Once again thanks to everyone who reads and particularly those who review. It really does mean a lot. Some of the storyline in this chapter is taken from around episode 7.1 but is slightly condensed I think from what we saw on screen to fit in with the timeframe for this story.

xxx

"Are you all sorted for tonight?" Adam queried, as he walked straight into Harry's office through the partially open door.

"I'm going to get Malcolm to build me some kind of early warning system." Harry speculated, looking up from his desk where he had been signing off some files, rather than answering Adam's question

"Sorry?"

"A bell or a buzzer maybe, like they have in corner shops." Harry continued, "since you seem to have a medical problem affecting your ability to clench either one of your hands."

Adam looked perplexed, "I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."

"This is my office, you have just walked through the door, proper protocol is to knock."

"Ahhh." Adam grinned widely at his bosses infuriated face. "You'd hate it if we did," he joked, "just think of all the hours of fun you'd miss out on, complaining about it!"

"Hmmm," Harry pondered to himself, one day he was going to set a booby trap on that door and who ever was unfortunate enough to walk through it, would get the shock of their life.

"Anyway," Adam continued, ignoring Harry's comments, "is everything sorted?"

Harry looked at him and nodded. "For the swap tonight? Yes, it's all arranged for eight o'clock at the usual spot. I'm taking Kaplan with me, he's done well so far and this will be good experience for him."

Adam tapped his finger against his lips in thought before he answered. "It will be. What are your plans for North?"

"We get him back here, we debrief him, the usual protocol." Harry sighed deeply. "Given what he's likely been through, it's going to take some time."

"Is he okay do you know?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders before leaning back in his chair to answer. "The reports we have had through indicate that he's held up considerably well, all things considered, especially given the length of time he was there. But no one can go through something like that and remain the person they were before."

"I guess, so. We'll just have to wait and see I suppose." He glanced out of Harry's office noticing the day to day goings on of the Grid, before walking to the door and sliding it shut, before clearing his throat to speak. "And what have you done about the other matter?"

Harry raised his eyebrow at Adam as the younger man took a seat across from him on the other side of his desk. "By other matter, I take it you mean Ruth." he said eventually.

"What else?" Adam quipped, before seeing the look on Harry's face. "It's been four days since Jo, Malcolm and Connie tracked what we thought was her down to Polis and two days since Malcolm confirmed our suspicions and proved that it was her. Thanks to them we have her place of work, her address... " he looked over at his boss, "what are you waiting for?"

Harry looked uncomfortable, "I can't just get up and leave." he began.

"No," Adam agreed, "you can't. I do get that... but at the same time you can't just wait forever for the right time, otherwise you'll be here all year."

Harry looked down at his desk, "I've been thinking," he began slowly.

"What?"

"Maybe I'm not the best person too..."

"Don't even try that." Adam cut in, a strong note of derision in his voice. "I thought you'd have wanted to be on the first flight out of here..."

"It's not all about what I want." Harry replied, a note of anger coming through. "We don't know what type of life Ruth has built for herself, whether she'll want to see faces from her past... if she's alone..."

Adam nodded slowly, he'd struggled to understand Harry's hesitation in setting off for Cyprus, but now he saw it very clearly. What had only recently been an idea, was now a definite and that was what was causing Harry to have second thoughts, not about Ruth, but more fear of what he might find. Once they'd found the link to Polis, Malcolm had spent his time rummaging around various databases, the whole exercise taking much longer that it would usually given that so much was written in Greek. After a couple of days of fruitless searching, he'd accessed the hospital's database and through pure chance, had accessed the staff records. It was this that proved once and for all that Alison Ruth Evans really was Ruth Evershed, as attached to the standard forms that were filled in, was a photo of her to be used on her day to day hospital ID pass. "We've been through this already," Adam said slowly, "regardless of what Ruth is up to at the moment, we owe it to her to let her know that she can have her old life back... if she wants it."

Harry rubbed his face with his hands, "I know all that," he sighed, "but maybe it would be better coming from someone else, someone other than me?"

Adam raised his eyebrows in consternation. "Someone else?"

"I was thinking of Jo..." Harry began, "she and Ruth always got on well."

