I had a lovely first draft of this written but my computer ate it so I've had to rewrite it. I'm not entirely happy with it but thought I'd post it anyway. Enjoy.


"This is getting ridiculous!" Ruth shouted at Harry from across his office. The entire grid was watching them but she was past caring. "It is ridiculous that you want to keep me locked up in here instead of going out in the field when I am, very occasionally, needed."

"Ruth, in spite of our… personal history, I am still the one in charge around here," Harry said, trying to reign in his temper. He was only trying to look after her and she had got the wrong impression again. "When I tell you to do something, I expect you to actually listen to me."

"Fine," she said bitterly after a moment of charged silence. Her eyes were burning into his and he could see she was furious. Ruth picked up her stack of files and debated whether it was immature to slam his office door or not as she was leaving. She eventually decided that was beneath her and left his office in a dignified manner, Harry sighing after her.

Ruth was determined to spend the rest of the day doing her job better than she ever had before so for once she didn't even notice when everyone left the grid and it was just her and Harry alone again. As soon as she had noticed Ruth hurriedly turned her computer off and walked quickly towards the pods, not wanting to speak another word to Harry.

He didn't even bother to try and stop her. He just watched as she left the grid. Once he was alone he poured himself a whisky. A large whiskey. An upset Ruth was not a Ruth he liked to witness. Even less when it was his fault in the first place.


Ruth didn't go home. She walked along the embankment, watching the Thames flow by and thinking hard. She knew she shouldn't be this mad at Harry but she couldn't help it. It was almost like an automatic reaction whenever he argued with her, even on the most mundane things. Things that didn't even matter had she been talking about them with anyone else.

As her thoughts ran she found herself leaning over the river. She glanced at her watch and was amazed to see it was one in the morning. She had been here for hours and she hadn't realised. Thinking it was probably wise to go home she spent a further five minutes staring at the river before turning around. That was when she felt a blinding pain on the back of her head. She didn't even have time to react to the pain before she became unconscious.


Harry sighed, staring at Ruth's empty desk. He knew she had been mad at him but for her not to even turn up for work was a new level of anger that he didn't think she was capable of. He looked at the clock and saw that it was five minutes past nine as he heard a knock on his office door. Well, the knock meant it wouldn't be Ruth at any rate.

"Yes?" Beth came in chewing her lip and looking incredibly agitated. "What is it?"

"I know you and Ruth had an argument yesterday and its none of my business but she was really upset and wouldn't answer her phone when I called. And she isn't here this morning… I'm starting to get really worried."

"Are you sure she isn't just late?" Harry asked his heart rate increasing with the thought that she might be missing.

"When's the last time she was late? Never," Beth said anxiously. "I'm really worried Harry."

"Okay," he said taking her seriously. He picked up the phone to call Ruth's mobile number (which he knew by heart).

"She isn't picking up," Beth said. "I've already tried that. I'm not completely incompetent."

"Fine," Harry said without hanging up. He heard it go through to answer phone after a moment and slammed it down. "Get Dimitri and Tariq to work on finding her too. Track her phone, see if she's spent money on any of her cards, check face recognition on CCTV. Just find her."

"Yep," Beth said leaving his office to inform the others. Harry watched through a gap in his blinds as the activity on the grid increased. He spent about five minutes watching until he couldn't take it anymore. He left his office and went onto the grid, but not before stopping to call Ruth's mobile again. With no result.

"Well?" he asked his team, hating how empty they looked without Ruth. Or more accurately, how empty he felt without Ruth.

"Tariq is running the CCTV from last night and trying to follow her from when she left here," Dimitri said. "I've tracked her phone and its currently at this location. It's a flat in south London and I've already sent the plods around."

"Well, I'm not waiting for them to report back in their own time," Harry said turning for his coat. "Send directions to my phone," he added before leaving the grid. Tariq's eyes were not leaving his computer screen and after a minute or two he gasped.

"What is it?" Beth asked.

"Watch this," Tariq said rewinding the CCTV and letting it play. Dimitri and Beth watched over his shoulders as they saw Ruth leaning over and looking at the Thames.

"And?" Dimitri asked.

"Wait for it," Tariq said. They saw Ruth brush her hair out of her face and turn away from the river as two men wearing jeans and hoodies approached behind her. Beth winced as she saw one of them hit Ruth over the head with something that looked like a bat. She crumpled to the floor as they stole her bag and were rifling through it as they ran away.

"What happened after that?" Beth asked.

"She was there for a while before a passing stranger decided to call an ambulance for her," Tariq said hitting fast forward to the relevant footage.

"Someone must have seen her before though," Dimitri said.

"Several dozen people passed her," Tariq said. "No one bothered to do anything for two hours."

"So who's going to tell Harry?" Beth said.

"I'm busy looking around the hospitals for her," Tariq said quickly.

"I'll do it," Dimitri offered. "He probably won't explode," he added not sounding convinced.

"Good luck," Beth replied as she began to help Tariq phoning around the London hospitals.


More soon. Reviews make my day, even if you hate it its always nice to have feedback. xxx