A/N: Hello there! Long time no post, I know, I'm sorry. I have ben super busy with work and life and everything else that is happening at the moment. I hope that everyone is doing okay, I am really looking forward to all the 60th anniversary stuff later this year. Here is the next chapter, the start of a new episode, and Kari's first time with Bill. Enjoy!
Kari was charing towards the TARDIS, her hand tightly gripping the Doctor's. Behind them seemed to be explosion after explosion, the flames spewing high. The corridor they were running along was metal, grey and dull, with no windows. The flames were licking at the ceiling and creeping along the corridor with each additional burst. The pair picked up the pace and moved quicker, their blue box now in sight. Just like what had happened before for Kari, the TARDIS doors burst open before they reached them, allowing them to keep up their speed and run straight in, up to the console and to begin working on getting out of there.
As the Doctor pulled the level the whole place shook and Kari had to quickly grab onto something for support. That something just so happened to be the Doctor. "You alright there?" The Doctor asked, a hand holding onto the edge of the console tightly while the other held onto Kari.
"I will be when we are a billion miles away from this place." There was something in her voice that told the Doctor she was not entirely happy.
'Oi, it was your idea to come here." The Doctor reminded her. Since their visit to Iris Caelum, Kari had been taking them to more and more places. Some of them had been just as amazing as the first, or close to at least, while others had turned into them running for their lives or trying to beat the monsters.
Kari rolled her eyes at him. "Yeah, but who was the one who decided to blow up the whole bloody spaceship!" Kari retorted, knowing that he wasn't going to be able to get out of that one. They could have just done what they needed to and left, but no, this Doctor loved to blow things up.
The TARDIS shook more violently and the pair of them ended up crashing to the floor. Kari felt her head hit the metal grating rather hard, and she bit her lip to stop herself from crying out in pain. The last thing she needed was for the Doctor to be worrying about her, to be making a fuss when what she really needed was for him to get them out of there. She was lucky, the Doctor quickly got back to his feet and dashed around the console, flipping switches and pushing buttons. Moments later, everything seemed to calm down.
Now that they weren't trying to escape from an exploding spaceship, the Doctor felt himself relax. That lasted for only a second as he noticed Kari still on the floor, her hand pressed against her head. The smile that had worked its way onto his face was gone in an instant. "Kari, what happened?" He asked her softly, kneeling down in front of her to try and take a better look at her head.
"I smacked my head on the floor. Hard." She told him, scrunching her eyes closed tightly. There was a pounding in her head that was starting to get a little more intense. "I'll be fine." Kari added, trying to ease his worry. She could already hear his worried thoughts and feel the panic starting to rise up in him.
But the Doctor wasn't convinced. "Let me have a look." He said to her as calmly as he could, his eyes pleading for her to listen to him and just do what he asked. Kari let out a sigh before slowly moving her hand from where she was resting it against the side of her head. She already knew what the Doctor was going to find and she heard him let out a kind of hiss when he saw it. "Yeah, okay. We're going to need to get that cleaned up." He told her, trying to keep his pounding hearts calm. She had a rather deep cut on her head, just above her eyebrow, towards her temple.
From the colour on her hand, Kari already knew that it was bleeding and that the Doctor was going to want to keep a very close eye on her for the next few days. He always got like that whenever she hit her head. She went to give him her other hand so that he could help her up, and that was when they both noticed it. There was a golden glow starting to swirl around her hands and they knew exactly what that meant.
"Right, first thing you do is get me to take a look at your head. Okay?" The Doctor told her in a panic. He didn't like that she was being pulled away from him when she needed medical attention, when he knew that he needed to look after her. "You don't do anything else, you show me your head and get me to take care of it, okay?"
Kari swallowed the lump in her throat, she didn't want to leave yet, she wanted to stay with him some more. They had been having such a great time that she didn't want to leave. "I promise, Doctor. I won't even bother to say hello, I'll just show you my head and tell you what happened."
The Doctor chuckled at her a little. "Good. You make sure that I take care of you." She nodded at him as best she could. The pain was becoming more and more intense, from the injury and the fact that she was about to be pulled somewhere else. "I love you, Kari."
