Disclaimer: Spooks and all it's characters belong to Kudos and the BBC.

Author's Note: This is my first attempt at a Spooks Fic, so be nice and please leave a review. (Edited on the 6th July 2006to make it easier to read)

Just Good Friends

Even through the bullet proof glass of the pods, even above the hum of the generator, Ruth could still hear the raised voices coming from inside Harry's office. There was no second guessing about whom the voices belonged to either. Everyone had heard them enough times.

Walking onto the grid, she stopped briefly to see Juliet stood against the door, arms crossed over a rather expensive suit. Harry was pacing up and down in front of her, waving a file in her face. Judging by their faces, neither of them wanted to be there.

Ruth shook her head and quickly made her way across the grid to her station. Adam Carter, who was sat talking to new recruit Jo Portman, nodded as she went by. He ended his conversation and trailed behind her.

He dropped his voice low and said, "You're late."

"I blame the buses. Bloody things have gone to hell and hand basket recently," she said, mustering a small smile. She placed her bag on her desk and raised her gaze to Adam's. "Not a word to Harry, yes?" she asked, hopefully.

He sat himself on the edge of her desk and nodded. "I think he's got more important things on his mind than you being late Ruth."

She met his gaze. "You mean…" she trailed off gesturing in the direction of Harry's office. Adam nodded, once up, once down. "So what does the wicked witch of Whitehall want now?"

Adam smiled at her term for Juliet Shaw, it suited her perfectly. "You remember our little bank op?"

"The money laundering gig?" she asked, not quite understanding. "The one when Zaf and Jo went undercover and ended getting caught up in a shoot out on a first floor car park?"

"Turns out we weren't the only ones working the bank." At Ruth's blank look, he continued. "The plods had an officer undercover. He got caught in the crossfire and now the wife's suing for compensation," he said, scoffing.

Ruth shook her head. "Surely they can't do that," she paused, reading his face. "Can they?"

"Well obviously they can," he remarked, somewhat dryly. "Otherwise Juliet wouldn't be here giving Harry a bollocking."

Zaf, whose desk was in front of Ruth's, leaned back in his chair and made a noise to get their attention. "Winged monkey alert," he said, a grin breaking through his stony expression.

Ruth smiled at the remark.

The grid held its breath as the office door slid open. With a sharp clack of heels, Juliet strode towards the pods. A leather bound folder held tight against her chest. Her harsh voice broke through the silence. "I mean it Harry, this department screwed up," she called back over her shoulder. Her voice practically dripping with venom. "From now on, you are on your own."

Please can we have that in writing, Adam thought.

Harry stood jut outside his office waiting for her to leave. His hard eyes watching her very closely. Without being a hundred percent sure, Ruth thought Harry was secretly plotting Juliet's death in his mind.

"What not witty reply?" She said. A cruel smile on her lips. "Oh you really are losing that charm of yours Harry."

As soon as the pods closed on Juliet's back, Harry gave himself a shake. That bloody woman drove him crazy. He walked out onto the main floor, and faced everyone. "Anybody else want to strap that woman to a car battery?"

Ruth dropped her gaze to the floor, to stop him from seeing her smile.

"Right, I want everyone up to speed on this," Harry said, nodding to the blonde officer. "Adam."

xxx

Black and white photos were strewn about the conference table, along with pieces of information from the original briefing on the bank op. Adam walked around the table, and pressed pause on the TV remote control. The screen showed a photo of a young male police officer. With another click of a button, the image changed to show the same man lying on the ground in a pool of blood.

"This man, William Frank Morris," Adam said, turning to the rest of the team. "Was an undercover police officer at Brown and Morgan's bank. The same bank that we were operating at." He looked at Zaf, then Jo. "He's now in a hospital in South London."

Jo shook her head, sending a cloud of blonde hair flying around her. "But we didn't know he was there," she said, defensively.

"I know Jo, none of us knew."

"What was he doing there?" Zaf asked, biting a fingernail.

Adam shook his head. "We don't know, and the police won't tell us anything."

Harry un-crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. "As far as Scotland Yard are concerned, we caused serious injury to one of their officers," he said dryly, looking up at Adam. "Not a lot of reason to be co-operative."

"Zaf, you never reported a police presence," Adam said. He placed his hands flat on the table top and leaned into it.

