Okay, episode seven! We're getting there! I've skipped the Meanwhile in the TARDIS here because it would kind of ruin the which-world-is-the-dream aspect of this episode. So I thought I'd go straight into Amy's Choice :)

Oh, that reminds me. A few of you have asked if I'm going to write Series 6 with Alex too. I am indeed! In fact, I've already written two or three scenes from the opening two-parter, and I've worked out where Alex is going to be for the vast majority of the first five episodes.

We're into exam season in England now, so I'm not sure when I'll be able to update this. Oh, also, to help me get to know Alex's character more, I've started to insert him in other things: Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter etc. I might upload these scenes at some point, just for you, my loyal fans ;)

Amy's Choice – Part One

"Y'know what?" said the Doctor as he pulled a lever on the console. "I think we deserve a break. A nice, relaxing mini-break. What d'you think?"

"A mini-break?" Alex laughed. "Relaxing? You?"

"Yeah? What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing's wrong with that, it's you that's the problem," Alex smiled. The Doctor looked at him, frowning in confusion. "You know full-well you'd get bored stiff!"

"Would not! Anyway, too late now." He pulled the landing lever. "We're here. Somewhere really relaxing. Now, come on." The Doctor picked up his tweed jacket from a chair and put it on, before running towards the front doors of the TARDIS. Alex, laughing, followed him. The Doctor stumbled as he stepped out of the doors. Alex was more careful as he stepped outside. They'd landed in front of a big old village house.

"Rory!" the Doctor cried happily as a man walked out of the house.

"Hello!" Rory called back to them as he walked through the garden towards them. Alex grinned at him in greeting.

"I've crushed your flowers," the Doctor mentioned, gesturing to the TARDIS' landing spot on a large flower bed.

"Oh. Amy will kill you..."

"Where is she?"

"Never mind that," Alex interrupted, gazing in surprise at Rory. "What's with the hair, Rory?"

"Oh blimey," the Doctor said, now noticing the ponytail creeping down the back of Rory's neck. "Miss an appointment at the barber's did you?"

"Hey!" came a familiar voice from the direction of the house. Alex and the Doctor turned to see Amy waddling down the garden path, with a surprisingly large belly...

"Bloody hell!" Alex cried, eyes wide and laughing as the Doctor pointed at her stomach and cheered.

"You've swallowed a planet!" the Doctor told her.

"I'm pregnant!" she replied giddily.

"Nice," Alex nodded to Rory, who shrugged modestly.

"You're huge!"

"Yeah. I'm pregnant."

"Look at you, when worlds collide! Oh, look at you both, five years later and you haven't changed a bit! Apart from age, and size..." the Doctor tailed off, gawping at Amy's stomach again.

"Oh, it's good to see you two," Amy smiled, shifting her eyes between the Doctor and Alex happily.

"Are you pregnant?" the Doctor asked.

Amy rolled her eyes, laughing. "Come on!" she said, grabbing Alex and the Doctor by the hand and pulling them towards the garden gate. "We need to give you the tour of the village,"

"We've been here before," Alex pointed out as they turned left on the road and strolled up it, a picturesque field to their right and lots of similar, big and old houses on their left.

"No, that was a different area," Amy insisted. "Come on! It's much better here," Amy led them down the road. They took a left, along another thin village lane, across a green and emerged into what Alex assumed was meant to be the village centre. It wasn't exactly bustling. They strolled up another path in silence, houses on one side and a church on the other.

"Ah," the Doctor eventually announced. "Leadworth. Vibrant as ever."

"It's Upper Leadworth actually. We've gone slightly upmarket," Rory informed them rather proudly.

"Sorry Rory," Alex said, taking a look around. "But it looks... kind of the same..."

"Most villages do," Rory replied. "It's fine. I like it here. It's quiet."

"And relaxing," Alex muttered, shooting a look at the Doctor.

"Well, yes, good point. Where is everyone?"

"This is busy." The Doctor looked at Amy in disbelief and made a point of looking around. There was one person in sight, an elderly lady limping into the building about 200 metres away. "Okay, it's quiet," Amy went on, defensively. "But it's really restful and... healthy. Most people 'round here live well into their nineties."

"Well don't let that get you down," the Doctor told them as he walked towards an old bench near the gate to the church.