"I love you too, Doctor. Behave, I'll be back soon. Do not go and blow up anywhere or anything." Kari muttered, trying so hard to suppress the pain she was feeling, along with blocking out all of the emotions that the Doctor was feeling.
Before he could reply, she was gone, pulled away to somewhere else. Kari's head was spinning to the point that she thought she was going to be sick. Her eyes were still tightly scrunched up when she felt someone kneel down beside her. "Glad you could join us again." A Scottish voice said to her.
Kari knew that the Doctor was pleased to see her, but she could already start to feel his worry. He had seen where her hand was, he knew that something wasn't right. "Doctor, I hit my head and it is bleeding. You decided to blow up a spaceship and we were thrown around in the TARDIS as we tried to get away."
"Right, come on then, let's get you cleaned up." The Doctor announced, helping Kari to get up off the floor. She was in the same position and same place as she had been when leaving her big eared Doctor.
It was then that an unfamiliar voice reached Kari's ears. "Is everything okay?" A woman asked, causing Kari to force her eyes open and look at the person standing there as the Doctor held onto her tightly.
She knew who this woman was, but this was her first time meeting her. "I've just had a hit to the head, Bill." Kari explained, looking at the woman and putting a small smile on her face. "The Doctor needs to deal with it, we won't be long."
"Stay here, don't touch anything." The Doctor commanded, before leading Kari away. Now that they were alone, the Doctor could talk to Kari more freely. "How long ago did this happen?" He asked her, as they continued to walk along the TARDIS corridors.
"For me, about 10 minutes ago or something. It wasn't that long ago at all. You were just about to take a look and get it cleaned up when we noticed that I was about to leave." She replied, glad that he was holding onto her tightly. Her head was still swimming and she couldn't shake the dizziness that she was feeling.
While she couldn't see the worried expression on his face, she could hear his thoughts very clearly. ''You idiot. Why do you keep doing this? You keep letting her get hurt. Pay more attention to your wife." Kari heard him say in frustration. "If you don't start taking better care of her, she will leave you. Or her brother will come for you."
Kari let out an audible sigh. "It wasn't your fault, Doctor. It wasn't your fault that I got hurt." She needed him to stop blaming himself every time something went wrong or she was hurt. This was exactly what the man she had just been with had done. "I should have been holding on properly, then I wouldn't have ended up falling and hitting my head."
The Doctor stopped walking, forcing Kari to stop as well. "I blew up that spaceship. I didn't hold onto you tight enough. I didn't get us out of there fast enough. I should have made sure that you were holding onto something other than me." His eyes were filled with worry and regret. "I made the mistake of not making sure that you were safe. Again."
"No, stop it. You can not keep blaming yourself for everything that happens." Kari told him, hoping that he would listen to her. "Yes, I get hurt. A lot of the time it really is my own fault. I know the dangers that we face all the time, someone is bound to get hurt eventually with the places we go and the things we do."
"But it shouldn't be you. It shouldn't be you getting hurt." The Doctor protested.
Kari felt like she was not getting anywhere with him. "Then who should it be, Doctor? Because it shouldn't be you either." She told him firmly. "These things happen, but I am fine, okay?"
The Doctor just gazed at her for a few moments, before letting out a sigh. "Okay. You win. Now, come on, you're dripping blood all over the place. Do you know how hard it is to get blood off these floors?" He asked her, a hint of playfulness in his voice. Kari could tell that he wasn't being serious, he was trying to lighten the mood a little.
It was only now that Kari began to pay attention to where they were and she was surprised to see that they were nowhere near the medical bay. At least, not as far as she could recall. She'd been there plenty of times before, and Kari was certain that they were going in a completely different direction. "Uh, where are we going?" She ended up asking as the Doctor continued to lead her through the TARDIS. "Isn't the medical bay the other way?"
"Yes, it is. But we aren't going there." He replied, just confusing Kari even more. "After the last time I made sure to keep plenty of medical supplies in our room. Since you often like to appear in bed and far too often with some kind of injury." Now Kari was definitely starting to feel bad. How often did he have to deal with her being hurt if he was starting to keep supplies somewhere else in the magical blue box? "Also, you're going to want to have a shower before we take Bill home."
