Peri met them at the door of the bridge. She looked so worried that the Doctor immediately dropped Tegan's hand and gently laid his hands on Peri's shoulders. "It's all right, Peri. You're being treated well, I trust?"

Tegan moved around to her young friend and winced as she heard the answer. "I'm quite fine, but I'm not used to being swept to the side like yesterday's dirty laundry." She leveled a stare at the Doctor that had him recoiling slightly. "If you two are discussing something that concerns me, I damn well want to be apart of that conversation. I don't appreciate being treated like a child."

"I certainly don't think you're a child," the Doctor replied, seemingly confused by the conversation. "Ah, Vidal" he began, squeezing Peri's shoulders and then moving off toward the navigation station.

Tegan reached for Peri's arms from behind and sighed as she felt the girl tense. "We were discussing something personal, Peri. We're still accompanying him to Karn. Believe me, I'm all for you being present when we discuss things that concern you."

Peri gave her a small smile. "I'd love to be a fly on the wall for your conversations with him, Tegan. You two always seem to dance around topics. It takes real talent to do what you two do. Are you sure"

Tegan stared at the Doctor as he talked with Vidal. "I'm quite sure we'll include you, Peri. How is Vidal, anyway? I don't trust him."

With a nod, Peri agreed. "And he is rather confused about you. Or rather, how you and the Doctor interact."

"He's not the only one," Tegan muttered. "We'd better join them."

**

She heard Latin and maths being uttered back and forth between Vidal, the Doctor and the young man who she quickly learned was the navigator. The conversation was entirely too hard to follow and Tegan felt a headache coming on and reached to rub her forehand. She had heard words like this before when the verbal translation circuit on the TARDIS was on the blink and the Doctor hadn't been speaking English. He had been speaking Gallifreyan and to her it had sounded so like maths that she felt yawns forming at the back of her throat.

When he finished speaking, he immediately reverted back into English or at least what she heard was English. "Dankin? Are the coordinates clear?"

The navigator gave a silent whistle and nodded. "As you command, Supremo, but if any other person had given me this flight plan, I would have said it was impossible to do."

"Improbable, not impossible," the Doctor corrected. With a gentle smile, he continued. "I have complete trust in your abilities. Vidal? Please radio the rest of the fleet and transmit the flight plan on sub channel Alpha, please."

"Consider it done, Supreme Coordinator," Vidal replied and Tegan was actually surprised not to see him click his heels together.

The Doctor sighed and rocked forward on the balls of his feet with his hands in his pockets. Tegan joined him, momentarily distracted by the stellar vision outside. The fleet had been awaiting orders in a small, quiet part of the galaxy with low stellar mass, but with a nearby nebula, the sky was virtually a starlit watercolor painting. "Talking in Gallifreyan again?"

"Hmm?" he asked, seemingly distracted.

Peri agreed: "Those equations you were muttering. Is that your native language?"

The Doctor gave Tegan a look with raised eyebrows as he answered: "Heavens no, Peri. That was calculus. Tegan, you should know that."

"Pardon me if I'm not thinking about my schooling right now," Tegan bit back, but then she realized what the Doctor was really saying.

So beautiful. How could math, how could logic, sound so lovely? He forced the language circuit and muttered to her in Gallifreyan. His arms about her, dancing slowly to the soft music.

She lowered her eyes as he pushed past her to approach the commander's chair on the deck. She noticed there was a small bench behind him. He stood next to it and called both his companions to join him. Peri was the first to join him.

"What are we doing and where are we going?"

"Karn," the Doctor responded, sinking to sit in his chair. "As was discussed before, Peri. You've received your firearms and personal protection articles, I trust?"

Peri beamed and held up the fission vest she had been carrying. "And a matching one for the Scourge."

"Ah, yes," the Doctor smiled and gave Tegan a look. She returned it with a frown and a roll of her eyes. She had a very nasty feeling that her Time Lord friend wasn't going to let her live it down her nickname. "I'd advise the two of you to get into them. Once we jump to hyperspace, the trip will be very short."

Peri put hers on and Tegan took hers in hand. She stilled as she watched the Doctor sit in his chair. "Where's yours?" she demanded.

