Thanks once again to everyone who has taken to time to read this story and particularly those that have chosen to review, it really does mean a lot. Bit of a shorter one this time but it seemed like the right place to end the chapter.

xxxx

Ruth stood by, a little distance away, watching Harry carefully and not wanting to intrude; only knowing that whatever he was being told, it wasn't good news. He spoke infrequently, only uttering names briefly and usually with a questioning tone. Her view of his face was largely cut off by the hand that was shielding his eyes and which had hardly moved since he'd taken the call, when he'd almost immediately slumped against the low wall outside the restaurant finding it was the only thing around that would support him when his legs threatened for a moment to fail him. Finally around five minutes after he'd first answered the phone, he hung up and slowly raised his eyes to find her watching him a sad expression on her face. He stretched out his hand to her in a silent plea and she crossed the small gap to take it after only a brief pause. "How bad is it?" she asked quietly.

He looked up at her, his eyes over bright for a moment with unshed tears and took a deep breath before answering. "It was Ben, he was killed almost instantaneously from what I've been told," using his free hand he pinched his eyes together before ruining his hand down his face. "Christ, he's only been with us a matter of months."

"How did it happen?"she asked, squeezing his hand tightly in an attempt to give him some level of comfort. She hadn't known this Ben and Harry had only mentioned him in passing the night before, but still, in some strange way, she felt affected by his passing.

"We've been following..." He took a deep breath as his voice wavered slightly. "The past week there's been numerous threats to Remembrance Day services across London. Initially it was centred on the Cenotaph but widened out from there to take in the whole city. It appears that Ben managed to locate the bomb in the boot of a car, but with no time to disarm it, or evacuate the area he decided to drive it to a quieter area where there would be minimal impact. He managed to do this, but didn't have time to escape the explosion himself and..."

Ruth stepped closer to him pulling him into a tight embrace as his voice tailed off, understanding and knowing where the rest of the story was going as it brought up a cacophony of memories she thought she'd managed to bury deep within herself. They stood there entwined, oblivious to the world going on around them until Ruth felt him slowly start to breathe easier "Was anyone else killed or hurt?" she asked at length.

He shook his head as he pulled back slightly from her. "No, it appears that he was the only one caught up in the blast. They'll be a few broken windows and minor damage to buildings but other than that..."

"And how's everyone on the Grid?"

"That was Malcolm on the phone just then." Harry answered. "Adam is blaming himself and is struggling to hold himself together while Jo has apparently just disappeared..." He glanced at her morosely, "I wasn't even aware that she'd come back, well, not properly anyway."

Ruth looked at him, a bleak expression on her face, "So what happens now?' she questioned gently.

"I'm going to have to go back."

She cast her eyes down so he wouldn't see the pain reflected in them. "I know." She said quietly nodding almost indistinguishably, knowing in her heart and her mind that it was the only course of action open to him. She'd expected to hear this the second the call had come through and she'd seen his face, but she was still surprised how much it hurt her.

He reached up with his right hand to cup her face gently, "I'm so sorry Ruth, but I have to speak with his parents, Adam's in no state to do that at the moment... or to keep control of the Grid."

"I do understand Harry," she said sadly, "and I'm sorry too."

He bit his bottom lip as he pulled her into his arms again, taking what comfort he could from her embrace while wondering in his head if there was some supernatural deity solely focused on keeping him and Ruth apart.

"She's on the roof," Ros said briskly walking over to where Connie was stood in the middle of the Grid with a questioning look on her face.

"And how is she?" Connie peered at Ros over her glasses almost accusingly, "Jo has been through an awful lot recently."

"She'll live." The softer tone of Ros's voice undercut the harshness of her words. "I also passed Adam on the stairs on my way down, he was making his way up there as well. I think they both just need space and time to think."

"And how's he doing?"

Ros raised her eyebrows at the futility of the questions. "How do you think he's doing? One of his team has just died and despite him going against Adam's explicit orders to get out of the car, he blames himself."

"He said that?"

"Of course not, but I'm not completely without sensitivity and feeling. He's reacting in exactly the way I'd expect him to react given what he's been through over the last couple of years." Ros cast her eyes over the Grid quickly. "Where the hell is Harry? It's not like him not to be in the thick of things when the shit hits the fan."

Connie looked at her in surprise, given Ros had been back on the Grid for less than thirty minutes, in many ways it was if she'd never been away. "He's in Cyprus."

Ros looked at the older woman as if she'd just started speaking in Klingon. "Cyprus, what the hell is he doing in bloody Cyprus?" she exclaimed incredulously. "Harry's hardly the type of person who feels the need for long weekend breaks in the winter months just to feel the sun on his face."

She was about to answer and was relishing seeing the expression on Ros's face when they were interrupted suddenly. "I've just spoken with him," Malcolm said briefly, brandishing his phone as if they both required proof of his words. "I've said that we'll make the arrangements our end to get him back and that I'd call him as soon as we had the flight details."

Connie nodded, he mind suddenly switched back onto the job. "I'll get onto it straightaway. I presume he'll be getting a civilian flight back rather than flying back with the RAF?"

Malcolm rubbed his forehead lightly as he spoke. "I believe that'll be the quickest option, though check in with the Brass at the RAF base at Akrotiri. Even if there are no Hercules flights scheduled today, they'll probably be able to stump up a driver to get him to the airport at Paphos which I believe is the closest to Polis." Malcolm looked over at the tv screens on the wall which were looping the aftermath of the bomb blast, blanching slightly as he did so. "If all goes to plan we could have Harry back here by 6.00pm GMT tonight."

