The Doctor, in a state of deepest concentration, spent the next several hours making calculations and setting his instruments accordingly. Rose sat quietly curled up on a sofa in the adjacent sitting room, not wanting to disturb him. She didn't know precisely what he was doing; but she suspected this was the "walling-off" process of separating his universe from the others, containing the "rip effects," whatever they were. With every flip of a switch, she knew she was going farther from her Doctor, her first Doctor—well, technically, her second Doctor. How many Doctors had she met so far? She counted them up—seven. Seven Doctors, all so different. And yet, all so similar, all but one.
"Well, that's it for now. I think I've contained the worst of it. Should hold until I can do a proper job." The Doctor collapsed next to her onto the sofa.
"Good, that's good," said Rose, soothingly.
"It's the least I can do—not destroy other universes the way I've wrecked my own..." He looked at Rose for a moment, then touched a finger to her cheek. Rose realised she had been crying. "Oh, Rose," he said, quietly. "We didn't even find your Doctor."
"That's not why I'm sad, not entirely," said Rose, brushing away the rest of her tears. "It's just that I..." She trailed off. What was she going to tell him? That the trauma of some great catastrophe--perhaps this great catastrophe--combined with endless years of loneliness would break him? That he would wither into an angry, bitter old man--a man who seemed to have turned his back on everything the Doctor ever stood for? No, that would be too cruel. Besides, it didn't necessarily have to happen, did it? It wouldn't happen, not to this Doctor, not if she could help it.
Rose moved closer to the Doctor, and put her head on his shoulder. "I made up my mind to stay with you. That's what I wrote in the note. I just wanted to tell him goodbye properly, that's all."
"I...I don't understand."
"You were right about him—my Doctor. When I met him, he was broken. I think it was because he went through something horrible, and he had to do it all on his own. I think you've been through something like that tonight. I don't want you to break. I don't want you to be alone."
Meanwhile, back on the restaurant, a blue police box slowly materialised in the now-quiet, intact, and again very dark timeship hangar. The door opened. A man stepped outside. He was tall and thin, with angular features and a mop of unruly dark hair. With hands that trembled slightly, he buttoned the jacket of his rumpled pin-striped suit, and straightened his tie. He took a deep breath and blew it out through his lips. "Right. Here we go," he said to himself, as he left the hangar.
The Doctor approached the entrance hall tentatively, his wide eyes darting about, as if he were searching for something in the gloom. The Proprietor glanced up from his desk. "Aaaaaay, Doctor!" He strode forwards and pulled the Doctor into a hug, and kissed him on both cheeks. "Good to see you again. Before I forget, I have a message for you." He held up a note, torn in two, every inch covered in writing.
Somewhat surprised, the Doctor took the note, and turned it over several times. Then he put the pieces together, reading it from the very beginning. He chuckled at the first reply to his original message; but read the subsequent messages with increasing dismay. He puzzled over the calculations; then paled when he comprehended their meaning. He was about to put the note aside, when he caught sight of a little message scrawled in the margin, in handwriting different from all the rest. He read it through several times. Then he slowly folded the note and tucked it carefully into his jacket pocket. He looked up.
On the wall of photographs behind the Proprietor's desk, there was a new picture hanging: the Proprietor, Rose, and a man who strongly resembled his Eighth incarnation. The Doctor reached up, and took it off the wall. He traced their figures with his finger. Finally, he murmured, "Quite right, too..." He put the picture down.
He turned to the Proprietor. "Table for one."