Disclaimer: You guys know the drill.
A/N: I am really sorry for the seriously late update. Been trying to get on with my Uni work. But enough of that, here's the next chapter.
Kari went and sat herself down on the bed that Rose had been passed out on earlier. As expected, the Doctor followed her and sat down beside her.
"So, something tells me that you are still in a bad mood. Especially with me." The Doctor was nervous, and Kari could sense it.
"Yes, I am." Kari snapped. "Sorry. Been a rough week or so."
"Want to tell me about it?" He asked, putting an arm around her, hoping that she would calm down and relax a little with him.
"Where do you want me to start? It's been pretty much nonstop running with you. Before I ended up here, I was hoping to get some sleep, but that never happened. Struggling to remember when I actually did last sleep properly." She told him, leaning into his hold a little.
"What else?" Kari just looked at him blankly. "I know you, Kari, and I know there is more to it than what you're telling me."
She let out a sigh. "I'm just so fed up with everyone knowing something that I don't. I thought you were going to tell me, and this is future you, by the way, but you changed your mind."
"But I do tell you. In the future, I will tell you." He promised her. "I know I do, because you told me."
"And until then I have to keep going around, not knowing. I mean, I know a lot of things, but this seems to be something rather big, something that is altering the timelines that I know." She could feel the tears building in her eyes. All she wanted to do was go to sleep, get some rest and forget everything that was going on.
"I'm sorry. I keep forgetting how early this is for you." He said, holding her a little tighter.
"Can… Can I ask you something?" Kari said nervously.
"Course you can."
Kari bit her lip, trying to find the best way to ask him. "You and Rose… what's going on there?"
The Doctor frowned at her before letting out a sigh. "This is how I know it's too early. There is nothing going on with Rose. You and her are like sisters, always plotting against me. But I can promise you, there is nothing between me and Rose." He insisted.
His answer just made Kari even more confused and worried. She knew he was meant to be with Rose, just as later he would be with River, but from what he was saying now, and what River told her back on the Byzantium, that wasn't right.
"But do you want there to be something with Rose?" Kari asked him quietly. She didn't want to admit it, but she was afraid of his answer. If he said no, then she knew her being there had seriously altered the timelines she knew. And if he said yes, well she didn't actually want to think about it.
"Kari, why are you even asking me that? I thought you knew me?" She didn't answer him, she just kept her gaze focused on the ground. "Kari, there has only ever been one person for me, and there only ever will be."
She didn't know what to think of that. It wasn't exactly an answer, and she couldn't work anything out from it. She knew she was fighting a losing battle with him now, he wasn't going to give anything away to her.
"Now, are you going to keep being in a mood with me or are you going to cheer up?" The Doctor asked her, noticing her silence.
"Well, I suppose, since this will soon be over, I might as well at least try to be nice to you." Kari said, nudging him a little.
The Doctor smiled at her. "That's more like it."
They both drew their attention to the conversation Rose and Jack were having. "So, you used to be a Time Agent, now you're trying to con them?" Rose asked.
"If it makes me sound any better, it's not for the money." Jack told her, still working away.
"For what?"
"Woke up one day when I was still working for them, found they'd stolen two years of my memories. I'd like them back." Jack told her.
"They stole your memories?" Rose asked in disbelief.
Jack let out a sigh. "Two years of my life. No idea what I did. Your friend over there doesn't trust me." He nodded towards the Doctor. "And for all I know, he's right not to."
"Oi, Harkness." Kari called, getting his and the others attention. "Just for future reference, I trust you, even if no one else does."
Jack smiled at her, he knew she was being truthful and that he could trust her as well. "Okay, we're good to go. Crash site?" He asked, as the computer on the console started bleeping.
Kari got up from the bed and stood next to Jack as he piloted the ship across London. He glanced over at her and gave her a smile. "Thanks. For trusting me." He said quietly.
"No need to thank me. Like I said, I know your future, going from that, I think it's safe for me to trust you." Kari was smiling away at him.
