A/N: I am SO sorry for not updating. But on the plus side - my life finally sorted itself out. I got into the University that I wanted to go to and I got a car. YAY! :D

And after being snowed in for five days, I managed to finish this chapter. It was hard to write...you'll see why when you read it...

OH. You may want to read over the last chapter to see what happened, in case you forgot. I did, and I'm the author :S

Amy stared down at the grey ashes in her hands, still shaking her head. She refused to believe that the Doctor was dead.

He was wonderful, invincible. Alien spray could never kill him.

"Doctor?" Amy whispered, her voice hoarse from her tears. She raised her hands to her face, and watched as her tears fell into the ash.

"This is the time when you magic yourself back to life." She sobbed to the ashes. "Any minute now…you'll come back…"

But the ash remained lifeless in her hands.

Crying with grief, she flung the ash against the wall, sending up a small cloud of grey smoke.

"How could you leave us?" She screamed at the cloud, clutching her stomach. "We needed you, and you left—"

But she stopped when she realised that she was supposed to be in labour.

"No!" She cried, tears streaming relentlessly down her cheeks. "I've already lost the Doctor, I can't lose our baby too!"

She turned her head to the Doctor's ashes, which had scattered all over the floor. "I need to bring you back!" She howled, gathering them into a pile. "You need to fix this!"

She reached out and grabbed a small tin box, full of nappies. She quickly tossed them out and dropped the ashes into the tin.

"Come back!" She commanded hysterically, giving the tin a shake. "I need you!"

Nothing happened.

Amy knew that it was over. The Doctor was dead. Her baby was dying.

And she was alone.

~I~

The Doctor could just about make out the sight of Amy's tearstained face as he collapsed in her arms, before he was plunged into darkness.

He felt himself falling into the abyss of death, but suddenly, something pulled him up, bathing him in white light.

With a start, the Doctor jolted upright, and he was relieved to see that he was inside his TARDIS.

But it had changed. Every surface was covered in snow and ice, and the Doctor himself was covered in ice shards.

"Amy…" He whispered, the freezing temperature his second priority compared to her. "Amy?"

He managed to crawl over to her sleeping body, and he brushed some of the icicles away from her face. "Oh Amy…"

The Doctor felt himself tearing up, but his tears froze the moment they fell from his eyes. He took her hand, and raised it to his lips.

"Amy, come back to me." He begged softly, closing his anguished eyes.

"As if it's that simple." The Dream Lord snorted, appearing beside him. "She has to kill herself and her baby before that happens."

The Doctor knew that he was right, so he didn't reply. Instead, he pressed his icy lips to the back of her hand. "I love you." He whispered to her. "I know that you're strong enough to return to me. So please…please…"

"She can't hear you." The Dream Lord chuckled maliciously.

The Doctor gritted his teeth, and turned his head to glare at him.

The Dream Lord was unfazed by his anger. "You just keep letting her down, don't you? First you leave her for twelve years, and then you reappear, and then you take off for another two years. No wonder she needed all of those psychiatrists! You really did ruin her life, didn't you?"

The Doctor couldn't even argue with him. He knew that he was right.

"But she's forgiven you for every mistake that you've ever made." The Dream Lord continued. "A bit gullible, our dear Amy Pond. She has no idea what you're going to do to her."

"How do you know what I'm going to do?" The Doctor hissed, hatred gleaming in his eyes.

The Dream Lord smiled softly. "Oh Doctor. You're going to ruin her again."

And then the Doctor understood, and he chuckled darkly. "Now I know who you are. You're me."

"I'm her as well." The Dream Lord told him. "And that's why I know you'll destroy her if you leave her. Amy may put on a stubborn, brave façade, but underneath, she's a frail girl, still broken from when you deserted her all of those years ago."

"I won't destroy her!" The Doctor muttered, stroking Amy's hair. "She has Rory back in Leadworth."

"She chose you over that idiotic nurse, remember?" The Dream Lord reminded him harshly. "He would give her the World if he had it. But you can give her the entire Universe…oh wait, you can't. Because you're going to leave her."

"I'm leaving her to save her!" The Doctor replied desperately. "She's not safe with me! And I can't give her what she wants."

"She wants a family with you, not with Rory. You're going to kill her when you tell her to leave. She's already tried killing herself once."

The Doctor was stunned by his revelation. "What? My Amy did that?" He whispered brokenly.

"You're lucky that Rory was there to stop her in time. You don't understand how much you made her life hell. Everyone thought she was mental. She had no friends, and no one could bear to go near her. All she had was Rory."

"And she still has Rory." The Doctor determined, rising to his feet. "He can look after her, better than I can. She deserves to be with him."

