Woo! After finally getting my muse back for this after getting stuck about halfway through this chapter - and that was around the time that my Hunger Games fic came into existance - I managed to get this done and am reasonably happy with it.

So hopefully you guys like it too...

Thanks for everyone who reviewed the last chapter: SuperFunkyGirl1, Mrs. 11th, ZackAttack96, toavoidconversation and Sue Clover! :)

So, enjoy the chapter...there's more Tab/Rax and more Doctor-angst. :D

Larissa manages to force her eyes to unglue themselves from the suddenly still and unconscious form of her sister, and instead shoots an inquiring look at Dr Ramsen.

"Who is this Rax, and where does he fit into all this?" She asks slowly.

"Raxon - or Rax, as Tabitha sometimes refers to him as - is another creation of her world, formed by her need for romantic affection. For some reason, the Doctor does not hold any appeal for her in that region, her relationship with him remains platonic. But for her world to be complete and somewhat normal, she needed someone to fall in love with and to love her back." Dr Ramsen can see that Larissa is itching to say something and pauses.

"Tabitha is love with a figment of her imagination?" She knows that she ought not be surprised by anything concerning her sister, but the concept is so strangely pathetic and pitiful that it makes her heart ache.

"Yes," The doctor confirms, "His name is Raxon, and he's the prince of a planet called Delphon. He travels with her and the Doctor, and apparently one day they are going to go back to his planet and get married."

Larissa groans and wipes away the tear that has just escaped her eye before eyeing Dr Ramsen with grim determination. "We need to help her. Now. If it's this Doctor and this prince that keep dragging her back there, then we need to find a way to shatter her trust in them."

"That is an idea that could work," Dr Ramsen nods.

"It will work," Lari says flatly, "She's my sister, I know how to get through to her."

"Tabitha!"

Tabitha heard the voice she loved the most in the universe calling her name and became aware of familiar arms holding her. Her eyes snapped open to see Raxon staring at her worriedly.

"Rax," She breathed with unrestrained relief before she wrapped her arms around his neck and hung onto him with a force that she was almost certain was probably painful to him. The fact that he didn't complain at all only made her heart swell with love more than it already was.

"I heard you screaming through the wall and came as soon as I could," Rax said quietly as he gently rocked her body back and forth while it shuddered against his with the force of her shock. "It's as if the TARDIS makes the walls between our rooms thin on purpose because it knows that we need to know when to be there for each other."

"I need you right now," Tabby whispered desperately, confirming what he already knew. "I'm scared, Rax, I'm so scared." Rax pulled away from her just far enough so that he could see her face, the face covered in salty tears. His shock was obvious and it only made him more concerned than he already was for the woman he loved.

"You're crying," He said slowly, his brow furrowed in a worried frown, "Eight months of traveling with you and the Doctor, and I've never seen you cry before. What's happened?"

Tabitha sniffed quietly and stared at him with a vulnerable expression and eyes shining with tears. "I keep seeing things," She murmured, and when she tried to look down, Rax's hand gently held her head up so that their eyes did not break contact. He gently caressed her cheek with his thumb, silently prompting her to elaborate. "When I'm asleep...and when I'm not."

"Dreams?" Raxon's question was met by a frenzied shake of her head, the coppery locks of hair whipping insistently.

"They're too vivid," She said firmly, "It was as clear and real as you are right now. And it's happened three times now. The first two times, I felt myself lose consciousness for no reason and then I saw it, this...hallucination, and the third time was when I went to sleep last night."

"But what are these-" Rax hesitated momentarily before utilizing her word of choice, "-hallucinations? For you to be this shaken up, they must have been fairly worrisome or gruesome."

She thought for a while, chewing on her bottom lip while he waited patiently, his fingers gently pushing a strand of hair out of her face.

"It's...strange. Bland, almost. Everything is white. White walls, beds, floors, ceilings, white clothes...there's no colour." Tabitha frowned because the 'dreams' were as vivid in her mind as any memory she had of Rax or the Doctor. It was incredibly worrying to say the least. Dreams faded, usually very quickly, so why did these linger with such a prominent presence?

"What else?"

"There's a doctor, and he talks to me when I'm there. Rax, the place, it's a mental institution!" Tabitha said urgently, and a shadow of concern hung over Rax's brow.

