A/N: This is more epilogue than chapter, and I have disposed of the plot in record time in order to accommodate the love story (rather than the other way around). Thank you to all those who have followed this fic to the end, and especially to those of you who have left reviews.
Next day – The Grid:
Ruth has not seen Harry since the evening before. Once they left her bed, they had spent the day together, and apart from a visit to a local Sunday market, they simply pottered around, reading newspapers, watching a DVD of Mission Impossible III, which Ruth ony tolerated, but Harry enjoyed a little too much. They had an early dinner of scrambled eggs on toast, which Harry prepared in Ruth's kitchen, and afterwards they climbed the stairs to Ruth's bedroom to again make love.
"I have to get to work by 7 tomorrow morning, Ruth," Harry said as they lay quietly in bed afterwards. "I'll leave here soon, because I'll need an early night, and I doubt I could manage that if I stayed here with you."
As disappointed as Ruth had been, she also understood what he was saying. There will always be times when his job will come before his relationship with her, and for her to feel miffed or jealous about that is just a waste of her energy. If she wants to be with Harry, she has to grow up, and fast.
Harry calls a meeting for 8.30 am. His team wanders into the meeting room – Adam and Ros, followed by Zaf and Jo, and lastly, Malcolm and Ruth. He catches her eye, and just as quickly breaks eye contact with her. While at work it is not difficult to hide their relationship, despite his desire to watch everything Ruth does, all the time remembering her look of bliss as he'd moved inside her. The team take their seats around the table, and as usual, Ruth sits across the corner from him, and Malcolm sits on her other side. Since the 24 hours they spent together in Ruth's house, Harry's awareness of her presence is heightened. Despite that, he begins the meeting, his demeanour as professional as always.
"You have all been briefed about the fire at Cotterdam Prison," Harry begins. "Adam, I believe you have the latest."
"I have. In the early hours of Sunday morning an image was placed on the internet." Adam operates the remote control which brings up an image on the screen in front of them. "The image of these seven men was taken three days ago ….. in Egypt. They are believed to be the same seven men – terror suspects – who died in the fire at Cotterdam prison six days ago. It is in Egypt that they were tortured for information. Harry has more."
"Saturday evening I had a ….. revealling meeting with Oliver Mace. He advocated using torture to …. intimidate was his word, but I suspect he means coerce …. terror suspects. He believes that it will be an effective deterrent to use in the war on terror. My concern is that these seven men are just the tip of the iceberg."
"We're aware that torture is being used in Afghanistan," Zaf chips in.
"What happens in Afghanistan is out of our field of influence," Harry adds. He turns to each of his team in turn. "There was a new development this morning. Adam?"
"The chief of security for south-east prisons – which includes Cotterdam Prison – this morning committed suicide."
"How?" Jo asks.
"He threw himself off a platform and under a moving train. There were at least ten witnesses who all saw him deliberately step off the platform, just as the train moved towards him. His death is not considered suspicious." Adam pauses.
"Except that there is no reason that we know for him to have taken his life," Ros continues, "and we believe – Adam and I – that his death is linked to the fire at the prison and the torure of the terrorists in Egypt."
"Ros and I will follow up the terrorists. We need evidence to link their torture to Mr Mace." Adam looks around the table. "Zaf, I want you and Jo to look into the life of Mik Maudsley, the prison's security chief. Check him out. We want to know him like we know a member of our immediate family. We need his phone records for the past three months. We need his banking details, his family details. He was married, so we need everything you can dig up on Jennifer Maudsley as well. When you collect the data, give it to Malcolm. That's about it for us. Harry is keeping an eye on Mace, and -"
"What about me? You haven't given me a job." Ruth looks up into Adam's face, but he is deliberately ignoring her.
"I need you working with me," Harry says quietly.
Ruth is about to object when Harry calls an end to the meeting, reminding them all of the need for speed and treading carefully.
"I'll be like a fairy," Zaf says.
"So what else is new?" Jo says, getting up from her chair and heading towards the door.
Zaf follows, attempting to explain himself to Jo, and Ros and Adam follow them, while Malcolm is the last one through the door. This leaves Ruth and Harry alone in the room. Harry can feel Ruth's irritation in the air between them.
"Ruth," he begins, but she is not about to be talked down to.
"Harry, the very least you could have done was to discuss this with me first. I felt ….. like your ….. secretary."
Harry turns in his chair and leans towards her, being careful to not touch her. "We both know perfectly well you're not my secretary, Ruth. I'm sorry I didn't discuss this with you first, but -"
"You could have warned me. You could have told me yesterday ….. after Adam rang you."
Harry pulls back as though slapped. "Ruth …... yesterday was for us. I wanted to keep work away from us …... just for the day. You must know that."
Suddenly Ruth lets go of her outrage, like air leaving a balloon. "I know that, and I know why you did that. Thank you. I just needed …... warning."
"Ruth ….. I want to keep you away from the worst of this. I fear that underneath this whole Cotterdam thing is something nasty and quite dangerous. I don't want you to be harmed …... in any way. And you must know why that is."
