A/N: Last chapter - more an epilogue. Thanks to readers, followers & reviewers.

Next morning, no-one on the Grid appears to notice the change in Harry and Ruth, no-one other than Ros, who sees more than most. She sees that Harry's face is free from the usual worry lines, and that a smile is never far from his lips. She notices the quick glances he and Ruth give one another, and the look of lovers when their eyes meet. There's an intensity of meaning in that look. She's seen it before. She's even experienced it herself. She is glad for them, but mostly, she envies them their sureness, their certainty with each other.

"What's up with Harry?" Tariq asks her when they are together in the tea room.

"What do you mean?"

"He's smiling. At everyone. That's not like him, and I don't trust it."

"Then keep an eye on him," she replies. "It could mean he's working up to a temper tantrum to end all temper tantrums."

"Wow, really?"

"Really," Ros says as she leaves the room, Tariq's eyes even larger than usual.

Ruth cannot concentrate. Her body feels as though Harry has reached right inside her and turned her inside out. She can feel his imprint everywhere – on her skin, and inside her. He'd woken her in the early hours by kissing her awake, ready to make love again. No man had ever been that eager to love her as Harry had been. Using his mouth and his hands, he brought her close before he again entered her, and this time the lovemaking took a long time. Afterwards they again fell asleep in one another's arms, completely spent, totally content, so that when her alarm rang, they each groaned against the skin of the other, feeling as though they'd only slept for an hour.

Harry had left first, as he had to drive home to shower and change. He'd wanted to pick her up on his way into work, but she had declined his offer.

"I'm not yet quite ready to walk on to the Grid with you," she'd told him. "I will be – soon – but I need this to move slowly, Harry. Do you understand?"

Of course he understands. He wants their relationship to move at lightning speed, He's ready to post the banns for them to marry in four weeks, but he is prepared to wait for her. It is what he has wanted for so long, and he knows it will be worth it.

Eight weeks later, Ros Myers and Andrew Lawrence are dead. Ruth is shocked, and Harry is devastated. She invites him back to her flat after work each night, knowing that were she to allow him too much time on his own, he could easily retreat back into himself. It is only then that Ruth realises how much Harry needs her. She is his rock, his safe place to be, and without her, he becomes surly and morose. Without her, Harry becomes lost.

Each night she holds him as he falls asleep, and she thanks whatever God there is that they have found their way back to one another.

On the morning of Ros's funeral, they wake early and make love slowly. Harry's eyes are filled with tears, and Ruth decides that the best antidote to grief is love. Afterwards, they lie in one another's arms, and Harry sobs against her shoulder. She places gentle kisses on his head, and rubs her palms up and down his back, and across his wide shoulders, shoulders on which he carries far more than should ever be expected of one man.

By the time they are showered and dressed for work, he is calm, but serious, and before they leave Ruth's flat, Harry turns to her and puts his arms around her, pulling her against him.

"Thank you for being here," he says. "I don't know how I would have managed this last week without you."

Ruth's reply is to lift her head and place a kiss on his lips.

Ros's funeral is a sober event, and Harry is stoic. They sit together in the church with only four other people.

After the funeral, she and Harry take a short walk around the grounds of the church. They stop beside a fence, and Harry puts his arm around her, and she feels his breath close to her ear.

"You know that I love you, Ruth," he says quietly. There is no-one else around, so he could have shouted the words, and it would still have been a private moment for them.

"Yes, I know you love me, and you know that your love is returned."

Ruth turns her head slightly, the better to see his face. It is unlike Harry to be so openly loving in a public place. It is only in the privacy of either of their homes that he is open about his feelings for her, so Ruth is alerted that something is different.

"I'd really like it were we to be married, Ruth. Soon. What do you say?"

She hesitates, but she knows he is used to that. Once, her hesitation would have frightened him, causing him to withdraw, perhaps never to come out of his shell again.

"It feels to me like we're already married."

"Don't you want the ceremony and the flowers and the ring? I thought all women wanted that."

"I don't need it. Do you want it, Harry?"

"Yes, I do. I want us to live under the same roof, to always wake up together in the same bed, and for your clothes and mine to be in the same wardrobe."

Ruth turns then, and smiles at him, her eyes on his beautiful mouth. She holds his face between her hands and gently kisses his lips. Dear Harry. He's such a romantic. Next he'll be saying that the animals fret when they're not spending the night together at his house. Fidget is still at his house, and very happy to be staying there, keeping Harry's little dog on her toes.

"Is that a yes?" He asks carefully.

"It's a yes, but with a condition."

Harry pulls away from her, but his hand still rests warmly against her back. "Condition?"

"I think we should move in together, and dispense with one of the houses – mine, obviously – and we should have a kind of trial run at marriage. We haven't yet lived together full time, and we need to. We might drive one another mad were we to live together."

"Do you think that likely?"

"Not really, but we won't know until we try it. I think we should have a trial marriage for six months, and if that works, then yes, lets do the flowers and rings. Oh, and another thing …..."

"What is that?"

"If I wear a ring on my finger, then you should too."

Harry smiles widely, his first proper smile since before Ros had died. "I'll be happy to do that, Ruth."

Four days later, Ruth moves her things into Harry's house, and three months after that, they marry at a small ceremony in a registry office, exchanging vows and rings in front of a few of their closest friends and family.

Ruth had had enough of the trial marriage after only six weeks. She decided that she wanted a real one. Harry could not have been happier. All their wedding photographs show his face creased in a permanent smile, his gaze turned adoringly towards his wife.

Ruth is still an independent woman, but she is his independent woman.