A/N: Hey everyone, I hope you all had a fantastic New Year! I know this is a little late today, I had my baby nephew overnight and every time I went to update he started fussing. Also, sorry if I have miss any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors, I'll try to knock them out as soon as I can. Anyway, enjoy!
Kari was sitting at the table in the kitchen with the Doctor and Donna. She had, in fact, woken up while the pair of them had been paying a visit to Kari's big brother, but lucky for them she had taken her time having a bath and getting dressed, and they managed to sneak back and get the TARDIS out of there before she noticed. But there was something that she had noticed.
"Blimey, are you all right there, Kari?" Donna asked her, taking a sip of her hot morning drink. "You look like you've got a big of a hangover."
Kari let out a groan as she lifted her head up from where it had been resting in her arms on the table. "No, the hangover kicks in the next day. I'm still a little tipsy." She moaned, before putting her head back where it had originally been.
There was a confused look on the red heads face now. "Tipsy? What have the pair of you been up to? Do you two just go out and get drunk when I'm asleep?" She asked, in a rather curious way. She didn't seem angry or upset, she knew that the pair of them didn't sleep as much as she did, and that they treasured the moments they had together. Donna also knew that the pair of them occasionally went on dates.
"Sort of. My big brother threw me a surprise birthday party. I may have, slightly, drunk just a little too much wine." Kari told her, before letting out yet another groan, but this time, a groan of pain. "Oh, it's getting much worse now. Oh, I am never, ever, drinking ever again."
Suddenly she felt the Doctor's hand on her back. "Actually, I think it's more than just the drink, Kari." He told her softly, getting her attention.
She lifted her head up a little and noticed what he was talking about. "Oh… looks like I'm wanted somewhere else." Kari said rather sadly. "Well, this kind of sucks, I didn't want to go yet."
"Hey, you'll see me soon, Kari, you know you will." The Doctor told her, helping her out of the chair, finding that she was a little unsteady on her legs. "Try not to get into too much trouble."
Kari couldn't help but smile up at him a little. "Oh please, trouble is my middle name." She wasn't really ready to leave him yet, but she knew that she didn't have a choice in the matter. Apparently, she was needed elsewhere now, it was time to be whisked off to see another version of him.
"Hey, I'm sorry for being snappy with you when you arrived. I shouldn't have acted like that, I'm sorry." The Doctor whispered to her, helping her to get up from the chair. Kari was definitely feeling a little unsteady on her legs, she was pretty sure that she was going to fall down the moment that the Doctor let her go.
"It's okay, I should have just told you the truth. I shouldn't have tried to hide it, it was stupid. I'm sorry." Her voice came out in a whisper, because her head was absolutely pounding now. Even so, she still managed to look up and give Donna a small smile. "Catch you later, Super Temp. Keep my fiancé out of trouble."
Donna smiled back and gave her a little nod. "Course I will, Kari. You behave yourself and keep out of trouble as well." She replied, wagging her finger at her a little. That was what Kari loved about Donna, she was so fiery and so human, and she cared about everyone so much.
She looked up at the Doctor, the pain in her head getting much worse. "Stay out of trouble, no going off and destroying the universe or anything." She mumbled to him while he kept a tight hold on her to keep her standing. "Please, Doctor I don't want to…" She didn't get to finish her sentence, as the pain became too much for her and she was completely engulfed in that golden light.
Kari could hear someone's muffled voice as her head continued to swim. "Doctor? It's taking off again. Doctor, can you hear me?" A very familiar Scottish voice called, starting to become a little clearer as Kari's head began to untangle itself. "Doctor!"
"Oh, my head hurts. Do you mind keeping the noise down a little, Pond." Kari grumbled, finding herself kneeling on the glass for of the TARDIS. But something was wrong, she could feel it all around her, something was wrong with the TARDIS.
"Kari, oh thank God you're here." Amy cried, rushing over to her. "Something's wrong, the Doctor is on Earth, and we're stuck in here with a TARDIS that…" There was an explosion and a scream came form Amy's mouth. "Kari, you have to do something."
She pushed herself up, still unsteady on her legs. "Zigzag plotter." Kari muttered to herself, grabbing onto the edge of the console to help to stop her from falling onto the floor again. "Got to get to the zigzag plotter." She muttered again, pulling herself around the console until she arrived at a small gearbox.
Amy had noticed the way that Kari was behaving, how she was struggling to get around, and the way she was muttering. "Kari, are you all right?" The red head asked her friend, her voice full of worry and concern.
