The Saddest Thing About Betrayal

"The saddest thing about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies." ― Anonymous

THEN

If Q was being honest with himself, he knew that walking out of the front door of MI6 with James Bond like they didn't have a care in the world was a bit melodramatic. However, he just got shot by a man that tried to frame the two of them as terrorists and then got them both nearly thrown into prison for the rest of their lives. So he was giving himself a little leeway. Q had worked with Bond for several years now, ever since he stopped his own assassination. They were a good team, and while Q figured out his feelings for Bond a long time ago, watching Bond completely fail at it was almost entertaining. Bond considered himself something of a ladies' man when they first met, but all it took was for Q to spend one night being annoyed about Bond coming home smelling like sex, and he stopped going out and picking up women.

Silva was a problem in that he was a fellow hacker that got in the way of their jobs. It was fun to point MI6 and the lovely Eve Moneypenny or 007 in his direction so she could take of it instead of him. It backfired and ended with him and Bond being held against their will. Q took a risk that Moneypenny knew enough about him and Bond that they weren't terrorists and got her the location. She came to save them, and she stopped MI6 from killing them on sight when Q was slowly bleeding out from a gut wound. She even tried to recruit them, which was a little amusing as far as Q was concerned. Q managed to steal the cell phone from the doctor who wasn't as slick as he thought, and from there, he went about breaking himself and Bond out of one of the most secure buildings in London while making sure that 007 knew that they were waiting for her to come looking for them again.

Bond took Q's hand and began to quickly walk the two of them through the streets of the city as they kept their heads down. Q taught Bond how to tilt his head just so so you could avoid cameras. Q wasn't really paying attention to where he was going at all. He was too busy laying breadcrumbs all over the city, so Moneypenny would spend the rest of the day trying to figure out which direction to go. The easiest one was to make it look like they headed straight for Heathrow to get on the first plane out of the country, and that is what Q focused on. However, it didn't take long before his stomach began to ache, and that ache became stabbing pain.

"Bond," Q said. Bond turned like he was about to say something about not stopping until he saw the look on Q's face. Q was trying to mask the sheer amount of pain he was in, but there was a fine sheen of sweat along his forehead, and the phone was shaking in his hands. Bond quickly walked the two of them into a pub and ordered some water. The man behind the bar looked like he hated the two of them, but Q must have looked worse than he thought because the man brought them some water without a word.

"Why didn't you tell me you were still hurting?" Bond asked quietly.

"I have a gut shot, James," Q replied as he drank the blessedly cool water. "Wherever we land next, I need to find someone to do physical therapy with. Moneypenny told me that MI6 was going to provide that while we were in custody, but I knew if we got moved out of that building, I wouldn't be able to get us out." Q took another drink of water and closed his eyes as he tried not to think about the throbbing pain in his stomach. There wasn't time for this; they needed to get to the station to grab the chunnel to Paris. They always left a bag with passports, a change of clothes, and credit cards in a locker near the train station. It was expensive, but right now, he was glad that they had options. It was just a matter of getting to that locker.

Q was so lost in his head that he jumped a little when Bond brought Q's hand to his mouth and began to press soft kisses there. They hadn't really had the opportunity to be around each other in any real capacity since Bond figured out his feelings. Q knew that they loved each other, in the capacity that both of them were able to love, and they had the unfortunate timing of making that declaration while they were captured and then incarcerated. Q blinked and managed to clear his head as he looked up at the bartender.

"I'm afraid I don't have any cash for this," Q said.

"You looked like you were about to pass out, and it was just water," the man replied. Q took in the name on the tag and the name of the pub. He'd make sure that a check for some money ended up in this man's mailbox when they got everything together. Q finished his water, and the two of them made their way to the station. The bag was thankfully still in storage, and they ducked into bathrooms to change into more comfortable clothes. Q broke the sim card on the phone, wiped it down, and dropped it into the trash. He had a small tablet in the bag and began to work on planting more leads that would hopefully send MI6 scattering in too many directions. He even made it look like him, and Bond was on a different train to Paris. Bond was clearly antsy and kept looking around them as they waited. Q kept an eye on all of the feeds, and it didn't look like anyone was coming for them right now.

The train finally pulled into the station, but it wasn't until they entered the tunnel that Bond seemed to relax a little. Q rested his forehead against the glass and tried not to think about the pain he was in. They just needed to get as far away from MI6 as they could, and once they were settled down again, Q could work on really recovering. They both had enough in savings that they didn't have to worry about working for as long as they needed. Right now, Q just wanted to crawl into a bed and not move for at least a day.

"Go to sleep," Bond said after Q nearly dozed off and jerked himself awake several times. "I'll keep watch and make sure that no one hurts you." Q knew he was going wake up in more pain, and there was still more work to do, but for now, he could close his eyes and let Bond look after him. He didn't exactly feel safe, but he felt good enough that he could get a little rest before they had to start running again.

+++

NOW

Q narrowed his eyes as he waited for Bond to take the shot. They were hunting the head of a terrorist cell, and he wanted to get this done and over with. The moment the body hit the floor, Q was going to empty every single account connected to the group that he could find. From there, he would take a decent amount for himself and then disperse the rest over as many charities as he could. It was the sort of thing that Q had a little too much fun doing. Mostly because he always made sure that the donations were seen coming from him, so Moneypenny knew what he was doing. Q knew that she was still looking for them five years after they met in London during the situation with Silva. Q knew because he kept an eye on her the same way he knew that she was trying to keep an eye on him. She never got close, Q didn't let her, but he wanted to know where she was at all times so he knew what his next step would be.

"Target is in sight," Bond said from his sniper nest far away from the actual party that these men were at. They just needed to wait for him to be in the right place at the right time for Bond to pull the trigger. He was one of the best marksmen in the world, and Q was confident that he wouldn't miss the shot. Q cracked his fingers and began to poke around in the code that he would need to make the transfers. The accounts would lockdown within minutes of the body hitting the floor because that was the protocol for these people, and Q knew that he would have very little time to do what he needed to do.

"Let me know when you take the shot, and I'll get to work," Q replied as he waited.

"So confident I won't miss?" Bond asked, and Q could hear the smug smile in his voice. Q made a mental note that made sure he kissed that smug smile off of Bond's lips when he got back to their current safe house.

"You better not miss, or I'm going to get locked out of these accounts, and it'll take me weeks to get back in. That would make me very cross, and I don't think you want that," Q said.

"To keep you from getting cross, Q, I'll make sure this mother fucker is dead before he hits the floor," Bond said. Q smiled because he could hear the death in Bond's words, and that was always entertaining when the gun was pointed at the bad guys. Q listened as he heard Bond's breathing go even, and he sat up, ready to get to work. He knew what Bond sounded like when he was about to take the shot.

The gunshot wasn't as loud as everyone thought it would be, but it also wasn't silent. There was a loud pop, and Q began to type. He barely heard Bond say the words that the target was down because he needed to focus on making sure that all of the money was out of the accounts before the group realized what was happening. Vaguely, he could also hear Bond taking apart his gun so he could start to make his way back to the safehouse, but Q had to trust that Bond could get where he needed to go without his help right now. Sometimes, Bond needed to move around when Q couldn't look out for him as much as Q disliked that.

Two minutes after the shot went off, Q had all of the money out of the accounts, and he could relax a little as he started to move it around. He cracked his neck and released a deep breath.

"I got all of the money out," Q said. "They have nothing left, and I'm going to make sure that their latest locations are leaked to the authorities. Their power is also going out in about an hour."

"Ah, yes, I do love it when you get a little vindictive," Bond said with a small laugh. "I'll be back soon." Q pulled up the cameras around the city so he could watch Bond move from place to place while he was working. He liked that he was able to watch him, so he knew where Bond was even if Bond didn't need his help with anything. It was less than a month after they escaped from MI6 when they finally settled down enough for Q to get the physical therapy that he needed when Bond vanished from Q's sight for an hour. Q tried not to freak out, but it was hard not to with MI6 so close behind them. Bond eventually appeared on camera again, but Q was still a mess by the time he got home.

"I need you to promise me something," Q said after Bond managed to talk him down from being viciously angry about this.

"What is it?" Bond asked carefully like he was trying not to spook Q, which was probably fair considering how he was acting right now.

"No matter what happens between us, even if we someday decide to go our separate ways, don't go where I can't follow," Q said, struggling to keep the emotion from his voice and utterly failing to do so. "Even if we can't be together anymore, I want to know you're safe, so I need you to promise me that you're not going to go where I can't follow, so I know you're safe. So I know if you need help even if we're not together anymore. I need you to make that promise to me, James; I need you to say the words that you won't go where I can't follow."

"Look at me," Bond said, and Q forced himself to look up from the ground and into Bond's all too blue eyes. "No matter what happens between you and me, I won't go where you can't follow. I can't imagine not having you looking over my shoulder, Q, and I can't imagine anyone better to keep me safe." Q released a breath he didn't know he was holding that night. For most of their working relationship, him and Bon worked under the idea that they would just keep working together until they didn't want to anymore. It wasn't a bad way of thinking, and for Q, it helped keep Bond at arm's length for years longer than he expected. Then Bond stopped sleeping with the women, he watched Q's back even when Q didn't want to have someone at his back, and it was impossible not to fall in love with the man. The Silva incident meant that their dynamics were changing again, yet it seemed natural.

Bond was there when Q healed, and they took more jobs that focused on taking out people that were doing bad things. Q's logic was that if they kept helping someone like 007, then maybe she wouldn't come after them as hard. Q knew that Moneypenny wasn't going to give up, but he liked that about her. He liked that she was willing to trust that they didn't have bad intentions while they might be criminals. Q finished transferring a sizable amount of money to his and Bond's accounts and began to work on staggering donations to various organizations that went against the code of the terrorist cell they just took out simply because he was a little petty. A security alert went off, and Q looked up to see Bond making his way toward their door.

It took a long time for Q to keep his back to Bond even though they met with his back to Bond. In Q's defense, he had a gun pointed at Bond's head while his back was turned, and he was fairly confident in his own shooting that he could have killed the man that was sent to kill him. Somehow, they ended up here, together, all of these years later, and they were in love. It was a life that Q didn't think someone like him got. He'd been alone for so much of his life, and there wasn't ever anyone that wanted to stay. There wasn't ever anyone that didn't mind that Q would sometimes track phones or spy through CCTV because he was deathly afraid that the people he cared about would just vanish. They were there one minute and gone the next. So many people told him he was creepy, he was controlling, that he had no right to watch people the way he did, and Q didn't disagree with them. He hated that he had this compulsion that never went away. He thought if he kept things with Bond casual, he wouldn't have that issue, but he was tracking Bond's phone within a day of meeting him.

And Bond never seemed to mind. Bond, much to Q's surprise, liked having someone watch out for him. After Bond was hired to kill him, Q did some digging and found out what happened to Bond's family. It was familiar ground that Q wished someone else in the world didn't have to walk, but here they were. Q reacted to loss but meticulously watching and keeping an eye on the people he deemed worthy of his time. Bond reacted by assuming that no one was ever going to look out for him again. So, in a way, they complimented each other quite well. Bond even seemed to find it a little endearing when Q would turn a camera to prove that he was watching or send Bond a message to pick something up at a specific store that he was about to walk by. They worked in a way that Q really and truly loved.

The sound of the door unlocking and opening still made Q tense up just a little, but he forced himself to relax. He watched the cameras; he knew it was just Bond walking into their safehouse; there wasn't any reason he needed to go check or any reason he needed to look over his shoulder. It was a test that Q sometimes forced himself to do. It was a way to prove to himself that he really trusted Bond and didn't need to worry so much. Sometimes, it was easy, and other days, Q didn't even bother to try. Bond knocked on the door of Q's office, and he turned around in his chair. Black always made Bond's eyes look even bluer and really highlighted the lovely color of his hair.

"How did we do?" Bond asked as he walked into the room.

"We are significantly richer, and I'm going to send a tip to 007 and Interpol about the location of the cell, including where I think they will try to go to ground once they realized someone took everything from them. If all of the pieces fall into place, they should be rounded up within the next 72 hours," Q explained.

"So we should be out of the country within the next 48," Bond said with a smirk, and Q smirked back. He already had plane tickets for the two of them the day after tomorrow. Tomorrow would be spent shopping all of their materials to the next safe house, including Bond's weapons and Q's computers. The hard drives, Q would keep on his person, but the rest could be safely shipped through some of their more trustworthy allies within the industry. "Did you try and find a feed of the shot?"

"No, I was busy, and I figured you would tell me if it was something worth looking for," Q said. It was probably weird that Q would sometimes look at recordings of Bond's assassinations, but they fascinated him. The way he knew that Bond would go still and how his breathing would change. If Q listened carefully, he could hear the pop of the gun in the audio and sometimes even knew which direction Bond was shooting from just from the video. It was another odd thing that Q tried not to examine too much because if he did, he'd probably come to the conclusion that they were both utterly mad, and there wasn't any going back from that.

"The shot was clean," Bond said as he settled down into the large, comfortable chair that Q had in his office simply so Bond had somewhere to sit. "And I didn't have anyone looking my way when I made my way back here, so I think we're clear. What percentage are you giving charities this time?"

"Twenty, but even with that, we're several million euros richer right now. We could even take a break if we wanted to," Q said like either of them knew what a break was. Bond stood up and walked across the room without breaking eye contact with Q. It was the kind of smirk that Q was beginning to respond to because he immediately felt all of the blood leave his brain and travel south. Bond placed his hand on the armrests of Q's chair and leaned forward, so they were nearly nose to nose.

"A break, he says," Bond said quietly, and Q could feel Bond's breath on his lips. He refused to give in and let Bond get the upper hand. This back and forth was part of their game, and it was a game that Q loved to place. Q raised an unimpressed eyebrow as if it wasn't taking all of his mental capacity not to grab Bond by his hair and pin him to the floor.

"If we wanted to, but I do enjoy my work, and I like to think that you do too," Q replied, and now Bond was really smirking like he just heard something so insanely amusing.

"I do enjoy my work, but I enjoy pinning you to beds in five-star hotels while we order room service just as much if not more," Bond said. "After all, you're a lot nicer to hold onto than a sniper rifle."

"James, you're such a romantic," Q deadpanned. He grabbed Bond by the collar of his shirt and pulled him into a kiss. There wasn't a bed in his office, which meant that they were either going to fuck on the floor or one of the chairs, and that wasn't something Q was very into these days. They had a lovely bedroom just across the hall of this apartment that they owned with a bed that they spent way too much money on. Q stood up, and they began to pull each other toward the bedroom. Bond was wound up from the mission, and he pinned Q to the door before they managed to get any of their clothes off. He grunted but ignored the slight pain from his hip catching the doorknob. This was far from the first time Bond came back from a mission and needed to decompress, and Q was glad that he decompressed with him now and not some random man or woman at a bar. Bond slid his hands down to Q's hips as he moved to kiss behind Q's ear.

"Bond, I swear, if you pick me up--" Q started, but he cut himself off when Bond bit his collarbone hard enough to leave a mark.

"What were you saying?" Bond asked, trying and failing to sound like a smug asshole.

"I was saying if you pick me up again--" Bond apparently didn't care with whatever threat Q was going to make because one moment they were kissing against the door, and the next Q was clinging to Bond's hips as he was none too gently deposited on their very comfortable bed. He glared at Bond; he really didn't like getting picked up just because Bond was physically stronger than him, but it was also incredibly arousing that Bond could still do it despite their age difference when Q pointed out simply because it made Bond pin him to the bed with a look that made Q want to fight him.

"You're a brat, and I don't know what I see in you," Bond said, but the meaning behind the words was kind of dulled by the fact that Bond was grinding their dicks together, and he was obviously already hard.

"You love that I'm a brat, and you wouldn't have me any other way," Q replied. It was easy to get his wrists free and flip their positions, so Bond was the one on his back on the bed. Q may have been slim, but he wasn't weak either. Q leaned forward, so their lips were brushing every time he spoke. "Say the words, James."

"I do love you," Bond said, and he paused. "Even though you're a fucking brat, and I don't know what I see in you." Q laughed and pressed their lips together. It was always so good to kiss James, and there was something about the way Bond moved against him that Q never got sick of. He didn't think he was that into sex until he started having sex with Bond. Q took his glasses off as they both worked on getting their shirts off. There was a bruise forming on Bond's shoulder from the kickback on his sniper rifle. It was an injury that Bond had a lot, but Q still spent a considerable amount of time kissing the wound. It felt like it was essential to do; it felt like something that needed to be acknowledged, the same way Bond would spend time kissing the callouses and burn marks on Q's hands from making and running the various tech that they used to do their jobs.

The information was already on the way to 007 and anyone else that he thought he could trust. The money was safely tucked into various different accounts, and his security system would let him know if someone was approaching their doors. They were safe, and Q let himself get lost in Bond's body.

+++

Eve Moneypenny closed the door to her flat and began to make her way to the elevator. The building she lived in was filled with fully furnished flats for MI6 personal if they wanted them. It made it easier for everyone, so if an agent went missing for weeks or months at a time, there were fewer things to move, and no one had to worry about who owned the flat and who owed whom some money. Before she became Agent 007, Eve had her own place, but as soon as she joined the 00 program, it was just easier for everyone involved. A cleaning service would come in once a month if she was away on a mission to make sure that food didn't go bad in the fridge or the dust got too built up. She could opt out of the service, but Eve knew better than to keep anything of real importance in her flat.

The things that really mattered to her were in a safety deposit box under a false name that she was fairly sure that M didn't know about. That was where the only remaining pictures of her family resided, some mementos that she couldn't bear to part with, and other things that meant a lot to her. It was probably not the best idea to hang onto anything that could be used against her in any way, but Eve considered herself a human being even if she did have a license to kill. She might be an orphan, she might have no family to turn to, but she still had herself, and that was the thing that mattered.

Eve had just stepped out onto the sidewalk when her phone went off. It was Bill Tanner, and there were several reasons why Tanner would be calling her first thing in the morning, and none of them were good. She sighed and answered the call even though she knew the news wasn't going to be good.

"Good morning, Bill; what can I do for you?" Eve asked in her sweetest voice.

"Someone left us a present, and it seems to be signed for you," Bill replied, and Eve briefly closed her eyes. There were only two people that would leave her a "present," so she had a feeling that she knew what this was.

"I'll be right in," Eve replied and hung up. Bond and Q were her first mission so many years ago, and she tried to hunt them down with everything she had. They were more intelligent than her, and Eve knew it too. Ever since they walked out of MI6, Eve had tried to track them down again and again, and she was always a step behind. That was how things were before they were captured; not Bond and Q seemed to have found a more niche side of crime. They would rob and kill very dangerous people, distribute a large number of funds to various charities while no doubt holding onto a good portion for themselves, and leave Eve a calling card so she could go in and take care of the underlings.

So far, Q and Bond had taken out drug runners, traffickers, and terrorist cells and then left a clue for Eve to swoop in and make an arrest. They hadn't let her down yet when it came to these little presents, and Q wasn't even trying to hide the massive donations and that they came from him. Eve knew that he probably thought it was funny, and what could Eve do about it? Go to a charity and take away the donation because it came from a criminal, but the money came from the worst people? Q's humor also seemed to extend to which charities he donated to. If it was a group of sex traffickers, he donated to causes that helped trafficked victims and helped get people out of those situations. Q was leaving little fingerprints all over the place, but no one was better with a computer than him, so no one could catch him.

Bond was dangerous in a very different way. If Eve had to guess, James Bond might be one of the best marksmen of the last two decades at least. His kills were always clean, and he never had any civilian casualties. When Eve would have her meetings with M, and the two of them would go over the kill shots, sometimes M would grumble about what she could do with a man like that. Eve tried not to think about that too much because she sometimes thought about what would have happened if Q and Bond had accepted M's offer and came to work for MI6.

Tanner was waiting for her by the time Eve made her way through the doors of MI6. He smiled in a way that usually meant that the "present" was going to be the type of present that meant Eve was about to get a bunch of terrible people in cells.

"Bill, lovely to see you; I can only imagine what news I'm about to get," Eve said as they made their way to the elevator.

"Q and Bond are at it again," Tanner replied without even bothering to try and hide the fact that Q and Bond were involved. At this point, everyone knew about it, and everyone knew that they were both insanely wanted by MI6 and also helping MI6 at the same time. It was a strange intersection when it came to the two of them. "They took out the head of a terrorist ring that was meeting in Russia and drained all of their finances before the blood was even dry. The donations have started going out, and Q left Interpol and us a nice set of coordinates that we might want to check out if we were feeling up to it."

"I'm sure M is thrilled," Eve said as the doors opened and they made their way down the hall to M's office.

"That's certainly one way of putting it," Tanner said, and they walked into the office. M looked a little older every day, and Eve wondered if the woman was going to have the dignity of retirement. That wasn't something that people in MI6 often got, and if there were anyone Eve would wish it on, it would be M. It was just also daunting to think about because those were shoes that were going to be incredibly hard to fill. Right now, Eve was fairly sure that Bond and Q added a new wrinkle or grey hair every single time they pulled these jobs.

"Ma'am," Eve said, and she waited for her orders. M was looking through the file on Q and Bond that just kept on growing. She sighed and closed the file as if she could will this mess out of existence.

"I'm sure Tanner informed you, but they pulled another job in Russia, and now we all have a joint task force to go clean up the mess," M explained. "You'll have your gear and stay in the city to see if you can where Bond took the shot and maybe their safe house. If we find the house, maybe we can get some hint about where they are going next."

"Yes, ma'am," Eve said, but everyone in that room knew that they weren't going to find anything. Eve might be able to see where Bond took the shot, but he wasn't going to leave any evidence behind. Eve would have to knock on every single door in the city to find the safe house, and even then, she wasn't entirely sure that Q wouldn't rig the place to explode the minute she stepped through the door. M sent her off to go get her things from Q-branch. Major Boothroyd was one of the people that found Q and Bond very amusing, and Eve wouldn't be surprised to know that the two of them were having conversations behind M's back. He smiled knowingly when he handed her the briefcase containing her gear. It was time to go to Russia.

+++

By the time she landed in St. Peterburg, Eve was feeling fairly confident about how all of this would go. The thing was that Q made sure that the people he could trust in local government got the call, too, so no one was stepping on anyone else's toes. This wasn't even the first time she went and collected terrorists from Russia since the two of them escaped. She just considered it fortunate that it was still working out.

The actual sting operation was fairly by the books in terms of these things. All of the groups involved confirmed that the location was indeed legit, and from there, they kicked down the door and arrested everyone inside. Eve watched all of the people taken away in handcuffs and made a note to request one of the members of senior leadership be transferred to MI6. There was enough of them to go around, so it wasn't like she was getting something that the rest of the people involved weren't. The building was cleaned out, and Eve began to pick her way through the room. There were a lot of weapons that needed to be taken care of, and the computer's hard drives looked like they were fried. Ironically, the man that led them there was likely the only person in the world that could get anything off of those drives.

There was a smoking fireplace, and it never failed to annoy her when men would burn papers like this. It was always such a pain in the ass to try and clean it up or save anything. There was a piece on the ground that the people working on collecting the evidence had missed. Eve had her gloves on, and she knelt down to pick it up. There was some sort of symbol on it, but the paper was too badly burned to get anything off of it. She took a picture to send to Boothroyd and handed the evidence off to the people collecting it. There wasn't much for her to do from here. Another successful mission was practically handed to her from the people she was supposed to be catching.

+++

They were in a different city as Q watched on his feeds Eve and everyone else picked up his little present. As far as he could tell, it looked like all of the members got picked up and taken into custody. They were in Vienna now, and they were going to stay here for a couple of weeks until he felt like they could travel safely again. Eve was always on the hunt for them after they turned people over to her, and she was going to be searching anywhere and everywhere to see if she could find them. Q was confident that she couldn't, but he wasn't willing to take the risk. They were in a hotel this time which was considerably smaller than the flats they would usually rent. The chair was terrible, so Q was on his feet as he worked.

The alert went off that someone was on their floor, and he looked up to see Bond making his way toward their room. Q looked away from the feed and focused on making sure that they had airtight identities for the entire time they would be in Vienna. He wasn't really paying attention, so he only vaguely heard the door open, and he jumped a little when Bond wrapped his arms around Q from behind.

"One of these days, I'm going to stab you," Q warned, which was probably true, but Bond just laughed as he began to press kisses along Q's neck.

"I'm pretty sure I'd get out of the way in time," Bond replied, and he took Q's earlobe into his mouth. Q tilted his head to the side so Bond could get more access to his neck, but he really needed to be paying attention to the screens in front of him.

"I really need to focus on this," Q argued, but it was hard to sound like he meant it when he pushed back against Bond's body.

"We're as safe as we can be for the next twelve hours, and I'm really looking forward to getting some use out of that bed." Q wasn't big on marks, but Bond biting his neck and sucking a bruise that was going to be impossible to hide really got to him in the best possible way. Q turned around and pulled Bond into a harsh kiss as they began to work on getting each other's clothes off as soon as possible. Q didn't know how he went from standing at his desk to lying down on the bed with his shirt off and his pants undone, but that was one of Bond's superpowers. Bond was on top of him and was trying to kiss Q stupid because no man should be able to do that with their tongue.

The security alert surprised Q more than Bond sneaking up on him did. He pulled away from the kiss with every intention to take care of the alert, but Bond kept him pressed to the bed.

"James, I need to take care of that," Q said, but it was really hard to focus with Bond biting kisses down his chest.

"Your phone is right there, so take care of it. I know you don't need a computer to fix something like this," Bond replied. Q sighed and reached over to his mobile and began to look through the security alert, but Bond was doing a very good job of making it impossible for him to focus. Every now and then, Bond would move up and pull Q into a mind-numbing kiss, and it took several seconds before his brain was online enough to deal with the security threat. Bond just got his hand into Q's pants when he finally cleared the alert, and he tossed his phone to the side. "I knew you could do it. I always had faith in you, Q."

"You're a menace, and I don't know why I like you," Q deadpanned. "Now, if you don't get to work jerking me off in the next ten seconds, I will end you." Bond laughed off the threat because, of course, he did, but he also took Q's dick into his mouth a second later, so Q was willing to let it slide.

+++

Eve spent the next two weeks going around the city to see if she could find anything that Q and Bond might have left behind. She found the spot that Bond must have taken the shot from, and she got the cameras from around that area and around that time, but they glitched just long enough for someone to sneak by, which meant that Q was watching and a step ahead of her yet again. There weren't any hints about where the safe house could be, and, in the end, she took a plane back to London with nothing to show for it aside from Bond being able to make yet another nearly impossible shot.

However, Eve wasn't in London for very long before she was sent out on another mission, and this one had nothing to do with Bond and Q, which was a nice change of pace. She needed to infiltrate a party where some diplomats were going to be meeting about how they could earn money by turning a blind eye to things like the drug trade or even trafficking. While that sort of thing made it very much a Bond and Q type of thing, Eve knew that this was going to be one they weren't going to get involved with. They couldn't just assassinate diplomats without causing some problems. In fact, all Eve could do was get them on audio saying the things they were going to turn a blind eye to and hope that it would be enough to take care of the issue.

MI6 had her dress waiting for her in the hotel room, which was nice. Eve was glad that she didn't have to go out and try and find something at the last minute. There was an aid that she was likely going to have to seduce if she wanted to get to the right rooms in the massive house that this party was held at. The seduction didn't bother her, not anymore and not after so many years of doing this job. Sex was meaningless, and Eve wasn't even sure how interested she would be in sex outside of work. She needed a connection to someone to really get anything out of sex, and there wasn't time for that in her line of work. So she did what was needed for the mission and hoped that her partner was the type that would at least give her an orgasm.

The dress was a deep green with an open back and a slit that came up right to her thigh. It made hiding a nice more interesting, but Q-branch had brought on more women in the last decade, and they knew how to create holsters that wouldn't ruin the lines of a dress now. If there was something world-changing that came out of Q-branch, that was it, in Eve's opinion. She couldn't bring a gun because of the metal detector, but she could bring the ceramic knife she found five years ago. It had saved her on more than one occasion.

Everything was well on the way by the time Eve made her way to the massive estate outside of Athens. Greece was vulnerable right now because of its economy, and that meant people were going to try and take advantage of that. While Greece focused on trying to rebuild, men in power could move without worrying about anything. It was one of the things about the universe that annoyed Eve more than she could say. However, she didn't let that annoyance show on her face. She walked into the party with her head held high and made sure that people noticed her. That was what she wanted, and it wasn't long before the aid saw her. Eve maintained eye contact just long enough to pull him in and then made her way to the bar to get a drink.

The aid, his name was Peter, didn't have any idea what the guests in this house were up to. He was the only one who could get her up into the other wings of the house without anyone looking twice. So when he walked up to her with big eyes and a sweet smile, Eve batted her eyelashes just right, and she knew she had him. It took time to really pull Peter into the deception, and he was clearly a little nervous about bringing her to the rooms, so Eve took her time. If she rushed him, he might spook, so she let him buy the drinks that didn't affect her at all and laughed at the jokes and touched his arm and let him touch her. When he went to whisper in her ear, Eve moved just a little closer so his lips touched skin, and it was easy to fake a little shiver that Peter did not miss.

It wasn't hard to convince Peter to go up to one of the many bedrooms in the giant house, and it wasn't hard to say the right thing and smile the right way to make him fall into bed with her. Eve considered it a plus that at least Peter was a generous lover, and he spent some considerable time with his head between her legs and made sure that she had at two orgasms. He was a sweet guy, but when she offered to get him a drink, it was too easy to slip something in as they settled in for the afterglow. Before long, he was asleep, and Eve began to make her way through the house.

The meeting room was on a wing the opposite wing of the house that she was supposed to be in, so it took a long time for Eve to sneak into the various meeting rooms and leave behind the bugs. She was finished and on her way back to the party when there was some static over her earpiece. Q-branch didn't reach out to her on a mission unless she called on them, and M or Tanner would wait until she was out of hostile territory to contact her.

"Hello, 007," Q said over her earpiece and tried not to sigh over. "That dress is absolutely lovely, and those heels could kill a lesser man."

"Would you like me to test them on you?" Eve asked, and she could hear Q laugh at her threat. "Why are you reaching out to me, Q?"

"You've been made," Q replied, and Eve continued to walk like nothing was wrong. There were more people in this corridor, so it didn't look like she was in the wrong place.

"What do you know about it?" Eve asked discreetly. She also began to look around for the cameras that Q had to be looking through.

"One of the diplomats hired some mercenaries, and they are going to ambush you. However, if you follow my instructions, I can help you and me get out of this without any issues," Q replied. Eve had a champagne flute in her hand, and she couldn't tighten her hand around it without risking shattering the glass.

"Give me one good reason to trust you," Eve snapped, and there was a brief pause over her earpiece. For a moment, she thought Q had hung up on her.

"I was trying to think of some answer that would make you trust me, something about how you know my morals after so many years of chasing me, but I don't think you'd appreciate that kind of reply. You're a direct woman, Miss. Moneypenny, so I'm going to be direct back; if Bond and I wanted you dead, you'd already be dead." It was true that she was a direct woman, and that was something she had thought about over these last several years. There were plenty of opportunities for Bond or Q to kill her, and they didn't. There wasn't any reason to kill her now because she wasn't any closer to catching them. She found one of the cameras and looked at it for a moment.

"I only have a knife," Eve said because apparently, she was putting her life in the hands of the two criminals she was tasked with catching.

"I know, and that's why I need you to trust me," Q said, and there was something different about his voice that she couldn't quite put her finger on but now wasn't the time to linger on that. She wandered the party a little more until Q told her that it was time to leave. He didn't guide her toward her safe house, but instead, she went in the opposite direction. Eve struggled to keep herself from ignoring Q and trying to do this on her own. "Eve," Q said over her earpiece. "This is your reminder that if Bond and I wanted you dead, you would be, and we would do it ourselves." Eve was about to ask what the fuck that meant when Q interrupted her. "I need you to turn the corner and surrender. Standby for my orders, and when I say that you need do something, I need you to do it. They are supposed to bring you in alive so they won't kill you."

"I'm contemplating killing you right now," Eve said as she gritted her teeth and walked into a trap. She put up a decent fight, but she couldn't really do much with a knife and three trained killers. Eve put her hands up and knelt down on the gravel. The stones and cement were digging into her knees. She was about to try and ask Q what the hell she was supposed to do when his voice said into her ear.

"On the count of three, I need you to duck." There wasn't any time to question that as Q began the countdown. The men were a little relaxed now that they had her on her knees with her hands up. That's probably why they didn't expect anything. On three, Eve ducked, and there was the pop of a sniper rifle. Each of the mercenaries was dead before he could even realize what was going on. The shots even managed to point in the direction away from her, so she didn't get any blood on her either.

"Hello, Bond," Eve said because there was really only one man who could make that shot. "Enjoying your perch?"

"I was more enjoying watching your hips swing in that dress through my scope, but I supposed the perch isn't bad either," Bond replied, and she could hear him smiling.

"Get out of the city tonight, 007; there is a flight waiting under your name that boards in under two hours, so you better hurry," Q said, and the line went dead. Eve had to run to get back to her flight as she tried to think of an excuse to tell M why she left early. M didn't know about the other two times that Bond and Q saved her life, and she wasn't sure how to tell her now.

+++

Q monitored Eve as she went back to her hotel, and he was still watching her when she got back to London as well. Bond had joined him and seemed amused by Q watching her. He never called Q on it, but he needed to keep an eye on her because she was always going to keep an eye on them. It was practical. And maybe it was practical to remotely boost the range of the bugs that she left in that house, so they were able to record all of the people talking about all of the laws they were going to break. And maybe it was practical to make it look like those recordings came from the house's internal security system and not the bugs so the footage could be used against these people legally. And maybe it was practical to keep an eye on the investigation to make sure that everything went well.

Q didn't mind doing all of this, and he spent some time looking for other jobs as they moved from city to city. They made their way to Australia for a couple of weeks and then to New Zealand, and the two of them did about as close to playing tourist as they ever did. For a little while, it felt frighteningly normal and something that almost set Q's teeth on edge. Him and Bond didn't walk down beaches hand in hand, yet here they were doing just that. Bond seemed to realize that Q was not taking to this sort of relaxation well, and they made their way back to Europe. Bond made some sort of excuse about wanting to be back in Rome for some reason, but Q knew that he was lying. Q couldn't admit out loud that he wasn't very good at relaxing, and he was thankful that Bond knew him well enough just to make his excuses so they could get on their way. That was so much more relaxing than any beach in the world. That sense of Bond understanding him made Q feel safe.

Bond was a more social person, so Q just waved Bond off when he wanted to go out to various bars and restaurants for good food and better drinks. Bond would bring him leftovers, and that was about all he needed. One night, Bond came back, and Q could smell Vesper's perfume and brand of cigarettes.

