A/N I don't own Doctor Who or the BBC.

Chapter 35: Amy's Choice

Rose hopped out of the TARDIS, a little skip in her step. Donna was right on her heels, both women excited to see their friends again. And, if the hints proved accurate, a new unborn addition to the Pond – err, Williams – family. The Doctor, oblivious as ever, had yet to pick up on the numerous hints Amy had given over the phone, and Rose couldn't help but laugh when he tripped over the stones in the garden, nearly falling flat onto his face. Donna snorted, reaching out a hand to steady him.

"Careful! Don't think Amy and Rory would be too happy to have you show up on their doorstep covered in dirt and blood," she told him, rolling her eyes. "Oh, and you've gone and crushed the flowers too. Lovely." Her words, though somewhat rude, were spoken with a lighter tone. She was grinning as she took his elbow. "Come on."

He took a giant step out of the flowerbed, his arm still linked with Donna's, and opened his mouth to say something, probably about how Time Lords had impeccable balance or something, but he stopped short and raised his free hand in a salute that eventually turned into a friendly wave. "Rory!" he called to the man walking down the path, "Fancy seeing you here!"

Rory rolled his eyes. "Well, it is my house, Doctor. Hello Donna, Rose," he added, smiling at them both.

Rose squealed. "Oh! Rory! You look great, absolutely great! Where's Amy?"

He looked back over his shoulder. "Ahhh….she'll get here. Give it a while."

Donna smiled widely. "So she is –"

Rory nodded, his hair – which was most definitely longer than usual – bobbing around madly. His face looked as though it would break if it were to stretch any wider. "Yes, yes, she is!" he declared proudly.

"Are you talking about me again, Rory?" a familiar voice asked, drifting over the bushes. Its owner followed soon after, bearing an impressively sized midriff and rather bright red hair.

The Doctor looked up in excitement. "Amy! Hello-ooooh," he exclaimed, his eyes drifting to her midsection. "You look like you've swallowed a planet!"

Amy grinned. "I'm pregnant."

"You're huge!" he corrected, eyes wide.

"I'm pregnant."

He went on, ignoring her. "Look at you! When worlds collide…"

"Doctor, I'm pregnant!" she protested.

He ignored her. "Oh, you two. Just the same except for age and…size. Ouch!" he exclaimed, grabbing at his side with a reproachful look at Donna.

She rolled her eyes. "Doctor, she's pregnant!"

His eyes widened and he turned back to Amy. "Are you really?"

Rose laughed at him and ran to Amy, pulling her into a loose hug. "Congratulations!"

"Thanks," Amy said, "It's really great, y'know? My back aches, my feet ache, I'm in constant want of celery and ice cream and I keep thinking I'm going into labor!" she listed with an agitated little laugh, "but yeah, it's great." Cue the glare at Rory. Long-haired Rory.

The Doctor looked between them. "Eeuh. I take it this was your fault?"

Rory blanched. "My fault? It takes two to –"

"Alright!" Donna screeched. "Think that's enough of that, thanks. Go on, show us around. We did come all the way to Leadworth just because you called, you ought to give us the grand tour."

Amy raised an eyebrow. "I called six months ago."

The Doctor made a little noise. "Did you? The time must've gotten away from me. But aren't you so glad I'm here now? I know that I am! I mean look at this, this….bench! This is a marvelous bench," he declared, plopping himself down on it. "Just genius, really. What will they think of next?" he finished with an awkward little hum, not looking at them.

Rose put her hands on her hips. "Doctor, I thought you'd been working on your landings," she chastened mockingly.

He didn't meet her eyes. "Oh, is that what I said? Funny, I don't recall."

Rory coughed loudly before Rose could have a chance to reply. "I'd rather not deal with your flirting right now, thanks. You said something about a tour?"

Donna perked up instantly. "Lead the way. Don't think I've ever been around Leadworth."

He stood up a bit straighter. "Upper Leadworth, actually. We've gone slightly upmarket."

"Where is everyone?" The Doctor asked, getting up from his position on the bench and stepping into the little group, not-so-subtly lacing his fingers with Rose's as he brushed by her. She smiled at him, brushing her thumb along the back of his hand. He grinned and pulled her closer to him, releasing her hand to throw his arm over her shoulders.

