My internet connection was down or I would've already posted this. As is, you'll get two chapters for the price of one!
Fifteen:
Back on the Grid
She was nervous; there was no reason to deny it. Anyone who knew her well enough would be able to see it. Ruth had left Jamie behind with Malcolm, kissing his cheek and promising to be home before bedtime, hoping that her son would enjoy his first day of school. Harry had been finishing up his breakfast when she'd left, taking one of the cars. They already had parking passes assigned to them, specific spots in the Thames House parking structure, so she would be able to use one of Harry's spots. That felt odd, to be honest, but it would just be one of the perks, she guessed, of being married to the DG and working in the same building.
At the garage, she was grilled until she showed them her temporary pass, and then she was let through. Some things never changed. She remembered the daily security sweeps, and was glad she'd only brought a small purse for her first day. She hurried to the front entrance of Thames House and waited in line for her security check.
Damian, one of the security guards, recognized her straight away. "Miss Evershed!" he exclaimed with obvious glee. "Ms. Myers said you'd be coming back to work now you've been cleared – I'm so happy for you." Of course, that was said as her bag was searched and her parking and security passes gone over. "I'm sorry, but this is the DG's parking pass –"
"One of them, yes," Ruth said softly. "Do you need to call someone to confirm it's all right for me to use it?"
"I'm not sure," he admitted.
Ruth sighed and said, "Well… seeing as how we're married, it should be all right. But god knows, security being what it is I know you need to check."
"You're married to Sir Harry Pearce?" Damian croaked.
"Yes," Ruth said mildly. "Have been since before I left, but I never got my name changed till it was almost too late. But, yes, I'm driving his car and using his parking pass unless someone pulls the rug out from under me on that."
Damian nodded and said, "Let me go check the system. Your name should be on the list of authorized users if you're allowed."
Ruth stood there, shifting awkwardly from one foot to the other, waiting patiently. She was a little annoyed when she saw Harry come in, breeze through security, and be met by his secretary just a few feet away before hustling off to start his day. And yet, she was still stood there, cooling her heels. Bloody hell.
Damian finally came back and said, "You're on the list of authorized users." He smiled a little. "Ms. Myers is on her way down to give you your permanent security pass, and then I can let you through, Lady Pearce."
Ruth shook her finger at him. "Miss Evershed," she corrected. "Till they change my file. If they change my file."
"Yes, ma'am," he said with a cheeky grin.
"The last thing I need is a war with Human Resources," Ruth joked lamely.
Ros came off the elevator and strode over, a smile on her face – a genuine smile. "Ruth, I'm glad you're here," she greeted. She showed the security pass to Damian, then handed it over. "We're going to have a briefing in about ten minutes, so let's go so I can show you your desk. A lot has changed since Harry moved to the seventh floor."
Ruth was allowed through the metal detectors at last, and joined Ros on the other side. "I was detained because I used Harry's parking pass," she muttered. "Of all the stupid bloody things –"
Ros's smile grew. "Of course," she said. "The DG can't be seen loaning out his car to just anyone."
Ruth gave her a dirty look. She wasn't sure she liked the teasing Ros instead of the ice queen Ros. It was a bit weird, to be honest, but she was relatively certain the teasing was just because Ros was pleased to see her and pleased to have her back on the team. She knew Ros didn't do sentimentality, so this was the closest she would get to seeing it from her.
They stepped through the pods and several heads turned their way. "Conference room in five," Ros ordered brusquely, all traces of the softer side suddenly obliterated. "Ruth, your desk is over here," she said. "I assumed you'd like to be closer to the tech suite and the forgery suite, rather than spend your time ogling me in my office."
Ruth blushed and gave her an annoyed look. "Yes, Ros, thank you," she said through gritted teeth. "How is Emma, by the way? Did you have a good Christmas?"
Ros shrugged. "Emma is good; she had a lovely Christmas." And that was that. "Make yourself at home – briefing in four."
Erin came over and said, "How's Jamie?"
"He's good," Ruth said, tucking away her purse in the drawer. "He starts school today – I'm upset I couldn't be there to see him off, but what can you do, honestly?" She looked at her bare desk and cringed. "Bloody hell, it looks like no one's ever used the damn desk."
"No one has for a while," Erin replied. "Before he got promoted, Sir Harry always kept a desk open; Ros continued the tradition."
Ruth barely held back tears at that point; Ros didn't do sentimentality, her ass. Andrew Lawrence had reshaped her, clearly, in ways that no one else could have. She looked over at Erin and said, "Ah, well –"
Erin smiled a little. "I know about you and Sir Harry," she murmured, leaning down to speak softly so no one else could hear. "I heard you in the hotel. It's all right – everyone needs some comfort now and then."
