A/N: Hello everyone! As you may have noticed I've been taking my time recently to pull my head back into the story. My motivation isn't fully back, but it's slowly creeping towards me. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter and forgive any spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.
Kari had her eyes closed as she soaked in the bath in her room. She was still annoyed with the Doctor for not listening to her, for ignoring her, but she was trying her best to forget about it. All she had wanted was for him to listen to her, she was doing what he had asked, telling him the truth rather than keeping it all bottled up. She wanted to tell him, she really did try, but he just seemed to block her out.
She let out a sigh as she slid down in the bath, dunking her head under the water. It didn't bother her that the water was swishing around in her ears, or that it was going up her nose. Kari just wanted to wash everything from her mind, all the worry and stress, and the annoyance she was feeling towards the Doctor.
It was about an hour or so later when she finally emerged from the bath and slowly got herself dressed. She didn't have a rush in her, she just really could not be bothered. Although she was glad to be back in the TARDIS, there were several things running through her head, such as whether the Doctor had enjoyed his time stuck on Earth, or had he really been that desperate to get off the planet and back to running away, across the stars.
There was a part of her that wanted to ask him, but she knew that there was no point, because he wouldn't give her a straight answer. With a rather heavy sigh, Kari made her way out of her room on board the impossible ship and headed towards the console room, where she knew the Doctor and Amy would be waiting for her.
"Ah, there you are!" The Doctor cried the moment he saw her, bounding around the console like he usually did. "We were starting to wonder what was taking you so long. I've changed the will, and Amy has left the note in the shop window. So, where do you want to go now?" He had absolutely no idea that Kari was not entirely happy with him.
"I don't care." She told him, plonking herself down in one of the chairs. "Wherever you and Amy want."
That was when the Doctor stopped and frowned. "Kari, is everything all right?" He asked, watching her carefully from where he was standing. The way she was acting was making him think that he was missing something, that there was a problem there somewhere.
She closed her eyes and rested her head back in the chair. "Yup, everything is totally fine." She told him, just knowing that he wouldn't believe her, no matter what she said.
He stopped what he was doing at the console and moved around to her, stopping on when he was beside the chair. "Okay, out with it. What's wrong?"
"You didn't listen to me." She told him simply. "I was trying to tell you what was going on, but you just kept on ignoring me. Every time you ignored me. It didn't matter what I said, it didn't matter that I knew what was going on upstairs and the fact that I was trying to tell you, you just refused to listen to me."
Really, the Doctor should have seen that coming. "Kari, I'm sorry. I wasn't ignoring you, I promise." He told her in assurance, now kneeling down in front of her, trying to catch her gaze.
"Well, that's what it felt like. I knew what was going on, and I was trying to tell you, but you wouldn't listen. You tell me that it's okay for me to tell you if I want to, and that I shouldn't keep things bottled up all the time. So this time, this one time, I'm prepared to tell you everything, but you just don't want to know." It was easy to see that she was upset about it all. It wasn't just how the Doctor seemed to ignore what she said to him, it was the way he seemed to be so eager to get back to the TARDIS.
He knew that he had messed up, and he knew at the time that he was probably going to regret it. "I was listening to you, don't ever think for a second that I ignore you, not ever. But there was a reason why it looked like I wasn't paying attention." That was what managed to get Kari's attention, and she looked up at him with a frown on her face. "The longer it took for us to solve it, the longer we could stay there for." His reasoning sure was a shock to her, because she had most certainly not expected it.
"But… but I thought… I thought you just wanted the TARDIS back. You were worried about Amy being lost in the time vortex forever. You were desperate to get both of them back." Of course she was a little confused now. It was clear to her how much he hand wanted the TARDIS back, and how worried he had been about their red-haired friend.
A soft smile appeared on the Doctor's face as Kari stuttered to give her own thoughts. "I wasn't that worried. Do you know why?" Kari just shook her head at him. "Because you weren't worried. Now, if you have been worrying and panicking, then I would have been worrying and panicking as well. But you were calm, which meant that you know what was going on and what was going to happen. When you started telling me what was going on, I decided to not do anything about it, so that we could spend a little more time together."
She really didn't know what to say to that, because she had honestly believed that he had just wanted to get out of there. "It didn't look like you wanted to spend a little time together." She grumbled, not really knowing what else to say to him on the matter. Now, she didn't know what to think of the whole matter, on everything that happened when they were staying with Craig.
And now the Doctor was at a loss for words. It had never been his intention to make it seem that way, to make her feel like he had. "Kari, I am sorry. I honestly never meant for it to be that way." He told her, watching as she brought a hand up to her head. "Hey, we got to spend some normal time together. Football, what did you think? Was I good at it?" He was starting to ramble a little now, and he knew it. "Tell you what, we can make a thing of it. Every weekend we can go and play football with Craig. What do you think?"
