Disclaimer: I don't own the GENIUS that is Spooks. I wish I did, actually - then I wouldn't be such a poor student (ie: not worth suing). These characters aren't mine, they belong toKudos.I'm just borrowing andplaying withthemfor a bit. I promise they'll be nice and clean when I give them back.
The title is an adaptation ofa line from Van Morrison's "These are the Days" -not mine either.
All feedback is greatly appreciated, thanks :D
A day to savour
(No legends necessary, but please bring an apple.)
For two of the most seemingly conventional people you could ever meet in one lifetime, their wedding appeared to be anything but. The first thing that struck Adam as he read the neat, simple invitation was that it would take place on a Wednesday afternoon, in a field on the outskirts of London. The second thing, was that the invitation also said "no legends necessary, but do please bring an apple". Adam looked at the silver card in his hand and then looked over to Wes, who was sat on the sofa opposite him playing GoldenEye on his games console. He let out a soft laugh, and went to join in with his son.
The usual gang, Zaf, Jo, Malcolm, Colin and Adam all formed a neat little group around the water cooler the next morning. The fast flowing conversation had began with a simple question from Adam
"So, who else found a mysterious envelope on their doorstep last night then?" he'd asked. Jo and Zaf both nodded eagerly and that was it, fast tracked questions were fired back and forth, things like "did I really read that it was happening in a field!" and "they can't be serious about the apple thing can they?". Adam shook his head, not understanding why he appeared to be the font of all knowledge all of a sudden.
"Guys, I don't know! I'm just as curious as you are.. But hey, I mean, look at who's wedding it is, I'm sure that if those two can't sort something out like this, none of us can."
A soft, yet serious glance from Harry sent the group scuttling back to their stations. Harry grinned to himself, he knew what they were all gossiping about. His eyes met Ruth's across the grid quickly, and his grin turned to a positively beaming smile.
Time ticked by and soon the time came for Ruth to be eagerly awaiting her big moment. She had the dress, she had the shoes. Her hair and make up were perfect. She was ready. Everything had been planned to the last detail. From the many conversations they'd had in the three years' they'd been having a relationship that was strictly non-professional, Ruth and Harry had discovered a shared, secret desire to do something completely unexpected of their characters. They both knew the impression that others had of them, their job didn't exactly help that, but they'd both slowly revealed their inner personalities to those around them over the last few months. Quirky ideas like having a 'themed night out' hadn't immediately set the grid on fire when it was suggested, but when the rest of the team found out who had put the idea forward, the room was alight with gossip. It had all been building up to this moment. And here she was. She looked in the mirror hung on the lounge wall of the small church cottage they'd borrowed for the afternoon.
"Breathe" she muttered to herself again, trying to calm the butterflies in her stomach. The knock on the door made her jump slightly, but then she smiled, remembering what was about to happen. She went to the door and opened it.
"Good afternoon, Miss Evershed, I do believe you have a marriage ceremony to get to" George, a very old friend of Harry's, stood on the path, holding the reins of a beautiful chestnut brown horse in his hand. He smiled at her and Ruth smiled back.
"Right on time as ever, George" she laughed "Yes, I do believe you're right. I hope this goes as well as in the rehearsal!" she said, as she checked her reflection once again quickly and walked out, pulling the door closed behind her.
With George's help Ruth was on her way no less then 15 minutes later.
Adam looked at the map Colin was holding once more. He was in the right place. It really was a field. He had inwardly been hoping that it was just name of a church. He looked in the rear view mirror of his car at the car behind him containing Jo, Malcolm and Zaf. He shrugged his shoulders and looked around for a parking space. It was then that he noticed a balloon tacked to a gatepost a little way up the road. He drove slowly forward towards it and then stopped, pointing to it as an explanation to Jo's questioning look. He reached the pink balloon and pulled it towards him. Taped to it were a set of instructions - how to get to a nearby area allocated as a car park and then how to get to the area of field being used by the happy couple. Adam rolled his eyes and retreated to the car.
"It's a damn good job we're an intelligent lot" he muttered as he started the engine again.
Harry stood at the peak of a hill, overlooking the beautiful countryside of the South of England. He did love this place so much. Infront of him was another very old friend of his. He smiled to himself, his mother had been right all those years ago when she'd said to him as a boy that the most important thing a man could do was to establish himself a close set of friends and keep them for life.
"You never know when you could come to need your friends to help you out" she'd say to him. Harry had done well. Not only did he have a very close circle of old friends that he knew in his pre-spook days, but he also found them to be more than willing to help him make this day an event to be remembered. George, whom he'd known since he was 11, now owned the field he was standing in and the surrounding farmland, where he kept his horses. Joseph, who presently was the only person standing with him, was a vicar, and had been for 14 of the 27 years that he'd known him. Harry took a deep breath of the fresh clean air and felt his energy levels rise. Joseph smiled at him.
"Is these the party guests approaching, Harry?" he asked, as he spotted the group of people walking slowly up the hill towards them.
"Yes" Harry nodded, grinning. "That's them". He couldn't wait to hear what they had to say about this.
