This is the last chapter. It was meant to be a brief epilogue, but I got carried away, and for a while there wondered if I was ever going to get to the end.

Thanks to all who have made it to the end of reading this, and a special thanks to the reviewers. Your reviews, as always, were very welcome, and made enjoyable – and often amusing - reading.

oOo

Ruth lay back in the bath, only her head above the water, while she watched him shave in front of the mirror. She could spend all day watching him. He's a perfectionist in most things, and shaving is no exception. There is a pattern to how he shaves, and that pattern is never broken, it never changes. His movements with the shaver and the water could be set to music. Rossini's"The Thieving Magpie" from around the five minute mark comes to Ruth's mind.

"What?" he asked, seeing her watching him.

"I love you," she said, smiling at his image in the mirror.

"If you're trying to get me to join you in there, then your efforts are wasted. We're expected at Malcolm's in just over an hour."

"No-one ever gets to parties on time. Besides, who will notice if we're late?" she countered.

"Malcolm will," he replied, "and then his imagination will work overtime, after which he'll be too embarrassed to look either of us in the eye. And I'm meant to be the guest of honour."

She sat up in the bath so that her breasts rose above the bubbles, and covered in a soapy sheen, they presented themselves so that Harry could hardly ignore them.

"Come here," she said to his reflection in the mirror.

"Why?"

"So that I can seduce you."

"I'm not falling for that one," he said, wiping his face with a towel. "You think I can't resist you, don't you?" This was a different Harry. This was Harry-on-a-mission. The Harry she'd come to know over the past week would have walked right over to her and buried his face in her breasts, lost himself in the joys of her body, and to hell with getting to the party on time.

"OK," she said, having to slightly change her approach, "I bet you can't kiss me and then walk away."

"Alright, if you must." Harry put down the towel, and slowly approached the bath. He reached down to kiss her, and then noticed that the bubbles had settled, and he could see her whole body under the water. As his lips gently touched hers, he ran his fingers over her shoulder and down to her breast, slippery with soap, her nipple erect. With his thumb he massaged her nipple, feeling it harden even more. It was then he knew he was gone. He would not simply stand up and walk away. It wasn't that he didn't want to; it was because he couldn't. He lifted his lips from hers, and opened his eyes. She was looking at him with love and desire and something else – triumph. She knew his limitations better than he knew his own. His eyes slid over her body. He was mesmerised by her ribs and her stomach, and then he followed the curve of her abdomen to her dark pubic hair, and beneath that, he remembered the bliss he'd experienced while moving inside her. He was wearing nothing under his bathrobe, and he noticed her eyes drawn to where his growing erection had found its way through the opening in his robe. She lifted her hand to touch him, but he quickly pulled back.

"Come in here with me," she said huskily. "Let's see what develops. It might be fun." She reached up and grabbed one side of his bathrobe, and tugged it from him. It slowly slipped from his shoulders, revealing his naked body, and his half arousal. She slid her hand from his arm, across his chest, and then down over his abdomen, until her fingers lightly touched his penis.

"Get in," she said, no longer seductive, but insistent. She moved forward in the bath to make room for him to sit behind her.

She felt him step into the bath behind her, placing his legs either side of her. She ran her hands up and down his thighs, enjoying his sharp intake of breath as her fingers slipped up his inner thighs, and scratched his skin with her fingernails. She leaned her back against him, so that her body rested against the expanse of his chest, her head against his shoulder. His breathing was fast and shallow, and his penis hard against her lower back. She awaited his next move. In her mind, she had already proven a point, although now he was here in the water with her, she was not altogether sure what that point had been.

Suddenly his hands slid around her waist and glided up her abdomen to caress her breasts, while his mouth devoured her neck and shoulders, his tongue flicking and licking her skin. She could tell from his breathing that he was already more aroused than she. She knew that what she was doing was perhaps not playing fair, but this game was new to her, and for once she'd become fully aware of the power she had over him. She had never done this with any man before Harry. She was testing the parameters of this game she had devised, although she was also aware that it is as old as the human race itself.

He took his hands from her breasts, and slid them down her body to her folds, now hidden under the water. He slipped his fingers into her, as he sucked on the delicate skin of her neck.

"Harry," she said, suddenly finding speech difficult, "you'll leave a mark."

"So wear a shirt with a collar," he replied gruffly, before he again placed his mouth against her skin.