"I think you're rambling." Kari muttered at him, an excruciating pain throbbing in her temple. "I just… I don't understand why you had to be so… distant with me." That was really what had bothered her the most, the fact that it seemed like he was ignoring her, pushing himself away from him, trying not to interact with her.
"I know, and I shouldn't have, and I'm sorry." He told her, a hint of desperation slipping through in his voice. The Doctor could see by the way that she was holding her head that something was wrong, and he had a very good idea of what it was. "Hey, when you get back, we can do whatever you like, yeah? You can pick anywhere in the whole of the universe, all of time and space. What do you say to that?"
Kari couldn't help but let out a slight laugh. "That obvious, is it?" Her head was pounding more and more as each second passed. She had tried to ignore it, but it really hadn't worked.
Even the Doctor chuckled a little. "Just a bit. It'll be all right, Kari. I'll see you soon, and then we can go and do whatever you want, yeah?"
She knew he was making an effort, he was trying to make it up to her. In all honesty, the little bit of annoyance that she had against him was quickly fading. Kari knew that there had to be a reason for why he wasn't listening to her, but she just wished that he had told her why in the beginning and not let her come to her own conclusions. "Look after Amy, because she found her engagement ring." She had to warn him, she had to let him know why their red haired friend was going to be acting a little off. "She doesn't remember, but she just feels something."
The Doctor nodded at her, understanding exactly what she was saying to him. "I will, I'll look after her, I promise." Kari simply nodded at him a little, her head spinning wildly now, and her stomach churning. "Hey, I'll see you soon, yeah?"
Kari gazed at the Doctor, and she tried to smile, but she was just in too much pain. "Yeah, see you soon Doc…" She didn't get to say anything else, as the golden swarm surrounded her, pulling her away from the TARDIS, from the Doctor. The feeling of her stomach being twisted grew, and she so desperately wished that it would stop, that she was arrive wherever it was that she was heading to and that the pain and feeling of sickness would just go away.
Eventually it did stop, but the feeling of her insides turning to her outsides didn't. She couldn't help but let out groan as her stomach churned one more time. "I hate that. I seriously, utterly, completely, one hundred percent, hate it." Kari ended up grumbling.
"Oh, stop your moaning." A Scottish voice called to her, quickly grasping her attention and causing her head to snap up. "I was expecting you hours ago, honestly, your timing is utterly useless."
Kari couldn't believe what she was seeing, because it was something she really hadn't expected. Standing there before her, leaning casually against the console, was a tall, grey haired man. He wore black, although the jacket he had on was lined inside with red silk. "Wow, you lost all your manners when you regenerated." She muttered, pushing herself up off the floor, a scowl on her face. "And you just had to be Scottish, didn't you? Oh, if only Amy could see you now, she would love it."
"Are you done moaning?" The Doctor asked her, still standing there and watching her. What seemed to bother Kari the most was the fact that he hadn't even bothered to make an attempt to help her, he hadn't even bothered with saying hello to her.
"Rude, rude, rude, rude, rude." She muttered under her breath. "And not ginger." She couldn't help but smile at that little comment of hers. "At least some things never change." The moment she said that, she felt a reassuring hum in her head, the one that always made her feel safe, the one that told her that she was home. Nothing could make her feel more at ease then when she heard that noise, when she knew that she was home and protected by the most wondering ship in any universe.
The Doctor huffed at her, before strolling around the console, fiddling with things as he went. Kari could see that she wasn't going to get any kind of hello, and she wasn't entirely surprised. The first time she had seem him, the only time she had seen that version of him, it was on that date night, the one that he crashed so many times. He had hugged her then, but she knew that was never going to happen again. He wasn't a hugger, and she was going to have to deal with it.
"What's wrong with your face?" He suddenly asked her, causing her to look at him as she shuffled towards the console. "It's all droopy, and… and…"
"There is nothing wrong with my face." Kari was actually sulking a little, she was now with a Doctor that she didn't really know very well yet, and that seemed rather aloof to many social interactions.
Then the Doctor stopped. "Ah, wait, I know what it is." He turned around and walked over to Kari, stopping only when he was standing in front of her. She had no idea what he was going to do next, because she just knew that he wasn't going to hug her, and she had already accepted that. So, when he actually opened his arms and smiled at her, she frowned at him.
"Uh, what are you doing?" Kari asked, ready to take a step back and away from him. The look on his face was one she had never seen before, she'd only encountered him with that face for a few minutes previously. "You're not a hugger, you said it yourself. You are not a hugger."