Kari looked at him as they stopped outside of the Doctor's room, the room that he was now calling 'theirs'. "How do you know I'm going to want to take a shower?" She was curious as to why he would think that.
The Doctor opened the door and ushered Kari in, getting her to sit on the bed before he disappeared into the bathroom. "Because it's been a few days since you've had one. I know what you're like, you need a shower and clean clothes to help you feel better." He called to her, before reappearing with a green box in his hands, the medical box.
"What makes you think that it's been a few days since I've had one? Are you saying that I smell or something?" Kari took a moment to look at herself and sniff at her clothes. She didn't think that she smelled, but maybe she did.
He rolled his eyes as he opened the box and took out some supplies. "Of course you don't smell. Like I said, you have a little ritual. If you don't go and have a shower now then you'll just start to feel tired and fed up. Shower now and you'll be much happier." The Doctor explained while cleaning up the gash that was on her head.
There was nothing she could really say to that, so Kari just sat there and waited while the Doctor did what he needed to do. He was right of course, she did tend to feel better after having a shower and getting some clean clothes on. If she hadn't been pulled straight away then she would have gone for a shower, unfortunately that was not what happened. Now that she had started thinking about having a shower, she couldn't stop. That was why she hadn't noticed that the Doctor had finished tending to her head and was now kneeling in front of her, gazing at her with concern. It took a few more minutes for her to come to her senses and see him there. "Oh, sorry. I was miles away then." She murmured, hoping that he hadn't been waiting long for her to realise he was there.
"I noticed. Go anywhere nice?" There was a frown on his face as he spoke to her, and Kari just focused on him, wondering why he was still so worried. "She shouldn't be zoning out like that. I'll have to get the TARDIS to keep an eye on her, do a few scans. There's something else wrong, I know there is. I just don't know what. What is it, Kari? What's wrong? What happened?" Kari heard him thinking to himself.
Kari let out a sigh. "Doctor, apart from the hit to the head, something else happened. Well, several things happened, actually. So, starting with the most recent; bump to the head, Apalapucia and the Twostreams facility, Cybermen on the parallel Earth, and Terra Earth." As she told him, she saw his face falling. "Something happened on Terra Earth, Doctor."
"Still? You can still hear and feel everything?" He asked her, sounding a little surprised. Kari nodded at him in response. "How many times have you been there?"
She knew that this was important, and she knew how he was going to respond to her answer. "Only once. I know that there is still something else that is going to happen there."
There was now a look of conflict on the Doctor's face. Kari knew that he had been there more than once, he knew everything that happened there, he knew what had happened to her. "I'm sorry, I wish there was something I could do to help. I'll try to keep the noise to a minimum."
A small smile spread across Kari's face. She knew that he wanted to make things better for her, to help in any way that he could. So he was promising to try and keep his thoughts quiet for her, so that she didn't have to deal with them. "Thanks. It's not as bad as it was. I'm becoming so used to it that I'm finding it easier to block some things out." The Doctor just gave her a sad smile in response. "Anyway, I am going to go and have a shower. Once I'm done, we can take Bill somewhere." Kari said, breaking the silence, also knowing that there was no way that they were taking Bill home just yet.
"Okay, don't be too long." The Doctor told her, before lightly kissing the top of her head. "We'll be waiting for you." After that, the Doctor quietly left the room, leaving Kari by herself.
She didn't hang about, she went straight into the bathroom to find that the shower was already running for her. As she looked around the room she started to notice little things that were different. Before all the towels had been white, now she could see a few blue towels as well, the same colour blue that she had in her bathroom. It just showed her that things were changing, that her relationship with the Doctor seemed to just grow stronger over time.
Kari ended up racing through the TARDIS corridors to get to the console, she was ready to get on with whatever was going to be thrown at them. She had no idea how long Bill had been with them for, this was actually her first time meeting her. It also helped that her grey-haired Scottish Doctor with the eyebrows that have a life of their own seemed to be in a rather good mood. That helped to keep Kari in a good mood as well.
