Thank you once again to everyone who has read and reviewed this story. It turns out that it's quite difficult for me trying to write a 'light-hearted' Spooks story, so the reviews and the comments on the previous chapters have really spurred me on to write more. And on that note, back to the Oval where Australia have just lost their first wicket.

"Only another nine wickets to go," Harry said, smiling broadly as they sat back in their seats, the discomfort they'd both felt from the intrusive comments from the person sat in front of them having dissipated in the excitement of the crowd. Even Ruth had cheered, though in all honesty, she had no real idea why, she had just been swept up in the wave of euphoria. As they made themselves comfortable once again, he noticed Ruth looking at him with a curious expression on her face. "What is it?" he asked.

"Nothing!" she said, though the expression remained.

"It's obviously something," he rubbed his face, "I haven't still got sun cream showing have I?"

She laughed softly, "no, it's not that... though you do have a little on your ear," before she could examine her actions too closely she leaned over and brushed the offending spot of sun screen with her finger.

Harry smiled inwardly as he looked down at his knees, "it's obviously something Ruth," he replied softly, "if it's not me looking like an halfwit with sun cream everywhere, then it's something else. You were looking at me as though I'd suddenly sprouted horns or something."

She laughed again, "I think I'd have looked aghast if you'd suddenly sprouted horns Harry. It wasn't that... it's just... " Ruth paused, wondering how best to say it

"Go on," he urged kindly.

"It's just that... well... well I've never seen you smile like that before." she blurted out in a rush, the words falling over each other.

Harry whipped his head round to look at her, while she immediately did the opposite, suddenly taking a special interest in the game going on in front of her. "What do you mean, you've never seen me smile before?" Harry asked, suddenly unsure of himself; he knew he wasn't the life and soul of the Grid, his job description saw to that, but surely she didn't see him as figure of constant doom and gloom. He was almost sure he had smiled at her several times when they'd gone out for dinner, in fact now he was thinking about it, he could list a number of times he'd smiled over the years. "I'm not that miserable to be around... am I?"

Ruth caught the slight catch in his voice as he asked the question, she was almost sure no one else would have heard it, but she'd become particularly tuned in to all things Harry, without even realising it over the past twelve months or so. "Not at all," she replied quickly, touching his arm briefly to get him to look at her, "and I didn't say I'd never seen you smile before."

"Oh," Harry was still focusing on the fleeting touch which had gone as seen as it came.

"You smile all the time really," Ruth continued, trying to get herself out of the small hole she'd managed to start digging for herself. How had one slight off look from her led to this conversation. "You smile when you come in in the morning and say hello... well you do most mornings anyway, you smile to yourself when you go back into your office after a particularly difficult person, usually the Home Secretary, Mace or Juliet has just left it. You smile when someone brings you in a cup of tea while you're working and when you've finally closed down an operation and signed off the last report, you always smile as you put the folder into your 'done' pile." Ruth had been so caught up in trying to explain, that she suddenly realised that once again she'd let her mouth run away with her thoughts and had revealed far more about her habit of watching Harry working than she'd ever intended.

"Well I'm glad I'm not just a figure of darkness frequenting the Grid," he said lightly, deciding quickly to avoid making any comments about what she had just inadvertently revealed to him... well at this stage anyway. "You had me thinking I'd have to start telling jokes first thing in the daily meetings."

Ruth giggled softly at his comments and was also hugely relieved that he wasn't going to push her on what she'd said. "What I meant to say in the first place, was that I'd never seen you quite so open before. Usually when you smile you're in control, but when England got that wicket , your face just lit up out of pure joy."

Harry coloured slightly at her words, "and was that a bad thing?" he asked hesitantly.

"No," Ruth replied softly, in for a penny, in for a pound she thought to herself, "it was nice to see the real man behind the mask you normally wear."

As the players walked off to loud applause for the lunch break Zaf stood up and stretched. "Well we've managed to get two of the Aussie's out this morning Wes, do you think we'll be able to get the others as well?"

Wes nodded eagerly, he'd had a great morning so far and had even managed to get a couple of the English fast bowlers to sign his bat by standing by the hoardings and waiting for them to come over while they'd been fielding deep in the covers. "We'll get them all out easy," he said, with the confidence only a young boy, untainted by the previous disasters of English cricket could have.

Adam laughed, "easy you think," he said clapping his hand on Wes's shoulder, "well if that's the case, we better go and get some food to sustain us for the afternoon. What do you fancy Wes, a salad sandwich or just salad?" he asked, with a wink at Zaf.

