A/N: Hello all my lovely readers! And welcome my lovely new readers! I have read this through several times over, but I know there is something I missed, so apologies once more for any spelling or grammatical errors that you may come across and wish to slaughter me for. I really hope you like this chapter!
The Doctor hadn't bothered to find Jack and Amy, instead he had just aimlessly wandered around, worrying about Kari. Ever since he had left her, he had a bad feeling washing over him. He knew that was what she wanted, to be left alone with her own thoughts, but he wasn't sure that was the best thing to have done.
"Doctor!" A Scottish voice called to him, causing him to look up.
He saw Amy and Jack, both holding onto each other for support, and laughing away as thy stumbled through the crowd and over to him. "Where's Kari?" Jack asked him straight away, a frown in his face.
"Oh, uh, she's back in the TARDIS. She, uh… she wasn't feeling all that great." The Doctor had just told them one great big lie, and he knew it was going to come back and bite him soon enough. "So, come on then, what have you two been up to?" He knew he had to try his best to be cheerful, to make out that everything was okay. Amy was good a seeing through the fronts he put up sometimes, but Jack knew him even better, especially when it came to Kari.
"We've been on anything that makes you spin. Seriously, how many different rides are there in this place?" Amy asked him, looking around some more. She had been thoroughly enjoying herself, it wasn't just all the rides and carnival food, it was the company she had as well. She got on well with Kari's big brother, and Amy liked hanging out with him.
That was when the Doctor went into one of his great big history lessons, explain to Amy all about the different rides, walking amongst the crowd and throwing all his knowledge about how they worked, who came up with the idea and why people love them so much.
But that bad feeling that the Doctor had was now settling in with Jack as well. Something didn't feel right to him, but he just couldn't put his finger on it. "Uh, I'm just going to give Kari a call." He told them, pulling his phone out from his pocket. "Check she's okay and see if she wants to come meet up with us now." With the touch of a button, he was calling her.
Jack pressed the phone to his ear and listened. Silence. He moved the device away from his ear and looked at the screen, just to make sure he had actually called her. The name on the screen said Kari, so he was a little confused. He put it back to his ear and listened, before the call was dropped completely.
The Doctor had seen the bemused look on his face, and he knew something wasn't right. "Jack, what's wrong?" He asked, trying not to let his worry seep into his voice.
"Uh, call wouldn't go through. Must be something wrong with my phone. Hey, Red, give Kari a call." Amy nodded at him and pulled her own phone out.
She scrolled through and hit the call key. Just like Jack, she placed the small electronic device against her ear and listened. And just like Jack, she heard nothing. There was no ringing on the other end, no beeps, no tones at all, just silence. "Uh, I… I don't think it's working either."
Her phone was snatched out of her hand, and she glanced over to see that the Doctor now had it in his hands, his sonic screwdriver in the other. The end of it lit up green and made a whirring noise. "There's nothing wrong with the phone. Watch." A few seconds later, and Jack's phone was ringing. "See, both working fine. I'll call the TARDIS instead, she might have just left it in her room or something." He didn't actually believe that, but it was the only thing he could think of.
The Doctor now had Amy's phone pressed against his ear. One ring. Two rings. Three rings. A frown formed upon his face. Four rings. Five rings, and still no answer. Now the panic was rising inside of him. He carried on listening, eight rings. Nine rings.
By now Amy and Jack had noticed the change in the way the Doctor was standing. He had been rather relaxed, but now they could see his whole body tensing. "Doc, what's wrong?" Jack finally asked him, just knowing that it was something bad.
"Twelve rings and no answer. That's… that's not right." Inside he was trying to keep himself calm, because he knew that the more he panicked, the worse of a state he was going to get himself into.
As soon as the Doctor said that, Jack had flipped open the cover on the device on his wrist. "Good job I got this with me then." He started pressing the buttons, doing something that only the Doctor would understand.
"What is that thing?" The red head asked, looking over at the thing on his wrist.
"Vortex manipulator. Used to be a time agent, back in the old days." He wasn't going to go into it any more then that. Back in the old days meant back in the days before Kari, and he didn't like to think about those days, because there was a lot back there that he wasn't so proud of.
"Jack, what are you doing?" The Doctor asked, finally coming out of his own little world full of panic.
