"Doctor!"
"Doctor?"
"Doctor."
It was only a name. Just an ordinary name, like hundreds of other people's. Well, admittedly it wasn't an everyday name - it was a job! - but it was still a name. It wasn't that important.
So why did it seem important?
Why did it suddenly feel like the strongest, most enduring, most dependable and comforting force was at the beck and call of anyone who knew to call that name?
Why did if seem like that name itself held more power than a thousand suns?
Why did it feel so right for that name to roll off her tongue?
And why was she suddenly asking so many questions? Honestly, if she wasn't careful she'd start talking like the Doctor did: in riddles.
"Doctor?"
"Yes, Rose?"
"Is a name important?"
"That depends...why do you ask?"
"Just a thought; but is it?"
"Well, I like your name, if that's what you mean, so don't go changing it."
"What about yours? Is your name important?"
"Well, what do you mean by 'important'? I like my name. Don't you?"
"If I said no, would you change it?"
"Would you want me to change it?"
Rose smiled and shook her head. She wouldn't have him change it for all the world. That name of his did more than identify an individual: it literally was that individual, and a force to be reckoned with. The Doctor was a doctor of space, healing the wounds torn between universes. The Doctor was a doctor of time, undoing the damage humans could not see for themselves.
But he was something else, too. The Doctor was her doctor, healing her human naivety and teaching her about caring for others on a scale greater than most people could even begin to imagine, and she loved him for it.
There was something special about his name...of course there was. After all, it was his!
Of course, if the Oncoming Storm should find out how important his name was to her she'd never hear the end of it, but Rose was willing to take that chance, just as she was willing to take the chance of coming face to face with death every time she left the TARDIS.
After all, if she's ever in trouble there's only one thing she has to do: call out his name.
"Doctor!"