Rose mixed the batter for the cupcakes. Two dozen down, four to go. She hoped they'd smooth things over after the incident with the lawn mower. Why he thought it needed to be super-powered was beyond her, but he did things like that and she couldn't blame him for being who he was. That's why she loved him. Pain lanced through her sides and across her stomach. She sat the bowl down, grabbing the counter as she bent over.

"Doctor!" she yelled.

Where was he? She couldn't remember. Out back? Down the road? Upstairs? In town? Pain seared through her stomach again.

"Doctor! It's coming!" she screamed.

She took a breath and then another, slowly, the pain began to subside. At that moment she heard the door fly open and turned around in time to see him rush through the living room, stumble over the sofa, although she wasn't entirely sure how he managed that, jump to his feet and rush into the kitchen with his hands out.

"Okay, I'm ready," he exclaimed, crouching down on the floor holding his hands under her as if he was going to catch the baby.

She stood up, grabbing the bowl.

"Never mind. False alarm," she said.

"What?" he gasped.

"Well, I don't know what it feels like, do I? I've never had a baby before."

He stood up and she could tell that he was relieved, but not entirely happy either, probably because she scared the pants off him. She laughed. He eyed her, which only made her laugh harder.

"That's the fourth time this week," he snapped in irritation.

"Oh, shut up," she said, dipping her finger in the batter and giving him a taste.

"That's…" His eyes closed and he smiled, then he turned around and eyed the two dozen cupcakes. He reached for one, but she whacked his hand with the spoon.

"Don't even think about it."

He eyed her, rubbing the back of his hand.

"But-"

"I have to smooth things over at the school after what you did to their lawnmower."

He gave her a pouty face and her heart melted.

"Fine, but only one," she said.

A flash of light at the other end of the room drew her attention.

"Jack!" she exclaimed, shoving the bowl in the Doctor's hands and running…waddle running, she was nearly nine months gone…toward Jack, which gave her enough time to notice his mustache, not that she could miss it. She laughed, it was just so…not him.

"Rosie!" he exclaimed, opening his arms and then taking in the sight of her. "Look at you. You're as big as a…" she slapped his arm, "beautiful. You're beautiful!" She hugged him and he wrapped his arms around her gingerly. "Doc!" he greeted after releasing her.

"Jack," the Doctor said in a not very happy voice. "What are you doing here?"

She shot him a glare as they shook hands, but he kept his eyes averted. She'd been married to the Doctor for a year and she was carrying his child, but he still wasn't entirely happy with her and Jack spending time together, not that Jack came round very often.

"Got some time off and thought I'd pop in for a visit. It's been a while, lot longer than I thought from the look of things," Jack said, giving Rose a smile that she returned.

"Nice of you to visit. Off you pop then, wouldn't want to hold you up," the Doctor said.

"Doctor," Rose snapped. "Never mind him, Jack." She took her friend's arm and led him toward the door. "Why don't we go for a walk? You can tell me what you've been up to."

"That sounds nice," Jack agreed. "You coming too, Doc?"

"Yes, of course, I'm coming," he snapped.

She caught his eye.

"If you're coming then you best change your attitude."

He sighed.

"Fine, sorry, I mean. Sorry, Jack. Just had a bit of a scare before you showed up that's all."

"A scare?" Jack asked.

"She thought she'd gone into labor, for the fourth time this week."

Jack laughed.

"That would do it."

They headed out the door and down the lane.

"This is…nice," Jack said, looking around at the little shops and various cottages.

"It is nice, isn't it?" Rose asked, glancing around. "And it's safe and that's what we need right now."

"Very safe," the Doctor agreed. "I made sure of that before I bought the cottage."

"I never would've pictured either one of you and the word safe together," Jack teased. "But I must say it looks good on you, well, on Rosie at least."

She shared a smile with her friend and caught the not at all happy look on the Doctor's face. She knew he wasn't entirely content with the little village. It was safe, but it was also dull as hell, though she'd never come out and say that. He put up with it for her and for the baby. She put up with it for the baby and for him because she knew how much having a family met to him, what with losing everyone he ever cared about in the Time War, which included his own family.

They drew up to a bench and she decided to sit down for a bit. Walking was hard work at this stage, what with all that extra weight she was carrying around. Jack sat down on one side of her and the Doctor on the other.

"So, where is she?" Jack asked, glancing at the Doctor.

"She? She who?" he inquired.

Jack laughed.

"How long's it been since you two traveled anywhere?"

