To the Next,
I hate the thought of writing like this, but I suppose I have to be realistic. Meeting Sarah Jane sort of brought it all home. It'll happen, sooner or later. I'm just the latest in a long line, and one day, there'll be another. One day, you'll find this here, where I've hidden it in the Tardis. Maybe it'll help you to read it. Maybe it'll help me to write it. Doctor, if you find this, please leave off here. For me, you can do that for me, can't you? Just stop reading, put it back in the envelope, and leave it.
My name is Rose Tyler, and he found me in London, in 2005. That's in England, on Earth. Looks daft to write it like that, but that might be important to write. Hard to tell these things, I suppose, I can't suppose I can even guess where he finds the people he brings along in the Tardis with him.
If you've been with him any time at all, you've probably seen things you've never imagined, been places, done things you've never dreamed. I know I did, just in the first few days with him. He'll show you all time and space, and it's amazing. But, unless things are different than they were for me, or, I'll bet, than for anyone else he's picked up through the years, there's one thing he won't show you. He won't let you see him, not really.
I've wondered why he does it. He's not human, not really. He looks it, and he acts it, but he's something else, something different. Something better, maybe. Maybe not. He's done terrible things, don't ever think otherwise. He's had to, to save himself, to save others. He's saved the Earth, more often than you can imagine, more often than even I can guess, and I've seen him do it. I can't help thinking, why does he need us. I think I know.
He says he's the last of the Time Lords. I can't dream of how lonely that has to be. He's the last of his kind, and he's got hundreds, maybe thousands of years to live, all alone. It's no wonder he picks people up to ride along with him. And there's something else. He's got to have seen everything. I don't think anything really awes him any more. I think he might need a new pair of eyes to help him see the wonder in the things he does, the places he goes. I think he needs us to keep him caring, to remind him that there are things he should do, even if it won't really matter to him once he moves on.
But there's something else. I think he's afraid to get attached. He's lost so much, his home, if he ever had one outside the Tardis, his family, his whole world. His whole universe is just gone, and he has to live with the fact that he's the only one left. I'm afraid he thinks he can't handle losing anything else he loves. If he stops to think about it at all, that is. Sometimes I think he talks in his head faster than he talks out loud, just to keep himself sane. If he is sane, that is, I wonder, sometimes. How could he be, with everything he's seen.
It's mad, really, me writing this. But I hope you can understand him better than I can. I hope you can give him whatever it is he's looking for from us, whatever it is he needs. I don't know if I can. I don't even know if he'll remember me once I've gone. But I know at least that I'll never forget him.
Best of luck to you,
Rose