Dream a Little Dream of Me
Sweet dreams til sun beams find you…
"Doctor!"
"Doctor…"
He wondered how Amy and Rory's voices could sound so near and so far away at the same time.
"Doctor." Just Rory this time and he sounded concerned.
He turned his head. Then it occurred to him that opening his eyes would help.
He did and was confronted with Rory's rather worried face.
'Good old Rory,' he thought and smiled.
Rory's face went from worried to relieved. At least the Doctor thought that was what human relieved looked like.
"Good. You're awake," Rory said, suddenly wiggling a tiny pen light in front of the Doctor's face.
Finding it rather distracting, he pushed Rory's hand away, sat up and immediately checked for his legs.
'Still there,' he thought, then wondered briefly what his preoccupation with legs was.
He noticed Amy standing behind Rory, having an almost identical relieved expression as her husband. Then he noticed that she was standing above Rory, which made him notice that Rory was in fact crouched down, which made him notice that he was sitting on a rather comfortable couch like thing. A very soft furry couch like thing.
It took him a couple of seconds to get his bearings but he still thought it'd be better to ask.
"What happened?"
He noticed the Ponds exchanging quick worried glances, then Rory answered, "You slipped and banged your head."
The Doctor felt the back of his head, where he could definitely feel a sore spot, "I assumed so."
"Is he alright?" Amy asked Rory.
He shrugged his shoulders, "His pupils reacted normally, but I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing considering his alien anatomy."
"That's definitely a good thing," the Doctor replied, looking around.
"I don't think he's alright," Amy said.
The Doctor focused back on her, smiled proudly, "Nah, just a little bump on the head, nothing regeneration worthy…"
"What?" Rory asked, confused.
The Doctor looked at him, "Oh that, well…long story…many details…boring details…where's Sophia?"
"What?" Rory asked.
"Who?" Amy asked.
"Sophia. "
"Who's Sophia?" the Ponds asked in unison.
"My wife…" the Doctor answered, sounding a little unsure.
"Your what?" Amy exclaimed.
Rory got out his pen light again and waved it in front of the Doctor's face.
"He must have banged his head harder than we thought," he mumbled.
Again, the Doctor pushed Rory's hand away. It took him another couple of seconds to sort things out.
"How long was I out?" he asked.
Amy shrugged her shoulder, "Five, ten minutes, I don't know."
The Doctor looked like he was considering this.
"Right. And you two know nothing about Sophia?" he asked, just to make sure.
"Your wife?" Amy asked, rather skeptically.
"Hey! You don't have to sound so skeptical! She's real, you know," he replied, clearly affronted.
Amy looked taken aback a bit.
"At least she was…once," the Doctor added softly.
If he hadn't figured it by now, which by the way he already had, the look on the Ponds' faces would've told him that his suspicions were true.
"Tell me, how did I bang my head?"
"You slipped and fell," Rory supplied.
"Why did I slip?"
A quick look at Amy and Rory replied, "Because you were rushing over to the buffet…"
"I what?" the Doctor exclaimed. He thought that was a rather undignified act, even for him.
"You said something about gelatinous somethings, rushed off, bumped into a waiter, slipped and fell," Amy said.
"Made quite a spectacle of yourself," Rory added.
"I was rushing towards the buffet? …Oh wait, I remember, gelatinous lorm beans were involved, that's alright then." The Doctor cheered up at the thought of the treat.
"Right," they said, in that tone and with that look that the Doctor was soon going to call the Ponds' 'The Doctor is a bit odd' look. He wondered what other particular looks he could name.
"So, who's Sophia?" Amy interrupted his thoughts.
"What? Oh that. Nothing. Just a dream. Just a blip in the old noggin. Gelatinous lorm beans. It's been a while," the Doctor said, still a bit distracted by the mental look labeling exercise.
Then he remembered the treat, "Did you bring me any?"
"What?" Rory asked. The Doctor was sure that was Rory's beleaguered 'there's too much strange stuff going on at once and I just want a nice pint' look.
"Beans…" the Doctor said.
Rory scowled, shaking his head, "No! After you made a spectacle of yourself, you were carried off to the clinic."
The Doctor looked around the room.
He thought that it had a rather sterile ambience, "This is the clinic, then. Nice."
"I think he's still a little confused from the accident," Amy said
"I think he's always a little confused…or confusing," Rory mumbled.
"Hey! That's no way to talk about a man who had nasty fall," the Doctor complained, not really minding. It was nice having people around who were concerned for him.
"Sorry," Rory muttered, while Amy just rolled her eyes.
The Doctor beamed at them, "That's alright. Let's get some lorm beans!"
After a bit of arguing and shuffling, the Doctor convinced them that he was indeed quite alright, the Ponds let him up and they made their way back to the buffet.
