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Didn't get many reviews for the last chapter. Hope you like this one more. Please let me know. This chapter borrows from the last episode of series 8 but with a twist. No copyright infringement intended.

Game Plan?

Ruth kept her eyes closed as she felt two pairs of hands lift her from the back of the van. Part of her didn't know whether to be scared that this was really the end for her or offended that the men clearly thought she was too heavy to lift on their own. She tried to stay relaxed as the cold concrete floor came into contact with her skin.

"Ruth." A distinctly Irish accent spoke. She kept quiet, remembering how Jo had loved the sound of the male Irish accent. Even saying she wished Harry would sent her on assignment over there - just so she could spend time surrounded by the beautiful accent. "Ruth, I know you are alive and I know you can hear me." She opened her eyes gingerly as the thick set man helped her to sit up.

"What do you want?"

"I am sorry about this. None of this is anything to do with you. Not really."

"Excuse me if I don't accept your apology." Ruth glared at him, her blue eyes almost navy with determination. "What is this about?"

"Has your husband ever mentioned me? Has Juliet Shaw?"

"No." Ruth lied as she suddenly realised who the man was. "There was someone else here."

"Christian." The man stated. "He's a mate of mine. He'll be back later."

Ruth stared straight ahead. She knew exactly why the man in front of her was so nervous. She was missing and half of Section D would be looking for her. She knew that when an officer was missing it became the priority to find them - for the sake of national security if nothing else. Part of her knew Harry and the others would want her back for more than just what she knew.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Ruth." He turned and sat on a metal box in front of her. "Have you ever been scared? I mean really scared. So frightened that you'll die before you see your kids grow up or tell the man you love how you feel?" Ruth narrowed her eyes slightly, wondering what this man really knew about her.

"If you have touched my kids." Ruth's voice was lower and more deadly than she had ever heard herself. "If you have."

"Hold on." He looked her in the eye. "I am many things but I swear I don't touch kids. Your bairns have done nothing to me. Why would I hurt them?"

"I've not done anything to you either. Yet, here I am." Ruth felt her heart rate speed up.

"Aye." He nodded. "Here you are. And before anything else is said or done I want to tell you that this is nothing personal to you." He got to his feet as Ruth's eyes widened. Suddenly the needle in his hand terrified her more than anything she had seen in her life.

"What's that?" She tried to pull away, to put some distance between herself and the syringe in his left hand.

"It's ok." He grabbed her as she screamed and tried to free herself from his grip. "It's just going to send you to sleep. That's all."

"Anaesthetic." Ruth squirmed. "I can't. I'm ..." She slumped in his arms. Seconds later he laid her on her side and covered her with a dirty, grey blanket before sighting an IV and anaesthetic drug into her arm.

"Sweet dreams lovely girl." Ruth laid quietly on her side as he pulled out his mobile phone. "Harry, your wife is waiting for you."

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"The trade conference has to go ahead. " The woman walked ahead of Adam and Lucas. Her heels clipped on the tiled floor of the hotel. Lucas raised an eyebrow as Adam smirked.

"Yes." Lucas stated. "We appreciate that."

"Good."

"Look, Ms Davies." Adam stated. "Emma."

"Ms Davies will suffice." She snapped as Lucas tried to suppress a smile. The brunette in front of him reminded him of his wife in so many ways. He could see how she had become the boss of a multinational chain of hotels.

"There is a credible threat to the trade conference." Adam stated. "We wouldn't be here otherwise. I appreciate you have to think of your profits but lives are at stake. It wouldn't really look good on your website if this place ignored a threat the security services believed was real and very likely."

"Is that a threat in itself?" She turned as Adam smirked. Lucas shook his head.

"No." Lucas reassured her. "I'd think of it more as career advice."

##########################

"Where is she?" Harry walked out of the safe house towards his 4x4. Zaf lead Henry towards his car, knowing Harry was right. They had to get everyone back to Thames House if there was to be a chance of stopping history repeating itself. Harry opened the car door and climbed in as Ros got in the passenger seat. He narrowed his eyes at her but Ros stared him down.

"She's having a little rest. You work that girl too hard."

"What do you want, Terry?"

"I want a lot of things, Harry. You know me, I was always ambitious. If I hadn't been set up back then I'd have your job now. Maybe even have your wife. That's how you met isn't it?"

"You seem to know a lot about me."

