Disclaimer: After a while I run out of things to say.
A/N: Thank you for all the reviews, follows/favourites. It really does mean a lot to me. I'm glad so many of you are enjoying the story. The poll is still going to be up for a few more days, remember to check it out.
The four of them stood there, the patients approaching them, all calling for their mummy. Kari gave the Doctor a nudge with her shoulder, getting his attention. Then she nodded towards the patients, still glaring at him.
He let out a sigh and took a step forward, leaving Kari behind with the others. "Go to your room." He bellowed. "Go to your room." He ordered again, looking around the room. "I mean it, I'm very, very angry with you. I'm very, very cross." He was doing well at acting angry. "Go you your room!" He shouted as he pointed, indicating that he wanted them to go away in another direction.
After a pause, the patients all slowly began to shuffle back to their beds. Both Kari and the Doctor let out a sigh of relief. "I'm really glad that worked. Those would have been terrible last words." The Doctor said, smiling away. Kari just kept on glaring at him, she was determined to push him to the limits.
"Why are they all wearing gas masks?" Rose asked once the Doctor was confident it was safe again.
"They're not." Kari told her, kneeling down beside her. "Those masks are flesh and bone."
"How was your con supposed to work?" The Doctor asked Jack, keeping a close eye on Kari.
"Simple enough, really. Find some harmless piece of space junk, let the nearest Time Agent track it back to Earth, convince him it's valuable and name a price. When he's put 50 per cent upfront… oops! German bomb falls on it, destroys it forever. He never gets to see what he's paid for, never knows he's been had. I buy him a drink with his own money and we discuss dumb luck. The perfect self-cleaning con." Jack told them, sitting in a chair with his feet up on the desk.
The Doctor frowned at him. "Yeah. Perfect."
"The London Blitz is great for self-cleaners. Pompeii's nice if you want to make a vacation of it, though. But you've got to set your alarm for Volcano Day." Jack said with a laugh, earning a glare from everyone in the room. "Getting a hint of disapproval."
"Take a look around the room." The Doctor waved his arm around, making everyone look at the different people in the beds. "This is what your piece of harmless space junk did."
"It was a burnt out medical transporter, it was empty." Jack insisted.
Kari shook her head at him. "Told you, Jack. Highlight of your night." The Doctor glared at her, which she just returned.
"Rose, Kari…" The Doctor started.
"Are we getting out of here?" Rose asked, not feeling very comfortable in the hospital.
"We're going upstairs." Kari said, heading towards the door.
"I even programmed the flight computer so it wouldn't land on anything living. I harmed no one." Jack insisted as Rose joined Kari and the Doctor at the door. "I don't know what's happening here but I had nothing to do with it."
"You forgot to set your alarm clock." The Doctor said, glaring at Jack. "It's Volcano Day."
A siren started blaring and Kari let out a sigh. "What's that?" Rose asked.
"The all clear." Jack told her, seeming a little too relaxed.
"I wish." Kari and the Doctor said at the same time, causing him to grin at her. Kari had to hold herself from smiling back at him, she wasn't happy with him, she was not going to let him wriggle out of it and get back on her good side.
"Mr Spock?" Jack called as they ran past a staircase.
"Doctor?" Rose called, not knowing which way he or Kari went.
"You got a blaster?" The Doctor asked Jack, looking back down the stairs at them.
"Sure." Jack said, before heading up the stairs with Rose.
"That night your space junk landed, someone was hurt. This is where they were taken." The Doctor told him, standing outside a large and heavy looking metal door.
"What happened?" Rose asked.
"Let's find out. Get it open." The Doctor ordered Jack to do.
Kari was leaning against the wall. She knew what was going to happen, and she was actually really rather bored.
"What's wrong with your screwdriver?" Rose asked quietly as Jack blasted the lock on the door.
"Nothing at all. He's just nosey." Kari said, pushing herself away from the wall.
"Sonic blaster, 51st century. Weapon factories of Villengard." The Doctor declared.
