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On With the Snow (Chapter 2)
10-02-2010, 07:57 PM (This post was last modified: 11-02-2010 03:51 PM by Nia M.)
Post: #1
zzHeart On With the Snow (Chapter 2)
On With the Snow

Set after 5.4 (but 5.5 didn’t happen) and in January. Flashbacks relevant to the plot also feature heavily (and are in italics).
Fluffy Ruth/Harry in the early stages of a relationship, with possible hints of Zaf/Jo.
No real spoilers as such, but you might recognise one particular line from S8. Title is from the song by ‘The Get-Up Kids’.


Chapter 2

The evening had begun with an awkward silence, both of them hesitant to make the first move. Ruth had asked Harry what he wanted to drink, he had quashed her protests when he said he would pay, and they had settled themselves at a small table in the corner of the pub Ruth had opted for. They sipped their drinks far slower than was normal; they were stalling, and they knew it.

“Berlin,” blurted out Ruth suddenly. Harry blinked, completely taken aback.

“I’m sorry?”

She indicated a picture on the wall behind him; an image of the Berlin Wall being pulled down.

“Was Berlin a part of your ‘grand tour’?”

She didn’t really need to ask; she remembered their entire conversation from that evening word for word. Where’s your spirit of romance?

He exhaled in understanding. “Oh... Yes, yes it was.”

She nodded slowly, avoiding locking eyes with him. He leaned forward slightly, almost imperceptibly. “You know I meant you, don’t you?” he began softly. “I was talking about you when I said about...” He trailed off, uncertain, but she nodded. Yes, she knew. He’d be the particular companion she’d have had in mind too. Principled, but not foolish. Or naive.

***

Zaf nudged Jo’s elbow and raised his eyebrows in Ruth’s direction. She was staring into space pensively, her left cheek resting in the palm of her hand, her elbow propped up on a stack of files, and was smiling unconsciously.

He opened his mouth to comment, but Jo silently hushed him with a wave of her hand, and steered him and Adam away surreptitiously to the meeting room.

She could see Harry approaching the pods.

***

Jo had just been heading out of the forgery suite when a blushing Ruth, failing to suppress an ecstatic grin, had dashed from the direction of Harry’s office. Through the now-open door, a similar expression on Harry’s face told her that she would be best off waiting until tomorrow to ask him to sign some papers, and she ducked out of sight before either of them could see her.

She had been all too aware of the harm her light-hearted teasing had done to the fragile and tenuous wonder that was Harry and Ruth. As if the replacement of Harry’s security officer hadn’t been enough, the pair’s sudden absolute avoidance of each other had given the phrase ‘walking on eggshells’ an uncomfortable appropriateness on the Grid, and anything that put the two of them in the same sentence had rapidly become taboo.

She’d learned her lesson now though. That wasn’t to say that teasing was completely out of the question, but it would definitely be toned down a bit. It wasn’t really needed at the moment, if her ears had served her correctly. Would he like to go for a drink, indeed... Frankly, they really were hopeless – in a nice way, naturally.
Of course he wants to go for a drink! Jo felt like yelling at them in frustration. He’s only wanted to be able to ask you the same damn question for the last three years!

Honestly, for intelligence officers, they really could be rather thick when it came to each other. It was no wonder that Jo and the others had felt they had needed to know that they completely supported the pair. Their ‘encouraging’ teasing simple had not had the desired effect.

***

“Anyway, why were you so late today?” Adam asked Zaf as they were frog-marched by Jo into the meeting room; Zaf had trudged in half an hour later even than Adam, who had a longer daily journey to work.

“Jo sent me shopping,” was the reply. Jo snorted in disagreement, and he whirled around to face her. “What? Did you or did you not tell me to ‘grab the list on the table and go get the stuff on it before everyone panics and tries to stockpile the supermarket and I have to put my ‘Ros glare’ to the test’, or words to that effect?”

“Technically I said ‘Spooky ninja skills’,” she corrected, “but either way, that wasn’t the only reason why you were late, is it?” She put her hands on her hips and looked at him pointedly, to emphasise her arguement.

“It’s not my fault you used up all the hot water and I had to wait for it to kick in again!” he protested indignantly.

“But it is your fault for monopolizing the bathroom on every other morning so that I feel compelled to get revenge,” she replied, smirking at his wounded puppy look. “You should have learned not to get in the way of me and a hot shower in the morning.” With a patronising pat of his head, she sauntered off to find Ros, leaving the two men sighing in exasperation at the enigma of the female mind and logic. Adam looked at Zaf sympathetically.

“Still glad she agreed to move in with you?” he asked.

“It’s debatable...” grumbled Zaf, his eyes betraying the smile behind his scowl.

***

Now though, things were definitely looking up for Section D’s very own office romance, if Ruth’s daydreaming was anything to go by. It was lucky for Jo’s tendency for feeling guilty easily that that one drink had been followed by another, and then another. And there would have been more, had the nature of their work no held the (at long, long last) relationship of two of its officers in total disregard, and intervened with matters of national security.

