A/N: Guys, I am really sorry for how long it has taken me to get this chapter done and ready. Right now, my life is a complete and utter mess, things are just falling apart around me, and I'm trying my best to hold it all together. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and sorry for any spellings and grammar that I've missed.

"Doctor, why are we here?" Clara asked, noticing how both Kari and the Doctor were keeping their distance from each other. She didn't understand why the Doctor didn't just speak to Kari, instead of making things even more awkward.

"Because I brought us here." His response was short and sharp, and he didn't even bother to turn around when he answered. He was keeping to the other side of Clara, and a few steps ahead. The Doctor's mind was actually full of activity, he already knew now that Kari was rather far behind with certain things, and that she hadn't spent that much time with him in the regeneration.

His thoughts were interrupted when Clara spoke once more. "Yeah, but there has to be a reason for that, because you don't just randomly go places, you go to places for a reason." There was no way that she was going to give up and let the Doctor get away with the way he was acting.

Kari was just walking, her hands stuffed deep inside the pockets of her coat. Her hand was tightly wrapped around her sonic screwdriver, she was holding onto it as if her life depended on it. It wasn't easy for her to admit, but she was rather scared. Kari was with a Doctor that she didn't really understand, a man that, even though she had been travelling with him for what seemed like forever, she felt she didn't know. Her other hand was tightly gripping her phone that was tucked away in the pocket. There was a nagging voice in her head, telling her to call Jack, or River, or anyone.

Suddenly the Doctor stopped and turned to face Clara, doing his best to avoid looking at Kari standing beside her. "Okay, so maybe I did have a reason for bringing the TARDIS here. I've been meaning to come here for centuries, I just never found the time, something else always came up." Even though Kari wasn't looking at him, but rather her surroundings, she was still listening. "There were all these stories, people didn't know if they were real or a myth. We're going to find out."

For some reason, Kari's stomach turned a little. She wanted to ask what those stories were, what it was that people couldn't decide if it was real or just a myth, but she was too uncomfortable to even speak to the Doctor. She hated everything feeling so awkward with the Doctor, but she wasn't sure what to do about it. Right now, she was really wishing that she had been able to stay with the other Doctor, with her bow tie wearing Doctor.

"And what exactly do these stories say then, Doctor?" Clara asked him, not failing to notice the tension that was floating around the air around her.

The Doctor quickly glanced at Kari, and saw the way that she was just taking in the scenery. Something was telling him that she didn't want to be there, that she would much rather be anywhere than there with him. "Oh, the usual, a wild beast roaming the woods, people going missing." His voice was so casual, and his eyes were still fixed on Kari. He noticed her tense a little, her shoulders suddenly stiffening. "Dangerous stuff." The Doctor wondered what was going through Kari's mind, if she was scared because of what he was saying, or if it was something else.

"Everything's dangerous with you around." Kari actually muttered, her eyes scanning the snow covered trees. She had been feeling a little freaked out since the moment they had left the TARDIS, and what the Doctor had just said only made things worse. "Why couldn't we have just gone to a beach or something? Coffee. We could have gone for coffee. But no, we have to go investigate some mysterious and dangerous… thing." Kari didn't even know why she had suddenly said that, but she wasn't going to apologise for it.

"Where would be the fun in coffee?" The Doctor asked her, finally looking at her. "You stand there thinking about how different I am, but you're the one that's acting different." Kari just looked at him, wondering where the conversation was going to go. "You used to love all these adventures, even the ones you knew nothing about. But all you're doing now is complaining."

"I am not complaining." Kari told him firmly, trying to keep herself calm. She wasn't happy about the things that he had said to her, and so she was going to set the record straight. "This is actually the first time I've had a chance to spend time with you, this version of you, and you are the one who is acting cold and distant. That's what you are now, cold and distant. I know what you're going to be like in this regeneration, I've seen it, remember?" He wasn't going to be the fun loving, caring, madman anymore, he was going to be very different, and Kari knew that it was going to take her some time to actually adjust to it.