"It's not getting me down," Amy said as she took a seat on it next to the Doctor. Alex sat on the other side of Amy and Rory squeezed in next to the Doctor.

"Well, we wanted to see how you were. You know me; I don't just abandon people-"

"-I'm certainly testament to that-"

"-this Time Lord's for life! You don't get rid of your old pal the Doctor so easily!"

"You came here by mistake didn't you?" Amy asked shrewdly.

"Yeah, but of a mistake." Alex rolled his eyes and nodded, his suspicions confirmed. "But look, what a result. Look at this bench. What a nice bench. What will they think of next..?"

A silence fell among the four of them. "So..." Alex tried. "How long's this one been around then?" he gestured to Amy's stomach.

"Just coming up to 34 weeks now," she smiled contentedly, rubbing her belly lovingly.

"And how long've you two been here?"

"Just over two years," Rory smiled and waved at an old woman who walked past the bench.

"And what have you actually done to kill time? In two years," the Doctor asked. Alex could tell from his tone of voice that he was getting a bit bored.

"We relax," Rory began, prompting a look of bewilderment from the Doctor. "We live. We listen to the birds." As Rory mentioned them, Alex suddenly became aware of the really quite loud birdsong coming from the tall trees behind them. "We didn't get a lot of time to listen to birdsong back in the TARDIS did we?"

"Oh! Blimey, my head's a bit..." the Doctor put a hand to his forehead and groaned.

"You okay?" Alex asked in concern, leaning forward to get a better look at the Doctor.

"Yeah, don't worry, I'll be fine. No, Rory, you're right. There wasn't a lot of time for... birdsong... back in the good... old..."

A M Y ' S C H O I C E

Alex awoke with a jump. His head was lolling onto the back of the chair he was sprawled out on.

"What?" called the Doctor's voice. Alex couldn't see him. He staggered to his feet, rubbing his forehead. "No, yes, sorry," the Doctor said as he appeared from the lower level of the console room.

"Was I just asleep?" Alex wondered aloud as Rory and Amy walked into the room too, also looking slightly disorientated.

"I was, don't know about you. But thank God, you're all okay! I had a terrible nightmare. You two, in particular," he muttered, pointing to Amy and Rory. "We were fine," he shrugged at Alex. He leant on the console, breathing heavily. "That was scary... don't ask. You don't wanna know. Safe now," he sighed as he landed a hug on Amy, patted Rory on the head and clapped Alex on the shoulder as he passed. "That's what counts."

"What happened in your dream then?" Alex asked, shaking his head slightly to wake himself up.

"Blimey!" the Doctor said, not hearing. "Never dropped off like that before. Well, never, really."

Alex sat back on the chair and rubbed his face. He looked up to see Amy taking a surreptitious peek at the back of Rory's neck. He caught her eye and they exchanged confused looks.

"I'm gettin' on a bit y'see," the Doctor went on. "Don't let the cool gear fool you. Now, what's wrong with the console? Red flashing lights. I bet they mean something..." He bent down to peer beneath the console.

"Doctor, I also had a sort of dream... thing," Rory announced.

"Yeah, so did I,"

"And me,"

"Not a nightmare though!" Rory assured Amy. "Just... we were married."

"Yeah... in a little village,"

"A sweet little village and you were preg...nant.

"Yes! I was huge! I was a boat!"

"And you had a ponytail!" Alex spoke up, remembering now.

Rory looked from Amy to Alex and back again, confusion creeping over his face. The Doctor crept up behind Rory and also searched the back of his neck.

"So we all had the same dream then..? Exactly the same dream..?"

"Are you calling me a boat?" Amy whispered threateningly.

"And you two were visiting," Rory realised, turning to Alex and the Doctor.

"You took us on a tour of the village," Alex recalled. "Down the road, first left, along the lane and onto the green,"

The Doctor opened Amy's jacket curiously to get a better look at her stomach.

"Yeah... exactly the same dream then, down to the last detail? How is that possible? It doesn't make any sense."

"And you had a nightmare about us? What happened to us in the nightmare?" Amy asked the Doctor.

"It was a bit similar, in some aspects."

"Which aspects?"

"Well, all of them,"

"You had the same dream?"

"Basically."