"Noooo, dad stop being silly" Wes said pleadingly.

"Well I suppose we can go and see if anyone is selling burgers and chips if salad doesn't take your fancy." Adam smiled as they made their way back to the concourse at the back of the stand where they could get their fill. "What about you Zaf, are you joining us for burger and chips?"

Zaf looked around, "I might just take a walk round the back of the ground first," he grinned at Adam, "you never know what you might discover at the other side of the stadium."

"Zaf," Adam said warningly, "don't go messing things up for them, you know how private they both are."

"I don't know what you mean!" Zaf replied innocently, "just fancy stretching my legs for 10 minutes or so, we're packed in like sardines in those seats. With that he strolled off with a jaunty wave to Wes and a "see you soon."

"Where's Uncle Zaf gone?" Wes asked curiously, while dragging Adam by his hand over to the queue for the burger stand.

Adam watched as Zaf walked out of sight before looking down at the fair haired clone of himself. "Don't ask son, don't ask."

Zaf walked slowly, taking in the lively atmosphere all around him as the ground emptied as people searched for sustenance, usually in the form of fried food and beer. He hadn't been lying to Adam, well not entirely, he did want to stretch his legs and if that offered him up the opportunity to do some covert spying work on Harry and his 'friend', well that was just killing two birds with one stone as far as he was concerned, He struggled to understand them and their relationship; if he liked someone, he asked them out and they either said yes or well yes. In Zaf's life, one thing he had never struggled with was attracting the ladies... though maintaining interest in them once he'd had a few dates with them, then that was another thing entirely.

So caught up was he in his thoughts of Harry, Ruth and his own love life, Zaf failed to spot the middle-aged man with his head down engrossed in the match programme and they walked straight into each other.

"Sorry mate, didn't see you there." Zaf steadied himself quickly and reached down to help up the older gentleman who was on his hands and knees on the floor in front of him. "You alright th..." The words were taken out of his mouth as he suddenly recognised the person he'd bowled over. "Malcolm! What the hell are you doing here?"

Malcolm looked around frantically and seeing Zaf was alone replied, "What am I doing here? What the devil are you doing in here? This is the members stand, you shouldn't have been able to enter this area unless you're a member or have one of these passes," he wiggled the lanyard around his neck in front of Zaf's face.

"Amazing what the old Security Services ID will get you into," Zaf said in a lowered voice. It was a trick he'd used many times, walk with confidence, show the ID and act like you had a specific and urgent need to be there. It had never failed him and had got him into the backstage of numerous concerts, not to mention queue jumping at some of London's biggest clubs. "Anyway, enough about me, what are you doing here?"

Malcolm shuffled, suddenly looking very uncomfortable, "well, I, um."

"I thought you were visiting your Great-Aunt in Yorkshire or Norfolk or wherever it was?"

"Lincolnshire," Malcolm ground out.

"That was it," Zaf smiled, "it's all the same to me once you get out of the M25."

"I'm sure your comments about the rest of this great land will be of great comfort to the people who live there, considering your job is to protect them ." Malcolm grumbled.

Zaf held his hands up, "woah, I'm only joking," he said with a smile. "It seems I can't do right for doing wrong today."

"Why, who else have you managed to upset?"

"Oh no one really. Adam's just got his knickers in a twist because he thinks I'm off to spy on Harry and Ruth so I can close my book on them."

Malcolm looked up sharply, "and are you? Is that why you entered this area so you could walk around unimpeded to their stand?"

"Ahh, so it's definitely Ruth that Harry brought with him, Adam wouldn't say.' Zaf beamed and clapped him on the top of his arm. "Cheers for that Malcolm."

Malcolm groaned as he realised he'd been tricked. "Yes, they are here together, but I'd also add that if Harry spots you, your days in Section D could well be short-lived and given his connections, if you went back to Six, then a posting to some distant hellhole could quickly become a reality."

Zaf gulped, "well it's just as well I'm not off to spy on them then isn't it," he said with an easy charm. He indicated around them, "I just fancied seeing how the other half lived. I've heard the food is much better in here than it is out there and I didn't fancy spending a fortune on something I'd really rather not be eating."

Malcolm nodded at this, not believing him for a second. "Well you can get your roast meat sandwich or gourmet pie and then head on back to Adam since you've now reached your destination," he said firmly.

"Hold on, anyone would think you were trying to get rid of me," Zaf replied lightly. "So why are you in here in the Members Pavilion, when I know for a fact that up until a few days ago you had tickets with Harry which suddenly you couldn't use because of a weekend trip to Lancashire."

