Note: This is a crossover with The West Wing (if you haven't seen it, check it out) and a rewrite of my other story WestGate.
MGM/Sci-Fi owns anything Stargate related.
NBC Universal owns the West Wing.
Anything you don't recognize...well that's all me.
Things in the White House were hectic. Staff members were running around the West Wing doing their day to day work—meeting with Senators and lobbyists, press briefings and being driven crazy by the hundred plus situations that occur through out the day. To make matters worse was the news that Senior Staff members had been made privy to just hours before.
"Is it true?"
This question was directed to Joshua Lyman, Deputy Chief of Staff to President Bartlett.
"Apparently," Josh said to the woman who had just walked into his office. Olivia Barrington was not a woman who participated in idle gossip. She had spent the past few years ignoring all the accusations and false stories that had been printed regarding people who worked in the administration. The fact that she, a woman who served as one of the Presidents main advisors—the person that next to his wife, the president trusted the most—was coming to Josh told him that she didn't believe it either.
"You're telling me that we have had a team of scientists living in another galaxy for more than a year and we are just being told about it now?"
"Well it is either that or a spectacular joke that the Air Force is playing on us," Josh said.
"That was what I thought it was when Generals O'Neill and Hammond came and told me about the Stargate Program when we took office. I thought they had been put up to by President Hayes before he left."
"And what do you think" Josh asked.
"I have met General O'Neill, and while I admit he is not a person who takes things seriously, I doubt that he would go this far to pull a practical joke" Olivia said.
"So when are you planning on meeting with them?"
"Apparently they are Earth bound as we speak. General O'Neill asked them to return in order to meet the administration."
"He's a little late on that isn't he" Josh asked. "We have been in office now for thirteen months and we are just finding out about this now?"
"According to the grapevine deadlines are not O'Neill's strong points…unless he is ordering cake for the commissary."
"You can never underestimate the importance of cake; it seems to have worked on you when I have had to break bad news" Josh said with a smile. Then with a more serious note "Have you seen the list of people coming to represent Atlantis?"
"Yeah," Olivia said.
"You going to be okay with this?"
"It was a long time ago Josh."
"I know it was Liv, but contrary to what they say time does not heal everything. Are you going to be able to handle having meetings with him in the room?"
"I'm a professional Josh; I know how to separate my personal feelings from the job."
"You know that I'll be here if you want to talk, right" Josh asked.
"Yeah," and with that Olivia walked out of the room.
* * * * * *
Aboard the Daedalus
Colonel John Sheppard sat at a table in the commissary finishing what had to be his third cup of coffee in the last hour. He had been jittery for the past few hours, and drinking the coffee wasn't helping him. He had tried everything to keep himself calm from taking walks around the ship to working out in the gym. Nothing seemed to be helping, as the closer that the Daedalus got to their destination the more nervous he became.
Three weeks ago when Colonel Caldwell had arrived in Atlantis for their bi-monthly supply run he had a message for Elizabeth from General O'Neill. It seems that while they were stuck in Atlantis for their year without contact from Earth, there had been a presidential election. John was never one for politics, it always seemed to get in the way of everything, but what that meant to the Atlantis expedition was that they now had a new president to meet…especially if they wanted their funding continued. And from everything that Caldwell was telling them, that might not be a possibility. It appears that President Bartlett is extremely unhappy with the Air Force right now; apparently it taken them six months to brief the president about the Stargate program and he was not happy about being kept in the dark for that long. To make matters even worse, President Bartlett was just being told about Atlantis now…another six months after the revelation of the Stargate. Needless to say, they were not expecting a warm welcome.
Elizabeth Weir did not seem too concerned about it though. She explained to John that she had met Jed Bartlett once while he was still Governor of New Hampshire. They had both been asked to work on an international agreement between the US and some small Middle Eastern country. Elizabeth was there to broker the deal, and Bartlett was there to go over the economic impact that US aide would have on the country. She told John that from the small amount of time she had spent with the man she had found him to be honest, trustworthy and reasonable. For those reasons she did not feel that there would be any problem with President Jed Bartlett. Her assurances aside, John still did not feel comfortable about the meetings that would take place once they arrived on Earth. He also knew that deep down Elizabeth wasn't either.
Four hours later they found themselves in Earth's orbit and were beamed down to the SGC. There they were greeted by General O'Neill and the rest of the command staff.
"Welcome back," O'Neill said as they headed towards him.
"Good to be back General. Never thought that we were actually going to see this place again," Elizabeth said.
