'You've still got time to change your mind and come with us,' Ruth told Angela, hoping that for her sake she wouldn't. The maker of the homemade cakes and mince pies that were being added to the box of food they were taking with them. Ten minutes before, what Wes who had watched an episode Star Trek the previous evening, was calling lift off. With him as Mr Spock and Michael as Scotty, which presumably meant that Harry who was organising the loading of the luggage, was Captain Kirk. Whether there had been a female member of the crew, Ruth neither knew or wanted whatever name she'd been lumbered with. She'd also made a mental note to go through the boxes that were stored in Wes's bedroom. To make sure that there wasn't anything that a curious ten-year old might want to watch.

'Another time maybe, assuming that you're not tearing your hair out before I've completed my masterpiece,' said Angela, nodding in the direction of the window and at Michael in particular. 'You will promise to call me though, if it all gets too much. If not, I'll see you at the weekend and hopefully telling you that this hasn't been a complete waste of time.'

This being, to attend a three-day residential painting for beginner's course, which Angela had been planning as long as she could remember and up until today, had always cancelled at the last moment. For the simple reason that she hadn't had anyone to push her into going, or to look after Michael while she was away. Changing her mind, when she and Ruth had visited a nature and wildlife reserve on The Broads and on a day when the skyscape combined with the thousands of birds which had been wheeling across the sky, had captured not only her imagination but Ruth's as well.

To the extent that Angela had kept her promise to Ruth and had booked as soon as they'd got home, while Ruth had continued to dream about a day sometime in the future, when she'd be able to say to Harry, 'I've found a beautiful location that I'd like us to visit together. A place where we'll be able to gaze into each other's eyes, with the certainty of knowing that neither of us is going to turn away. Or change the subject, or pretend that this is nothing more than a casual meeting, as we almost always did on the roof terrace at Thames House. Somewhere that we'll want to visit in the years to come. Not only to reminisce, but to acknowledge how wonderful our life together has become.'

.

There was a not dissimilar sky, when Harry drove through the gates into the Stacks. But unlike the day when they'd booked and when Ruth had been out with Angela, it was as the weather forecaster had predicted, a good deal colder. Sufficient for them to be grateful that the heating had been turned on in advance of their arrival, after they'd parked alongside cabin three and carried their luggage inside. A cabin which was larger than they would have needed, had it just been them and Wes, but they'd booked with the idea that Michael and possibly Angela as well, might like to come. Now with the added space of an extra bedroom in which to spread out. Something that Harry had learnt very quickly was a necessity when Wes had moved in with him and more so Ruth, when they'd both moved in with her. Which in both cases had been successfully negotiated, because Wes had learnt to put things away when he'd finished with them. Not something that was likely to continue here, since Wes had acquired a partner in crime.

'This is so cool,' proved the point, as Harry forgave Wes, who along with Michael was unpacking his things and stuffing rather than putting them into drawers. Harry who had and still folded everything, determined that Wes, within limits when it came to what he and Michael did, because they were on holiday and especially when they were out of sight, could pretty much do what they wanted. After all, if he was going to the same school as Michael, which the ripples that had manifested into rumblings suggested he would, then he had to trust that what he and Wes had forged together, was enough.

That and if he didn't already know, he was determined that by the time Wes went to school, he'd be aware that he had a stable and loving home to come back to every weekend and for him to believe, that whoever was responsible for Wes's care during the week, would allow him time to adjust to yet another change in his life. A child who when he could hear or see him, he no longer worried about, but when he couldn't, still caused a modicum of panic. Which was why this week was going to be a test and why he thanked whichever god it was, who had persuaded Ros that he couldn't do this without Ruth. The only person who he could say anything to, who wouldn't tell him he was worrying unnecessarily. Well not in a way that put an end to the conversation, but still left him feeling abandoned to his fears.

'Lunch first and then you can go and explore,' he heard Ruth telling the boys, before a tin opener was handed over. A 'wretched thing, which was apparently refusing to let her open the tin of beans that they were having on toast. After which in the organised chaos that was guaranteed to be left behind, Harry was hoping to get an answer to the one question that he hadn't yet asked her.

.

Waiting until the boy's had left, with the instructions that they to be back before four, because any later and it would be dark,' he make a pot of tea and carried it over to one of the two sofas where Ruth was sitting with her feet curled under her.