"You know, I'm really looking forward to meeting you in the future." Jack told her.
"Well of course you are. Why wouldn't you? I'm looking forward to it as well." She said, not really thinking about what was coming out of her mouth.
Jack frowned at her. "What do you mean? You're looking forward to it as well? I thought you were from my future?"
Kari put a hand to her face and let out a sigh. "It's seriously complicated. My timeline isn't straight, I just randomly pop up whenever and wherever. This is the first time I'm meeting you, but I know what happens in your future." She explained to Jack, as best she could.
"Okay. That does sound complicated."
Kari let out a little laugh. "Yeah, it really is. I'm still struggling to understand half of it myself." She let her eyes wander so that she was gazing out of the window. "Never thought I'd see this for real. I don't know if I should be amazed or scared." She admitted to Jack.
"No need to be scared while I'm around, Princess." Jack said, flashing Kari a huge grin. "I'll look after you."
"Oh, I bet you will, Jack. You are such a flirt." She whacked him lightly on the arm before turning around to look at the Doctor.
Rose was now sitting down next to him, and they were whispering to each other. It looked like they were having a very serious conversation. Kari watched them for a few more moments before they spotted her looking. They immediately stopped talking and smiled at Kari.
"Talking about me again?" Kari asked, folding her arms across her chest. The both shifted a little under her stare. "I shall take that as a yes then. Can I also assume that it's something I will find out about in the future?"
"Yes." The Doctor said, grinning at her.
"Well, we're here. Shall we?" Jack asked, before teleporting them all out from his ship.
The group marched through Limehouse Green station to get closer to the bomb site. For the first time, Kari was holding the Doctor's hand happily and not being dragged around. She had a small smile on her face, which the Doctor had noticed.
"There it is. Hey, they've got Algy on duty. It must be important." Jack said, looking down at the guards around the bomb site entrance.
"We've got to get past him."
"Good job at pointing out the obvious, Doctor." Kari said, rolling her eyes.
"Are the words 'distract the guard' heading in my general direction?" Rose asked, making Kari laugh a little. Jack also had smirk on his face.
"I don't think that'd be such a good idea, Rose." Kari said, resting a hand on her friends arm.
"Don't worry, I can handle it." Rose protested.
"I've got to know Algy quite well since I've been in town. Trust me, you're not his type. I'll distract him." Jack said before starting to walk towards the bomb site. "Don't wait up." He said, sending Kari a wink.
"Relax, he's a 51st century guy. He's just a bit more flexible when it comes to… dancing." Kari told Rose, grinning away.
"How flexible?"
The Doctor looked at Rose with a slight grin as well. "Well, by his time, you lot have spread out across half the galaxy."
"Meaning?"
Kari and the Doctor looked at each other, both with the same look in their eyes. "So many species, so little time." They both said together, sending them off into a small fit of laughter.
"What, that's what we do when we get out there? That's our mission? We seek new life and… and…"
"Dance." Kari and the Doctor said in unison again. They just broke out in more laughter.
"Oh, Doctor. Did you have to set her off?" Rose moaned.
"Stop being so miserable, Rose." Kari said in between her laughs. Her laughing ceased sharply when she looked over at Jack standing with Algy. "And that's our cue." She called, dragging the Doctor down towards the bomb site entrance.
They made it to Jack just as Algy completely transformed. His face turned into a gas mask. "Stay back!" Kari shouted, holding her arms out to make the other guards move away.
"You men, stay away." She heard Jack shout.
"The effect's become airborne, accelerating." The Doctor was getting more and more worried now. It didn't help with the air raid siren started blaring.
"What's keeping us safe?" Rose asked in a panic.
"Nothing at all." Kari told her. "And here come the Germans."
"All we need." Rose said, started to feel slightly nervous as well. "Didn't you say a bomb was going to land here?" She asked Jack.
"Never mind about that. If the contaminants airborne now, there's hours left." The Doctor told them, looking around the site.
