casing around the image is made of, and brings it closer.
It's for sure the officer who most often stalker outside Shepherd's door. He is accompanied by a blonde woman in a tight-fitting dress, and a youngling who holds his hand. The scent of love prickles the Wraith’s senses, though he’s not sure if he’s imagining it or not.
“Usually it’s decorated with brighter things,” Dr. Keller steps forward to cup a glittering red bulb in her delicate hand, “But we’re so far away from our families, and this time of year it’s especially hard so…a personal touch is nice, keeps up morale.”
“Family” Todd repeats, turning the thing over in his hand. On the back, someone has written out earth symbols, their written language that Todd has yet to master.
He can read Sheppard’s rank and name, his own given name, and a handful of other phrases but, beyond that, the lettering system is so alien that he has not put much effort into understanding it.
Keller lets go of the thing and it swings back against the tree with a slight rustle, “Do Wraith have family?”
“Wraith have Hive,” He offers, also letting his object go.
At the mention of Hive, a pang of loneliness hits him in a gentle, but powerful shock wave. He grinds his teeth, growling to chase the feeling away. They are within dart distance, certainly within the limits of the mental link yet, here among these humans he feels the suffocating weight of separation from them. They buzz, as always, in the back of his mind but, they still feel out of reach. Another wonder of why he is even still here while Sheppard is away causes him to turn from the tree.
“Is that like…siblings? Keller questions, oblivious to his plight.
He shakes his head no. Hive is much deeper than blood ties, though most Hive is connected through one Queen. He drums his nails against the material of his coat.
Keller doesn’t press, though her curiosity is pungent.
They stand there in silence, until Keller yawns, stretching her arms to the ceiling and groaning, “Guess I should get some sleep, huh,” she smiles at him, an expression he’s not used to from the humans outside Sheppard’s team.
He dips his head in response.
“Goodnight then,” she waves, turning on her heel to head in the direction of her quarters. Todd watches her go, wondering what kind of human stops to chat with a Wraith in the middle of the night.
It isn’t until she’s long gone that he realizes he forgot to ask about the room.
~
It isn’t just that room, Todd realizes the next day. After his night of freedom, he hadn’t exactly wanted to go back inside Sheppard’s rooms to wait for another three rotations for the male to come back. And why should he anyway? He was running these halls long before any of these humans were even hatched. True, he’d run them to escape, but that’s neither here nor there. Small spaces are not his favorite, not recently anyway, so he decides, when the sun comes up, to just stay out.
He keeps out of sight, for the most part, weaving around quarter halls, or common rooms, avoiding work areas like the plague but, no matter where he goes, the colors have infected. Who did this? Who had time for this? The City is huge, half of it can’t truly be covered in blinking lights, right?
He takes a wrong turn somewhere, goes into the thick of things, and ends up shuffling behind a brightly decorated column to avoid Mr. Woolsey and the humans he speaks to. A spike of annoyance rises in him when he realizes what he just did. Why is he hiding? He has a right to be here as long as he does not harm anyone, just like all of these soldiers, scientists and medics.
In theory, of course, but he knows the reason he’s behind this column is because Mr. Woolsey would order guards to take him back to Sheppard’s room in a heartbeat. He eyes his leather glove, detesting it even more.
He waits for the Commander to pass before he reveals himself once again. Time to get out of these populated areas.
“Todd?” Mr. Woolsey’s voice halts him.
With a deep sigh and a barely contained snarl, he whips around to face the man, contorting his features to appear less than impressed, like he belongs here, “Hello, Mr. Woolsey,”
At the full sight of him, the male backs up, only slightly but it’s amusingly noticeable to the Wraith.
“T-Todd, what are you uh…doing out here?” He rubs his hands together, backing up another step when his voice cracks. He’s trying to hold it together, but he seems physically incapable of doing so.
Todd can’t help the smirk his lips twitch into, showing a glimmer of his sharp teeth, “I thought I might stretch my legs."
A slight shift in Mr. Woolsey’s stance lets Todd know the male is fighting his instincts to send the Wraith as far away as possible. Todd may only be able to hear the minds of the beings he trusts but the Commander’s sentiments are more than clear. Todd knows he is only tolerated because Sheppard likes him, in bed and otherwise. If it would not cause an unwanted amount of animosity between commanding officers, Todd would be sent back to his ship the moment Sheppard turned his back.
