Friday, August 17th , 1984 - The George
"Let me buy you a drink," Jason says with a smile.
"Thanks," Ruth replies. "A cider please."
She wonders over to the table where she spies her colleagues and sits down by Malcolm. They all seem to be here except for Sophie and Harry, who were still doing some last minute preparations for the op they're running tomorrow when Ruth left the Grid.
"Have you found a place to stay yet?" Malcolm asks.
"No," Ruth admits. "I've looked at a couple of places, but they were terrible. I've discovered that it's hard to find something I can afford in a reasonable location and condition."
"You could stay in my guest room," Harry offers as he sits down beside her.
Malcolm and Ruth both stare at him in surprise.
"Until you find your own place," he adds defensively, while inwardly berating himself for his stupidity in suggesting such a thing. It was all a result of seeing Jason buying Ruth a drink and the warm smile she gave him. He's never been able to think straight when his mind is clouded by jealousy. Anger and hurt he can handle, but jealousy is his Achilles's heel.
Ruth clears her throat and murmurs, "Thank you, Harry. I'll... I'll think about it."
Realising he's not off to a particularly good start, Harry excuses himself to get a drink, and Ruth follows him with her eyes as he goes. She's not sure what to make of his offer. Perhaps he was just trying to help her out of a difficult spot, but given their history, it was an odd offer to make. Jason walks up carrying his drink and Ruth's, and he sits down next to her in the seat Harry has just vacated, forcing her to set her thoughts aside for later analysis.
Malcolm's stunned by Harry's invitation and it dawns on him that his friend is very far from indifferent to their new analyst. He watches him carefully and sees the tell-tale signs of the jealousy he must be feeling as he watches Ruth chatting with Jason. His jaw and hands are tightly clenched, a sure sign of anger. Perhaps the great Harry Pearce has finally fallen in love, he thinks and smiles. It would do him good. He turns his attention towards Ruth in the hope of finding out if the attraction is mutual, but he can't see any indication of it. Of course he doesn't know her well yet, so he will have to watch carefully to see what he can find out. He smiles. Life just got a whole lot more interesting on the Grid.
Ruth is on her second drink and is really enjoying herself. She's sitting between Sophie and Sarah this time. They're both very friendly, and Ruth is pleased; she hadn't been that lucky with her colleagues at GCHQ. Luckily, the men have gone off to play pool upstairs as she'd been feeling a little uncomfortable earlier with the attentions of Jason. She's not quite sure whether he's just being attentive to the new member of the team, or if it's a more personal interest, so when a suitable lull in the conversation presents itself, she asks her new friends, "Does Jason behave like this with all new members of the team?"
"You mean does he buy them drinks and try to get them to go watch him play pool to cheer him on?" Sarah teases.
"Exactly," Ruth sighs. "I don't want to tell him I'm not interested if he's just trying to make friends with the new girl."
"To be honest," Sophie giggles, "I think it's his way of making friends with the new girl and seeing if there's anything else he can get out of it."
"I must say, we have quite a group of men in Section D," Sarah sighs. "All of them, except Malcolm of course, are quite the heart-breakers."
"Really?" Ruth asks with interest.
"Oh, yes," Sophie nods. "Particularly Jason and Harry. Jason's always talking about some new girl he's dating, and well, Harry's affairs are legendary."
"Legendary?" Ruth inquires with surprise.
"They say that he used to have one affair after another," Sarah murmurs conspiratorially, "and it destroyed his marriage."
"How sad," Ruth replies thoughtfully, hiding her distress at this news about Harry. Had she been just a short affair? Is that what he still wants from her? Because she's sure that he still wants her.
"Lucas, is an interesting one," Sophie says. "He's only been here six months, but he's gorgeous, so he must be beating them off with a stick."
"Seems to me like he's more interested in the job at the moment," Sarah adds. "You give him some time, and we'll see what he does when the novelty wares off."
"So you're saying, don't trust Jason," Ruth asks, turning the conversation back to her initial question.
"Oh, no," Sophie replies. "We're saying be careful because it might not last. I don't think he dates more than one woman at a time. It's more that he gets bored."