As she got closer to the console room, Kari began to hear voices. "Yeah, of course it is." She heard Bill scoff, wondering what they were talking about.
"Ah, here she is, my wonderful wife." The Doctor exclaimed, just as Kari stepped into the room. "Better?" He asked, stepping away from what he was doing and coming over to her.
She couldn't help but smile at him. "Much, thank you, Doctor." She said, letting him embrace her. Kari knew that he needed a little reassurance, he was still worrying about her and that was not going to change just because she said that she was fine. It was not going to change no matter what she said, because he was the Doctor and he would always worry about her. "So come on, where are we?" Kari asked as their embrace ended.
The Doctor gave her a look, one that indicated he had something up his sleeve. "Back at the exact moment we left. The kettle's boiling, We've got a vault to guard, and everything is exactly as we left it."
Kari watched as Bill headed over to the TARDIS door and pulled it open. "Wasn't snowing when we left." The woman commented, before Kari and the Doctor headed over towards the door to join her and have a look.
The Doctor's face said it all, he knew that he had messed up somewhere. He had been a little preoccupied with worrying about Kari and making sure that she really was okay instead of focusing on taking Bill home. "Maybe I do need a steering wheel." He announced as they all took a step outside, the cold white snow drifting down around them.
"Where are we?" Bill asked excitedly, noticing an elephant walking just a short distance in front of her.
Kari couldn't help but smile, she knew exactly where they were and what was going on. "We are in London." She announced, giving the Doctor a nudge back into reality. "And I do believe that this is the Thames." Bill's face was just a picture, she was so awestruck and amazed by what was right there in front of her. She loved to see that, Kari loved it when she felt like that.
Kari watched as Bill took in more of their surroundings, while the Doctor seemed to still be in his own little world thinking. "Okay. I have questions." The woman said, before the Doctor quickly darted back into the TARDIS, dragging Kari along with him. Bill didn't hang about and followed after them, shutting the door behind her as she entered. "You never said we could travel to parallel worlds!" There was clearly a hint of excitement in her words.
The Doctor looked at Kari, a sad look on his face as he replied to Bill. "Not a parallel world." Parallel words just made them both think of Rose, of the great friend that they lost.
"But that's London." Bill asked, glancing back at the door, wondering if what she had seen out there was real, thinking that maybe she had just imagined it.
The Doctor grabbed a hold of the screen that was connected to the console and brought it around to where Bill was standing. "Our London. We're on the Thames. The last great Frost Fair. 1814, February the fourth."
Kari just stood there, watching. "Hang on, why aren't we home? Can't you steer this thing?" Bill said, causing Kari to smile a little. The way the Doctor behaved with Bill was so different to how he had been around Clara. He was just different in himself as well. He seemed more… relaxed.
The Doctor hadn't noticed the way that Kari was looking at him and carried on speaking to Bill as he moved around the console. "I told you. You don't steer the Tardis, you reason with it."
Bill however had noticed and came to stand beside her. "How?" She asked, giving Kari a smile as she stood with her.
"Unsuccessfully, most of the time." Kari replied, knowing that the Doctor was going to say it. Bill just smirked at her a little, a little glint in her eyes. She knew that the TARDIS had a mind of her own and would take them where she wanted, not where they wanted.
All the Doctor did in response was pull the lever down, setting their blue box into motion once more. "She's a bad girl, this one. Always looking for trouble." He did say, looking directly at Kari as he said that, a slight smirk on his face now.
She frowned back at him, something about what he had said bothered her a little. "I'm sorry, are you talking about me or our TARDIS here?" She questioned, having a feeling that she already knew the answer to that.
The smirk that the Doctor was wearing didn't fade when he replied, it only grew larger. "Both." He told her, sending a wink Kari's way.
Kari just stared back at him in shock, unsure of what to say. Finally she managed to find her voice and respond to him. "I'm not sure if I should be flattered or offended by that comment." she was still in shock that the Doctor had actually said that to her, that he had given her that smirk. He wasn't like that, at least she had never seen him be like that before, not this version of him anyway. It was a little unsettling.