"Just in time to deliver the news to Ben's parents that their son was inexplicably caught up in the mains gas explosion in central London today." Connie raised both eyebrows slightly, "not quite the night of action Harry was presumably hoping for!"

Ros looked on in bemusement as Malcolm and Connie quickly made plans between themselves. "Is one of you planning on telling me what the hell is going on?" she interjected finally as Connie's last cryptic comment led to a thoroughly disapproving look from Malcolm. "Where's Harry?"

"He's in Cyprus with Ruth," Malcolm said quickly and concisely, hoping that the matter of fact way he spoke would stop Connie embellishing it into some kind of saga. "There were quite a few changes of circumstances while you were away."

Ros turned slightly pale at the news, "So I see. I thought she was supposed to be dead... never to darken the shores of the British Isles again?"

"Well..." Malcolm started before Connie quickly interjected.

"You more than anyone should know that no one is truly dead in this game until they are literally six feet under. And given her closeness to Harry it was thought.."

Ros smiled wryly, "She always was his rose-tinted blind spot," she uttered quietly, half to herself and half to Malcolm and Connie."

""Quite," Connie interjected with a hint of understanding. "There's also been other rumblings afoot, a disgraced former head of the JIC made a deal and..."

"A disgraced former head?" Two spots of colour stood out on Ros's cheeks suddenly and Malcolm noted to himself that she was as rattled as he'd ever seen her. "You don't mean Oliver Mace."

Connie nodded. "Of course," she started, "you'd know him relatively well?"

"Would you like me to get you a chair to sit on Ros?" Malcolm spoke to her kindly, noticing a slight wobble in her stance. Connie, despite her often prickly disposition was, as far as he was able to be certain, unaware of Ros's involvement in Ruth's exile and her initial collusion with Mace in order to get at Harry.

"I'm fine thanks Malcolm." She replied firmly after taking a couple of lungful's of the stuffy air on the Grid. "I haven't managed to have any food this morning," she explained quickly, "my blood sugar is obviously a little low." She smiled wanly at the two older members of the team, "On that note, I'm going to make myself a cup of tea while the two of you arrange the details around Harry's return." As they left in unison, quickly splitting the tasks between themselves, Ros made her way over to the kitchen hoping for a moments peace and solitude and the chance to get her head straight. Coming back onto the Grid after the events of Yalta was always going to be a big ask, but the difficulty had now doubled with the return of Mace and the potential comeback of her onetime nemesis.

"So..." Harry said quietly from the outside steps of the small hotel he'd just checked out of.

"So..." Ruth echoed his words, a touch of melancholy surrounding them both.

He moved to stand beside her. "You do know that I wouldn't be going back just now unless I really had to," he asked softly.

"Of course," she shuffled an inch or two closer to him and took both of his hands in hers. "It's who you are," she observed quietly, "you wouldn't be you if you didn't go back."

"I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing," Harry stated with a grimace. He swallowed deeply before asking the question he was terrified of hearing the answer to. "And what about you? What will you do now, will you come back?"

She smiled sadly, letting go of one of his hands to cup his face, sliding her fingers over his jaw and cheekbone. "Now's not the time to talk about this Harry... we both need to come to terms with what's happened before..."

"Sir Harry!" Whatever Ruth was about to say next was cut off by the loud shout from the car that had just pulled alongside them.

Harry pulled away slightly and nodded to the driver, "that's me," he confirmed. "Can you give me a moment?"

"Of course Sir," the driver busied himself with picking up Harry's small bag and placing it in the boot of the car before moving to stand a discreet distance away from them both.

"Sir Harry?" Ruth questioned lightly, a ghost of a smile on her face, "is there something you forgot to tell me?"

Harry coloured slightly, "I was awarded a Knighthood," he answered bashfully, "for the Service you know..."

"You deserve it," she said, leaning up to kiss him gently. "Now I'm not very good at goodbyes, so you better get going."

He stared down at her, his eyes warm as they washed over her. "Yes, you take care now."

"You too," she blinked a couple of times as tears started to form in her eyes.

He squeezed her hand tightly before leaning down to kiss her properly, "I'll call as soon as I know what's going on," he murmured against her lips when they parted, "this isn't going to be like our last goodbye Ruth."

She nodded against his chin before pulling his head down to hers for one last kiss. "I know." she said sadly, "It doesn't make it any easier though."

He nodded in recognition of her words, before disentangled himself from her arms gently and making his way over to the car. "We'll speak soon," he promised through the car's open window and then gave a short wave as the driver pulled away, keen to drop his passenger off at the airport and return to base as soon as possible for a little R&R.

Ruth covered her mouth with her hand, the tears that had threatened over the last few minutes, finally spilling their way out of her eyes and down her cheeks as she watched the car disappear in the distance. She stayed there for a few seconds before angrily brushing the tears out of her eyes, thankful that she wasn't working that day. She needed to find somewhere quiet to sit, somewhere where she wouldn't be disturbed and where she could try and put all her jumbled thoughts in order. Harry, London, Polis, Section D, Mace, The Grid and...

"Ruth!"

She jumped slightly as a familiar voice uttered her name. She looked up to see that she was being watched, and that her observer had a closed expression on his face that made her think he'd been watching her for quite sometime. "George," she replied quietly, closing her eyes briefly as she spoke, "what are you doing here?"

TBC