"Why would you be in a mental institution?"

The question only seemed to distress Tabitha more. "He...he says...that the Doctor isn't real. That none of this is."

Rax froze with surprise, not expecting the answer. Where these hallucinations causing her to doubt her own world? But a more pressing and troubling thought had now occurred to him. "Tab, what about me? What is he saying about me?"

"They haven't really talked about you yet," She admitted, "But I'm afraid to go back in case they do. I don't want to be doubting you."

"Are you?"

The question hung in the air for several moments as Tabitha said nothing and tried to sort her thoughts. Struck by a need to reassure her, and not sure that he wanted to hear her answer, Raxon gently cupped her face in his hands.

"Everything's going to be fine, Tabby," He said intently before pulling her to him and kissing her with the utmost gentleness. He could feel her surprise - after all, despite the longevity of their relationship, he had only kissed her once before, on the night that he had asked her to one day return with him and marry him. But Tabitha leaned into him immediately and even once he pulled away she remained with her eyes closed, savoring the rare moment. When she finally opened her eyes and brought herself back to the present, her expression crumbled once more and she allowed herself to be surrounded by his embrace as she buried her face into his shirt.

Tabitha and Rax came down the stairs into the console room with conjoined hands and the Doctor's face lit up upon seeing them.

"Right, so, where do you two want to go today?" The Time Lord asked animatedly as his hands flew across the console, already preparing the TARDIS for flight. "There is a moon 300 light years away with a sea made of liquid diamond, or across the other side of the universe, a giant ancient battlefield that tells the story of two magnificent civilizations that crossed each other's paths, or-"

"Doctor." Rax's interruption had an edge to it that made both of his fellow passengers look at him with confusion. When he had their attention, he turned his eyes on Tabitha gently. "Tell him. What you told me. He should know."

Tabitha's relaxed demeanor disappeared immediately as she sent Rax a warning look. "No, he shouldn't, it was just a stupid dream," She hissed, but Rax wasn't going to back down, and made to answer the questioning frown the Doctor had directed to them.

"Tabby has been having dreams. Dreams that don't always happen when she's asleep. They're distressing her."

The Doctor's attention had been grabbed as his eyes flicked between Rax and Tabby worriedly. Tabitha shifted uncomfortably when his gaze settled on her and the weight of his ancient aura seemed to press down on her.

"Tabby, if there's anything wrong you have to tell me, I can help." The Doctor's hand stretched out and enclosed around her hand before using it to draw her nearer to him. Her eyes watched him with indecision and an air of timidness that he had never seen in her before.

"I just...I'm not sure," She whispered, and glanced over her shoulder at Rax. "You tell him, I don't want to." She dumbly pulled her hand out of the Doctor's and sat on the jumpseat with her head in her hands. Her two friends stared at her for a moment before conversing.

Their words became blurs to Tabitha as her mind threatened to teeter over the edge once more.

"Tabby...Tabby..."

The voice calling to her makes her want to stir, it is a voice from her childhood and she longs for it.

"We have to try and bring her back to us so that we can talk to her about her two friends..."

Someone is holding her hand, but something else is shaking her, some both present and not present.

"Tabby!"

Her eyes snapped open. The Doctor was shaking her gently and as soon as she was aware of her surrounds she shoved him away with what little strength she had, gasping for breath.

"It just happened again," She said quietly, "Why is this happening to me?"

"I don't know," The Doctor replied, having been briefed on the situation by Rax during her blackout. He knelt in front of her and grasped her hands, eyes boring into hers with a solemn promise. "But I'm going to find out."

His words meant more to her than they would to the average person. She knew him, he was the Doctor, the one who fixed people, the one who made them better. If anyone could help her, it was him, the genius mad man with a box.

"Now, Tabby...what did you just see? What were they saying to you?" The bowtied man leaned back against the console so as to give her space to think. Tabitha let her mind mull over the question put to her. She hadn't been dreaming of the mental institution for a long period of time in the last hallucination/dream. But she knew that if the Doctor was going to solve the problem of what was wrong with her, then she would have to tell him every detail.

"It...it wasn't for long this time...they were just saying my name...trying to bring me back there so that they could talk to me about you," Tabitha said, watching the ground with absent eyes.

There was a long pause before the Doctor asked an essential question which Rax avoided. "Did you want to?"