The hall was now empty, save for a few leisurely diners.
The Doctor worried that there wouldn't be any beans left, knowing how delicious they were. Luckily, there was just enough to fill two dessert cups and a rather large plate.
Leading the Ponds to a table near the window, the magical Leron sky just about getting darker, he commented, "We have to go see the aurora show later."
He sat down, placed his full plate of gelatinous lorm beans carefully on the table and sat back, caressing the treat with his eyes.
"You brilliant, beautiful, sexy things you! You are so worth saving the universe for," he said.
Then he stuffed his face with it. The explosion of taste rendered him completely unaware of his surroundings for a good minute or so.
"So, you were married once?" he heard someone say. He slowly came out of the lorm bean fog, ordering himself to focus on whoever was talking.
"Huh?" he managed to get out. He recognized Amy speaking.
"Were we in the dream?"
Tiny explosions were still going off in his mouth so he couldn't really concentrate on the conversation, "What?"
"The one with your wife."
"What?" he said again and then suddenly the lorm bean effect was gone and reality snapped back into place.
"Since you asked us if we saw…Sophia? Sophia. That must mean that we were in the dream too," Amy went on.
Brain processes still being occupied with storing away the memory of lorm beans, he could not come up with anything to distract her and therefore said, "Not necessarily. But yes you were."
It was obvious by Amy's face that she wasn't going to let this go easily, "Was it a good dream?"
"I don't know," he replied, not liking how truthful that sounded.
"Okay," Amy said, making a hand gesture that looked like she wanted him to continue. Her face certainly said so.
The Doctor frowned, tried to concentrate, remembered the dream fully, "It was strange. Not just because of her. I was you," he pointed at Amy and then at Rory, "and you in my dream…"
Rory looked a bit freaked out by that, "What?"
The Doctor was remembering now, "I was in your heads, seeing my dream from your perspectives."
He gave Rory an insulted look, "And by the way, I do know what the controls do…"
Rory, still clueless, "The what?"
The Doctor scoffed, "Manuals are boring, anyway."
He couldn't remember any time before now, when Rory looked more confused or lost.
"And you clearly have no idea what I'm talking about," he said.
Rory shook his head, "Nope."
The Doctor nodded, "Good."
"So you had a wife?" The Doctor looked at Amy. Amy, the girl who would not let go of a subject.
He looked at the married couple. It was still a bit mind boggling to him that they were married to each other. But the two of them together made sense. He couldn't say how or why, but the two of them together made sense. They belonged.
He remembered a time when he felt like he belonged.
"Once upon a time," he softly said.
Before Amy could say anything further, he quickly changed the subject. Amy seemed hesitant to let it go, but a look from Rory and she let it be.
'Good old Rory,' the Doctor thought.
There was still a faint trace of the aurora in the sky, as the three of them made their way back to the TARDIS.
"And how did you like Leron?" the Doctor asked, pretty sure of their answer.
"It's beautiful," Amy said.
"The aurora was magical," Rory said.
Amy giggled teasingly, mocking his tone, "Magical?"
"They were," Rory said, defensively.
'Ah, the Ponds,' the Doctor thought fondly, watching the two of them.
"It's rather a little gem of a planet, isn't it?" he said, feeling rather proud of the place.
"I'd like to come back some day," Amy said.
The Doctor nodded benevolently, "That can be arranged."
"Promise?" Amy asked, just a hint of doubt in her voice.
He looked at her and nodded sincerely.
"Doctor, why is the sky so blue?" Rory suddenly asked.
The Doctor looked at the man surprised, "I already told you about that."
He shook his head, "Erm, no."
The Doctor frowned, remembering, "Yes, yes, just before Amy hit me with a snowball!"
He pointed at her accusingly "Sneaky girl!"
And then at Rory "And sneaky Rory!"
"I what?" asked Amy, incredulous.
The Doctor thought about it for a second, "Oh, that was my dream. "
He pointed a stern finger at Amy, "And don't get any ideas."
"What, me?" she said innocently, but the Doctor did not buy that for a nanosecond.
However, she was faster.
She quickly scooped up a handful of snow and threw it in the Doctor's face.
She giggled.
"This means war, Pond," he said gravely and scooped up a handful himself.
Shrieking, Amy ran to hide behind Rory, who got the most of the Doctor's attack.
They snowball fought all the way back to the TARDIS, laughing themselves silly.
"Shake off the snow, Ponds and let's have cocoa and biscuits in the library," the Doctor said, unlocking the door of the TARDIS.
Amy rolled her eyes, "You're such a grandpa sometimes."
The moment he stepped into the TARDIS, he knew something was wrong.
Then he saw her.
"This is impossible," he said.
"Improbable, but not impossible," she answered.
"Doctor?" Amy asked.
"Definitely the spores," the Doctor mumbled.