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almh · 08-11-2009, 01:21 PM

Set after 8.2. Meant to be quite angsty - set on 11/11/09. Not entirely sure about this one - I'm not too good at angst.

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She slowly walked up to the park bench. Her hands were buried deep in her pockets, and she kept her eyes to the ground. She reached the bench and looked quickly around. Harry was nowhere in sight. Impatiently she sat down on the bench vaguely glanced around. Unwilling to do nothing, she took a small plastic bag from her bag, fiddling with the small white flower.

"I'm sorry for keeping you waiting," he told her, sitting down besides her. "What's that?" he asked, trying to open the conversation onto a neutral topic.

"It's a white poppy," she told him quietly. "It's Remembrance Day on Wednesday-"

"A white poppy instead of a red to symbolise an end to violence and wars," he added just as quietly.

She nodded. "I once knew someone in the army. She worked as an analyst - we'd worked together at GCHQ together for three years. She got seconded to the army, moved over to Iraq. Died in a car bomb outside her office less than six months later."

She kept her eyes firmly to the ground. He didn't know what to do - was contact too much? Should he say sorry? He ended up doing nothing.

"Did you speak to Jo?" Ruth asked.

"Why?"

"You did didn't you." She didn't sound accusatory, more curious. "You asked her to try and persuade me to go back to the Grid."

"I didn't ask her too, she offered -"

"So what you're saying is that you subtly asked her without explicitly saying it." He smiled - he wouldn't be allowed to win this argument. It was just like their former conversations, late at night, on the Grid. He missed those. He missed her smile. He missed everything about her. Being here, being so close was torturous.

"Ok." He looked up at her.

"Ok to what?"

"Ok, I'll come back."

"You're going to come back," he repeated, making sure he had heard her correctly.

"You haven't got an analyst at the moment, you're three people down now that Malcolm's retired." She half-smiled. "It's not like I've got anything better to do."

"Are you sure you're ready?" he asked. She nodded. His hand touched the edge of hers, but she didn't pull away. It did not go unnoticed by either of them.