A/N: I am so sorry for the mishap! I was posting late at night (as I usually do) and chose the wrong file to post. Thank you to all who let me know!
Chapter 5, part 2.
"I will never, ever, ever do this again," Alice promised in a plaintive voice. "I feel like shit. Worse. I feel like a shit that's been run over by a steamroller."
The answer was laughter, but it didn't sound mean, at least. "You'll live."
"I felt better after I'd been shot." She rolled over onto her back, her phone still laying on the pillow next to her. "You won't commiserate with me at all?"
"I am sorry you are feeling bad," Aaron replied, his voice breaking up a little over the speakerphone. "But, really, what did you expect?" She could almost hear him shake his head. "Taking a whole dose of ecstasy?"
"Was I not supposed to?" She frowned. "I have absolute zero knowledge about drugs, except that I never want to get anywhere close ever again."
He chuckled again. "I don't doubt you feel like that now. The problem with drugs is that tomorrow you're gonna feel better, and you'll remember how good you felt while the E was working."
She let out a disgruntled huff. He was probably right—but at this particular moment, she could not see how she could ever risk feeling like this again. She hadn't slept one minute—after getting back from the club, she ended up lying in bed for hours, just staring at the ceiling, the window open, and making frequent trips to the bathroom to splash cold water on her face. She felt too hot, her throat was parched, she sweated profusely, her heart wouldn't stop racing, and she felt nauseous all the time. Add to that a humongous headache and overwhelming exhaustion, and she truly believed she'd have preferred to get shot again.
And yet—and yet… while the drug was working, it felt so amazingly good. For the first time in a very long time she felt utterly happy, not a care in a world. All of the bad emotions dissipated in the music and the pulsating neon lights, replaced by euphoria and the kind of self-confidence that Alice had never felt in social situations; she must have talked to at least a dozen strangers in the four hours that they spent at the club after Alice had taken the drug. The only reason why she didn't end up leaving with someone was because through it all she still felt a distant sense of responsibility for Deanna, and so even in her altered state she made sure they came home safely together.
"Dee thinks I have a hungover because I drank too much," Alice said morosely. "Which is true, because I did, but I didn't tell her about the drugs." She hid her face in her hands, though of course Aaron couldn't see. "I feel so embarrassed!"
"You shouldn't. Most people experiment with drugs at some point in their life, it's not a bad thing in itself," Aaron assured her. "You just need to keep your head about it, you know? Don't do it regularly, don't take more than you can handle, make sure there's always someone there to help you out when you're too high to walk straight, that sorta thing."
She puffed. "That sounds like speaking from experience." She rolled back onto her stomach, the phone now closer to her face. "Have you tried drugs before?"
"Sure." He sighed. "I'd done molly a dozen of times over the years, some other stuff too. I wasn't always doing it responsibly, either. But…" He hesitated. "I was young, and we were just getting into the showbiz, and I thought I had to do what everyone did to fit in. It helped relieve the pressure, too," he admitted.
"You never said anything."
"Yeah, well, I wasn't particularly proud of it." He sounded very serious. "It took me a long time to stop punishing myself for my past mistakes." He paused for a moment again. "Therapy helped," he added reluctantly.
"You were in therapy?" Alice shook her head and immediately regretted it, but managed to stifle a groan of pain.
"Yeah, for the past few months. Still am. I know—again, something I didn't tell you. But frankly, I was embarrassed, too."
She nodded carefully, forgetting that he couldn't see her. "I get that. I was—well, I was coerced into seeing the base shrink at my previous posting after I got shot. It didn't feel great, but… it did help a bit."
"And now?" He prompted.
"I don't need it anymore," she replied, trying to sound offhand. "I learned some tricks… coping mechanisms, you now. I'm fine."
There was a moment of silence, and then Aaron sighed deeply again. "No, you're not. I don't rightly know what happened to you—you weren't just injured, this time… you were wounded, like, psychologically. I can see it."
She sat up in alarm, grabbing the phone and bringing it closer to her mouth, even though it was still on speakerphone. "What do you mean? What can you see?"
"How affected you are by whatever had happened." His voice was kind, but grave. "The first week you came back home, it was like that time after your dad died—you simply shut off. And I think I know why—that guy you spoke about… he was a part of it, wasn't he? It was grief."
Alice didn't respond, frozen in a state of panic for the moment. Was she really that transparent to everyone?
