Disclaimer: 'Stargate SG1', 'The 4400' and all the characters associated with both shows belong to people who aren't me. As I doubt that the owners would be willing to trade their rights for some magic beans that aren't in any way magical, this is not going to change at any point in the foreseeable future.

Author's Note I: This story is going to be set much more in the Stargate world than the 4400 one, but if anyone has any questions about the 4400 stuff in the story, please let me know.

Author's Note II: Some of the details in this chapter may seem a bit strange; remember, Sam has been out of the equation since 'Secrets' so there have been quite a few changes to the timeline.

Author's Note III: Re. Sam's 4400 power; her primary ability will make only brief appearances in this story (saving it for the sequel), so the power you'll see most is a secondary ability.

Chapter Four

Two weeks later

Sam was realistic enough to know that on her first day back at the SGC after a six year absence, she would be a subject of curiousity, especially given the circumstances of her disappearance and return, but she had not expected the level of interest to be so high.

The efficiency of the SGC gossip mill meant that everybody on the base was aware of the fact that she was one of the 4400 and she had no doubt that more than a few of them had seen the coverage regarding their return and the public speculation about the reasons behind it all but she had hoped that, given their line of work, they would have been able to adjust to the situation, at least partially, in the two months since she had found herself on Highland Beach.

However, this was not the case.

"It feels like I'm on display." She muttered quietly as she, Jack and Daniel walked through the corridors of the base, which seemed to be lined with curious faces.

"You'd think that coming back in a giant ball of light was something to write home about." Jack quipped. "Don't let it get to you." He advised kindly. "The novelty will die down pretty quickly – you should have seen the looks Daniel got when he came back from the dead a couple of years back."

"You died?" Sam looked across at Daniel, unsure whether or not Jack was pulling her leg.

"Not exactly." Daniel corrected. "I Ascended to a higher plane of existence."

"What happened?"

"He got kicked out." Jack told her.

"Yeah," Daniel looked slightly embarrassed. "I wasn't supposed to interfere with anything on this plane."

"We lower beings are supposed to fight our own battles." Jack said, a slight edge to his tone.

"Apophis was going to attack Abydos, I tried to stop him… the other Ascended weren't happy." Daniel said succinctly, stopping outside his office. "I'll see you guys later."

"General Hammond wanted you to stop by his office before you went down to the lab. McKay tells me that there are a lot of projects he needs to get you up to speed on." Jack told her. He grinned. "You're gonna love him." He lead the way to Hammond's office and knocked on the door, waiting for the general to tell them to enter before pushing it open.

"Captain Carter." General Hammond smiled warmly, indicating the chair in front of his desk. "Please, sit down."

"If you'll excuse me, sir." Jack told Hammond once Sam was seated, guessing that the general probably didn't want an audience. He smiled at Sam. "Come find me when you're done - you remember where my office is, right?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. If I can find Mitchell, I'll introduce you."

"Thank you, sir."

"No problem." He waited for Hammond to nod permission before leaving the office, closing the door behind him.

"It's good to have you back at the SGC, Captain." Hammond said warmly. "Nobody bothered you on your way in?" over the past fortnight he had made a concentrated effort to ensure that every single person working on the base was aware that Sam's status as one of the 4400 was to be kept confidential and that he would take a dim view of any gossip or harassment.

"No, sir."

"Are you sure?"

"People were curious," Sam acknowledged. "But nobody bothered me."

"Good. If there are any problems, I want you to let me know."

"Sir…" She hesitated before broaching the subject that had been plaguing her since her return. "My father, did he… was he…"

"He knew that you were missing." Hammond told her honestly. "He was worried about you, we all were – nobody could find any trace of you, it was as if you'd disappeared into thin air. He never believed you were dead, though. He was as stubborn as Colonel O'Neill about it."

"Was he alone?" She already knew that her brother had refused to visit and despite the circumstances that had prevented her, she felt guilty that she hadn't been there for her father.