"Harry, you can't protect me from these things," she says quietly.
"As your boss I need to at least make an effort at protecting you, given your work takes place at a desk, and as your ….."
"Boyfriend?"
Harry grimaces, giving an eye roll for emphasis.
"Partner, then."
"Yes. As your partner, I'd be remiss if I didn't at least make an effort to keep the likes of Mace and Co away from you."
Ruth sits back, watching him. On the one hand she is pleased, but his high-handedness still irritates. Still, were he to throw her into the fray, she wouldn't be happy with that, either. "Won't the others notice? It looks like I'm receiving special treatment."
"As I intimated, Ruth, you are a desk agent, and not a field agent. I need you to work with Malcolm on this. I want you to look into Mace's communications – to and from his office."
"Isn't that …. dangerous?"
"Potentially, yes, but I believe Malcolm and Colin had developed an encryption to be used at this end for …... intercepting electronic communications within Thames House."
"Spies spying on each other?"
Harry nods. "I believe it's rather clever, as well as simple, and safe. The encryption at this end covers …. our own digital footprint."
"I can remember Colin talking about it, but I was sure it was just in the ideas stage."
"There's something else."
"Harry?"
"As much as I don't want our working lives to interfere with our …. personal connection, for the next 48 hours I will be fully occupied with gathering some like-minded section chiefs and heads ….. like a posse. We need to gather information on Mace, and it needs to be water tight, and I will be looking for backup from my peers. If you and Malcolm handle the electronic side of things and I deal with the face to face communication, then I give us 48 hours, and we'll have this wrapped up. We know what's happening. All we need is proof. So ….. during that time, to be on the safe side …..."
"We shouldn't see one another outside work. Is that what you're saying?"
"Yes. That's what I'm saying."
Ruth thinks for a moment, imagining not kissing Harry for two whole days.
"We need to be discreet, Ruth. If Mace even suspects that you and I are together, that we have ….. what we have …. then you could be in danger."
Again, Ruth hesitates. "Alright. I see your point. Now ….. I'd better check out this encryption with Malcolm," she says, standing and preparing to leave.
"Just one moment," Harry says, grasping her hand. He stands, steps closer to her, and then leans down to kiss her. It is a quick kiss, but still a kiss. "We might not get the chance to do that again for …..."
"Two days."
He nods, and they smile into one another's eyes. When the door opens suddenly, Harry quickly drops her hand.
"Harry, I think we have something. Malcolm has already intercepted Mace's emails to four other members of the JIC. The content is just the sort of thing we're looking for."
"Game on," Harry says, glancing once more at Ruth, and then following Adam out of the meeting room.
In the end it takes until the end of the week before the operation is all but wrapped up. Under pressure from Harry, who has threatened to publically expose Mace, the JIC Chairman has handed in his resignation, along with his four cronies, also members of the JIC. Mik Maudsley is exonerated, there being no clear connection between him and the removal of the terrorists from the Cotterdam Prison. The only dark spot is that Jennifer Maudsley has announced her intention to sue the prison service. Harry had spoken with her in private, but she is intent on going ahead with legal action on her husband's behalf. "I'm doing this for Mik, not for me," she'd said. He can see her point, but he still believes she'd be safer were she to let it go.
It is late Friday night and Ruth and Harry are sitting over a takeaway Chinese meal at his dining table. Ruth has brought a small bag with a change of clothes for the next day.
"I've been thinking," Ruth says, stirring the sweet and sour sauce into her special fried rice. "I'm considering coming clean to the team."
Harry looks up at her, his eyes showing his surprise. "What about? You haven't been stealing flash drives from the stationery cupboard again, have you?"
"No, of course not. I thought I should come clean about us. You and me. It's not quite right that you make the announcement. That would make it sound like you own me, but I could do it."
"Why do it at all, Ruth, when they already know?"
"They do?"
"Of course. Monday morning, when Adam came into the meeting room after we'd kissed …... once he and I were outside the room he asked me had you and I had a lovers' tiff."
"What did you say?"
"I said we hadn't, and that we were just catching up."
"What did he say?"
"Nothing. It's nothing out of the ordinary to him or to the others, so if you make a special announcement -"
"I'll look like a fool."
"No, Ruth. It will appear that you are behind the eight ball."
"That means the same thing."
"Perhaps."
They both concentrate on finishing their dinner. When Ruth places her fork beside her plate, she sits back in her chair, satisfied. "I need a shower …... and then I'm keen to try out your bed."
Harry gazes at her from across the table. "And I'm supposing you mean for more than sleeping."
"Well …. that will depend, Mr Pearce."
"On what?"
"On whether you are quick enough to join me in the shower, because whoever showers with me automatically gets to sleep with me."
Harry quickly gets up from the table, gathering their plates and utensils and carrying them to the sink. "Don't start without me, Ruth," he calls to her as she is about to leave the room.
"As if I'd want to." And then she slowly climbs the stairs, giving Harry ample time to catch up.
Fin