Leadworth
The TARDIS materialised and the Stone opened the doors smiling before her face fell. "You got it wrong, again!" She shouted inside the TARDIS, successfully stepping over the rock outside the door. "This is why I should pilot..."
"I'm sorry dear." He winced tripping over the rock on the way out of the door almost crashing to the floor pulling the Time Lady with him.
"Doctor, you can't pull me down with you anymore it isn't just me anymore."
"Yes, I know." He winced patting the small bump on her stomach. "Sorry there." He softly kissed the fabric over her stomach.
"Rory!" He then laughed opening his arms as the man walked out the small cottage the TARDIS materialised in front of.
"Doctor." He nodded. "Stone!" He beamed. "You're pregnant."
"Yep." She nodded.
"Congratulations!" He hugging her.
"We've crushed your flowers." The Doctor pointed out.
"Oh, Amy will kill you, would be both of you but..." he said looking down at the Time Lady.
"Where is she?" The Doctor frowned.
"She'll need a bit longer."
"Whenever you're ready, Amy." The Doctor called before a rather large Amy waddled out looking almost ready to give birth.
"Oh, way-hey!" The Doctor laughed. "You've swallowed a planet."
"I'm pregnant."
"You're huge."
"Yeah, I'm pregnant."
"Congratulations Amy!" The Stone beamed finding it hard to hug the human woman with her small bump plus the redheads large one.
"Look at you." The Doctor beamed. "When worlds collide."
"Doctor, I'm pregnant."
"Oh, look at you both. Five years later and you haven't changed a bit, apart from age and size."
"Oh, it's good to see you, Doctor." Amy shook her head.
"He'll get there, if not I'll hit him." She said as Amy looked down smiling seeing the Stones own stomach.
"Are you pregnant?" He looked at Amy before wincing getting lightly hit on the back of the head by the Stone.
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"Ah, Leadworth." The Doctor hummed walking down the street arm linked with the Stone, Amy and Rory walking along aide them both. "Vibrant as ever."
"It's Upper Leadworth, actually." Rory pointed out. "We've gone slightly upmarket."
"Where is everyone?" The Stone frowned tilting her head slightly feeling that something wasn't quite right.
"This is busy," Amy said as the Time Lords raised their brows at her. "Okay, it's quiet, but it's really restful and healthy. Loads of people here live well into their nineties."
"Well, don't let that get you down."
"It's not getting me down." Amy protected.
"Well, we wanted to see how you were." The Doctor said changing the subject. "You know us, we don't just abandon people when they leave the TARDIS This Time Lord and Lady is for life. You don't get rid of your old pals the Doctor and the Stone so easily."
"Hmm. You came here by mistake, didn't you?"
"Yeah." The Stone sighed. "You milked it a bit too much sweetheart." She commented.
"Yeah, bit of a mistake." He winced. "But look, what a result." He said petting the bench they sat on. The Stone sitting on his lap the Doctors hands resting on her stomach. "Look at this bench." He nodded. "What a nice bench. What will they think of next? So. What do you do around here to stave off the, you know..."
"Boredom," Amy said.
"Self-harm."
"Suicide." The Stone said blinking as Amy and Rory both looked at the Time Lady worryingly.
"We relax." Rory nodded.
"Relax." The Doctor mouthed to the Time Lady who raised a brow in question.
"We live... We listen to the birds." Rory said looking up.
"Yeah, see? Birds. Those are nice."
"We didn't get time to listen to birdsong back in the TARDIS days, did we?" He said.
"Oh blimey, my head's a bit." The Doctor groaned touching his head. "Ooo. Er, no, you're right, there wasn't a lot of time for birdsong back in the good old..." the four then fell asleep the Stone's head resting against the Doctors while Amy and Rory's heads tilted forward
---------------------------------------------------------
TARDIS
"...Days. What? No, yes, sorry, what?" He blinked looking at the Stone's stomach for a moment then tightly hugging her after looking at Amy and Rory. "Oh, you're okay. Oh, thank God. I had a terrible nightmare about you three... well nightmare... sort of... That was scary. Don't ask." He waved off while the Stone and Amy stared at each other. "You don't want to know. You're safe now." The Doctor said then hugged, Amy.
