This is a horrible Harry and Ruth story which is the reaction to all the fluff I'm writing for my A-Z. I recommend you don't read it and I wouldn't have written it but it kept going around in my head. I'm sorry.

Harry had been dreading going home. He had been arguing with himself the entire train journey from Glasgow but knew he couldn't lie to Ruth. And it would be a lie of omission if nothing else. He would have to tell her and he hated how much this was going to hurt her.

Harry had been in Glasgow for two weeks to catch up with some of his old contacts and assets to find out information about a group of Pakistani terrorists who were using Scotland as their base because too many of them had been caught in London. It had been a successful trip as far as work went but he had missed Ruth terribly and couldn't wait to see her. Which made this doubly hard.

Soon enough he was outside of his house and he unlocked the door. Walking through to the living room he saw Ruth curled on the sofa reading a book. It took a few seconds for her to realise he was back and in that time he admired her understated and elegant beauty which he thought he had remembered accurately. He had underestimated massively just how gorgeous she was and she took his breath away.

"Harry, you're back!" she said loudly, the relief flowing through her. She got up and wrapped her arms around him tightly. Ruth had missed him and had hated the thought of him being in danger. She leaned in to kiss him and was surprised when he drew away from her.

"I have to talk to you," he said sounding massively tired. "It's bad and it's going to be hard for you to hear but I can't lie to you." Ruth looked at him, very worried about the tone he was using. She racked her brains for something that would make him look like this and then the penny dropped. He looked guilty.

"No," she whispered, the truth being beamed almost telepathically to her. "Go on then, say it," she said so quietly, trying to stop her eyes filling with tears which she refused to let fall. "At least have the nerve to tell me."

"I slept with someone else," Harry said. The hardest words he had ever said to anyone. He looked at Ruth but she was looking at the floor. At the furniture. Anywhere but at him. The walls he had spent years trying to get past, to know the real Ruth had suddenly all been put back up from one stupid mistake.

"Get out," she said incredibly quietly. He wouldn't have been able to hear the anger there if he hadn't known her so well.

"I want to talk about this," Harry said, not wanting to leave her. Not like this. "Ruth…"

"No," she said firmly. "You do not get to say my name in that tone of voice. Not after having sex with someone else. Get out." Harry looked at her sadly, knowing that he had lost her.

"Okay," he said quietly. He had to say one more thing before he left. "I'm sorry." Harry turned and left the house silently. Ruth couldn't stand up anymore. She felt her legs go and she crumpled to the floor. How could he do this to her? She felt so betrayed and hurt that she couldn't put it into words. Horrible images were racing around her mind and she couldn't stop them. Harry touching another woman. Kissing her and worse. All the hundreds of times he had made her moan with pleasure and desire and all she could see was him doing that to someone else.

"Oh God," she cried, her hands covering her face in an agony of pain. Then she looked at her left hand. Her wedding ring. She couldn't wear that anymore because it was a lie. She twisted the gold band off of her finger and put it on the coffee table while she wondered how she'd have the strength to go into work tomorrow.

If you don't hate me please leave a review. It's a three chapter story so more soon.