A/N: It's been a while since you all had an actual episode, so here you go! I hope you enjoy it. Apologies if I have missed any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors.
Kari woke up to find herself wrapped up in the Doctor's arms. It was something that she had missed, and something that made her smile. It felt like a weight had been lifted, now that she had spoken to the Doctor, told him what had happened and how she had been feeling. She knew now that it was a mistake not talking to him about it all before, she had done more damage than anything else, but at least the Doctor understood.
Suddenly, his arms tightened around her a little, and a slight groan escaped from the Doctor's lips. Kari's smile just grew even bigger, knowing that he was there and actually sound asleep. It was a little odd, because usually he woke up before she did, but not this time.
She managed to twist herself around so that she was now facing him. He looked so peaceful and happy, and Kari was glad about that. Her hand reached up and began to play with his floppy hair, running through it gently as she watched him sleep. And then the tears started.
That was enough to wake the Doctor up even though she was trying to be a quiet as she possibly could. She didn't want to keep crying, but she was just glad that everything was over with and that she was there with the Doctor. It wasn't because she was sad that she was crying, it was because she was relieved and happy.
"Hey, what's the matter?" The Doctor asked her, gazing at her and wiping away the tears.
"Nothing. I'm just happy, you know." Kari told him, trying to, once again, pull herself together. "Anyway, I'm hungry. You want some breakfast or anything?" She didn't particularly want to move, but she knew that she had to, she had to finally move on.
The Doctor simply tightened his grip on her, burying his head into her hair, nuzzling at her neck. "You actually want to get up for once? Well, that's not fair. Usually I have to force you to get up." The Doctor moaned. He was actually right, he was usually the first one up and it was generally Kari that refused to move. This time, the roles were reversed.
Kari couldn't help but chuckle a little. "I'm sorry, do you want me to go back to sleep and then we can do this properly in a few hours when I wake up again?" She snuggled back down again, closing her eyes tightly as she did.
"No, I suppose we had better get up, especially if you're hungry." The Doctor replied, letting out a sigh. He would have rather that they just stayed there for a few more hours but now that Kari was awake, he knew they should probably get up. "How about I make you an omelette? One omelette a la Doctor?"
She pulled her thinking face, pretending that she was thinking long and hard about her answer. Really, she already knew the answer, because she already knew that the Doctor's omelettes were amazing. "Well, I suppose. But I'm going to wake Jack up first, and then I need to talk to Amy." She had to apologise to both of them, and she knew it.
The Doctor nodded at her, a smile on his face. "Right, well, while you go and wake them up, I will go and get started in the kitchen." He told her, giving her a quick peck on the lips before forcing himself out of the bed.
Kari didn't move, she just stayed there, watching the Doctor potter around his room and gather his clean clothes before heading into the bathroom. Once he was in there, she decided it was time to move, and she threw the covers away from her legs. Lucky for her, she had fallen asleep in her clothes, so she could get away with waking everyone else up before heading back to her own room to wash and change.
The first place she went was Jack's room. It took her a few moments to find the courage to actually knock on the door, although she wasn't entirely sure why she was so nervous. Kari stood there and waited for the door to open, and a few moments later it did and Jack stood there in his trousers, which he had only just managed to put on by the looks of him.
"Morning, Princess. To what do I owe this visit?" He asked her, smiling at her as he stepped aside to let her in his room.
"I… uh, I… I just wanted to say that I was sorry. For the way I've been and the way I've spoken to you." Kari told him, playing with her hands a little. "Things kind of got a little too much for me, and instead of talking about it like I should have, I tried to block it all out. That only made things worse. So yeah, I'm sorry, Jack."
Jack didn't say anything, he just wrapped his arms around her. Kari hugged him back, letting out a breath of relief knowing that he had forgiven her for the way she had behaved. "I'm just glad that you're okay, Princess. We were all worried about you, you were just being so stubborn."
