Dreams of Christmas

Kimmzie

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Author's Note: Happy Holidays! I wrote this after the Christmas special. Theory that the full Time Lord has a sort of psychic link with Tentoo. The Dream crabs are upon the Twelfth Doctor and Rose is fighting to save him.

North Pole –Christmas Eve

There was a numb pain pulsating into the Doctor's temples. Oh, the Dream crab was still drinking his brain through a crazy straw. The expedition people and Clara looked at him with wide, frightened eyes. Of course, they were all dying.

"What do we do Doctor?"

"I don't know," he replied. He closed his eyes and he was alone.

"Hello Doctor," a voice said, steadily from behind him. It sent a chill down his spine and his hearts seized. It couldn't be. "Still rude and not ginger, I see. Well, nice to know some things don't change." He knew she was smiling with her tongue playfully peeking out the corner of her mouth.

"You're not real, Rose. You can't be," he said, finally facing the blonde in the familiar leather jacket.

"It's all quite wibbley- wobbley, dreamy-weamy." She scrunched up her nose.

Her footsteps fell heavy on the frozen floor. "You better watch out, you better not run, you better not grouch. I'm telling you why." Rose wagged a finger. "Santa Clause is coming to town," Rose sang the carol slightly off key. "And I don't want you to die," she sniffed. She put her arms around him and they both were solid. She was as warm in his arms as he remembered.

"You're still not real," he whispered into her hair.

"Dream logic," she replied nonchalantly with a shrug. "There's still a half-human clone out there in a parallel world that has a slight psychic connection to you." She looked up into the Doctor's cold, blue eyes. "He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake; he knows if you've been bad or good or even regenerate. Urg can you please stop having me sing that?" she asked, as she rolled her eyes. He raised an impressive eyebrow. "It's your dream, Doctor. I may or may not be a construct. I may be here through a weird Time Lord psychic link, but you control it."

"What do I have to do Rose?" he asked, wearily.

"Now, you're getting it. You are all dying; but, you already know that," she finished and put her hand up to silence the Time Lord. "It is so bad that you have my Doctor in a sort of healing coma. I don't want my husband's Time Lordy brain eaten away." The Doctor's eyes flicked to the simple band on her finger.

"There are four scientist or whatever. Why only four manuals? Don't they have some friends in the infirmary? What are they even doing there? Think. You are so much cleverer than this." She started to look flustered. "Doctor, you're waking up out of this dream. Trust Santa and help Clara." She looked up at him her hazel eyes twinkling and quickly she brushed his lips with a kiss. "Hurry up then. Use that big ole Time Lord brain and save Christmas. Believe in Santa." She snapped her fingers and he was back with the others.

The Doctor was awake relatively, he was still in one of the dreamscapes. Nevertheless, he knew what to do. Rose's lingering touch caressed his sides and his lips tingled. The pain on his temples still pounded. Oh, but his blood was buzzing. Tonight would not be his last Christmas. He reached for the procedure manuals and smiled at how clever he was.

Pete's World:

The cardiac monitor beeped with the steady beat of the Doctor's singular heart. His breathing was heavy, but not labored. Rose could tell by the readout translated by their new TARDIS that he was simply in a deep, deep sleep.

"Who's sleeping beauty now?" she asked uneasy as she rested her head near the top of the hospital bed. She played around with his spikey hair. It slid easily through her shaky fingers. "You said, 'go see him, and you'd wake up.' How long do I wait? It's already been too long." She looked at a wrist that had no watch. She shook her head. His breathing was getting more labored. Time ticked endlessly by and soon he was wheezing hard. The precious oxygen he inhaled was barely being sucked into his lungs. "I'm going back in." She touched his temples and focused on the Doctor.

London Flat:

Rose blinked around and seemed to be inside a flat in London. "Must've not woken up yet," she murmured. She heard some rumbling upstairs and decided to go up. The Doctor was hugging an aged Clara, her face was obscured by his shoulder, but her hair was gray.

"I'm so glad you finally woke up." The Doctor smiled.

"Do you see me any different now?"

"You'll always be the same Clara to me." He returned her to his embrace. Rose smiled and rubbed her own cheeks.

"Uh excuse me, hello?" Rose waved from the doorway. The Doctor's eyes grew wide.