The Doctor gave her a glance. "Tegan, I would sit if I were you. Entry and exit of hyperspace is rather rough." He turned to address the navigator, but she cleared her throat and remained standing near his chair. He pointedly ignored her and called to the navigator and pilot to make the jump into hyperspace. As she felt as though her feet were touching the ground, but on the other hand, she felt as though she were floating. The world seemed to go black and than brilliantly white.

When everything ceased to change and appeared normal again, she found herself standing between the Doctor's legs with his hands holding her hips. "Really, Tegan," he responded, with that slight sigh that she knew so well. "Is doing what I ask once, even in the interest of your own safety, that hard for you?"

She took a deep breath, steadying herself. "Are you going to wear a vest?"

He met her eyes. And then quietly, for her own ears, she heard: "I never wear a vest, Tegan. I don't carry a gun and I don't wear a vest."

"That's-"

"That's my logic, Tegan. I don't expect to have to use a gun and I don't want to wear a vest. It's like advertisement for the enemy," he replied, his hands squeezing her hips. "And no, you can't use that argument with me. For you and Peri, it's protection. Now, please, put it on," he pressed. "And sit down. The exit of hyperspace is worse on those without their space legs."

"You're impossible," she muttered. But at his frown, she retreated to the bench and Peri.

As she sat and put on the vest, she hazarded a glance at Vidal. The Time Lord was staring at her like she was a microscopic experiment. She shook her head and fastened her vest. Peri handed her personal gun to her and gave her a smile. Tegan tucked the small gun into the space in her vest and made sure it was reachable. The other gun was on her waist and a knife was in her boot. Peri had her guns and the small crossbow attached to her back. She reached over and held Peri's hand as they awaited the exit.

**

As the ships slowed suddenly and several planets and other ships appeared in front of the view screen, the Doctor rocketed out of his seat to punch his hand down on the comm console.

"Attack, attack, attack. Alpha team frontal attack; Beta team intercept. Protect the planet. Gamma team prepare planet fall."

Tegan was on her feet when she heard Peri ask behind her: "Which one are we?"

Vidal interrupted her shrugged answer. "We are team Beta."

The Doctor was turning, addressing two smaller hologram versions. One was the Draconians, the other a Cyberman. "Alpha leader: strategy as you see fit. Beta will take up position between the attackers and the planet. Gamma leader: Work with the Sonataran. Clear an area about the capital, the castle. Clear room for landing of Beta and Alpha in either event of retreat or victory."

Tegan stumbled the rest of the way forward, feeling Peri grab the back of the Doctor's chair. She reached to steady herself as well. The sky, the view, was nothing but ships. They were firing on them, firing on the planet, or firing on the rest of the fleet. The sheer size of the two clashing fleets was almost too much to comprehend.

"Dear God" she breathed.

Peri's arm slipped about her waist and the girl leaned into her. "Oh my God."

The Doctor, if he heard them, ignored them. "Beta Team: Flight plans projected" he held on as a stream of energy swept by the bridge. "Follow designated plans."

Vidal joined the Doctor at the helm, operating another console. "Gamma team through the main parameter."

Peri leaned closer to Tegan. "Tegswhat is going on?"

"We're in the middle of a space fight," Tegan explained the obvious. "A rather large one. And if I understand what is going onwe're the interceptors. We're the ones that are going to get between the other fleet and the planet."

Peri gaped at the viewscreen. Tegan slipped her arm about her waist and nodded to the chair. "Strap yourself in."

"What are you going to do?" Peri asked, not moving.

Tegan shrugged, gripping the side of the chair. Her eyes were trained on the Doctor. "I'm going to stay right here."

**

One hour later, amidst yells and shouts, the bridge took a direct hit from oncoming ships. Tegan and Peri ended up lying on the floor near the front console. For a moment, she couldn't tell where she was or what she had done, except that there was something dripping in her eyes and too much noise. She was over top of Peri, covering the girl's head. Near her was Vidal. Or someone that she supposed was Vidal; he wore Vidal's uniform.

Peri nudged her and crawled over to the fallen Time Lord.

"Pulse?" Tegan asked, upset.