"I was there." Hammond reassured her. "Jake was so proud of you, Sam, even before I got permission to tell him what you had really been doing." He smiled slightly. "It didn't exactly come as a surprise to him that you hadn't been awarded the Air Medal for deep space radar telemetry – speaking of…" He bent down, unlocking one of the many drawers in his desk and withdrawing a small box. "I've had this locked away for a long time, too long." Carefully lifting a medal from the box, Hammond rose, moving to her side and waiting for her to rise before pinning the decoration, which made an unusual contrast with her blue BDUs, saluting and acknowledging her salute in return. His smile was broad. "You have no idea how glad I am to be able to give this to you now."

The lab she had used before her disappearance had long since been taken over by another scientist. General Hammond had offered to rearrange the lab assignments to allow her to keep her old one but Sam had declined, not wanting to cause more disruption than necessary.

The new room she had been assigned was slightly larger than her old lab and, having been previously unused, it was perfectly clean and ordered, if a little bare. Somebody – she suspected Daniel – had set flower arrangements on one of the shelves and on one side of her desk and they, together with a few 'Welcome Back' cards, brightened the otherwise cheerless lab.

Jack, who had escorted her, watched as she explored her new lab, examining the different equipment, some of which was more advanced than she remembered. "Think you'll be okay in here?"

She smiled, nodding her assent. "Yes, sir."

"It's the furthest away from McKay's lab." He volunteered cheerfully.

"Sir?"

"You'll appreciate it once you've met McKay." He warned, doing his best to sound suitably foreboding, before grinning. "Want me to introduce you?"

Sam nodded, not without a measure of reluctance, allowing Jack to lead her through the corridors to a small network of labs and offices.

She heard McKay before she saw him.

"Tell me, Jay, how exactly did you get your hands on a doctorate? Did you have to collect tokens and send them away, or did you win it in a raffle? Or do you actually want to blow up the base?"

"We're not interrupting anything, are we, McKay?" Jack enquired smoothly as he and Sam entered the lab where several of the SGC's scientists had gathered. McKay scowled in response but the scientist who had been on the receiving end of his harshly worded criticism looked relieved at the reprieve their presence had granted. Ignoring McKay's glare, Jack began introductions. "Okay, Carter, you already know Dr Lee."

The man nodded as his name was spoken, offering a tentative smile. "Welcome back, Captain."

"And you've heard McKay." Jack continued. "This is Professor Felger."

Felger beamed at her, taking her hand and shaking it enthusiastically. "This is such an honour, Captain. I've been looking forward to meeting you ever since I heard you were back on Earth. I've read all your work, you know – I based my doctoral thesis on your wormhole stability theories, they're amazing."

"It's nice to meet you." Sam said politely as soon as she could get a word in edgeways.

"And can I just tell you how wonderful your work on the dialling computers is?" Felger gushed.

"Actually, the interface you designed is full of flaws." McKay cut in, frowning accusingly at her.

"He's just mad that none of his improvements for it actually worked out." Jack told her in a stage whisper.

McKay scowled but said nothing, knowing better than to engage in a verbal duel with O'Neill. He kept his attention directed at Sam. "I know that you're probably feeling very out of the loop," he said in a tone that, while it may have been intended as reassuring, came out patronising. "But don't worry too much about it. You'll catch up… eventually." He gestured towards a short stack of folders. "These are the notes on a few of our current experiments to get you started. I'll take you through them." He offered generously. "And if yiu have any questions, don't be afraid to ask."

Jack snorted. "She'll be fine."

After more than two hours spent listening to McKay as he explained some of the science department's current projects, with frequent pauses to check whether she was having any difficulties following him and more than a few unneeded and unwanted reassurances that she would pick it up in no time, Sam had almost regretted her eagerness to return to work.

However, his good humour had evaporated like a snowball under the Abydos suns when she spotted an error in one set of his calculations and pointed it out. Felger's soft snicker, hastily disguised as a cough, hadn't helped matters much.