"She wanted to have dinner," Bond said as he took off his tie.

"I don't trust her," Q replied, and he was really trying to do his best not to sound jealous even though part of his dislike of Vesper did come from jealousy. Bond told him that she was the one he considered leaving the business for, the first person he thought he loved, and she left him. That betrayal still stung for Bond, and it felt like he was going back for more punishment every single time they met up for food or drinks.

"We might need her for a job one of these days," Bond said. "Besides, you want to keep your friend close and your enemies closer. Isn't that what you do with 007?"

"I keep an eye on Miss. Moneypenny because she has an ongoing mission to put us behind bars for the rest of our lives, but sure, compare my surveillance to you sipping wine with Vesper." Q turned to leave the room, but Bond took him by the arm and turned him around. They were suddenly much closer, and Bond wasn't being coy or smirking or teasing anymore. In fact, he looked deathly serious.

"If you really want me to never see her again, I won't. You are my priority, not her, and I'd leave her behind in a second if that was what really wanted from me," Bond said. He leaned in close and pressed their foreheads together in a way that felt too sweet for the amount of blood on both of their hands.

"It's fine," Q said. "Just don't let her touch your phone. If I find out you let her put another bug on you, I'm going to be very cross." Bond laughed and kissed Q's forehead. When they went to bed that night, Bond seemed overly possessive and did his very best to knock every concern out of Q's skull through sex. It more or less worked, and Q slept with Bond's arms around him.

Three months after the incident with Eve in Greece, Q was again working on a new prototype for Bond while he was out getting a drink. They were looking for another job to do, and Q had some leads, but he was working on a new scope for Bond. Bond didn't mind that more and more of their jobs were involving assassinations; he just shrugged and said it was what he was good at, so they might as well keep doing it, but it did bother Q a little. He spent most of his life doing crimes that didn't directly cause harm to others and ripping off rich assholes who probably deserved it. Now that they were trying to do a little good in the world, it meant getting their hands dirty. It was starting to get to him, so maybe after this next one, they could move on to ripping off some venture capitalists or smug tech bros for fun.

A security alert for their flat door went off, and Q looked up from his work. It was Bond, and he was back after less than an hour of being out at the pub. That was quick for Bond, but maybe he just wasn't in the mood for a drink. Q ignored the alert and went back to working on the scope. Their flat was small with one bedroom, a living space, and the office where Q worked. He could hear the front door open as he stood up and stared at his schematics pinned to the wall. The computers were running some system checks, and Q wasn't really listening as the front door opened. He knew it was Bond, so Q didn't turn around when he heard the door to his office open, and he leaned back into Bond's warmth when Bond put his arms around him from behind.

"An early night?" Q asked. Bond didn't say anything and began to kiss along Q's neck. Bond loved to leave marks where everyone could see them even though Q rarely left the flat. Q tilted his head to the side to let Bond have more access to his neck and closed his eyes. One of the hands on his hip moved, and Q felt Bond press another kiss to his neck. He was expecting Bond to move the collar of his shirt to the side; he was expecting fingers in his hair or Bond stealing his glasses so they could go to bed for the night.

Q was not expecting a pinch of pain in his neck and what felt like ice water flowing through his veins.

Pure instinct caused Q to slip out of Bond's arms and stumble back against his desk. His heart was pounding as Q pressed a hand to the spot on his neck where he was sure he felt a needle go in.

"James, what the hell was that?" he asked. It was Bond standing in front of him, he'd know those blue eyes anywhere, but there was a blank expression on his face that Q hadn't seen for a very long time. There was also a syringe in his hand. "Bond, what the fuck did you just inject me with?" Bond still said nothing as he put the cap back on the needle and put it into his jacket. Q could feel a cold sweat beginning to break out across his skin, and now he was starting to panic. Q reached behind him to his keyboard and typed in the code that would destroy all of their electronics without turning his back on Bond. The sequence started, and now that that was taken care of, Q needed to get his hands on a weapon. He needed to get out of this flat. Q shoved past Bond on shaky legs as he tried to get to the kitchen.

Everything was starting to go numb as whatever Bond injected him with began to flood through his veins. Q stumbled and hit the ground hard, but he couldn't feel it. He couldn't feel anything. Q looked over his shoulder and saw Bond calmly walking out of the office like there wasn't anything wrong. Q grit his teeth and got back to his feet, but he only made it a few more steps before his legs went totally numb, and he fell to the ground again.

"Bond, what the fuck is going on?" Q managed to say, but he could feel his tongue going numb, and the edges of his vision were starting to grow dark. Bond was standing over him, and Q could vaguely feel him picking Q up into his arms. He walked Q into their bedroom and gently set him down on the bed. Whatever was in his body was working, and Q knew that he was going to be at Bond's mercy in mere seconds, if not dead. He didn't know if whatever he was injected with was going to stop his heart or make it impossible to breathe. Q knew Bond though, he thought he knew Bond, and Bond was one of the greatest assassins in the world. Bond didn't miss, and he always finished the job no matter what.

Except for Q. He was hired to kill Q all of those years ago, and he didn't finish that job. As far as Q knew, he was the only person Bond was hired to kill and survive. His body was totally numb and, somehow, this still hurt worse than getting shot.

"Finally finishing the job Silva hired you for?" Q said. For a moment, he thought he saw a reaction, he thought he saw a flash in Bond's eyes, but he must have imagined it. It was just wishful thinking that those words had any impact on Bond.

The world went dark, and Q made sure to look anywhere but James Bond's blue eyes.

When Eve got back to London after the incident in Greece, she avoided telling M about what happened with Q and Bond. It didn't feel right to keep a secret from her like that, but Eve also didn't know how she would react to finding out just how exposed they were to someone of Bond's caliber. Fortunately, there was someone that did know, and that was Tanner. He could tell something was up, and he was even at the airport to pick her and take her back to MI6. If Tanner asked, she could tell him what happened, but just telling him out of the blue felt a bit too much like she was breaking a bunch of laws.

"Three mercenaries were found dead in Athens yesterday," Tanner said. "They were all killed with a high caliber sniper rifle from a significant distance away. It was apparently the kind of shot that some people think shouldn't be possible in the real world."

"How about that," Eve replied as she looked out the window.

"They got involved again, didn't they," It sounded like that was supposed to be a question, but Eve could hear the statement behind it.

"I'm not sure I'd be alive if they hadn't," Eve said. She didn't have enough of an ego to admit that Bond and Q had saved her life on more than one occasion the same way she had saved theirs. It didn't always sit right with her, but it wasn't like she reached out to them for help or the other way around. Q was just paranoid and seemed to keep an eye on her for rather obvious reasons. She had found them once before, and she could do it again; she was sure of it; they just needed to make a mistake. They were human, and she was convinced that they would make a mistake eventually.

"We really need to tell her," Tanner said, and he sounded somewhat resigned like he knew they were going to have this conversation at some point, but he also really didn't want to have it.

"Sure, that will go swimmingly for both of us, and while we are throwing each other to the wolves, we'll also tell her how Major Boothroyd is absolutely in contact with Q and getting tips from him to keep our networks more secure. Nothing about any of that is going to get all of us thrown in a cell for the rest of our lives," Eve sighed as she turned to look at Tanner. His hands were tight around the steering wheel, and she could see the white in his knuckles. "If we told her the first time, maybe it wouldn't be an issue, but I decided not, and you decided to keep my secret. We'll just have to see what kind of moves they make next.”

Eve went back to work and back on missions. She kept an eye on killings and waited for another sign from Q and Bond that they had another group of bad guys that she needed to come and clean up. It wasn't uncommon for them to vanish for several weeks after they took someone out. She assumed they were traveling the world and spending some of the millions of pounds they had stolen over the years. Eve did have a hard time thinking about Bond and Q on traditional vacations, but after jobs, she kept an eye on resorts that she thought might appeal to them.

However, when a month and a half went by, and she didn't see any evidence that they were out and about, Eve didn't really worry. The next time she went down to Q-branch, Boothroyd nodded and winked, which was the unsaid code that he was still talking with Q. So they were around and just not working. Maybe they were taking some extended time off, and that was fine by her. Then a month and a half turned into three months, which turned into four months, which turned into five. There was absolutely no evidence that Q and Bond were active anywhere in the world. There was not a hint of either of their handles anywhere on the dark web. There wasn't even a whisper from them.

After six months, Eve went down to Q-branch late at night when everyone else had already gone home for the night. It was just Boothroyd, and when she closed the door to his lab, he pushed a button that likely turned off all of the surveillance nearby so no one could listen in to what they were saying. He looked a little resigned like he knew what she was going to ask, and while Eve was a spy, there were some things she knew were handled best directly.

"I know you talk to Q," Eve said, and Boothroyd blinked at her.

"Yes, 007, I know you know," he replied, "and I also know why you're here."

"They've been quiet for months, and in all of the years I've been tracking Q and Bond, they never go quiet for more than a couple of weeks or a couple of months at a time. It's been half a year, and there hasn't been a whisper about either of them. I want to know what you know," Eve said.

"I'm afraid I don't know anything either," Boothroyd replied. "Even when Q was quiet in terms of his crimes, he kept in fairly regular contact with me. He has some sense of loyalty to queen and country, and he doesn't want you or any other agent in MI6 to get killed because 'some idiot got lucky and cracked your pathetic systems,'" Boothroyd explained, and then he frowned deeply. "Three months ago, Q went completely silent, and I haven't heard anything from him since."

"How do you reach him? Maybe we can use that to figure out where exactly they are and even ask why they are suddenly not pulling jobs," Eve said, but when Boothroyd shook his head, she practically knew what he was going to say before he said it.

"I never got in contact with Q; Q would get in contact with me. I have no way of reaching out to him. I might have kept the fact that he reached out to me from M, but I wouldn't keep that sort of information from you," he said, and Boothroyd crossed his arms. "I'm afraid I'm just as lost as you are, 007. If he gets in contact, you'll be the first person I reach out to."

"Maybe they're dead," Tanner said a few days later in one of the conference rooms that Eve took over years ago when she started working on the Q case. No one ever bothered to try and clean it out, and no one besides Eve, Tanner, and M had access to the papers that were in that room. "Those two have enemies, we both remember Silva, so maybe someone killed them."

"I don't think so," Eve replied as she continued to look around. She had made quite a few contacts within the hacker community over the years, mostly people trying to get into MI6's good graces and thinking aiding in the capture of the elusive Q would get them a job, and when Boothroyd confirmed that he hadn't heard from Q, she reached out to them. "I talked to my various contacts on the web, and they haven't heard anything. As you said, Q is elusive, and Bond is just as well known. Ever since the incident with us, people know they come as a matched set as well. If someone managed to kill one or both of them, someone somewhere would be bragging or posting proof of the bodies. If they were dead, we would know about it because someone would have said so." Eve was reasonably confident about that, but Eve also didn't have as many contacts in the world of hired guns as 006 did. So when Alec got back from a mission, she invited him out for a drink to see what he knew.

"I agree with you that if someone had killed those two, someone would have bragged about it, and if it were a foreign government, we'd probably already be out on our asses from Q or dead from Bond," Alec said as he drank a beer. "I fucking respect those two, if nothing else, and I'll ask around, but if no one has claimed their deaths, then I have no idea why they are suddenly quiet."

"And even if they were being held against their will, Q would have probably found a way to leave a clue somewhere because that's exactly what he did with Silva," Eve took a long drink from gin and tonic. Every single instinct that she had was telling her that this was wrong and Eve needed to do something. There wasn't any evidence, there wasn't anything to go on, and she couldn't do something based on a hunch or her own paranoia. Alec and Boothroyd both promised to keep in touch, and if they heard anything, they would tell her before M, which was probably the wrong way to go about this, but what M didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

+++

Eve was a professional, and she continued to do her job and do the missions that would help England and the world. She thought that someone would spot them in some capacity with her, Tanner, Alec, and Boothroyd all keeping an eye out for Q and Bond. However, another three months went by, and there was nothing. She spent weeks going through morgues to see if maybe they died in some regular way. She looked at autopsy reports for so many people who got hit by cars or got into terrible freak accidents. Eve spent far too much time trying to see if these two remarkable people died in some unremarkable way, but there was nothing. It was like they had both just vanished.

"If we don't find proof of life soon, M is going to take you off the case and mark it as cold," Tanner told her as Eve made her way out of her flat and to MI6. "I think it might be time to tell her what we know and what we've been trying to do for these last nine months, Moneypenny."

"We still have three months before she starts to ask more questions," Eve said as she walked out into the overcast and wet London air. "Considering how much shit all four of us could be in when we tell her all of this, I'd rather put it off for as long as possible." Tanner chuckled but didn't disagree with her. "I'm going to the cafe near my flat, would you like something for breakfast? I'm buying."

"After the many times, we've had to order takeout, Miss. Moneypenny, you know what I want and when I want it," Tanner replied, and she could hear the smile in his voice.

"That I do," Eve flirted back. Tanner was a married man, but this back and forth was one of the few constants in her life. Tanner laughed, and they hung up. She was about to put her phone into her pocket when a notification chime went off. Eve unlocked her phone and saw a text from an unknown number.

'Come to your regular coffee shop; I'll be waiting. - Q'

Eve stared at her phone and wondered if she was seeing things. She blinked, and the text was still there. Her first thought was that this had to be a trap of some kind, but she remembered what Q told her the last time he helped her. If him and Bond wanted her dead, she'd be dead, so this wasn't a threat. She just wasn't sure what it was. If this was Q, he knew what cafes she frequented and even knew that this was the day she usually went in to get something special. That meant that Q knew her schedule and also knew where she lived. None of that made her feel good, but she hadn't spent the last nine months wondering where the hell he was to turn around and walk away now. Eve contemplated calling Tanner or backup because Q didn't tell her to come alone, but he wouldn't do anything that could hurt civilians.

She walked down the street and did not hesitate for a second as she walked in. It wasn't a large space, so it wasn't hard to find him, but when Eve saw Q, she almost faltered. He was sitting with his back to the wall, so he was pressed against it. From the vantage point, he was at Q could see both exits and was also away from the windows and any sightlines. There was a computer bag and a duffle bag at his feet. Q was thinner than she had ever seen him and paler too. His hair was longer and a mess, and as Eve walked closer, she could see the circles under his eyes were so dark they looked like bruises. He made eye contact with her as soon as she walked in, and Q didn't flinch. Bond was nowhere to be seen, which didn't mean he wasn't around. Q wouldn't be in the open if his shadow wasn't nearby.

"You have some nerve showing up in London like this," Eve said as she walked toward him. There was a large cup of tea on the table, and Q was watching her.

"Miss. Moneypenny, how lovely to see you. Would you like something to drink? It's on me," Q replied.

"Give me one good reason not to arrest you and bring you back to MI6 right now," Eve snapped. She was expecting Bond to make an appearance with that, but he never came. Q just stared at her with his big dark eyes and blinked.

"I saved your life three times. Consider this me calling in a favor," Q said. "I just want to talk to you, Miss. Moneypenny, that is the favor." Eve narrowed her eyes because Q was always very careful about his words, and the fact that he didn't say that he was using a favor to keep him out of MI6 custody set her on edge. However, he did save her life, and there wasn't anywhere for him to run. She could sit down and hear what he had to say before dragging him into the cell where he belonged.

"If I knew saving me would come with caveats, I would have taken my chances," Eve said as she sat down across from Q, and he shrugged.

"If it's the only way for you to listen to me, it does," Q said, and he paused. "Bond is gone." Now she knew why Q looked like hell.

"How did it happen?" Eve asked.

"He's not dead, not as far as I know, but he is gone," Q said. "Six months ago, we were between jobs, and Bond went to go get drinks. He likes to go out sometimes, I don't, so there wasn't anything unusual about it. When he came home early, I didn't think much of it. I saw him on the security feed, so I didn't even think about it. I didn't even turn around when he walked into the room." Q shifted like he was trying to press himself further against the wall, and she could only figure that he was not someone who turned his back on many people. "He wrapped his arms around me from behind like he always does; for an assassin, the man is incredibly tactile, and when he kissed my neck, I didn't think about it. I leaned my head to the side to give him more access, and he stuck a needle in my neck.

"I don't know what he injected me with, but it was fast-acting," Q continued. "I managed to fry all of my electronics and tried to get away, but I couldn't. He put me on the bed, and I was unconscious for twelve hours. When I woke up, I nearly brained myself trying to get water, and it was nearly two days later that I could even function again. I tried to track him, and he was just gone."

"I know him doing that must have stung," Eve said because she was unsure why Q was telling her all of this. "Maybe this is just his version of breaking up with you."

"No," Q said, shaking his head. "No, he promised that even if we ever decided not to be together anymore, he wouldn't go where I couldn't follow. I keep an eye on the people I care about, that's what I do, and he promised he wouldn't." Eve decided now was not the time to comment on the fact that Q seemed to keep an eye on her too.

"Q, even though he promised, he could have broken that promise," she said gently, but Q shook his head. "I'm sorry that he betrayed you like that, but I don't understand why I'm here and why you're telling me this."

"Because I need your help, and I need MI6's resources," Q said firmly. "James Bond went completely dark, and someone like him only goes dark like that if they are afraid. There is someone or something out there that scared him, and if he's afraid, then we all need to be afraid. Whoever he's scared of is a threat to me, you, England, and possibly the world. I've collected some evidence of it already in the last six months, but I can't do this on my own. I need you, and I need MI6 backing to do this."

"I am not committing treason because you have a hunch that Bond went dark for some big scary reason," Eve snapped, insulted that Q would even suggest such a thing.

"I'm not asking you to commit treason," Q said, and his slightly confused expression annoyed her like he didn't understand what he was asking her to do.

"Then what are you doing exactly?" Eve asked.

"I'm turning myself in."

+++

Eve adjusted her death grip on Q's upper arm as she walked him through the front doors of MI6. She wasn't sure if this was a good idea because who knew what Q could do with electronics in this building, but Q had the opportunity to ruin them years ago, and he never did. If Boothroyd was to be believed, Q was even making their cyber security even better, so it made no sense for him to ruin it all now. Still, Eve wasn't sure this was the right move even as she walked past security and glared them into submission.

She had let Q finish his tea, grab his two bags, and he had walked with her the entire way to MI6. He didn't flinch when Eve dug her nails into his arm to keep him close, and he never tried to get out of the cab she called before her. He was being wholly compliant, and she had no idea what to do with any of it. There were a few people staring at the two of them as Eve marched one of the most wanted men on the planet like a teacher about to scold a child for not playing nice.

Eve had experienced a lot of surreal moments in her career, but this one might take the top spot.

When she tried to get Q to explain why exactly he was turning himself in, he simply said that he needed to talk to M, and he'd explain everything to everyone. He didn't even question whether or not he could get a meeting with M first thing in the morning without even calling ahead; he knew he could. M's secretary tried to stop her, but Eve walked through the doors to M's office without even hesitating. Tanner and M both looked, and both froze. Eve pushed Q into a chair in front of M's desk and put herself between him and the door to the office.

"Mr. Q," M said after a brief moment of silence. "Considering how compliant you just were walking into my office, I'm going to assume that we didn't catch you, is that correct?"

"That would be correct," Q replied. "Five years ago, you offered me a job, and I wanted to know if it was still on the table."

"You think you can just walk in here and demand a job?" M asked, and Q shrugged like that was exactly what he thought he would do. "Care to explain why I would even consider making you an offer like that again?"

"Aside from the obvious reasons, I do," Q replied, and he went on to explain everything that he told Eve to M and Tanner. Neither of them looked very impressed by the end of the story, but Q didn't seem bothered in the slightest. "I assume you would like some proof that I think something or someone is out there. I'm going to reach into my computer bag, and I'd greatly appreciate no one shooting me for it." Eve glared at the back of his head but kept her hand on her gun just in case. Q reached into his bag and pulled out an actual manilla envelope filled with papers which was the last way she expected him to present evidence. "You would never trust any electronics I would give you, and with good reason. I decided this was much faster than you trying to vet whether or not you can trust my tech." Q handed M the folder and sat back in the chair, and waited like he expected them to go through this right now.

For a moment, Eve was sure that M was going to toss that folder in the trash and order her to throw Q into the nearest empty cell. They were staring at each other and whatever M saw in his eyes made her open the folder. She gestured for Eve and Tanner to join her, and they started looking through the documents Q had provided.

+++

Eve was apprehensive when she first began to go through the papers with M and Tanner but the more they looked at everything that Q had, the more she was starting to think that he was right. Q was clearly confident in his research because he sat in the chair, watching them with his dark eyes and speaking only when spoken to. He didn't fidget or look like he was getting impatient as they looked through the documents. Q just waited as they looked everything over. Eve quickly noticed that many of the missions that Q and Bond and that she had been on were part of this. They had apparently been chipping away at the empire the entire time, and she wondered if the empire was hitting back. It was nearly four hours later that M looked at Eve and Tanner, and Eve knew that M believed that Q was right about someone being out there.

"You've put a lot of work into this," M said, and Q just blinked at her. "There are banking details here with no explanation for what they are; care to explain?"

"It's my banking details," Q said. "In that account, you'll find all of the money that I have stolen from other criminals and morally reprehensible people. I knew it would be a point of contention for my employment, so I am giving you those details. Since that money was taken from terrible people, I believe it would be best used to loop it into the budget of Q-branch so we can work on the projects I need to work on and pay my salary without alerting anyone through paperwork that I'm here."

"You specifically said that this was the money you stole," Tanner said. "Does that mean there is money somewhere that wasn't obtained illegally?"

"Of course," Q replied like that was the most obvious thing in the world. "I have an entirely false identity that does lots of contract and freelance work. You've hired out to me before and didn't even know it. I pay my taxes too." M looked a little disturbed by the fact that they had hired Q in the past, but she must have been moving past it.

"This is all very compelling, and we thank you for the information, but I don't see how this could possibly work out," M replied as she folded her hands on the desk. "How is anyone supposed to trust you?" Q seemed to think about it and then reached for her desk. He gestured toward a pad of post-its and a pen. M nodded, and Q picked it up. He wrote something down on the paper and then folded it up. He also took the post-it directly under the one he wrote on as well. He handed the paper to M and sat back down.

"What is this?" she asked.

"My real name," Q said, and everyone in the room went still. Q's real name was something that no one knew, and Eve knew that for a fact. In all of the years that she'd been chasing him, there was not even a hint of a name. M opened the paper and looked at the name, but Eve and Tanner could not see it. "James Bond doesn't know that name. The only person who does is you. I would say that is a fairly substantial olive branch."

"I suppose," M said as she folded the paper back up and held it in her hand. Eve had a feeling that even if Q went into the cell tonight, she wouldn't be finding out that name. M knew the importance of a name, and that was probably the best possible way to get her to trust him. She sighed and looked at everything over her desk. "Even if I brought you into Q-branch as you want, there isn't an agent here that would trust you enough to work with you."

"I would work with him," Eve said without even thinking about it. Everyone turned and looked at her. M and Tanner looked a little surprised, but Q somehow looked a little relieved. She realized that he was counting on her wanting to work with him. She was the only possible option. "Ma'am, there is something that I need to tell you about--"

"I already know about Bond and Q's inference with your missions and Q's conversation with Major Boothroyd. I'm not sure what infuriates me more; the fact that you did it or the fact that you hid it so poorly," M said with a wave of her hand. "Tanner, please escort Q from the room for a moment; I need to speak with 007." Q let Tanner walk him out of the room without any issues, and Eve stood up a little taller when the door closed. "You really think that you could work with him? Trust him to have your back?"

"I think he already does, ma'am," Eve explained. "When Q was telling us about keeping track of the people he cares about and how he doesn't want them to go where he can't follow, I realized that he always knows where I am. He's keeping an eye on me, and partially that is because I'm trying to find and arrest him, but I think it's more than that. As Q told me the last time they saved my life, if him and Bond wanted me dead, I'd probably be dead already." Eve paused as she thought about it. "We both know how dangerous he is and what could happen if someone else gets their hands on him. He's focused on finding Bond right now, but with the right terms, I think he could be a great asset to MI6."

"And if he lets you down?" M asked.

"I believe it's worth the risk," Eve replied. "And I also believe that he will agree to any terms you present to him as long as we agree to use our resources to find Bond and take care of this threat. He needs us, and he knows it. He's vulnerable and doesn't have a lot of leverage in this situation, and I think he knows that too." M watched her for a long time, and whatever she saw must have been good enough. She called Tanner and Q back into the room, and Q sat back down in the chair and waited. If he was nervous, it didn't show, even though M's decision could get him possibly tried for treason.

"007 seems to believe that you could be an asset to MI6, but I'm not entirely sure that I believe that," M said. "So these are my terms, and they are non-negotiable. If there is a single thing that you disagree with, then you can sit in a cell and prepare for a trial. Is that understood?" Q nodded and said nothing.

"You will be effectively serving your life sentence here as a member of the British government," M continued, and her voice was like steel. "You will work for us for the rest of your natural days, and there will be no parole period. You'll be given the option to retire at an age we can discuss at a later time. You will live in a flat that we provide so we may monitor you. You will have a tracker placed on your body. If that tracker goes offline, if it goes somewhere, it isn't supposed to, or if it is tampered with, I will consider that you are fleeing. If you flee, then you are an extreme threat to the safety of Britain and will be eliminated. I will put out the kill order to every agent in MI6 if that's what it takes. Major Boothroyd will be your superior, and 007 will be your agent. If anything happens to them or anyone or anything in this building and we believe you are responsible, that will also trigger the kill order. If there is any indication that you are doing any illegal activities, we will assume the worst and trigger the kill order. In exchange, you will get a salary from working at Q-branch and access to our resources so we can track down and arrest James Bond and this person moving in the shadows. This deal does not extend to Bond, it is only for you, and by finding him, you will be seeing to his arrest. I will also keep the name you've given me in confidence. You are here serving your sentence; I see no reason anyone else should have it. The terms will be laid out in writing, but before we do that, I need to know; do you agree to them?"

It was a much harsher deal than Eve thought he was going to get, but she also knew that they had Q effectively backed into a corner. She also knew that he had put himself in that corner willingly, and if any of these terms, including the kill order, surprised him, he didn't let it show. He simply folded his hands in his lap and looked M directly in the eye.

"I accept all terms," Q said, and with those four words, Eve watched one of the greatest hackers in the world attach the manacle to his own ankle.

+++

It took the rest of the afternoon and into the evening to get everything sorted. M put Q into the same building that Eve lived in and one floor below her, which was very much intentional. They typed up the entire contract with all of the terms laid out in writing. M let him sign with just the letter since the name was only on the post-it and nowhere else. Boothroyd came up to the office with the tracker and did a very poor job of hiding how excited he was to have Q working with him. ["Now we have two Q's," Boothroyd said, and Q almost smiled for the first time since she saw him in that coffee shop]. He accepted the tracking chip without complaint, but he winced when injected into his body.

He revealed his false identity, a rather ordinary man named John Allister who came from a modest background and was something of a computer genius. Eve wasn't sure what was real and what was fake from the file because some of it looked too real. That was the name that Q was hired under, so it really only looked like a freelance computer programmer managed to get the job of a lifetime. Tanner sent word out to the people who knew Q's face and let them know that they were never to speak of him being involved at MI6. It was essential that no one knew that they got their hands on one of the greatest hackers in the world. Q said that he could plant false flags across the internet to make it look like he was still active, so no one suspected a thing. M agreed that that was the best idea, and they could begin working on it the day after tomorrow. M was giving Q a day to settle into his new home at his request. Q got a badge with John's name on it, and Eve was charged with taking him to his new flat.

It was far too late to take the tube, so Tanner offered to give both of them a ride to the building. The moment the door closed, it was uncomfortably silent.

"Whatever you want to ask, you can just ask it," Q said after ten minutes of silence. "We're going to be co-workers of a sort, so you might as well say it now."

"I have plenty of things I'd like to ask you, but I'm not entirely sure now is the time. We will probably need several drinks and some pub food," Tanner replied. Eve sat in the passenger seat, and in the rearview mirror, she saw Q smirk.

"It would be my greatest pleasure to drink members of MI6 under the table," he replied. The comment was so unexpected that both Tanner and Eve laughed. The tension in the car faded, and it was fine by the time they got to the building. Q slung his duffle bag over his shoulder as he followed her into the building. She noticed that he never turned his back to her and always made sure that she was leading the way. The flats were nice with the kind of square footage that some people would hack off limbs to have in London. Eve used the key M had given her to open the door and let Q in. The kitchen wasn't amazing, and it was off to the right as you walked in. Then it opened up into a living room with a bathroom and the bedroom off to the left. Q walked in and looked around.

"Does it meet your expectations?" Eve asked.

"It's not a cell, so I suppose everything is a step from that," Q replied as he set his bag on the sofa. "If I take my phone out of my bag and turn it on, are you going to shoot me?"

"Are you going to do anything on that phone that warrants me shooting you?" Eve retorted, and Q smirked. He didn't answer and turned the mobile on. Eve watched him carefully, very aware of the gun holstered at her side, and she made sure that Q could see it as well. He dialed a phone number and waited for someone to answer.

"Hey Archie, it's John," Q said, and the tone of his voice was just a key higher than his usual speaking voice. "Yes, I apologize; I know I'm utter rubbish at keeping in touch. When you have the freedom to travel while working, you take advantage of it. Or at least that was what I was doing; I've settled down with a permanent job." Q paused as he listened to the voice on the other end. "Indeed, so I need to build a new home system and a desk. You know the pieces that I like, and I'll get you the address." Q gestured to Eve, and she wrote down the address of the building and handed it to him. Q read it off and listened. "Yes, just take it out of my normal account. Yes, tomorrow is fine, Archie; it's nearly midnight; I'm not a sadist." There was another pause in the conversation as Q listened. "Tomorrow by noon is fine, thank you, Archie. I'll see you tomorrow," and he hung up.

"You have friends?" Eve asked.

"A mate from university," Q replied, and Eve narrowed her eyes.

"Are you telling the truth?" she asked, and Q shrugged.

"Does it matter? He's an upstanding citizen, and he's bringing me a desk, the things I need to build a home office, and basic security for this place. It's abysmal right now," he replied as he looked around the room. Eve watched him carefully and noticed that he didn't seem worried or anxious at all. In fact, he looked more at ease than she had seen him this entire time. She supposed he got what he wanted out of this whole situation. Eve walked forward until she was standing right in front of him. She was wearing practical flats, so they were nearly the same height.

"We're going to be working together, so there is something I must ask of you," Eve said, and Q raised an eyebrow.

"Is it seducing me because I'm afraid that won't work," he replied, and Eve smiled. She did appreciate how direct he was.

"No, this is more of a favor," Eve said, and Q nodded for her to continue. "Don't make me put a bullet in you. I want to trust that I won't have to get that kill order from M and have to go ahead with it because I will. I will put a bullet in you if you force my hand, so do not force my hand." She was expecting a smirk or some smart remark from him, but something softened in him that Eve was not expecting.

"I have no intention of forcing my blood on your hands, Miss. Moneypenny," Q replied, and she believed him.

+++

Eve didn't stay much longer after Q told her that he had no intention of forcing her to kill him. She reminded him that she was right above him, and Q wasn't sure if that was supposed to be threatening or comforting. He took it as the latter since he hadn't had someone watching out for him since Bond vanished. Even if MI6 was itching for a chance to pull the trigger on him, he was more valuable alive than dead to them, at least for now. Q just had to make sure it stayed that way. There were some essentials in the kitchen, so he made himself a pot of tea and sat down on the sofa in the living room. He could hear the people moving around the building, but anyone who lived here was MI6, and he didn't think anyone from MI6 would try to assassinate him. At least not before his first day.

Q couldn't remember the last time he really settled down somewhere as he unpacked his single bag of items. He only had enough clothes on him for a few days, so he needed to go to the store to buy more. Q made a list of a bunch of very ordinary things that he needed to purchase, and it was surreal. He had just signed away his freedom for the rest of his life. Q wasn't under any illusions that even if he saved the entire world, M wasn't going to let him go. This was his life for the rest of his life. He tried to ignore the itch on his shoulder from the tracker and went to bed.

The following day, Q woke up early and went to do a bunch of shopping for food and other essentials. He needed those things more than he needed more clothes; those could wait until he got a day off from MI6. Archie arrived at noon on the dot, and he smiled brightly when Q answered the door. A long time ago, Q made an attempt to really be John Allister, and during that time, he met Archie. The two of them bonded over some hacking and programming that they worked in, and if Q had found a way to truly become John, he was sure the two of them would probably still be together. Now, they hugged like old friends, and they took turns carrying up the boxes so they could put together the desk and computer.

"Johnny, I can't believe you're here and settling down," Archie said as he worked on the desk. Q was beginning to put together his computer. "Is this what you actually want, or did something happen?" Archie was under no illusions that Q colored entirely within the lines, so admitting a version of the truth was probably better if he wanted to keep this contact in his life.

"I hacked MI6 and got caught," Q explained, and Archie winced. "Yeah, so they offered me a job in exchange for not charging me with treason or something of the sort."

"I always knew it would be something extreme to get you to stay in one place," Archie said, and Q hummed in agreement. Q wasn't the best at small talk, and Archie was one of the few people in the world that knew that, so it wasn't uncomfortable for the two of them to work. Archie got the desk and chair put together, and they shifted various pieces of furniture around until Q made a little corner for himself in the living room. The computer wasn't done, but he could finish that on his own. Q opened a bottle of wine and handed Archie a glass as they sat down on the couch. They talked a little about programming, and Q was amused when Archie brought up some jobs that he had done under other names. It was almost dinner time, and Q was unsure where this night was going.

"You know, I always knew you'd be unattainable, John, because you weren't ever going to settle down," Archie said softly as he moved closer to Q on the couch. "But now, you're staying in London; you're going to be right here. We worked so well together all of those years ago, and I think we'd work together just as well now." The smart thing to do, for his own sanity, would be to lean forward and kiss him. It would be to let Archie push him down onto this new couch while they kissed for a long time. It would be a smart thing to let Archie take him out to dinner after they kissed on the sofa and then come back to this flat and go to bed together. That is what John should do if John wants to have a good life.

John isn't Q, though try as he might, and Archie's eyes were green and not blue. He was still so boyish and a little naive. He might dabble with hacking, but the idea of pulling a trigger on another human being would horrify him. Even though Q was taking on this new life, that didn't mean he couldn't be himself within it. Q set his glass of wine down and leaned in to kiss Archie on the corner of his mouth.

"It's been a long time since we were together, Archie, and I'm not the same person anymore," Q said. Archie didn't look very surprised by this, but he did look a little disappointed.