Amy cooed at them, but Rory just rolled his eyes. Donna, completely desensitized to it after living with them, ignored it. "Yeah, where're all the people?" she asked, looking around.

Amy smirked, but it looked more like a grimace. "This is…busy." They looked at her disbelievingly and she backtracked. "Alright, so it's quiet. Really restful and healthy. Lots of people here live well into their nineties."

"Don't let that discourage you," the Doctor muttered, causing a few raised eyebrows and a chord of bitten-back laughter.

Amy snorted. "I'm not. Why would I?"

He wisely chose not to answer that, but only after Rose had pinched his arm rather hard. Instead, he looked around at the surrounding buildings. Or lack thereof, rather. "So what do you do here?" he asked them, "To stave off the…."

"Boredom?" Amy finished at the same time he said "self-harm".

He blinked at her. "Yeah. Boredom. That."

Rory sat down on another of the "genius benches" and looked up at the trees, a peaceful look on his face. "We relax."

"Relax," Donna stated. "You two?"

Amy nodded, sitting down beside her husband. "Yeah. You know, we umm….we relax."

"We live," Rory added, "We listen to the birds."

Amy nodded again. "Yeah, lovely, the birds. Come and listen."

Donna sat down beside her, taking the last available spot on the bench. They all appeared very content, listening to the birds. It was very strange. The Doctor exchanged a glance with Rose, who shrugged and leaned into his side. Now that he thought about it, though, the birds were nice…

DOCTOR WHO

"Ahh!" he yelled, jerking awake. He shook his head to clear it of the awful dream, flapping his tongue about for good measure. He jumped to his feet and flew down the short flight of stairs, still trying to shake off the last remnants of the dream, and smacked his hands down on the edge of the console. "Oh, this isn't right," he mumbled, looking down at all of the things blinking and flashing that weren't supposed to be blinking and flashing. Footsteps alerted him to Amy's presence and he looked up, relieved to see her looking as though she had never swallowed a planet and never would. "You're okay! Oh, thank God! I had a nightmare about you. You too, Rory!" he added, seeing the man following just behind. "Awful. Don't even ask."

Amy frowned, her hand briefly going to her stomach. She looked back at Rory, leaning around slightly just to be sure….nope. Short hair. "Yeah," she muttered. "not going to ask."

The Doctor shook his head again, his hair flopping around. "Blimey, never dropped off like that before! Going senile in my old age. I am getting on a bit, you know, don't let the cool gear fool you. I'm almost ten hundred! That's one hell of an age gap," he added, laughing. "And Jackie thought it was bad before; oh, if only she knew!"

Rory cleared his throat, interrupting him. "Umm, Doctor? What are you talking about?"

He spun to them again. "That's right! I'd forgotten you never got to meet her. Jackie Tyler, lovely woman. Sort of. She slapped me. Although, Rose says I deserved it, but I –"

"Rose?" Amy asked, raising an eyebrow.

The Doctor frowned. "You're right. Where is she? Has she fallen asleep as well? And Donna?"

Amy and Rory shared a look. "Doctor….what are you talking about?"

"Rose and Donna, of course. What are you talking about?"

Amy snorted. "You really are going senile. Doctor, unless you've been hiding people on this ship of yours, there is no Rose and there is no Donna. Now shut your gob and fix the console!" she added with a laugh and a gesture towards the blinking lights, not noticing the look on his face.

Rory nudged her with his elbow. "Amy."

"What?"

He nodded toward the Doctor, who looked bewildered and more than a little panicked. "How long was I asleep?" he asked quietly.

Amy shrugged, looking concerned. "Dunno. Same amount of time we were, I suppose. Couple of hours maybe?"

He sighed, looking relieved. "Brilliant. That's not nearly long enough to – " he paused. "Do you hear that?"

Sure enough, a distinct chirping could be heard echoing through the TARDIS. Rory frowned. "Hold on, I heard that in my dream," he said, "Right before I woke up."

Amy looked at him in disbelief. "Yeah, so did I." They both turned to him. "Doctor?"

He looked at them. "What were your dreams about?"