"Lincolnshire," Malcolm bit out, knowing full well that Zaf was just trying to wind him up and get him to reveal something he didn't want to. His easy charm and his ability to disarm people was one of the reasons why Zaf was as good at his job as he was. "I found out yesterday that unfortunately my Great-Aunt had to cancel and as I'd already given my ticket away, I contacted an old friend and he managed to wangle me a pass into here."

"Bullshit," Zaf said in a laughing friendly tone, "you're a terrible liar Malcolm."

Malcolm sighed heavily, "Yes I know. I just felt guilty about what happened last time and thought if I could give them a slight push in the right direction, then they'd do the rest themselves."

"I'm not the only one who'll be heading for a distant hellhole if they find out about this." Zaf laughed, "in fact you're worse off than me. I haven't gone looking for them yet, while you've already managed to convince Ruth to spend a day at the cricket with him... "

"And neither of them are ever going to find out about this either are they Zaf." Malcolm said with raised eyebrows and a tone that clearly indicated that what he'd said was a statement rather than a question. "Because you're going to head back to your seat the way you came, and we're both going to completely forget all about seeing each other here today."

"And what if I don't forget?" Zaf asked cheekily.

"Then Harry will receive a report, ostensibly from the DG, about Officers misusing their identity cards for their own personal gain and this would inevitably lead to a clampdown on said Officers," Malcolm said calmly with a wide smile. "Are we both on the same page yet?"

Zaf laughed, "you've got me there Malcolm. If England play as well as you've played this. then the Ashes will be in the bag by tea-time!"

Malcolm chuckled, glad he'd been able to divert Zaf who he knew meant no harm, just a little mischief. "Well hopefully that's the case Zafar." He headed off back to the entrance to the Pavilion, "enjoy the rest of the game and don't mention to Adam that you've seen me."

"Mum's the word." Zaf replied with a cheery wave as mission aborted, he headed off back to his seat, but not before first stopping at one of the gourmet food trucks to get some decent food.

Oblivious to the actions of their colleagues on the other side of the Oval, Harry and Ruth were enjoyed a fine packed lunch courtesy of Marks and Spencer's fresh food selection which Ruth had plundered the previous evening.

"That was delicious Ruth, thank you." Harry said popping in the last mouthful of a porkpie,

"Better than chicken nuggets and chips?" Ruth asked wryly, she'd seen the selection of food stands on offer when she'd popped to the ladies earlier and hadn't been overly impressed with the selection.

"Much," he answered with a grin. "You don't go to watch sport for the food, it's all about the ambience..."

"And the beer..." Ruth finished off his sentence for him with a smile. It seemed most people around her were on their third or fourth already, but the atmosphere was cheerful and upbeat as the sun continued to shine, and so far there seemed to have been no drunken or loutish behaviour.

"And the beer," Harry repeated with a grin. Since their earlier awkward conversation about smiling of all things, they'd settled down and had spent the last couple of hours chatting about this and that and slowly getting to know each other slightly better. All of this was interspersed with comments on the game going on in front of them. He'd made her laugh by repeating the famous Test Match Special commentary about the legendary West Indian Bowler, Michael Holding and the English batsman, Peter Willey. 'The Bowler's Holding, the Batsman's Willey' so said Brian Johnston on the radio; and in turn she'd slowly opened up to him, recounting times she'd spent with her father as a child listening to the cricket on the radio, "though I never heard any double-entendres or innuendo" she'd laughed.

Now sitting next to her, Harry suddenly realised quite how much he'd enjoyed their day so far. He hadn't been spinning her a line when he'd described his ideal travel companion over their dinner out as someone with a gentle sense of humour who understood the need for quiet and Ruth fitted the brief perfectly. He looked over at her and smiled. "Are you enjoying it, the day I mean?"

Ruth nodded, she was actually having a much better time than she'd expected, the couple of drinks she'd had, had mellowed her mood and the time spent with Harry had flown by. "I am," she smiled at him, "I'm suddenly very glad Malcolm couldn't come."

"Me too," he added softly. He noticed a small smudge of mayonnaise at the corner of her lips and without thinking about it, moved his hand to softly wipe it away with his thumb. The movement brought their heads closer together and despite the fact that they were surrounded by thousands of people they suddenly only had eyes for each other. "Ruth..."

Whatever he was going to say or do was lost as the two teams walked back out onto the pitch for the afternoon session and the crowd rose as one to greet them. Their moment rudely interrupted as the back of their seats were knocked and Harry's voice was drowned out by a lone trumpeter.

TBC