Without giving her warning, the Doctor reached out for her and wrapped his arms around her, taking her completely by surprise. "I told you, I'm only a hugger for you." He ended up telling her softly as he held her close to him.
All too soon the moment was over and he was back to dashing around the console. It took a few moments for her to pull herself back together, to remember where she was and who she was with. "So, where's Clara?" She asked, trying to sound as casual as she could.
The Doctor stopped dead in his tracks and spun around and looked at Kari. "Oh right, I suppose we better go and pick her up. I doubt she's busy."
Something didn't sound right to Kari, and the whole TARDIS felt a little strange to her. Everything was just grey and cold, and covered with metal, it wasn't the warm orange she loved with her bow tie wearing Doctor. The glass floor was gone, replaced by sheets of metal, and all the odd parts that made up the console were now gone as well. The only familiar part that she could notice was the round parts on the wall, which still had a slight orange grow around them. It was all so cold and unwelcoming, and it just made her think back to how losing Amy and Rory had broken him apart inside.
Kari was so lost in her own little world that she didn't even notice the Doctor sending them hurtling through the time vortex, and she didn't notice when the wheezing stopped and they landed with a thud. She was completely oblivious when the Doctor opened the door to the TARDIS and stepped outside.
He had walked right into Clara's living room, just as the woman herself came through the front door. "Ah, Clara! There you are!" He called, rushing over to her. "Come on, we need to go." The Doctor didn't even give her a chance to take off her coat or put down her bag, as he grabbed a hold of her elbow and steered her towards the blue box that was parked in her living room.
"Hello, nice to see you too. Where are we going, Doctor?" Clara asked him, starting to get used to the new him and the way he acted, but still not too sure she understood him very well anymore.
"I've got a bit of a problem." He said, stopping and turning to face her. "She's here, and she's grumpy." Unbeknown to him, Kari was actually now listening from inside of the box, the door open just a crack, enough for her to see and hear. "Her face was all droopy and hanging down."
Clara looked at him, trying her hardest not to smile or laugh. "She's just been pulled through all of time and space, of course she is going to be grumpy." The dark haired woman countered, knowing that the man before her was about to start panicking. "Why don't you just say hello? That usually works."
"No, that's not the issue. I don't know how far along she is." Kari bit her lip as she focused on the conversation that was going on outside, the conversation that involved her. "How do I know where she's been?"
"Here's an idea, ask her." Clara told him in a huff, before spinning on her heel, ready to walk away from him. But the Doctor was not going to let her do that and he quickly pulled her back.
"I can't just ask her. You can't just ask. That is not something you do." Kari wished she knew what was going on, but then there was a part of her that was glad she didn't know what was going on. Sometimes it was best to be kept in the dark, for there to be secrets surrounding her, sometimes it protected her. "You'll have to come with us."
She didn't even get a chance to protest as he dragged her into the box, causing Kari to quickly bounce across the room and over to the other side, where she fiddled with some of the controls on the console. She was going to keep her mouth shut, she was not going to say anything, to ask about the conversation, to let it bother her. "Kari!" Clara ended up calling to her, getting her attention.
Kari stopped what she was doing and looked over at the woman that was standing there, the woman that had saved her and the Doctor more times than she really knew. "Hey, Clara, how you been?" She asked, keeping up her casual act. The way the Doctor had acted, the things he had said, they had actually gotten to her.
Without warning, Clara threw her arms around her and embraced her like she hadn't seen her for years. For all Kari knew, that could have actually been the truth. "Oh, it's so good to see you. Where have you been?"
"Oh, you know, hanging around. Most of it has been on Earth, you know how much we just love that planet." Kari wasn't sure if she was intending to be sarcastic, but she was confident that was the way that it came out. "What about you, how's life as a teacher?" Of course, she still knew everything about Clara and what she was most likely doing.
The other woman let out a sigh as she let her go. "Exhausting beyond belief." Kari couldn't help but chuckle a little. "But it's not all bad."
Kari knew exactly what she meant, she knew that Clara was talking about one of the teachers, a certain teacher that she had a bit of a thing for. "Hmm, well, I can't wait to meet him." She ended up whispering to her, causing Clara's eyes to widen. It looked as if she wanted to ask how she knew that, how she knew there was a man involved. "Please, I'm all knowing."
"Right," the Doctor called, grabbing their attention, "both of you, go and get changed. Make sure you put on something warm, it's going to be a little chilly outside when we get there." Straight away he was bouncing around the console, while Kari and Clara carried on standing there and looked at him.
