fateandfortune | Just two vampires, traveling the galaxy... [For Todd the Wraith]

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Just two vampires, traveling the galaxy... [For Todd the Wraith]

[continued from here]

It was a pleasant surprise to glance over and see Todd asleep on the bed, relaxed and peaceful. He can't have gotten much quality rest the night before propped up in the chair as he had been, certainly not when he'd been woken by her nightmare. She hoped that didn't happen again tonight, he had important things to take care of tomorrow; she didn't know all of the details, but with a civil war going on between his people, he needed his wits about him.

To that end, Rogue forced herself to stay awake for hours into the night, eating the dinner he'd brought for her and looking through one of the books from the collection he'd shown her before their sparring session. She didn't recognize anything on the pages, but it gave her a topic for conversation with the voices in her head, providing ample entertainment to pass the time. Eventually she fell asleep herself, the book held carefully to her chest as she curled up in the armchair, her boots set on the floor beside it. It was a fairly deep sleep, and she didn't dream for one of the first times in many weeks, something she was eternally grateful for when she awoke.

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As she drew out the wonderful pleasure to the very limits of endurance, he cried out and filled her again, her teasing of the slit in his palm pulling a longer lasting climax than before.

Chest heaving a bit, he fell limp beneath her, eventually able to pull her down for a kiss.

That seemed to do the trick after all, for he closed his eyes once they were settled and finally managed to get some sleep.

He woke only a couple hours later though, insomnia not relenting.

He stayed put, lightly stroking Rogue's hair until he managed to disentangle himself from her exhausted form. Silently, he left her to try and occupy his mind and possibly his body.

First he went to check on the wraith also experiencing the same symptoms that had been put into hibernation. All their vitals registered normal, but he dare not wake them just yet, wanting them to have the full week of rest in the pods to ensure this was the best cure.

He then ran into one of the engineering heads. Rogue knew him as the wraith who had a sweet tooth among the crew, often suggesting and coming up with recipes that were dessert related. He and the commander sat and talked for an hour before returning to the younger's quarters. Wraith sex was far more more rough and quick and, between his time with Rogue and the engineer's willingness to help his commander, Todd finally managed a few more hours of sleep.

Waking up was not an easy process for Rogue. The commander really had worn her out the night before, and she was groggy and a bit disoriented as she slowly came to. She was also blissfully sore in places she didn't know she had muscles to stretch.

She didn't feel as if she'd slept for very long, but she must have been sleeping like the dead because she hadn't noticed Todd leave. After a few moments of staring up at the blue haze of hyperspace through the skylight, she groaned quietly and rolled out of bed, her legs eventually cooperating enough for her to stumble into the bathroom.

After cleaning up a bit and attempting to wake up more, she decided to give up on the effort entirely and fell back onto the bed, not even bothering with the blankets as she curled up and went back to sleep.

The few hours he did get helped clear his head a bit, but in the end, this new symptom to the gene therapy was not going away by normal means of exhaustion.

He had a meeting with those who were also having the insomnia side effects. He hadn't been the only one trying to exhaust himself to sleep. Two of the four went the same route as he did, sex until the non-symptom partner could barely keep up. One ran for several hours until his healing abilities couldn't keep up with his aching legs. And the fourth sparred with as many others as possible before needing to stop thanks to a nasty knife wound to the lung.

The temptation to wake the three that were in hibernation was great to see if it had any affect, but they still had three more days until they reached Atlantis and Todd felt a full uninterrupted week in the pods was needed to get the full effects of hibernation.

In the meantime, they'd have to find means to keep them busy or there were going to be a bunch of irritated wraith on board.

Todd headed to the labs to test a theory he had. The enzyme had been a problem before when it came to the gene therapy, perhaps it was continuing to do so. He had one of the scientists there drain the enzyme sac in his arm before he finally returned to his quarters, to find Rogue fast asleep.

He undressed and climbed into bed with her, hoping that once the remaining enzyme in his system was burned out, he'd crash and fall asleep.