"For what?" Jack asked in confusions.
"Till nothing, forever. For the entire human race." Kari told him before looking over to one of the large storage sheds. "And can anyone else here singing?" She asked before running off, the Doctor right behind her.
The Doctor managed to dart past her and open the wooden door. Inside there was a girl, singing to someone who now had a gas mask fused to their face. The Doctor signalled for her to keep singing as he slowly crept forward, pulling out his sonic screwdriver. A few seconds later she was free from the handcuffs keeping her attached to the table and they were all slowly walking back outside.
"You're safe now, Nancy." Kari told her, leading her over to the crashed space junk.
Jack and the Doctor threw back the cover that had been put over the junk. "You see? Just an ambulance." Jack said, walking around it and to the control panel.
"That's an ambulance?" Nancy asked in shock.
"It's hard to explain. It's from another world." Rose explained to her, her arm around the young woman.
"They've been trying to get in." Jack said, working on the keypad.
"Of course they have, Jack. They think they've got their hands on Hitler's latest secret weapon." Kari told him, standing by him and the Doctor.
"What are you doing?" The Doctor asked Jack.
"The sooner you see this thing is empty, the sooner you'll know I had nothing to do with it." The keypad he had been working on sparked and an alarm started going off. "Didn't happen last time."
"Jack, it hadn't crashed last time. There'll be emergency protocols." Kari told him. She was going to stay calm, because she knew how the day was going to end.
"Doctor, what is that?" Rose asked, the alarm still blaring from the ship. Then she spotted gas mask people approaching from the hospital. "Doctor!"
"Captain, secure those gates!" The Doctor ordered.
"Why?"
Kari glared at him. "Just do it." She growled, making him move quickly. "Nancy, you cut the fence right?" Nancy nodded as Kari pulled the Doctor sonic screwdriver out of his jacket pocket. "Show Rose. Setting 2428-D. Reattaches barbed wire. Now shift!"
Once they were both gone she turned to the Doctor. "Right, let's get this over with. Have you worked out what was in there yet?" Kari asked, nodding to the ship.
"I've got an idea. I take it you already know?" Kari nodded at him. "You and your all knowing power."
"You'd be completely lost without me, and you know that." She told him, a smug grin on her face.
"I'd have a much more peaceful life, more like." Kari glared at him and immediately he relented. "Oh, all right. My life would be a lot more boring without you in it." He said, hugging her.
Jack came rushing back over and got straight to work with trying to open the ambulance again. Soon enough he had it open. "It's empty. Look at it." Rose and Nancy also returned.
"What do you expect from a Chula medical transporter? Bandages? Cough drops?" The Doctor asked sarcastically. "Rose?"
"I don't know."
"Yes, you do." Kari said, turning her hands over and showing Rose the palms of her hands, hoping she would get the message.
Rose's eyes widened. "Nanogenes!" Kari beamed at her proudly.
"It wasn't empty, Captain. There was enough nanogenes in there to rebuild a species." The Doctor spat.
"Oh, God." Jack said in realisation of what he had caused. Kari looked at him sadly, she knew he never meant for any of this to happen, and she knows he proves himself later.
"Getting it now, are we? When the ship crashes, the nanogene escape. Billions upon billions of them. Ready to fix all the cuts and bruises in the whole world." The Doctor explained to everyone.
"But what they find first is a dead child. Probably killed earlier that night. And wearing a gas mask." Kari added, looking at Nancy.
"And they brought him back to life? They can do that?" Roes wondered.
"What's life? Life's easy. A quirk of matter. Nature's way of keeping meat fresh. Nothing to a nanogene. One problem though. These nanogenes, they're not like the ones on your ship. This lot have never see a human being before. Don't know what a human being's supposed to look like." The Doctor glared at Jack, it was going to take a lot for him to be able to forgive the man.