"I know, I'm sorry. I handled everything wrong, and I know that now, it won't happen again, I promise." She held onto him a little tighter, so glad that she had her big brother there. "I'm sorry, Jack."
"Hey, it's all right, Kari. It's over with now, and you've spoken about it all to the Doctor. Everything's good, right?" Jack was just glad to have his little sister back. He had been extremely worried about her, especially when the Doctor had shown up in Cardiff, telling him that something was wrong and that he needed him there. Jack didn't waste a moment, he told Ianto that he had to go, that Kari needed him, and he went.
Kari hugged her brother for a few more minutes before her stomach decided to interrupt by grumbling rather loudly. "Uh, yeah, sorry. I'm hungry, and the Doctor is making breakfast."
Jack chuckled at her a little, and then what she said registered. "Wait, the Doctor is cooking? Again?"
"Yup, omelette a la Doctor. You've got to try it, Jack, it's really good." Kari told him, beaming away. Everything was so much better now, and she had every reason to smile.
"Sure, how about you go get Red and I'll meet you all in the kitchen? I should probably get dressed, I was rudely awoken, you know." Kari flushed a little, she had forgotten she had woke him up as well as the Doctor. "Come on, not the first time you've woken me up, and I'm pretty sure that it won't be the last either."
Kari wanted to smack him for that, but instead she just rolled her eyes. "Yeah, whatever, Jack. If you're not quick, I'm going to have to eat your omelette as well." She told him, as he finally let her go and she opened the door. "And you'll miss actually witnessing the Doctor cooking."
Leave Jack alone in peace, Kari started making her way to Amy's room. She knew she had to apologise to her as well, especially for the way she had snapped at her and pushed her away when they had been at the spa.
"Morning, Kari!" A Scottish voice called to her, causing her to completely lose her train of thought.
"Hey, Amy. Sleep well?" Kari asked her, waiting as the red head walked towards her.
Amy slipped her arm through Kari's and began to drag her through the TARDIS. "Like a baby. How about you, did you sleep okay?" There was a hint of concern in her voice, and Kari noticed it.
"Best sleep I've had in a long time." She admitted to her friend. "The Doctor always keeps the nightmares away."
The red head smiled at her. "Good. I'm glad that you're okay, Kari."
Kari knew what she needed to do now. "Thanks, Amy. And, I want to say, I'm really sorry for how I treated you, especially when we were at the spa. I was totally out of line and basically just mean. I didn't mean it, I swear, I was just… my head was all messed up. but I really am sorry."
Amy stopped walking, forcing Kari to stop as well. "Kari, it's okay." Her friend told her, facing her. "You were struggling to deal with some of the things that had happened. I know you and the Doctor have been through hell, so I understand, really, I do."
"It doesn't excuse my behaviour, Amy. I was just down right mean to you, and there was no need for it. You were just concerned, like the Doctor and Jack, but I snapped at you when I shouldn't have, and I'm sorry." Of course the guilty feeling that Kari had for the way she had treated them wasn't going to just go away in an instant, she knew it was going to take her a little while to forgive herself.
Amy simply rolled her eyes at her. "Okay, I forgive you. Just promise me that you will talk to me, okay?" She said, a rather serious and firm look on her face. "I know you don't always want to talk to the Doctor about things, and your brother isn't always around, but you can always talk me to, got it?"
Kari nodded her head at her. " I promise, Amy. I'll stop being a stubborn little brat and start talking about things. I feel like I'm getting told off like a little kid today."
"No one is tell you off, Kari, we're just telling you that you need to talk to us." Amy told her, as they finally started walking again. "Anyway, forget about all that now. I am absolutely starving this morning. I could have sworn I stuffed myself with carnival food yesterday, but my stomach is telling me otherwise."
The carnival, something else that Kari wanted to forget. The things she saw still flashed through her mind, and she was curious as to what everyone else had seen as well. But then there was a part of her that really didn't want to know, because she was worried of what it could have been.
