The Doctor shakes some napkins loose from the holder and holds them out to Rose, deciding against taking care of the stains on her clothes himself due to social constructs involving another person's thigh area.

"Thanks," she acknowledges briefly, taking the napkins and running them roughly across the fabric. "So Donna?"

"Yeah, Donna," he agrees, simultaneously sure and unsure what he's agreeing to.

She continues with the napkin as she speaks, "Did you know?"

"Know what?"

She lifts her head and gives him a look. "You know what. Did you know that Donna wasn't going to last much longer after she left?"

"Donna knew it, too," he tells her gravely.

She leans over the counter and deposits the soiled napkins in the trash, having done a decent job with the mess. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"It's not like it was your focus," he recalls with a barely perceptible note of humor.

Rose clenches her jaw at the note. "Gah, I knew I should have gone with him."

The Doctor clenches his own jaw at the sentiment, and Rose notices.

"Nah, I didn't mean it like that," she assures him only a little convincingly.

"What did you mean?" he challenges, somehow managing to keep any bitterness out of his voice.

Rose rests her elbow on the counter, not looking at him as she thinks of how to word her response. "The Doctor . . . he's not good without...well, you would know!"

"He's travelled loads without a companion."

"And how has that turned out for him?" Rose challenges.

"Fine," the Doctor assures her a tad aggressively. "Rose, he's outside. You've seen him. He's fine."

"You said that he'd decided to give up taking up people to travel with him," Rose recalls, pointing a finger at his chest. "What must have happened to him to change that, Doctor? What must have led him to decide that travelling without another person wasn't in his best interest?"

"I don't know, alright!" he admits. "I don't know! But I do know you're always going to choose him over me. But you can't change that you weren't with him, Rose. You didn't go with him. You stayed here. You can't change that."

Rose bites her lip and looks away from him. She puts a hand to her forward, then lowers it, then brings it back again. Very fidgety. When she speaks again, her voice is quiet.

"You knew Donna wouldn't last," Rose says. It's not a question.

The Doctor takes in her face for a long time, wondering what subtleties lay behind the statement. "Yeah."

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asks.

His expression hardens as he tries to think of an acceptable expression. "I could have."

"But you didn't."

"I . . . I didn't want you to go with him," he admits.

Rose lifts her gaze to his. She'd heard him plainly, but somehow thought to ask, "What?"

"I didn't want to lose you," he says. He didn't even have her at the time. He still didn't have her. But he definitely wouldn't if she'd left him, and it was a hope he didn't want to lose grip on, no matter how futile it seemed.

Rose regards him with wide, glimmering eyes, and he looks away from them.

It was selfish of him, she acknowledges to herself. But he's human now. He behaves that way sometimes. It's not right, but it's human.

"We kissed," she recalls distantly.

"To which instance are you referring?" the Doctor says blandly.

"The most recent one," she clarifies. "Are we . . . What was that supposed to mean?"

"It was your idea," he accuses. It was her idea both times, actually, which momentarily pleases him.

Rose chuckles lightly. "We also . . . I mean, I—I said something."

The Doctor doesn't miss a beat. "Yeah, you did."

"I didn't," a new voice joins in.

The Doctor and Rose start slightly as they turn to face the bow tie Doctor.

Rose begins, "How long have you been—"

"Longer than you'd be comfortable with," the Doctor assures her.

"Of course," Rose huffs.

"I was also eavesdropping longer than you'd be comfortable with an hour or so ago," he tells them, "and I witnessed the exchanged sentiments to which you are referring."

"You didn't that would've been a good time to interrupt?" Rose asks.

"A good time," he agrees, "but not the best time. You must agree that my entrance was impeccably timed. Much like my timed involvement into this conversation."

Rose gives him a comically annoyed look.

"Look, Rose," he begins, clasping his hands together, "leaving you was the right decision. The altruistic decision. The hero's decision."

"Was it?" Rose presses.

"Yes," he admits with some difficulty.

She propels herself toward him, looking into his eyes as she asks, "Then why did you come back?"

The sudden proximity startles the Doctor. Those are Rose's eyes. This is Rose's face. This is Rose's world. And it's all very unsettling. His eyes dart around her face for a while before he scrabbles up an answer.

"It was an accident."

"An accident?" Rose repeats, not breaking the eye contact, demanding he answer, demanding honesty. "If it was an accident, how come it happened three times?"

The Doctor frowns at this. "What?"

"Torchwood has been monitoring the imprints your ship makes in the surrounding environment," she explains quickly, "and has pinpointed areas of TARDIS interference. There have been two reported to me, and three including the time you actually managed to get through."

The Doctor backs away from her. "Rose, you're mistaken."

"She's right," Rose's Doctor confirms. "Pete told us about them and reported to incidents to us."

"Well, it wasn't me," the bow tie tells them. "I never tried to get here. I was here by accident, though Pond suggested Divine Intervention, which makes sense considering the nature of the situation I walked in and my previous—"

"Doctor!" Rose interrupts a bit rudely. "You didn't try?

"No, Rose, I didn't try. And I only experienced unusual turbulence the one time I got here."

"Only once?" Rose asks.

"Only once."