"All they've got is one little body, and there's not a lot left. But they carry right on. They do what they're programmed to, they patch it up. Can't tell what's gas mask and what's skull, but they do their best. And then off they fly, off they go, work to be done. 'Cause you see, now they thing they know what people should look like. And it's time to fix all the rest. And they won't ever stop. They won't ever, ever stop. The entire human race is gonna be torn down and rebuilt in the form of one terrified child looking for it mother. And nothing in the world can stop it!"
"I didn't know." Jack called in protest.
"I know you didn't, Jack." Kari said, trying to help ease his guilt. "But, maybe you should be a bit more careful with space junk. You know, make sure it really is junk. Or, better still, turn over a new leaf and stop being a con man."
He let out a sigh as the Doctor worked on the ship, trying to stop the alarm. "Yeah, perhaps you're right."
"Oh, I know I'm right. You're better than this, Jack Harkness. Remember that." Kari told him, giving him her best smile.
"It's bringing the gas mask people here, isn't it?" Rose asked, still in a bit of a panic.
"The ship thinks it's under attack. It's calling up the troops. Standard protocol." The Doctor told her.
"But the gas mask people aren't troops." Rose protested.
"They are now." Kari told her. "This is a battlefield ambulance. The nanogenes don't just fix you up, they get you ready for the front line. Equip you, programme you."
"That's why the child is so strong? Why it could do that phoning thing?" Rose asked.
"It's a fully equipped Chula warrior. All that weapons tech in the hands of a hysterical 4 year old. Just looking for his mummy. And now there's an army of them." Kari said, watching Nancy the whole time.
The gas mask people had been slowly advancing on them, surrounding them. "Why aren't they attacking?" Jack asked, noticing their now lack of movement.
"Good little soldiers. Waiting for their commander." The Doctor told him.
Jack's eyes widened. "The child?"
"Jamie." Kari and Nancy said together.
"What?" Jack asked in confusion, he was also a little freaked out by the way Kari and Nancy spoke at the same time.
"Not the child. Jamie." Nancy told him, her eyes starting to fill with tears.
Rose looked around them nervously. "So, how long until the bomb falls?"
"Any second." Jack answered nervously.
"What's the matter, Captain? A bit close to the volcano for you?" the doctor asked him bitterly.
"He's just a little boy." Nancy cried. "He's just a little boy who wants his mummy."
"I know." Kari said softly. "There isn't a little boy born who wouldn't tear the world apart to save his mummy. And this little boy can."
"So what're we going to do?" Rose asked, the fear rising inside her even more. The bomb was getting closer, as was the child and the gas mask army.
"I don't know." The Doctor said, looking to Kari for help. She just bit her lip and looked down at the ground.
"It's all my fault." Nancy said, tears starting to stream from her eyes. "It's all my fault."
The Doctor looked at her. "How can it be you…"
The patients from the hospital were beginning to call for their mummy again. Kari couldn't take it anymore and decided she was going to end it. "Nancy, what age are you? 20, 21? Older then you look, yeah?" She asked her softly.
"Doctor, that bomb. We've got seconds." Jack said, panicking.
"You can teleport us out." Rose suggested.
"Not us. The nav-com's back online and it's going to take too long to override the protocols." Kari said, not taking her eyes off Nancy.
"So, it's volcano day. Do what you've got to do." The Doctor told him. Kari risked a quick look at Jack out of the corner of her eye. He was looking at her just before he teleported back to his ship.
She shook her head and put all her attention back on Nancy. "5 years ago, you'd have been, what? 15? 16? Old enough to give birth anyway. He wasn't your brother was he?"
The tears were flowing freely now, yet she wasn't making a sound. "So you hid. You lied. You even lied to him." Kari said, just as the gates opened and Jamie stood there.
"Are you my mummy?"
"He's going to keep asking, Nancy. He is never going to stop." Kari told her, holding both of her hands. "Tell him. Nancy, the future of the human race is in your hands. Trust me and tell him."
Nancy nodded at Kari and walked over to the little boy standing there, calling for his mummy. "Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy?" He asked.