A second partner meant the large braid and the tiny ones she had fixed in his hair were not alone, two decorative knots were now woven in and a couple of the thin braids gone. If he didn't take the engineer to bed again for a month, they'd be removed upon his and Rogue's next coupling.

Rogue shifted as Todd joined her on the bed, giving a deep sigh as she slowly blinked herself awake enough to look at him. "Hey," she said softly, her voice a bit rough with sleep. "You doing okay?"

Her eyes wandered over his face first, examining his expression before moving onto the rest of him and noticing the changes to his hair. Ah. So that's where he'd gone.

She didn't know who the other party had been, but it was clearly a member of his crew. And truly she didn't mind - it might have hurt if he hadn't still been wearing the large braid she'd given him, the one that had meaning to her, but that pain would have been irrational. He wasn't human and she understood that, there were different physiological needs and social practices between them. Even if he had been human, she wouldn't have minded if they'd been open about things, which they had been.

It was still a little strange, though. Perhaps because she stayed in his room, or maybe it was just a baseless feeling she couldn't shake. Whatever it was, it wouldn't cause them problems. She wasn't the sort of person to let it get in the way of things.

"No, the insomnia is still strong." he sighed, resting his head back into the pillows. "Met with the others sharing the symptom. Two tried our approach with about as much luck, one tried sparring until he got too injured to continue, and another went your route of a run through the ship until his healing ability couldn't keep up. All the results point to that this isn't simply a matter of wearing one out until sleep takes over."

It meant it was a pretty serious symptom that needed to be amended as soon as possible, otherwise within a year the whole alliance would be having sleep-deprivation issues.

"As its too early to revive those in the pods, I've tried something for myself. Draining the enzyme sac. As it was the hindrance of the first round of the therapy, I figured it might still be causing issues. We can only wait and see."

Rogue glanced down at his arm with a frown, doubting that that was much of a pleasant experience in itself. She propped herself up on an elbow so she could see him a little more easily, and reached out to smooth stray strands of hair back from his face before tracing her fingertips down along his cheek and jaw.

"I'm sorry you're having to go through this," she told him with a quiet sigh. "I wish there was more I could do to help you with it. I feel pretty helpless when it comes to stuff like this, and I'm not gonna lie, I don't like it one bit." The last was accompanied with a small smile.

"Stop trying to find a solution for everything, you're turning into McKay." he said, though grinned.

Well, either the residual enzyme in his system was taking awhile to burn off, or his theory was wrong. He settled deeper into the pillows and blankets before picking up the Count of Monte Cristo on the nightstand. Today would be a stay in bed and relax day. While he didn't much like being inactive, it was best to conserve what little energy he'd gained in the precious hours of rest he'd gotten.

He may have grinned, but she gave him a mild glare in response to the McKay comment. And then she proceeded to pluck the book from his hands, turning over onto her stomach so she could prop the sizeable volume on her pillows.

"We'll have to get another book when we're on Atlantis," she remarked, thumbing through the chunk of pages they had left to get through. She was fine with the idea of just lounging around all day, but they were pretty close to finishing the book as it was.

He agreed, not only to read something during their time there but also a few titles to take with them as he suspected that once everything was taken of, most contact to Atlantis would be done via updates through the Stargate. Though to avoid villagers and their deadly snares, flying a dart to a space gate and contacting them that way was far less dangerous, and easier to do.

They read together for a little while, trying not to plow through the entirety of what they had left, but if they had another sleepover date like this, they'd be done in another day or so.

After a little while, her stomach grumbled quietly, reminding her that she'd burned quite a few calories in their escapades the night before and she wasn't wraith - humans needed to eat more than once a day. It was something she didn't always remember.

Groaning, she hid her face in the pillow for a moment before sighing and carefully sitting up, her muscles still protesting from the 'abuse' they'd suffered. "I guess I'm gonna make a quick trip to the kitchen. Do you want me to bring you anything?"

He shook his head, got himself another book from the closet shelves and returned to bed to try and occupy himself.