Rory frowned. "Well, it wasn't a nightmare. Just, err, we were married."

"Yeah," Amy agreed, "in this sweet little village."

"You were pregnant," the Doctor finished. "We've all had the same dream. I wonder if Rose and Donn –"

"You said it was a nightmare!" Rory protested, catching him off guard.

"Did I? No, I'm sure you misunderstood. I must've meant a….good-mare. Look, it doesn't matter. We all had some kind of psychic episode. We probably jumped a time track or something. It messed with your simple little human heads and made you forget Donna and Rose. We're back to reality now; I'll just sort it all out and find – "

"Doctor, the ship is chirping again."

He looked up. "It is. I bet it has something to do with –

DOCTOR WHO

The first thing she registered was that her head hurt. The second was that she was laying on the Doctor. The third was that they were in the middle of the street. "Ahh!" she cried out, frantically scrambling out of the way of the nonexistent cars coming their way. The Doctor hopped straight up to his feet and looked around, eyes wide.

"Blimey! I must be overdoing it," Rory groaned. "I just dreamed we were back on the TARDIS." There was a pause and he looked at Amy, sitting beside him on the bench. "You just had the same dream, didn't you?"

She furrowed her brow. "Weren't we just saying the same thing?"

Rose stood up finally and walked over to the Doctor. "What's going on?"

He spun to her immediately, wrapping her up in a vicelike grip that probably was meant as a hug. "What's the last thing you remember?" he asked, not releasing her.

She thought for a moment. "Uhh, we were standing there, talking about the birds. Listening to the birds, that's it. I must've fallen asleep or –"

Donna looked at them all as if they were crazy. "What is going on with all of you? We just fell asleep for a bit, that's all. The town's quite boring, it makes sense! No offense," she added, looking at Rory and Amy beside her.

Rory looked mildly offended, but Amy was already ten steps ahead. "Is this because of you three? Some big time-traveller thing you've brought with you?"

The Doctor ignored her question. "Listen to me, all of you. Trust nothing. From now on, trust nothing you see, hear or feel. Rose, Donna, when we go out again, try as hard as you can to remember what happens to you."

"When we go out again?" Donna asked, bewildered. Rose just looked at her helplessly, still wrapped up in the Doctor's arms. She was just as clueless.

Rory cocked his head to one side. "Trust nothing? But we're awake now. This is real."

"Yeah, you thought that on the TARDIS, too," he snapped, threading his fingers through Rose's hair.

"Doctor, why are you so –"

DOCTOR WHO

He woke up falling forwards. If his superior reflexes hadn't kicked in at the last moment, he would've been flattened on the TARDIS floor. Rose was gone from his arms. "Blast!" he yelled, though he hadn't really expected it to be that easy. If he wanted to keep her and Donna, it wouldn't be easy. An alarm went off and he rushed to the console, frantically trying to get it to stop. When nothing seemed to be working, he kicked it, angry, only to bounce back seconds later, clutching at his foot. "Ahh! Never use force," he cried, hopping around on one foot, "You'll just embarrass yourself! Unless you're cross, in which case, always use force," the Doctor yelled at the TARDIS, releasing his foot to rush down the stairs.

"Shall I run and get the manual?" Amy asked him.

"I threw the manual in a supernova."

She halted. "W-why? Don't you need that?"

He huffed. "No! I disagreed with it; the blasted thing was giving all wrong directions." He yelled again, not finding the tool he was looking for, coming up instead with an old spanner and a pair of pliers. "Don't talk to me when I'm cross!" he ordered, hurrying back up the stairs with his disappointing finds.

Rory ignored the order, instead saying, "Okay, but whatever's wrong with the TARDIS, is that what caused us to dream about the future?"

"If we were dreaming about the future."

Amy snorted. "Of course we were! We were in Leadworth!"

"Upper Leadworth!" Rory corrected, making his fiancé roll her eyes at him.

The Doctor didn't even glance up, too intent on the underside of his ship's console. "Yeah, and we could still be in Upper Leadworth, dreaming of this. Don't you get it?"

Rory didn't seem to follow. "But we're not. I'm awake now. Definitely."