Not that his own Hive has any softer feelings for Sheppard but, at least Todd is powerful enough to protect his human whenever he visits. Here…well he’s not so certain this exchange won’t end in three days spent waiting for his lover in Atlantis’s holding cell.
A shiver runs through him, he mentally kicks himself for staying out past dawn.
Before Mr. Woolsey can speak, a female voice calls out his name. both males turn to see Keller coming in a light but obviously staged jog, towards them, “Todd- Oh,” her lips dip, then she comes up to the Wraith, almost putting a hand on him before remembering who, and what he is. Not that he didn’t shift to avoid the touch anyways.
“Dr. Keller?” Woolsey adjusts his collar, there’s a brief second where his eyes drift from her face to her body, then back up to meet her brown eyes, “do you have business here,”
“Yeah, with him,” she gestures at Todd, meeting his eyes with a stare that says “play along”
Alright, he will, it is better than being ordered back to a little room that is both too hot and too cold anyways.
“With him?” Woolsey eyes her with disbelief, “Doing what?”
From the way her back straightens. Todd can tell she has no plan. this is further established when she beings her sentence with, “Oh well, you know, we-“
Before she can ruin this, he cuts in “I find myself increasingly bored. As Dr. McKay is not present, I have offered my skillset in Dr. Keller’s labs."
“In her…Labs?” he glances between them, “what do you know about human biology?”
“Regrettably, very little, but I am versed in Wraith anatomy, surely your retrovirus project could benefit from that?”
Woolsey goes the special type of pale he goes when something he hates but cannot reasonably refuse is asked of him.
“Sheppard mentioned your little project,” Todd elaborates, “I take interest if only because I am curious as to whether you could pull it off.”
Woolsey’s right eye twitches, he removes his glasses, puts them back, then repeats the action once more. He pulls Dr. Keller aside, but they are still within Todd’s extended hearing range.
“You are…okay with this, Dr?”
“I don’t see why not, sir,” she smiles at him, genuine, “Colonel Sheppard trusts him,”
“He likes Colonel Sheppard.”
It's Todd’s turn to twitch. He may fantasize about draining Mr. Woolsey dry, but that does not mean he would. These are Sheppard’s colleagues, friends, and Todd isn’t a wild animal.
“He isn’t a wild animal,” Keller asserts, much to Todd’s surprise, “and we could really use him on this thing, Carson and I are swimming in lack of information,”
Todd can smell Woolsey’s reluctance, his annoyance and anxiety around letting the Wraith near anything medical, especially the sick. He can’t say no though, not without giving Todd something concrete to complain to Sheppard about, and no one liked to deal with John Sheppard when he was pissed.
Keller comes back over alone, with another genuine smile on her face, “He’s gone, gave us his blessing,”
Todd dips his head, “my thanks,” he goes to turn and head to a less populated area, but Keller blocks him with her body.
“Where are you going?”
“Someplace where I can walk in peace?”
“Oh no you’re not, I was serious about drowning in questions,”
“Well, I was not,” He lies, “Your project is doomed to fail, no Wraith would ever agree to give up their way of life.”
“That project is classified, you just got your boyfriend in a whole lot of trouble. You should at least make it worth it."
“For who?” he asks, starting along his way, “What would I get in return for lending my skills?” did he really get Sheppard in trouble, or is she just saying that?
“I…I don’t know,” She leaps to catch up with him, “The knowledge that you're being helpful?”
He stops only to raise an eyebrow at her, then starts off again.
“He’d like you more if you-“
“I do not need Mr. Woolsey to like me, he is not the reason I am here."
“Why are you here then?”
That stops him dead in his tracks, parts his lips into a sneer. He doesn’t turn around, “what?”
“John’s kinda gone? For a week, why aren’t you on your Hive?”
A million different reasons come to mind, none of them is the right one. They’re all excuses, covering a truth even he doesn’t understand. Why he won’t lie to her is a mystery, perhaps because she just rescued him and he’s not a liar when he can help it.
“Hm?” Keller adds.
When he turns around, she’s standing like a female that knows she’s won, “It’s not too far from here, by transporter,”
He signs, deep in his body, then nods, “Very well, if you insist.”
~
The labs are not done up like the rest of the city. They are stark, and plain with long, white tables that reflect the harsh light above. He squits, turning his attention to the perimeter. Cabinets that hum with electricity line one wall, breaking to make room for a door where someone has tacked a sign he cannot read. On the other end are shelves, filled with different machines and tools. It smells so strongly of chemicals and human disinfectants that Todd nearly breaks into a coughing fit.