"You've been to the factories?" Jack asked in slight surprise.
"Once." The Doctor took the blaster from Jack and looked it over.
"Well, they're gone now, destroyed. The main reactor went critical. Vaporised the lot." Jack told them.
"Like he said, once." Kari confirmed. "There's a banana grove there now."
"I like bananas, bananas are good." The Doctor said, smiling away and handing Jack back his blaster.
Kari let out a sigh and walked straight into the room ahead of everyone else. It had been trashed, the whole place was a complete mess. The large observation window had been smashed, the glass scattered all over the floor.
"What do you think?" The Doctor asked.
Jack looked around the room. "Something got out of here."
"Yeah. And?" The Doctor pressed, keeping an eye on Kari as she stood looking at the drawings on the wall.
"Something powerful, angry." Jack kept on looking around the room, taking in all the damage that had been done.
"It was a child. Which clearly explains the constant calling for mummy." Kari said as she walked over to the tape machine and turned it on.
"Do you know where you are?" The man on the recording asked.
"Are you my mummy?" It was a child.
"Are you aware of what's around you? Can you… see?"
"Are you my mummy?"
"What do you want? Do you know what…"
"I want my mummy! Are you my mummy? I want my mummy." The child demanded. "Mummy? Mummy?"
"Doctor, I've heard this voice before." Rose looked a little more scared than she had been before now.
"Me, too." The Doctor said.
"Mummy?"
"Always 'are you my mummy?' Like he doesn't know." Rose said. "Why doesn't he know?"
"Are you there, mummy? Mummy? Mummy? Please mummy? Mummy?"
"Doctor?" Rose looked at him in concern while Kari just stood there, knowing what was going to happen next.
"Can't you sense it?" The Doctor said, looking at Jack and Rose.
"Sense what?" Jack asked him in confusion.
"Come out of the walls. Can you feel it?" Kari said, actually feeling and understanding what the Doctor was talking about.
Jack and Rose look at each other. "Funny little human brains. How do you get around in those things?"
"When he's stressed, he liked to insult species." Rose told Jack.
"Rose, I'm thinking."
"He cuts himself shaving, he does half an hour on life-forms he's cleverer than." Rose told Jack nervously. The Doctor was deep in thought, and Kari was still stood there watching, waiting.
"There are these children. Living rough round the bombsites. They come out during air raids, looking for food." The Doctor explained.
"Mummy, please." Kari looked back at the tape recorder, it was almost time. She slowly walked and stood beside Jack, for some reason she felt a little safer with him there.
The Doctor frowned at her before looking back at Jack. "Suppose they were there when this thing, whatever it was, landed."
"It was a med-ship, it was harmless." Jack protested.
"You keep saying. Harmless. Suppose one of them was affected. Altered."
"Altered how?" Rose asked.
"I'm here."
"It's afraid, terribly afraid and powerful. It doesn't know it yet. But it will do." Kari told them, her eyes darting around the room. "It's got the power of a god and he just sent it to its room." She pointed at the Doctor.
"I'm here! Can't you see me?"
"What's that noise?" Rose asked looking around the room, hearing some kind of rattling noise.
"End of the tape." Kari told her calmly. "It ran out about 30 seconds ago."
"I'm here now! Can't you see me?"
"The Doctor sent it to its room. This is its room." Kari said, letting her eyes fall on the child standing by the tape recorder. The Doctor spun around to look at him as well.
"Are you my mummy?" The child asked.
"Okay, on my signal, make for the door." Jack said, getting ready to pull out his blaster and aim it at the door. "Now!" He shouted, only just noticing that he was holding a banana.
Kari looked at the Doctor who grinned madly at her before pulling out Jack's blaster and pointing it at the wall, leaving a square hold for them to escape through. "Go, now, don't drop the banana." The Doctor called, pushing Kari ahead of him.
"Why not?" Jack asked curiously.
