"Long enough to know you have been spreading all that end of the universe nonsense again. That is just rubbish. No one believes you. You would think you would know that by now."

"Rose, it's the truth…"

Jackie broke in. "You're killing him Rose! Just look at him!"

The Doctor looked over at Jackie, silently appealing to her to please, please keep quiet. Don't let Rose know just how bad off he was. It was no use. Jackie was furious and was determined to be heard.

"At best he has only a couple of months to live, if you keep firing that thing he might not even make it to the end of the week!"

Rose eyed the Doctor sizing him up. "That seems a bit extreme. What's wrong with him?"

"Something about the energy here. It's wrong and it hurts him. I don't really understand it, but that thing of yours makes it worse."

Rose stared at the Doctor working her lower lip. He could tell she was thinking hard, not wanting to believe what her mother had told her, trying to find a reason not to. "How are you sure he's not just having you on? I've seen the real Doctor, the proper Doctor lie convincingly, that might be ONE thing the two of them have in common."

"Why would I lie?" the Doctor asked his voice deadly serious. "What would I possibly have to gain?"

"Oh, I don't know," Rose drawled tilting her head to the side as she looked down at him. "make them all sympathetic towards you? Help get them on your side? Who can tell what someone like you is up to?"

"I don't need to get them on my side. Pete has always been on my side. Didn't he try to stop you from building the cannon in the first place?"

"Yes, and you saw where that got him, relegated to bean counting. He tries that again and he'll be out of a job. He knows better than to cross me now."

Pete stood up indignant at Rose's assumption. "You think I'm there because I need a job? Look around you girl," He gestured with a sweep of his arm. "A government salary doesn't even come close to buying all of this! I am there because someone sane has to keep an eye on things. Watch out for this planet's welfare."

"There you go again," Rose replied, sarcasm dripping from her voice. "Pete Tyler, caretaker of the planet, the scourge of global warming. It's that kind of nonsense that got you tossed out of operations in the first place."

"Cut it out! Both of you!" cried Jackie as she rose to her feet. "This isn't about jobs! It's about the Doctor dying and what are we going to do about it."

Rose looked from the Doctor to her mother and back, clearly not pleased with the situation. "I don't see how anything I am doing could be affecting him. He was back here when I tested it last."

"16:35" said the Doctor

"What?!" Rose exclaimed.

"16:35 was the time of the last test. I felt it."

"So, you feel lots of things, doesn't mean it's hurting you."

"Rose, he fell down onto his knees. Look at his trousers," Jackie yelled, frustrated at how thick her daughter was being. "He was out with Tony and Shadow and your machine made him fall."

Rose looked at the Doctor's trousers, narrowing her eyes when she saw the mud on them. "So, he's a klutz. Doesn't mean he's dying, or even sick."

The Doctor just closed his eyes resting his forehead in his hand; this really wasn't getting them anywhere.

Pete spoke softly trying to get Rose to see the truth. "Rose, haven't you noticed? Every time you fire the cannon he leaves the building. He doesn't come back until it's been fired a second time. At the end of the day you mother is pouring tea down him and he winds up in bed before sunset. Why do you think that is?"

"What do I care about when or where he goes to bed, so long as it isn't with me," Rose replied with a disgusted look on her face.

The Doctor winced and rubbed his forehead. Sleeping with her had really been a bad idea.

Pete continued, carefully staying calm. The Doctor could tell it was an effort for him. "Rose, it's not about that. It's about him getting sick on those days. You're the only one who doesn't see it. Karen at the stable today, took one look at him, and didn't argue about taking care of Shadow for us. That's how bad he looked."

The Doctor shook his head, this was getting humiliating. He could feel Rose staring at him. He lifted his head up. She was considering him carefully, lips pursed as she tried to fit the evidence in front of her with what she wanted to believe.

"Well he is a bit off. I suppose it could be he isn't faking it."

"A bit off!" Jackie yelled. "The man is almost green! He may be a Timelord, but I don't think that is a good color for him."

"Well if he is sick, all the more reason to get back to the Doctor. He would know what to do."