"You're not yourself, Allie. It's like you're walking in this perpetual cloud of irritation, ready to snap—you go from zero to sixty in seconds. You hide it well, and more often than not your rage is cold, not hot—but it's there. And you're just… you're always working, or doing something—I mean, you were home for six weeks and I haven't seen you relax for a single second. You were always moving around, jumping from one thing to another, never allowing yourself to breathe. I think it's better now, at least you seemed better when I came to visit, but I don't know, I think you may have just traded one thing for another, because you're always at work, unless someone makes you take time off. And now this—I mean, it's so unlike you to risk so much, your career and all."
Alice inhaled deeply, trying to suppress the raging emotions—anxiety, and, yes, anger again. "Are you finished?"
"Yeah." He sighed again.
"I am fine. I had been injured, and I lost someone I cared about—not for the first time, and probably not the last." Her tone was icy cold. "I have trouble sleeping, but that is all that is happening. I'm just tired. And I do have a lot of work to do. I…" She stopped.
"I'm just worried about you, Allie. Please don't be mad at me."
She took a deep breath. "I'm not mad. And I appreciate your concern, but I. Am. Fine."
He didn't reply.
"And I didn't really risk my career that much," she added defensively. "I had been drug tested before being reassigned here, the probability of getting random-tested that soon is close to zero."
"If you say so." He sounded resigned. "But—Allie, please take care of yourself. It would be really shitty if you'd gone and done something stupid, like, I dunno, like OD."
She huffed indignantly. "I'm not gonna be taking anything ever again, I told you—and I would certainly never OD." She shrugged. "Can you even OD on ecstasy?"
"Yeah, you can, though admittedly you have to take a lot," he conceded. "But you never know what's in a tablet—they cut the stuff with all different kind of shit, from caffeine to amphetamine. It's worse if you take it with alcohol, and you certainly seem to have a bad reaction. You shouldn't have taken the whole dose."
"You said that already, but why? That's what Tarrick gave me."
"Allie, you're like half the size of a regular person," he said, deadpan. "A little goes a long way with you—it always has, at least with alcohol, so it stands to reason it's the same with drugs. And now even more than ever."
"What? Why are you saying that?"
"You really don't realize?" He sounded exasperated now. "Alice, you're awfully underweight. Like, sick thin, not good-looking thin. Don't get me wrong, you've always been naturally slim, but now it's just… well, I'm worried." He sighed again. "You're not… doing it to yourself, are you?"
Alice lowered the phone in her hand, feeling completely blindsided by the question. "Why would you even say that? How could you think that I would—" Her words failed her.
"Because it's not the first time, Allie. Last year in June, remember? You came home for vacation, and you were way skinnier than ever before then, it worried me a little. But, the next time I saw you, you looked better—and now it's even worse than before. I don't understand what's happening to you, but it worries me."
She exhaled loudly, feeling relief wash over her. There was a logical explanation to this—one that she couldn't exactly share, but at least she knew one existed.
"I'm fine," she repeated with a lot less ice in her tone. "I don't have an eating disorder, I promise—I… I'm trying to gain the weight back, I really am, it's just difficult. I have a demanding, high-stress job, I exercise a lot, which means I lose a lot of calories every day, and, well, I'm not the best at remembering to eat when I'm focusing on work," she admitted, embarrassed.
"Why does that not surprise me?" He asked rhetorically. "That all makes sense, and I'm glad you told me—I mean, I wish you told me more, but I'm happy to know at least that much… but you gotta take better care of yourself. You gotta eat, and you gotta relax from time to time. And if you need something to help you do that, well, maybe next time choose pot, won't you?" There was a little bit of amusement in his voice now.
"Yes, mom," Alice replied, rolling her eyes.
"I heard that eye-roll," he quipped and they both laughed. When he spoke next, though, he sounded serious again. "And give therapy a thought, Allie. There is no shame in taking all the help one can get."
"Aaron…"
"No, I mean—it really helped me, you know? Even if it's just marginal help, what do you got to lose?"
"I'm not in the line of work that looks kindly on people with fragile mental state," Alice replied dismissively. "But I'm glad it helped you—whatever that may mean."
He didn't answer immediately, and when he did, his words were hesitant. "There is… pressure… that is inevitably tied to the kind of work I do… that kind of life… I haven't always dealt with it in the most healthy way. I decided I needed to do better—for my son, if not for myself." He paused for a moment. "It takes time and effort to unlearn bad behavioral patterns. Took me a good while to come to certain necessary conclusions. It's why I'm currently sleeping in the guest room of my own house."
