A/N: Well, I finally finished it. Yes, it took two weeks or there abouts, but I have finished that episode, and I am so glad. I will apologise for any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors that I may have missed. I hope you enjoy this final part.
Kari must have actually fallen asleep from boredom while the Doctor was fussing about his scanner, as she was woken up to the smell of sizzling bacon and sausages. The first thing she noticed was that the Doctor was nowhere to be seen, and then she remembered where he was.
"Craig? Craig? Breakfast. It's normal. Craig?" She heard him calling, before jumping up from where she had been huddled up and bolting out of the bedroom door.
Kari wasted no time in doing exactly what she knew the Doctor was going to do when he managed to get Craig breathing again. "Teabags, teabags, teabags." She muttered to herself grabbing them all and getting ready for the Doctor.
A few moments later and he was there, holding a teapot to celebrate the wedding of Charles and Diana. "Right, reverse the enzyme decay. Excite the tannin molecules." Even he was mumbling, while Kari just shoved as many teabags as she could into the pot.
The pair of them ran back into the other man's bedroom, and Kari held onto Craig's head while the Doctor poured the extremely strong tea into Craig's mouth. "I've got to go to work." Craig managed to say, although it looked as if it had been quite a strain for him to do so.
"On no account. You need rest." The Doctor told him, knowing that he needed to rest and recover for what had happened. He had been silly, he had touched the black stain on the wall when he had been told not to. He had acted like a child, doing something just because they had been warned not to do it. "One more." He let the Doctor pour more tea into his mouth.
"It's the planning meeting." Craig decided to try and protest, to try and get his point across. "It's important."
It wasn't the Doctor who replied to him, it was Kari. "No, Craig, you're more important. Trust me, okay? You're going to be absolutely fine, but you really do need to rest. So, why don't you just go back to sleep for a bit, yeah?" She was talking to him so gently and soothingly, that Craig just nodded at her a little before closing his eyes.
The Doctor and Kari crept out of the room, leaving the man to sleep it off. "Well, I suppose someone had better…"
Kari didn't even let him finish his sentence before letting gout a sigh. "Just behave, please. I'll stay and keep an eye on Craig, but you really need to behave. Do not get him fire." She warned him, wagging her finger at him a little. "And be careful of what you say to Sophie, all right?"
He looked at her with a face full of confusion. "Why do I need to be careful about what I say to her?"
"Because I said so, all right? Now, if you are going to the call centre to cover for Craig today, then can you please just go before I change my mind and I decide to go instead." In all honesty, she didn't want to go to the call centre, she wanted to stay there, at the flat, to make sure that no one was tricked into going upstairs. She had already missed a few, and she was not going to miss any more.
"Right, I'm going." The Doctor told her, leaning down and lightly kissing her cheek. "I promise to behave myself, and I'll be back later."
Kari nodded at him, and walked with him towards the street door. "Yeah, you better behave, mister." She told him, giving him a smile as she watched him leave. Her eyes followed him and she walked one way down the street, stopped, and then went the other way. It was rather amusing watching him try to work out which way he had to go to get to Craig's workplace.
When she closed the door and turned around, she looked up to the top of the stairs. There was a figure standing there, at the top in the doorway. Kari simply glared at it fiercely, her eyes starting to glow a little as she did. The figure soon stepped back and closed the door, leaving her looking at nothing. Kari wasn't frightened of what was going on upstairs, because she knew that Craig and Sophie would stop it.
Once she was back in the flat she flopped down onto the sofa and pulled out her phone. She had already spoken to Jack recently, and she really didn't want to call him again, not with what he had going on. Amy was stuck in the TARDIS, being thrown around here, there, and everywhere. Her super temp was gone and living her own life, but there was one person she could always count on.
She scrolled through the numbers on her phone and found the one that she wanted. Kari listened to it ring, and ring, and ring, before finally someone answered it. "Hello? Cell 426." A young lads voice said to her.
"Pass the phone to Doctor Song, it's important." Kari wasn't going to mess around. She wanted to talk to River, not some armed guard in a prison.
"It's for you." She heard him say. "It's her. Again." That simply caused Kari to frown, so far it was the first time that she had called River in her cell. Well, at least now she knew that it wouldn't be the last.
"Hello, Darling. How nice of you to call." She couldn't help but smile at the sound of River's voice.
