After Ros's death, Harry asks Ruth to marry him. Ruth declines, but later reveals her refusal isn't because she doesn't love him, but that, after all they had gone through together they had already become soul-mates, and didn't need to demonstrate it in such a way. Ruth also convinces Harry to reconsider his resignation. In the final episode of series 9 she is captured, handcuffed and gagged by Lucas North as he causes a distraction that enables him to get her into his truck, as a hostage for Harry to deliver to Albany. He secures her to a chair and gags her again, but after giving his demands he ungags her, and when she asks to speak to Lucas he says he is not there. She nearly dies from an anaesthetic drip, though Maya, Lucas's girlfriend, convinces him to tell the team where her location is after he gets the file.