Most of all, it's empty. Not another being is with them, even Dr. Beckett is absent.
“Where is everyone?” he asks, leaning against a table while she pulls supplies out.
“Home, visiting family for Christmas,” she grumbles, “I am in desperate need of help”
“Christmas? He echoes, scrunching his nose.
Dr. Keller chuckles, a little smile crosses her lips, “It's just a Holiday some people from Earth Celebrate,”
Ah, that must be what the stuff is for, “That is why this place looks so…different?”
Another little chuckle, she starts to set up primitive tools, and sets little containers to the side, “Oh yeah…wait, Colonel Sheppard didn’t tell you?”
He shakes his head no; Sheppard isn’t the most expressive male. To be fair neither is Todd but, it is not surprising that he neglected to mention this holiday tradition or its accompanying nuisances.
“Not surprising,” She says under her breath.
He responds with a snicker and stands up straight to peer over her shoulder at one of the samples, “You do not go home?”
She shrugs, “I’m one of the City’s head doctors,”
“Surely you have underlings?”
“Fellow Crewmates...and do you see any?”
He grunts.
She shrugs her response and plugs one of her contraptions in by a wire, “I thought you were a scientist?”
“On the Hive, technology and biology are one,” he explains, reaching around her to pick up a container between his thumb and forefinger. He turns it in his hand, watching the light reflect off the glossy polymer. “Our Hives are our homes, they evolved with us, learning, as we did, to utilize and integrate technology into our lives.”
“I have seen that…” a shiver courses over her, she bites her lip, and her eyebrows close together when she frowns.
“Something has disturbed you?” he observes, setting the container down in favor of examining another.
She shakes her head, “It’s nothing, just memories."
He doesn’t pry, he doesn’t need to. He gets having a part of your past you wish to keep hidden.
~
They get into it. Todd takes some time to look at the retrovirus, still in a horribly underdeveloped and, probably dangerous state. It isn't that Keller has done a bad job, it is that she does not know how to do a good job. He wants to have faith in her, he's seen what these people are capable of through Rodney but, he finds himself wrestling to put on yellow rubber gloves just to keep from touching it.
She laughs when one of his claws slicenthrough the top, “Here, let me help you.”
He frowns, pulling his hand close.
"Don't worry" she assures "I'm a doctor, I'll be careful"
He considers it, eventually coming to terms with the fact that she's done nothing that would hint that she might have ill intentions with him. He allows it, though he watches her carefully while she gently removes the tattered mess from his feeding hand.
Keller's fingers brush the leather glove and she pauses. Two of her fingers rest where the material covers his feeding slit.
“Mr. Woolsey requested I wear it,” he answers her silent question, “It is…fine.”
Her eyes dart back and forth, the telltale sign that a human doesn’t know what to say. In the end, she just shakes her head, “Well it’s either that thing or this thing,” she holds up a bigger yellow glove, “Your pick,”
“You are not worried I will feed on you?”
“Oh please, if you wanted to that thing wouldn’t do anything to stop you."
He breaks out into a grin, unprompted and a deep chortle rips from his throat. “Indeed,” he tosses it away, “But sometimes we must do silly things to get along."
“Hmm” she hums, helping him to slide the protective polymer on, “Can I ask you questions?”
"Questions?"
"You know, about Wraith, for our databases"
He dips his head yes, she’s more than earned a few answers, after all.
~
It’s not a few, Keller has enough questions to keep Todd talking until the end of time. It is amusing, actually, how little she knows about Wraith, even with the DNA samples she has on hand.
“I’d like to take a blood sample,” She asks after jotting down notes to a question about the Wraith's regenerative abilities.
“A blood sample?” he draws his arms around himself without thinking. Much as he doesn’t enjoy being sneaked up on, he does not enjoy removing his coat in front of strangers.
He’s not entirely sure if that is from his decades under human control, or from his natural predisposition to liking to be left alone but, he hates it nonetheless.
“Yeah, we’ve never actually one before, no Wraith has ever let us come close enough.”
Including Todd. They’d tried, back when he was first imprisoned on Atlantis but, he’d put up enough of a fight, and shown enough discomfort that Sheppard had made Colonel Carter call it off.
Apparently, Todd's lover had done the same for other Wraith, either that or the others had been more violent than Todd dared to be. He prefers the former though and allows it to warm his heart.
