A/N: Hello once again guys! We're on time this week, yay for me! Now, go and enjoy.

"Doctor, who's Balavin?" Kari whispered, still shaking in his arms. She knew that it was bad by the way the Doctor was not only gripping onto her, but the way he his face fell when he realised who was there with them.

"A mad man, well, he isn't even that any more, not a man at least." The Doctor told her, speaking loudly so that Balavin could hear him as well. "Now he's just a cloud of gas, full of hot air and nothing more."

"I am so much more than that, Doctor. And soon enough you will find out exactly what I am capable of." Balavin called through the darkened room.

Kari was still waiting for the Doctor to answer her properly. He hadn't really explained exactly who he was, and she just wanted to know what she had done wrong to deserve everything he was throwing at them. "But how does he know me? What have I done wrong?" She mumbled, looking straight into the Doctor's eyes, pleading for him to be truthful with her.

"Go on, Doctor, tell your precious little wife exactly what she wants to know." Balavin hissed at him. "Tell her how I know her, how I know you both. Tell her how she ruined everything, how the Angel of Time destroyed everything I was."

"You done that all by yourself, Balavin. Don't you dare try to blame Kari for any of it. She has done nothing, absolutely nothing. All she ever tried to do was help you, but you were too far gone, to far into the darkness, into the depths of destruction. Kari tried to save you." The Doctor spat, clearly getting angry about what was being said.

"Really, Doctor? Well, of course you would say that. You'd do anything for her, wouldn't you? You would do anything to protect your precious Kari. But you can't protect her from me, Doctor. Oh, no. No one can protect her from what is to come." Balavin told him, before letting his sinister laugh fill the TARDIS once again.

"I can and I will protect her from you." The Doctor spat. "Yes, I would do anything for her, and that means stopping you."

"Well, good luck with that, Doctor. I will get my revenge." A moment later the power in the ship seemed to come back, and everything came to life.

The Doctor kept Kari in his arms for a few minutes longer, his ears straining to hear any sound, anything at all. All either of them could now hear was the light humming of the ship, except it didn't sound all that happy to Kari. She knew the happy hum the TARDIS emitted, and that wasn't it.

"What do we do now, Doctor?" She asked him after a few more silent moments. She really was terrified, but she was doing her best not to let it show any more.

"No point sitting here. I need to get you somewhere safe, somewhere she can protect you while I try to get rid of Balavin." He replied, yet still not making any attempt to move. "Best ship in the universe this is, you know that."

Kari had no idea what was going through the Doctor's mind, she didn't know if he really had a plan or if he was just panicking some more. "Yeah, she is the best. But that… that thing is in here. It managed to get inside the TARDIS. Is anywhere going to be safe in here?"

Suddenly the Doctor's eyes lit up. "Come on. I know the perfect place where she can protect you. The room designed solely for you, the one place where I know she can protect you." He told her, getting himself up from the floor and helping Kari up as well.

"And where's that then, Doctor?" She asked him, as she let him lead her through the winding corridors, her eyes nervously darting everywhere to look for Balavin.

"The one room I can never find if you're not here. The one room with so much protection, that not even I can get in."

That was when it clicked, and Kari knew exactly what room the Doctor was taking her to. "My room. She moves it when I'm not here, so you can't find it."

The Doctor looked at her a smiled a little. "Exactly. The most well protected and shielded room in the TARDIS. She always keeps her defences up when it comes to you and your room. Last time I tried to break in, she decided I needed a good shock and tried to electrocute me. Well, she didn't try, she did."

"So you're going to leave me in my room and then what?" Kari asked him, a little worried that he was going to get himself into more trouble without her there to help him. They had no idea what this thing was capable of, and she didn't want the Doctor to get hurt.

"Well, I draw Balavin away from you, find a way to stop him. Simple really."

Kari just shook her head at him. "No. Not going to happen, Doctor. You can't just lock me in my room and take on this thing alone. It wants me, the whole reason it is here is because of me."

