�Feel like home?� Jack asked, causing Elizabeth to jump. �Sorry,� he said with a smile.
Elizabeth shook her head. �The doors back home� they make a �whoosh� sound,� Elizabeth said.
�A �whoosh� sound?� Jack asked, eyebrow arched.
�Just another way that Earth is different from Atlantis,� Elizabeth said with a half-hearted shrug.
Jack leaned against the railing beside Elizabeth. �You really miss it, huh?�
�Oh yeah,� Elizabeth agreed. �And with the Daedalus having trouble with its engines its going to be even longer before I get back there.�
�You know� a lot diplomats of your stature�hell, of any stature�would kill for the chance to be in this room with these people all at once without the threat of war hanging over our heads,� Jack said.
�Yeah, but they don�t know that the concerns of Earth�s international politics are, quite frankly, lame compared to those of this galaxy, not to mention of the whole universe. The Goa�uld and the Wraith and god knows what else is out there that we haven�t even run into yet� when you compare that to disputes over oil or whatever the world wants to fight about this week our disputes are pretty petty.�
Jack cringed. �Don�t tempt the fates of the whatever by sayin� there�s evil out there we haven�t pissed off yet,� he chastised.
�Sorry,� Elizabeth said as she rolled her eyes. She�d never believed in fates or jinxes or anything of the sort, though she did have to concede that, despite their innate ability to get out of whatever they found themselves in, since SG-1 started going through the �Gate�hell, even a year before there even was a SG-1 to go through the �Gate�the luck that the Tau�ri had had was less than good. In fact, it sucked in a big way. �You�re wrong about one thing, though,� Elizabeth said as she turned to go back inside, knowing that she couldn�t hide out until the party was over, despite how badly she wanted to, her newly developed, though thankfully rather minor, case of Demophobia making the solitude of the balcony very appealing.
�What�s that?� Jack asked.
�What�s that?� Jack asked.
�We are at war,� Elizabeth said before pulling open the door and slipping back into the ballroom.
Though his belongings were still in various boxes and he was beginning to think that maybe he should leave them where they were so it would be easier to escape, General Hank Landry made a conscious decision, as he had every morning since taking over command of the SGC�little Sergeant with annoying psychic powers and all�to stick it out, at least for one more day. There was always tomorrow to turn tail and run, though he had never done that in his life and he was almost entirely certain that he didn�t want to start.
So, coffee, care of the psychic Sergeant, in hand, Landry sat down at the heavy wooden desk and mentally reviewed the litany of direly important tasks he had to complete in the next hour if he wanted to finish the things that were supposed to be finished the day before in time to start the current day on time. Not running on schedule was one of the big things about the SGC that bugged Landry, though, considering how good everyone was at their jobs�he hardly got to yell at all anymore, which he was sure was the reason his blood pressure was spiking as of late�the fact that things ran as closely to schedule as they did was saying a lot. He shuddered to think what life would be like if they didn�t have the best and the brightest doing what they did best.
He was up to date nearly on schedule; the day before hadn�t been too busy so he hadn�t had too much spill over left to take care of. All he had to do was make two phone calls�both ending with him leaving a message with a voicemail, which required him to stick to cryptic and practised lines that would mean nothing to anyone who didn�t know what they mean�and scan a stack of requisition forms�he decided that he didn�t want to know why off-world teams needed copper wire, aerosol extra-hold unscented hair spray, and metal nail files added to their standard equipment; there were some things he just didn�t need to know, he�d just signed the forms, remembering the words of advice Jack had offered when he had given the command over to him: �No matter how weird is seems, these people don�t screw around with their gear; just sign the damn forms �cause most of these kids make MacGyver lack imagination.