"Well, you're my favourite criminal, how can I not call you? How are you, River?" Really, Kari just wanted a chat, just some random talk with someone, someone who wasn't going to keep asking her if she was all right or if anything was bothering her.
In her head, she could just see River in her cell, lounging on her bed. "Oh, you know, same as always. Scheduling a break out soon, I do hope you are going to be there." Even though it sounded like River was joking, Kari knew that she wasn't.
"Oh, of course. I wouldn't miss it for the world. I haven't seen you for a while, River, I kind of miss you. Last time I saw you, there was some bad stuff going on, and I was a complete and utter mess. We didn't exactly have a chance to have a glass of wine and gossip." It had been a really bad time when she had last seen her, she hadn't even been able to remember who she was. Kari had recognised her at the time, but she couldn't remember who she was. A shiver actually went down her spine as she thought back to that year, the year that never was.
"Well, are you busy at the moment? You know you can come and see me whenever you like, Darling. You do have the means to do so." River reminded her, actually wondering why Kari was calling her but not sure she should ask.
Although Kari would have loved to have just grabbed her vortex manipulator and gone off to visit River, she knew that she couldn't. "I'm kind of in the middle of something at the moment. Your mother is stuck in the TARDIS, and we are stuck on Earth. He's actually gone off to work today, covering for our flatmate who just had to touch something that he shouldn't have." She told her, letting out a sigh. "And I'm stuck here, basically babysitting Craig."
"You are kidding me, he's gone to work? A real job?" River asked me, the amusement clearly there in her voice.
"Yup, in a call centre. Trust me, it looks a disaster when you walk in there, but everyone loves him." Kari told her without really thinking about it. "And he just acts like his normal, weird self." She said, getting herself up off the sofa and deciding to make herself a cup of tea and something to eat.
"Tell me a time when that man isn't weird." River commented, laughing a little.
Kari held the phone between her shoulder and her cheek as she hunted around for some more teabags. She hoped that they hadn't used all of them in the tea for Craig, because then she wouldn't be able to have tea with her toast. "I can tell you lots of time when he isn't weird, but that would be slightly inappropriate."
The woman at the other end of the line let out a slight gasp. "Well, that is a discussion for another time. Now, how are you, Kari? And I want the truth, don't you dare try to spin me some lie." There was a hint of worry in her voice, and Kari really hated it when she heard that.
"I'm kind of okay. Really sick of knowing everything that is going to happen. I hide it from the Doctor, and it makes things difficult between us. If I try to tell him everything, he doesn't want to hear it." She was going to be honest with her, because she knew there was no point in even thinking of lying to River Song. "Where we are now, I know what's going on, and I've tried to tell him, but he just seems to block me out when I do."
"Of course he blocks it out, Darling. He knows just how much you hate spoilers, and even though you want to tell him what's going on, he sometimes thinks it's only to keep him happy." River informed her, understanding exactly what Kari was saying to her. "We both know how annoying and frustrating he can be at times, especially when you know so much more than him and refuse to share, but everyone knows that it's only because you have to keep it secret."
"But how do I get him to listen to me, River? I know what is going on upstairs, we could have sorted it out by now and got your mother out of the TARDIS safely." The one time when she tried to tell the Doctor everything, and he just doesn't want to listen to her. It was really starting to bug her, because she knew they probably could have sorted things out all ready, even if it did change a few things.
River didn't really know what to say to answer her. "Darling, you know more than anyone how impossible it is to try and understand the Doctor." She ended up telling Kari, not really being very helpful with what she was saying. "He probably does have a reason, and maybe you just need to ask him." The direct approach, the one that Kari seemed to have completely forgotten all about.
She knew that River was right, and that the best thing for her to do was to talk to the Doctor and find out what the hell was going on and why he didn't want to listen to her. "Yeah, you're right. As soon as Craig wakes up, we're going to that call centre, and I'm going to have words with that Time Lord." She announced, feeling a surge of determination.
There was a chuckling at the other end of the line. "Good for you. Don't you dare go easy on him, you give him absolute hell." River said, giving her some encouragement and strength.
"I will, River, thanks. I'll come see you soon, I promise. I miss you, and your big space hair." Kari couldn't resist saying that, the little thing about her hair. "I should probably start getting myself together if I'm going to surprise the Doctor soon."