With a shake of her head, Peri gave her answer. Tegan glanced over, ensuring that the Time Lord's head was not overly injured. "Stand back, Peri. He'll regenerate." With some pain, she levered to her feet. "Where's the Doctor?"

Her friend was nearby, slumped over the console. With her heart in her throat, she tripped and stumbled to his side. But by the time she arrived next to him, he was conscious and blinking back orange blood dripping in his eyes. He blindly gripped for the controls. She reached for his shirt, ripping it and making a small handkerchief to blot the blood.

"Not now," he warned.

"I want to know how bad it is" she grit out. It surprised her when a couple of red drops mixed with his lighter orange blood. It was then that she realized that she was bleeding.

"Vidal?" the Doctor grunted.

"Dead, but his head is all right," Tegan argued. Behind her, she heard muttering from Peri. "He's regenerating, Peri. It's normal for Time Lords. Just help him when he becomeshim," she cried out.

The Doctor muttered and pounded on several buttons. When there was no response, he frowned and glanced to the pilot. The young man was still conscious and in control, albeit barely. "Keep us on coursestatus?"

"Life support at 10 %, weapons at 30%," the navigator responded with a yell. "Hull breached in five sections."

"Too many. Give orders to abandon ship."

Tegan thought she had never heard a smarter response.

"We've done our job," the Doctor continued. "Most of the approaching fleet is decimated. We can join in the battle planet side."

Tegan bit her lip. She understood, as a fighter, that the battle wasn't over, it was simply transferred, but still she felt her heart drop. "Head injurywhat else?"

The Doctor frowned and glanced up at her. "Some slight puncture injury of my leg. Nothing to trouble over, Tegan." He glanced over at Vidal. "It's his first regeneration. He'll need help and support. And we'll have to get to the escape pods."

"Oh, wonderful," Tegan breathed. Then she glanced down at his leg. "Slight injury? Hell's teeth, Doc!"

He glanced down with her at his right leg. It was speared to the console with a sharp metal piece completely through the meat of his leg. "Yes, wellit isn't mortal in the very least."

"Sir? Life support systems beginning to fail," Dankin replied, limping over to the Doctor. "Critical atmosphere in thirty of your minutes. The ship is in decaying orbit, but the atmosphere is our main problem."

"Quite," the Doctor responded. He glanced up at Tegan again, his eyes somewhat glazed. As he began to speak, he winced. "Tegan. Take Vidal and Peri to the nearest escape pod. There are two annexing the bridge. The instructions are very easy to understand," he began, reaching out to press a few buttons, silencing alarms ringing about them. "Eject and the pod should home into the main Gamma ship. It will guide you there"

"Oh no," she began.

"I'm counting on you to take care of Vidal, Tegan," he said, gruff. "And Peri. She's unharmed?"

"Mostly. Several bruises," Tegan responded automatically, but then shook her head forcefully. "I'm not leaving you."

"Tegan-"

"No, you listen, Doctor," she grit out as she knelt to examine his predicament. "That wound will be fatal if you go about this wrong. I might not know a lot about medicine, but I do know a good deal about battlefield First Aid now. And I know that you're in need of it."

He lifted an eyebrow. "Interesting. I always thought the sight of my blood made you queasy."

"It does," she admitted. She glanced up as Peri came to her. Peri's face contorted in disgust at the sight of the Doctor's leg.

"No blood?" she asked quietly to Tegan.

"The metal is keeping it in," Tegan responded. "How's Vidal?"

"Awake and barely knowing where he is," the girl responded. "But all his injuries have disappeared. It'sincredible."

"Post regeneration trauma," the Doctor sighed. He met Tegan's gaze with his own. She could see that he was pleading her to do as he asked, but she only saw it as a self-sacrificing act on his part. She glanced back up at Peri and saw the determination in her friend's face that she had come to rely on in the girl. With a sudden smile, she knew Peri was more than capable of taking Vidal to the surface of Karn.

"Peri? Plan time," she said, rising. "Could you take Vidal to the surface in the pod?"

Peri glanced down at the Doctor and then back up to Tegan. "Of course. You're going to stay and help him, aren't you?"

"Can you see any other way of doing this?" Tegan said, pointedly.

"Not really," Peri responded. "I'm not good with injuries."

