Within half an hour they were sitting in the corner of a small café sipping tea with two slices of apple cake.

"Do you know how long its been since I had proper British tea?" she said quietly.
He smiled at her. "You look well," he said.

"No Harry, I look like hell," she said, guessing her eyes were red and bloodshot from crying, and touching her blonde hair self consciously. "I know you're not mentioning it, but I hate it."

"It's just different," he replied gently. It was, jarringly different but he could guess the reason she'd changed her hair was a more practical one for a person in hiding, so he changed the subject. "Where are you living now?" he asked quietly.

She paused for a moment before speaking, and he knew perfectly well she was weighing up the options. Whether it was safe to tell him or not "Japan." He raised his eyebrows in surprise. That would have been one of the last places he'd have guessed, and clearly she could still read him like a book. "I know it's not Europe. Where you thought I'd be."

"Well, it's a big continent," he said. "Plenty of places to hide away. But yes, I did think you'd be a little… closer to home." It was in fact slightly disheartening to realise that she'd been half the world away for so long. He'd always assumed she'd ended up somewhere in Europe. Maybe one of the Greek islands, but Japan? It was so far away. "What do you do there?"

She smiled at her hands, wrapped around her mug of tea. "I teach," she said. "English as a second language."

"Really?"

"Mm," she said. "It's good," she said. "I do enjoy it. It's wonderfully rewarding at times."

"Good," he said.

"What about you?" she said. "How are… things on the grid?"

"Going okay," he said. "You know how it is, one disaster after another, always trying to prevent them."

"I do know how it is," she agreed. "Have we… lost anyone?"

Harry sighed heavily, which she took for a yes. "I don't know if I should… after your mother…"

"I'd rather know," she said quietly, eyes earnest. "I don't know when I'm next going to be in the country. I need you to tell me."

"All right," he said, feeling a bit hollow at the mention of her leaving less than an hour after he'd laid eyes on her. She couldn't just vanish into the ether again. It was bitterly unfair. "Zaf."

"Oh no," she said sadly. "How?" Harry looked at her darkly and she shook her head. "Okay, I don't want to know do I?"

"No. You don't."

"Okay. Anyone else?"

"No," he said. "Though Adam had a really close call with a car bomb almost a year ago. He's fine."

"Good," she said. She bit her lip, as the talk about death had brought her mind back to her mother. Harry seemed to sense that and he reached across the table to take her hand.

"I'm truly sorry about your mother," he said, squeezing gently. "How?"

"Heart attack," Ruth said. "From the sounds of it she'd been having heart problems for a while now. She never told me." She closed her eyes and shook her head in sadness.

"When are you flying back?" he asked.

"Tomorrow night," she said. "I couldn't risk being here for long. I fly to Barcelona, then Dubai, then Osaka. Under three different passports in case I'm being followed."

"I'm sorry you have to live like that," he said, feeling another surge of guilt.

"So am I," she said. "But it's not your fault. If I had my time over, I'd have done it again Harry." She squeezed his hand once more before letting go and eating a forkful of cake.

"Can I ask something?" he said. "It's horrible timing, but I don't know when I'll see you again." Or if he saw her again, his mind told him. She nodded, while she ate. "Is there anyone… waiting for you in Japan? Have you…?"

"Am I in a relationship?" she said frankly and he nodded. "No. I've a couple of friends, but nothing like that. What about you?"

"No. There's no one." He spoke firmly and she looked into his hazel eyes, wondering why. His history with women was prolific. No one in three years? She could hardly believe that. Or did he mean there was no one of any importance, or no one at the moment? She gave herself a mental shake, because those were questions she couldn't reasonably ask, and she wasn't sure she wanted the answers anyway.

"Ruth…" he tailed off when he saw her smiling. "What?"

"My name," she said quietly. "It's been three years since anyone's called me by my name. So long to be living as someone else."

"I know," he said, voice laced with meaning, and she realised he'd lived a proportion of his life under a legend too. Making everyone believe he was someone else, and she felt a little childish for complaining. It wasn't as if he didn't understand. The silence between them felt charged, but with what, she didn't know. Eventually Harry broke it, once their tea was cold. "Ruth, you said your mother never mentioned her health problems…" he said. "You… you were in contact with her?"

"Yes." Ruth saw the pain on his face. That she'd been able to contact someone in the UK and had chosen not to send him a message that she was at least alive. "Harry, it wasn't that I didn't want to…"

"No, of course not," he said and she saw the shutters come down, masking his emotion from her and the pain she was putting him through. It hadn't been until now that she truly appreciated how open his face had been. Now it had vanished and he was being a spook once again, rather than the man she knew.

"I couldn't contact you," she said. "It was such a terrible risk Harry, and I so wanted to. But it would never have been enough. I only sent a message to my mother three or four times a year. To let her know I was okay. The things I wanted to say to you, Harry, were so much more than I could ever safely put in an email."

"I could have known you were alive," he said, voice quiet and eyes blazing with anger. "That would have been such a precious gift, to know that you were still breathing."

"I didn't know you were alive either," she said, tears filling her eyes again. How much could one person cry? "I know how it feels. The not knowing. It wasn't just you. I had no idea if you'd died either."

"You had a choice though," he said quietly, pressing his point. "I couldn't have contacted you, no matter how badly I wanted to. I didn't know which continent you were even in!"

"Harry, this situation is not my fault."

"I need some air." He pushed his chair back and abruptly left the tea shop. Ruth sighed heavily but she let him go to calm down. She knew he wouldn't go far.

More soon, and a massive thank you to all who left reviews.