The next three days were pretty awful. Todd kept away from Rogue except at meal times and bedtime, not wanting his bad mood due to lack of proper rest to rub off on her. He recorded the effects the draining of his enzyme sac had had: none at all. He and the others affected continued to discuss and monitor those in the pods, but all indications read that they were sleeping soundly with nothing out of the ordinary. It boded well, a week's sleep in the pods once in awhile wouldn't be entirely hard to do. And once they'd landed the hive on the planet, they could all take a turn and get ahead of the side effect.

So caught up in the insomnia, they completely neglected to think about waking the queen when they arrived or when they had landed. They decided to wake her ahead of time so that when they contact Atlantis, she could speak to them directly. Also so that they could bring her up to speed on things.

An hour before arriving, Todd and Rogue headed down to the pod she was being kept in. The orange transluscent film obscured her until the commander entered the waking protocols on the console. The film dropped and she took a long deep breath as the tendrils that had both secured and nurtured her within the pod retracted.

"How do you feel?" Todd asked her

"...As well as can be" she replied after a moment before stepping out. Resting a hand on her commanders shoulder, she took a moment to wake up a bit more. "Have we arrived?"

"Not yet, there's been a development, we will fill you in on our way to the bridge" Todd said.

The queen dropped her hand, composed herself and nodded, "Very well, talk"

The trio started on their way up to the bridge, the elder wraith filling the queen in on what had happened while she'd been hibernation. She didn't like the idea of being fed upon by an iratus bug should something go wrong, but approved of his thinking regardless.

"When do you plan on waking those in hibernation?" She asked, referring to the three insomnia-affected wraith.

"After we land the hive." He said. "This way we can deal with them and know if the hibernation cure worked before flying to the city"

Those three days weren't just awful, they were miserable. With the mood of the commander so dark, everyone seemed to be just a little on edge, Rogue included. It was a lonely time for her and she missed him. This was supposed to have been time for them to spend together before the work at Atlantis and the queen demanded all of his time. She understood why he stayed away, she could practically see the dark cloud hovering over him and the others effected by the insomnia, but that didn't help to ease the pain of being deliberately avoided. It was silly and irrational, but she couldn't help but feel that way.

Her headaches weren't helping any either. They were persistent these days, an ache that ebbed and flowed depending on the time of day and how tired she was herself. Perhaps that was the bright side to having spent so little time with Todd - he'd missed most of her frustration and discomfort, and she hadn't seen the need to bring up the matter when he had so much on his own plate.

And now that they were entering preparations for landing on the planet and visiting Atlantis, she just couldn't bring herself to be excited for it as she had been. Yes, the prospect of seeing Colonel Sheppard and his team was a good one, but they would have little privacy in the city, and she'd already decided to spend much of her time on the mainland so as not to be a bother while Todd and the others worked. There was nothing she could do in the city other than be questioned by Rodney about everything under the sun, so after a few days she would join the crew at the hive and try to make herself useful by staying out of the way.

At least the queen seemed to be doing well after her time in hibernation. Rogue agreed that being fed on by one of those creepy bugs wasn't something she would want to do either, but it was better than the alternative.

"It's usually best to have as much information in hand as possible when dealing with Mr. Woolsey, the man currently in charge of Atlantis," Rogue offered quietly, the first time she'd directly contributed to the discussion. She didn't know if that was something Todd would have briefed the new queen on in their many talks. "He can be quite difficult to deal with, even among the humans."

"So I heard. He's already irritating me and I have yet to meet him" she said. Todd chuckled at that. When they finally reached the bridge she asked, "How long do you think the side effects of the therapy will last?" The initial effects lasted a day with the others. But her body chemistry was different than a male's. They were pretty much going into this blind, and while her tone didn't hint at such, her questions about the gene therapy and what it might do to her suggested she was a little anxious. Maybe even scared. She was a young wraith after all, a queen at that. Her reign could be over before the week was out.

