CHAPTER 47 – CLOSURE

General O'Neill stepped through the gate in Atlantis after the warning claxons had sounded throughout the city. A smiling Sam welcomed him and she noted the large briefcase he carried in his hands. Closure. For them all. He was here to detail the final moments of battle, for which a woman had nearly lost her life, but had brought a whole house of cards tumbling down.

"Jack...why is it your visits here are always at the start or end of some enormously life changing event that has happened either here or on earth...one day, perhaps you can just step through that gate... because..."

"Because...?" His smile quirked and those warm eyes regarded Sam, itching to drag her into his arms, but knowing they'd have to wait until later... alone.

"Yeah...just because..."

"Oh that my life could be that simple Sam. I don't remember the last time, something was just... because... Perhaps we should amend that while I'm here."

"I could work that into the agenda, Jack. You look happy – I take it everything went to plan?"

"It did, Sam. I would have liked you and Sheppard at that meeting yesterday, but I understand your reasons for not attending. Especially, Sheppard's. How's the young lass doing?"

"She's a fighter... and she's got another fighter on her side. Not to mention the whole damn base. They've all taken her under their wing. She brought something here with her Jack – whether she was here by accident or design... that doesn't matter. She brought something here, that we'll value forever. Integrity, grit, determination and a whole new way of looking at life. Through a lens..."

Jack moved in closer to her and risked a quick but hard kiss on her lips, feeling hers curve in response. "There... just needed to get that out of the way... until later. Can I go visit with the rather indomitible Miss Harmon?"

"I'm sure you can – unless her extremely overprotective Colonel is exerting some new found right he seems to think he has – of controlling who gets in to see her. Power seems to have gone to his head..."

And Jack laughed as he followed Sam down the hallway toward the infirmary. He knew exactly how the Colonel felt.

They heard the sounds of arguing coming through the open door of the infirmary, and Sam fought to smother a laugh. It seemed that Nicole was feeling...a lot better. She was not taking John's constant orders and nagging well, and Sam suspected that he was going to have a battle on his hands to keep her in that bed for much longer. Carson had almost given up, and left the Colonel to it, but Sam could see clearly by the exasperated set of his shoulders, that the good doctor most certainly disapproved.

"Aah... Miss Harmon." The General's voice had both John and Nicole clamping their argument down immediately, and two pair of eyes shot his way. One set hazel, and very frustrated. One set chocolate brown, and spitting sparks.

Jack couldn't resist the chuckle. "I wanted to make an appearance and personally thank you for everything you did. For your country, for Atlantis, for the world...hell...for our damn galaxy. If their little plan had continued on it's destructive path, the earth as we know it would cease to exist. And believe me, they had enough people in place to make sure that it would have happened, if you hadn't of brought them tumbling down."

"Wasn't just me, General...I took a few photos...connected a few dots. The rest? It was everyone doing their part – you – back on earth digging up everything you could, and putting into place the fuses to bring them down. How did that go...is the bonfire still burning as we speak?"

She had pushed herself out of the bed and now sat at the edge, swinging her legs, but grimacing a little as she put a hand tentatively at her side, fingering the bandage there.

"Aaah... shouldn't you be lying down...or something?" The General looked a little concerned. She was pale and he could see that her hands were clenched. A stubborn one, no doubt about it.

"Damn foolish woman..." John muttered this somewhat ominously and pushing himself off the chair he had been sitting in, he moved so that he was standing over her, hazel eyes locked onto chocolate ones. And Jack had to smother a smile as the woman unclenched one hand and looped it around the Colonel's neck and brought his head down so that she could kiss him. Jack watched as all tension went out of the Colonel's back and he pressed his forehead against hers, oblivous to the audience of two, one of whom cleared her throat a little menacingly.

"If you two can give us a moment of your time... the General has come a long way."

Unrepentant, Nicole's face peered around John's shoulder, and he turned, pressing himself against her good side, unwittingly giving her body the support of his. If she was going to insist on sitting up, he'd be there to make sure she didn't fall down.

"You gonna give us all the dirt, General?"

Shaking his head a little at her obvious irreverence, Jack hefted the briefcase he held. "Up for a little light reading?"

"Bring it on... might stop grumpy here picking on me – he's getting pissy because I keep beating him at chess."

Jack chuckled and opened his briefcase, pulling out sheafs of paper and handing it to Nicole. John watched as something drooped in her eyes and knew that she was tiring, but trying to tell her that would serve absolutely no purpose. Attempting subtlty, he eased himself up on the bed, and unconsciously she mirrored his movements, settling back against the pillows again, now leaning comfortably against his long frame that took up a good portion of the bed. Jack pushed down the smile. Sam had called them lego blocks and he saw the analogy now. Yeah, they fit. Perfect pieces that could be built into anything they wanted, meshing together in one seamless design.