Ruth nods and says, "I can see that in him. He's too in love with himself."
"Wow! That's it. How perfectly put," Sarah exclaims.
"Well, she is an analyst," Sophie replies rolling her eyes, and then asks, "Do you have a boyfriend, Ruth?"
Ruth hesitates for a moment and then answers, "No."
"Come on," Sarah encourages. "You can tell us. We won't tell."
"Sort of," Ruth admits, realising that she hesitated too long and they don't believe her. "We're not together, but I hope we will be soon."
"Shame," Sarah sighs. "It's hard to find someone outside the service who can deal with the crazy hours we keep. So what's his name?"
"James," she invents and then she hastily asks, "So are either of you seeing anyone?"
"I'm not," Sarah offers, "but I can't say I haven't had a few one-night-stands in the last year."
"I was seeing someone," Sophie adds, "but we broke up last month when I was finally allowed to tell him what I do for a living. He couldn't handle it. Said he couldn't trust me."
"That's awful!" Ruth exclaims.
Sophie shrugs and says, "It makes you wonder if it's worth making the effort to get them vetted in the first place. Perhaps, one-night-stands are better in the long run anyway, or dating someone using an alias."
Ruth is surprised at the openness of her companions with regards to their private lives. She's never been comfortable sharing her thoughts and feelings with people, especially if she's only just met them. She also can't understand all this sleeping around that seemed to be going on. Since her time with Harry, she's been on a handful of dates, but only one of them had resulted in sex that, unfortunately, hadn't even been particularly good. At least, it hadn't been any good when compared to sex with Harry. Perhaps she's less easily aroused than other women, she thinks. Perhaps what she found with Harry some women find with every second man, or maybe, her expectations are just too high. She's always had high expectation and standards in every area of her life. She sometimes finds herself wondering if it's the sand, the sea, and the sunset that made all the difference between great sex and good sex. Perhaps she's just chasing a dream. But then she hasn't even been able to find good sex since then. Of course, she admits grudgingly to herself, it's pretty hard to find it if you're not really looking for it because you have this one man lodged in your mind and heart. But the bottom line is that it's not just about the sex. She's in love with Harry because he made her laugh, he talked to her about interesting things, and she'd felt a real connection to him. In short, he'd given her a glimpse of Eden, but now, she's not sure if it was the real thing, or a carefully constructed illusion.
"Let's go and see what the boys are up to," Sarah suggests, rescuing Ruth from her depressing thoughts.
They all readily agree and follow her upstairs where there's a game in progress between Malcolm and Lucas on one side, and Jason and Harry on the other. Lucas and Malcolm win the game as Lucas is by far the best player.
"Do you girls want to join us?" Jason asks when the game's over.
Sarah and Sophie immediately agree, and Ruth doesn't object. Harry decides to sit this one out to even up the teams, and so the rest of them inevitably form two teams: boys versus girls. Jason starts off the game, followed by Sophie, Malcolm, Sarah and Lucas. Lucas very nearly clears the table, but he misses his last shot. Ruth picks up the cue and chalks it up while she wonders round the table looking for her shot.
"Number five in the side pocket," Jason helps her out.
Ruth smiles at him briefly and glances at Malcolm and Harry who are standing together. She winks at them and Harry can't stop the small smile that appears on his lips.
"Nice try, Jason," she murmurs, and selecting her shot, proceeds to clear the table and win the game.
The girls whoop in delight and hug her tight while they crow over the men.
"Where did you learn to play like that?" Lucas asks in awe.
"University," Ruth replies. "I never liked drinking, and so the only fun thing to do when we went out was play pool. I practically financed my accommodation on pool winnings."
"You and I would make an unstoppable team," Lucas smiles at her.
"But that would hardly be fair," Jason complains, stepping closer to Ruth. "Ruth should play with me; then the teams will be even."