"No telling what might happen exactly" Todd said honestly. "But we worked hard and sacrificed much to get the gene therapy to where it is. The problems are relatively minimal compared to before the changes."

She nodded and turned to the screen. Her commander looked to the helmsman, Kenny, who nodded and brought the hive out of hyperspace. "Hailing Atlantis." the second said, pushing a few buttons on the podium he was at.

There was silence for a long while, and then the screen lit up and a familiar bald head appeared, "Hello Todd."

"Mister Woolsey." Todd acknowledged

"You're cleared to land on the mainland. There will be some strict protocols while you're parked here"

"Such as?"

"No more than yourself, your queen, and one other may be allowed on Atlantis at any one time."

"Why so distrustful?" Todd said, feigning hurt, but expecting such.

"We don't feel there's a need to devote more marines than necessary to your stay."

"Fair enough. Anything else?"

"To avoid detection by any hives in the neighborhood, you're to power down your hive to the bare minimum. No wraith ships may fly without express permission from me. A Puddlejumper flown by one of our people will be used to ferry yourself and your other choice back and forth when needed, though quarters have been set up for you again so that the need for that is kept to a minimum. This...procedure, is going to take time, possibly as long as when we had you if the therapy doesn't take right away."

The commander nodded.

"One final bit." Woolsey said, and this time, he turned his attention to the queen, who seemed a little annoyed that the man had been addressing her commander and not her, but kept quiet, deciding a fight over rank among wraith could wait until she met him face-to-face. "Double cross us in anyway, and your hive will be obliterated."

"So the usual threats?" Todd said with a grin.

Woolsey gave the slightest shrug. "Can you blame us?"

"Something more original would be nice." Todd chuffed. "Any other...new security changes?"

"No. For now I think that will do it. Safe landing to you." and he cut out the feed.

It took a hell of a lot of effort for Rogue to stop herself from grimacing or rolling her eyes at Woolsey's words. He could be such an ass at times. Yes, he might have some justification in his distrust of Todd, but the commander had proven himself trustworthy in Rogue's opinion, at least so far as Atlantis was concerned. At this point in time, there was no good reason for Todd's hive to turn against Atlantis, it would only hurt their chances at coming out on the winning side of this civil war. But Woolsey wasn't the sort to listen to that sort of reasoning, or at least not to act on it, and she honestly couldn't say if Sheppard and his team would be any different.

"He's just as charming as I remember him," Rogue commented quietly, her tone as sour as her opinion of the man. Giving a slight shake of her head, she turned to face the commander and queen. "Who will be the third party going with you to the city?" she asked carefully.

Before the communication with Woolsey, she'd been planning to go to the city herself, but now that they were limited, she didn't want to take the spot if Todd or the queen would have need of someone else during their stay. She wanted them to know that, and so her tone was neutrally curious rather than fearfully hopeful. And just because she was human herself, mostly, she had no preconception of being an exception to the rule in Woolsey's book.

Rogue had to remember that there were strict security protocols in place, regardless of Woolsey's feelings. Todd had been betrayed and sold out by his crew several times in the past, and it usually came back to bite Atlantis. Precautions were likely to be in effect until the civil war was over and real trust could start being earned.

"You will be the third party" the queen said before Todd could even open his mouth. "I need human eyes and ears where mine cannot be." she added. "They're far more likely to be open with you than with me or the commander so having a human in the inner circle would be beneficial."

Todd looked to Rogue. She wouldn't be a spy per se, as it was likely she'd not be allowed to roam Atlantis on her own, but as she said, another set of eyes and ears on Atlantis that would draw less attention than Todd would ensure they weren't being fooled with.

Rogue glanced from the queen to Todd for just a moment, meeting his gaze before turning back to the queen and inclining her head. "I understand," she told the queen. "I'll do everything I can to be of help to you."

She understood what was being said. They weren't asking her to be a spy, but they were right in that she would be in a better position to overhear or observe things that wouldn't be shared when the wraith were around. And she was good at reading people - even without using her powers, she'd be able to tell if something was going on and advise the queen and commander appropriately.

