Ruth was hurriedly trying to get dressed while her phone was ringing annoyingly behind her.
"Yes?" she said breathlessly answering it.
"Are you okay Ruth?" Harry asked hearing that she was flustered.
"Yes I'm fine," she said, trying to ignore the way her heart rate increased when she knew who was calling her. "What's wrong Harry?"
"Nothing really," Harry said. "I was just wondering how on earth everyone got on the grid before you." Ruth glanced at her watch and saw that it was already ten past nine. Her stupid alarm clock hadn't bothered to go off this morning and she had only been awake for five minutes.
"I'm sorry," Ruth said. "I overslept. My alarm clock decided to spontaneously break so I've only just woken up. I'll get into work as soon as I can."
"Take your time," Harry said easily. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay."
"Yeah," she replied, trying to make her heart stop flipping over at his concern. "I'll see you soon."
"Bye Ruth," Harry said putting the phone down. Ruth glanced around, knowing she had to hurry. She hated being late at the best of times. She took a final look in her mirror and decided she was presentable. She grabbed her bag and then raced down the stairs. She failed to notice her cat lying on one of the top steps. Ruth tried to slow down but Fidget suddenly moved, causing Ruth to trip over her own feet. Before she knew what had happened she had tumbled to the bottom of the stairs.
Ruth collected herself after a minute. Nothing seemed to be broken, she summarised as she stretched carefully. She had hit her head quite hard and she knew that she was going to have a black eye develop later in the day. She had also taken off the top layer of skin on her right arm. That was going to be sore too. She stood up and saw Fidget looking very sheepish on the stairs. He meowed quietly as if looking for forgiveness.
"Its okay," Ruth said quietly, stroking him between the ears, like he liked. "I should watch where I'm going. I'll see you later." Ruth straightened herself out and locked the door behind her as she left.
She emerged on the grid half an hour later, feeling well and truly bruised and a little stupid. Ruth moved behind her desk and began reading through today's files. Nothing too terrible seemed on the cards so far. Harry came out of his office and looked at the whole team.
"Meeting room," he said briefly. There was a quick shuffling of papers as everyone followed Harry into the room. Ruth sat right next to Harry as was her habit and everyone else slowly came in.
"We have a warning of a bomb attack in central London," Harry said briefly.
"Time frame?" Ruth asked.
"Within the next five hours," Harry replied. "The group that say this attack is happening are calling themselves the Freedom from Oppression Movement. Ruth, can you find out how serious these people are and if they really have the power to detonate a bomb in London."
"Sure," Ruth replied scribbling on her notepad. Harry's eyes saw that her arm had a massive red mark running from her wrist to her elbow as she wrote. He drew his eyes away from her and carried on addressing the other members of the team.
"Beth and Dimitri, you try and scout out possible bomb locations. Put airports and train stations on high alert and anything that looks suspicious in the last twenty four hours, investigate until you can prove it has nothing to do with our bombers." Harry then turned to their resident boy wonder.
"Tariq, you run traces on phone call warning that we received," Harry said briefly. "However I strongly suspect it came from a public phone box so also check CCTV at all phone boxes in London at five minutes past nine this morning. We need to know who made the warning call and why."
Everyone got up to leave but Harry threw Ruth a look which said "stay there" louder than words ever could. As Beth shut the door behind her Ruth looked at Harry.
"Is there a problem?"
"What happened to your arm?" Harry said quickly. Ruth cast her eyes down and could see that the red marks were vividly clear.
"Oh, nothing," Ruth said quickly. "I'm fine."
"It doesn't look like nothing, Ruth," Harry said quietly. He slowly held her wrist, looking at the marks on her arm closer. "What happened?" She looked into his eyes and she knew that she wasn't going to be let off the hook.
"I was rushing, trying to get into work," Ruth started. "I tripped over my cat and I fell down the stairs."
"Oh Ruth," he said quietly. "Are you okay?"
"Yes I'm fine," she replied quickly. "Really. Shall we stop worrying about my self inflicted injuries and focus on stopping the devastation from an unknown bomb?"
"Yes," Harry said. He let go of her wrist reluctantly. Ruth let her arm swing by her side and she left Harry alone to begin her research. He watched her leave the room and sighed wistfully.
Dimitri and Beth were approaching Waterstones on Piccadilly. They had discovered that the bomb threat was genuine and it was in that shop. They were racing against the clock as usual to find it and disarm it. They had evacuated the shop and had found the bomb.
"Come on Dimitri," Beth said. "This is meant to be what you're good at."
"Give me a minute," he said annoyed.
"I'll give you forty three seconds," Beth said reading off of the timer.
"If you can't disarm it, just leave it," Harry said over their wires. "You won't have enough time. You're already cutting it fine. Get out of there."
"Go on," Dimitri said to Beth. She looked at him and left the shop. Dimitri examined it for a precious few more seconds and then cut the wires. He breathed a sigh of relief as the timer stopped whirring down. Back on the grid they all stopped and were relieved when Dimitri's voice came back on the radio. Ruth relaxed. Thank God for that. Just a normal day at work, she thought bitterly.
Harry watched her carefully. As soon as the bomb was safe Tariq had left the grid to get some coffee. He said a caffeine jolt was just what he needed after avoiding national disaster. This left Ruth and Harry alone on the grid. Now that the threat of the bomb had passed they started feeling uncomfortable in each others presence.
Ruth touched her eye gently. She was willing to bet good money that it had come out in a horrible purple bruise by now. She turned and looked at Harry who was much closer than she expected.
"Oh Ruth," he said quietly. "Your face."
"Yeah, I know," she said looking at the floor. "Trust me I'll never fall down the stairs again, I feel like hell." They looked at each other for a long moment. Then the pods buzzed and Tariq came back. He was closely followed by Beth.
"My office," he said quietly to Ruth. She smiled briefly and followed him, closing the door.
"Do you think you should go to the doctor," Harry asked, his voice full of concern.
"Its just bumps and bruises Harry," Ruth said honestly. "Anyway, what would you have done today without me?" she asked only half joking.
"I don't know Ruth," he said seriously. Ruth suddenly felt very uncomfortable, trapped in a room with Harry. It was too close. Harry suddenly moved and unlocked one of his desk draws. He took something out and placed it on the desk. Ruth looked at the small object confused.
"I always imagined you wearing it Ruth," Harry said quietly. Ruth suddenly realised what must be in the box. An engagement ring.
"Harry…" Ruth started but he interrupted.
"I love you," he said simply. "Promise me you'll think about it." Ruth found herself unable to speak so she just nodded instead. The tiny little box seemed to be magnifying in size but she couldn't bring herself to reach out and touch it. She nodded again and hurried out of his office. She couldn't sit still so she left the grid, heading to the outside streets of London, breathing heavily.