Belle woke up in bed the next morning. Sun shone through the windows onto her face, and she sat up. She scratched her head as she looked around. The last thing she remembered was she was at the North Pole. But, she concluded that it must have been a dream.

The bedroom door opened, and a man in a bright red nylon, fake fur-trimmed suit and false beard entered. "Ho, ho, ho," he said in an English accent.

"Uh ... Who are you?" Belle asked. The man pulled down his fake beard, revealing it was Will Scarlet. "Will ... What are you doing ?"

"What do you mean, what am I doing here?" Will asked. "I live here. Have done so for the past few months." He approached the bed where Belle was sitting. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine," she said. "Just a dream I had last night. It all felt so real."

Will got up again. "Well, come on. I'll make you forget all about that."

"You will?" Belle asked, tilting her head. "How?"

"It's Christmas. Come on. I have surprises."

"Tickets to see the world," Belle replied as she got out of bed.

"How did you know?"

"Because that is exactly what I want."

They raced out of the master bedroom and into the hall. Will was the first one down the stairs, but Belle stopped when she saw something strange near the corner of the wall. Something that she couldn't remember seeing there before. A blackboard with her name written on it.

She approached it slowly. "Will! Whose blackboard is that?"

"What bloody blackboard is that then?" Will called up the stairs.

"The one in the hall."

"What blackboard in the hall?"

Belle turned away from the blackboard and then looked back at it. Her name wasn't written on it now. Now, 'dreaming' was written on it. She was confused. And she had many questions forming in her head. What was going on? Where did this blackboard come from? And who was writing on it?

"Are you coming or what?" Will called up the stairs.

"I'm coming," Belle called back as she erased the word 'dreaming' from the blackboard. But, now, it was replaced with the word 'dying'. "What?" she whispered.

She took a step back from it and looked around the hallway. Now, instead of one blackboard, the hallway was covered with them. And they all said one word: dying.

She turned back to the blackboard she was at before. And tried to erase the word, but it transformed into another word: You.

Erasing the board again, 'you' transformed to 'are'. Then 'dying'.

"You … are … dying…." Belle muttered as she heard an echo of a voice around her. The Doctor's. She could hear him call out her name.

But there was another voice, too. A different one. It was Mr Gold's voice. But where was the voice coming from? She didn't know. And she didn't want to know. That was her past, and this, with Will, was her present.

Belle closed her eyes. She took a deep breath and then opened her eyes again. The blackboards were now gone from the hallway. She turned around, and Will was standing there.

"Are you alright, love?" he asked.

"Yeah. I'm fine," Belle answered. At least, she thought she was okay. She still didn't know what had happened. "Christmas, right?" she asked.

"Yes. Christmas," Will said. "Come. There are some big presents down there with your name on them." Wrapping an arm around Belle, he walked down the stairs with her. But unknown to both of them, there was another blackboard behind them. It said Belle's name written on it.

"Doctor! What do we do?" Mr Gold asked as everyone gathered around Belle's motionless form in the lab, having found her lying under a table with a Dream Crab latched onto her face. He was holding Belle's hand, the two of them having shouted her name a few times, trying to wake her.

The Doctor tried to warn her she was dreaming and dying, but nothing worked.

The others of the crew had followed them soon after they'd dashed off and were gathered behind them, keeping guard in case any other crabs had managed to sneak in.

"Belle!" he kept trying to get through to her, "You're dreaming. You're dying!"

"We did try to waken the others," Ashley warned them, "No stimulus worked."

Mr Gold got up and looked at the others. "Then we kill it," he said. "We will find a way to kill it, which we will, and we will get it off her. Now, how do we kill it?"

"There's no way to kill it without your friend, too. And as a scientist, may I just say, I don't like the way you're talking."

The Doctor looked up and looked over at Santa. "Santa!" he said. "In the infirmary, you told the sleepers to go to bed, and they obeyed you."

"Sorry, doesn't mean I can get that creature off her," Santa shrugged.

"No, but you can get back in there unharmed, right?"

"What?!" Shona scoffed, "You're asking Santa for help? He doesn't exist!"

"And how would you know that?" the Doctor retorted, "How did you become an expert on what does and doesn't exist?"