'Most of the time, yes I did, despite what I said when you talked about a grand tour,' he was about to find out was only the tip of the iceberg, when he asked her, 'if she'd enjoyed living in Paris?'

'So does that mean if I said I still want to take you there one day, you'll say yes?'

'I'd love for us to go to Paris together Harry. As to whether or not I enjoyed living there and why, I'll tell you. But only if you promise me that you won't go off on one of your guilt trips.'

'I can't promise but I'll try,' he told her, for the simple reason that he'd only asked the question with a future holiday in mind and now here she was, about to tell him, what he could only imagine was something which was going to make him want to apologise.

'In that case, to say I survived, sounds dramatic now, but that's how it felt for months. I saw Mace on every street corner and although I knew that wasn't possible, it was a long time before I started to appreciate the places I was visiting. The why was another thing altogether and if I had to do it again I would. Although it wasn't until I lost my phone, that the why became all consuming. I'd already broken the rules in the early days by calling Malcolm to make sure that Mace hadn't found another way to get at you and now almost a year later, I wasn't even able to do that. It felt as though I'd lost you all over again and worse still, was that I knew if I called you, you'd risk everything, including your liberty to come see me. Which again with us sitting here like this and with Wes in our lives, sounds ridiculous doesn't it?'

'Only because I've said I promise, I won't say anything other than it's certainly not ridiculous Ruth.'

What he didn't tell her, was that she was right. He would have risked everything, had he known how unhappy she'd been. Or how in early days, he'd come close to self-destructing, saved only by his team who had kept the wolves at bay. Until the moment when Adam had been killed and the responsibility of having to look after Wes had saved him and was why he concluded, that this was the right time for him to sow the seed about his decision to retire.

'I have to go back to London in early January and I'd like you to come with me,' he told her.

'To work?' Was her obvious assumption.

'No to resign' was the one thing, that would ensure she'd never be scared a again.

Instead, he told her what else he was going to do and the reason why. 'I'll have to call in at Thames House at some stage, with a copy of the updated paper work that my solicitor is putting together regarding Wes. Until he's eighteen, any major change in his circumstances have to be recorded, which in this instance will be the details of his new school. It should only take a couple of hours, so how about we ask Malcolm if he'd like to have lunch with us. After that, I thought we might go to my house and collect a few more of Wes's things. We could also stay over if you'd like to.?'

'Which I'm guessing this is the real reason that you want me to come with you.'

'I make no apologies for wanting to sleep with you without having to worry about what Wes might think or hear us doing. But what I'd also like us to do, is to make a sideways trip on the way home, to see Wes's grandparents and maybe invite them to come down for a weekend. There are some nice hotels in Southwold where they could stay and I'm sure Wes would like to see them and they him.'

Not only did Ruth agree, but because she was also imaging a night in Harry's bed and how it would feel to meet Fiona's parents, she hadn't realised that there was a time gap in Harry's story. Which was the evening after he'd handed in his resignation, when emergencies permitting, their colleagues would see them together as they were surely meant to be. Only Ros knowing at that stage that he'd resigned, but once everyone had gone home, he'd be able to tell her he was entirely hers. Free do what they wanted, when they wanted, including the long awaited trip to Paris. Angela had after all, offered to return the favour.

'I think we need to make a fresh pot of tea,' Ruth told him as a means to get Harry to stop Harry paying homage to her feet. Which now that she'd stretched full out, were getting the full treatment on his lap. Despite the clock on the wall telling her that it was another hour before the deadline that Harry had given the boys and as much as wanted to throw caution to the wind and agree with what was an equally aroused Harry, given the expression on his face, that they ought to take this through to the bedroom, that it probably wasn't wise.

'Bugger the tea, we haven't unpacked yet,' proved otherwise.'

.

'We've found a boatyard,' Wes told Harry an hour later, when he and Michael arrived back, ten minutes after he and Ruth had done their unpacking twice. 'It's great here, there's loads to do, look I've brought you these.'

These being some leaflets about what was and wasn't on during the winter months, which included some water related activities. All of which were listed in a book on the coffee table. But Harry had no intension of bursting Wes's bubble by telling him that he and Ruth already earmarked a trip on the river. Or Michaels. A child who they barely knew, who when Ruth emerged from the bedroom a few moments later, having had a shower and changed, in a way that only a child who wasn't used to handing over gifts, presented her with a pot of winter pansies that he'd bought for her in the shop.