It's a flower, something normal, something he could see any time he wanted on its home planet.
But it's much more than a flower to him as he snags the stem between his fingers and touches the petals lightly.
He pays the vendor the obligatory however much money for the flower and forgets Donna as he finds his way blindly back to the TARDIS.
There's a vase somewhere; he knows it's here because one time he bought her flowers and she laughed her head off because of something stupid he did that he didn't realize he was doing.
It's underneath a pile of blankets, long forgotten.
He sticks the flower inside and barely hears as Donna barges into his little world, ranting about how she could have died by the whosits and whatsits outside.
He doesn't have the heart to tell her that the scariest thing out there is her.
She stops in mid-rant, eyes focusing on the flower as he lovingly pours water into the vase.
Her mouth pulls into a line, her eyes become shadowed, and she watches him as he dotes on the already-dead thing.
"It's just a rose." She says but she knows what it means to him.
And she doesn't tell him that nothing will save it.
He tries anyway; the man at the market says he can flash-freeze the flower in time forever for only a small fee, a fee that he quickly pays out of his pocket regardless of how much it actually costs.
Donna watches him set the flower in his office where he would always see it; she's already told him that out in the control room the poor flower would break despite the time-lock put on it, and she's frankly surprised that he's listened.
For a long while he sits and stares at it, lost in memories of a time past and a woman he can no longer see.
"It's just a rose." She repeats forcefully but she knows he's ignoring her.
She drags him away when she can't stand it any longer, and he doesn't come back to his office for some time.
It's after everything bad that'll happen to him finally happens that he finds his way back into his office.
Donna has lost her memory.
Martha has run away with Mickey the Idiot.
Sarah Jane has K-9 and her family.
Jack will be the Face of Boe one day.
He will die when he knocks four times.
And Rose, his Rose, is still trapped in that parallel world, except this time she's got him.
Another him.
Not him.
And he left without even saying good bye.
He sees the rose and in a fit of rage and anguish he picks up the vase and throws it against the nearest wall.
The crash of glass, the shattering of the time-locked flower, brings him to his senses.
He cradles the flower in his hand; it's still as alive as the day he bought it, which means, as Donna once put it, it's still dead.
"It's just a rose." He says to himself as he looks at the limp pink petals.
Her favorite color.
"It's just a rose." He repeats as he opens the door to the TARDIS and sends the plant flying serenely into space.
Then he turns his back on the fragile flower and the open expanse of space, hardened, and he feels like he's ripped both of his hearts out when he says, "She's just a Rose."
He says the words but he doesn't believe them.
She was never just a Rose.
She was his Rose.
But he'll never see her again.