At the car park, the team of Spooks had found themselves to be not the only group of people that had gathered for the wedding. They found a small group of 6 people to be waiting for them. Colin approached one man who was also looking a little confused whilst holding an apple in his left hand.
"I see you're also here for the wedding?" he asked tentatively, holding up his own Granny Smith. The man nodded.
"Ruth and Harry told us to wait here for a group of 5 smart looking people before heading to the hill… I'm guessing we're ok to go now?"
"I spose we are" Colin grinned, hiding the fact that he was not a little bit confused by the secretive, unusual way the days events were proceeding. Then again, he concluded with a shake of his head, two of the country's greatest minds had combined to planned this event. He shouldn't have expected any less.
Adam found himself to be feeling relieved when they eventually reached the peak of the hill that they'd just climbed to find Harry standing at one end of a thin, 10 metre long carpet of leaves that had been neatly scattered to form a path on the green grass. He beamed at the group and walked over to shake Adam's hand.
"I'm so pleased you found it ok - not that I had any doubts of course" he smiled. Adam looked at him. He couldn't remember in all the years that he'd known Harry seeing him so relaxed and happy. He was standing in front of him wearing a traditional morning suit, and Adam couldn't help but be glad that his little niggling feeling that there was something between his boss and Ruth all those years ago had turned out to be correct. "Now" Harry said, collecting a basket from a little way away. "I'm also pleased to see that you've all brought an apple along - if you wouldn't mind putting them in here, you'll see why they're important soon" he smiled, stopping Zaf from asking why they'd had to bring them. The 11 guests all did as Harry asked and stood back, a little unsure of what to do next.
"Oh, yes, silly me" Harry smiled. "I've not introduced you have I? I do apologise". He looked at the selected invitees and noticed Adam's questioning glance. They were wondering about the legend thing, they had to be, he concluded. But it wouldn't matter. Not today. Today, they were all just normal people joining together to see their friends get married. Ruth and he had talked long into the night about who to invite, both of them had agreed on a minimal, select few people to join them for the ceremony. Ruth had made up a list of friends and family members who she felt would be too deeply offended if they weren't invited and Harry had done the same. The end result had been the obvious crew of Thames House, Harry's daughter, Ruth's parents and three long term, trusted friends from Ruth and Harry's life. People who, in short, could be trusted enough for the employees of Thames House not no need an entirely new life for the day. First names and the knowledge that they worked with the happy couple would suffice.
"Firstly" Harry gestured to the older couple who smiled at him. "May I introduce you to Anne and John, the people whom I am to thank for the existence of my beautiful bride to be" Jo felt a wave of happiness wash over her at her bosses' affectionate tone of voice. She had seen him change in the last few years from a closed, work obsessed grumpy hard to please man into a slightly more open, yet still as work obsessed as ever, happy man. She met his eye for a moment and smiled.
"Anne and John, may I introduce you to a group of people that both Ruth and I have the pleasure of working with, Zaf, Jo, Adam, Colin and Malcolm" he nodded to each of them as he said their names, and they all dutifully smiled back at Ruth's parents. Next came the introduction of Kate, Harry's daughter, and Zaf was rather surprised to find out that he'd been secretly eyeing up his bosses daughter. He quickly averted his eyes. After her introduction came Frank and David, two of Harry's school friends, and Emma, Ruth's closest friend from school.
The group made polite conversation for a moment, whilst Harry checked something with Joseph the vicar. Joseph nodded, and Harry suddenly asked the group to divide themselves into two groups and stand on either side of the leafy aisle.
Ruth sat on the back of the horse as George walked her slowly up the other side of the hill from which the wedding guests had arrived. She held the reins loosely in her hands and moved gracefully with the rhythm of the beautiful animal. She'd always had a love of horses, ever since she was a child. She felt silly at first telling Harry that her dream wedding involved arriving on an aisle of leaves riding on the back of a horse, but Harry had simply looked her straight in the eyes and told her that it was the most beautiful idea for a wedding he'd ever heard. Finally, after years of failed relationships and fears of always living in a flat with only a cat for company, here she was. Suddenly they reached a point of the slope where she could clearly see Harry stood waiting for her and the group of her closest friends and family on either side of the aisle. She looked up into the crystal clear blue sky and felt so happy she was about to burst.
Malcolm was the first to notice the approaching party of man, woman and horse. He nudged Adam and nodded in their direction. Soon everyone had turned to watch as Ruth approached. There were audible gasps from the gathering as they realised what they were seeing and small bursts of understanding laughter as they realised the reason for the apples. From the barely noticeable CD player at his feet, Joseph on Harry's nod pressed 'play' and the sweet sound of Van Morison's "These are the Days" rang out. They had decided a week before the date of their wedding that they wanted to have this song feature in the ceremony somewhere. Harry had commented before that he loved the lyrics, and they did seem especially fitting for a summer's day wedding. Ruth's mum dabbed at her eyes as Ruth and George reached the top of the hill and began to head in the direction of Harry. Colin looked around at the groom and found himself to be looking at a man completely, utterly, head over heels in love. It was obvious by the way that his eyes not once moved from Ruth's as she approached him. He smiled and turned back to watch Ruth reach the aisle made from leaves. Colin noticed that Ruth wore an equal expression of love on her face as she smiled at Harry. He forced away the smallest hint of jealously that rose in his chest and resolved to find himself a partner in the near future. As the song reached it's final few notes, George walked the horse to stand a little way away from Harry, and once he brought the horse to a stop, Harry stepped forward and offered his hand to guide Ruth down from the saddle. She moved with more grace than anyone could have expected of her and barely created a crease in her dress as she dismounted. George smiled at the couple and walked the horse to stand to the side of the gathering and the horse gratefully bowed his head to sniff out the best apples from the basket on the floor there.