"Get where, exactly?" Kari asked him, not recalling him taking Clara somewhere that was cold, she didn't recall him ever giving Clara a warning of what the weather was going to be like to give her a chance to get changed.
But the Doctor didn't seem that interested in answering Kari's question. "Where we're going. Now, off you both pop, go find the wardrobe and put on a fur coat, or a snowsuit or something. Just hurry up." He said, pushing them away from the console and towards the stairs.
"All right, no need to be so pushy." Kari grumbled, linking her arm through Clara's and dragging her up the stairs. "And I thought Amy was bad." Hearing the Doctor being so Scottish just made her think more and more of her lost friend. She had just seen Amy, or a shell of Amy since Rory was missing from her life.
There was silence as the pair of them walked towards the massive wardrobe. Kari couldn't get the thought of Amy out of her head, and the way she her friend had found the ring, a hint of recognition in her eyes, something stirring inside. Kari was just happy to know that the pair of them would be back together one day, and that even after everything, they would live a happy life together.
"Kari? Are you okay?" Clara asked her, dragging her from her own little world and back to the real one, the real world of spaceships and aliens and time travel.
She simply turned and smiled at the woman beside her. "Yeah, I was just thinking of someone, a friend, that's all." And there was no way that she wanted to talk about. "So, when do I get to meet this hunky maths teacher that you work with then?" It was a distraction, and distraction from how she was feeling and the strangeness that she felt around the Doctor she was with.
"What exactly do you know about him? How much do you know?" Clara was probing, trying to get information, trying to find out just how far Kari's all knowing power spread.
All Kari could do was turn and look at her, a smirk on her face. "Oh, I know everything, Miss Oswald. Everything tiny little detail about one Danny Pink." She couldn't help but be a little smug, she knew that the Doctor would end up teasing Clara, and not particularly liking Danny that much at first, but she knew why.
For a moment, she was sure that she could see Clara's face flushing, which only made her smile even more. "And does this all knowing power know where the Doctor is taking us?" Clara asked, trying desperately to cover up the tint on her cheeks.
"No idea. Could be anywhere, or any when. This Doctor is a little more unpredictable than the others." Kari hated to admit it, but she had to tell her friend the truth. "He's more distant, a little… colder. This Doctor, this version of him, he's more closed off, detached from his emotions." That had been extremely hard for her to admit, but there was no one else she was able to really talk to about that Doctor. Clara had been there when he regenerated, but Kari hadn't been there yet, she didn't know when she was going to be there.
There was a sad look on Clara's face as she turned to her friend. "Have you spent much time with him yet?" Kari shook her head. So far she had only spent a few minutes with him, and that was it. "Well then, maybe you just need to give it some time. I know that I was shocked at first, it took me a while to warm up to him as well."
"But it shouldn't take me time to warm up to him. We're… I don't know, it just doesn't feel how things should feel." Of course she knew she needed to give it time, to actually do something with him and not make things awkward, but Kari couldn't help it. He didn't know it, but every time she was thrown at a new Doctor, her head began spinning. It was a lot for her to take in, to adjust to. "Anyway, never mind that, we have to dress warmly, apparently." She wasn't that impressed that the Doctor wasn't telling them where they were going, but Kari knew there was nothing she could do about it now.
It didn't take long for the two women to find some warm clothing in the wardrobe. The TARDIS helped, obviously, having everything all ready for when the pair arrived. Most of the clothing looked like normal Earth clothes, but after just one touch, it was clear that they were far from normal Earth clothes. The moment they changed into the thick jeans, they knew that they were something more, because their legs just seemed to tingle with warmth.
They headed back to the console room, Kari with a black jacket slug over her arm. It looked exactly like the one that the Doctor was wearing, but she knew it was different. Something had told her to take it, to give it to the Doctor, and she could only assume that it was the TARDIS, telling her that it was made of the same material that was keeping her warm.
"Ah, good, you're both back," he announced, spotting the pair coming down the steps. He took a moment to look at Kari, and the sadness in her eyes. He knew why it was there, he had listened in to her conversation with Clara on the way to the wardrobe. It wasn't that he was prying, it was more of a case that the scanner just flicked to life all by itself and showed him what was going on.
Kari cautiously walked towards him, wondering how he was going to react to what she was about to do. "I… um… I found this in the wardrobe." She told him, holding out the arm that had the jacket draped over it, "I thought that maybe it would be warmer than the one you have on, because of the material." It was clear for anyone to see that she was unquestionably nervous about the whole situation.
Carefully, the Doctor plucked it from her arm, inspecting it, every thread, every button, every tiny little detail of it. "Where did you find this?" he eventually asked her, utterly surprised that she had found a jacket that matched the one he was wearing but with the added bonus of being of much better quality.
