Disclaimer see previous This chapter is a very strong T. May border into M but only ever so slightly. There may be a M rated companion piece if it's wanted.

Reunion

"That was Ros." Malcolm stated as Lucas and Zoe walked back onto the Grid. "She is on the way back with the others. Seems Harry needs to be in hospital but is refusing to go." He frowned, clearly worried about his old friend. Harry hated hospitals, had done since his time in Northern Ireland but if he needed treatment Malcolm saw no sense in refusing it.

"Ruth is with Mike in Med Bay." Lucas answered. "I've just spoken to her. She's going to be fine. Cuts and bruises but she ws very lucky." He paused.

"She was." Zoe frowned. "It just doesn't sit right."

"What doesn't?" Malcolm watched as Zoe ran a hand through her short brown hair.

"Ruth being kidnapped. Harry's cover blown. None of it sits right. Even the riot in the prison, none of it adds up."

"Or it does and we just aren't seeing the right answer." Calum frowned. "Tariq?"

"All the money leads back to Tessa. The only lead I can find on anyone called James or Jamie that may be related to this is her nephew. Jamie Phillips."

"Dig into his history." Lucas frowned. "Ruth was certain she heard the name Jamie and it's the only lead we have that's reliable."

"Ok." Tariq picked up his bottle of Lucozade, knowing both Malcolm and Calum were watching him. He focused on the screen in front of him, knowing if they were ever going to stop Nightingale they had to find out who Jamie Phillips really was and why he was involved in kidnapping Ruth.

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"Two, three times a day. If you need them." Mike stated as he handed Ruth the small bottle of painkillers.

"Will they make me drowsy?" Ruth sighed as she sat on the examination bed in the medical room. Mike raised an eyebrow.

"If I say no would you take them?"

"I need to be alert. Harry is." She paused, wondering how much she could tell the affable doctor. "Away."

"I see."

"So I need to stay alert."

"I understand that." Mike paused. "You have two children to look after as well as working. I know you are not going to even consider resting. But Ruth, you fell from a moving car onto tarmac. You have multiple abrasions to your back and legs. It is only by luck that you are still here."

"I'd rather take my chances with luck than see what they were planning for me." She paused. "I'm ok. Honestly. Battered and bruised, yes but I've been that before and survived."

"I know." He smiled slightly. "You are 42 years old." He paused. "You are not going to be able to keep punishing your body the way you have been."

"Ok." Ruth closed her eyes as he left the room, her blouse folded, neatly despite it's torn state on the table next to her. She shook her head, knowing it would be foolish to try to wear the destroyed garment again. Instead she picked up the denim shirt Zoe had brought up earlier, knowing Dimitri wouldn't mind that his secret stash of clean shirts had been pilfered. Moments later she discarded the faded hospital gown, wincing as she pulled the blur denim shirt on.

"Hey." She paused as she heard a very familiar voice. Smiling to herself she knew it was her overactive imagination working. She wanted Harry with her, so her mind was playing tricks. It was only when she felt his hands on her shoulders that she dared believe he was there.

"Hi." She turned. "Oh God. Oh my God." She looked at his battered face as he smiled.

"Ruth." He opened her shirt slightly, looking at the abrasions and burns from the fall across her chest and neck.

"What did they do to you? I told you. I made you promise."

"I didn't get shot." He smiled at her. "And didn't I tell you to stay out of the field? Didn't I tell you to stay safe?" He blinked as tears filled her eyes. "It's ok." He closed his eyes as she touched his face. "It's ok."

"Now." Ruth whispered as her lips touched his. "Now it's ok." His hands gently held her waist as hers slid around his neck. For a moment it was like time stood still. No Nightingale, no injuries or terrorists trying to rip them apart, just them. Ruth broke the kiss first, breathing deeply as he held her. "How?"

"How am I here?" She nodded.

"Adam and Zaf are good at their jobs." He smiled as she raised an eyebrow. "And someone sold me out. My cover was deliberately blown." He tried to keep the anger our of his voice. Ruth narrowed her eyes.

"Who?"

"Tessa."

"I have to get back to the Grid." Ruth looked up at him, unable to move as his gaze travelled over her skin. She knew the bruises on his face were only the start of the injuries. Harry wasn't a young man anymore but she knew he would risk his life to make sure his team were safe. She just hoped that hadn't happened this time.