He stopped walking, forcing her to stop as well. "Kari, you don't understand. Balavin is more powerful now than he was when we first met him." The Doctor told her. "He managed to survive and gain a new form, and that's not good. We don't know what he is capable of now, and I'm not risking anything happening to you."

"Then tell me, Doctor. What happened? What did I do to make him this way?" Kari pleaded. He still hadn't answered her on that, and she knew he was deliberately trying to avoid the topic.

"I can't, it's in your future." He told her, knowing that he really couldn't go into the details of what had happened for him and would happen for her. "Please, Kari, just trust me. You will be safe in your room, she can protect you better there while I deal with this."

One again she shook her head at him. "No. I won't let you do this without me. This is my fault, Doctor."

"No, this is not your fault. This will never be your fault. Balavin is dark and twisted, he chose to be this way. Now come on, the longer we're out here, the longer you are in danger." The Doctor told her, before starting to drag her back down the corridor once more.

They made it to her room quickly, the TARDIS helping by shifting the rooms around so that Kari's was closer than it should have been. "Doctor, please let me help you." Kari ended up begging him, hoping that he would change his mind.

All his did was shake his head at her. "No, and that's the end of it. Now, do not open this door. Do you understand? Not even for me. She'll let you know when it's safe. But you stay in here and do not go anywhere. You got it?"

Kari took a deep breath and nodded at him. "I got it. Lock the door, keep it locked, don't open it for anyone, not even you. Wait until she let's me know that it's safe." She said, resigned to being banished to her room while the Doctor solved it all on his own. Kari really just wanted to help him, and not be left on her own. She knew that she would probably be safer in her room, but she felt safer when she had the Doctor with her.

"Good." He told her, before leaning down a little and giving her a quick kiss. Only Kari didn't want to settle for that and quickly wrapped her arms around his neck, forcing him to stay exactly where he was while she kissed him just a little bit more.

"Please be careful, Doctor." She whispered to him when she finally pulled away. "Just please, be careful."

The Doctor couldn't help but chuckle at her a little. "I'm always careful. Don't worry, this will all be over with soon and we can get back to all our adventures."

"Doctor, I… I love you, so come back in one piece, yeah?" She told him, a little nervously. That was the first time she had ever said those words to him, and the situation wasn't exactly how she had imagined telling him either.

"I love you too, Kari. And don't worry, I'll be back with all my appendages still attached." He said, before dropping his arms from around her. "Lock it as soon as I'm out, okay?"

Kari nodded at him and watched him leave the room. There were more tears in her eyes now, and she just felt so helpless. She didn't want to just sit in her room while the Doctor was out there doing something to protect her, she wanted to be right there beside him, helping him.

"Everything's going to be okay, isn't it?" She whispered to no one in particular as she sat down on the edge of her bed. "The Doctor will find a way to stop Balavin, and everything will be fine, won't it?"

There came a slight humming from the ship, the hum of reassurance she had heard so many times. The hum that always made her feel so safe, only she didn't feel safe, not when she knew the Doctor was out there on his own.

The time was passing by so slowly, Kari having nothing better to do than count the minutes ticking by. She had only been sitting there for several minutes and she was already feeling more than just a little anxious. She decided that she needed something to do, anything that would take her mind away from what was going on.

Kari pulled her phone out, browsing through the numbers until she found the one that she wanted. She hit the call key and waited, listening to it ringing in her ear.

"Hey, how's my little Princess?" The voice called on the other end, making her let out a breath of relief. She was just so glad to hear his voice.

"Jack, I'm scared." She told him, not even bothering to say hello.

"Kari, what's happened? Where are you?" Jack asked her in a bit of a panic.

"I'm with the Doctor, before you met him, before Rose started travelling with us." Kari said, her voice a lot quieter than it would usually be when talking to her big brother. "We're in the TARDIS, and there's something else here as well."

"What do you mean, something else?"