"Well, I suppose if you're ever looking for some no-strings company, you have my number," Archie said as he finished his wine and stood up. Q didn't say anything to that, but he accepted a chaste kiss at his door. He wondered what MI6 thought when they saw that. There was a camera in the upper corner of the hallway. Q smiled up it and closed the door.

+++

Q wasn't surprised that Eve was waiting for him in the lobby the next morning. He had a feeling that he was going to have an escort for the first couple of days or weeks that he was here. She didn't try to pry anything from him, but he did catch her watching him a couple of times. It looked like she wanted to ask questions but didn't know how to phrase them. Q wasn't about to give her a hint or offer anything up, so they remained completely silent as they took the tube to MI6. He got a very brief tour of the building as Eve took him down to Q-branch.

It was immediately calming in a way that was hard for Q to explain. There were people working on technology and coding. He could see someone doing some minor hacking nearby, and perhaps someone planting a virus. It was pretty basic stuff as far as he was concerned, but it was nice to be around people doing what he liked to do. Boothroyd looked up when they walked up, and he looked genuinely pleased to see him in his branch.

"John, lovely to see you again," Boothroyd said, and Q made a mental note to get used to answering to that name more often than not. There were people that knew who he was; he could tell because they were doing a terrible job of eavesdropping, and others who disregarded him as another new employee. "And 007, I see you're showing him around."

"He's going to be mine, so I thought it was best to do all of this myself," Moneypenny replied with a shrug. Q raised an eyebrow at her, claiming him like that, but he supposed that was true. Since no one else would work with him, he was essentially 007's personal member of Q-branch.

"Of course," Boothroyd said. "Allow me to show you around? I have an office set aside for you over here."

"An office?" Q asked because he didn't think MI6 would give him that sort of privacy here. He thought Boothroyd would be looking over his shoulder for at least the next couple of months before they let him do anything on his own.

"You agreed to M's terms, so I can only assume that means you can be trusted," Boothroyd replied with the implied 'unless you want to die' added on. Q shrugged and did his best to ignore Moneypenny at his back as he was shown around. His office wasn't large, but there was a work desk with plenty of room if he wanted to build something, a computer, and what looked like a pile of parts if he wanted to do any modifications himself.

"I don't have a mission currently," Moneypenny said as she sat down in the extra chair in his office. "So why don't you show me what you can do for me, and we'll decide where we go from here. Is that all right, Major Boothroyd?"

"Let me know if you need anything," Boothroyd said, and he left them alone.

"I would think one of MI6's premiere agents would have better things to do than look over my shoulder," Q said as he set his bag off to the side.

"I do, but I can't get to any of that until I see what you're going to do for me," Moneypenny replied as she leaned back in the chair. "So, the Greece mission, and every mission you've needed to help me on, tell me how you would have run them."

"If I modify this computer while we talk, are you going to shoot me?" Q asked, and the smile that Moneypenny gave him in response would have been sweet to anyone that didn't know that she had a license to kill. Q, however, didn't flinch. Bond used that smile on him in the early days of their partnership, and it didn't bother him then, and it doesn't now. It seemed that he still needed to prove himself to some degree. Q began to work on his computer as he told Moneypenny every single mistake that her and MI6 made when they almost got one of their best agents killed. He didn't hold back from insulting people when they needed to be insulted, but Moneypenny seemed to find his anger at the situation amusing. By the time Q was done modifying his computer, he felt more confident in his repore with Moneypenny.

He had only been able to work with one person before now and have it work well. Yet when Moneypenny followed his line of reasoning when it came to a previous mission and agreed that not only was his way the right way but would have saved her time, Q wondered if there were two.

+++

Q was a little surprised at how easy it was to settle into a routine when it came to his job at MI6. For a little while, he was sure that everyone in the building that had a license to kill was watching and waiting to see if he was going to try and run. Q didn't consider himself a liar, and he also knew if anyone were going to get the assignment to kill him, it would be Moneypenny ["Call me Eve, Q, or we're going to have issues," she told him a week after they started working together]. He didn't want to put that on her, and he also didn't want to die. So he went to work and worked on gadgets that Eve could take on missions, and after a full month, Eve got her first assignment with him, guiding her along the way. He was in the middle of planting another false trail to make it look like he was out in the world when Eve threw open the door of his office without knocking.

"You know I do design weapons, and I know how to use them," Q said as he briefly looked up at her.

"I would love to see you try and shoot me," Eve replied as she dropped a file in front of him. Their dynamic was one that Q wasn't sure he could really describe. If they were different people, he would call her a friend, but she was also the person pointing the gun at his head if he stepped out of line. He wasn't sure if that meant they could ever be friends. Eve used to look at him like she wasn't sure what to make of him; now, she looked at him with a small smile and mischief in her eyes like she knew that he was going to enable all of her worst tendencies.

Which Q was fully intending on doing, but no one other than Eve needed to know that.

He opened the file and began to look through what Eve needed to do. It seemed that she needed to go to a fancy resort on the beach and find a way to steal a hard drive from a man that was going to fund some terrorists. Aside from that, there was almost nothing in here, and Q realized that they wanted him to do everything. He looked up at Eve, and she was watching him carefully. This was apparently the test to see if the two of them could really work together. Q closed the file and leaned forward.

"So we need to steal information," Q said. "But I'm sure that we can get more done if you're willing to multitask." If she said "no," Q was just going to drop this and not worry about it. However, Eve smiled and also leaned forward.

"What did you have in mind?" she asked, and the look in her eye reminded Q far too much of Bond when he was thinking about lining up the perfect shot.

+++

The mission was fairly standard, but they decided to make it a little more fun between the two of them. Eve went to the resort in the clothing, revealing a lot of her lovely skin and made to draw the attention of every human being within a ten-mile radius. If Q were attracted to women, he probably would have fallen to his knees in front of her just like every other man at that resort. He had meticulously crafted a socialite persona for her, and Eve was very good at pretending to be a vapid young woman with more money than brains. The other socialites who were dipping their hands into funding terrorism looked like they wanted to eat her up when he saw them in the cameras. Q almost wanted to see them try just for the amusement factor. Maybe he could record Eve breaking them over her knee for posterity.

He had helped her memorize the layout and the earpiece that she was wearing, one that Q had designed himself so no one besides him could get to the frequency, helped him guide her to where she needed to go. Q told her what corners would be best to hide in and didn't look away when Eve pulled one of the men to her. He didn't want to risk looking away and having something happen, and it was also very amusing to watch her work. There was a reason she was one of the best. It wasn't hard to convince this man to take her back to his room, and from there, things were easy.

Q had modified Eve's phone, and when she placed her phone on top of his on the table, he was able to access everything. It seemed that even people who were funding terrorism kept things on the cloud and kept their computers and phones linked within an internal network. Eve was having sex in his ear, but Q focused on moving and deleting files. The sex was probably something other people would have cared about, but it was far more interesting to ruin someone's life. The hard drive that Eve was supposed to steal was wiped entirely clean. Q didn't leave a scrap of data, and he fried the system from the inside out. He transferred everything they needed to know from the linked phones and then wiped all of the data from there.

Normally, he would have used this time to empty some bank accounts, but that would be illegal and something that he couldn't do. However, it wasn't technically illegal to change all of the banking passwords, so even if this man wanted to transfer money to terrorists, he was going to have to jump through some hoops. That delay would likely give MI6 the time they needed to decrypt the data and get this man arrested, so now there was a lower risk of him succeeding at giving these men this money. He finished the transfer and the last of the files just as he heard the low groan of an orgasm. Eve didn't stay long after that and walked back to her room.

"Did you enjoy the show?" Eve asked when she was in her own room safely.

"I was more distracted by the lines of code, but next time I'll be sure to listen to men failing to pleasure you," Q deadpanned. Eve laughed, and it sounded genuine. It felt nice to joke with someone and not have to worry about offending them with his sense of humor. He thought the mission was done and wouldn't be a problem, but Eve managed to get the attention of the police at the border. Q spent two full days tracking Eve through the jungle of Latin America, setting off false flags and drawing attention away from her with a few timed explosions, until she was safely on a plane heading back to England. By the time she was in the air, he'd been awake for almost 72 straight hours and fell asleep at his desk.

Boothroyd sent him home and gave Q a look like he was proud of him, which was a feeling that Q didn't really know how to deal with. He was in the middle of a day off when there was a knock on his door, and there was Eve looking a little worse for wear but very much alive. Q blinked and stepped aside so she could come in.

"I have to say I was even surprised at how well we worked together," Eve said as she stole the cup of tea that Q was making right off his counter. "In fact, I believe you're going to find that everyone is very impressed by you."

"I thought I was just doing my job," Q replied, and Eve smiled as she took a long drink of his tea.

"You stayed on the line with no sleep or a break for three days to keep me safe," she said. "That isn't something that people expected from you."

"Does that mean people are going to stop following me home?" Q asked because this whole conversation was throwing him for a loop. Eve shrugged, finished her stolen tea, and walked out of his flat without another word. The entire interaction was a little confusing, but when he went back to MI6 the next day, people stopped looking at him like he was the enemy. It was somehow more unsettling than people looking like they wanted to kill him.

+++

There were more missions as the months started to fall away, and before Q knew it, a year had passed since Bond stuck a needle in his neck and left him in their flat. They were tracking evidence of the group that seemed to be everywhere and nowhere at once. More and more evidence was showing up, and more and more people were starting to pay attention to the case. Several members of Q-branch were doing their part to keep track of everything, and other agents were starting to come to him when they thought they might have something. It was strange to see other field agents, but not any other 00's yet, coming to him and willingly giving him information.

Q stumbled back to his flat after once again staying at work for far too long. He thought he was onto something, and he hadn't gotten a lot of sleep the night before. The night before, Eve was injured and mistook his flat for hers and broke in. He nearly shot her and then spent a good four hours tending to her wounds. It reminded Q too much of the few times that Bond got hurt while they were on missions together, and if his hands shook a bit when he was doing Eve's stitches, then no one needed to know. She was tired and had her guard down, which was different from the Eve he knew.

The fact that she let him patch her up and even slept on his couch despite her flat only being a floor away spoke of a level of trust that was hard to comprehend. Eve was currently in her flat recovering and mentioned that he should come up for food when he got home from work today. Q was so tired that he didn't really want to think about going up a floor for food, but if he didn't go, he had a feeling she would come to him, and that might lead to MI6's best agent getting damaged on his watch. The kill code that M had was something of a very dark joke between the two of them, and Eve would say that damaging her could trigger the code, so he needed to get his ass up there for some takeout.

Q unlocked his door and dropped his computer bag next to his desk. He needed to do just a few things, and then he would take advantage of Eve's hospitality. The monitor from his computer turned on, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement in the reflection of the screen. It wasn't fast enough, and there was a burst of pain in his skull as Q fell to the ground. Q tasted blood as he looked up at the man standing over him.

"If only everyone could see you now," he said as he began to walk toward Q.

"If you want to live, you should leave right now," Q said, but the man just grinned.

"No one believed it when we all heard that the famous Q was working for MI6," the man said, and Q felt like someone dumped ice water over his head. "There's no way he got caught; there's no way MI6 managed to get him, which means that you went to them willingly. You're working for them by choice." He could try to deny that he was Q, but this man didn't look like someone who could be convinced. Q tried to get into the kitchen so he could get a weapon, but the man knocked him down to the ground and sent Q's glasses scattering across the floor. Q could take a beating, but that didn't make the kick to his stomach or the punch to his face hurt any less. The blow to his head was making everything fuzzy, but if he didn't act fast, this man was going to kill him, and he was sure of that.

Q kicked out as hard as he could at the ankle of his attacker. The man cried out in pain, and Q stumbled into his kitchen. It seemed that this man found the gun he kept in there, it was taken apart, but Q did find a knife. The man was stumbling back to his feet as Q walked back into his living room with the knife in hand. The man still looked like he had the upper hand like he thought it was cute that Q had a knife at all, but no one ever expected Q to be trained. So the man didn't expect Q to expertly slip out of his grip, and he certainly didn't expect a kitchen knife to the neck. The man let out a pained noise and fell to the floor. Q could feel blood running down his neck, his lip was split, and his ribs were aching like hell. If his hand shook when he picked up his phone and dialed Eve, then he wasn't going to give himself much grief for it.

"Eve," Q said before she could get a word in, "we have a problem."

Eve didn't quite run down the stairs because she was still healing, and that was impossible, but it was close. Something in Q's voice made her hang up immediately and just go straight to him. Despite her best intentions, Q had become something of a friend in recent weeks. When he stayed with her until she was safe, when he didn't even log off until he was sure that she was on her way home, it endeared him to her. She didn't mean to stumble into his apartment the night before, she really thought she was at her own flat, but there he was stitching her wounds back together and putting a blanket over her when she fell asleep on the couch. Now he was calling her, sounding like something was very, very wrong, and Eve didn't even hesitate.

She was about to kick the door open when Q opened it and looked back at her. There was blood on his clothes, blood dripping from a wound on his head, his lip was split, a nasty black eye was forming, and he was holding himself like it hurt to breathe. Just over his shoulder, she could see that there was a body staining the carpets. Q stepped aside and let her without a word. The scene was fairly obvious; someone managed to break into the flat and had attacked Q. The only reason this person was dead was because of self-defense, but she could understand why corpse disposal was considered a problem.

"Okay, so you have a body in your flat that needs to be taken care of; that is indeed a problem," Eve said.

"Oh, I didn't even think of that," Q replied, and she was tempted to see if he had a concussion. "I was talking about the fact that people know I'm willingly working for MI6." That was also a major problem. They both looked at the body cooling on the carpet, and Eve wondered what exactly they were going to do about this. Q didn't appear to be in the right frame of mind to handle this, which meant that she needed to take charge. She pulled out her phone and dialed Tanner.

"007, I just got home to my family," Tanner said.

"Someone broke into Q's flat and tried to kill him, so now there's a body ruining his carpets," Eve said without saying hello. "He told me that the person that attacked him said that they all know he's willingly working with us." There was a long pause on the other end of the line, and Eve thought she had a feeling what Tanner was about to say, but that didn't mean she was happy to hear it.

"Are you sure that someone tried to kill him?" Tanner asked, which was a question that needed to be asked. Q was a criminal and had played a part in getting people killed. For all she knew he had killed himself, and the fact that he was able to kill this attacker, who looked like he was someone who could break someone like Q in half, spoke that he wasn't untrained. This was a moment where she could say that she didn't believe Q, and that could trigger the kill order. He could be thrown into a cell or arrested until they found a way to prove that he really was acting in self-defense. Eve thought about him stitching her wounds shut the night before and how that didn't fall under the terms of the agreement he made with M. That was just something that Q did to keep her safe.

"I'll confirm, but I'm sure," Eve said, and she was sticking to that. "Please send someone to help with the body, and we're going to need to replace this carpet." Tanner agreed, and she hung up with him. Q turned and looked at her with those big, dark, blank eyes of his that he sometimes got.

"Tanner doesn't believe I acted in self-defense," Q said, and Eve didn't tell him that it wasn't true. "I have a security system that should have gone off. Someone must have bypassed it, but I can show you the recording of what happened." Q didn't wait for her to say that she didn't need to see it right now. He stepped over the body in the living room and carefully sat down at his computer. Eve checked the doors to make sure that they were locked and joined him. Q pulled up the recordings, and they saw the man breaking into the apartment. The security system went off, and he confidently turned and typed in the code. Q narrowed his eyes and said nothing as they continued to watch. It was as Eve expected; Q walked in and was taken by surprise. He was a much better fighter than she thought, and she heard the man on the audio say that they knew he was working for MI6.

"I have a lot of enemies, Eve," Q said as he made a copy of the recording and sent it off to M and Tanner. She moved the two of them into the bathroom, and she began treating the bruises and cuts on Q's body. He barely reacted as she applied disinfectant, or he barely flinched when she pressed on his ribs to make sure nothing was broken. "There is a reason I didn't stay in one place very long, and there is a reason I didn't take long-term jobs. This is why."

"You suspected something like this would happen?" Eve asked.

"I didn't suspect, I knew; I just thought I would have a little more time before it did," Q replied. He sounded so blase about the entire thing, like he just accepted that he was probably going to be murdered for turning himself into MI6 so he could try and find Bond. Eve thought back to the many men and women that she got out of terrible situations on missions, and she very much thought of the ones that she failed to protect.

"Q," Eve said, and he looked up at her. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you. You're part of MI6 now, and we look after our own. No one is just going to sit by and let these people kill you in cold blood." Q didn't look like he believed her, but he nodded and let her finish tending to his wounds. MI6 arrived not long after and began to take care of the flat. Q didn't have anywhere to stay, so Eve insisted that he stay with her. That way, he could just come downstairs to change and get ready for work, and they could head in together. He must have been more tired than she thought because Q didn't argue about that. He simply grabbed his things and left MI6 to work in his flat.

The argument came when they both insisted that the other take the bed. Q said that she was injured; Eve pointed out that he was more recently injured, and they went back and forth for far too long.

"Look, it's a big bed," Eve said after far too long of the two of them arguing about this. "You said you weren't interested the first day I showed you your flat, and I'd like to think we're both adults who can keep our hands to ourselves for however long it takes for them to replace the carpet and locks on your flat. So let's just share the bed like the adults we both claim to be and move on." Q looked like he wanted to argue, but he seemed to see that he wasn't going to win no matter how hard he tried.

"Fine, I know when I'm not going to win an argument," Q said, but he looked extremely tense. Eve wondered if he had let himself sleep around anyone like this after Bond had vanished. When they finally went to bed, it was a little awkward, but it seemed that exhaustion beat out Q's nerves because he fell asleep rather quickly. It took Eve a little longer as she got used to the sound of someone else breathing in her place and the nerves that someone was going to make an attempt on Q's life again that night.

+++

If Q thought that MI6 following him around because they thought he was some sort of threat to national security was strange, people from MI6 following him around because there was an attempt on his life was even more bizarre. He woke up the morning after the attack to Eve, making them breakfast and talking to someone else in the flat. Q tried not to panic about someone he didn't know being so close, but he needed to trust that Eve could protect herself and him if need be. He walked out in a change of clothes and found a man sitting on Eve's couch that he hadn't met before.

"Q, allow me to introduce Alec Trevelyan, also known as 006," Eve said as she finished up some eggs and toast. Alec grinned at Q with a smile that reminded Q far too much of Bond. In fact, his first thought was that Alec and Bond would probably get along very well.

"I saw the footage of you killing that guy," Alec said, and Q felt like he was missing some sort of social nicety of this situation because it felt like he was supposed to reply to that, but he had no idea what to say. "You did pretty well, but Eve and I think you can do better."

"You think I could do better," Q repeated, and that was how he got roped into being combat trained by not one but two members of the 00 program. That was on top of the people who were following him to and from work and the new security measures put into his floor and the entire building. He didn't believe Eve when she said that he was MI6 now, and they took care of their own. The only logical explanation Q could come up with was that he was still more valuable to MI6 alive than dead, and that was why this was happening. M asked him if he thought these were attempts on his life or if they would try something else. Q told her that he didn't think anyone would waste time to kidnap him, and even more so now that he was under the watchful eye of the British government. It was way cleaner to just take him out of the equation. If M had a problem with him making that assumption, she didn't say, and Q didn't want to know what she thought of it.

+++

The agents of MI6 continued to follow Q around for at least a month after the attempt on his life. He thought that it was amusing how bad they were at tailing him, and he would wave to them casually while on the tube or walking down the street just to be obnoxious about it. He had done a few more missions with Eve as well and had designed some gadgets that other agents wanted to get their hands on. Alec would occasionally come to him now and would tell him that Alec was keeping an eye on the hired killers area of the world for Bond. So far, Q hadn't found a single indication that Bond was even still alive. After a year had passed since Bond stuck a needle in Q's neck, he was beginning to think that Bond might be dead, and he brought it up to Eve one night that she was hanging out in his flat.

"You really think he's dead?" Eve asked. They were sitting on his sofa, and there was a terrible movie playing in the background. Eve had brought down a good bottle of vodka, and they were trading off shots like they were drinking water. Q knew that he could hold his liquor, but Eve was giving him a run for his money. They were also sitting much closer on the couch than they used to. It was strange to have a friend like this, and ever since they had to pair up in Eve's bed for several days, she was much more tactile with him. It was kind of nice to have someone touch him that didn't want sex or didn't want to hurt him.

"I don't know, but I don't like the fact that I haven't seen any indication that he's out there. I feel like he would have reached out by now and even more so if he heard I was working for MI6 willingly," Q said with a heavy sigh. "I don't know; I just don't like the fact that he hasn't reached out at all. There should have been something, but there isn't. Our shared accounts weren't touched, none of his tags for a kill have been found, and not a whisper online."

"People thought you two might be dead when you went dark last year," Eve said. "And I'm going to tell you the same thing I told everyone else back then; I refuse to believe that anyone who managed to get the better of James Bond wouldn't find some way to brag about it. We would have seen a body if someone managed to kill him." Q didn't disagree, but it still made him uneasy. They did a few more shots that night, and Q woke up on the couch, with Eve wrapped around him and a terrible creek in his neck. They nursed their hangovers with a proper English breakfast and stumbled into work, hoping no one would notice. The longer he stayed and the more he worked with Eve, the more he thought that she might actually be his friend.

Three months after the attempt on his life, Q was working from home simply because Eve wasn't on a mission, and he didn't feel like going in if he didn't want to. He was trying to find more hints of the organization that he was sure was out there, but it would vanish every time he thought he had a lead. Q was beginning to believe that these people had a hacker working for them that was nearly his caliber. That was the only reason he could think of that there was hardly any information out there. The security outside of his door went off, and the camera came up. A woman with dark green eyes, a fantastic dress, and very red lips stood there. He knew exactly who she was even though he hadn't met her before. The smart thing would have been to call Eve, who was just upstairs, or another agent. There was a chance she would try to kill him, but Q sometimes made bad decisions, and this was one of them.

She didn't look armed, but that didn't mean that she wasn't. If Q didn't handle this now, she would just come and find him again, and this time he might not have as much control over the situation as he did right now. Q opened the door, and those red lips smiled at him.

"Vesper Lynd, how lovely to finally meet you in person," Q said. Vesper smirked and shoved her way into his flat. Q stumbled back, and he knew where this was going before she swept a foot out and sent Q flat on his back. Vesper pinned him down, and he could feel a knife cutting into his neck.

"Where is he?" she demanded, and she sounded furious. "Tell me what you did to him, or I'm going to cut your fucking throat." Q was about to tell her to calm down when the door was kicked open, and there was Eve with a gun pointed at Vesper's head, and this was going to get out of control very quickly if he didn't do something fast.

"Get away from him, or I'm going to shoot you," Eve said, and Q knew that voice. He had heard that voice on many missions before she pulled the trigger.

"Can you shoot me before I cut his throat?" Vesper snapped.

"Care to take that bet?" Eve replied.

"No one is shooting or stabbing anyone," Q said loudly, and they both looked at him like they had briefly forgotten that he was the reason they were both here. "Vesper Lynd, meet Eve Moneypenny of MI6, and vice versa. Eve, please put the gun away, and Vesper, please take that knife away from my jugular, and I promise we can all have this conversation without any bloodshed." Q paused. "Also, I just got these carpets replaced, and I really don't want to do it again." There was a moment where Q was sure violence was about to happen, but Eve put the gun away, and Vesper put the knife away. Vesper even helped pull Q to his feet, and he brushed himself off.

"Vesper?" Eve said as she eyed the other woman. "If I look up that name, will I find any warrants?" Vesper smiled, and it was a smile you could cut yourself on.

"Of course not, darling," Vesper replied, and she turned to Q. "Tell me what you did with him, right now."

"I didn't do anything to him, Vesper, he just left," Q said. Vesper didn't look like she believed him, and that was how he spent the next hour or so recounting everything that had happened since Bond stuck a needle in his neck. It was surreal because Vesper and Eve were still circling each other like they assumed one was going to lash out. Vesper frowned when he got to the end of the story.

"That doesn't make any sense," she said, and Q opened his mouth to tell her that he knew that, but she held up a hand to silence him. "I saw him not long before he did this, and he would not do that to you. He was in love with you, and I know what James Bond in love looks like because he was in love with me at one point. What he felt for you was so much more, and I cannot believe that he would do that."

"Do you know anything?" Eve asked. "Not just about Bond but about this group that we've been chasing." Vesper looked a little nervous for the first time, and Q really didn't blame her. From the little that they knew, the people in this group were brutal and didn't have any issues killing someone who got in their way. That was probably the reason he nearly got assassinated just a few months ago.

"I can't give you specifics because I don't have anything. Like you, I've heard things, and I've seen things," Vesper said carefully. "What I can tell you is that people are watching both of you very carefully."

"Are you saying there might be another attempt on Q's life?" Eve asked.

"All I can say is be careful both here in London and when you go on missions," Vesper replied. "You might want to work on the security of this building. I was able to just walk in, and I can't imagine who else could just walk right in."

"You shouldn’t have been able to," Q said, frowning. "I have been working on the security of this building, and it should have given me an alert when you walked in, not just when you got to my door. There is no reason my measures should be failing."

"Unless someone is making them fail," Eve said carefully. "That's twice now that someone who wants to do you harm has made it past the security of this building. That can't be a coincidence. We might have a mole."

"If you did, I wouldn't be surprised," Vesper said as she stood up. She looked down at Q, and he was struck by just how similar they were. Apparently, Bond had a type. "If you find him, reach out to me. I just want to know he's okay. I know you don't approve of our friendship, but I do still care about him."

"It's not approval, Vesper; I just don't trust you," Q snapped. She smiled brightly like that amused her. For a moment, Q wasn't sure if Eve was going to let Vesper walk out the door, but Q knew for a fact that that name was completely clean, and there wasn't any reason to arrest her. Vesper wasn't a threat to England, just whichever rich man she was conning this week. Eve walked Vesper to the door and locked it behind her. She turned to Q and frowned.

"You have blood on your neck," she said, and Q nodded. He could feel the cut against the collar of his throat. "Do you really think we have a mole in MI6?" Q didn't say anything, which was answer enough. He needed to go over the security system of the building again.

+++

Evidence that someone was trying to kill them became very apparent during Eve's next mission. Everything was going fine until a sniper shot came out of nowhere and narrowly missed going through her heart. She had no idea how Q managed to get her an evac from the area back to London in such a short amount of time, but she was reasonably convinced that he had broken level laws to do it. However, said laws got her back to London without dying, so maybe M and Tanner were willing to look over it. Q was waiting for her in medical and not dead or in a cell, so she counted that as a win for both of them.

"They're not supposed to be coming after you," Q said as Eve rested on too many painkillers that made everything a little fuzzy. Agents didn't like medical, and Eve wasn't a fan either, but at times like this, she was grateful. She could rest and recover and feel safe.

"I don't remember seeing anywhere that they were only going to go after you," Eve said. "We're both trying to take down this group." That answer didn't look like it pleased Q but Eve was too tired to try and figure out how to talk him out of this spiral. The painkillers were intense enough as it was.

"I might be onto something," Q said softly, and that got Eve's attention. "I'm worried that's the reason you got shot. Like they were trying to prove that they could get to you and they could get to me."

"We don't know if the two things are related at all," Eve replied, but Q still didn't look convinced. "Look, you've been awake for two days, I can tell by the circles under your eyes, so go home and get some sleep. They'll let me out of here in two days, and we'll order some takeout and figure out our next step. We're going to stop these people." Q's arms were crossed tightly in front of him, and he wasn't looking at her, but he nodded. She could tell he was only half paying attention, but half of Q's attention was more than the average person's. The painkillers were making her tired, and she really wanted to get some sleep.

"Get some rest, Miss. Moneypenny, we have work to do," Q said softly. She was about to ask him why he was calling her Miss. Moneypenny again, she thought they were beyond this, but the drugs took her under, and Eve slept. She asked the nurse the next day if Q was working, and she told her that Boothroyd had passed along that Q was under orders to stay home for at least forty-eight hours. Eve texted him, and Q replied that he was researching and resting, which was the best she could ask from him when it came to not working.

Eve was released the next day with strict orders to go home and rest, which she was completely fine with. It always took a lot out of her to get shot, and she knew when she needed time to get better. It was well into the evening by the time Eve was heading home, and she texted Q to ask him what kind of takeout he wanted. He didn't reply, but that usually meant he was too engrossed to say anything to her. She would find him staring at a computer screen with several empty tea mugs when she got to his flat. The cab was almost to her building when her phone rang. It was M.

"Yes, ma'am?" Eve asked.

"Come back to MI6 immediately," M said. Eve knew an order when she heard one, and she also knew when not to ask more questions. She apologized to the cabbie and offered to tip him extra to turn around and go back. He did so without complaining too much, and the tip was apparently enough. The sound of the order was enough that Eve wanted to run, but her arm was in a sling, and it hurt to move. She got up to M's office, and she was at her desk with Tanner standing nearby. They both looked grim.

"Has something happened?" Eve asked.

"Yes, 007," M said. "About an hour ago, Q's tracker went offline. It appears, according to the data, that it has been manually tampered with. The tracker went dead for a couple of hours and came online briefly on the Ferry heading to France. He's fleeing, and I've activated the kill order. You and all other active agents are to shoot on sight. He knows too much about our security to be left alive." Eve didn't know how to process any of that because it didn't make any sense. She had spoken to Q the day before; they planned to have dinner tonight and work; why would he suddenly flee? Eve never got a single indication that he wanted to leave in all of the time he had spent here. In fact, Eve thought that he was enjoying himself and even liked his job.

"Of course, ma'am," Eve said, and she had to phrase this next question carefully. "May I look into his disappearance? Maybe we can get some sort of hint about where he's going if we track his motions." M didn't look like she believed her, but she gave Eve permission to do what she needed to do. As she walked out of the office, she watched as Tanner and M sent out the kill order to all active agents. The next time anyone from MI6 saw Q, they would shoot him on sight.

+++

Eve went back to her flat to get some sleep and told herself that she wasn't going to start on this until the following day. However, she found herself getting off on Q's floor instead of her own and going to his door. She had a key, she had access to his flat, and she needed to know what was in there. Eve wanted to believe that there would be some sort of evidence that Q didn't leave of his own volition and she could prove it to M. However, there was a voice in the back of her head that said that even if they could prove Q was abducted, he was still better dead than working for their enemies. The kill order would likely still stand.

Eve opened the door and walked into the flat. It didn't look like anything was out of place. There was a small pile of empty mugs in Q's sink, but that wasn't anything unusual. His computer was off, and it didn't look like it had been destroyed. She thought that Q would have destroyed his own electronics if he had left of his own free will. That was just the smart thing to do. There didn't appear to be anything else out of place. Q didn't look like he packed anything from this flat, including his laptop that he had brought with him to this job. Something in Eve's bones told her that he would have taken that if he had left, but that still wasn't proof. She pulled out her phone and dialed one of the two people who would believe her if she told them that Q hadn't fled.

"Boothroyd," Eve said, "do you know what happened?"

"I saw the alert," he replied, and he sounded very unhappy. "He was supposed to come in tomorrow, and we were going to put another layer of network security into the systems."

"I need you to track all of Q's movements up until the tracker went offline and tell me, anyone you see him with," Eve said. Boothroyd didn't say anything for a long time, long enough that she thought he had hung up on her.

"Q said that he didn't think they would try and kidnap him, he thought they would just kill him, but you're not sure," he replied, and he didn't phrase it as a question.

"I'll be in tomorrow; let me know what you find," Eve said, and she hung up. There wasn't anything else in this flat that was giving her clues aside from Q not bringing or destroying the electronics that she thought he would have destroyed. That would not be enough to prove a kidnapping. Eve went back to her flat and got a few hours of sleep before heading back into MI6 as early as possible. Boothroyd looked like he hadn't slept, and she was even more surprised to see Alec waiting for her as well. She knew that Alec was fond of Q, but she didn't think he was fond enough to question the kill order. "What do we know?"

"Q spent the last two days in his flat, and he didn't leave," Boothroyd explained. "Or I should say it doesn't look like it moved. He could have changed the tracking, but it doesn't look like anyone did. It was late in the afternoon when I saw him leaving the building. He was walking like he knew where he was going. One moment he turned a corner, and the next, he was gone. It was like he vanished for a full hour until the tracker came back online in the Ferry already heading to France." Boothroyd pulled up the footage, and they watched as Q casually walked around a corner, and then the next camera he was gone.

"Who is that?" Alec asked, pointing to another man walking into the frame where Q should have been. Eve didn't think he looked like anything special or like someone who could have taken Q down with the training her and Alec had provided. Boothroyd pulled up a system that was checking the man's face, and it took a moment before a name popped up.

"Archibald Turner, computer programmer, no priors or anything of note," Boothroyd replied. Alec looked disappointed, but there was something bothering Eve about that name. Her instincts were screaming at her that this man was important somehow, and she just needed to figure out why. "Seems he goes by "Archie" to his friends if his social media is anything to go by," Boothroyd continued, and Eve froze. The day she took Q to his flat, he called a person named Archie, and that was who brought him his new computer and desk. Why was this Archie right where Q was supposed to be, and how was he involved?

+++

Q could feel himself slowly waking up, and he became aware of three things right away. The first is that he really needed to stop trying to have friends because it never seemed to work out well for him in the long run. Q thought he was getting some late afternoon or early evening tea with Archie, and the next moment he was being attacked by three large men. Archie stood by and watched as Q struggled to get away. When Archie called him Q, he knew that this wasn't going to end well for him. What Q wasn't expecting was to wake up at all. When the world around him went dark, Q went into that darkness, assuming he was going to die. He knew he wasn't dead because he was in pain.

That was the second thing that Q became aware of. His eyes weren't even open, and whatever light source that was nearby was too much. It felt like the worst migraine he had ever had or like when Bond drugged him, and he was severely dehydrated. There was a chance that was the case here, he didn't have any sense of how much time had passed, but the pain in his head was persistent. That wasn't the only place that hurt. There was also a throbbing pain on his shoulder, and it took Q a moment to figure out why. That shoulder is where the tracker that MI6 put in was, and that pain could only mean that someone dug it out of him. That was not good.

Q finally managed to open his eyes, and he found himself in a very small room with a single light above his head. He was lying on a cot with no blanket, and it wasn't exactly warm in the room. There was no sign of anyone else, and there also didn't appear to be any water nearby either. Q tried to sit up, but that just made his head worse, which did seem to indicate that he was dehydrated. He laid back and closed his eyes; if he remained still, the pain went down to tolerable levels, and he couldn't pick the lock at the door anyway. There was no reason to get out of this bed before he needed to.

