Thank you for all the wonderful reviews. They've persuaded me to write the second chapter quickly. Enjoy!

Harry managed to catch the last train from Waterloo to Exeter that night. Ruth was going under the legend Rose Thompson and her flight had been between Barcelona and Exeter. He didn't know any more than that, but it was enough. With Malcolm's help, officially he was on his way to Iraq to visit his daughter. Unplanned, but it was far enough away from the UK that were anyone to check up on him, he'd have enough warning to get back to London. Malcolm had even arranged for someone who looked like him to be travelling under one of Harry's known aliases, in case anyone became curious about Harry's abrupt absence. Spies rarely travelled under their own identity if they could help it. Something about the thrill that they just couldn't turn away from, even in their personal life.

He didn't think anyone would check up on him, but it never hurt to be careful. If he thought he'd be tracked down, he wouldn't risk looking for Ruth. Her life and her freedom were more important than his burning desire to see her again, strong as it was.

He was drawn from his thoughts as the train slowed down at Yeovil Junction. Just over an hour away from Exeter then. Ruth would be well away from the airport by now, and he had no idea where to start looking for her. She might not even stay in Exeter, but just wanted an airport away from the dangers of London. But she'd grown up here, and he desperately hoped she'd stay put for a time. Enough time for him to find her anyway.

Neither Harry nor Malcolm wanted to use the grid computers to track her down, just in case, but it did leave them with a few options to look for her. Malcolm was using his home computer to try and find out if Ruth had checked into a hotel or a B and B. Harry had faith in his oldest friend. Malcolm wouldn't fail, because he'd take it as a personal affront if he was unable to use technology to track one person down.

Harry's new pay as you go mobile buzzed with a text message. It came through as complete nonsense and he frowned as he tried to decipher it using Malcolm's system which he'd been explained before Harry had left London. It took him a good ten minutes before he realised that they were GPS coordinates. Another five minutes and he'd found out that they were the coordinates for a run down B and B on the edge of the city. Harry assumed that she'd have paid in cash and that the B and B didn't ask for names. He needed to see her, but he wasn't completely stupid either. Going around in the dead of night was asking for trouble. So he'd have to wait until the morning after another sleepless night.

Ruth woke up, staring at the ceiling. This was a stupid and pointless idea. Why had she felt the need to fly into the country? It wasn't going to change anything at all, and she felt the prick of tears beginning yet again. She got out of bed to stop herself from crying and wallowing in her misery and went to the tiny bathroom. She flinched away from her reflection in the mirror, fingering her short dyed blonde hair with distaste. She'd suffered a scare in Berlin where she was positive a British diplomat had recognised her, and since then she'd changed her appearance. It had been a year and she still couldn't get used to the change whenever she caught her reflection in a mirror. She took a quick shower and got dressed without glancing at the mirror again.

Two hours later Ruth walked through the cemetery and it didn't take her long to find the grave she was here to visit. The earth was freshly turned and it had an incredibly new gravestone there. Only a couple of days old. With great care she placed the bouquet of violets on the grave, noticing that the earlier flowers from the funeral were dying. "Hi mum." She sighed, feeling the fresh Spring breeze on her face, a gentle caress. "I know I promised I'd come back to see you again. I never thought it would be like this. You should have told me you had heart problems. I wanted to see you again. I'd have been here sooner." She took a deep breath and felt her composure begin to break.

Once Ruth had heard the news about her mothers death, she hadn't really been able to comprehend it. She'd wanted to come back to England, to say goodbye properly, but knew from a safety standpoint that going to the funeral was risky. So she'd spent her time planning her brief trip to Exeter and home, and she'd managed to redirect her grief into something productive. But now, standing by her mothers grave, it hit her with a realism she'd been avoiding up until this moment. Her mother was dead. Gone. Forever. Tears were falling down her face before she even realised and she was gasping for breath.

Over the past three years she'd had sporadic contact with her mother, unable to let Elizabeth believe that her only child had died, when the truth was she was alive and well, if not exactly happy. So there'd been the occasional email from encrypted addresses using internet cafés and never the same email address twice. She hadn't seen her mother in years, but it was comforting to know that she was always there. A world where her mother didn't exist in was incredibly hard to contemplate.

"Rose?" She tensed and looked up in fear at her "name" as she wiped her face. She recognised him a split second later and she relaxed slightly. Harry. He stood a few yards away from her, eyes connected with hers, filled with sadness and joy. Neither of them moved as the seconds ticked away, and eventually Harry stepped closer to her. After so long, months of thinking about him, he was finally in front of her, immediate and real. He looked just as she remembered him and she didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"I'm so sorry about your mother. I didn't know." His voice sounded emotional and open, so unlike the mask he usually wore that she broke down. She was sobbing within moments and without quite knowing how it happened, she found herself leaning against his chest, her tears falling onto his shirt and his arms gently holding her around her waist.

More soon!