She let out a sigh, trying to work out in her head exactly what she was going to tell him. "Well, the Doctor took me dancing, and then we went for dinner. It was amazing, both of them were really. We even went ice skating on a frozen lake, and I managed to stay on my feet for most of it." Kari heard him chuckling a little at the other end of the phone. "Everything was great, everything was fine. We came back to the TARDIS, had a nice cuppa, and then went to bed."

Jack cleared his throat nervously. "And I hope by went to bed you mean separate beds to go to sleep."

Kari didn't know if he was joking or being serious, sometimes it was hard to tell with Jack Harkness. "We both went to sleep, but I was in the Doctor's room. Anyway, forget that, that doesn't matter."

"Oh no, wait a minute, yes it does matter." Jack told her firmly. "So you're sleeping in his bed now, are you?"

She let out a groan, wondering when he became so overprotective and feeling the need to know everything that was going on with her and the Doctor. "Seriously, Jack? You're questioning our sleeping arrangements?"

"I'm you're big brother, of course I am. It's my job, it's what I do." He replied, sounding rather serious.

"No, you're job is to monitor the rift and remain handsome while doing so. Oh, and protecting the Earth and stuff. It is not your job to poke your nose into my sleeping arrangements. It's not the first time I've slept in the Doctor's bed, you know." Kari informed him.

She heard him coughing down the phone, and a mug being slammed onto a table or desk. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

"Jack, I'm engaged to him, you dip stick." She said, rolling her eyes as she did. "And nothing inappropriate has ever happened. Not that it would be any of your business if it did. I don't go around asking you about whose bed you've been in recently. Frankly I really don't want to know, the list would be endless."

He let out a sigh of relief. "Okay, so it's not that early for you then. Why couldn't you have told me that before I started freaking out, huh?" Jack demanded to know. "You made me almost choke on Ianto's coffee, and then I spilt the rest all over my desk. You couldn't have started by telling me how far along you were?"

"Jack, where I sleep and how far along I am isn't the reason why I was calling you." Kari told him, remembering the reason why she was on the phone to him and wanting to talk to him about it all. She was stuck in a room on her own, and just having someone to talk to was better than talking to herself until it was all over.

"I'm sorry. So, the Doctor took you dancing, ice skating and for dinner." He said, recalling what she had already told him. "You went back to the TARDIS, had tea and then went to sleep for the night."

Kari shifted nervously on the bed, the few moments of forgetting what was happening and just being able to relax and speak with him were gone. "I was walking to the console room this morning, and… I… I heard someone calling my name. When I looked, there was nothing there. I shrugged it off, you know, thinking I probably just imagined it or something. But after bumping into the Doctor, he heard it as well." She explained, trying to keep it short and simple. "Something, or someone, snuck in while we were on Elfore, the place where we went for dinner."

"Elfore? Is that the planet where the sky is as red as a ruby?" Jack asked her.

She nodded her head, before realising he couldn't see her. "Yeah, it is. We went to see the Ruby eclipse. Apparently the Doctor and I have been there before, and something happened and now someone called Balavin is out for revenge." Kari told him, before swallowing the lump that was forming in her throat. "On me." She whispered.

"Hey, come on Princess. It's going to be fine. I'm sure the Doctor already has a plan and is working on sorting it all out." Jack assured her. "You know he would do anything to protect you."

"I know, that's why he's got me locked in my room. I feel more like a prisoner now. He's out there facing it on his own, while I'm locked away."

"Your room is the safest place in the TARDIS, and you're my Princess, of course you're going to be locked away from it all." Jack told her, trying to lighten the mood a little. He could tell that she was afraid, and just like the Doctor, he hated it when she was afraid.

She couldn't help but laugh a little at what he had said. "Yeah, the Doctor said this was the safest place for me as well. It would appear the TARDIS is rather protective of me. I can't imagine why."

"You're her Angel, of course she is going to be protective of you." Jack said, making Kari go wide eyes. The TARDIS had called her that before, saying that she was her beautiful Angel.

"What… what did you say?" She stuttered, wanting to know why he had said that to her.

