I usually prefer third person limited when it comes to POVs but this time I'll use third person omniscient POV because of reasons.


Chapter 4 And I run, run, run…

It wasn't her bedroom.

This was the first thing Madison realized only seconds after she opened her eyes in the morning. Her head ached when she moved, and she remembered absolutely nothing from the previous night. At least she wasn't naked which she considered a good sign. While looking for her phone in the clutch that was left on the nightstand, she tried to remember what had happened the night before. She went to a pub, had a few drinks with a guy and that was all she could recall from the evening.

Letting out a sigh she gave in and walked out of the room, silently making her way downstairs. Deep inside she hoped she could leave unnoticed, embarrassed by the idea of facing whoever she had come home with.

"Good morning, Madison," she heard a strangely familiar voice from behind just before she could put her hand on the doorknob. It came as quite a shock that the mysterious person was none other than Harry Hart. "I thought you would be sleeping longer."

Madison turned around, cursing in her mind that she had gotten herself into such a ridiculous situation. He seemed to be completely at ease as he signaled her with a wave of his hand and went to the dining room - but maybe it was the effect of being home. And this was when Madison realized why she couldn't recognize her current environment: this was the very first time she set foot in his house. After mumbling a barely audible 'good morning', she asked, "Harry, did we…?"

"Don't worry, nothing happened," he assured her with an understanding smile. "I spent the night in my own bedroom."

"Thank God," Madison said as she sat down on a chair in the dining room. Upon seeing the look on his face, she quickly understood how awfully rude she had been. "I mean… Not like… This is terribly awkward and embarrassing."

For now the best tactic to follow was keeping a safe distance and avoiding every topic that could drive their conversation to highly sensitive topics. "Believe me, it's not. You had a rough day yesterday," he said, hoping she would leave it for the rest of the morning.

"And the result is an even worse hangover." Her lips turned into a smile that hadn't faded right away. As she drew circles on the table with her finger Madison cleared her throat and asked, "Can you do me a favor, Harry?" Without thinking too much about it, he nodded. "Please, I'm begging you to take this sweater off before I throw up. I mean, no offense, but it's truly disgusting, especially in this color. You look like my grandfather."

Harry glanced down at his dark mustard colored sweater for a moment. "Is it really that bad?" he asked, mostly from himself since he actually liked this particular piece of clothing.

"I'm sorry."

"There's no need to be sorry, Madison," Harry assured him with a smile as he stood up and went to the kitchen. "I thought you had known by now that your honesty is one of the things I really like about you."

The more time she spent in his apartment awake the more weird the situation became. Madison didn't really know why she felt this way, though, because she had always considered Harry a good friend of hers. But things had probably changed after he saw her wasted, maybe even behaving like some stupid kid because of the end of her engagement. But now that she gave it a thought she wondered if it was for the best? Not Harry seeing her that way, of course, but breaking up with James.

"Tea?"

Looking up she noticed Harry looking at her. "Yes, thank you," she replied.

"I assume you wouldn't like some breakfast."

"Definitely not," Madison assured him. "I'll just finish my tea and go home. I don't want to overstay my welcome."

"Nonsense; you can stay as long as you want to."

Sitting down after carefully placing the cup in front of her, Harry began to wonder how to ask her about the previous night. Should he be straightforward or talk about something else first, barely mentioning what had happened in the pub? Maybe asking her directly would be suspicious but otherwise there was a great chance she wouldn't tell him what he really wanted to hear.

"Do you remember anything from last night?"

"I remember you arriving," she began, pointing at him with the small spoon she had received with the cup, "but everything else is pretty vague."

Harry nodded then took a sip of his tea. "That's good," he noted quietly without looking at her.

But as it turned out, avoiding her gaze was the worst plan of all. Madison suddenly became suspicious, carefully watching him as she took a sip of tea herself. He could tell she wanted to say something and only mere seconds later she did, indeed, voice the question that was probably ruling all her thoughts at the moment. "What did you say?"

"Nothing."

"No, no, no, I swear I heard you say that's good. Why did you say that?" Pushing away her barely touched cup of tea, Madison folded her hands on top of the table. "Harry, please. I want to know what happened last night."

Part of Harry now wished he hadn't stopped her the night before. Another part only regretted bringing Madison to his home instead taking her to her own. But he made the wrong choice and now it was time to face the consequences. "Nothing happened, don't worry."

"I don't believe you. Did I do something stupid? I definitely did something stupid."

"Madison, relax," he tried to calm her down but all his efforts seemed to be futile.

The young woman let out a painfully desperate laugh as she ran a hand through her hair. "It's easy for you to say this since it wasn't you who did... whatever I did."

"It wasn't you, it was me." When he saw the confused look on her face, Harry let out a sigh and said, "I told you something I shouldn't have."

"What was it?"

Where should he even begin? Did she want to know the whole story or was she simply interested in what he said? In the end Harry decided to give her enough information so she could get the whole picture and understand why he had admitted what he did. "At one point you told me you had always believed I hated you in the beginning. You have to know that I didn't. I never hated you and I don't think I ever will," he told her, for a very short moment even thinking about reaching across the table to squeeze her hand. But he knew better than to try such a scandalous move in such a delicate situation. "Eventually I told you I liked you more than just a friend."