The man just kept his eyes stuck on his device. "Finding out where my Princess is." A few seconds later and several bleeps came from the device. "So, you're sure she's in the TARDIS, Doctor?"
He nodded. "Of course she is, that's where she said she was going."
"And you haven't moved the TARDIS since we got here?" The Doctor shook his head. He hadn't even been back to the TARDIS himself, he had let Kari going off on her own, now he was seriously regretting it. "Well, either Kari's moved it, or she isn't there."
He didn't wait for a response from the other two, Jack was running in the direction where they had left the TARDIS. The Doctor and Amy were quick to catch up to him, Amy struggling a little more to keep up than the Doctor was. They headed around the corner, and the Doctor could feel both his hearts pounding in his chest.
The blue box stood there, the blue box that was his home, Kari's home. It was still in exactly the same place, so that left the other option, Kari wasn't there. "Where is she, Jack?" The Doctor asked, spinning around and facing the man.
"Uh, somewhere south west of here." He said, frowning a little. "Shielded, I can't get anything else. I don't know what the hell is going on, but wherever she is, something weird is going on." Even though he had said that, he kept trying to find something else out.
The Doctor took a step towards the TARDIS, stopping as he put his hand on the door. Something had felt wrong since the moment they stepped out of the ship, but he hadn't wanted to say anything. Kari hadn't been excited, while Jack and Amy were overly excited. He didn't want to worry them over nothing, not when he wasn't sure what was going on. But he knew it now, he knew that something was very wrong, and Kari had managed to get herself caught up in it.
Without a word he turned, running as fast as he could through the crowd and to where Jack said that Kari was. He hadn't ventured to the south west of the carnival, he had never found anything of interest there, even after looking at the map.
"Hey, wait up, Doctor!" Amy cried, doing her best to keep up. Jack had a hold of her hand and was pretty much having to drag her along with him. "Doctor!"
But he didn't stop, he didn't slow down, the Doctor was too focused on finding Kari than anything else. The only other time he could remember a call not getting through to her phone was when Balavin had snuck onto the TARDIS. But that had been the TARDIS protecting her that had stopped her phone from working. He had no idea what he was up against, but he didn't care.
He only stopped when Jack grabbed a hold of his arm. "This is the place, Kari's here somewhere." Kari's big brother told him, while Amy tried to catch her breath. "I still can't get an exact location, this whole area is shielded." That was confusing for both him and the Doctor. Why was there a section at the carnival that was shielded? Why did it need to be shielded? What were they trying to hide? It just didn't make any sense to them.
"Then we just have to look everywhere." The Doctor told them, looking around. There were very few people around, and those that were there didn't particularly look like they were very sociable.
"Where do we start?" Amy asked him, not liking the look of the place too much herself. It wasn't a part that she would want to hang around in. It all just seemed a little run down to her, and a tad spooky as well.
Jack was still fiddling with his vortex manipulator, determined not to give up. "I think it would be best if we stick together. We'll just have to go around the… uh, attractions and see if we can find her." The Doctor informed them, getting more and more panicked. He had tried to speak to her, through their connection, through their minds, but he couldn't even find her. The shield wasn't just blocking any form of technology, it was blocking him as well.
"Come on, we might as well start over here." Jack announced, leading the pair over to a menagerie of weird and wild animals. There was no one else around there, and even the strange looking humanoid in the ticket booth seemed to want to be anywhere but there. "Hey, how's it going?" Jack asked, but not in his usual flirty tone.
"You actually want to see the animals?" There seemed to be a hint of surprise present in their response.
"Actually, we're looking for someone. Young woman, golden brown hair, bright gold eyes." Jack explained, getting straight to the point. He wasn't there to flirt, he wasn't there to make conversation, he was there to find his little sister. "You seen her around here at all?"
There seemed to be an expression that made them all believe that the life form was really thinking about that question. "I think I seen her. She was… walking, like she was in her own little world. Kept look at her feet, not where she was going."
The Doctor and Jack shared a look, that did sound like something that Kari would do in her current state. "Did you see where she went?" Jack asked, before the Doctor had the chance to open his mouth.
