I apologize for taking a while to update. The router in my house decided to stop working for no apparent reason, so none of the laptops have wi fi. If I want internet I have to hook directly into the wall, which really stinks. So please excuse future delays; it doesn't look like it wants to be fixed anytime soon.

Hope you like it, please review! :)

Amy's cold ran its course and was soon gone, but with the help of sleep deprivation it had left her in pretty bad shape. Any weight she had gained—thanks to the Doctor and River's combined culinary efforts—had disappeared, and her ashen skin was beginning to stretch alarmingly over her bones. The dark circles under her eyes had deepened and took on a purplish-yellow hue, much like a bruise. And every time Jenny moved, it was much more visible than before.

"Amy, please. You have to sleep," begged the Doctor. He stroked his wife's limp red hair away from her forehead, noticing that it seemed to be taking on a gray tint. She looked up at him with fearful eyes that were wider than ever.

"I c-can't…bad dreams…won't go away…always there…" Amy's words were slurred with exhaustion. She wanted so desperately to sleep, to truly rest, even if it was only for half an hour. But the nightmares were vicious and never ending, denying her the thing she yearned for most.

"This is exactly why I steer clear of poltergeists as much as I can. In her condition she's fair game. He must have some kind of hold on her, and it increases as she weakens," River remarked. She was sitting in the desk chair, flipping through a ridiculously thick tome dedicated to the study of poltergeists. Neither she nor the Doctor had much experience with the race, and she was determined to discover something that would thwart Bai.

"What I want to know is how he managed it at all. The first time should have been his last, after her guard went up. Also there's the little matter of that we're on the TARDIS." The Doctor rubbed circles into Amy's temple and left cheekbone, making her relax. Her eyes began to slide shut, although she stubbornly kept snapping them open again.

"It says something in here about names. Gives the poltergeist a sort of power over his victim," said River, running her finger down a yellowing page.

The Doctor sighed. "Really, the Carrionites were bad enough. Is a decent poltergeist too much to ask for?" He looked down at the weary girl next to him. "Do you want me to bring you fish custard?" He asked her.

Amy shook her head, knowing it would come back up as soon as she got the first few bites down. This annoyed her, for she was craving the stuff even more now than she had with Ian. Jenny was just as unhappy about it and made sure she kicked enough to get her point across, reducing her mother to tears on several occasions.

"You know what would make this book useful? Instructions on how exactly to wring a poltergeist's neck." River was rifling through the pages a little vehemently now, irritated that the volume droned on and on about the characteristics and habits of the creature but failed to give information on how to deal with one. She knew they had very little time before Bai succeeded in taking two precious lives, just as he had sworn he would.

"Unfortunately they don't possess strictly corporeal bodies; otherwise passing into the dream world would be impossible," the Doctor told her.

"Doesn't mean I still don't want to do it," River muttered.

The Time Lord knew how she felt. He couldn't help reminding himself that it had been his idea to show Bai to his companions, even though he had known a bit about what he was at the time. As usual his curiosity and attraction to danger had gotten the best of him, and now Amy was taking the consequences.

His musings were interrupted by a whimper. He looked down to find that Amy had lost the battle with her body, and her head had fallen back against the pillow. But it wasn't a peaceful sleep; her eyelids were twitching and her brow was furrowed. Her hands were clutched into fists around the sheets, her knuckles blanching.

"Amy. Amelia!" The Doctor tried to rouse her, even shaking her a little roughly, but nothing could remove her from the nightmare this time.

"Aha! Here's something. It says a poltergeist is indestructible save when he enters the dreams of another. If he dies in that form, he can't return," River announced triumphantly.

"We have to let her know somehow." The Doctor lay alongside Amy and pressed his forehead against hers, closing his eyes and willing her to let him in. Her hands wrapped around his arm as if seeking comfort, but her mind was barred to him, as if Bai had thrown up a fortified wall against him. He concentrated and kept trying anyway.

It had to be a battlefield, or somewhere entirely devastated by war, for a smoky fog rolled over the land and death was heavy in the air. There had been buildings there, once, but now not one stone stood on another, every brick, plank of wood, and fence post strewn in broken heaps across the ground. Sprinkled amongst them were charred remains of something, and Amy didn't have to look close to know that they were bodies. Suddenly her foot struck against the corner of sign that had been smashed in two. She held the halves together and choked back a sob when she saw that 'Leadworth' was spelled out on them.

