An unusual sound had begun to fill the TARDIS, shocking Rose into a state of consciousness. It took her a moment to realize what she was listening to, but eventually she swore she was hearing the sound of whimpering.
To her knowledge, there was only one other passenger on the TARIDS, and he never cried. He yelled, he threw things, he jumped, he laughed, but he never, ever, cried.
So on this night, the night Rose first heard whimpers, she left her room to check on her best friend. The Doctor.
When she entered the control room, what she found sent shivers down her spine, and slowly broke her heart. The Doctor, the man she respected beyond all other men, was sitting in a corner, head on his knees, whimpering aloud.
"Doctor…?" She began, hesitantly.
"Go away," He replied quietly, voice broken.
"No."
"Please… You shouldn't see me… Like this."
"Doctor, I'm your friend…"
He lifted his head from his knees and stared into Rose's eyes. Eventually, he beckoned for her to sit next to him, which she did.
As she rested her head on his shoulder, she asked, "What's wrong?"
"Bad dreams…"
"What's happening in these bad dreams?"
"What happened before we met."
"What do you mean?"
"Gallifrey burns," the Doctor said cryptically.
"Are you seeing…?"
"The day the war ended?" the Doctor asked, rhetorically. "Yes."
"What do you see?"
"I can see the lights in their eyes. All of them. Men, women, children. Their stares… They knew… They all knew… And I killed them… I killed them all, Rose… They were kids that I once knew…"
"Now they're all dead hearts to you…"
He nodded.
"But you can go back!" She exclaimed. "We can go back! You can still see them!"
"They're gone…"
"Doctor, that's nonsense. You have a time machine…"
"Doesn't matter. They're time locked, the whole war is. They might as well have never existed… Thousands and thousands of years of Time Lord History destroyed… Because of me."
"It wasn't your fault, Doctor… You had no choice."
"Did I?" He asked. Rose stared in response for a few awkward moments. Eventually, he continued, "I watched them die, watched them burn… Their screams…"
He began to choke up.
"Yeah?"
"Their screams haunt my dreams… Every night… So I don't sleep… I can't sleep… I never sleep…"
The two of them sat in silence for a few moments, both of them afraid to look at the other.
"I'm surprised you still care…" He said quietly.
"I'll always care," Rose replied just as quietly, "somebody has to."
He laid his head on her shoulder, and for the first time that she could remember, the Doctor cried.