There was no answer, as Kari quickly looked behind herself, before taking a step to her right, and pulling the stick that was coming out of the zigzagged gearbox. Suddenly, all the shaking stopped, and everything became still. She couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief, she had ended up arriving in the middle of a minor crisis. "Well, now that we have a few moments of peace, hello, Pond."
"Are you all right, Kari?" Amy asked her, standing in front of her and wrapped her arms around her, hugging her tightly.
Kari knew that there was no point in lying to her, Amy was pretty good at spotting when Kari wasn't being completely truthful. "Uh, I may still be a little drunk from my surprise birthday party that my brother threw for me. I kind of ended up coming here straight from there."
A smirk ended up working its way onto Amy's face at hearing that little piece of information. "Oh, so that explains why you can't stand up on your own then." She was definitely amused with finding out that Kari wasn't completely sober. "Well, you need to pull it together, Kai, because we've just abandoned the Doctor."
"Okay, let me think. Were you on your way to the fifth moon of Cindie Colesta?" Kari asked her, trying to figure out where they were up to and where they would have left the Doctor. Unlike Amy, she wasn't worried one bit, because she knew they would get him back eventually, no matter where he was.
Amy ended up nodding at her. "Yeah, we were. I take it you know what's going on and where his is then?" There was that hint of hope in her voice. The red head had been scared when she had been in the TARDIS on her own when it had just randomly taken off, leaving the Doctor behind and sending her hurtling through the time vortex. There were explosions and loud noises, and it really did freak her out.
"Oh yeah, I know exactly where the Doctor is. The problem is, even with my awesome driving skills, there is no way I am going to be able to get us there any time soon." Until the Doctor discovered what was going on in that house he would end up at, she couldn't take the TARDIS where she wanted. "She'll keep trying to land, but there is a problem the Doctor needs to fix before she can."
"Okay, so what do we do? How do we tell the Doctor what's going on?" Although Kari was there and knew what was going on, Amy was still nervous and worried. "And what exactly is stopping the TARDIS from land? There can't be many things out there that can do something like that. So it has to be alien, right?"
Kari simply rolled her eyes at her red haired friend. "We wait, the Doctor will contact us soon. And yes, it is alien, and the Doctor will work that out soon enough. Just remember, when everything starts to go a little mental, it's because something is interfering with the TARDIS, you go for this." She pointed to the gearbox that she had used before. "Zigzag plotter. Should settle things down."
Amy went and sat down on the stairs leading up and further into the TARDIS. "So we're basically stuck here and have to wait for the Doctor to sort things out wherever he is." She moaned, not entirely pleased with having to sit around and do nothing while waiting for the Doctor to save her.
"Everything will be fine, Amy. Look, I'm going to quickly head to my room and get changed. I am not going to be wearing this dress any long. I want my jeans." Kari said to her, heading up the steps where her friend was still perched. "I'll be as quick as I can. And, when I get back, maybe we can go and find something fun to do. This is more than just a spaceship you know, Amy, this place is full of amazing and wonderful rooms."
With a heavy sigh, Amy looked up at her and nodded. "Yeah, okay. I guess it beats sitting here worrying and doing nothing else."
"Exactly!" Kari cried, bounding past her friend. "I'll be as quick as I can, I promise." With another nod from Amy, she charged up the rest of the stairs, through the long corridors, and to her room. As soon as she got there she noticed that some clothes had actually been laid out for her already. "Oh, thank you, Sexy." She muttered to herself, picking up the jeans and top off the edge of the bed and dashing into the bathroom.
She took the time to have a very quick shower while she was there, before yanking on her clean clothes. Kari couldn't explain why, but she had a feeling that more was going to happen, that it wasn't just going to be what she had seen but that there was going to be something else. Because of that feeling, she quickly grabbed her bag as well, checking that she had everything she needed in there, her psychic paper and vortex manipulator were the most important items she wanted.
It was as she was heading back to the console room that she felt something a little off, and it wasn't with the ship. The pounding in her head seemed to just keep on growing, and she really didn't like that. Kari shook it off, and carried on moving along the corridor, moving a little faster now.
When she finally did reach the console room, she was struggling to breathe. "Kari? Kari, are you all right?" That golden glow was back, surrounding her hands and starting to quickly spread. "Kari?"
A groan escaped from her mouth. "Sorry, Amy, looks like I'm heading off already. Not sure why, it doesn't really make any sense. Just remember to keep the zigzag plotter on full, okay? You should be safe enough in here, she'll protect you the best she can. I'll be back soon, Amy, I swear." She was about to be pulled somewhere else, and although she had a good idea where she was going, she couldn't tell Amy that, she'd want to go with her.
