What, he wondered, had happened there? He'd been all set to destroy them, for once and for all. And then – he hadn't.
Because of Rose.
And now he'd let this new kid join them, some stuck up whiz kid from the England of Rose's future, simply because she'd asked him to.
He wondered what he'd have said if she'd asked him to let Mickey come with them. Even though Mickey himself hadn't wanted to. He'd felt very gracious, offering him that chance. Although more than a small part of him had been very relieved – joyous, even, that he'd turned the offer down.
He wondered what Rose was thinking. She was stood, gazing unseeingly at the main control panel of the TARDIS. His own mind kept going back to the Dalek's words.
The woman you love.
He'd barely thought about it at the time, he'd been more concerned about her. But now…
Love.
It was a big, scary concept, even for him. And that was saying a lot.
How had she reacted? He got the feeling that she too, had been more concerned with events at the time. Which meant that chances were, she was thinking about it now. He glanced over at her, still lost in thought.
Did he love her? Something had made him go back for her. Yes, he'd been lonely, but he'd been lonely before. And for those few moments when he'd thought she was gone – it had felt like something had snapped inside him. Something that had made him want to smash that Dalek into tiny, tiny pieces for scaring him like that. Until she'd told him not to.
Something that, right now, made him really, really wish that he hadn't given in to her and let this young human boy join them. A young human boy who was clearly eyeing his chances with her. He frowned.
Then gain, he wouldn't want to refuse her anything.
Still, love? He dismissed it from his mind. Why should he believe a Dalek anyway?