The Doctor simply stared at her, while Clara stood there awkwardly. "So, that's how you really see me?" There was a hint of anger in his voice as he spoke to her, but Kari stood tall, she was not going to let him intimidate her. "Cold and distant? Detached from my emotions."

Those words were familiar to Kari, because she was the one that had said them, she had told Clara she thought it was more detached from his emotions now. "Okay, first of all, that was a private conversation, you had no right listening in." She warned him, her anger starting to bubble to the surface. "And secondly, yes, that is how I see you. And do you know why I see you like that? Because I have not had a chance to spend any time with you!"

She didn't know why she was getting so worked up, but she wasn't impressed that he had listened to her conversation, and that he was keeping her in the dark for the real reason why they were on Snowfall. "You're the same way Clara was, you can't see me. You look at me, but you can't see me." His words made Kari freeze where she stood, her whole body feeling like someone had just thrown a bucket of ice-cold water over her.

Kari could see him, that wasn't the problem. The problem for her was how much she was still missing. He was wearing a wedding band in his finger, and she knew that her big-eared Doctor had been married as well. She could see him, she knew exactly who he was, but she didn't know who she was. Kari opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Tears were actually building in her eyes as well, his words having hurt her more than he realised. Instead of trying to fight him, or to even explain anything to him, Kari turned on her heel and began to walk away from him.

"Oh, that's right, run away." He called to her, watching her carefully with his eyes. "Go on, go back to the TARDIS and call your brother. Tell him everything that's going on." There was a hint of annoyance in his voice, but his eyes were actually filling with concern.

A moment later, Kari stopped, and turned around to face the Doctor and Clara, who had been silent throughout the whole affair. There were tears staining her cheeks, her eyes glistening with the tears that were yet to fall down. Once again she opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. She wanted to tell him that she wasn't running away, that he didn't have any idea how she was felling, but she couldn't. With one last look at him, Kari turned away again, and this time charged towards where the TARDIS was waiting.

Suddenly, Clara whacked the Doctor rather hard in the chest, getting his attention and winding him slightly. "What the hell is wrong with you?" She growled at him, knowing that Kari was upset and that the Doctor had only gone and made things worse than they already were.

"Me? It's her!" The Doctor cried in protest. "She doesn't see me, Clara, she doesn't see who I am." That was his firm belief, that was what he thought and that was what was hurting him.

"Seriously, Doctor, you have just made things with Kari a whole lot worse. I thought you wanted to make sure everything was all right between the pair of you, I guess I was wrong." Clara was meant to be there to help him, to help Kari and make sure the pair of them was fine, but she had just witnessed some kind of argument between them.

All the Doctor could do was look at her. "You're taking her side? You're really taking her side?"

"No, I'm not taking anyone's side. Doctor, if you had listened, you would know that this is the first time she has been with this version of you. She is nervous, and worried, and scared." Clara told him, knowing exactly how Kari was feeling from her own experience of when the Doctor regenerated and became someone else. She couldn't even begin to imagine how much harder it was for Kari. "And you, you are just pushing her further away."

It took a few moments for the Doctor to process Clara's words, but when he had done that, he realised that she was right. However, he wasn't in the mood to back down, he wasn't going to admit that he was wrong. "She has been there every single time, for each regeneration she has been there. Why is this one any different? Kari has never treated me any differently, why start now?"

"Maybe you should ask her that, and not me." Clara told him firmly, the looking she was giving him just daring him to say something else, to challenge what she was saying. "You need to go after her, Doctor."

"No, she'll be fine. She'll head back to the TARDIS, call her brother, and probably have a bath. I'll talk to her when we get back." The truth was, he didn't want face her just yet. The Doctor knew that she was hurt by what he had said, and he really didn't blame her. Yes, he had been out of line, but the way she was looking at him, it worried him, it made him feel like she saw him as a complete stranger.

