The Doctor was standing in front of Rose. She was so close, he could almost touch her. But, he couldn't. Because she wasn't here. She wasn't in the TARDIS standing inches away from him. She was in another universe, another world. Pete's World. All because of him.

He was the Oncoming Storm, the undoer of good things. The destroyer of his good things. And she was the best.

"Am I ever going to see you again?" She had asked him as her body was shaking with the tears she tried so hard to contain. She was trying to be strong, for him. Even after what he did to her.

"You can't" Why? Why couldn't she? Why couldn't he have this once? Just this once, why couldn't he get his reward?

Letting the tears fall a little more freely, Rose let out a breath as she spoke again. "What are you gonna do?"

Didn't this sound familiar? Didn't they have this conversation before? The Doctor remembered them having a conversation similar to this one, right after he regenerated into this body. After the fall of the Sycorax.

"What are you gonna do next?"

Clearing his throat, so as not to show emotion, the Doctor replayed the memory aloud.

"Oh, I've got the TARDIS. Same old life. Last of the Time Lords."

"Well... back to the TARDIS. Same old life."

He braced himself for what he knew was coming next.

"On your own?" She looked at him like she remembered as well. Like the memory was now shattered.

"On your own?"

Because he couldn't say what he so desperately wanted to say. He had to be haunted by the memory that would never happen again. Instead of speaking, he just stared at her. Taking her beauty in, remembering her every feature.

"Why, don't you want to come?"

"I just thought- since you changed. You might not want me anymore."

"I- I love you." She was sobbing now. Snapping back into the present, the Doctor was taken aback by what Rose had said. But, he knew, deep within his hearts, that he felt the same.

"Quite right too." She smiled and attempted a chuckle. He smiled back, he would miss her smile. "And I suppose, if it's my last chance to say it-" Don't. Don't lose it. Don't you dare lose it when you are so close. "Rose Tyler, I-"

Too late, she was gone. The image had faded and he was left staring at his reflection in the console. He allowed the tears to fall as the rest of the conversation finished out for his battered mind to remember.

"Oh, I'd love you to come."