A/N: This is a one-shot set in April 2013. Obviously AU. I can't decide on a genre, so it's genreless.
Characters belong to Kudos, other than George Fairbrother, whom I cooked up myself.
Dimitri Levendis glances up at the office of the section head, and as always, experiences a moment of surprise, even shock to see Erin sitting in the chair, her dark head bent over an open file on her desk. Although she has occupied the office for the past fourteen months, to Dimitri the office still belongs to Harry. Perhaps it always will.
"Calum, can you look at this?"
George Fairbrother, the new intelligence analyst (`new' as in having already filled Ruth's shoes for thirteen months) sits back in his chair to allow Calum a full view of his monitor.
"What am I meant to be looking at …... the forearms on Mr America, or all that water falling over that bloody big cliff in the background?"
"Mr Germany, actually."
Dimitri tunes out, as the two men banter about a photograph displayed on George's monitor. He really should suggest that they each have ample work to occupy them for several days, perhaps weeks, but he also recognises the value of these lighter moments between colleagues.
It may be a few seconds, or perhaps minutes later when Dimitri feels rather than hears a change in Calum. He is not speaking, so it is not his voice, but a rare stillness in him, as he stands beside George.
"Where did you get this photograph, George?" Calum says at last. "Who sent it to you?"
"It was on Facebook. Pete, the guy on the left -"
"Get him to remove it from Facebook. Now."
That is the moment Dimitri looks up, to see the fear in Calum's eyes.
"Those people in the background, standing by the fence …... they're …... ours."
"Spies? What are spies doing at Niagara Falls?"
"George …... tell your …... friend, boyfriend, whatever he is to you, to get this picture off Facebook immediately, if not before."
"It's alright, Calum. He already did that. Just to be on the safe side, since Walter is a former BND operative. Pete has a thing for secret service guys." George smiles at a memory he's not about to share.
Dimitri notices Calum stand up straight, and the tension leave his body. He then breathes in slowly, and exhales, the breath leaving his body in a heavy sigh.
"So ….. what is your ex-boyfriend doing with a German secret service -"
"Former German secret service agent. I already told you. Pete likes the danger. What's wrong? Did I do something wrong? Tell me."
Calum realises how young George is – still only 24 – and he turns away from him, and only then does he notice Dimitri looking his way. "Mate," Calum says, his voice flat, "you'd better have a look at this."
Dimitri moves to stand at Calum's shoulder. He leans over George's left shoulder and peers at the image which fills the 21 inch monitor in front of them.
"Holy shit," is all Dimitri can say, his voice almost a whisper.
George turns in his seat, his dark eyes peering at Dimitri, looking for some sign, some reason he and Calum had reacted as they have. After all, it's just a couple of guys with their arms around one another in front of Niagara Falls, and it is the twenty first century, and men do sleep with men, so it's about time people just got over it. Right?
"It's not your friends -" Dimitri says, his voice very calm.
"Friend. Pete is an ex of mine, and we're now friends. The other guy is-"
"It's not the two men we're interested in, George. It's the couple standing against the fence. There." Dimitri lifts his finger, and points at the couple standing in the background, watching the falls over the guard fence. The background is misty with the spray from the falls, but the identity of the couple is clear, their silhouettes dark against the almost-white background.
"Are there any other images? Do you have any more …... like this?"
George, recognising Dimitri's serious tone, opens another two images from the tool bar. In each image, the two men are smiling at the camera, while in the background, and to the right, the couple have turned to look at one another, and their profiles are clear. There is now no doubting their identities. Dimitri would recognise them anywhere in the world, and they are clearly both alive and well …... and together. The confusion for him is how that is even possible. The memorial wall in the basement bears the names of them both. Having died only four months apart, his name nestles under hers, and whenever he reads them when he visits the wall, Dimitri feels a deep soul sadness, like his parents have abandoned him, leaving him to face the world alone.
"George …... send those three images to Calum's computer, and then delete them from your own."
"But -"
"No buts. That's an order. Calum, I want you to crop all three images and enhance them until we can see as much detail of those two in the background as possible. George …... you will be debriefed later, and you will be told only that which you need to know. You will not speak of this to anyone outside this room." When George opens his mouth to speak, Dimitri holds up his hand. "There will be no more discussion about this. Calum, when you have the images as clear as possible, send them straight through to Erin's office. They can be encrypted later. I think someone has some explaining to do."
"It was safer for everyone if only a few of us knew about this," Erin says, her jaw set.
She and Dimitri had had a brief `thing' just after Ruth had died – or been pronounced dead, because clearly the woman is alive and very well indeed. Their romantic entanglement (it could hardly have been called a love affair) hadn't lasted long. Both had recognised that neither of them were exactly free to pursue any kind of committed relationship. Erin has a child whose needs must come before all her other personal relationships, while Dimitri would always have put the job ahead of her. Besides, he is a man who has itchy feet, and who knows when he'll want to move on?
"But you could have shared this with me …... and with Calum. Couldn't you at least have trusted us?"
Erin is still struggling to answer him when Calum enters the office, announcing to their section head that he has sent the enhanced images to her computer.