"The mirrors. Weird guy over there. Pretty much dragged the poor girl in there." A sigh escaped as the humanoid, which Jack was still trying to decide if it was male or female, shook its head. "She didn't want to go in, but he wouldn't take no for an answer. Poor thing, she's still in there. Haven't seen her come out."
The Doctor was already charging over to the House of Mirrors, leaving Jack and Amy behind. "Great, thanks." Jack ended up saying, before grabbing Amy's hand and bolting after the Time Lord.
The Doctor was the first one there, and the only one there. There was no one in the booth at the front of the large attraction, and the doors were closed. He wasted no time I trying to open them, rattling the handles before kicking the door in frustration. "Stupid doors!" He ended up crying out, just as the other two reached him. "Jack, help me with the door."
In an instant the pair of them were ramming at the doors with their shoulders, working as a team to try and get through the impossibly tough doors. It took them a few tries but eventually it gave way and they bundled through the opening.
Straight away they were face with a room full of mirrors, each one distorting them in some way or another. "Whoa, okay this is creepy." Amy muttered, going over to one of the mirrors and looking at her reflection. Her legs were short little stumps and her forehead was bigger than the Doctor's.
"Amy, we're not here to have fun, we're here to find Kari." The Doctor told her, probably with a bit more anger and annoyance in his tone than was necessary. He wasn't trying to be mean, he was just worried about Kari. "We need to keep moving, make our way through this stupid maze and find her."
Jack was once again looking at his vortex manipulator. "Yeah, Doc? This place is impossible. I mean, we've all seen impossible before, but this, this is just weird." The Doctor frowned at him and looked down at the device on his wrist.
With a few taps, a holographic map beamed out from it. There was room after room after room, all tightly packed over at least twenty floors. "No… that's not possible." The Doctor mumbled, taking a better look at the map. "She could be anywhere. We have no idea of find out where exactly she is."
"How do we even get out of here?" Amy asked, starting to wander around, her hand gently touching the mirrors, trying to find out of there was something she was missing. She almost jumped out of her skin when the next one that she pushed gave way a little, opening a small gap. "Doctor? Doctor, over here!" She squeezed through the gap, expecting the Doctor and Jack to be right behind her, but the moment she was though, the gap closed. "Doctor! Doctor, Jack!" The red head shouted, hammering on the mirror.
"The girl who waiting. She waited for him, but he will never wait for her." A voice called from nowhere, scaring the hell out of Amy. "He won't be looking for her, there's only one that he will look for."
"Who's there?" Amy shouted. "I'm not scared of you." Although that was far from the truth.
"We should show her. Show her how things really are. Show her what she doesn't see. We see it, but she doesn't."
Amy tried not to pay any attention to the voice, she wasn't going to let it get to her, because it was just a voice after all. Instead, she went back to hammering on the mirror that had trapped her there in the first place. "Doctor! Doctor!" She shouted, hoping that he could hear her.
Then she saw the Doctor in the mirror, and she let out a sigh of relief. Only it wasn't really the Doctor, because this Doctor was in the TARDIS, and Kari was sitting there beside him.
"So, what do you want to do tonight then, Kari?" The Doctor asked her, his arms wrapped around her tightly.
She shrugged at him a little. "I don't know. Has Amy gone to bed now?" Kari sounded slightly bored when she mentioned the other female that resided in the TARDIS.
A smile stretched across the Doctor's face. "Oh, she went to bed ages ago, we don't have to worry about her." He reached over and planted a gentle kiss on her cheek. "So, what do you want to do?"
"Well, it has been a while since we last went dancing. Fancy putting your dancing shoes on?" There was now a hint of a smile on Kari's face.
"That depends. Are you going to dress up for it?"
Kari rolled her eyes at him. "What do you think, mister? When have we ever gone dancing and I have not dressed up for it? I love the dressing up, the sparkly dresses, the pretty shoes." She told him, a full-blown smile on her face. "Wherever we take Amy, you never let me get dressed up. It's only when it's just us that I'm allowed to dress up and really enjoy myself."
"I know, and I'm sorry." The Doctor told her, pulling her a little closer towards him. "I like it when you dress up as well. All those different dresses. Oh, you really do look like a princess sometimes. I think I'm going to have to take you out more often when Amy has gone to bed."
