The Doctor paced back and forth in front of a worried Reinette.

"Doctor?" Madame de Pompadour asked of her friend.

"I can't stay here, Reinette," the Doctor said, scowling. "I wasn't meant to stay in one place for too long."

"And there is your Rose," Reinette said, with none of her former jealousy. A year ago, when the Doctor first got trapped in France with her, Reinette had been full of jealousy over the girl who the Doctor spoke of so fondly, with such lovingness in his voice. Reinette had harbored hopes that she and the Doctor could perhaps become more than friends, but it had not taken her long to realize that the Time Lord's heart lie with another woman. Rose.

The Doctor sighed, sitting down on the sofa beside the French woman. "She isn't mine," he said sorrowfully. "I abandoned her."

"Do you regret saving me, Doctor?" Reinette asked softly, placing her hand over the Doctor's in a comforting gesture.

The Doctor shook his head. "Never," he said. "I just wish there had been another way."

"Tell me about her, your Rose," Reinette asked. In the beginning, Reinette had loathed hearing about the girl who had captured the Doctor's hearts, but now that she realized that she and the Doctor were not meant to be, she enjoyed hearing the happiness in the Time Lord's voice when he spoke of the blond girl Reinette had met briefly, and, if she were honest with herself, had been rather rude to.

The Doctor glanced at Reinette. "Haven't I told you everything yet?"

"That doesn't mean the tales aren't worth repeating," Reinette smiled.

"Did I ever tell you about the time she absorbed the Time Vortex to save me?" The Doctor asked.

Reinette had heard this story, many times in fact, but Doctor loved to tell it, and she would never tire of hearing it.

And though she would desperately miss her friend when he was gone from this time, she knew it was the will of the universe to lose him eventually. He had another purpose in this universe, the Doctor, and it wasn't at Reinette's side. It was at the girl of London's side. It was at Rose Tyler's side, and she would do whatever it took to return the Doctor to Rose's side.