"That's because I didn't see one," he said. "It wasn't in the brief, you know. There wasn't a paragraph expressing concern into making sure that all plods were well out of the way of our live op."

"Alright," Adam slapped his hand down on the polished surface. He sent a side long glance at Harry, who simply nodded. "Right this is what we want, Zaf you and Colin hack into the police database. See if you can find out what he was working on."

Colin brightened up instantly. "Piece of cake."

"It better be," Adam nodded towards the man. "Malcolm, get onto Scotland Yard, try and get them to cough up about why they didn't tell us about this cop's existence."

Harry turned to the brunette sitting beside him. "Ruth call the hospital, see how our Mr Morris is doing," he suggested.

She nodded. "It's not like I have anything better to do."

"What?"

"Nothing," she said, looking from Harry to Adam and then back again. "I just meant, the CIA are swamping us with assistance requests again and…."

Harry held up a hand to cut her off. "Get Jo to help you."

"Right," she said with a small nod.

xxx

The grid was buzzing with life. People rushing from desk to desk, swapping pieces of information. Files and folders were being passed between desks. An officer, whose name was always on the tip of the tongue but always out of reach, pushed a trolley loaded around the stations, distributing documents to various people. A high pitched chatter rose above the room like a cloud.

With the phone glued against her ear, Jo leaned across Malcolm to grab a pen. She mouthed the word sorry to him as she sat up. He looked a little flush. "Right so what was that again?" she asked, her voice just loud enough for the speaker to hear over the din.

Officer after officer bombarded Ruth with stacks of paperwork straight from CIA HQ. One voice melted into another, making it impossible to tell who had said what. Ruth picked one at random and started to read it. Half way through, she stopped and looked up. A frown imprinted on her pretty face.

She saw Harry having a walking conference with half a dozen others. As he walked past her desk, she called out to him. "Harry this is a job for special branch, why are they bothering us with it?" she asked, waving the file.

He gave her a passing glance. "Give it to Malcolm to deal with."

With a heavy sigh, she looked across the grid, trying to pin point Malcolm. She spotted Jo making a run for the pods, and quickly called out to her.

The blonde spun on her heels with an apologetic look on her face. "Sorry Ruth, I've been summoned downstairs," she said, shrugging. "Try Malcolm."

"That's everyone's excuse today, pass it onto someone else," she said to herself. "Malcolm!"

The forgery suit was in the same state of the grid. Far too many people crammed into a confined space.
Zaf looked over the top of his screen to see Colin typing furiously on his keyboard. A fine layer of sweat on his forehead. His brows knit together to form a frown.

"Find anything useful?" he asked, squinting at his own screen.

"Nothing as of yet," he said, not taking his eyes off of his computer for a moment. "Though I did find out which hospital our Mr Morris is staying at."

Zaf nodded and stretched his arms above his head. "Better go and give it to Ruth," he said. "She'll be happy we saved her an afternoon of ringing around hospitals, at least."

Colin scribbled down the phone number of the hospital and passed it to his colleague.

Dodging past Malcolm, who was heading for Harry's office loaded up with files, Zaf grabbed a chair and wheeled it over to Ruth's station. She was talking to someone on the phone. He sat himself down, smile on his face as he waited.

"Seriously you would have thought that answering the phone is a sin for some people," she said, shaking her head.

Zaf held out the piece of paper to her. "Guess what we just found."

Ruth looked at the piece of paper and smiled. "Well done you."

"It wasn't me, but if you feel like buying a round of drinks to say thank you," he said, a cheeky grin plastered all over his face. "Well then I might be persuaded to take credit more often."

Still smiling, Ruth gave him a suspicious look and started dialling.

"Did I hear something about drinks?" Jo asked, joining them. A package the size of a diner plate in her hands.

"Yeah, Ruth's buying," Zaf said, rocking on his heels.

"Oh count me in," the blonde said, a dreamy look on her face. "I think I'm going to need a whole bottle of wine to make up for today."

Ruth made an "hmm" noise and nodded. "Anyway Ruth, this is for you."

She eyed the package before taking it. She used her free hand to give it a rattle. "What is it?"

"Don't know," Jo shrugged. "It was left at reception with your name on it. You weren't expecting anything, were you?"

