Disclaimer: I don't own any of the spooks characters or anything within this story really… this is my first fiction so be gentle!

Set after 5.03

The cat purred as Ruth gently stroked it's head as she sat in deep thought. Who was she thinking about? Harry of course. It had been 2 weeks since she had point blank rejected his idea of a second date, and she felt awful. It had been an eventful time on the grid, they had managed to first, stop a bomb blowing up in a densely populated area of the city, then prevented the assassination of a well known political figure. As a result Ruth had been at work pretty constantly surrounded by towers of paperwork. Harry appeared to have registered there was little or no chance of a second date and simply spoke to her within professional boundaries, barking orders at her from across the grid. Yet Ruth had noticed a change in him which concerned her, he seemed tired, almost withdrawn from his work, and often she could catch him glancing disappointed looks at her out of the corner of her eye as she typed. She knew it had been the right thing to do to break it all off, the idea of anyone undermining Harry in the office angered Ruth and she did not want to be the cause of his subordinates giggling behind his back. Well that's what she told herself but really deep down she knew it was her who could not cope with it all. The subject of office gossip at her age? Yet she still found herself thinking about him, worrying about him, she had let him get under her skin. The cat twinned itself around Ruth's legs, apparently in the midst of her thoughts she had forgotten all about him. She picked him up and took him into the kitchen. "Well another night in alone Fidget, and they say a Spook's life is never dull".

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Harry sat in his office with his half empty bottle of scotch as the grid lay in darkness around him, he was staring at her desk. As usual there was a towering pile of papers waiting for her in the morning, forms to be completed, boxes to be ticked, things to be signed; she really was an invaluable member of his team. Her presence also lifted the team's mood, she had a smile which was infectious and was loved by Adam, Jo and Zaf alike. It was true he had become withdrawn from his work; he had let his own personal life seep over into the office and regretted it wholly. He found it difficult to concentrate and preside over meetings as he usually did, feeling like a broken man. This simply wasn't acceptable in his eyes, he was supposed to be in charge, demonstrate self control, and everything else he preached, but he had let someone get under his skin and he needed to decide what to do next. Firstly, he had withdrawn himself from any unnecessary contact with her focusing as much as he could on the work at hand. He did miss her wit and gentle humour, but he could think of no other alternative but to cut her off from him to as great an extent as possible. She was always last to go home at night, in fact she had went home hours ago he just didn't seem to have the energy to get up from the chair. He liked to stay and watch her, nothing wrong with watching he thought guiltily. He looked at the clock on his desk, 2.18am, definitely time to get going and get a little sleep before the morning when no doubt the next terrorist threat towards the UK would be launched.