"Good source of potassium." Kari said, leaning against the wall of the corridor and taking the banana from Jack. She watched as the Doctor climbed through the hole.
"Give me that!" Jack called, snatching his blaster back and closing the hole in the wall. "Digital rewind. Nice switch." Jack said, as Kari threw the banana back to the Doctor, giving him a slight smile.
"It's from the groves of Villengard, thought it was appropriate." The Doctor said, holding onto his banana.
"There's really a banana grove in the heart of Villengard? And you did that?" Jack questioned.
"Bananas are good. And it wasn't me, it was Kari." The Doctor said, beaming away at her.
Kari rolled her eyes at him. "Spoilers." She was about to say something else when there was a thumping on the wall in front of them. The child was trying to break through and get to them.
"Doctor." Rose cried, taking a step back to get as far away from the wall as possible.
"Come on." He said, grabbing hold of Kari's hand and running along the corridor with her right next to him. Kari just let out a sigh, she should have known he was going to drag her along with him, he always did.
"Okay, problem one, this way is blocked." Kari said, turning around and dragging the Doctor back the way they had just come. Jack and Rose now took the lead, he had his blaster still in his hand.
"And there's problem number two." Kari said, as the other way was also blocked by the patients.
"It's keeping us here till it can get at us." The Doctor said, squeezing Kari's hand tightly.
"It's controlling them?" Jack asked, keeping his blaster aimed at the patients.
"Nah, it is them. It's every living thing in this hospital." Kari said, grinning away.
The Doctor frowned at her. "What you smiling about?"
"Me? Nothing. Nothing at all." It was the first time the Doctor had actually seen her smiling since he first saw her there. "Oh this is going to be fun." She mumbled, but not quietly enough for the Doctor to not hear her.
"All knowing?" He asked her, Kari just nodded at him, a smug grin on her face.
They were brought back to reality by another loud bang on the wall in front of them. "Okay, this can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon, and as a triple-enfolded sonic disrupter. Doc, what you got?" Jack asked.
"I've got a sonic…" He pulled out his screwdriver and looked down at it. "Er, oh, never mind." He said, pushing Kari back so that she was next to Rose and in between Jack and himself.
"What?" Jack asked again.
"It's sonic, okay? Let's leave it at that." The Doctor said, making Kari giggle.
"Disrupter? Cannon? What?" Jack asked, getting more and more frustrated.
"It's sonic. Totally sonic! I am soniced up"
"A sonic what?" Jack demanded to know.
"Screwdriver!" The Doctor shouted, making Kari burst out laughing. "Oh, and here she goes. Kari, not the time." He said, trying his best to keep a serious face on.
Suddenly the wall gave way and the child began to step through the hole. Kari rolled her eyes and grabbed hold of Jack's hands and his blaster. "Going down!" She cried, before pointing it at the floor and all of them falling through the hole beneath them.
They all landed on the floor in the ward below them. Jack was quick to use the digital rewind and repair the hole in the ceiling. Kari had been the only one to land on her feet, and that just set off her giggles again.
"Doctor, are you okay?" Rose asked as they all got themselves off the floor.
"Could've used a warning." The Doctor said, frowning at Kari.
"Oh, the gratitude. I did warn you. I shouted 'going down'. Is that not a warning?" Kari asked him, folding her arms across her chest as she finally stopped giggling.
"Who has a sonic screwdriver?" Jack asked, looking at the Doctor.
"He does." Kari said, nodding towards the Doctor while Rose went off to look for the light switch.
"Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks, ooh, this could be a little more sonic?" Jack asked, clearly not impressed with the Doctor's device.
"What, you've never been bored?" The Doctor asked, his eyes shifting from Jack to Kari. "Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?"
"If you two have quite finished, we have bigger issues to deal with than why the Doctor has a sonic screwdriver." Kari said as Rose finally found the light switch.
As the lights came on, the patients in the beds all sat up and again called for mummy.