Kari giggled a little as the Doctor nuzzled at her neck. "Stop it, Doctor. Now come on, let's go get changed and go dancing!"
"This is what they do. When she isn't there, they go out and have fun. He would do anything for her, anything to make her smile." That voice was back, and it brought Amy out of the trance like state that she had been in.
"Oh please, you really don't scare me. I've faced the Weeping Angels, and Daleks. You don't scare me." Amy was speaking with as much confident as she could muster, but what she had seen really had freaked her out a little.
"But what if she wasn't there? What if it was just them? What if she waited for him, and it was only him?" That voice was really starting to irritate her now.
Amy walked away from the mirror and starting feeling her way around, trying to find another way out. "Voices, really? Mirrors and voices." She moaned, doing her best to ignore everything else around her.
"She doesn't know, does she? She doesn't believe us." The voices called, both of them together. "We should show her, make her see, make her see what could have been if she wasn't there."
"I'm not listening to this. Seriously, is this the best that you can do? A house of mirrors, with a strange voice." Amy couldn't help but scoff. "I am so scared."
"Show her. She needs to see, to see what would be if she wasn't there, if she went back home, if she went back where she belonged."
Amy let out a sigh as her reflection changed, showing not just her, but the Doctor as well. They were both there in the TARDIS, both happy.
"Come on, please tell me where we're going." Amy begged, following the Doctor around the console.
The Doctor stopped, turned to look at her, and smile. "Where would be the fun in that? It's a surprise, Amy, you're just going to have to wait and see." He told her, before bouncing around the console like the mad man that he was. "Oh, while you were sleeping I thought of so many more places to take you. Now, it's going to take a while to get through them all, but that's fine."
"Hold on, do you have, like, a list or something of all the places you want to see?" The red head asked him, getting him to stop once more.
"No, I have a list of places that I want you to see." The Doctor told her, just looking at her and smiling at her. "We are in a time machine, we have the whole of time and space to explore. There is so much out there, Amy, so many things to do, so many places to see, of course I have a list."
A smirk spread across her face. "What's on the list then?" She wondered, folding her arms across her chest and watching the floppy haired man.
"Well, top of the list is Rio, I promise I will get you to Rio. The Trojan Gardens, Paris in 1345, the Ruby Eclipse on Elfore, oh, you are going to love that." It was clear to see that he was starting to get a bit more excited with each of the things he listed.
But Amy was happy, and so was the Doctor. They were travelling the stars, nothing holding them back. She had her boy. "So where are we going now then?"
"It's a surprise, Pond! Now, hold on tight, we're off on our next adventure." He said, before pulling down the lever and letting his laughter spill out. Amy couldn't help herself and began to laugh as well.
"See how happy she would be? How happy he would be? Just the pair of them, no one else, it's better if she goes." That voice called out. "The two of them can be happy together."
Amy quickly shook her head. "No, stop it! Stop doing that." She growled. "Kari… Kari is my friend, one of my best friends. She belongs with the Doctor, she needs him and he needs her!"
"She can't see it." There was actually a hint of sadness in the voice now. "Such a shame, such a waste."
"Seriously, I have really had enough of this now. Let me out!" Once again she was hammering on the mirrors, shouting and crying out, hoping that someone could hear her, that someone would let her out of there. "Doctor? Jack?"
"She's blind to the truth. This one is too blinded. Too broken. No good."
Suddenly, a figure cloaked all in black appeared in the room with Amy. She let out a yelp of surprise as she backed away from it. The face of the figure looked disfigured, where the eyes should have been, there was just skin, and the teeth scared her. The top and bottom rows were just sharp, point teeth. There was a sadistic smile appear on its face, and Amy swallowed the lump that was forming in the back of her throat. She was absolutely petrified and as the figure stepped forward, her scream came out.
The Doctor and Jack both heard the scream from the room they were in. It was a loud and shrilling screaming, and both of them pounded on the mirror that she had gone through harder. "Amy! Amy, are you all right?" The Doctor shouted, hoping that she could hear him.
The screaming stopped, but their efforts to break through didn't stop. "Yeah, I really don't like this, Doctor." Jack said, trying even harder. "First Kari and now Amy. What the hell is going on here?"
