Disclaimer: Spooks and its associated characters and settings belong to Kudos and the BBC. Jonny Wilkinson belongs to himself, though hopefully he wouldn't mind me having a little fun with him.
A/N: Thank you for the reviews and for your support. As for the reviewer who felt the story was 'totally unbelievable even for ffnet', thank you for taking the time to leave a review but I wish I knew exactly what you felt was so unbelievable about the story. If by any chance you read this chapter could you let me know? Thanks!
As soon as Danny returned to the Grid, Harry called him into his office for an update on the situation.
"Jonny has been debriefed and is getting settled into the safe house. Ruth is there with him now," Danny said before being interrupted by Harry.
"Why is she there?"
Danny wasn't aware that Harry had already asked Tom all of these questions. "I needed someone to brief him on safe house procedures and to liaise with him should any issues arise. There's an agent stationed at the house to keep an eye on things and we've got eyes on the Camorra's so everything's under control. I'm heading back over there tonight to pick Ruth up and drive her home," Danny added.
"Yes, but why Ruth?" Harry repeated.
"I thought she might like to get out of the office plus she made that joke about him when they won the World Cup. It was either Ruth or Sam, but Sam was likely just to flirt with the man and not give him a moment's peace," Danny said, not catching the note of caution in his boss's voice.
"And the Camorra family?" Harry said, bringing the discussion back to the matter at hand.
"We've got eyes on them and are monitoring as much of the communications as possible. Jonny's name has been mentioned a few times, but nothing of note. Because of his injury he hasn't been playing this year but has been doing physical therapy. Apparently he's hoping to be back in time for the World Cup."
"Right. Anything else I need to know?"
Danny reviewed a few other minor details which Harry only vaguely heard. His mind was distracted with the thought of Ruth spending hours with a man she found attractive enough to joke about marrying.
Harry stood in the entryway to the safe house, having just been cleared by the agent on duty. He could hear two voices in the sitting room, but what surprised him was that the voices were speaking French. Being fluent himself he understood they were talking about places they traveled as children. After a story from Jonny about running naked along a French beach as child and Ruth's laughter in response, Harry decided it was time to interrupt.
"Pardon the interruption," he started as he opened the door.
Ruth looked surprised to see him and quickly scrambled up from her seat on the floor. "Harry, come in. We were just talking about stupid things we did as kids." Ruth set down her mug before moving to stand near Harry.
"Have you two met?" she asked. At Harry's shake of his head, she made introductions. "Harry, this is Jonny Wilkinson. Jonny, this Harry Pearce, my boss."
Jonny stood and moved to greet Harry, extending his hand. "Mr Pearce, pleased to meet you. I want to thank you and your team for your efforts in my situation. I didn't really think it was this serious but my manager called Special Branch, who then got in touch with you, and well, next thing I knew I was here."
Harry politely shook Jonny's hand. "You're welcome, Mr. Wilkinson. I presume Ms. Evershed briefed you on the procedures and protocol while you're staying with us?" He wasn't sure why he was being so formal with Jonny; the man was only a year older than his daughter Catherine.
"Oh yes, Ruth went over all that with me earlier. She's been very helpful and patient with me." Jonny looked to Ruth with a wide smile while Ruth glanced at the floor and blushed in embarrassment at the attention.
Harry looked over the entire scene with curiosity. He was initially worried about Ruth and Jonny at the safe house together, but he quickly convinced himself that the two likely wouldn't even get along. Ruth said she loathed all sport, so what would she have to talk about with an international rugby star like Jonny Wilkinson? Nothing, of course, so he brushed aside his worry. Besides, Ruth was nine years older than Jonny, who probably had beautiful women throwing themselves at him all the time. Not that Ruth wasn't beautiful, because she was. She is. Would Jonny find her beautiful? Maybe he was attracted to her pale blue eyes, her warm personality, and her brilliance. An image of the Ruth and Jonny together sprang into his mind just before Ruth's voice brought him back to the situation at hand.
"Harry, why are you here?"
He looked blankly at Ruth, still trying to get the unwanted image out of his head. When he didn't respond, she spoke again.
"Why isn't Danny here? Has something happened?" The urgency in Ruth's voice finally snapped him back to reality.
"Danny's fine; he's tracking down some information pertaining to Mr. Wilkinson's situation. There's nothing new to report, though we still hope to have this situation resolved shortly. Are you ready to go, Ruth?"
Though she was a bit surprised at his abrupt manner, she nodded. "Let me gather my things. I'll only need a minute," she said before disappearing down the hall.
Harry nodded at Jonny before walking back to the front door to wait for Ruth. Jonny stood awkwardly near the sitting room doorway, unsure as to what to do next.
Moments later Ruth was back in the hallway with the file in hand before stopping next to Jonny.
"I'll be back tomorrow, probably later in the morning. I need to go into the office and hopefully I'll have an update on the situation for you when I arrive. You have my number in case you need anything, yes? Otherwise let the agent on duty know if anything comes up."
"Thank you, Ruth. I appreciate your help and yes, I do have your number. Good night," he said.
"So how did he seem? Do you think he'll cooperate with us?"
The tone of Harry's voice was strained and it made Ruth turn to watch him.