"Uh, in the wardrobe. I noticed that it was pretty much the same at the one you're wearing, and that the material was different, like the stuff I'm wearing now," her nerves were showing with every word that spilled from Kari's mouth. "I just… well I thought that since Clara and I needed warmer clothes, that you might as well." Kari turned away from him, not knowing how he was going to react, not really wanting to see his face if he was horrified by the suggestion that he would even get cold.
Before Kari had a chance to walk away from him, the Doctor had gripped hold of her hand, causing her to spin around and look at him in shock. "Thank you, Kari. It was kind of you to think of me," he told her, a small smile on his face as he did so. She simply nodded him at, returning the smile as best she could. It was still difficult for her, and he could see that, but at least now he knew how much time she had spent with him, that version of him, and he knew in an instant that she still wasn't married.
Kari had no idea what he was thinking about as he took of the black jacket with the red silk lining and replaced it with the one she had brought out for him. What she did notice, however, was the small and sad smile that was on his face. She hadn't failed to spot the ring that still occupied the finger on his left hand, and automatically she thought of it. He was a married man, the Doctor had been married for a long time, but still she was just engaged. It annoyed her, eat away at her to her core, knowing that there was such a big part that was missing from their relationship. Every time she saw him, no matter what version of him, she wondered if he was married. She didn't want to wait and find out when it happened, she wanted it to happen, because she just knew how much of a difference it made to him, how much it had an impact on him, even if he tried to deny it.
Once the Doctor was changed into the jacket that Kari had given him, the trio were strolling out of the magical blue box that had becoming the home of Kari. Immediately the coldness struck her, the chilly wind whooshing against her, trying to freezer her right to her core. But the clothes she was were protected her, they seemed to just command the coldness away, and it obeyed, like a loyal dog obeying it's life long master. "Doctor, where are we?" she managed to call through the howling wind that was battering against them. Although the view was rather spectacular, white fresh powdered snow crunching underneath their feet, she still wanted to know what was going on.
"Snowfall," he called back to her, bracing himself against the wind, instinctively taking a hold of her arm and wrapping it around his own. "The only planet that is covered with snow all year, every year."
"I take it there is a reason why we're here?" Clara called to him, herself struggling against the icy bluster that was trying with all its might to blow her over. She could feel the frosty air against her skin much more than either of the Time Lords could, she was only human after all.
The Doctor felt Kari grip onto him tightly, as if she were scared that the bluster was going to carry her away from him. "I thought the pair of you liked seeing new and amazing things?" he questioned, his hand now resting on Kari's as it gripped to his arm. He could sense her anxiety, as he had been able to since the moment she arrived in the TARDIS. "We're just a little way out from the city. I didn't want to draw too much attention to us, so I parked a short walk away."
Kari simply rolled her eyes at him, knowing that it was so much more than what he was telling her. The truth was, she didn't want to argue with him, Kari didn't want to announce that she knew he was lying, that she knew there was some other reason. Instead, she thought of something else that she could say to him. "And what exactly will we find when we reach this city then?"
As if sensing her unrivalled knowing, he glanced at her. Kari was gazing at him, an eyebrow raised as she waited for a response. The moment he saw the look on her face he knew that she was suspicious of his actions, of everything he was doing. Not because she thought he was up to no good, because she knew he was lying, just like he knew when she was lying. The bond between them was so strong that it was almost impossible to lie to the other now, almost. "You'll find out when we get there," he called to her, before firmly setting his eyes on the path before them, doing his utmost best to avoid her gaze.
Unfortunately, that was all that Kari needed to know that he was hiding something from her. She knew that something was going, she had been able to sense it, but now, with the way that he was acting, she was confident that he knew exactly where they were, why they were there, and what was going to happen. But even after knowing all of that, she still smiled at him and let him lead her towards the city, now growing much closer to them, the stone wall reaching high into the sky. Something didn't feel right, at least not to Kari, and she only hoped that the Doctor had that same feeling, and that that was the reason why they were there in the first place. She felt the terror and agony, the pain and the suffering, she just didn't know where it was coming from.
A/N: I bet none of you saw that one coming! I've got something in my head for 12, just a short little storyline that has been poking around in my head for a week or two now. I thought I'd give it a shot, see how well I can pull it off. I really hope that it isn't too bad.
So I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to leave a review, and for all your wonderful words of encouragement. I'm not planning on abandoning this story, I'm just trying to rediscover my inspiration.
A big hello and welcome to all of you who have followed/favourited recently. I'm going to try and get an update ready for next week, but I cannot guarantee it.
Well, until the next time...
Pippa.