4. Helen

Amy went into labour in the little yellow nursery in her and Rory's home. And it was all okay for the moment. No-one died, and someone was born-

"Amy," Rory said, "Amy, look, it's a girl, we have a girl," And dizzy with excitement and hearing faint scraping at the front door, he handed it to her.

She stared at it in shock, almost like she didn't believe it was real, and she had a right to. And she looked at Rory, and they knew they'd been given a gift that could be snatched away at any moment, and they could barely move-

"She's beautiful," Amy said softly. Rory held her arm.

"She's amazing," the Doctor whispered. He was covered in blood, they both were, and aliens were beating at the walls. They didn't have much time. He looked at Rory.

"This can't be the dream," Rory said. "We have a baby."

Amy touched the child's face, still in awe. "Yes...she's ours..."

The three of them looked at each other. The game had changed.

"What happens when we go to sleep?" Rory asked. "Doctor, what happens when..."

But the Doctor had turned to the far wall. Standing there, smirking, silent, was the Dream Lord.

"Congralutions!" he said, flinging his arms out, a parody of a hug. "Cigar for the happy father?" And he smirked again. "Which of you is him?"

Rory pulled himself up and ran towards him, fists clenched, but his punch hit the wall. And the Dream Lord vanished.

"Rory!" Amy shouted. "For God's sake, it's yours!"

"I know!" Rory shouted back. "I wanted to punch him for implying...implying..." Defeated, he fell to his knees. "Doctor! This isn't the dream!"

"Rory," the Doctor said, "Amy." And he couldn't meet their eyes. "I know what I'm asking. I know what you're thinking. But..."

"This is our baby!" Amy shrieked. "You think we're gonna leave her?"

"Amy-"

"You idiot!" she shouted. "Do your job, Doctor! Save us! And most of all, save her!"

A window smashed downstairs.

"What do we do, how do we stop this?" Rory asked wildly. "Doctor?"

The Doctor seemed to make a decision, spun around, went to the window. "Dream Lord! They've chosen! I've chosen! Come back here!"

But he didn't. And something was coming up the stairs...

"We've chosen!" the Doctor shouted. And the door burst open, and several things happened at once-

The Ekocene breathed, but missed. Rory tried to pick Amy and the baby up, to move them away. Amy gave the baby to him, forcing herself to her feet, one hand on the floor. And then another Ekocene came in, this one didn't miss, even as the Doctor ran to get in front of them all it breathed on Amy-

-and she crumpled to dust.

"NO!" yelled Rory. "NO!" But it was far too late. The Doctor picked up a heavy lamp, ran to the monster, and knocked it to the ground. It stayed there. Rory, still holding the baby, grabbed a pair of scissors with his other hand - the ones he'd used to cut off his ponytail- and plunged them into the Ekocene's chest. The Doctor closed the door, and Rory started screaming.

"Amy!"

And he staggered to the cot and placed the baby there, gently. For a moment there was a pause where anything might happen. And then he turned to the Doctor, hit him without a word, hit him over and over again, and the Doctor did nothing.

"Give her back to me!" Rory shouted.

The Doctor didn't try to stop the blows, just took them. In the cot, the baby sobbed. "She's gone. Rory, she's gone..."

Rory stopped punching him, punched the wall instead, and came away with his knuckles bleeding. "Doctor. She can't be gone!"

The Doctor moved towards the cot. "Rory. Rory, listen to me. I think I know who the Dream Lord is. I'm almost certain I know. Rory..."

Rory said nothing.

"Rory, this is a dream."

"It's not!" He reached for the baby, still unclothed and wrapped only in a blanket. "She's our daughter!"

"She's what your daughter might be," the Doctor said gently. "She'll be real one day, but she's not real now."

"I can't leave her."

"Listen..."

"I WON'T LEAVE HER!"

The Doctor backed away.

Rory leaned over the cot, touching the baby's face, blocking out the Doctor completely. "It's okay. It's okay. I'll look after you. Me and your mum, we talked about names, she liked Helen. You're Helen. And your mother was Amy..."

His voice was cracking. The Doctor noticed that the Ekocenes had vanished, that there was no more noise from downstairs, and he went to the door. Rory didn't even notice.

"I'll look after you..."

The Dream Lord was standing on the other side of the door.

"Poor little lost Amelia!" he snarled at the Doctor. "But you can still have her back! If you dare to take yet another child away."

"That's not her daughter in there, that's not a real baby," the Doctor said. "And I know what you are, and I'm going to stop you. Because this is cruel. The cruellest thing I've seen in years."

"Ah, you've said that to so many people," the Dream Lord said. "Doesn't seem to work, though, does it? Daleks still at large, the Master still a naughty man, another companion gone, another life ruined..."

"We'll all come out of this alive," the Doctor said through gritted teeth.

"Except, of course, for the baby. Oh, Doctor..." He grinned wickedly. "You're not."

The Doctor just glared. And the Dream Lord vanished, and reappeared by the cot, next to Rory.

Rory seemed like he was in a trance. "You," he said to the Dream Lord. "Can you bring Amy back?"

"Oh, honey," said the Dream Lord, "I'm not here to help you out."

"Don't listen to him, Rory," the Doctor said.

"But sweetie..." the Dream Lord said, and suddenly he looked a lot like Amy, and suddenly he was Amy, his arm around Rory. "I can stay with you."

"Amy," Rory said, still almost in a trance. "Amy..."

"It's me," the Dream Amy said. "I'm back. I won't leave you."

"This is Helen," Rory said, handing the baby to her. It started to cry at her touch. "Isn't she beautiful?"

"She is," said the false Amy, "The most beautiful thing in the world." And then she turned to the Doctor. A look passed between them, a look of pure hatred, that Rory saw.

"Wait..." he said.

"Think!" the Doctor shouted suddenly. "You know Amy! And that's not her." He started moving towards the door. "I'm sorry. But I've got to save us all."

Amy just glared, glared at his retreating back as he ran. Then she turned slowly back to Rory.

"Dearest," said Amy, "we can't be the Doctor's friends anymore."

Rory took the baby from her arms. "Why?"

"You're asking? He's the reason I cheated on you," she whispered. "He's the reason I ran away. He's the reason I never loved you as much as I could!"

Rory backed away. From downstairs there came noise...

"Rory," said Amy, "you know he's the reason."

Rory just said, "Do you love me?"

"Of course I do," said Amy. A pause. "I love you."

Rory sighed.

"Amy's never said those words." And he held the baby in his arms. "You're not her. You're nothing like my Amy."

The Dream Lord snarled like an animal, still wearing Amy's face, and changed back into a man. Rory ran for the door, made for the stairs, still holding Helen, but he was too late. The Doctor had grabbed some things from the shed, constructed them into explosives within seconds, and thrown them at the house. Then he'd thrown a match. Then they all woke up in the ice.

"It's hot," Rory said, face down in the ice, "it's so hot..."

Amy forced herself up and went to his side. She looked at the Doctor. Her eyes far away, she said, "I died, didn't I? I died."

"Oh God," Rory said. "The baby..."

The Doctor said nothing, just hit a button on the console and smashed that dream as well. When they all awoke safe and sound for the final time, Amy chose Rory- he'd cut off his ponytail for her, after all. But things between them and the Doctor- they were never the same again.