1The world was in an uproar, and the appearance of a mothership coming down from above was not met by happy faces. The general public retreated to their basements once again, ignoring the reassurances of the military. Jack got the best press coverage he could, explaining that it was just Sam returning with the President, but most people ignored this, preferring to jump to the worst possible conclusion. Most felt rather stupid when Sam Carter landed the ship in what was left of Central Park and the dignitaries of the world climbed out of it behind her.

It took months to get things to quiet down. Groups formed full of angry people all over the world, unhappy with the various governments for keeping the secret, and calling for immediate amends. The U.S. military took most of the blame, though nobody could come up with a workable alternative; the press had a heyday in Colorado Springs, interviewing personnel, families, citizens from town, people claiming to be citizens from town, and the multitudes of UFO freaks who made the pilgrimage to the Springs, ignoring their lives that needed reconstruction, just to say that they'd been there.

Emmitt Bregmann's documentary along with edited footage from the retrieval of those trapped at the Alpha Site. SG-1 was getting the most heat off the media, especially Jack and Sam. Jack was the leader of SG-1 first, as well as the current leader of the SGC, and Sam had been painted as a hero by the footage from the Alpha site. It didn't help that Sam hadn't been feeling quite right since she'd returned, and she'd spent most of her time hiding from the world, locking herself in her quarters and rewriting the digital card reader to accept only her own card.

The President and Joint Chiefs hadn't rested either, and their press coverage was equally as great as the attention being given to Jack and Sam. They held press conferences, and held daily discussions via webcam with the powers of the world; everybody had returned to their own country after coming back on the mothership, they were attempting to rebuild their lives too.

Finally, the world seemed to understand what had happened, and what had been happening for the past eight years. Though the press didn't settle down, they did stop crowding the doors to the SGC, letting personnel at least get into their cars and through the gates before causing major traffic jams outside the entrance to the parking lot.

The world was angry at the people who were in charge of the Stargate Program, and those who had known about it and not said anything. Major political arguments were thrown into the open, the U.N. was on overload.

- - -

"You sticking around tonight too, Carter?" Jack asked, approaching her in the commissary well after the time that she had taken to attempting to make it home. She nodded. Home is kind of broken anyways. Her driveway needed fixing, she'd already spent hours just getting her car working again, not to mention the gaping holes in the street from various crash-landings.

"Its amazing how much damage Ba'al did to us in two short days..."

"Well, I wouldn't call them short, exactly."

"Yeah, it was more like the longest two days of my life..."

"We had a nice break in there though..." It was the first time either had brought up their twenty hour break from reality. Both had been waiting for the subject to come up though, there was no way it couldn't.

"Sir, there's no changing what happened..."

"I know, but-"

"We're just going to have to live through it."

"Sam... I don't think I can," she gave him a look, waiting for him to explain what he meant. "I can't go back to this- this 'sir' and 'Carter,' not after we had 'Jack' and 'Sam.' Even if it was only for a little while."

"What else can we do? We can't quit the program now; we're the big heroes remember. What kind of a field day would the press have if we left? They'd think something was wrong, they'd think we'd done something wrong..."

"We did do something wrong."

"I don't think it was that wrong..." she whispered. They'd never been so open. Never been so blunt. Many things were changing, and it was all Ba'al's fault. They'd been relatively happy with their circumstances before... there was always a 'maybe,' always 'sometime' to look forward too.

Characteristically, it was Daniel that interrupted their chat, walking over with his dinner tray. "What's going on guys?" He asked jovially, completely ignorant of his interruption.

"Not much, Daniel. How's your apartment doing?"

"Well, its fine... everything got patched up; none of my stuff is missing even though it was unlocked for a few weeks there... Hell trying to get in unnoticed though. If its not the neighbors asking why I didn't tell them, then its somebody named 'Nancy' or 'Steve' reporting from who knows where... this guy asked me for my autograph the other day it was really weird!" He rambled on, complaining about the predicament that they were all facing, and various fans that had made themselves known. Sam was just grateful that she didn't have a building full of people to sneak past to get to her bed- she just had to make it up the driveway. Daniel finally realized that his friends had stopped listening, both were staring into their desserts (Sam's blue jello and Jack's pie), Daniel scrunched up his face, "Jack, why do you always get the last slice of pie?" This got the laugh he was looking for.

