He didn't know if he had the energy to open his eyes, his body ached from the beating and there was so little reason to haul himself back into the hopelessness of reality.

If he had thought being secured to a metal pole, 20 feet from a primed explosive, with no real hope of escape could get any worse he was very sadly and most unimaginably wrong.

"No. No, no, no, no…NO! The last a shout of anger, frustration and the most intense despair. His eyes were open, resting on the thing he least wanted to see right now. Ruth half smiled at him, at any other moment he would have felt overjoyed to see that look on her face, the warmth in her eyes, but not here, not now. They were side by side, each of their hands individually cuffed to a scaff bar behind them, unable to touch, facing the bomb.

"It's okay, Harry", she said quietly. It was so not okay.

Vaughan was standing there before them. Harry had been totally unaware of his entrance.

"Well, this is a bonus. Actually, I would have preferred it if more of your team could have been here to share the moment with you, Harry, but sadly Ruth was the only one who came looking for you. The others seemed unwilling to leave the Grid, so unwilling that I thought it only right that they should stay there."

On the grid Beth looked to Dimitri, anger and frustration burning in both their eyes. They had no contact with the outside, they were helpless, their only window on the world the feed that Vaughan was providing them.

Vaughan continued with a smile "They're in lock down. No hope of getting out. A night in for them, with nothing to do but watch the telly, well, the one channel that's available to them." He glanced up at the CCTV camera in the corner. The only thing other than the bomb and an old table and chairs that were visible in the old warehouse. "And as for John, sorry, Lucas, well he'll be somewhere planning his new life. You'll be far from his mind"

"Why do this?" Asked Ruth.

""Why not"

"That's no answer. What do you have to gain?" She needed to know.

"From this? Your deaths? Nothing. That's what makes it so liberating. Anyway, as pleasant as this is…" he looks back to the digital clock fast decreasing to the single minute mark. "Must go".

He walks away from them, into the shadows. Suddenly the 'why' doesn't seem to matter anymore.

Ruth stretches out the little finger of her left hand as far as she can, she can just touch Harry's right hand. A small touch but it ran through him like static and he turns to her, roused from his despair, yet again she is in this position because of him.

"Harry. I was wrong. " She speaks softly and gently. "I should have said yes….when you asked me. I should have said yes."

He looks at her, his heart filled with her and with regret that it should come to this for them both to be able to face their feelings. His right hand strains against the cuffs and he reaches his little finger to hers so that the two are interlocked. It is all the touch they are permitted.

"Ruth, will you marry me?'

"Yes. I Will…..I do."

"I do" He knows what they are saying, as does she. This is enough for them.

"She smiles, shyly but with spirit and with so much love and adds "For richer or poorer"

"In sickness and in health" He replies.

Ruth pauses, well aware of what she was about to say.

"Till death do us part"

On the Grid Beth stands, tears freely falling down her face. Dimitri and Tariq feel like intruders watching the most intimate of moments.

In the warehouse the two stand stock still, the clock does not. 25…24….23.

A tear rolls down Ruth's face.

Harry had smiled with all the love and more she has ever seen on his face but now his eyes have glazed and his jaw tightened.

He looks away and then there comes from him a cry, a shout, a feral scream that comes as if from all the trapped, tortured souls in the world. He wrenches his left arm through the air with every once of strength he has. Ruth can not help but hear, beneath his roar the sickening sound of bones breaking. He has wrenched his left hand from the cuff and it hangs bleeding and shattered, one of the bones protruding from his palm.

He sucks in the air to stop himself from blacking out and steps forward, now free to stand in front of her, to touch her, to face her, to feel her. She understands what he has done, so much pain, just for this moment, to be able to kiss her before they died, for him to stand before her and for his body to offer her as much protection as he can.

"I love you Ruth." He leans forward gently and slowly, suddenly like they had all the time in the world

…..15..14…13…

If a kiss could encapsulate their whole range of feelings of love and regret and loss and yet the joy of finally finding each other then this was it.

She rests her forehead on his, their lips barely apart. "I love you Harry. No one ever came close, they never could."

Both of their tears fall and run together. His voice warm and resonant says quietly "Close your eyes, Ruth and listen to how much I love you" As her eyes shut the last image is of him, she is barely aware of the red display behind him

….8…7…

"I loved you from the day you first walked in and dropped your papers, from the moment you said 'bugger the home office' and when you were gone I never stopped loving you, so much so it hurt. It still hurts. Know, now, that I will love you forever."

4..3..2..

The two of them are so lost in each other they are totally unaware of Lucas running through the open doorway and within a moment grabbing the table and hurling himself at the explosives strapped to the chair in the middle of the room.

….0

The picture on the monitors of the grid goes dead. Beth tries and fails to hold in a solitary sob.

Dust and rubble settling and then all is still.