Amy took a step back as the glow became brighter and nodded. "Be careful, Kari." There was so much worry and concern in her voice, it made Kari feel awful for not telling her what was really going on.
A few minutes later, and Kari could feel a light breeze on her face. She was outside somewhere, she could work that out from the smells around her. Oddly enough, it sounded like there were plenty of people around, but who were completely ignoring her. But there was one person who had seen her, who had seen her just appear out of now where, and they quickly sprinted over to her.
"Well, fancy meeting you here." A familiar voice whispered in her ear as a pair of arms wrapped around her.
Kari slowly opened her eyes and found her bowtie wearing, fez loving Doctor crouched down beside her. "You know me, I just can't stay away." She told him, before twisting herself around so that she could throw her arms around his neck. There a been a feeling in his stomach that she was going to end up being pulled to him, and it made her think that maybe she was going to end up jumping back to Amy at some point. "So come on, what have I missed?" She asked once she had calmed herself down and the banging in her head lessened. It was still there slightly, but she was sure it was because of all the drink she had consumed only hours ago.
"Amy's in the TARDIS, which seems to have run off." The Doctor informed her, helping her to get up off the grass. "However, I spotted this in one of the shop windows."
She looked at the piece of paper that the Doctor was holding, ad advertisement for a flatmate. Then he showed her the other, containing an address and signed by Amy. "Hmm, looks like Amy is trying to point you in the right direction or something." Kari said, trying not to let on that she knew too much about what was going on. At the moment, she was still trying to pull it all together and remember it all.
"Possibly. So, what do you say? Fancy coming with me to look at this place, then?" There was definitely a lot of excitement in his voice, and Kari knew that he was going to enjoy some of his time being trapped on Earth without his TARDIS.
And that was when it really struck her. The Doctor was stuck on Earth, with no TARDIS, no way to escape, and she was there as well. The last time they had been in a situation like that was when they had all been sent back in time, the Doctor and Martha by the Angels, and her through the vortex. "Well, I suppose it couldn't really hurt now, could it?"
The smile the Doctor was wearing grew even bigger, if that were at all possible. 'Lovely. Good job I stopped by the bank on the way, otherwise I might have missed you." Kari knew that wasn't true, she knew where she could have found him, and she would have, and made up some excuse for finding him.
They began walking out of the park and towards the street, hand in hand, and both smiling away. "Hang on a minute, what were you doing at the bank?" It had only just registered in her head that he had said that, her brain was definitely still running a little slow.
"I was getting some money, of course." The doctor replied, giving her a strange look. "How else are we going to be able to pay the rent?"
"Uh, we? What do you mean, we?" Yes, she was going to continue to act dumb for a little longer, before possibly giving the Doctor a few hints as to how much she really knew.
The Doctor stopped walking, forcing Kari to stop as well. "You don't expect me to go and live in some strange human's home without you there, do you?" He asked her, sounding a little horrified that she could have ever thought that.
She raised her eyebrow at him in amusement. "What, do you need me there to hold your hand, Doctor? Do humans scare you?" Kari teased, knowing that it wasn't true. He was not scared of humans, he was more worried about them being scared of him.
"Kari, you're my fiancée, and we're homeless."
A finger was quickly raised to his lips to shut him up, while Kari looked at him with a grin. "Actually, we're not technically homeless. I mean sure, the TARDIS has run off with Amy, but I do own that lovely little house in Bricker Lane." She told him, before actually thinking about it. "Which is in London, not Colchester. Oh well, we could always get the train to London, since you have acquired so much money."
"No, no, we're staying here. Amy is pointing us to this house for a reason, we need to go and check it out." The Doctor told her, understanding that she was only making suggestions, but having a feeling that she already knew something he didn't. "And as I was say, you're my fiancée, isn't that what normal people do with their fiancée? They live together?"
Kari really didn't know what to say to that. There was no argument, most people who were engaged did live together, and had been living together for some time already, most likely before they even got engaged. "Come on, no point standing around, Aickman Road, isn't it?" She said, before dragging the Doctor along the peavement as she strode along.
She didn't even realised they had reached their destination, she had been a little too lost in her own little world, thinking about all the normal things that they had done during their last long trip to Earth with a TARDIS. It had been fun, and she really had loved every minute of it. That had been when the Doctor had proposed to her, for the first time.
The Doctor knocked on the red door and waited. It was soon yanked open by a man, who was clearly expecting someone else. "I love you." He called, holding a set of keys in his hands as he just at the Doctor and Kari in shock.
All the Doctor could do was smile at him, much the same smile that Kari was giving the strange man. "Well, that's good, because we're your new lodgers." He told him, before turning and looking at Kari. "Do you know, this is going to be easier than I expected." After that, he plucked the keys from the man's hand.
