"But I always took you where you needed to go."
He is 902 years old. The Time War has just ended. He is the sole survivor. He feels guilty and lonely and he knows he has changed, but he can't bring himself to care.
The year is 2005.
That's what the newspapers say. The Nestene Consciousness is here and he is the only one who can stop it.
Not that this is where he meant to go. Or when, really. He meant to end up in the middle of the Rexcorn Galaxy, in the midst of the power struggle between the working class and the dictator of Meseneén. But this would do find, because there was still danger and chaos and he could keep running, and that meant he didn't have to think, didn't have to face what he had done, what he had become.
Of course, this worked best if he was alone. But then he saw her, and what could he do but take her hand?
When he told her to run, he meant to pull her from the room, let go immediately, run beside her until she had gotten to safety, and then never see her again. But once she had he hand, he couldn't bring himself to pull it away. For a minute there, he liked being with her. He didn't feel like a monster, didn't feel guilty or angry or lonely. He wasn't running away from anything. He was just running, and he was running with her, and something about that was perfect.
So he asked her to join him.
And she said no.
He should have known, should have expected, had expected, but…he had also hoped. He couldn't remember the last time he had hoped. And she'd turned him down.
Dejectedly, moping (though he pretended he wasn't), he flipped a few switches, turned the brakes off. He heard the familiar sound of the TARDIS as it moved. Then again, when it meant landing. But it felt…
Well, it felt like he hadn't moved at all.
He did something he didn't like to do, something he would never do under normal circumstances, and check the screen to see where—when—he was.
London. 2005.
She had to still be out there, didn't she?
So he opened the door, stuck his head out, and said the only thing he could think of.
"Did I mention it also travels in time?"
He walked back to the console, door still open, confident she would come this time.
He gave the walls an affectionate pat as Rose Tyler walked through the door like she belonged there, like she was always supposed to be there. It was, without a doubt, the best mistake his ship ever made.