"You said it was a nightmare,"

Did I say nightmare? No! More sort of a really good... mare," the Doctor tailed off sheepishly. "Look, it doesn't matter. We all had some kind of psychic episode, we probably just jumped a time track or something. Forget it! We're back to reality now,"

"Tell me you can hear that?" Alex muttered. Reverberating around the console room was the familiar sound of loud birdsong.

Amy nodded, giving Alex a troubled look.

"Doctor, if we're back to reality now," Rory began.

"Then what's that?" Alex finished.

A M Y ' S C H O I C E

Alex shook his head to wake himself up. How had he fallen asleep on such an uncomfortable wooden bench on such a cold day?

"Sorry!" called Rory's voice from the other end of the bench. "Nodded off. Stupid! God, I must be over-doing it..."

"I fell asleep too..." Alex leant forward and raised an eyebrow at Rory nervously. The Doctor jumped up from the bench and took a few steps forward.

"Dreamt you were back on the TARDIS..?" Rory asked apprehensively after a pause. Alex nodded grimly.

"And we thought this was the dream didn't we?"

"Think so," Amy winced, struggling to her feet. "Why do dreams have to fade so quickly?"

"Doctor, what's going on?" Rory asked the Doctor who had picked up a leaf from the floor and was studying it intently.

"Listen to me. Trust nothing. From now on, trust nothing you see, hear, or feel."

"But we're awake now!" Rory pointed out.

"Yeah, you thought you were awake on the TARDIS,"

"Doctor, we're not dreaming anymore," Alex cried, slapping himself on the cheek to illustrate his point.

"How can you tell? Hm?"

"Because we're home!" Amy said, looking around uncertainly.

"Yeah, you're home, you're also dreaming. Trouble is, Alex, Amy, Rory, which is which? Are we flashing forwards? Or... backwards... Hold on tight. This is gonna be a tricky one."

"A what?" Alex asked, swaying slightly on his feet. He rubbed his eyes as he once again registered the birds singing in the background.

A M Y ' S C H O I C E

Alex jolted awake. Again. Back on the TARDIS.

"Oh, this is bad! I don't like this!" shouted the Doctor. He kicked the console in frustration, and let out a cry of agony and proceeded to limp around the room. "Never use force, you'll just embarrass yourself! Unless you're cross, in which case... always use force!"

"Shall I run and get the manual?"

"I threw it in a supernova!" the Doctor told Amy as he hobbled down the stairs.

"You threw the manual in a supernova..? Why?"

"Because I disagreed with it, with stop talking to me when I'm cross!" the Doctor shouted at Amy from below the glass floor.

"Whatever's wrong with the TARDIS, is that what caused us to dream about the future?" asked Rory.

"Well, if we were dreaming of the future," the Doctor said as if it were obvious, walking back up the stairs, carrying a number of unusual tools. He dumped them on one of the chairs.

"Well of course we were!" Alex cried. "We're awake now, definitely awake!"

"Yeah? Here's my point," the Doctor said, sizing up to Alex. He slapped him hard around the face.

"Ow!" Alex shrieked, stumbling back, putting a hand to his cheek. "What was that for?"

"Y'see? The slap didn't wake you up here, or in Leadworth-"

"-Upper Leadworth-"

"Yeah, we could be in Upper Leadworth right now, dreaming about the TARDIS, or vice versa! Don't you get it?" he asked, handing Amy a spanner. "I told you, trust nothing you see, hear or feel,"

"This kills!" Alex cried, nursing his cheek. "Did you have to hit me that hard?"

"Look around you, examine everything! Look for all the details that don't ring true." He took the spanner back off of Amy.

"Okay, well, we're on a spaceship that's bigger on the inside than the outside," Rory began.

"With a bow tie-wearing alien," Amy continued.

"Who just slapped me around the face," Alex went on.

"So maybe 'what rings true'" Rory said, using his fingers to form air-quotations "isn't so simple," he finished.

"Valid point," the Doctor shrugged.

Suddenly, the TARDIS turned dark. All the lights on the console went out and the room became deathly silent, the ambient, ever-present background noises of the console now disappeared.

"What was that?" Alex whispered after a few moments silence.

"It's dead. We're in a dead time machine..."

Before anyone could reply, the sound of birdsong reappeared, much more obvious now that there were no other noises to drown it out. Alex sighed and sat down. Amy and Rory embraced.

"Remember, this is real. But when we wake up in the other place, remember how real this feels!" the Doctor commanded.