She just shook her head. A posh voice on the other end of the phone finally answered. "Yes, hello, I'm calling for a Mr William Morris. I understand he was brought in earlier this morning." Ruth drummed her fingers against her desktop as she spoke. Her eyes drifted over the grid, and settled on Harry. He was discussing something with Adam. "Yes, I'm a friend of the family…could you tell me which department he's in?" she asked.

The operator explained that a new phone system had been installed and that she wasn't used to it. She told Ruth that she was transferring her to the right department and that if she got disconnected, she should call back. She didn't have a chance to answer before she was put on hold.

Rolling her eyes, she let her annoyance out in her voice. "They put me on hold."

Harry, who was now standing only a foot from her, smiled. "You'll survive."

She frowned up at him and rubbed her fingers across her temples. I knew I should have called in sick, she thought, sighing. This is hardly a way to spend a birthday.

Reaching across her dress, she picked up the package and turned it over in her hands. She un-tied the string and tore through the brown paper. She pulled back the wrapping to reveal a box of Belgian chocolates. From the name on the box, they were expensive ones. She traced her fingers over the raised writing and frowned. Who would send her chocolates?

There was a small, cream coloured card taped to the see through film screen. She peeled back the tape, cradling the phone receiver against her shoulder. The card had her name elegantly written across it. Turning it over, she ripped off the back and pulled out a card the same colour as the envelope.

She almost dropped the phone as she read the message. Her eyes lit up with un-shed tears.

"Although Adam may not think so, Chocolates can make a prefect present for the right person. Happy Birthday x". It was writing in the same elegant handwriting as the envelope.

They were his words, she was sure of it. Written by someone else, so that she wouldn't recognise the handwriting, but they were his words all the same. She remembered the conversation that had brought up chocolates as a present. It was suggested to Adam as an idea for Fiona's birthday.

Ruth searched the grid twice over before she finally found him. He was stood just outside his office in the middle of a heated debate with Adam and Malcolm. Almost as if he knew she were thinking of him, he turned to look at her. Ruth held his gaze. She had always said he had beautiful eyes, even from across the grid she could confidently say that. She felt heat rush up her face, and wanted desperately to hide behind her desk. But no power on this earth would have made her drop her gaze at that point. Before she realised it, she was smiling like an idiot. Inside she was screaming. She had always hated her smile. She thought it was a little crooked.

She closed her eyes briefly, to try to stop herself from blushing. When she opened them again, she found that he was staring very hard at Adam and was obviously trying to not smile himself, or laugh.
Ruth found herself holding so tightly to the card, that the edges were slightly crumpled.

A voice in her ear brought her back to herself. She suddenly remembered the phone. "Yes?" she said, slightly out of breath. "Yes, William Morris. Yes that's right…yes."

"How is our hospitalized friend?"

Her gaze snapped up and focused on Harry's gentle face. Him being so closed made her breath catch in her throat. He looked at her expectantly. The operator spoke up again, distracting her from Harry. She closed her eyes and tried to listen to what she was saying.

"Right, well…thanks," she said, opening her eyes and looking directly at Harry. "Thank you, very much." A small smile curved her lips.

Harry looked away briefly and nodded. "So how is he? Not dying I hope."

She replaced the receiver back in its cradle and put her business face back on. "Mr Morris is recovering from a gunshot wound to the waist."

"The waist?" Harry repeated, making sure he had head correctly.

Adam, overhearing the first part of the conversation, joined them. "That's what this has all been about. A cop getting shot in the waist?"

Ruth nodded. "At least it isn't fatal."

"Bloody wish it was," Adam groaned, running his hand through his hair. "Then at least all this grief we've been getting off Juliet would be justified."

Harry narrowed his eyes. "I suppose I'll have to draw the short straw and tell her," he said, sounding less than enthusiastic.

"Good luck with that," Adam said, hopping up onto the edge of Ruth's desk. He craned his neck around to see the box of chocolates. "Secret admirer Ruth?" he asked, reaching for the card.

"No, it just…." She moved the card out of his reach and smiled. "They're from a friend."

Adam narrowed his eyes, but nodded. He turned to see Harry disappearing in his office. "Of course they are," he said.

If he was smiling, Ruth couldn't see it.