Think I may have lost a bit of interest, but here is the last chapter. Possibly an epilogue, who knows.

Wednesday 3pm

"Oh come on, Tariq," Dimitri pleads.

"I can't!"

"Look, what Erin doesn't know won't hurt her."

"She'll have my guts."

"Just 5 minutes. Get it back for that long. We need to know what's happening."

"She specifically said..."

"Tariq, have you seen Ruth today? I don't know where her head's at. So please..."

Tariq sighs and begins reinstating the forbidden feed to the Inquiry room.

Dimitri waits patiently but nothing is forthcoming.

"Problem?"

"There's nothing there."

"Well, try repatching it or something."'

"No I mean there's nothing there, there's no one there. The room's empty.

"What?"

"It must have finished!"

"Shit!"

They look at each other.

And it is at that same moment that the pod doors open and Harry steps out.

Every pair of eyes on the grid turns to him.

All is still.

"Well?" asks Erin.

"Does no one do any work whilst I'm out?" he growls.

They all look at each other still uncertain as he marches to the office.

And then they look at Ruth.

She gets up and makes her way through her assembled colleagues.

She does not knock.

She does not speak.

She waits.

He is perched on the edge of his desk, head bowed.

"Which result do I deserve, Ruth, dismissal, resignation, or reprimand?"

"Which do you deserve, or which do I prefer?" she asks quietly.

Erin moves towards Harry's office.

"Oh, no you don't," says Dimitri, a hand on her arm.

She turns to him aggressively.

"I need to know what the verdict was."

"No, Erin, Ruth needs to know before us."

"No, I am senior, I need to be told."

"They have history. Give them some respect."

"Bollocks to their history," she says with derision, "they've barely spoken a word in all the time I've been here, in fact they've barely managed to be in the same room."

"Yes, well, it's just their way."

"What!" she points towards the glass window, "That's their way is it? To be stood at opposite sides of the office, still barely speaking, after the biggest decision of his career?"

Dimitri lets go of her arm. Maybe things have changed, maybe Erin was seeing it clearer than them.

"If I told you they'd sacked me, what would you say, Ruth?" asks Harry.

"I'm glad."

"And if I'd been reprimanded?"

"Is that all?"

"What if I'd resigned?"

"I'd say 'good'."

He nods and takes a deep breath.

Erin pushes open the door.

"Forgotten how to knock?" he asks curtly.

"Harry, as section chief, I think it only right you inform me if anything is going to change."

"Do you now?" he asks.

"Yes, I need to know what's happening?"

"Well, Erin…" he says her name pointedly, "…here's what's happening. I'm getting up from my desk," and so he does, "and I'm walking out of my office," and so he does.

"Yes, thanks for that," says Erin with irritation as she and Ruth follow him, "but would you please tell me what the result of the Inquiry was?"

"The results from the Westminster jury, were as follows," he turns to her, "Sir Harry Pearce is no longer so. The lesser spotted, unbeknighted, common or garden, Harry Pearce, head of section D … has resigned."

The team stare at him, open mouthed.

Only Erin looks somewhat elated.

"What are you going to do?" asks a shocked Dimitri.

"I am going to go home," says Harry with a smile. "And I'm going to make sure that in my house every night is Monday night."

He turns to Ruth, takes her hand and leads her from the grid, amidst a sea of confused, yet now smiling faces.

"Oh, and Erin…" calls Ruth, "kindly inform the DG that I resign too."

And with that the pod doors open and the no longer 'Sir' Harry Pearce, pulls the soon not to be Ruth Evershed, in besides him.

And then he kisses her hungrily.