"I'm afraid of going back there...I don't want to hear them saying that you're not real," She said firmly, but they didn't miss that she was pointedly avoiding their eyes. "But in that place, that world, or whatever it is...Lari's there, and she's calling me." Rax pulled her up into his arms immediately while the Doctor hesitated.

"Lari...that's Larissa, your sister," He said slowly to make sure that he was correct. Tabitha nodded. "Well...that makes things a little harder, I suppose."

Rax frowned and looked between his two traveling companions, the ancient alien who was so intent on protecting both of them, and the human girl who was both so strong and fragile at the same time, the human who had so easily stolen his heart.

"What do you mean?" He asked warily, and found that he didn't like how Tabby was avoiding his eyes again.

The Doctor paused, leaning back against the console with serious eyes and his arms crossed. "These people in her dream...they're trying to convince her that her world isn't real. She isn't really in very much danger in believing them, because her world has the man she loves and a good friend of hers."

"Best friend," Tabitha corrected quietly yet firmly, and a small smile played at the Doctor's lips, subtly noting his pleasure at hearing himself referred to as such.

"The man she loves and her best friend...quite possibly two of the most important people in her life," The Doctor repeated before continuing grimly, "But in the other place, the other world, there's her sister. Now there's something to pull her in both worlds, which will make our job harder."

"My sister died," Tabitha said with surprising force, suddenly. Both men looked at her expectantly, and the Doctor came closer to her and Rax, taking her out of Rax's embrace, his eyes boring into hers as he held her head gently.

"Yes, she did," He said quietly, "And you need to keep remembering how that felt, because that pain will help you stay grounded, Tabby, because the pain of losing someone is not something that can be imagined. And that's how you'll know that this is real."

Tabby nodded slowly as she kept her eye contact with him. "Like how you lost the one you loved?"

The Doctor's eyes became ancient and full of sorrow once more, and his hands slowly dropped from her face. His eyes became distant for only a moment before focusing.

"Yes...but our pain defines us, Tabby, and I wouldn't be who I was today if I wasn't missing her every waking moment and feeling guilt over the death of my own people...and you wouldn't be the Tabitha that I know, or the Tabitha that Rax is in love with if you hadn't lost your sister. Her memory burns in your heart, and without it, you're not quite you."

Tabitha catapulted herself into his arms, and the Doctor looked questioningly at Rax.

"Permission to hug?" He asked, and Rax nodded, total trust in his eyes. The Doctor wrapped his arms around Tabby. That was what he liked about Rax; he was confident in his relationship with Tabby and confident in the Doctor's friendship.

"So...what do we do now?" Tabitha asked shakily as she leant on his tweed-covered shoulder.

"Now, Tabitha Lawrence, I show you the universe, and the wonders in it that the human imagination alone could never create," The Doctor said, "Because I'm going to make you smile if it's the last thing I do, I want to see the fire back in your eyes."

Tabitha felt a flicker of hope settle in her heart at his words, and smiled weakly at Rax over the Time Lord's shoulder.

"Tabitha, Raxon, welcome to the third moon of Delta Menturi, famed for it's rich jungle, among other things, because do you know what else it has?" The Doctor, flamboyant as ever, turned to his companions expectantly, only to have both of them shake their heads at him dumbly. "It has a city, inside a mountain! That is the epitome of cool!"

"It must be a very large mountain, Doctor," Rax noted dryly, and the Time Lord nodded.

"It is, the largest this side of the galaxy, and trust me, you're gonna love it!" He spread his arms wide and grinned at them. "Come on you two, this is going to be a night to remember."

Tabitha grinned at Rax as she looped her arm through his, her heart already much lighter thanks to the Doctor's distractions. She had already seen two supernovas and one huge historical event - the coronation of Elizabeth the first - yet strangely she didn't feel tired, only exhilarated. She didn't doubt her world any more, how could she have imagined the things that she had seen?

Hours later, they were in one of the many banquet halls of the city, feasting on the delicacies of the civilization. Having already befriended many people in the city due to the Doctor's incredible charisma, the talk at the table was full of cheer and laughter.

Rax had had several alcoholic drinks, and was much more open to the strangers than he usually would have been.

"And then," He said grandly, as he continued recounting a story from his youth, "Philpe and I replaced the sauces in the royal kitchen, and the ambassadors ran out of the dining room clutching their stomachs after eating the result!"

