Sorry I've just been so tired lately.

but here is another chapter, although I'll warn you, Amy's Choice is mostly dialog.

Which gets a bit boring to write so I apologize if my updates are behind.


"Remember. This is real." The Doctor murmured into Rose's hair, even though his comment was directed towards Amy and Rory, he knew Rose didn't want to believe this one. She was still crying, her face pressed into the Doctor's tweed jacket as if he could fix everything that was wrong in this picture, and he wished he could, but he couldn't. She could feel it, could feel the TARDIS die as if it was truly a part of her, which in a way, she supposed it was. "But when we wake up in the other place," the Doctor still had his lips pressed against Rose's hair, and it muffled his voice. "Remember how real this feels."

"It is real." Amy insisted, from in-between Rory's arms, "I know it's real."


The Doctor helped Rose up, her face pressed uncomfortably against the asphalt. Amy and Rory woke up, still stationed on the bench. Rose watched a teacher usher her students into a park, probably some 'exotic' field trip, or the closest thing that called for it her in Upper Leadworth.

"Okay, this is the real one." Amy said, looking down at her large belly, "Definitely this one. It's all solid."

"It felt solid in the TARDIS too." Rose said, looking down at the asphalt, remembering the empty feeling in her as the TARDIS died.

"You can't spot a dream while you're having it!" the Doctor hurridly corrected them both, before reaching forward and taking Rose's hand in his. He waved their two hands like a pendulum, watching them intently.

"What are you doing?" Rose asked, watching their entwined hands with a sort of curiosity.

"Looking for motion blur, pixilation. It could be a computer simulation." He let their hands drop, but didn't let go of his seemingly desperate clutch of her fingers. "I don't think so, though." He finished, biting his lip.

A little old woman, stumbling along on a cane, passed them, "Hello Doctor." She said, but she was addressing Rory, giving his a sweet smile as she trundled on by.

"Hi." Rory's arm didn't leave his wife's shoulders.

"Hello." The Doctor said as well, before realizing his mistake. He approached Rory, looking the other man over with… respect? This had to be the dream. "You're a doctor." He said it as a fact, not a question.

"And I'm an alien." Rose blurted out, than covered her mouth. That was something she and the Doctor didn't like to talk about, but sometimes well… it blurted out of her. She needed to talk about it, about not knowing what she was, or how she had become this way. She and the Doctor never talked about it, pretended that she was still human, for their own sakes. He gave her a curious look, and opened his mouth, but Rory cut him off, effectively saving Rose from integration.

"Yeah, I am a Doctor, and unlike you, I've actually passed some exams."

"A doctor, not a nurse." The Doctor said, but he gave Rose a look that said, "We're talking about this later." "Just like you've always dreamed. How interesting."

"What is?"

"Your dream job." The Doctor stated, moving closer to Rory, "your dream job, probably your dream baby." He pointed angrily as Amy's expanded stomach. "Maybe this is your dream."

"It's Amy's dream too." Rory said, going on the defensive, "Right Amy?"

"Yes." Amy said, perhaps a little to quickly. "Course it is, yeah." The Doctor gave her a skeptical glance, before glaring ahead at the building up the road.

"What's that?" he asked suddenly, but his voice was hard, and he let go of Rose's hand, which he almost never did.

"Old people's home."

"You said everyone here lives to there nineties." The Doctor peered up at the windows of the house, where old people waved and smiled down at him. "There's something here that doesn't make sense. Let's go and poke it with a stick!" he took Rose's hand again, pulling her down the street, Rory not far behind.

"Oh." Amy sighed, slowly getting up from the bench, "Can we not do the running thing?"


"Oh hello Doctor Williams." The old woman sitting in the chair said, smiling up at the ponytail man.

"Hello Mrs. Poggit. How's your hip?" Rory knelt next to the old woman, his smile genuine.

"A bit stiff." she complained lightly, rubbing it with her palm.

"Oh easy." The Doctor waved his hand vaguely. "D-96 compound, plus. No, you don't have that yet, forget that." he moved over to the window, sticking his nose through the curtains.

"Who's your friend?" Mrs. Poggit smiled up at the Doctor, "A junior doctor?"

"Yes!" Rose answered for the four of them, "And I'm one also."

"Can I borrow you? You're the size of my grandson." Mrs. Poggit practically forced the itchy sweater over the Doctor's head. Rose had to admit, it was an attractive fit on him, it actually showed the muscles in the Doctor's arms and chest, unlike that tweed suit he insisted on wearing.

"Slightly keen to move on." He said, but plopped down in a chair anyways, "Freak psychic schism to sort out. You're incredibly old aren't you?" he asked, rather rudely.

But before he could get the answer, the manic birdsong filled the room and-


"Okay, I hate this Doctor. Make it stop!" Rose groaned, and rested her forehead against the TARDIS floor. "this one is real."

"It's bloody cold." Rory said, and with those words he put his arms around Amy, who quickly shrugged them off.