"Aye, well Connie was always good at keeping in touch." Terry smirked. "She was a good girl."

"She was a traitor. You think I set you up? That you were innocent when you went into the Maze?" Harry glared out of the windscreen. "The fact Aiden McCarthy died along with James and a young couple had nothing to do with the van you were driving being full off explosives when you drove it into the crowd."

"You were in that van." Terry spat. "You were there Harry."

"What do you want?" Harry glared.

"You want your Ruth back? I'm guessing she means a lot to you?"

"What do you want?" Harry gritted his teeth as he spoke. "If you have touched her."

"Now now." Terry almost laughed. "You always were a little bit fiery. She's with me. The anaesthetic in her IV is the exact same one she reacts to. Now, she's been given one fairly large dose and the drip in her arm is feeding her a steady supply."

"Terry." Harry's voice was almost desperate. He kept his eyes on the road, afraid to let Ros see how scared he was.

"Meet me. The bay in an hour." Terry stated. "You know the ice cream stand there? The one with the little fat Italian man that runs it."

"I know Mario's." Harry remembered buying Nick and Charlie ice creams there the previous summer.

"Meet me there. Without Ms Myers and we'll discuss the trade conference and how you can clear my name. You may want to bring the file Henry wrote on the explosion. The one that condemned me to twenty years in that hell hole."

"And what if I don't?"

"The lovely Ruth will do her best impression of Sleeping Beauty, so she will. Only this time she doesn't wake up." Terry hung up the call as Ros swore.

"I am not letting you do this on your own." Ros stated, leaving Harry no room for argument. "Ruth is my friend, despite the past."

"I know." Harry started the engine.

"Is it true?" Ros asked as he pulled the car out into the main flow of traffic. "Was he set up to take the fall?"

"No." Harry snapped. "As far as I know he was and is as guilty as sin."

"Connie pulled a lot of wool over a lot of eyes." Ros answered quietly. "Would she have gained anything by half the Section being in Ireland and you, James and Juliet being killed?"

"I have to find Ruth." Harry said calmly. "I want you and the rest of the team to concentrate on the bomb threat to the trade conference."

"The others already are." Ros stated. "You are not walking into a death trap. For one thing Ruth would never forgive me. Or herself."

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"Tariq." Calum jogged towards him. "Lucas just called, he's on his way in. Have you heard from Malcolm?"

"Yeah." Tariq looked up. "Zoe is in the Registry looking for that folder Ros called in about. It's so old I bet it's on microfilm. Ruth would find it in five seconds."

"Ruth isn't here." Malcolm stated as he walked in through the Pods. "That is part of the problem. I think you'd want to see this."

"Aye lad." All eyes returned to the Pods as Henry and Zaf walked in. "I reckon you will want to see it. Remember when you do, Harry was a field officer. Like Ros and Adam are now."

"He was Section Chief." Zaf stated. Henry nodded.

"Aye but in those days Section Chiefs didn't have the authority they have now. There was no way they'd go more than a few hours without checking in with base if they had other officers in the field with them. If they were going solo it could be days or even weeks before they checked in." Henry took his tweed hat off to expose a bald head. "Terry always said he was set up. I never believed it. I had all the evidence I needed to see he was guilty. Harry was on life support for three weeks."

"How?" Calum asked.

"He dragged Juliet away from a bullet. Took it himself." Henry shook his head. "I wasn't there so I only know what was in the report. What I do know is Harry had a bullet wound in his leg that bled so badly the boy went into shock. Terry and James fought for control of the bomb trigger while Juliet tried to save Harry."

"Juliet helping someone." Zaf shook his head in disbelief. "Really?"

"I know what you think of the girl but she wasn't always as hard as nails. The service made her that way." Henry sighed, remembering what he had been told by Ros. "The Juliet Shaw I knew was ambitious, bloody good at her job and a bit of a flirt. Not the woman that got involved in Yalta and all the trouble after it."

"So? Harry was badly hurt." Calum stated. "James Davies was murdered. Who arrested Terry?"

"Harry was badly hurt." Malcolm stated. "I saw him when he came back to the mainland. Catherine and Graham were worried sick. The bullet had hit the femoral artery, just higher than his knee cap. The second bullet went straight through his knee."

"Oh God." Zoe swallowed hard as she thought of her boss. She knew he had retired from the field in the mid 1990s due to a severe leg injury. She had never imagined what that injury had entailed. She leant against the side of Erin's desk. "Actually, didn't Harry say he wanted us all back here?"