She heard him clearing his throat once more. "Uh, nothing. Doesn't matter."

"No, Jack, it does matter. Why did you say that?"

"You know why I said it. You're her Angel, just like you're my Princess. We may not be blood, but you will always be my annoying little sister. And to her, you will always be…" Kari didn't get to hear anything more from him, as the call was disconnected.

She looked down at her phone, noticing that she no longer had a signal. "So much for universal roaming." She muttered to herself. "Stuck in my room without a signal."

As she got up from her bed to place her phone back in her pocket, the room began to shake violently, almost knocking her off her feet. Her eyes darted around the room, wondering what the hell was going on. The TARDIS hummed, but it wasn't a good hum, it was one that sounded like a warning, like she was fighting with something.

Kari's eyes widened as she backed away and towards her bathroom door. "He's here, isn't he? He's outside of my room." She whispered to herself, both of her hearts pounding in her chest with fear. The thing had managed to find her room, and for all she knew it was trying to break in.

Her phone beeped, signalling that she had a text message. A frown formed on her face as she looked down at it, the screen showing she had one new text, and yet she still had no signal. Kari quickly opened the message, no bothering to check to see who it was from.

'The room is shielded, my Angel. He was trying to break through and I had to move you. I'm sorry if it startled you.' The message read, and straight away she knew who it was from. She may not have any signal now, but the TARDIS was clever enough to still be able to communicate with her.

"What about the Doctor? Is he okay? What's going on out there?" She asked all in one breath, her hand resting on the wall as she spoke to the ship.

She gripped her phone tightly in her hand, eagerly waiting for a reply. It didn't take long for another message to come through for her.

'The Doctor is safe, but he is no closer to ridding us of Balavin.' The TARDIS told her, making her hearts sink a little. She just wanted it all to be over, for her to be with the Doctor and have his arms around her. 'He is very persistent. He is trying to find you once more.'

"I'm sorry. I am so sorry for all of this. This is all my fault." Kari said, the tears once more forming in her eyes. "I'm sorry."

A few seconds later and her phone beeped again.

'You have nothing to be sorry for, my Angel. Do not blame yourself for any of this. I should have stopped him sooner. He should never have been able to get in.'

"No, this is my fault. I've done something to make him this way." Kari said, letting out a long breath. "Please, look after the Doctor. Right now I'm sure your thief needs you more. I'm locked away like a princess in a tower, he's the one out there battling the dragon."

The ship gave out a little hum, letting Kari know that she had heard her and was focusing on the Doctor now. All she wanted was to do something helpful, and not be a burden, but there was nothing she could do but sit there and wait for some more news of what was going on.

At some point, she must have drifted off, as she woke up when she heard voices outside of her room. As she tried to shake off the haze that was lingering in her mind, she forced herself off her bed and over towards the door.

"Doctor, when are you going to tell her?" A familiar female voice said on the other side of the door.

"The next time she is here, I promise." Kari frowned as she heard the voice of the Doctor, but not the Doctor she was meant to be with. This was the voice of her Converse and suit wearing Doctor, and she knew that wasn't right.

"Really? You really promise, Doctor? Because I can't keep doing this. I want you, and every time she shows up, you push me away." There was a hint of sadness in the woman's voice, and it just made Kari all the more curious.

"I promise you, Rose. The next time Kari is here, I will tell her. She can pack her bags and go. I don't want her here any more than you do." The Doctor said. "I knew I wanted to be with you from the moment we first met. The moment I held your hand in mine and told you to run, I knew straight away that there was something special about you."

Kari was standing there, her eyes wide and a huge lump in her throat. She was listening to the Doctor, her Doctor, telling Rose that she meant nothing to him, that he didn't want her, but Rose instead.

"I know, I felt it too. There was just a spark, wasn't there, Doctor?" She heard Rose, her so called friend, say. "But there was always Kari. She was always there, always with you. I felt like I never stood a chance against her."

