A New Adventure
Of course I don't own anything. But it is fun to dream.
This is set sometime after the 9.1. I believe that Harry needs to discover that Ruth is what is missing on the perfect mission.
Sonnet 36
Let me confess that we two must be twain,
Although our undivided loves are one:
So shall those blots that do with me remain,
Without thy help, by me be borne alone.
In our two loves there is but one respect,
Though in our lives a separable spite,
Which though it alter not love's sole effect,
Yet doth it steal sweet hours from love's delight.
I may not evermore acknowledge thee,
Lest my bewailed guilt should do thee shame,
Nor thou with public kindness honour me,
Unless thou take that honour from thy name:
But do not so, I love thee in such sort,
As thou being mine, mine is thy good report.
Harry looks out over his desk and out on the Grid. Finally, a day he can have some peace. His head was aching from lack of sleep and too much scotch but his fingers were still nimbly leafing through op reports and security briefings. When did paperwork ever become more important than real on the ground intel. He could remember when he could call a dozen people around London and immediately know what was going on on the ground. Now, without his techies he would be bereft of most of the salient details of even the most immediate threats in the vicinity of Thames House. Where was this world going?
Then as he looked out once again onto the Grid, he remembered that even in the midst of a confused world that there was a spot of sanity. He looked out and saw Ruth. When he looked at this woman he did not see only flesh and bone but instead he saw an idea. He saw hope and truth and sometimes he even saw love. Lately though with all of the confusion over her pain he was beginning to think he imagined the love.
He knew that if anything was ever going to be worth living that he would have to change. That his life would have to change but what could he possibly do to make things right.
As the lights of the Grid began to dim and the air of dusk settled over the remaining personnel the lone woman in the corner desk looked up from her computer screen. The threat mentioned was AA but after further review she realized that some desk spook had mistaken a drop off of some innocent farm materials for something more sinister. As she went over her third review of the data she typed up the final threat assessment and changed the rating to a more innocuous level. As she looked around the room she wondered how often just a little bit of experience, a little more information and that one glint of genius that an analyst could sometimes draw upon could make or more often break an operation. She knew that without her colleagues in the field that nothing was possible but she sometimes wondered if they undervalued the work of her staff of analysts. Collating the thousands of disparate pieces of data coming in weekly into intelligence sources required constant vigilance. If even one crucial detail was missed then the country, their country, could be sacrificed at the hands of extremists or maybe even worse at the hands of their own volatile financial markets.
Ruth knew that her job was important but sometimes, just sometimes she wished that she could just stop. Turn off her computer, step away from her desk and live a normal life. Not carrying the cares of the world on her slight shoulders but instead enjoying the world she worked to protect. She knew that others walked down the street at the end of the day, visited their neighborhood pub and maybe, just maybe when they fell in love the world didn't come tumbling around their shoulders. Ruth hungered for that and some days she even felt like she deserved it.
Harry moved from behind his desk and picked up the paper lying atop the pile on his desk. What was he thinking, he could never actually do this. What separated him from the others wasn't just a glass wall but the decisions he made. He had to be willing to give it all up for the people he served. If he did this he might never be able to come back.
But then again he knew that if this worked then he could possibly have it all. Maybe life was still about living. He wanted desperately to believe that instead of a lonely house and a bottle of scotch that there might be more waiting for him. He would do it.
He just didn't know how.
He lifted the sheet to look down at the last lines. Then he looked up over the paper at the answer to the question, he saw that beautiful head pop up and those unbelievably entrancing blue eyes lock with his. She never smiled these days but he saw in the glint of her eyes that she was not angry. She was sad but even in this she was determined to move forward. He knew that no matter how much pain she suffered that she would always give her best. Now he needed her to do more than that. He needed to convince her to let go of the pain and make a decision to live. Would she?
Stepping to his door he slid it open. He stepped partway out and turned to her desk, "Ruth, can you come in for a moment, there is something I need to discuss with you."