On With the Snow (Chapter 4)

[Nia M]

(Many thanks to TygerBright for the above image! )

It was by mutual agreement that the team soon relocated to the meeting room in order to avoid the icy blasts from the malfunctioning air-con units. It was decided that they would take shifts in braving the cold of the main area to man the phones and computers (what few that had not been shut down to conserve power). Adam nominated himself and Jo for the first shift.

"Why me?" she asked as she sat down, her teeth beginning to chatter in the chill. The air-con might have quietened down now, but it was still spewing out freezing air. "Why did you have to pick me to go first?"

"If you think it's cold now, just think what it'll be like for the next two, when the air-con's been on for even longer..." he explained. She couldn't fault his logic there. "Besides, I wanted to ask you something, and I wasn't going to do it in there."

"Ask me what?" prompted Jo.

"Ruth and Harry," he explained slowly, spelling out the words as though his answer was obvious.

"Oh..." She stumbled over her words, unsure of how much he knew. She opted for denial. "What about them?" she asked, wide-eyed in innocence.

"Jo, you might be a great liar out in the field, but you forget that I practically trained you. I can tell when you're lying." He looked at her with a satisfied smirk. "So, go on," he pressed. "Spill the beans."

"I can't," she insisted. "Not after what happened last time."

"Not even an inkling?" His voice rose as he tried to wheedle it out of her.

"Adam, you know what happened then," she replied softly. "And you saw what it did to them. I won't be responsible for that again."

"I won't say a word about it anywhere near either of them," he promised. "I won't even tell Zaf, if that's what you want."

"Well," she conceded, "I will tell you one thing; the sexual tension between them when I walked into Harry's office yesterday was so thick you could have cut it with a knife."

"Sexual tension?" repeated Adam. "You don't think...?"

"Don't be silly, Adam," chastised Jo. "This is Ruth and Harry we're talking about, not you and Jenny."

"Or you and Zaf," he murmured.

"What?!" exclaimed Jo, completely taken aback. Now it was his turn again to grin in satisfaction.

"You can't fool me Jo," he said. "I am/[i] a spy, after all."

"And yet you had no idea that there was something going on between Harry and Ruth when they went out for dinner?" She was quick to bite back and change the subject away from herself. Or more correctly, herself and Zaf. "Honestly Adam, I fear for the safety of the nation..."

"I knew there was [i]something going on," he insisted. "I just never thought that either of them would do anything about it. They're both so helpless with each other that I thought they would need a helping hand I order for them to act upon it. I still think they do..."

"Adam," warned Jo. "Don't meddle. We messed it up big time for them already."

"It's not meddling, Jo. They've got over whatever happened at that dinner-"

"How d'you know they're over it?" she cried suddenly, petrified that she had revealed something by accident of her observations the other day. "I didn't say anything!"

"Well it's pretty obvious..." He caught on to the latter half of what she had said. "Wait, what do you mean you 'didn't say anything'? Do you know something we don't?"

"It's nothing that you hadn't apparently noticed for yourselves," she insisted.

"It wasn't that hard to notice," he scoffed. "One day they're avoiding being in the same room as each other, and the next they're back to blushing like shy teenagers with crushes!"

"Well, I think it's sweet."

"That may be, but you still didn't explain what you meant when you said you 'didn't say anything'." Ever alert, he remained unfooled by her attempts to change the subject. Jo relented.

"Let's just say that I may have overheard the words "Do you want to get a drink?" in Ruth's voice coming from the direction of Harry's office..."

Adam rolled his eyes. "The jammy bugger."

***

Back in the meeting room, Zaf had discovered the delights of rolling up pieces of paper into little balls, and flicking them at the closed door. His new-found entertainment didn't last long however, as his aim started to falter a little and Ros, from her position leaning against the wall to the side of the door, gave him a withering look. He pocketed the pieces of paper to save for another time, preferably when Ros wasn't around, and picked up a pen, trying desperately to block out Malcolm's complaints about anything from the 'shoddy maintenance' in the Security Services, to the 'waste of resources' regarding the overly copious yet thus so far ineffective gritting of London's roads.

It was unfortunate for Zaf that the pen he now twiddled between his fingers was a ballpoint, and he unconsciously began to click it with his thumb. Leaning back in his chair and staring at the ceiling in boredom, he was unaware of the further death-glares Ros shot him, and continued to click the pen incessantly.

Ruth and Harry were oblivious to the noise as they sat across the table from one another, failing to be sneaky in their frequent but brief glances at each other. Harry was half-tempted to relieve Adam and Jo immediately and begin his shift in the cold early, but the relative warmth of the meeting room, and Ruth's presence there (Zaf had claimed her as his partner for 'Grid duty' before he'd had the opportunity) proved too much for him to want to move.

Ros however, did notice the noise, and was currently even more irritable and impatient. Pushing off from the wall, she straightened up and walked over to Zaf. He didn't even notice her beside him until she snatched the pen from his hand and snapped the fragile plastic neatly in two, before replacing it on the table and resuming her previous position by the door. He whirled around indignantly.