Ruth looks from one man to the other and almost bursts out laughing at the glares they exchange, despite the embarrassment she feels at being the object over which they're fighting. Bloody testosterone. This sort of thing has never been a problem for her before. At university, good looking men fought over the popular girls, not the bookworms. Here it seems that intellect is actually appreciated, which is quite refreshing. She makes up her mind to feel flattered instead of embarrassed, and deciding to have some fun, she adds fuel to the fire by saying with a grin, "How about you arm wrestle each other for me?"
Sarah squeals in delight and Sophie giggles.
"Good idea," Jason declares and sits down at a nearby table.
Never one to back down from a challenge, Lucas sits down opposite him, saying, "All right."
Ruth risks a glance at Malcolm and Harry. The former has a broad grin on his face and his eyes are sparkling in delight as he realises that he was right; things are getting really interesting on the Grid. Harry's expression is tightly controlled, but she has no doubt that he's not happy. She feels a twinge of guilt for which she tells herself off. It's just a bit of fun, she tells herself, and he doesn't have any claim on her. However, the guilt proves hard to shake off as it goes against her nature to knowingly hurt anyone, even if hurting Harry isn't what she'd set out to do.
"Ruth," Lucas says, "you're the starter."
"Okay," she replies and turns toward them. "On your marks...Get set...GO!"
Both men strain as the group around them cheers them on. They keep going for quite a long time, and Ruth is impressed. After about a minute, Lucas wins the fight out of sheer determination despite the fact that Jason looks stronger. He raises his arms up in victory, and Jason is the first to congratulate him, followed by everyone else.
"How about a kiss for the winner?" he asks Ruth cheekily.
Ruth raises her eyebrows at him in surprise and then blushes, but shows no obvious signs of rejecting the proposal. He leans down toward her slowly, giving her time to back out of it if she wants to, but as she watches his bright, blue eyes approach her face, she finds that she doesn't. Perhaps it's those two drinks she's had tonight, or maybe it's just the attention she's receiving from two handsome men that has gone to her head, but she finds herself feeling free and reckless. Lucas presses his lips to hers gently and then pulls away smiling, while Sarah and Sophie cheer and Ruth smiles shyly.
"Now, for the game," says Jason. "Harry, you're on my team. Let's show them how it's done." They all look at Harry, and for a moment, Ruth thinks he will refuse. He nods, however, and picks up a cue.
The game is quick with Ruth and Lucas winning easily. Lucas gives her a hug and another kiss before she can say anything, but she finds she doesn't mind. His kisses are gentle and undemanding.
"Now, how about a kiss for the losers," Jason smiles cheekily.
Ruth laughs and walks round the table to him. He leans forward and kisses her firmly on the lips, cupping her face with his hands. When he releases her, he eyes her critically, but she doesn't appear to have been affected in any way by his kiss which disappoints him somewhat.
"What about Harry?" Sophie giggles, thoroughly enjoying this game.
Ruth turns toward him slowly, realising full well that neither of them can avoid this now without either causing the team to insist further, or giving themselves away. Her eyes find his and suddenly all sound is sucked from the room, and for a moment, she's transporter back in time to a secluded beach on a Greek island. She finds herself drifting toward him as if pulled by a strong magnetic force, and she realises that she must be walking forward thought she's not aware of it. She stands before him, and his hands come to rest on her elbows, his fingers wrapping around them gently but firmly. He leans his head forward until their lips touch briefly, gently, reverently, and then he pulls back. The sound seems to return with a bang, and she becomes aware of the cheers of the others. She blinks and takes a step back.
Harry's arms fall to his sides, but there is a small smile on his lips that was not there before. He knows. He saw it in her eyes, and he felt it in her thundering pulse below his fingertips. Relief washes over him and a deep yearning grips his heart. Oh, God, how much he wants and needs her.
Malcolm knows too. He's spotted the difference in her eyes as she kissed each of his colleagues. His willing to bet money on the fact that she feels something for Harry, lucky bastard. However, whether it's lust or love he cannot yet tell.
Looking for something normal to do, Ruth glances at her watch and realises it's almost midnight. She says as much to the rest of the team, and they all decide to call it a night. Malcolm offers a lift to Ruth, who's staying on the same side of town as him, causing Jason to look momentarily disappointed.