"Oh, the TARDIS. Right. She's parked in the backyard."

"In the flowerbed," Rose pointed out.

"How was I supposed to know you were going to plant flowers in that exact spot?" he asked.

"So, no traveling then?" Jack inquired.

"No, not for a while now. After we found out she was pregnant, well, I didn't want to chance something happening. I made a few trips with Amy and Rory, but the first time I was a week late and the second-"

"A month! I went an entire month without hearing anything from him," Rose snapped.

It was still a sore subject. She'd been three months gone at that point and the mere thought of something happening to him had nearly killed her. He was more than the Doctor, more than her husband. He was everything to her. Her world.

"Sore subject then. I'll stay away from that one," Jack said.

She could hear birds singing in the branches nearby. Her eyelids grew heavy. "Blimey, I think I wore myself out."

"Me too," the Doctor said, "My head's a bit. Ooo."

-0-

The Doctor opened his eyes. "What?" Floor. He was on the floor. In the TARDIS. "No, yes," he stood up, "sorry, what?" He glanced at the corridor as Rose and Jack stepped into the room. A very not pregnant Rose, which meant no dull little village, extremely, very dull little village, where he'd been stuck, well, not stuck, but, yes, stuck for an entire year. "Oh, you're okay." Relief flooded through him. "Oh, thank God. I had a terrible nightmare about you two." He walked over to the console, resting his hands on it as he bent over. A nightmare. Just a nightmare. No boring little village, no stuck. He sighed in relief. "That was scary." Rose walked toward him. "Don't ask." He stood up and crossed the room toward her. "You don't want to know." He pulled her into a hug. "You're safe now."

"Um…okay," she said, a bit confused.

He pulled back, catching her eye and giving her a smile. She grinned.

"That's what counts." He turned around. "Blimey. Never dropped off like that before. Well, never, really." He walked over to the console. "I'm getting on a bit, you see. Don't let the cool gear fool you." He noticed the red flashing lights. "Now, what's wrong with the console? Red flashing lights. I bet they mean something."

He crouched down, examining under the console.

"I had a dream too," Jack said.

"Yeah, me too," Rose agreed.

"Not like the Doc's. Not a nightmare, it was…well, you two were married."

He froze. Sorry? Married?

"In a little village, yeah?"

He shot to his feet, looking from Rose to Jack.

"And you were pregnant."

"Yeah, I was huge. Big as a house."

He slowly made his way around the console. The same nightmare. All three of them.

"So, you had the same dream? Exactly the same dream?" Jack asked.

"Are you calling me a house?" she teased.

He glanced at Jack's clothes, fingering his jacket and then glancing inside. There must be something. Something caused it.

"And I was visiting," Jack said.

He fingered Rose's pink jacket, pulling it open a bit, looking. No. Nothing.

"Yeah, you came to our cottage," she agreed.

"How can we have the same dream? It doesn't make any sense."

"And you had a nightmare about us." Rose said, catching the Doctor's gaze. "What happened to us in the nightmare?"

Nightmare? Um…that was…probably not his best choice. Would she think it was a nightmare? He looked into her eyes. He couldn't tell. Well, it wasn't entirely a nightmare. The whole family thing, that hadn't been a nightmare, entirely the opposite, well, except for that whole married bit. Marriage was…complicated, an entirely unnecessary complication. But…um…yes…nightmare.

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

"Which aspects?" Jack asked.

"Well, all of them."

"You had the same dream," Rose said.

"Basically."

"You said it was a nightmare," she pointed out, narrowing her eyes.

That was extremely, really not good.

"Did I say nightmare? No, more of a really good…mare." He crossed the room toward the console to distance himself from the look she was giving him. "Look, it doesn't matter. We all had some kind of psychic episode. We probably jumped a time track or something. Forget it. We're back to reality now."

He flipped a lever as he walked around the console.

"Doctor? If we're back to reality, how come I can still hear birds?" she asked.

Birds? He froze. Yes, he could hear them too and his eyelid felt heavy.

"It sounds like the same ones we heard in the-" Jack began.

-0-

"Dream," Jack finished, making Rose open her eyes and she found herself staring directly into his eyes, their foreheads touching. "Oh! Sorry, Rosie." He sat up. "I must be overdoing it at Torchwood. I was dreaming we were all on the TARDIS." Hang on. What? She eyed him and he seemed to catch the look she was giving him. "You had the same dream, didn't you?"