"Amy Pond."

Her pulse quickened, and she dropped the sign. Jumping to her feet she began to run, but buildings that had been completely crushed before rose up around her, boxing her in before she got far. She pressed herself against the side of one, feeling the coldness of the stone through her shirt and wishing she could melt into it.

Out of the mist Bai suddenly appeared, as she knew he would. He was no longer a child, looking somewhere around her age in this twisted apparition, his once-skinny frame now rippling with muscles. He trapped her against the wall, his leering, hateful face mere inches from hers.

"Where's your precious Time Lord now, Amy Pond? He can't always be around to protect you, his little human pet, can he? You're all alone, poor Amy, with just me to keep you company."

Bai ran his finger down the side of her face, his sharp nail scratching her cheek. She glared at him, tears shining in her eyes, repeating to herself that this was no more than a dream. But the scratch from his nail felt so real, and she realized with a start that it had drawn blood.

"Why can't you just leave me alone? I haven't done anything to you," she spat.

Bai chuckled sardonically. "Nothing in life is fair, jaybird. Just being with the man who ruined my plans for revenge is enough to condemn you. You even smell like him. I bet you taste like him too…"

The distance between their faces began to dwindle, and Amy decided she had had enough. She kneed him in the gut, catching him by surprise. She took advantage of the moment to slip away and started running. She tripped over something and screamed when she realized it was Rory, lying on his back with his glassy eyes staring up at the sky, blood bathing his chest and trickling out of the corner of his mouth. Lorelei wasn't far from him, also dead, the corpse of a little girl who shared her perfect blond hair lying in her arms.

Amy lost all her courage at the sight. She dragged herself away and just sat there, her arms curled around her legs, rocking back and forth as she cried. "Just a dream, Just a bad dream," she reiterated, although it was getting harder to believe.

"Amelia!"

At first she thought it was Bai, coming to finish her off, but then she realized that she had never given the poltergeist her full first name. And besides, the voice that spoke was the Doctor's. Amy's head flew up, but he was nowhere to be seen.

"Doctor?" She said hopefully, her voice shaking with relief.

"Listen, Amelia. All Bai is doing is feeding on your deepest fears. Without them, he has no power."

"Great lot of help that is," Amy couldn't help blurting out. "What am I supposed to do, then? I can't escape him."

"You can't run from your fears; the only way to get rid of them is to fight them. Bai can't be killed in the physical world, but he's more vulnerable in his dream form. Do you understand?"

"I can't," Amy replied, knowing what the Doctor meant. The only way to defeat Bai was to destroy him, here, in her dream. But she had never killed anyone before, whether material or immaterial.

"It's the only way." The Doctor's voice was fading, and a wave of terror washed over Amy.

"No! Please don't leave me," Amy pleaded, but there was no answer. The Doctor had stayed as long as he was able.

"Running away isn't very nice, you know. Might lead one to think you don't like them." Bai had returned, his words dripping from his lips like cyanide.

Amy got unsteadily to her feet, hands clenched at her sides. She was strong, she could do this. One measly poltergeist had nothing on her. At least, that's what she kept telling herself.

Bai grabbed her arm and threw her into him, grinning down at her with a wide smile that distorted his otherwise comely features. But before he could get any closer, she brought her other hand around, the one she had been hiding behind her back. He never saw it coming, for he hadn't seen her pick up the broken end of an iron fence post. It wasn't very long, but the sharp point was still intact. Without hesitating another second she thrust it between his ribs.

Bai's smile disappeared. His stared down at the rod of iron piercing his skin and then at her, shock in his eyes. He tried to speak but couldn't find the breath for it. Although there was no blood—this body wasn't truly flesh and bone, after all—he was turning white as a sheet, paler than he had been before. Suddenly he began to lose substance, dissipating into the fog. Without his grip on her, Amy lost her balance and fell forward…

Right into the Doctor's arms.

"Amy! Are you with us?" The Doctor asked, holding her to his chest. Once she realized she was free of the dream, she clung to him and let the tears flow.

"He's gone. I did what you said, and he's…gone," Amy told him, aware of his hearts beating and his familiar scent and everything that made this world real.

"I promise you, we're not doing poltergeists ever again," the Doctor said into her hair, running his fingers through it over and over.

"Got that right," Amy mumbled before slipping into a deep, dreamless sleep.