He envied the younger man, stealing a look now at the woman beside him who had wound her way into his heart more than 10 years ago. And wished that the end game had been a little different.

"The top sheets summarise what we learnt at the meetings yesterday. We brought down almost 1000 players across the global game board. 1000. You had it pegged perfectly for those top lines of your pyramid, but we found hidden lines in there, bottom lines of that pyramid, mostly made up of security detail from different participating countries around the world. The rest? People like yourself who had been forced into compliance."

"The enforcers..." murmured Nicole. "The ones who would ensure that no one went against the mandate. And if the enforcers failed, then there would have been more than sufficient blackmail tactics in place to ensure that all the players did exactly as they were meant to do. Just out of curiousity – were the majority of the players there because of their own values, their own beliefs? Or because of exerted pressure?"

"The interviews will take place over many months, Nicole. With this amount of people? And these were only the ones that fitted in the pyramid. Beneath the pyramid? There were tunnels, and these tunnels were filled with the vermin who live in the dark and scury like rats leaving a sinking ship. Those? We may never find those... but they lack any strength to carry anything out on their own, so we'll let them scurry away and lick their wounds. Without anyone to guide them, they're no threat."

Nicole was flicking through the pages and shuddered a little as she recognised some of the names. The one's she hadn't been able to place on the pyramid.

There was a knock at the door and looking up with a smile, Nicole saw Robert come in, a cautious look on his face.

"General... Colonel's... Nicole...I just wanted to stop by and make sure all the ends had been tied up. I understand you've commenced the interviews?" He stood beside the bed near Nicole and looked over her shoulder at the paperwork she held, raising his eyebrow in query at the General.

"It may not seem a lot of names for a global domination, but considering their strategic placement in the majority of countries that are likely to have any say in such a conspiracy, and the fact that below them they will have a loyal faction of followers whose names will never appear on any list... we cannot allow anything like this to happen again."

Jack looked from Nicole to Robert, knowing they wanted answers, having been the unwilling pawns in this game. Robert was going to head back to earth with him and would be seconded to the SGC for the duration of the interviews. His role in Atlantis had been a computer technician and he would provide invaluable assistance to the General, which would go a long way to easing some of the guilt he carried over past misdemeanours.

"You don't feel just a tiny bit proud that you were selected out of thousands, to be the one to provide front person PR to this group? On this list, there are other reporters and news people, sure... but you? You were the one they chose to present their face to the world. When the time was right."

"Proud? No, General, I feel disgusted and dirty... and a little bit ashamed. That my work on earth was turned into something distasteful. It leaves a bad taste... I don't know that I can take up where I left off...I'll also look back at my photos and wonder, who else is looking at them. That cuts me off at the knees..."

John's hand had rested against her leg and he now pulled her head down so that it rested against his shoulder, feeling the tension begin to spiral in her body.

"That's another reason I'm here Nicole. See this?" In his palm he held her flashdrive. "This is yours. To do what you want with it. The government, the stargate programme? They're not going to confiscate it. They want you to continue... to stay out here and tell the whole story. And one day, when they think the world is ready – they want you to take the story to the world... that will be your legacy..."

He paused, and John flicked a glance down at the woman beside him. She had a smile on her face, but her eyes were closed.

In her hand she clutched a single photo that had fallen out of the file in her hand. A photo that showed Colonel John Sheppard, looking pensively at the large full moon coming up over the mainland, with the festivities of the Athosian festival a blur in the background – the foreground image more than just a little startling in it's simplicity. And a second moon, just to the side of the first – the only indication that this photo was not taken on earth.

And John smiled as he realised that this oh so important photographer who could brought the world to it's knees with a single photograph, had also brought him to his knees. He closed his own eyes, and didn't notice the General and Sam quietly leave the infirmary with Robert chuckling quietly behind them. Life out here in the Pegasus Galaxy, fighting for the survival of mankind, speeding through space on a whim, and clutching a single photograph that told more than a thousand words.

Yeah, life didn't get any better than that.

The end...

Another journey complete, and once again, true love inspires us to simply do more than just exist.

I'm a girl... so that's the way it goes.

Till the next adventure... and the next romantic interest for our favourite Colonel. Just a heads up... it's in progress.

Look out for Renegade Soldier...

You will note that I deliberately left something hanging... Teyla and Ronon and that little trinket she had found... Perhaps a sequel will eventuate, if the whim takes me...

Thank you for supporting my stories. You guys are the true heroes as you willingly shed the bonds of reality and take a step into my fantasies.