"Weren't we just saying that?" she asked.

"But we thought this was the dream," Jack said.

"I think so," she said, standing up, and a moment later the Doctor was there, helping her. "Why do dreams have to fade so quickly?"

Once she was on her feet he pulled her into a hug, but it wasn't just a hug. He was holding her as if he thought he was going to lose her. She could feel it. His fear and it unsettled her.

"What's going on, Doc?" Jack asked, as if he too could sense something was wrong with him.

He pulled back and she could see unshed tears in the corners of his eyes. Fear lanced through her heart. He caught her gaze as Jack drew closer.

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

What the hell did he mean by that? He had that whole, something is extremely really not good, look about him.

"What is it? What's wrong?" She had a sudden thought. "Is this because of the baby? Is this some weird Time Lord baby thing that you just forgot to mention?"

"Whatever's going on is far worse than anything like that."

"It doesn't matter now. We're awake," Jack insisted.

"Yeah," he said, glancing at Jack as he took Rose's hand. "And we thought we were awake on the TARDIS, too."

"But we're home," she said.

He caught her gaze.

"Yeah, we're home and I want to believe that." He glanced at her stomach and then back to her. "I want to believe that more than anything, but we're also dreaming. Trouble is, which is which? Are we flashing forwards or backwards?"

-0-

The Doctor opened his eyes and sat up. TARDIS and she was shaking. He jumped to his feet and crossed to the console.

"Oh, this is bad," he said as he tried to flip a lever, but it was stuck. Anger laced with fear burned through him. "I don't like this." He kicked the console, pain seared up his leg. He growled as he grabbed his knee and limped around the room and over to the rail. "Never use force. You just embarrass yourself. Unless you're cross, in which case, always use force."

Rose laughed. He was cross and she was laughing. Not exactly a good combination. He eyed her and then limped down the stairs.

The first time he woke on the TARDIS he'd been so relieved that he hadn't been stuck in that horribly dull village that he let that override another feeling, but now that other feeling was stronger. Loss. Complete and utter loss. That village might've been dull and boring and he might've been stuck there, but he had the one thing he never thought he'd have again. He had a family. Rose and a child. Their child. Even having to live in a cottage in a boring little village was worth that.

Having all that and then having it taken away, finding out it was a dream, or possibly a dream, was more than he could take so he did the only thing he could. He covered the loss, buried it under the anger.

"Do you want me to take a look?" she suggested. "Maybe I can tell what's wrong because of that thing, you know."

Did he want her to…He rolled his eyes. No, he didn't need her to fix the TARDIS. He could do that just fine on his own. Had been doing it on his own since he acquired her.

"No, I don't want you to take a look. Stop talking to me when I'm cross," he snapped.

"Doc, watch it," Jack warned.

Yeah, well, Jack could sod off for all he cared at the moment.

"There's something going on with the TARDIS, I've hurt my leg, and we keep flashing forwards or backwards, and I might lose…" he stopped that thought before it found a voice. Instead he growled in frustration. "I'm sorry if I'm a bit out of sorts," he snapped.

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

"If we were dreaming about the future."

Wouldn't that be nice? If it was their future. He wouldn't have to feel loss if that was true because eventually he'd have everything he ever wanted, but no. He shook his head. It wasn't the future. It was a dream. Or this was a dream. One of them was a dream.

"Of course we were. We had that cottage in that little village," she said.

"Yeah, and we could still be in that little village," he said, climbing up the stairs, "dreaming of this." He eyed her handing over the wrench he brought up. "Don't you get it?"

"No, this is real. I'm definitely awake now," she insisted.

"And you thought you were definitely awake when you were all," he spread his hands out and puffed his cheeks up.

"Sorry?" she asked, brandishing the wrench. He glanced from her to the wrench…Over the line, yes, he might've stepped over the line a bit with that one.

"Oh…um…yes…well…" he stammered.

"Pregnant with your child," she snapped, shaking the wrench at him.

"And you could be giving birth right now. This could be the dream. I told you. Trust nothing we see or hear or feel. Look around you. Examine everything. Look for all the details that don't ring true."

He worked at the console, trying to work through his anger. There was something going on with the TARDIS. Something really not good. Suddenly, the lights went out. All the power drained. What? No, what?

"It's dead. We're in a dead time machine." The sound of birds filled the air. "Remember, this is real. But when we wake up in the other place, remember how real this feels," he said.

"It is real. I know it's real," she insisted.