Once again, River laughed, before saying goodbye and leaving Kari to get on with whatever she needed to do. In all honestly, Kari actually felt better after talking to River. She didn't know why, but she always have a way of just cheering her up, even when she didn't even try to, River knew what to say every time.
Kari wasted no time in locking herself in the bathroom, locking the door as she ran a nice, hot, bubbly bath. It was going to be a few hours still until Craig woke up and she was going to make the most of the time she had alone. A nice hot bath was something Kari always enjoyed, although she would have enjoyed it even better if she had been in the TARDIS.
After a nice long bath, and a few hours of going through the things that Jack had sent her, she heard the door to Craig's room slam closed. "I'm late. Oh, I am so getting fired." She heard him moaning.
She grabbed her bag before bolting out of the room she shared with the Doctor. "Craig!" She called, rushing through the flat. "Wait up! I'm coming with you." Kari had to move quickly to catch up with him, but eventually she did.
The journey to his workplace was a rather silent one. It was plain to see that he was upset and annoyed at what had happened, and Kari had to suffer the blame for it all so far. At least she knew things would all work out in the end, and that was the only comfort she had.
Craig barged into his work place and saw his boss standing there, arms folded across his chest, looking at the man who had just entered. "Oh, afternoon." The man said, watching Craig dash towards him.
"I'm so sorry, Michael. I don't know what happened. I've got no excuse." There was so much sincerity in Craig's voice, and Kari did actually feel kind of bad for him as she wandered in behind him. She knew that none of it had been his fault, and that even if he did understand what had happened to him, no one else would believe it.
Before anyone could say anything else, another voice floated through the air and to their ears. "I think that's not what my screen is telling me, Mister Lang." The Doctor said, causing Craig to look over at him with a look of pure shock on his face.
Eventually the man got over his shock. "What's he doing here?" He asked his boss before asking something else. "What are you doing here?" The question was put towards the Doctor, who was just carrying on with his conversation on the phone he was on.
"If that's your attitude, Mister Lang, then I suggest you take your custom elsewhere." The Doctor said down the headset he was wearing, before blowing a raspberry.
That just seemed to horrify Craig even more. "No, no, no, that's one of my best clients." No, he definitely did not like the Doctor taking over his job.
Finally, the Doctor looked up and saw Kari and Craig standing there. "Hello, Craig. How are you feeling? Had some time to kill. I was curious. Never worked in an office before. Never worked in anywhere." He said, motioning for Kari to come and join him.
Kari rolled her eyes at him as she trudged around to the other side of the desk. "Lies. You have worked somewhere before, you're still on the payroll." She muttered, as he beckoned for her to pull up a chair next to him.
All Craig could do was look at the Doctor, and the kitchen utensil that was standing up and randomly turning. "You're insane."
But it seemed that he was the only one to think that, as his boss was soon defending the Doctor. "Leave off the Doctor. I love the Doctor. He was brilliant in the planning meeting." He said, before looking at Kari. "And you're the soon-to-be-Mrs Doctor?" Michael asked, looking at Kari with a huge smile on his face.
"The one and only. Most people just call me Kari, though." She was being polite, and she did smile at him, but she found him to be a little on the creepy side. She didn't know why, there was absolutely not reason for it, but Kari really couldn't help but feel that way.
"You went to the planning meeting?" Poor Craig was still trying to process everything, and he was finding it all rather difficult. The fact that the Doctor had decided to take over his job was one thing, but to take over his planning meeting, that was the final straw for him really.
The Doctor couldn't see his distress, because he thought that he was just being helpful. "Yes, I was your representative. We don't need Mister Lang anymore. Rude Mister Lang."
"You do know that you can be extremely rube at times as well?" Kari whispered to him, spotting Sophie walking over to them with a plate of biscuits and a mug of tea.
A moment later and the other woman was stopping in front of the desk and placing the mug carefully down and passing the Doctor the plate. She smiled when she saw Kari, a big, genuine smile. "Hi Kari, would you like a cup of tea?"
"Oh no, I'm fine, the Doctor will share his one with me." She told the woman, before gently tugging the mug away from his hand and taking a sip of it herself, before passing it back. "Lovely."
The Doctor rolled his eyes at her while shoving one of the custard creams into his mouth and Sophie turned her attention to Craig. "Hi, Craig. I went on the web, applied for a wildlife charity thing. They said I could always start as a volunteer straight away. Should I do it?" She was looking for his advice, for his approval, for his support, or maybe she just wanted him to say something that would stop her from going.
