I wasn't the first. I knew he'd said I was but there were so many people before me. So many people who had marvelled at the universe, by his side. And now where were they? Dumped. Dead. Forgotten. Is that where I was headed?
I glanced at the Doctor. His eyes were currently trained on one of the control boards and he was tapping away at the console screen. Tap, tap, tap. He was almost bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. He was so full of youth, so full of energy. Where had that come from?
"Can you believe it? We just passed the constellation of Orion! Close to home isn't it? Great though, just great, look at the stars! Aren't they just wonderful! Molto bene!"
He whipped past me to the other side of the console room and grabbed hold of a strange lever. "Reset the Hydration Engines!" He called, "Rose Tyler, we're going to see the universe!"
But he'd already seen it. Maybe once he'd watched another pair of eyes stare out at the night sky. Maybe once, he had thought those eyes were beautiful. Extraordinary.
"Rose?"
I smiled back at him weakly, "Yeah?"
His face lit up when he smiled at me. That slow, sweet, nervous smile. Like he couldn't believe I was still here.
God I loved him.
"The whole of time and space!" he grinned, almost childlike in his wonder.
I grinned back. It was impossible not to!
He pulled down the lever with a deafening crunch and the Tardis shot to the left, like something had exploded beneath our feet. Without warning I was jolted to the right, as the console room span around me. The next thing I knew, the Doctor collided with me.
"Oh sorry, unexpected crash landing!" he said, with a laugh. It was strange to hear him so light and carefree. Before the..change, he'd been so closed, so guarded, so alien.
And here was this new man (but somehow still the same?), intelligent and geeky and fast talking! And well...he was just so charming!
Oh how was it possible to fall so deeply for man whose whole being had changed? How was it possibile to love a man whose true name I didn't even know?
I didn't know the answer to that. All I knew now was that I did love him. And maybe, just maybe, he loved me too.