Disclaimer: Spooks and its associated characters and settings belong to Kudos and the BBC. Additional disclaimers are located at the end of this chapter.
A/N: Many thanks to r4ven3 and TheChicaChic for taking time to read this story and helping to give it a polish.
23 November 2003
"I might regret this later, but I sent a rather crowing, encrypted message this morning to my Australian counterpart about England's World Cup victory."
Tom laughed in response. "Like the next time they walk all over us in cricket?"
"Exactly. Is no one else excited about this? England, Rugby World Cup, what's not to love? I haven't been this excited since I was a teenager." Harry grinned as he looked at the others around the briefing table.
"Sorry, football and cricket are more my style," Danny said.
"What about you ladies? Zoe, Ruth? Excited about the victory?"
Zoe looked up from the briefing report she was reviewing. "Sorry, I like hockey."
Harry scoffs at her answer and shakes his head. "Ruth, how about you?"
"I'm sorry, what are you talking about?"
"England, rugby, World Cup victory over Australia yesterday. Are you a fan?"
"No, sorry. I loathe sport. Always have."
"You loathe it, really? There isn't any you like?" Harry looked at her with a bit of disbelief.
Ruth shakes her head. "Though if England's fly half wants to make me Mrs Ruth Wilkinson, I might make an exception," she says with the ghost of a smile.
Harry is taken back by Ruth's admission but he's distracted by Malcolm's entrance to the Briefing Room. Malcolm begins talking almost immediately and Harry turns his attention to the matter at hand. It isn't until later when he has time to reflect on Ruth's admission that he realizes he felt jealous and wondered what Jonny Wilkinson has that he lacks.
June 2004
"Ruth!"
Ruth looked up from her desk to see Danny jogging across the Grid towards her desk. He glanced around before placing his hands on the edge of her desk and leaning over. Ruth simply lifted her eyebrows in a silent question.
"Are you busy?" he asked.
"Yes, I'm planning my summer holiday to Iceland," she replied in a deadpan voice.
Danny was caught off guard and moved to look at her monitor. "Seriously?"
Ruth sighed. "No Danny, I'm not planning a trip to Iceland. What do you need?"
Danny flashed his best smile. "I have a surprise for you. Lock your machine and grab your bag; you're coming with me."
"Where are we going?"
Danny handed her a thin file. "To a safe house. I need you to brief someone on safe house procedures and serve as their liaison to Section D."
"Danny, I'm not a field agent."
"I wouldn't ask you if I didn't think you could do this. Besides, the safe house guest is someone that I know you have a bit of a fondness for so I thought it might be fun."
As they waited for the lift to take them to parking garage, Ruth tried to guess who was at the safe house, but the few clues Danny gave her made no sense. Apparently it was a man but someone she'd never met and that was all he was telling her.
On the way to the safe house in Hackney, Danny gave her a few details about their protectee.
"He's being threatened by members of the Camorra crime family out of Naples. A few of their members are in town so we have the man under protection."
"Why is he being threatened?"
"Earlier this year, the 18 year old unmarried daughter of one of the members of the Camorra family gave birth. Supposedly she wasn't willing to name the father until after the baby was born, but once that happened she named this man as the father. He acknowledges that he met the girl while in Naples last summer for work. Apparently the meeting was set up by his manager as a favor to someone else; the girl was a fan of this man."
Danny paused as he pulled over and parked in front of a nondescript row of houses. He killed the ignition before turning to Ruth. "The man says they met at a reception they were both attending and then she showed him around the waterfront area. They were together for an hour or so before they returned to the reception hall. He went back to his hotel room and that was the last he saw of her. She claims he was drunk and doesn't remember the incident; he's a teetotaler and says that she's fabricated everything."
"So, he's in protective custody while the Italians are in town because some girl claims he fathered her baby?"
Danny nodded.
"Are you going to finally tell me who this man is? I haven't a clue as to who you're talking about."
Danny opened his car door and stepped out. Ruth copied his actions, making sure to grab the file Danny had given her earlier. Danny joined her on the pavement in front of the home.
"Ruth, the man we're protecting is none other than Jonny Wilkinson."
Harry finished the last stack of paperwork on his desk and lifted his eyes to survey the Grid. Tom and Zoe were at their desks while Danny and Ruth's desks were empty. He moved to get up from behind the desk when the phone rang. Noting the DG's extension, he settled back down into his seat and picked up the handset, but he kept his eyes on the Grid. He watched Tom and Zoe speak to one another across their desks, but he never saw Danny or Ruth.
A few minutes later Harry replaced the handset and looked out over the Grid once again. With no sign of two of his team members, he walked to the door and asked Tom to join him.
"Tom, where are Danny and Ruth? I've not seen either of them for some time," he said as he leaned back against the front of his desk.
"At the safe house with Jonny Wilkinson," said Tom as he sat on the sofa against the window.
