New Horizons

Disclaimer: I don't own DW or Stargate, or Torchwood…

Fandoms: Doctor Who; Stargate (Atlantis, mostly), Torchwood

Pairing: 10/Rose, maybe mentions of 10.5/Rose, possibly Shep/Weir

Rated: T (might go up in the course of the story)

Warnings: unbeta-ed; some of my own philosophical (sp?) musings that came to me as I watched SGA in later chapters, romance, some fluff

Full Summary: Rose is pregnant. The Doctor knows it. The TARDIS knows it. Only, Rose doesn't. And what happens when the Doctor Who and Torchwood Crew have- albeit seperately- a meet and greet with Stargate Command, or it's Atlantis branch?!

Spoilers: This is the sequel to my post Journey's End Reunion fic 'How Long Is Forever?', so there are spoilers up until there(can be read separately; takes place about seven months after the end of that fic). As for Stargate Atlantis, I'd say anything up to the middle of the third season is fair game…

Chapter 1: First Impressions

The first thing John Sheppard thought when he saw Lorne's expression as he stepped through the 'Ring of the Ancestors' and into the Gate Room, was that something must have gone terribly wrong. There was a pain in the Major's eyes and such anguish on his face that the Air Force Colonel readied himself for anything; pools of blood, gashing wounds, bones protruding from halfway cut-off limbs, corpses even!

So imagine his surprise when Lorne's entire team came through the Gate, unscathed…

Frown in place, John quickly noticed that all of them looked just as guilty as their team leader, and then he saw it. The Other Thing that even an attentive observer could barely read from their faces. It was a good thing that, despite common belief, and whatever insults Rodney could come up with, John Sheppard was more than just an attentive observer. With surprise, which he quickly hid from the other expedition members, he realized that there was pure awe and disbelief hidden beneath all the apparent loathing.

Intrigued, he hastily made his way down to Major Lorne, who, after seeing him, immediately tried to make a brave face. John just waved his concern away. He exchanged a quick look with Teyla who had reached his Second in Command only a minute before him. Then his gaze locked with Ronon's, and the Colonel saw him shrug just as uncertain as the only female member of his team was looking. Neither of them could make anything out of the estranged reaction Lorne and his teammates had brought back from M… who knows what number they were at now?!

"Major Lorne, welcome back," he greeted his subordinated officer kindly, hoping to get something out of him.

The Major smiled a bit at his effort.

"Thank you, sir. You don't happen to know where Dr. Weir is, sir? We need to report to her immediately," Lorne replied, voice wavering slightly, one could even call it trembling, as if he had lost all his self-confidence.

"She should be in her office- as usual. Go to the Conference Room, I'll go get her. Teyla, go with them, and Ronon, get McKay. Quickly. I have the feeling that we'll want to hear this, first hand," Sheppard almost barked out this string of orders, intrigued by what had made this man practically crumble.

"You bet," he could still hear one of Lorne's men mumble, obviously biting back a humorless laugh by the sound of it.

The frown he had been carrying ever since he had set eyes on the Major and his men not even ten minutes ago deepened as the other soldier's words registered. Still, John turned away, basically running towards Elizabeth's office. She had been so immersed in her work, she hadn't even seemed to notice that the Stargate had been activated. Sheppard barely registered the concerned looks everybody was throwing him in the Control Room. They had all noticed the hanging shoulders of the SGA-2 team, and were more than aware that such behaviour could mean enormous trouble for Atlantis. John rushed passed them, hardly deigning them with a spare glance- he would deal with their worries later, first he had to find out what everyone should be worried about- and made his way to his boss' desk. Elizabeth had apparently not heard him approaching as John needed to wave his hand in the space between her eyes and her laptop. She looked up, confused eyes searching for his, then quickly bolted upright.

"What's wrong?"

"Lorne's team just returned," was all he said.

"Any casualties?" Elizabeth asked. John's expression could be something worn at a funeral.

He shook his head.

"No, no one's harmed, but, Elizabeth, you should see them. They could've been told that the Earth had been bombed into a million pieces by the looks on their faces," John told her. "They're waiting in the Conference Room for the debriefing. Looks like it's serious. I sent Teyla with them, and had Ronon fetch Rodney."

"Alright… good," the brown-haired woman replied, warily. She couldn't make anything of the situation. "Let's go, then."

The Conference Room was silent when they entered, except for the incessant tapping of McKay's fingers on the table. Teyla, trying to hold onto her patience, was breathing heavily, while Ronon looked about ready to shoot the insufferable doctor. Major Lorne and his men didn't seem to notice, but Elizabeth had to surpress a gasp. They looked almost broken, definitely guilty as if they had done something so terrible that they could never make it right again.

"Ah, Elizabeth!" Rodney exclaimed impatiently. "Finally! These sad excuses for exceptional soldiers have been moaning the entire time. It's sickening!"

"Rodney," Teyla admonished him as softly as she could.

"So, what happened?" Ronon spoke up with his rough voice, once John and Elizabeth went to sit down at the table.

Major Lorne and his men exchanged uneasy glances.

"Well, we had barely arrived in the village two miles away from the Stargate on M7P-683 when the Wraith turned up," Evan began hesitantly.

