Author's Note: Next chapter...at last. Sorry that I've been continuing to neglect this one. But hey, at least it wasn't quite as long between updates this time. I like to think that this is a sign of improvement. Seriously though, as with all my Doctor Who fic these days, I hope to have more frequent updates for a little while. In the meantime, I hope my readers will enjoy this chapter.

I do not own Doctor Who or any of its characters.

Thank you to everyone who is reading/following/favoriting/reviewing this. That and your patience are always appreciated. :)

And to my anonymous Guest reviewer, I agree that Classic Who does not always get the love in the fanfic world that it deserves with Sixie being one of the most unfortunate victims. Thus, I hope you will enjoy my efforts to bring a little love to this area of the fandom. :)

Chapter Three

Four days later, the Doctor was preparing to leave Nielos Five again, his hearts heavy with melancholy.

As he had predicted, the Jaluria Orchids had fully bloomed and had burst with spores approximately one day after he and Peri had fled the planet. All the staff and guards that had been on duty at the time had perished within minutes. A rescue team, who had responded to a distress signal from the grounds, were also wiped out which prompted the ruling family of Nielos to declare an emergency lockdown of the garden until the threat to the rest of the planet could be ascertained.

Fortunately, this lockdown was still in place when the Doctor returned two days later, and thus, no other casualties had occurred. After explaining what happened to the scientists who had managed to escape the tragedy, the Doctor was able to work with them to devise methods to safely dispose of the plants and clear away the spores. Within a couple of days, their work was done.

All that remained was to tend to the dead.

By that point, Peri had been pardoned by the Emperor of Nielos and was able to emerge from the TARDIS. At first, she spent most of her time silently gazing at the empty gardens, her eyes pools of regret. It was when she saw the authorities begin to remove the corpses from the complex while family members watched that she finally acted.

She gathered armfuls of flowers, castoffs and common plants that were accessible from the grounds surrounding the gardens. After she had collected a large number of flowers, she took them to the center of the gardens and spent hours arranging them into an elaborate circular pattern. The natives watched, astonished, as Peri took plants that were considered little more than weeds and turned them into whorls that seeped into each other, connecting each strand of color seamlessly.

It was dusk by the time she finished, and she sat down next to her display and watched the sun sink down. By nightfall, the same families who had watched their loved ones be carried out of the gardens came to join her, rods that shined a faint blue light in their hands. They huddled together silently as the light of the moon and the ambient glow of the torches in their hands illuminated the circle of flowers. Some of the mourners talked briefly to Peri, thanking her for her quiet tribute or telling her a little about the people they had lost. It wasn't until late at night that the last of them had left, and by then, Peri had slumped down against the ground in exhaustion.

The Doctor had watched all of this unfold from a distance and made sure to not intrude. He joined the twilight vigil, but had lurked at the fringes of the crowd, his own troubled mind making it difficult to know what to say to anyone. After the rest of them had left, he half-carried a drained Peri back to the TARDIS, surprised that she so readily accepted his assistance. He asked her about the flower display, and she smiled slightly.

"Yeah, I've always had more than just a scientific interest in flowers," she responded wryly. "I guess you could call this kind of a thing a sort-of hobby. Why else do you think I was put in charge of decorating the senior class float in high school?"

The Doctor tried to prompt her to tell him more about this side of her botanical interests, but she cut him off by saying that she was tired. She requested that they stay for the funerals tomorrow and he agreed. Then she went to her room to sleep without another word, maintaining the understated, but inescapable distance that had formed between them.

It had now been about three hours since the services finished, and the Doctor waited patiently beside the TARDIS. He knew that Peri had stayed to spend some more time with the mourners and decided to give her privacy. While he waited, he thought again about the events of the last few days and how they had affected each of them.

When he had told Peri that he might regenerate after she had treated him on the TARDIS, he had not been exaggerating. By now, he had faced death more than once, and that had certainly felt like all those other times. As he fell into a coma he wasn't entire sure he would wake from, he contemplated what kind of person he might emerge as next. His last thought had been the hope that, whoever he would become, he would be better equipped to fight evil in the universe.

Thus, he was almost as surprised as Peri when he woke up and realized that he was still wearing the same face.

Sadly, what did not surprise him was the fact that Peri had been convinced that he was going to change…and what he had interpreted as her disillusionment when he didn't.

Looking back on it, the Doctor regretted painting Peri as being so cruel that she would look forward to his having to regenerate again. In many ways, Peri was actually one of the most coddling companions he had ever had with the way she appeared to be constantly concerned about his safety. Granted, she never had been the type to relish running into danger, but it was clear that she was firmly on the side of being overly cautious when it came to any threat to his life. This was in addition to things like how she monitored how much rest and nourishment he got and her fussing over him whenever he got hurt.