"Oh, okay." The woman frowned.
"That's what counts." The Doctor nodded. "Blimey. Never dropped off like that before. Well, never, really. I'm getting on a bit, you see."
"Doctor..." the Stone warned.
"Of course you're not dear." He kissed her cheek. "Now, what's wrong with the console?" He frowned.
"Red flashing lights..." The Stone hummed. "Doctor?"
"I bet they mean something." He nodded.
"Er, Doctor, I also had a kind of dream thing," Rory spoke up.
"Yeah, so did I."
"Oh dear..." the Stone muttered looking at the lights not wanting the Doctor to question her.
"Not a nightmare, though, just, er, we were married," Rory said looking at Amy.
"Yeah. In a little village."
"A sweet little village, and you were pregnant."
"Yes, I was huge. I was a boat."
"So you had the same dream, then?" He asked. "Exactly the same dream?"
"Are you calling me a boat?" Amy questioned narrowing her eyes.
"Dangerous territory there Rory." The Doctor warned.
"Yeah... And Doctor, you and the Stone were visiting and you were pregnant too." He pointed at the Stone. "Around two or three months."
"Five." The Stone corrected frowning. "I think..." she muttered before waving them off. "Time Lord pregnancies are far longer than your human ones."
"Yeah, yeah, okay and you came to our cottage." Amy nodded while the Doctor frowned swallowing hard.
"How can we have the same dream? It doesn't make any sense. "
"And you had a 'sort of nightmare about us.' What happened to us in the nightmare?"
"It was a bit similar, in some aspects." He shrugged.
"Sweetheart..." the Stone looked at him wanting the truth.
"Which aspects?" Rory frowned.
"Well, all of them."
"You had the same dream."
"Basically."
"You said it was a nightmare."
"Sort of nightmare. But did I say nightmare? No, more of a really good... mare." He muttered. "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."
"It wouldn't be the first time something like this happened to me." The Stone remarked before frowning knowing something was wrong but not being entirely sure what.
"Doctor? If we're back to reality, how come I can still hear birds?" Amy asked.
"Yeah, the same birds." Rory nodded in agreement hearing it too. "The same ones we heard in the-"
---------------------------------------------------------
Leadworth
"Dream," Rory muttered before snapping his head up off the Doctors shoulder. "Sorry. Nodded off. Stupid. God, I must be overdoing it." He winced. "I was dreaming we were back on the TARDIS."
The Doctor checked his braces while the Stone poked her stomach curiously before standing up with the Doctor and walked away from the bench.
"You both had the same dream, didn't you?"
"Weren't we just saying the same thing?" Amy asked.
"But we thought this was the dream, didn't we?" He muttered to Amy while the Time Lords kept quiet observing the surroundings.
"I think so. Why do dreams have to fade so quickly?"
"Stone, what is going on?"
"Is this because of you two?" Amy looked at the confused Time Lords. "Is this some Time Lordy thing because you've shown up again?"
"Listen to me. Trust nothing." The Doctor said tightly holding the Stone's hand. "From now on, trust nothing you see, hear or feel."
"But we're awake now."
"Yeah. You thought you were awake on the TARDIS, too."
"But we're home."
"Yeah, you're home." The Stone nodded. "But you're also dreaming."
"Trouble is, Rory, Amy, which is which? Are we flashing forwards or backwards? Hold on tight." He muttered squeezing the Stone's hand. "This is going be a tricky one."
---------------------------------------------------------
TARDIS
"Oh, this is bad. I don't like this." The Doctor grumbled before kicking the TARDIS. "Argh." He groaned squeezing his eyes shut in the pain. "Never use force. You just embarrass yourself. Unless you're cross, in which case, always use force."
"But never use force on the TARDIS." The Stone sighed patting the rotor. "It never ends well." She followed the Doctor down the stairs the both of them standing under the glass flooring.
"Shall I run and get the manual?" Amy asked.
"Someone threw it in a supernova."
"Why did you throw it in a supernova?" Rory asked knowing she threatened to throw Amy in a supernova.
"Ask the Doctor why he threw it in a supernova." She corrected.
