"I tried to tell her, Jack, I really tried. Before you turned up there was an…'incident'," the Doctor looked pointedly at the ceiling. "Rose found out what happened on the satellite. She thought she'd killed me, so she-"

"Tried to kill herself," finished the captain. "Yeah. Got an email this morning in Cardiff saying the London police wanted me to investigate some woman who was jumping off anything she could find. What I don't understand is, was it Rose deciding to do that, or that…thing?"

The two were sat on the floor in one of the TARDIS' corridors, having locked Rose in the 'star room.' The decision he'd been given – which all came to down to letting Rose live or die, and he hated to admit it to himself – really was too much. What he hated even more was that every second that passed sat out here, he was leaning more and more towards the selfish choice; to tell whatever had taken Rose to return her to him as she was now, like him. The second last of her kind, living and living while she watched her friends and her family die, and he knew he couldn't inflict that upon her. But at the same time…

"I think that was Rose," the Doctor said finally, sighing deeply. "I think she knew how dangerous this other self had become, and that together with all that hate…she couldn't take it, I suppose. "

"What are you going to do? We can't sit out here forever, you heard what it said, eventually she'll be gone completely."

"I don't know. I don't want to be alone anymore, Jack! And Rose…I swore I'd never let her…I swore I wouldn't love her. But I do. I want her so much, and not just for a few years, I want her forever. How can I do that to her? How can I do that, knowing that one day I'll stand with her at her mum's funeral?"

"Can't Rose choose?"

"There's barely enough of her left in there to make a decision like that."

"Let it have me," Jack suggested, "then talk to Rose, and I'll make it do what you say. This isn't right. You shouldn't have to do this on your own!"

"Why are you doing this?" asked the Doctor, changing the subject.

"You don't want to know."

"I do. Tell me."

"Trust me, you really don't want to know," insisted the captain, looking at anything but the Doctor. "Let's just say…it's a matter of the heart."

"You love her as well."

"Yes. Not like that, though, she's…she's a sister to me. Look, I've dealt with the fact that it's not 'meant to be,' and now I'm trying to save the part that is, okay? Can we not talk about this?"

They were both quiet for a moment, then the Doctor nodded sagely and whispered an, 'aha' under his breath, a smile threatening to crack the blank mask he'd adopted.

"Right then!" He jumped up suddenly, startling Jack from his embarrassed silence. "Let's go and talk to our friend!"

"You've decided?"

The Doctor smiled sadly. "Yes. I'm probably going to regret it later, but yes."