"That isn't what I mean. You know that." The Doctor struggled up to a seated position. He didn't want to go into this flat on his back. He didn't want Rose to agree out of sympathy. He wanted her to know how serious he was. "There was more than just watching out for each other. We were heading for something else before it all went wrong. I never said it, but I could see it. This place is the only place where we can try to reach that something else again."
Rose had loved him, once. He hadn't been blind. He might have tried not to see it so clearly sometimes, might have braced himself for her inevitable loss, either when she decided that staying by his side was no longer what she wanted, or to age and disease, but he'd known how she felt.
"You were more than a companion to me, more than a friend. When you kissed the other me on that beach, I wished I were him, standing there, with just one heart and the possibility of spending the rest of my life with you."