The truth was, the Doctor had absolutely no idea what was going on. He had no idea what had happened to Kari or to Amy. They had seen her go through the gap, and they had seen it close straight after she had gone through. "I don't know, Jack. There's something else here, I just don't know what."
"Well we aren't getting anywhere by just trying to break the mirrors." Jack said, finally giving up and looking around the room. He could have sworn he had seen Kari in one of the mirrors. Jack was certain that he seen her, huddled up on the floor, crying.
"No… no, you're right. Maybe we should…" The Doctor stopped when two of the mirrors suddenly swung around, revealing two different paths. "Oh, well that's interesting." He commented, walking over to one of them. He poked his head around it a little, making sure not to actually step out of the room.
Jack went over to the other one, having a look himself. "All I can see is more mirrors." He commented, turning to look at the Doctor.
Neither of them really knew what was going on, or what to do. "Well, I suppose… we could…" The Doctor ran a hand through his hair. He wanted to find Kari, he had to find her. He couldn't even being to describe how worried he was. "What do you think, Jack?"
"We need to find Kari and Amy. I got a feeling that this is a trap, but what else can we do? There's no clear way out, Doctor." Jack didn't like it, it was obviously a trap, and they were right in it.
The Doctor let out a sigh as he chewed on his lip slightly. "Right, okay. What do you say then, split up?" That was the only option that he could see. There were two paths, and two of them. Someone or something was trying to split them up, and they weren't getting anywhere by staying together.
Jack nodded at him. "Sure. Good luck, Doc." He said, before striding through the space.
The Doctor stood and watched it close the moment he had gone through, and he was left standing there alone. "I'm coming to find you, Kari. I will find you." He said, before stepping through the gap before him.
Once again he was surrounded by mirrors. There was something scratching at the back of his mind, something that was trying to reach to him, to tell him something. His mind was working overtime, but he just couldn't grasp at what was really going on.
"Shush, it's him. He's here." A female voice whispered. "Look at him, he's so lost."
The Doctor didn't say anything, he just tried his best to ignore the voice, it wasn't important as far as he was concerned. "He doesn't know, does he?" Another voice joined in. "It's all about her, all the time, it's about her. Maybe we should tell him. Should we tell him?"
A woman giggled, and it echoed all around the room. "No, we shouldn't tell him, we should show him. Show him, make him see."
A frown formed on the Doctor's face as he studied the mirrors. "Okay, so, you know me. But why all of this? What is it that you want?" He asked, trying to work out what was really going on.
"Show him. We have to show him. Put him out of his misery. Show him the truth." The Doctor just rolled his eyes, before something caught his attention in another mirror.
"Kari…" He whispered, slowly walking over to it. She was standing there, a smile on her face, gazing at something.
A man stepped into the doorway, putting his arm around the woman already standing there. "Can you believe our baby girl is going to be three tomorrow?" The man asked, kissing Kari on the cheek as they both watched the sleeping child. "Six years ago I met the most wonderful woman in the world. Four years ago, she became my wife and made me the happiest man alive."
She giggled, and a smile played on her lips. "You, Mr Harrow, have made me the happiest woman in the world. You have given me everything I have ever wanted. You treated me like I was special, you married me, and you have stood by me through everything. You keep a roof over my head, and you make sure that I never want for anything. We have this amazing house, and a beautiful daughter. Life is perfect." She reached up, her lips meeting his as her hand run through his hair.
A few minutes later, and the pair finally broke apart, both of them smiling. "There's something I need to tell my lovely wife." He said to her, his hands resting on her waist. "This morning, I was called it to see the big man. And you are looking at the newest partner of Harris and Coles."
Kari's eyes widened. "No… you got the promotion?" She asked him, completely and utterly in shock. He smiled at her as he nodded his head. "Oh, my God! That is fantastic! Oh, I knew you would get it!" Kari cried, throwing her arms around his neck as he swung her around a little. "Oh, I am so pleased for you, Bradley."
"So, I was thinking, this promotion comes with a few added benefits." Kari couldn't help but smile as she raised an eyebrow at him. "It does mean that I will be able to spend more time with my amazing family."