Ruth blushed, then said, "It's not what you think –"
"No, I think it's sweet," Erin said. "He was so happy to see you."
"We're married," Ruth exhaled. "Have been for ages now. Please don't tell anyone. I don't want people thinking that's the reason I'm back in Section D – when it's simply not true."
Erin repeated, "I already know, Ruth. It's all right. No one will think any less of you for having married a grumpy old man." The last phrase was teasing, and she winked. "We better get in there before Ros gets pissy."
"Right," Ruth said, getting up. "The last thing we need is Ros being Ros."
"Truer words have never been spoken," Erin agreed.
Everyone filtered into the conference room, where Ros was already sat at the head of the table. She gestured for Ruth to take the foot of the table, with everyone else between them. "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sure you've all heard tell of the legendary Ruth Evershed," Ros began. "She has returned to MI-5 after an absence of over four years, and has agreed to come back to Section D. Ruth is of the old guard, and has many ideas that work around our current guidelines within the services. You'll want to see her to learn a few pointers." Ros glowered at Lucas. "Especially you, Mr. North. Your leaping before looking approach is going to cost us more equipment and lives than this department can spare at the moment."
Ruth hid a smile, then said, "Thank you for your confidence, Ros, but I'd like to just take the time to fit into the new team on my own for now."
"You're really the Ruth Evershed?" one of the men inquired.
"I am," she acknowledged.
"I was expecting… a bit of flash and glam, the way everyone talks about you," he said, disappointed.
"I'm sorry, Mr. …"
"Calum. Reid. Call me Calum."
"Mr. Reid," Ruth said pointedly, "I'm so very sorry I don't fit your idea of what a desk spook is meant to look like. I'll try ever so much harder," she added sarcastically, idly twisting her new wedding band around her finger, wishing Harry was here to put the children in their place.
Lucas and Erin hold back amused smiles. Calum looked well and truly in his place, then.
Lucas points at the others in turn, and says, "Dimitri, Beth, Tariq, Erin, and I'm Lucas. Welcome back to the team, Ruth."
Ros clears her throat, and said, "Since the holiday, we've had no real threats, so there's plenty of time to catch up on your side work and paperwork. Ruth, I'll put you and Erin onto reorganizing our permanent Registry files."
"Oh," Erin said, "you shouldn't have, Ros." The sarcasm was thick enough to be cut with a knife.
Tariq held up his hand like a school lad, and said, "I don't mind doing that, if Erin wants to catalogue the sound recordings I've been adding to the database."
"Oh, for god's sake – just get some work done," Ros sighed. "The holidays have made you all go batty."
Ruth smiled a bit at Ros's annoyance. "Yes, ma'am," she agreed cheerfully. "I don't suppose you kept my mug when you kept my desk open –"
"Bottom drawer on the left," Ros said, "along with your desk toys and the photos of your kids."
"You have kids?" Beth said.
Ruth laughed and waited for Ros's signal that the briefing was over before she retreated to her desk and set things up the way they had been. Harry had been good to her, keeping her things like that, when by rights, he should have taken them home. It showed a kind of misplaced faith, really, a faith that she would come home no matter what circumstances dictated.
It was sweet – and more than slightly naïve on his part.
She put up the photographs, resolving to remove the old ones and put up a single photo of them as a family as soon as possible. And her tea mug, the fugly one that was shaped like the Tardis that Rose and Daisy had given her for her birthday the year she'd been forced into exile, was happily back on the desktop. She smiled and logged into the computer.
She'd been working for all of ten minutes when the phone rang. "Hello?" Ruth said cautiously.
"Fifteen minutes, my office," Harry said. "I've got you penciled in for half an hour."
"But I'm working right now. You can't just –"
"I can," he said firmly. "Fifteen minutes, Ruth."
"All right," she finally agreed. "All right. I'll be there." She hung up the phone and got a funny look from Calum at his desk next door. "Sorry, that was HR," she lied smoothly. "I've apparently got more forms to fill out. Shouldn't take more than an hour."
"Ugh, forms," Tariq said, wrinkling his nose. "They got my name wrong six times. It's not that difficult, really, but six times? I like to have never got my paycheck properly."
Ruth chuckled. "Yeah, on my secondment forms, they had my middle name wrong," she said. "Caused all kinds of havoc with things. Thank god I've not yet tried to change everything to my husband's name – the system would probably explode," she joked lamely.
"So you're married," Calum said with interest.
"I don't wear a wedding band for shits and giggles," Ruth replied caustically.
"Your husband in the Service?" he asked.
"Does it matter?" she shot back.
"Well, no, but very few people actually get what we do – makes it hard to have a relationship."
