Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

James Bond walked into Moneypenny’s office and grinned at her as his familiar Archimedes swooped in silently behind him.  The barn owl landed on the coat rack and settled, ruffling his wings. She glanced up from the email she was typing, as did her familiar.  Mackenzie was a honey badger and he was currently curled up in his bed beside her desk.

“Tell Arc not to shit on M’s coat again.”  She said dryly, looking back at the screen.

“Tell her to get stuffed.” Archimedes hooted, making James chuckle.

“He says he wouldn’t dream of it.”  James said.  He wandered over to the bird and stroked the soft feathers on his chest.  “Don’t be cheeky, birdy.”  He muttered.

Familiars were strange things.  They appeared soon after a person was born and spent their whole lives with them.  They were a life-long companion and came in every conceivable form but they were more than that.  They were a representation of that person’s soulmate.  James couldn’t imagine who his soulmate could be but through Archimedes he knew that they would be intelligent… and most likely male.  That was a thing that has always confused James.  He was bisexual and quite happy to seduce anyone with a pulse but he’d never loved a man the way he’d loved women.  He’d had affairs with women, married them even, thinking that maybe Arc was an aberration – it wasn’t unheard of for the gender to be wrong after all – but all of those relationships had fizzled out.  He was in his early forties now and had begun to wonder if maybe his soulmate didn’t exist.  Maybe Arc was just a projection of himself. 

As he stood fussing his owl, Mackenzie got up out of his bed and trotted over to sniff his ankle.

“You know, I’m never sure if Kenny isn’t going to sink his teeth into me.”  James said, looking down. 

“I think the chances of that are directly proportional to how nice you are to me.”  Eve replied.

“What?”  James asked in mock-outrage. “How could I ever be accused of not being nice to you?  You’re the number one lady in my life!”

“Hmm.  I’ll bet.”  Eve laughed. “Well, you might not want to say that in front of Bill.  There’s a reason my husband’s animal equivalent is a honey badger…”

“Cute as a button, would rip my face off at the drop of a hat if I annoyed him?” James asked jokingly, raising his eyebrows at her.

“Exactly that.” She laughed. “Come on Kenny.  Leave poor James alone.”  The creature barked at her as he went back to his bad and she laughed again.  “Yeah… well maybe later.”

James didn’t know what Mackenzie had just said, it was extremely unusual for anyone to understand another person’s familiar, but he got the gist.  He leaned over and said to him;

“Kenny, if I ever hurt Eve, I will deserve every single laceration.”

Mackenzie snuffled as he plonked his head down onto his front paws.  He was a good boy really and James liked him very much.  As much as he liked Bill Tanner in fact.  As he straightened up the door to M’s office opened.  Tabitha, Tanner’s lynx familiar, slinked out followed by the man himself.

“Ah, Bond.  There you are.  Go on in, M’s waiting.”

James waited for them to pass and then held out his arm and Archimedes flew to land on his wrist.  As he went in, he saw that M was sitting behind his desk.  His familiar was out of sight but the office window was open so James didn’t doubt that his magpie Myrtle would be nearby, perhaps flying around exercising. James realised with a sudden tinge of sadness that he missed the old M’s familiar almost as much as he missed the woman herself.  Reginald, her British Bulldog, had been a grumpy old sod (much like her third husband had apparently been) but he’d been every bit as brave as the clichés said.  M had died in his arms after Silva’s attack and then he’d stroked Reggie as he’d laid his head down in her lap and followed her a few minutes later. He’d been an old dog and it had been a mercy that his heart had given out so soon after the death of his beloved human.  James sadly knew all too well that it didn’t always work that way and both people and familiars sometimes had to learn to live without the other.  From what James understood, the grief felt from losing one’s counterpart could be overwhelming.

He sat down.

“Bond.  How are you feeling?”  M asked, not looking up from the file in front of him.

“Better.” He replied.