"Neither am I," Tegan confided with a slight shiver. "Take him down. I'll follow down with the Doctor when we get him out of this mess." She reached into her vest and pulled out her gun. "Take this. You'll need both hands; Vidal isn't going to be worth his weight for quite some time."

Peri swallowed and reached out to take the gun. "And"

Tegan nodded. "The alternative if you have to," she said quietly. "What we decided on, I suppose."

Peri's eyes misted. Tegan clasped hands with her and released the gun. Then, affectionately and suddenly, she reached out and drew the girl into a fierce hug which was returned just as fiercely. "You'll do it," Tegan confided. "And as good as I can. But you've got to go"

With a nod, and a sad smile, Peri agreed. She leaned over and pressed a kiss to the Doctor's cheek and told him she would see him soon. Then she turned and started over to Vidal. "Dankin, help her with him."

He looked down at the Doctor and then back up at Tegan. "I'll do that and bring back the medical kit if I can find it. You'll need the help."

"I'm not going to say no," Tegan admitted. Then she turned and knelt again to assess the wound. After a moment, she stood and continued to deal with his head injury. As Dankin and Peri left the bridge, she began to quietly berate the Doctor. "Never easy with you, is it? Couldn't have a wound where we could just dress you up like a mummy and wheel you out of here. It had to be something like this. And I'm always patching you. Hell's teeth, Doc, any other girl, if she had a brain, would have given up on this a long time ago. Aliens, monsters, wrong times and places, injuries, guns"

"Yes, well, I wouldn't be a worth while puzzle if you didn't have to put back in the missing pieces occasionally," he muttered. "Do be careful with the blotting, Tegan."

"It looks clean," she admitted. "There's no alcohol here or water, so we're just going to have to patch it up and hope its all good." She reached around him and grasped his shirt hem. Then, with a strong tug, she ripped it and wound a short bit about his head, under his blond bangs. When that was done, fast, she knelt again. "And you're better with pain"

"Oh yes," he muttered sarcastically. "Tegan. It's severed some of the nerves. I'm not feeling anything there right now." He shifted a little and let out a low groan. "Some of the nerves are still working"

"Ideas on how to do this?" she asked. "Brace your leg somehow. I'm going to cut the trousers and see what we have. Besides, it's got to be out of the way."

"I agree," he muttered. She glanced up and saw that his eyes were vague. "No, but when you tell me what it looks like, I'm sure we'll put our heads together and come up with something."

She pulled out her knife and carefully slit his trouser leg around the protruding metal piece. It was a jagged splinter of metal that only extended from his leg about four inches, but that had imbedded in the console on the other side. When she had the trousers cut away, Dankin was stumbling back into the bridge. "Are they away?" Tegan asked, for something to do other than concentrating on the injury.

"Yes," Dankin sank to the floor next to her as she ripped away the material. The sight made her hands shake. There was little blood, but she could see his flesh pierced and mauled. It made her sickened. There was little she could do but glance over at Dankin. The young officer met her gaze with a worried one of his own.

"Now," the Doctor said quietly, drawing her gaze back to him like a magnet. There was his spark of intelligence and a healthy dose of sorrow peaking out of the familiar blue. "Do you understand why I told you to go?"

"I'm not giving up. And neither are you," she muttered, her voice shaking. Anger at him, anger at the war, and anger at inability flooded her and she felt tears of frustration flooding her eyes. "What can we do?"

He was silent and she reached up to grab his arm. "Doctor!"

There was a spark of agitation that came to the surface in his eyes and she saw the nearly thousand year old being's soul break through his young man's persona. She could tell he was angry at the situation and that she was prodding him, poking at him, worrying at him like a scab. But regardless of what he felt about himself or this war or anything that had been going on the last year and a half, she wasn't going to let him stay there. "Tell. Me. What. Can. We. Do. If you stay; I'm staying and if you don't want me to stay on a dying ship, then you'd better think quickly."

He swallowed and glanced down at his leg. "Emotional blackmail, I believe the Brigadier once called this."

"Damn straight," she replied.