"Door." Jack called, rushing towards it. Kari was quickly behind him, knowing what was to come. She watched as Jack tried to use the blaster to get through but nothing happened. "Damn it. It's the special features. They really drain the battery." Jack moaned.
"The battery?" Rose asked, as Kari snatched the Doctor's screwdriver from him and opened the door herself. "That's so lame." She told Jack as Kari locked the door with the sonic screwdriver.
"I was going to send for another one, but somebody's got to blow up the factory." Jack moaned, shaking his head at Kari.
"Hey, I haven't actually done that yet. But it's now at the top of my to do list." Kari warned him. Jack put his hands up in defence.
"Oh, I know. First day I met them, they blew up my job. That's practically how they communicate." Rose told him with a smile.
Kari turned to Rose, frowning at her. "Rose, spoilers." She said firmly. "God, you lot are awful at filling me in on my future." Kari tossed the screwdriver back to the Doctor so he could make sure the door was locked properly.
"You know, I really am getting sick of hearing that word." The Doctor moaned, setting Kari off giggling again. "And you're giggles."
Kari glared at him. "Oh, I am definitely going to annoy you even more in the future with it now. And you only have yourself to blame for it." Her bad mood had started to fade, but now, it was slowly creeping back.
"Okay, that door should hold it for a bit." The Doctor said, trying his best to ignore the glare that was burning the back of his head from Kari.
"The door? The wall didn't stop it!" Jack exclaimed.
"Well, it's got to find us first." Kari said, letting out a sigh and leaning back against the wall.
"Come on, we're not done yet. Assets, assets." The Doctor cried, looking around the room.
"Well, I've got a banana, and in a pinch you could put up some shelves." Jack said sarcastically, making Kari grin at him, which he returned a wink to.
"Window." The Doctor said, heading straight towards it.
Kari just rolled her eyes. "Barred. Sheer drop outside. Seven stories. So, you can go first."
"And no other exits." Rose pointed out.
"Well, the assets conversation went in a flash, didn't it?" Jack said, sitting down in a wheelchair.
"So where did you pick this one up, then?" The Doctor asked Rose.
"She didn't, I did." Kari said, earning a fierce glare from the Doctor which she completely ignored.
"She was hanging from a barrage balloon, I had an invisible spaceship. I never stood a chance." Jack said before turning to look at Kari. "And then my Princess just appears out of nowhere on my ship. How was I meant to resist?" He winked at Kari, and she let out a little giggle.
"Oh, Jack. You are such a flirt. I'm not sure how the universe has survived so long with you sauntering around in it." Kari said, noticing the annoyed look on the Doctor's face.
"And you wouldn't have me any other way now would you?" Jack replied cheekily.
The Doctor had clearly had enough of the way Kari was acting with Jack. "Okay. One, we've got to get out of here. Two, we can't get out of here. Have I missed anything?" He asked, looking out of the window.
"Yeah, Jack just disappeared." Kari said, having not moved from her spot by the wall.
"Okay, so he's vanished into thin air. Why is it always the great looking ones who do that?" Rose asked, looking slightly disappointed.
"You're not wrong there, Rose." Kari said, trying to annoy the Doctor even more.
"I'm making an effort not to be insulted." The Doctor said, frowning at the girls.
"I mean, men." Rose added, trying not to make the Doctor feel so bad.
"Okay, thanks, that really helped." The Doctor said, still very much annoyed.
All of a sudden the radio speaker crackled into life, surprising everyone but Kari. "Kari? Rose? Doctor? Can you hear me? I'm back on my ship. Used the emergency teleport. Sorry I couldn't take you. It's security keyed to my molecular structure. I'm working on it. Hang in there."
"How're you speaking to us?" The Doctor asked.
"Om-Com." Kari and Jack said at the same time.
"I can call anything with a speaking grill."
"Now there's a coincidence, eh Doctor?" Kari said, finally letting a smile form on her face again.
"What is?" Jack asked.
"The child can Om-Com, too." The Doctor explained.