James had been suspended three weeks previously after he’d been shot in the thigh whilst on mission.  It wasn’t a bad injury as gunshot wounds went, just a deep graze a few inches below his right hip.  Another couple of centimetres and it might have caused a devastating injury but as it was, he’d been stitched up and given a course of antibiotics with very little drama.  He had to admit, he was intrigued.  His type of injury usually resulted in an automatic four-week suspension from the field.  Quite what he was doing in M’s office after only three was beyond him.

“I have a little mission for you, if you’re game.  Intel gathering mainly.”

“Why me?”  James asked.  “That sounds as though it’s all rather low risk.  If it’s low risk, why not send a standard agent?”

“Because there’s a small chance that it may not be.”  M replied.

He threw the file he’d been reading across the desk towards him and he read the top page.  Clipped to it was a grainy photograph of a handsome dark-haired young man.

“That is Lyutsifer Safin.  He came to our attention a few months ago.”

“Who is he?”

“We’re not sure but there’s been enough chatter about him on our usual channels recently to warrant him being added to our watch list.  On the face of it he seems a bit of a playboy who likes to dabble in new tech, he has a company based in Moscow which is said to be on track to rival Tesla by the end of the decade, but he also seems to be the kind of man who inherited his father’s money and is determined to spend it on enjoying himself.”

“So why are we interested in him?”  James prompted.

“He keeps the wrong kind of company.  Any rich man will have a number of friends who have dubious dealings but he has more than his fair share and I want to know what, if anything, he’s up to.”

“What do you need me to do?”

“There is a hotel resort ten miles outside of Sochi in Russia.  Our sources tell us that he is heading there in three days to meet with someone.  We want to know who that person is.  I want you to have a holiday there.  Enjoy the pool and the amenities and find out who he’s meeting with.”

“That’s all?”

“That’s all.  Other agents will take over from there once you find out his ‘friends’ identities.”

“So why do you need me to do this?  It all seems a bit straightforward…”

“I did’t want you specifically Bond, but I want it to be a double-oh in case everything goes south.  If the rumours about this man Safin are to be believed, there's a chance he could be a threat.  I’m not going to put one of our standard field agents at risk.”

“It’s OK to put me at risk though.”  James said wryly.

“If he's dangerous, I’ll not send a lamb to spy on someone that we believe might be a wolf.”

James nodded.  M had a point.

~00Q~

The Majestic Resort was a strange place.  The main hotel building was a huge imposing structure, standing seven stories tall in acres of meticulously tended beach front gardens and leisure facilities.  There were three pools, two of which had private areas that could be hired for a price.  Despite the size of the place, there were very few apartments which meant very few guests.  James estimated that his own rooms took up a quarter of the space on the fifth floor.  As he laid on a sun lounger, looking up at the building he pondered that the hotel wasn’t the kind of place that you could turn up to and book a room for the night.  It was only thanks to the boffins at MI6 that his cover identity was robust enough to allow him to take an apartment for the week without raising the management’s suspicions.

He was Richard Stirling of Universal Exports once again.  It was an old identity that had served him well over the years.  Innocuous enough on the face of things but if anyone worth their salt dug further into his online presence, they would find links to arms-dealing and the type of global, multinational companies that tended to dip their fingers into the pots of small countries run by corrupt leaders.  In other words, he came across as just legitimate enough to seem like a clever criminal.

He’d arrived at the Majestic the day before and had spent a wonderful night sleeping in the enormous bed that dominated the master bedroom of his suite before enjoying breakfast on the balcony.  The food was excellent and they’d even thought to provide Archimedes with a bowl of mousey snacks which James had lovingly fed to him.  Although Arc wasn’t totally nocturnal, he didn’t like the bright sunlight and James always felt sorry for him when they ended up on mission in the height of summer.  It couldn’t be helped though so James tried to compensate by pampering him and giving him lots of fuss, carrying him whenever he could in the daytime.

James loved to be in the sun and was enjoying the warmth on his skin while Arc pottered about on the floor beside him in the shade.  There didn’t seem to be a lot of people around to watch so he let himself relax, placing the book he’d been pretending to read on his lap so he could pick up the cold drink that was on the small table beside him.  Arc hopped up onto the lounger when he heard the ice clink in the glass.