"He was fine; very cooperative and hopes this will all be over soon. He wasn't even going to mention the threats to anyone, but his manager, Mark, received one by mistake. When he asked Jonny about it, Jonny finally told him about the other threats and that's when Mark called Special Branch."
Harry didn't say anything in reply so Ruth turned to look out the window, but the silence was too much for her.
"Did anything happen on the Grid today that I need to be aware of? I spoke with Malcolm earlier about setting up a secure connection with a laptop so I can work at the safe house if needed," she said. "I don't think Jonny is used to being cooped up in a house, though with his injury he's not been as active as he'd like. I imagine having someone to talk to will keep him from getting restless."
"Is that where you feel you need to be? At the safe house with him?" Harry's voice was still strained.
"He's more likely to stay put and let us handle this matter if he's not going stir crazy. We don't have any indication that the Camorra family knows of Jonny's location, right?"
Harry's response was only a nod.
"Good." Ruth thought about trying to change the subject but he didn't seem to be in the mood to talk. She watched the neighbourhoods change as Harry drove towards her home. She wasn't sure what was bothering him, but sometimes it was better to just leave him be. If it was something she'd done he would tell her but for all she knew he was out of his favourite whisky and hadn't had time to pick up another bottle.
The next days passed with little fanfare. Ruth stopped at the Grid each morning for an hour or two before setting off for the safe house. Harry's temperament towards Ruth was chilled but still professional. After two days of clipped answers and stony facial expressions, she pulled Danny aside to ask about Harry before she left the Grid. But before she could ask, Danny spoke up.
"Ruth, I think your babysitting job may be coming to an end today. The Camorras are set to leave London later this afternoon and we'll make sure they know we were aware of their intentions and that they would do best to stay away from Britain and Jonny," Danny said before Ruth could get a word in.
"Oh, well that's good then. Should I update Jonny?" she asked.
"That's fine. Once everything is settled I'll come by the safe house and finalize everything with Jonny. I'll call you if anything changes," he added before turning to leave.
It was only after Danny was gone that Ruth realized she'd not asked him about Harry's mood towards her.
Ruth was walking through the safe house to ensure she'd not left anything behind when she noticed a jumper tossed over the back of a chair in the sitting room. Picking it up she started up the stairs to return it to Jonny, who was packing his bags in preparation of going home. Danny had just left after telling them that there was no longer a threat to Jonny and he was free to leave.
Jonny was thrilled with the news, enthusiastically shaking Danny's hand and then turning to Ruth and engulfing her in a hug. She'd laughed at his impromptu move and Danny raised his eyebrows at her in question when Jonny left the room to ring his manager. Ruth simply shook her head and told Danny she'd see him on the Grid the next day.
Ruth's trip up the stairs was interrupted by Jonny walking down the stairs with his bag in hand.
"You left this in the sitting room, I didn't want you to forget it," she said as he took the item from her grasp.
"Thanks," he said as they both walked back down the stairs. Ruth picked up her bag and followed Jonny out the front door. They climbed into the back of a car driven by an officer from Five; Ruth to be dropped off at her home and Jonny at his manager's place. He'd head back up north tomorrow or the day after.
"Ruth, thank you for everything you've done for me these past few days. I think I'd have gone insane if you weren't there to keep me company and distract me from the absurdness of the situation." He reached over and squeezed her hand as it rested on her bag on the seat between them.
She smiled at him in response. "You're welcome. It was fun to get out of the office. I have to admit that I was terrified to meet you and afraid that I'd make a complete fool of myself by tripping over my own feet or something silly, plus I had no idea what we would talk about."
"Well that was never a problem, was it?" Jonny said with a mischievous grin on his face.
Ruth blushed in response. "No, I guess it wasn't," she said with a slight smile. "Thank you, though, for not taking your forced confinement out on me. I know it wasn't what you wanted to be doing."
He returned her smile with one of his own. "Yes, well staying alive was a powerful motivator for staying put."
After a moment of awkwardness, he spoke again. "Ruth, can I take you to dinner this evening? I'd like to properly thank you for everything you did for me."
"Jonny that really isn't necessary."
"I know, but I want to do it. Look, it's four now, how about I pick you up at seven? Do you have a favorite place to go? I don't know London that well. We can go somewhere casual or we can dress up and go someplace posh or whatever strikes your fancy.
"Are you serious?"
"Of course! I've been cooped up for four days and I want to be out amongst the world again, and I'd like to do it with you, the person who kept me sane."
"Well…"
"I can always just show up on your doorstep and pretend to be Romeo and entertain your neighbours until you agree to leave with me."
"You wouldn't!"
"There's one way to find out, and that's to say no."
Ruth bit her bottom lip as she quickly contemplated the idea. "Fine, I'll go. What are you in the mood for? What type of place would you normally go to?"
"Honestly, I prefer a place where I don't need a dinner jacket but other than that I'm not too fussy. Though given the events of the past few days, can we skip Italian?"
They both smiled at his joke. "Okay, how about Chinese? I know a little place where the owners are actually from China. They let me practice my Mandarin when I visit and the food is amazing. Plus it's not far from my house."
"Perfect," Jonny said with a smile.