"Yes, well after the next week or two you are going to wish that contact was still cut off between Earth and Atlantis."
"Is it that bad?"
"Worse; and it isn't the President himself I worry about, but rather his staff. His main advisor, the one that he has assigned to this little operation of ours is a real piece of work. One minute she can be real sweet and willing to work with you, and then the next you better watch yourself."
"You've obviously met with the president, so what do you think of him," Elizabeth said.
"He's a good guy, but a little new when it comes to military matters. It was worse than when we told Hayes about the program; Bartlett thought it was some kind of big joke that we were playing on him because of his lack of experience all things military."
"How did you finally convince him that it was real?"
"I had Colonel Prendergast beam him onboard the Prometheus," Jack said with a sly smile.
"Bet the secret service loved that," John said from where he was standing next to Weir.
"Oh pa shah; I had him back before they even noticed he was gone. But it was a long enough experience to prove that we were not joking around with him."
"Yes, well I can not wait to meet our new fearless leader," Elizabeth said. "When is he supposed to arrive?"
"That is where a little problem comes in. Things in Washington are a little hectic right now so the President is unable to leave; that means we all get to go to him," O'Neill said.
"I don't suppose it possible to just reschedule the meeting for about three years from now, would it," John asked.
"Not likely Sheppard. What's the matter, afraid of our nation's capital?"
"More like all the politicians living there," John responded.
* * * * * * *
While those back at the SGC were getting ready to be beamed to Washington, things in the White House were getting a little crazy. Josh Lyman and Sam Seaborn (the senior speech writer) were all working on getting their latest piece of legislation through Congress and Olivia was busy complaining to Leo McGarry (Chief of Staff).
"Leo, what am I supposed to do with a bunch of military people?"
"Well Olivia the point of them being here is to give us information. As the person the president has appointed to advise him on this project you need to be there at the meeting."
"Well, you're going to be there too Leo. I don't see the point of both of us being bored out of our minds. Come on Leo, you know that there is no reason that I have to be there," Olivia said.
"Is there something wrong Olivia? Ever since you found out about these meetings you have been a bear to put up with," Leo said.
"No Leo of course not," she said lying through her teeth. "The only problem I have is that I think I would be of better use helping Josh and Sam with the footwork on the crime bill."
"I think that the guys can handle it for the next few days. All we need you to do is sit through the meetings and then tell the President and I what is going on."
Before either of them could say anything else, Leo's assistant Margaret came into the office.
"Olivia, General O'Neill and his party are here; I put them into the Green Room."
"They're here already," Olivia said. "I thought they weren't supposed to get here until later?"
"Well they're here now, and waiting for you,"
* * * * * *
They had not had much time in between arriving at the SGC and then arriving in Washington. O'Neill has arranged it for them to be beamed into a secure location in the Pentagon (namely General George Hammond's office) rather than having to sit through a four hour flight. After exchanging pleasantries with the General, they all headed down to the cars that were waiting to take them to the meeting. Hammond had already made arrangements to have their belongings taken to the hotel and seeing as that they already changed at the SGC, there was nothing keeping them from heading out.
The brief minutes that they were in the car were spent going over last minute information—basically what had and had not been divulged to the President. So far they knew that the President knew about the Stargate, the goa'uld, the Prometheus program, the ancient outpost in Antarctica, but not the Atlantis expedition. All John could think was that this was going to be an interesting meeting. Before long they were pulling up to the White House. It took several minutes to get through the security checkpoint where their ID was checked three times and their fingerprints run through a criminal data base. John thought that this was a little much, but then considered the amount of people who must walk through the door every day. They were then met by a young redheaded woman who identified herself as Margaret, (who John thought looked vaguely familiar), and then brought to a room off the West Wing. Margaret informed them that it would be another minute or two until the other staff arrived.
Five minutes later the door opened and a man stepped into the room. General's O'Neill and Hammond immediately stood to greet him while John and his team just stood in the back. The man who had come into the room stepped forward to introduce himself.
"Hello everyone; I am Leo McGarry, Chief of Staff to President Bartlett. I am very interested in hearing all about this expedition of yours, however my colleague seems to be dragging her feet on getting here. I think she stopped in to have a word with a co-worker, but she should be along shortly," Leo said.
And as he finished, the door opened and a woman stepped into the room. It was at that moment that John realized you really could have a heart attack from shock.
"Everyone this is one of the Presidents main advisors and he has assigned her to work with everyone involved with this Stargate Program," Leo said indicating the woman who had just walked through the door. "I would like you to meet Olivia Barrington."
His ex-wife.
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