Autumn Leaves Burning Part II

[Silktie]

DAY TWO

October 2011
London, Ruth’s flat

A slow smile spreads across her face. “You lost Harry?”
Deep down she is euphoric, but none of it shows on her face. I was right – he was telling me something, she thinks.
Dolby glares at her. “The two of you don’t have any contact for a year; then you resign and visit him, and a day later he disappears. It’s all a bit bloody convenient, don’t you think?”
“Maybe he grew tired of that drab house you consigned him to,” she retorts. “He deserved better than that.” There is anger in her voice.
Dolby scoffs at the accusation. “He gave away a state secret. That makes him a traitor. He deserves to be in jail, but instead he is free, living comfortably at the tax payer’s expense.”
“Free?” She is furious now. “I saw your goons. He is under house arrest, and I bet you have every inch of that house wired as well.”
A flicker of surprise crosses his face, and she knows that she is right. “He would have had more privacy in jail than he’s had living in that fishbowl.”
And that’s why he didn’t want to talk, she confirms to herself.

“None of that concerns you,” Dolby says, on the defensive. He tries to unsettle her with a change in topic. “You know, I never understood your role in all this.”
She watches him guardedly, but doesn’t say anything.
Relishing her unease, he continues. “You reject his marriage proposal, but he still gives away a state secret to save you. Then you criticise him for doing so, but the moment we try to hold him accountable for his actions, you threaten to go public with all manner of unsavoury things in an effort to save him.”
He shakes his head. “If I’m confused, I wonder how Harry feels. Which is it, Ruth? Do you love him or not? I mean he clearly loves you. He offered to take the house arrest in order to save your career, because let’s face it, it would have been over had you gone through with that threat of yours.”
Her hands ball into fists, but her eyes never waver from his face. “My feelings for Harry are none of your business. I’d like you to leave.”
He doesn’t budge. “Oh I see,” he says vindictively. “You went to visit him, because now you want him. And he rejected you. He came to that decision a few years too late for his own good unfortunately.”
Ruth has never been more tempted to strike another person. She imagines her hand making contact with his cheek, the sound reverberating around the room. And afterwards, the red mark staying there for a long time. Instead she hisses, “Since you obviously listened to every word of our conversation, you know I have nothing to do with Harry’s disappearance. So get out!” She comes close to yelling the last few words in his face.
Dolby lifts his hands in surrender and moves towards the door. “I’d ask you to inform us if you hear from him, but I know you won’t, so I’ll spare my breath.”
Outside, he turns towards her. “But be assured we are watching, Ruth. If he changes his mind and decides he wants to see you again, we’ll be waiting.”
The surprise on his face as she slams the door in it gives her immense satisfaction.

She remains there, leaning against the door, breathing heavily. Her jumbled thoughts jump from one memory to the next uncontrollably; Dolby’s words bringing the events of the last year and a half into stark focus once again:

Harry’s face when she tells him he shouldn’t have given Lucas Albany to save her, that she wasn’t worth it, that it was unfair of him to love her in that moment; her despair when she watches him walk away to meet Lucas and probable death, and her self-loathing for not saying anything to comfort him; her guilty relief when she hears that Lucas is dead and Harry is not; her shock at finding out that Albany doesn’t work, and the release of knowing that Harry is still the man she’s always thought him to be; and the way her heart breaks when he is escorted from the Grid, and they are told that he will go to prison for treason.

And all of it leading up to that last, painful conversation with the Home Secretary:

“Come in, Miss Evershed.” William Towers waves her to a chair whilst observing her keenly.
The summons to see the Home Secretary hasn’t come as a surprise to Ruth. During her testimony at Harry’s Inquiry, she openly threatened to expose the dark secrets of a number of the people on the panel, up to and including the JIC Chairman. She is determined not to let him go down for saving her.
“I won’t change my mind,” she states, immediately laying down a challenge.
Towers sighs, then smirks. “Harry warned me that you would say that.”
“You’ve spoken to Harry? How is he?” The questions are out before she can stop herself.
“Yes. I saw him. I spoke to him.” He pauses as he lowers himself into the chair next to hers. “He is... not well, Ruth. Disillusioned, world-weary. He’s taken your Section Chief’s death quite hard; thinks he failed him.”
She has gone pale; the thought of Harry being held somewhere, isolated and alone, coping with these feelings, crushes her.
“Can’t you get me in to see him? Please?” She is begging, and she doesn’t care. She will grovel at his feet if it would make any difference.
But he shakes his head. “I can’t, I’m sorry. I can, however, ensure that he doesn’t go to prison.”