Tabitha quirked a smile while the rest of the table erupted with laughter, the Doctor in particular. Her hand covered Rax's and he looked at her with slightly overly bright eyes.

"Will you come and get some fresh air with me?" She asked quietly, desiring private time with him. He stood from the table while grasping her hand and grinned at his sitting audience.

"If you'll excuse me, my betrothed and I are going to take a turn on the outer balcony," He announced as he and Tabitha left the room and immersed themselves in the evening air. "How are you going?"

"Fine," Tabitha replied, "It's just strange seeing you in your natural environment, that's all."

Rax frowned for a moment. "My natural environment...I suppose it is. Does it bother you?"

"Not exactly," She said unsurely, looking out across the forest below them, "It's just that being from London, I'm not used to it. And I wonder how when there are so many beautiful noblewomen on your planet, you want me, an English university student."

"Tabby..." He murmured, his eyes locking with hers as he grabbed her hands, "You're my match. You're strong, but not so strong that you never need help or protection. You're caring. I just see in the way that the Doctor watches you that he is so grateful to have you. And you're intelligent and have the same strange sense of humor as I do...that's why I love you, Tabby, because you're so different from anyone at home."

Tabby nodded slowly, reassured as a slightly mischievous crept onto her face. "Do I get a ring, then?"

Rax looked momentarily stunned before he beamed at her. "So...you're saying yes?

"I was always saying yes!" She laughed at the awed look on his face. "This is just a more official yes!"

"So...you'll marry me? You'll come back and be my queen someday?"

"Of course!" Tabby had less than a second to register his approach before he was kissing her, with less of the delicacy he had used in the past. When he pulled away, he chuckled at her slightly shocked face.

"I've been saving that kiss for this moment for months," He told her, and she smiled before wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him.

"Well it was worth every minute," She told him sincerely, and his arms wrapped around her.

After locating the Doctor - a feat that took several hours - in the Court, for reasons they didn't want to know, the trio trooped back to the TARDIS. The Doctor took one last look at the giant tree before they went inside the blue box, and Tabitha was sure that Rax didn't notice the despair in his gaze.

"I'll get the ring," The prince promised before dashing up the stairs. Tabitha's heart swelled momentarily before she turned to the Doctor, who was watching her with a small, fond smile.

"Is there an eventual wedding I should be knowing about?" His tone and expression suggested that he should have that amused glint in his eyes, but it was absent, replaced by a hollow lack of joy.

"You know about it already, you've already known for months," Tabitha said, unamused as she linked her arm through his, the two of them walking up to the console in tandem. "And stop pretending to be cheerful. Why did you look back at the mountain like that?"

His face dropped, seriousness immediately emerging from beneath the happy mask. "No, no, I wasn't, I was just...remembering. I've been here before."

"Oh," Tabitha's mouth fell open a little, "With...with her."

"Yes," Came the whispered reply as he tried to turn away from her. She grabbed his chin and pulled him back so that he was facing her.

"Doctor...stopping holding this in. You've been able to let it out before, so do it again," She said earnestly.

The old man's eyes held sorrow and a strange darkness. "Oh, Tabby...I've let some of my guard down in front of you...but you've never seen me at my worst...and I hope you never ever will." Tabby couldn't help the tiny shiver of fear that crawled up her spine. All those times she had seen him devastated and crying, or thunderous with rage...those terrifying moments hadn't been his worst?

"Oh, Doctor," She wrapped him in a tight hug, and heard him sniff quietly over her shoulder. "If someone is going to accept you at your worst, it would be me."

His voice wavered before breaking. "Someone already did."

Realizing who he meant, Tabitha clutched him tighter, trying to resist the urge to weep for him. "What kind of world is this? Where the greatest man in the universe, who has been through so much pain, and gets the one he loves taken from him? How is that fair?"

The Doctor's whole body froze as he pulled away from her to regard her worriedly. "No, no, Tabby, you can't think things like that, those are thoughts which will send you back into that other world."

"How am I supposed to control what I think?" She demanded almost angrily, but before he could answer, Rax was at the top of the stairs.

"I've got it!" The prince announced happily, and he came down the stairs to grab Tabby's hand. "Now, what finger does it go on in your culture?" Tabby wriggled her fourth finger, and he looked pleased. "Well, it's the same for mine. That's lucky."