"You threw the manual in a supernova?" Amy blinked. "Why?"
"Because I disagreed with it." He said. The Doctor looked up as Rory opened his mouth. "Stop talking to me when I'm cross. He ordered. "Only the Stone is allowed to talk to me when I'm cross." He childishly remarked.
"Okay," Rory slowly replied. "But whatever's wrong with the TARDIS, is that what caused us to dream about the future?"
The Doctor tensed up slightly. "If we were dreaming of the future." He corrected.
"Well, of course, we were. We were in Leadworth."
"Upper Leadworth." Rory corrected making Amy narrow her eyes at him.
"Yeah, and we could still be in Upper Leadworth, dreaming of this. Don't you get it?"
"No, okay?" Amy groaned. "No, this is real. I'm definitely awake now."
"And you thought you were definitely awake when you were all elephanty."
"Hey!" Amy said offended pointing a spanner at him when he walked back up the stairs after checking everything below. "Pregnant."
"Doctor." The Stone pitched the bridge of her nose. "Please don't tell me you compared a pregnant woman to an elephant."
"No..." he slowly replied then turned to Amy. "And you could be giving birth right now." He looked at Amy. "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 said grabbing the spanner from Amy.
"Okay, we're in a spaceship that's bigger on the inside than the outside."
"With a bow-tie-wearing alien."
"And a woman who wears vans with a blazer..." Rory commented. "So maybe what rings true isn't so simple."
"Valid point." The Doctor said while the Stone tweaked his bowtie patting his shoulder, smiling before her face fell as the TARDIS switched off the only light being the faint glow from the time rotor.
"It's dead." The Stone swallowed touching the rotor and feeling nothing, no buzz of energy or warm heat making her fingers tingle with the vibrations of the rotor. "We're in a dead time machine."
The birdsongs them began again, the two humans tightly hugged as the Doctor wrapped an arm around the Stone pulling her right against him. "Remember, this is real. But when we wake up in the other place, remember how real this feels." The Doctor reminded.
"It is real," Amy told him. "I know it's real."
---------------------------------------------------------
Leadworth
"Okay, this is the real one," Amy said poking her stomach. "Definitely this one. It's all... solid."
"It felt solid in the TARDIS too. You can't spot a dream while you're having it." He then started to wave a hand in front of his face while the Stone frowned looking around.
"What are you doing?" Rory questioned.
"Looking for motion blur, pixelation. It could be a computer simulation. I don't think so, though."
"Hello, Doctor." A small older woman walking past greeted.
"Hi." Rory waved.
"Hello." The Doctor then spun around looking at Rory. "You're a doctor."
"Yeah. And unlike you, I've actually passed some exams." He said making the Time Lasy snort.
"Sorry sweetheart." She apologised lightly patting his shoulder.
"A doctor, not a nurse. Just like you've always dreamed. How interesting."
"What is?"
"Your dream wife, your dream job, probably your dream baby. Maybe this is your dream."
"It's Amy's dream too. Isn't it, Amy?"
"Yes. Course it is, yeah."
"But if it is a dream and it's their dream that doesn't exactly explain why I am pregnant?" The Stone questioned in thought.
"Not sure..." the Doctor hummed before spinning around pointing. "What's that?"
"Old people's home," Amy answered.
"You said everyone here lives to their nineties." The Doctor said not taking his eyes off the old people poking their heads out of their curtains to look at the four. "There's something here that doesn't make sense. Let's go and poke it with a stick." He grinned at the Time Lady before he ran off. Rory following.
"Oh. Can we not do the running thing?" Amy groaned slowly waddling along.
"Sorry, Amy." The Stone chuckled not finding it as hard with her small bump.
---------------------------------------------------------
"Oh hello, Doctor Williams." A woman greeted when the four walked into the living room of the old peoples home where a large group of chairs were around the edge of the room with old people sitting in them.
"Hello, Rory love."
"Hello, Mrs Poggit. How's your hip?"
"A bit stiff."
"Oh, easy, D-96 compound, plus."
"Careful Doctor." The Stone hissed.
"Yeah right sorry." He nodded then looked at the old people. "You don't have that yet. Forget that."
"Who's your friends?" Mrs Poggit asked Rory. "Junior doctors?"