"The heating's off." The Doctor answered the question no one really asked, but he still put his arms around Rose, so she was okay with his abruptness, leaning her head into his jacket, embracing his warmth.

"The heating's off?" Amy asked, and went back into Rory's arms, despite her earlier protests.

"Yeah. Put on a jumper. That's what I always do. Or snuggle up to Rose, she's quite warm."

"Er, yes. Sorry about Mrs. Poggit. She's so lovely though."

"I wouldn't believe her nice old lady act if I were you." Rose said, and felt the Doctor nod against her hair, which he seemed to have a habit of pressing his face into. She didn't mind though, it made her feel less alone.

"What do you mean act?" Amy scoffed.

"Everything's off. Sensors, core power." The Doctor muttered as he ran around the TARDIS, looking for any tiny sign of life that could help them. Rose shivered without his arms around her, but kept her distance. "We're drifting. The scanner's down so we can't even see out. We could be anywhere!" he slammed his hand down on the controls, "Someone, something is overriding my controls!" he shouted, and Rose put her hand on his arm, telling him with her eyes to calm down before he scared Amy and Rory.

"Well, that took a while. Honestly, I'd heard such good things," a voice sneered from behind them, and Rose, Amy, Rory, and the Doctor all whipped around. The source of the comment came from a small pudgy man standing at the foot of the stairs, wearing the exact same outfit as the Doctor, a few hairs combed over the bald spot on his head. "Last of the Time Lords, the oncoming storm. Him in a bowtie."

"How did you get into the TARDIS?" Rose asked, a deadly power infecting her voice. "What are you?"

"What shall we call me?" the man strolled past them, and they parted ways, as if their own bodies were betraying them, like they didn't want to get near this person or being, at all. "Well if you're the Time Lord, let's call me the Dream Lord."

"Nice look." The Doctor appraised the bowtie with a nod, and than jerked away as Rose poked him.

"Don't compliment the guy who killed the TARDIS!" she protested, but both ignored her.

"This?" the Dream Lord looked down at his outfit with distaste, "I'm not convinced. Bow ties?" Rose grabbed the Doctor's sonic screwdriver and threw it at the dream lord, but it passed straight through him like he was made of water.

"Interesting." The man flicked an imaginary piece of dust off his coat. "I'd love to be impressed, but Dream Lord. It's in the name, isn't it? Spooky. Not quite there." He twisted on the spot, and was gone. "And yet very much here." He said from behind them, and all four of them whirled around again.

"I'll do the talking, thank you." The Doctor snapped, "Amy, want to take a guess at what that is?" he gestured at the fat man.

"Dream Lord." Amy answered, looking surprised he'd asked her and not Rose. "He creates dreams."

"Dreams, illusions, cheap tricks. "the Doctor spat, and Rose felt like she was mentally holding him back. It was almost as if the thought of her was the only thing holding her back, as his hand wouldn't let her goes.

"And what about the Wolf and the Gooseberry here? Do they get a guess?" the fat man seemed to enjoy taunting them, and of course he did. They all knew that the Doctor didn't exactly like the level of domestics Rory seemed to bring to the group, and often ignored him in important situations.

"Er, listen mate. If anyone's the gooseberry around here, it's the Doctor." Rose said truthfully, and ignored the Doctor's annoyed glare. You snooze you lose.

"Well now, there's a delusion I'm not responsible for." Despite the fact that it was the Dream Lord who made the comment, Rose stifled a snicker.

"No, he is. Isn't he Amy?" Rory looked to Amy for assistance.

"Oh Amy, you have to sort your men out. Choose, even." The Dream Lord swung around the TARDIS, his pot belly wiggling.

"I have chosen." Amy said quickly, glancing at Rose to gauge her reaction, "It's you Stupid." She said to Rory, holding up the ring on her finger. The Dream Lord appeared behind them.

"You can't fool me. 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?" the Doctor spoke up. He didn't turn around, didn't give the Dream Lord the satisfaction of looking in his swirling eyes, not until he got some answers.

"Me? Oh you're on shaky ground, proposing to Rose in that way."

"Am I?" his voice was cold, indifferent, and he didn't meet Amy and Rory's looks of shock.

"If you had any more tawdry quirks you could open up a Tawdry Quirk Shop. 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. Where was I?" the Dream Lord sounded confident, easy in his arguments, so sure that he was the winner, the ultimate supreme of everything.

"You were-" Rory started.

"I know where I was." The Dream Lord snapped, before regaining his composure and going back to his smooth tone. "So, here's your challenge. Two worlds. Here, in the time machine, and there, in the village that time forgot. One is real, the others fake. And just to make it more interesting, you're going to face in both worlds, a deadly danger, but only of the dangers real. Tweet, Tweet, time to sleep.

The manic birdsong filled the TARDIS, and all four of them fell to their knees, very tired, very tired indeed. "Oh. Or are you waking up?"