Unfortunately, Craig was still too focused on the mad man with a box, without his box, and taking over his job. "Yeah, great. Yeah, good. Go for it." He said, having barely even registered what she had actually told him.
"You look awful. About turn, bed. Now." The Doctor commanded, looking from the man and then back to the computer screen. "Who next? Oh, yes. Hello, Mister Jorgensen. Can you hold? I have to eat a biscuit."
"I'll keep an eye on him." Kari quickly told the still horrified Craig. "And keep him out of trouble. You really should go back home now though, Craig. You do still look a little off colour, and a bit of rest wouldn't do you any harm. You're not going to lose your job or anything." She added, before turning her gaze to look at his boss. "Is he, Michael?"
For some reason he smiled madly at her. "Oh no, of course not. Off you go, Craig. I'm sure we can managed with the Doctor and his fiancée here." There was definitely something creepy about him, in Kari's opinion.
Kari could tell that Craig wasn't happy still, and the way that he stormed out of the room just amplified that. She knew that they were going to have a pretty hard time when they got back in the evening, and she wasn't really looking forward to it all. She just wanted it all to be over, so that they could go back to the TARDIS and she could forget about it all.
Eventually, night fell and the pair of them finally returned to the flat. Once again, Kari gazed up the stairs and to the flat above, knowing that it would soon be over, that they would be able to leave. But while she was looking up the stairs and at the door, the Doctor was looking at what was coming down the stairs. "Have you been upstairs?" He asked the cat that was there, meowing a little as it slinked down the steps. "Yes?"
She quickly shook herself out of her thoughts as she watched the Doctor sit down with the cat. "Great, now he's going to be talking kitty." She grumbled to herself, watching him as he began to strike up a conversation with the feline.
"You can do it. Show me, what's up there? What's behind that door? Try to show me?" The Doctor asked the cat, giving as much encouragement as he could. "Oh… but that doesn't make sense. Ever seen anyone go up there? Lots of people? Good, good. What kind of people?" Kari couldn't help but let out a sigh, she knew that Craig was listening to the Doctor now, and was deciding that he was stark raving mad. "People who never came back down. Oh, that's bad. That's very bad." He managed to say before the door to the downstairs flat was yanked open. The doctor was startled a little, but simply smiled at Craig. "Oh, hello."
"I can't take this any more. I want you to go." Craig told him, looking more than just a little stressed as he headed back into the flat. "You can have this back and all." He added, shoving the brown paper bag that was still full of money back at the Doctor.
The Doctor was just confused. "What have we done?" He had no idea why Craig had suddenly changed his mind and wanted them out.
All Craig could do was look at him. "For a start, talking to a cat."
Kari decided to step in and at least try to defuse the situation and make what was going to happen next a little easier. "Uh, you do know that over sixty seven percent of pet owners do actually talk to their pets as if they were humans." She informed the man, earning herself a rather surprised look from the Doctor. "Can you honestly tell me that you have never spoken to a cat or a dog like they could understand every single word that you were saying?"
It really did look as if Craig was about to concede, but he quickly got himself back on track. "Yeah, but that's not the point. " He told Kari, before looking at the Doctor once more. "Everybody loves you, and you're better at football than me, and my job, and now Sophie's all, 'oh monkeys, monkeys', and then, there's that…" The man opened the door to the bedroom that the Doctor and Kari shared in the flat, revealing the scanner that had been made and was currently slowly spinning on the bed.
"It's art. A statement on modern society. Ooh, ain't modern society awful." Kari couldn't help but hang her head and run a hand over her face at that comment.
"Me and you, it's not going to work out." Craig said, before looking at Kari. "You're all right, you're normal. Thing is, you've only been here three days, and these have been the weirdest three days of my life."
There was no way that Kari going to let things go on any longer than they needed to. "Craig, you need to calm down. If you think things are weird now, then just you wait, kick us out now, and it will get even worse, believe me, I know." She told him, before turning to look at the Doctor. "Now for my favourite part. Head-butt him."
The Doctor looked at her as if she were the crazy one. "What? Why would I want to head-butt him? That will hurt."
In the background, Craig was still muttering about things being too weird, being a bad weird, and the fact that he couldn't do it any more. "Because it's the only way to tell him exactly what is going on, apparently."
