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"Well, I just think I should thank him, that's all."
"Nah, I don't think it's that important, really, he's not really the receiving-gratitude type and I really did most of the work with the, the uh, the and the -"
"He saved my life, Mer. What would it say about me if I didn't at least say thank you?"
"I'll uh, I'll just let him know! You know, pass on the thanks, maybe get a bouquet of flowers, if they even do those and what kind of a car did you say you wanted?"
"Mer."
Rodney hung his head low, knowing when to admit defeat. If Jeannie wanted to thank the ancient dangerous alien in person then nothing would keep her from doing just that. At least she didn't know about the feeding-on-humans-part.
"Oh, and I heard he feeds on humans. Is that true? Is he like a vampire?"
Todd still worked on the nanites when they entered. Rodney was in front of her, shielding her as long as he could from the wraith but eventually he had to give way to her insistent pushing.
Todd looked up. His and Jeannie's eyes met, he in all his imposing wraith glory, Jeannie in a pink bathrobe and slippers. She had her arms slung around herself, though if from the cold or fear Rodney couldn't tell. He stood useless by her side as these two people whom he had nightmares about being in the same room, stared at each other.
"My name is Jeannie Miller. I heard you were the one who reprogrammed the nanites in my body." Jeannie said as she made a cautious few more steps into the room. He reached out to pull her back but thought better of it. She would just pull herself free and be even angrier at him than before. Besides, the wraith had just fed, hadn't he? And there were several armed guards close by. He had nothing to gain by killing Jeannie. She was perfectly safe.
"That is correct." Todd said, paused as if contemplating something and added: "Although your brother helped."
"I did?" Rodney asked, momentary thrown for a loop. When he processed the compliment for what it was, his chest swelled. "Well, yeah, I did, I mean-"
"Marginally." Todd added with a pointed glance. Rodney deflated and gestured towards Jeannie, looking for words. They all were lost, when Jeannie strode forward.
Unheeding of the guards raising their weapons or of Rodney's shocked cry she wrapped her arms around the wraith.
She didn't do half-measures either. This wasn't a half hearted hug done out of some kind of misplaced gratitude. This was a full on motherly bear hug, with one arm around the wraith's middle (where, Rodney noticed with a start the restraints should be but weren't) and one hand between his shoulder blades crushing his towering form against her small one as her cheek pressed into his chest.
If there was any good to come out of this whole disaster it was to see a wraith thoroughly dazed. Todd stood with his arms outstretched, staring down at this small pink woman hugging him as if he was … anything except what he was. His eyes were so wide they threatened to pop out of his skull and when, after several seconds Jeannie made no attempt to retreat, he looked to Rodney. His eyes screamed 'help me' and for one petty second Rodney wanted to keep this going just to see the wraith sweat a little. But then he remembered that Jeannie was his sister and the wraith would recover from the surprise sooner or later.
"Okay, Jeannie. Uh great work there, saying thanks and everything, well done, but I think you might wanna take a step back, or two, or really just, let's just leave and we'll go home and you can show me the car you'd like on the internet and-"
"Thank you." Jeannie said, still enveloping Todd like an extremely tasteless oversized carnival plushie. "Thank you for saving my life. Meredith told me about your ship. I can't imagine what that must be like, losing your entire family like that."
"I don't think that's really how Hives work." Rodney interjected and was silenced by a deathglare from both Jeannie and Todd. Jeannie went back to thoroughly hugging Todd, acting as if her brother wasn't in the room.
"And the people on Atlantis should have helped your ship and they didn't and you had every right to refuse to help me and you didn't. You saved my life and I don't even know how to start repaying you."
And then, just when Rodney and everyone else in the room had more or less adapted to their world at present containing a startled wraith and a woman in a pink bathrobe startling him, Todd brought his arms low and slowly around her. Immediately all guns were trained on him again but he moved slowly, as he reciprocated the hug, encompassing her small frame as gently as he could. It was as if to Todd she was just as fragile as she was to Rodney. As if they both saw this woman so full of kindness and trust that she had not once flinched from a creature she knew killed countless people and could kill her just the same and yet had chosen to express her gratitude in the way that made her most vulnerable to it. And that they almost lost her.
"No repayment is necessary. I did it to defeat a stronger enemy. It is me who should thank you."
"Thank me? Why?"
Jeannie raised her head to look the wraith in the eye, something even hardened marines often had trouble doing.
"For acknowledging the pain I feel at the loss of my Hive. Many of my kind believe humans to be callous, cold even. I know that to be untrue but …" He paused then his voice rose in that tilting way that indicated he was being less serious. "It is nice to be reminded of it every now and again."
Jeannie smiled and, since surprises did not seem to stop today, so did Todd.
"Well, if you ever need another reminder, you are always welcome at our house."
"What?" Both Rodney and Todd asked in the same disbelieving tone of voice. Jeannie remained firm.
"You'd love my daughter, Madison. She's a very sweet girl. And my husband, Kaleb, he studies our Earth literature. He'd be so excited to get a chance to compare it to yours. With your civilisation as old as it is you must have a lot of stories. And then maybe we can compare notes sometimes. I'm just a little smarter than my brother is, so maybe I could actually challenge you a little."
To his credit, Todd caught himself quickly. He straightened and at last Jeannie let go of him, stepping back and thus immediately putting everyone in the room at ease now that her immediate disembowelment was less likely.
"Should there ever be peace between our two people, Jeannie Miller", he said with a formality Rodney never heard him use. "I would be honoured and privileged to spend time with your family."
The way home was awkward. Rodney drove, Jeannie observed her ancient right as sibling to backseat drive in the most annoying way possible, which was actually fine with Rodney who tried his best to ignore that his sister, who was quite possibly one of the smartest people alive, invited a life-sucking bug-like alien monster from space to visit her house.
"You invited a wraith to dinner." He exclaimed at last because he could not possibly let this go.
"So what? He seemed very nice. And so polite. Did you even allow him to mourn his people? I mean, he must have lost thousands when his ship was destroyed. How would you feel if the Daedalus was destroyed and everyone just threatened and mistrusted you? You need to change your approach if you're ever going make any friends out there."
"You can't trust a wraith, Jeannie. You don't know them like we do. It's-"
"It's really not that complicated, Mer. He almost died saving my life when he didn't have to. I mean, you hold him hostage, starve him almost to death, watch as his family gets killed and then you ask him to save a girl he's never even met. What would you have done? Oh wait, I know. You hacked the doors and tried to make a run for it!"
Rodney opened his mouth to argue and closed it again. Comparing their situations directly the wraith did have the moral high ground right now. Which was not a position Rodney ever thought himself to be in, losing in a contest of ethics to a being that ate people.
"Well, it's not like he's ever gonna come to dinner. This war isn't ending any time soon. So we'll just mark this down as a nice sentiment and not worry about ever having to wonder if the wraith will kill us for offering him vegetarian food."
"No complaining about vegetarian food, Mer."
(Years later Todd did come to dinner and he did not kill anyone for offering him vegetarian food. Kaleb and he did enjoy comparing English and Wraith literature and Madison, by then a teenaged girl, was pretty much forever sold on the idea of having a cool biker alien as a friend and promised to introduce him to all her friends, which of course she couldn't do because his existence was classified. And later that night Jeannie, Todd and Rodney compared notes and while Rodney was vaguely aware of the fact that Todd was probably a more popular family member than he himself was, he still enjoyed the evening and didn't complain as much as he would have otherwise when Jeannie talked about inviting him again.)