"You're so stupid. Do you really think that she'll be happy without you?" The Dream Lord asked him harshly. "She can't live without you, and you can't live without her."

"I've sacrificed my happiness before, and I'll sacrifice it again." The Doctor said firmly, though his hearts were both splitting in two.

"Well, don't come running to me when the next time you see her is when you're standing by her grave!" The Dream Lord snapped, before disappearing from the TARDIS.

The Doctor curled up on the floor next to Amy and drew her body against his chest, no longer caring that he was minutes away from freezing to death.

He was already dead inside, knowing that he had to make the hardest decision of his lifetime.

~I~

Amy cried so much for her loss that eventually she ran out of tears to shed.

Exhausted, she crawled over to the wall and sat against it, clutching the box full of the Doctor's ashes to her chest. She stared at the door, waiting for an alien to burst in and kill her too.

She had nothing left to live for. She just couldn't live in a World where the Doctor didn't exist.

But there was no movement from outside of the bedroom, which angered Amy.

"What's the matter?" She sneered at the door, staggering to her feet. "You don't kill pregnant women, is that it?"

Once she'd reached the door, she used the hole that the alien had made to peer out into the corridor.

All of the aliens were lying on the floor, dead. They couldn't kill her, so she had to choose another way to die.

Amy used the last of her strength to walk over to the bedroom window and smash it open, allowing her to climb onto the window sill.

She peered over the edge, and swallowed nervously at the sight of the drop below.

There was no going back. She couldn't live in this World, not without the Doctor.

This had to be the dream.

Stretching her arms out, she took a deep breath and whispered, "I'm coming Doctor."

And then she fell.

~I~

Death was easier than Amy had thought it would be. She plummeted through darkness, before a white light surrounded her.

Her eyes snapped open, and she nearly drowned in relief when she saw the Doctor's ice-covered face.

"Am I back in reality?" She whispered, touching the Doctor's face lightly. "Or am I in Heaven?"

The Doctor laughed weakly with relief, and he clasped her frozen body to his. "Oh Amy. Magnificent Amy Pond. You're alive."

Amy returned his hug just as tightly, and began to cry with joy. "Thank God that's over." She sobbed, leaning back to press her forehead to his. "I can't even begin to tell you how I felt when you died in the dream. I never want to be without you again."

The Doctor couldn't reply to that, knowing that he was going to leave her again, only this time, it wouldn't be accidental. He simply embraced her again, to hide his agonized face from her.

"Congratulations!" The Dream Lord announced, materializing next to them. "You figured out which World was the Dream. So I'm off now. Remember, watch out for the star!"

With a clap of his hands, he vanished, and Amy sighed in relief when the TARDIS came back to life.

But the Doctor didn't share her relief. "We're still dreaming." He realised, leaping to his feet. "This is a dream too!"

"No way!" Amy argued, pulling herself to her feet. "Doctor, the TARDIS is alive again! And the Dream Lord said—"

The Doctor waved her protests away impatiently. "Amy! We're drifting towards a Cold Star! Cold Stars don't even exist!" He grabbed hold of one of the TARDIS levers and yanked it down; sending sparks ricocheting off of the walls.

Amy shrieked and grabbed his arm. "Doctor! You're mad! This is reality!"

The Doctor shook his head, and laughed. "No Amy, this is another dream! And I can prove it!" He slammed his hand down on a red button, and the TARDIS began to jolt from side to side.

"What are you doing?" Amy yelled, struggling to stay upright.

"I'm exploding the TARDIS!" He yelled back, pressing more buttons on the console.

"You can't do this!" Amy cried, trying to push him away from the console.

"I can!" The Doctor shouted, grabbing her wrists and looking into her eyes. "Amy, I'm sorry."

And then he kissed her in desperation, knowing that it would be the last time they'd ever kiss.

Without breaking the kiss, the Doctor reached out with one hand and pressed the 'Self-Destruct' button on the TARDIS console.

~I~

Amy woke up in the TARDIS again, but instead of seeing icicles hanging above her, she was staring at the console room ceiling.

The Doctor had been right. Now they were in reality.

Amy smiled and shook her head at her own stupidity as she rose to her feet. "Well thank God that's over!" She remarked cheerfully. "We were cutting it a bit close there, wouldn't you say?"

When the Doctor didn't reply, she turned around to see where he was.

The Doctor was standing with his back to her, leaning on the TARDIS console. His stiff posture unnerved Amy, and she took a hesitant step towards him. "Doctor?"

"Amy. You need to go home."

Amy's smile faded. "What?" She whispered.

The Doctor turned around slowly to face her. "I'm taking you home." He told her coldly.

Amy froze at his harsh words, too stunned to say anything.