“Having fun?” he asked as he walked up James’s naked thigh, being careful not to dig in his talons.

“Bit bored.”  James admitted.  “No sign of the target yet.”

Arc made a soft hooting noise that may or may not have been a huff of boredom as he proceeded to lick a drop of condensation off the side of the cold glass.

“You could have a hunt later, if you like, once it’s dark.  See what you can see.” James suggested.

“I’ll do that.” Arc replied, taking another lick and then watching as James drank from the glass. “Where do we think he’ll be?  Penthouse?”  

“Probably.” James replied.  Safin had been due at the hotel that morning.  He would most likely take largest suite on the top floor of the building.  James hadn’t wanted to hang around the lobby waiting for him to arrive though, that would have been too obvious, so the plan was for James to stay by the pool.  The contact who had tipped them off said Safin liked to swim.  It made sense that he would hire one of the two private poolside areas and conduct his business there.

“It’ll be nice to go for a bit of a flap.” Arc commented, making James smile.

“Silly birdy.”  He muttered.

“Longshanks.” Arc shot back.  He nibbled one of James’s knuckles playfully before going back to licking the glass.

“I could get you a bowl of water you know.”

“No thank you.  Then you wouldn’t have to sit there holding it for me.”

James chuckled and then reached out to tickle Arc just under his wing where he knew he liked it.

“Just be careful later, alright?  We don’t know what this Safin’s familiar is.  He might have a hawk or something.”

“Or a pigeon.” Arc said slyly.

They both laughed.  It had been a running joke between them for years.  One of James’s fellow agents, a man called Alec Trevelyan, had a pigeon as a familiar.  He was convinced that his future wife, his soulmate, would be a homely, soft and gentle type who would have spent her life with a lion as a familiar.  It turned out that the woman he married was an RAF pilot with uncanny navigational skills.

And her familiar was a large docile tabby cat.

James and Arc honestly thought they would die from the effort of not laughing the day they’d met her.  She really had been Alec’s soulmate though.  They were still together, still married, retired and living in the Cotswolds with their five children.  James looked at Arc, losing himself in thought.  He was forty-three years old.  James always thought he would have met his soulmate much earlier in life.  Maybe he would have to wait until retirement until he met ‘the one’…

“I know what you’re thinking and I can’t help you to find him.” Arc said softly in the uncanny way he had of almost reading James’s mind.  “Don’t lose hope though, he’ll be out there somewhere I’m sure… no doubt wondering why he’s got an ugly baboon for a familiar…”

“Why you little shit…” James growled, suddenly realising what Arc had said.  Arc hopped down to the end of the lounger, just out of reach of James’s suddenly grabbing hands, hooting merrily to himself. “I suppose you think you’re funny.  That’s it.  I don’t want to meet him now, even if he does exist.  I can’t put up with the two wise arses like you!”

He put his glass down and Arc immediately walked back up his leg to settle down onto his favourite spot on James’s chest.

“ You’d love it .”  He muttered and he fluffed up his feathers and closed his eyes, ready to take a nap.  James stroked the back of his head gently.

“You’re probably right.”  He sighed.

~00Q~

At dusk James ordered supper and asked for it to be laid out on the little table on the balcony of his room.  They were on the fifth floor, two floors below the penthouse where they thought Safin would be.  They ate together and then Archimedes took flight out into the night air.  James sat and waited quietly for him to get back.  He knew the owl would take the opportunity to exercise before manoeuvring himself into a position where he could spy on the occupants of the penthouse apartment.

After half an hour or so, the near-silent flash of wings alerted James to Arc’s return.  Instead of landing beside him though, Arc dive-bombed through the patio doors and straight in under the bed.  James was about to follow him but then he realised why he’d hidden, as he spotted a goshawk in hot pursuit.  The bird made as if to follow Arc into the room but James stood up smoothly, blocking his path.