She felt her climax building, like an approaching storm, and gave in to it, arching her back against him as he plunged his fingers deeper into her, hearing some of the bathwater slosh over the sides of the bath. After she settled, and after he'd stopped whispering words of love and encouragement against her ear, she turned to face him. She straddled his body, then lowered herself on to his erection, guiding him into her, as he lay back and closed his eyes. He lifted his buttocks to make their coupling easier. From underneath her, he did all the work, tensing his buttocks to lift himself up and into her, then dropping away again. Because he is well-endowed, he did not slip out of her. They both lost themselves in their coupling. When they came, their thrashing – because that's what their moving together had become – created a wave in the bath which emptied at least half the water on to the floor. They were oblivious to the wash of water over the side of the bath, and having forgotten that Harry's bathrobe had been discarded on the floor, they gave no thought to it's probable soaking.

They rested against each other for a short while. She was the first to move, raising her head to check that his face was above the water line. His eyes were closed. "Harry!" she said, shaking his shoulders.

"What?" he replied, opening his eyes drowsily.

"I thought you might have drowned," she said weakly.

He looked up at her in surprise. "One way or another you're bound to be the death of me, Ruth," he murmured, a small contented smile on his lips.

.

They were late to the party. It was almost 9.30 when their taxi pulled up in front of Malcolm's house. Harry was dressed in black slacks, a sky-blue shirt, and a dark grey jacket, while Ruth wore black slacks, a slim-fitting black polo-necked jumper – which adequately covered the mark Harry had left on her neck - and a body-hugging red jacket. They looked like they belonged together.

The door was opened by a middle-aged woman who appeared familiar, although they could not quite place her.

"I'm Lydia," she said, her short, wavy golden-blonde hair shining under the porch light. "I'm Felicity's older sister. You must be Ruth and Harry. You perfectly fit the descriptions I was given."

Inside the house, they were greeted by a large banner which read: Happy Retirement Harry and Ruth. Balloons and streamers festooned the whole living area, and on the walls were large photographs of Harry and Ruth, some on their own, and others of them together.

"Do you ever feel like you've been living in a bubble, Ruth?" Harry spoke into her ear. "I feel as though none of my movements have been without a surveillance camera somewhere nearby."

It was only after they had been greeted by everyone that the penny dropped.

"Did you see that?" Ruth whispered over her shoulder to Harry, who was standing just behind her.

"If you mean did I see Malcolm take Lydia's hand and kiss it, then yes. What a dark horse."

"And there you were worried that Malcolm would be imagining what we were doing to make us late. He was most likely having his own intimate moment."

"Ruth, I don't really want to have a mental image of Malcolm having sex."

"At least Malcolm is now getting some, making him far less twitchy in my opinion," said Calum from behind Ruth's other shoulder. "And how is my favourite ex-spook?" he asked Ruth, leaning towards her. "I've missed you."

Ruth turned from Harry to give Calum a quick hug. "It's good to see you, too, Calum."

"What are the girls doing here?" asked Harry, noticing that two of the admin girls were at the party.

Calum coughed, a little embarrassed. "The blonde one came with me, and the dark one is Dimitri's date."

"But I thought he and -" began Ruth.

"We were all hoping he and Erin would become a couple, but alas, they didn't make it. I think Erin's words were: Come back when you grow up, Dimitri, and we might try again. I think that means that she loves him …... or something like that. What do I know about love anyway? All jokes aside," Calum continued, "you both look happy, and I'm glad you're well, Ruth."

Calum then wandered away to get a drink for himself and his date for the night.

"I guess we should mingle," said Ruth, grasping Harry's hand and squeezing it before she crossed the room to speak to Erin.

.

Harry felt a degree of detachment as he watched Ruth greet people she'd once worked with and spent so many hours of her life with. He thought he'd miss the bustle and the camaraderie of the Grid, but he believed he had already let it go. Life in retirement, spent with the love of his life, doing what he wanted, when he wanted, was about as good as it gets.

"You miss her even when she's just the other side of the room, don't you Harry?" said Felicity

offering him a glass of Scotch.

"Thank you," he said, taking the drink from her hand, and taking a sip. "Is it that obvious?" He asked, looking across at her.

"Yes, it is, but that's a good thing. A month ago you were looking at retirement as a single man. The alternative must be -"

"It's wonderful," he said. "And I have you to thank for it."

Felicity grasped his arm and leaned against him in a companionable silence. "You and Ruth are very well suited, you know. Her gentleness to balance your bluster and brashness; her logical mind to counter your passionate nature; her youth to bring life to your -"

"Perhaps you should stop there, although you're right on the money so far. We shouldn't be well suited, but we are. We fit together well. A few months ago I was dreading the future, but now I can't wait."