"He can?" Rose asked in shock. She had no idea what had happened when she had been passed out on Jack's ship.
"Anything with a speaker grill. And that would include the TARDIS phone." Kari told her, looking a little smug for saying it before the Doctor did. But the Doctor just smiled at her, glad that she wasn't so annoyed with him anymore.
"What, you mean the child can phone us?" There was a hint of fear in Rose's voice now.
"And I can hear you. Coming to find you. Coming to find you." The child's voice came through the speaker.
"Doctor, can you hear that?" Jack called, also hearing the child on his ship.
"Loud and clear."
"I'll try to block out the signal. Least I can do." Jack said, before we heard the child calling again, telling them he was coming to find his mummy. "Remember this one, Kari?" Jack asked, as Moonlight Serenade started playing through the speaker.
Kari let a grin spread across the whole of her face. "Aw, Jack remembers." She said, more to herself than anyone else. She looked up and saw a questioning look on the Doctor's face while Rose was standing there looking rather uncomfortable. "Oh, it's… our song." Kari mumbled.
"Oh, so you and him have a song now do you?" The Doctor asked her, clearly not impressed with what he was finding out.
"Actually, yes. We do. Now, do you have a problem with that?" Kari said angrily.
She could see the frustration on the Doctor's face. It was like he wanted to say something, but he knew that he couldn't, that it wasn't the right time. "One day, you're going to understand why I
am not happy with you. " He eventually said, wagging a finger in front of Kari's face.
She let out a sigh. "Yeah, yeah. Too early, I know. Whatever, I am so sick and tired of hearing that all the time. The only person here who isn't hiding something from me, is Jack. It's actually the other way around."
They pair stood there, staring at each other, neither one of them wanting to back down. They were finally interrupted by Rose. "You don't think he's coming back, do you?" She asked the Doctor.
"Wouldn't bet my life." He answered, watching Kari out of the corner of his eye.
"Why don't you trust him?" Rose wondered.
The Doctor glared at Kari, she let out a sigh and turned away from him. She had never thought things with this Doctor was going to be so awkward, and she couldn't think of a way to make it any easier. They both seemed to just be clashing all the time at the moment. It was possible that it was all down to the fact that Kari had been in such a bad mood earlier, or maybe it was something more.
"Why do you?" He asked Rose, finally looking away from Kari.
"He saved my life. Bloke wise, that's up there with flossing. I trust him because he's like you." Rose said, getting Kari to snigger a little. "Except with… dancing." Kari frowned at Rose, there was something else they were hiding from her, she was sure of it.
"You just assume that I don't dance. Tell her that I dance, Kari." Kari just glared at him, no, she was not going to help him out of this one.
"What, are you telling me you do dance?" Rose asked,
The Doctor frowned at her, after quickly glancing at Kari. "Nine hundred years old, me. I've been around a bit. I think you can assume at some point I've danced."
"You?" Rose asked in surprise, not fully believing the Doctor.
"Problem?"
"Doesn't the universe implode or something if you dance?" Kari snorted a little at Rose's comment. All she could think about was that terrible dance that he would be doing in his eleventh regeneration.
Both the Doctor and Rose looked at her. "Something amusing you, Kari?" He asked her.
"Oh, don't mind me. I was just thinking of someone else, and their ridicules dancing." She let out a few more giggles. "Oh, I can't wait until the wedding. That really is going to be fun."
The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "What wedding?"
Kari glared at him. "Not a wedding you need to be concerned about." She couldn't explain why she kept snapping at him so much. She had never acted this way with the other versions of the Doctor, so why was she so spiteful and nasty to him?
He turned away from her and brought his attention back to Rose. "Well, I've got the moves but I wouldn't want to boast." Kari gave another snort but both the Doctor and Rose ignored her.
"You've got the moves? Show me your moves?" Rose said, turning the music up.
"Rose, I'm trying to resonate concrete." The Doctor protested. Ever since Jack had left he had been using his screwdriver on the wall, trying to loosen the bars on the window.