It was hard to keep track of time, but eventually, Q could hear people making their way toward the door. He opened his eyes but didn't bother to sit up. Whoever this was had all of the cards, and he couldn't do anything. Meeting this person on his feet wouldn't make a difference. The door opened, and Q tried not to wince from the pain. A man he didn't recognize walked in, flanked by two other grunts. He was an older man with greying hair and a nasty scar on his face down over one of his eyes. He walked around with the confidence of a man that knew he was the most powerful person in the room, and Q could guess who he was.

"Q, it's nice to finally meet you," the man said.

"I can only assume you're the head of the organization that I've been tracking," Q replied. He didn't really want to hear some sort of villain speech from this person. If he was going to die, he wanted it to be over and done with. The man smiled, but he looked annoyed.

"I am. My name is Ernst Stavro Blofeld, and I am the head of the organization known as Spectre," Blofeld said. "You have been a thorn in my side for a very long time now. Between you stealing all of my money and then getting my agents arrested by MI6 and other organizations."

"If I've been a thorn in your side, then why am I still alive? Why not just kill me?" Q asked.

"I believe we can come to an agreement; I'm not an unreasonable man. Besides, you have very few options. I know about the kill order from MI6, and I also know that it has been activated. Any allies you thought you had in the British government would shoot you on sight now," Blofeld said, which wasn't that surprising. If the tracker was offline or tampered with, then M would probably assume that he was on the run. "So come and work for me, and I can keep you safe from any government looking to harm you."

"You run sex trafficking operations that contain children. You move drugs across borders, and you don't bother to make sure they are safe, so people overdose and die. You fund terrorist cells and gang and mob violence all over the world. My morals might be different, but I do have some. I will not work for you," Q said lowly.

"I thought you might say that," Blofeld said. "Well, some time with my men will likely change your mind if you know what's good for you."

"I assure you, Mr Blofeld, I am not weak, and I will not compromise in the face of torture. You might as well shoot me right now," Q replied. Blofeld shrugged and left the room. Q stared at the two grunts that were remaining and braced himself for the beating. It was a beating as they took turns punching him, nearly breaking his glasses, knocking the wind out of him, and kicking Q hard enough that he thought he might have a broken rib. Maybe that would cause internal bleeding, and he could be done with this nonsense. Now he was in pain, he was dehydrated, and he was losing blood from various wounds. Q collapsed back onto the cot and tried to breathe through the pain.

The door opened again, and Q opened his eyes, expecting to see Blofeld or one of his grunts. It wasn't that, and Q felt like someone knocked all of the wind out of his lungs. There, standing in the doorway of his cell, was James Bond. Q's mind once again took in too many details too quickly, and despite how much he thought he would be relieved to see Bond again, he wasn't. He wasn't because Bond looked healthy, well-fed, his clothes were cleaned, and it didn't look like he'd fought his way here. In fact, he had a water bottle and what looked like a first aid kit in his hand. Bond was here to make nice and clean him up so Blofeld could continue to hurt him.

This was the worst kind of torture.

"You're looking well," Q said as he spat some blood onto the floor of his cell. "Are you here to try and hold my hand and break me down?"

"I'm here because they know you won't fight me when I try to tend to your wounds," Bond replied, and it was the first words Q had heard from him since before Bond went out the night before he vanished.

"You drugged me and left me to rot in a hotel room. Why would I let you anywhere near me?" Q asked as Bond took another step forward. "What the hell are you doing here, James? I thought you had a set of morals that you wouldn't break, and Blofeld sounds like he's breaking every single one."

"He offered a better deal than you were offering," Bond replied. "It was just business." For some reason, that hurt more than anything Bond had said or done so far. "It's just business again. You need to accept the offer that Blofeld is making, or he's going to kill you." Q looked into those icy blue eyes that meant so much to him once upon a time and forced everything he was feeling down. Bond could probably still read him, but that didn't mean that Q was going to make it easy for him.

"Then he's going to kill me because I will accept no offer," Q replied.

"Q, he was right; the kill order from MI6 is in place. Anyone you thought might be a friend there will kill you the second they see you. You have nowhere to go," Bond explained, and there was something in his voice that made Q frown. It almost sounded like he was begging, but that couldn't be right. James Bond didn't beg anyone for anything, and he certainly wouldn't have started now.

"Leave the supplies on the floor and back up until you hit the door," Q said. "I can take care of my own wounds." Bond looked like he wanted to fight him but eventually relented and set the things on the door. He took several steps back until he was as far away from Q as possible. Q managed to get to his feet and grab a few bandages and rubbing alcohol. He also took long drinks from the water bottle and tried to ignore Bond as he watched Q carefully. It took some time, but Q eventually managed to get as many of his cuts treated as possible. There was a little rubbing alcohol left, and Q put it halfway between himself and Bond and went back to the cot. If Bond wanted the water, he was going to have to fight Q for it.

"How did they catch you?" Bond asked quietly as he picked up the rubbing alcohol. Q blinked and was a little confused; he thought everyone knew that he was working for MI6 willingly.

"They didn't; I went to them and turned myself in," Q said, and it was nice to see that he could still take Bond by surprise.

"They put a tracker in you, they were willing to put out a kill order, and those are just the terms that I know about. Why would you agree to them?" Bond asked, and Q wondered if he should reveal this. It didn't change anything; it wasn't going to get him out of here, and it wasn't something that Blofeld could exploit. If they knew about Bond and Q, they knew that the two of them were together, but Q didn't want to risk it if they didn't.

"You went where I couldn't follow," Q replied and said nothing more. Bond stared at him for a long moment before turning and walking out of the room. The door closed, and the lock sounded very final. Q laid back down on the cot and closed his eyes. They were going to come back eventually, so getting some rest was probably the right idea.

+++

Blofeld and his grunts return the next day and once again spent a good portion of it beating Q within an inch of his life. This time Blofeld stayed and made sure to point out to Q, like he was an idiot, that the pain would stop if he just agreed with what he needed to do. Q didn't believe any of that for a second, and it was still far too easy to look Blofeld in the eye and tell him "no." It seemed that Blofeld was not someone who was used to hearing the word "no" from people, and he reacted very badly to it. Or at least the bruises on Q's body seemed to indicate that he reacted very badly to it. They sent in Bond again to tend to his wounds which Q turned down and did it himself.

On the third day, they sat a laptop on the ground and told him to hack into MI6, or they were going to start breaking his fingers. Q told them that they weren't going to break his fingers because his fingers were the valuable part of him, and he couldn't hack with a fucked up hand. Blofeld amended that they would start breaking his toes and the bones in his legs if he didn't hack MI6 and delete everything he had on Spectre and send the organization into chaos so they wouldn't have the resources to look for Spectre.

He didn't really want to get anything broken, but he also knew that he needed to keep MI6 safe. So he took the computer, and it looked like he was hacking MI6 for a moment. Instead, he triggered a failsafe that he himself put into place. It locked down every single computer and scrap of data in MI6, and only Boothroyd could unlock it. There wasn't a working computer or server at MI6 that anyone could access until Boothroyd said so.

"What did you do?" Blofeld demanded.

"I triggered a failsafe that has locked down MI6 servers so tight that only one person can open it back up again," Q replied. "I've effectively not only locked myself out but any of your hackers that might be trying to get in as well." Blofeld did not take the news well, and he snapped Q's femur in retaliation. The pain was unlike anything he had ever felt in his life, and this was the sort of pain that might make a man break. Q refused to break; he would die before he did anything to help this sort of person. Bond walked in and looked at Q sadly. It was like he knew that Q wasn't going to do what Blofeld wanted, and there wasn't anything he could do about it.

He didn't ask Q to join Spectre that time. He just gave Q enough painkillers to knock him out so he could get some sleep. As he drifted off, Q thought that he felt lips on his forehead, but that must have been a hallucination from the painkillers.

+++

The call from Boothroyd in the middle of the afternoon, while Eve was in the middle of traveling for a mission, took her by surprise. He wasn't using the comms, which meant that whatever he needed to say needed to be said couldn't be said on the regular line. Eve turned off her earpiece and answered the phone.

"The failsafe that Q designed just activated," Boothroyd said without waiting for Eve to say anything to him. "He designed it to essentially lock everyone out of their systems, even himself, and the only way to unlock it is through me. No one else would know how to trigger that failsafe without actually taking any data."

"So you think he triggered it deliberately," Eve said as she caught up to where Boothroyd was with this situation.

"I do, but M doesn't think so. She's furious that she's locked out right now, but she also doesn't want to risk unlocking it. I'm currently being held in Q-branch under lock and key until they decide to let me out and let me unlock the systems. MI6 is essentially dead in the water, but everything is safe." Boothroyd paused for a moment. "I've already called back all of the active agents because we can provide no support. I believe it would be in your best interest to come back as well."

Q vanished four days ago, and Eve had spent those four days looking into Archie Turner. As Q said, everything about him looked above the line. If he was involved with Q's disappearance or with the group they were looking for, she couldn't find it. Eve also couldn't turn down a mission to look into Archie either, so she told Alec to track him. She booked a new flight back to London and called Alec on his secure line.

"I'm assuming you were told about the failsafe," Alec said. "Quite a ballsy move, I must say. If he's being held against his will, he just destroyed any leverage he had at keeping himself alive."

"Boothroyd thinks that Q triggered it to keep himself out," Eve said as she let herself walk around the airport. "But what if he just triggered it trying to get to our files? He's alive, this pretty much proves it, and they've had him for four days. That is more than enough time to break him or convince him to work for Spectre."

"You think he turned?" Alec asked.

"I think we need to take it into consideration," Eve replied, but she felt like a terrible person for even considering it. Boothroyd didn't seem worried at all that Q might have turned on them, and it was pretty clear that Alec wasn't concerned too. The fact that she was the person that knew him the best didn't bode well. If she didn't speak up on Q's behalf, there was no way M was going to try and save him. "Regardless of whatever is going on with Q, there is a chance this Archie guy works for this organization, and we need to make sure that we check into that."

Eve's sense of time was a little buggered by the time she made it back to London, but Alec was waiting for her at the airport. They didn't bother to check into MI6; they went straight to the home of Archie Turner. He lived in a very modest flat, and his programming job wasn't anything remarkable. The bank details that Boothroyd was able to locate showed no hidden caches of money that couldn't be explained. The only connection they had was the conversation that Eve overheard and an image on a camera. It was a good thing that this wasn't sanctioned because M would never have cleared it. If Archie was indeed a member of this organization, there was no chance he was going to report them to M. It would draw too much attention to himself.

If he wasn't a member of this organization, Eve and Alec were probably walking straight to some sort of suspension.

Archie opened the door when they knocked, and he looked very confused to see them standing there. However, Eve could see how nervous he was, and she knew it had nothing to do with the deadly smiles both her and Alec were sporting.

"Archie Turner?" Eve asked.

"Yeah, that's me; who are you?" Archie asked.

"I was wondering if you knew a man named John Allister? We're co-workers of his, and we haven't heard from him in a few days, and we were wondering if you've seen him," Eve said. "Can we come in?" Archie looked like he very much wanted to tell them they could not come in, but also, there wasn't a good reason for him to say no that wouldn't immediately make him a suspect. Archie stepped aside and let both of them into his flat.

"John is a mate from university," Archie replied. "We reconnected when he moved back to London full time, but we haven't seen each other in a couple of weeks." There was sweat gathering at his temple. "Did you say you were co-workers?"

"We did," Alec said as he took a step closer to Archie. "Do you know where John was working?" Archie nodded, and he was beginning to pale considerably. "Then you know who we are and what we can do. We have you on camera right when he went missing, which seems like quite the coincidence. Care to explain that?"

"I'm afraid I don't--"

"Allow me to explain," Eve interrupted. "We're not actually here on official business. We're looking into John's disappearance on our own because we believe he was taken against his will. I also know that he was paranoid and wouldn't leave his flat to meet with just anyone. A friend from university, an ex even, someone that he trusted, he would have left for that." Archie looked like he was about to fall over and Eve knew that they had him.

"Please, I'm not anyone special; I just did as I was told," Archie whispered. Alec stepped closer and didn't say a word, but Archie squeaked and dropped all pretence. "I was told to plant holes into Q's security system in the building, and when that didn't work, I was told to meet him at a certain corner. They took him, and I made sure none of the cameras saw anything. I don't know anything more than that; you have to believe me."

"Who do you work for?" Eve said, and Archie hesitated again. "You just admitted to tampering with the security of a building run by MI6 and aiding in the capture of an employee of MI6. It is in your best interest to tell us everything that you know now, or things are just going to get worse for you."

"Q isn't the loyal employee you think he is," Archie said. "He might have been taken against his will, but they have a trump card that they are going to use to turn him. He's not working for you anymore; he's working for them, for us." Archie looked between the two of them and hesitated again. Whatever he knew must have been enough to really scare this kid into compliance. "They're called Spectre, and if you keep me alive, I'll tell you everything I know about them."

+++

Archie seemed determined to make himself as valuable as possible because he was convinced that Spectre was going to have him killed once they found out that MI6 had taken him in. He also told M that there was no way that Q hadn't spilled secrets or changed sides; he told her that Q didn't have any loyalties, and he certainly didn't have any to MI6. M looked resigned by the entire thing, but it still didn't sit right with Eve. She knew that Alec and Boothroyd felt the same way, and Eve felt like a bad friend for feeling this way at all. Then she would find herself questioning whether or not Q was ever her friend, and that was just another rabbit hole.

They were into the second day of interrogating Archie and quickly approaching a week of Q missing when M put in an emergency call to her office. Eve didn't like this because the last time she got a call like this, it was to put out the kill order on Q. There was really only one reason that M would insist Eve come up to her office immediately. Boothroyd was there, and he was frowning deeply.

"Q's tracker came back online," Boothroyd explained. "He's not far away, and it just came online a few minutes ago."

"Get there and find out what's going on 007," M said. "You have your orders which means that she was expecting Eve to take the shot if need be. Eve couldn't come up with anything to say to that, so she just nodded and went to the address that Boothroyd gave her. It only took her a few minutes to get there with a car, but Eve was surprised to see Scotland Yard blocking off the road and what looked like an ambulance. She really hoped that there weren't any civilian casualties. There were a few spectators talking to themselves, so Eve put on her best-worried face and walked over to them.

"Did something happen? I've never seen anything like this before," she said casually.

"It was horrible," a woman said, and she was very pale, like she was going to go into shock. Eve wondered if she should call a paramedic over. "Someone pushed that young man out of a moving car. He was so badly hurt when we all went over to him; I'm not even sure he was alive at all."

"There's no way he got that hurt from coming out of the car alone," a man nearby said. "I've been in a few fights in pubs, so I know what a man who has been beaten half to death looks like, and he was beaten half to death." There was a picture forming in Eve's mind, but she needed just a bit more information before she could make a final call. The ambulance was pulling away to go to the hospital, and Eve called M.

"Is the tracker moving like it's in a car?" Eve asked as soon as someone picked up the phone.

"Yes, 007, it's moving; what happened?" Boothroyd asked, but Eve was sure that M and maybe Tanner were also standing in the room.

"Because a young man who looked like he was beaten half to death was pushed out of a moving car, and he's on the way to the hospital," Eve replied.

+++

When they got to the hospital, Eve was able to confirm that it was Q who was being wheeled into emergency surgery to save his life. There was no way to know whether or not Q was beaten half to death because he refused to tell them anything about MI6 or work for them or for some other reason. The beatings looked like they were done over the course of a couple of days, which made sense; they did have him for a couple of days. After surgery, M used her influence to have a barely stable Q moved from the hospital to medical at MI6. She told the hospital that he could be a target and that they needed to keep him safe. Eve wasn't sure how much of that was true since, according to her orders, they were the ones that were a threat to Q's life.

Eve stood outside of Q's room as multiple machines kept him alive. He was in a medically induced coma to keep him stable as he healed, but it was going to be a very long road to recovery, if he was going to recover at all. M, Boothroyd, and Tanner all stood with her as they watched him breathe. M caught all of their eyes and gestured for them to follow her. They went back to her office, and she took a deep breath.

"You have to cancel the kill order," Boothroyd said, and he sounded very determined. "He's half-dead in there, and the only attack on MI6 servers was triggered to keep anyone else from getting in. If they were going to keep him as an asset, they wouldn't nearly kill him."

"They could have hurt him on purpose just to get him exactly where he is right now," Tanner suggested, but it didn't sound like he believed that. Boothroyd also shook his head.

"If they wanted to do something like that, all they needed to do was hurt him just enough that we would take him back," Boothroyd explained. "They broke too many bones, and he has a serious head wound. He's no use to them like this, and they nearly killed him. It makes no sense to send him back to us like this."

"It makes no sense to send him back to us at all," M pointed out. "Q always said that they would just kill him, so why is he still alive at all? Why leave him out like this?"

"He could be a warning," Eve said, and they all turned to look at her. "Q might be who he is, but he is an employee of MI6 that was under heavy surveillance and taken right under our noses. He was returned to us, and as far as we can tell, we have no leads about who tossed him out of that car. It could be Spectre pointing out how easy it was to take one of our own and rubbing it in our faces."

"The real question is whether or not Q is one of our own or not," Tanner said quietly. Boothroyd was frowning, but M was looking directly at Eve. Once again, she was being placed in the position to advocate for Q. If she told M right now that she didn't trust Q and thought he was a plant, M would take those orders and turn off the machines to let Q die. If Eve told them she believed that Q was still loyal and that they needed to take care of him so he could recover, she had a feeling that M would let Q live at least until he was interrogated. She had stared down the barrel of a gun plenty of times and pulled the trigger, but there was something about this death that was making her hesitate. Eve thought about how Q promised her that he would never force his blood on her hands and how he looked like he meant it.

"I think my theory is right," Eve said. "I think this is a message from Spectre, and we need to do everything we can to bring Q back to us. He's one of our own, I'm sure of it." With those words, M canceled the kill order, and they got to work getting Q the medical help he needed to recover.

+++

Two weeks later, Q was still in a coma, but the doctors were pretty confident that he was going to pull through at the bare minimum. He would need lots of physical therapy so he could walk again since one of his legs was basically shattered. Despite the beating that Q clearly took, his hands were untouched, which was more evidence to Eve that they were trying to flip him and couldn't. They needed his hands so they wouldn't hurt them. She was walking back into her flat after a long day when she realized that someone was sitting on her couch. Eve drew her sidearm and pointed it at the man. He stood up slowly with his hands in the air, and she recognized who it was.

"James Bond, it's good to see that you're alive," Eve said without putting the gun down. There was no way she was going to talk to this man without her finger on the trigger; trigger discipline be damned.

"Is he alive?" Bond asked. There was really only one person he could be talking about, and there was really only one way he would know that Q was hurt.

"You're working for Spectre," Eve said without answering him. "Did you do any of those beatings yourself, or did you just sit by and let them happen?"

"Please, just tell if he's alive," Bond repeated, and it sounded like he was going to start begging, which made no sense.

"He's in a medically induced coma, but they think he's going to pull through. Whether or not there's going to be long-term damage from being thrown out of a moving car remains to be seen," Eve said. "Why do you care? You're working for the organization that did this to him."

"I'm only working for them because they need to be stopped," Bond explained slowly. "I'm trying to take Spectre down from the inside out, but I can't do it on my own. I need MI6 resources, and you need an inside man." Eve narrowed her eyes but didn't say anything. "Please, Eve, there's no way he'll be safe until they are gone. I just want him to be safe. Once we take down the leadership, the rest will fall apart, and you can arrest me." It was remarkably similar to what Q said to her all of those months ago. James Bond said he would give up his freedom to protect Q the same way Q was willing to give up his freedom to find Bond.

"Sit down and tell me everything," Eve said without putting her gun away.

THEN

Sometimes, Bond wondered how he got to this point in his life. Q was in his ear telling him where to aim his rifle, and he was waiting for the MI6 agent that was trying to arrest him to come into his sightlines. Not so he could kill her, but to save her from the four men trying to kill her. This was the third time that something like this had happened, and Bond wondered when they were going to have a conversation about keeping Eve alive and how that was probably going to end badly for them one day. Still, Bond took the shots and saved her life. He left the city with Q, and he was hell-bent on spending the next couple of weeks relaxing.

While Bond didn't sleep with anyone else these days, he did enjoy going out and people watching a lot more than Q did. If Q wanted to people watch, he would just hack security cameras and watch from the safety of his own room. Bond, however, liked to go out and see the world a little bit more. He liked to find dodgy clubs and bars and talk to the locals. One could glean all sorts of information if they spoke to the right people at the right time in the right place. They had even found jobs by Bond walking the cities like this, so Q just let him go off. As long as Bond came back to him at the end of the night, Q didn't care.

It was in one of those dodgy pubs that Bond could feel someone watching him. It wasn't like a woman or a man watching him that wanted to have sex or anything like this. This was the feeling of being on the other end of someone else's sniper scope. He looked around carefully but didn't see any immediate sightlines. However, a man across the room did catch his eye, and when their eyes met, the man smirked. He got up and joined Bond at the bar casually like Bond couldn't tell that he was armed with at least two guns and possibly a knife.

"Mr. Bond," the man said, and now Bond knew that this was not going to end well for anyone in this pub. He really didn't want to kill someone in public, but if it meant keeping himself alive, Bond was more than willing to do it.

"I'm sorry, I think you have the wrong man," Bond said, but the man just chuckled.

"I know I don't, so I'm going to get to the point. You're one of the best marksmen in the world right now, Mr. Bond, and my employer would like to bring you on as a permanent employee," he said.

"I'm afraid that I don't work for anyone but myself. So if you'll excuse me," Bond replied as he dropped enough money on the bar to pay for his drinks and leave a tip. He got up to go, fully intending on leaving this man and never seeing him again, but the man stopped him.

"He doesn't take 'no' for an answer, Mr. Bond, so I would think wisely about walking away from me," the man said. Bond didn't even bother to turn around, and he spent most of the night walking around the city until he went back to Q. Q looked a little disappointed that he stayed out all night, but Q was also awake and was lost in coding. Bond managed to convince Q to come to bed, and it really didn't take much convincing. He tried to push the man and that offer out of his mind as he kissed down Q's chest, but it lingered with him.

Bond saw the man two more times in the three months since the mission with Eve, and he kept telling this man 'no' over and over again. It was becoming apparent that this was going to be an issue, and he needed to talk to Q about it. Maybe this man and his mysterious employer were going to be their next targets. Bond had left Q behind again when the man joined him at a bar yet again.

"The answer is still 'no,' and if you approach me again, you won't walk away from the interaction alive," Bond said. The man didn't say anything; he pulled out a phone and showed a video feed. It was someone looking into the place where Bond and Q were staying, and the sightlines to Q were perfect for a sniper. Bond felt his blood run cold, but there was a chance this was a bluff. "I don't believe you." The camera moved to show a local television show playing on a TV across the street. It was the same one that was playing on the television in the pub.

"We don't want your partner, Mr. Bond," the man said. "The thing about hackers is they are usually the smartest person in the room, and I don't believe your Q would actually be loyal. You, however, you're a weapon, and now it's time for you to be bought by a new owner. I will pass you a drug that will knock him out for twelve hours so you can get away. Will he be a problem after this moment?"

Bond thought about how long it took for Q not to tense up when he approached him from behind. He thought about how long it took Q to trust him not only with his life but also with his heart. Bond knew that Q valued loyalty above all else, and if he walked away like this, he knew that Q would never forgive him. He also knew that Q was profoundly paranoid, and a betrayal like this would send him deep underground, maybe for years. By then, perhaps it would be safe for Bond to come back, and he could try and beg for forgiveness. Whoever this group was, they were large and powerful, and neither of them was going to be safe as long as they were around. Bond knew that his only choice was to take these people down from the inside. He took the syringe from the man and said that he would meet him tonight.

The walk back to Q was difficult, and Bond tried to think of some way to get them out of this. He didn't know where the sniper was or if there was more than one. If they tried to run, he might see Q get shot right in front of him, and Bond still had nightmares about the last time that happened. The thought of trying to keep Q alive from a fatal shot and watching the light go from his eyes was terrifying.

It hurt that Q didn't even look up when Bond walked into the room. He was completely at ease as Bond kissed his neck. It was the last time he was going to touch Q, and he wished that they could have another night together, but Bond also knew that the longer he put this off, the better chance that Q might realize that something was wrong. Bond knew he was an excellent liar but also knew that Q could read him better than anyone. So Bond pulled out the needle and injected Q with the drug he hoped wouldn't kill him. The label was something that Bond recognized, but there wasn't enough time to find something else. Q jerked away from him and looked so betrayed.

"James, what the hell was that?" Q demanded as he held his hand to the injection point. Bond didn't know what to say, so he said nothing. "Bond, what the fuck did you just inject me with?" Bond still couldn't say anything, and it was almost painful to see Q realize that something was happening to him. He stood there and watched as Q initiated the sequence that would destroy all of their electronics. That was for the best because any evidence Q might have of where Bond went, or any evidence on this group's activities was gone.

Q stumbled past him to try and get to the next room where the weapons were, but he stumbled to the ground. It hurt to see the panic beginning to settle into Q's eyes as he struggled to move, but the drug was too potent. "Bond, what the fuck is going on?" Q mumbled, but Bond could tell he was about to lose consciousness. He didn't want Q to wake up on the floor, so he picked him up and carried him into the bedroom. Q looked angry, but he also looked afraid. Bond couldn't remember a time that Q ever looked at him with actual fear in his eyes. Bond laid Q on the bed, and Q bared his teeth at him. "Finally finishing the job Silva hired you to do?"

Those words hurt more than anything that had happened so far. Bond tried not to react to how much that hurt, but it was impossible to hide it. Q looked away from him and lost consciousness, refusing to meet Bond's eyes. For a long moment, Bond stared down at him and watched him sleep. He monitored Q's pulse to make sure that he was still able to breathe and his heart was still beating. After thirty minutes, Bond was sure that Q was going to wake up eventually. He pressed a kiss to Q's forehead.

"I'm sorry, but I couldn't let them hurt you," Bond whispered into his skin. He hoped that someday he would be able to tell Q those words himself, but he knew that the chances were very low. Bond took nothing from the room, and the man was waiting for him outside the hotel. "We need to make sure that I'm completely dark. I can't show up on cameras or online or anywhere. If I go completely dark, he'll know that I want nothing to do with him, and he'll see it as a threat. He'll go underground for years, and he won't be an issue for us." The man looked pleased that Bond said "us" and not "you."

"My name is Mr. Hinix, and it's a pleasure to finally meet you, James Bond."

+++

It turned out that the organization was called Spectre, and they were run by a man named Blofeld, who seemed to have some ideas about what he could do to rule the entire world. It would have been funny if it wasn't so apparent that Blofeld was really as powerful as he seemed. It also became very obvious to him very quickly that he and Q had been getting in Blofeld's way for a long time now. Nearly all of the jobs they had done in the last couple of years impacted Blofeld and his operation. The first time Bond found this out, he was sure that Hinx was lying and he was about to get killed. However, Blofeld seemed much happier to have Bond on his side than getting retribution.

"You see, Mr. Bond," Blofeld said the day that they met. "A man like you is a wonder, and it would be in poor taste if I took that wonder out of this world. I'm just so pleased to hear that you finally decided to come and work for me. I hope you know how much I value loyalty." Bond could act like the emotionless assassin everyone thought that he was. He held his tongue when Blofeld made it sound like Bond made this decision himself instead of him essentially being blackmailed.

"Did Mr. Hinx explain my conditions?" Bond asked instead of saying anything else.

"He mentioned them, but I would like to hear them from you," Blofeld replied with a smirk that reminded Bond of a large cat that just trapped its prey.

"I need you to keep me off of the grid at all costs. The world cannot know where I am or who I'm working for. I need to remain completely dark," Bond explained.

"And why is that?" Blofeld asked, and Bond didn't want to answer this because it was something personal to Q, but he was willing to do anything if it kept Q safe.

"My former partner has an obsession about keeping an eye on those that he deems worthy of his time," Bond explained. "He will see it as the greatest possible betrayal that I have gone where he couldn't see. I promised him I would never do that, and if I do, that will be enough to solidify the betrayal, and he'll go to ground."

"He'll be afraid of you," Blofeld said, and once again, Bond wished that he could keep this information to himself, but Q's safety trumped everything else.

"The last words he said to me were, 'finally finishing the job Silva hired you for?' He will want nothing to do with me, and if he thinks I'm alive, he'll be afraid that I'm going to come and finish the job. Q won't be a problem for us anymore," Bond said. Blofeld watched him very carefully, and Bond was trying to figure out exactly what he was looking for.

"Very well," Blofeld said. "Provided your little hacker boyfriend decides to keep his head down, I see no reason to interfere with him at all. Should that change, however, he becomes a nuisance; we'll have to take action for the great good of Spectre."

"It won't be an issue," Bond replied. He hadn't prayed ever in his life, but Bond spent that night praying that Q's paranoia and pride would be enough to keep him away. He just needed to make sure that Q stayed safe until Blofeld and his top people were dead, and then he could beg for Q's forgiveness. Or at least explain himself. Bond closed his eyes and tried not to have nightmares.

Over the next couple of months, Bond kept an eye on the places online that Q would linger and all of his aliases, but there wasn't a single hint that he could find. Then again, Bond knew that Q probably had more identities that he didn't know about and that he could be out there causing trouble, and Bond just didn't know it. Bond began to work on dismantling the organization, but it was much harder than he thought it would be. The upper leadership of Spectre were well protected, and the few people that Bond was able to kill or send to prisons weren't enough to make any sort of impact. He was getting nowhere, and he was getting frustrated.

Over a year after he left Q in that room, Bond walked into a room and saw that Blofeld was furious about something. Hinx was trying to calm him down, but Blofeld wasn't having any of it.

"What do you mean he failed?" Blofeld snapped.

"I mean, the little prick was more trained than we thought, and he was able to fight Johnson off. He's dead, and his body is with MI6. There won't be anything to link him to us, sir, I assure you of that," Hinx was trying to placate Blofeld, but it clearly wasn't working.

"What happened?" Bond asked, and they both turned to look at him. Blofeld suddenly smiled and looked very pleased to see him.

"Bond, it seems your hacker ex-boyfriend is making himself a nuisance," Blofeld said, and Bond felt his blood run cold. He was about to ask what happened when Blofeld continued. "He turned himself over to MI6 willingly and has taken some sort of deal that he is working in Q-branch with a 00 agent. Him and his pet agent are looking into us, and they are making progress. I sent someone to take care of him, but apparently, he's more competent than you let on, so he failed. Now we're going to have to attempt again."

"There's no possible way Q would willingly turn himself in," Bond said slowly because there was no way that was true.

"He took a deal that said if he tries to flee, a kill code will be sent out to all MI6 agents, and he'll be eliminated," Hinx explained. "Our spies at MI6 say that the deal he took is going to be lifelong, and he's never going to be free again." None of this made any sense to Bond; there had to be some sort of mistake.

"Your spies must be wrong," Bond insisted. "Q wouldn't take a deal like that."

"He took it to find you," Blofeld said. Now Bond was sure that his heart had stopped beating. He refused to believe that this was happening, but Blofeld was stalking up to Bond. "You said he would go to ground and hide, you said he wouldn't be an issue, and here we are. The question I have for you, Mr. Bond, is whether or not you're going to be loyal enough to pull the trigger on him should I order it." Bond frantically tried to come up with something he could say that could save Q's life, but he could only think of one thing.

"I would if you ordered it, but I have a better idea," Bond said. "Q is one of the best hackers in the entire world, and now he has all of MI6's secrets stored in his head. Abduct him and bring him here. I'm sure we can convince him to join us. He's not an unreasonable man, and if he sees me here, he'll do it." Bond wasn't sure about that last one, but once Q agreed to come onto Spectre, Bond was sure he could find time to explain to Q what was going on and why they needed to do this. Then they could work together and finally bring Spectre and Blofeld down. He had to believe that.

Bond believed it right until he saw Q in that room, and Q told Bond to go fuck himself. All it took was one look into Q's eyes, and Bond knew that he wasn't ever going to be loyal to Spectre, and there wasn't a time or a place that he could tell Q that he wasn't loyal either. So Bond had to sit back and watch as Blofeld ordered men to beat Q over and over again. He had to watch as Q smugly locked himself and everyone else out of MI6. He had to watch as Q refused to work with them and refused to give up anything about MI6. Not even the threat that MI6 would kill him was enough to change his mind. Bond was beginning to really panic; Blofeld wouldn't allow Q to live much longer.

"I thought you said he would work for us, Bond," Blofeld snapped after four days of this torture. "Yet that man is half-dead, and he still tells me no. People do not tell me no and get away with it."

"We have a report, sir," Hinx said carefully. "The man who made sure that Q was in the right place at the right time was taken into MI6 custody. He doesn't know anything important, but they've made the connection." That was interesting because someone at MI6 was trying to prove that Q was taken against his will and not a traitor. Bond was frantic, and he needed to get Blofeld to let Q live and also appease his ego.

"Sir," Bond said, and Blofeld glared at him. "Q is apparently loyal to MI6 now, and they are loyal to their own. If there really is someone at MI6 trying to prove that Q was taken against his will, then we can use that against him. We took one of MI6's own right underneath their noses; we got an assassin right to their doors; if we send him back like that, then they will know just how powerful you are. They will know that they stand no chance of bringing you down because it is only by your good graces that any of them are alive." Bond swallowed and tried not to think about the second option. "If they don't think he's loyal, then the kill order will stand, and you'll force MI6 to kill Q themselves. If there is even one person that thinks Q was loyal and still killed, that could sew the seed of discourse within the organization." Hinx looked deeply unimpressed with everything that Bond just said, while Blofeld revealed nothing.

"You don't want him to die," Blofeld said.

"I don't, but it's more that I don't want to see him die right in front of me if it can be helped, and I do think that this would be an excellent way to show MI6 who they are dealing with," Bond replied. He had no other cards on the table, and he just hoped that Blofeld's ego was big enough that this would appeal to it. It was, and Bond was forced to bring an unconscious and very injured Q to London. Hinx and other men were the ones that were going to take care of the drop-off, but Bond made his way across the city. Eve Moneypenny was a hard woman to track down, but if there was anyone who would believe that Q was innocent, it was her, and if there was anyone who could help him stop Blofeld and Spectre, it was Agent 007.
+++

Bond finished telling Eve everything that had happened and waited to see if she was going to shoot him. She very much looked like she was contemplating it, and he was wondering if she was about to arrest him or give him the worst news in the world. Bond assumed that Q was alive, but there was still a chance that his injuries were too severe or no one at MI6 thought he was loyal. She was staring at him like she was getting a read on him, and Bond let down all of his walls. He let her see how truly afraid and desperate he was, he let her see something that only Q had seen, and he let her see that he was willing to do anything to make this happen. "Eve, please, is he okay?"