"You mean that therapy pushed you to end things with Sarah?"
"No, therapy pushed me to reexamine that relationship—and to realize that I've never really loved Sarah. I just really wanted to, because it was easier… Don't get me wrong, I care about her still—I always will, she's the mother of my son. And for a time I thought that would be enough—so I tried to keep us together. For Ike's sake, so that he could have an actual family. But eventually I had to face the truth: by insisting on us staying together, I wasn't only hurting myself, or her, I was doing a disservice to him. We learn about love and affection from watching our parents, and there was no affection between me and Sarah—just coldness and resentment. It's better for him to see us live our lives separately but happily, and to co-parent him, than for him to learn that this is what a relationship is supposed to look like."
"I'm sorry it's all so complicated. For what it's worth, I think you're right. And I'm glad that you're working through this. I'm sure you and Ike will be fine."
"Yeah, but we wouldn't have been if not for therapy, is my point," he underlined. "Just… think about it, please?"
"Sure, I'll think about it," she said to placate him.
"Okay. And now, you should really go and eat something. And drink plenty of water!" He ordered authoritatively.
Alice snorted. "Sir, yes, sir!" She exclaimed and he chuckled. "Goodbye, Aaron."
"Goodbye, Allie."
The following week was a difficult one. While the worst symptoms of the comedown/hungover had passed, Alice experienced a slew of others: continued insomnia and abnormal tiredness (and it wasn't like she had been sleeping through the night before, but now it was even worse), increased tenseness and anxiety, and a general feeling of misery. She tried to hide it, of course, but she felt like she wasn't fooling anyone, and at any moment expected someone to bust her and order a drug test. That, however, did not happen, and as the week wore on, she began feeling better bit by bit.
Deanna, true to her words, tried very hard to get up early and accompany Alice in her morning jogging, and because Alice felt so bad, Dee was almost able to keep up with her at the beginning of the week, but by the end of it, when Alice felt almost like herself again—or at least, like herself from before taking the drugs—Dee started to lag behind. To her credit, though, she didn't give up and continued the routine in the coming weeks, even going out for a run on the mornings Alice skipped hers in favor of a more stringent and extensive training session at the SGC gym, or when she wasn't at home for the night.
The SG-7 went off-world every second day or so, looking for clues and chasing leads that, invariably, turned out to be nothing. The news about Jareth was slowly spreading across the galaxy, and there were some reports of sightings, or suspicious kidnappings and other odd events, and they, along with SG-4 and SG-14, went out to investigate each one, always coming up empty—but frequently finding trouble anyway. Despite how good at their job Morgan and Watson were, Alice felt the absence of the fourth member of the team a lot. Splitting up with only three people in the squad was difficult—she always ended up pairing Morgan and Watson together, and going it alone herself, but she couldn't deny there were situations when having someone watching her back would've been useful. Rodriguez would be coming back from his convalescent leave in mid-July, but Alice doubted he would be fit for offworld missions immediately—she rather expected to have to put him on desk-duty for another month or two. Still, when Landry offered to assign someone temporarily to the SG-7, Alice refused, stating confidently that they didn't need it. She wasn't quite sure why she was reluctant to admit someone new to the fold—it wasn't like she knew Rodriguez before he got injured—but thankfully Landry didn't press the matter. He was getting ready to leave the command—somehow the news became publicly known within the personnel, so he didn't need to hide it all that much anymore. The whole base was abuzz with rumors on who was going to replace him, and Alice heard some people speculate correctly that it must be Carter, but she didn't partake in the gossips herself.
Carter's pinning-on ceremony took place at the Peterson's Air and Space Museum, same as Alice's had been—and it even drew similar crowd. A number of Atlantians were in attendance—Sheppard, Teyla, Ronon, McKay and Keller—as well as a fair few of SGC personnel—General Landry, the entire SG-1, Teal'c, Reynolds, Doctor Lam, Doctor Lee, and a bunch of others. General O'Neill came down from Washington, and so did Colonel Davis. Alice noted that the only people from outside of the Stargate Program who came were Colonel Carter's brother, his wife and children. Working in the Program was apparently not conducive to having many friends on the outside.