The confusion stayed present on his face for a moment later, before he finally caught on to what Kari was suggesting. "Brilliant!" He cried, kissing the top of her head before spinning and facing Craig, mentally and physically preparing himself for what he was about to do. "Right, only one. I'm going to show you something, but shush, really, shush." He warned the man, before letting out a groan. "Oh, I am going to regret this. Okay, right. First, general background." He said, before smashing his head again Craig's, causing them both to cry out in pain.
Kari wasn't enjoying the silliness as much as she thought she would. It wasn't as entertaining as it had once been. This time, she was cringing, flinching a little as both the men rubbed their sore heads.
"You're a…" Craig started, stunned from the visions he had seen, the information that had been shared with him.
"Yes."
"From…" The Doctor and Kari shushed him like he was a little child, but Craig just couldn't stop himself. "You've got a TARDIS."
Eyes rolled at that comment before the Doctor replied. "Yes. Shush. Eleventh." He told him, signalling to his face. "Right, okay, specific detail."
They banged their heads together once more, and once more Kari flinched. It really did look rather painful, and nowhere near funny. She couldn't actually begin to imagine how much of a headache the Doctor was going to have afterwards, she wondered if it compared to those she had when she was being pulled around.
"You saw my ad in the paper shop window." Craig finally managed to say, having seen exactly how the Doctor had arrived, and how Kari had appeared out of nowhere.
Kari smiled at him a little as she reached into the Doctor's jacket pocket. "Yeah, and this was right above it. Amy wrote it. Well, she will write it, or she has written it. Time travel, not only can it happen, but it can make things as complicated as hell." She moaned a little, safely tucking the note back into the Doctor's pocket.
Then it all fell into place for Craig, with his new found knowledge. "That's a scanner. You used non-technological technology of Lammasteen!"
The Doctor quickly put his hand over Craig's mouth. "Shut up!" He ended up growling.
"Listen, I think it's about time you listened to me now, Doctor." Kari said, stepping in and ready to end it all. "The bloke upstairs, he has a time engine, the whole upstairs is a time engine. He's using innocent people to try and launch it, and the result isn't good. And every time that happens, Amy almost gets flung off into the vortex."
Both of the men looked at her, Craig with wide eyes and the Doctor looking rather worried. "What else?" Kari was about to reply when they were suddenly thrown into a time loop. With Craig keep on repeating that people were dying upstairs.
"Sophie…" Kari whispered to herself, before bolting through the flat and towards the door. There was no way she was going to leave that woman up there and scared on her own until Craig and the Doctor arrived, she was going to help., she was going to do something, anything.
She saw the fluffy pink keys in the lock, and ran up the stairs, swinging the door open and seeing a rather terrified looking Sophie being pulled towards a console unit in the middle of the room. "Kari, help me!" The woman cried, trying to pull herself out of the invisible force that was dragging her forwards.
"It's all right, Sophie, I'm not going to let it get you as well." She said, the determination flooding her voice as she charged over to her, trying to pull the woman back, even though she knew it would be useless. "Just stay calm, okay?"
Sophie had tears in her eyes, and it was abundantly clear that she was horrified of what was going to happen. "I saw a little girl, she said that she needed help. That was the only reason I came up here." She cried, seriously regretting her decision.
"I know, and it's not your fault, Sophie." Kari assured her, knowing that she wasn't to blame. "This is all the Doctor's fault, when you really think about it."
"What do you mean? How can it be his fault?"
"Well, this place is trying to use you to launch, they were basically trying to replicate a time machine, didn't work too well in the end to be honest, but anyway. The point is, the original owners of this stupid pile of junk were, how can I put this nicely, they were removed by the Doctor. Now, since they were removed, this place was left empty, and without any commands." Kari explained the best she could. "It went back to it's basic functions, emergency program to try and launch, the old man, or the little girl, actually, there is a young man in there somewhere as well. All a cover up while they lure you into this room."
The whole time Kari had been talking, Sophie had been listening, while they tried desperately to pull away from the force. It seemed impossible, and Sophie was still slowly being dragged forwards. "What's it going to do to me?" Sophie ended up crying, still petrified of what was going on around her.
"Nothing. It is going to do absolutely nothing to you, because I'm going to stop it." Kari told her calmly, just as two other people appeared in the room.