"But I only put the advert up today. I didn't put my address." The man protested, while Kari quickly followed the Doctor, knowing she had to keep him calm and under control.
The Doctor turned and faced the man. "Well, aren't you luck we came along? More lucky than you know. Less of a young professions, more and an ancient amateur, but frankly I'm an absolute dream."
There was only one thing that Kari could do whilst standing with the Doctor, and that was to roll her eyes at him. "Hang on a minute, mate, I don't know if I want you two staying here. And give me back those keys." The man at the door said, quickly taking them back. "You can't have those."
"Yes, quite right. Have some rent." The Doctor just handed the man a brown paper bag, which was full of money. "That's probably quite a lot, isn't it? Looks like a lot. Is it a lot? I can never tell, I usually leave all the financial stuff to my beautiful, brilliant, Kari." He rambled, before wrapping his arm around Kari's waist and kissing the top of her head, and then dragging her past the man and into the building.
The other man was quick to follow, and close the door behind him. Kari took those few moments they had alone to speak with her fiancé. "Doctor, dear, do calm down. You're acting a little overexcited." She whispered to him, just wishing that he would calm down a little. It was always more difficult to deal with him and keep a straight face when he got a little excited. Especially since she thought it made him look even more adorable when he was like that.
Inside, they both noticed the door at the top of the stairs, and they both looked up, watching the light flickering. "Don't spend it all on sweets, unless you like sweets. I like sweets." The Doctor called, before turning and facing the man, giving him air kisses on both cheeks. "That's how we greet each other now days, isn't it?" He questioned, but not actually waiting for an answer. "I'm the Doctor. Well, they call me the Doctor. I don't know why. I call me the Doctor, too. Still don't know why. And this lovely creature is…"
Kari cut him off and held out her hand to the man before them both. "I'm Kari. The fiancée of this strange man. Trust me, you get used to the strangeness."
"Craig Owens." He replied, shaking Kari's hand but looking at the man that was standing beside her. "The Doctor?"
"Yep. Who lives upstairs?" He was curious, that much was obvious, and Kari knew why. Just standing there, looking up the stairs, it made her feel weird, a little freaked out, and it sent a shiver up her spine.
"Just some bloke." The Doctor decided to continue to question the man, about what he looked like, already having made his own little deduction about why they had been sent to that particular house by Amy. "Normal. He's very quiet." He was proven wrong when there came a loud crashing noise from the flat at the top of the stairs. "Usually. Sorry, who are you again?" when he turned around, he noticed that the Doctor and Kari had both disappeared, into his flat. "Hello? Excuse me?"
But the Doctor was looking around the little flat, noticing different things, paying particular attention to a black stain that seemed to be spreading across the ceiling and down the wall. "Ah, I suppose that's dry rot?" He questioned, having a look at it and thinking about it. Something about it didn't sit right with him, and Kari let him know that she felt the same by taking his hand and giving it a squeeze.
"Or damp. Or mildew." Craig added, having already spotted the stain before and thinking about getting something done about it. He was meant to have a closer look at it, he had been planning to when he had been interrupted by the Doctor knocking on his door.
Even Kari's eyes were fixed on it. She knew the truth behind the stain, and she couldn't stop thinking about it, about all those people. "Or none of the above." She muttered at the same time as the Doctor said it. Craig looked between her and the Doctor. "Sorry, we do that sometimes. Kind of on the same wavelength sort of thing, finishing each other's sentences and things like that. I know it can be a bit freaky, but you get used to it." It was a quick cover up, and lucky for her, the man had accepted it.
Craig nodded, before looking back at the black on the ceiling. "I'll get someone to fix it."
"No, I'll fix it. I'm good at fixing rot. Call me the Rotmeister. No, I'm the Doctor, don't call me the Rotmesiter." He said, before turning and looking around the rest of the flat. "This is the most beautiful parlour I have ever seen. You're obviously a man of impeccable taste. We can stay, Craig, can'e we? Say we can." There was a pleading look on the Doctor's face now, and arm draped over Kari's shoulder as she worked her puppy dog eyes on the man.
It seemed a lot for the man to take in, as he seemed to stand there in a bit of a daze for a moment or two, before shaking himself out of it. "You haven't even seen the room yet."
Kari knew what the Doctor was going to say, and she wanted to get past all of that. "Oh, of course, how silly of us. We're just so excited and this is such a lovely home, he gets this way when he's excited, he just can't wait for us to move out of his parents place." That was a pretty good spin, at least that was what she thought.