"I can commit several million housebreaks in one night," Santa remarked, "Dressed in a red suit with jingle bells, so of course, I can get back into the infirmary."

"Good. Because there's only one way that I can communicate with Belle."

Mr Gold went over to the Doctor. "Doctor. No."

"Rumple…"

"I will not let you have a Dream Crab wrapped around your head," Mr Gold said. "You are needed here. Let me."

"You'll die," the Doctor said.

"I'm the Dark One. I'm practically immortal. I think I can withstand a creature like this. Besides, it's my fault she's like this. So let me make it up to her. To everyone." He turned to Santa. "Go get a Dream Crab. Now." Mr Gold then looked back at Belle's body. "I'll save you. I promise."

It was now night for Belle and Will. Having spent the whole day of Christmas together, they now sat in the living room of their house, watching a movie on the television. Belle turned to look at Will, leaning in to kiss him, when a knock at the door interrupted them.

Will turned to the door. "Who'd be knocking at this time of night?" he asked.

"Well, there is only one way to find out," Belle said and got up from the sofa as they heard another knock again. She turned to the door. "Coming!" she called out as she started heading towards the door. But the door opened before she could get there, and Mr Gold stood in the doorway. "What are you doing here?"

"Saving you," Mr Gold said.

"I don't need saving," Belle said. "And certainly not from you."

"Who's at the door?" Will asked as he walked over to him.

Mr Gold looked up and saw the newcomer. "You're dreaming of him?" he asked, then shook his head. Not the time to talk about her fantasies. "Look, it doesn't matter. This is a dream. A very real dream, by the looks of it. But, still a dream."

Belle placed her hands on her waist. "What are you talking about?" she asked. "It's not a dream."

"Of course it's a dream," Mr Gold scoffed. "You know it's a dream, and it is killing you. There is an alien wrapped around your head, creating all of this while it eats you from the inside."

Belle frowned. Something of what he had just said sounded familiar. Like she had heard it all before. "Then how can you be here? How are we both having the same dream?"

"Because there was only one way for me to reach you," Mr Gold said with a shrug. "I'm dying, too."

Back in the North Pole base laboratory, the Doctor leaned over both Belle and Mr Gold, who both had Dream Crabs over their faces. The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver and gave it a whir over their still bodies.

"Have we just killed him?" Ashley asked, looking over at what the Time Lord was doing. "Have we made things worse?"

The Doctor took a look at his screwdriver, and he shook his head. "No. No. Their readings are both stable," he said, then looked over at Ashley. "He thinks he can join her in her dream world and pull her out."

"Have a little faith, Ashley," Santa said with a nod.

Belle looked over at Mr Gold and shook her head. "Then you wake up. Leave me here with Will."

"I will do no such thing," Mr Gold retorted back. "This is no life for you."

"Well, it's better than the alternative," Belle snapped. "Where I think about all the hurt that you have caused. At least in here, people can choose me. You have never chosen me. You've only chosen your power."

"Because that gauntlet led you to my dagger?" Mr Gold asked. "That gauntlet leads to another's weakness. And my weakness isn't like anyone else's. That dagger can enslave me. It can kill me." He sighed and placed his hand over his right temple, feeling a sharp pain in his head.

Belle was silent for a moment before noticing Mr Gold. "You feel that too?" she asked, placing her hand over her right temple. "What is that?"

"That's the Dream Crab," Mr Gold answered, thinking back to what he had heard the Doctor explain moments before he entered Belle's dream world. "It's pushed open the skull. Just enough so it can start to drain your brain."

"So, why haven't I felt it before?"

"Because of him." Mr Gold pointed to Will. "All this has been created, so you don't feel a thing. What, do you think that Will Scarlet will come running to you just because you asked? The guy's nothing more but a common thief."

Belle stared at the Dark One. "Because it's true. Deep down, you know I am telling the truth."

Will stepped over to Mr Gold. "If this is a dream, how does she wake up?"

"I don't know. How does anyone wake up from a dream?"

"Then accept that this dream isn't real," Will said, looking over at Belle. "I'm not real. I am still in the same place I wish I wasn't. I am still in Storybrooke." He took her hand. "Belle, listen to me. Now is the time for you to wake up."