The sound of a key in the front door caused Beth to immediately jump to attention. It was Saturday evening. She'd just finished a late dinner after spending all day on the Grid and had sat down to watch television before going to bed, but now there was an intruder into the flat and she was struck with wondering whether she could reach her gun before the door opened.
"Only me," Ruth called out.
Beth exhaled in relief. "Thought you weren't coming back till sometime Sunday?" she called back.
Ruth closed and locked the door behind her and came into the living room. She dropped her bag by the wall and gave an exasperated sigh. "I couldn't stay there another second. Stupid, infuriating man," she grumbled.
If Beth was intrigued before about Ruth's special friend, she was absolutely dying for information now. "Uh oh. Trouble in paradise?"
"Paradise is the last word to describe our relationship," Ruth said, rolling her eyes.
Beth just stared at her. She searched Ruth's face and saw frustration and hurt, two things that usually came when a woman was cross at her boyfriend. Or 'special friend' since whoever Ruth's was didn't like the term 'boyfriend.'
Suddenly Ruth's face flickered with concern. "Sorry, have I interrupted your evening?" she asked.
"No, I just sat down. Lucas and I spent the day following what's been going on in Azakstan. Isn't looking good."
Ruth nodded. She probably already knew all of this. Ruth knew everything. And if she didn't, she could find out faster than anyone could ask the question.
Beth hesitated, not wanting to overstep but not knowing what else to do. "Do you want to talk about it? Why you're home a day early, I mean, not about Azakstan. Though I guess we could talk about that if you really want."
A hint of a smile appeared on Ruth's mouth. "We can talk about Azakstan on Monday. I would like to talk about why I'm home early, actually, if you really don't mind."
"Are you kidding?" Beth said, hopping up off the sofa. "I've been dying to hear about this guy ever since you mentioned him the other day!"
Ruth laughed. "Alright, get the wine and I'll put my things in my room."
"Great, meet you back here in a minute." Beth turned off the television and hurried into the kitchen, glad she'd remembered to pick up a few bottles of cabernet on her way back to the flat after work today.
A minute later, Ruth was settled in what Beth knew was her usual spot on the sofa while Beth started pouring the wine. She handed a glass to Ruth, who reached for it with her left hand. "Thank you," Ruth said.
But Beth froze before giving her the glass. "Ruth, what the hell is that!?" she practically squealed.
Ruth took her hand back and looked at the magnificent diamond ring on her finger. "Oh, I forgot to take it off, I was so upset when I left," she realized.
"Oh my god, are you engaged!?"
"Yes," Ruth answered in a small voice.
Beth finally gave Ruth her wine glass and took a big swig of her own. "You are just full of surprises! Jesus Christ, now you've got to tell me who he is if you're going to marry the man!"
Ruth chuckled humorlessly. "Well, we did already tell one person, so I might as well. Though I suppose it's sort of nice that you're new to the Grid or else you'd already know."
That caused Beth to furrow her brow with confusion. Clearly it was someone at Thames House that Ruth had a history with, just as she'd imagined. Must be someone that most people already knew Ruth had a history with. Someone Beth hadn't come across in the six days she'd been on the Grid.
"It's Harry," Ruth confessed.
"Shut up!" Beth shouted, her eyes going wide in shock. "Oh I bloody knew it!"
Ruth actually did laugh at Beth's reaction, which Beth knew in the back of her mind was a good sign. "I suppose we aren't the most inconspicuous pair," Ruth conceded.
"No, you are, I thought yesterday after you left that it might be Harry just because you two do have this obvious connection and weird sort of chemistry between you."
"Weird?"
"I don't think anyone seeing either of you would ever guess you'd be involved with each other," Beth explained. "But I thought it couldn't be Harry because he's your boss and you're the sort to follow rules and he's not the sort to cross that line with an employee."
Ruth hummed and took a sip of her wine. "Well, that is mostly true. I was very different the first time I was on the Grid."
That took Beth aback.
"Oh that's right, you don't know," Ruth realized.
She proceeded to tell Beth an abridged version of her history with MI-5. Ruth had started at GCHQ and was seconded to Section D and met Harry seven years ago. She said how she'd been young—Beth's age, actually—and naïve and developed an embarrassing crush on her boss. She said she'd fallen madly in love with him within that first year of being there, and it was another three years before he first asked her out to dinner, and she'd said yes and they'd had a wonderful time. But then people on the Grid found out and congratulated them and were happy for them, but Ruth had been terrified of what people would think about her being seventeen years Harry's junior and his employee and everything else, and she'd broken it off with him. And then Harry had nearly gone to prison to clear Ruth's name when Section D was framed for unauthorized torture practices, but Ruth had sacrificed herself for him, going into exile for two whole years so that Harry could remain Section Head. And then she'd been brought back to England as a pawn to coerce Harry into revealing top secret information. Her husband had been killed, making her stepson an orphan. And Ruth had chosen to come back to the Grid.