"I've got three kids," Ruth snapped. "I think we manage just fine." She got up, got her ID, and left the Grid before he could stick his foot in it any further.
She took the elevator up to the seventh floor, and marched past all those with a vested interest in watching her, coming to a halt by the large desk outside the DG's office. Hermione looked up with a small smile. "Miss Evershed," she greeted, "he's almost done with his call."
Ruth looked her up and down, banishing all thoughts of Harry wanting to possibly bed her in a moment. She was kind of like the perfect little grandmum, and Harry had fantasies of fucking Ruth in his desk chair – not his secretary. She just kept remembering that, and felt a little bit better about herself.
The door opened, and Harry stepped out of his office. "Hermione, can you make sure that Alex makes it up from Section A before lunchtime? I've got a wad of paperwork for him from the Home Office."
Hermione smiled and nodded. "Yes, Sir Harry," she said politely. "Ruth Evershed is here to see you."
Harry gave his assistant a stern look. "I can see that. Make sure Ianto brings us two teas as I specified earlier – at the end of our meeting. Miss Evershed and I are not to be interrupted for the next half hour; take messages in priority of urgency. Thank you, Hermione," he added, as if he was afraid of sounding too stern. "Ruth?" he prompted, holding the door open and gesturing for her to follow him.
Once the door was closed and quietly locked behind him, he said, "There's no CCTV in here. There are audio bugs, but I called down discretely and had them disabled. I wanted to have privacy."
"Oh," Ruth murmured. "Because you want to have sex with me in your office."
He sighed and ran a hand over his face. "No, because I need to speak to you about a concern we have within Section D," Harry muttered. "Ros brought it to my attention this morning, and I'm inclined to agree with her. Lucas North has been acting oddly – well, more oddly than usual – the last few weeks. I'm going to ask you to do something incredibly difficult for me…"
"You want me to monitor his activities on and off the Grid," Ruth interjected. "Fine. Done. That's easy enough, Harry – doesn't take a half an hour to ask me to do that."
Harry's ears turned pink. "Ah, yes, well…"
She smiled at him indulgently. "Yes, dear, I remember you telling me about your chair fantasy," she murmured.
He exhaled and said, "Oh, thank god. I thought you thought I'd gone mad –"
"It's a good chair," she said. "Looks sturdy from here." Ruth paused. "And we have privacy for the next… oh… twenty-five minutes or so."
His nervous demeanor melted away and he smiled. "Ruth, are you certain you want to –"
"Bloody hell, Harry, they've got me organizing Registry files down there," she sighed. "Of course I want to make love to you so I have something to remember to escape the tedious boredom while I figure out how best to track Lucas without him knowing. Bloody hell, get with it, old man."
He started to laugh, and pulled her close for a kiss. "I bloody love you, Ruth," he whispered.
"Well, I bloody love you, too – but I'd love you more if you'd get your pants down already," she huffed. She was actually more nervous about getting caught than he was – she had far more to lose than he did. If they got caught, he'd just get a pat on the head because she was his wife. She'd likely get fired for boffing the boss at work.
He laughed and led her across the room to his desk, taking a seat on the chair. "I daydream about you coming in here, walking over seductively, and just straddling me – a woman on a mission…"
She gave him an annoyed look. "Ah, well, you're going to get the intimidated Ruth who isn't sure she should be doing this on her first day back at work," she muttered. "I told Calum that HR needed me."
"The DG needs you," Harry replied, waggling his eyebrows and trying not to smile. "I'm rather afraid that trumps bloody Deborah Langham."
She flushed and said, "Well, we better get on with it –" Without preamble, she hiked her long skirt up and pulled off her boots, then her tights, and lastly, her knickers. By the time she was barefoot, Harry was flushed and hard, already fumbling with his trousers. She tried not to think about how it would look to other people, and instead focused on how important it was for them to take the time to be together like this. He didn't take rearranging his schedule lightly; this was important to him.
She chuckled and murmured, "If the DG needs me, the DG needs me – who am I to turn the great Harry Pearce down?"
"Ruth, get over here," Harry croaked, finally getting his pants and trousers down around his knees. "We don't have much time."
She stifled a laugh. "Harry, you're the Director General – we have more time than you think."
The panicked look on his face proved to her that he was just as nervous about it as she was. "Ruth, just… please," Harry insisted.
Luckily for him, she was eager as he was – they'd been about to make love that morning when he'd had to take an emergency call. So, yes, fifteen or twenty minutes of desperate fumbling and fucking in his office was going to have to do. She straddled his lap and kissed him deeply, hiking her skirt up around her hips and thighs, attempting to cover them.
