The words were like a hammer to Rose's head. What was she thinking? She'd already caused enough trouble; did she really want to be responsible for that, too? Not quite believing that the Doctor was telling the truth, but not quite wanting to risk it, either, she tried to stop what she'd started. Then she realised; she couldn't stop it.

Because she didn't know how she'd done it in the first place.

"Doctor…" Rose tried to look at him, but she couldn't see him anywhere. Did she just imagine all that, then? Were the I love you's wishful thinking? They couldn't be…no, they really couldn't be, because she could hear someone else in the room. Her hand closed around something, and within a split second a face had appeared next to her.

"Rose? Oh, God, Rose, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I thought I'd gotten rid of it all! Just stop it, please, stop it now!"

"Can't. Don't know how…get it out, please, get it out…it hurts!" Rose opened her mouth to scream again, and this time it came out, shrill, deafening, and definitely nothing like a human scream. The Doctor's eyes widened in fright, his mouth practically scraping the floor. He tried to block the sound out, throwing his hands over his ears, but it still came, echoing round the med bay and reminding him, really very strangely, he thought, of crashing waves.

"ROSE!" he yelled, struggling to hear himself over her scream. He tried to move his hands to do something – anything – to help, but they felt like they were glued to his head. So he did the only other thing he could – he turned round and kicked the wall. Hard.

"Why did you have to do this?" he shouted at the empty air. "I know you wanted me to talk but look at her! How could you?"

"Doctor?" in his anger, he hadn't noticed the scream fade. The room had fallen silent again, and Rose lay there, protesting weakly at the straps on her wrists. "I think it's gone…"

The Doctor wandered over to the bed, his hands still pressed to his ears. "Rose, what did you do?"

"I don't know. I just wanted…I wanted to die, so bad…" Rose swallowed, appearing to ignore the Doctor's choked sob at hearing her say it. "'Cause I thought I deserved it, for killing him…you," she corrected. She looked at him, her own eyes full of tears. "I'm sorry, I'm-" she broke off, her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "Doctor, um…what's going on?"

"What do you mean?" He lowered his hands at last, and took hers again. "What…what can you see?"

"I can see your hearts beating. I can hear them." Well, that was certainly new. "Oh," she muttered, disappointed. "It's gone again. Can you get me out of these?" she added, changing the subject, albeit it abruptly.

"Yeah, sure." The Doctor set to work, too confused to really say anything more, and helped Rose sit up on the bed.

I'm sorry, Rose.

"That's okay," Rose whispered, drawing another confused look from the Doctor. "Thank you. Don't be mad at her," she said, to the Doctor this time. "She stopped me from doing…whatever it was I was doing. What happened?"

"You don't remember? You don't remember anything?"

"Up to the part where he…where the pictures started." Rose's lip shook, and she burst into tears again as she recalled the 'alternate version' of the emergency programme playing out in front of her. The Doctor didn't reply, just wrapped his arms round her, managing to talk straight into her neck and still make himself understood.

"Come on. We're going to go get cleaned up, then we're going to go and sit down somewhere with a cup of tea and some Merillian chocolate biscuits, and I'm going to tell you everything."

"Eh? Merillian chocolate biscuits?" Rose laughed despite herself.

"Best in the universe," the Doctor assured her, wiping her face with his thumb as they walked slowly out of the med bay, "three kinds of chocolate, and you can get them with little bits of cherry in. Fantastic."