"She is nothing, Rose, nothing. You are so much more than anything she could ever be. You're beautiful, smart, caring. Kari is selfish, she always has been. I don't even know why I've put up with her for so long. She always thinks she knows best, always has to be right about everything. She always has to put everyone else down. But not you. No. Not my Rose."

Kari could now feel tears streaming down her face. "No… the Doctor wouldn't do that. I know he wouldn't. This isn't real, it can't be." She whispered to herself, her ear now pressed against the door as she listening, trying to hear something in the now silent corridor.

After a minute or so she heard Rose giggling like a school girl. "What are you going to say to her then?" The woman asked.

"The truth. That even though you're human, you are so much more than she could ever be. That you are the woman that stole my hearts, and the one I want to be with until the end of time." Kari had to put a hand over her mouth to stop a sob from escaping.

"I love you, Doctor."

"And I love you, Rose Tyler." Kari heard the Doctor say, causing her chest to ache and her legs to give way. "Come on, I think it's time we went to bed."

Once again she heard Rose giggling. "Oh, really, Doctor?"

"Oh yes."

Kari curled herself up into a ball on the floor of her room next to the door, the tears running freely down her burning cheeks as she cried. She just couldn't believe what she had just heard, the Doctor telling Rose that he loved her, that they were going to be together. She didn't want to believe it, but she knew she wasn't dreaming.

"Why, Doctor? Why would you do that?" She choked out between her sobs. It felt like someone had ripped both of her hearts out, and stomped all over them. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, and she wanted nothing more than for it to go away, or for her to wake up and realise that it was all just a dream.

But the shaking of the room proved it wasn't a dream. She was wide awake and had just had her hearts broken by what she had heard. She remembered asking the Doctor point blank what was going on with him and Rose, and he had said nothing. All she could think about now was how much he had lied to her.

Kari had honestly believed that the Doctor cared about her, that he loved her, but now she wasn't so sure. She knew that if she hadn't come along, the Doctor would have fallen for Rose, and now that was happening even with her there. She didn't want it to hurt so much, but it did.

"No, the Doctor wouldn't do that. And Rose is my friend, we're… we're like sisters, she's my little sister." Kari whispered, trying to hard to get herself under control and to stop crying. "He wouldn't do that. The Doctor wouldn't do that."

She managed to push herself up off the floor and stumble over to her bed. Kari threw herself face down on it, her sobbing now a little harder. In her head she kept replaying the conversation she had just listened to, trying to find fault with it, anything that would tell her he hadn't meant what he had said.

Kari was so preoccupied with her crying, that she failed to notice that someone was knocking rather loudly on her door.

"Kari? You okay in there?" She barely heard a voice call to her. "Kari? Can you please answer me?" Once again she just ignored it. She didn't want to see the Doctor, she didn't even want to speak with him after what she had just found out. "Kari, please. Can you just let me know that you're okay?"

She sat up on her bed and wiped her eyes fiercely before glaring at the door. "Go away Doctor. Just keep the hell away from me." She shouted through the closed door.

"Kari, what's wrong?" The man who she would have once called her leather wearing Doctor called back to her.

"Go away. Just go away and leave me alone." Kari shouted.

"Open the door, Kari." The Doctor said suddenly. "You need to open the door now and let me in."

Kari just laughed at his request. "Yeah, because I'm stupid, aren't I? I'm just going to open the door and let you in when all I want is for you to leave me alone." She said, laughing a little more. "Do you really think I'm that stupid? I mean, I know I've been stupid enough by believing everything you've said, but not anymore."

"Kari, what are you talking about? I have never though that you were stupid, why would you even say that?" The Doctor asked her, clearly worried and concerned but not sure of how he could get through to her. "You really need to tell me what's happened. Something's happened, so please, just tell me what it was."

She started shaking her head, as the tears began to reform in her eyes once more. They were already red and puffy, but Kari didn't really care. "No. You're going to leave me alone. So just go away and leave me alone!" She screamed, feeling her temper flaring.