It didn't take them long to reach the kitchen, where they found the Doctor dashing around, doing exactly what he said he was going to do, cook. "Ah, there you two are." He called, only stopping to plant a kiss on Kari's cheek. "Tea's in the pot, so sit down."
Kari and Amy done as they were told and sat down at the table. Before Kari had a chance to reach for the teapot, Amy had it in her hands and was pouring it out for her, a smile on her face. "Thanks, Amy." She muttered, taking the cup and putting it to her lips.
Breakfast passed by rather quickly. The Doctor cooked up a wonderful breakfast for everyone, and Jack didn't tease the Doctor about it too much. But the peace and tranquillity was quickly fading for Kari, as she closed her eyes and put her head in her hands.
Jack was the first to notice, and he quickly managed to grab the Doctor's attention, and he knew exactly what was wrong. "Headache?" The Doctor asked her gently, brushing some of her hair back.
Kari nodded at him a little, lifting her head up and noticing that stupid golden glow start to form. "Well, at least this time I managed to get something to eat first." She mumbled, as the Doctor pulled her up and out of the chair.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Kari." The Doctor whispered to her, hugging her tightly. "I'll see you soon, okay? Behave, and stay out of trouble."
She nodded before looking over to Jack and Amy, who were now both standing there and looking at her. "Jack, please behave and try not to get into too much trouble. Amy, look after them both, please." Although she knew that they would all be okay, she couldn't help but worry about what trouble they could get into, especially without her there.
"I promise to behave, all right, Princess?" Jack told her, taking her way from the Doctor for a few seconds to hug her himself.
Amy smiled at her, before hugging her with Jack. "I'll look after them, Kari, don't worry." A few moments later, and the pain in her head was worse and the glow was getting even brighter.
"I'll be back soon." Kari told them, backing off as the glow started to engulf her even more. "Just keep out of trouble till I get back." She managed to say, before she was completely taken over by the light and dragged through time and space.
It took a few minutes for the pain to begin to subside, Kari could have sworn it was taking longer than normal for everything to adjust. She was actually about to start panicking when a hand landed on her shoulder and a voice spoke to her. "What are you doing down there?"
She turned her head and looked up, a slight smile on her face. Her big eared, leather coat wearing Doctor was crouched as her side, looking at her with worry. "Uh, just waiting for my head to stop spinning. I really hate travelling through the time vortex like that." Kari definitely felt a little disorientate still.
The Doctor chuckled at her a little. "I know, you tell me that every time you get here." He said, before helping her up and off the grated floor of their ship. "So, what have you been up to?" He asked her, plonking himself down in the jump seat and taking Kari with him.
Kari took a deep breath, she wasn't going to tell him everything, but she wasn't going to try and hide it from him either. "Well, first there was Balavin, then there was something else, and now I've just spend some time with the Trickster. It's just been a bundle of laughs." She told him, letting out a sigh. "And right now I could probably do with have a bath or something."
"Right, come on then." The Doctor said, jumping up from where they had been sitting. "You go have a bath before Rose get's up."
"Rose is here? How long has Rose been here for?" She asked him, allowing him to drag her through the ship. She had no idea where they were up to, she didn't know that Rose was there because she had yet to see her.
A smile graced the Doctor's lips. "Not that long, actually. But since she is asleep and probably won't be awake for another few hours, you can go and have your bath and get yourself cleaned up." He told her, looking her over and noticing the tiny rips in her clothing. It was clear to him that something had happened recently.
"Oh, I'd love a bath." She said, letting out a sigh. "A nice, hot, relaxing bath. Yeah, that would be nice." Her head rested against the Doctor's arm as they continued to walk. She really did want a bath, she just needed some down time.
"Well, come on then. You have your bath, and I'll have a nice hot cup of tea waiting for you when you're done." The Doctor said to her, just as they reached her room.
Kari looked up and smiled at him. The last time she had seen him was before so much of the bad stuff had happened. He had absolutely no idea what they had been through, and how she had treated him. She threw her arms around his neck and held onto him tightly.