"Anyone else need a lift?" Jason offers. Sophie accepts, and then they all say goodnight, and Lucas and Sarah walk off towards the tube station. As they walk back towards MI-5's car park, Ruth realises she's left her gloves in the pub, and turning around, goes back inside the building to fetch them. When she comes back outside, she finds Harry waiting for her.
"Where's Malcolm?" she asks.
"He had to go, so I offered to drive you instead," he answers. Ruth frowns at him and he quickly reassures her. "Really. He just got a phone call from his mother and was very anxious to get back home to her. Apparently she panics if she wakes up at night and he's not there. I couldn't bear to see him anxiously shuffling from one foot to the other for much longer, so I said I'd drive you home. He was so relieved at the opportunity to get going right away that he jumped at the chance. May I offer you a lift, Ruth?"
Ruth studies him for a moment and concludes that he's telling the truth. There is a definite tension between them that is much more pronounced after this evening's events, and feeling the need to relieve it, she smiles and says, "You just can't leave a lady in distress, can you?"
He chuckles and replies, "Apparently not. Shall we?"
Ruth nods and they walk side by side to his car. They drive in silence each lost in their thoughts, which run on a remarkably similar path. Harry's struggling with his desire to tell her just how much he's in love with her. He's pretty sure that doing that right now, however, without giving her time to get to know him at all, will backfire, and she'll end up believing that he's insincere and just trying to get her into his bed. He's learnt the hard way that no relationship can survive without trust, and jumping into bed together at the first opportunity is hardly going to help build it. He doesn't just want a quick shag, or a month long affair. With her, he wants it all.
Ruth is telling herself to take things slowly. She reminds herself that she knows very little about him, so no matter how much she wants to share his bed tonight, she vows to take the time to get to know him first, both at work, and hopefully, outside work too before anything physical happens between them again. In any case, it's hardly a good plan to sleep with the Section Chief on her first day of work. Of course, it's probably not a very good plan to spend your first evening after work encouraging your male colleagues to fight over you and then kissing them all afterwards. What the hell is wrong with her?
"Turn left up ahead," she says, suddenly becoming aware that they're approaching her hotel. Harry complies and she adds, "It's the next one on the right."
He parks the car and gets out, walking around to her side. He surreptitiously scans his surroundings, spotting a group of young men hanging out near the entrance to the hotel. Unfortunately, there are no other parking spots in this street, which means they'll have to walk past the group to get to the hotel. He opens the door for her and walks with her towards the building, doing his best to shield her from the men and hoping they don't notice her; he doesn't like the look of them at all.
"All right, Love," one of the youths calls out as they walk past. "Ditch the old man and come join us." His mates laugh and a couple of them move closer.
"Ruth," he murmurs in her ear, "I don't like this. You can't stay here."
She wants to argue with him, but truthfully, she doesn't feel safe here either. The two young men move closer still and Harry puts an arm round her waist and propels her towards the door of the hotel. They get inside quickly and make their way up the stairs to the first floor, where she opens the door to her room and they step inside.
"Pack your things," Harry orders in a commanding voice. She turns around to protest, but he silences her by adding in a softer tone, "Please. I didn't mean it to sound like that. I'm just worried about you." He sees her frown and quickly clarifies, "I would be worried about any member of my team who chose to stay here... Please, Ruth."
She nods and begins collecting her things and packing them in her suitcase. It doesn't take her long, and about fifteen minutes later, they leave the room and go back downstairs. Ruth checks herself out at the front desk while Harry steps outside briefly to assess the situation with the young men. Unfortunately, they're still there though they don't pay him any attention. Perhaps they will be lucky, he thinks and goes back inside.
"Ready?" he asks and sees her nod apprehensively. "Stay close to me, walk fast, but don't run unless I tell you to."
She nods again and they exit the hotel together. Harry carries her suitcase and places a protective arm around her waist. The group of young man watch them pass and jeer at them.
"Ignore them," Harry murmurs near her ear as they walk briskly toward the car, but out of the corner of his eye, Harry sees the same two men detach themselves from the group and follow them.
"Get in the car and lock the door," Harry murmurs as they reach it.
