The Doctor slammed the door behind him, sonicing the lock, hoping to buy them more time. A moment later a terrifying howling rose up from the other side of the door, followed by a ferocious clawing. Katie was desperately going through the shelves of the room, pulling books off them like mad. Giving up on that, she went through the drawers of the H.M.C's desk.

"There's nothing here of use! How are you supposed to get rid of those things?" Katie said, still searching.

"Drown it in a bog," the Doctor said, flipping through books.

"Well the last time that happened some brilliant genetics professor found its skull and made a new one," Katie snapped, shooting a dark look at said professor, who was cringing in a corner of the office. "What else is there?" Katie snapped her head up to look at the bewildered ball of light that hung in the office. "You! You have any weapons in here?"

The light shimmered as TARDIS translated in Katie's head. "No. I never had the need. I always called security."

Katie snorted. "Yeah, well, security is busy evacuating the rest of the people here."

The sound of splintering wood heralded the imminent entry of the beast. Katie took a split second to glance at the six inch claw sticking through the door then returned to the light.

"You got any back ways outa this place?"

"The sconce next to the book shelf."

The Doctor was closer, so he grasped the black sconce. He pulled and it moved a fraction, then it stopped. "It's stuck!"

The Doctor's words were punctuated by the center of the door bursting open, leaving the edges behind. The huge brown creature roared again, its teeth very visible as froth flew from its jaws. Katie grabbed the nearest thing; a small decorative glass ball that had been sitting on the desk.

"Doctor, get the door open!"

Several days previously

That's the fifth time in a row! What is she doing in there?

The Doctor stood in the TARDIS' hallway, staring at the light flickering out from under Kathryn's bedroom door. For the past five nights, she had disappeared into her room after each separate adventure, and didn't come out until he let her know that they had landed again. She'd even been neglecting her plants. On top of that, one of his blue pin-stripe suits had disappeared on that first night, along with a shirt and tie and his coat. They were back in his closet now, with the coast fixed, but something was up, and he wanted to know what it was.

He stepped up and grasped the door-handle, preparing to turn it. He looked around in curiosity when a faint blaring sounded. Sounds of scrambling emerged from the other side of the door then Kathryn's head appeared around the doorframe. Her hair was mussed and her eyes were a bit too wide. The pulse in her neck was beating twice as fast as it usually did, despite her three hearts.

"Yo Docta! 'Sup?"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. He had never heard Kathryn speak like that before. "What are you doing in there?"

"In where?"

He inclined his head. "In there. Your bedroom. Are you working on a secret project?"

Her laugh was a shade too bright. "What would I possibly be doing as a "secret project", Doctor? A new dress for myself, perhaps? You know how much I love wearing skirts."

The Doctor had to smile at her obvious sarcasm. They both knew perfectly well that Kathryn hated skirts above all else, except possibly badly brewed coffee first thing in the morning. "No, you just seemed to be staying up a bit later than usual."

"I didn't know you had an enforced curfew."

"Upon occasion. I'm just worried that whatever it is your spending your time on is draining you."

Kathryn seemed genuinely surprised. "You? Worried about me? Now I know you've been cruising the cosmos too long on your own. You get a friend and you snap. Besides, I make sure to get enough sleep. If I really need to up my energy levels, I'll have you pull over next to a red giant and I can bask in the light and heat, or have you jabber about something other than the mundane for once. You give me enough sound to power an office building!"

The Doctor decided to humor her. "Do I really?"

"You most certainly do, fly-boy. You talk even more than a girl I had the misfortune of meeting once. Janet Shnoff, her name was. I wouldn't have minded her constant talk so much except that when she talked, she couldn't do anything else, and we were on a science project together. I finally thought to get the point across by doing a test on how fast sound waves travel at different keys, but she took it as a compliment!" Katie paused for a moment, head tilted, remembering. She straightened and smiled widely at the Doctor. "Well then, since you're actually worried about my health, I'll turn in. Night!"

Without waiting for an answer, Kathryn closed the door. The light under it faded as she turned off the oil lamps she had started using instead of candles. The Doctor stood where he was, puzzled about her behavior, then filed it away in his mind with her other idiosyncrasies. If it was important, she would let him know. She always had before. Why not now?

He didn't look back as he walked off. If he had, he might have noticed the light under the door return.

Two days later, the Doctor stood in front of his closet door, counting. Three suits. Odd. I only had two. One blue, one brown, and now one purple. Where did purple come from?

Finally just pulling out the disruptive suit, he saw that a matching shirt and tie were already on the hanger with it. "Now that's really odd. Are you trying to play mind games again? It never works."

The TARDIS answered his question with a mental nudge.

"If you say so," the Doctor answered with a shrug.

Five minutes later, he was examining the way the suit fit in front of his mirror. It literally fit perfectly, and the pockets were bigger on the inside than the outside, which was precisely the way he needed them. Brushing it one last time, he heard something in the inside coat pocket give a faint crunch. Upon investigation, he found a letter addressed to him, written in Sanskrit, Kathryn's newest language learned.

Dear Doctor,

After the adventure with Ace, I figured you needed a new one. Fixed your coat too.

If the suit fits and you like it, wear it. If it doesn't fit or you don't like it, chuck it into the nearest star and let it burn.

Signed your passenger,

Kathryn Moore

P.S.

If you ever mention this gift, or this letter, to me, or anyone else, I will leave you stranded on Earth in the 1500's, in the Spanish court, with a tattoo that identifies you as Protestant.

The Doctor folded up the letter with mixed emotions. Partly pride, because he had had no idea Kathryn could sew so well, hadn't even imagined she would have learned how to sew, but there was also a touch of sadness. After all these weeks, Kathryn still had a survival bag packed in case he dropped her off on a planet and left her there. He wished she would see that the only way she could leave would be if she were to die or chose to walk out herself. Even then, he would probably do everything possible to have her stay. It was that weird link they had. He couldn't even let himself start to worry that Kathryn might leave or he felt himself running the risk of moving into a panic mode.

"Still wish I knew where that link comes from. Considering the race that grew her in the first place, you'd expect her to be trying to kill me. I wonder if I'm just that good of an influence."

The TARDIS flooded his mind with several emotions, each one mixed with sarcasm.

"Now that was just rude."

Katie sat in the kitchen, distractedly swinging her legs and tapping the table. Her coffee was growing cold her front of her, as was her breakfast. She was fretting that she had overstepped herself in in making him a suit to wear.

"I thought we would try Atlantis. What do you think?"

Only her supreme self-restraint kept her from jumping two feet in the air as the Doctor entered. He was grinning that amazing grin that would look stupid on anyone else, but fit perfectly on his face and with his hair. She felt a spark of pleasure as she noticed he was wearing the purple.

"You remembered to get the hot water going. I'm impressed."

Relaxing slightly, Katie returned his comment as she always did. "I figured you'd given me enough grief over it. Atlantis actually existed?"

"Yeah," the Doctor said, his voice getting just a bit high. He was picking through the multiple tea boxes for something specific. He held it up proudly as he found it. "Well, technically, we can't go to the original one. Cracks in time made the whole thing sink at every second of its existence at once so visiting would be a bit of a bother. I promise it was not my fault. Well, not entirely."

"I'm sure," Katie answered dryly. "Then tell me, O Great Time Lord, how we are to visit a place that is underwater?"

He smiled again. "We're going to Atlantis the planet."

Katie couldn't help but smile back. The Doctor's enthusiasm was catching, and she was terribly excited. Another day with another adventure. Life in TARDIS with the Doctor was, as he would say, brilliant.

*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*