"Yes." Rory smugly replied.
"I would say, engineer." The Stone shrugged. "And I haven't been a junior for ages..." she muttered.
"Can I borrow you? You're the size of my grandson." She pointed at the Doctor who without arguing knelt on the floor in front of the woman's chair.
"Slightly keen to move on. Freak psychic schism to sort out." He slipped his arms into the hole and then leant closer to the woman forcing her back into her chair. "You're incredibly old, aren't you?" He frowned watching the woman who didn't seem at all bothered by the comment.
The birdsong then began to sound again and the four fell to the floor sleeping.
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TARDIS
"Okay, I hate this, Doctor, Stone. Stop it, because this is definitely real." She nodded tightly holding her arms in the cold. "It's definitely this one. I keep saying that, don't I?" She groaned looking at Rory.
"It's bloody cold."
"The heating's off." The Stone sighed shaking her head.
"The heating's off?" Rory frowned.
"Yeah. Put on a jumper. That's what I always do." The Doctor nodded.
"Er, yes. Sorry about Mrs Poggit. She's so lovely though."
"I wouldn't believe her nice old lady act if I were you." He frowned.
"What do you mean, act?" Amy asked.
"Everything's off." The Stone frowned lightly touching the console.
"Sensors, core power. We're drifting. The scanner's down so we can't even see out. We could be anywhere. Someone, something, is overriding our controls!" He angrily shouted.
A small man with a red bow tie and tweed jacket then appeared on the stairs by the Doctor. "Well, that took a while." He commented making the Time Lords spin around. "Honestly, I'd heard such good things." He tutted shaking his head at them. "Last of the Time Lords, the Oncoming Storm and his wife that should have figured out sooner... Him in the bow tie and her in the vans.
"How did you get into our TARDIS?" The Doctor snapped tighten his grip on the Stone's hand. "What are you?"
"What shall we call me?" He hummed in thought seemingly enjoying making the Doctor angry. "Well, if you're the Time Lord, let's call me the Dream Lord."
"Nice look." The Doctor dryly commented eyeing the man's tweed blazer and bow tie.
"This? No, I'm not convinced." He muttered mockingly. "Bow ties?"
Without saying a word the Doctor threw his sonic screwdriver toward the man and watched it pass straight through the Dream Lord without any issue.
"Interesting. I'd love to be impressed, but Dream Lord. It's in the name, isn't it? Spooky. Not quite there." He then disappeared only to reappear behind them attempting to scare the Time Lords only to seemingly make the Doctor angrier while driving the Time Lady's patience. "And yet, very much here."
"I'll do the talking, thank you." The Doctor dryly commented. "Amy, want to take a guess at what that is?"
"Er, Dream Lord." She muttered. "He creates dreams."
"Dreams, delusions, cheap tricks."
"And what about the gooseberry, here." The Dream Lord asked looking at Rory. "Does he get a guess?"
"Er, listen, mate. If anyone's the gooseberry round here, it's the Doctor."
"Well now, there's a delusion I'm not responsible for." He laughed.
"No, he is. Isn't he, Amy."
"Oh, Amy, have to sort your men out. Choose, even." He grinned.
"I have chosen." She said looking at the Stone who raised a brow. "Of course I've chosen." She lightly hit Rory's chest while the Stone smirked seeing it as clear as day. "It's you, stupid."
"Oh, good. Thanks."
"You can't-fool me." He said appearing behind them yet again. "I've seen your dreams. Some of them twice. Amy. Blimey, I'd blush if I had a blood supply or a real face."
"We don't choose what we dream." The Stone said crossing her arms. "Unlike some." She coldly remarked.
"Where did you pick up this cheap cabaret act?" The Doctor 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." He laughed. The Stones eyes darkened while she stepped closer to the Doctor. "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?"
