It was another half an hour, before Harry closed the last file and gazed out across the grid to where Ruth was gathering up her things. Which in itself wasn't unusual, in fact it was almost obligatory. But what was and makes it special, is that this will be the first time that they are going to walk off the grid together wanting to go home. Rather than when the job or sheer exhaustion has demanded they do so. Thus putting an end to what have been countless times when they've both made excuses to keep each company. Regretting that they haven't had the courage to say, 'would you like to?' or 'why don't we?'
Which is all the more reason that before they leave, Harry is determined to take full advantage of the moment. This is after all, his grid, his kingdom.
'Ready?' He asks her, pulling her into his arms and kissing her in a way that is totally inappropriate given where they are and because there is every chance that someone far more junior will walk in and see them. Before with just as much disregard, he kisses her again.
'Happy?' he asks a stunned Ruth. Which is ridiculous, given that in addition to having an expression that suggests she can't quite believe what he's done, she's still got her arms around his neck. On a night when apart from his concerns about Juliet, he feels as though anything is possible.
'After you,' he says, having seemingly found a way to move on from one word questions to a two-word suggestion, in a voice which has been reduced to a whisper as they enter and then exit the pods. Before they walk along what is one in a series of dimly lit corridors, passing doors where those whose responsibility it is to keep the nation safe overnight, are glued to monitors or pouring over information that has arrived from numerous sources. Still maintaining contact by keeping his hand on her back and only letting go when the reach the car park where he opens the door to his car and she climbs in.
Such is their mood that it doesn't matter that it's further twenty minutes, by which time it's only night owls who are occupying the pavements when he pulls up in front of his own house. A detour so that he can pick up a suit and a couple shirts and a tie. Not because he needs them, but because when he walks back onto the grid in the morning, he wants to be sure that anyone who is in the mood to make Ruth feel anything less than comfortable, will think twice about it.
A house in which Ruth takes in as much of the décor as she can, in the brief time while Harry is busying himself upstairs. Not wanting to alert his ever- vigilant neighbour by turning on the lights, so it's not that easy for her to see. A little gem which she knows he's is saving for the weekend, when if all goes well, they'll both be packing for their trip away.
Which means that by the time they get to Ruth's house it's gone midnight. The positive being that they've acknowledged that they have to tell their colleagues, before someone tells someone and that someone tells someone else and so on. Because if they don't there will be speculation which in his case, although of course Ruth doesn't agree, is that he's a lucky bugger and in hers that she needs to get her eyes tested.
Something which if they were civilians wouldn't matter. But as had been made quite clear to them the moment that they'd signed the official secrets act, which in his day and according to those who still believe him to be a dinosaur, had been with a quill pen, is that one of the drawbacks of being in a building full of spies, is that chatter about personal relationships is rife. That and because the form he knows he'll have to fill in will end up on the DGs desk, with every chance that he'll ring Juliet and say, 'guess what I've just received?'
.
All of which becomes irrelevant, when Juliet flounces onto the grid the following morning, and demands to be told where he is and Zaf who just happens to be passing tells her. Rather than Malcolm, who knows that Ruth who is making coffee for Harry and Adam, will if he can't warn her, be faced with her worst nightmare.
A thought that also crosses Adam's mind when Ruth opens the door carrying two cups of coffee and a plate of biscuits balanced on a tray. Schooling her expression far better than Harry is in this instance and saying, 'I'll make another I won't be a moment,' before disappearing through the door and by the sound of her retreating footsteps, is to anywhere that won't be within sight or sound of what she's left behind.
Something that isn't lost on Harry who says, 'Juliet get to the point.' In an attempt to move the conversation on and in a voice which makes it quite clear that she's the last person he wants to be spending his morning with.
A good moment Adam decides for him to hot tail it out of the room. In the hope that Harry will eventually be able to persuade Juliet to leave without blood being spilt. Only to be waylaid by Malcolm telling him that the DG's on the phone, so he isn't able to prevent Ruth from walking back into the meeting room carrying the promised cup of coffee. Only to find that it isn't needed.
But whether it's the way Harry says, 'sorry Ruth, you've had a wasted journey,' or the fact that she doesn't reply but leaves the coffee anyway, that causes a look of realisation on Juliet's face, is anyone's guess.
What Harry does know, is that neither deserves Juliet's response of, 'Oh my god, you and Little Miss Perfect, who'd have thought it?' to which he doesn't respond.
'I suppose the next thing you're going to tell me is that you're in love with her? God you are, aren't you?' and Harry can feel the wheels coming off.
But it's, 'how the mighty have fallen,' that really does it and sees Harry on his feet.
