Set sometime after 9.8. Last one from me for a month so definitely a oneshot.
Harry opened the front door. Behind him the heat and comfort of his living room, before him a cold, stormy night stabbed by stair-rods of rain.
He stood, surprised, immobile.
"Ruth…..you're soaking."
"Really, I hadn't noticed. Any chance of coming in?"
"Oh, god I'm sorry," and he jumped out of the way, finally ushering her in.
She stood in the hallway and dripped.
They both looked at each other.
"You shouldn't be here," he said not really believing it.
"I know, but I had to talk to you."
"Were you followed?"
"At first. Though if you hadn't let me through the front door eventually I'm sure they would have caught up with me."
"Again, I am sorry. I was just a little surprised to see you. Please, let me take your coat."
He held out his hands to help her and she turned away from him to shrug off her coat. It didn't shrug off. It peeled off. She could feel and he could see that her blouse beneath it was equally wet, the soaking material clinging to her shoulders.
She turned to him, crossing her arms suddenly aware how cold she was and painfully aware that her shirt was revealing more than was quite right.
Harry was also aware. Very aware. Blissfully aware.
"Harry have you got a towel?' she asked, needing refuge from the look in his eyes.
"You need to get undressed," was his answer.
Suddenly the world fell very quiet and still, both shocked by what had been said.
"I mean, you need to get dry and a towel won't do it."
She nodded.
"Go upstairs, take any of my clothes and I can put yours into the drier. If you're cold jump in the shower."
She looked at him. This was an awful lot more than she had bargained for. Coming to his house was one thing but now she was on the verge of his shower and his bedroom, well his wardrobe, she corrected herself.
"Ruth, go on, please."
He nodded towards the stairs.
Ruth smiled shyly and started up them.
Harry put the kettle on.
Ruth found the bathroom and took a shower. She found the shower gel that smelt so familiar and bathed in the aroma. She lifted the lid of his aftershave and breathed it in. She was awash with Harry.
Wrapped in a large blue towel she opened the bathroom door carefully to make sure he was not there and then padded across the hall in search of clothes. She was in Harry's bedroom. She could hear him downstairs. She pulled open a drawer and then another. Somehow her hand seemed to run it's way over his clothes before she shut them. Finally she settled upon a blue shirt and slipped it over her shoulders, letting the towel fall to the floor. She needed more than this, they couldn't have a conversation with her dressed in so little. They both found it hard enough to concentrate normally. She settled upon a pair of grey tracksuit bottoms she found at the bottom of a drawer.
She padded down the stairs and looked for Harry in the kitchen, her arms full of her still soaking clothes.
"Hi," said Harry. There was something deeply satisfying about seeing her dressed in his clothes.
"Hi," she answered and glanced at her things.
"Over here," he said and pulled open the door of the washer/drier. He turned to take the clothes but thought better of it as her bra dangled from her arms and she looked particularly alarmed at the thought of it in his hands.
"Thanks," she said and bundled them in, letting him set the dial.
"I've made a pot of tea. Are you hungry, Ruth?"
"No, tea's just fine, thank you."
They walked back into the living room both clutching a cup of tea.
Harry was smiling.
"What's so funny?" asked Ruth.
"Well, here we are, not meant to be communicating at all because of the Inquiry and instead there you are sat on my sofa, wearing my clothes."
She smiled now.
"Sometimes you just have to do the unexpected," she said, wondering if the two of them had ever done anything unexpected together in their lives. Then she thought about his proposal, that had certainly been unexpected and look at how she had reacted. She wasn't good with the unexpected.
Harry wondered if he were to do something unexpected now how she would react. Not well, he concluded and so he did nothing.
"So….." he said.
"So….." she said.
"What did you need to talk to me about, Ruth?"
"The Inquiry."
"I gave away a state secret."
"You gave away a bluff."
"A bluff?" he queried, maintaining the lie.
She didn't answer him but raised her eyebrows, it was enough.
"You should have told me, Harry."
"That's the trouble with secrets," he said quietly, a small smile in his eyes. He was glad she had discovered the truth. He hoped her respect for him may return now.
"The Home Secretary has told me that I'll need to attend," she added.
He nodded. It was no great surprise. If they were to investigate why he had given away something so important, the least they could do was to talk to the woman for whom he had done it.
"You must tell them the truth," he said simply.
"Harry, that's what I need to talk to you about, what I'm going to tell them."
"And what are you going to tell them, Ruth?"
"I'm going to tell them that you would have made the same decision to save any of your team. That you risked something that didn't work. That you would have intended to give it up only to regain it. That you were playing the game, playing Lucas and that it went awry when the team lost him, when Maya was accidentally shot. That the fact it was me, made no difference."
"But it did make a difference, Ruth."
"No, Harry, it didn't at all because there was nothing between us other than the loyalty of colleagues and the need to protect them. That was the extent of our feelings. Respect and loyalty."
There was a long moment where Harry's hopes left him.
"That's what you'll tell the Inquiry?" he said finally.
"Yes. We work together. Nothing more. And that's what you must tell them. They can criticise the decision but they can't criticise the motive."
"I'm not sure I can lie about that, Ruth."
"Yes, you can."
"It's easy for you."
"Yes, it is easy for me," she affirmed.
He nodded and looked into his tea. It was as he thought, as he feared.
She waited for him to say something but nothing was forthcoming.
"I once gave up everything to save you, so this…this lie, is easy, Harry. It's as easy as breathing."
"What are you lying about?"
She looked at him. Was he not listening at all.
"The lie about us."
"What about us, Ruth?"
She sighed, this was hard work. She looked down wondering if she should have fastened more buttons on his shirt.
He sighed.
"Oh for heaven's sakes Harry, how difficult can it be?" she was exasperated now.
"We both lie, tell them we felt nothing for each other"
"And that's a lie?" he said, hoping he was understanding.
"Yes, of course."
"Then what's the truth, Ruth?"
"The truth is that you gave Albany up because you loved me," she said, quite matter of factly.
"Wrong tense," he corrected.
She looked at him and looked away.
"And your truth, Ruth? What about your part in all this?"
"I tell them that there was nothing between us and I felt nothing for you, when the truth is I did."
"Tense?" Harry asked what felt like the most important grammatical question of his life.
"Wrong tense," corrected Ruth and this time she did not glance away, "do, not did."
"We lie about how we feel," he murmered.
"Yes. We don't love each other, Harry."
"We never did."
"No. Never."
"And never would we want to be any more than colleagues, Ruth?"
"Never"
"And we lie?"
"Yes we lie."
They both paused and smiled.
Harry moved from his chair and crossed to the sofa. His mouth moved to Ruth's cheek, and his hand to the small of her back.
"Ruth, I really and truly don't love you to distraction"
"That's good because I don't love you too."
"Ruth, I think I'd like my shirt back now, please."
"I've got rather attached to it, Harry."
"Oh I don't think so," he said and began to kiss her neck.
Hope you enjoyed