"Yes. Yes, I am your mummy." Nancy told him, kneeling in front of him.
"Mummy?"
"I'm here." Nancy told him. All he kept doing was calling for his mummy.
"He doesn't understand. There's not enough of him left." The Doctor sighed.
Kari slipped her hand into his. "Oh, don't give up hope just yet. We're still alive, there's still hope." The Doctor smiled at her, glad to see that she still had hope.
"I am your mummy. I will always be your mummy. I'm so sorry. I am so, so sorry." She said, wrapping her arms around him and embracing him in a tight hug. That's when a golden light surrounded them, the swarm of nanogenes.
"What's happening? It's changing her, we should…" Kari held her arm out and stopped Rose for moving forward any more.
"Shush. Come on, please. Come on, you cleaver little nanogenes. Figure it out. The mother, she's the mother. It's got to be enough information. Figure it out." The Doctor pleaded, gripping Kari's hand tighter and tighter.
"What's happening?" Rose asked, not following what the Doctor was saying.
"Recognising the same DNA." Kari whispered, watching as Nancy fell to her knees and let go of Jamie.
The Doctor let go of Kari and rushed over to the little boy. "Oh, come on. Give me a day like this. Give me this one." He said, before attempting to take the gas mask off. It came off with ease. "Ha ha! Welcome back. 20 years till pop music. You're going to love it." He said, picking the boy up.
"What happened?" Nancy asked, looking at Jamie.
"The nanogenes recognised the superior information, the parent DNA. They didn't change you, because you changed them. Mother knows best." Kari said, having joined where they were all standing.
"Doctor, that bomb." Rose exclaimed, only just remembering about it.
"Taken care of it."
Rose looked at him in confusion. "How?"
"Psychology." He said, just as the bomb started propelling towards them.
There was a bright light and suddenly Jack was sitting on top of the bomb. "Doctor!"
The Doctor looked at him, beaming away. "Good lad."
"The bomb's already commenced detonation. I've put it in stasis, but it won't last long." Jack called from where he was hanging in the air on the bomb.
"Change of plan. Don't need the bomb. Can you get rid of it, safely as you can?" The Doctor asked him.
"Rose?" She looked up at Jack. "Goodbye."
"Kari?" Jack called, making her look up at him. "Guess I'll never be the man you knew."
"Oh, shut up, Jack. I'll see you again." She called up to him. "It's not that easy to get rid of you, trust me." She winked at him.
Jack let out a small laugh. "Goodbye, Princess." He said, before both he and the bomb disappeared.
She turned her attention back to the Doctor. "Right, come on you. Time to give these nanogenes a software patch." She watched as the Doctor done as she told him, all the time she was running through what Jack would now be going through on his ship.
"Everybody lives, Rose. Just this once, everybody lives." The Doctor cried, watching as all the patients and everyone else who was affected turn back to their human selves.
Kari walked away a little as the Doctor talked to Dr Constantine. She wasn't interested in their conversation. All she could think about was Jack, and what he was now doing. She was playing it all in her head, every moment of it.
"Right, you lot. Lots to do. Beat the Germans, save the world. Don't forget the welfare state." The Doctor called before turning back to the ship with the alarm still blaring. "Setting this to self-destruct, soon as everybody's clear. History says there was an explosion here. Who am I to argue with history?"
"Usually the first in line." Kari and Rose said together, making them both laugh.
"Do you know how annoying it is when you do that?" The Doctor said, pretending to be annoyed.
"Oh, you love it really." Kari said, grabbing hold of his hand again. "Come on then, TARDIS!" She said, taking Rose's hand as well and dragging them both back as fast as she could.
Once they were inside the Doctor started darting around the console. "The nanogenes will clean up the mess and switch themselves off, because I just told them to. Nancy and Jamie will go to Dr Constantine for help, ditto. All in all, all things considered, fantastic!" He exclaimed.
