Disclaimer: I own no part of Spooks, its characters, or its plots. The initial idea for this fic came from Strawberry on SICF who asked for a sledging fic. Thanks also go to TygerBright on SF for her snippets and ideas, and the story title came from the song by 'The Get-Up Kids'.
Chapter 7
Jo looked horror-stricken when she realised what she had done. Whether she had imagined the dull thunk as the gravel had impacted with Ruth's face was irrelevant; the fact remained that she had hurt her. She could sense Adam trying to hold her back and stop her from breaking up the tender moment developing between his boss and the injured party, but even his restraining hand on her arm didn't keep her from breaking free and darting across the road to the battered woman, the strands of long hair that had escaped her ponytail flying wildly about her face.
"Oh my god, Ruth, I am so sorry!" blurted Jo, flailing hands doing nothing whatsoever to help the matter.
Fortunately, Harry acted quickly to shut her up and pack her away. He indicated in no uncertain terms for Zaf to drag Jo away to fetch something from her bag, which he did, not too reluctantly, with the offer of building a snowman. Unable to resist the offer, and having calmed down enough to realise that Ruth was in safe hands, Jo was quick to snap up the potential igloo, leaving Harry, Ruth and Adam behind.
The latter could see that this would be the opportune moment now for Harry to make his excuses and offer to drive Ruth home after all. And, as endearing as that may be, it did nothing to help Adam's quest to find out the truth about the Grid's most evasive couple (if they were indeed a couple). He couldn't very well continue his investigation if his targets were to disappear now, could he?
Instead, he took matters into his own hands. Subtly, he intervened between the two, and helped Ruth to be seated on the pavement, a tissue dampened by snow ("Not yellow snow," he promised) pressed against the lesion in her skin.
"Hold that there for a minute," he advised, 'helping' her to do to at first by gently resting his hand over her one that pressed the tissue against her face. He could almost feel Harry's furious stare burning into his back, but still he persevered. "Hmm, perhaps we ought to take you to hospital? You might have concussion or something."
"Honestly, Adam!" Ruth blurted. "I'm fine; there's no need to be so worried. You're almost as bad as Ha-"
One syllable too late, Ruth realised what she was about to say. She managed to cut her words short, but the damage was done. So, Harry fussed over her, did he? Adam hurriedly disguised his grin as a look of apology, and dropped his hand back to his side.
"I don't need mollycoddling," Ruth added, her tone final. Harry had to stop himself from grinning at the sight of her, chin raised defiantly, almost like a disobedient child.
"Well, we'd best wait here for a bit anyway," Adam said. "It's school-run time now; I think we've missed our time slot to get out of the city before the roads are heaving."
Ruth started nodding, then winced sharply as the pain in her temple increased twofold. Harry made an involuntary movement as if to rush to her aid but, yet again, checked himself as he was beaten to her by Adam.
"Are you sure about that visit to A&E?" he asked. Ruth took one look at his face, then exhaled with relief as she realised he was only kidding her. She smiled shyly, unused to being teased.
It was all Harry could do to look on as Adam helped her back up to a standing position, and then led her over to a bench on the pavement. He cleared the seat of snow, and then sat her down.
Then Adam surprised them all. Still holding one of Ruth's hands (which, he noticed, had acquired a pair of gloves that looked remarkably like Harry's) he leant closer to her and reached up to her face. She blinked in shock, resisting the urge to flinch as he held her gaze rather too intensely for comfort and then stroked her cheek, passing off the gesture by tucking an errant strand of hair which threatened to blow against her minor wound back behind her ear. Then, as if absolutely nothing had happened, he sat back against the bench, perhaps a tad too close than their friendship merited.
To the side of the bench, Harry stiffened. He looked at Ruth's face over Adam's shoulder and was relieved to see her expressions was just as bemused as he felt. What on earth was going on?
It didn't take long before Harry figured it out. He noticed in the corner of his eye Zaf and Jo eyeing him intently, all the while pretending to be absorbed in the building of their snowman. Their glances, shamefully unsubtle for people of their profession, flitted from him, to the baffling scene on the bench, then back to him again, as if expecting a monumental occasion to arise. Something inside him clicked sharply, and it suddenly dawned on him what their plan was. So, they wanted to get him jealous, did they? Wanted, what? For him to suddenly snap and make a territorial threat to Adam that would tell them categorically what his situation with Ruth was? Well, they certainly hadn't thought that he would see through their thinly-disguised concoction, had they?
Nor would they have expected his reaction at having found out. He wasn't annoyed at their fishing about, oh no. No, it was the fact that their scheme was making his Ruth uncomfortable that irked him, and he was having none of it. Faking a yawn, he took a seat on the bench, on Ruth's other side, then leant back casually, his hand in the process coming to rest right next to her leg.
Sandwiched rather awkwardly between the two men, one of whom was her boss and her secret inamoratos, the other of whom was her colleague and who suddenly appeared to be attempting to make advances on her, Ruth focused on a spot on the opposite snow-covered kerb and tried not to think of the awkwardness of the situation. She was so taken up with the distractive method of reciting the Glagolitic alphabet backwards that it took her a while to register Harry's little finger tapping at the side of her leg. She was about to put it down to his apparent daydreaming and vacant staring into space, and gently move her leg away, when she noticed that he was alternating between light, short taps, and rather longer presses. Deliberately. A long tap, a short, a long, a short. Morse code. 'C'.
She held her gaze with the opposite pavement, meanwhile spelling out his message in her head.
C.O.U.G.H.
And then a series of three harder presses against her thigh.