"I've been senior analyst on the Grid for the last year. And it wasn't until about a month ago that Harry and I went out for a drink together. And last week, after Ros's funeral, Harry asked me to marry him," Ruth finished. She took another sip of her wine. "So you see, it's a bit more complicated than just him being my boss."
Beth just stared at her in raptured awe. She knew there was more to Ruth Evershed than met the eye, but this was more than Beth could have guessed in her wildest dreams. "Ruth, I think we're becoming friends, so that's the only reason I'll just say this: how the fuck is any of this possible!?"
Ruth snorted laughing. "How do you mean?"
"I mean…Jesus, how did you survive? How do you go back to the Grid every day after everything that's happened to you?"
A very sad smile appeared on Ruth's face. "What else can I do? Where else can I go? I spent two years bouncing around Europe in hiding until I finally got to Cyprus and did clerical work in a hospital and lived a simple, elegant life with George and Nico. But after MI-5, I'm just not built for anything else. Which is why I'm so bloody furious at Harry and had to get out of his house before I said or did anything too terrible."
"Oh no, that's right, I forgot you're cross at him. What happened?"
Ruth explained, "We had dinner tonight with an old friend of ours, someone who used to work on the Grid. Tariq's predecessor, actually. Malcolm worked with Harry for twenty years, and he and I were always very close. He retired just after my return. Because of it, actually. Anyway, Harry and I decided that he was the first person we wanted to tell about our relationship and our engagement, and it all went well until during dinner when Malcolm asked about wedding plans."
"And what are your wedding plans?" Beth prompted. She weirdly sort of hoped she'd be invited, now that she worked on the Grid and she was living with Ruth for the time being. And now she was just utterly fascinated by this double life Ruth lived as senior analyst and Harry Pearce's fiancée.
"Well that's just it," Ruth said. "Harry proposed a week ago. We've been a bit busy on the Grid since then. We've not had a chance to talk about the wedding at all. But he goes off telling Malcolm everything he's got in mind for it. First I've heard about any of it, mind you," she added bitterly.
"Oh dear. Well, men are thick as pig shit sometimes. I know he's my boss, but Harry's still a man, so I don't imagine he's immune," Beth said sympathetically.
Ruth nodded in agreement. "And then he proceeds to tell Malcolm that after we're married, we'll be retiring."
Beth nearly spat out her wine. "You're what!? You can't go! I just got here, I need you two!"
"Again," Ruth said darkly, "that's the first I heard any of it."
"Oh I see. Yeah, that's awful. I'd not want to be with him after that either."
Ruth sighed sadly. "I got too angry to have any sort of rational conversation about it. He was trying to be nice about it. He can be very sweet at times, though you might not ever guess it from his grumpy Grid persona."
"I bet he's a big softy at home," Beth teased. And she could see it, actually. Ruth was totally right, he did have a grumpy persona, and Beth knew firsthand how terrifying he could be. But there was something about him that just seemed sort of gentle and soft underneath all that MI-5 bluster.
"He can be," Ruth said. "It's all still so new for us. We've had plenty of fights before, but nothing personal like this. Certainly never anything at his house. I'm afraid I didn't behave very well."
"Maybe not, but he did sort of railroad you in front of your friend. Going on about the wedding and retirement without even discussing it with you or anything," Beth pointed out.
"Yes, that's exactly it!" Ruth agreed. "That's what he does, you see. He's so used to being in control and being in charge and being the one who has to make all the decisions that he doesn't really know how to not be the one in charge, I suppose."
"Every relationship has its growing pains," Beth said. It felt like a stupid platitude but she was trying to be supportive. Hopefully it came off that way.
Ruth just hummed and finished off her glass of wine. She reached over to the table for the bottle to pour herself more. "So there you have it. Now you know who my special friend is."
"And I see why you didn't want to call him your boyfriend. Harry would hate that," Beth laughed. "But he's not your boyfriend, he's your fiancé. And I think it's wonderful, Ruth, really."
"I don't know how it'll be on the Grid. You're the only person who knows so far."
"Well, it'll probably be easiest to tell everyone at once and then just carry on. Or you could do what you did with me and just wear the ring and let people draw their own conclusions."
Ruth shook her head. "Harry and I did talk about that, but I don't want to distract from the work we're doing and be even more fodder for gossip. I suppose we will just call a meeting or something. We'll see. It's all just such a mess and we hardly know what we're doing. I mean my god, you saved my fiancé from getting shot yesterday, and he didn't even call me to say he was alright!"
"I think that just proves you're engaged to marry a heterosexual man, Ruth."
That made her laugh. The pair of them clinked their glasses in toast to that. To Ruth and Harry, to Harry being an idiot, to Beth for getting to be a weird, small part of it all.
Both Ruth and Beth had talked about wanting to become friends, since they were living and working together. And as far as Beth was concerned, they were certainly friends now.