3 Days Ago…

Atlantis

San Francisco, CA

In the days that followed the destruction of the Super-Hive, the Atlantis command staff had the job of overseeing the necessary repairs and cleanup of the beautiful Ancient city. Sheppard and McKay were pleased to see that Dr. Beckett who had flown the city and Dr. Zelenka who had installed the new—and dangerous—wormhole drive hadn't inadvertently damaged her beyond repair. However, even McKay had to grudgingly admit that because of Beckett and Zelenka's combined efforts, Atlantis had arrived literally in the nick of time to save the day.

On a more serious note, Sheppard led a team of cloaked puddlejumpers on an intensive search and destroy mission of any Wraith darts that might have escaped destruction. Using both Teyla and Kanaan's Wraith "spidey sense," the search teams were able to find and quickly take out four Wraith scattered across the North American continent.

The fifth one, the sole survivor of a lone, disabled dart in the Nevada desert, proved to be a greater challenge. Following a forty-eight hour intensive manhunt, Sheppard's team—with the unexpected assistance of Nancy's DHS cyber-cops—tracked the Wraith to Las Vegas. Nancy's team of cyber specialists clued in on a trail of desiccated bodies that had Las Vegas authorities baffled.

Luckily, before the local police could figure out what was going on, Sheppard's covert ops team found the creature and killed it. Teyla initially detected its presence in a casino, and working with Kanaan, the two Athosians combined their special gifts to triangulate on the Wraith's relative location. From there, it was a somewhat simple matter for McKay to pinpoint its exact position, using the puddlejumper's sensors.

When they finally cornered the Wraith and killed it, they were shocked to see that it had managed to disguise itself well enough to pass for a young man in his twenties—a fittingly scary Goth-type twenty-something. Even more surprising, they found a satchel filled with twenty dollar bills—at least twenty-thousand dollars worth.

"It looks like he was planning a long stay," Lorne opined.

Sheppard nodded, feeling troubled, wondering what else the Wraith had planned. "Let's just hope he's the last of 'em..."

oOo

Present Day…

Atlantis

San Francisco, CA

Sheppard stood on the balcony overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, his arm around Nancy. Despite his travels to other worlds and having seen so many strange and wondrous sights, the view of the bay as the fog rolled in left him awestruck. The bridge's twin towers glowed in the orange and red of the late afternoon sun. He felt Nancy shiver slightly next to him.

"Here," he said, taking off his dress uniform jacket and putting it around her shoulders. "Better?"

"Hmm…yes," she said, inhaling his scent and enjoying the lingering warmth of his body heat in the liner of the jacket. She had grown strangely quiet in the past few minutes, after almost an entire afternoon of nonstop questions and delighted discoveries since her arrival earlier that day...

Shortly before noon, there had been the promotion ceremony, where Nancy nervously pinned a pair of silver eagles onto John's shoulders. Immediately thereafter came the awards ceremony. While Nancy stood proudly to the side, General O'Neill read the citation for gallantry "above and beyond the call of duty," and President Hayes pinned the Medal of Honor around Sheppard's collar.

Afterwards, Sheppard held Nancy by the hand and gave her a somewhat shy, but proud smile. She, in turn, nervously brushed nonexistent lint from his uniform, unable to meet his eyes. They looked like a pair of bashful teens on a prom date.

O'Neill rolled his eyes. "Oh, for crying out loud, Sheppard! Go on and kiss her already!"

"Sir, yes, sir!" Chuckling, he obliged, giving Nancy a tentative kiss, so sweet that it solicited a few "ahhhs!" from the women in the audience. After a moment's hesitation, he allowed the kiss to deepen, resulting in several wolf whistles from the men and some of the women…

Of course, Sheppard wasn't the only one promoted or cited for gallantry that day, but his recognition carried the greatest significance. After all, just a few short years ago, senior officers like General Ames had basically written him off. Now, they all had to eat their words. Nancy stood back and watched with a deep sense of satisfaction as Ames approached John shortly after the ceremony.

"Colonel Sheppard, I have a lot to make up for," Ames said quietly. "I know I haven't the right, but I'd be greatly honored if you allowed me to shake your hand."

Swallowing, John nodded. As the two men shook hands, John finally smiled. "Thank you, sir…this means a lot to me..."

Landry stepped forward then and grabbed Sheppard's hand in both of his, giving it a vigorous shake. "Son, that was one hell of a thing you did…a hell of thing!" He then slapped Sheppard on the back. "Those eagles look good on you, Colonel…they're well deserved."

"Thank you, sir…"

Standing on the balcony with John's arm around her, Nancy listened to the sounds of laughter and music coming from inside. The Welcome Home (or, as McKay called it, the "We're Still Not Dead—Take That, Pegasus!") party was still going strong.

As the Director of the Homeland Security offices of Arlington, Virginia, Nancy had been somewhat outside of her jurisdiction when she helped Sheppard's team track down the Wraith in Las Vegas and now out here in San Francisco Bay. However, General O'Neill had pulled a few strings and gotten her access.

After all, he'd already announced his intention to steal her from DHS over to Home World Security, which meant that she now worked for him. As such, she had to familiarize herself with HWS's most important alien artifact—Atlantis. It had all happened so suddenly that Nancy wasn't sure if she was going to wake up at any moment and find out it was all a dream.

But standing here next to John, thinking about how she'd only just found him, almost to lose him again, she felt suddenly weak. Her arms tightened around him afraid to let go.

"Hey…? What is it?" John asked. Having her back was still so new. He was afraid he might do something stupid and blow this second chance.

"It's just that…" Nancy shook her head and looked up at him, eyes wide. "It's just that, it's all so unbelievable…"

"Oh…you mean the whole 'aliens are real' and Stargates and Atlantis—"

"No…that's just awesome," Nancy said with a slight smile, using his word to describe his home. "No, what's so unbelievable is that after everything that's happened, after everything I said and did…before…"

"Hey, now…we said no more of that—"

"No, what I mean is that after everything that's happened, what's so unbelievable is that you still love me."

Sheppard's gaze softened for a moment as he ran a finger gently up and down her cheek. Looking down at her, his eyes lit up with an impish expression.

"What's not to love?"

oOo