“Hey there!”  He called out in a cold tone. “What do you think you’re doing?”

The hawk landed on the balcony, ruffling it’s feathers menacingly and trying to peer around him but James didn’t move.

“Don’t think for a moment that you’re coming in here.” He said coldly. “You’ve pursued my familiar.  I’ll rip your fucking wings off before you can even think about harming him.”

The bird seemed to squint before squawking at him indignantly.  A moment later there was a knock at the door. James took a step back and pointedly slid shut the large glass door, not taking his eyes off it.  He quickly crossed the room and peered through the spy hole into the hallway.  There was a thickset man in a black suit standing there.  James checked that his Walther was firmly tucked into the back of the waistband of his trousers and opened the door.

“Can I help you?”  James asked, arching an eyebrow.

“My familiar came this way.  I would like him back.”

“No.”  James said flatly.

The man hesitated.

“But…”

“Your hawk was trying to kill my owl.  That was rude.  Go back to your suite and call him.  I’ll not let him come through this room.” 

There was a movement of air behind James and Arc landed on his shoulder.  James continued staring at the man.

“Your sky rat was spying on us.”  The man said.  “My employer does not take kindly to spies.”

“I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous in my life.”  James said flatly. “My poor companion here hates the bright daylight.  He was merely exercising, stretching his wings.  You should try being a little more tolerant and you should certainly teach your bird not to meddle in the affairs of people that he doesn’t know.”

James reached behind himself and rested his hand on his gun.  The man saw the movement and seemed to make an internal calculation.  He bowed.

“Of course.  Sorry to have bothered you.  I shall call Percy from my room.”

With that he turned and left.  James shut and bolted the door and then went to the glass door that led outside.  They stared at the indignant goshawk until they saw it cock its head as it apparently heard its human’s voice and fly off.

“’Percy’?  What a dick .” Arc muttered.

James reached up so Arc could climb from his shoulder onto his hand and he could see him more clearly.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.  That bully almost had me though.”

“How did they spot you?”

“I must have got too close.  I did a couple of passes; they saw me on the third.”

“Why did you go by so often?”  James asked as he walked over to lock the patio door and draw the curtains.

“There were five men in there but I only saw four familiars.  I was trying to spot the fifth.  I couldn’t see any sign of it though.  It must be really small.”

“What did you see?”

“Three big men, our meathead visitor included.  He’s got the goshawk, the other two have a leopard and an emu between them…”

“An emu ?”  James exclaimed.  “Fucking hell.  I’m guessing then that those three men are all security guards, employed on the basis of their familiars’ potential viciousness.”

“Indeed.”  Arc agreed. “Other than that, there are two smaller, dark-haired men.  They were both handsome, both slender.  One of them was Safin, I’m sure of it.  The other man has what seems to be a large white dog or something… I’m not sure… but I couldn’t see Safin’s familiar.  That was what I was trying to spot.  I did notice one thing though…”

“Oh?”

“The white familiar?  It was muzzled.”

~00Q~

James ate breakfast early the next morning and then headed back to the main pool.  He chose a lounger that had a fair view of the entrances to the two private areas.  Safin and his men would have to pass him to get to either of them.  Once he was settled, he put on the sunglasses that MI6's quartermaster Boothroyd had given him.  They had a built-in camera and earpiece to allow James to transmit anything that he was seeing.  He activated them to call MI6.  Arc climbed onto his chest and James stroked him so it would look to anyone passing that it was him that he was speaking to.  Tanner picked up the communication.

“Bond!  How are the hols so far?”

“Marvellous.”  James replied.  “Archimedes had a little run in with one of the familiars in Safin’s group last night…”  Arc started to retell what he’d seen in the penthouse suite the night before and James relayed it word for word.

“Emu eh?  Blimey.” James heard Tanner whistle. “Well, he shouldn’t be too difficult to identify…”

Arc went on to describe the other man that he’d seen.

