That surprised him. She'd never asked before. Always simply refusing to think of him as the Doctor, the only identity he'd had in so, so long. But there was anther bloke who wore that title now. And this wasn't him, no matter how hard he tried. He wasn't a Time Lord, he was a hybrid.
But, John Smith? An alias for so long, did it contain some part of him? It had been his identity back when he'd been hiding as a human, when the Family of Blood had been tracking him. When he'd fallen in love with Joan.
Too much pain. Too many regrets. Too many things lost, and too many things seen.
"As a man who loves you," he said. "And will love you, all the days of his life." It was the truest response he could give.