"No," Eve replied without hesitating, and Bond felt like someone just stabbed him in the chest. "Your friends nearly beat him to death, and then they threw him out of a moving car on the London pavement. He had to have emergency surgery, and he's been in a coma for two weeks. Medical seems confident that he'll recover, but he is far from okay." Bond knew that if he moved, there was a decent chance that she was going to shoot him, but he nearly collapsed onto the couch. Eve took a few steps closer to him, but she didn't lower the gun.

"Is there anything I can do to prove to you that I want to help? Name it, and I'll do it, please; I'll do anything to convince you that I need your help," Bond whispered. Eve narrowed her eyes and seemed to think on it for a moment.

"You said that Blofeld has spies within MI6. I want those names so we can monitor the information that they get and what they can pass along. I want proof of who is spying on us, and then maybe I'll think about trusting you," Eve said. It was a much bigger thing than Bond thought she would ask for, but he didn't really have a leg to stand on here. Bond silently nodded, but Eve didn't put her gun away. "I'm going to let you walk out of that door for two reasons. The first is because you did help save my life, and I repay my debts when I can. The other reason is that I know how much you mean to Q, and he has come to mean a lot to me. He would be very upset if I shot you, and I want him healing, not upset. So walk out that door and get me those names. I will tell MI6 about your offer, and we'll go from there." Bond knew that he couldn't push Eve anymore than he already was. The fact that she didn't shoot him or arrest him was a good sign, to begin with.

"Thank you," Bond replied. He stood up and walked out of the flat with Eve following him, gun steady, as he walked out the door. It was difficult to get out of the building without being seen, and he had a feeling that he didn't have a very long timetable to get Eve those names. If he wanted her help, he was going to have to earn it, and he knew that.

+++

Eve locked the door to her flat and released a deep breath. This was so much worse than she ever thought it could be. While she knew that Q was more or less convinced that Bond was dead, she wasn't as sure. There was a chance, she always knew this, that he was being held against his will or he had a reason to go to hide. While Bond was backed into a corner, it was also clear to her that even if Q learned about that, he still wouldn't forgive him. She knew what Q would say, and that he should have given Q the chance to try and figure out a way to protect them. Bond doing this took Q's choice away, and she didn't think that he was ever going to forgive him even if this whole thing worked out.

She was exhausted and wanted to sleep, but there wasn't enough time for that. She pulled out her phone and dialed M immediately.

"007, I assume you have a very good reason for interrupting my evening?" M asked.

"A very good one, M, and one where I need you to get Tanner and get to MI6. This is something that can't be spoken about over the phone. It's not safe," Eve explained. After the month they had had with Q's kidnapping and the way he was returned, M didn't even hesitate to tell her that she was on her way back to MI6. Eve gathered her things and made her way back to MI6 as fast as she could. Bond was nearby, and she was hyper-aware of that, but much like Q, if Bond wanted her dead, he had the chance to make it happen, yet here she was, still alive.

Eve was the first one back to MI6, and she waited for M and Tanner to arrive. They both looked tired, but they all went into M's office and locked the door behind them. Eve then went on to tell them everything that had just happened with Bond and what he had told her. When she got to the part about spies in Mi6 for Spectre, Eve thought M was going to burn something to the ground in anger. Tanner, who rarely got angry, also looked furious at the idea that there could be multiple people in the building that could be intending to do them harm. Neither M nor Tanner asked how Bond managed to get away, and they seemed interested in what he had to say.

"Q and Bond told us they were loyal to each other all of those years ago," M said. "Are you worried that Q's loyalties will change with Bond back in the picture?" Eve knew that it was M's job never to trust anyone, but after seeing how terrible Q looked and how he nearly died, it did annoy her a little that M kept questioning his loyalty.

"Actually, I think this will make it worse," Eve replied. "But, we won't know until Q wakes up, and if there is even a chance that Bond can get us the name of Blofeld's spies, then we need to take that opportunity."

"She's right, ma'am," Tanner said.

"Very well, let's see if Bond can get us the names of the spies, and if he does, we'll think about recruiting him as our inside man," M replied. "However, he is not getting the same offer that Q did. If we agree to this and we dismantle Spectre, James Bond will be rotting in a cell for the rest of his life."

+++

Bond didn't think that Hinx hated him, but the two of them never really got along. It seemed that Bond's hesitation in killing Q had made Hinx decide that he wasn't to be trusted, which was going to make things harder. However, Bond hadn't spent all of this time not making friends. There were several lower-level members of Spectre that if they were in different businesses and had met in different ways, Bond might consider them allies or friends. As it was, Bond really had to fall back on those people if he was going to get any sort of information.

It wasn't surprising that the one person Bond managed to connect with was another assassin working for Blofeld. Mr. White was someone that Bond didn't really know how to handle, but he was a professional. He was one of the few assassins that got to come and go as he pleased and, as far as Bond knew, had a life outside of Spectre, which was not something that Blofeld allowed for most of the people working for him. Spectre was less of an organization at times and more of a cult built around Blofeld. When Blofeld became particularly unhinged, Bond sometimes wondered if he would order all of them to kill themselves and also wondered how many people would do it. If there was anyone who might know who the spies were, it was Mr. White because he would be the one hired to take them out if their covers were blown. Bond needed to make sure that he told Eve to keep those people safe if they wanted to get anything out of them. Bond sat down with White in a small kitchen on the far side of the compound. He was trying to come up with a way to break the silence when White did it for him.

"MI6 picked up your little boyfriend," White said.

"Did they? I was wondering if the kill order was going to stand or not," Bond replied. "Do we have a status update on him from our side, people?"

"We do," White replied. "We know exactly where he is and, if we want to, we can end his life. It's just a matter of when and if Blofeld decides to give the order." That was something that made Bond freeze because Blofeld could decide that Q needed to die because the message had been sent.

"They must have him highly guarded. Do you really think one of our people could get to him?" Bond asked.

"Yes, he is part of the medical team, and he has access to all patients," White said.

"We have a doctor working for us? I would think a doctor would be of better use here rather than at MI6," Bond said because a man that worked in medical and had access to all of the patients might not be enough to narrow it down.

"Not a doctor, a surgeon," White explained, which was likely enough for Eve to narrow it down. However, Bond knew that there was more than one person at MI6, and if he kept asking questions, White was going to start getting suspicious. They spoke about little things for a few more minutes until White excused himself. Bond took a deep breath and released it slowly. He needed to find out more information about the rest of these people.

+++

It took almost two weeks, but Bond finally managed to get more information on all of the people that Spectre had on their side. However, Bond didn't have names, but he did have titles, and that should be enough for Eve to figure out the rest. Or, at least, he hoped that it would be enough that Eve would be willing to work with him. Bond went on a mission for Spectre, which he did extremely quickly but set it up in a way that it would look like it took a lot longer. Then he made his way back to London and broke into Eve's flat again. She wasn't there, and he patiently waited for her to come home. She pulled a gun on him again, and she looked like she was seriously considering pulling the trigger.

"I should shoot you," she said.

"I'd deserve it," Bond replied. "I have some information for you. I wasn't able to get any names, but I was able to get titles. One of them you need to remove immediately because he has access to Q, and the moment Blofeld decides that Q isn't worth leaving alive, he'll find a way to kill him. All of these people are going to be targets of assassins, maybe even me, so you need to make sure that they are apprehended in a way that they can't escape and no one can get to them." Eve walked across the room and sat down in a chair across from Bond, sitting on the sofa. She kept her finger on the trigger and stared him down.

"Tell me what you know," Eve said.

"The one that is the most dangerous to Q is the surgeon you have in medical. It's a he, and he's one of the few people that would have access to even someone with top security like Q," Bond explained. "The second is the second in command of the IT department. A woman, and it sounds like she might have a family. She could be one that is working against her will, but I don't have any of that confirmed. The final one is R. Blofeld is likely waiting for the prime opportunity to kill Boothroyd, so he has complete control over Q-branch. Those are your three traitors." Eve stared at him for a moment before she pulled out her phone and dialed it with one hand. Her finger was still on the trigger.

"M, I have the spies for Spectre; we just need to apprehend them," Eve explained. She rattled off some names that Bond didn't recognize and then hung up."Now we wait and see if there is any evidence that you're correct. If you are, perhaps we can have a conversation about you being our inside man for Spectre." Bond nodded and wondered if this question was going to get him shot in the kneecap.

"How is he?" Bond asked quietly. Eve narrowed her eyes and looked like she was debating whether or not she wanted to tell him. Bond didn't really blame her for that.

"He woke up two days ago," Eve said. "He's been debriefed, and he told us everything that happened and what part you have played in it."

"Does MI6 believe that he's loyal?" Bond said, and Eve raised an eyebrow.

"We believe he certainly has no loyalty left for you," she said. The words were like a punch to the gut that Bond knew he deserved, but it still hurt to hear.

+++

Q wasn't expecting to wake up again. When Blofeld and his goons dragged Q from the room he was being held in, not caring at all when he cried out in pain from his very broken leg, he was certain that he was going to die. There just wasn't any reality where he was waking up from this again. He didn't understand why they were moving him, and he lost significant moments of time to the pain. Q thought he saw Bond a few times, but he wasn't sure. There was too much for him to properly comprehend. At one point, Q thought he was moving, and then he felt weightless. When the world abruptly went dark after what felt like an explosion of pain, he was sure that he was dead. This was the moment; this was the time his eyes wouldn't open again, this time was it.

Which was why opening his eyes again was so confusing.

Q felt strange, and he knew that he was on a lot of painkillers. He hadn't felt this numb since Bond injected him. Right now, he knew that he was on painkillers because even though the numbness there was still an ache that he couldn't explain. He must have been on something strong because Q also didn't panic when he realized there was a tube attached to his throat. There was briefly the sound of someone talking to him, but Q was too tired, and he decided that sleep was the best course of action.

He woke up and fell back asleep three more times before Q felt like he could stay awake for an extended amount of time. When he woke up and felt like he could function, the tube from his throat was gone, and he was slightly less numb. There was also a familiar face standing nearby that likely sealed his fate.

"007," Q managed to say, but his voice was very rough. Eve offered him some water which Q accepted. "Just inject something into the IV."

"I'm not here to kill you, Q," Eve said, but she looked a little nervous for some reason that set off all of Q's alarm bells. "Do I have a reason to kill you?"

"The tracker went offline," Q replied because that should have been enough for him to be executed.

"Did you tell Spectre anything about MI6 or the information that you know?" Eve asked, and now Q was very confused.

"No, but why does that matter? The tracker went offline, and M was very clear that if the tracker went offline, you were going to kill me," Q said. Eve seemed to have endless patience as she very carefully and slowly explained to him that they knew that Spectre, apparently they knew what Spectre was called, had taken him against his will. They saw all of the evidence that Q was tortured, and combined with the fact that he triggered the failsafe, it seemed to be indication enough that he was still loyal to MI6. Q wasn't sure when his loyalty even became part of the issue, but here he was, alive and in MI6.

The next day Tanner, Boothroyd, and M also arrived with Eve. It took a little work, but they managed to get Q sitting up, and he watched the four of them carefully. He knew what was about to happen; this was going to be an interrogation, and if M didn't like what he had to say, there was a good chance he was going to die. So Q spent the next several hours explaining everything that had happened. He told them about Blofeld and Spectre and the few details he could remember about the hideout that he was at. He gave descriptions of everyone and even told Boothroyd that the facial scar on Blofeld might make him easier to track down with facial recognition software. They all seemed pleased with that idea.

Q had a feeling that they all knew more than they were telling him, but he knew that for sure when he told them about Bond. They were all spies, but their lack of reactions told him that they knew about this before he told them. Q still told them about how Bond tried to recruit him and that, as far as he could tell, Bond was not being held against his will. There was a good chance he'd been working this entire time for Blofeld and just hiding his involvement. Q said that if they wanted to, he could eventually go over any assassinations that had happened since Bond vanished to see if there were any clues. They seemed to like that as well.

From there, they all told him what they knew as well. Archie was already in custody, and Q was very much okay with that. Eve explained that he was the one who had been sabotaging Q's security at the building, which was annoying. Q let him into the building because he thought he could trust him, and it was apparent to see how that went. They told him what exactly had happened to him. Q was a little surprised to find out that he'd been thrown by a moving car, but they didn't tell him all of his injuries, so Q gestured for his own chart so he could see what had happened. He also found out that he'd been in a coma for a month which was surprising. None of them mentioned how they knew about Bond, though, which was discerning.

Finally, M, Boothroyd, and Tanner all left, and it was just him and Eve. Since he was still alive, he guessed that he had passed whatever test he'd just taken. However, it was still a little confusing about why they were making the exception. It just didn't line up with everything that had happened since he started working with MI6.

"I don't understand," Q said when it was just him and Eve. "M was very clear about what rules weren't to be broken, and I broke them if a bit unintentionally. Why did she even entertain the idea that I might not have said anything?"

“Alec, Boothroyd, and I had our doubts about you working for Spectre," Eve explained. "You have a very strict set of morals, and I didn't see you breaking them even to save your own life. You don't have a disregard for your own life, but you also don't entirely value it either. So we found Archie and looked into you vanishing and presented the evidence to M. She seemed to agree that we needed to at least talk to you before we pulled the trigger."

"You knew about Bond," Q said, and Eve looked a little pained. "How do you know about him?"

"He came and found me," Eve said. "He broke into my flat and practically begged me to tell him if you were okay. Then he explained everything that had happened and why he was working for Spectre." Q held up a hand, and Eve stopped talking.

"I don't want to hear his reasoning and, no offense, I certainly don't want to hear it from you," Q replied.

"That's acceptable," Eve said. "I won't tell you exactly his line of thinking, but I will tell you that he wants MI6's help to take down Blofeld and Spectre. He was willing to take whatever terms we offered him to make that happen, including going to prison for the rest of his life." Q could tell that Eve wanted to point out that Q had done pretty much the exact same thing, but she didn't, and Q was not in the right frame of mind to deal with it. "He told us that Spectre has spies in MI6, and if he brings us the identities of these spies, we'll consider working with him to take down Spectre." Q frowned as he thought about that. It sounded like something James would do; try to take this organization down from the inside. The question that was bothering Q was how long had he been planning on doing that? Was it something he planned from the beginning, and if so, why didn't he include Q? Was it something he decided to do recently? Q could also tell that Eve wanted to ask him something but wasn't entirely comfortable enough to do so. However, he was a smart man, and he could put two and two together.

"And if MI6 decides to work with him, then you'll likely be the agent, and I would have your support," Q stated, and Eve nodded. "You want to ask me if I can still work with Bond, and the answer is yes. I can carry on a professional relationship with that man for the greater good. My personal issues with him won't get in the way of the mission." Q paused because he wasn't sure if he still believed this, but it felt like something that needed to be said. "If Bond says you have spies in MI6, then you probably have spies in MI6."

"I hope to hear from him soon," Eve said.

The next day, Q was reading when the door to his room opened, and the surgeon who worked in medical was walking in. Immediately, Q knew that something was wrong because the man just looked a little off. He was also holding a syringe, and, as far as he knew, Q wasn't going to get any other medication today.

"Doctor," Q said, and the doctor looked a little disappointed that he was awake. Q was also hyper-aware that if this man tried to attack him, there was very little he could do to protect himself. He was weak from the coma, and he couldn't walk yet. His leg was also still healing and would need physical therapy. "Can I help you?"

"I just need to add a new medication to your IV," he said.

"What is in the syringe?" Q asked, and the doctor hesitated.

"Excuse me?"

"I said, what is in that syringe? Because I have access to my file, and I know that no one was assigning new medication to me without talking to me about it first," Q said. There was a brief moment where Q thought he was going to have to try and beat this man off with the book when the door opened, and Alec nearly tackled him. "I assume that it is one of Spectre's spies."

"That would be correct," Alec said with a grin. "We have all three getting gathered up at once, so they couldn't warn each other. I just had a feeling that we should take care of this one before he got any funny ideas." Alec looked Q over. "You've looked better, and we need to work on you not getting kidnapped next time, but you're alive, and that's all that matters." Q blinked as Alec took the surgeon away. He could only assume that that was the Alec version of saying that he was happy that Q was all right and that he hoped Q would recover well. There wasn't anything he could do without a computer or the ability to walk, so Q went back to his reading and waited.

+++

Eve waited until she was sure that all three of the spies had been taken into custody. She got a call from Alec saying that he all but tackled the surgeon in medical, and he was trying to inject Q with something. So Bond was right that Blofeld was trying to show off just how vulnerable all of them were. If he got three people that high up into the ranks, there was no telling what kind of sway he had all over the world. There were likely Spectre agents all over agencies and in the government. They needed to stop this, and that started by taking out all of Spectre's leadership and eventually Blofeld. They needed Bond.

"You're coming with me to MI6," Eve said. "Don't worry; I can get you in and out without anyone knowing. There is an entrance that will take you directly to M's office, and we will figure out what we're doing there. If you try anything, I won't hesitate to shoot you. Do we understand each other?" Bond silently nodded, and the two of them began to make their way to Mi6. It took significantly longer than usual because they couldn't let Bond be seen. Eventually, they made it to the entrance that took them directly to M's office. Bond was compliant, and it was reminding Eve far too much of when Q turned himself in as well.

M and Tanner were waiting for them when the door opened, and Eve walked Bond in. She had already checked him for weapons and knew that he was unarmed, but she nevertheless kept her gun on him. She would not let him take her by surprise.

"Mr. Bond, people have been looking for you, and how surprised we were to see that you are alive and well," M said.

"I know, I explained to 007 everything that has happened, and I'm here to offer my services as your inside man to take Spectre down. Blofeld and his men cannot be allowed to exist any longer; they must be stopped, or no one will be safe," Bond replied. Eve knew that he wasn't actually talking about everyone specifically but that his primary reason for doing this was so Q would be safe.

"I see," M said as she narrowed her eyes and stared at him. "If you help us destroy the entity known as Spectre and aid in the capture or killing of Blofeld, I will consider that enough to take execution off of the table, and I will not turn you over to the various governments where you are wanted. You'll live out the rest of your days in a cell comfortably, and you'll be safe from the people that would do you harm. If you don't agree to those terms, we won't be working together." Once again, Eve found herself having a flashback to the day that Q turned himself in, only this time it was even worse. Bond wasn't going to be an employee of MI6; he wasn't going to be serving his sentence by serving his country; he was going to prison. And much like the way Q didn't hesitate, Bond didn't either.

"Whatever it takes, I agree to all of the terms," Bond replied. There wasn't a lot of time to strategize and figure out how they were going to do this. Bond said that he didn't think they should meet up in person at all going forward, and they all agreed on that. It was already a risk to have him here in the first place. Eve and Bond arranged a dead drop location where Bond could leave information about where the various members of Blofeld's inner circle would be. If they could take all of those people out, Blofeld would be vulnerable. "If I have the opportunity, I will pull the trigger once all of his lieutenants are dead."

"It might come to that," Eve replied. "I think the best way of making these men vanish would make their deaths look like accidents. Even if we arrest any of them, they aren't going to talk, and that would prove to Blofeld that something was happening. We need to slowly but efficiently take out his men steadily until he looks up one day and realizes no one is left."

"If I can give you the location, you make the accident happen," Bond hesitated for a moment. "Q will be excellent at that. You need to get him involved as soon as possible, if that's possible."

"He's already agreed to remain professional and do what needs to be done," Eve replied. She could tell that that hurt Bond to hear, but she wasn't overly concerned with how he was feeling right now.

"The most important thing is making sure we do not have any civilian casualties," Tanner said. "The thing about 'accidents' is that they usually involve more than one person, and we can't let more people die for this group."

"Civilian casualties should be kept to a minimum," M stated, and Bond really didn't look happy about the word 'minimum', but he wisely kept that to himself. "You are correct, Mr. Bond; Q-branch will be instrumental in making sure these accidents happen. We just need to know where and when."

"Consider it done," Bond replied. Eve escorted him from MI6 once they figured out the best way for Eve to check the dead drop. Her finger was still on the trigger, but she did feel a little less inclined to pull it. Bond agreed to the terms, he was willing to go to prison for the rest of his life for this, and even if he was only doing it to keep Q safe, that had to mean something. If they were going to work together like this, she was going to have to trust Bond not to lead her into a trap. They were about to go their separate ways when Bond turned and looked Eve in the eye. "If I tell you to pass something along to him, you won't do it, correct?"

"That's correct," Eve replied.

"Good," he said. "Q deserves people he can trust and people that actually care about his well being. He hasn't had a lot of those in his life, and I'm glad you're looking out for him, and I hope you feel safer knowing he's looking out for you." She wanted to tell Bond that Q was the best support she had ever had, that he didn't deserve the loyalty that Q had given him, but that wasn't going to help her, and it wasn't going to help him either. Eve said nothing and watched as Bond walked away. She just hoped that she could trust him.

+++

Q really wished that medical would let him back into his office. He was learning how to walk, and he had a hard time keeping his arms level, but there had to be some way of making him comfortable so he could work in his office. Eve had come down and told him the plan with the accidents, and Q knew he needed to be in tip-top form to make that happen. Bond would have suggested to them that Q was the man for the job, and he was. He would also not send Eve into the world to assassinate some of the most dangerous men ever without him in her ear. He refused to allow that to happen.

So he fought with medical a lot. They tried to keep a laptop out of Q's room, but he managed to convince them that the mental stimulation would be good for his recovery. He wasn't entirely sure they believed him, but they let Q use his laptop in short bursts. He couldn't craft an accident until he knew where this person was going to be and who they were. So Q was stuck sitting on his hands until they got the first dead drop from Bond. Q also managed to argue himself into a meeting with Archie. He was in a wheelchair, and while showing that level of weakness made him uncomfortable, Q hoped that the reality of what happened would get to Archie and make him talk.

"John," Archie said as Q wheeled himself into the room. There was a clear wall between the two of them, and Archie's cell looked rather comfortable. Q wondered if Bond's cell was going to look this nice.

"We both know that's not my name," Q replied. "I would ask why you did this, but I'm sure the answer is extremely boring."

"I'm afraid it is," Archie replied with a shrug. "I was online gambling, I got in too deep, I tried to steal from the wrong people, and then they recruited me. It was before you came back to London, so you'll be pleased to know it wasn't personal."

"As you can see by the state of my body, I find it very hard not to take it personally," Q snapped. His patience was wearing thin, and this time Archie flinched. "They threw me out of a moving car, did you know that? They threw me from a moving car, and I was in a coma for a month. I have to learn how to walk again because you handed me over to them. Please, look upon the fruits of your labor. You must be very proud." Archie was silent for a long time, and he was a little pale.

"Back when we were together, I knew something was off," Archie said. "I could tell you were hiding something from me, but I could also tell you were trying. I think we would have worked if you hadn't left. I think we would have worked well together, but you left, and here we are now."

"Are you implying that my leaving is the reason I'm sitting in this chair right now?" Q asked, but he held up a hand to silence Archie from saying another word. "You are not that important in the story of my life. If Spectre wanted me, they would have taken me, regardless of whether or not you worked for them. I hope that you provide valuable information, so MI6 has a reason to protect you." Archie said nothing as Q turned and wheeled out of the room. Q never failed to be impressed by the ego of some people. Bond agreed to the dead drop two weeks ago, which meant that the first one would be coming soon, and Q needed to be ready to help.

+++

Eve got the first dead drop after three weeks. Once they manage to take out the first member of Blofeld's inner circle, they are going to have to move fast. The dead drop explained exactly where the man, his name was Mr. White, was going to be and what he looked like. Eve got the information to Q, who was still recovering but managed to bully medical into letting him into his office most of the time. Eve was actually rather impressed by Q's ability to not only talk his way out of medical but also bully them into what he wants. That was a skill she thought only field agents had.

"I've sent you the information," Eve said as she walked away from the dead drop.

"I got it, and I'm looking it over," Q replied. "Do you think someone would break down the door of my office if I locked it?"

"Probably, you should be resting," Eve said, but she knew that she would not be resting if she was in Q's shoes, so she couldn't really judge. Q, thankfully, did not call her out on her hypocrisy. "Any thoughts?"

"The little information that Bond gave us says that he is one of Blofeld's top assassins, but that he also has a life outside of Spectre which is apparently rare. That means if there is anyone who is going to be out in the open, it's going to be him. That is good for us because it means more opportunities, but it also means that he is someone that is used to being exposed. That means he's going to be extra careful," Q explained. "He's going to be in Vienna for a day in approximately three days. That is our window. Get to the airport, and your ticket should be waiting for you." Q went silent in her ear for a long time, and Eve was about to board her plane when he finally spoke again. "I've done some digging, and it looks like he has a flat."

"So, what mundane accident are you thinking of?" Eve asked quietly. She was in first class, and there wasn't anyone around her, but she wanted to be sure.

"Haven't decided, but I will have an idea by the time you land," Q said, and the line went dead. Eve settled into her seat and began to think of her own ways that she could take this Mr. White out. He could get pushed in front of a train or traffic, but that would be too easy to trace, and there was a chance that someone could see her doing it intentionally. Eve also wasn't keen on traumatizing some more train engineer or driver either. The other ways like falling down the stairs or something like that could cause an injury and not death. There were other freak accidents, but Eve knew they couldn't tip their hand too quickly. If they needed to do something ridiculous in the eleventh hour, that would be different, but this was the first man they were taking out.

As soon as Eve walked off of the plane, the earpiece in her ear came to life.

"I have an idea, but it's going to be a pain in the ass for you," Q said without a greeting.

"How much of a pain in the ass are we talking about?" Eve asked.

"Carbon monoxide poisoning. You are going to place several pounds of dry ice hidden in a closet in the bedroom, and it will slowly sublimate and fill the room with CO2. He will suffocate in his sleep, and it won't leave any evidence because once it is done sublimating, it is gone," Q explained.

"So I need to get into his flat with the dry ice and get out without being detected and without White knowing that someone was within spitting distance of his flat trying not to be detected," Eve said because this did sound irritating.

"Fortunately, it seems that our Mr. White is very confident in his own abilities. There is also no security around his flat because it is under an assumed name, and he only goes there once a year and stays for one day," Q said. "Regardless, I can make you go dark with some work, and we'll need to break his windows so he cannot open them."

"All right, let's get to work," Eve said. Q went about guiding her through the city to find a place that would sell dry ice to them in a day or so. They needed to time this right so the ice would melt while White was sleeping. That meant that Eve was going to have to break in mere hours before he got into Vienna. Fortunately, White was landing very late and would probably go right to bed which was good for them. Q also guided her to the flat and told her how to sabotage the windows quickly but make it look like they were just stuck because the building is old. Eve practiced on the window in the flat that she was renting across the city until she got it right.

"Q, you need to go to bed," Eve said. "You've been up too long, and you don't want medical to come and lock you out of your own office."

"They wouldn't dare while you were on a mission," Q said, but she could hear him yawning. "I had them roll my bed into here so I can just walk right over. Or hobble right over since I'm still working on learning how to walk again." He was trying to make light of it, Eve could tell, but there wasn't anything that she could say that would make this better.

"I'll talk to you in a few hours," Eve said. Q grunted, and she could hear him making his way across the room. It seemed that he was going to sleep with his earpiece in. After Q let out a slight sound of pain, the line went dead, and she knew he had cut off communication with her. Eve settled into her flat, closed her eyes, and tried to get some sleep.

The plan needed perfect timing to work. If they put the ice in the closet too soon, it wouldn't be enough to kill White in his sleep. If they waited too long, it could impact him right away, and he might leave thinking something was wrong. Q suggested 5lbs of dry ice would need twenty-four hours to sublimate completely, but they needed it to be gone entirely by the time the morning came along. White would get to his flat around 2300 hours which meant they needed to get the dry ice into his flat by 0700. They were both awake long before then, and Q helped her find somewhere that was selling the dry ice. She had handled it before, but that didn't mean it was fun to handle.

From there, Eve went across the city, with Q watching her every move and watching White's every move as well, and broke into his flat. It wasn't hard to leave the ice in the closet, and when she closed the door, it was hidden in a place that no one would think to look at right away. From there, she broke the window in the flat, so it looked like it was just stuck and needed to be fixed, and she removed the batteries in all of the alarms in the flat to dead ones just in case there was a carbon monoxide alarm. She also triggered the gas line in the kitchen Eve was heading back to her own flat by the time White was getting on the plane. Now they had to sit around for 24 hours and see if there were any reports of someone dying from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Eve wanted to wait to see if anything would happen, but Q had her on a train before lunch, and then she caught a flight in Italy back to England. It was much safer to see if this worked remotely instead of hanging around a city where a high-level Spectre agent was just killed. Q tracked White from the airport to his flat and watched him go inside. Then there was nothing. It was past the time that someone should have found White or saw that he wasn't where he was supposed to be, but since he wasn't doing anything for Spectre, it might take someone a few days to find the body. Q obsessively watched his cameras for any sign of White, but after three days, there was no confirmation of a body, but there was also no sign of White either.

On day four, Eve was napping on the hospital bed that medical put in Q's office when he shook her awake. Eve rubbed her eyes and looked up at the screen that Q was pointing at. It was a report in an Austrian newspaper about a man found dead in his apartment from carbon monoxide poisoning. It was being reported as a tragic accident, and the name listed on the article was the name that White had listed on the lease.

"I hacked the death records, and it's him, and they have already ruled it a tragic accident," Q said.

"Now we need to wait and see if Blofeld and Spectre think it's a tragic accident as well," Eve replied, which meant they needed to wait for the next dead drop from Bond. Eve wasn't sure how long this would take, but a few days later, Bond left another Spectre agent location, description, and location for them to find. At the bottom of the information, Bond told them that Blofeld didn't suspect foul play at the moment, but that could change. Eve showed the letter to Q, and he read it over silently.

"One down, and we'll have to see how long Blofeld is willing to believe coincidences," Q said. "If he catches on too quickly, Bond might have no choice but to take care of it himself." Q didn't mention that "taking care of it himself" would likely be at the cost of Bond's own life, and Eve didn't bring it up either. She settled down next to Q as they began to go over the next target.

+++

Bond was in the room the day that Blofeld got the news that White was dead. It made him nervous, and he thought, for sure, that this was going to be it. Blofeld was going to insist that Bond was shot on the spot or say that he knew about Eve and Q and that they both needed to die. Blofeld was already furious that his spies had been found out, but he heard that the surgeon was caught trying to inject Q with something, and they all assumed that he had talked and given up the names of the other two. Blofeld was talking about trying to get someone like White into MI6 to kill them and the kid who gave up Q, but once White died, Blofeld was distracted by it. Blofeld ordered that White's death be looked into, but it turned out that it was ruled an accident. There was a small gas leak, and he had died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

He had to give Q and Eve some credit because that was a smart way to go about making it look like an accident. There were five other members of Blofeld's inner circle that needed to die, including Hinx. Blofeld and Hinx were rarely apart, so Bond mentally told himself that he was going to be the one to take the two of them out in the end. So he sent the next name to Eve and Q and went on his way. It was actually rather impressive to see these people dying in ways that no one could prove were actually intentional. One of them got a rare parasite into their food, and they died in the hospital. Another contracted an infection from a minor scratch that looked like it shouldn't have been a problem. Eve and Q were working efficiently, and as soon as he got word that the fourth one was dead, Bond knew it was time to move. There was no way Hinx was going to leave Blofeld's side, so he needed to do this himself.

Bond gave himself twelve hours to get everything set up. In the last dead drop, there was something left for him. It was a clicker from Q that would loop footage from a camera for three minutes if the button was pressed. It was exactly what he needed to plant the trap that would ensure that Blofeld and Hinx didn't have any backup. He also left Eve the location of the safe house and a rough timeline about when he was going to do this. She probably wouldn't get it until it was too late, but Bond had come to terms with that. He wished he had an update on Q and whether or not he was recovering. He could tell that Q was working, but did that mean he wasn't in pain anymore? Did that mean he didn't need any more help? If there was one thing that Bond wished he could know before he did this and likely died, he wished it was that.

He also wished he could apologize.

Bond used the clicker to loop the cameras and plant explosives in various places in the compound. That would knock down the walls and seal all of the men in one section of the house and seal himself in another section with Blofeld and Hinx. Then Bond just had to hope that he could beat Hinx in a fight and also take down Blofeld before they killed him. Bond gathered all of his weapons, the charges for the explosions, and made his way toward Blofeld's room, where he was waiting with Hinx. Bond stood in the hallway, and he could see four guards waiting near the door. He would have to kill them to get to Hinx and Blofeld.

Bond thought about how he needed to do not just for all the people he had hurt working for Blofeld for all of this time, even if he was trying to do something good, and how he needed to be redeemed for that. That was the selfless reason for doing this, but the selfish one was so that Q would be safe. He could see that Eve really cared about him, and 007 would keep him safe. She would make sure that no one ever got their hands on him again. Bond pushed the button to set off the explosions, and the entire compound shook.

The four men were so surprised by the duel explosions that Bond was able to shoot them very quickly. There was some dust on him, and he stumbled through the door into the room where Hinx and Blofeld were.

"Someone is attacking the compound," Bond said as he locked the door behind him. He kept his back to the door, and he knew that both Blofeld and Hinx didn't believe him. Hinx was a large man, and Bond needed to dive to the side to avoid Hinx putting him through the door. Bond tried to pull a gun on him, but Hinx knocked it out of his hand so hard that Bond thought he heard a finger joint pop. There was pain, but he ignored it. There was no going back now. Bond pulled a knife out of his sheath and flipped it in his hand. If there was one advantage that Bond had, it was that Hinx was much larger and slower than him. So it was a little easier to dodge his punches. However, when Hinx landed a punch, Bond barely managed to stand on his feet. Hinx was also a defensive fighter, and Bond knew if he was ever going to get a killing blow in, he needed to get close, and that meant taking a hit himself.

Bond dodged another punch but took a hard punch to the ribs. He knew that something was broken, but that didn't matter. Bond dropped the knife, switched hands, and slammed the blade into Hinx's neck. There was no time to deal with the satisfaction of besting Hinx because Blofeld was still in the room and still dangerous. Bond shoved Hinx to the side and barely managed to dodge a gunshot that would have taken off his head. There was a table nearby that Bond kicked over and hid behind.

"So, tell me, Mr. Bond, were you ever loyal to me, or were you just trying to protect that little hacker shithead you were fucking?" Blofeld called out.

"It's over, Blofeld," Bond called out. "All of your upper leadership is dead, and MI6 is on the way. If you turn yourself in, they might let you live." He needed to get one of the guns, but his only remaining weapon was across the room, and if he left cover, Blofeld would shoot him.

"You think Spectre will die with me?" Blofeld said.