"Yes." Harry kissed her forehead. "So do I."

"You have to get checked over. Harry, please don't make me worry even more." Her eyes clouded as he kissed her cheek gently.

"Go on. I'll see the doctor." She nodded, stepping away from him. A moment later she was stood at the door. "Ruth?"

"Yes?" She turned back to him.

"Tell Dimitri his shirt looks better on you." He chuckled as Ruth muttered 'impossible man' under her breath before leaving the room.

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"I've been through CCTV footage for every major UK port." Malcolm stated. "All the airports, ferry terminals, the Channel Tunnel. She did not reënter this country through any of them."

"She's here." Beth stated as she looked at the white board. Ruth nodded once.

"We know that."Ros frowned. "What she wants is more of a concern now. Tessa Philips is a dangerous woman. Harry?"

"My cover was blown because she was at the prison." He paused. Ruth stared at the papers in front of her, worrying him as the shirt she wore seemed to make her squirm slightly in her seat. He could only assume her dressings were rubbing against the shirt she had borrowed.

"But why?" Ruth paused.

"I've made contact with his daughter." Zoe stated. "Tracey Brewster, she's agreed to meet with me."

"Wear a wire." Adam instructed. Zoe rolled her eyes.

"Really? And there was I thinking I would carry a great big microphone on my head to record everything." Harry smirked at the indignant look on Adam's face. Zaf smiled.

"When?" Harry looked at the only original full time member of his team.

"Tomorrow afternoon. The bandstand in the park." Zoe picked up a plastic cup of water. "11am."

"It gives us time to get a team there." Ros conceded. "She could be a useful asset and Zoe is an unknown quantity where they are concerned."

"Back up." Harry stated. "I don't really want anyone else out of action because of these thugs. Remember who Tracey's husband is."

"She also has convictions for violent crime." Ruth turned the page. "Tracey Ann Brewster, aged 30. No children, thank God. Convicted in 1991 for assaulting a shop assistant who caught her shoplifting. Again in 1994 for ABH and then served eight months for racial abuse and violence. She threw a broken bottle in a girl's face after seeing her leave the local Synagogue. Blinded the girl in one eye."

"Nice family." Alec pulled a face. "Anything on Jamie?"

"Oh yes." Ruth narrowed her eyes as she remembered the young man's hands bundling her into the car boot.

"Ruth?" Dimitri asked quietly.

"James Philips, aged 23. Only son of Alice and Patrick Phillips. Has a sister, Lynne aged 30 who no longer speaks to the family. James is known to the majority of people as Jamie and is the nephew of Tessa Philips. No convictions as an adult but has popped up on the radar as a person of interest before."

"How so?" Harry looked at her.

"Member of far right groups, received a caution for his involvement on an assault on a young man in West London two years ago. The man he was charged with assaulting was Muslim, wearing traditional Islāmic clothing at the time. Since then, he's been on Section A's person's to watch list but only flashed up for us when he took me."

"Why didn't he come to our attention before now?"

"Mainly because when Section A first noticed him I was in a coma and Section A don't like sharing at the best of times. I had to borrow this information as it was." Ruth sighed. Calum and Erin exchanged glances. Neither knew anything about Ruth being stabbed on the doorway of Thames House years earlier or the ectopic pregnancy that had almost killed her. Ros fell silent, remembering the time well.

"Ok." Harry paused. "I want that scum brought in. That may just shake the tree enough to get Tessa to fall into our laps."

"And what about Jools?" Lucas asked.

"He'll be hiding under his stone somewhere, waiting to see if any of this will make him money." Harry answered. He stood, effectively concluding the meeting. Ruth sighed heavily before collecting papers as the rest of the team left the room. "Ruth?" Harry spoke softly as she bundled the papers into a file.

"Don't Harry."

"You were ill, it is not your fault none of us have your hacking skills."

"I was too slow." Ruth looked up. "All this could have been avoided if we had known about him two years ago. All this could have been stopped. We might have been able to turn him, find out where Tessa was hiding. Anything but this." He touched her hand.

"Not. Your. Fault." Harry looked her in the eye. "We will stop this. If this idiotic young man hadn't been the way in for Nightingale and Tessa they would have found another way. And so will we."

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A/N Is any of this making sense? It's the one story I really am not sure about. Please let me know what you think. Oh and do I write the companion piece?