"And how do you think that would make Ruth feel?" Adam asked, shaking his head slowly in disbelief.

Harry defended himself. "She and Ruth get on."

"You and I get on." Adam said exasperatedly, "when you're not being so obtuse. If the shoe was on the other foot and it was you that had gone into exile, would you really rather I came to get you rather than Ruth?"

"I hadn't really thought..."

"No you hadn't!" Adam said loudly before lowering his voice. "Look Harry, I get that you're scared about what you'll find out there."

"Scared?"

"Well maybe not scared," Adam clarified quickly, before starting again. "We don't know what Ruth is up to, she may have moved on from London have a whole new life... and a new partner and have no desire to return to this... But," Adam continued in a softer tone, noticing the look on Harry's face and realising that he'd just put voice to the older mans greatest fear and the very reason he was hedging on going to Cyprus, "that may not be the case at all. And we won't know until we speak to her. And the person that needs to speak to her, is you Harry."

"Maybe."

"There's no maybe about it." Adam said gently. "Think how Ruth will feel if she is over there, all alone, missing you and then she finds out that you've sent Jo, because you couldn't be bothered taking a couple of days off work to come for her yourself."

"I really don't think that's how she'd see it." Harry protested.

"It's exactly how she'd see it." Adam countered, "anyone would."

Harry leaned back in his chair and leant his head back to face the ceiling, "I suppose you may be right," he exhaled.

"There's no suppose about it." Adam said cheekily, "and now that we've agreed on that, I suppose it's time to let you know, that you're expected on the flight leaving Brize Norton for the RAF base on Cyprus at nineteen hundred hours on Friday night."

Harry sat up straight, "I'm sorry."

Adam stood up and grinned widely as he made his way to the door. "If we left if up to you, you'd be faffing around until Christmas."

"I don't faff."

Adam ignored him. "A Hercules is going over on a routine flight and a driver will collect you from the RAF base at Akrotiri when you arrive and drive you over to Polis."

"I can't just leave," Harry muttered indignantly.

"You can and you will. Everything is sorted; Connie has booked you a room at a nice hotel there close to Ruth's place and close to the hospital." Adam folded his arms and leant against the doorframe. "Take a long weekend off, we can manage things here."

"In case it's escaped your attention, it's Remembrance weekend and we already have threats being made against the Queen. Plus Lucas..."

"And I can manage," Adam said with a smile. "Section D isn't just you Harry, it's a whole team of people and no matter what's thrown at us, we'll cope. Friday is three days away, we'll sort something out, both around Lucas and the Remembrance Sunday service."

Harry sighed, knowing when he was beaten. "Fine."

Adam slid open the door, "You need to be at Brize Norton by six o'clock on Friday night. Wing Commander Matthews will be expecting you. Don't forget your passport...or Ruth's for that matter." Were his last words as he exited the office with a big grin on his face hidden from Harry's view.

"So what's she like?" Connie looked over at Malcolm expectantly, her glasses perched halfway down her nose.

"What's who like? Lucas?" Malcolm replied, only half listening, focused as he was on the search around the threats at the Cenotaph.

"Not Lucas, I know what Lucas was like, I worked with him as well once upon a time," Connie replied bitingly. "And last I checked, Lucas was a he not a she. What's she like, Ruth?"

Malcolm looked up, "what do you want to know? She's an Intelligence Analyst, or was when she left. Speaks ten or so languages and..."

Connie sighed heavily, "Malcolm," she began, "for someone who really is quite bright, sometimes you can be incredibly dense."

Malcolm looked over at her, a gleam of amusement in his eye. "What you actually mean is, what is it about her that Harry fell for?"

Connie shuffled uncomfortably in her seat for a second. "I wouldn't have been quite so blunt."

"You blunt, never!" Malcolm raised his eyebrow at her with a small smile.

"It's just from the photo, she wouldn't seem to be Harry's type."

"I wouldn't know what Harry's type is?" He replied enigmatically.

"You understand perfectly well what I mean."

