"I'm sorry," the social worker said as she walked into the office. "I had a placement that took longer than I anticipated."

"A placement?" Sam asked, interested. "That's great!"

"For the child and the family, yes." She said with a proud smile. "Now, General...Colonel..."

"Please. It's just Mr. and Mrs. O'Neill," Sam interjected. "Or Jack and Sam, if you prefer..."

"Mr. and Mrs. O'Neill," she corrected with a small smile as she pulled out a beige folder and opened it. "We received the results of your background checks."

Sam tensed, and Jack reached over to catch her fingers in his as he offered her a supportive smile.

"To be honest, this was far from encouraging." Teri said with a small sigh. She looked up at the Air Force officers. "They were both scrubbed clean."

"We've both spent a great deal of our careers in highly classified projects," Sam explained. "But Jack works at the Pentagon, and I've applied for reassignment. A desk job, actually in the area."

"What about our references?" Jack asked, noticing the skepticism in the woman's eyes.

She inhaled. "That was another let-down," she admitted. "Recommendations from a man who claims that the pyramids were landing pads for alien spacecrafts, two individuals whose background is even more mysterious than your own, if you can believe it, and an Air Force general who is divorced from his wife and just now after a twenty year rift with his daughter is beginning to build a rather strained relationship with her again does not speak highly for your personal sanity let alone your prospects as parents."

Sam sighed softly as the social worker looked back up. "In fact, the only reputable reference you list is Henry Hayes, but we assumed that was a joke."

"It wasn't." Jack said, evenly.

"The point," the woman said with a sigh. "Is that I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to deny your request for adoption."

Sam's face fell, and Jack looked up at the woman. "That's it, then. You're not even going to try to contact Henry Hayes?"

Sam touched his hand, gently. "Jack..."

"I haven't even touched what happened to your son, General." The woman said, evenly. "That's not something I can just overlook."

"Thank you for your time," Sam murmured, trying to keep from sobbing in that office as she stood, tugging on Jack's hand.

He followed her, reluctantly.

"Well...that didn't go well," she managed with a sniffle as she turned to her husband. "Let's go home."

"I'll meet you there." He said, nodding. "I have to go into the office for a little while."

She opened her mouth, and he touched his finger to her lips. "Just a few minutes. I'll be there in no time."

She nodded slowly as she closed her mouth again. He reached over and hugged her tightly. "Hey, it'll be okay," he whispered softly as he held her.

She tried to keep from allowing the tears which threatened to slip down her cheeks from actually doing so as she clung to him.

"Do you want me to walk you to your car?" He asked when she finally released him.

She shook her head, wordlessly.

"See you at home," he promised as he brushed his lips against hers gently.

She nodded. "Okay."

He watched her walk out the doors for a minute before he walked back into the social worker's office.

She looked up in surprise. "Yes, General?"

"First of all, my wife asked you to call me either Mr. O'Neill or Jack." He said, soberly.

"My apologies." The woman corrected, mechanically.

"And secondly, what will it take for you to give us a chance? More than just a glance-over?"

"If you're trying to bribe me..." The woman said, raising an eyebrow.

"No bribe." He said, seriously. "My wife has taken care of her friend's adopted daughter as if she was her own since Janet died in 2004. She was just finishing high school, and she's now finished with her Bachelor's degree and headed for medical school, but she had some dark times in there, and Sam was there the whole time."

"I appreciate..."

"And a friend of ours," Jack continued, almost without a breath. "General George Hammond, who had taken his son's daughters upon his son and daughter-in-law's sudden deaths in a car accident, passed away two years ago. His oldest granddaughter was already in college, but we helped out while the younger one, Kayla, finished high school before she went off to college. Sometimes, they even stay with us if they need to. And despite our lives over the past few years, these girls have turned out rather well-adjusted besides being orphaned at such a young age and then losing their only family a few years later..."

"General..."

"And who are you to say that we have fudged ANY of our references?" He steamrolled over her attempts to interject, angrily.

"Mr. O'Neill, you're causing a scene..."

Jack bit back what he really wanted to say. "I'm sorry, Mrs..." He looked at the nameplate on the desk. "Brown. But if I were to prove to you that Henry Hayes is actually one of our legitimate references, would you give us a chance?"

The woman bit her lip before she nodded slowly. "A chance? Yes."

"Look up the White House phone number, and I'll get you through to the President." Jack said, soberly.

"Right now?"

He gestured to the keyboard. "Tap-tap...I think you can find the number at White House dot gov."

The woman was more than a little flustered as she began the search before she finally offered Jack the phone and dialed.

"Hi, Brenda," Jack greeted. "It's Lieutenant General Jack O'Neill. I need to speak with the President."

He paused for a moment before he shook his head. "No, it's a personal favor, but still somewhat urgent..."

He paused for a few moments. "Mr. President! It's nice to hear your voice. How are you?"

There was another pause before he looked at the woman. "As much as I'd like to catch up further, I do have a favor to ask. Could you please give the reference Sam and I asked for a few weeks ago? It seems that the social worker didn't believe we actually knew you and decided not to call you."

Jack paused for a moment before he offered the phone to the slack-jawed social worker. "I think he wants to speak with you."

Her jaw dropped as she received the phone. "He-hello?"

Jack couldn't help but smirk when she passed out. Checking to make sure she was all right, he took the receiver from her hand. "Thanks, Mr. President. I owe you one."