They stared at each other for a few moments, Amy helplessly, the Doctor heartlessly.

"You don't mean that." Amy breathed, and she reached out for him with trembling hands. "You can't mean that!"

The Doctor dropped his gaze to her outstretched hands, and he stared at them blankly before returning his eyes to hers. "I do mean it. You don't belong here Amy." He said, his eyes hardening with malice.

Amy's hands flew to her head. "I'm dreaming." She muttered to herself, closing her eyes. "This is the dream. I need to wake up again."

"You're not dreaming Amelia."

"I must be!" She cried, opening her eyes to glare wildly at him. "You would never take me home!"

At the Doctor's silence, her hands fell to her sides. "Would you?" She whispered vulnerably, and the Doctor nodded.

"Why…why are you doing this to me?" She stammered, tears blurring her vision. "I waited my whole life for you. Don't take this away from me now, when I've just gotten you back. Please!"

The Doctor shook his head. "You don't need me. You have Rory in Leadworth, and he can give you everything. I can't give you what you want. I can't marry you, and I can't give you children."

Amy grabbed the lapels of his tweed jacket. "I'm not asking for you to give me those things! I just want you Doctor!" She declared, staring him straight in the eye.

The Doctor sighed and grabbed her wrists to prise her hands away from his jacket. "No, you don't."

"How do you know what I want?" She spat, trying to wrench her hands out of his grip.

But the Doctor acted like he hadn't heard her. "I've been in love before Amelia, and I've had children. And now they're all dead. Do you really think that I'm going to put myself through that again?"

For a brief moment, Amy saw a glint of pain in his eyes. But it was gone as soon as she noticed it.

"So go home to Rory." The Doctor commanded, his voice firm. "Marry him, and have his children. I'm not good for you."

"You are! You're my raggedy Doctor, and I'm mad, impossible Amy Pond. We're perfect together!" She told him desperately, tears beginning to slide down her cheeks.

No, we're not." The Doctor said determinedly. "You can spend the rest of your life with me, but I can't spend the rest of mine with you. I live forever. But you're human. You die, and rot away."

"Don't do what you did to Rose to me!" Amy pleaded hysterically, no longer able to see his face through the film of tears covering her eyes. "I don't have another Doctor. I only love you. Don't make me leave!"

The Doctor was silent for a moment, and Amy held her breath, waiting for him to change his mind.

But he sighed and released her, turning to the TARDIS console. "Amy, I've made my decision. You're going home. Now." He finished his speech by pulling down the lever that would take her home to Leadworth.

Amy rubbed her eyes and stared blankly at the destination code for Leadworth. "But…you can't just…"

"I can. I don't love you Amy. I never have, and I never will. I made myself think that I had fallen in love with you, but you're still a little girl." The Doctor told her cruelly.

Something inside Amy snapped, and she threw herself at him, punching his chest with her fists. "Don't do this to me!" She cried frantically. "I can't…I can't just…"

The Doctor broke too, and against his better judgement, he wrapped his arms around her and drew her against her chest. "Calm down Amy. You're going to be fine. You're Amy Pond after all, a real fighter." He whispered, trying his hardest to keep his voice detached.

Amy stopped her attack on him, and latched onto him. "So, you're really making me leave then?" She sobbed.

The Doctor didn't reply, only tightened his arms around her. He had to savour their last few moments together.

Amy slid her hands into the Doctor's pockets, but he was too busy memorising how right she felt in his arms to notice what she was doing.

"Fine. I'll leave." She muttered tearfully, withdrawing from his embrace to walk down the console stairs.

The Doctor watched her go, and now he could no longer keep his grief concealed from her.

Amy paused in the TARDIS doorway. "Goodbye." She whispered brokenly.

Without turning to face him, she stepped out and slammed the door shut behind her.

If she had just turned around, and begged him to stay once more, the Doctor knew that he would have relented, and taken back everything that he'd said to her.

But she hadn't, and he was alone once more.

~I~

Amy stared at the TARDIS doors, wondering why he hadn't left yet. She quickly brushed away the possibility of him changing his mind and running out to get her, and she rested her hand lightly on the blue wood.

"Send him back to me." She murmured to the TARDIS.

Then she heard the familiar sounds of the TARDIS engines, and she took a step back, tears falling down her cheeks as she watched the man she loved disappear from her life once more.

But she took some comfort in the thought that he had to return to her.

Allowing herself a small smile, she reached into her skirt pocket and withdrew the Doctor's sonic screwdriver.

The Doctor wouldn't last without it, leaving him no choice but to return to her.

DUH DUH DUHHHHHHHH.

:|

Angst-ridden chapters to come. Teehee.