"Good." she answered then looked to her commander. "When you're ready."

Todd inclined his head and took over from Kenny who moved to one of the other podium-screens to help divert power from non-critical systems to helping land a ship the size of a city.

There were no windows, even on the bridge, but Todd closed his eyes, steering the ship pretty much with his mind, "seeing" the space around them and the planet below. The ship rumbled as they entered the atmosphere, Kenny and another wraith on the bridge helping slow their descent with thrusters and sub-lights.

The queen stared ahead at the navigation screen. Once they broke re-entry, the systems showed a crude map of the continent they were to land on. Todd steered the hive to a relatively barren area about a mile from the coast.

As the ship had no landing legs, the whole thing would flatten the area they'd settle in. The landing jostled them about a bit but nothing serious, and a wave of relief seemed to sweep through the bridge, even from the queen. Landing hives was not done very often for good reason.

Todd opened his eyes, took a moment before starting on the process of putting the hive to sleep, Kenny helping out around the podiums. "Powering ship down. Occupied hibernation pods are to remain active. Air filtration systems shifting over to environmental mode. Send a troop out to run the pumps to the sea, might as well refresh our water supply while we're parked here."

The second nodded and passed on the order. System by system the hive was sent to hibernation, until only the bare minimum like lights and the pods remained online. "My queen, what if we are betrayed?" Kenny asked.

The queen thought a moment. If they were betrayed, getting the hive off the ground and away before Atlantis could do significant damage was impossible. So the next logical step would be to send out a data burst through subspace to the nearest hives to betray where Atlantis was. Todd always fell back on this threat because it would get back at Atlantis without question. And it didn't matter which side of the war you were on. If you were part of the alliance, then the data burst clearly meant Atlantis could no longer be trusted. Part of the enemy's ranks? Well, they were still banking on some way to earth where the best feeding grounds in two galaxies lived. Atlantis was the only way.

Finally, the queen answered. "Depends on the betrayal. With that, she led the way to the deck where the insomnia-ridden wraith were being kept.

The process of Todd landing the ship was awe-inspiring. Wraith technology was absolutely amazing, just as much so as what she'd seen on Atlantis, and it was all so advanced compared to what they'd had on her Earth. Rogue watched the proceedings with fascination, only wishing she were able to know more of what was actually occurring during their descent and landing, but still grateful she was able to witness what she did.

It didn't surprise her that Kenny asked such a question, the queen's answer to which was a good one. A diplomatic answer, leaving her time to consider her options and not give the wrong impression to her crew should her decisions change later on. That sort of attitude would serve her well when dealing with humans, and it fit well with the way Todd had been handling things on both sides.

Rogue followed behind the queen and Todd as they walked through the ship, trying to piece together the route they were taking from what she knew of the ship's layout. They were nearly there when the dizziness hit her suddenly, washing over her like a wave that was trying to pull her below the surface, its hold incredibly strong. She swayed, everything around her losing focus as she struggled to stay upright. Stumbling to the side, her hands found purchase against the wall and she held on while riding out the disorientation.

As they drew closer to the pods, Todd grew nervous. If this hibernation cure didn't work, then they could be looking at weeks of tests. Just this last week with minimal rest had been taxing enough on him and the crew experiencing the symptom.

He heard Rogue stumble against the wall and he paused looking to her, the queen also turning around in question.

"You all right?" Todd asked, "Are you sick?"

Rogue took a few deep breaths before answering the question, though she didn't turn to look at either Todd or the queen. "Just a little dizzy, like before," she said in a strained tone. "It'll pass. I'll talk to Dr. Beckett about it, I'm sure it's nothing."

The wave was starting to subside finally, and so she turned slightly to address them both more directly. "You don't need me for this, I'll wait here while you check on your crew." They were more important at the moment, and if she was still like this she would only be a distraction.

The queen nodded and began to walk on, after a moment, Todd followed, but now he had another worry on his mind. What was wrong with her? They got to the pods and one by one, woke the three wraith.