-0-

The Doctor opened his eyes and looked around. They were sitting on a bench outside the Library. A teacher led a group of school children past as the church clock began to chime. Rose and Jack woke up. He glanced at her, that feeling of loss washing over him again.

What if this was the dream? It didn't feel like a dream, but he knew better than to trust that. His wife. His child. He'd still have Rose, but she wouldn't be his wife and in the TARDIS the idea of them being married scared him, made him want to run, not from her. Never from her, but from going through with it, from ever asking, but here it wasn't bad. Here it felt right.

"Okay, this is the real one," Rose said. "Definitely this one. It's all solid."

"It felt solid in the TARDIS too," he said, standing up and then walking over to help her. She smiled and even with all the fear he felt he couldn't help smiling back. Maybe this was real. Maybe just this once the universe would be kind. "You can't spot a dream while you're having it."

Think, think, think. There was something going on, something wrong. Something extremely, terribly wrong and he had to work out what it was, but he couldn't do that if he lost it, which was exactly what had been threatening to happen ever since he realized he might lose everything. He had to control his emotions. Rein them in. Figure this out.

"So, if this is a dream it has to be someone's dream, yeah?" she asked.

She was right. If it was a dream, whose dream was it? Working that out might help him work out what was going on. Which was the dream and whose dream was it?

"Cottage in a little village, we're married, you're pregnant. If this is the dream then maybe it's your dream," he suggested.

"Why mine?" she asked, eyeing him.

Didn't he just explain all that? Cottage, village, married, pregnant, it was pretty obvious.

"You're…you know," he said, glancing at her.

She pulled him to a stop. He looked at her. She seemed upset. Why was she upset? She was the obvious choice. Family was important to her and she was married, pregnant, they lived in a little cottage.

"What?" he asked.

"Doc," Jack warned.

He glanced at the man. Worried? Yes. Why was he worried? He gazed at Rose, she was still upset.

"Well, isn't that what you want?" he inquired.

"You think I want to get married and pregnant?" she snapped.

Maybe it was the hormones. Yes, must be. She was still human-ish. All sorts of hormones coursed through their bodies when they were pregnant. She was just doing that thing where she went a bit round the bend, like when she wanted him to rearrange the furniture four times in a row because the room didn't look right and she always decided it looked best the way it had been before.

"Yes. It's all domestic," he replied.

She pulled her hand back and slapped him across the face, hard.

"Ow," he yelled. "You slapped me!"

"Maybe this is your dream," she accused.

"Mine? Why would it be…Hang on," he said as he noticed three elderly people watching them from the Residential Care Home. Not just watching them. There was something about them. Something suspicious. "Everyone here lives well into their nineties."

"That's one of the reasons you bought the cottage, remember?"

"Yeah, but there's something here that doesn't make sense." They were old, but not elderly human old. They seemed too old. "Let's go and poke it with a stick."

He took her hand and started running towards the building with Jack following.

"Can we not do the running thing?" she begged.

-0-

He pulled her into the building, down the hall, and through an open doorway that led into the room the elderly people were gathered in. Some read papers while other knitted. Jack entered behind them. A woman Rose recognized as Mrs. Poggit looked up from her knitting.

"Oh, hello, Rose," Mrs. Poggit said. "Coming along, aren't you dear?"

She gave the woman a smile, resting a hand on her stomach.

"A bit, yeah. How's your hip?"

The Doctor caught Rose's gaze and leaned close to her.

"You know her? How do you know her?" he asked.

"From the shop. I met her a few days after we moved in and sometimes I see her in town and we chat. I'm sure I told you about her."

Why did he seem so worried about it? She was just a nice old woman.

"Hip's a bit stiff today," Mrs. Poggit commented.

He turned around and began glancing around the room.

"Oh, easy, D-96 compound, plus," he said and then shook his head. "No, you don't have that yet. Forget that."

Mrs. Poggit glanced from her to the Doctor and then to Jack.

"Is one of them your husband, dear?" the woman asked.

"Yeah," she said, giving the Doctor a smile that he returned.

"The good looking one," the woman asked glancing at Jack and then turned to the Doctor, "or the other one?"

"The other…" he crossed the room, eyeing the old woman. "What do you mean the other one? I am not the other one," he insisted.

"Doc, it's all right, she didn't mean anything," Jack said.

"Really? Because I think she did."

"Doctor," she warned, resting her hand on his arm.

Mrs. Poggit lifted the sweater she was knitting.