Her little lie was accepted, and they were led to a room with some awful eighties wallpaper and a nice double bed pushed back against one of the walls. "Yeah, this is Mark's old room. He owns the place, moved out about a month ago. This uncle he'd never even heard of died and left a load of money in the will." Craig explained to them, while the Doctor carried on inspecting the room.
"How very convenient." It was clear that the Doctor was still thinking, that his brain was running at a hundred miles an hour. "This'll do just right. In fact…" Once again, there was a loud crash coming form the flat above them. "No time to lose. We'll take it."
"But you'll want to see our credentials." Kari added, knowing that the Doctor was reaching into his pocket to pull out his psychic paper.
A moment later and he had his black leather wallet open. "There, National Insurance numbers, NHS numbers, and references." He said, switching it from one hand to the other as he swapped the wallet behind his back.
Craig barely even had a chance to look at what was written on then paper, but he caught a good look at the references. "Is that a reference from the Archbishop of Canterbury?"
The Doctor quickly put his wallet away. "I'm his special favourite. Are you hungry?" He asked Craig, before looking at Kari. She was a little hungry, all that cake she had eaten really hadn't been enough to fill her up. "I'm hungry."
Craig had to follow the pair as the Doctor dragged Kari from their new bedroom and back into the parlour. "I haven't got anything in." He protested, clearly still a little confused at to what the hell was going on. It was all going past a little too quickly, and it was making him feel a little dizzy. He had so many questions, but he wasn't getting the chance to ask either of them, because the Doctor seemed to jump in and stop him.
By the time he had caught up to them, the Doctor had already rummaged through the fridge and had pulled out a few bits. "You've got everything I need for some omelette al la Doctor." He said, cracking an egg over a pan. "So, who's the girl on the fridge?" Both he and Kari had looked at it, the picture of Craig with a blonde haired girl, both smiling away.
Craig quickly looked at the picture, before turning back to the Doctor. "My friend, Sophie."
Kari raised an eyebrow and looked at him. "Girlfriend?" She knew that Sophie wasn't his girlfriend, even though the man wanted her to be.
"A friend, who is a girl." Craig managed to reply, getting a little flustered. "There's nothing going on."
"So come on then, how did you meet her?" She was going to keep Craig occupied while the Doctor got on with making the omelettes. He was now grating cheese into the pan with the egg in it, completely focused on what he was doing.
Craig still seemed a little nervous, but Kari noticed that his shoulders had relaxed a little. "We met at work about a year ago, at the call centre."
Even though the Doctor was busy making one of Kari's favourite meals, he was still paying attention. "Oh really, a communications exchange? That could be handy."
"Firm's going down though. The bosses are using a totally rubbish business model. I know what they should do. I got a plan all worked out. But I'm just a phone drone, I can't go running in saying I know best." For a moment there, Craig was completely at ease with the two strangers that were in his parlour, the man that was cooking and the woman that was putting back the unused ingredients. "Why am I telling you this? I don't even know you." His walls were going back up now, realising what he was doing.
"Well, I've got one of those faces." The Doctor told him as he continued to work on the omelettes. "People never stop blurting out their plans while I'm around."
Kari couldn't help but chuckle a little. "Oh, if only that were true, dear, if only." She just thought back to Venice, when he asked the vampire girls, who were actually fish, to tell him the whole plan. That ended up with them both running for their lives and the Doctor thinking that it was Christmas.
The Doctor stopped whisking up everything that was in the pan before him and turned to Kari. Without warning, he gave her a quick kiss on the lips, before getting back to what he had been doing. Kari stood there blushing, while Craig cleared his throat. "Right. Where's your stuff?"
"Oh, don't worry, it'll materialise. If all goes to plan." The Doctor told him, not even thinking about what he was saying and how utterly crazy he sounded.
Once more Kari had to roll her eyes. "What he really means to say is that we should have it all show up in a few days. Obviously we weren't completely sure that we would be moving out today, so there are still a few things that need to be organised. I'll pop back to his parents later and grab a few things." She was starting to get pretty good with the lying, the telling stories and keeping secrets, and that actually scared her a little.
A/N: So, I've finally gotten around to doing this episode. I should have had it done ages ago, but I kept getting distracted and having other ideas so I kept pushing it back. But there we go, it has begun.
A big hello and welcome to everyone who has favourited/followed the story recently, I still can't help but smile while I see new readers are finding this story. Also, for you all wonderful people that take the time to leave a review, thank you all so so much, I really do appreciate it.
Anyway, it's back to work in the morning, oh the joys! I'm excited really, new year, new start. Take care everyone and I'll see you all next week!
Pippa.