Rose smiled and there would be no fighting on her end to break away from his embrace. Her head rested against him, and she hoped that even in some small way, she was making things easier for him.
Rose opened her mouth to answer but she couldn't find the right words. Like the Doctor, Rose didn't like thinking about the Doctor's regeneration. Yes, in so many ways it saved his life but actually see it happen before her eyes was a completely different feeling. Now add having to watch it through a screen knowing that back home this had really happened and Rose wasn't there to be with him, to see him in pain like that and not run to him was unbearable.
Her eyes fluttered and even if she had lied to the Doctor, her silence and the look on her face would tell the truth.
"Yes," she whispered. "Sometimes I try to convince myself I can get through it, the show I mean." Rose brushed her hair away from her eyes, her fingers touching the corner of her eye in an attempt to catch any tears that might form. "I wanted to run to you. To hold your hand and never let go." She tilted her head as she remembered the conversation she previously had with the Doctor. When he told her that he had gone to see her, one last time. Before she had even met him, the memory was still blurry, but it was there. "First and last," she agreed with a nod.