Cough three times. She did so, glancing at Harry and giving him a barely perceptible nod as she pretended to fish in her pocket for a tissue. As she settled back, she made sure her hand rested next to his, conveniently obscured by one end of her scarf. Immediately he covered her hand with his, and resumed the clandestine message.
T.E.A.M.
Adam suddenly began talking again, and it was a strain for her to both listen to his words, and to decipher the Morse code of Harry's.
P.L.A.N.
"I used to love to walk around London with my mum when it snowed," murmured Adam. "At this rate I'll never get Wes her before it all turns to slush."
M.A.K.E. M.E. J.E.A.L.O.U.S.
"The weather forecast's the same for the rest of the week," Ruth replied.
A.N.D. R.E.V.E.A.L.
"I'm sure you'll e able to find some snow for the rest of his time off school."
O.U.R.
"I hope so."
R.E.L.A.T.I.O.N.S.H.I.P.
"I never spend enough time with him," said Adam quietly. "I never have."
W.H.A.T. Y.O.U. W.A.N.T. T.O. D.O.
"Hmm." Her deliberation was two-fold, but it was Adam she replied to first. "It's the nature of the job, I suppose," she replied. "But I'm sure that every parent would think the same."
Adam inclined his head in semi-admission. "Perhaps." He settled back down, drifting back into his memories. "The thing I miss most," he said, "is Mum taking me up Hampstead Heath on weekends when it snowed. We'd bring the sledge my dad once made and spend hours up there with my brother and sister."
"That sounds lovely." Ruth smiled at his wistful expression. "I never did anything like that."
"What, sledging on Hampstead Heath?" he asked.
"Sledging point blank," came the distracted reply as Ruth mulled over her response to Harry's earlier question. She was surprised when Adam sat forward on the bench and turned fully to face her.
"You've never been sledging?" he asked incredulously, eyebrows raised in utter shock.
Harry too was surprised, and he frowned at her questioningly.
"No, never," she replied. "Never really had the opportunity."
"Not even at Oxford?"
She shrugged. Truth was, winter had never really been her thing. Even the festive joys like making snowmen or snow angels, taking a walk in some snowy woods or trying to catch falling snowflakes on her tongue had never really tempted her into liking the freezing weather. Her idea of an ideal snow-day involved curling up by a log fire with a nice book and a mug of hot chocolate, wrapped in the warmest, fluffiest socks she could find. Ordinarily, she would never have even contemplated taking part in a snowball fight, let alone starting one. Of course, she knew why she had done it – anything to seize some precious extra moments with Harry outside of work.
Adam stood up suddenly, rousing her from her reverie.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Well, we can't have this, can we? You never having sledged?" He tutted dramatically. "No no, it's a situation that needs to be rectified immediately." He nodded towards the car-park. "I've got the sledge in the boot," he said. "Was planning on taking Wes up the Heath later if we had time. Might as well make use of the time now – the traffic's going nowhere." With that he dashed off, loathe to leave Harry and Ruth on their own for too long.
Harry turned to Ruth.
"So, what do you want to do?" he asked. "We can sneak off and try to make that dinner reservation after all. I never did call them up to cancel earlier." He looked at her inquisitively, trying to read the myriad of expressions that flitted over her face.
"No," she replied finally. "I have a better idea." She took a deep breath, launching into spook-mode. "They're thinking they can use your jealousy, or perhaps my discomfort, to squeeze a reaction from one of us. Well, we're on to them now, so that won't work, but in the mean time we way as well have some fun of our own."
Harry caught her mischievous grin. As if her snow-induced playfulness was contagious, he too found himself smiling. "Play them at their own game, you mean?"
"Exactly. Adam thinks he can flirt with me until either you or I crack. Well, we'll use his own tricks against him. I'll play up to him, make it look like I'm taking him seriously. He'll be disorientated, and maybe they'll back off."
"If they're really convinced there's something going on between us, do you really think they won't see straight through that?"
"Perhaps. But then he didn't think we would – well, you would – figure out their plan, did he? At the very least we can throw a spanner in the works. It might put them off the scent."
"And I'm supposed to sit back and watch you flirting with another man?" He couldn't believe how confident she seemed, let alone the fact that she was actually considering this retaliation.
"Jealous?" she smirked gently.
"Always." The intensity of his gaze and the sudden deep tinge to his voice floored her, and she had to look away, blushing fiercely.
"Come on, Harry," she laughed, trying to alleviate the tension his sudden words had brought. "It's not like he'll take it seriously. It's only a bit of fun to hopefully stop them prying and give them the idea that our private lives should be exactly that – private.!
"You underestimate yourself, Ruth," he murmured. "Most of the red-blooded males on the planet wouldn't be adverse to switching places with Adam right now."
"Don't be silly," she murmured, putting his words down to flattery and blushing even deeper.
"I'm not," he insisted. "God, if you suddenly started flirting with me..."
"I do flirt with you, Harry," she reminded him, and he had to smile at that.
"That you do, Ruth. That you do."
Sorry (again!) for the delay in posting this; I was slightly deterred by the lack of snow to feed my mind of lovely fluffy snowy stuff... And then, hey! We have the white stuff! (Plus three days off school as well because of said snow, which gave me time to actually write for a change). Hope you're still enjoying this, and please leave a review! Look, I've even (finally) got a mention of a sledge in there – we're getting there slowly!
Next chapter: Ruth and Adam getting cosy on a sledge... Uh, what?
Now, please excuse me while I go wallow in 45cm of snow and get some more inspiration for the next chapter... =D