"No, but it will be wounded enough for MI6 to destroy the rest of your empire," Bond said, and another shot went off. It went through the table and grazed Bond's arm, but he didn't say a word. Blofeld was near his desk, and who knows how much ammo he had over there.

"You're going to die here, Mr. Bond, but I want you to know that I'm going to get my hands on your little hacker and his pretty agent friend. I'm going to make sure that they die slowly and painfully and that they know the reason they are dying is that you failed," Blofeld laughed as he fired off another shot. Bond counted, and he was reasonably sure that Blofeld had one more shot left. "Did they promise to let you walk free if you helped stop me? You had to know that was a lie. They aren't ever going to let you see the light of day again, Bond."

"I know," Bond said, and another shot went off, "and neither will you." Bond scrambled across the office to get to the gun. Another shot went off, and it tore through his side, but Bond didn't stop. It appeared that he had miscounted, but there wasn't any time to linger on that. He got to the gun, put it in his hand, and pulled the trigger before he even lined up the shot. He was the best for a reason, and the bullet went through Blofeld's head. He fell to the ground with a spray of blood and gore painting the walls behind him.

Bond was losing blood fast, but he thought he heard people in the hallway. If it was more soldiers, he was dead, but he was probably dead no matter what. Between the blood loss and the possible internal bleeding, Bond collapsed to the ground. He thought he heard someone calling his name, but that couldn't be right. There was no way they would be searching for him in this mess because he didn't really matter in the end. Someone was trying to break down the door, and it sounded like they were about to succeed. The world went dark around him just as the door splintered.

+++

Bond thought that the afterlife would be less painful, and then he realized that that statement was stupid and that if he was in pain, then that meant he was still alive. It took a long time for Bond to find the energy and motivation to open his eyes, but the light was far too bright when he did. He winced, and someone turned it off. He tried to look and see who was in the room with him, but the pain pulled him back under. The next time he woke up, he was alone, but now he realized that there was a handcuff on one of his wrists, chaining him to his bed. So Bond could only guess he was at MI6 since he was still alive and people were giving him care. He tried to ask questions, but no one answered him. After a while, he gave up and focused on trying to get better, even if it meant he was healthy enough to walk into his own cell.

Four days after he woke up, Bond was sitting up in bed and staring at a wall when the door opened. He was still a little sensitive to light, so he winced when the light from the hallway poured in, but then his heart stopped when he saw who it was. It was Q slowly making his way into the room. He was leaning heavily on a cane, and he was much paler and thinner than Bond had ever seen him before. Q was clearly still in pain, but the thing that hurt the most was the blank expression on Q's face. Bond hadn't seen that expression since the first time they met each other all of those years ago, and even then, Q was at least a little amused by him. This Q didn't look amused at all.

"Mr. Bond," Q said. "It's good to see that you're awake. You'll be pleased to hear that medical says you will make a full recovery from your injuries."

"Q, I need to tell you what happened," Bond said.

"MI6 would like to thank you for the work you did bringing down the entity known as Spectre," Q continued as if Bond hadn't said a word. "Agents around the world and from multiple agencies are in the process of picking up and dismantling the rest of the operation, but the primary players are all either dead or captured thanks to your actions."

"Please, just let me tell you what happened and why I did this," Bond said. Q didn't say anything, but he raised an unimpressed eyebrow, which was the break in conversation he needed. "They had a sniper on you, they knew where you were, and they said if I didn't go with them, they would--"

"Allow me to stop you right there, Bond," Q snapped, and now he sounded angry. "I don't know where in the many years we worked together that you thought I was some damsel in distress that needed saving. I survived a long time without you, and I would have continued to survive if we had never met. If you think I will accept you telling me that there were no other options besides injecting me with a drug, leaving me behind, going dark, working for a group that went against everything, I thought you stood for? I do not believe that, and I do not believe you. 007 told me that you planned to take them out from inside by yourself. Did you think I couldn't be part of that plan? Did you think I couldn't come up with a way for us to safely remain in communication while we both worked to stop that mad man? No, Bond, I refuse to believe that there were no other options. The other thing your decision shows me is how little you think of me and how much you think of yourself." Bond opened his mouth to say something, anything, tell Q that he loved him and that he just wanted to keep him safe, but the words wouldn't come. The truth was the idea of losing Q made him panic that he didn't even consider any other options.

"Mr. Bond," Q said, and his voice was back to its even tone. "England and the world, thanks for your service. I'm sure you'll be well taken care of once you heal." Q turned to walk back out of the room, and Bond was struck with the feeling that he wasn't ever going to see Q again.

"Q," Bond said, and Q stopped but didn't turn around. "I love you."

"The worst part is, James, is that I think you mean that," Q said softly. He opened the door and closed it behind him. Bond was left alone and wondered how long before he got transferred to the cell that was going to be his home for the rest of his life.

+++

Q leaned heavily against the door and closed his eyes. His leg was throbbing, and he really should have been in a wheelchair today, but he refused to meet Bond anywhere but on his own two feet. If he could have walked in there without the cane on sheer bloody bravado, he would have done it. Bond tried to explain why he did what he did, but Q didn't want to hear it. He had worked it out more or less on his own, and he found it rather insulting that Bond thought he couldn't take care of himself. Still, he couldn't deny that he wouldn't have panicked if he was put in the same position, but there was no proof of that happening, so he had to disregard it.

Q chose not to think about how turning himself into MI6 to find Bond was a version of panicking, but that would be something he could think about at another time. Right now, he had to do something spectacularly stupid.

The first time he saw Bond lying in that bed, Q thought about breaking him out, but only for a moment. It wasn't worth the absolute shitstorm it would cause for him back at MI6. He thought about breaking the two of them out, but something about how efficient the work at MI6 could be appealed to him. The problems were defeated so much easier with resources, and Q hadn't stolen things for money for many years. There was still another offshore account that no one else knew about if things got really bad, and right now, he had more than he needed. Q was never one to want more than a very nice computer and secure connection. So breaking out was not an option which meant that it was time for Q to do something very stupid.

He hobbled out of medical and found Eve waiting for him. She looked a little concerned by the amount of weight he was putting on the cane but didn't say anything about it. Eve was a little surprised when he didn't hit the button in the elevator to go to Q-branch but to go to M's office.

"Is something going on?" she asked.

"Something like that," Q replied. Eve looked like she wanted to ask him more, and he was thankful that she didn't. If he told her what he was about to do, she would probably try to talk him out of it or take his cane away so he couldn't walk into M's office. But she didn't, and Q walked into M's office with Tanner seeing them in the hallway and also following them in. Q waited until he heard Tanner close the door, and then he didn't give M a chance to say anything. "Hello ma'am, I believe you should offer James Bond a similar deal to the one you offered me."

"The agreement we had was that your deal did not extend to him. You agreed to help us put him in a cell," M replied.

"Actually, I agreed to help you arrest him, which I have done. You can check the contract we signed; it is in writing that I will help you arrest, not imprison him," Q said, and now M looked very annoyed at him. "I bled for MI6, ma'am. I might not ever walk properly again, and I nearly died to keep the secrets of this organization safe. For that, I believe I should have some sort of reward for that, that isn't just my life. I want you to offer him a similar deal to mine."

"I wasn't aware that your withholding MI6 secrets would put me in your debt," M said darkly. "I don't appreciate being blackmailed, Q."

"I'm not blackmailing you; if I were blackmailing you, then you'd know it, I'm making a request. You have seen how well 007 and I work together, but I cannot be an asset to her in the field. I'm not trained for it no matter how many times 006 and 007 might attempt to make it happen. Bond, however, is one of the greatest marksmen in the world. If there was ever someone who would make an excellent member of on-the-ground support teams, even as a spotter, for 007, it would be Bond. We had run similar operations before I worked for you when we interfered and helped 007 with her missions, and it worked well. I believe it is a dynamic that could work long term and help extend the unfortunately short lifespan of your best agent."

"Is this what you were talking to him about?" Eve demanded.

"No," Q said without breaking eye contact with M. "I was calling him out on his bullshit like I have wanted to since I found out and figured out why he was working with Spectre. He helped us bring Blofeld down and was willing to die for it. The reward for that should not be imprisonment; offer him a similar deal." No one in the room spoke for a long time, and Q wondered if M was going to order Tanner to throw him in a cell. That would be a rather painful night, and he really wasn't looking forward to that.

"Tanner, please escort Q out of my office so I may talk to 007," M said. That was about what he was expecting. While he was asking M for this favor, the person that the decision ultimately came down to was Eve. Q glanced over at her as Tanner helped Q out of the office. The door closed behind them, and it felt rather final. Q had put all of his cards on the table; now, he just needed to see if the gamble paid off.

+++

"I wish I could say I was surprised by that, but I'm really not," M said. She began to type on her computer, and Eve walked over to join her. M pulled up the recording of Q and Bond talking, and it was true, he really was telling Bond off, but the thing that struck Eve the most was when Bond said that he still loved Q. She believed him, and that had to mean something. "I'd say that I don't understand how they could have that conversation and then have Q essentially coming in here and demanding Bond's release. Those two have always baffled me."

"He's not wrong, though," Eve said. If she was honest with herself, and Eve tried to be on a somewhat regular basis, she had thought about those three missions where the three of them worked together. She remembered how it felt to know she had someone in the cameras and someone nearby looking out for her. It was just her and Q now; they were essentially their own department unless Alec got bored and bullied himself in. "Aside from 006, if I asked for someone to come and help me, would any of the agents here trust Q enough to work with the two of us?" The truth was the two of them knew the answer to that question, and it was no. Alec and Boothroyd were the only two that really seemed to trust Q. Eve was good, but sometimes she needed backup, and only having one person who would come and be effective was not good.

"Do you think this was always the plan?" M asked.

"No," Eve said immediately. "No, I don't think this was the plan all along. I don't think this was the plan an hour ago. I think Q saw something in that conversation with Bond and decided to come up here to do something insanely stupid. If nothing else, having him work for us like this would keep him from becoming resentful, trying to escape, and then working against us when he does escape."

"He'd have to agree to similar terms as Q with a tracker, a kill order, all of that," M said, and Eve hummed. "What happened when they let you down?" Eve noted how M didn't say "if," she said "when," like she knew it was going to happen, but Eve wasn't too sure. It threw her back to the conversation with M the night that Q signed his own life away and became one of their most valuable resources. There was a very good chance they could make that happen a second time.

"I think they are worth the risk," Eve replied.

Bond was almost asleep when someone knocked and opened the door to his room. He was expecting a doctor or a nurse, but it was M, Tanner, Eve, and Q who limped in to close the door behind them. M stepped aside and let Q take the only chair in the room. He tried to hide his wince when he sat down, but Bond knew it was there, and it hurt to see. He was more than a little confused to see all of these people in the room with him. Bond wondered if they were going to move him to his new cell today.

"Mr. Bond," M said. "A few hours ago, Q marched into my office and demanded that I offer you a similar deal that I offered him." It took all of his self-control to hide how much that surprised him. A few hours ago, Q was calling him an asshole, and then he walked up to M's office to advocate on his behalf.

"I didn't ask him to do that," Bond said, and Q rolled his eyes.

"I know you didn't; we watched the video feed," M said. "Do you know the full terms of the deal we offered Q?" Bond shook his head. "He is serving out his life sentence by serving MI6. Q and 007 work together exclusively on missions. He has a tracker embedded in his shoulder, and if he tampers, disables, or goes somewhere he isn't supposed to, I will initiate a kill order on him. He lives in a building owned by MI6 so that we can keep an eye on him, and 007 is one of his neighbors, so she is always close by." Some of that Bond knew, but he didn't know all of it, and it baffled him a little that Q was willing to give up so much to find him. "One of the other conditions was that he would help us arrest you, but as he pointed out, he has technically already done that, and I failed to specify that I wanted him to help convict and put you in a cell. So that was a mistake on my part."

"What I want to offer you, Bond is the chance to put your rather impressive skills to good use," M continued. "Q and 007 have detailed the three of you working together and how much having backup would help. As both 007 and Q pointed out to me, aside from one exception, field agents do not trust Q and thus would not work well if 007 needed someone in the field to help them. I am making you an offer to be 007's shadow in the field and be there in case a trigger needs to be pulled from a distance."

"What would be the exact terms?" Bond asked because all of this was so surreal he really wasn't entirely sure what was happening.

"We wrote it all down for you because we'll need you to sign it," Tanner said, and he handed Bond a rather impressive stack of papers. The four of them watched him carefully as he read every single word that was on that documents. The terms were rather similar to Q; he would spend his life sentence in the service of the British government until he died. There would be a tracker that they would monitor. He would be the shadow of 007. They would pay him a decent enough salary, and if anyone died in MI6 under mysterious circumstances that pointed toward him, the kill order would be active. If Bond was being completely honest with himself and the situation, it was a better deal than he ever thought he'd get. He already agreed to spend the rest of his life in prison to stop Spectre and protect Q, but now they were giving him another option. It seemed too good to be true.

"Ma'am, Mr. Tanner, could you give the three of us a chance to talk?" Bond asked. M raised an eyebrow, but the two of them stepped out of the room and closed the door.

"Rather ballsy of you Bond to kick M out of a room," Eve said with a smirk.

"I need to know what this is," Bond said, gesturing to the giant pile of papers in front of him.

"A get out of jail free card," Eve replied easily. "M doesn't usually make offers of employment more than once, and yet here she is making another exception."

"You did this?" Bond asked Q, who raised an eyebrow and shrugged.

"I bled for this country and kept my mouth shut when Blofeld tried to beat secrets out of me. If there was ever a time to ask for a favor, it was while I was still limping," Q said. "I said she should make the offer."

"And I agreed that it was a good idea or we wouldn't be there," Eve said. "You would be working for me, Mr. Bond; I would be your superior officer. The three of us would be essentially our own division in MI6. Aside from one other 00 and the head of Q-branch, people here do not trust Q, and I expect they will not trust you either. So it's going to be the three of us on missions, working together, and that is the offer on the table."

"And you're both okay with this?" Bond asked.

"I wouldn't have walked into that office and told her to make the offer if I wasn't," Q said, and now he sounded annoyed.

"As I said, we wouldn't be here at all if I didn't think this could work," Eve said. Bond didn't know what to make of all of this. Q was clearly still mad at him, but he also went up and extorted his release from the British government. If Bond weren't already ridiculously in love with the man, that would have sealed it for him. "Shall I call them back in?" Eve asked. Bond nodded and started to sign his life away.

+++

Q nearly fell on his face when he climbed out of the cab, but Eve grabbed the back of his coat and helped him stay on his feet. He leaned heavily on the cane as she paid the cab, and they began to make their way into the building. Once they were through the doors, where Q was in charge of security and could delete incriminating footage, Eve offered him her arm, and he let her take some of his weight as they made their way to his flat. She was ordering in tonight, and while he was healing, they always ate at his place. Some of Eve's things had made their way into Q's apartment, but it didn't really bother him. He hadn't ever had a friend like her before, and it was kind of nice.

It was less nice when he closed the door to his flat, and she proceeded to smack him upside the head. Her hands were on her hips, and she was either very impressed with him or deeply unimpressed with him; Q couldn't really tell which one.

"You're lucky that worked out," Eve said as Q limped into his living room. He rubbed the back of his head and but collapsed into his sofa.

"You and Alec would have been terribly annoying if she tried to lock me up for that stunt," Q replied, which was about 80% sure was true. Alec seemed to find him entertaining and sometimes would phone Q instead of his own contact at Q-branch because "those fucking idiots don't know what they're doing half the time, just help me blow this fucking thing up." Eve probably would have been more passive-aggressive about being annoying, but he was still pretty confident she would have been annoying on his behalf. Ever since he was kidnapped and injured, Eve had become rather protective of him. "I know it was stupid, and it could have backfired, but I would have hated myself if I didn't at least try to keep him from rotting in a cell even if he is a tosser who doesn't deserve it."

"I know," Eve said, and she began to call in their dinner order. She didn't insult him by asking if he was sure that he could work with Bond on a regular basis. Q knew that he could work with Bond if he had to, and Q meant it when he said he wouldn't have gone up to M's office if he didn't think he could. That didn't mean it wasn't going to sting, but the sting of betrayal was one that Q was very used to in his life. In some ways, he still thought that Eve was going to betray him someday, but there wasn't any point in trying to break away anymore. If it was going to happen, it was going to happen, and he just hoped that he wouldn't see the bullet in his back coming.

Eve settled down next to him on the couch and rested her cheek on his shoulder. She didn't say anything; she just sat there next to him until their dinner came. They didn't talk about much of anything as they finished their food, and Eve stayed in his apartment again that night. She put herself between the only door in the room and Q, and that was her way of protecting him. There was a gun under the pillow, and she was the shield. This was the dynamic the two of them had established now; he protected her in the field, and she protected him when she was back home. As Q drifted off to sleep, he wondered where exactly Bond was going to fit it and if it would disrupt this delicate balance.

Q dreamed of being locked in a cell, and no matter how much he screamed, no matter how much he begged, no matter how hard he banged on the door, no one came. When he woke up, Eve was already up and making breakfast. Q closed his eyes, took a deep breath, released it slowly, and got up to face another day.

+++

Eve was glad that they needed to wait for Bond to heal before he would ever go out on a mission with her. It meant that her and Q could make sure that they worked together smoothly so nothing unset the dynamic that they had built. Eve knew that Q was the kind of person that thrived best when he knew what to expect from the people around him. If he knew that M wasn't ever going to trust him, then he was going to expect that and it wasn't going to take him by surprise. Eve could tell that he was thrown by this whole thing so she settled into the routine.

There were still members of Spectre that needed to be taken care of and M sent Eve out to do just that. Q was in her ear, the bed from medical still in his office and she was fairly sure that he wasn't planning on ever returning it at this point, guiding her through cities. He was still doing physical therapy on his leg and he walked a little better every day. Medical seemed confident that Q would walk again without any complications and she was glad to hear that. He already had enough constant reminders of that abduction, she didn't want him to have another one.

They were between missions and in her flat for the first time in a long time, Q's leg was feeling particularly good today, and Eve had heard rumors that there was someone else in MI6 that was almost healed as well. Or at least, healed enough to make their way to their flat. M had put Bond in the flat right above her so she could act as some sort of barrier between the two of them. Eve didn't know what she thought those two were going to get up to and she didn't want to ask.

"I know he moves in tomorrow," Q said as he worked on his laptop from her kitchen table. It was one of the rare nights that she was actually cooking for the two of them and Q stayed nearby so he could help. "Everyone at MI6 is acting like I'm going to have a nervous breakdown about the entire thing. It's rather insulting."

"They're spies; the only people who love gossip more than spies are journalists," Eve replied.

"We worked together platonically for more years than we were together romantically so I'm not sure why they think this is a big deal," Q said but she could tell he was trying to convince himself as much as he was trying to convince her.

"So let's do dinner, the three of us, to make sure that this is really going to work," Eve suggested because she was a little concerned about that. She was pretty sure that this was a good idea but seeing the three of them in a room together and how they interacted with each other would tell her a lot. Q waved her off which was about as close to an agreement as she was going to get with him.

The next day, Eve was the one put in charge of moving Bond from medical to their building. Q was still in his office doing some research and wouldn't be leaving for a couple of hours. There was potentially a mission if Bond was feeling up to it. He was walking like he wasn't in any pain and she watched his breathing to see if the ribs were bothering him. It had been almost two months so it made sense that he was feeling better. Bond looked around the building as they walked through the front door.

"Q designed the security here," Bond said. "I can tell by the placement of the cameras. That's a smart decision considering how many employees live here."

"He's done a lot more for us than just be my support back at home," Eve said as they walked in the lift and went up to the floor his apartment was on. Bond didn't have any personal items on him and when Eve asked if there was anything left in Blofeld's compound he told her that there wasn't. She got the impression he really did leave everything behind.

Bond's flat looked a lot like hers and a lot like Q's but without any of the personal touches. He had some money in an account that he claimed was from legitimate jobs and when M asked Q about this he also said the money was not stolen. So he had enough to buy anything else that he needed. Bond walked around the flat casually and Eve watched him. If he had any complaints, he didn't voice them, and she didn't really expect him to.

"The three of us should have dinner tonight," Eve said.

"All right, what time?" Bond asked.

"Whenever Q decides to come back from work. I'll let you know when to come down to my flat. You have my number. Spend the afternoon getting yourself settled in and we'll all get everything aired out tonight so we can get to work as soon as possible," Eve replied. Bond nodded and Eve left without another word. She hoped that this dinner went well because it was going to be a real pain in the ass to explain to M why this little partnership fell apart before it ever began.

+++

Bond didn't know how he felt about this whole thing. He couldn't remember the last time he had stayed in one place for a long time and when he had the time to actually establish a residence. The flat was furnished, and he was pleased that there appeared to be enough in the kitchen to get him going; he still needed to go and get everything else he needed. Bond took his wallet and walked out into London to shop. He caught the MI6 agent following him almost right away and was tempted to wave or let them know that he knew. However, Bond didn't want to push his luck just yet.

When he walked away from Q, he walked away from everything that he owned. There wasn't much that Bond carried around, but there were a few things that he wished he still had. A book from his father, a necklace from his mother, the key to Skyfall, a few small things that reminded him of home and reminded him of who he was. He knew he wasn't getting those things back, and he just needed to move past it. Bond bought clothes, basics for the bathroom, some food, and carried it all back to his flat just as the sun was going down. He had no idea what time this dinner was going to be at because this was Q. If he got lost working on something, he could work for hours without stopping.

So Bond was expecting to eat well into the night and was a little surprised to get a call from Eve telling him to come downstairs at 1900. He went downstairs and knocked on Eve's door. She was wearing what looked like yoga pants and a shirt that someone usually sleeps in. It was a little strange to see someone that he was so used to seeing in slick suits or beautiful dresses in such casual clothing. She wasn't wearing any makeup, and her curly hair was up in a loose bun. She was rather stunning, and he could see how many people fell into her orbit. Eve gestured for him to come inside.

Q was sitting on the couch, and he was also in casual clothing and working on a laptop. He looked calm, at ease, which for some reason really hurt to see. Q used to only look like that around him, and now here he was looking like that around Eve. Bond was a little jealous, but he reminded himself that he needed to earn his place back into Q's good graces. He might have left for good reasons, but that didn't mean him leaving didn't hurt.

"I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting a call for another couple of hours," Bond said as he sat down in a chair across from the couch and away from Q.

"Boothroyd broke into my office and threatened to revoke my clearance if I didn't leave," Q replied without looking up.

"Again," Eve said from the kitchen. She handed Bond a glass of wine and settled down on the couch next to Q. "He's done that twice before, and I'll tell him to do it a third time if you don't put that away." Q rolled his eyes but put the laptop away. Bond was fascinated by the dynamic that he was seeing in front of him. He thought that this was what Q would look like if he had an older sister or he had the opportunity to grow up with a best friend.

"Bond, Eve is concerned that we won't be able to work together anymore because we used to sleep together," Q said.

"We did more than just sleep together," Bond said without really thinking. Q narrowed his eyes but Eve looked rather amused by the comment. "I meant that we were more."

"If I believe the three of us won't work well together, then you'll back to your cell and stay there," Eve reminded him. "So let's try and work this out. I know what the two of you used to be; I saw it, so I know what we're dealing with here. You both say you can work together, and now I'm here to find out whether or not that's true. We're starting that by having dinner and talking about the mission that M wants to send us on at the end of the week." Bond didn't know there was a mission, but that was something he could focus on instead of how cold Q's eyes were.

Eve ordered them food, and Q started to go over the specifics of the mission. This was something that Bond knew and that he could understand. He was just playing a different role from the job that he and Q used to do. Now they were just stopping bad guys, and maybe they could have a little fun on the side. Eve knew what she was doing, she was an excellent agent, and it was clear to him that he was there to support her. They began to look at marks around the city to try and find locations that would work for sniper perches where Bond could be the most efficient and where he could provide the most help.

It was easier to spread a paper map out over the coffee table and sit down on the floor as they looked it over. Q was still on his laptop, but he jumped in with information constantly. Bond was surprised at how easy it was to talk to Eve, and he could tell why Q seemed so comfortable around her. She was a spy, it was her job to make people comfortable so they would talk to her, but this didn't feel like he was talking to 007. As he sat in her living room, drinking wine and trying to figure out the best locations for him to hide so he could shoot a man, he felt like he was talking to Eve Moneypenny, the person.

The first time she said something that made Q laugh, Bond was suddenly so grateful that Eve was the agent that took on their case. They got so lucky that she was the one that decided to take a chance on her, and if she kept making Q smile and laugh like that, Bond was willing to do whatever it took to keep her safe and alive.

It was well into the night by the time Bond went home, but nothing about the evening felt forced, and Eve looked very pleased. She even said that she would tell M tomorrow that it was time for the three of them to go on a mission. Bond was glad that it was time for him to get out into the world again. He was only back in his flat for under an hour when there was another knock at his door. Bond briefly panicked and wished he had a way to see who was at the door without needing to look through the peephole. Then another knock followed, and there were taps. The person at his door was tapping "q--q--q" in morse code. Bond opened the door, and Q was standing in front of him. He looked a little flushed, but Bond knew that couldn't be from the wine because Q could hold his liquor better than most people. There was a small bag in his hand.

"I wanted to give you something," Q said.

"Does it explode?" Bond asked. Q rolled his eyes but didn't deny that it didn't explode. Bond took the bag and opened it carefully. It was all of his personal items that he left behind when he had to walk away from Q. Even after all of this time, Q had held onto them, and now he was giving them back. It meant more to him than Bond even knew how to express that he had the things from his parents, the key to the Skyfall manor, those little pieces of James Bond that still existed in the world. "You held onto them?"

"It's not like they took up a lot of room," Q replied. Bond didn't know what to say or how to explain to Q how much this meant to him, but Q was looking at him with that look in his like he understood because Q didn't carry much of anything that could be linked to himself around. Bond didn't even know Q's real name. "Don't leave them behind again," Q said and walked down the hallway. Bond watched him go, and he heard the meaning behind those words; Q meant 'don't leave me again,' and Bond didn't intend to.

+++

Eve was glad when the dinner went well, and the next day, she went into MI6 with Q so they could continue to prep for the mission. Bond was still healing, but he seemed confident that he would be ready to go by the end of the week, and that was what Eve told M. The good thing was that, hopefully, Bond wouldn't be needed. In a perfect world, he is going to be a very bored man and maybe someone that they will use when Eve knows she isn't good enough to make a shot. Q seems to be taking it as a personal failure on his part if Bond is needed in any way.

"You know that isn't how this works," Eve said. The bed from medical was still in Q's office, but it was made, and the sheets smelled fresh. So now she was left wondering if Q had managed to charm a nurse into bringing him fresh sheets and making his bed in his office that he stole from medical and was refusing to give back. "Things go wrong on missions all the time, that's why I need you, and it's why I need him too."

"If I do my job right, then you both shouldn't have any issues," Q replied. Eve could tell that this was a battle that she was going to lose, but she also needed to hang around to talk to Q about any specifics that might come up for the mission. She closed her eyes and dozed off, only opening them again to talk to Q about the mission and get things sorted out.

Two days later, and the day before they were set to go on the mission, Eve could tell that Q had more nerves than he had had in a long time. She didn't know exactly what was bothering him, but she had a pretty good idea. Bond had a tracker in his shoulder the same way that Q did, but that didn't mean that was going to actually keep track of him. If Bond wanted to fall off the grid, he could probably find a way, and Q was probably worried that he was going to. She got Boothroyd to completely lock Q out of the systems, gave him one of the leftover painkillers because the weather was getting colder, and she could tell that his leg was aching, and sent him to bed. Instead of crawling in to keep him company or going to her own flat, Eve knocked on Bond's door and waited for him to answer.

He didn't look surprised to see her, and he stepped aside to let her in. She didn't miss the way his eyes glanced out into the hallway to see if there was someone else out there. He was looking for Q; Bond always seemed to be looking for Q, and now was no different.

"Did something happen? I thought we weren't scheduled to leave until tomorrow afternoon," Bond said.

"We're not, but I thought it was time for you and me to have a chat one-on-one without Q here," Eve said. Bond didn't look surprised, and they stared each other down in the living room.

"Are you here to warn me off of him?" Bond asked.

"Should I?" Eve replied.

"Probably, it would be for his own good if you did, but I probably wouldn't listen to you," Bond said, which was a more honest answer than she was expecting from him. "I know you're wondering about my motives, and I don't blame you. There is a chance I'm going to be looking at you through a sniper scope, and you want to know if you can trust me." Eve nodded and gestured for him to continue. "Trust that I want to do best for him and what's best for him is this job and you, which means keeping you and him safe at all costs. Trust that much."

"That doesn't tell me much, but I did tell M I would give you a chance," Eve replied. "I suppose Q would probably find some way to avenge me if you put a bullet in my head."

"I already assume that he could find a way to rig this tracker to explode," Bond said, but he was smiling like that amused him. It was a smile that Eve had seen on her own face when she looked in the mirror before a mission. In a different life, she was sure that Bond would have made a fantastic MI6 agent, and if he had taken M up on her offer all of those years ago, he probably would be one right now.

"Killing me would also make Q rather upset, and I'm afraid he's also endeared himself to 006," Eve said, and she matched that deadly smile. "You two would get along if that tells you anything, so just keep that in the back of your mind."

"I intend to," he said.

"I'll see you tomorrow afternoon for your first mission, Mr. Bond," Eve said, and she walked out of the flat without waiting to see if Bond had any sort of snarky remark.

+++

Bond went to MI6 in the morning like it was a normal day and met Eve and Q in his office. Q already had a large mug of tea on the desk as he handed out their supplies. The mission wasn't supposed to be anything too insane which was fine by Bond, and it sounded like they were all well prepared. He already had his nests figured out and when he needed to be in each one. He also wasn't surprised when Q handed him a rifle exactly like the one Bond used when the two of them were together. Q remembered all of the specs he liked right down to the last possible detail.

From his perspective, the mission went about as well as it could have. Bond listened in as Eve and Q talked over the comms and didn't say anything unless he needed to. It was different to hear Q talk to someone else like the two of them used to talk but a little different. Bond only had to fire one shot when there was a guard that was going to take Eve by surprise. They had to spend the night in a hotel, and Bond felt like he was going to vibrate out of his skin. The thrill of a job with MI6 was very different from the jobs he used to do with Q. He could see that Eve was in a similar place, but they both just tossed and turned all night. The following day they were on a plane back to London, and Q was waiting for them back at MI6 with a smirk and a comment about bringing back the gadgets he would make for them.

Bond never thought he would find solace in a world where he was doing the same thing over and over, but time went on, and the three of them continued to do missions. It was good, and he actually liked providing the support for Eve. It was also nice to sit in a flat with Q and Eve and see their hard work in an averted terrorist attack or someone living that was supposed to die. While he and Q used to do that too only with more robbing from the rich, Bond still liked what he was doing, and it was nice to work with Q and Eve. He enjoyed spending time with both of them, and Bond tried not to get his hopes up every time Q seemed a little less on edge around him.

It felt like Bond blinked, and a year went by. Maybe that was the reason it happened, maybe that was why he let his guard and let himself get complacent because that was the only other explanation for what had happened. One moment, the mission was going well, and Bond could keep an eye on Eve through his scope. The next moment, the room Eve was in was swarming with men, and someone was shining a spotlight directly into Bond's nest so he couldn't see a thing. Q was yelling in his ear, Eve was struggling to fight, but Bond had briefly seen how many men were in that room. He scrambled to a new spot and lined up the shot just as Eve went dead in his ear. Bond looked through the scope, but the room was empty, and Eve was gone.

"007," Q said, and there was an edge to his voice that Bond hadn't heard in a long time. "007, report." There was still silence. "Bond, do you have visual?"

"Negative, I have zero visuals on 007," Bond said as he tried to look through all of the windows in the compound that Eve was currently in, but there didn't appear to be a soul anywhere.

"Mission report," M's voice said over the comm, which surprised Bond. He hadn't heard M on their line once the entire time that they had done missions together.

"007 is missing and presumed captured, her cover was blown, and they knew where Bond was, so they blinded him. He could not provide support," Q explained.

"I'm ready to start a retrieval mission right away," Bond said.

"As am I, I just need to--" Q began, but M cut them both off.

"Bond report back to your hotel room," M said.

"Ma'am?" Bond asked as he hesitated to put away his rifle. Maybe there was something in the hotel room that he didn't know about that would help them get Eve out of this.

"You are to report back your room, gather your gear, and come back to London immediately," M said. "007 cannot be retrieved at this time. If the British government is seen interfering, all hell will reign now. This will take a long time to play out, and we need to play it safe. Report back to London."

"Ma'am, these people do not take hostages," Q said. Bond knew that too, and he knew that M knew that because they all read the same file about how this group treated prisoners. They were only going to keep Eve alive for a day or two at the most and then kill her. There was no time to wait.

"You are not capable of doing this on your own Bond, and there are no other agents that can help you right now. You both have your orders and I would advise you both not to disobey them," M said. There wasn't a click on the line, but it was definitive. There was a moment of silence over the line, and Bond held his breath.

"Bond, report back to the room," Q said. It was frustrating to hear Q say those words, and he was about to call him out on it when he hesitated. Something in Q's tone of voice told Bond that he needed to listen.

"Affirmative," Bond replied. He packed all of his gear and quickly made his back to the room. There wasn't anyone there waiting to kill him, so while these people knew about him, they obviously didn't think he was a threat. "I'm back in the room."

"There is a plane ticket for you at the airport. Get there within the next hour. I'm cutting the line to keep it secure," Q said.

"Good," M said. "We don't want anymore fuck ups." Bond didn't even know she was still on the line.

"Yes, ma'am," Bond replied. The line in his ear went dead, and he waited. He knew Q, and he knew the tone of voice that Q was using. There was a click and some static in his ear.

"Bond," Q said. "We are on a secure line."

"You have a secure line within MI6? Of course, you do," Bond replied. "So what are we doing about this? I'm assuming you don't want me to go to the airport."

"Of course not," Q replied. "The only one going to the airport is me. I'm going to hack our trackers to make it look like you're coming home, and I'm still in London. It'll buy us some time before they realize that we're missing."

"Then we're going to get her back," Bond stated.

"We are getting her back," Q said like it wasn't even a question whether or not they would go rogue for Eve Moneypenny. There was never a question that they wouldn't.

+++

Q knew that coming up with a plan for how he could get away from MI6 for at least a little while was something that was going to come in handy someday. He was loyal, he liked his job, and he liked it even more in the last year when he worked with Eve and Bond. However, he was also a realist and knew that he needed to know how to get around that tracker as soon as possible if there was ever a reason he needed to get away. Q didn't tell Eve that he figured out how to get around the tracker and even fool MI6 into thinking he was in his flat for hours or even days at a time, provided no one actually came to the door. For some reason, that didn't seem like something that he wanted to tell her that he knew. It was good that he knew this because those skills would come in handy now.

