Chapter 1: Juliet and Juliet

Another morning and another day in Thames House, Section D. The day went unusually quiet, so Beth Bailey, Tariq Masood, Lucas North, Ruth Evershed, Dimitri Levendis and Sir Harry Pearce sat around bored doing nothing. The fact that the air conditioning was down on a hot august day didn't help. Soon the room entered high above room temperature and everyone broke into a sweat. Ruth was dealing the worst with the intense heat.

'Tariq, can't you get the air conditioning back on?' she asked waving numerous pieces of paper like a fan onto her face.

'Last weeks hacking has left the heating system down, it will be a few days before we can get it back on' Tariq replied. He looked anxious as he did not like delivering bad news to his superiors.

Ruth groaned in frustration and stormed towards the water cooling machine, pouring herself a cold glass of water.

'I'm starving' Beth proclaimed, sweat dripping from her face. She pulled out two ham sandwiches and looked at them with disgust.

'Ruth, do you like ham sandwiches, I can't eat meat when I'm hot?' Beth asked the agitated Ruth who had now taken off her jacket and was wearing a vest top.

'Oh yes please, I'm starving' she said, approaching Beth, sweat dripping from her face down to her chest. As she grabbed the sandwich and took a bite out of it, Beth hungrily started eating her Ben & Jerry's chocolate fudge brownie, the surface of which had already melted due to the extreme heat.

Ruth watched Beth eat and felt a tingling in her stomach, while Beth was thinking very explicit thoughts of her and Ruth which she tried shaking off as she knew that they could never be done inside or outside of work.

Beth looked up and realized that in her crazed hunger, the bottom of her hair had dipped into the tub of Ben & Jerry's and it was all over her mouth, she blushed and looked up to Ruth, embarrassed…

Ruth noticed the chocolate ice cream stained on Beth's face and in her hair.

'Oh' Ruth said abruptly. 'I have some wet ones at my desk' Ruth offered.

'Oh, yes, thanks' Beth said, mortified.

Ruth went over to her desk and took the wipes, and went back over to Beth's desk, she handed Beth the wipes and gave her a longing lustful look while Beth wiped away the chocolate ice cream. Beth looked down and noticed that she had gotten ice cream down her shirt, as she had unbuttoned the first few buttons due to the unendurable heat.

Quickly she said 'I need to go to the toilet', rushing off. It hadn't yet occurred to Ruth to go down to the toilets to cool off, so she followed Beth down…

When Ruth arrived in the bathroom, Beth was hurriedly wiping away the chocolate from her shirt and chest.

'Are you alright' Ruth asked in her usual kind manner.

'Oh God you gave me a fright' Beth said putting the tissues she was using down.

'No it's okay, I just came down to cool down, I can't bear it in there' she said in a casual tone.

'I've got ice cream all over me' Beth said, still embarrassed.

'I noticed' Ruth said, with a slight chuckle.

Ruth dampened a paper towel and pressed it against her face to cool down. Beth watched, longingly, leaning against the bathroom cabinet, still wiping away the chocolate stains.

'I like your new hair' Beth said to Ruth.

'It hasn't changed' Ruth said smiling.

'It must be the sun' Beth said, uninterested in what she was saying to Ruth.

'It must be, this heat is unbearable' Ruth replied dampening her face once again.

'Hasn't Tariq fixed the heating system yet?' Beth asked, irritated.

'No the hacking last week has left it down for a few days' Ruth replied, equally irritated.

'God, he can stop bombs but he can't turn on a bloody air conditioning' Beth said, half joking.

'Careful, he's watching us on CCTV right now' said Ruth.

'I thought they didn't have CCTV in the toilets' Beth said, curious.

'We do now because of that Russian double agent' said Ruth.

Beth simply groaned, Ruth found this attractive. Ruth found Beth glancing at her lustfully.

'You still have some chocolate in your hair' Ruth told Beth.

'Oh God, where?' asked Beth.

'Here, I'll do it for you' Ruth said seducing Beth.

Ruth took the wipes from Beth and slowly slid the wipe down her hair, they shared an intense look.

Without realizing, their hands clasped together like pieces of a jigsaw. Beth tried to pull away as she knew that this could compromise her career, but she couldn't bring herself to. Her hand felt glued to Ruth.

Ruth was half terrified as she felt suppressed emotions racing through her veins. In a moment of confusion she dropped her glass of water, which shattered on the floor, in an excuse to get away.

'I'll need to get someone to clean this' said Ruth nervously.

'There's time for that later' Beth said oblivious to anything else.

Beth grabbed Ruth tightly by the shoulders, pinning her up against the wall.

'No Beth, not here, not now' Ruth said anxiously. She opened her mouth for a grasp of breath, but she found Beth's scorched lips instead.

Ruth yielded herself to Beth's sudden attack, drowning in a sea of eroticism, like which she'd never drowned before; she felt every fibre of her being quiver, Beth tore off her own shirt, dragging Ruth down to the floor with her, Beth straddled Ruth and swarmed on her like a swarm of piranhas, without remorse. Ruth pulled off her own vest top and threw it into the abyss, Beth groped around, and Ruth felt the intensity of her caresses. Ruth felt the silky lace of Beth's bra, feeling the softness of her skin, suddenly they stopped. Looking into each others eyes, they realized what they were doing. Ruth suddenly pulled herself up, Beth still on the floor, she trembled at the very thought that the job she loved so much, could be taken away from her. Beth had similar thoughts and pulled herself up.

'Beth' Ruth said, her voice in an upset tone.

'I know' Beth simply said, burying her head in her hands.

'What do we do now?' Ruth asked, worried.

'We go back and pretend nothing happened' Beth said, sternly.

After getting dressed again and going back up to the grid, the day dragged on painfully for the two, they continued to share intense glances throughout the day until they went back home…