"Jack'll be back. He'll get us out. So come on. The world doesn't end because the Doctor dances." Rose held out her hands, waiting for the Doctor to take them while Kari just made herself comfy in the wheelchair that was now empty.
"Barrage balloon?" The Doctor asked, inspecting Rose's hands.
"What?"
"You were hanging from a barrage balloon." The way he said it, was more of a statement than a question.
"Oh, yeah. About two minutes after you left me. Thousands of feet above London, middle of a German air raid. Union Jack all over my chest." Rose told him.
"I've travelled with a lot of people, but you're setting new records for jeopardy friendly." The Doctor told her, smirking at Kari.
"Is this you dancing?" Kari asked, as he kept inspecting Rose's hands. "Because I've got notes."
He rolled his eyes at her before turning his attention back to Rose. "Hanging from a rope, thousands of feet above London. Not a cut, not a bruise."
"Yeah, well, Captain Jack fixed me up." Rose said as the Doctor let go of her hands and she pretended to inspect her nails.
"Oh, we're calling him Captain Jack now, are we?" The Doctor didn't seem happy that even Rose seemed to be falling for the con man's charms.
"Well, his name's Jack and he's a Captain." Kari told him, trying to find more ways to annoy the Doctor.
"He's not really a Captain, Kari." The Doctor said, turning to face her.
"Do you know what I think? I think you're experiencing Captain envy. You'll find your feet at the end of your legs. You may care to move them." Kari said, as Rose forced the Doctor to dance with her.
"If he ever was a Captain, he's been defrocked." The Doctor said, not paying any attention to his surroundings. Kari, on the other hand, was fully prepared and ready for it.
"Yeah? Shame I missed that." Rose said, as Kari moved away from the dancing couple.
"Actually, I quit. Nobody takes my frock." Jack said, as Kari went and stood by where he was sitting in the captain's chair. "Most people notice when they've been teleported. You guys are so sweet." Kari laughed a little and Jack gave her a wink. "Sorry about the delay. I had to take the nav-com offline to override the teleport security."
"You can spend ten minutes overriding your own protocols. Maybe you should remember who's ship it is." The Doctor said, moving to stand by Kari.
"Oh, I do. She was gorgeous. Not a gorgeous as my Princess." Jack grinned at Kari, causing the Doctor to frown. Kari could have sworn she saw a flash of anger for a moment. "Like I told her, be back in five minutes." He then ducked under the console and got to work.
"This is a Chula ship." The Doctor stated, looking around from where he was standing.
"Yeah, just like that medical transporter. Only this one is dangerous." Kari told him, knowing that Jack was busy and it was easier for her to answer for him.
As Kari predicted, the Doctor snapped his fingers and a golden swarm surrounded his hands.
"They're what fixed my hands up. Kari called them, er…" Rose looked at Kari for help.
"Nanogenes." She said, watching the Doctor closely.
"Sub-atomic robots. There's millions of them in here, see? Burned my hand on the console when we landed. All better now. They activate when the bulk head's sealed. Check you out for damage, fix any physical flaws." He smiled at Kari, he knew he needed to talk to her and find out why she was being so moody with him.
"Jack, once you've got the nav-com back online, we're going to need to see your space junk." Kari said politely.
"Anything for you, Princess. Make yourself comfy." He called as he carried on working under the console.
A/N: And there is another chapter down. Like I said, the poll is still running on my profile as to when Kari should find out this big secret that everyone seems to know about.
Also, don't forget to review and tell me what you think.
Tipper dehavilland, I don't blame you for wanting to hit her on the head. I hope this chapter made you want to hit her some more. You're going to wish she was real so you could strangle her by the time I'm through.
As alway, I love you all because you are all os wonderful. Remember to review, if you want to. Or you can always PM me, I don't mind that. Someone also told me that SnailMail still exists, although I'm not too sure where, but it couldn't hurt to try, right?
Pippa.