"What?" The familiar voice of Craig said as he looked around the room. "What?"
"Oh… oh, of course. The time engine isn't in the flat, the time engine is the flat. Someone's attempt to build a TARDIS." The Doctor said, having a proper look around for himself. He hadn't noticed Kari yet, over with Sophie, struggling to keep the woman's hand from touching one of the panels on the main console unit.
"No, there's always been an upstairs." Craig told the Doctor in protest, while the door they had originally came through flickered in and out of existence.
Kari really was fed up now, she had tried to explain everything to the Doctor so many times already, and he just did not want to listen to her. Well, now she was going to make sure that he heard her. "Oh, for goodness sake!" She shouted, causing both the men to look over at her. "There's a perception filter around the whole of this place. There never was an upstairs, and soon enough, it will be gone again. Now will you shut up and come and help!"
Finally, Craig noticed who was there with Kari. "Sophie! Sophie! Oh, my God, Sophie!" He called, rushing over to the woman, who he actually cared for more than he was able to admit.
The woman was still being pulled forward, and Kari was still trying to pull her back, with Craig now helping as well. The Doctor had watched with great interest, trying to figure it all out. "It's controlling her. It's willing her to touch the activator." He commented, while Kari let out a low growl.
She was really not happy now, not happy at all. "It's forcing her, Doctor. Do you really think she wants to touch it? Now, will you stop being so slow and do something!" She ended up shouting at him, just as Sophie's hand touched the dome that was on the panel before her.
In a flash, the Doctor had his sonic screwdriver out, trying to do something, just like Kari had demanded, but it didn't work. "Ah, deadlock sealed." He said, looking to Kari for help. A moment later, and Sophie fell back, landing on Craig and Kari. "What? Why's it let her go? So, okay…" Now things made even less sense to the Doctor.
But Kari knew what was going to happen next, and so she quickly got to her feet, just as the old man appeared. "You will help me." He said, standing before the Doctor.
"Right, stop. Crashed ship, let's see." The Doctor was quickly forming a plan, while Kari was creeping to his side. "Hello, I'm Captain Troy Handsome of International Rescue. Please state the nature of your emergency."
"The ship has crashed. The crew are dead. A pilot is required."
Kari couldn't help but roll her eyes. She really didn't like the fact that the Doctor had ignored her, and not listened to anything she had said to him. It really was like he couldn't hear a word she was saying, and she really didn't like it. "Doctor, it's the emergency crash program, it's just a hologram. And what it has been doing is luring people up here to that they can be tried out." She said, glaring at the hologram, feeling her temper starting to rise. People had died, and she hadn't saved them, and that stupid hologram had been the cause of their deaths.
Suddenly, the hologram flickered through all three of it's disguises. "You will help me. You will help me. You will help me."
"Human brains aren't strong enough, they just burn. But you're stupid, thought. You just keep trying." Once again, it seemed like the Doctor was completely ignoring Kari, and that made her temper start to flare even more. There was no reason for him to ignore her, not now, not when she was just trying to explain things to him.
"Seventeen people have been tried. Six billion four hundred thousand and twenty six remain."
Sophie had finally started to come back to her sense, and was more than a little confused as to what was going on. "Seriously, what is going on?"
This time it was the Doctor rolling his eyes. "Oh, for goodness sake. The top floor of Craig's building is in reality an alien spaceship intent on slaughtering the population of this planet. Any questions? No, good." It really did seem like he just wanted to get on and fix the problem now, because he had seen the slight glow that was starting to radiate from Kari.
"The correct pilot has now been found." The hologram abruptly announced.
The Doctor shifted nervously. "Yes, I was a bit worried that you were going to say that." He said, before the electric field that had grabbed a hold of Sophie took him and tried to drag him forward to the console unit.
Now Kari was totally fed up. "Right, I think it's about time that you listen to me, Doctor, not that you really have a choice." She said in a slightly menacing way. "It has a selection process, it picks people who want to leave. And you, well, who else wants to leave this planet more than you?" She asked him, trying to keep herself in control. "It didn't want Craig, and why is that? Because he is Mister Sofa Man, he doesn't see the point in leaving, he doesn't want to leave. Now, why does it suddenly want Sophie? Because we planted the idea of leaving in her head!" She ended up shouting, making him flinch a little.