“Todd?” Keller is holding a needle now. It glistens when the light catches it, emphasizing the sharp bit.
He's has injections before, sedatives, those needles looked similar.
He clasps his hands behind his back to keep from recoiling and shakes his head, “My answer remains no, though I am willing to give any other sample you need."
He half expects Keller to just grab him. It would be reasonable; a fresh blood sample would surely help her research along. And she wouldn’t be the first human to view him as a tool, or a means to an end.
But she only smiles though and asks him to spit into a little polymer cup.
Strange…in such an interesting way.
Sample retrieved, she puts some between two little glass slides and places them under her microscope.
He watches, one hand splayed on the table, the other behind his back, as she toys with the nobs, leaning in and out until, finally, she’s satisfied.
"The trick is not to leave you with no way to properly retain nutrients. It's more than just a little DNA alteration, we're talking about whole body changes."
"And you think you could find Wraith willing to take this?"
She sighs, meeting his eyes for a moment, "The first step is to get it made, then I can think about the logistics."
She needs to be careful, he wants to tell her. Altering the DNA of species is not so easily done, or justified. But she must know that, and he does not want to bring the topic of medical ethics into this conversation.
He's heard of Micheal, he knows these people's stances.
To distract himself from more critical thoughts, he asks, “Christmas, you did not truly tell what it is about,”
“That’s because it’s complicated,” she mumbles.
“Many things are, such as the questions you have asked me,” in truth, only a couple were difficult to explain, but he believes she owes him anyways. What’s asking one tricky question after you’ve had to describe the breeding habits of your species while a human woman scrawls down notes?
With a sigh, she unbends, “I guess you could say it’s about family, like all those pictures on the tree.”
“The tree is an important part then?”
“Yeah” she smiles, “The tree is a big part, the decorating especially,”
“I see,'' he says, even though he doesn’t. What could decorating a tree with colorful, round balls have to do with Hive?
“But mostly it’s about being with those you love, enjoying each other’s company, stuff like that,”
“And presents, don’t forget presents” a male voice, with a funny accent adds. Todd looks up to see Dr. Beckett come in, holding two steaming mugs.
Instantly, the room is filled with the scent of sweet chocolate. Todd coughs, rubbing his sensory pits in discomfort.
Dr. Beckett gives him a weird look, not antagonistic, just weird, and sets the mugs down. “Todds joining us today?” the question is said to Keller but directed at him.
“I am a…” he searches for the right words, “Science experiment for your retrovirus,” He points to the saliva cup.
"Did you get a blood sample?"
She shakes her head "we're not there yet."
Beckett doesn’t seem put off by that, if anything he seems a bit happy to have the data they do have. He gives it a look over before going to one of the glass cabinets and rummaging through it for something.
These humans are strange, all humans are but, these especially. He’s used to disgusted looks, crowds moving away from him and Sheppard. He’s not used to being welcomed.
“I’m afraid I can’t stay long, seems like even with all this holiday cheer, people still find ways to get themselves hurt,”
“Naturally,” Keller huffs.
Todd’s feeding hand twitches, he pulls it behind his back and clasps it with his other hand. Weak humans are easy meals...
“Of course, we’d get stuck here too, instead of getting to go home with the rest,”
“I don’t know,” Keller turns to him, “I might be worried leaving the city for so long,”
Beckett shakes his head. He’s found what he was looking for, so he closes the cabinet, “To each their own,” he sets his thing down and picks up one of the mugs, holding it out in Todd’s direction, “Ever had this, lad?”
“I…do not think so,” He takes it reluctantly and tries not to make a face at the sickly smell, “What is it?”
“Hot chocolate, traditional holiday drink,”
Todd groans inwardly, serving him right for being curious.
Still, he takes a tentative sip, barely letting his tongue brush the liquid at first.
The taste is not what Todd would call good. It’s much too…much, all at once but, it is not particularly bad either. The smell is definitely sweeter than the drink, and it has a pleasant bitter note at the end that coats his tongue, “It is acceptable,” He answers, causing both humans to laugh.
“Keep that one then” Beckett hands the other to Keller and waves them goodbye.
Strange…strange indeed.
~
Several hours later, Todd is a Christmas expert. The holiday, despite being exceptionally weird, with even weirder origins, is interesting. It sounds something like an old tradition his Nest Queen told him about, something long lost in Wraith culture that he can’t quite name.