So why had it been so easy for him to assume that she was unhappy that he had recovered without regenerating?

"It's terrible."

The Doctor winced at the memory. He was used to his companions being confused and perhaps a little suspicious of him after he regenerated. After all, he always looked radically different than he had before and his personality would often have several tweaks as well. However, he had also gotten used to the idea that these same companions usually seemed happy that he survived the calamity that had caused him to regenerate and would give him a chance to prove himself to them.

With Peri it was as if she objected to him from the start.

"Have you the faintest idea what you look like?"

"You can't go out dressed like that….You'll look dreadful."

Peri's focus on his outward appearance and somewhat callous attitude toward his moments of emotional and mental confusion had made him feel more than a little resentful. The Doctor felt perfectly justified in his aggravation given how his change was entirely due to his choosing to save her life.

That feeling of vindication abruptly ended when he regained his senses after another post-regenerative fit and found Peri on the floor, trembling in fear…of him.

The Doctor closed his eyes and leaned heavily against the TARDIS. Over the last few months, he had spent many hours trying to figure out what had driven him to act so violently toward someone he cared so much about. True, he had been irritated at her behavior, but it wouldn't have been the first time that one of his companions had made him angry. He certainly had not lashed out that way at any of his friends before. He simply did not believe in hurting others unless he had no other choice. Thus, he continued to be disturbed that he had been capable of acting that way.

"The very core of my being is on fire with guilt and rage."

Guilt and rage. Yes, those had been the dominant emotions inside him for hours and even days, after he had regenerated. It had made his blood boil and clouded his mind. There had even been a few times when he really thought that the emotional turmoil might kill him. It wasn't until a week later when he was able to find a place deep within the TARDIS where he could be alone that he was finally able to discharge those intense emotions with a brief spate of tears. It had been one of the lowest points in his life, but it did give him the release he needed to begin to truly stabilize his new persona.

After he stabilized, the Doctor was determined to fulfill the aims he had had when in was caught up in the lindos of regeneration: he would work even harder to fight evil in the universe. While his previous selves often managed to stumble into crises, he sought them out with a zeal that had not manifested itself this much since his very first regeneration. His time spent assisting others and spent in solitude working on the TARDIS or on a variety of inventions had gone a long way in helping him feel more comfortable in his new incarnation.

Still, the one area he still floundered in was his relationship with Peri. Despite the rough transition into this new form and the frequent bickering, he actually felt his feelings toward her deepen rather than diminish. Over time, it seemed as if their rapport improved, even with the setbacks that still cropped up from time to time. It was a progression that the Doctor was grateful for.

'The first face this face saw,' he mused as he reopened his eyes. It was an idea he had heard before when he was still on Gallifrey: that the first face one sees after regeneration will hold special meaning. As it turned out, the Doctor found that it was one of the truest things he had heard. He still had a special place in his hearts for Polly and Ben, for Sarah Jane, and for Nyssa, Tegan and Adric. All of them had been there for him during one of the most vulnerable times in his lives. And now, Peri, with all the convolutions and difficulties inherent in their relationship, was filling that role.

However, the Doctor also faced the inevitable conflict that his ambition to combat evil often involved putting Peri in hazardous situations. The fact that he had nearly died trying to protect her had been a pervasive thought in his brain as he regenerated, and thus, it continued to influence the decisions he made. Being the Doctor, being himself, was important to him, but so was keeping her safe. Most of the time he had managed to mitigate the dangers she faced and give her roles that kept her out of harm's way for the most part. Nevertheless, there was always a chance that things could go wrong.

Like they did on Nielos Five.

The Doctor scowled. He had taken Peri there so she could enjoy herself and it turned into a disaster largely due to his own negligence. Having been there himself before, he knew about the local laws and customs and had not taken the time to warn Peri about them. Even worse, her faux pas had made it so that he hadn't been able to warn the scientists in time about the orchids.

'So many lives snuffed out of existence,' he thought. 'Lives that could have easily been saved with just a few words from me. Lives that could have been saved had I been more careful.'

'And Peri…. I almost lost her too. She could have been one of the causalities.'

The Doctor shuddered as he remembered one of the guards raising his weapon at Peri. He had just barely been able to push her out of the way in time. Then he exposed her to additional danger when she was forced to help him make their way back to the TARDIS.