After they came out, it was a few moments to figure out if the hibernation helped or did nothing. Fortunately, it had. They were well-rested and ready to go to work. Todd ordered them to go join the others and pass on the word to start sending any insomnia-stricken wraith into the pods for a week of rest.

He'd have to go in hibernation himself, but first they had to go to Atlantis and bring them up to date on what was going on, and even post-pone the treatment to the queen until he was out of the pod as he did not want to be kept out of the loop for such an important event.

Todd and the queen headed back to where they'd left Rogue in the hallway, with good news.

Rogue was glad that Todd didn't question her and just went with the queen. She didn't need him to see that she was starting to get a little worried herself over these dizzy spells and the headaches that followed them, a pressure building in her head that felt like something trying to get out from the inside. This time was no different, and she leaned heavily against one of the more solid parts of the wall, waiting for them to come back.

She didn't expect to feel something wet trickling down her lip and chin. Touching it carefully with her fingertips, they came away stained red - she stared at it in almost fearful shock. A nosebleed, after dizziness and a headache. The combination was extremely unsettling, and she was now very much looking forward to seeing the Scottish doctor so she could find out what the hell was going on with her.

It would be better if Todd didn't know about this latest development. Not yet. He had enough on his plate, especially with his own insomnia-induced exhaustion. So she wiped at what she could feel of the blood with the sleeve of her shirt (the black one, luckily) and put on her best 'everything's fine' face when she saw them approaching.

They returned shortly after she fixed herself up. Todd, while tired, was clearly pleased.

"Good news, the hibernation worked. How often it will have to be done remains to be seen but at least its not an incurable problem." he said.

The queen however was eyeing Rogue suspiciously. She knew something was wrong with her. Perhaps she could pick up on the faint scent of new blood. But she kept it to herself. "Come, let's leave the ship" she said and led the way.

Todd and Rogue walked behind her, the commander silently asking if she was okay.

Instead of heading to the dart bay, they seemed to be heading down some levels, and, sure enough, they turned a corner and a door, typically air-tight, opened at the queen's touch with an ugly noise, a trail of slime briefly connecting them in the bright sunlight, and they stepped out onto solid ground.

It was warm out with a pleasant breeze. There were a scattering of trees but nothing like the forest that Todd and Rogue had needed to navigate a few days ago. They moved into open ground, where they'd easily be spotted by the Puddlejumper.

It was extremely good news that Todd delivered, and Rogue was able to give him a genuinely happy smile. She was so pleased for all of them, having witnessed firsthand how drastic the effects of the insomnia could be for even just a few days. Knowing that hibernation would help with the problem was a huge relief for everyone.

The look the queen gave her didn't escape Rogue's attention, but she tried not to let on that she saw it. If the queen had noticed something, then it was likely that the only reason Todd hadn't as well was due to his exhaustion. She gave him another smaller smile as they followed the queen out of the ship, trying to offer him an assurance that she didn't really feel.

Being on solid ground again and this time not being on edge in enemy territory was really quite nice. The warmth of the sun was complimented by the breeze and Rogue almost wished she could spend a few hours out enjoying that quiet peace. It just wasn't in the cards for her, though.

As they walked out into the more open area, the dizziness hit again. She swayed, stumbled, and ultimately fell forward, managing to bring her arms up before she hit the ground. That wetness was on her lip again and she silently cursed up a storm at her luck. This wasn't supposed to happen. She was supposed to get to Atlantis and Dr. Beckett would fix everything before Todd ever had to find out. Now though? She was pretty sure he was gonna notice.

Indeed, he did.

"Rogue, what's wrong?" He asked, kneeling beside her, touching her shoulder.

The queen looked on with interest. Rogue must have been far more important to her commander than she guessed if he was acting like this.

Todd looked to his feeding hand. The option of the enzyme to cure her of whatever ailed her came up.

"Did you get hurt sparring?" He asked, guessing she might have hidden whatever was wrong for a little while and he'd been too busy to notice.

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