"Not lucky," The Doctor interrupted, "It's put on the fourth finger because the vein in your fourth finger is the one that leads to your heart. Your physiology is relatively similar, hence the same marital ring fingers." They both just stared at him. "With Time Lords, the vein connected to our hearts is the fifth finger, so our marriage rings are put on there." He waggled his pinky at them. Despite the goofy smile that accompanie the action, it still did not reach his eyes.

"Thank you, Doctor," Tabitha said pointedly, shooting him a look of fond amusement.

The man wearing the bowtie seemed to pick up on the hint. "Well, I'll leave you two to your couple-y private stuff." He wrapped his arms around both of them in a slightly awkward hug. After letting go, he disappeared up the stairs, leaving Tabby and Rax alone.

"Rax?"

"Yes?"

"Hug me, please."

Wordlessly, he did so, and Tabitha relaxed into his arms, her fingers clutching the back of his white shirt. "What's wrong?" He gently stroked her hair and she rested her cheek on his shoulder, not answering for over half of a minute. He didn't press her for an answer, simply gave her time.

"I just...I can't understand how the universe could be so cruel to him," She whispered.

Rax sighed with understanding and sadness. "Sometimes life isn't fair, Tab. Bad things happen...and I suppose that means that if you live longer, then you'll have to go through more hardships."

"Sometimes your logic doesn't help, Rax," Came the muffled reply. His hand slid down to grab hers and her eyes darted up to regard him.

"Then we'll go to my room and you can tell me what the Doctor has been telling you. I deserve to know, if it's affecting you like this, don't I?" His gentle suggestion was met by a small nod, and they ascended the stairs.

After over an hour of talking on his bed, Tabitha ended up perched on Rax's lap, cocooned in his arms and drifting off to sleep. Just before she reached it, however, she felt a tug on her consciousness and felt her mind go somewhere else entirely.

Tabitha wakes in her hospital bed to see the concerned faces of her doctor and sister, and blinks wearily.

"Tabitha, it's good to see you with us again," says Dr Ramsen, "Has anything else happened with the Doctor and Raxon while you were with them?"

"Ring from Rax," She murmurs, her fingers running over the place where the ring should have been, "Pretty ring, not here...why is it not here?"

"So you and Rax are engaged officially, now?" Dr Ramsen confirms, and Tabitha just dumbly nods.

"What about the Doctor?" Larissa blurts out the question, and Tabitha wonders how long she has been wanting to ask that.

"Sad...he's so sad..." Tabitha's voice is a whisper as she looks like she is going to burst into tears. "Don't want him to be sad!" Larissa grabs her hand, and Tabitha immediately quietens before eyeing their joined hands. Lari strokes back some of her sister's hair, causing a whimper to escape her lips.

"Tabby, the Doctor isn't here," She says in a soothing voice voice that only causes a spark of distress to reappear in Tabitha's eyes. "He isn't real, he's in your head."

"Not real," The younger girl repeats causing her sister to gain momentarily hope until she adds, "You're not real, you're dead, you died...big car crash, lots of blood, lots of screaming."

"I'm right here!" Lari cries, before grabbing her shoulders earnestly. Tabitha shakes her head furiously, tears welling in her eyes.

"Doctor has to be real," She continues as if her life depends on it, "If he was in my head, wouldn't have made him so sad...couldn't have imagined his pain, my pain."

"Tabitha, tell us about Rax," Dr Ramsen puts in after a few seconds of silence.

Tabitha shakes her head again urgently in an obvious refusal. "You'll tell me he's not real. Rax is real, not made up, not imagined...not talking about Rax. Rax is real." Dr Ramsen exchanges a look with Lari, one of temporarily defeat.

"Tabitha, time travel is impossible, and if aliens exist, they do not look like normal people," He tells her, but she is ignoring him.

"Rax is real. Love Rax, going to marry Rax..." Her words repeat over and over until they leave the room. Her solitude is not pleasant, but at least there are no more lies surrounding her, she thinks. They can't tell her lies if they aren't here.

So...hopefully that was okay...let me know in a review, will ya? :)

Love you all!

-MayFairy :)

p.s. Feel free to check out my Hunger Games fic if you're into that. :D