An hour and a half later, the car stopped, and Jack moved his shoulder up and down to gently shake the woman who had curled up next to him. "Carter." He whispered.

She groaned, though remained entirely asleep.

"Colonel...CARTER." He tried again, thinking of when he'd caught her asleep in her lab when Merrin had come to visit.

Instantly, she awoke. "Yes, sir." She said, snapping to attention.

He chuckled. "We're here."

She blinked a few times in confusion before smiling sheepishly. "Sorry, sir."

"It's okay." He said with a grin. "Just didn't want you to miss the festivities."

"What festivities?"

"You'll see..." He said as the driver opened his door.

After he got out of the car, he helped Sam out. She stared at the Smithsonian museum. "We're going to a museum?" She asked, surprised.

"Not just any museum." He said, shaking his head. "The National Air and Space Museum."

She grinned. "Really?"

He nodded. "I couldn't think of anything more appropriate to show you first thing in DC."

He helped her into the building, and instantly one of the museum staff approached them. "General O'Neill?" She asked with a friendly smile.

He nodded. "Yes."

"Come right this way."

Sam's brow furrowed in confusion, and Jack had to stifle a laugh at her expense.

They walked into a small room. "It's empty." She said, more confused than ever.

"Not...exactly..." He said as a hologram appeared before her.

She gasped as she stood face-to-face with Thor. "Greetings, Earthlings."

Her eyes widened as she looked at Jack. "What's going on?"

"Keep watching." He said, looking back at the hologram.

"This exhibit is currently under construction. We apologize for any inconvenience that this has caused you." The hologram continued.

"How..." She began as the hologram disappeared.

He chuckled. "The "how" isn't important."

"It's not?" She asked, confused.

"It's the "why" that you should be asking yourself."

She waited for his explanation.

"This room is being reserved for various artifacts that are currently being held at Area 51 - all deemed safe, of course - in preparation for the President's disclosure of the Stargate program."

Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. "Sir..." She began almost instantly.

"You're here to give the President an idea about what might happen, but he feels that once the United Nations is aware of the project, it will be time to inform the American public at large."

"Are you serious?"

"Right now? Yes." He said, gravely.

"Sir, we're not ready for that."

He sighed. "It's the President's decision, Carter."

"He's making a mistake." She asserted.

"Perhaps." He nodded.

"You think he's right?"

He shook his head. "I don't know what to think, Carter. But I do know that people are starting to notice unusual activity."

"Like?"

"How about Anubis's attack in Antarctica?"

"That was three years ago."

"And the building that you beamed up into outer space? There was a lot of controversy around that one."

She sighed. "What were we supposed to do, Jack? The whole building was the bomb."

"I'm not condemning you, but maybe if we tell people that we've been fighting this threat for the past few years, they'll recognize that it hasn't drastically impacted their lifestyles, and they'll go back to their Sudoku puzzles and baseball games."

"I don't think so." She said, shaking her head vigorously.

"What would you have us do, Carter? Wait until there's an eminent threat of attack that we're not sure we can handle?"

"Of course not!" She countered, angrily.

"Then maybe we should explore the possibilities of telling the world while there's no pending threat."

"That's just it, sir. The Ori are out there, and we don't know what their next move is."

"Which is one of the reasons I'm starting to get on-board to tell the world about what's going on."

She shook her head, more vehemently.

"Carter, it's the threat of global domination or destruction. They have a right to know."

She looked into his eyes. "And if this was Apophis, Anubis or Ba'al? What about the Replicators? What would you say then?"

"That was different, Carter. We didn't know if we could defeat them."

"And we know we can defeat the Ori?" She asked, heatedly.

"What I mean is that we've managed to hold our own against impossible odds before. That should give them hope that we can do it again."

She shook her head. "No."

"What do you mean, "no"?" He asked, challenging her.

"Sir, I've been to a world that knew about an impending threat, and they tore their society down around them. They were living in shambles, and I'd rather not see that happen again."

He sighed as he ran his hand through his gray hair. "Carter..."

"Sir, we need to wait until peace-time to make this kind of announcement."

He looked her in the eye. "We thought we'd found peace after the goa'uld infrastructure began to slide. We thought we'd found peace when we used the weapon at Dakara to destroy the Replicators in this galaxy. Now, we have the Wraith trying to get to Earth, and the Ori trying to either convert or destroy us. When is it going to end? Would you wait until every human is dying at the hand of the Wraith or until the Ori have spread a plague to all of Earth's inhabitants?"

"Now's not the time, sir."

"Something's always around the corner, Carter."

Suddenly, she felt as though they were talking about something completely different than the fate of the world or the galaxy. "Sir..."

"Sam...please." He said, softly. There was pleading in his eyes. She'd never seen him plead with someone unless the life of his team members was on the line, and even then, it had never been the total vulnerability she found in his eyes right now.

"Jack..." She whispered as tears welled up in her eyes.

"How much longer?"

"I..." She began. "I...they need me..."

"I know. But they don't need me anymore."

"Of course they do." She insisted.

"They need my signature. That, they can get from someone else."

"Jack..."

"Sam, you were at R&D for who knows how long, and then the Prometheus after that. Since then, you've been injured, hunted, and transported to another dimension. When is it going to end?"

"Please don't ask me that." She whispered as a single tear slipped down her cheek.

He stepped back as he swallowed his feelings back into himself.

His silence was deafening for Sam, but she was truly afraid of what would happen if either of them said a word now.

A few moments later, they were sitting in the limousine again, and Sam wondered as she felt the tension of the awkward silence between them if there was anything else that she could have done.

The car stopped in front of a high-rise hotel, and Jack looked over at her, emotionless. "Looks like we're here, Carter."

She nodded as she inhaled sharply. "It does." She agreed.

"Well, let me know when you're ready for dinner. I'll pick you up."

"That's not necessary." She said, shaking her head.

"Whatever." He said, too tired to argue with her.

She bit her lip as she looked at him. "Thanks for picking me up from the airstrip, sir."

"Always." He said, softly.

She bit the inside of her cheek. "I'll see you sometime before I leave."

He nodded, noncommittally. "Sure."

She stepped out of the car, and waved numbly as it passed her.

She swallowed down bitter tears as she realized that she may have blown her last chance.

She took a moment to breathe before she walked in and checked into the hotel. This wasn't how it was supposed to go.