"Very well." Tegan wasn't sure what the sound was in his voice, but she barely recognized it as his. There was a spark of eternity in his voice, like the cold emptiness of space. But not the cold that froze, the cold that burned. She stared at his eyes and swore she saw someone different, someone older, someone younger, someone other than the Time Lord she loved, staring back at her. She was glimpsing something that she hadn't before, or maybe she had, on that spiritual bridge all those months ago. He was there, she could tell, but it was as if several personalities were flooding him at once. With a shiver, she closed her eyes. When she opened them, it was gone.

He nodded. And she understood, suddenly, that she had seen exactly what he had wanted her to see. "How far does it protrude?"

"About a hand's span," she replied. Dankin was examining it. "And with nothing to grab onto."

"We're going to have to pull me off of then, aren't we?" the Doctor asked his old voice back.

Dankin nodded and ran off towards the tool chest. Tegan opened the medkit and began to indiscriminately throw objects on the ground. He glanced down at her and sighed. "Do be careful with it, Tegan. You'll want something to wrap about the leg and some synthaskin."

"It'll have to bleed freely to make sure you don't have anything in it," she warned, not looking up.

"We can do that in the pod," he replied. Dankin returned and sank to the floor with a tool that Tegan eyed warily.

Dankin explained as he lit a small torch. "I'm going to cut this clean and close to his skin. Less to pull through."

She winced in reply. "Just wonderful," she warned. "Just hurry."

Minutes ticked by as Dankin rounded and made the metal cut as close to his skin as possible. Then, as she began to shiver, he was done. "Right. That should do it," Dankin smiled up at the Doctor. "Supremo? I think you're going to have to excuse some personal contact."

Tegan grinned even in the tense situation. She watched as the Doctor and Dankin braced the Time Lord hard against his seat and Dankin leaned over to put his hands on either side of the wound on the Doctor's leg. She blinked, sighed and tried to steady her nerves. "Right. On the count of three," she warned the two men. "Pull him off of it, quickly. I'm ready with the synthaskin and the wrapping."

The count went quickly. Too quickly for her sanity and then suddenly she heard the Doctor's voice tight, gasping for air as the metal was pulled through his leg. Tegan quickly swung the chair around and sprayed the synthaskin and braced his leg for the painful onslaught she knew was coming next. "I'm going to be an expert with this," she muttered. "Not that I can ever put this on a resume. I hate blood."

"Sorry to be so much trouble," the Doctor's breathless, sarcastic reply came.

Tegan glanced at Dankin. "Would you get the pod ready? I'm going to wrap him and then wheel him on the chair toward it."

Without waiting for an order from Supremo, the lad fled back towards the pod. They both knew time was running out. Tegan wrapped the leg talking all the while. "Honestly, you're like a boy constantly climbing trees and needing scrapes attended to. And your scrapes aren't small business are they? No, they're like bloody awful death inspiring burns and spears and bumps, aren't they?"

She finished and grabbed the back of the chair to wheel him towards the pod. His eyes were glassy from pain, but she saw he was gritting his teeth. "Tegan, you make it sound like I do this on purpose."

"Don't you?" she breathed. The pod was ahead and she aimed the rolling chair toward it.

She didn't realize she was crying until the Doctor reached up to stop her just yards from the pod. "Tegan. Take a deep breath."

"What do you think I'm doing?" she grit out. "I'm going to get us out of here with Dankin and then I'm going to remind you never to do this again until the day I leave or die, whatever comes first."

"I'm fine. You can bleed the wound in the pod, Tegan," he reassured. Her hands shook on the back of the chair. "If that will make you feel better."

"No, it wouldn't," she argued, slowing the chair next to the entrance to the pod and leaning against the bulkhead. Dankin called out that he'd help in a moment. "What would make me feel better is to never see this happen again to you. What would make me feel better is not to love you so much and then bloody watch you go through this. That's what would help me."

She stopped realizing that words had left her mouth that she hadn't meant to say. His cold hand covered hers on the chair side and she realized that not only had she said them, but he had heard them. Avoiding his gaze, she continued to fuss at his bandage. There were no further words said and it wasn't until she and Dankin levered him in the pod that she saw emotions in his gaze she hadn't seen previously: pain, caring, fear mixed with a healthy amount of something she couldn't identify.

You've done it now, Tegan, she assured herself.

The pod left the docking area with 2 minutes left on the life support countdown.

**