AN: I just love Ba'al.

Having a Ba'al

"So this is a problem." Jack says to Sam sitting at the SGC briefing table. He'd come as soon as she'd called him actually. Well, once he was able to confirm with the sitter that he'd be gone for at least a day, possibly more.

"Yes sir it is. With your permission I'd like to team up with Agent Barrett and track him down before he gets twitchy." Sam tells him.

"Ah… good old Mal…"

"He's a good agent, sir. We know we can trust him with classified information, even against his own people." Sam reminds him.

Jack gives her a sharp look. Mal had kept his yap shut about Grace. "All right."

"Colonel Carter, make sure you get this under control quickly. The Jaffa are on a head hunt for this guy, Ba'al, and honestly, they are going to cause an interplanetary incident fairly soon if we don't."

Sam nods. "Daniel is in Maryland. I'll catch up with him as soon as I can get a flight out. Cam and Teal'c have already made arrangements to board the Prometheus."

"All right. Get to it." Landry tells her and dismisses her.

Jack jogs to catch up before she leaves the Gate room. "Carter, a moment."

"Yes sir?"

"Settling in all right?"

"I am, thank you sir." She says and gives him an inquiring look.

"Need a ride to the airport?" He asks her, his eyebrows raised and his tone mild.

Ah. "Thank you sir, I'd appreciate that."

Jack bobs his head. "I'll meet you topside. Just need to change."

"All right. Me too." She says with a small smile.

"Stay out of your lab, Carter." He warns her.

Sam snorts in amusement. Yes sir.

They meet up with Mal outside the airport. "Agent Barrett, thanks for the lift." Daniel tells the other man and shakes his hand.

"Well, I couldn't exactly have you guys catching a cab to the stakeout, now, could I?" Mal replies agreeably.

They discuss the situation while they throw their bags in the back of the surveillance van Mal has brought with him.

A bit later they arrive at the hotel Ba'al's people are holed up in and Williams checks in. After Mal asks Sam how she's been.

"Pretty good. You?" She tells him noncommittally.

"Yah, pretty good…. Can't complain." They smile awkwardly and Sam checks equipment to avoid any further discussion.

"What's new?" Mal finally asks her. He hadn't been keeping tabs.

"Uh, let's see…I was leading R&D for a while there." She says of the Groom Lake position she'd recently given up.

"Well, I never figured you the type to settle for a desk job." He says to her thoughtfully.

"I needed something with more flexible hours. Janet's adopted daughter, Cassie, was going through a hard time." Got married, had another kid… Cassie had been going through a rough patch and come home a lot, but not as much as she and Jack played up for nosey coworkers.

"Oh… I see." Mal said.

"Spent some time on the Prometheus, away on deep space reconnaissance." Sam told him. Missed my kids and husband she didn't add.

"Uh-huh." Mal said in the sort of bored but keep talking voice one uses to keep someone else going.

"Oooh... Helped stop a dangerous new enemy from gaining a foothold in the galaxy." She said brightening.

Mal wasn't especially interested in any of that. "Yes, I heard about that…How's Pete?

Sam pauses for a bit. "We broke up." She finally admits.

Mal smiles. "Really?" when Sam shoots him a look he schools his face better. "Uh…I mean, I'm sorry to hear that." He finishes lamely.

Sam is a little amused. "Oh, it was the best thing for both of us."

Mal thinks about that for a moment. "So you're single again?" He says hopefully.

"Not exactly." She tells him.

The resulting pause is awkward while they look at each other. Sam refusing to volunteer any further information and Mal afraid to ask. On base she wore her rings on her dog tags. Currently they were in Jack's pocket for safe keeping. She didn't want to give Ba'al any clues to follow if things went south quickly.

Daniel comes back shortly and Sam tells him it's not Ba'al because he can't be in a live interview across town and in the hotel. She turns on the TV to show him and clenches her jaw. She really hates this guy. Daniel rolls his eyes in frustration.

Later that day Sam talks to Landry about what they already know. When she gets off the phone she tells Daniel and Mal what Hank said about the situation. The gist of the situation was Ba'al had wisely made himself a public figure so they couldn't just take him out… and Jack was working on an angle.

Sam ends up leaving Daniel and Mal behind to deal with the bomb Ba'al says he's going to set off in Seattle. Conveniently Jack had given her a call device for the Prometheus to home in on.

Things don't get better when Sam figures out the entire building is the bomb. That son of a… the building is big enough to take out a five mile radius. Looks like Jack would be holding on to those rings.

Of all things though, Cam is the one that comes up with a solution. They beam the entire building out to space where it explodes harmlessly.

Sam sits picking at her carton of Chinese food. "So the Jaffa killed Ba'al but there is a really high probability it was just a clone."

"How high are we talking here?" Jack asked her picking at something in his coffee mug.

"Probability that you would get me pregnant if I wasn't using contraception high."

"That's high."

"Yup."

Jack raised an eyebrow.

Sam tilted her head and pursed her lips. A clear no.

Jack pouts a little and shrugs. Jake is not even a year old yet. He didn't really want Irish twins. He did like being a dad though and if he was honest, he loved babies. "So how are we handling this?"

Sam poked at her food some more. "I don't know." She admitted.

"Carter?"

"I don't, Jack. There's just too many permutations still. We don't know how many we are dealing with or where they even are. They could literally be anywhere in the galaxy at this point."

Jack scrubbed his hand over his face. "Yah… I know. Sometimes I forget you don't have all the answers." He leans over and brushes her cheek affectionately. "You'll figure it out, Sam. You always do."

Sam bites her lip and Jack kisses her gently. "I have to be back to Washington tomorrow. How about we turn in early?"

Sam smirks and chuckles. "Subtle... very subtle."

Jack grins at her. "Is that a yes?"