"How was the cottage?"

"It's perfect, or it will be when the work on it is finished."

"And you'll not forget us when it comes to your house-warming?"

"Never," he said gruffly. "You're all like family to us."

Malcolm and Lydia, hand in hand, crossed the room to join Harry and Felicity.

"Why didn't you tell us about -?" Harry began, pointing at their linked hands.

"Because I didn't want to divert the attention from you and Ruth," Malcolm explained diplomatically. "Besides, as you know, I'm a private person, and so is Lydia." The look which passed between Malcolm and Lydia showed Harry that this was not some opportunistic romp between two middle-aged people. Like he and Ruth, their relationship was still at the delicate stage, but worth the time and effort it would take to build a bond which is both strong and enduring.

"I'm happy for you both," Harry said sincerely. "You're in the wrong business, Felicity. You've been personally responsible for getting two couples together in the past months alone."

Malcolm and Lydia wandered off to check on Alec, who was – by all accounts – perched on the table in the kitchen with a large bottle of Coke in his hand. What was in the Coke bottle was of concern to Malcolm, who had wanted the night's celebrations to be enjoyable, but low-key and decorous.

Harry found his eyes searching the room for Ruth. Had he always done this? He suspected he had, and that this looking-for-Ruth was one of those unconscious acts he performed on a daily basis, like covering his mouth when he coughed, or blinking and ducking when a bird flew at the windscreen of his car while he was driving.

"Are you afraid that you love Ruth more than she loves you?" Felicity asked, her arm still tucked through his.

"You get right to it, don't you?" Harry replied, not sure whether he really wanted to pursue this line of conversation. He could feel Felicity's eyes on him, so he decided to be honest with her. "That's been my second greatest fear ever since I realised how I felt about her, and that was years ago. She'd ….. run from me … whenever we got close. I could only assume she didn't love me in the way I loved her."

"And now?"

"It's still there, the feeling that maybe I love her more. But I'm prepared to live with that. The alternative is unthinkable. I've been without her, and it was almost unbearable. My greatest fear has always been the threat of losing her again."

"You know that people express their love in different ways, don't you? You're a romantic, Harry, and you're good when it comes to grand gestures of love. I think Ruth is someone who needs to be shown that you really, really want her, so she runs away so that you can come to find her and bring her back to you. She needs you to do that. Of course, she's also quite afraid of how loving you makes her feel. She doesn't like losing control, and loving someone and being loved is all about loss of control. She'll back off occasionally, or run a bit cold just so that she can gain a sense of control."

"How do you know all this? You seem to understand Ruth better than I do."

"I watch Ruth, and I'm reminded of Anthony. There was an elusive quality to him. Whenever we were at a party, he'd run off and become the life of the party, but if I didn't seek him out, he'd begin to think I didn't love him. It used to irritate me until I figured it out. He was also a massive control freak, and in a way, Ruth is also."

Felicity looked up at Harry, but he was lost in private thoughts of Ruth's control game earlier in the evening, when she'd known him well enough to work out how to get him into the bath with her. He felt a small smile soften his face at the memory. There were times when he'd have to simply allow her to take the reins of control.

"It was some time after Anthony died that I realised that I loved him in part because I couldn't pin him down. And I now know that he and I were never meant to be together for life, but you and Ruth are. Give her space, Harry. Don't crowd her, but always go looking for her when she wanders away. She'll want you to do that. I think for her it's akin to being chased, or wooed. She'll never tire of it."

Uncharacteristically for Harry, he leaned over to Felicity and kissed her cheek. "Thank you," he whispered, before he left her side in search of Ruth. Suddenly it all made sense.

Harry found her in the dining room with Dimitri and Calum, along with Hayley and Pia, their dates for the evening. He stood in the doorway for a moment and watched as she laughed at something Calum had just said. As Ruth turned to see him, he felt that familiar quickening of his pulse and the warmth radiating from his heart and his groin through his whole body.

"There you are, darling," she said, her smile widening just for him. "I've missed you." She held out her hand to him, and he grasped it in his. He noticed the endearment she'd used – darling. This was the first time she'd used it outside the bedroom. She'd not even said it in the kitchen, or the living room, or when they were alone together in the car.

Perhaps wooing Ruth would be a lifetime activity for him. If so, he was looking forward to it.

.

"Unaccustomed as I am to speech-making -," came the voice from the doorway between the living room and the kitchen.

