'It's what Adam would have wanted, is only supposition,' from Andrew, Harry's solicitor, didn't fit well with someone who always in his working life, if not privately, eventually got his own way. But in this case, both Harry and Ruth, who had briefly thought Andrew was going to say no it couldn't be done, accepted it for what it was. A period of six months, when they were already well into the second, of what was required for the person who was living with you, or in Harry's case was living with her, before Ruth could officially be written into the agreement that Adam had signed. 'In the meantime, just carry on as you are,' Andrew was telling them, as Wes walked back into the room.

Wes who before he'd disappeared upstairs to reacquaint himself with his possessions, had given them both a glowing reference. Regaling Andrew with stories about the benefits of living by the sea. Clearly an expression that he'd picked up from either Harry or Ruth. Whilst omitting to mention that he and Harry had been for an enforced swim, which had resulted in a short, but none the less dramatic stay in hospital.

An altogether less complicated process, was the immediate sale of Harry's house in London. Which again Andrew recorded as a commitment to their future together, should anyone dare to question it. Anyone being the someone, who due to a bureaucratic legal system that put everyone into the same bracket to make life easier for those who made the decisions, wouldn't in their case, have a leg to stand on.

Before he gathered up his paperwork and told them that 'he'd be in touch as and when, but in the meantime, if they needed to speak to him, he quite fancied a trip to the coast.' Which in Andrew speak, as Harry knows from past encounters, including his long since divorce when Andrew had been fresh out of law school, is him giving them the green light.

Which is something they briefly choose to celebrate, by ignoring the cold and going for a brisk walk. Not only to stretch their legs, but because they want to clear their heads. Something which confirms to an even greater extent, how much more pleasurable living by the sea has become, when compared to the stress and uncertainty of working in a busy city for the Security Services. Evident even in the small park, where back in the day Harry had walked Scarlet uninterrupted. Whereas now and because it is the school holidays, the number of people who are jogging or skateboarding on the pathways, adds to the discomfort. Repeated in the busy shops, where they buy what they need to feed and entertain Malcolm. Before they head home and while Ruth puts together some lunch, Harry and Wes make a list of what they want to take back to Suffolk.

Which in Harry's case, are some clothes, which come under the disguise of 'Summer-British Style', his music collection and most significantly his memories. What he doesn't write on the list, but is essential in terms of what it contains, is the contents of the black tin box that's buried at the bottom of his garden. Whilst Wes on the other hand, wants to take all but a few of the things that he and Harry had fetched from the house which his father had bought after his mother had been killed. To give them a new start Adam had called it, which given that Wes has since moved to Suffolk and is enjoying the benefits, more than proves that Adam was right.

'It's called retirement Ruth, a chance for us to do whatever we want whenever we want to do it. That's why I don't need more than one suit and a few ties,' Harry tells her, when she's questioning how little of the contents of his wardrobe, he intends to take with him. Whereas what Wes had accumulated, is enough to warrant her turning the roof space into an extra bedroom. And that's without the copious amount of clothing and what are described as essential items for a child, who despite his accident, has signed up to be a member of the 'on the water club'. All of which they are due to pick up in less than a week.

.

'Let's hope Malcolm knows a man with a small van,' is Harry agreeing with Ruth, when the doorbell rings and Wes stops laying the table in favour of seeing Malcolm the moment he steps through the door.

'Wes and I will finish off in here won't we,' he tells him, stopping him in his tracks. 'You and Malcolm go into the lounge and pour yourselves a drink,' he suggests to Ruth. Giving her a chance to see Malcolm on her own. The quiet man, who had not only taken on the responsibility of tracking her down, but while he'd been doing so, had more than kept him on an even keel. He'd given him hope.

'You look - happy,' suggests Ruth, when Malcolm stalls midway through a sentence, because she's hugged him.

'Blissfully, I'd say,' he tells her, repeating her own words of the previous day. Before asking her, 'how it feels to be back in London after such a long time?'

'Strange. A bit disjointed. As though I'm invisible, if that makes sense?'

'Stranger than when you were in Paris on your own?' he asks her, watching her closely as she pours him a drink. A reminder of how he and Harry had, but in far less happy circumstances, had a similar conversation.

'Much and I can't explain why. Other than to say because I was working, my day was planned, whereas here it's as though everything I once knew, has moved on and left me behind. Anyway, enough about me, how are you Malcolm, still managing to keep your head above the parapet? How's you mum?'

'Mum's still muddling along. As for me, it was never the same after you went away. In amongst all the horror we both witnessed, we did have some happy times didn't we.'

'We did,' she tells him and means it.

Not expecting him to continue, 'it was far worse for Harry, we all knew that,' he tells her. 'There were times in the early days, when even his ability to pull people to pieces for fun failed him. He couldn't even walk past what had previously been your desk, without stopping and imagining you sitting there. And as for Sally, the poor soul who was appointed to replace you, he had absolutely no patience whatsoever. Not that she was up to much as an analyst and her ability to understand Harry's need to know what was about to happen before it did, or how to respond to him without sounding sarcastic, caused endless problems. But the true depth of Harry's love for you and how much he needed you, only really became apparent on the day that we lost Adam. We were all watching it unfold on the screen. Harry ordering Adam to abandon the car. Me saying he'll make it and Ros on her first day back, close enough to hear, if not see the explosion. We all went into shock, but for Harry it was more than that. I'll never forget the expression on his face when he told us that Wes was playing rugby that afternoon, expecting his dad to be there. None of us of course knew then, that Adam had foreseen something like this happening. But it soon became obvious, to all of us if I'm being honest, that the only way that Harry was going to manage, was to find you and bring you home.'

'Which isn't here Malcolm, it's a little cottage by the sea. But before I get onto that, I couldn't help but notice you saying was, when it came to my replacement? Are you saying what I think your saying?'