The Doctor leapt out from under the console, brandishing a spanner at him. "And you thought you were awake when she was pregnant!" he hollered, gesturing wildly at Amy, specifically her midsection. "And you!" he whirled on her, "You could be giving birth right now and this could be a dream!" He looked around, eyes narrowed. "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. Like," he exclaimed, volume rising, "the fact that Rose and Donna aren't here!"

Rory narrowed his eyes. "That is weird, but I….I've never met them before that dream. I swear. You've mentioned them, but they're umm, gone, right?"

He froze instantly. "What do you mean, gone?"

Before anyone could answer him, the lights all shut off. Every noise inside the TARDIS stopped. Absolute silence.

"It's dead," the Doctor mumbled, examining the rotor. "We're inside of a dead time machine."

A bird began to chirp.

"Okay, this is real," Rory said firmly, "We've got to remember how real this felt."

Amy nodded, going over to hug him. "This is real. I know it."

The Doctor said nothing. He wasn't sure which was real but if Rose and Donna weren't here and his TARDIS was dead….he knew which one he wanted to be real.

DOCTOR WHO

"Okay, this is the real one. Definitely this one. It's all solid," Amy declared, "this is real."

The Doctor turned on his heel to see, thankfully, Donna and Rose standing alongside Rory and Amy. "It felt solid in the Tardis too. You can't spot a dream while you're having it."

Rose blinked at them. "One of you better explain to me what's going on or I swear I'm gonna –"

"We're in two realities," the Doctor explained, "But we can't tell which is real. Don't know what it is or why it's happening. And ah, you two aren't in the other reality. Which may or may not be a dream."

Rose just looked at him, slack-jawed. "Umm, alright," she said after she'd composed herself.

The Doctor waved his hand in the air in front of his face, frowning. "No signs of pixilation or blur. Don't think it's a computer simulation." He walked over to them, inspecting each of their faces, their hands. He walked by Rose and smacked her on the bum, making her squeak in surprise. "No, I don't think you're a simulation," he informed her cheekily.

She just looked at him. "Did you just come 'round and smack my arse to see if I was a computer simulation or not?" she demanded, hands on her hips.

He shrugged. "Partially, yes."

An old woman walked by, waving at Rory. "Hello, doctor!" she called. He waved and muttered a quick hello.

"You're a doctor now?" Donna asked, looking mildly impressed, "Like with the papers and everything to back it?" Rory nodded proudly, but the Doctor narrowed his eyes in thought.

"A doctor, not a nurse. Is that what you've always wanted? Always dreamed about? Here you are, dream job, dream wife, probably dream….baby, too! Are we all inside of your dream, Rory?"

He puffed up defensively and linked hands with Amy. "It's Amy's dream too. Isn't it, Amy?"

She nodded. "Yeah, course," she said, a bit too quickly to be believable.

"What's that?" the Doctor asked, pointing behind them at a large brick building.

Amy turned, raising an eyebrow. "An old people's home."

Donna looked at the Doctor, practically hearing the thoughts bumping around. "You said everyone here lives well into their nineties. Doesn't that seem a bit…odd to you? There's something here that doesn't make sense." He turned to them with a manic grin, lacing his fingers with Rose's. "Let's go and poke it with a stick." And he ran off towards the old people's home, pulling Rose along with him, leaving behind Donna, a very pregnant Amy, and Rory.

"Oh, again with the running?" Amy groaned, "Doesn't he ever, I dunno, walk anywhere?" By the time they'd caught up to him, he'd made his way in and was babbling techno-nonsense to a room full of baffled elderly people while Rose stood by his side, trying in vain to stop him.

"Oh, hello, Doctor Williams!" Mrs. Poggit said loudly, seemingly grateful for the familiar face. "Friends of yours?" she asked, nodding to the Doctor and Rose.

The Time Lord suddenly stood up very straight. "Of course! I've completely forgotten my manners! So sorry, I'm – "

"This is John," Rose said, cutting him off, "and I'm Rose."

"Yeah," Rory agreed. "John's a, erm, junior doctor."

"How lovely," Mrs. Poggit said with a smile. "John, could I borrow you a moment? You're about the size of my grandson; come and see if this fits." He obliged, releasing Rose's hand to bend down and let Mrs. Poggit put a sweater – or was it a poncho? – over his head, tugging his arms through the sleeves like a Barbie doll.