There was a collective groan from the younger ones.

"Unaccustomed as I am to speech-making," Dimitri repeated, "I consider it a privilege, on behalf of all who have worked in Section D over the years, to wish you, Harry Pearce, KBE -"

"Get on with it, man," said Alec, the coke bottle still in his hand. Ruth knew from having talked to him that the bottle contained only soft drink and nothing else. He'd been on the wagon for months.

"Whatever," Dimitri continued, "we'll all miss you, Harry, just as we've missed Ruth, and we wish you a happy and productive -"

"Not too productive, mind you," added Alec, to which there was more groaning from the younger ones.

"This is from us all, and we wish you a happy and you know ….. long retirement." With that, Dimitri took from Malcolm's hand a bottle of 21 year old Glenfiddich, and a long envelope, and held it out to Harry, who walked across the room to collect it. "You have to open the envelope, Harry, because we all want to see your face when you do," added Dimitri, a wide smile softening his features.

"I hope it's not one of those exploding letter bombs," Harry quipped, as he opened the envelope. He drew out what looked like airline tickets. His face broke into an uncharacteristic broad smile as he saw what was written on the tickets. He held out his hand to Ruth. "I think you should be by my side for this, Ruth."

With encouragement from Felicity, Ruth joined Harry as the centre of attention, something which always made her feel self-conscious. Harry showed her the contents of the envelope, and her jaw dropped, and then she said, "How did you know? How could you all afford this?"

"Lydia's daughter works for British Airways," explained Malcolm, "so the tickets were at a bargain basement price, and the week in the Hotel de Neuville in Paris …... shall we say, we pulled some strings." Malcolm's eyes darted around the room, taking in everyone present. "We called in some favours. And the Home Secretary also made a significant contribution, without which you would have had to settle for a weekend in a B&B on the outskirts of Hastings."

"You can call it a honeymoon, even if you never get married," Felicity chimed in. "We just want you to enjoy it, and to remember us while you're enjoying it."

"If we really enjoy it, we'll not be giving a thought to any of you," growled Harry, and Ruth lightly punched him on the arm. Harry tucked his arm around her waist, and kissed her hair. "I don't know what to say," Harry said, his arm still around Ruth. "Thank you all. Ruth and I thank you for this generous gift. We'll put it to good use, as soon as we can. We have no immediate plans for getting married, but a honeymoon, on the other hand, is something we'll enjoy at our first opportunity. I won't miss any of you, of course. I have more enjoyable pursuits now." Harry stopped speaking, seeming overcome with emotion, and Ruth put her arm behind him, and rubbed his back in slow circular movements.

"Three cheers for Harry and Ruth," Alec called out, and the others followed with three rounds of Hip Hip, Hooray!

.

"How did they know about Paris?" Ruth asked, seated next to Harry in the back seat of the taxi on their way home. "It can't be a coincidence. Of all the cities in the world, they -"

"I think I might have mentioned it to Felicity. After we believed you to be dead, I confided quite a lot in her. You don't mind, do you?"

"Of course not. I was just curious." Ruth's face suddenly became serious. "I can't imagine what it must have been like for you, Harry. Had I ever believed you to be dead, I wouldn't have wanted to go on. When I thought Lucas had shot you, I – I -,"

"I had my moments when I couldn't bear the thought of dragging myself through another day without you," he said. "Most of these moments were at night, when thoughts of you consumed me. During the day I buried myself in work."

There was a long silence between them, during which they each entertained thoughts of what might have been had their worst fears been realised.

"You see," Harry continued quietly, taking Ruth's hand in his, and bringing it to his lips, "this is how I'm easily able to put the job behind me. I know it's a habit which may be hard to break, but I no longer have a need to lose myself in it. I'd often use it to run away from thoughts of you, or how I felt about you, as well as all the decisions I'd made which I'd have done differently had I had my time over. I'm somewhat obsessive -"

"Only somewhat?" she said, smiling at him in the dark.

"Well, you've always been an obsession of mine, so now I can indulge myself fully."

He lay back against the seat, and she leaned her head across and rested it on his shoulder.

"Ruth." He whispered her name like a benediction. "We'll be OK, won't we?"

"I'm sure we will," she replied, squeezing his arm. "Change that to I'm certain we will."

The glow from the streetlights they passed by flickered across their faces, revealing their heads close together, smiles of contentment on their faces.

oOo

That's all for this fic.

My new HR fic – called "24 Hours" - will be published soon.