"You were-"
"I know where I was." The Dream Lord cut in moving up the stairs. 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. 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." He grinned as the birdsongs started making the Time Lords, Amy and Rory start to feel their legs collapsing on them. "Oh. Or are you waking up?" The Dream Lord said in thought. The Doctor and the Stone tried to hold on as long as they could until they collapsed onto the floor with the last thing they saw being the Dream Lord grinning at them
---------------------------------------------------------
Leadworth
The Time Lords woke up in the empty living room of the old peoples home
"Oh, this is bad." The Dream Lord walked in wearing a black suit while holding an x-ray of a brain. "This is very, very bad. Look at this X-ray." He held it up looking at the Doctor. "Your brain is completely see-through. But then, I've always been able to see through you, Doctor."
"Always?" Amy frowned while the Doctor sat in the large chair the Stone keeping hold of his hand knowing something was wrong. "What do you mean, always?"
"Now then, the prognosis is this. If you die in the dream, you wake up in reality." He ignored the redhead. "Healthy recovery in next to no time. Ask me what happens if you die in reality?"
"What happens?" Rory questioned.
"You die, stupid." He deadpanned giving Rory an odd look. "That's why it's called reality."
"Have you met the Doctor before?" Amy questioned. "Do you know him? Doctor, does he?"
"Now don't get jealous. He's been around, our boy. But never mind that. You've got a world to choose. One reality was always too much for you, Doctor." He stepped closer. "Take two and call me in the morning." He mimed a phone before vanishing
"Okay, I don't like him," Rory commented.
"You and me both." The Stone muttered.
"Who is he?"
"I don't know." The Doctor shrugged. "It's a big universe."
"Why is he doing this?"
"Maybe because he has no physical form." The Doctor said not believing his own words. "That gets you down after a while, so he's taking it out on folk like us who can touch and eat and feel."
"What does he mean, deadly danger, though? Nothing deadly has happened here." Rory said frowning. "I mean, a bit of natural wastage, obviously."
The Doctor remembered wearing the jumper and pulled it off. "They've all gone. They've all gone."
---------------------------------------------------------
"Why would they leave?" Rory asked following the Time Lords out of the home.
"And what did you mean about Mrs Poggit's nice old lady act?" Amy questioned.
"One of my tawdry quirks."
"Our tawdry quirks." The Stone corrected softly smiled at him. He blinked slightly. She wasn't wrong, they did share a lot of their quirks.
"So, come on, let's think." He nodded. "The mechanics of this reality split we're stuck in. Time asleep exactly match time in our dream world, unlike in conventional dreams."
"And we're all dreaming the same dream at the same time," Rory added.
"Yes, sort of communal trance. Very rare, very complicated. I'm sure there's a dream giveaway, a tell, but my mind isn't working because this village is so dull!" He shouted. "I'm slowing down, like you two have."
"Doctor you better not have called me stupid." The Stone narrowed her eyes at him.
"No never." He shook his head at her. "You're the cleverest Time Lady I have ever known."
"And you're the cleverest Time Lord. Well apart from my oldest brother..." she thoughtfully tilted her head.
"Ooo. Ow. Really." Amy cried out. "Ow! It's coming."
"Okay, you're a doctor, help her." The Doctor panicked looking at Rory while the Time Lady wrapped an arm around the redhead.
"You're a doctor." Rory protested.
"It's okay, we're doctors." The Doctor nodded squatting in front of Amy to catch the baby. While the Stone groaned rolling her eyes at them.
"What do we do?" Rory asked.
"Okay, it's not coming." Amy said standing up looking completely fine.
"What?" The Doctor looked at her blankly.
"This is my life now and it just turned you white as a sheet, so don't you call it dull again, ever. Okay?"
"Sorry." The Doctor muttered.
"Yeah." She said high fiving the Time Lady when walking off.
"You knew?" The Doctor blinked staring at her.
"Had to teach you a lesson not to do that, plus it was a great way to get back at you after all those pranks you played on me with the Master in the academy."
"As if you didn't enjoy them."
"Not when they involved ruining my books." She protested. "Well..." she then muttered aloud staring at the old woman from before who walked up to the stairs where the children played at the castle. They quickly followed the humans, Amy slumped down on the swing while Amy stood behind, the Stone doing the same sitting on the other swing the Doctor resting his hands on his shoulders while she frowned continuing to poke at her stomach with her small 'baby bump'.
"Now, we all know there's an elephant in the room." The Doctor commented.
"I have to be this size, I'm having a baby." Amy hissed.