"Rose! But that means," he trailed off and looked down to Clara's face.

"He did say, 'dream, within a dream, within a dream, and some more squished in.' He was still sleeping and not waking up. He's barely breathing." Rose swayed nervously in the doorway.

"I'm still dreaming?" Clara asked.

"Oh yes, you are," Rose said calmly. "It would be fantastic if you'd wake up." Clara looked down at the bed.

"I lost someone. If I don't wake up it doesn't have to… hurt so much." Rose exchanged a quick glance with the Doctor.

"I lost someone. I've lost a lot of people. It's the curse of longer lifespan; that story is complicated and we don't have enough time to go into it. I lost a very important someone a long time ago." The Doctor was suddenly deathly still. "In the end there really wasn't a way back to him." She sighed. "I still love him," Rose met the Doctor's eyes. She could feel hot tears welling up and she dropped her gaze first. "We go on. We go off and have fantastic lives like they would have wanted us to. Carry and acknowledge the pain and loss, yeah? But don't get lost in it. Don't live your life as if it were a dream." Rose spread out her hands. "It's time to wake up Clara Oswald, the Impossible Girl."

"Will you be there?" Clara looked to the Doctor.

"Of course, I will be. It's time to get going on with this fantastic life." With that the graying woman in her nighty was gone.

"We don't have much time. I'm going to wake up soon." The Doctor said, bluntly.

"You got to drive Santa's sleigh," Rose said with a cheeky grin. Her hand lightly caressed his cheek and found his silver hair. "He's going to be so jealous." More lines formed on the Doctor's face as he frowned. "Oh get off it. Same man different face, remember? Anyway, I get a download every time I appear in these dreamscapes. I have a marital-mind bond with the other you and it is partially connected to you. It's more powerful in your subconscious and it was amplified by these creatures. I'm all up to date."

"You act like you've done this. Have you been in here before?" he asked, his hand covering her own.

"I've gotten pulled in once or twice. Not this kind of situation, only when the psychic link is strengthened or under duress." Rose shrugged.

"S'some of those times you were real?" The Doctor looked shocked. "You were actually there?"

"Dreamily, Weamily speaking… yup. You're waking up." Rose said, coolly. Without another word she was in the Doctor's embrace. She felt a peck on her hair and smiled into his black jumper.

"Merry Christmas, Rose Tyler."

"Rose Tyler Noble," she held up her left hand. "Merry Christmas," she stood on her tip toes to reach his ear. She whispered a collection of syllables the Doctor hadn't heard in ages and she ended it with a quick nip. He involuntarily shivered. "I know. I love you whatever regeneration," she finished with a smile and was gone in the blink of an eye.

The Doctor was soon opening his own eyes to a grinning Clara.

Pete World:

"Hellooo, Rose? It's Christmas are you ever gonna wake up?" Her Doctor was shaking her gently.

"Wh'at?" Rose's wiped some drool from the side of her mouth and straightened herself in the chair. "You were the one in the induced healing coma, Mister. You were so worried about protecting that clever brain of yours. I'm not sure what psychic mush looks like but…." Rose trailed off her groggy mind lost the thought. She looked up at him in his jim-jams, sporting a severe case of bed head and she felt relief.

"Yes, thank you for that. Best Christmas Present yet, saving my life." He sat down on the bed next to her.

"Don't we get that for each other every Christmas?" she asked. The Doctor frowned.

"Well, maybe more than most. But come on, we have a real tree that won't attack you this year, or set on fire. It even has presents under it." Rose slowly got up and stretched. The Doctor took her hand in the slightly cooler one that was full Time Lord. "Thank you," he whispered as they walked down the hall.

"Oh and he uh' knows," Rose mumbled.

"Knows?" the Doctor asked quirking an eyebrow.

"He knows that you can spy on him through the telepathic link," Rose said quickly.

"Well, that might get interesting," he replied rubbing his chin. "It goes both ways. I'm surprised he hasn't noticed. It's been a very, very long time. We'll deal with that later. Right now it's presents, Christmas, and other Yuletide merriment."

"What type of merriment would that be?" He pulled a piece of mistletoe out of his bathrobe and smiled.

"Just the merriest or merriments that could ever be," he was cut off as Rose stole a kiss. He smiled against her lips and pushed her back against the wall so he could show off some of his moves.