The moment that M said they couldn't rescue Eve, Q knew he would go rogue. He wasn't entirely sure how committed Bond would be to this plan, but it sounded like he wasn't keen on leaving her to die. Q spoofed Bond's tracker first and made it look like he was on his way back to London. Then Q told Boothroyd that he was having a flare-up with his leg after sitting for several days straight and that he needed to go home if they weren't going to do anything else at this time. Boothroyd looked a little sad but let him leave, and Q didn't see M or Tanner as he walked out of MI6. He walked to the tube, went back to his flat, closed the door, and as far as MI6 was concerned, that was where he was going to stay until someone realized that he was gone.

In reality, Q grabbed the bag he always had packed from the back of his closet that Eve never noticed or asked him about. It wasn't hard to trick the cameras into not seeing him leave the building, and it wasn't even that hard to get on a plane to get to Bond. The moment the plane left the ground, Q knew that he had just signed his own death warrant. The only reason M let him live the last time was that there was proof he didn't leave willingly. This time, Q knew exactly what he was doing. He was willing to go rogue even if it was for a good reason, and he knew that M was not going to see it that way. Q closed his eyes and relaxed; as far as he was concerned, it didn't really matter right now anyway.

As soon as he landed, Q pulled out his phone and began to walk through the airport, making sure that the cameras didn't spot him. As soon as he was out of the way of security, he called Bond, who was in a new location that Q had sent him to. Eve had been a prisoner for six hours, and every second that went by was one where she was less likely to be alive. Bond answered before the first ring even finished.

"You've landed?" Bond asked.

"I'm on my way," Q replied. "Did you go to one of our old storage lockers and get the gear we'll need?"

"I did, and did you say 'we?'" Bond asked.

"Yes, we, I'm coming with you. You need to shoot our way out of there, and I'm probably going to have to carry her out of there," Q replied. "I'm coming with you and I'm not going to argue with you about this." The line was silent, and, for a moment, Q was wondering if Bond had hung up on him. He knew that they weren't exactly the same as they were, but Q liked to think they were closer now than they were a year ago.

"I just want you to be safe," Bond said quietly, and, for some reason, the raw vulnerability of that statement made Q stumble as he walked down the street. He did not brain himself on the sidewalk, but it was a near thing.

"Then it's a good thing you'll be there to do exactly that," Q replied. There was another long silence, and Q wondered if he somehow said the wrong thing. However, Bond huffed a laugh over the line, and the tension finally broke.

"Of course," Bond replied. "I'll see you soon; then we'll go get our girl back."

"That we will," Q said. He wasn't planning on leaving a single witness behind, and Q could tell by the tone of Bond's voice that they were going to paint the walls red. Sometimes, Q thought it was amusing that MI6 seemed to forget just how dangerous the two of them truly were. It was time to prove to the people that took Eve that kidnapping 007 was not something that anyone comes back from. It was time to send a message that no one touches Eve Moneypenny and lives to tell the tale.

+++

Eve knew the moment they took her prisoner that she was going to die. There wasn't a chance of a rescue. Bond was just one man, and there was a good chance that they would need more than one person to take care of this. Then there was the issue of anyone finding out that MI6 was involved in any way. M would try to do diplomacy, and it wouldn't work because Eve was going to be dead already. In some ways, she was relieved because she ended up in the hands of people that weren't going to drag this out for days, weeks, months, years. If she was alive for longer than twenty-four hours, she was going to be surprised.

Those hours did leave her some time to think when they were done beating her half to death. Eve hoped that Q could get Bond back to London without any issues. She was worried about the two of them, though. There was a good chance that they would run now that she wasn't there for them to work with. She had asked Alec, in secret, many months ago to take them on as part of his team if anything happened to her, and he said that he would. They didn't know that, though and Eve thought that she probably should have told them. They probably thought that they would get thrown into a cell if she died, and Eve didn't really blame them for running.

Eve was lying on the ground of a locked room, and her mind was drifting off. There was a decent chance that she had some internal bleeding, and it was getting harder and harder to focus. Maybe these injuries were going to be enough to take her off of this mortal plane. Eve had come to terms with the fact that she would die on the job many years ago, but this felt a little different. Before, there wasn't anyone to leave behind. There were her co-workers, but that didn't bother her how she thought it would. Tanner would have mourned her, but Tanner was also a professional. Now she was leaving someone behind, and that coming to terms with dying was a lot harder. Eve didn't know when Q and even Bond became her weak spots, but here she was, on death's door, and unable to accept it because of them.

It was rather unbecoming an MI6 agent.

She was losing track of time, but she must be closer to death than she thought because Eve could have sworn that she heard gunshots. It wasn't one or two shots of someone testing a weapon so they could execute her properly. There were too many shots for that, which is how Eve knew that she had to be hallucinating. There were too many shots, and it made no sense for anyone to be shooting that much. The door to her room opened, and Eve's vision was blurry, but she recognized one of the terrorists that had taken her captive. He was pointing a gun at her, and Eve wondered why she thought she saw red running down his face.

"I think you're too weak," the man yelled. There were more shots outside of the room, but someone walked into the room. They looked familiar, but now Eve knew that she had to be dying because the person walking into the room looked exactly like Q. Only she didn't recognize the expression on his face. She hadn't ever seen him look that blank like there wasn't anything behind his eyes.

"You really want to test that theory?" not-Q asked, and Eve thought her hallucination sounded like Q if he was really angry.

"Your attack dog is out there, and I think he's the one that pulls the trigger--" the terrorist said, but he screamed when not-Q fired a shot. Eve blinked, and the man was on the ground holding his knee. Not-Q moved across the room and casually kicked the gun away. Eve blinked, and not-Q was holding the gun out again and looking down at this terrorist with such disdain that Eve was beginning to think that maybe this wasn't a hallucination. She wasn't sure that she could come up with that expression on his face on her own.

"I'm tempted to leave you alive for a single reason, and that is to tell everyone what happened here today and what happens when someone hurts one of us," Q said. "However, I believe the things that my guard dog is doing to your men will speak volumes on their own. The rumors will spread, everyone will know why you're all dead, and everyone will hesitate to take one of us next time." Q pulled the trigger and some blood got his face and his glasses, but he didn't seem to notice. Instead, he holstered his gun and knelt down to look her in the eye.

"You can't be here--" Eve said as the darkness began to take her. If Q was here, then Bond was outside as well, and there was no way that M would send them both on a rescue mission like this. That meant that they went rogue and the kill order was in place.

"Rest," Q said quietly. "We'll discuss it another time." The world faded away just as Bond walked into the room and Eve's last thought was that there wasn't going to be saving those clothes from those bloodstains.

+++

Bond waited in the living room of the safe house they were in as the local doctor that Q called looked Eve over. There was the chance that her injuries were bad enough that she needed to go to the hospital, and if that was the case, they were going to have to deal with MI6 a lot earlier than either of them wanted to. However, no one was running out of the room in a panic, saying that they needed to call the authorities, so Bond hoped that that was a decent sign. When he walked into the room, a not insignificant blood on his clothing, Bond saw a body on the ground that Q must have killed. He hadn't seen Q personally execute someone in a very long time, and the bloody knee meant that he didn't make it painless. People feared Bond's skills, but it was Q's anger that they should have really been afraid of.

The doctor walked out of the room, looking more than a little haggard. Bond walked over to let him out the front door.

"I wouldn't recommend moving her for a couple of days at the earliest," the doctor said as he rubbed his temples. There was a pile of bills in his jacket that Bond could see, which meant that Q was paying for this in cash and not in favors.

"Thank you, and if anyone comes to you looking for us--"

"I know, I have no idea who you are, and I don't want anything to do with this," the doctor replied.

"The people coming to you asking questions might be members of the British government," Bond said, and the doctor shrugged.

"The government, a mob, is there much of a difference between the two at the end of the day?" Bond didn't know how to answer that question, so he said nothing as he walked the doctor out of the house. Bond locked the door and made sure that every single piece of the security system that Q had in this place was active before he walked into the room where Q was sitting with Eve. He was watching her with this expression on his face like he was trying to figure something out. It was an expression that Bond was very familiar with because it was an expression he had seen on Q's face whenever he woke up after being injured. Q looked up when Bond walked in the room, and they both silently left Eve in the bedroom to rest, an IV in her arm, and far too many bruises on his body.

Q ran his fingers through his hair as he walked through the living room. He collapsed onto the pullout couch, which was the only other place to sleep in this place. Bond wasn't planning on sleeping much at all, but they had both been awake for 48 hours at this point, and they needed rest. The floor didn't look comfortable, but he had slept on worse.

"If you give me a couple of hours to sleep, I can get everything ready for you," Q said.

"What are you talking about?" Bond asked because while they had both been awake for a long time, he didn't think he was tired enough that neither of them was making sense.

"I need some time to sleep before I can remove your tracker and get you situated so you can get ahead of MI6," Q explained. "I can do it, I just need a little time to get everything ready, and I can make it safer for you." Bond made sure to telegraph exactly where he was going when he sat down next to Q on the couch.

"Q, I'll ask again, what are you talking about?" Bond asked. "Are you asking me if I'm leaving?"

"Of course you are," Q replied like it was obvious, and that was the only possible answer. Those four words felt like a punch to Bond's gut. "The kill order is in effect, and even if we have Eve, there's no chance that M won't tell someone to pull the trigger. She forgave me the last time because I got kidnapped against my will, but this time I willingly went rogue, and so did you. So I need some time before I can get you ready so you can go into hiding."

"And what exactly are you planning on doing?" Bond asked. Q shrugged like it didn't matter that M might kill him or throw him in a cell for the rest of his life. "Q, I want you to listen to me very carefully; I'm not going anywhere. Whatever is waiting for us back in England, we face it together when we go back with Eve. I promised that I'm not leaving and I don't intend to break that promise when we both decided Eve was worth going rogue for." For a long time, Q just stared at him with that same perplexed expression on his face. Bond just looked back and waited for Q to realize that he wasn't lying, he wasn't going anywhere, and then maybe they could both figure out where and when they were both going to sleep.

What Bond wasn't expecting was for Q to close the distance between them and kiss him.

+++

When Q walked into the living room, he was planning on telling Bond that he needed to rest, and then Bond could be on his way. He thought that Bond would take this opportunity to run because a better one probably wouldn't present itself, and Bond also knew that Q would do what he could to help Bond get as far away as possible. What Q was not expecting was for Bond to sit down, look him in the eye, and tell Q that he wasn't going anywhere. It was the missing piece of the puzzle that Q had been waiting for since Bond came back into his life. He didn't know how to trust this man again, and finally, Bond proved that he was here to stay, and Q believed him. So the only logical thing Q could do was kiss him because it had been what he'd wanted to do since the moment he knew Bond was alive.

Bond pulled away but pressed their foreheads together. It was soft in a way that they weren't really with each other even though Q knew how deep their feelings were. Softness wasn't something that was allowed in their lives, yet here Bond was, staying and being soft, and Q felt like a weight was being lifted from his chest.

"I need to know," Bond whispered. "I need to know if you mean it because if this is just a reaction to the mission or something like that, I need to stop it."

"Reactions like that to missions are how you and Eve both cope, not me," Q replied. "You're staying, and I believe you. I really believe that you mean it and being able to trust you again was all I've wanted since the moment you accepted M's deal." Q hesitated because Bond wasn't doing anything. Maybe he was wrong, and Bond didn't want this anymore. "I want this if you still do." Bond made an incredulous noise, and Q was being kissed within an inch of his life. It forced all other thoughts from his mind and brought it back to the singular focus of Bond's arms wrapping around his body and how his lips felt the same after all of this time. How when Q eased himself back against the couch, they still felt together like they were made for each other.

There wasn't an inch of space between them, and it still wasn't enough. Bond pulled away and began to kiss down Q's neck and sucked a bruise into a spot just below where his sweaters were so no one would see it. Q arched his back, and Bond rolled his hips as they kissed again. Q wanted skin, but that would mean pulling away from Bond to open up the pull-out bed, and that just seemed like a terrible idea. That would also mean tracking down two pillows and a blanket; there wasn't a chance in hell Bond was sleeping anywhere besides that bed. Q finally managed to pull away, and they stared at each other.

"We're far too old to be doing this on a couch," Q said, and Bond chuckled. "And when I say "we," I, of course, mean you." Bond pinches his side, and Q had to stop himself from yelping loud enough that even Eve would have woken up through all of the painkillers.

"If you find the bedding, I'll get the bed out," Bond said.

"Deal." It was hard to break away, but Q managed to get to his feet, and he began to dig around the safehouse. He found a blanket, two pillows, and even a top sheet so they could be at least a little civilized. This safe house did not have supplies that they could use to have sex or at least no supplies that weren't expired. So as much as Q wanted to have Bond inside of him again, that would have to wait for another time.

It was a sobering thought as Q walked back into the living room that he might not get the chance to be with Bond again. They couldn't risk leaving the safe house to go buy lube with all of MI6 gunning for their heads, and even bringing back Eve was probably not going to be enough to spare their lives. M was ruthless for a reason, and Q knew that when he signed that contract. Both of them did, and as he worked with Bond to get the bed set up, Q realized that they were probably always going to end up here. They were probably going to end up staring down the barrel of an MI6 gun or never seeing the light of day again. So as tempting as it all was, Q knew he was going on day three without sleep, and so was Bond. They kicked off their shoes, Q put his glasses in a safe place, and Bond pressed himself to Q's back just like he used to when they were together. It was nice to be held again, and Q tried to focus on that and not the lingering death sentence that would be impossible to avoid.

Eve didn't know what to think when she opened her eyes. At first, she thought maybe she was dead, but then the pain hit, and Eve was sure that death shouldn't be painful anymore, which was a stark reminder that she was, somehow, still alive. She thought about seeing Q and Bond and how that hallucination seemed so real. However, there were moments that Eve thought that it felt too real. It felt like something that had actually happened. It took some considerable effort, but Eve managed to sit up in the small bed. There was an IV attached to her hand, but she could tell that it was just fluids that were keeping her hydrated. The IV was on wheels, and she leaned some weight on it as she walked out of the bedroom so she could get a better idea of what the hell was going on.

She was both surprised and not surprised to see Q and Bond, wrapped up, around each other, asleep on a pull-out bed in what looked like a living room. Q was clearly very much asleep, the kind of asleep Eve had seen from him when he was awake for days at a time, and he didn't wake up. The moment she walked into the room, Bond's eyes opened, and he was looking at her. The two of them stared at each other for what felt like a long time, but Eve felt like she couldn't stay on her feet much longer, and she wanted answers. Bond seemed to know that she wanted to talk to him. He carefully climbed out of the bed, and while Q frowned in his sleep, he didn't wake up. Bond walked over, and Eve leaned her weight on him as he walked her back into the bedroom. She winced as he helped her lie down.

"I'd say that you didn't need to get up, but I would have done the same thing," Bond said as he sat down on the edge of the bed and looked at her a little fondly.

"Bond, what the fuck is going on?" Eve managed to ask, but her voice was scratchy and harsh. Bond reached over, pulled out a water bottle and straw, and held it up for Eve to take some drinks to wet her throat. "I'm not going to ask a second time."

"I know," Bond said, but he still didn't say anything else to her. They both just sat in silence because Eve already knew exactly what Bond was going to tell her, and she didn't want to hear those words. The silence didn't last long because they both heard movement from outside, and soon Q walked into the room as well. Eve couldn't keep her composure anymore when he made eye contact with her.

"You're a fucking asshole," Eve snapped with all the vitriol a woman as injured as she was could put behind those words. Q didn't even react to her words, and neither did Bond; they just kept watching her silently. "You promised me; you promised that you wouldn't make me be the person to put a bullet in you. You said you weren't going to force your blood on my hands."

"I know," Q replied, "and the polite thing to do right now would be to apologize, but I'm not going to apologize for saving your life, Eve. M was going to throw it away, and I didn't like that."

"Of course she was; that's what I signed up for. That's what I expect when something like this happens," Eve said, and her voice was getting a little louder.

"That isn't acceptable," Q said like it was that easy, and she just couldn't believe what she was hearing. Eve wanted to yell at the two of them some more and tell them that her life being in M's hands and sometimes not being worth it is the job, but something stopped her. They were both still just watching her, and something else dawned on her.

"Why are you both still here?" she asked. "You must have figured out a way to hide yourselves from M and Boothroyd, so why are you still here? You know the kill order is in effect, and MI6 agents won't hesitate to pull the trigger. You should be so far underground that no one will ever find you. Why are you even still here?"

"We both committed to this job, but we are also committed to you," Bond said. "Whatever fate awaits us back in England, we'll figure it out once we know you're back in safe hands."

"Why would you do that? You're going to die or spend the rest of your life in a cell if M is feeling generous," Eve whispered.

"I've been working with you for a long time now, Eve," Q said as he walked further into the room. He still looked so casual, like they weren't discussing him and Bond dying. "I've seen the good you've done, we have done, and I want to make sure you keep doing it." Q glanced at Bond, and the two of them smiled at each other; there was something deadly behind those smiles. "Also, no one touches someone we care about and lives to tell the tale. You're going to be a legend now, and people are going to expect Bond and me to be lurking in the shadows whenever you're around. It'll keep people away for a long time until they realize that Bond and I are actually gone."

"That protection could last up to five years if the rumors get insane enough, and they likely will with our respective reputations and the state that we left the men that took you," Bond continued. "So we won't be there to look out for you anymore, but we'll still be able to protect you."

"We'll stay here until you're healthy enough to travel, and then we'll get you back to England," Q explained. The unspoken part of that sentence was that getting her back to England would mean them walking to their fate. Eve didn't know what to say, so she didn't say anything. They both seemed to take that as an indication to leave her alone, and Bond stood up, and they both walked out of the room without looking back at her. They didn't close the door all the way, but they close it enough to give her privacy but also left it open if she needed to call for them. She could hear them talking quietly to each other, but Eve couldn't make out the words. No one in her life had ever said her life was worth this much. She hadn't ever had anyone who thought her life was worth this much, yet here were Bond and Q willing to give up everything for her.

Eve knew that the chances were slim and that there was a good chance it wouldn't work, but she would not let Bond and Q get locked away or executed without a fight. They were willing to fight for her; it was time for her to fight for them.

+++

Recovering was more complicated than Eve wanted to admit, but both Bond and Q seemed to understand how hard it was to tell them how vulnerable she felt being this injured. She wanted to put off returning to England for as long as she could, but Q seemed against that idea. He thought she needed more medical attention than he and Bond could give her, and the sooner she got into medical, the better. It was also strange to see Bond and Q together. She hadn't seen them like that around each other in person before, and it was a little strange to see. At the same time, they moved around each other so easily, and they made it look effortless. Eve knew that it wasn't and that it took many years for them to get to where they could make it effortless, but it was still fascinating to watch.

She was able to stall for a week until Bond determined that she was healed enough to travel if they took it easy. Eve didn't know what that meant until she got to the airport and saw that they had rented a private plane.

"How are you affording this?" she asked.

"Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answers to," Q replied as he typed on his laptop. That meant that either he or Bond dug into the fund of money that they didn't turn over to M when they turned themselves in and the accounts that no one at MI6 could track down. Q had them well hidden, and it seemed that getting a plane was the best way to make that happen. They were in the air when Q closed his laptop and sat back in the seat.

"Is it done?" Bond asked, and Q nodded silently. Eve frowned and glanced at Bond. "He turned off the software that was jamming the frequency to our tracking chips. They are back online, and MI6 will be waiting for us when we land."

"The jamming program is destroying itself as we speak, so no one will be able to replicate it," Q said like that was something she was concerned with. Eve didn't say anything; she sat and tried to think. She remembered the first time she met Bond and Q in person and how there was a kill order on them then. She remembered going out in front of agents and getting them to hold their fire. It had worked once and saved their lives, and she very much intended to make that happen again.

Q was right that an entire group of agents was waiting for their plane when they landed. Bond and Q stood up like they were just going to walk out there when Eve stepped in front of them to block their paths.

"Do you trust me?" she asked even though she knew the answer.

"Yes," Q replied as Bond nodded.

"Then stay on here and do exactly what I say. Do not get yourselves shot by doing something else that's stupid," Eve said. She turned and waited for the door to the plane to open. When it did, she was staring down at Alec with a dozen field agents all pointing their guns at her. Eve made a mental note to tell the trainers that they had trained these agents well since no one accidentally shot her. They were, however, looking at her like she was a ghost, and that was the first time Eve realized that none of them knew she was alive. She stood up a little taller and ignored how her body protested that movement.

"006, I need access to your phone immediately," Eve said, and she held out her hand without moving from the doorway of the plane, blocking the entrance with her body.

"007, we thought you were dead," Alec said as he put his gun away and pulled out his phone. The other agents didn't put their guns down, but Eve didn't have eyes on them. Right now, Alec was the dangerous one, but he also liked Q and Bond, and he trusted her. Eve was counting on that because if Alec tried to go through her right now, he would succeed. He didn't ask what she was doing because he had a look like he already knew. Alec handed her his phone and nodded; she knew he would back her up, which was good. Two double-o agents could protect Bond and Q better than one. Eve dialed the number to put her directly to M's office, set the phone on speaker, and waited for her to pick up.

"006, update," M's voice said after just a single ring.

"Wrong Agent, ma'am," Eve replied, and there was a beat of silence on the line. M was not a woman who was often lost for words, and it was clear that whatever she was expecting it wasn't this.

"007, we didn't know you were alive," M finally said, which wasn't much of an answer, and Eve was quite done playing these games. She was still in pain, but she was not letting Q or Bond out of her sight until she knew that they would be safe.

"They're with me because they are the ones that saved my life. Call off the kill order," Eve said, and Alec raised an eyebrow because she did not ask; she ordered. "I know they broke the contract they signed, but they did it knowing the consequences, and they returned here knowing you were going to put a bullet in them. Call off the order."

"Very well, 006, please inform the other men with you that the kill order has been canceled for now," M said.

"Yes, ma'am," Alec said. He turned and walked toward the group of agents and began to explain what was going on. M was undoubtedly trying to put together her next move, but Eve was already a step ahead of her.

"They're not leaving my sight until the four of us have a conversation. If you try to separate me from them, then I will remind all of the agents here why I carry the reputation that I do and believe me when I say that I believe 006 would be conveniently looking the other way," Eve said.

"Fine, if it will save me from this melodrama," M said, and Eve handed the phone back to Alec. She could see him talking on it, but she turned to look at Bond and Q. They were staring at her with strange expressions on her face that she hadn't ever seen before. There wasn't time to think about what those expressions meant or what the two of them were thinking.

"The kill order isn't in place, but they're still taking you into custody. You're not leaving my sight until I have sorted this out with M," Eve said.

"I believe you," Bond said. Eve gestured for the two of them to follow her, and they both walked out of the plane with their hands in the air. Alec was the one that put Bond on his knees and put zip ties around his wrists, but it was a field agent that Eve was unfamiliar with that shoved Q roughly to the ground. Q couldn't quite hide the wince, and the agent smirked like he was happy to see Q in pain. The agent was still needlessly rough as he put the zip ties around Q's wrist, and Eve was not going to sit here and watch this happen.

"Agent," Eve said in a low voice, and the man startled like he didn't expect her to come over and actually talk to him. "Do we have a problem? Because you're being needlessly rough with one of our own right now." The agent opened his mouth, no doubt to say something about Bond and Q not being one of their own and thus didn't deserve any respect, but Eve narrowed her eyes and glared. Even as bruised as she was and in as much pain as she was in, Eve knew that her glare could send men running, and this time was no different. The agent muttered an apology and walked Q into a car. Alec helped Bond in as well, and Eve took the passenger seat while Alec began to drive.

"You two are mad fuckers; you know that?" Alec said that once the doors were closed, they were away from other people who could listen in on this conversation.

"People have told us that," Bond said.

"Yeah, we found the little display you two left of those captors, and once everyone finds out that Eve is alive, I'm sure the rumors are going to be quite interesting," Alec said, but he sounded like that amused him.

"Really, what an interesting side effect," Q said in a voice that clearly showed that this was going exactly the way he wanted it to. Eve looked at them both in the rearview mirrors, and they both smirked at her. She noticed that they were sitting close enough that their shoulders were touching, and she was glad that they could find comfort in each other. They arrived back at MI6 with little fanfare, but Eve didn't want to walk through the front doors. She didn't want anyone else to have an excuse to look at Q and Bond like they were somehow beneath the rest of them. So they took the back way that led directly to M's office. Alec was handling both Q and Bond, and they were both acting exactly like they did when they turned themselves in the first time. Eve was in an incredible amount of pain, but she pushed through as she walked into M's office.

"007," she said, "I'm glad you've returned to us alive."

"And I think you know the only reason why," Eve replied. Alec let Q and Bond sit down in chairs, and he smirked as he left the room. It was just the four of them now, and Eve was not going to back down, not now, not when she was only standing here and alive because of the men behind her.

"Miss. Moneypenny, you know why we couldn't send anyone after you," M explained as she sat down at her desk.

"Yes, I do, and I'm not angry about that. I'm here because I want you to void the kill order on Bond and Q," Eve replied. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Q raise his eyebrows while Bond looked at her strangely. The fact that they clearly weren't expecting this hurt more than Eve was willing to admit. M sighed heavily.

"They went against not only direct orders, but they went against several clauses in the contracts that they signed when they turned themselves in," she looked at Bond and Q. "You two knew what you were doing, and you did it anyway."

"Yes," Bond replied.

"Eve's death was deemed unacceptable and preventable, so we acted," Q finished.

"And then they didn't run," Eve said. "They had so many opportunities to leave me behind and go underground. They could have run from all of this; they could have vanished into the world and never to be seen again, and yet here we are. They stayed with me until I was healthy enough to come back here, and then they came back knowing that they were going to be shot on sight."

"I cannot make exceptions to the contract they both signed," M said.

"I'm not asking you to make an exception; I'm asking you to void the kill order from both of their contracts entirely," Eve said. "Bond and Q have more than proved that they are loyal to MI6, and they aren't going anywhere. We can keep the details about serving their sentence here, but the tracker and the kill must be removed immediately. They deserve better than what we are giving them." Now Eve could really feel Bond and Q's eyes on her, and they were staring like she was something amazing.

"Miss. Moneypenny, I cannot just have agents go rogue--"

"I've gone rogue, Alec has gone rogue, I don't see how that is relevant," Eve interrupted. "The most you have ever done is ground me from a mission for some time." M stared at Eve for a long time, and then she glanced at both Bond and Q as well.

"You are injured 007, so you will need time to recover," M said, which was a hell of a non sequitur if she ever heard one. "I cannot have agents go rogue without punishment, or no one will follow orders, and you need time to recover. So, for as long as 007 is out of commission, both Bond and Q will spend time in the cells beneath MI6." M looked Eve in the eye and narrowed her gaze, but she spoke to Bond and Q. "Miss. Moneypenny is betting a lot on the two of you, and if you are wise, you won't have that loyalty misplaced. Is that agreeable for all parties?" Eve wanted to argue that it wasn't, but she also understood that there needed to be some sort of punishment for disobeying orders, even if doing that saved her life. She looked over at Q and Bond.

"That's acceptable," Bond said.

"I agree," Q added.

"If that's what needs to be done, then that's what needs to be done," Eve said even if she wasn't happy about it.

"Good, are you, gentlemen, going to report willingly, or can we take those ties off?" M asked. Bond and Q both agreed to come willingly, and the ties around their wrists were removed. From there, they all walked down to medical to find out exactly how long the two of them would be spending in a cell. After far too long and far too many tests, medical determined that she needed two months to recover fully, but she could be mission-ready in six. M insisted that Eve take the full eight weeks, and that was how long Bond and Q were to remain in a cell. Eve watched them get escorted away as the IV from medical made the pain fade away. She just hoped that M was a woman of her word; Bond and Q's lives were depending on it.

+++

Q always thought he wouldn't fare well in prison, but it turned out he was remarkably well sinking into his own mind and just relaxing. He slept a lot, turned over equations in his mind, and eventually convinced someone to get him a pen and paper. It was fun to write code by longhand and then picture it in his mind to see if it would work. The time didn't fly by, but he wasn't bored to death either. The people of MI6 who were guarding him treated him reasonably well, and after a week, some even talked to him. He got a little information from some of them; Bond was also doing well and seemed to be keeping himself as busy as possible. Eve was also healing, and she got stronger every day. After two weeks, she visited him and stayed until the guards kicked her out. The next day he heard that she did the same for Bond.

Logically, Q knew that Eve liked him well enough, but he never thought that she would stand up to M as she did. He thought that she might hesitate or not pull the trigger herself, but she fought for him, for both of them, and saved their lives. It was a lot to take in, and even with eight weeks to come to terms with it, Q still had a hard time wrapping his head around it. Eve got him out of his cell, and Q smiled when Bond joined them. The three of them walked out of MI6, and Eve had a car waiting for them.

"We are not taking the tube," she said as they climbed into the car. Q had a feeling that Eve would be fine with him reaching over to take Bond's hand or something like that, just to touch him in some way, but he wasn't sure, and he wanted to ask before he did anything. They returned to their building, and Eve walked them to Q's door. She let herself in with the key, and Q could see that she had made sure that their flats were cleaned and there even appeared to be fresh food.

"You didn't have to do all of that," Bond said.

"You two were willing to fight for me, so I need to be willing to fight for you," she replied with a shrug. "That's how this team works."

"Thank you," Q said softly for lack of anything else. Eve nodded and looked like she didn't expect anything else from him. She turned and let herself out of the flat without another word, and the door closing echoed in the flat. She didn't offer to walk Bond to his place, which was good because Q wasn't planning on letting him leave. There was a brief moment of silence until they both walked quickly across the flat and into each other's arms. They were both a little dirty and tired from their time in the cell, and all Q wanted to do was sleep, but the moment he kissed Bond, he really didn't want to stop doing that either. They stood in the living room of his flat, practically clinging to each other while also making out slow like syrup. Q finally managed to break away, and he pressed his forehead to Bond's.

"Can I stay with you tonight?" Bond whispered.

"I'm not any more prepared here than I was at the safe house," Q deadpanned because there was still a twist of anxiety at having Bond close again. There was still a tiny part of him, terrified and furious that he would leave again.

"This is good; this is perfect, let's just hold each other as we did at the safehouse, and everything else can come later," Bond replied. It was romantic, which wasn't that surprising since Bond was the one with the romantic bone in his body, but Q still didn't entirely know what to do it. He nodded, but they kept holding each other like that for a few long moments. Eventually, they managed to break apart and wordlessly decided to shower separately. In what felt like no time at all, Q was sliding into his bed with Bond settling in at his back. "Hmm, that's interesting."

"What is?" Q asked even though he was half asleep already.

"This pillow smells like the hair products that Eve uses," Bond replied, and Q could hear the tease in Bond's voice. Q still jerked his elbow back and got Bond right in the ribs. Bond just held him tighter, and Q thought he heard Bond say, "I'm glad someone else could hold you when I couldn't," but that seemed too romantic even for Bond, so he assumed it must have been a dream.

+++

Bond woke up slowly, which was rare for him. He was usually either sleeping or awake without much time in between, but he felt safe right now. He took a deep breath and knew why he felt so safe. He could smell Q's shampoo in his hair, and Bond could feel Q's body in his arms. It was something he never thought he would have again, yet here he was, holding this man that meant everything to him in his arms, and it felt perfect. Bond pulled Q closer and released a breath. He knew that Q was waking up, he could tell by the change in his breathing, but he did nothing to let Q go.

"Did we both manage to sleep in?" Q asked, and he sounded like he was still half asleep. Bond rolled his hips against Q just a little because he couldn't help but be half-hard while in bed with the man. Bond wasn't sleeping in a shirt, but Q was, which meant the only skin that Bond could reach right now was Q's neck. It was too tempting to resist placing some soft kisses there. Q hummed and eventually turned in Bond's arms, so he was lying on his back. There were so many things that Bond wanted to say about how Q could trust that he wasn't going to run again. How much this meant to him that they were even getting a second chance, yet none of the words came. Bond was just looking down into Q's eyes. "I'm glad you're here."

"I'm glad to be here," Bond whispered, and that seemed to break the small amount of tension between them. Q pulled him down into a kiss that knocked the air out of Bond's lungs. He wanted to keep it soft and just touch Q, but it was too hard to hold back. Before he even realized it, Bond had settled between Q's open legs and that they were grinding against each other. Bond broke the kiss and opened the dresser drawer.

"I told you there wasn't anything in there," Q said, but he was smiling.

"You've been known to have things hidden in the back of your drawers," Bond replied, but his hand closed around a new bottle of lube with a post-it note stuck to it. Q frowned as he sat up on his elbows. The post-it was just a heart with the little E on it, and Bond had to laugh as Q groaned. "Remind me to thank Miss. Moneypenny."

"Remind me to give her a phone with an alarm she can't turn off," Q deadpanned. Q sounded a little put upon, but the hesitation between them broke, and it was like one of the first times they got to have sex. It was like neither of them could get out of their clothes fast enough, and much like that first time they slept together, it was just as intense now as it was back then. It was still memorizing to watch the tiny expressions on Q's face when Bond was stretching him. Bond still chased all of the moans from Q's mouth like he could taste them. And it still felt like paradise when Bond finally pushed in. For a little while, Bond had worried that this time apart maybe ruined their chemistry together, but it was just as electric as it always had been. They still clung to each other like one would fly away if they let go. Bond had barely touched Q before he came and bit Bond on the shoulder. The flash of pleasure and pain was enough to send him over the edge as well.

They were both out of breath, covered in all sorts of bodily fluids, and rather disgusting, but Bond couldn't stop kissing Q. Every time he pulled away to try, there was something about those red, kiss swollen lips that pulled him right back in. Q eventually pulled Bond into the shower, and they probably wasted far too much water just standing under the hot spray, kissing and touching each other. Bond wasn't as young as he used to be, so he couldn't go again, but he made it his personal mission to get Q to come in the shower. They were both exhausted enough to go back to bed, but they stumbled into Q's room to change and then out into the apartment. Bond got to work on a proper English breakfast while Q looked at his phone and ran his fingers through his dark, wet hair.

"Eve used my secure server to send me a meme that said, 'congrats on the sex,'" Q replied, and Bond grinned. "I've informed her that her gift was appreciated, and if she wants food, she needs to get her ass down here." Q was nursing his first cup of tea when Eve let herself into the apartment. There was probably a mission that they would have to go on soon, and Bond let himself enjoy Eve and Q's teasing as he made enough food for the three of them.