Malcolm looked across at her, she'd been tireless in helping him search for Ruth, even assisting him in wading through databases in Greek once they'd identified Polis as Ruth's likely location, though neither of them spoke or read it and had to depend on looking for likenesses of words and shapes within the Greek alphabet. He decided to give her some leeway. "To be honest Connie, she probably isn't..." he checked himself, "wasn't his type. They worked together for a few years and though it was obvious that there was a real connection there and that they were close, it was only when I heard that they'd been out to dinner together, that it struck me how well they worked together as a couple."

Connie looked curious, "In what way?"

Malcolm shrugged imperceptibly. "It's hard to put a finger on," he said quietly. "She's fiercely intelligent and she wasn't afraid to push him or challenge him," he smiled at the memory, "she had a way of making him think about things in a different way and he liked that. I think it's a meeting of minds as much as anything, they had this annoying habit of finishing off each others sentences."

"And for her?"

"I don't know. He's much older than her, but Ruth in many ways, was older than her time. She became his confidant on the Grid very quickly, and I think he let her see the side of him that no one else really gets to see." Malcolm looked over at Connie. "Whatever it was between them, it was mutual, they adored each other, that much was crystal clear at the end. When she left, the Cotterdam incident, they were both determined to do anything they could to save the other, each gave themselves very little thought."

"Well let's hope for Harry's sake that the passage of time hasn't altered her affections." Connie said with a small grin, turning away from Malcolm to answer her phone which had just started ringing.

Harry stepped out of the café in Polis' town centre into the warm sunshine dressed in a shirt and some casual trousers. Despite it being November and only nine thirty in the morning, it was still warm enough to walk around in shirt sleeves and he welcomed the feeling of sun on his face. He'd arrived in Polis in the early hours of the morning, checking into the small hotel that had been booked for him and despite the feeling of butterflies in his stomach, which he wouldn't admit to even under torture, he fell asleep the second his head hit the pillow.

He'd left all the documents in the safe in his room that morning and after a coffee and a light breakfast, he made his way over to Ruth's flat, following the detailed map that Malcolm had printed out for him, trepidation his companion for each and every step. After a short five minute stroll through the narrow, picturesque streets, he found himself outside Ruth's flat. It was in a small block, just off a square where a farmers market was currently being held. Breathing deeply in an attempt to settle his nerves and drive away the feeling of nausea, he knocked at the door, twice and in quick succession. As soon as he did, the worries came, he should have phoned first, someone else should have phoned first, Jo would have been a better option to do this and his worst fear of all, that the door wouldn't be opened by Ruth, but by someone else, another man.

That didn't happen, in fact nothing did. Harry waited thirty seconds for an answer and when none came he tried again. A further minute passed before he exhaled heavily, half in relief and made his way away from the flat and over to the small market. Her not being in hadn't been part of his plan, but on the plus side, it gave him a little more time to try and work out exactly what he wanted to say to her. The last few days had been hectic, what with threats against the monarch and Lucas' return to London and if it hadn't been for Adam virtually pushing him into his car and ordering his driver to take him to Brize Norton, then he would have likely delayed the trip for a week... and then probably another week. He sighed to himself as he suddenly realised how right Adam had been, he was scared of Ruth's reaction, of what he'd find. His feet led him through the square and he followed the signs for the waterfront, hoping a walk along the seafront would clear his head and give him some ideas of what to say. He was so caught up in his own mind that he didn't realise he was walking past the entrance to the small hospital until a movement suddenly caught his eye.

What it was about that movement that made him stop he didn't know, some kind of sixth sense or spy sense he reasoned, but he turned round quickly, as out of a door around 25 metres away came Ruth walking next to a tall dark haired man in a white coat. A Doctor he quickly surmised, as the pair he was watching stopped as the dark haired man pointed something out her on the ground and they both laughed. He felt a spasm of pain go through him as Ruth reached out and touched the Doctors arm lightly, but he couldn't move as he drank in the first sight of her he'd had in nineteen months. "Ruth," he breathed out, almost inaudibly.

There was absolutely no way she could have heard him from that distance, but from the second he spoke, he noticed a slight change in her demeanour as she dropped her hand from the Doctors arm and looked straight at him. Although he was too far away to hear her, he noticed her face drop slightly in shock and her lips move involuntarily to form his name. "Harry..."

TBC