I have taken some of the script from 3-9 to try and make this story fit with canon. Hopefully this will be enjoyed!
The baby had been found buried in a shallow grave. That night, after the case was over, Ruth found herself lying in bed, thinking over the bloody mess of the whole operation. It was late, but her phone buzzed and she looked at the text message.
Are you awake? H.
She didn't bother replying, instead she called him straight back. "Yes, I'm awake," she said as he answered the call.
"How are you?" he asked.
"Okay," she said. "Tired. Did you get Sylvester…"
"Yes," Harry said. "I gave Adam the pictures. They'll probably be published some point this week."
"Good," she said fervently.
"Listen, I've booked a restaurant for tomorrow night…" Harry said. Ruth sighed but otherwise didn't answer and he suddenly felt nervous and wrong footed. "If that's all right…"
"I've been thinking, Harry," she said.
"You've changed your mind," he said heavily.
"No," she said, but she didn't sound convincing and he sighed. "No," she repeated more firmly. "I've been thinking about us at work. I don't want anything that might happen between us to affect our work. I don't want to be the fodder for the gossip mills. I'd rather keep our personal life private. As private as possible I mean. I don't want it to make it to the grid."
"Of course," he said and she could hear the relief in those two small words. It surprised her that he wanted their dinner date to go ahead as much as she did. "So, tomorrow night?"
"I really would love to…"
"But?" he asked, sensing something in her tone.
"I don't… I ordered a dress online. It won't be delivered in time." She felt silly and foolish for voicing something so trivial, but what she wore when out with Harry mattered to her more than it should do.
"Ruth, whatever you wear, you will look…" he paused as if considering. "Beautiful." The word sent shivers up her spine, the low way he said it. She didn't believe that, but the way he said it, maybe he believed that. "But if it means that much to you, we'll just have to go out again. So you can wear that dress."
She laughed lightly into the phone. "Tomorrow night sounds perfect. Where are we going?"
"The Five Fields," he said. She smiled to herself. A nice, rather exclusive and expensive restaurant she seemed to remember. She couldn't wait.
"Sounds wonderful," she said. And it did. An awkward silence descended on the phone line, with neither of them knowing quite what to say. "I'm going to go. I need some sleep before we start again at work tomorrow."
"Okay," he said. "Goodnight Ruth."
"Night Harry." She put the phone down and smiled to herself. She was cautiously looking forward to tomorrow night.
For the first time in a long time, Ruth woke up smiling. She just hoped that no emergencies would happen at work to interrupt there plans. She still had no idea what she would wear, but right now that wasn't her priority. She was going to enjoy tonight.
During the day, she kept up with some low level analysis, keeping her fingers crossed that nothing would get in the way for tonight. Also she kept looking to Harry's office, trying to limit how long she kept staring at him. It wasn't really working though.
People started to leave the grid after five, in drips and drabs as there was no immediate threat, and before she registered it, only herself, Sam and Harry remained. Looking at her watch, Ruth realised that she had to get home to get changed if she was going to make their reservation. She sent the CCTV footage she had been tracking over to Sam's monitor, talking her through the last task of the day.
"When Mr Morgan gets home then you can leave him be." She found her lipstick in her bag and started reapplying it. "You sure you don't mind if I don't stay until the bitter end?" Sam smiled at her and shook her head.
"A tail car will follow him into the village. And then there's a covert team lined up for the overnight watch, and then you can go home."
"You go on," Sam said, a twinkle in her eye.
"Oh, Harry's got a car booked for eight." He was going to pick her up on the way to the restaurant. And he wasn't using a driver either, to try and keep their personal life away from Thames House as much as possible.
"If there are any problems…" Ruth said.
"It's fine, honest." Ruth nodded once and buried her makeup back in her bag.
"You off out tonight?"
"Maybe." she said with a small smile. "See you tomorrow," Ruth said, walking towards the pods.
"Ruth, our man here lives off junction…?"
"Junction five."
"So why is he coming off at four?" Ruth turned back and looked at the screen, her heart plummeting.
"No. No please don't do this. Not tonight." She sighed, visions of her lovely intimate dinner with Harry going up in smoke. "We better get Harry," she said, with reluctance. Sam looked at Ruth and she knew that she'd be the one getting Harry.
So Ruth walked through to his office, not knocking as she went in. Harry smiled at her, and the warmth on his face made her feel even more disappointed. "We've got a problem."
"What?" His face clouded over like thunder.
"Robert Morgan who we've had under surveillance has made a detour. And…"
"We're not getting out of here, are we?" he said.
"No." He closed his eyes and sighed. Ruth acted on impulse, reaching across the desk and squeezing his hand gently. She only did that because she knew that the blinds were closed, and that apart from Sam, the grid was empty. He turned his hand over so the palm was up and she gently ran her fingertips over his skin. They both stared at their joined hands as the seconds ticked by. Suddenly she came back to herself, realising what she was doing and snatched her hand back. "I'll cancel the reservation," he said heavily.
"Postpone," she corrected lightly. "Don't cancel." His eyes lit up for a moment.
"Yes, postpone." he agreed. He picked up the phone. "I'll have a look at the footage in a moment." She left him alone, going back to the footage of Morgan. Couldn't he have waited one more bloody day?