"Can I borrow you?" the woman asked, glancing at him. "You're the size of my grandson."

"No," he insisted, folding his arms in that childish manner.

Rose took his arm and caught his gaze.

"Oh, go on," she said.

He sighed and then bent down in front of Mrs. Poggit, then dropped to his knees as she slipped the sweater over his head. "Slightly keen to move on." He sat up sliding his arms through the sleeves. "Freak psychic schism to sort out." He leaned toward her, making her sit back in her chair as he gazed into her eyes as if he was trying to work something out. "You're incredibly old, aren't you?"

The sound of birds filled the air and Rose swayed, her eyelids growing heavy. She sat down, quickly, afraid she'd fall otherwise.

-0-

Rose opened her eyes. Console. She'd been leaned over, lying on the console. She turned around as the Doctor picked something up and carried it up the stairs. This was real. The village was a dream.

"Okay, this is definitely real," she insisted. "It's definitely this one." She glanced at Jack. "I keep saying that, don't I?"

She shivered, wrapping her arms around herself.

"Doc, why's it so cold in here?" Jack asked, gazing up at the Time Lord as he dashed inside the corridor and then back out.

"The heating's off," he said.

"The heating's off?" Jack asked.

Why would the heating be off? It was never off.

"Yeah. Put on a jumper. That's what I always do."

It was bloody cold. She rubbed the sides of her arms and stomped her feet.

"Sorry, about Mrs. Poggit. She's usually so nice," she said.

The Doctor caught her gaze.

"I wouldn't believe her nice old lady act if I were you," he said.

What did he mean by that? In the dream she'd known Mrs. Poggit for almost a year. She was all normal. Just a nice old woman. Talked about knitting and her grandchildren, that sort of thing.

"What do you mean, act?" she asked, stepping forward.

"Everything's off." He said after checking something upstairs. "Sensors, core power. We're drifting." He turned and hurried back downstairs. "The scanner's down so we can't even see out. We could be anywhere." He stopped on the bottom step. Angry. "Someone, something, is overriding my controls."

A man appeared at the top of the stairs. Short, middle-aged, wearing a suit and a bowtie.

"Well," the man said, "that took a while." The Doctor spun around as Jack put his arm around her, protectively. "Honestly, I'd heard such good things." The man started down the stairs. "Last of the Time Lords. The Oncoming Storm. Him in the bowtie."

The man walked past them and she could see that the Doctor was worried. Who was he and where the hell had he come from?

"How did you get into my TARDIS? What are you?" the Doctor asked.

The man stopped near the console and turned around, facing them.

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

Dream Lord? Then he was the cause of all this.

"Nice look."

"This? No, I'm not convinced. Bowties?"

The Doctor pulled a yellow ball, about the size of a tennis ball, from his inside pocket and threw at the Dream Lord. It passed through the man. A hologram? Must be.

"Interesting," he said.

"I'd love to be impressed, but Dream Lord. It's in the name, isn't it? Spooky. Not quite there," the man said and then vanished and reappeared behind them. "And yet, very much here."

Rose spun around as did Jack. The Doctor stepped past them.

"I'll do the talking, thank you," he said.

Rose stepped toward him.

"Dream Lord. Then you create dreams, yeah?" she asked.

The man gazed at her, tilting his head slightly. He was more than spooky, but she held his gaze, unflinching. She wasn't about to let him think that he scared her.

"Dreams, delusions, cheap tricks," the Dream Lord replied.

"So, you put us all into some kind of dream state. Why?"

The man smiled.

"Ooo. I can see why he keeps you around."

"He doesn't keep me around," she snapped.

The man vanished again and reappeared behind them. She spun around.

"Ah, well, there's a delusion I'm not responsible for," the Dream Lord said, giving her a smile.

The Doctor stepped toward him, angrily.

"Where did you pick up this cheap cabaret act?" he asked.

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

"Am I?"

"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?" He vanished and reappeared upstairs. "Ah, yes. So, here's your challenge. Two worlds. Here, in the time machine, and there, in the village that time forgot.

In one, one of you has everything he…or she has ever wanted," She glanced at the Doctor and found him glancing at her, "and in the other, everything remains as it always has been. The safety of familiarity." She turned her gaze back to the Dream Lord. "One is real, and 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." Birds began to sing. Her eyelids grew heavy and she swayed. "Oh. Or are you waking up?"

Standard Disclaimer.

Thank you to all my brilliant readers!

If you have time reviews are always welcome. :)