"I'm okay, Rose," the Doctor said, the same answer he had given since encountering that Dalek in the museum. He wasn't, of course. Truthfully, he couldn't even remember the last time he'd been okay. This meant the Time War never truly ended. If one Dalek could exist then maybe there were more, broken but very much alive, like him. It meant that his people and his planet died for absolutely nothing.
"I know. It's just...talkin' about it can help sometimes."
"Humans," the Doctor laughed because it wasn't funny at all. "You lot can't even begin to imagine an intergalactic war, not really. The size of it. Loss on a massive scale. We're not talking villages or countries at stake here, but whole galaxies, the entire universe! Planets wiped out just 'cause they were in the way, Rose. And do you know who did it?"
"The Daleks?"
"Oh yeah," he agreed. "They felt nothing. That was their purpose: killing people. But it wasn't only them, oh no. Me! I pressed the button! The Oncoming Storm! The Destroyer of Worlds! The destroyer of my world." The Doctor stopped. Rose noticed he was shaking. When he looked at her, she pretended not to notice the tears. "It's so quiet in my head now. And every time I close my eyes, I see them burning..."
She hugged him, knowing he needed it although the Doctor felt undeserving of any comfort.
"I'm sorry," he murmured after a while. "I promised you time and space."
"I don't care about that, Doctor, I care about you. It can wait."
Rose wanted more than anything to take away the nightmares behind his eyes.