+++

Eve thought things would have changed considerably when Bond and Q returned to work, but they really didn't. It was clear that they didn't want anyone in MI6 to know that they were together again or that they were together at any point. Some people knew, but both of them seemed to be going out of their way to make sure it didn't become common knowledge. Eve didn't have a problem with that, and she made sure to keep their confidence. However, it seemed that it didn't apply to her. Ever since she started to tease Q for the lube she left in his bedroom, they weren't exactly touchy-feely around her, but they were affectionate. The knowledge that they trusted her with something they seemed to trust no one else with warmed her heart.

In no time at all, six months had passed, and they already had several missions go by without any issues. It amazed her how seamless it was between the three of them, how easily it worked, and how easily it continued to work. There were challenging moments during missions, but it wasn't anything she and Bond couldn't handle with Q in their ear. After a harder mission, Eve stumbled into the hotel room with Bond behind her that she felt like her skin was crawling. It was the built-up adrenaline and energy from almost dying, but she couldn't go out into the world to find some way to burn it off. They had attracted too much attention, and now they had to hide in this room for at least a full day before they could leave.

"I want to hear one or both of you say you aren't injured," Q said.

"We're all right," Bond replied.

"Yes, Q, nothing you need to worry about, just the usual," Eve replied. Bond hummed in agreement as he began to unpack their things. Q was oddly silent for a moment which wasn't like him. He was usually snarking about something or another while these moments were happening, if only to keep Eve and Bond distracted when they came back from missions like this. However, Q hadn't slept in three days, and he really needed to get some sleep. She wondered if he had cut the line without saying anything when Q spoke again.

"Eve, James, I can tell you both have a lot of energy you need to burn off. I think you should burn it off with each other if you're both amenable to that," Q said, and Eve froze. She had to have heard that wrong because it sounded like Q was giving her permission to sleep with Bond so they could come down from this mission.

"You think now is the time?" Bond asked, which just made Eve even more confused because now it sounded like this wasn't even the first time they had spoken about something like this.

"Q, what are you talking about?" Eve asked.

"Now seems like the perfect time," Q replied. "And I think it's quite clear what I'm talking about. You and Bond would be very sexually compatible, you're both about to crawl up the walls, and you need something to do for the next day or so." Eve didn't know what to say, but Bond seemed to be a step ahead of her.

"Go to sleep, Q; we'll be fine one way or another. Get at least a couple of hours in before you check-in again," Bond said.

"Sleep does sound lovely," Q said, and it was like she wasn't even part of this conversation. "By the way, Eve, consider this me giving you my permission if that's what you're worried about. James can speak for himself. Have a good night." The line clicked, and Eve knew that Q wasn't going to answer if she tried to say anything else. He would come back if she hit the emergency alarm, but Eve didn't know if this was an emergency. She looked over at Bond, who had raided the bar in their suit and was pouring them both large glasses of wine.

"As you know, Q isn't exactly subtle when he wants to say something," Bond said as he sat down on the couch. "This isn't how I wanted this to happen either."

"But you two are in love," Eve whispered as she walked over to the small couch. She could sit next to Bond, so she was close enough to feel the heat coming off of him but not close enough to touch.

"Very much so," Bond said as he took a sip of wine and watched her, "and the two of us wouldn't change anything about that. I'd still love him, and he would still love me." Eve was about to say that she thought that neither of them slept with women, but it was only Q that she knew wasn't attracted to women. Bond, it seemed, was a different creature altogether. It was hard not to notice how beautiful Q and Bond were, it was damn near distracting at times, but Eve didn't think that there was ever going to be any harm in looking because they were together and loved each other. It seemed that they knew she was looking.

"You really want to do this? With me?" Eve asked.

"You are a stunningly beautiful woman, Eve, who could kill me with her little finger. I like dangerous people who could find creative ways to kill me," Bond said as his gaze looked over her. Eve felt a little exposed under those blue eyes, but they were also a pair of eyes that she knew. They were a pair of eyes that she trusted, and Eve couldn't remember the last time she had sex with someone she could trust. She set the glass of wine aside and moved across the couch slowly to give Bond a chance to move away if he wanted. Instead, Bond put his own glass aside and watched as Eve climbed into his lap. His hands were on her waist, and Eve could feel that he was a little hard already.

"Excess energy?" she whispered, and Bond smirked.

"Excess energy indeed," he replied. If she ever thought about this, and Eve went out of her way to ensure that she didn't, she thought it would be explosive. One or both of them shoving the other against a wall, perhaps being unable to even get out of their clothes or to a bed before they needed to have each other. That wasn't this. Instead, it was just the two of them slowly grinding against each other, and it took a moment for Eve to really come to terms with the fact that this wasn't work and she didn't need to seduce Bond in any way. He wanted to sleep with her; she wanted to sleep with him, and for the first time in Eve couldn't remember how long the person she wanted to sleep with was someone she trusted.

They were both breathing a little harder by the time Eve closed the distance and kissed him. She almost pulled back because sleeping with someone and kissing them was not the same thing, but Bond kissed her back immediately. He was talented with his tongue, and Eve wondered if she could convince Bond to use it on her. The kissing was hot and heavy from the moment their lips touched, and it felt like no time at all had passed before they were both tugging on each other's clothing. However, the angle was making Eve's legs fall asleep, and she really needed to move.

"We're much too old to be fucking on couches, Bond," Eve said against his lips.

"I'm the one with the younger man, so what do you know?" Bond replied without missing a beat. They were both smiling as they stumbled to their feet and into the bedroom shedding clothing as they went. It turned out that Bond was indeed as talented with his tongue as Eve thought he would be, and the moment his mouth touched her, she was nearly seeing stars. She rarely let men do this to her since it was always much easier to focus on getting them off so she could move on quickly. They were stuck in this room, and she could let Bond concentrate on her pleasure. She didn't need to think about leaving quickly. After all, she was doing this because she wanted to. Bond moved his tongue in a way that made Eve arch off of the bed a little, and he slipped two fingers inside of her. It was good, so much better than she expected, and her orgasm was intense but also freeing in a way.

Eve managed to find the condoms that she always kept on hand for missions, and Bond didn't ask any questions about whether or not he needed to wear one; he did it without hesitation. She rarely let men fuck her on her back because that was a level of being out of control that Eve didn't know what to do with. If she was on top, she could keep control of the situation and the sex. This was different; she reminded herself, she wanted this to feel different from the sex she needed to have for work. So Eve let Bond blanket her in his body as they slowly moved against each other. It wasn't soft, but it wasn't rough either. It was playful, fun, easy like this was the hundredth time they had slept together and not the first. It was like they already knew how to read each other in the field, and it translated to sex as well.

She also wasn't being needlessly loud either, she could let herself moan and cry out naturally, and Eve had to fight back her instincts to be louder because that was what she had to do during sex. This was different, and it was so much better. It wasn't because she was in love with Bond, Eve wasn't sure she was a person who could love someone romantically, but because he was someone that she trusted with her life, she could trust him with the vulnerable parts of her body as well. So she let Bond kiss down her neck when she rarely let someone have their teeth next to her jugular, and Eve let her eyes close because she knew it was safe to do so.

Bond slipped a hand between her legs, and Eve keened against him. They both shifted, so it was harder, faster as they both chased release. Bond perfectly flicked his fingers, and Eve cried out as she came. She was still coming down when Bond snapped his hips two more times and followed. They stayed wrapped up in each other for a moment, just breathing through the aftershocks, until they both settled down on the bed. They were on the top of the covers, and the room was cool against the sweat on her skin, but Eve was reluctant to move. Bond tied off the condom and settled down just close enough to touch.

"Thank you," Eve said, which seemed like the wrong thing to say, but it meant so much more. She was thanking him for giving her a moment when she got to actually enjoy sex again for her own reasons. It felt like taking back a part of her agency that she signed away when she joined up with MI6, but all of that was hard to explain. She glanced at Bond, and he nodded. He didn't say anything, and they both relaxed until they both got up. Eve pulled on some pajamas and used the bathroom, and Bond was also dressed in sleepwear and had turned down both of the beds with the implication that they could sleep separately. However, one of the things Eve missed now that Bond was back was the sleepovers she would have with Q. She liked sharing a bed with someone she trusted, and Bond was one of those people.

"I'm sure Q will have more information for us in the morning," Bond said as they both climbed into the same bed. "And he'll be able to tell us how much time we're going to have to kill here."

"Well, at least we know of one way to pass the time effectively," Eve replied. Bond snorted a laugh, and she fell asleep with a smile on her face.

+++

Q knew that there wasn't any professional reason for him to video call Eve and Bond. The truth was all he needed to tell them was that they would be getting out of the city by the end of the day, so they had a few more hours to kill, but he wanted to see if they passed the time like he thought they would. Bringing in Eve in this capacity was something he had spoken with Bond about many months ago, not long after Eve decided to save their lives, and they got out of prison. They were still figuring out where they stood with each other when Q really started to come to terms with the fact that he couldn't be there to help Bond with his energy, but Eve was. She was also someone they both trusted, and trust in a partner was rare.

Eve had told him as much a long time ago when they were drunk on wine in his living room. The topic of Bond had come up, he was still missing, and Eve said that she didn't remember what it was like to sleep with someone that she trusted. When Q asked her why she didn't think of finding a partner that could understand the things she might have to do for the job, Eve explained that she didn't think she could love someone romantically like that, and it would be unfair to a partner who might expect that when it was something that she just couldn't give. Q didn't bring it up again, but it was something that he thought about. Eve meant a lot to both of them, and this seemed like a logical throughline.

"You'd be okay with that?" Bond asked at the time. They were lying on the bed, wrapped up in each other, after yet another mission. "You used to get grumpy whenever I would go see Vesper for dinner, and now you think sleeping with another woman is a good idea." Q elbowed Bond in the ribs when he did deserve.

"It had nothing to do with you being around a woman; it was the fact that I didn't and still don't trust her," Q replied. "And why would I have a problem with it? You enjoy sex with women, I know you're attracted to Eve because you're not blind, and we know we can trust her." Q shifted in the bed, so he was leaning on his elbow, looking down at Bond. "She can't love us the way we love each other," Q said, and Bond still got that little dumbstruck look on his face like he couldn't believe that Q loved him. "She's lonely, though, and she does enjoy sex, and she deserves to have a partner that she trusts and someone who wouldn't expect something she can't give."

"You're right; I'm not blind," Bond said, and he frowned. "I remember how different it was being with you because I knew I could trust you, and that was something I didn't even know I could have." Bond looked into Q's eyes. "So, what would change?"

"Well, I can't establish her boundaries for her, obviously, but I don't think much," Q said. "Only now you and her can sleep together when you want to, and maybe I'll watch if that's something you're both open to. If not, that's fine too; I don't mind. We'd just be adding a physical element; we already live in each other's flats and eat most of our meals together. We watch movies and drink bad wine after a good mission and good liquor after a bad mission. I think this would be good for all of us."

They had spoken about it a little more ever since. However, there never seemed to be a good time to bring up to your commanding officer and friend that you were open you bringing her into your relationship in a physical capacity because she is essentially already part of it in a platonic way. So Q decided that there wasn't going to be a good time, and now it was time to see if Bond could explain all of this well enough or if Eve was about to yell at him. There was a single ring on the phone, and as soon as Bond and Eve appeared, Q knew that everything was going to be okay because he didn't know what a well fucked Eve looked like; he absolutely knew what a well fucked Bond looked like. However, he wasn't sure how either of them would react if he said he could tell that they had slept together, so he kept it to himself.

"Good morning, you two," Q said, and while his voice was completely flat with absolutely no innuendo, he was very amused by the fact that these two known for being suave both blushed a little. "I have an update for you."

"Is that what this call is?" Eve asked, and Q smirked.

"Whatever else could it be?" Q replied, and she rolled her eyes at him. "I'll have an extraction ready for you at the end of the day. Until then, stay in the room, so I don't have to forge any documents to break you both out of prison again."

"He says that like he doesn't enjoy making forged official documents," Bond replied, which was true. Q found something about forging official documents and getting away with it amusing.

"I'd like to avoid it this time if possible," Q said. "I'll send you the location once I have it, and then we'll get you both home safe." He signed off before either of them could comment and got to work, ensuring they would both be getting home safe. Hours later, Q knew that they were both in the air and on their way back to London when the door to his office slammed open. A lesser man would have jumped, but Q was used to running around with people that didn't have boundaries and liked to sneak up on people.

"Hey Q," Alec said as he collapsed onto the bed that Q had stolen from medical and still refused to return. It was just easier to grab a nap when they were on a mission, and no one was going to be the one to take it from him.

"Alec, what are you doing here?" Q asked.

"Your work wife and husband asked me to drag you out of here by your ears if you didn't leave the second they were in the air," Alec replied. Q rolled his eyes because that sounded like something that Bond and Eve would do.

"Can I make you a counteroffer to leave me alone?" Q asked, and Alec smirked.

"You might be scary, but those two are way scarier, so I'm afraid you can't bribe me this time," he said. Q thought about threatening to withhold his tech, but the truth was that Alec was one of the only other people in MI6 that seemed to trust him, and he did like having allies. Q rolled his eyes and shut down his computer. Alec followed him out of Q branch and back to the building. They made small talk, and Alec seemed like he was being just a little too helpful. He followed Q into his apartment, and Q raised an eyebrow at him.

"What do you want?" Q asked. For a second, Alec looked like he was going to pretend to be insulted that Q would even say such a thing, but then he just shrugged and smirked.

"I have a mission coming up in a couple of weeks, and I need some help," Alec said.

"So just detail what you need from me, and I'll get it ready; I don't see why you needed to follow me home to ask me for that," Q replied.

"Ah, I don't actually need your help, Q; I need Bond's help. I'd like to borrow him from your little team for a mission where I might need someone to pull the trigger from a long distance," Alec explained. "If I told M that I wanted him on the mission, she would just order it, but while Eve and Bond are scarier, I really don't want to piss off the man who could ruin my credit score for the rest of my natural life."

"You don't have a credit score," Q replied without thinking, but this did make him a little nervous. If Alec was running the mission, then he couldn't be point; someone else in Q branch would be running everything behind the scenes because most of MI6 still didn't trust him. "I'm not Bond's keeper."

"I know," Alec said, "but you two are you, and I know how protective you are of each other. I can find another sniper, but I'd like the best at my back. It's not so much permission as I don't want to fuck with the best team at MI6 by stepping on someone's toes." It wasn't quite asking for permission as it was Alec wanting to make sure that he didn't mess something up that meant a lot to Q. Q didn't like the idea of sending Bond out there without him or Eve to back him up, but this might be the best indication that they were going to be accepted by the whole of MI6 one day that he had seen so far.

"I can’t think of a better man to have at your back," Q replied, but he paused for a moment. “You bring him back to me, or no one will find your body,” which made Alec laugh.

"I've seen what you can do when you're angry, and I have no desire to have that anger turned on me," he replied. "They'll be home soon, so get some sleep." Alec turned and left without another word. Q had to laugh a little to himself as he heated up some leftovers and eventually fell asleep.

+++

The following day, Q was in the middle of breakfast when the door opened, and Bond walked into his flat with Eve right behind him. Bond greeted Q with a kiss that he usually wouldn't have done in front of Eve but didn't seem to care anymore, which was interesting. There didn't seem to be anything different about their dynamic if you weren't looking, but Q could see that they moved a little easier around each other. He also wondered if Eve was going to think that this new part of their relationship would only be something that happened while on missions. Q didn't want it to seem like some sort of secret or something to be ashamed of. Eve was worth and deserved more than that.

It wasn't uncommon for the three of them to spend most of the day together after a mission. Eve and Bond vanished for a few hours in the afternoon to report to M to ensure that everything was fine and Eve wasn't with Bond when they returned.

"She wanted to get some sleep," Bond said as he pulled Q close.

"Have you spoken to her about all of this?" Q asked.

"More or less, but I wanted to make sure that you were here while we talked, so she knows that you're part of this," Bond replied, and he smirked. "Did you have a plan for tonight?" Q didn't respond, but he did pull Bond into a hard kiss. They were getting distracted, but he convinced Bond to get some sleep as Q did some work from home. He had just ordered dinner when Eve let herself in without even knocking.

"One of these days, I'm going to shoot you," Q said without looking up from his laptop. Eve sat down on the couch next to him and watched him carefully.

"I don't mind the risk," Eve replied. Q closed his laptop and turned to look at her. She looked well-rested in comfortable clothes, and there were three bottles of wine on his counter that weren't there before. This was also something they usually did after missions; get very drunk on wine and end up sleeping somewhere for the night. He studied her carefully and saw just a bit of tension in how she was sitting.

"You can talk to me about anything," Q reminded her.

"Can I talk to you about having sex with the man you're in a long-term, loving, and committed relationship with?" Eve asked.

"Yes," Q replied without hesitating, "you absolutely can because I was the one who said that it didn't bother me at all, and it still doesn't bother me. I think you and Bond could be good for each other."

"And where does that leave you?" Eve asked quietly.

"Right where I've always been," he said. Q reached forward and took one of Eve's hands into his. No one else could tell, but he could feel a slight tremble in her hands. "The three of us are already essentially in an unconventional relationship as far as I'm concerned. We live in each other's flats; we eat more meals together than we don't, we drink together, we talk about things that no one else knows, the only thing that would change is that you and Bond can have a physical relationship now when you both want it."

"I'm not one for romance, Q," Eve replied, "but you and Bond already knew that."

"I know what it's like not being able to trust anyone. I didn't trust anyone for a long time before James, and then I didn't think I'd trust anyone after him either. Then you had to come and stand in my face asking me not to force you to kill me." Q shrugged, and they both looked up as Bond sleepily walked out of the bedroom. "If you don't want this, nothing else has to change, but I think this is where all three of us were always going to end up from the moment you decided to take a chance on me."

"And you both want this?" she asked.

"Of course," Bond replied like it was apparent which Q thought it was. Eve looked between the two of them and squeezed Q's hand. She didn't say anything, but she didn't leave, which felt like acceptance to him. The takeout arrived, and the three of them set up in their usual places. Eve was in the only chair in the living room while Q and Bond were on the couch. It didn't take long for the three of them to polish off the bottles of wine, and usually, Q would have broken out the scotch so they could really get drunk. However, he didn't think tonight would be the best night to do that, considering their conversations and how meaningful the relationships were to him.

Wine was one of the things that made Bond a little handsy, and now that there wasn't a reason to hold back. Q wasn't surprised when he started to feel hot kisses along his neck. The movie was still on, but it seemed like he was the only one who was watching. Bond was far too distracted by Q, and Eve was too distracted by both of them. Q eventually turned and pressed a deep kiss to Bond's lips before pulling away.

"I'm still tired after staying awake for days keeping you two alive," Q said, and that wasn't a lie. "So I think I'll pass tonight. However, that doesn't mean I'm not up for watching." He turned his gaze to Eve, and she was a little flushed. Q stood up on relatively steady legs and walked into the bedroom. He had recently added a small, comfortable reading chair in a corner. It was supposed to be a different location for reading so he could clear his mind from work, but it worked for this as well. Q settled down, and he could hear Bond and Eve quietly talking in the living room. He didn't try to make out the words; their consent was their own.

It wasn't long before Bond and Eve walked into the room and began to slowly undress each other. Q wasn't physically attracted to women, but he could appreciate someone who was beautiful, and Eve Moneypenny was stunningly beautiful. She was a lovely contrast to Bond's beauty, and he hadn't expected that he would enjoy watching so much, but here he was. Q settled further into the chair as Bond put his clever mouth to use between Eve's legs. It truly is a lovely sight to behold, and Q loses the plot a little as he watches the two of them move together. The way Eve digs her fingers into Bond's shoulders, the way Bond pulls her closer, the way they are completely trusting one another, Q has only seen Bond like this with him, and he's never seen Eve like this.

They were just as beautiful when they both came and smiled stupidly at each other as they tried to catch their breath. Bond looked over at Q and gestured for him to join the two of them on the bed. Bond was in the middle, which was probably the best way for that to happen. Bond pulled Q into a kiss that could only constitute as 'mouth fucking' and only pulled away when they both had to breathe.

"I need a shower. Are you joining me?" Bond asked.

"I wasn't kidding about being tired," Q replied. "You two go get cleaned up and come back to bed." Eve looked a little surprised at the idea that she could stay like the two of them hadn't shared a bed dozens of times at this point. The two of them take a shower that doesn't take too long, considering there are two people, and Q is dressed for bed by the time they return. Both Bond and Eve have sleep clothes in his flat, and it isn't long until they are both climbing into bed, but this time Q is in the middle. Eve is on her side, facing him, and she looks a little overwhelmed. Bond wrapped himself around Q and pressed against his back, but Q reached out and took Eve's hand. The two of them watched each other in the dark of the room for a long time until sleep claimed them both.

+++

After knowing him for as long as she had, Eve really should have known better than to think that Q was going to be wrong. However, she thought that he was. She thought there was no chance that it would be that simple when it came to the three of them. She thought that there was no chance that things would remain largely the same between the three of them. Eve was sure that she would wake up that first night to either Bond or Q telling her to get the hell out of the flat, and they didn't even want to work with her anymore. The next morning, though, was just like any other morning that she had spent the night. The only thing that changed was that the three of them were a little more comfortable around each other, but the transition felt natural.

It was nearly enough to send Eve running from both of them because nothing that works this well is supposed to be easy. The three of them went through hell to make their partnership work, and she was worried that this could break it. The instinct to run was there, but it seemed that in the time that she got to know Q and could read him exceptionally well, Q also learned how to read her. Bond was sleeping off a hangover in the other room while the two of them were sitting on the sofa nursing two massive cups of tea. They were in her flat today, and she still wanted to run like a coward.

"What's wrong?" Q asked without looking at her.

"Nothing," Eve lied reflectively. Q looked at her and raised a single, unimpressed eyebrow, but he said nothing else. It took a little while, but Eve eventually found the words. "I'm afraid of how easy this is."

"I felt the same way about Bond in the beginning," Q replied with a shrug. "The two of us weren't together for most of the time that we've known each other. In fact, you've been looking for us longer than the two of us have been together like that. I realized how I felt before him, but that didn't make the transition any less terrifying. All I can do is reassure you that no matter what happens, we both care about you, and as you have probably known for a long time, we are far more loyal to you than we will ever be to MI6." She did l know that but hearing it did make all the difference in the world. Eve still felt afraid; she still felt that anxiety in the pit of her stomach, but she refused to be a coward, and she would not run. She rested her cheek on Q's shoulder until she started to tease him about how boney and uncomfortable it was.

Sometimes it was her and Bond with Q watching from the chair in the corner. Sometimes she was the one in the chair, and Q and Bond were together. It was embarrassing to admit how much something like that had been on Eve's mind, but they both grinned when she told them that. Sometimes, it was just her and Bond in Bond or her flat with Q in his own. He didn't want to watch all the time, and Bond told her in the privacy of the dark that Q was still very much a man that enjoyed his space. When they lived in small apartments and hotel rooms, the thing that would lead to fights between them was Q not being able to get the space he needed from Bond. So they still had their own flats that they could all go back to whenever they wanted. Sometimes, she slept in Q's bed with him just for the comfort of it. It was something they did a lot before Bond came back, and she missed it.

Sometimes, Eve slept alone, but even then, she knew that her two boys were right below and right above her if she needed them.

The moment Eve realized how important this all was to her was when she swore that no one in MI6 would find out about this unless they wanted them to know. There were so few things in her life that Eve could say were just hers, and this felt like something she was desperate to hold onto with both hands. No one was going to ruin this for her if she had anything to say about it. So they told the people that they cared to know, which really came down to Tanner and Alec. Tanner didn't seem that surprised, and Alec just looked at her like she had won some impossible prize that he couldn't ever dream of having, which she sort of did. Double-O's do not get the luxury of partners they can trust with everything they had, and she had that. Not only did she have that, but she had two partners that she knew she could trust with her life.

Bond came back from MI6 one night after being asked to stay later and informed them that Alec had asked him to go on on a mission with him. Eve was a little surprised to hear that someone else from MI6 was willing to work with Bond, but if anyone was willing to do it, Alec would be it. Q didn't look insanely happy about this announcement, but he didn't look that surprised either, which Eve noticed immediately.

"You knew about this," Eve said.

"I did," Q replied. "I don't want to say he asked for my permission because that makes it sound like I own Bond, which I absolutely do not. However, he also could see how important all of this is to me and didn't want to break it. So he asked what I thought of it, and I told him I couldn't think of a better person to have at his back. I also told him if you didn't come back, no one would be able to find his body."

"You would threaten an MI6 agent like it's not a big deal," Bond murmured.

"He didn't ask me, and I'm your superior officer," Eve pointed out, but Q shrugged.

"You'll always do what's best for England, and if Alec thinks bringing Bond along is the best thing for England, you're not going to say 'no' and even more so for personal reasons," Q replied. That was annoying because he was right, but she still wished Alec had said something. Ee looked up at Bond, and he was staring at her without saying a word. Q was very much not paying attention, so he didn't see Eve give the slightest nod and for Bond to acknowledge it. While she wasn't keen to share her boys with anyone, she did hope that someday everyone at MI6 would see them the way she saw them.

It was rather unfortunate that Alec's mission would last two whole months, but Bond still went without a complaint, and Eve essentially moved into Q's flat full time. It wasn't that she thought he couldn't handle himself alone, but more that he didn't need to do this on his own anymore, and Eve wanted to make sure that Q knew she valued him even though they weren't sleeping together. Q rolled over three weeks into Bond's mission, so he was facing Eve with a frustrated look on his face at an ungodly hour. Eve knew that he wasn't sleeping because she was having a hard time as well.

"This is stupid," Q said. "He's the most capable man I know, and we've spent time apart, and I've never had this problem before. Why is this so different? You two go on missions that take you away from me all the time, and I can sleep if I have to. I don't like the idea of being so dependent on someone that I can't even sleep when they are away."

"You're a control freak," Eve said not unkindly, and Q glared at her. "It's true, and you know it. It's not a bad thing; I wouldn't want anyone else running things in the background that isn't a control freak. You wouldn't be as good at your job as you are if you weren't a control freak. You've kept Bond and me alive because you're a complete and total, 100% control freak--"

"--I get it, you've made your point, I'm a control freak--"

"--and this is relinquishing a lot of control. Q Branch won't let you into any of the backend stuff to keep an eye on the mission, and you don't want to piss Boothroyd off by hacking into it and possibly getting caught," Eve continued as if Q hadn't said anything. "I'd be more worried if you were sleeping well while he's gone, but you have to remember something."

"And what's that?" Q asked.

"Alec is terrified of both of us, and he wouldn't dare let Bond get hurt under his watch," Eve said. "So our reputations proceed us, and that works for our benefit." Q stared at her for a moment before he started to shake with silent laughter. For the first time in three weeks, Eve saw the tension in Q's shoulders finally release, and he moved closer to her so he could press his forehead to hers. They both stayed that way for a moment, just being close before Q turned around, and Eve wrapped an arm around him. He fell asleep quickly, and Eve allowed herself to get some much-needed rest.

Bond returned unharmed, which was good for all people named Alec. They were both enthusiastic in their welcome home, and by the end of the night, the three of them were sprawled out in the bed together. Eve had her head on Q's lap with Bond resting his head on her stomach. Q had watched Bond eat her out until she orgasmed twice before joining them on the bed for Bond to fuck Q into incoherence. Or at least he was incoherent thirty minutes ago. Now they were all basking in the afterglow while Q did a little bit of work on his laptop. The sound of the typing was lulling Eve to sleep, and Bond was already most of the way there already.

"Thank you," she said without looking at either of them. Neither of them replied to her thanks, nor did they ask what she was thanking them for, which she appreciated. The only acknowledgment was the slight delay in Q's typing when he listened to her and Bond moving in just a little closer. It was hard to admit that this was something that she needed now, that this was something worth protecting at all costs, and this wasn't where she thought the three of them would have ended up.

Eve thought back to when she was assigned Q's, and by extension, Bond's, but they didn't know that at the time, case. There wasn't anything out there on them, but she managed to track them down so much that she knew what kind of people they were without meeting them. She knew that when Q sent her those coordinates and told her they weren't terrorists, Eve believed him without hesitation. She jumped in front of an MI6 squad and told them not to fire twice now, and she didn't regret it. Eve had done many things in her life she wasn't proud of, but taking a chance, taking multiple chances, staking her entire career and life on these two was not one of them.

There was always going to be another mission, another mark, and it truly dawned on her that not only did she think she would return from these missions, but now Eve had something to return to that wasn't just loyalty to England. And that felt more empowering than any weapon Q had ever put in her hand.

+++

Q wasn't one to keep track of time, but it did go on. Eve settled into her place within the relationship that the three of them had, like she had always been there. Sometimes, when he was feeling sentimental, he wondered if this was how he and Bond were always meant to end up. There was something so much more about what they were doing now, even if it was still serving a lifelong prison sentence. It didn't feel like one anymore, and M seemed to know that their loyalty was to Eve than to MI6, but she didn't try to change them. She let the three of them operate however they wanted to.

Bond went out on other missions with Alec, and once it became apparent that Bond was not going to shoot anyone in the back, other agents started asking for Bond to come as their backup. That meant that he was going on more missions, and sometimes Eve needed to go out alone. That seemed to bother Bond far more than it bothered Eve. She could take care of herself, and Q ensured that she always had an out. While MI6 seemed to finally accept Bond, they still kept their distance from Q. They could understand and trust a man who pulls the trigger, but they couldn't wrap their heads around the man behind the computers or tech.

Not that Boothroyd seemed to care too much. Q found himself spending more and more time with the actual Q of MI6, and he enjoyed the dad jokes that Boothroyd would play on his staff when they were in the same room. In some circles, they were being called U.Q. and L.Q. or Uppercase Q and Lowercase Q, which amused Q and Boothroyd plenty. However, people maintained their distance, and the more Q examined it, the more he realized that people were following M's lead. She didn't seem to really trust him, so no one else did. It didn't bother Q per-say, but it did sting a little when his security was the thing preventing people from getting into MI6, and even when Boothroyd gave Q credit, it didn't seem to matter.

Q had an ego, he knew that about himself, but he wouldn't let that ego ruin things. He knew that there was a good chance that M wasn't ever going to trust him, and he needed to be fine with that. So he continued to work alone in his office, he listened to Boothroyd get louder and louder about how R was not keeping up with the current technology and didn't seem keen to evolve, and he kept Eve and Bond alive. The three of them were wrapping up a mission when Tanner stopped them just as they headed out the door.

"Q, M wants to have a word with you," he said.

"Did you do something to piss her off?" Eve asked.

"I never do anything wrong," Q deadpanned.

"If we don't hear from you in a couple of hours, we'll prepare the invasion," Bond said. Q knew that Bond was joking, but Tanner looked like he wasn't that sure. Eve and Bond walked out of the building, and Q followed Tanner up to M's office. Tanner opened the door but didn't follow Q inside. That was rare since Tanner was almost always at M's right hand, but it seemed like it would be the two of them. Eve was joking about doing something to piss M off, but Q couldn't think of anything.

"Q, please sit," M said as she gestured to the chair in front of her desk.

"Is something wrong?" Q asked because if this was going to be a bad conversation, he wanted to get it over and done with.

"I called you up here to tell you that I made an error in judgment," she said, and Q's stomach dropped; that couldn't be good. "You see, even though you have proven time and time again that you can be trusted here at MI6, I never actually took the time to really accept it. I knew that my action reflected in the way that many other people here have treated you."

"I don't understand, ma'am; no one has been cruel or done anything to me," he replied, but M held up a hand to silence him.

"I'm not going to say that my hesitation was unfounded. We both know that someone like James Bond could do a lot of damage if he decided to turn against us, but you. You are the embodiment of the kind of threat that MI6 feels out of its depths to fight," M explained. "I'm an old woman, Q, and you are the threat I don't know how to fight. For that, it took me a long time to trust that you have good intentions, no matter how many times Tanner, Eve, Boothroyd, or Alec would tell me that my doubts didn't hold any weight." M opened up a file on her desk, and Q realized it was the file she had on him that once held the contract. That was more or less voided, but there was still the sticky note with his real name on it. M picked up the note and held it between her fingers. "This is the last piece of leverage I have on you, Q, and I don't need or want it anymore." She reached over her desk to hand Q the note. He took it carefully and resisted the desire to shred it right then and there.

"Thank you," Q said softly, "but why now? What changed?"

"I'm an old woman, Q, and I need to retire someday, and I'm beginning the process of bringing in my replacement, a man named Gareth Mallory. He'll know about your background the way he'll know about everyone's, but he'll just see you as another recruit we made to make sure you were on our side as we have done many times before. He'll be an M without the baggage of mistrust for you and Bond," M said, and she smirked. "Also, Major Boothroyd is itching to fire his current R so he can promote you and start his process of bringing in a replacement. No more confusing the two Q's; you'll be the only one."

He didn't know what to say; there were too many things going on Q's mind to come up with a single thing to say to that. He thought that, someday, he might be able to move around Q Branch without someone looking at him like he was going to deliberately blow up the place, and he knew that Boothroyd was fond of him, but he never thought that Boothroyd would want him to eventually be the Q of MI6. M seemed to realize that he was a little lost for words.

"You don't need to decide that now," M assured him, "but do let me know soon so I can tell the Major to stop calling me about it several times a day."

"I will," Q said, and he stood up. M smiled softly at him, and they just looked at each other for a moment until Q turned and walked out of the office, the sticky note with his real name still in his hand. He didn't throw it away when he got out of MI6, and he didn't throw it away when he got on the tube to go back to his flat. He was still holding it in his hand when he got to Bond's flat, where he knew Eve and Bond were waiting for him. His real name was the closest and most guarded secret Q had. There were skeletons attached to that name that didn't want to dig up, and there was a reason that no one knew it; there wasn't a trace of anyone by that name existing and anyone who did know it was long dead.

It was the final piece of him that Q kept hidden, but as he stood in front of that door, looking down at the name, it felt important. M knew it, and she was someone who would take a secret like that to her grave. All he needed to do was wait, and once again, no one would know that name. That wasn't what he wanted to do, though.

Q opened the door to the flat and found Eve and Bond sitting on the sofa drinking wine. They both smiled when he walked in and thankfully didn't ask what the meeting was about. Q looked at the note in his hand and at the two people, he trusted more than anyone in the world. He walked over and handed them the note so they both had that final piece of the puzzle that made up Q, the secret he guarded more than anything, because they were the ones who deserved to know. They both read the name on the note, but they didn’t say anything. No one needed to say anything so Eve handed Q a glass of wine and they settled down on the couch so Q could tell them about the new job offer and the mission they were going on next week.