Clara studied him carefully for a few moments, debating about whether or not to argue with him, to storm off herself and go find Kari, to make sure she was all right. But the look on the Doctor warned her that he was not going to back down. "Fine, let's go." She ended up saying, gesturing towards the place where they had been heading. Clara just hoped that Kari would be all right, that she really would go back to the TARDIS and not go wandering.

As they walked away from the spot where Kari had left them, the Time Lady was huddled up behind a tree, having listened to everything that the pair had said. There were still tears streaming down her face, the coldness of the air making her cheeks feel even colder. With shaking hands, she pulled her mobile phone from her pocket, brushing away the tears with the back of her other hand.

After a few seconds, she had the phone pressed tightly against her ear, waiting for it to ring at the other end. Two rings, then it was answered. "Hello?" A familiar voice called at the other end, causing her to let out a breath that she had no idea she was holding.

"Doctor…" She managed to say, before the floodgates opened and the tears rolled more freely down her cheeks.

"Kari? Kari, what's wrong, what's happened?" There was a hint of panic in his voice, the voice of her suit and converse wearing Doctor. She missed him, even thought she hadn't been away from him for that long, it was still too long.

She knew that she had to pull herself together a little now. She hadn't expected the call to work, she was calling the TARDIS, wondering if she could get through to the Doctor in another time. But it did work, and now she didn't know what to say. "N…nothing's wrong. I'm just… I just miss you, that's all." She informed him, and not very convincingly.

There was another voice in the background. "Not now, Donna!" Kari heard the Doctor shout. "Kari, where are you?"

"I can't tell you. If I tell you where I am, then he'll know that I called. He expected me to call Jack, he thinks he knows everything." She didn't find it confusing, talking to the man that she was actually talking about. Donna would have been utterly lost if she heard their conversation.

"He? Who's he?" The question that Kari had been dreading.

"You. A future you. A future you that I really don't seem to get on with." Admitting it was not fun, it was painful. She was telling the Doctor that there was a future regeneration of him that she didn't get along with, and she knew that would probably hurt him.

She heard him let out a small sigh at the other end of the line. "What is it about him that makes it hard to get along with him?"

"I can't tell you. Everything I tell you, you're going to remember, and if you remember, things will just get worse." Her head was in such a mess now, because she knew he was still the same man, but he was so different to the person she knew, the person she loved. "He just… he doesn't understand, Doctor, he doesn't understand that this is difficult for me as well as him."

"Kari, just tell me where you are, and I will come and get you. I promise, everything will be fine." But Kari knew that it wouldn't be. There was just no way that she could tell him, she had to deal with the problem, not run away.

She shook her head, even though she knew he couldn't see her. "No, you can't. The TARDIS is here, you wouldn't be able to land without causing a paradox. And anyway, I'm not going to give him the smug satisfaction of thinking that I've run away." Although she was saying it, she wasn't sure it was true. The urge for her to just walk away from him was still strong, stronger than her will to stay and prove him wrong.

"Am I that bad now?" The Doctor asked her, rather curious about his future incarnation.

"No, it's not that. The thing is… you're different. He's different. And I don't just mean a new face and all of that, I mean he is really different. I know you both have the same memories and all of that, but…" It was difficult for her to say, to tell him how she really felt and saw him. "But he doesn't seem to… like me."

Silence, that was all that Kari was met with. For a moment she wondered if the call had been disconnected, but then she heard him breathing lightly. "I know that it's scary for you, Kari, really, I do, but you need to help him." She wanted to laugh at that, because that was basically what the Doctor told Clara as well. "I need you, Kari, he needs you."

"He doesn't act like he needs me. He acts like he doesn't even want me around. Doctor, when he saw me, he didn't know what to do, he didn't even know what to say to me." She could never forget the way he acted when she arrived in his TARDIS, the way he just acted like he couldn't be bothered, like he just didn't care. "He doesn't know how far along I am, and he hasn't even got the guts to ask me." That annoyed her, the fact that he was just too scared to ask her a straightforward question.