But there was a frown on the Doctor's face. He was still trying to stop himself from being dragged towards the panel, but the whole time, he had been listening to Kari. "And what about you? It doesn't want you, why? Why doesn't it want you?"
"Because… because I'm not as desperate to leave as you are." Kari informed him, knowing that he was going to take it the wrong way and think that it was because she missed it on Earth, and that she wanted to stay there. "It's not about where I am, it is never about where I am, it's about who I'm with. Even if we were stuck on some planet, billions of light years away from here, I wouldn't want to leave, as long as you were there." She hoped that explained it, explained her lack of desire to leave.
It looked as if a light had just been switched on in the Doctor's head, as he suddenly had an idea. "Craig, you can shut down the engine. Put your hand on the panel, and concentrate on why you want to stay." He told him, while Sophie protested against it.
"Will it work?" The man asked him, a little nervous.
"Yes." The Doctor and Kari both cried together, as the Doctor got ever closer to the panel in front of him.
"Craig, just do it, or so help me, I will turn into your worst nightmare!" Kari growled at him, wishing that he would just do it already so that it would be over with.
He looked at Kari, noticing the serious and scary look on her face. "Geronimo!" He called, before slamming his hand down on the unit that had released Sophie.
The Doctor was released, and he knew what he had to do now. He took a tight hold of Kari's hand, and gave it a squeeze. "Craig, what's keeping you here? Think about everything that makes you want to stay here. Why don't you want to leave?" The Doctor asked him quickly, being rather pushy.
Craig was panicking a little, but trying his best not to show it. "Sophie. I don't want to leave Sophie. I can't leave Sophie. I love Sophie!" He ended up shouting, causing Kari to smile softly and Sophie to look at him in shock.
"I love you too, Craig, you idiot." Sophie replied, before slamming her hand down on top of his.
"Honestly, do you mean that?" Craig asked her, seemingly completely forgetting the dangerous situation that they were all in.
"Of course I mean. Do you mean it?"
"I've always meant it. Seriously though, do you mean it?"
"Yes."
"What about the monkeys." Only Craig could come up with something like that in their situation.
"Oh, not now, not again." The Doctor moaned, seeing that the pair were just going off into their own little place for a conversation. He wondered if that was how other people saw him and his Kari at times. "Craig, the planet's abut to burn. For God's sake, kiss the girl!"
The man done as he was told and he kissed her, while Amy cheered from somewhere within the TARDIS, having heard everything that had been going on through the Doctor's homemade earpiece. "You've done it. Oh, now the screen's just zeros. Now it's minus one, minus twos, minus threes…" It was easy to tell that Amy was happy and relieved. "Big yes."
But the hologram started flickering again, but this time at a much more rapid rate. "Big no." The Doctor said, looking at the holographic autopilot seemingly glitch constantly.
"Uh, you know, I think now would be the absolutely perfect time to run." Kari said, before the Doctor nodded at her and dragged her out of the flat and out into the street. They all turned and watched as the top floor turned into a spaceship, before disappearing in the sky, leaving the single story building that was Craig's home.
"Look at them. Didn't they see that?" Craig asked, watching the people wandering around them, not even flinching from what had just happened. "The whole top floor just vanished."
"Perception filter." The Doctor and Kari said at the same time. "There never was a top floor." The Doctor couldn't help but smile at his Kari. He knew that the moment they were back in the TARDIS, he had some serious words coming his way, and a lot to make up for.
It wasn't long before they left the flat, having tried to sneak out but failed, and said goodbye to both Craig and Sophie, who Kari knew would now be happy in their lives. The TARDIS was there, where it had thrown the Doctor out, waiting for them both. The moment Kari rested her hand on the door, it clicked open, and a humming filled her head, one that she was happy about. They had only been a away for a few days, but those were the days that made her really appreciate what she had. A family.
A/N: And that is it! Then end of The Lodger! I am so glad that it is finally over, I really am. I enjoyed writing that episode at first, but then it became more of a chore than anything else, and I really wanted to give up.
I think I am going to take my time with the next chapter. It's going to take me some time to get back into the flow of this now, and I really want to get back into it, but in my own time.
So I would like to thank everyone who has supported me, those who have left reviews and those who have sent me a PM as well. Thank you all so much.
I'm going to leave it there, and thank you all once again for sticking by me. Until the next time.
Pippa.