“He was about mid-twenties, slim, dark hair.  He was working on a laptop.  Safin was leaning over him as he typed.  He had a dog-like familiar that was muzzled.”

“So, one might assume that he was there under duress?”

“Tightly controlled at the very least.”  James commented.  “I’ll try to get you a good view of him when they come down to the pool.” 

When Archimedes told the last part of the tale about being chased by the goshawk, James felt him tremble.  Arc was tenaciously brave but James knew that there were occasions where he was required to fight against instinctive, almost overwhelming fear.  James stroked his chest lovingly as he hooted what he’d seen, letting the little bird know how proud he was of him.  When he was finished, he took a couple of steps forward and snuggled into James's neck.  James automatically placed a gentle hand on his back, holding him close.

“That’s all we know so far.” James said.

“That’s brilliant.  Tell Arc thank you.  We’ll leave the com open for now with no audio so we can make sure the visual feed is stable, so no running off and shagging any barmaids for the next couple of hours please Bond.”

James heard the audio go dead as he felt his familiar nibble his neck.

“Are you OK, brave boy?”

Arc hooted quietly, his face still tucked in.  He would stay there for a while James knew, settling himself down again, hiding his eyes from the sunshine.  James picked up his book and started to read, keeping half an eye on the other side of the pool.

~00Q~

An hour or so later James saw movement and he instantly touched his finger to the sunglasses, activating the audio.

“Are you there, Bill?”  He asked.   Arc had dozed off but he roused at James’s voice and straightened up.

“Here.”  Came the reply.

“Safin’s group straight ahead.”

“Got them.  Keep still if you can and I’ll… fuck …”

“What’s happened?”  James asked.  “What is it?”

“Hold up…”  Tanner sounded distracted, almost excited.  James heard him shout off-microphone. “Someone patch M in!  He needs to see this!”  He came back on the line properly.  “The young man.  The one with the muzzled familiar?  That’s not a dog, it’s a wolf called Beelzebub.  The man’s name is Thomas Carter but we all used to call him ‘Q’.”

“You all…?”  James queried.

“I’ll pull his file up and transmit it to you but the guy you’re looking at is an employee of MI6. Or at least he used to be.  He was in R&D under Boothroyd.  Absolutely brilliant, thirty years old, came to us straight after uni.  Full on whiz at engineering, weapons development, computers, you name it.  We nicknamed him Q because it was blindingly obvious that he’d be the man to take over Boothroyd’s position of quartermaster one day.”

“What happened?”

“Three months ago he left work as usual, travelled home on the tube, walked into his flat, activated his personal alarm and disappeared.”

“No trace of him?”

“As you know, every member of staff working on anything even remotely classified has an alarm in case someone tries to snatch them.  The security detail on duty that night got to his flat in less than fifteen minutes after activation and he’d gone.  His satchel containing his laptop was on the floor next to his phone, a few things had been knocked off a table indicating a struggle and that was it.  Every security camera for a two-street radius was disabled, as were the ones that we’d placed at the entrance to his building.  They knew exactly what they were doing.”

“What makes you think he wasn’t working for them before then?”

“When I said he was good at computers, I mean he was really good.  A genius.”

“You believe he would have hacked us.”

“Yes, and most likely been successful.  The fact that we haven’t had a large-scale breach means one of two things, he’s either refused outright or negotiated some kind of deal with Safin so he doesn’t have to.”

“Either thing would seem to indicate that he still has some kind of loyalty to MI6.”  James mused.

There was a tap of static on the line and then M spoke;

“Bond?  Has Tanner updated you?”

“Yes Sir.”

“Get Carter back; do you hear me?  Whether he’s turned or not, I want him back here.  I’ll be buggered if I’ll let a bastard like Safin steal my employees.”

“Yes, Sir. Let me see what I can discover and I’ll get back to you.”