All the Doctor could do was roll his eyes at her, before darting over to her, grabbing her by the hand, and pulling her towards the TARDIS doors. Just as they reached them, there was a loud thump, the sure sound that they had landed. He wasted no time in pulling the doors open and stepping outside, taking Kari with him. He couldn't help but smile when out of the corner of his eye he saw Kari's face light up.
"Whoa." Bill said, coming to join them. They were now beside the river, the TARDIS on safe, solid ground. The air was cold and mostly and there was so much activity around them.
The Doctor was pleased, he had managed to impress both Kari and Bill. "Last day before the thaw. Thought I'd better find a more reliable parking spot." He said, looking at Kari and seeing how she had such a big grin on her face. It was snowing, and he knew how much she loved the snow.
Bill just looked at him in confusion from where she was standing in the TARDIS doorway. "Wait, you want to go out there?"
Kari quickly whipped her head around and looked at the woman. "Wait, what? You don't?" There was a look of disbelief on her face, she couldn't wait to get out there, to have a real, proper adventure. She was looking forward to the running, and the dressing up.
"It's 1814." Bill pointed out, causing both Kari and the Doctor to just keep staring at her. She pointed to her face. "Melanin."
A sigh escaped Kari's lips. "Yes, slavery is still a thing. But not everything is always what it seems." She told the woman, knowing that she would be perfectly fine. Martha was perfectly fine when they were with Shakespear, why would this be any different?
But Bill still wasn't convinced. "It might be, like, dangerous out there." It was clear to see that she was very weary about going out there, even though there was a part of her that was desperate to go and explore.
This time it was the Doctor who replied. "Definitely dangerous."
"So, how do we stay out of trouble?" Kari couldn't help but scoff a little at Bill's question.
The Doctor hadn't failed to notice Kari's response. "Well, I'm not the right person to ask." He admitted, further surprising Kari.
Bill paused for a moment, thinking of another way to ask her question. "Okay, when you go somewhere dangerous, what do you take?" She finally said, looking between the Doctor and Kari, hoping that one of them would answer her.
Kari glanced at the Doctor, a slight twinkle in her eye. This was her first time out with Bill and she was pretty confident already that she was going to get along very well with the woman. "First door on the left, second right, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on the left." Kari said at exactly the same time as the Doctor, causing them both to just grin even wider.
"What's there?" The woman replied, a little taken back by the fact that they said the same thing at the exact same time, but also knowing that it shouldn't really surprise her.
This time Kari answered on her own. "The wardrobe. I think the Doctor wants us to go and pick a dress. Might as well blend in with the locals for a change." She had to admit, she was starting to get pretty excited. It had been a while since she had dressed up for an adventure, and what made it even better was that it was snowing. She loved the snow, and the Doctor knew that as well.
Bill looked between Kari and the Doctor, a hint of surprise and amusement on her face. "So the Tardis has dresses and likes a bit of trouble?" She asked, causing Kari to just grin at her. "Yeah, I think I'm low-key in love with her."
"Well obviously, she is amazing!" Kari told her, before heading back into the TARDIS, linking her arm through Bill's as she did. "Now come on, we all need to go and get changed. The last great frost fair, we should be out there."
The Doctor couldn't help but chuckle a little as he watched Kari drag Bill off and into the depths of the TARDIS. He was glad to see her so excited and happy and he knew that she had been through a pretty tough time recently. All he wanted to do was to make her happy and see her smile. Plus, the Doctor knew just how much Kari loved the snow.
It was a little while later when they were all finally ready for their adventure. The Doctor was the first one out of the blue box, his normal jacket swapped for something a little more suitable for the time period and weather, along with a top hat. Bill was also appropriately dressed with a fur trimmed green coat and a matching headband like apparel on her head which contained a rather large feather. Kari was the last to step out of the box, the Doctor holding out a hand to help her step over the threshold. She was wearing a long dress coat, similar to the one Bill was wearing, only hers was a deep blue colour and the hat on her head contained a few pure white feathers. The Doctor couldn't help but beam at her as she stepped out and he pulled the door closed behind her.
"Doesn't anyone notice the Tardis?" Bill asked, watching all of the people just walking by, not noticing that three people had just stepped out of a blue box.