The hope on her face as she looks at him makes him uncomfortable; he knows he is about to dash it with his next words.
“This is what Harry wants: You must drop these threats you’ve made. You are to take no action whatsoever against any of the panel members. He has decided not to fight the charges against him, and has agreed to retire and go and live quietly away from London. He will be under a loose form of house arrest, but at least he won’t be in prison.”
Ruth has lost even more colour and shakes her head determinedly. “No, that means he’ll forever be branded a traitor. That’s not fair-“
“Please!” Towers interrupts sharply. “This is not negotiable, Ruth.” He wipes a weary hand over his face. “Of course it’s not fair. It’s a disgrace, in my opinion. But there is nothing to be done. He has too many powerful enemies, and you blackmailing some of them will only worsen the situation. This way at least he will be provided a house and a small pension. And you will get to keep your job.”
He looks at her meaningfully, and she grasps what is going on. Harry is sacrificing himself so that she will not be fired for threatening blackmail against a few eminent senior intelligence officers.

She closes her eyes for a moment. “I can’t let him do that. He’s in trouble for trying to save me in the first place. No,” she says decisively, “I’m going ahead-“
“For God’s sake!” Towers exclaims in exasperation. “He said that you already sacrificed everything for him once, and he won’t allow you to do it again. Especially since you’re doing it out of guilt. I won’t presume to think I know him better than you do, but after my discussion with him one thing is abundantly clear. Harry feels enormous guilt over what happened: both Lucas North’s death and the loss of Albany. He is struggling to come to terms with the fact that he has given away a state secret, and I get the sense he feels that he deserves some punishment for that. Don’t add to his burden by also making him responsible for you losing your job.”

She stares at him, lost for words.
He continues more gently. “Do what he asks. Harry says that a year is enough time for the Service to change all the codes, procedures and other things he currently knows. If he should disappear after that; well, they’ll have less incentive to go after him. In a year’s time my own position will be stronger, and I think I can persuade them to let him be if he does decide to go. He asks that you not contact him, for your own sake.”
Her face gives nothing away of her distress, but her hands are fidgeting restlessly with the bottom of her jacket. She nods resignedly and moves towards the door. Halfway there she stops and turns back to him.
“I’ll do as he asks. Tell him he’s wrong though; I’m not trying to save him out of guilt.” She doesn’t elaborate - she doesn’t have to. She continues, “I’m going to come and see him after one year, to tell him that myself. If he hasn’t changed his mind about us by then, we can discuss our future. Make sure you tell him that.”
Towers beams. “I will.”
His expression tells her he will move heaven and earth to make sure Harry knows, and she nods, satisfied, before walking out the door to start the longest year of her life.

She pushes away from the door, her decision made. Even if she has read everything wrong, and Harry never meant to give her hidden messages during their short conversation, she will proceed as though he had. She will risk ridicule and possible arrest, but she will not let her doubts lead to this last chance passing her by. Her face set determinedly, she sits down at the dining table to devise a plan. She has three days left in which to figure out where he is.
The place along the coast where he took his children once.
She’ll have to contact Catherine. For once she is thankful that he had been such a bad father – that should narrow down the options considerably. And she’ll have to find a way to get there without Dolby noticing.
Before eight in the evening, she reminds herself. She is determined not to be late. Perhaps with the assistance of an old colleague, she will pull it off. A thought occurs to her and she pulls the laptop towards her. She spends some time perusing online advertisements, and jots down information on a pad. After making sure that there is no surveillance on her movements within the building, she walks up the stairs to visit Ann, the old lady who lives above her. She asks to use the phone and makes a few calls. On the fourth try she is lucky, and after arranging everything she sits back, satisfied.

