From This Day Forward

Eight

'D'you mind telling me what's in your head?' the Doctor demanded. 'You said you wanted out of here!'

'I do!' Rose insisted. 'It's just... I can't leave Chi here to deal with that Tane bloke or anyone else who tries to have a go at her!'

'And what d'you intend to do with the girl after the wedding? Is she supposed to come with us? Cos I don't do spouses or girlfriends or whatever you expect her to be. You want her, you stay here with her – and don't think I'm going back and explaining to your useless lump of a boyfriend what happened!'

'What do you know about divorce on this planet?' she countered, ignoring the dig at Mickey.

'I don't think it exists.'

'Well... well, if you can come up with something else to do, go ahead!' Rose shot back. 'I don't want to be married, but I also don't want Chi to get left to that other tosser. Especially when it's my fault in the first place.'

'Well, if you hadn't stalked off in a high dudgeon –'

'You were being an arse!'

'And you were being closed-minded! Accusing me of – of –' He foundered for a moment, before continuing, 'Telepathy isn't mind control, whatever they say in the films!'

'How would I know that? It's not like getting a straight answer out of you is a picnic! You should've told me from the beginning.'

He opened his mouth, possibly to retort angrily, but something stopped him. He appeared to be struggling with himself for a moment before he finally spoke again.

'Perhaps,' he granted her. 'If it'd occurred to me, I would've. But what you need to understand is that I'm... my people are – were...' He trailed off, catching and holding her gaze. 'I will never spy on your thoughts, Rose Tyler. Not unless you gave me permission to. Even then, that sort of thing is too...'

For a flickering instant his eyes went completely unguarded. In that rare instant of openness, she saw total honesty, mixed in with all the grief and anger and pain he'd been holding in.

And then it was gone again.

'Okay,' she said, a little more gently this time. 'Okay, glad we've got that sorted.' Rose took a breath and went on. 'And on the topic of things you shouldn't do, how about not treating me like I've got no idea what I'm talking about cos I'm human?'

'Well, you don't know what you're talking about,' he answered, but seeing her expression added, 'Compared to me.'

'Gelth?' she reminded him pointedly.

'That was...' he winced and shook his head. 'That shouldn't have happened. And it won't happen again. I got caught off-guard.'

'Because of the Time War.'

'... Yeah.'

'You've never really explained –'

'And I won't. All you need to know is it wasn't me who started it, but for all the good it did, I ended it. And countless species, like the Gelth, were caught in the crossfire.'

'If there were other aliens like the Gelth who snuffed it, I'd say you saved more people than you hurt.'

'Rose –'

'No, Doctor, they were bad news. Maybe once upon a time they was good, but not when we met them.'

'The Gelth were the victims of –'

'They were going to kill us and take over our bodies! And they were going to kill an entire planet of innocent people that hadn't done nothing to them, for no other reason than to use them!' Rose shot back. 'That's not victims, Doctor.'