"And how far along are you?" The Doctor on the other end of the phone call asked her.

Hesitation pulled on Kari, until she broke free and told him. "I'm not married. I know you're married, and so was big ears before you. He's married, and I'm not. You know, that always seems to be the biggest problem between us. It's never the monsters, or the danger, or whatever else we come across, it's always that one thing, whether or not I'm married." That really was what a lot of things boiled down to, and she just didn't understand why. Of course, Kari knew that it was a pretty big thing, something that had a major impact on both of them, but she couldn't see how it would change things that much.

Kari expected to hear a sad sigh or something from the Doctor, but she didn't. "Well then, you've got plenty to look forward to. Lots of running and saving planets and all that." In fact, her sounded rather cheerful. "It's going to be great fun, just you wait and see."

A smile tugged at the corners or her mouth. "Hopefully it's not going to be too long until I see you again. I miss those glasses." Kari couldn't help but think about him in those glasses, the ones that she found to be rather sexy on him.

"Oh, so it's just the glasses that you miss, is it? You don't really want to see me at all?" He wasn't angry or annoyed, the Doctor was only teasing her. "And here I was thinking that you thought I was sexy." Even with no one there to see her, her cheeks still turned bright red, and not from the coldness that was around her.

"Oh… shut up, Doctor." Kari grumbled to him. "You're not sexy when you're gloating, you're annoying, and big headed."

"Yep, and you wouldn't want me any other way, would you? Just like I wouldn't want you any other way, stubbornness as well." Now she was missing that Doctor even more. He was always so sweet to her, and even when they had a fight, things went straight back to normal after they talked it through. That was the problem, the man she was with now didn't seem to want to talk it out.

Kari couldn't help but let out a sigh. "What do I do, Doctor? When I'm around him, I just feel… I don't know, nervous and scared. I've never felt like that around you." She had absolutely no idea what to do. Part of her was telling her to just go back to the TARDIS, grab her vortex manipulator, and get the hell out of there. And yet, there was a part of her that was telling her to give him a chance, that he would come around. She found that rather hard to believe.

"He probably feels the same way. Regeneration is always difficult, he needs you." She knew that the Doctor was right, he was always right, almost.

"Fine. But I am warning you, I will hit you if you carry on being so rude. Rude and not ginger, when is that trend going to finally end?" She wasn't really asking him, she was just muttering it to herself.

"I'm still not ginger? Well, that just isn't fair." The Doctor ended up moaning to her, causing her to let a very small laugh slip through her lips. "There it is! There's the Kari that I know."

"Oh, shut up. Go and save the world with Donna or something, you're good at that." She was glad that he had made her laugh, she was glad that she was just able to talk to him.

Instead of the Doctor replying to her, she heard some hushed talking in the background. Kari strained her ears, trying to work out who it was and what they were saying, but the words seemed to reach her ears distorted. "Listen, you need to give him a chance, Kari. He does care, and you'll see that soon enough."

"Yeah? Know that for a fact, do you?" Obviously she was sceptical about it all, the Doctor now wasn't a man who seemed to care much for emotions and feelings, so she found it difficult to believe that.

"Actually, yes. I've heard it from a very reliable source that he isn't as bad as you think he is. Things are going to be tough, but both of you will get through it, trust me." She wondered who it was that the Doctor was talking about, who his reliable source was, but that didn't matter, she knew she had to listen to him.

She let out a small sigh. "All right, fine. But if this turns into a disaster, I'm blaming it on you, and your source." Kari was certain that she could hear someone giggling at the other end of the line, someone that wasn't the Doctor or Donna. "I'll, uh, give you a call later. Just to, you know, let you know how it all goes."

With the call to a previous regeneration of the Doctor finally over, Kari took another look at her surroundings. The Doctor and Clara were long gone now, there was no sight of them at all. What made it worse was the weather. The snow was still falling, and it had covered any tracks that they had left. She was out there and on her own.

