This is where it had all started. Sure the bricks have worn down now, some have been replaced, but it was right here that those three men, cops as Charlie had told her later, pushed him and he landed here. Right where she's standing now. The cops always maintained their innocence, blaming his beating and stabbing on an associate of his, his boss. However she didn't see Joe the Boss doing this to him, Charlie pled fealty to him, he was a good earner for him. Rose chose to believe Charlie about the cops, a warning to try and stop him from what he had been doing. Then again alliances were always shifting in that line of work. So who really knows?
She turns in a small circle and feels fresh tears start when she remembers how she had helped him and her stare goes to her hands. She had had so much fun with that man; he made her feel…so different, unlike anything else she's ever had before. Not one of the other men in her life made her feel the way Charlie did. It didn't matter to her that he was a criminal, and she knew, she knew damn well she couldn't take him away from the life he had. What he did had been history, and history still remembers him well, for all the good and bad. Mostly bad. But they didn't see Charlie the way she did. To her, if she did as he bid and simply remembered him for who he was when he was with her…it was different. He was brilliant, smart and funny. He could make her laugh even when she had the most trying of days. But like every man in his profession he loved going out…and he would always make sure she was at his side. It made her feel…like she was getting a second chance at reliving her life when she had spent so much of it with the Doctor. This is what people did; they went out with their significant other and had fun, drank and danced. She forgot that's what people did, for so long she had been travelling with a man who had shown her different kinds of beauty and wonder around the universe that she had forgotten the fun that could be had in her own backyard and with someone she loved. And Charlie…he ignited something in her she hadn't felt in so long. And something else that kept her around him for so long…he didn't care that she stuck out so badly in his time. Unable to bend to authority, men included, too snarky for the majority of the 'normal' people…he loved that. He had adored that she wore what she wanted to, she couldn't handle being in dresses all the time, or skirts, and saved those for the times they went out, which, now that she thinks of, was quite frequently, so in reality he got to see her in a dress nearly every day. She smiles at that. She hadn't noticed, but she bets he did.
She aimlessly walks until she finds a bench and sits, feeling her loss resonate deeply within her. She's been with a man who had 'died' and come back to life so many times that she had forgotten what it was like to be with another human. John was different. Even though he had the humanity side to him, to her, he had always been more Time Lord, that's who he was, she forgot, many times that he was human, half of one at least. He'd always be a Time Lord to her. Maybe that was because frail didn't emanate off of him, not until the end, anyway. She and Charlie together…both utterly human. How frail they are, unlike the man she's with now, Charlie wasn't coming back. And that point drives itself home further and further as the seconds tick by. The tears start again and Rose leans back against the bench, wrapping her arms around herself as she does her best to keep the tears back. Charlie told her once when she had a break down from the stress of work, crying didn't suit her. She's much too good for that. She's too strong. This wasn't stress, though, this is her grieving for him. So she hopes, wherever he is now…he can forgive her for breaking. She so desperately wants to be there…in Naples but she promised him that she'd stay away. She should also put the thought of joining Carlo out in Queens nearly a decade later when he'd finally came back to New York out of her mind now. She wants to be there so badly.
The trees sway the warm breeze around her and Rose brings her elbows to rest on her knees as she buries her face in her hands in allows her loss to wash over her. Another life lost while around her…she knows she shouldn't think of it like that, this time…this time it had been completely out of her control. How can she just press on now that she had been forced to think of him…she always thought of him after they parted ways, but she hates to admit to herself that after reuniting with the Doctor he had slipped her thoughts. Not on purpose of course, and when the Mad Hatter had confronted her at dinner…she had fallen for him all over again. And fell so hard.
The sounds of people approaching cause Rose to lift her head and brush away her tears in haste. She continues to sit as they pass her by and she attempts to find comfort in her memories of them together. Abruptly she stands and punches in the coordinates to Russia. That's where she's hidden everything of their time together. His gifts to her, their photos…Rose smiles slightly and feels marginally better. Maybe talking to Ekaterina will help as well. She's never steered her wrong and Rose has always taken her advice seriously. She really needs it now.
She swallows and is gone. Hoping she won't be followed.