Kari rolled her eyes a little as she adjusted the gloves she was wearing. "Your species hardly notices anything." The Doctor told her, before offering his arm to Kari as they began to head down the steps and towards the frozen Thames.
"So, what are the rules?" Bill asked the pair as they went. This was her time travelling into the past with them, she did not want to mess things up.
The Doctor simply carried on walking. "Rules?" He asked, knowing exactly what she was asking but acting like he had no clue.
Bill looked at him and Kari, frowning slightly. "Yeah. Travelling to the past, There's got to be rules. If I step on a butterfly, it could send ripples through time that mean I'm not even born in the first place and I could just disappear."
Kari couldn't help but roll her eyes as they stopped and the Doctor looked at Bill. "Definitely. I mean, that's what happened to Pete."
"Pete?" Now Bill was confused, she didn't know Pete, did she?
The Doctor had to keep a straight face, and he was doing pretty well. "Your friend, Pete. He was standing there a moment ago, but he stepped on a butterfly and now you don't even remember him." Kari had to hold in the giggles, she knew exactly what the Doctor was doing.
"Shut up! I'm being serious!" The tone of Bill's voice showed that she was being serious. She didn't want to make a mistake or change anything.
Kari couldn't help herself and decided to join in, keeping her voice as serious as she could, while trying to hold back a flood of giggles. "Yeah, so was Pete." She told her.
For a moment, Bill went silent. She didn't know if they were both messing with her now or being totally serious. She was certain she didn't know anyone called Pete, that she hadn't been there with anyone other than Kari and the Doctor. "You know what I mean. Every choice I make in this moment, here and now, could change the whole future."
"Exactly like every other day of your life." The Doctor told her, knowing that Kari was trying so desperately to keep herself together, to not break out in laughter. He was actually amazed at how well she was doing so far. "The only thing to do is to stop worrying about it."
It took a few more moments for Bill to contemplate what the Doctor had said before finally answering him. "Hmm. Okay. If you say so."
They continued walking towards the river. "Pete's stopped worrying." Kari told her, as they reached a man selling chestnuts. The Doctor didn't even hesitate and was quick to buy a bag of the roasted nuts, while Bill was approached by a little girl in a dirty, tattered dress.
The little girl had blonde hair and was standing in front of Bill, holding onto a piece of paper. "Come to the Frost Fair, miss. Only a sixpence, miss."
Bill didn't actually know how to respond, she wanted to take the flyer from the little girl, but she was still worried about the consequences that her actions would have. "You're not stepping on a butterfly, you're just taking a flyer." Kari told her, giving her a slight nudge to encourage her to take it. "Honestly, if I was worried about this every time I went somewhere I'd never step foot out of the TARDIS." She added, knowing that just by her being there she was changing what was originally going to happen.
The Doctor gave the bag of chestnuts to the little girl. "It's just time travel. Don't overthink it." He said, also plopping his top hat on the girl's head before she happily bounced off, taking the nuts and hat with her.
"Is that what you said to Pete?" Bill asked, as the Doctor took a hold of Kari's hand once more.
The Doctor and Kari had already started walking down the rest of the steps, but both wore slight smiles as they replied to Bill. "Who's Pete?" They said, knowing that Bill couldn't see the looks on their faces.
Kari's eyes were looking everywhere, darting from one place to another. There were so many people out on the ice, so many vendors. It was amazing. She knew that the Doctor had been there before, Kari had most likely been with him on those occasions, but this was her first time. She couldn't hide the excitement on her face, and she wasn't even going to try to either. Kari hoped that the excitement would help her to ignore the noise in her head.
A/N: I have completed this episode and I am working on the next one. What is coming is something I've been thinking about for a while, and something kind of big. Well, big to me, and for Kari. And maybe the Doctor. Okay, maybe it's big, maybe it isn't, I just know that right now I am rambling and I need to stop.
A big thank you to all of you wonderful people who have left reviews, I really do enjoy reading them and sometimes that just help to keep that writing spark alive. There are days where I feel like giving up but when I read the reviews I know I have to keep on going!
Enough with the rambling. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I will see you again in the next!
Until then,
Pippa.