Harry, sensing that sparks were about to fly, snapped out of his furtive glancing at Ruth, and stood up sharply.

"Right, that's it," he declared. "Go home, all of you."

"What about Juliet's orders?" asked Ruth as she stood also.

"Sod Juliet," he replied, wearily rubbing his forehead. "I'm not having my team killing each other through enforced proximity. We get enough of that from terrorists without resorting to murder amongst ourselves."

"We can't leave the Grid abandoned," responded Ros, just about controlling her irritation at Zaf.

"I'll stay here," Harry insisted. "I'll red-flash you all if anything comes up but, for now, you might as well just go."

"I'll stay too," asserted Ruth, her eagerness at the possibility of being alone with Harry not eluding the others in the room.

"No Ruth," he replied. He could tell she was exhausted; for the past week she had been on the Grid for nearly sixteen hours each day, and she needed a break. "You go home too and get some rest. Goodness knows I'll need you at your best when the snow melts and London descends into chaos." It didn't escape anyone's notice that Harry said 'I' not 'we'. Ruth nodded in agreement, and Harry waved everyone out of the room.

He was in for a long day.

***

When Ros straightened up from collecting her bag from under her desk, she was met by Adam. She didn't let her surprise show, but she regarded him warily; he sported an all too innocent look on his face, and she suspected that she would not like what he was about to say.

"Ros..." he began, drawing out her name as he hesitated. "You placed a bet on Ruth and Harry, didn't you?"

Even if that wasn't what she had been expecting from him, she remained guarded. "I thought you didn't agree with Zaf's book?" she said, avoiding the question.

"I don't," he insisted. "But you did bet on them?"

She nodded curtly. "Yes. If I have to put up with their constant mooning over each other then I might as well profit from it."

"So there wasn't even the tiniest snippet of romance in there?" he persisted.

"Adam, you know full well that I do not do soppy." She embellished the word with distate. "And you don't have to be a romantic wreck to recognise a winning gamble. Now," she continued, "did you come here to waste my time, or if there actually a point in you being here?"

Anyone else wouldn't have got away with saying this to their boss, but this was Ros, so she was the exception. He ignored her dismissive words and got to the point. "I've got a way we can get the two of them together. Or, if they have already got a move on, to admit it to us."

She tilted her head to one side, as if waiting for more. He continued, "If I can get the two of them off the Grid together, then they wouldn't be so restrained. 'Walking in a winter wonderland' and all."

"Then what do you want me for?" prompted Ros impatiently.

"I need you to offer to stay here instead of Harry. He won't leave unless he knows the Grid's in good hands."

"And you don't think you're capable of that?" she asked patronisingly. "Think you fail to live up to Harry's standards of 'good hands'?"

"No..." he began, brushing off her words, "...but jealousy is the best policy, not honesty, and the other part of my plan is to get one of them so jealous that they admit everything. Somehow I think that me flirting with Ruth is more believable than you flirting with Harry; you flirting with anyone unless it's part of a honey-trap is quite hard to believe-"

"Having just insulted me, would you care to explain why I would give up my early finish just to get our boss together with our analyst?" She folded her arms impassively.

"The pride of a job well done?" he asked hopefully. He raised eyebrow told him it wasn't enough. "What about empirical proof of the two of them, that gets you your money from Zaf?" he added. She contemplated this dubiously. "And it would stop them 'mooning over each other', as you put it." This sealed the deal for her.

"I'll do it," she agreed. "But you owe me."

Adam nodded ecstatically, and stepped aside so that she could go 'volunteer' to stay. Harry was surprised at her suggestion, but quick to accept. Anything that would give him to opportunity to offer to give Ruth a lift home was very welcome. Malcolm however was not so thrilled, and had to work hard to conceal his expression, a mixture of shock and terror. He had already said that he would stay with Harry to keep an eye on the technical sides of things, but somehow the prospect of alone-time with Ros was not so appealing. Ros' disconcerting half-smile didn't help, either.

Adam didn't notice Jo sidle up to him. "You promised not to meddle," she reminded him, a scolding look on her face.

"Actually I promised not to gossip, or tease them," he corrected. "You said nothing about doing something to get them to make whatever they have public."

"What if they don't want to make it public?"

"I don't think they mind so much now," he replied. "They wouldn't be back to normal if they weren't able to get past a bit of gossip. It's helpful meddling!" he insisted.

***

It was less than two minutes later that Harry, Ruth, Adam, Zaf and Jo found themselves wrapped up in their thickest coats as they navigated their way down to the Thames House foyer, and finally into the outside world.

[TygerBright]

...so, my all-time non-Lucas fic writer.. time for chapter 5, don't you think? They've been out in the cold long enough, time for some action
Cupid Carter is almost ready...

[Nia M]

In case you haven't seen, Chapter 5 is here