There was a slightly bemused look on the Doctor's face, but he hugged her back. "Is everything all right, Kari?" He tried not to sound worried, but a tiny hint of it slipped through.
"Of course it is, I'm just glad to see you." Kari told him, pulling herself back together. She was glad she had at least managed to not cry. "It's actually been over a year for me since I last saw you. Well, this you."
A frown formed on the Doctor's face. He had never known her to be away from him for so long. Usually it was a few weeks at the most that she would spend jumping around before him again. "A year? Why have you waited a whole year before coming to see me?"
"It… it wasn't by choice." Kari stuttered. She knew she couldn't tell him what had really happened. "It was all one thing after another and stuff. You'll find out eventually."
"Spoilers, right?" She nodded her head at him. "Now, I thought you wanted a bath?"
Kari couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Yes, I do want a bath. I was just, you know, letting you know that I had actually missed you. But hey, next time I won't bother. I'll just give you the cold shoulder, shall I?" She turned away from him and put her hand on the handle of her door.
Before she had a chance to open it, the Doctor had spun her back around so that she was facing him. There was a twinkle in is eyes, one that Kari had seen only a few times before with that particular Doctor. The next thing she knew, the Doctor's lips had crashed against her own.
She was blushing like mad when the Doctor finally gave her some room to breathe. "Uh, yeah, I'm… I'm going to go have my bath now." She told him, trying to calm down and get her cheeks to turn back to their normal colour.
The Doctor only smiled at her. "I'll be waiting for you when you're done." He told her, watching as she slipped onto her room.
Kari headed straight to the bathroom, finding the tub already filled. "Oh, you are totally amazing, Sexy." She muttered, stoking the wall before taking off her dirty clothes and dipping into the hot bath.
She didn't realise how long she had been in there for, her skin had wrinkled and the water was only partially warm now. It was only because she could hear someone calling her from outside of her room that she decided that it was time to move.
With the towel wrapped around her, she rushed out of the bathroom and quickly yanked open the door to her room. The Doctor was standing there, his arms folded across his chest. "Don't tell me you were still in the bath? I thought you might have fallen asleep in there or something." He said, keeping his eyes locked with hers.
"I was just enjoying my bath." Kari informed him, holding the towel tighter around herself. She did feel a little awkward, standing there in nothing but a fluffy bath towel.
"Right, well now that you're out, hurry up and get dressed. Rose is already up and ready to go. We're just waiting on you now."
She nodded at him, knowing that if Rose was up then she really did need to get a move on. "Yeah, okay. I'll go get dressed now then, see you in a bit." Kari didn't wait for a reply as she quickly shut the door. She actually heard the Doctor chuckling a little before he walked away from her room.
Kari rushed to get herself dressed after that. Although she knew that Rose was there, she didn't know exactly where they were up to. When she made it to the console room the Doctor was there, but there was no sign of Rose. "Where's Rose?" She asked him, walking over as she yanked her hair up into a messy bun.
The Doctor looked up at her. "Oh, just gone to see her mother."
Her eyes widened as she started to work out where they were. "Did… did you tell her that she's only been gone for twelve hours?" She asked him nervously. He nodded at her. "Twelve months, you idiot! Not twelve hours! She's been gone for twelve months!" She shouted, before dragging him out of the TARDIS.
As they charged towards the flat that Rose shared with her mum, they passed several posters, all with Rose's face on them, informing everyone that she went missing in March 2005. She knew exactly how things were going to plan out now, she knew exactly where they were up to.
They burst into the flat, Rose being hugged by her mother who was in tears. "Oh, my God. It's you. Oh my God!"
"It's not twelve hours, it's twelve months." The Doctor said sheepishly. "You've been gone a whole year. Sorry." Kari just wanted to hit him, she really did, but she knew it wasn't going to do much good.
In stead, Kari glared at him. "You really need to start learning to be on time, Doctor. It's going to get you into a lot of trouble one day." She warned him, knowing that it wasn't going to be the last time that he either got someone home late, or was late to pick someone up.