Alice welcomed the opportunity to catch up with the Atlantians. Talking to them she felt, for a brief moment, like nothing had changed—as if she was still a part of that family, and all that she'd seen since didn't happen… but then one of them said something about Perrault's new team—which included Cooper and two new people—and suddenly the weight of the whole experience came back with a vengeance and, although she managed to keep her composure during the day, it claimed its victory over her at night again.
The next day, General Landry's official goodbye ceremony took place—in the Gateroom, with him giving a speech while standing in front of the Stargate. Alice knew there was a retirement party, too, held later that day, but she wasn't invited, which did not surprise her—she didn't really know Landry all that well, and only served under him for six weeks. And then, on the eighteenth of July, Carter finally officially took over as the CO of the SGC.
It wasn't even a week later that she called Alice to her new office. Alice had been mid-testing of a prototype of something she had been working on for a few weeks, and it irked her a little to be interrupted, but she made an effort to calm down before she knocked on the open door.
"General, you wanted to see me?"
Carter raised her head, looking up from some papers she was reading, a pile of folders stacking up on her desk.
"Major, yes, thank you for coming. I've just had a call from the White House—the President would like to see you as soon as possible."
Alice's eyebrows went up in surprise. "Really? Why?"
"I don't know, they wouldn't tell me." She shrugged, but Alice could see that it didn't sit well with her. "Any idea what it might be about?"
"Um, well—" Alice hesitated, wondering if Landry had told Carter about Alice's trip to the future "—I don't know. I did give him a briefing a couple months ago about something, maybe he has some follow-up questions?"
Carter frowned. "Briefing about what?"
Alice wet her lips nervously. "I had hoped General Landry would've filled you in on it before he retired."
"You mean that it's so secret I wasn't cleared to know it," the general guessed. "And that must mean that it's either an alternative reality scenario, or a time-jumping one, nothing else gets so deeply classified."
"Yes, ma'am." Alice didn't know what else to say, so she kept quiet.
Carter sighed. "Well, I'm gonna take that up with O'Neill directly—and in the meantime, you should get going. I can't offer you a lift—Apollo was on patrol duty, but I had to redirect it to help SG-1 with a mission, so you have to take a normal flight. I'll let the White House know you'll be arriving later today."
"Yes, ma'am, thank you." Alice nodded and turned to leave.
Fifteen minutes later, she arrived home, and noted that Deanna's car was in the driveway. She parked behind it, and went into the house at a brisk pace.
"Alice!" Dee exclaimed as Alice popped her head into the kitchen. The girl was sitting at the breakfast island, reading a magazine and drinking coffee. "What are you doing here?"
"I need to grab a suitcase," Alice replied. "What are you doing here at this hour? Shouldn't you be at work?"
"I was, but we had an electrical short and there's no power—it ain't gonna be fixed up until tomorrow, so I grabbed some stuff I can work on at home and got back. What do you need a suitcase for?"
"I've been called to Washington," Alice replied and then turned to go up to her room. Deanna wasn't so easily dissuaded, though—she followed suit.
"D.C.? Why do you need to go there?"
Alice pulled the small suitcase she usually used as a carryon luggage from the closet and started filling it up with clothes. "I have to brief someone."
"Brief? Who? About what?"
"Dee," Alice groaned crankily. "You know I can't talk about my work."
Deanna sighed. "Right, right. But how long will you be gone?"
Alice didn't reply, disappearing into the bathroom adjoining her room. A minute later she was out with a toilet bag in hand.
"So? How long will you be there?" Deanna prompted. "I'm not prying, I just want to know, you know, when you'll be back, as a roommate and all…"
Alice shook her head, momentarily amused. "Sure, Dee." She threw a pair of black pumps next to the toiletries. "I'm not certain—there's a chance I'll be back tomorrow, but I won't really know until I'm there."
"Will you text me when you know?"
Alice rolled her eyes, but nodded. "Sure, as soon as I can. It might be late, though," she warned, adding a laptop and couple other smaller items.
"I don't mind," Deanna assured her.
As the last thing, Alice took out a dress uniform and gently folded it on top of everything else in the suitcase. "All right, I think I'm ready. I'm just gonna change now and then I have to be on my way, I gotta drive to Denver."
"Alright, understood, I'm going. I'll be in my room, gotta get to work. Have a safe flight!" Deanna called and then finally left.
Alice shook her head again, amused, and then hurried off to change into more comfortable clothes.