Harry kissed Ruth's hand as she moved to stand next to him. "You look beautiful" he said very quietly to her. It was true, she was wearing a white flowing strapless dress which suited her perfectly and showed off her tanned skin and dark hair, which was elegantly arranged. Ruth beamed and found that suddenly, she had no nervous butterflies causing havoc in her stomach. She only had pure excitement and love pumping through her veins. She was marrying the man that she'd secretly been in love with for many, many years. She grinned at Joseph and he nodded to them, indicating that he was about to start.
There wasn't a single dry eye left in the house after Harry and Ruth had exchanged their hand written vows, in which they vowed to love, protect, honour and respect one another until the day they were parted by God. Adam couldn't help but feel his eyes begin to water at the words. They were very nearly the same ones that he had spoken to Fiona on their wedding day and the memory of that terrible day at the airstrip still burned at the back of his mind. He hadn't managed to protect Fiona from her fate that day and he found himself praying that Harry would never ever have to go through what he had. The wedding rings that Joseph had produced from an inside pocket of his jacket were exquisite, matching white gold bands that, on later inspection, had been engraved with the date and the words "love forever" on the inside. When Joseph declared them husband and wife, Harry turned to Ruth and kissed her, something that, despite the length of their relationship, the team from Thames House had never seen. Jo leaned into Colin and he was shocked to find her arms snake round his waist and squeeze him slightly as she let out a sighed "aaaw, how sweet!" Colin blushed and then desperately tried to look cool as Jo straightened and looked at him
"Yeah… sweet" he replied and cursed himself inwardly for sounding so… Colin-ish.
The gathering all burst into spontaneous applause as the new Mr and Mrs Pearce turned to face them. The matching smiles on their faces were equalled by all who had witnessed their union as they moved forward to congratulate the happy couple.
"Ruth you look amazing!" Jo gushed as she hugged her
"Thanks!" Ruth replied as she unknowingly happily turned the ring so perfectly slid onto the fourth finger of her left hand.
"The ceremony was gorgeous" Emma said to her as she also hugged her "congratulations Ruth, you look so happy!" she added.
"I am" Ruth replied unnecessarily, grinning from ear to ear, the fingers that had been playing with her wedding ring falling to her side and intertwining with her husband's.
After about an hour and a half an hour of congratulations and toasts from the wedding guests (Harry had produced a bottle of champagne from a cooler box that no-one had noticed before), Harry and Ruth announced that they had to be going, they had a flight to catch for their honeymoon in the Bahamas.
"What, you're not having a reception?" Malcolm asked, surprised "no knees up in a church hall somewhere? Or is that a little… conventional for the happy couple?" he added, smirking.
"Well, now you come to mention it…" Ruth started seriously, before giggling
"We weren't planning on having a reception, no - how about we all go out for a night out when we return to celebrate" Harry finished for her, smiling.
"Sounds good to me Harry, so long as it's not karaoke again eh?" Zaf answered. The spooks all laughed to the confusion of everyone else "I think I can do without hearing Malcolm's version of' 'Mustang Sally' again thanks all the same".
George walked his best horse to where Joseph was standing and Harry mounted the saddle with surprising ease. Once again, he held his hand out to his bride and she also climbed into the saddle, wrapping her arms around Harry's waist.
"We'll be back next week everyone, thank you for making the effort to come today, we really appreciate it, and Sid her really appreciates the apples too" Ruth grinned, before Harry gave a little click with his tongue and a little jab with his heels and Sid began to move along the aisle. The gathering cheered and clapped as Harry and Ruth, the happiness positively radiating from them, rode off down the hill to their new life together as husband and wife.
Fin
Lyrics for "These are the days" by Van Morrison
These are the days of the endless summer
These are the days, the time is now
There is no past, there's only future
There's only here, there's only now
Oh your smiling face, your gracious presence
The fires of spring are kindling bright
Oh the radiant heart and the song of glory
Crying freedom in the night
These are the days by the sparkling river
His timely grace and our treasured find
This is the love of the one magician
Turned the water into wine
These are days of the endless dancing and the
Long walks on the summer night
These are the days of the true romancing
When I'm holding you oh, so tight
These are the days by the sparkling river
His timely grace and our treasured find
This is the love of the one great magician
Turned water into wine
These are the days now that we must savour
And we must enjoy as we can
These are the days that will last forever
You've got to hold them in your heart.