In fact, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that the anger he felt upon waking was not directed at Peri, but at himself for putting her so close to mortal peril and for failing to save the people at the gardens. Unfortunately, her choice of words upon awakening from his healing coma had sparked his feelings over all those nagging conflicts and had reminded him of his failures. Thus, he had lashed out again. Thankfully, this time it had only been with words, but the Doctor was all too aware that words could hurt. Peri's reaction to his words served as a strong reminder of that.

The Doctor spied Peri approaching the TARDIS and the scowl left his face. She had looked worn out and melancholic for days and while she had wanted to attend these funerals, he was certain that they had done nothing for her morale.

"Peri, are you all right?" he asked her quietly when she got closer.

"Not really," she shrugged. "But yeah, eventually I will be, I suppose. Let's go."

The Doctor nodded and pulled out his key to unlock the TARDIS doors. Once inside, Peri walked off to the side of the console room while the Doctor strode over to the main console.

"Well then," he said. "Where should we go next?"

"I don't know," Peri shrugged again. "Anywhere. Everywhere. Just not here."

"There's still the Eye of Orion," the Doctor offered. "I know you've objected before, but it really is…."

"No!" Peri said, holding a hand up. "No, thank you. You keep trying to get us there and we end up in the worst places."

"All right," the Doctor said. "But just so I can guide my thinking, do you have a particular type of destination in mind?"

"Does it matter?" Peri said with a half-hearted laugh. "We never seem to end up where you want to go anyway."

"Does it matter? Of course it matters," the Doctor said with a frown. "Traveling with absolutely no thought of a purpose or a goal isn't really traveling at all. It just means you're lost and refuse to admit it."

"I guess so," Peri said.

The Doctor thought that she would follow up on that statement, but was left instead with this uncomfortable silence. However, as much as he disliked it, he would not be the one to break it. He hoped that giving her the freedom to move the conversation wherever she wished would encourage her to something she had perhaps been reluctant to say.

"Well," she finally said after several moments of silence. "How about somewhere you said you'd return to? Those people on Karfel said that you'd promise to visit them again someday. Isn't there anywhere else you've been meaning to go back to but haven't?"

The Doctor's eyebrows shot upward. Of all the responses she could have come up with, he had not expected that. Normally, he prided himself on being able to have at least some inkling as to Peri Brown's thought processes, but right now he was completely in the dark.

"All right," he said after a moment to consider his answer. "Now that you mention it, there are a few places I've been thinking about recently. I know! Isarias."

"Isarias," Peri repeated as if trying the name out on her tongue. "And what's it like?"

"An interesting case of parallel development on widely divergent worlds," the Doctor explained. "Isarias' natives are humanoid in appearance with a higher percentage of people possessing empathetic or telepathic ability than what you see on Earth. But that isn't the interesting part."

"And what is?" Peri replied.

"The Isariasians modeled their society into a mirror of Victorian England," the Doctor answered. "Yes, they have all the technology and scientific acumen that you would expect from a world that deals with intergalactic visitors, but their culture, dress style and manners are all Victorian in style. Not perfect reproduction; mind you, but amazing nevertheless given how they had absolutely no contact with people from Earth until their civilization had existed for about ten thousand years."

The Doctor grinned and shuffled back and forth along the console, setting coordinates and directing the TARDIS through the Vortex.

"Let's see," he said thoughtfully. "I believe the last time I was there was only about a century ago. Yes, I was still in my previous incarnation at that point. This was, of course, quite a while before you met me. At the time, their capital city, Lucis, was threatened with destruction from an alien computer virus that had thrown all their environmental and security systems in chaos."

"And you just happened to be there to fix things," Peri nodded.

"Yes," the Doctor smiled. "I had heard numerous stories about the epic cricket matches that were played there and had fully intended to take an extended holiday. I was pretty obsessed with the sport back in those days."

"Tell me about it," Peri said with a laugh. "I remember when you took us to a planet on the other side of the galaxy just because some merchant ship captain thought you could help his favorite team win their league."

Peri laughed again and the Doctor was about to make another comment on his former fanaticism when she suddenly stopped, her eyes staring deep into his. The silence hung in the air again for a minute until Peri's expression fell and she turned away.

"Anyway, sounds neat, Doctor," she said. "I, I'll go and see if there's something in the TARDIS wardrobe I can wear."

"Peri, I…."

But Peri did not even pause as she walked out of the room and down the main corridor. The Doctor sighed and went back to studying his instruments.

He wasn't sure what Peri had in mind when she asked for this trip or how this might turn out, but he definitely was curious.

And that was something he could never resist acting on.