This follows on directly from the end of new beginning so it helps if you've read that first, but it's not necessary. I apologis for what I'm about to do...
Harry stared at his mobile phone, wishing it would stop ringing. He was on his honeymoon in Paris and the last thing he wanted was reminders of terrorist atrocities. Ruth stared at him knowing he was going to have to answer it. It was a brief conversation, consisting of one word sentences from Harry's end. He disconnected the call and looked at Ruth.
"The real world still out there?" she asked with a small smile.
"I have to go and sort something out," Harry replied.
"Tell you what?" Ruth said calmly. "You go deal with Beth, Dimitri and whoever else you have to and I'll get dressed and have breakfast. Meet you outside the hotel in an hour?" Harry smiled at her pragmatism.
"That sounds like a very good idea," Harry said with a smile. He lent over his wife and kissed her thoroughly. He gave her stomach a brief kiss too, loving the fact that she was carrying his child, before leaving their hotel room and walking out to the Paris streets. He picked up his phone and started dealing with the latest crisis.
Half an hour later everything was sorted. Beth and Dimitri knew what they were doing. He was just about to go back to Ruth when his phone rang again.
"This better be good," he said quietly.
"Harry!" Dimitri's voice rang out, incredibly worried. "We've just got intelligence from a high Russian asset with links to a French terror group we've been working on."
"Get to the point," Harry said not in the mood to follow an informants confusing trail.
"Bombs are being planted to detonate in Paris as we speak," Dimitri said. Harry's blood ran cold for a second.
"How many?" Harry asked, starting to run back to Ruth's hotel.
"We estimate it's a dozen bombs set to go off simultaneously," Dimitri replied. "No information on the targets. Could be anywhere."
"Thank you for that assessment," Harry said sarcastically as he approached the street their hotel was on. He was about to ask another question when his eardrums felt like they had exploded. He was unable to move for several seconds. Or it might have been minutes. He was looking at a Parisian landscape, covered with smoke, rising from several buildings in all directions. Without bothering to say goodbye to Dimitri, he called Ruth's mobile. Which went straight through to answer phone. Worried didn't even begin to cover how he felt.
Ruth had had her shower and was finishing getting dressed when it happened. She was smiling, thinking of all the possibilities that her life with Harry had to offer. She spent a minute admiring both her engagement and her wedding rings. The smile couldn't be contained inside. It burst out onto her face when she heard it. What sounded suspiciously like a bomb blast. She had seen enough at Thames House over the years to know what was about to happen. But somehow it seemed different when it was happening to you. Ruth stared at the ceiling of her hotel room as it suddenly came crashing on top of her. She winced waiting for the impact to hit her and everything went black.
Harry stood outside the smouldering remains of the hotel they had been staying in. Knowing that Ruth was inside was killing him. Emergency services arrived relatively quickly but Harry wanted to run in that building and get her out. She had to be okay. She just had to be.
It took about an hour for ambulances to start getting people out on stretchers. None of them looked in very good condition and Harry was desperately trying to keep hold of hope. Every time someone came out of the rubble he prayed it was her. When it wasn't he lost a little bit more of his sanity.
Eventually he felt a leap of his heart when someone else came out of the wreckage. He knew it was her with certainty, even before he could see her properly. His heart told him. He ran towards the stretcher and saw he was right. Her dark hair was matted with blood on one side. But her face was moving. She was definitely alive.
"Ruth!" he said desperately. He was close enough to touch her, the paramedics hadn't held him back, mainly because it was clear he wasn't going to be stopped. She didn't open her eyes but her face twitched in his direction.
"Ruth," he repeated in a slightly calmer voice as she was being carried into the back of an ambulance. He grasped her hand tightly as if him willing it would make her get better.
"Harry," she murmured weakly. He felt a surge of relief as she spoke his name. "What happened?" she asked slowly as the ambulance started to drive off to the hospital.
"Bomb blasts all over Paris," Harry said, unwilling to share more information because the paramedics were listening closely. Ruth smiled, still with her eyes shut.
"Bloody typical," she murmured. Harry smiled at her tightly. This was more like the Ruth he knew and loved. "I've changed my mind. We should go back to London as soon as possible." Harry watched her as she spoke and became increasingly worried. He could see it was taking too much of her limited energy to speak.
"Don't talk," he said quietly. "Save your strength." Her hold on his hand was getting weaker as they approached the hospital and that worried him no end. Come on, he prayed silently to a God he didn't really believe in. Just hang on.
More soon. It'll get better- I think! Please review if you have time. xxx