"I said I was sorry." He replied, trying his best not to look at her and to just avoid that glare.
"Hmm, well you're going to be in even more trouble now." Kari warned him, watching as Rose's mother, Jackie, picked up the phone and called the police. "Hope you know how to talk your way out of this one."
And they waited, since Jackie had made sure to not let her daughter or the Doctor and Kari go anywhere. She was going to keep them all there until she got some answers. It wasn't too long later that the police finally arrived, and Jackie had finally calmed down enough to let her rage take over completely.
"The hours I've sat here, days and weeks and months, all on my own. I thought you were dead, and where were you? Travelling." Jackie had gone off into a complete rant now. "What the hell does that mean, travelling? That's no sort of answer." The blonde woman then turned to the policeman that was there with them. "You ask her. She won't tell me. That's all she says. Travelling."
"That's what I was doing." Rose replied, letting out a slight sigh. All Kari could do was give her a sympathetic look. None of it was Rose's fault, and she knew that Rose couldn't tell her mother what had really happened.
But Jackie still didn't believe her. "When you passport's still in the drawer? It's just one lie after another."
"I meant to phone. I really did. I just… I forgot." It was a rather poor excuse on Rose's behalf, and even Rose knew that, but what else could she say?
"What, for a year? You forgot for a year? And I am left sitting here. I just don't believe you. Why won't you tell me where you've been?" The rage had faded a little and it was now turning to desperation. Jackie wanted her daughter to talk to her, to tell her the truth. She wanted to know what had happened, where she had been.
That was when the Doctor cleared his throat. "Actually, it's my fault. We sort of… er, employed Rose. As our companion." Kari just put her head in her hands, knowing that the Doctor had just made it a whole lot worse.
"When you say companion, is this a sexual relationship?" The policeman asked, taking notes down in his little black book.
Rose and the Doctor both looked at him in horror. "No!" They said in union.
This was when Kari decided to finally speak up. "Look, it was nothing like that because he's my fiancé." She told them, flashing off the ring on her finger. "So please, get any thoughts of that out of your head right now." She didn't really know how much more of it she was going to be able to take. She just wanted Jackie to calm down and listen to her daughter.
"Then what is it?" Jackie asked, looking between Kari and the Doctor. "Because you, you waltz in here all charm and smiles, and the next thing I know, she vanishes off the face of the Earth! How old are you then? Forty? Forty five?" Once again, Kari's head was in her hand. "What, did you find her on the internet? Did you go online and pretend you're a doctor?"
"I am a Doctor." He defended, tightening his grip on Kari's free hand. He could see that she was getting frustrated with the whole situation, and he didn't like that at all, it would lead to her getting upset.
Now, Jackie was standing right in front of him. "Prove it. Stitch this, mate!" She said, before punching him hard across the face.
Gasps came from the policeman and from Rose. "Mum!"
The Doctor was now holding onto his nose, and Kari let out a sigh. "It's fine, Rose. Look, he isn't going to press charges, so that's that. You really need to talk to your mother and sort things out, Rose. Come find us later." Kari told her, giving her the chance to be alone with her mother and to really try and sort things out.
Rose nodded at her as she dragged the Doctor out of the flat, and up the stairs, leading to the roof. Once they were up there, Kari punched him in the arm. "Ow! What was that for?" He cried, rubbing the spot where she had hit him.
"Companion? Seriously? Do you have any idea how that sounds, Doctor?" Kari asked him, standing there with her hands on her hips. She looked like she was scolding a small child, trying to look intimidating. "Couldn't you have been more creative and said you're an archaeologist and hired her as an apprentice or something?"
He looked at her a scoffed. "Archaeologist? Really?"
Kari rolled her eyes at him. "Oh, that's right, you point and laugh at archaeologists, don't you? Or better still, you could have let me handle it. I could have said that Rose and I worked at the shop together, and I dragged her along with me to cheer her up."
