On the ninth day of Christmas…

Sam smoothed down the front of her service blues and briefly brushed a finger over the eagles that she wore. They were shiny and looked new but they had originally been Jack's. She always thought of him whenever she wore them. She knew he had tucked away her father's General stars for her to wear someday.

Sometimes she wondered if she would make it to General. She'd had a blessed career for the most part; an active member of SG1 for more years than she could count, head of Stargate R&D even while she had been TDA'd back to SG1 during the Ori crisis, leader of the Atlantis expedition for a year, and the CO of the Hammond. She'd also deputised for both the former SGC commander Hank Landry and for Jack at Homeworld during the year between Atlantis and the Hammond. It would be nice to get a set of stars but she couldn't deny that she loved her current assignment.

She'd love it more if Jack was aboard and she got to see him every day, but at least with the Hammond they returned to Earth every three weeks and stayed one week. Jack always made sure his schedule aligned to hers so they'd have time together during her week on Earth. It was more than they'd had when she'd been on Atlantis.

She sighed unhappily. Jack had initially been scheduled to attend the flight test of the X402 but he had been requested by the President to attend an important Middle East strategy meeting back on Earth. She knew he was annoyed that he wouldn't be able to attend and she missed him.

Still, even if Jack wasn't attending, it didn't mean that there was an absence of Generals or other VIPs. Hence the dress-up for herself and the senior staff.

Sam made her way out to the bridge. She hated being in the blues during operations. They weren't particularly restrictive – the jacket left plenty of room for easy manoeuvre, the skirt wasn't overly tight, the low heel shoes comfortable enough – yet she vastly preferred her operations jumpsuit.

Of SG1, only Cam and Teal'c were in attendance; the rest of the team was down on the planet continuing the trawl of the databases trying to find the information they needed to get the jaunt into the nebula authorised. Cam had remarked that morning that he had handed over Daniel and Vala babysitting duty to Grogan as a learning experience. Cam was in uniform and Teal'c in a smart suit with a silk grey tie and a Star Wars tie-pin that had been his Christmas gift from Cassie. Jonas stood alongside him in his official Langaran BDU.

Her Hammond team, comprised of Franklin, Marks and Hailey, were all decked out in their uniforms, and she nodded her approval as the on duty communications officer confirmed that Phelps had greeted the VIPs at the Stargate and they were ready to beam-up. Sam joined her officers and confirmed the beam-up.

Immediately Sam's eyes went to the two unexpected Atlantis personnel at the back of the group. She yanked her eyes away and saluted as Franklin confirmed there was a General on deck. Vidrine smiled widely and saluted back.

"Colonel."

"General." Sam smiled warmly at him. "Welcome aboard the Hammond."

"It's our pleasure." Vidrine turned to the people with him. "You remember Senator Morrow?"

Morrow was the new Stargate liaison to various Committees in Congress, taking over when the last Senator had died in an Alliance attack on the Pentagon. He was young, dynamic and sympathetic. He beamed at her. "It's a real pleasure to be here, Colonel."

"Senator." Sam smiled warmly. Jack liked Morrow; Morrow was honest and forthright, and Jack appreciated that.

Vidrine continued the introductions. "You know Carl, of course."

Carl Strom lowered his head briefly in acknowledgement. "Colonel Carter."

"Director Strom." Sam answered politely as she shook the outstretched hand of the Head of the IOA. "Good to see you again."

"I am looking forward to seeing if your design does all that it says it can." Strom replied.

Sam kept her smile with effort. "I don't think you'll be disappointed."

Vidrine cleared his throat. "You also know Jean-Pierre Michel…"

"Samantha!" The debonair Frenchman swept forward and kissed her hand effusively. "It is a delight to see you in person so I can thank you for all the effort you made saving my cousin and her husband from being the dinosaurs!"

"It was really no trouble." Sam replied diplomatically, although she felt herself relax a little under his twinkling blue eyes.

"Your husband sends his regards." Jean-Pierre continued ignoring the sour look on Strom's face. "I cannot believe your President has requested his presence and so he cannot be with us today, but to say thank you properly for your help I offered to deliver to you a gift…" he gestured at his assistant who stood behind him and took a box from him swiftly, "and here it is!"

The gaily wrapped box was quickly handed over to an Airman to take to Sam's quarters and she fervently hoped that it wasn't three French hens.

Sam endured the rest of the IOA introductions (and wondered exactly how many of them it needed to witness the test flight). Finally, Vidrine got to the two personnel she wanted to greet.

"You obviously know Colonel Sheppard and Doctor McKay." Vidrine said with amusement. "I've asked them to come along today to assess whether a squadron of 402s would be a good addition to the Atlantis expedition."

"Colonel." John grinned at her.

"Colonel." Sam replied.

"Oh please don't start that again." Rodney pleaded with an accompanying hand wave between the two of them. "And can we get this started? Some of us have important work that we could be doing."

"Good to see you too, Rodney." Sam quipped.

Sam resisted the urge to smile as John elbowed Rodney less than discreetly and smiled in a charming benign way at the IOA guys which had most of them forgetting Rodney's brusqueness.

"Let's get to the observation deck." Sam said brightly to the gathered group.

