This is fluffy nonsense, set early season 5, before Harry asked Ruth to dinner. Maybe 3 chapters when finished. Enjoy.
"What! Oh come on!" Ruth said into the phone, raising her voice because her usual composure was rapidly vanishing. This was her fourth call of the morning with the same answer.
"Sorry Miss. It's a bank holiday Monday, no way are you going to get a plumber. And if someone does come out you'll be paying triple the rate."
"My kitchen is under four inches of water!" Ruth shouted. "Water is streaming from my washing machine, its starting to seep into my living room and it looks like I'm living in a rain forest! You're telling me there is nothing you can do?"
"I can give you a couple of numbers, but I don't hold much hope for you. Sorry. I can come between nine a.m. and one p.m. tomorrow."
Tomorrow Ruth would be hacking into the Iraqi database to follow three suspected British terrorists. She didn't have four hours to wait in for the plumber. "Don't bother," she said curtly. "I'll… figure it out." She disconnected the call without even saying goodbye and then looked down. She was, quite literally paddling in her kitchen. Her feet and ankles were completely submerged, water creeping up her jeans, and it was still pouring out of the bloody washing machine. She'd opened the back door, to try and get rid of some of the flood, but it was only a temporary fix.
"Perfect," she said, surveying the damage. "My first bank holiday off in more than a year, and I'm suffering with a flooded kitchen. Great."
She held the phone, debating who to call. Or more accurately, wondering if it was out of line to call Harry. Because the plumber was right, no one would come out on a bank holiday. She knew it was taking advantage of the friendship they shared, and she knew that he had no expertise in plumbing. But she also knew that if she called him, he'd come. She felt a little twinge of guilt that she was planning on using him like that, which was what was making her hesitate.
"Oh shit." Her kitchen door opened, seemingly of its own accord, letting more water flow into the rest of her house. That made up her mind for her. She dialled his number.
"Ruth? Are you all right?"
"Er, yes I'm fine," she said, knowing that he was referring to her physical well being. The downside to being a spy was that you always thought the worst when you received an unexpected call. "But I do need help and… I'm sorry to call you, but I really don't have anyone else." That was true, as much as she didn't like to admit it."
"What's wrong?"
"Do you have plans today?" she asked. "I don't want to interrupt."
"Ruth, what's wrong?" he asked simply.
"My kitchens flooded," she said. "I don't know what to do, and no plumber will come out on a bank holiday."
"Okay," he said. "Turn off the water supply."
"Yeah, I don't know how to do that," she said. "I didn't familiarise myself with the plumbing when I moved in, and I've since spent all of my spare time doing paperwork on the grid."
"I'll be right over," he said, and she could hear the slight amusement in his voice. If she wasn't so annoyed, she'd be able to see the funny side too. She could break into any global institution. She could track any one person out of the six and a half billion or so who walked the earth. And she was being defeated by a little water problem. Yes, she could see the irony. She sighed and kicked the water in question, causing a loud and unsatisfying splash.
Harry went around the back of her house, seeing the open back door. "Hi," he said loud enough for her to hear over the rushing water. She looked up from the devastation of her kitchen and smiled at him, a little tiredly. "I didn't know who else to call," she said, her voice slightly apologetic.
Harry shook his head. "Don't worry." He took a moment to look at her and thought she'd never looked more beautiful. She wore jeans, wet to the thighs and an over sized mans shirt (whose? He wondered) with the sleeves rolled up. Her hair was tied into a bun, but her hair was short enough that tendrils had come down and were framing her face. She looked breathtaking, if you ignored the water pooling around her feet and flowing out into the (now waterlogged) garden. "So you need help?"
"Please," she said eagerly. He smiled at her in a way which made her heart skip a beat.