"Yeah." Tariq nodded. "I've put a call out to get Alec and Juliet back. Adam and Lucas have ignored theirs so far and Beth and Dimitri aren't answering."

"OK." Zaf asked. "So where is Erin?"

#############################################

The sun was low in the sky as Harry parked the car a few feet away from the docks. He knew Ros was somewhere in the crowds of commuters and holiday makers that were milling around. He walked towards the meeting point Terry had ordered him to wait at. In his heart he knew he was too late. Carefully he slipped his hand in his pocket and activated the tracker Malcolm had insisted he wore.

"Harry."

"Where is she?" He turned to face his former colleague.

"She's resting."

"I don't have the file." Harry stated. "I need more time."

"More time is the one thing you don't have." Terry smirked. "I want to know who set me up. I know it wasn't James. The poor sod was too honest. Juliet was capable and she knew Fitzgerald was knocking off Aiden and Christian's sister."

"Aioffe." Harry stated. "Her name is Aioffe."

"Was her name. Christian tells me she died of cancer in the late 1990s." Terry glared at him. "So you wont be bothering her. Not unless you've a bloody good psychic."

"I can get the file." Harry lied. "I can find out who set you up. It wasn't me. Terry, James was our friend. He was a good man."

"So you saying it was Jules."

"No." Harry snapped. "If she set you up why did she save me? Why not let me die and have you in prison for another death as well as the four caused by the bomb."

"I want that file. I will tell you where your wife is when I have the file. I warn you now, Harry." He paused as Harry looked him in the eye. "Ruth doesn't have long left."

###############################

"Oh Ruth." Calum nearly jumped out of his seat. "Clever girl."

"What?" Zoe was at his side in seconds. "What is it?"

"She's still wearing the pendant I asked her to test for me. A long wave tracker. It's only just come on." Tariq beamed. "I'll see who's in the area."

"Thank God." Zaf paused. "Is there any way we can warn Harry?"

"Not at the moment." Tariq stated. "He's still 'dark' but I can track him. He's just turned his wire off."

"No one would dare fall out of contact in my day." Henry shook his head. The pod door whooshed open to allow Alec and Juliet to walk in.

"Good job this isn't your day. And for the record Terry O Callaghan is not innocent. He killed four people and would have killed Harry and me." Henry held her gaze for a moment, seeing the girl that challenged him any chance she had. Tariq quietly picked up his phone and called Lucas.

"Mate? I think we know where Ruth is. You and Adam are the nearest. Can you get there?"

"Give me directions." Lucas stated calmly. Adam glanced at him before pushing his foot to the accelerator.

#########################################

Ruth was cold. That was the first thing that registered as she lay on the concrete floor shivering. Nothing else seemed real. She was cold. More than cold, her brain seemed to have frozen as her mind played tricks with her. She fought to open her eyes but they wouldn't oblige. The image of a teenage boy laughing as his baby sister tried to crawl filled her mind. All that mattered was getting back to them. She felt herslef slip away as two strong hands pulled her off the floor.

"Ruth."

She groaned slightly as she felt the hands dig into the sleeve of her blouse.

"Ruth, it's Lucas. You're safe now. Open your eyes." She groaned once more as her eyes failed to oblige. "Adam, I don't like the look of her breathing."

"No, neither do I." Lucas pulled the IV out of her arm and shook her gently. Adam helped Lucas bundle her into his arms as they carried Ruth out into the sunshine, hoping the fresh air would help wake her. "Ruth! Come on, we have to find Harry."

"Har.." She frowned but kept her eyes closed. "Harr.."

"Harry. That's right. Come on." Adam smiled slightly. Ruth opened her eyes and began to visibly shake. Lucas gently placed her on the front passenger seat of the car. "You're ok now." Adam stated.

"No." Ruth shook her head as her brain threatened to explode. "No, I."

"What is it?" Lucas waited as Ruth tried to order her scrambled thoughts.

"Harry said." She paused. "He said I'd not be able to forgive him."

"Ruth?" Lucas watched.

"I don't get the chance. He's going to kill him. Terry is going to kill him."

"I don't think so Ruth." Lucas stated firmly. "Not this time."

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A/N what will happen when Harry and Ruth meet each other? What about Ros and Lucas? What will Terry do when he realises Ruth has been rescued? And what did go on in Belfast so long ago? Please review.