"No, no." He shook his head. "The hormones seem real, but no. Is nobody going to mention Rory's ponytail?" He then smirked looking at the blonde and the redhead. "You two hold him down, I'll cut it off?"
"This from the man in the bow tie."
"Bow ties are cool." The Time Lords protested high fiving each other before frowning. "I don't know about you, but I wouldn't hire Mrs Poggit as a babysitter. What's she doing?" He asked walking over a little the Stone beside him. "What does she want?"
The birds then started to sing and the Time Lady groaned.
"Oh, no," Amy muttered. "Here we go."
---------------------------------------------------------
TARDIS
"It's really cold." Amy shivered pulling her coat closer to her body. "Have you got any warm clothing?"
"What does it matter if we're cold?" The Doctor snapped. "We have to know what she is up to."
"Sweetheart." The Stone spoke in a soft quiet voice her arms wrapping around him. "I know you're upset and angry." She whispered loud enough for only him to hear. "I know but we have to stay calm and not start to fight with each other now more than ever."
"Sorry, sorry." He slowly nodded kissing her forehead then looked at Amy. "Sorry, Amy. There should be some stuff down there." He pointed in a direction. "Have a look."
Amy and Rory walked down the steps in the direction the Doctor pointed in while the Doctor and the Stone went underneath the console, the Doctor placing a mug on a toolbox which contained a piece of rope, a bottle opener and a whisk.
"If it wasn't freezing cold I would be excited about this." The Time Lady remarked.
"You can get excited about it later, dear." He grinned seeing the twinkle in her eye when he started to fiddle with the items.
---------------------------------------------------------
"I want the other life." Rory muttered. "You know, where we're happy and settled and about to have a baby."
"But don't you wonder, if that life is real, then why would we give up all this?" She asked digging through the box. "Why would anyone?"
"Because we're going to freeze to death?" Rory questioned.
"The Doctor and the Stone will fix it."
"Okay." He thought. "Because we're going to get married?"
"We can still get married someday." She shrugged.
"You don't to want any more." He muttered. "I thought you'd chosen me, not him."
"You are always so insecure." Amy rolled her eyes.
"You ran off with another man who is married!"
"Not in that way." Amy corrected not wanting to make things like they were just after the incident with the angels.
"It was the night before our wedding." Rory protested.
"We're in a time machine. It can be the night before our wedding for as long as we want." She protested.
"We have to grow up eventually."
"Says who?" Amy asked handing him a blanket before heading back up the stairs seeing that the Time Lords have created a device out of the items.
"Ah, Rory, wind." The Doctor ordered handing him the device. "Amy, could you attach this to the monitor, please."
"I was promised amazing worlds," Rory remarked eyeing the device. "Instead I get duff central heating and a weird, kitcheny wind-up device."
"Oi!" The Stone narrowed her eyes at him. "I made that. I don't see you able to build a generator out of a kitchen whisk, some rope and a bottle opener." She sniffed.
"She gets defensive and rude when you make remarks of anything she creates, it's best to just smile and nod at it." The Doctor whispered before yelping when the Stone hit him around the head.
"I am not rude." She pointed at him.
"Or ginger." He smirked as she grumbled at him.
"Now Rory. Get winding."
"Not enough," Amy called after a few moments of Rory winding the device.
"Rory, wind." The Doctor ordered.
"Why is the Dream Lord picking on you?" He asked winding the device faster. "Why us?"
The Scanner then lit up showing an image of what looked like a light blue sun. "Where are we?" Amy asked while the Time Lords swallowed the Doctor pulling the Stone closer towards him.
"We're in trouble." The Doctor replied.
"What is that?"
"A star." The Stone swallowed. "A cold star." They then went to the TARDIS door and opened one of them.
"That's why we're freezing. It's not a heating malfunction. We're drifting towards a cold sun."
"And there's our deadly danger for this version of reality."
"So this must be the dream," Amy said. "There's no such thing as a cold star. Stars burn."
"So's this one. It's just burning... cold."
"Is that possible?"
"I can't know everything. Why does everybody expect me to, always?" The Doctor huffed closing the door.