"Did they cull upon the planet?" Teyla wondered.

"No, they sent troups to capture some of the survivors of that vaccination. They surprised us, and we were captured," Lorne asnwered, gaining confidence. By the curious expressions on everyone's faces, he was sure they wondered how they could be here talking to them right now. McKay even stopped tapping his fingers, and sat up straight. "They were about to execute us to make an example when this guy just turned up out of nowhere."

Flashback

Evan Lorne was looking around frantically, hoping to find some sort of escape route, but came up with nothing. Their weapons had been taken as soon as the Wraith had found them talking to some of the villager's in the town's tavern. Their wrists had been bound together on their backs, and they had been forced to kneel infront of the Wraith leader. The villagers were made to stand around the scene in a large circle, and by the way how they were avoiding his eyes he knew that they wouldn't get any help from them.

There was no way out!

The Wraith were going to kill them. Already, he saw the leader of the pack advancing on him. His heart missed a beat, and his muscles turned to mush. He may be a soldier, but at the prospect of dying by the hand of a Wraith- quite literally- all his strength seemed to leave him. As the Wraith got closer, Lorne could feel his heartrate changing again, speeding up. The thought that this was it, this was the end, came to his mind, but his life did not flash before his eyes.

"Wait!" came a shout from the crowd. Lorne's head shot up, just in time to see a long, brown coat swing infront of him. "Hold hard a moment… uh…no, sorry…just hold it right there. I think we should discuss this a bit further, don't you think?"

Was he crazy? What was there to discuss with the Wraith?

"So why don't you call upon your Queen. I'd like to talk to my peers, not some nameless servant- I'm being rude again, ain't I?"

"Yup!" a female voice shouted from the sidelines, and when Lorne looked up, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. The brunette who had obviously talked to this stranger, was wearing jeans. Jeans!

"Sorry, can't help it, though. Rude, that's me. Rude and not ginger!… Anyway, like I said. I'd like to talk to your Queen, so go on, call her," the stranger rambled in a chippery voice as if he was having a conversation over dinner.

And was that a british accent?!

Lorne wanted to get a closer look at the man's face, but unfortunately the only thing he could make out, except for coat, was the back of a head covered in messy brown hair. The Wraith's reaction was very easy to follow, seeing as the pale humanoid creature hissed loudly in outrage. Funny enough, the stranger didn't even twitch. Instead, he told his friend to untie them, throwing something towards her that looked like a flashy silver pen, but in this job Lorne had learned not to judge a book- or an unknown tool- by it's cover aka appareance. The young woman got to work with a whistle on her lips, and soon enough Lorne felt the ropes fall from his wrists, and she handed the 'pen' over to her partner again. Then she moved to help him up, and the Wraith were so flabbergastered, they didn't move an inch.

"You okay?" the woman asked. Her honey eyes held only slight concern, and were instead filled with as much weariness as Lorne's own expression was probably showing.

"Uhm, yeah, but your friend should really…" he tried to warn her.

"Don't worry," she waved him off. "We do this sort of thing like… all the time. Call it a hobby. It's no big deal."

Definitely a british accent. How did the Brits get out here?

"What are you waiting for?!" the man asked, a deadly seriousness in his voice that made Lorne shiver, even though it was not directed at him. "Get 'Her Majesty' down here!"

The Wraith Leader hissed again.

"Who are you with such command?!" he asked the man, hand ready to latch onto the stranger's chest, and Lorne had no weapons. This man had saved them- or at least freed them of their confines- and he could do nothing to repay him.

"Those who need to fear me like yourself have invented many names for me over the eons…" the stranger whispered. Eons? "The most prominent being The Oncoming Storm."

There were gasps all around them, and the Wraith took a few almost respectful steps away from them, or rather the woman who came with this stranger, and Lorne could've sworn he saw the Wraith Leader's skin pale even more. He quickly barked at one of his men to fetch the Queen immediately, and then everything took an even stranger turn.

End of Flashback

"She bowed," one of Lorne's men spoke up, apparently eager to get this briefing over with. "I mean she literally bowed infront of him, and called him 'Mylord' or 'Your Lordship' all the time. I tell you, ma'am, she was terrified of him. When he told her to leave us and the villagers alone, she didn't even put up a fight. She just left."

"And then, he left," another one continued. "With the woman. Like it was no big deal. Something about him promising to take her to some hotsprings that are somewhere beyond the village. And they just wandered off, I mean… we tried to talk to them, ran after them as soon as we came to our senses, but…he…"

"He?" Elizabeth inquired gently.

"I think I can safely assume that I speak for all of us when I say…" Lorne gulped. "He made us feel guilty for killing the Wraith."

Silence encompassed the Conference Room after that particular statement. None of them could quite comprehend what had happened that day- and it had started out as such a good day no less. Everyone seemed lost in their own thoughts, even McKay who was rambling about how it couldn't be possible to feel guilty about killing space-vampires that suck the life out of thousands of human beings every year.

"And the scariest part was…" the youngest member of Lorne's team chimed in. "He looked like a math professor…"

End of chapter 1!

A/N: Well, this is the beginning. I think you can just imagine who that stranger is! :) Please leave a comment, and tell me what you think.