She shifted slightly, a nervous look spreading across her face. "Uh, yeah… actually, there's something I need to… I kind of have some news as well." He didn't seemed to like the way she had suddenly turned nervous, and it was making him nervous. "Um, so… the thing is…"
Her gaze had slowly drifted down, and his hand found its way to her chin, lifting her gaze back up. "Karianne, whatever it is, everything will be okay." He whispered to her, brushing her cheek with his thumb.
Kari reached up and lightly took a hold of his hand. "Well, the thing is…" Her hand lowered with his, and stopped when it was at her abdomen. Both hands landed gently on her stomach. "Um, our family is about to get bigger."
His eyes widened, and Kari didn't know if he was going to be upset or happy at the prospect of having another child. She received her answer when he picked her up, and swung her around once more. "Oh, this is the best day ever!" He told her, before placing her back down on her feet. "Our little girl is going to have a little brother or sister. She's going to be a big sister."
"You're… you're okay with this? I… I was worried that…" Kari didn't get a chance to say anything else, as her husband's mouth crashed against hers.
"Karianne, this is fantastic news." He told her when he finally let her breathe again. "We both have everything we've ever wanted. We have our home, we have each other, and soon we will have two wonderful children."
Kari was happy, she had everything she had ever wanted. She had a home, someone who loved her, and she had her little family that was about to get bigger. All her life she had dreamed of that, of finding someone who would love her and stand by her, someone to start a family with. Now she had that.
The Doctor was standing there, his eyes wide and glistening with tears. "Oh, he's upset. He didn't like it, he didn't like to see the truth." The female voice called. "That's the life she's always wanted. That's the life she should have had. He ruined it. He stopped it. He took her away and destroyed that life for her."
"What? No, Kari is happy. She's… she loves this." He said, finally pulling his head together. "Stop it! Whatever you think you can do, stop it. You won't win. I don't care who you are, you will not win."
"Does he think he can ever give her what she wants? He took it away, he can't give. All he gives her is heartbreak and suffering." The Doctor was getting more and more angry with each word that was being said around him. "She wants to leave, she wants to go home. She wants her father back, she wants her life back. He's being selfish."
"You don't know anything about Kari. This is just some stupid trick." The Doctor growled. "I've known her for over nine hundred years, she wouldn't give up this life for anything."
The giggling started, it was quiet at first, but it soon became louder. "He doesn't know her as well as he thinks. He doesn't know her deepest desire, he doesn't know what she truly wants."
"We showed him, but he doesn't believe it. Show him, show him how she really feels." The Doctor was truly getting sick of hearing those voices now, especially since he didn't know where they were coming from or who was behind them.
He looked around, seeing his reflection in all of the mirrors, all but one. The Doctor could feel both his hearts pounding in his chest as he took a step closer to it. Kari was sitting there, on the ground, hugging her legs against her chest, tears streaming down her face. "Kari…"
"I want to go home." He heard her mumble. "I just… I just want to go home." She was still sobbing, and it was hurting the Doctor to see her in such a state. "Please, I want to go home…"
"Oh, Kari…" The Doctor said, letting out a sigh. "I'm sorry, I… I didn't know." He rested his hand against the cool glass of the mirror, watching as Kari continued to cry. He wanted to be there for her, to be beside her and tell her that everything was going to be fine. But he honestly didn't know if everything was going to be fine.
He could see her, begging to go home, begging to leave him. And that broke his hearts. The Doctor would do anything for her, and if she wanted to leave he wasn't going to stop her, no matter how much it killed him. He hadn't know that she had been that unhappy recently, he just thought that it was because of everything that had happened recently, that she was just stressing over all of that and trying to pull herself together. He didn't know he had gotten it all so wrong.
A/N: Well, I do hope you enjoyed this chapter, I'm currently working on on next weeks chapter. I'm glad so many of you liked last weeks chapter, and left a review to say that.
So, I wish to send out a massive thank you to everyone who took the time to leave a review after reading. You guys are so totally awesome, and I love reading them. I would also like to thank and welcome all the new readers who have followed/favourited the story.
I need to get back to writing next weeks chapter, if you want a totally amazing chapter that is posted in time! (Well, I hope it gets posted on time, my notifications have been coming through about 5 hours later).
Until next time, you lovely, awesome, amazing people!
Pippa.