She stared at him , unsure if she'd heard right. His eyes were flickering beneath his eyelids, and he was stirring uneasily in his sleep. She moved a little closer to try to hear what he was murmuring.
"Don't go, Rose!"
He shouted, so suddenly she jumped back.
"Doctor?" she asked softly. She was afraid to wake him from his dream, but she couldn't bear to hear him call out Rose's name again. His voice was so full of pain and tears, as if the pleading was being ripped out of him.
"Please…please…" he was saying, over and over again, his voice breaking. She couldn't move, frozen by the naked emotion in his voice. "Don't leave, don't leave alone, I can't bear to be alone…."
"You're not alone." she whispered, but he didn't hear her.
"No, another companion won't do!" he called, and she winced as if stabbed. She drew back, against the wall, trying to get as far away from the writhing man in the bed as possible.
"I want you, Rose. I need you." His voice was broken, imploring, beseeching, like a man at the end of his last tether. Whatever was happening in his dream, it was destroying him. She crawled slowly over the floor towards him.
"I love you, Rose." He murmured.
She crouched by the bed, shocked into immobility. She felt the world spin around her, but she stayed still, a statue, frozen into perpetual stillness.
He'd loved Rose.
She'd stayed all this time, knowing she loved him, believing he could never love her in return, because he could never love. But he had loved. It was there, in his words, his voice, the pain on his face, the silent weeping. He had loved.
She looked round. There must be a way out of the cell. Some way to escape. How could she stay, knowing this? Knowing he could never care for her, as she cared for him? Knowing that she would spend her life with him hoping and wishing and needing something he would only give Rose, not her? All those years stretched before, empty, lonely years, loving a man who had given his heart to someone else. She couldn't do it. She had to leave him.
His hand shot out and grabbed her arm, spinning her back round to him. His eyes were open, and for a moment she thought he had seen her decide to leave. But his eyes were unfocused and he was still muttering, and she realised he was still asleep. He was looking at her, but seeing someone else.
"Promise you'll never leave." He said in a harsh whisper. "Say it!" his grip was painful and tight, and his eyes those of desperate man.
"I'll never leave." She said quickly, to calm him.
"Promise!"
"I promise!" she said, and she found that deep inside herself, she meant it.
"Good." He muttered, as he closed his eyes. "Don't leave. Don't ever leave. You promised."