'We take this outside,' he tells in a voice that doesn't broker an argument, whilst slamming his fist on the table. Before marching out of the meeting room and past Adam, saying, 'I'll be back in a moment,' with an expression that says, look after Ruth, who he can't see. Which is doing nothing but add to the rage that is building.
Before he and Juliet disappear through the pods, sidestepping Zaf and who Jo are coming in the opposite direction, as Adam, who has told the DG that he'll ring him back because there's what he'd described as a technical problem that needs his immediate attention, manages to convey don't ask. Before he ushers them into the meeting room and tells them, 'to keep their heads down, not to question Ruth and that Harry will explain later.'
If for no other reason than most of the ancillary staff who have been drafted in to help them catch up, have cottoned on to the fact that their morning isn't going to be as boring as they've been led to believe.
.
'You really are a piece of work, aren't you Juliet,' says Harry, after he's bought a couple of coffees from the same coffee shop that Zaf and Jo have just left and he and Juliet are walking in the direction of the first empty bench that he can find. Harry, who has long since prepared himself for this confrontation and whose only concern now is that Ruth is alright, as he takes the lid off his coffee and waits until a couple of dogwalkers with a baby in a pram have gone past before he takes a sip. Just about resisting the overwhelming urge to throw it over Juliet.
'In answer to your not-so-subtle question Juliet, yes I am in love with Ruth and have been for years. But before you say anything to suggest that you and I had anything more than an ill-advised fling, you might want to take a look at this,' he suggests, producing a neatly folded piece of paper from his top pocket.
That there's nothing on it, Juliet doesn't need to know, because he can remember the moment as clearly as if it had been yesterday.
'This is a copy of what you said to me on the phone, when we came back from Paris. A call that was not only uncalled for, given that we'd agreed it was over, but did untold damage. What I didn't know until the night that Jane kicked me out, was that my kids assumed it was their mother who was calling, so picked up the phone in our bedroom. Graham was nine and Catherine was seven for Christ's sake and for your information, my son hasn't spoken to me since. So when it comes to how the mighty have fallen or blackmailing people Juliet, I suggest that you remember that in this case I have the advantage over you. Which means that if you go anywhere near Ruth or make any less than respectful remarks to my staff, now or in the future, I'll be taking this to the Home Secretary. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to work.'
.
'I'm fine I really am,' Ruth told him, feeling anything but fine, when he walked back onto the grid and motioned for her to follow him into his office where he closed the blinds. Everyone else with their heads down, even Zaf who had put two and two together and was slightly disappointed that pulling Ruth's leg was off his list of things to make the day go more quickly. Until lunchtime when Harry called them all into the meeting room for the big reveal and with an added bonus.
'I've had a word with the Home Secretary and the DG, who is arranging cover for the next three days. It comes with the condition that we get up to date before close of play this evening, which I've assured him we will. In which case I don't expect to see any of you until Tuesday.'
Apart from Ruth goes unspoken, because Harry has already told them, after a look from Adam which had implied that if he didn't, he would, in the same matter-of-fact way that he did most things, that he and Ruth were together. The reaction a positive one as Colin had shaken his hand, but not before looking at Malcolm who had raised his hands by way of an apology, Zaf who had pretended to be devastated and Jo who had just hugged Ruth.
.
'So why didn't you confront Juliet about that call when she first came back? When she tried to blackmail you?' Ruth asked him when she was pulling on some warm socks, because the temperature outside had suddenly plummeted. Unlike the temperature in her bedroom which had risen to all new heights in the last half hour, which meant that they were running late to meet Adam and Wes.
'Because it had reached the point in time when I was building up to telling you - 'that you love me' said Ruth finishing the sentence for him. A bizarre way to say the words that up until now have been hanging in the air and at a time when he was pulling a jumper over his head so his voice was muffled.
'Do I?'
'I jolly well hope so, because I love you,' Ruth told the face that lived behind her eyes, when it popped out to smile at her, in a way that suggested he really didn't want to be going to watch dogs racing around a track and that his earlier suggestion that they share a bath, which meant that they'd have to go back to his house because Ruth didn't have one, would be far more pleasurable.
Put on hold in favour of something, or more importantly someone who had told his dad that he wanted to meet Uncle Harry's girlfriend.
During what turned out to be an evening, that changed Ruth's perception of Harry, not as a man, nothing would ever shake her from her firm belief that whatever he did in the future would make her love him any less than she did now, but as the father he still had the potential to be. Not only because she'd seen how he'd reacted when she'd told him that Catherine wasn't the agent for the November Committee, but because out there somewhere, was a young man who was still refusing to speak to his father.
Years older that Wes was and whether Harry was compensating she didn't know and didn't really care, as she watched him put his arm around Wes's shoulders. Promising him 'that they could have another go on the dogs' and 'yes', with a quick look at her to confirm it, that they'd pick up fish and chips on their way home.