He unlocks it and opens the passenger door for Ruth, just as the two men come up behind him. Ruth's heart hammers loudly in her chest as she gets in. Harry slams the door closed, and she locks it quickly as he turns around to face the two youths.
"We don't want any trouble," he says calmly and quietly.
"Then you shouldn't have come here," one of the lads replies and takes a swing at him.
Harry quickly dodges the blow and hits the bloke in the stomach with the suitcase, but his mate grabs Harry from behind, pinning his arms to his side. Harry pushes back with his legs and slams the man onto the car, causing him to momentarily loosen his grip. The rest of the group of youths are now approaching fast and Harry knows he has to act quickly. He presses his advantage by driving his elbow into his adversary's solar plexus, winding him and causing him to double over in pain. Then picking up the suitcase, he darts over to the other side of the car, and unlocking the driver's door, gets in, handing Ruth the suitcase and slamming the door shut before locking it. He starts the engine just as the group of men reach their car and start banging on the windows with their fists. Harry revs the engine and moves forward, causing a couple of them to jump out of the way, and without bothering to buckle his seat belt, he swings out into the road and speeds down the narrow street, leaving a group of irate, young men behind him.
He drives for a few blocks and then stops the car and turns to look at Ruth. "You okay?" he asks.
"Yes," she murmurs. Her heart is still racing, and she's suddenly very grateful that Harry was with her tonight instead of Malcolm. "Thank you," she adds and gives him a small smile. "It wasn't so bad in the day time. The clerk said it's because of the football game tonight. They've been having trouble with these young men after the games lately."
"We'll report it," he replies with a determined, steely look in his eyes.
Harry reaches across and takes the suitcase from her, pushing it into the back seat. Then he puts his seat belt on and drives off toward his home. He's angry, really angry. Those young men won't know what hit them when he gets into work tomorrow. He'll pull some strings with the police and have them locked up before they can say police brutality. He knows it's pointless to try now. One in the morning isn't the best time to call in favours.
He glances at Ruth and notes the pallor of her cheeks. A surge of protectiveness washes over him, and he wants to reach over to pull her into his arms. He turns his gaze back to the road and grips the steering wheel tighter. Thank God, those idiots hadn't touched her.
"Where are we going?" she asks some time later as it occurs to her that she hasn't thought about this yet. Her mind has been busy revisiting the scenes at her hotel. Now that the fear she felt at the time has subsided, she can't help but be impressed with the way Harry handled the situation and managed to get both of them out of there relatively unharmed.
"My house," he replies.
"I can't stay at your house!" Ruth exclaims without thinking. Then blushing profusely she stammers, "I mean -"
"Ruth," Harry interrupts, "I don't bite. I promise I won't lay a finger on you, but we can't go looking for a hotel at this time of night. I have a perfectly serviceable guest bedroom that you can use. I meant what I said earlier; you're welcome to use it until you can find suitable accommodation."
Ruth knows that this is probably a very bad idea, but she realises that he's right. It's late to be looking for a hotel, and after his little speech, she feels that refusing would be churlish and would look like she doesn't trust him, which in this instance, isn't true. It's herself she doesn't trust; after all, last time, he was the perfect gentleman, and she was the one who practically threw herself at him.
"Okay," she says eventually.
Harry's a little surprised and very relieved when she gives in so quickly. His mood brightens as he realises that she trusts him enough to stay alone with him in his house.
"Here you go," Harry says as he hands her a couple of towels. "Do you need anything else?"
"No, thank you," she replies.
"Goodnight then," he smiles and turns to leave her room.
"Goodnight, Harry," she murmurs, "and thank you...for everything."
"I'm glad I could help," he replies as he turns to face her at the door. "Now get some sleep."
"I will," she answers and watches him leave the room and close the door.
It's a lovely room. The walls are a warm peach colour and the furniture is white and elegant. It's not the kind of room she'd expected to find in his house, and she realises that she still has a lot to learn about him. She sighs and then, taking the things she needs, she walks to the bathroom across the hall and has a nice, relaxing shower. Then she gets into bed and falls asleep right away.