"Are you assuming I think you know everything sweetheart?" The Stone questioned raising a brow at him as the Doctor ran a hand down his face.
"No dear." He let out a sigh.
"Okay, this is something you haven't seen before. So does that mean this is the dream?" Rory asked.
"We don't know, but there it is, and I'd say we've got about fourteen minutes until we crash into it."
"But that's not a problem." The Doctor added.
"Because you know how to get us out of this?"
"Because we'll have frozen to death by then." The Doctor corrected him.
"Oh, then what are we going to do?" Amy asked.
"Stay calm. Don't get sucked into it, because this just might be the battle that we have to lose." The Doctor replied.
"Oh, this is so you, isn't it?"
"What?"
"Huh, what?" Rory frowned like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "A weird new star, fourteen minutes left to live and only one man to save the day with his wife, huh? I just wanted a nice village and a family."
"Oh dear, Doctor." The Dream Lord commented suddenly appearing beside him. "Dissent in the ranks. There was an old doctor from Gallifrey, who ended up throwing his life away. He let down his friends and-" he then stopped looking up as the birdsong started. "Oh, no. We've run out of time. Don't spend too long there, or you'll catch your death here."
---------------------------------------------------------
Leadworth
"Where have the children gone?" The Doctor asked standing on the top of the old castle.
"Don't know," Rory said looking around. "Play time's probably over."
The Doctor ran around scanning the piles of dust molehills with the Stone who paled after looking at the results.
"You see, this is the real one," Rory said to Amy. "I just feel it. Don't you feel it?"
"I feel it both places."
"I feel it here. It's just so tranquil and relaxed. Nothing bad could ever happen here."
"Not really me, though, is it? I mean, would I be happy settling down in a place with a pub, two shops and a really bad Amateur Dramatics Society? That's why I got pregnant, so I don't have to see them doing Oklahoma. Doctor, Stone, what are you two doing? And what are those piles of dust?"
"Play time's definitely over." The Stone said swallowing as the Doctor let the dust fall through his fingers.
"Oh, my God." Amy breathed.
"What happened to them?" Rory asked.
"I think they did." The Doctor said narrowing his eyes as a large group of elderly people walked into view past the large brick wall.
"They're just old people." Amy frowned following the Time Lords down and through the playground.
"No, they're very old people." The Doctor corrected. "Sorry, Rory, I don't think you're what's been keeping them alive."
"Hello, peasants." The Dream Lord greeted them. "What's this, attack of the old people?" He joked. "Oh, that's ridiculous. This has got to be the dream, hasn't it? What do you think, Amy? Let's all jump under a bus and wake up in the TARDIS." He then looked at the Stone. "You always have been one to put yourself in front of others in danger, why don't you go first Stone?" He grinned making the Time Lady step closer eyes dark and narrowed only to be pulled back by the Doctor his own eyes dark.
"Don't you dare." The Doctor threatened stepping closer to the smaller man.
"Do that again." He mocked. "I love it when he does that. I see right through you Doctor." He laughed. "You know she can take care of herself but your worried she won't need you if you keep quiet, the possessive and protective Doctor.." He chuckled. "What a hero to Amy you must be, at least she needs you."
"Stop it." Amy quietly snapped when the Dream Lord looked at her.
"Just leave her." Rory tried to step in.
"Yes, you're not quite so impressive, but I know where your heart lies, don't I, Amy Pond?" The Dream Lord looked at her.
"Shut up. Just shut up and leave me alone." She suddenly snapped louder than before.
"But listen." He stepped closer to Amy. "You're in there. Loves a redhead, the Doctor. Has he told you that the Stone was a redhead once?" He looked over his shoulder at the Time Lords the Doctor keeping the Stone close by.
"You know a lot about me. More than most people. Yet I know nothing about you." The Stone narrowed her eyes at the Dream Lord who raised a brow. "How do you know so much about my life?"
"You really don't have the foggiest do you?" He looked at her seriously. "Deary me." He tutted. "There once was a girl called Rita Stone who appeared on a ship finding herself in her wildest dream knowing everything about one man. How the tables have turned." He sighed. "Dear, I know more about you than you could possibly imagine and yet you seem to not be able to figure out who I am." He then turned to the Doctor. "Once she was a clever girl but it seems you are dumbing her down-"
"Drop it." The Doctor darkly snapped. He couldn't let the Dream Lord continue to speak, she may find out and he couldn't bare see the look on her face if she did. He would be hated, humiliated even. Scared that she will hate him for this hell. "Drop all of it. I know who you are."