It was official. The Stargate Program was now common knowledge, and it had been met with an incredible array of opinions. After the world got used to the idea of wormhole travel, and military exploration, most of them seemed to be okay with it. The defeat of the attacking alien obviously proved that the people running the program knew what they were doing. At least 57 of the people of the world seemed to think this. There had been a vote. The biggest vote in the history of anything. It had decided what to do with the Stargate Program; luckily, it had worked.

Four months had passed since Ba'al's attempted invasion. The world had relaxed to a point where daily news updates from the SGC, and weekly summaries of the reports from Atlantis were enough to keep the people satisfied. A committee was formed in the UN that would regulate the Stargate Program, effectively taking jurisdiction over the program. The personnel were interviewed again and again by a panel appointed by the UN, and cuts were made. SG-1 remained intact, though they were being pressured to add a fourth member again, and Jack was secure in his position as well. Teams were added from various countries as soon as military personnel received proper training, bringing the count of exploratory teams up to 45. Jack was on overload; between paperwork, press conferences, and briefings he was wearing thin.

The same went for SG-1. Sam was mobbed every time she left the SGC, so she busied herself on base. She attended press conferences with Jack, Daniel, Teal'c and Hammond, she read personnel files to try and find the fourth member for the team, and she was still feeling sick. She was hungry all the time too; it wasn't uncommon to find her sitting in the commissasry, eating whatever was available, and reading the files. Daniel and Teal'c worried about her and Jack, though neither said anything. The pair of them were facing extreme press pressures, especially Teal'c being jaffa, but not nearly as badly as the two officers; at least Daniel and Teal'c could make it to their apartment (Teal'c had moved in with Daniel due to the destruction of his own apartment complex in the attack) in less than two hours during what had once been a twenty minute commute. They worried for Sam especially, though her illness went unnoticed by Jack and the doctor's, the friends who didn't have much to do with themselves until offworld travel was an option again had nothing else to do but watch and worry.

"Colonel Carter, are you feeling all right today?" Teal'c asked. He'd made a habit of approaching her at least two or three times a day, usually when he met her in the commissary for a meal.

"I'm fine, Teal'c. Why've you been asking so often?" She set the file down she'd been reading, it was the fifth time she'd read the file anyways. In fact, she wasn't feeling fine at all. Every morning in the past month she'd been throwing up whatever she ate for dinner, and she usually wasn't able to keep down breakfast either. The stomach pain subsided when she got up and going though, but that was when the hunger set in. She was always hungry, and she felt like she could eat the weirdest things. She'd caught herself putting pickles on her peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and had stopped herself before mixing her blue jello with whatever dessert she found next to it on a given day; something was definitely up.

"You have been acting very strange. You also have begun to look ill," he watched her take another bite of her strange sandwich. She had dark circles under her eyes as though she hadn't slept at all since the attack, and she had barely gained weight despite the incredible amounts of food she'd been eating.

"I'm fine Teal'c."

"I would like you to go to the infirmary, Colonel Carter," Teal'c said, this wasn't the first time he'd suggested it either. "Let the doctors look at you."

"Thank you for worrying, Teal'c, but I'm fine, I promise," she tried to smile reassuringly.

"Sam- I agree with Teal'c. If you don't get yourself checked soon I'm going to get Jack to make you get checked," Daniel said, walking up and sitting across from her and Teal'c.

"Daniel..."

"What about Jack?" Jack asked walking up.

"We think Sam's sick," Daniel said, ignoring the glare she gave him, and the concern Teal'c displayed. Jack looked immediately concerned and looked at his 2IC carefully for a moment.

"You do look a little off, Carter," he kept looking at her as he set his tray down and took his first bite. "You should get up to the infirmary after you finish your... thing there."

"That is what I have been saying for almost a month, O'Neill."

"A month! And you haven't been up there yet?"

"She hasn't been looking well for longer than that, Teal'c... we were just too busy to worry before that..."

"We shouldn't be too busy to miss something like this."

"Guys, I'm fine. There's nothing wrong with me!"

"Carter, get your ass up to the infirmary now."

Sam couldn't argue with that, even with the change in their relationship. She'd worked too long with him to not respect him, plus the last thing she wanted was to bring all 'this' back up with Daniel and Teal'c around. Pushing her tray away from her, she stomped out of the room and out towards the elevator, leaving her stack of files behind.

"Are those pickles?" Jack asked, leaning in and pulling the top layer of bread off of her sandwich. "Ugh... They are pickles- what the hell is up with that?"

"I do not know."

"Something is definitely up."

"Indeed."

Yeah, you can probably already guess whats up with Sam... it always seems to happen in these stories, hopefully this'll be a different take on it that'll keep it entertaining though!