She was suddenly alerted to Harry’s presence by his low murmur near her ear.

“Well it’s good to find that the Grid hasn’t turned into a bomb site in my absence.”

Startled, she managed to restrict her shock at his close proximity to a tiny jolt as she sat upright, snapping out of her reverie. She turned in her chair so she faced him.

“Literally, or figuratively?” she asked innocently in an attempt to regain composure, but the slightly pink tinge to her cheeks at being caught daydreaming took away all seriousness of the question. She was rewarded with an amused half-smile from Harry.

“Both,” he replied, straightening up, and removing his hand from the arm of her chair.

She already missed his presence.

“How was Cruella De Vil?” asked Ruth, loathe for their conversation to finish. Harry chuckled lightly at Juliet’s new nickname.

“I think we can forsake the first name, Ruth,” he responded. “The Devil Incarnate insists that, despite the fact that the whole of central London is gridlocked in two foot of snow, we are still highly vulnerable to a terrorist attack and therefore the whole team has to be on the Grid. She’s incapable of understanding that if we do have an emergency, we’d be best off having officers actually out in the city, not snowed in here.” He shook his head in vexation at the lack of common sense displayed. Ruth looked at him incredulously.

“But how are the terrorists supposed to cause a riot anyway?” she asked. “Ski across the Thames with bombs on sledges? It hardly fits the bill for ‘international terrorism’.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “‘Oh yes; we can’t get supplies, the van won’t start, all the important buildings are deserted, and half the country is out making snowmen, but let’s carry a couple of pipe bombs across the city in handbags and hope that we can get to the target before they blow up in our faces.’”

She finished with a final flourish of her hands and huffed in frustration. If she had been verging on pink-cheeked before, Harry noticed, she was now positively burning. Her enthusiastic rambling had meant she was now blushing profusely and, energised by her outburst, her eyes were shining with vitality.

Harry thought she looked beautiful.


Chapter 3
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10-02-2010, 08:25 PM
Post: #2
RE: On With the Snow (Chapter 2)
I'm really loving this -- especially Jo's inner monologues and her banter with Zaf and Adam. Really good stuff!

harry
"What is the truth?"
"Betrayal is a cancer. Let it eat your soul, not mine."
"Please tell me this isn't going where I think it's going."
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10-02-2010, 08:33 PM
Post: #3
RE: On With the Snow (Chapter 2)
Big Grin got my attention within 3.35 sentences Big Grin
"Berlin" .. yay!!!
still, have to add this to my PrintOutAndReadOnTheBusHome file.. looking forward to it Smile

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10-02-2010, 08:36 PM (This post was last modified: 10-02-2010 08:38 PM by Nia M.)
Post: #4
RE: On With the Snow (Chapter 2)
Thanks lwhite53!

*goes back to writing more of Chapter 5*

Thanks also TygerBright Tongue Hope you like it! (And methinks the bus is a rather appropriate place to read it, given one scene of S3 (?))
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10-02-2010, 08:41 PM
Post: #5
RE: On With the Snow (Chapter 2)
Yay I love this Big Grin
Firstly, as I was happy about snow you write about snow... and then when I was thinking about Berlin you mention Berlin Big Grin
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10-02-2010, 08:44 PM
Post: #6
RE: On With the Snow (Chapter 2)
Yes good stuff; im enjoying this. Poor old Juliet though. I note she always seems to get a bad write up in fanfic. I thought she was great and I am sure Harry secretly loved sparring with her. Smile

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10-02-2010, 08:45 PM
Post: #7
RE: On With the Snow (Chapter 2)
maybe Wes can beat Harry at Poker in Berlin.. in the snow...
or in a snowball fight in Berlin... or in Mainz Big Grin

yeah.. snowball fight.. about the only thing that stuff is good for.. better, I'd love to see them build a snowman, one that looks like harry.. Ruth having the idea.. (I feel a picture coming on here Big Grin)

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10-02-2010, 08:57 PM
Post: #8
RE: On With the Snow (Chapter 2)
Oh no! Not another scary Ruth/Harry winter scene! I am still having nightmares about that Christmas Card you made TB. Big Grin

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10-02-2010, 09:02 PM
Post: #9
RE: On With the Snow (Chapter 2)
sorry about that.. I promise the Easter ones will be all nice and fluffy .. you have to bear (polar bear!) in mind that back then I was a total spooks novice, had only seen 2.75 episodes and did neither know the characters nor did I have any proper pictures...

But do imagine H/ making snow angels.. aaaaaaaaaaaaawwh.

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10-02-2010, 09:04 PM (This post was last modified: 10-02-2010 09:06 PM by Nia M.)
Post: #10
RE: On With the Snow (Chapter 2)
Tea Lady: I too loved Juliet, but for the sake of this fic I needed someone to ask where Harry was, and that was the first situation that popped into mind.

TygerBright: Poker is not my main concern in this fic Tongue Sledging, snow, snowmen and snowball fights however...

Am very intruiged by this Christmas card though! Tongue
Hadn't thought about snow angels!
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