Madison froze and had no idea how to react. Sitting in his dining room became more awkward than before. He was a colleague, a friend, someone she had always trusted, but knowing he probably had romantic feelings for her changed everything. It wasn't his age; it was more about the fact they were working together and she had never looked at him this way. She had just broken up with her fiancé and finding out the only person she believed she could rely on in this situation loved her made her life more complicated that it had been before.

As selfish as it was, Madison knew she needed some people to talk to, people who knew about Kingsman and what this secret could do to a member's personal life. Merlin was always there to help, of course, but they usually worked together on a daily basis and she didn't want to discuss such personal matter with him. Meanwhile Harry was someone who had only showed up every once in a while, mostly due to official matters, therefore talking to him about these things and asking for his advice seemed to be the logical decision to make.

"Say something, Madison," Harry said softly, successfully averting her thoughts.

"I-I think I should go home now."

"Trust me, I know you've just broken off your engagement with James therefore I definitely don't expect you to feel the same way. And I would never force you to return whatever feelings I have."

Harry could do nothing more but watch her stand up and grabbing her purse with shaking hands. "Thank you for helping me last night," she mumbled without looking at him.

"Please don't change the topic; we need to talk about this. I made a mistake by telling you, I know, but I don't want this to change things between us."

Finally she stopped and turned to look at him. "I'm sorry but I could never do this," she began, quickly realizing her mistake. "I mean, it's not that I don't like you, Harry, because I do, and sometimes I wished James would be as understanding and supportive as you are, but right now I don't know anything and I need to keep my life as simple as possible. I'll turn thirty-three this year yet I have no idea what to do with myself. Everyone keeps telling me to go back to the hospital where, according to them, I belong and the more I think about it the more I agree with them."

"They are all wrong because you're one of us now," Harry told her seriously without even thinking about it.

"Am I really? I don't really feel this way to be honest."

"Don't let them tell you what to do." He watched as she leaned her shoulder against the doorframe then continued. "If you want to stay with us then stay, but if you feel like going back to your old life we won't stop you."

"What do you think I should do?"

"Maybe you should talk to Merlin about this. The two of you work together most of the time and I believe you know I would want you to stay."

Madison nodded but had no idea what to say. He was right and in this matter she would trust Merlin without question. Maybe going back to the hospital would be the best decision to make, especially now that she knew certain things about Harry. Distance was always a good solution, and so was avoiding the problem until it went away eventually. "I really should go now," she said. "Thank you for everything."

Just when she finished the sentence Harry stood up and slowly walked over to her. "You're welcome. If you need anything, just call."

She left but decided to take a walk before hailing a cab for the way home. The chilly air filled her lungs with every breath she took and her mind became clearer by every minute. For now she shouldn't think about going back to the hospital. As Madison watched a young couple walking on the sidewalk across the street she realized she had wasted the best years of her life on the relationship with James, never really noticing his annoyance whenever it came to her job. But in retrospect it was so obvious she couldn't help but curse under her breath to release some stress.

And what should she do with Harry? Madison didn't want to lose one of her best friends as well but, knowing what she did, being around him wouldn't be the same in the future. Letting out a sigh she sat down on a bench at a playground and watched the kids chasing each other and playing surprisingly nicely. Being a child is way easier, free of responsibilities and tough decisions.

Once she closed her eyes for a second, almost drifting off to sleep, Madison remembered something from the night before.

"God damn it," Madison told herself half an hour later while she waited for the front door to open. Once Harry's face appeared, she took a deep breath then said, "You kissed me last night, twice if I remember correctly."

"I did, but-"

She immediately put up a hand to stop him. "No, please, don't interrupt me. You kissed me and I can vaguely recall liking it. I mean, really liking it, and this whole thing got me thinking. What exactly did I tell you?"

"It doesn't matter, Madison. Go home and get some sleep."

"I'm not going anywhere until you answer my question. Why did I tell you after you told me you liked me more than a friend?"

"You know about me kissing you twice but can't remember what you told me?" Since she didn't seem to be in the mood to appreciate his effort to make a small joke about her previous intoxicated state, Harry gave in. "Fine, you said something about that third date with James. That if you'd known I didn't hate you, you wouldn't have gone on that date with him and maybe things could be different now." For his biggest surprise she cursed and walked away, barely building a small distance between them as she tuzzled her long hair. "So it's true?"

Madison didn't reply right away. He could tell she was embarrassed, confused or maybe both, and knew perfectly well giving her some time and space would make her talk sooner or later. After what he had gone through only a few minutes before he knew it wasn't easy to talk about a topic you found quite uncomfortable. And for her this was obviously one those topics.

"It is. And this is the reason why I came back. I have no idea what will happen between James and me after this break-up thing but if we don't get back together… I don't know, maybe after a while I'll be ready to go on a date or… something.

"Are you talking about the two of us?"

"Yes, I am," she replied shyly. "I'll really go home now but I wanted you to know this."

And with this she was gone, this time for real.


Sorry this update took me so long but things are going crazy at my workplace (seriously, I can barely go on a goddamn coffee break lately) and it caused a massive writer's block. I hope you liked this chapter :) Good news: we will jump a bit in time now... because of reasons.