"Uh, okay, now what?" She wondered to herself, stuffing her hands deep into her pockets, trying to warm her hands up. While on the phone she hadn't noticed the chill that was on them, but now she seemed to be able to feel it everywhere. "Hmm, TARDIS, or exploring?" Kari honestly didn't know what to do.

Then she remembered, that apparently there was a wild beast, that something was roaming in the wilderness. "If it was really that dangerous then the Doctor would have followed me or something." She muttered, deciding what she was going to do. "Guess I might as well make the most of it and go for a wander." After all, Kari did love the snow, especially the way it crunched under her feet as she walked.

Kari had been walking for only thirty minutes and all she had seen were trees and snow. She had hoped to have seen something a little more exciting than that, or to have come across one of the locals and spoken to them and asked about the beast. She remembered the Doctor saying something about a city or a town or something, and decided that maybe it would be best if she headed there.

While she was making her way to the city, the Doctor and Clara were just arriving. The pair had ended up making their journey in silence, Clara occasionally glaring at the Doctor, still annoyed at the way he had spoken to Kari and the way he had just let her walk off on her own. She knew that her friend was scared and worried, and yet the Doctor just seemed to act liked he didn't care.

Her worried of Kari quickly vanished when they stepped into civilisation. Every single pair of eyes was upon them, and Clara wished that she could just disappear, she was certainly feeling uncomfortable. "Why are they all staring at us?" She whispered to the man beside her, wondering what was going on.

"They're just assessing, trying to work out if we are a threat or not. We walked straight past the guards as we came in, we didn't stop to greet them or tell them our business." He explained to her, not at all fazed by the looks they were receiving. "We're strangers, they're deciding whether to kill us or not."

Clara looked at him and swallowed. "Wait, kill us? Why would they kill us?" His words had done nothing to calm her, to reassure her that everything was going to be fine. She should have been used to it by now, but he kept doing things that made her question how well she really knew the Doctor. It was worse for Kari, and she knew that.

"There's a wild beast roaming the wilderness, killing the locals and disrupting their lives. Are we here to help them, or to make their lives worse?" The Doctor was actually paying no attention what so ever to the people who were staring at them, he was just striding through the streets, past the tightly packed together buildings, it was like he knew exactly where he was going.

"We're going to help them, right? Isn't that why we're here?" That was what she had thought, when the Doctor had told them about the dangers they were suffering from, she just thought that they were going to try and help them. "We are going to help them, right?"

"Well, that all depends." The Doctor told her, causing her to raise an eyebrow at him. "On whether or not this beastly creature is real and that the stories are true." Although that had not been is initial reason for taking the women there. He had wanted to take Kari there, to show her some things, things that would remind her of things from their past. He had hoped that if she saw the lake that was frozen solid, she would recall the time they went ice-skating together on the frozen lake on Crona.

There had been a plan in his head, a plan to try and bring back good memories, and then create some new ones with her. Unfortunately, things hadn't turned out that way, they had ended up arguing, and he knew that he was partially to blame. He should have given her a chance, like he gave Clara, he shouldn't have been so harsh and rash with his Kari. Now all he could think about was what she was doing in the TARDIS on her own. "Call Kari, I know you're worried about her, I can see it written all over your face." It was actually him that was worried, but he knew that Clara would do it with no problem.

Rolling her eyes, Clara pulled her phone out from her pocket, quickly unlocking it and scrolling through her call list until she found Kari's number. "You look like you're a bit worried about her as well." She knew he was, and she was annoyed that he just wouldn't admit it. "You could have always gone after her, but no, you have to be just as stubborn as she is."

"I was being stubborn? Me?" The Doctor asked, clearly not impressed with what Clara had said to him. "That woman is ten times more stubborn than I am."

Clara couldn't help but scoff at that comment. "Yeah, of course she is." Of course she knew that the Doctor was more stubborn, not Kari. She couldn't wait to tell Kari what he was actually claiming, and she held the phone tightly to her ear. She waited, and listened, the ringing blaring in her ear. A frown formed on her face as the call went unanswered. "I think she might be a little upset still, she didn't answer."