The next hour saw the majority of the guests glued to the large viewing windows as they watched Peartree and Partridge put the X402 through its paces. It was a beautiful machine; sleek wings angling down, sharp nose, compact body. It was a dull black colour allowing it to fade into the vastness of space with only the merest glimmer of starlight off its armour to give away its position. It had everything Sam had been able to build into a ship; stealth with an Ancient cloaking device, lasers designed from Asgard technology, a hybrid engine design that would enable it to go into hyperspace. But it was small enough to fit through Stargates and its manoeuvrability was well beyond the F302.

"Well, I'm sold." John said quietly, coming to stand next to Sam as the final fly-by show got under way, the X402 joined by eight of F302s from the Hammond squadron. "It's a great design. We can launch them from Atlantis directly through the 'gate." His hazel eyes met hers knowingly. "I'm guessing that was the plan, right?"

Sam shrugged. "It might have factored into it." But she knew John was remembering a night somewhere in the middle of her command when they'd found themselves on the balcony drinking a beer and John telling her of his wish that the 302s fitted through the 'gates.

"Huh. They might not be entirely useless." Rodney stated, folding his arms, his chin lifting belligerently. But she could read in his eyes that he was impressed by the way he'd grabbed the monitor tracking all of the data streaming in from the X402s online computer earlier.

"I can't wait to fly one." John confessed sheepishly.

"There's a surprise." Rodney teased him. "You can't wait to fly something."

"I can't wait either." Cam moved up to stand on Sam's other side. "I don't suppose there's a chance of getting a ride once Peartree gives up the keys?"

"Maybe." Sam grinned at them. "But you have to get in line behind the rest of the Hammond squadron."

"Aw, come on!" Cam groaned.

"I'm only here for the day!" protested John. "And…and," he said triumphantly, "how much better can Rodney and I make a determination about the X402 if not from getting our own personal ride in her?"

"Oh no!" Rodney retorted. "Leave me out of it! I'm perfectly happy to wait."

"No, you're not." John pointed out. "You hate waiting."

Rodney looked for a moment as though he was going to argue before he conceded under John's knowing look with an exaggerated eye roll. "Fine. I hate waiting." He glanced at Sam and gestured at John. "Just…just say yes already before he gives you the puppy eyes."

"I don't have puppy eyes." John said defensively.

"Oh, you so do!" Rodney shot back.

"I have to go with Rodney on this one." Sam said lightly, enjoying their familiar banter.

"Now that's disturbing!" Cam drawled.

Teal'c raised an eyebrow as he joined the group. "Indeed."

"Oh, come on!" John said pointing out of the window at the weaving forms of the F302s around the X402. "She's the belle of the ball! Who wouldn't want to dance with her?"

"I might have known you'd want to play Prince Charming," sniffed Rodney.

"Does that make you Buttons or the Fairy Godmother?" asked Cam with amusement.

"I believe Colonel Carter fulfils the role of Fairy Godmother as she will grant Colonel Sheppard's wish to dance with the X402." Teal'c said sagely.

She held up a hand before an argument could break out. "John, you and Rodney can have ten minutes with her to make an assessment."

"Seriously?" asked Rodney as John grinned delighted and Cam pouted.

"This looks like a much more interesting discussion than the one I have been stuck having for the last ten minutes." Jean-Pierre said as he approached them with General Vidrine.

"We were just discussing the merits of Colonel Sheppard taking the X402 out for a flight once the test is done." Sam stated.

"Ah, excellent!" Jean-Pierre said, clapping John on the shoulder. "How else would you be able to make such an important determination of whether to have these in your arsenal, hmmm, Colonel?"

"My thoughts exactly." John beamed at the Frenchman.

"Good call, Colonel," Vidrine nodded at Sam, "or should I say Colonels?" He motioned out to space where the X402 continued to dance. "I'm impressed, Colonel Carter. How soon can we move to the next phase?"

"Mass production will take three months to shift into full operation complete assuming we have budget, materials and resources." Sam confirmed. "There's also the question of pilot training and…"

Daniel burst onto the observation deck, Vala skipping along in his wake. He was grinning widely and gesturing with a folder filled with paper. "Coordinates! I have coordinates!"

"We can find the geese people!" Vala said happily.

The IOA VIPs looked at them with shock.

Sam swallowed an exasperated laugh and smoothed over the interruption with the VIPs even as she clasped Daniel's arm and led him out to have an official debrief somewhere else.

Later, in her quarters, Sam reviewed the footage of the flight of the X402 taken with cameras on the outside of the Hammond. Her baby really was the belle of the ball, she mused, as she followed its path through the eight F302s that it had flown with.

She glanced at the snow globe sat on her bedside table and the nine figurines skating around an icy pond that made her think of Jack's cabin – their cabin. She picked up the note that had accompanied it.

"Carter,

Maybe we have to rely on weird coincidences for the rest but I saw this and couldn't resist.

Happy Ninth Day of Christmas!

Always, Jack x"

She smiled and picked up her laptop again. She uploaded the video file of the flight to an email.

"Jack,

I love the snow globe.

The universe did give us nine ladies dancing too – check out the X402 with the F302s today.

Maybe this was just meant to be.

Love, Sam x"

To be continued soon!

A/N: So my laptop died and I've had to reconstruct some of this from memory. I hope to be all up to date by tomorrow (Day Twelve) or at least only a day behind by that point. As they say, 'best laid plans of mice and fanfic writers...'