Chapter Thirty-Five: Doctor Alder Dorm

Following the directions given to them by the nurse at the front desk, Amy and Rory went to find Captain Jack Harkness in the Storybrooke Hospital. But when the couple arrived in the room where Harkness supposedly was, all they found was an empty, unkempt bed. Upon seeing the empty bed, Rory and Amy frowned in confusion, wondering how a man could just up and leave without an entire hospital knowing that he was gone. Their curiosity was soon cut short by the sudden voice that spoke from behind them and said: "He left just an hour before you arrived, I'm afraid."

Turning to face the speaker, Amy and Rory were met with even more surprise at the face of the doctor who just entered. To the hospital staff and everyone in town who ever stopped by the hospital, this particular doctor was known as "Alder Dorm," but for Rory and Amy, he was the troublesome Dream Lord. Admired by the looks on their faces, Dorm grinned and asked rhetorically, "Surprised to see me?"

"What the hell are you doing here?" Amy demanded to know.

"Same reason you both are – because of the Doctor." Dorm answered with sincerity.

"But you're supposed to be the Doctor, or a physical manifestation of his subconscious in dream form." Rory indicated. "Or are we dreaming right now as we speak?"

Dorm groaned. "Oh, Rory…it's not so difficult to figure out. You're in a town where anything and everything can and will happen. I'm here in the flesh, and it's actually happening."

"But how is it possible?" Amy asked.

"Regina…or the 'Evil Queen,' as I'm sure Henry has told you by now…extracted me from the Doctor in the fairy tale world. All it took was a simple 'kiss' between her and the Doctor, sucking enough energy from his body to take away a fraction of his mind. All of the Time Lord that was once in him had been transformed…into me."

Rory started to understand, and he quickly deduced, "So you're like a living avatar of the Doctor's real identity?"

Dorm smiled, albeit mockingly. "Well done, Rory. You have made use of that brain of yours through hundreds of years as a plastic."

While Rory did his best to refrain from punching Dorm, Amy directed her attention to Harkness' empty bed. "Where's Jack Harkness?"

"Judging from your tone, I take it that you think I had something to do with Captain Harkness' disappearance." Dorm then added in a somber tone, "The truth is that I didn't. Jack escaped by his own ingenuity. I'd hoped to keep him here long enough to keep him from stopping what will happen to this town."

"What do you mean? What is going to happen to it?" Rory queried.

Dorm paused for a minute before he answered, "The Queen's curse is going to break soon. The boy, Henry, is getting closer to convincing the savior that the curse is real, bringing her into believing this is all true."

"But that's what we want to happen." Amy stated. "Breaking the curse means that we get the Doctor back in our good graces – you're only preventing that from happening because you…"

"Because when the curse is broken, I will cease to exist, hence the Doctor will cease to exist, Amy!" Dorm aggressively specified. "Her curse keeps any alien activity from taking place in this 'new kingdom' of hers. She knew what the Doctor was capable of doing – how he could disrupt her intentions of ruining the lives of Snow White and Prince Charming – so she took away his greatest weapon: his mind."

"So the Doctor hadn't been completely taken in by the curse?" Rory inquired. "There's still a possibility in getting him back, even without breaking it?"

Dejectedly, Dorm affirmed, "Yes, there is."

Seeing how much he disapproved of the notion, Amy grew furious. "And you don't want that, do you? You know that without the Doctor, you have a shot at livin' your own 'real' life. Well, I've got news for ya, Dream Lord – say if the curse breaks today or tomorrow, there won't be a real life for you. You'll just be nothing – a passing thought in the minds of the very few people who even know you exist. Yeah, the Doctor will be gone, too; but he'll still be alive as John Smith, a schoolteacher who knows what it means to be human…and in love."

The Dream Lord glared at Amy, knowing how right she was. "For twenty-eight timeless years I've gotten used to the idea of really living, knowing what it's like to feel. Every second, if there ever was such a thing in this town, I had to watch 'John Smith' do all the things I'd ever wanted – including falling in love. I suppose that was my curse…living."

For the first time since she had known of him, Amy began to sympathize for him; he was finally able to understand what it meant to have something close to a life of humanity. "Help us get the Doctor back, and you'll no longer have to be cursed."

"I'll always be cursed, Amy. Whether I live as 'Alder Dorm' or in the Doctor's mind, I'll always be cursed." Dorm sighed and then declared, "I'll help you get him back, but the only way it can be done is if he's willing to be the man he once was."

Amy cunningly grinned. "That won't be a problem."