"Course you don't." The Dream Lord shot back.
"Course I do." The Doctor countered. "No idea how you can be here, but there's only one person in the universe who hates me as much as you do." The Stone frowned looking at him wondering who exactly hated him the most.
"Never mind me." The Dream Lord shrugged him off. "Maybe you should worry about them." He then looked at the blonde flashing her a smile. "Keep thinking Time Lady."
The older people started to walk across the grass while the Dream Lord vanished leaving the four alone with the old people walking close to them.
"Hi. Hello." Rory greeted the elders.
"Hello, we were wondering where you went." The Doctor stepped forward. "To get reinforcements, by the look of it. Are you all right? You look a bit tense."
"Hello, Mister Nainby."
"Rory." The Time Lords warned.
"Mister Nainby ran the sweet shop." He informed them. "He used to slip me the odd free toffee." Mr Nainby then grabbed Rory by the collar lifting him off the ground. "Did I not say thank you?" Rory then was thrown to the ground in the mud while the other three stepped back. "How did he do that?"
"I suspect he's not himself." The Doctor explained. "Don't get comfortable here. "You may have to run, fast."
"Can't we just talk to them?" Amy groaned.
The old people opened their mouths and a single eye looked out of them.
"I think talking is off the menu... and we're on it... I think." The Stone muttered.
"There is an eye in her mouth." Amy swallowed.
"There's a whole creature inside her. Inside all of them."
"They've been there for years, living and waiting." The Stone added.
"That is disgusting," Rory said after standing up, rejoining the three. "They're not going to be peeping out of anywhere else, are they?"
Mrs Poggit then breathed a stream of green gas at them making the Doctor jump back pulling Amy and the Stone with him. "Run." The Doctor informed them letting Amy and Rory run away.
"Okay, leave them, leave them." The Stone warned.
"Talk to us. You are Eknodines. A proud, ancient race. you're better than this." The Doctor stated. "Why are you hiding away here? Why aren't you at home?"
A deep voice, not the voice they heard from the woman earlier. "We were driven from our planet by-"
"Planet by upstart neighbours." Both Time Lords cut in.
"So we've-" Mr Nainby started.
"Been living here inside the bodies of old humans for years." The Time Lords cut off again.
"No wonder they live so long." The Doctor said. "You're keeping them alive."
"We were humbled and destroyed. Now we will do the same to others." Mrs Poggit stated.
"Okay. Makes sense, I suppose. Credible enough. Could be real." He shrugged. A paperboy wheeled a bicycle past the Time Lords before they noticed.
"Morning." Mrs Poggit then breathed the green gas onto the boy and instantly turned him to dust.
"You need to leave this planet." The Doctor warned.
"And you need to leave right now." The Stone darkly added having her patience wearing thin.
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The Time Lords fort back the birdsong stumbling down the street using each other to support themselves as they opened the door to the butchers and stepped in almost collapsing to the ground. "Oh, I love a good butcher's, don't you?" The Dream Lord joked, dressed as a butcher while standing behind the counter. "We've got to use these places or they'll shut down. Oh, but you're probably a vegetarian, aren't you, you big flop-haired wuss."
"Oh, pipe down. I'm busy." The Doctor snapped.
"Maybe you need a little sleep." He joked as the Time Lords slumped to the floor.
"Oh, wait a moment. If you fall asleep here, several dozen angry pensioners will destroy you with their horrible eye things." They suddenly jumped back up. Holding their fingers in their ears. "Fingers in the ear. Brilliant. What's next, shouting boo? Come in, come in." He called to the old people. "Yes, we've got lots at steak here this week. Lots of steak, get it? Are these jokes wasted on you?"
"Wait, wait, stop." They pleaded.
"Oh. Oh, I can't watch." The Doctor pulled the Stone who was struggling to stay awake into the storeroom and locked them in with his sonic.