Although Clara didn't seem to be that worried about her friend not answering her call, the Doctor was. "Try again." He ordered, trying not to let that hint of worry seep through. If Clara saw it, if she recognised it, she would demand that they go and search for Kari, and probably give him another lecture.

Without saying a word, she done as she was told, and called Kari once more. She listened again as the ringing sounded in her ear, before it finally cut off and went to voicemail. "Nope, nothing." She told him, turning her phone over in her hand. "Maybe she doesn't actually have her phone with her. Maybe she, I don't know, left it in her room."

Even more panic suddenly flooded through the Doctor. He remembered what had happened before, when she said she was going back to the TARDIS and no one was able to contact her on the phone. "Give me you're phone." The Doctor didn't actually wait for Clara to give him the phone, he just snatched it out of her hand before dialling the TARDIS. "Come on, Kari, pick up." He was itching for the ringing in his ear to stop, but it didn't. "Don't you dare do this again, Kari, don't you dare."

"Doctor, what's wrong? What has she done?" Clara had no idea about what the Doctor was talking about, she didn't know what had happened in the past, before they had met her.

"She's not answering." He told her, shoving the phone back into her hand. "Knowing Kari she has decided to take a little walk around, a rather stupid thing to do. Come on, we have to go and find her." The Doctor span around, only to come face to face with several guards, all human looking and wearing metal armour. "Ah, it looks like they've made a decision." He said, referring to the way the locals had been looking at them both.

"And I'm guessing that it's not good for us?" Clara asked, trying not to look too afraid of the men that were pointing some rather long swords at them.

Now that Clara really looked, she noticed how everything seemed to have a slight medieval feel and look to it all. The guards definitely looked like they had stepped out of a medieval story or something, wearing that shining heavy metal armour and holding out a sword. "State your name and business." One of the guards suddenly ordered, glaring at the Doctor fiercely.

The Doctor simply stood tall and looked at the man. "I'm the Doctor, and this is Clara. We're here about your little problem."

"I wouldn't call the problem little." One of the other guards grumbled, before being glared at by the man who seemed to be in charge.

"Well, welcome to City of Snowfall. All visitor enquiring about our… little problem, must report to the emperor, so please, follow me." The head of the guards said, his men lowering their weapons and allowing them to follow. However, they didn't leave, they followed behind them, either guarding them, or trapping them. Either way, the Doctor and Clara had no choice now but to follow the man to the grand, pure white building that stood hidden behind the rows and rows of buildings.

The Doctor wasn't entirely happy, and he was trying to formulate a plan in his head. They needed to find Kari, because she was out there somewhere, he just knew she was. Usually she would always answer the phone, even if she was annoyed with him, or upset, or angry, she would still answer because she knew he would worry if she didn't. She may have answered the phone and been snappy with him, but that was fine, as long as she answered. But she didn't answer, and it just reminded him too much of the time when they had gone to the carnival, and she had been trapped in a house of mirrors with none other than the Trickster.

But it wasn't just because of that he was worried, because now it seemed like the rumours have all been true, and that there is a beast roaming the wilderness if Snowfall. He had hoped it was just a myth, a story to keep the children away from the forests, to scare them at night, just a made up monster. But no, it seemed as if it may have been real, and his Kari was out there somewhere.

A/N: I really am going to try and get the next chapter ready as soon as I can, but time is something I just don't have at the moment. I do know where I am taking things, but getting there is proving to be a very difficult journey for me right now.

Anyway, enough of that. A massive thank you to all of you who have left a review, you guys are so awesome and really help to keep me focused. And to all of you who have favourited/followed recently, welcome! I'm glad you all like my story so much, even now.

I'm going to leave it there, no point rambling on like a bumbling idiot, not when there is work to be done. So, until the next time...

Pippa.