"Both of them?"
Tom shrugged his shoulders. "Jonny needs to be briefed on safe house procedures and Danny wanted to get a jump on tracking the Camorra Family so he decided to take Ruth along and let her do the briefing." He smiled at Harry. "Remember that crack she made about Wilkinson last year? Danny thought she'd get a kick out of having a chance to meet him."
Harry didn't look quite so amused. "Safe house policies and procedures aren't exactly Ruth's area of expertise."
"Danny cleared it through me first. Jonny isn't some hardened criminal that we're looking after; he doesn't need muscle to keep him in place. Ruth will do fine and I felt she was a better choice than Sam. Relax, Harry. Who knows, maybe it will be a match made in heaven," Tom said, a slight grin on his face as he stood and made his way out of Harry's office.
"That's what I'm afraid of," Harry mumbled under his breath.
Danny was halfway to the house when he realized Ruth wasn't beside him. He turned to see her still standing next to the car.
"Ruth, are you coming?"
She continued to just stare at Danny, so he walked back to her side. "Ruth, we need to go inside and talk with Jonny."
"But...why did you bring me?"
"Remember how you made that joke about not liking sport but you wouldn't mind being Mrs Wilkinson? Well, he seems like a nice guy and I thought you'd enjoy a chance to meet him. Look, I've already debriefed him and I don't believe that he got this girl pregnant." He placed his arm around Ruth's shoulders and started to walk her towards the house. "There's an agent on duty at all times to control access to the house and keep an eye on things outside. You won't need to be here all the time but I need you to bring Jonny up to speed on the procedures he needs to follow while he's here and help him with anything he may need."
"But..."
"Ruth, I know you're an analyst but I thought you'd like to get out of the office for a change. Otherwise I'm sure Sam would volunteer to help."
"Bite your tongue," Ruth retorted with a slight smile.
"Are you ready to meet him?" Danny asked.
"Might as well get it over with," she replied.
To Ruth's surprise she didn't make a complete fool of herself. Danny had been right; Jonny was a nice guy. He wasn't thrilled with needing protective custody but he didn't take it out on the agents from Five.
Danny provided Jonny with more information about the Camorra family and the situation, at least what he could tell him. He'd introduced Ruth and her role before excusing himself. She followed him to the front door.
"I'll be back after dinner with another update and then I'll give you a ride home, okay? Just get to know him, make him feel comfortable. If anything comes up in the meantime, I'll let you know."
Ruth nodded, wondering how she was going to entertain Jonny for the next six hours.
"Oh, and Ruth? Have fun with your future husband," Danny said with a smirk as he quickly ducked out the door.
Ruth gave herself a few seconds for the blush to subside before heading into the kitchen. She was surprised to find Jonny there making tea and putting together a plate of biscuits.
"Hi. I don't know if you're hungry or not but I thought I'd make us something to eat seeing as how you're stuck with me for a few more hours. I don't know though, does arranging purchased biscuits on a plate count as making something? I've lived on my own so long that I scarcely know how to entertain anyone," Jonny said.
Ruth smiled at his rambling. If she didn't know better, she almost thought he sounded nervous, though if she had an Italian mob family making threats against her, she'd be nervous too.
"Tea sounds lovely, thank you. Should we go over the procedures you need to follow while you're staying here?" Ruth asked. She hoped that talking about something that she had knowledge about would help her feel a little more comfortable.
"No time like the present. It's not like I can just leave, can I?" he said.
"Technically you can. You're not under arrest but we can't guarantee your safety if you choose to leave. Hopefully this matter will be resolved in the next day or so and you can get back to your normal life."
Ruth retrieved the file of information from the sitting room before settling at the kitchen island. Jonny poured tea into mugs and placed the plate of biscuits between them. Ruth added milk and sugar to her mug, watching as Jonny did the same.
He noticed her observation of him. "I try to eat a really healthy diet to stay in shape for playing but tea is my one indulgence."
She looked down, a bit embarrassed at having been caught. "My father drank his tea this way and it never crossed my mind to try it any other way."
"Sounds like your father had good taste," he said with a smile.
Ruth returned the smile before opening the file in front of her and starting to speak.
Disclaimer: Jonny Wilkinson is a real person, he did kick the winning goal over Australia for England to win the Rugby World Cup in 2003, and according to Wikipedia he is fluent in French, but other than that he's tha puppet in my hands. I've tried to be kind to him and I hope he won't mind me borrowing him for this story.
A/N: The first section of this story is taken from the 23 November 2003 entry in Harry's Diary and I've heavily borrowed the wording from entry. The last two sentences of that entry are, "Ruth loathes all sport (although she did admit in our morning briefing today that she might make an exception if the England fly half wanted to make her Mrs Ruth Wilkinson). I must admit to feeling a slight pang of jealousy. What does he have that I lack?"