He fondled her breasts through her cardigan and the blouse beneath, and she whimpered, pulling out of the kiss to whisper a few words in broken French in his ear – words of love, lust, and need. He brought her back into the desperate kiss, his hands finding her bum and repositioning her gently so she wasn't squashing things that weren't meant to be squished.
His eyes rolled back in his head and he exhaled deeply, a low moan escaping him when she lifted up and directed him inside her. She, however, bit her lip and closed her eyes, trying not to make a sound – afraid that Hermione would hear them outside at her desk. Her heart thundered in her ears, panicked, racing like a rabbit's, but the way Harry looked at her when he opened his eyes swept all her fears about being caught straight away.
They kissed and caressed one another, moving slowly at first, then faster and faster, till they both crashed over the edge, lips and tongues swallowing each other's cries of pleasure. It was fast, it was illicit, it was downright dirty when she thought about it – but, oh, it was so good. He was so good. They were so good together.
She glanced at the clock on the wall and pulled away from him, getting up and rushing to get dressed again. "Five minutes till tea," Ruth said sharply. "Get your trousers up."
He gave her a Look. "Bloody hell, you're bossy," Harry muttered, a smile on his lips as he watched her get her tights back on. "You're also bloody sexy as hell. I'm going to have to make time for lunch every day –"
She blushed and said, "Don't you dare, Harry."
He stood up and got redressed, and she was glad that he didn't look like they'd been doing that… She was also glad of the air fresheners set around the room. She knew it was because Harry liked egg salad with pickled onion for lunch, and that could stink up a room much smaller than this. But it would also help cover up their musky sex odors as well.
He crossed to the door and unturned the lock as she finished pulling on her boots. "Of course, Miss Evershed," Harry said as he opened the door, "this matter is of the utmost importance and your discretion is quite important. Hermione, has Ianto brought the teas yet? Bloody hell, that boy is always taking his damn time."
Ruth licked her lips she joined Harry and Hermione by the outer desk. "Just a reminder, you have a meeting with the JIC at four, and several Home Office meetings before noon," Hermione said. "The Home Secretary has moved your daily to seven, and it should be done in time to get you home by nine."
Harry grimaced. "Oh, an early night, then?" he spat. He looked at Ruth. "See what I have to put up with while you sort out your Registry files? Late tea, meetings at all hours of the day and bloody night, and – what are you laughing at?"
"You," Ruth said softly, unable to control her giggling any longer. She strode up to him and gave him a gentle kiss. "You poor, poor man."
Hermione gasped. "Sir Harry –"
"Ruth, I think you just –"
"I did just," Ruth replied sweetly. "Hermione, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Ruth Pearce. The Evershed is just for HR. They go mad when you try to change things."
Hermione stammered a bit, then said, "Lady Pearce, I'm sorry if I – caused you any offense –"
"None at all," Ruth said mildly. "Harry, love, thank you for wishing me a good first day back. I think I'll go downstairs and get back to sorting files." She gave him a kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you tonight – around nine?"
"Around nine," Harry confirmed as a young man came up with two cups of tea in hand. "Ianto, you're bloody late, as usual!"
"Sorry, sir," Ianto apologized. "There was a queue for the kettle again."
"So get another kettle," Harry said in a dry voice, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Ruth, Ianto – Ianto, Ruth," he introduced.
"Yours must be the splash of milk, no sugar," Ianto said with a small smile. "Sir Harry likes –"
"Sugar strong enough to hold up the spoon, yes," Ruth said, accepting the mug. "You're friends with my Rose, then?"
"Yes – she's the one that got me the job," Ianto said with a smile. "It's just tea and sandwiches and some filing, but –"
"And don't you have some filing to be doing?" Harry prompted.
"Ah, yes," Ianto said. He turned back to Ruth. "Nice to meet you, ma'am," he commented, before he took off.
"I think they'll be expecting you back on the Grid, Ruth," Harry said softly. "I'll see you tonight."
She smiled a little, then said, "By the way, I like that you kept your promise to Kelly and put that bloody awful toy on your desk."
"It's what a good grandpa does," Harry said with a wink. He gave her a quick kiss, then disappeared back into his office with Hermione, talking about the upcoming meetings with the flummoxed secretary.
Ruth went back downstairs to the Grid and slid behind her desk. She glanced around, and Calum caught her eye. "How was the esteemed Deborah Langham?" he asked.
"Bloody scary as usual," Ruth replied sweetly. "Some things never change." She began to type, creating a new Registry legend for the organization. She knew the standards would have slipped without her and Malcolm there to police the alphabetical order. Bloody child spooks barely out of school and still couldn't spell worth a damn.
She glanced up to see Ros watching her through her office window, and Ruth merely inclined her head to answer the unasked question to the affirmative. Ros smiled slightly and nodded, then went back to what she was doing.
END PART FIFTEEN