"Close the door, Cal," she says, and she rises from behind the desk to close the blinds.
Dimitri lifts his eyebrows in Erin's direction, but she is not looking at him. In the fourteen months she has occupied this office, he can remember only one other occasion when she had closed the blinds. Harry, on the other hand, was closing them on a regular basis. Harry could be a volatile character, unlike Erin, who seems to wear calm around her like a cloak hewn from ice.
Once again behind the desk, Erin clicks her mouse a few times, and then studies the images on her monitor, her face giving nothing away. "I suppose you want to know what Harry and Ruth are doing at Niagara Falls."
"No, Erin," Dimitri says, his voice cold, "I am asking you why it is you overlooked telling me – Cal and me – that Ruth lived through her stabbing, and that Harry then lived through his suicide attempt." Dimitri makes a face as he utters the word, suicide. "I can remember a private conversation we had after Harry …... jumped off that bridge. Can you remember me saying how I couldn't believe that fall would have killed him? And you answered with some bollocks about his head hitting the steel structure of the bridge on the way down."
"In retrospect, my decision to keep those in the know to a very few was perhaps the wrong one, but the CIA were again sniffing around, trying to get Harry extradited to the US, and the PM couldn't hold them off for much longer."
Calum has been staring at the cropped and enhanced image on Erin's screen. Erin has turned her monitor so that they can all see the image …... Harry and Ruth, dressed for the cold, facing one another, his hand resting on her coat over her hip, while her left hand rests on his upper arm. The lens of the camera had captured them in mid conversation, with Ruth speaking, and Harry watching her face, smiling only for her. While Calum had been aware they had a close personal relationship, he'd never seen them like this. He can't help but feel relieved, and very happy for them. It is only while he is staring at the photograph of his two former colleagues that he notices the wedding ring on Ruth's finger.
"They're married," he says quietly, interrupting the thoughts of the other two.
"How do you know?" Erin asks, giving Calum her attention for the first time since he'd sat across from her.
"There's a ring on Ruth's finger – third finger, left hand."
"It might be a legend," Erin replies.
"I prefer to believe that they've tied the knot. That's the romantic in me talking." Calum smiles at both his colleagues in turn, but Erin's face gives nothing away, and Dimitri is staring at their section head, his jaw set in anger.
"Be that as it may, it was too risky at that time to share Harry's plans with everyone. He had to keep under the CIA radar, and he had to do that without giving away what he knew about Ruth's whereabouts. I couldn't risk you spilling the information, perhaps in pillow talk."
"Chance would be a fine thing," Calum says, his voice conveying his deep hurt. "And here I was thinking Harry was getting to like me. I was almost sure I was his favourite …... after Ruth, that is."
Dimitri smiles then. Trust Calum to make it all about him. "They're dead to us, though, aren't they?" he says wearily. "I mean …... we can still visit the wall in the basement and mourn them, but we'll not see them again …... will we?"
Erin sighs, steepling her fingers in front of her face. She's never been able to fully understand and embrace the deep affection both Calum and Dimitri have for Ruth and Harry. To her, they are former colleagues – very fine ones - and that is all. "I …... shouldn't tell you this, but Harry intimated – before he left …. er, faked his death – that he and Ruth were keen to return to the UK. Once the dust has settled, maybe after a couple of years have passed."
"He was in touch with Ruth after we all thought her to be dead?" Dimitri is having a hard time letting go of his outrage.
"He was, yes, and he told me, just in case he hadn't escaped the CIA's clutches. Had they taken him, he needed Ruth to know, so he entrusted me with the information of her whereabouts, and how to contact her."
"So, where was she?" asks Calum.
"At the time Harry left us, she was living in Buffalo, New York. Harry wasn't happy about it, but at least she was safe."
"And," continues Calum, clearly requiring reassurance, "we might see them again?"
Erin nods, and then leans forward in her chair. "Love and death can be the greatest motivators. They can drive us to the heights of achievement just as easily as they can lead us into the depths of despair."
"But Harry seemed like he was grieving after Ruth ….. left."
"Yes, Calum, he was grieving. At the time she left, he wanted to go with her, but there were some of us – myself included – who advised him against that. In retrospect, I should have let him go. He spent a miserable four months without her. I didn't understand, because as much as I love Rosie, I've never loved another person like that …... with that depth of focus and passion."
The three friends and colleagues sit in silence for some time. Outside Thames House night has crawled in, and the streetlights are on.
Inside Erin's office, Dimitri is the first to move. "How about we retire to the George?" he says. "I feel this discovery requires a celebration. I don't want to continue missing Harry and Ruth. I want to celebrate their surviving …... against the odds. What do you say?"
"I'm out. I have to get home to put Rosie to bed."
"I'll join you," says Calum. "And we can invite George, and debrief him there."
"Right, let's go," Dimitri says, standing to leave the office.
"George," he calls to the analyst, as he walks towards his own desk. "Time for a history lesson. The George pub. Twenty minutes."
George Fairbrother looks up and smiles. Apparently, all is forgiven. Hopefully, by the time he's ready to go home, he'll understand what all the fuss has been about.
Fin