He has to say that he quite likes the idea of spending time with loved ones but, he doesn’t quite understand the gift aspect.
“If it is someone else’s…birth…celebration…why do you exchange gifts?”
Keller shrugs, “It’s just something we’ve always done. She waves him over to look at something in the microscope.
“And you do this with everyone?”
“God no, just the people who you’ve agreed to do it with. We’d all be broke if it was everyone.”
That’s only partially a relief, Todd has four friends, “How far away is this holiday?”
“If you’re worried about Getting Colonel Sheppard a gift, don’t be,” he waves her hand in Todd's general direction.
“But how far away is it?”
She stops to think, “Hmm…five days?”
Doable…But what would be an appropriate present? They have not been courting for long, especially compared to how long Todd’s past relationships lasted. He knows much about John Sheppard, but regrettably very little about what he actually likes. His rooms are bare, decorated only with things doled out by the air force. He likes football, but Todd doesn’t know what that is. And scotch, which Todd can’t get. He likes flying but he gets to fly high-tech Lantean aircraft all the time…
Rodney, Teyla, and Ronan will be simple; Wraith Tech Rodney can pick apart, Teyla needs a new one of those sticks she likes to fight with, and Ronon also likes weapons or furs. But Sheppard…that needs to be personal, thoughtful. And it’s been a while since Todd’s been thoughtful for anyone.
“What do you think he would like…if I did give him a gift?” He ends up asking.
Keller shakes her head, “Gosh, I don’t know…he’s not a very-"
“Personal person?” Todd finishes.
“Exactly. I know what Rodneys getting him-"
“What-"
“Scotch.”
He sighs, naturally.
“You’ll think of something,” Keller encourages, turning back to her work.
Indeed…
They work silently for a little, Todd enjoys her company, and he hopes she’s enjoying his. It’s nice to do this again, play with samples and investigate life, he doesn't do a lot of that now that he’s a Commander.
At some point, she straightens, letting out an excited yelp.
“Have an idea?”
“More than that! It’s your enzyme that gives you the ability to heal, and feed right?”
“In simple terms…yes,” he frowns.
“Well what if…we could use the enzyme as sort of a retro, retrovirus?” She moves towards him, “It could give you regenerative abilities even without your feeding hand and-"
"And could convince Wraith to give it a try." He finishes, intoxicated by her passion.
"Exactly, I just- whoa wait what are you doing-!"
As Todd, unthinking thrusts his feed hand out, uncovered, to show her, she jumps back. He detects an increase in her heart rate as she side steps, putting more distance between them. Between her and his hand.
The air is filled with apprehension. Her eyes dart around, her back is straight, her muscles are tense under her clothing.
He looks from her to his hand, and a part of him withers. Of course… he meets her eyes, their dark, mistrustful.
They hold each other’s stares, neither moving an inch until Keller finally sighs and turns back around, "L-Lets call it a day, you're probably uh..sick of me by now anyway," her voice wavers.
"Alright…"
She forces a smile, then starts putting things away. He goes to help but she jumps away when he comes close, “Oh no it's fine.”
“Are you…sure? It is quite a lot.” something in his stomach turns to stone.
“N-No it's good, you go ahead, I know where it all goes anyways…”
He can tell when he’s not wanted. As much as that...pains him to know. With a slight nod, he steps back, “Have a good night, Dr. Keller.”
“Y-You too…”
~
The walk back to Sheppard’s quarters is long, and a little lonely, like usual. Except for this lonely ties itself into a tighter knot in his stomach than before, because it almost wasn't there.
Keller had been…sweet, for a while, treating him the way he’s seen other humans here interact. It’s been nice to talk to someone without them darting away from him, or glaring at him for even trying.
But, Todd has to remember that he’s still Wraith, still a monster to most of these people, even if Sheppard and his team love him.
Keller was bound to slip up eventually, let her fear overpower her desire to be a good person. And she is a good person...just...also a person. A human...
With a sigh, he takes a turn out toward the balconies, suddenly aching for fresh air once again. It was nice while it lasted, really nice, but it's over now and there's no sense dwelling on the past.
It’s a peaceful afternoon. Bright, but he thinks he’s getting used to that. The waves lap at the base of the city, the smell of salt is sweet in the air. In the daylight the city sparkles, its whispers float gently on the breeze, just out of reach from Todd’s ears.
He stands there for hours, enjoying the sun on his face until he hears human footsteps and reluctantly retreats back inside.