I know I've been horrible but thanks for reviewing everyone.


Dimitri was driving and Harry had a tense look on his face. "What are you going to do if they're there?" Harry stared at the younger man and it was clear what was on Harry's mind. "You're going to kill them?" he said with only the hint of a question in his voice.

"Yes," Harry said in a calmly detached voice which actually scared Dimitri. How could anyone talk about murder in such a calm voice? It seemed inconceivable to him. But then again they hadn't kidnapped the woman he loved and he knew Harry was going through hell and had been all day.

Soon they stopped outside the building and Harry had a feeling this was the right one. He just knew it. He could sense Ruth was close by. "Be sensible," Dimitri warned. Harry ignored him. Sensible was gone hours ago. Sensible vanished as soon as he saw blood on his bedroom carpet. They slowly opened a side door and saw someone who was clearly standing guard. Dimitri looked at Harry and they silently agreed that Dimitri would deal with him. Which he did silently and quickly. Harry didn't have that much self control left and he knew being quiet was a priority. Dimitri tied the guards hands together and gagged him while Harry listened for all he was worth.

He saw a long corridor with several rooms leading off of it. "We should really wait for back up," Dimitri suggested. He wished he'd stayed silent from the look of ice Harry gave him. "Sh," Dimitri said. They could hear raised voices. Following the noises they saw a door ajar by two inches. There were two men dressed in black shouting at each other. They were so involved that they weren't paying attention to anything else and didn't hear Dimitri and Harry approaching.

Dimitri nodded to Harry and they both barged into the room with their guns at the ready. Very quickly shots rang out in the room. Once they'd fallen to the floor Harry saw her. Ruth was lying on the floor and she looked bad. In fact she looked dead, but he wouldn't think about that. He ran to her and held her face in his hands.

"No," she moaned in a little voice that broke his heart. "No… please."

"Ruth it's me," Harry said quietly. "You're safe now."

"Harry?" she asked quietly, unable to wrap her mind around it. Harry shouldn't be here. But there was something important he needed to know. "Four… There were four of them." Harry glanced at Dimitri who had heard her. They had only seen three of them so he left stealthily to find the missing component. When they were alone he had a good long look at her. She looked terrible.

"Harry, they've… injected me with something. I can't… move much."

"Its okay," he said. "I'll call an ambulance. You'll be okay." He pulled out his mobile and quickly made sure one was on its way. He threw his phone to the floor and gently lifted the hem of the shirt she wore to try and see the damage when she moaned.

"No, please don't touch me," she begged quietly.

"Okay," he said quickly to try and comfort her. "Okay," he said again. He stroked her face and she frowned away from his touch.

"Leave me alone," she said. Unable to move properly she shuffled away from him as much as her aching body would allow her to. Harry was starting to really worry about her now. She had never backed away from his touch. Not once, but now she was and that terrified him. A possibility came into his mind. A horrible possibility which he was silently praying wasn't true.

"Ruth, I won't touch you," he reassured her. "But I need to know what they've done to you. I need you to tell me, can you do that?"

"Hit my stomach and ribs," she said in one breath. She didn't want to tell him what else they'd done to her but knew she didn't have a choice as his eyes settled on hers. There was no room for lies between them ever, but at a time like this he read more in her blue eyes than he ever wanted to.

"Did they…?" Harry couldn't bring himself to say it. Almost like if he didn't say it, it couldn't be true. She knew what he was asking her.

"Yes," she said in a lifeless voice, hating that she had to tell him this. But she couldn't lie to him or hide the truth.

"Oh Ruth," he said, his voice filled with eternal sadness. He desperately wanted to hold her and comfort her but he wondered if that would do more harm than good. "Let me help you to sit up. If that's okay." Ruth nodded once and let him help her which took a while because she couldn't move properly. She groaned as her weight moved against her bruised ribs.

"You found me then," she said in a quiet voice.

"Of course I did," he replied. "I wasn't going to leave you here alone." He carefully and gently brushed her hair behind her ear and she didn't object. He didn't leave her side at all and was relieved when he heard another gunshot. He knew Dimitri was coming back from the sound of the footsteps. Dimitri's footfall couldn't be mistaken.

"The ambulance is just outside," Dimitri said, his head poking around the doorframe. God she looked awful, he thought. He couldn't imagine what Harry was going through, looking at her was hard just for him, and he wasn't in love with her.

"They're going to have to bring a stretcher in here Dimitri," Harry said. "She can't walk. They've given her drugs of some description and she can't move properly." Dimitri nodded and kicked the two bodies in the doorframe out of the way so the paramedics could get to Ruth more easily.