"Look at you, beaming away like you're Father Christmas." Rose said happily.
"And who says he's not?" Kari said, grinning away. So far, her head wasn't hurting, she was going to be staying for a little bit longer it seemed.
"Red bicycle when you were twelve." The Doctor added, stunning Rose. "And everybody lives, Rose. Everybody lives. I need more days like this."
Rose looked at Kari, her eyes seemed to be glazed over. "Doctor…"
"Go on, ask me anything. I'm on fire." He said, still on a high.
"What about Jack? Why'd he said goodbye?" Rose asked him, hoping that his answer wasn't what she was thinking.
Kari shook her head and clapped her hands together. "Can't get rid of Captain Harkness that easily." She said, smiling away.
"Kari, time can be rewr…" The Doctor started, but Kari was quick to interrupt him.
"Don't you dare finish that sentence, Doctor." She spat at him. "We are going to save Jack."
"Kari, I'm sorry. It's too late. We can't." He told her softly.
"Doctor, we are going to get him. The TARDIS is going to materialise on his ship, and he is going to walk right in here. Alive and well." She told him firmly as she walked up to the console.
"It's too late. We can't do anything. I'm sorry, Kari."
Kari turned and glared at him, her eyes burning brightly gold. "If you won't save him then I will." She said, before dashing around the console and pulling the final lever.
The Doctor and Rose just stood there in shock as the TARDIS engines started up. "When did you learn to fly the TARDIS?" The Doctor finally asked her as the engines stopped.
"About a minute ago." She told him, grabbing something from below the console before running to the doors. Before she reached them, Moonlight Serenade started playing in the TARDIS. "Rose, teach him how to dance. I'll be back in a moment."
Kari pulled the door open and let the sound of the music float through Jack's ship. He turned and faced her, confusion all over his face. "What is that? A martini? Oh, I think I have something much better." She pulled the bottle from behind her. "Champagne?"
Jack got up from his chair and rushed over to her. "You've got good taste." He said, inspecting the bottle.
"Don't you know it." She winked at him before heading back inside the TARDIS. "Well, hurry up then." She called, making him follow her inside.
"Okay. And right and turn. Okay, okay, try and spin me again, but this time don't get my arm up my back. No extra points for a half nelson." Rose exclaimed.
Kari couldn't help but laugh. "Not easy trying to teach him how to dance, is it Rose?"
"I'm sure I used to know this stuff." The Doctor said before looking at Jack. "Close the door, will you. Your ship's about to blow up. There's going to be a draught." Jack quickly shut the door and Kari poured out the champagne.
"Welcome to the TARDIS." She said, handing a glass to Jack.
"Much bigger on the inside." He commented, looking around the room.
"You'd better be." The Doctor called from where Rose was still trying and failing to get him to dance.
"Best thing to do, ignore him. I do it all the time." Kari told him, rising her glass up. Jack took the hint and knocked his against hers.
"Rose, I've just remembered." The Doctor called, making Rose turn to stare at him. "I can dance. I can dance!" He cried as the music changed to something more upbeat.
Kari and Jack watched as Rose and the Doctor danced. "Told you it wasn't that easy to get rid of you." Kari said, leaning against the railing.
"Know from experience do you?" Jack asked, watching her closely.
"Well, obviously. Oh, the things I know. But, I am not going to tell you any of them. I'm going to make you suffer and have to live through it all." She was grinning away. Her head still wasn't hurting, and to make things even better for her, she now knew how to fly the TARDIS.
She was finally feeling more relaxed and comfortable. She knew she had started off on the wrong foot with the Doctor, and she knew that she would have to apologise for it later, but right now, everything was fine.
A/N: Again, sorry for how long it has been since updating. Anyway, the poll is still going to be open for only a few more days. So if you haven't checked it out, please do.
As always, review if you want to, or PM me. I always like to hear your thoughts and opinions (Just don't make me cry too much).
A big thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favourited/followed, it really does mean a lot.
Pippa.