The call from the kitchen of 'dinners ready' not only prevents Ruth from telling Malcolm that he will always be welcome at any time, but for him to suggest that it could have been her not Sally who had been murdered.

Both of which are forbidden once you leave the service. Except that Malcolm sees them as friends. Wes calls him Uncle Malcolm and Ros had rubber stamped his suggestion that he look for Ruth and is why, during the duration of what is a very good meal, he says very little, other than, 'yes Wes and that sounds like fun.' Instead, indulging himself, purely by watching the looks which are passing between her and Harry. Looks which confirm what he'd always known to be possible, given a nudge in the right direction and a whole lot of luck. That she and Harry would find a way, to what in the Security Services and certainly at the level at which Harry had operated, is considered to be impossible. A relationship with that special someone, who was able to see past all that had gone before and still say I love you.

Thoughts that he maintains until the moment and because he is the only one of them who has to go to work in the morning, he says, 'he really ought to be making a move.' Reminding them both, not that they need it, that Harry has a meeting with Dolby to look forward to.

Day two.

'The grey one and the green tie,' says Wes, when Harry asks him, 'which suit he should wear.' Ruth having already admitted, that she's worried there will be a last-minute hitch. Despite him having promised her that he holds all the cards and more worryingly, he knows where all the bodies are buried. Which he'd changed to say it was figuratively speaking, but she hadn't been fooled. Because not only does she know when he is or isn't telling her the truth, but all she wants is for him to walk back through the door and tell her he's a free man.

A thought he maintains along with the element of surprise that he'd long ago planned, for whoever had been sitting on the other side of the table, when he made the decision to retire. As opposed to being shown the door, for one or another of his misdemeanours. That it happens to be Dolby, who thinks he's beyond hearing a few home truths, or in this case has underestimated how much Harry has put to memory over the years, makes the short walk through the entrance of The Regency Club, all the more pleasurable.

Not that he's surprised by Dolby's greeting of, 'well, well, well, look whose back after his holiday.' A man who is enjoying breakfast outside of the marital home, before he goes into work. Having done what the previous evening, Harry can only guess at?

Accepting Dolby's offer of some coffee, he sits back and takes in the surroundings. Pretentious, divisive and outdated. Everything he despises and always has done. And yet that's what it still takes to reach the heady heights in so many walks of life.

'Before you tell me that I can't just walk away, something which I know will give you the greatest of pleasure, you might like to consider that I know what it took for you to get your current job,' he tells the man who he'd once worked closely with.

'And here was me, thinking you were going to show me you holiday snaps,' isn't what he expects. Or what really makes his blood boil, which is Dolby saying, 'worth the effort, was she?'

Whatever Dolby says, keep the red mist at bay. Don't rise to it, just hand him the letter, Ros, Malcolm and more recently Ruth had told him.

Resisting the overwhelming desire to punch Dolby on the nose, he takes a moment and then slides the envelope containing his resignation across the table. Before letting him know, in a way that proves that the divide between Ruth and the woman who Dolby is married to, amounts to a chasm, by asking him, 'how is the lovely Mrs. Dolby? Still enjoying her knit and natter meetings I hope?'

.

When he arrives back at the house, it's to find Jo, the organiser of whatever is being planned for the evening, helping Ruth to pack Wes's things. For a second, he's tempted to say, shouldn't you be at work, but he knows from the time when he and Wes were last here, not only how much of a help she'd been, but how Ros had juggled what is now her team, to accommodate him. Besides, he isn't a member of the Security Services any longer, he is what Ruth had suggested, he's a free man. Which is why for the first time in front of anyone other than Wes, he kisses her. He'd have probably kissed Jo as well, although not so enthusiastically, had she not made a strategic exit, before he sat down on the bed. Overwhelmed not only by what he'd done, but the endless possibilities that lay ahead because of it.

A sentiment, which because their colleagues had really thought it through, before deciding that dinner on a boat moored on the South Bank, was a fitting way for them to say goodbye to London, he is maintaining as they walk past landmarks which had framed their early relationship. Bridges and benches where they'd not only talked about work, but had hedged round what even then had been intrinsically them. Wes keeping them from delving into what no longer needs to be said, by giving them a running commentary on what he can see. Which because it's between Christmas and New Year, are decorations almost everywhere. The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben on the North Bank, lit like beacons. As if they too are wishing them good luck.

None of which comes close to the welcome they receive from their colleagues, or the feeling of release for Harry, when he and Ros are having a chat before dinner. Everything he's strived for over the years, handed on to the one person he knows has the same values as he does. Values that he is now able to transfer into his new life with Ruth and Wes, but without the long hours and certainly what Ros describes as fringe benefits, with a glance in Ruth's direction.

Ruth who is already sitting the table with Wes, Malcolm and Jo. The menu temporarily rejected in favour of chatting, by all but Wes who has finally run out of conversation. Not that he isn't listening as he tries to decide if Ruth's suggestion that she extends the roof to give him a larger room is actually going to happen? Which if it does, he's going to paint himself. Or at least ask Harry if he can help him. Harry who for the second time in as many hours, had asked his advice when he'd been deciding what to wear. The suit and tie rejected in favour of the sweater that he and Ruth had bought him for Christmas. That and a pair of trousers that rarely saw the light of day, Harry had told him when they'd been sorting out their things.

But it's the waiter asking, 'if they're ready to order,' that stops any further musings.

But not what Ros had always intended to say to Harry as they join the others. 'I know you miss Adam Harry and so do I. But this is so what he would have wanted and more. That little boy meant the world to him and what you and Ruth have achieved together in such a short space of time, is nothing short of wonderful. Now go and sit next to her, before I say something really soppy.'