She placed her hands on the floor, closing her eyes tightly. Kari felt all the energy from the time vortex that was building start to flow out of her hands. All she wanted was to be away from the Doctor, anywhere that he wasn't.

After a few moments, it felt like the room was spinning, making Kari refuse to open her eyes. She was worried that if she did open them, she was going to be sick. She knew that she was feeling even more anxious than she had been when finding out there was something out there that wanted revenge on her.

She had to take a few deep breaths to try and calm herself down. Everywhere was starting to ache now, her head, her legs, her chest. Everywhere. The moment she opened her eyes, the flood from her eyes started once again, and she just couldn't stop it.

There was a loud crashing sound coming from outside of her room, grabbing her attention. She recognised the sound slightly, and a frown slowly formed on her face. "Well, hello, sweetie." Kari heard from outside.

She had a very bad feeling about what was going to happen next, after what she had already heard from the Doctor and Rose. "River, I wasn't expecting you." Kari heard the bow tie wearing Doctor say. She couldn't help but notice that he sounded really rather happy to see the other woman.

"I thought I would come and surprise you. I take it we're alone?" River asked, a seductive tone to her voice.

"Even if we weren't, you wouldn't care, would you, Doctor Song?" He replied, making the other woman giggle.

"Oh, it's always more fun that way." River told him, causing Kari's chest to tighten once again. "Shall I assume that the little harlot isn't around at the moment?"

She heard the Doctor let out a small sigh outside of her room. "River, I know you don't like her, but there is no reason to keep calling Kari things like that. You know she isn't a harlot, she's just… Kari."

"Well, whatever she is, she is always getting in my way." River told him. "The way she always looks at my husband. Oh, she makes me so sick. Thinking that she owns you, that you actually care about her. She really needs to get over it."

Kari was just stood there frozen. "No… not again. Not River as well."

"She has no where else to go, River."

"Yes she does. Just send her to that brother of hers. Let him deal with her and her massive ego." Kari didn't know what was going on or why everyone was saying so many nasty things about her, but it was really hurting her.

"He's not her brother anymore. Don't you remember, River? He disowned her, he wants nothing to do with her. And who can blame him really after the way she is. I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did." The Doctor told her, just making Kari feel even worse.

It seemed that everyone had something horrible to say about her. Rose and River both didn't like her, it seemed that they couldn't stand her. Apparently Jack didn't want anything to do with her, and the Doctor, well she just didn't know what to think of that.

"Hmm, well maybe she will soon get the message and stop showing up here." River told him. "Now, there was a reason I came here, Doctor. I came to see my husband, not to talk about the wench that wants to take him away form me."

"Oh, really? Have you been a bad girl, Doctor Song? Because you know I can't resist a bad girl. That's one of the reasons why I married you." The Doctor said. "Why you are my wife and not Kari."

By now, Kari was a complete mess, crumpled on the floor, hugging her legs tightly against her chest. Her hearts hadn't just been broken, they were now completely shattered into thousands of pieces. If there was anything in the universe that she wished she could forget, she wished everything that had happened over the past few hours wasn't true.

She wanted to forget that the Doctor was in love with Rose and not her. She didn't want to hear River calling her a harlot and the Doctor calling her his wife. She wanted her big brother Jack back. She wanted her friends back, and she wanted her Doctor back.

A/N: Well I hope you all enjoyed it, the next chapter is written and ready for posting. I was on a roll and managed to knock out quite a few chapters for this, and one of my Merlin stories as well.

Yes, I am still planning on the doing the Classic Series as well, but it's not ready yet, and I'm too busy with uni to start posting it yet. But yes, eventually I am going to be posting the Classic series with Doctor's 1-8 in them.

Big thank you to everyone who has now favourited/followed the story. I'm glad you all like my work so much. And an absolutely massive thank you to everyone who has taken the time to review. I love you guys so much.

So please, keep reviewing and letting my know what you think. Also, there is another (yes, another) poll on my profile regarding this story, please check it out.

Catch you all later!

Pippa.