"Well, I knew that Ian – that's Lieutenant Brooks to those who don't know him very well – was in trouble, so I knew I had to go find him and help him. I left the Ancient ship and… are you going to put that it's an Ancient ship? Or just an alien ship? Well, whatever you put, I left the ship and went out onto the Goa'uld mothership, dodging Jaffa patrols and avoiding certain death…"

Bregman sighed and rubbed his eyes tiredly, sitting back and looking over at the cameraman.

"This is crap."

The man smiled.

"Makes for an interesting story, though."

"Not interesting in the way I want it, unfortunately."

"We might be able to use some of it."

"Sure, the part where he introduces himself as Rodney McKay, Ultimate Genius and Chick Magnet? Or the part where he single-handedly defeated Anubis?"

"With a little help from Ian Brooks…" the cameraman reminded him with another grin. "Maybe you can edit out his voice and do a narration over it…"

Bregman nodded.

"That's not a bad idea. That way we don't have-"

He was interrupted by a light knocking on his door, and both men looked over and saw Janet Fraiser standing there. Bregman smiled, waving her in.

"Please tell me you've talked him into doing an interview…" he said hopefully.

Fraiser nodded.

"Let him eat, first, but I wouldn't wait too much longer than that. Right now he's in a pretty good mood – all things considered."

"Yeah? How long should we give him?"

"Twenty minutes or so."

Bregman beamed, and looked over at his cameraman.

"Get everything ready, will you?"

"Sure."

"I could kiss you," Emmett told Janet.

She smiled.

"I'm on duty. But I'll take a rain check."

And with that, she left, leaving both men grinning.

OOOOOOOOOO

"Good afternoon…" President Hayes looked at the flood of media lights and microphones – and cameras, both still and video – and wondered who in their right mind would ever want to be a reporter. "In view of the events of the past week, we-" and with this he gestured to the delegates and diplomats who were standing in a crowd behind him – "have put into motion several arrangements, designed at helping to both prevent and to protect our world in the event of anything like this happening again."

He smiled at the cameras, completely in his element as he did his very best to assure those people he was talking to that he – and with him the rest of the governments of the world – were in complete command of the situation now. A situation that had jumped way out of hand far too quickly to stop, but would never happen to them again if they had their way. And many who saw it actually believed him in that one instant. It would take the rest much longer to be reassured – if they ever were.

"The first step, of course, is to make sure that we have the ability to find these threats before they actually get close enough to us to become an actual danger…"

OOOOOOOOOO

"So, Lieutenant Brooks… tell us a little about why you joined the SGC…"

Ian was dressed in blue military issue pajamas and sitting upright in his bed facing the camera and Bregman, who was just a little off to the side. He had been dressed in white pajamas, but they'd made him look so pale and washed out in the initial camera tests that Bregman had asked for any other color. It was an annoyance for Ian – who really didn't care how he looked on camera – but he had been pretty good about changing with a minimum of grumbling.

Now, however, he scowled.

"That's personal."

Bregman smiled.

"Just basic stuff, Ian. It doesn't have to be anything really personal. Tell about your dad or something."

"I didn't join because of my dad."

"I know, but-"

"Just make stuff up," McKay suggested from the bed next to Ian's, where he'd been watching with interest while wolfing his way through a large meal. "Give them some kind of tear jerker story – or say something about how great your country is and how much you wanted to put your life on the line to defend it. Stuff like that."

Ian threw an annoyed look McKay's direction, but Bregman was already speaking again.

"How about just talking about the academy?"

Ian shook his head.

"They aren't going to want to hear about what I think of the others at the Air Force Academy."

"You didn't like it there?"

"I liked the instructors – some of them, anyways."

"And your roommates."

"Yeah."

Bregman sighed.

"You're not giving me much to work with, here…"

"Sorry."

He actually did sound apologetic, too, Emmett noticed with a little surprise.

"How about we discuss what you do with SG-1?"

Ian hesitated.

"That's classified."

"I'll have Hammond or someone high up help me edit out the stuff I can't use."

Ian thought about that for a minute, and then shrugged. Bregman had full access to everything, he knew, so maybe that would be okay. Some of the stuff, anyways – not all of it.

"Okay."

"Great." Bregman looked as relieved as he felt, and he turned to the cameraman, who had stopped recording almost as soon as he'd begun. "Ready?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, Lieutenant Brooks," Bregman said, going back to his formal interviewing mode. "Tell us about your activities with the unit known as SG-1."

OOOOOOOOOO

"In addition to the changes at NORAD," the president said, continuing the interview. "We've also agreed to establish a new organization. One whose sole responsibility is to keep track of these threats and continually review the data recovered from our intergalactic operatives…"

He'd hated using that phrase for the people of the SGC, but the others had bitten on it and refused to let it go, so he'd reluctantly ordered his speechwriter to add it. He knew immediately that the press was going to jump on it as well, to judge by the expressions caused when he said it. He hid his disgust and continued.

"… The Homeworld Defense Organization will be formed as soon as possible, employing the most state of the art technology – both from our world and others – and the best and brightest this planet has to offer. A director for this organization is still under examination, but we hope to have a name for you within the next several days…"

OOOOOOOOOO

"What a load of crap…"

Andrew nodded his agreement, even though it was admittedly the first time he'd ever been able to carp on a presidential speech with full knowledge of the actual truth. Or most of it, anyways. Jack had told Shawn about the possibility that he'd be tapped as the head of the new world security organization, and Andrew had been there when he'd mentioned it.

"Look at it this way, Shawn, he probably doesn't want to come off sounding like they're picking the first guy that comes along…"

Shawn shrugged.

"Or they want to give Emmett a chance to get his video thing out to the public so they have a chance to get a better look at Jack without making it so obvious…"

Andrew nodded again.

"Probably. Either way, it's not going to affect you, is it? You're still going back to the Academy, right?"

Shawn grinned, knowing that Andrew was actually worried about facing the place alone the next year, but not wanting to mention that.

"Are you kidding? And let you take away my thunder as the youngest genius there? Not likely!"

Andrew snorted, but he was relieved, too, and Shawn reached over and slapped his shoulder.

"Come on, let's go watch Ian get interviewed."

That'd be a lot more interesting than listening to the President, that was for certain. And far more entertaining.