"You've got to be shitting me…"

Hammond shook his head, not at all surprised by the reaction.

"He has to do it, Nathan. The press is going crazy – making up their own stories for lack of anything else to tell the public, and right now most of it's highly positive, but you know as well as I do that eventually they'll decide that bad news – or a conspiracy of some sort – will sell better than anything else and will be better than waiting for the truth."

"He's right, Nathan," Maggie told her husband before he could say anything else. "Besides, the people have a right to know some of what happened – and they should know."

Nathan scowled, but there wasn't really much he could say to her. Especially since she was giving him a look that plainly said she wasn't going to put up with too much arguing about this.

"Fine," he growled, finally. "But I'm going to be there."

Maggie smiled.

"Good. So am I."

Of course she was. Ian was her baby, after all – even if he was an adult, now.

Nate looked at Hammond.

"So, tell me, George… what does Jack think of this idea?"

OOOOOOOOOO

"This is ridiculous!"

Sam nodded her agreement.

"But it's not really a surprise, is it?"

Jack scowled.

"No, I suppose not. But still…"

"But still, you'd rather face a million Jaffa than a small group of people with cameras and tape recorders?"

"I'd rather eat a full 12 course meal cooked by Teal'c," he told her, making her smile – which reminded him as it always did just how lovely she was.

"I could probably arrange that," she told him, her smile softening as she noticed the change in his expression. Some people thought he was hard to read, but she didn't have any trouble at all – and he was never shy about his feelings for her. Or letting her see how much he loved her.

"You do and I'll tell Daniel you want to know all about the sand dwellers on 822…"

She gave a dramatic shudder.

"You win."

He chuckled, and then glanced over at their uniforms, which had been sent to them by one of the President's aides.

"Why the casual dress?" he asked her.

She shrugged, looking at the BDUs as well. They weren't even brand new ones, although they were definitely clean and held all the symbols of their ranks – but no medals.

"If I had to hazard a guess I'd say it's a political ploy… maybe to remind people we're really soldiers and not just decorative mannequins…? Make it all a bit more realistic? Especially considering the subject matter is so bizarre…"

"Maybe…"

It was as good a guess as any – and far better than anything he'd come up with. He looked at his watch.

"We have twenty minutes…"

"Daniel's meeting us there," Sam said. "Think we should go get Ian?"

It would give them a chance to remind him that this was a very public conference – and try to convince him that it was something he wanted to do."

Jack hesitated, and shook his head.

"Probably not. I don't want to deal with McKay – and you know he'd want to come, too."

"He's not that bad…"

She didn't sound like she meant it, though.

"He's bad enough."

"Let's get dressed and take Jacob to Teal'c."

Because Teal'c wasn't going to be in on the press conference – both by his own request and because those who were in control of such things had decided that adding an alien (and there was no way to hide that he was an alien from a press that had access to public records and would be able to find out for themselves that Teal'c hadn't been born on Earth) would just be too much to ask people to accept in one sitting.

"Let them get used to having alien allies, first – then we'll let them know that they've already been on earth and hanging out in their own back yards…" Hayes had explained, repeating the words of one of his own advisors.

Which wouldn't have been acceptable to any of SG-1 if not for the fact that Teal'c agreed completely. He didn't want the publicity – not from the Tau'ri – and he was more than willing to allow them to leave him out.

So he'd watch Jacob for them, and Jaffer – as soon as they found him – and would be happily unseen by the human population.

"Don't forget this…" Jack said, reaching over and picking up the small stack of papers that were sitting on the stand next to the bed – right where he'd left them after they'd been delivered that morning. It was a personal information sheet that was supposed to be filled out and then would be copied onto official looking letterhead and distributed to the press corps so they'd know a little more about the people they were interviewing – not something that either O'Neill was really interested in doing, but something that they knew needed to be done because of the position Jack was getting ready to take.

Sam shook her head.

"You grab that. I'll bring Jake."

OOOOOOOOOOO

"I have good news and bad news…" Janet Fraiser announced as she returned to Ian's bedside.

He looked up at her from the packet of papers he'd been rifling through, the disgusted look on his face turning into a curious one.

"Yeah? What's the bad news?"

"You're well enough to go to the press conference."

Predictably, he scowled, making her smile.

"Joy. What's the good news?"

"You're also well enough to be released today."

"Now?"

"After the press conference."

Bah.

Still, it was good news. Ian hated being in the infirmary.

"Thanks."

She smiled again.

"There's a uniform ready for you when you're feeling up to getting dressed. BDUs, not dress blues."

He frowned.

"Really? Why's that?"

She shrugged.

"Who knows? Want me to have someone get it for you?"

Like that was a tough decision. Get dressed or sit around half naked in bed where anyone could just walk by and expect him to want to chitchat?

"That'd be great," he told her sincerely.

"When you're done, though, you should probably get started on that fact sheet," she suggested, glancing at the papers he'd tossed to the side when she'd arrived.

That earned her another frown, but she didn't mind. She'd been expecting it. The joys of fame. She was just glad she didn't have to deal with it.