He let her go. What was he supposed to do? Keep her here against her will? No he reasoned, she didn't really want to leave him.

But maybe he'd read her wrong. She hadn't actually said that she… Ah. He sighed and pushed the TARDIS into the void. It was at this moment, the moment when he really felt he needed a good few centuries to mull over his thoughts, that Reinette came slinking out of the shadows.

"I suppose you heard all that," the Doctor spat.

She looked at him with understanding eyes and move closer, wrapping her arms around his torso.

"My poor Doctor. Sshh… let me make it better…"

Originally, Reinette had been unwilling to admit the Doctor's love for Rose to herself. After that display though, she decided to change tactics. So he loved her? So what? She was gone and Reinette was still here.

She started kissing the Doctor and for a few moments he didn't resist. For a few moments he closed his eyes and pretend those lips belonged to someone else. But only for a few moments.

He flung her back in disgust and furiously started pressing buttons on the console. When the TARDIS had landed he grabbed Reinette by the arm and jostled her out the door.

He then set the coordinates back to 21st century London, about two months after he left her. Give her some time to get over this. Surely, after she'd realised how dull and pointless her life was she'd come running back to him with open arms?

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

It was two a.m. and Rose Tyler had just finished her shift at the bar. She was walking back to her mother's (she couldn't ever think of it as home again, now it was just 'her mother's') through the darkened alley of a quite London neighbourhood.

It'd been two months since she left him. Yes, deep down she was proud to say she left him, not the other way around. She missed him; of course she did. She'd left her heart on the TARDIS.

But Rose Tyler wasn't the kind of girl that would just breakdown, sink into a wallowing depression, without him. She knew she'd have to move on; Howard had gotten her this job at the bar. She was saving up, going to go back to school.

Maybe she'd even go to university, one day. She'd have a career. But she would never love again; never settle down with a husband and two children and a house in the suburbs. Never let anyone in. That was one experience she wouldn't, couldn't have.

Hey, it wasn't perfect. But it was a life, and at least she wouldn't get her heart broken any more.

Rose snapped back to reality. She could hear footsteps behind her. She quickened her pace a bit, but they kept following her. She turned around and gaped.

It was him.

"Doctor," she said calmly.

He coughed and mumbled rather awkwardly, "How have you been?"

"Doctor, what are you doing here?" She said this without hope, with a tinge of annoyance and exasperation.

"I got rid of Reinette. She's gone, I threw her out. You were right, she's a whore and I never loved her, it was always you. You can come back now! Come home, my Rose."

Rose faltered and the Doctor thought he'd won. But he was very wrong. She looked at him with pity and disgust.

"You just don't get it do you? It's not about her; what did she ever do, except love you? How long has it been for you Doctor? I bet it hasn't been more than five minutes. Did you even read it?"

"Read what?" he stammered.

"My diary. On my bed. Thought it might give you a bit of understanding. But I guess I don't even mean that much to you. So why do you want me to come back?"

He sighed and felt his temper rising. "I thought I'd made that perfectly clear!"

"Well I guess not, so enlighten me Doctor?"

TBC