"Doctor!" yelled a familiar female voice.

The Doctor looked to the West and saw Dream Amy tied to a tree with a look of horror on her face.

"Amy!" yelled the Doctor. "What have they done?" He spun around and saw River and Dream Rory, also tied to trees not too far from where Dream Amy was.

"We've captured your friends," explained the apples before Dream Amy had a chance herself to explain.

"Release them at once!" The Doctor demanded angrily. "Or...or I'll.."

"Or you'll what, Doctor?" teased the apples. "You have no idea what we're capable of."

The Doctor gritted his teeth. He had to think of a way out of this and to free his friends. He was The Doctor. He always knew what to do. Think, Doctor, think, he frantically thought to himself.

"Surrender to us or your friends will get it!" commanded the apples, interrupting the Doctor's train of thought.

"I will never surrender to you disgusting little pieces of fruit!" cried the Doctor.

"Very well then," said the apples.

Suddenly, the ground opened up underneath River while River's ropes became undone. She screamed as the tree tilted down and she fell into the ground, swallowing her up. She was gone.

"RIVER!" screamed Dream Amy and Dream Rory.

That was when in the real world, River woke up. She shot up and brandished her gun. "Apples!" she shouted, panting frantically.

"River!" exclaimed Amy, throwing her arms around her daughter. "You're awake!"

River, still panting with sweat dripping down her forehead and studying her surroundings. "Amy? What's going on?" She looked to her right and saw the Doctor, still asleep although he looked distressed.

"The Doctor has been calling and thrashing about," explained Rory, having recovered from getting kneed in the stomach. "Like you said, there's not much we can do to wake him up, but we hate to see him so helpless like this."

"River, what was going on in the dream?" asked Amy.

"The Doctor was a fugitive for destroying this alternate universe of Leadworth's supply of apples," River began as she stood up, got her boots, and put them back on. "But these were no ordinary apples. They were alive. And you two were there. I was then reunited with his previous incarnation for a short time before he got touched by a Weeping Angel and sent to a fixed point in time."

Amy wrung her hands as she paced around the room. "Oh, if there was only a way we can get this message to the Doctor to let the apples get him so he can wake up!"

Rory put his arm around Amy's shoulders as she sat down on side of the bed where River had been sleeping. Tears welled up in Amy's eyes as she hugged her husband.

"What if he never wakes up, Rory?" Amy sobbed with tears coming down her cheeks.

Rory held Amy close and stroked her fiery red hair. "Don't worry, Amy," he reassured. "He's gonna wake up. I know he will."

Amy wiped her eyes and gently caressed the Doctor's soft cheek.

Back in the dream, the Doctor stared in horror, with his two hearts pounding, at the tree where River was once tied up. The ground was perfectly grassy as before, like nothing had happened. The Doctor turned to look back at the apples, with something inside him boiling up. This something...he had not felt it in ages. He's felt it in small doses, yes, but not this badly.

Back in reality, the Doctor's hands balled into fists while his teeth clenched.

"Dream Lord!" he shouted angrily in his dream. "Where are you? I demand to see you, now!"

The Dream Lord appeared before the Doctor, wearing his normal clothes and still grinning like a Jack O'Lantern.

"Ah, Doctor!" he said happily. "Accepted your fate, yet?"

The Doctor glared at the Dream Lord. "There is no fate for me just yet," he growled. "You're just here to make me angry, aren't you? You couldn't stand the cheerful old me dancing around my TARDIS, having a good time with my companions and then you just had to come and intervene..."

"Ding ding ding!" chimed the Dream Lord. "You've got it now! This gives you a right to wake up!"

The apples suddenly disappeared but so did Dream Amy and Dream Rory. The Doctor looked around frantically for his friends. "Where are Amy and Rory?"

"They weren't real," answered the Dream Lord. "None of this is. Remember that I am your dark side? Your dark impulses, my friend."

With that, the Dream Lord walked to the Doctor and walked transparently through him, becoming one with him. The Doctor glowed a bright purple light for a brief moment but it went away as the Dream Lord faded from his mind. The Doctor immediately felt whole, like that something in him was filled.

"Soon, Doctor," the Dream Lord's voice said. "Soon your dark side will awaken and you will become a true Oncoming Storm. Your enemies will soon be reminded of why they need to fear you."

And with that, Doctor's eyes opened slowly in the real world. His vision was blurry at first, but as it cleared, he began to make sense of what was going on. He saw Amy sitting on the other side of his bed, weeping with Rory and River comforting her. The Doctor smiled at the sight of them. His Ponds.

"Don't cry, Amelia," The Doctor said blearily.

Amy looked up from her hands, soaking wet from crying into them. "Doctor?" she asked, turning around slowly to see the Doctor lying there, hands folded on his chest and smiling.

"Doctor, you're awake!" Rory cried happily, walking over to the Doctor, and immediately going into nurse mode. "How are you feeling? Do you have a fever?"

The Doctor waved Rory off. "I'm fine, Rory," he assured, using his elbows to sit up. "Just have a few cricks from all the sleeping. A few good stretches and a cup of tea will do me some good."

Amy dashed over to the Doctor and gave him a big hug. "Welcome back!"

The Doctor rubbed soothing circles in Amy's back as they hugged. "You have no idea how happy I am to be awake right now," he said graciously. He suddenly caught a glimpse of River, causing his grin to widen. "River!"

River smiled. "Hello, Sweetie," she said. "That was some dream we had."

The Doctor stared at his "wife". "Y-you were part of the dream?" he asked.

River nodded, still smiling. "But it wasn't real and you're awake, back with us, and in the nick of time, too," she pointed to the clock on the bedside which was shaped like Big Ben and said London on it. "Just two minutes to midnight in London."

The Doctor yawned and stretched his arms. "How about we go get ourselves a cuppa from the kitchen?" he suggested. "And a few jammy dodgers to go with it! I could use some caffeine and sugar right about now!"

Amy raised her hand. "I'll go put the kettle on," she volunteered. "C'mon, stupidface!"

Rory, aka "stupidface", dragged his feet and followed Amy to the kitchen. River giggled as she helped the Doctor stand up while her parents left the bedroom.

"I'll be there in a bit," the Doctor said. "Need to find some slippers, first."

So River left while the Doctor found his slippers and began to walk down the corridors. Your dark side will awaken and Oncoming Storm ran through his mind as he shuffled his way. The Doctor shrugged it off and went to the kitchen where he joined The Ponds...

I know it's been a while since I worked on this but I wanted to finish this to start work on a sort-of sequel to this (this was finished at 3am but could not publish as I fell asleep). What does the Dream Lord's message mean? What will happen to the Doctor?

Anyway, I know a lot of you probably had as much fun reading this as much as I had fun writing this. A review is nice! If not, Matt Smith's badger puppet Charlie can or will find you! :P

Cheers and peace out!