A/N: Thank you for all the favourites/alerts/reviews. Thank you as well to Yvraine for pointing out I wrote Susan was the Doctor's daughter instead of granddaughter in the previous chapter – I can't believe I didn't notice that typo!
"Who's Rose?" Amy asked.
The Doctor and Rory looked at the sheet of paper she was holding. On the paper was a beautiful pencil drawing of a young woman with light shoulder length hair and hoop earings. Underneath were the words, Rose Tyler, I love you too.
The Doctor smiled sadly.
"Rose Tyler." He seemed almost to be savouring the name. "She travelled with me a while ago. It wasn't long after I lost Gallifrey, and I was so full of pain and anger and guilt. I think Rose saved me. She helped me see the good in the universe again. She told me she was going to stay with me forever, and I believed her, pretending to myself that it could be true."
He trailed off lost in the past.
"And then it came to an end when she sacrificed herself to save the earth, and she was trapped in a parallel world. I drew that after I said goodbye to her forever, but I didn't have time to tell her I loved her before the worlds closed up."
The Doctor was always acting so young, with his flamboyant movements and mischievous smile, but looking at him now, Amy thought, his eyes seemed to be windows into his soul, showing the world just how old he really was.
"So you never saw her again?" Amy almost didn't want to know the answer. How could it be a happy one?
"I did, as it happens. The walls between the worlds started to fall apart because the Daleks almost succeeded in blowing up the universe, and Rose crossed universes to find me."
A smile played about his lips.
"But my wonderful friend Donna managed to stop them, and the universes began to close up again so Rose had to go back."
"But at least you had time to say goodbye properly?"
"Yes. But I gave her more than that. I gave her the closest thing I could to giving her me. In the middle of the dalek invasion, events led to a biological metacrisis causing a second me to be grown out of a hand."
"Wait – what?" Rory interrupted him, and shared an utterly bewildered look with Amy.
"I lost my hand in a swordfight but because I had just regenerated I grew another one. Then Donna touched it stimulating a biological metacrisis, meaning a second doctor grew out of it – an exact replica of me – the same personality, feelings and memories, a bit like a ganger – only human, because Donna was human."
"And you let him stay with Rose, while you lost her forever?"
"She deserved to have the man she loved who would live a normal life, who would age as she did. A man who would be able to spend the rest of his life with her."
Amy tried to imagine letting Rory walk away with a double of herself. Even the idea sickened her. She found his hand and held it tight to reassure herself. But that was the Doctor, Amy thought: always sacrificing himself for others. He gave so much for others – including his heart – and in return everything was taken away.
A/N: so there's a lot of retelling in this one, and maybe it's not that interesting to read... I don't know. Still, I think it's important for the Doctor to explain properly about Rose because she's so important to him... so I suppose I wrote this chapter more for myself than anyone else. Anyway, enjoy!