"Could you hurry? Slightly keen to move on," he explained, "Freak psychic schism to sort out. You're incredibly old, aren't you?" he demanded, leaning forward enough to make the woman uncomfortable.

Chirp chirp.

Chirp.

DOCTOR WHO

"Okay, I hate this, Doctor. Stop it, because this is definitely real. It's definitely this one. I keep saying that, don't I?" Amy asked, putting her face in her hands.

"It's bloody cold," Rory noted, pulling the sleeves of his shirt down over his fingers to keep them warm.

"The heating's off," the Doctor replied, not stopping what he was doing below deck.

"The heating's off?" Rory repeated, shocked. "But we're in outer space!"

"Put on a jumper."

Rory fumbled with his words a moment. "Err, yes, alright. Sorry about Mrs. Poggit, she's really a nice old woman –"

"I wouldn't believe that act if I were you," the Doctor warned, climbing up to the highest level, pulling on all of the wires in the walls.

"What do you mean, act?" Amy asked.

"Everything's off," he moaned, "Sensors, core power. We're drifting. The scanner's down so we can't even see out." He dropped what he was fiddling with, giving up, and jumped down the stairs two at a time. "We could be anywhere. Someone, something, is overriding my controls."

At his words, a little man in a red bowtie appeared on the top stair. "Finally!" he exclaimed, "Honestly, I'd been expecting more. All of the things I've heard about you. Last of the Time Lords, the Oncoming Storm. Him in the bow tie. You're rather underwhelming in person."

The Doctor was instantly on alert. "How did you get into my TARDIS? What are you?"

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

"Nice look."

The man looked down at himself: grey tweed suit with a red bowtie. "What, this? I'm not convinced. The leather was much better, I mean bowties, really?" He flickered briefly as the Doctor threw his sonic screwdriver at – through him. "Hmm, no I don't think that will work. Dream Lord. It's in the name, isn't it? Spooky. Not quite there," he paused, actually disappearing for a moment only to reappear right behind them. "and yet very much here."

The Doctor stepped in front of Amy and Rory, protecting them. "Anyone want to take a guess as to what that is?"

"Ehh, Dream Lord," Amy said, "he creates dreams?"

"Dreams, delusions, cheap tricks," the Doctor spat, glaring at the man. Creature. Whatever.

"Oh, come now, Doctor," the Dream Lord said, "don't act as though you don't know me. After all, I've seen your dreams," he looked at Amy and Rory as well. "All of your dreams."

Rory frowned. "My dreams aren't any of your buisne –"

The Dream Lord scoffed. "Rory, as if your dreams are anything interesting at all. Now, Amy on the other hand….if I had a blood supply, I'd be blushing! And Doctor, some of the things you think up on those oh-so-rare instances when your little Time Lord head needs sleep? Well, let's just say that I feel like I ought to wash my eyes out afterwards. Especially since they always seem to feature our dear little R – "

"Where'd you pick up the cheap cabaret act?" the Doctor said loudly, cutting him off. He was trying to act calm and collected, but the tips of his ears were scarlet. From embarrassment or anger, Amy couldn't tell, but the Doctor's emotionless façade was cracking regardless.

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

"Am I?"

The Dream Lord snorted, looking the Doctor up and down. "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." He gave a short, harsh laugh. "I'm surprised you haven't got a little purple space dog just to ram home what an intergalactic wag you are." A pause. "Where was I?"

Rory began to point, saying, "You were –"

But the Dream Lord cut him off. "I know where I was. So, here's your challenge. Two worlds. Here, in the time machine, and there, in the village that time forgot. One is real, the other's fake. Sound alright?" He thought for a moment before adding, "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."

"But you can't – "

"Ah, ah, ah, but I can, Mr. Williams. Tweet, tweet. Time to sleep." The Dream Lord waved his hand and they all began to go under, birds chirping somewhere in the distance. "Or…are you waking up?"

The Doctor fought to keep his eyes open, but even he couldn't resist the Dream Lord's power, and soon everything went dark. And he couldn't tell if he was awake or dreaming.