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"I don't age. I regenerate. But humans decay. You wither, and you die. Imagine watching that happen to someone that you..."
"What, Doctor?" Rose prompted, hoping. Old companion come back, creepy bat monsters in a school, tin dog - hardly the time and place, but maybe this was somehow when he would finally say it.
"You can spend the rest of your life with me, but I can't spend the rest of my life with you. I have to live on. Alone. That's the curse of the Time Lords."
Rose's heart broke for him, as it often did. But it broke for herself, too, because this might be one thing that this brilliant man would never be able to give her.
But the next day, when they were cornered by the Krillitanes, the Doctor turned to her. There was the wildest, most intense fear in his eyes, and something told Rose it wasn't the monsters he was scared of. But how could this clever, clever man not see that he had nothing to fear? How could he not see that she would say it back, had only been waiting for him?
"Someone that you love."
And Rose crushed her lips to his. Finally.