Whoa! It's been a while! Sorry doesn't quite cover it does it? Years! It's been years! I was taking the admission test when I last updated and now I'm a senior and graduating in December! All I can say to those of you who have been so great as to favorite this story or put it on story alert is that I've been busy with school and writing original fiction that I hope to someday publish. But I'm back now. I still mean to finish this story.

"I take it you know about Hailey?" He said.

"Yes," she answered.

"Did you know before I was told?" He was a little tense, not trying to be curt with her but not being entirely relaxed in her presence either.

"No," she said, "I just found out a little while ago from Lieutenant Satterfield."

He sighed in relief and relaxed a bit, "Good. I was afraid you might have been, you know…"

"Helping her out?" Sam's gave him a wide-eyed stare, "Sir! I like Hailey but you of all people should know I'd be the last person to advice anyone to break those rules."

They looked everyone around the office except at each other, "You're right," he said awkwardly, "sorry."

"What are you going to do?" she asked, getting up and going to close the door. She briefly wondered if anyone in the control room had heard the last thing she had said. Anyone smart enough to work at the SGC would probably assume the right things from it.

He sighed, "Frankly, Carter, I don't know yet," he said, rubbing the bridge of his nose, "I really thought Haley of all people could keep herself from this sort of deal."

"So did I," she said, "The girl is brilliant."

"She's still young, I guess," he said, pushing a paper clip around on the surface of his desk.

"I wasn't that much older than her when I joined SG-1," she said. He looked up.

"Are you defending her or condemning her?" he asked, genuinely puzzled.

"Both I guess," she said, "I'm disappointed mainly."

They reflected in silence for a little while, Jack playing with his paper clip and Sam looking out into the briefing room.

"We can't afford to lose Hailey," he said finally, "She's got just the right kind of brain we need here. Your kind, incidentally."

She smiled briefly, "It'd be so much simpler if Harvey hadn't been the one to talk," she said, "Someone is bound to say that Haley and Wong's relationship has damage morale. And they wouldn't be entirely wrong."

"Maybe I can send Harvey to Russia…" he mused, "Pretend she never existed…"

She chuckled. The red phone rang and Jack picked it up.

"Mr. President!" he said apparently delighted, "How are ya? How's the family?"

Sam chuckled to herself and quietly stepped out of the office to give Jack space to come to some agreement with the President. Henry Hayes was a good man, she knew although she had never talked to him herself.

She was going to go do some research. She thought she might get her team involved as well, they were both very good at coming up with solutions to unsolvable problems after all. That's why they were the best. Like General O'Neill had said, they really couldn't afford to lose Hailey. Sam wouldn't be around forever, she knew this and she had been grooming Jennifer Hailey into an adequate replacement. Her hopes were that someday, Hailey would be even better at this job than Sam herself. Wasn't that what every mentor hoped of their apprentice?

At least she had one thing on her side, the importance and uniqueness of the Stargate Program. They had always been allowed or forgiven certain things in the past that other organizations within the military would not have had permitted. She didn't take it for granted but she hoped that once again, the powers-that-be would see that losing Hailey would be worse for the SGC than allowing her to get away with only a reprimand. As for Wong, well, she didn't know him too well. She'd try to save his career as well of course but she knew that if it came down to it, she'd sacrifice him to save Hailey. It was a rotten thing to do and she'd hate it but that was the only choice for her.