"It is real! I know it's real..."

"My cheek would... agree with you there..." Alex muttered, his eyes drooping...

A M Y ' S C H O I C E

If Alex didn't know better, he would say the tolling bell of the church had awoken him from his slumber. He lifted his head to see the Doctor was already on his feet, taking in the environment.

"Okay, this is the real one. Definitely this one, it's all solid." Amy declared, rubbing her bump lovingly.

"It felt solid in the TARDIS too. You can't spot a dream while you're having it,"

"What about lucid dreams?" Alex asked smugly, getting to his feet as a class of school children ambled past.

The Doctor opened his mouth then closed it again and frowned. "Shut up," he said eventually. He began to wave his hand around in front of his face, examining it.

"Er... what are you doing?" asked Rory uncertainly.

"Looking for motion blur, pixilation, it could be a computer simulation. I don't think so though," he took Rory's face in his hands and stretched the cheeks slightly.

"Hello doctor," greeted an elderly woman as she hobbled past.

"Hello," replied Rory cheerily, waving.

"Hi!" the Doctor said proudly at the same time. The woman gave the Doctor an irritated look and wandered off. "You're a doctor?"

"Yeah. And unlike you, I've actually passed some exams!"

"A doctor, not a nurse. Just like you've always dreamed..." the Doctor began to stride up the road, smiling slightly. "How interesting!"

"What is?" Rory asked as he, Amy and Alex followed, jogging to catch up.

"Well, your dream wife. Your dream job. Probably your dream baby. Maybe this is your dream?" he asked as they came to a halt outside a tall, long building.

"Well it's Amy's dream too. Isn't it Amy?"

"Yes," she answered, almost too quickly. "'Course it is," she chuckled.

"You called it a nightmare, maybe this is your nightmare," Alex theorised.

"Possible, but unlikely. What's that?" he asked Amy, pointing to the building over his shoulder.

"Old people's home," she replied as if the answer were obvious.

Alex followed their line of vision. At first glance, the home seemed a normal country building. Looking closely though, it was odd. There were many a pair of eyes at the windows, lots of twitching curtains. They were being watched.

"You said that everyone here lives to their nineties. There's something that doesn't make sense... let's go and poke it with a stick." Without another word, the Doctor ran towards the home. Alex and Rory sped behind him, with Amy bringing up the rear.

"Oi, you can't just come bursting in like that!" said the receptionist as the Doctor threw the door open and ran past the desk into the front room.

"It's fine, they're with me," Rory assured her hurriedly, holding up a card. She grudgingly waved Alex and Amy into the room, followed by Rory.

"Oh hello Doctor Williams!" said an elderly woman happily as Rory entered the room.

"Hello dear!" said another.

Rory took it in his stride and waved at them all, greeting them happily. Alex frowned, shooting a look at Amy, who returned it with a grimace. 'Old people smell'.

"Hello, Rory love!" said another woman, knitting and sitting on a sofa.

"Hello, Mrs Poggit, how's your hip?"

"A bit stiff-"

"Oh, easy! D-96 compound. Plus... No, you don't have that yet. Forget that."

"Who's this then?" asked Mrs Poggit, gesturing to the Doctor. "A junior doctor?"

Rory seized the opportunity. "Yes..!" The Doctor frowned at him, annoyed.

"Can I borrow you?" she asked the Doctor. Without waiting for an answer, she picked up the jumper she'd been knitting and held it up for the Doctor to try on. "You're the size of my grandson!"

"Er..." the Doctor hesitated, then gave in and climbed inside the jumper. "Slightly keen to move on. Freak psychic schism to sort out." Once inside, he leant forward the looked Mrs Poggit right in the eye. "You're incredibly old aren't you..." he whispered.

A M Y ' S C H O I C E

Alex awoke. Again. He was still sprawled out in the chair he'd sat on. The Doctor, Amy and Rory were all slumped over the console, slowly awaking from what looked an incredibly uncomfortable sleeping position.

"Okay. I hate this Doctor. Stop it, 'cos this is definitely real, it's definitely this one! I keep saying that don't I?"

The Doctor didn't respond to Amy. He ran up some stairs to the upper level and bent down to scan something on the wall with the Sonic Screwdriver.

"It's bloody cold," Rory called, folding his arms to keep the heat in.