Next, she turns her mind to the problem of speaking to Catherine. She assumes that they are also monitoring Harry’s daughter in the hope that he will contact her. A direct approach or phone call is therefore out of the question; she needs help. With an apologetic look at Ann, she dials again. Dimitri picks up after a few rings, and is overjoyed to hear from her. He tells her that he misses her calming presence on the Grid. Even though she was different for the last year – withdrawn and brooding - the two of them and Tariq continued to share a close bond among all the new faces. Dimitri and the young techie understood the reason for the change in her, and they never mentioned it in her presence; in fact they never mentioned anything related to Harry, out of respect for her feelings. The two of them closed ranks around her, and anyone caught whispering about her relationship with Harry or their former boss’ fall from grace was severely told off. Ruth knows all this, and feels bad about exploiting Dimitri, but she has no option. She is sure he understands.

* * *

DAY THREE

London, the Tube

It is the morning rush hour and the Tube is packed. Catherine stands in a press of bodies, staring vacantly at the ads on the wall in front of her. The train sways and rattles its way underneath London as she plans her day, and mentally goes through the proposal she will present to a possible financier of her next project. The teenager standing next to her shifts and she feels his arm press against her. She watches him out of the corner of her eye suspiciously, some innate instinct telling her he’s not what he seems. They pull into the next station, and as he squeezes past her to get to the door, she feels him slip something into her coat pocket.
“It’s about your father,” he murmurs quietly as her hand automatically goes to her pocket and finds the outline of a mobile phone. The hubbub of people disembarking assures that no-one can overhear. “Call the number on it in an hour’s time.”
He gets an impatient nudge from the woman behind him, and she barely has time to nod before he disappears through the closing doors.

From where he is sitting, pretending to read the paper, Dimitri had a clear view of the exchange. As his eyes travel over the printed words before him unseeingly, all his attention is focussed on the woman standing a few feet away. It is the first time he has seen Harry’s daughter in person, and she has a poise about her that he likes. At that moment he is also impressed by her coolness. She doesn’t take out the mobile and look at it, or crane her neck to stare after the boy who gave it to her. Her face is slightly flushed, but otherwise she shows no reaction at all. He smiles to himself. She is definitely a chip off the old block. And now all he can do is hope that she’ll make the call and enable the woman her father loves to find him.

tbc

[MrsHat]

I absolutely adore this! Brilliant work!

[pookster]

Amazing detailed chapter. Loved your explanation of Albany and the effects on both Harry and Ruth. And I hoped that Ruth would have slapped Dolby but we can't have everything. LOL. Great stuff and looking forward to more.

[Tea Lady]

Ha! Dolby you're such a buffoon. Don't you know Ruth is that dogged brilliant bitch! She will find a way to Harry. Love it when Ruth gets in the zone.

How on earth did she manage a year though? Has Harry seen his "jail" time, being without Ruth, his penance?

You are setting this up nicely Silktie.

[A Cousin]

Shame that Ruth was not doing the ironing when Dolby showed up. She's very handy with an iron.

Lots of back-story, exposition and set-up in this chapter which, I am told, is very difficult to write. You are also juggling a very large cast. Very well executed in your hands.

A big "aaawwww" for Tariq and Dimitri. Your voice for Towers is (and always has been) spot on. I can hear SRB in my mind.

Seems old Roofie has her mojo workin'! Let the countdown begin!

[Sparky]

Awesome chapter - loved it!

Very glad to see Ruth doing the 'running' this time and very glad she worked out that Harry was trying to tell her something. The details in this story are fantastic, saying so much with not that may words.

Very much looking forward to the next part!

[Camillo]

Ooh, great chapter. Isn't it handy to have a Dimitri to fall back on ;-) I love it when Ruth meets up with Catherine so really looking forward to more.