The Doctor was still in the control room when Rose came in a long time later.

Still in his coat – a shield, battle-armour, she was beginning to understand – he was perched on the control panel, a piece of thick cream paper in his hands, while he stared at everything and nothing in middle distance.

She hugged herself and sat on the console chair. He didn't look at her, but his gaze shifted from eternity to the present, she could see.

"I should hate her," Rose said quietly. "I should hate her 'cause she was beautiful an' smart an' you went to her. You went to her an' left us - me here, after you said you wouldn't."

The Doctor was silent. He folded up the piece of paper and smoothed the creases, tracing his fingers over the broken wax seal as if it held the secrets of the universe.

"I hated Sarah-Jane for a little while," she confessed. "Until I knew her, an' today…I was her. An' it wasn't nice."

The Doctor tucked the paper – a letter, she knew – into the inside pocket of his jacket. She watched his every move.

"But…I can't hate her," She whispered. "I met her an'…she knew me. She was this…beautiful, clever, famous woman an' she brought me to her level. Me. A shop girl from a council estate. With no GCSEs. Can't play an instrument, can't draw, can't even begin to work politics. An' she…" Rose swallowed. "She made me her equal. She was there in this gorgeous dress, dripping in diamonds – she was wearing more money than I'll ever have in my lifetime an' I was in jeans an' a t-shirt an' she spoke to me like a normal person. She understood."

"Yeah," the Doctor said quietly, looking at Rose for the first time since she'd come into the room. There was naked pain on his face. "She understood. Somehow."

"An'… I think I'm beginning to understand too," Rose stood and took his hand. His fingers curled around hers like they always had and her heart swelled and broke at the same time. "I love you," she said.

"Rose…"

"An' you…" She gave him a small smile. "You love everyone. You love everyone an' everything with all you have. An' sometimes it's just as friends, an' sometimes it's as…something else."

The Doctor was looking at her with something like awe.

"I can't…I can't give you anything, Rose," he told her. "I can't give you forever. I can't give you - "

"Did you love her?"

"What?"

"Did you love her?" Rose repeated.

"…Yes."

"And Sarah-Jane?"

"Yes."

"Do you love me?" She asked.

"Yes," he said instantly. "But I can't - "

"I don't care about what you can't give," she squeezed his hand gently. "You love me. An' that means I'm as good as the mistress of Louis-the-whatever an' Sarah-Jane. I couldn't hate Sarah-Jane, an' I can't hate her. That's enough."

The Doctor stared at her for a moment, then pulled her into a rough hug, pressing his lips to the top of her head.

"Rose Tyler," he breathed. "I would have found some way to come back to you, I promise you that much."

"That's all I need," she murmured, as his hearts beat a tango of pain and impossible hope beneath her ear.