Rose stands up and walks away, like she's in a dream: "I've gotta see him. I just wanna see him." The Doctor protests, and she gets angry: "You just said twenty-four hours!" (It's not about time, for once, and she knows that too.) "You can't become their daughter," the Doctor pleads, so far ahead, having just been through it. "That's not the way it works! Mickey, tell her!" Mickey stands as well: "Twenty-four hours, yeah?" The Doctor is completely lost, and asks Mickey where the hell he's going. Rose and Mickey start off in different directions -- opposite directions -- for the same reason. When the Doctor realized that Mickey was worth it, it was as much for disobedience as for a sense of adventure: like with Reinette when he deserted them, if they didn't do this, he couldn't love them. "I can do what I want!" shouts Mickey. That's my boy.

Rose and Mickey walk away, leaving the Doctor in the middle. Alone. "I've got the address and everything," Rose says, walking backward, as the Doctor shouts at them both to come back. Bad enough to lose them to real life, much less this sick Steel fantasy. "I just wanna see him," Rose repeats. "Got things to see and all," says Mickey. Like what? "Well, you don't know anything about me, do ya?" says Mickey to the Doctor. "It's always about Rose. I'm just a spare part." Just the heart. The spark. "I'm sorry," says Rose." I've gotta go." The Doctor turns from Rose, who is walking away, to Mickey, walking away. And Reinette not too far behind, and then Sarah Jane, and then Gallifrey, and then Ace, and then Adric. "Go on, then," spits Mickey, pointing at Rose. "No choice, is there? You can only chase after one of us, and it's never gonna be me, is it?" (Oh my God make up your mind, Mickey. I love it. Falling in love with the thing you were rivaling. If Jack were here, we'd have a math problem! So, then once Jake shows up it's calculus. Or chaos theory.) Rose stops walking backward and starts walking forward. Away. The Doctor makes his choice and shouts to Mickey: "Back here in twenty-four hours!" And as the Doctor runs after Rose, Mickey watches. Bluff called. "Yeah," he mutters. "If I haven't found something better." Girl, you have no idea.