Jack, who had occupied himself with the games several of the lab techs had smuggled onto their computers while McKay conducted his science lesson came to the rescue, declaring that it was time for lunch and calling Daniel with instructions to round up Teal'c and Daniel and bring them to the commissary, ushering Sam out of the room before McKay had a chance to say another word.

"Is Dr McKay always like that, sir?" Sam asked quietly as soon as they were out of earshot.

"No." Any sense of relief she might have felt at Jack's response quickly vanished. "He's on his best behaviour today."

After a brief detour to drop the files off in Sam's lab, they made their way down to the commissary. Daniel and Teal'c were already occupying the table recognized as SG-1's when they arrived. Knowing how curious some of the base personnel were about Sam's return, Jack had deliberately timed their meal so that they would be eating early, at a time when the commissary was fairly quiet.

"Hi Sam." Daniel greeted her cheerfully, motioning for her to have a seat. "Hope you still like shepherd's pie." He told her, pushing a laden tray towards her. "It's the only thing on the menu today besides meatloaf."

"Thanks." She accepted the tray, her eyes lighting up when she saw the dish of blue jello. "They only had red and green in quarantine." She explained, briefly considering starting with dessert but deciding against it, taking a heaped spoonful of shepherd's pie instead.

Jack took the empty seat next to her, grinning his thanks when Teal'c set a second tray in front of him. "Where's Mitchell?"

"He said he'd be down as soon as… there he is." Daniel spotted the other man at the door and raised his hand slightly to get his attention. Reaching out, he tugged a chair over to their table and set it at one end, between himself and Sam.

Mitchell extended a hand to Sam when he reached the table, shaking her hand briefly. "It's nice to meet you, Captain." He said politely. "I've heard a lot about you."

"Should I be worried?" Sam quipped half-heartedly.

"It was all good, I promise." Jack assured her. "We didn't even mention that time on P3X-595 when you…"

"Sir!" She cut him off before he could say any more.

"It's okay, Carter." Jack teased. "You know that we'll take your secret to our graves – right?" He glanced across the table at Daniel and Teal'c, who nodded agreement.

"As long as I don't tell anyone what happened on P6J-614?" She asked innocently.

"That's the deal." He confirmed, shuddering slightly at the memory.

Seeing that Mitchell was still standing, looking rather bewildered by the conversation, Daniel nudged the empty chair a few inches closer to the other man with his foot. "Sit down – do you want me to get some lunch for you?" He offered. "I wasn't sure what you'd want."

"That's okay." Mitchell said hastily, backing away from the table. "I'll grab it myself." As he crossed the room to join the short queue for food, he heard a ripple of laughter as Colonel O'Neill related another anecdote for Carter's benefit, likely something that had happened long before he had ever even heard of the Stargate Program, let alone aspired to join the flagship team.

"It's good to see them together again." As Mitchell had not heard Colonel Makepeace approach, the other man's words jolted him from his own thoughts. "Sorry, Major, didn't mean to startle you."

"It's okay, sir." He grimaced slightly when he got a close look at the options available for lunch, deciding after a few moments of deliberation that meatloaf was the lesser of two evils and opting for that.

"I'll have the same, please." Makepeace told the airman on kitchen duty. "You know, I've never seen a team click the way those four did." He observed, helping himself to a generous scoop of mashed potatoes. "I don't think that anybody expected them to last… except maybe the general. There were bets going on who O'Neill would strangle first, Jackson or Carter."

Mitchell's mouth felt dry and he barely managed to mutter a non-committal "Really?"

"They proved us all wrong though. They did great work together, and they were practically family. When Carter disappeared…" Makepeace's expression became sober. "For a while, I wasn't sure that they'd ever get over losing her. It was nearly six months before they agreed to let somebody else on the team. None of them lasted long, Carter was a tough act to follow. Nobody else was ever good enough." He grinned as he watched the quartet eat and chat. "It's great to see her back where she belongs."

TBC.

Author's Note: Next chapter should be up within a week. In the meantime, please review.