"Yes, I do point and laugh at them. I'm a time traveller." The Doctor replied, not realising how serious the situation really was. "Look, I'm sorry, Kari. I didn't know."
"No, of course you didn't know, because you didn't check." She told him, taking a step forward and looking at his face. "Seriously, Doctor, you need to be a little bit more careful some times." Kari inspected his face, and although he had made a fuss of his nose, there was nothing wrong with it. "Well, you're going to survive, this time. I'd watch out for a little bit of bruising, but nothing is broken."
The Doctor took her hands and looked at her. "Kari, I am truly sorry." Looking into his eyes, Kari knew that he was being completely honest, and that he was sorry. "Next time, I'll check with you first. How does that sound?"
"Sounds like a start." Kari told him, trying not to smile at him. "Anyway, Rose and her mum need a little bit of space, they need to sort things out. It will be all right in the end, mostly."
That was when he realised that she knew everything that was going to happen. "Am I going to get slapped any more today?" He asked, rubbing his jaw a little.
She shrugged at him. "I don't know. Maybe, maybe not, I'm not going to tell you." She was deliberately avoiding giving him a straight answer, As far as she was concerned, he was still in a heap load of trouble. If he had waited until she had finished dressing before taking Rose home, she could have made sure that they really had only been away for twelve hours, and not twelve months, or at least give Rose some warning.
"So, what have you been up to since I last saw you?" He asked her, sitting down on the edge of the roof with Kari beside him.
"Not a lot." Kari told him, letting him drape his arm across her shoulders. "Some pretty bad stuff happened, stuff that I can't tell you about. It kind of… broke me." She admitted to him. "I saw things, and some things happened, and it really wasn't good. But I'm okay now. We've talk about it, and I do tell you everything, eventually." She was actually rather proud of herself, for telling him that it was going to be bad, and that she wasn't going to handle it well, but that it would still be all right in the end.
"And what about this thing with the Trickster?" The Doctor asked her, wondering just how much hell she had been through since he had last seen her.
Although she didn't want to really talk about it, she knew that she had to. "He tried to split us up. Played with my head a bit, gave me a choice, tried to get my agreement. You know what he's like." It was easier for her to skip over all the details, because he really didn't need to know all of those yet.
She felt the Doctor pull her a little closer towards him, so she shifted over on the edge of the roof. She wasn't scared that she was going to fall, because she knew the Doctor would never let that happen. "Well, everything is fine now." The Doctor told her. "There's always someone or something out there trying to tear us apart, but it won't work."
Kari couldn't help but chuckle a little. "Yeah, no matter how much the universe tries, you are still stuck with me." She teased. "What did you ever do to deserve such a punishment?"
"Where do you want me to start?" The Doctor asked her, playing along with her little teasing. "Anyway, what was it that you done? You've been punished with keeping me out of trouble, and we both know that's not an easy task."
She let out a sigh as they both looked up at the blue sky. "I know, tell me about it. Every other day it's saving your backside from someone or something. A Dalek here, Cyberman there, you always find the trouble. Sometimes I just feel like I'm babysitting you, especially the way I have to keep telling you off."
Her comment only made the Doctor chuckle at her some more, not that Kari really minded. She was glad that everything was calm, well, most calm at least. She liked it when they weren't fighting, and this was the second time that she had been there and they hadn't started fighting straight away. Unfortunately, she knew that it was going to happen eventually, and she wasn't looking forward to it.
A/N: So, we have another chapter and the start of another adventure. when I started writing this, I once again got a little carried away, you'll find out what I mean soon enough, but I hope you all enjoyed it.
Hello and welcome to all the new readers, and those who have favourited/followed the story. And all you lovely, wonderful, magnificent people who have left a review, thank you all so much! It does mean a lot to know that you guys are still enjoying it, over 90 chapters since it started, almost 2 years ago!
Wow, I've been working on this story for 2 years, that is a pretty long time, and I still have the motivation to write it as well! Yay!
Now, I should go and carry on writing, while I still have the motivation to do so. Until next week...
Pippa.