"Try going up those stairs," Alex said, shivering, returning to the console room. He'd tried to go to the wardrobe to find a jumper. The corridor at the top of the stairs was probably below zero.

"The heating's off," the Doctor announced.

"The heating's off..." Rory repeated sarcastically.

"Put on a jumper, that's what I always do,"

"I tried," Alex muttered.

"Oh yeah, sorry about Mrs Poggit. She's so lovely though!"

The Doctor looked at the three of them through one of the TARDIS' lights on the wall. "Oh, I wouldn't believe her nice old lady act, if I were you."

"What d'you mean 'act'?" Amy asked incredulously.

"She's an old lady," Alex stated the obvious.

"Everything's off," the Doctor stood back up and walked back to the console level. "Sensors, core power. We're drifting. The scanner's down so we can't even see out. We could be anywhere. Someone, something, is over-riding my controls!"

"Well! That took a while!" said a new voice. Alex jumped and looked around for the source. Eventually, his eyes settled on a portly, balding man stood at the top of the stairs. He was dressed in a tweed jacket, black jeans and an orange-y red bow tie. He strolled down the stairs. "Honestly. I'd heard such good things! Last of the Time Lords! The Oncoming Storm! Him in the bow tie!" he finished with a chuckle.

"How did you get into my TARDIS?" the Doctor asked him warningly.

"What's with the bow tie?" Alex asked, standing at the Doctor's side.

"What, this?" the man asked, chuckling and pulling at the bow tie around his neck. "Didn't you hear? They're "cool", or so my sources tell me."

"What are you?"

"What shall we call me? Well, if you're the Time Lord, let's call me the Dream Lord..."

The Doctor reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out an apple, which he threw at the Dream Lord. It travelled straight through him and out the other side. "Interesting..."

"Well... I'd love to be impressed, but erm. Dream Lord. It's in the name isn't it? Spooky. Not quite there..." Suddenly, he disappeared. "And yet very much here!" came his voice from behind them. They span around, Amy gasping and clutching Rory's arm.

"I'll do the talking thank you. Amy, want to take a guess at what that is?"

"Erm... Dream Lord. He creates dreams."

"Dreams, delusions. Cheap tricks."

"And what about the two men?" the Dream Lord asked the Doctor. "Do they get a guess? Then again, men aren't really your thing, are they Doctor? You prefer the company of a female, don't you? Well, I'm not surprised, pretty thing like Amy."

"Hey," Rory started. He shied away at the Dream Lord's stare. "Stay away from her..."

"Oh Amy. That wasn't very valiant, was it?"

"Stop it," Alex told the Dream Lord, far more forcefully than Rory had done.

"Oh, that was a bit better. Amy, I think you've made the wrong choice. Unless you haven't made your choice yet?"

"Of course I've chosen!"

Rory frowned in worry, his eyes shifting from Amy, to Alex, to the Dream Lord, to the Doctor.

"It's you, stupid!" Amy assured him, hitting him on the arm.

"You can't fool me," the Dream Lord disappeared and reappeared again, now standing next to Rory, who stumbled back in surprise. "I've seen your dreams. Some of them twice, Amy. Blimey, I'd blush! If I had a blood supply. Or a real face!

"Where did you pick up this cheap cabaret act?" asked the Doctor, showing no apprehension and facing up to the Dream Lord square-on.

"Me? Oh, you're on shaky ground!"

"Am I?"

"If you had any more tawdry quirks, you could open up a tawdry quirk shop!" he sneered. "The madcap vehicle? The cockamamie hair? The clothes designed by a first-year fashion student? I'm surprised you haven't got a little purple space-dog! Just to ram home what an intergalactic WAG you are..." he smiled at the Doctor teasingly. "Oh. Where was I?"

"Er, you were-" Rory began

"I know where I was!" the Dream Lord shouted, reappearing on the upper level, overlooking the console room. "So here's your challenge. Two worlds. Here, in the time machine, and there, in the village that time forgot. One is real. The other's fake. And, just to make it more interesting, you're going to face, in both worlds, a deadly danger, but only one of the dangers is real! Tweet tweet! Time to sleep!"

As the Dream Lord spoke, birdsong sounded throughout the room once again. Alex stumbled where he stood, holding onto the console to lower himself to the ground safely.

"Oh... or are you waking up?"