Here's the second chapter. Not too sure if I like this but thought I'd post it anyway.


Ruth's eyes were focused on the countryside zooming past the train window as she headed further and further away from London. Everyday for the past two years she had been working with Harry. In the same space he was simply impossible for her to ignore. What she hadn't expected was how much her mind rested on him, even when she was miles away from London. She turned her attention to watching the other people in the carriage. The thought came into her head and a small smile came onto her face. People watching without a surveillance team… Ruth let herself drift away on her daydreams. At least for the next hour until she got to Exeter.


Harry looked at his watch impatiently. It was eleven in the morning. He had only gone a few hours without Ruth's presence on the grid and already his world seemed bleak. He knew it was only temporary but at that moment in time it didn't really help. There was a knock on his door and he sighed, fervently wishing that it was the only someone who didn't bother to knock.

"Come in," he said in a firm voice. The door opened and Tariq appeared there. He started speaking his techno speak and Harry had to focus particularly hard on what he was talking about. Eventually he left Harry's office and he sighed. He had been debating with himself about the next move. If Ruth knew what he was doing, she wouldn't be pleased. He turned to his computer and typed a sequence of keys. When he pressed enter, a map of Exeter came up on his screen, focusing in on a single red dot. He had traced Ruth's mobile, simply because he wanted to know where she was. Harry spent a long time that day watching the screen. As if watching that would bring her closer to him.


Ruth rung the doorbell of the flat where her friend lived. It took a minute or so for the door to open. A man of forty or so was revealed. He had bloodshot eyes and looked like he hadn't slept in days.

"Hi Chris," Ruth said with sympathy in her voice.

"Ruth," he muttered, moving aside to let her into his house. She followed him into his kitchen and watched as he silently poured himself some whisky, feeling a lump in her throat at the reminder of Harry.

"When's the last time you slept?" Ruth asked as he faced her.

"Sleep is overrated," he said in a hoarse voice taking a sip of his drink. Ruth looked at him with her blue eyes full of pity.

"You need to pull yourself together," Ruth said in a calm voice. "It's her funeral tomorrow."

"You think I don't know that?" he asked with suppressed anger. "Of course I know that. And this drink is all that's keeping me standing."

Ruth walked closer to him and put a hand on his back lightly. "I can't begin to imagine what you're going through. Losing your wife in a car crash… It's awful. It's horrific. But your daughter needs you too. Claire needs you to manage through the day without getting drunk. Because she has already lost her mother. She needs you. And she needs you sober."

She looked at him and could see the tears start to fall. He half crumpled towards her and she hugged him as the crying started into her shoulder. Ruth knew he needed comfort from anyone, she just happened to be the person there. An indeterminable amount of time later he straightened up as he heard a noise behind him. Ruth looked and saw a blonde little angel staring at her father.

"Hi sweetheart," Chris said to his five year old daughter. "This is Ruth," he said pointing to her. "She's an old friend of mine."

"Less of the old," Ruth said quietly, making a ghost of a smile appear on Chris's face. She could tell it was the first smile he had worn since his wife's death.

"Hello," Claire said in a small voice, waving her hand at Ruth. Ruth smiled.

"Hi. Do you want to play with me while you're daddy gets himself cleaned up?" Ruth asked. Claire seemed to consider it for a moment and then nodded happily. She held fast to Ruth's hand and dragged her through to the living room. Ruth looked back at Chris with a steel glint in her eye. Chris nodded and left the kitchen to try and look slightly more respectable.


Harry had checked out the address which Ruth's mobile had stayed at for several hours. It belonged to Christopher Green. It didn't take Harry long to find out all there was to know about him. A part of him knew he was betraying Ruth, because she had chosen not to tell him what had happened. But that only deterred him for a few minutes before he searched the MI5 database.

Christopher Green, married to a Jessica Green, formerly Jessica Owens. Christopher works as an accountant in Exeter and has done for nearly ten years. The couple have a five year old daughter, Claire Louise and seem to be the picture of a happy family. The only thing he could find at all was that Chris had spent a night in prison during his college days (he had indeed gone to Oxford with Ruth). He had been drunk and was involved in a brawl. Hardly terrorist links, he thought wryly. And then he found it. A recently archived newspaper article came up with links to Christopher Green and his family. Jessica Green had been in a fatal car crash at the end of the week before. A lorry driver had fallen asleep at the wheel. It had smashed headlong into her car and she had died on impact.

Harry sighed, feeling it all click into place. This was why Ruth had had to go so quickly. She had a funeral to go to. And one of her college friends must be in pieces with the death of his wife. Ruth had an incredible amount of emotion in her, when she didn't lock it away. When she chose to let it show. She just didn't choose it very often. Harry knew why she had travelled to Exeter so quickly. She needed to support her friend. He could understand that, even if it did cause a small stab of jealousy in his heart and was glad he had been nosey. He still missed her on the grid but at least he now knew what she was doing.


More soon (ish).