Avalon
This starts off (the first paragraph really) right after The Hive and continues around four or five years afterwards.
Folks, you know the drill - I don't own anything other than my own OCs.
The dart hit the ground in front of the gate in a terrific explosion of dust and debris.
When the dust settled, the dart was intact, the cockpit hood open and empty.
A figure ran steadily to the DHD, punching in a set of symbols and hitting the central stone as the ring spun and a wave of blue exploded from it. With an increasingly staggered step, the man sprinted to the Stargate and launched himself through.
Moments later, the wormhole collapsed and the ring fell silent once again.
It'd been several years since the first member of the Atlantis expedition stepped through the ring into the city, but that could never diminish the awe Elizabeth Weir felt every day when she woke up. John Sheppard felt the same way. No matter how long he'd been there, he felt the beauty and power of the Ancient's just as strongly as the monumental day they expedition arrived.
Every day when Dr. Rodney McKay woke up, he groaned and wished he was back home in his comfy apartment... granted, here he had meals provided and no bills to pay, but there was hardly the threat of impending doom one felt every day on Atlantis.
Unless you count the smog, speeding cars, psychos shooting or stabbing each other, and the threat of being bombed or suffering from radioactive fall out due to a nuclear bombing of a certain warlike nation to the south.
Every day when Aiden Ford woke up, he rolled over and saw the face of his wife and smiled.
Lt. Colonel Lorne sighed and stretched his legs as he got out of the hummer and walked to the grey stone command bunker.
"Captain Donovan," Lorne grinned shaking the hand of the younger man who stood waiting for him inside the doorway. "Good to see you again, Kim."
"Good to see you too, sir. How was your trip?"
"Kim, I walked through a wormhole to another planet then went off-roading in a hummer to a secret bunker... all in all I think I had a pretty good trip here."
The two men grinned at one another as they waited in front of an elevator. With a ding, the lift arrived and the doors opened. They stepped in, Donovan hit an unnumbered button, then they were on their way down.
Lorne couldn't help but squeeze his eyes shut and stand on his tiptoes as the elevator plunged downwards into the planet's crust at an ungodly speed.
"So what's the buzz in 'Lantis these days?"
Lorne pried an eye open to see an amused Donovan barely refraining from laughter. "Oh the usual, so and so have been making googly eyes at one another, someone pulled a prank on someone else, some dude stole the tv out of the senior rank's mess and someone retaliated by stealing the junior rank's pinball machine... the usual."
Kim laughed and started stepping forwards as the lift came to a gut-wrenching stop and its doors opened with a cheery ding. Lorne followed after a moment of trying to re-swallow his lunch.
Stepping out of the lift and into the dazzling light of the underground city was a bit... dazing, even for someone who'd been there on many occasions.
"Welcome back to Avalon, Lt. Colonel," Peter Gordin shook his hand before tackling the man into a hug. "Missed you ya big freak."