She put the blinker on and turned towards the gate. A number of men armed to the teeth stood around, but the one who stepped out from a security cabin and approached her car only had a sidearm. She rolled down the window.
"Good evening, ma'am, may I ask for an ID and the purpose of your visit?"
"Good evening," she replied, handing him her Common Access Card. "Major Alice Boyd, I was ordered to come down to see the President."
"One moment, please, ma'am," he replied and disappeared inside the cabin for about thirty seconds. Then he reemerged, gave the CAC back, and directed her towards the visitor parking. A few minutes later she walked inside the West Wing's foyer, where she had to get through the process of being checked against a list of pre-cleared visitors again. She signed her name in the guestbook and received a plastic badge on a lanyard. All this was familiar to her—she had done the same the last time she had been there, two months earlier. The only difference was that now there was no one there to escort her, and so she had to wait in the lobby for about ten minutes, before someone came down and led her to where the presidential secretaries sat, just outside the Oval Office.
"Please, take a seat, ma'am, the President is occupied at the moment, you will have to wait," one of them told her, and Alice thanked her and sat down. She felt a bit nervous—the last time she had seen the President, she had to relate to him everything that she'd seen in the future timeline, and had a mini-breakdown right in front of him. Not knowing what his summons was about this time was not making it easier, either. She tried to distract herself by observing the comings and goings of the secretary office—people kept dropping by to leave some papers at their desks, or ask about things—mostly revolving around the President's calendar, which seemed to be packed today.
About ten minutes into her waiting, a man she recognized from the news walked in, a big frown on his face.
"Hey, he in there?" He asked the secretary.
She nodded. "Last meeting's running over."
The man checked his watch. "He should be heading to the Residence to change very soon."
"He's got another appointment before he can move on." The woman nodded towards Alice.
"I don't remember any more appointments on today's calendar." His frown grew even more pronounced. "Who are you and why are you here… Major?" He asked Alice, looking at her epaulets.
She rose. "Major Alice Boyd, sir. The President asked me to come talk to him."
"About?" He pressed.
"You would have to ask him, sir." Alice smiled, her tone conciliatory.
The man huffed. "Do you know who I am?"
"Yes, sir, you're the White House Chief of Staff."
"Yes, and I clear all the President's appointments." He shook his head. "You weren't in his calendar in the morning."
"I don't know what to tell you, sir, I was ordered to come, so I'm here." She restrained a shrug. It could've been taken as disrespectful.
"Who added the appointment to the schedule?" He turned to the secretary again.
"The President did. You should've gotten the updated calendar—I bet you just haven't checked your e-mail, have you?"
He looked a little disgruntled. "I've been running from one meeting to another," he said defensively. The secretary rolled her eyes, and then the door to the Oval Office opened and the President stepped out with another man, shaking his hand and saying goodbye.
"Ah, Major Boyd, good to see you again," he exclaimed upon seeing Alice.
"Mr. President, it's my honor," she replied and shook his outstretched hand.
"Mr. President, you're going to be late unless you go get changed right now," the Chief of Staff interrupted.
"I need ten minutes with the Major and then I promise, I'll be going. I'm quite sure they ain't gonna start without me!" The President quipped in reply, and then stepped back into the Oval Office, followed by Alice—and the Chief of Staff.
"Sir, may I inquire as to what this meeting is about?"
"I'm sorry, Jack, not this time. Thank you." The last two words had a reverberating finality in them, and, looking quite discontented, the other man had to capitulate and leave, closing the door behind him.
"So! Major, how are you doing?" The President asked, gesturing to the chair right next to the Resolute Desk; he took his own seat behind it.
"I'm very well, thank you, sir, and how are you?" Alice lied smoothly, sitting down gingerly, a little thrown by the shortening of the distance between herself and her Commander in Chief.
"Good, good." He leaned back in his chair. "You must be wondering why I called you here today in such a hasty manner."
Alice nodded, but didn't think adding a yes, sir was necessary.
"See, early this morning I received an irate phone call from Great Britain's Prime Minister, admonishing us for keeping important Stargate-related information secret from our allies," he continued, his face serious. "He specifically referred to our advanced knowledge of Jareth's future actions and the Wraith invasion of Earth."
Alice blinked quickly, bewildered. "He knows?"