The Doctor spoke up, tired of being talked over. "He's not going to know what to do, anymore than I do. Can't you see that I know everything he does? About this problem I know more than he does. The energy here is wrong. That is all there is to it. Neither of us realized how much energy I needed, or how toxic the energy here would be to me. There is no way to change the energy here so I can use it. If there was he would have done that to fuel the TARDIS when he first came here, instead of using ten years of his own life. There is nothing either he or I can do. What's done is done."

Rose looked at him suspiciously. "If the energy here is so wrong, and you are dying from it, why aren't you trying to get back? You obviously know what I really need that power source for. Why haven't you built it? You could go back with me, save your life."

"Because the consequences of going back are too great. My life is not worth destroying an entire universe for."

"That's not true. No universes get are going to get destroyed just because either you or I go back. If that was true, he wouldn't have smiled when I told him I used the dimension cannon so I could get back to him."

The Doctor loved his brother, but right now he could cheerfully have strangled him for his idiotic behavior when it came to Rose. "Yes, he was flattered that you would go to all that effort to see him, but when he realized that what he had predicted would happen, was indeed happening, he wasn't very happy, was he? The universes were collapsing, all of them, it was even worse than he had said it would be..."

"That's not because of me! That was Davros!"

The Doctor shook his head, frustrated, they had been down this road before, but he had to try again. "Rose why do you think he sealed the breach? Why did he make it so the dimension cannon wouldn't work again?"

"Because of you! That's why! I got left here, because of you!" There was a catch in her voice. "If you hadn't killed all the Daleks, I could still be with him. He sealed it up because you are too dangerous! It's all your fault!"

The Doctor gave a sigh of exasperation and rubbed his eye, trying to gather his thoughts, trying to think of a way to get her to see reason.

Jackie jumped in, taking advantage of the lull in the conversation. "Rose, what you are doing is killing him, Can't you see that? Look at him. He could barely move after what you did today. You've known the Doctor longer than any of us. Can't you see how bad off he is?"

Rose became even more upset. "He's not the Doctor! Why am I the only one who can see that? He's not even a man. He can't have children. He's even got a pet rock, what kind of grown man carries a pet rock around?" The Doctor was about to put his hand in his pocket, to reassure the coral and stopped himself, not wanting to give her further ammunition.

"Rose!" Jackie yelled sharply to get her attention then lowered her voice. "I don't care about what he is carrying around. I care about him staying alive. You can't keep using that thing. It's killing him."

Rose looked at the Doctor, who was the only one in the room still sitting. He saw her glance at the throw on the floor and then looked him square in the eye. Her face softened a little. "How does it hurt you?" she asked.

The Doctor took a deep breath and spoke softly. "Whenever you fire the dimension cannon, it creates a shock wave. That shock wave pushes the energy of this universe into my field, poisoning it. I have to use the energy I have in me from the other universe to clear it. There's not much left."

"And you have two more months to live if I don't fire the dimension cannon?"

"At most. Yes, two months," the Doctor confirmed his voice still low.

"I suppose I could hold off testing it until you're gone."

Jackie gasped, shocked. "Rose! How could you say such a thing?"

"But mum, it all works then. He's said there is nothing anyone can do. The Doctor left me here to take care of him. After he's gone, there is no reason for me to be here, I can go back."

Her words hit the room like a bomb.

The Doctor took a deep breath and tried one more time. "The reason for you to stay here is because if you leave using the dimension cannon, you will start to collapse all the universes again. You have family here that cares about you. Don't they mean anything?"

Rose looked uncomfortable and stared at the floor, twisting the toe of her shoe into it. She raised her head, looking more determined than ever. "They have each other and Tony, they don't need me. The Doctor does, he said so."

The Doctor put his hands to his face and shook his head, wishing his brother had chosen his words to Rose more carefully. He dropped them and tried again. "Rose don't you understand, if you manage to get back you will destroy yourself, him, your family, everything!"

Rose was crying now, tears running down her face. "That's not true, it can't be. He needs me; I have to be with him."

"Rose it's true, I know a part of you knows that. No matter how hard you try to bury it. Somewhere inside, you know the truth!"

"You're wrong! You know nothing about me! You know nothing about us or love or anything. You're just a fake. Everything about you is false." She turned to leave the room.

The Doctor realized what he had to do. "I'll help you," he said "I'll help you get back." Rose stopped in her tracks at his words.