Lunchtime scribbling. There was a bench scene!
Series 10 spoilers
Harry's reaction to the news that she has been offered a job elsewhere is not what she had anticipated. No jealousy or resentment for going behind his back. No snapping at her for talking to the Home Secretary without his permission.
Instead, he tells her to leave the Grid as soon as possible: 'I don't want you involved in what's coming.'
She looks at him for a long moment, swamped with incandescent rage that he's trying to shut her out again. After she more or less begged him to give her a reason to stay. After the implied forgiveness of all his untold secrets – no matter how much she resents the fact that she may never know everything about him. 'Right, then. What do you want me involved in?'
'Making your life better than it is now. Being happy. Being safe.'
'What about you?'
He sighs. 'It's a bit late for me, don't you think? Love on a need-to-know basis, and secrets falling out of my pockets wherever I go.'
'Harry, it doesn't have to be like that.'
'For now it does. Until this thing is decided, it's only going to get worse. Get out, Ruth. Please just take the opportunity you've been given.'
She tilts her head and stares at him with huge, hurt eyes. 'I don't believe this. You'll ask Elena to act as bait in an assassination attempt without batting an eyelid, but at the first chance you get, you pack me off to Whitehall to play nursemaid to the Home Secretary!'
He shifts on the bench to face her properly, expression taut with frustration. 'What's so difficult to understand?'
Her voice sounds mortifyingly querulous to her own ears. 'All of a sudden you need Elena, but you don't need me?'
'I need Elena to find out what the hell is going on. I need you to be okay!'
He doesn't say it, but she can see it in the twitch of his shoulder and the heaviness of his breathing. I have to protect the people I love. Ergo, I don't love Elena, but I do love you.
'Stupid man,' she repeats, voice softened by insight, endearment adapted from insult. 'What am I going to do with you?'
He bows his head and reaches for her hand. She gives it to him, letting him kiss her palm with gentle reverence. Watching him pour his heart out without saying a single word.