With the ghostly general's hand about to touch the Doctor and kill him, Rose shouted, "Matt, throw the other bag!"

Matt quickly grabbed one of the bags full of gold and threw it out of the tent at the same time as Rose.

Immediately, the ghosts attention moved from the Doctor straight toward the thrown bags. The General followed the bags, picked them up, and disappeared with them without a sound.

Rose walked outside to check if it was safe while the Doctor breathed easily having just escaped death. Under normal circumstances he would regenerate upon a death, but he knew full well that this General killed by stopping hearts, and it wouldn't be too much trouble for it to stop both of his. It's always a shock being that close to any death, but it's the permanent ones that really scare the Doctor. He really was that close.

Matt's father wasn't so lucky though as he lay still on the floor while Matt leaned down to hold his hand silently weeping. Over his shoulder he could hear Rose's voice who had just came back in. "I'm sorry, Matt, but he's dead now."

Matt turned his head to her hoping for understanding. "Yeah, he went out fighting... That's what he would have wanted."

Rose was suddenly overcome with emotions for Matt and hugged him despite the Doctor standing right near them. She knew exactly how the young man felt thinking back to the day she watched her father die on that street corner. Her father had saved the day and went out strong, and she couldn't explain it, but she could see a younger part of herself in Matt now. Rose suddenly didn't care if what she had done or was currently doing was risky. The Doctor already seemed to know that she was guilty about something and her kiss earlier with Matt definitely gave the poor guy the wrong impression, but she couldn't help it. Rose knew how it felt to lose a father and she had to comfort him.

Matt squeezed her back tightly during the hug to which she allowed for a second before breaking free and planting a kiss on his cheek. As soon as she turned from Matt's smiling face she saw the Doctor's and realized that her decision could suddenly ruin everything.

The Doctor's face held a mixture of shock and betrayal in what he had just seen. He angrily dropped the small piece of gold that was in his hand to the ground as he annoyingly asked, "Are you done now?"

Rose knew that reacting emotionally to the Doctor at the moment would be a major mistake, but she could not help it as she yelled, "What is your problem?"

"I hope you're not being serious right now, Rose."

"He just lost his father, Doctor! He even died right in front of him. Besides, I don't see why you should even care who I kiss. And it was on the cheek for god's sake!"

The Doctor was fuming, but it was his calm composure that was the most frightening to Rose. "You're not telling me something."

Matt addressed the Doctor. "Don't you think you're being a little too overprotective of your sister, Doctor. I'm a good man." Rose could not believe how much worse it was starting to get.

The Doctor got right up into Matt's face in an intimidating pose as he almost spit distastefully, "She lied to you, Matt. I'm not her brother." The Doctor stepped away and looked Rose in the eye. "And you… You just…"

"Why don't you keep running, Doctor? Run, from your feelings because it doesn't matter where you go and who you're with because their always going to be there. Even in the farthest reaches of the universe they'll be there and they'll never leave you."

"Only, you won't, anymore."

"Funny, because I don't believe you and I never will." As mad as the Doctor was, he knew Rose was right even if he'd never admit it. "First trip, where do you take me? The end of the bloody world. First trip with just us again, a planet without humans. I'm special to you, Doctor, because I know you'd never share those things with someone you didn't care about and you're just going to have to realize that someday."

Rose's words hit the Doctor hard and as much as he wanted to respond, he didn't.

With things deathly quiet Matt had questions for Rose on his mind but knew that he'd only make matters worse. He really did have a million of them ranging from what she had just said about planets and her knowledge of aliens all the way to what in the hell that kiss not even an hour ago meant. Still, he knew it was time to move on from this so he offered, "Maybe we should…"

Both the Doctor and Rose interrupted him. "Shut up!"

"Oh, alright then!"

Emotions were high, but all three of them knew what was important at the very moment. The General was on the loose and could very well kill another miner very soon. With all of their emotions bubbling over each took a breath in their own way and tried to keep their feelings to themselves for the moment.

The Doctor lightened up and put on a happy face while bending down to reach for the golden nugget again and put it into his pocket for later. "So the General thinks he owns these hills, does he?"

Matt offered, "We can't fight it, unfortunately, but maybe there's someway we can outsmart it." The Doctor smiled at that. Under the circumstances he supposed he should hate Matt given that he still had no idea what they must be hiding from him, but he was rather impressed by the man.

Rose suggested, "The General is after the gold, what if we, say, devise a trap!"

The Doctor grinned at that. "That could work, but how will we set it up?" Again, he felt he should stay angry at his companion, but he had always loved brilliance no matter where it came from and especially so in this body.

Matt became excited as he offered, "Well, since we don't know, let's do what most folk do and go explore! I've got a couple of torches here. Doctor, you can have one. Rose we can share. We need to do this for my dad." Rose grinned, thinking about how she once had said something similar.

The Doctor and Matt grabbed a torch in the tent, lit them in the still blazing camp fire, and the three of them walked out of the camp and into the mountains in the middle of the night…