"I'll say." The President opened one of the desk's drawers and brought out a notebook with the White House logo on it, with a few sentences scribbled down in small, loopy letters. "He berated me for a number of things, but that was the most interesting. He harped that since we sent someone into the future and back, we had an unfair advantage over our allies, which, if gained using Stargate technology, is against our international agreements."
"Sent into the future?" Alice repeated, amused and dismayed at the same time.
"His words, not mine. He also complained about our handling of the Jareth situation, and nearly accused me of murdering one of his people in a futile attempt to stop the Wraith."
Alice dropped her gaze, feeling blood drain from her face at the mention.
"Needless to say, I did my best to smooth over his ruffled feathers," the President carried on, either not noticing or ignoring Alice's reaction. "But he's not really happy with us at the moment. And I have to say, I'm not very happy with the situation, either."
Alice took a deep breath and raised her eyes to look at him. In spite of his words, he didn't look all that bothered—but he was watching her very carefully.
"We have a leak," he added, his voice somber. "So I've gotta ask—" He paused, the unfinished question hanging in the air, plain as day.
"I didn't tell anyone, sir," Alice assured him.
He nodded. "I didn't think you did, but I had to ask." He huffed. "Hell, you were the one insisting on this measure of secrecy. Nevertheless… how do the British know? Aside from me and you, who else was in the know?"
"Assuming that you haven't told anyone, sir, only Generals O'Neill, Landry and Cox, and my teammates, Commandant Perrault and Doctor Cooper—though the latter two only knew the biggest highlights: that I went into the future, that Jareth would try to get to the Milky Way, and that I got intel on how to stop him, or at least slow him down."
"Five people, one of them a foreigner, and one a civilian," he summed up. "So it had to be one of them."
Alice shook her head slowly. "I don't think Cooper or Perrault knew enough—I can't be one hundred percent sure, but I don't think I've mentioned the Wraith invasion on Earth to them. I do remember thinking that I needed to be careful what I tell them, and deciding to keep to the bare minimum. And if it were Perrault, it would be the French calling you, not the British."
"Hmm." The President put a hand on his chin in a pensive gesture. "That only leaves O'Neill, Landry and Cox. O'Neill is a good guy, but he can be a bit careless. And Landry had just retired, the timing of this is a little suspicious, don't you think?"
Alice took another deep breath. "I don't know, sir. I can't see any of them doing something like this. They gave their lives to this Program, I don't believe any of them would betray that. And for what? I just don't see any motive there, sir."
"Hmmm," he repeated. "What's your suggestion, then? How did it get out?"
"Well, aside from verbal report, I also filed a written one—an abridged one, to be sure, but it did contain information about the Wraith invasion and Jareth's strategy. And we've seen our reports being leaked to other parties before—the rogue NID, the Trust… it's the only explanation I see, sir." She paused for a moment, and since the President didn't interrupt, she added: "I could have a look into our servers, see who accessed the report, maybe I can find the culprit."
"Great!" He got up to his feet, and Alice jumped up a second later. "Let's do it, then. I'm making you responsible for getting to the bottom of this. Find the leak, plug it." He gathered some papers from the desk and put them in a briefcase he pulled Alice knew not where from; he then walked around the desk and Alice followed him into the middle of the room. "But that will come later. For now, we have to put out this diplomatic fire that we have on our hands. I had to promise the Prime Minister that we'd brief him on the future scenario you've experienced, so that's what I need you to do now. You'll fly out to London immediately, I'll get my office to coordinate it."
Alice restrained the urge to raise her eyebrows and nodded instead. "Yes, sir."
"You'll tell him the highlights of your trip to the future," the President continued. "Don't tell him anything you didn't tell me." He wagged his finger at her with a crooked smile on his face. "More importantly, make him understand the implications of what you'd seen there. Let him be horrified, too, if he wants it so badly." There was a hint of amusement in his voice now. "I'm counting on you to smooth this thing over with him. He's under a bit of pressure with the Olympics just a few days away, and I do not need him harassing my wife when she gets down there." There clearly was a twinkle in his eye now, though what private joke he was enjoying, Alice could not know.
"Yes, sir."
"Alright, Major, I really have to go now before the First Lady comes up here to force-dress me for the event tonight," he joked and offered his hand. Alice shook it. "Goodbye, have a safe flight."
"Thank you, sir, and a good night to you."
He left, briefcase in hand, through the glass door that led directly to the West Colonnade and the Rose Garden, and Alice had to let herself out the way she came.