The line went silent and James picked up his book but his eyes were fixed on the private pool area that Safin and his entourage had disappeared into.  A waiter wandered over towards James at one point but he waved him away.  He had an inkling of a plan and having a drink to hand wasn’t part it.  It was almost an hour later that James saw what he wanted.  He quickly stood up and grabbed the empty glass from the table next to him and walked over to the little pool-side bar that the waiter was based at.  Archimedes had been disturbed by James’s sudden movement but James had scooped his hand under his bottom so he didn’t fall and by the time they reached the bar, he’d recovered his poise and was standing on James’s wrist.

The young man, Q, was standing at the bar alone.  He was just wearing a pair of floral Bermuda shorts and James admired him as he approached.  He was slim yet muscular and his skin was a golden tan colour.  As James reached him, he turned slightly and James saw the remains of a large bruise covered his left cheek.  He looked down at the man’s muzzled familiar and he remembered his conversation with Tanner.  Under duress or tightly controlled at the very least… James would have laid money firmly on the former.  Pushing aside the feelings of concern that arose inside him he leaned on the bar and grinned.

“Buy you a drink?”  He asked.

Q looked up at him.  The first look on his face was one of alarm but then he seemed to take in James, standing there nonchalantly with an owl on his arm, wearing the smallest pair of pale blue and black swim shorts known to man, and he smiled shyly.

“It’s a free bar.” He said.

“Damnit.  I can’t impress you with my generosity then… I’ll have to think of something else.”

“Good luck with that.”  Q replied.  The bartender came to serve Q then and he ordered a glass of orange juice.

“You don’t drink alcohol?” James asked.

“Not for some time now, no.”

Since you were taken, James thought.  He spoke aloud;

“That’s probably not a bad thing.  Arc here gets pissed off if I get too hammered.”

“Arc?”

“Archimedes.  Named by my mother.  My father wanted to call him Artemis until someone pointed out to him that Arc was a boy.  He wasn’t happy.”

“He didn’t like the idea of your soulmate being male?”

“Not so much, no.” James laughed.  “I know it’s not a hard and fast sign that my one true love will be a man but…”

“But it usually works out that way.”  Q offered.  James nodded in agreement.  Q reached down to stroke his familiar’s ears. “This is ‘zebub.  My parents were horrified when he appeared next to my crib on the maternity ward I was born on.”

“’zebub?”

“Beelzebub.  My parents hated him.  They wanted me to have some elegant female cat or a rabbit or who the fuck knows what.  Something sweet and girly.”

“Not a hulking great male wolf then?”

“No.  Anything but that.”

Beelzebub looked up at James and he noticed for the first time that the animal had piercing pale blue eyes much like his own.  Just then the bartender returned with Q’s drink and James ordered his usual martini.

“Well, thank you for the chat.”  Q said and went to leave.

“Don’t go.”  James’s words were blurted out, un-marshalled.  He wondered at himself as he quickly recovered his poise and continued. “You haven’t even told me your name.”

Q smiled.

“We probably won’t get to speak again but it’s Thomas.”

“Really?  You don’t look like a Thomas.”

“I don’t?”

“No.  You look more like a ‘Q’ to me…”

Q’s eye’s widened in realisation at the nickname he'd been given at MI6 and his cheeks paled.  He suddenly looked terrified.

“You can’t say that here…”

“My name’s Bond, James Bond.  I’m a double-oh agent. I’m here on a low-key mission on behalf of MI6 to find out who Safin is doing business with but you were recognised.” James quickly explained.  “Do you know who he’s here to meet?”

Q shook his head.

“There is no meeting.” He whispered fiercely.  “Who do you think it was that tipped off MI6?”

“You wanted us to find you.”  James said quietly.  “You want to get away from him.”

“Yes.” Q replied, suddenly looking like he was on the verge of tears.   “Please.  You have no idea what he’s like, the things he makes me do…”

James glanced over in the direction that Q had come from and saw one of the bodyguards was staring over at them.

“Quickly answer me.  How long are you staying here for?”

“One more full day.  We leave first thing on Friday.”

“Will you come to the pool again tomorrow?”

“Yes.”

“Do you swim?”

“Yes.”

“If I were to get you out of here is there anything that you need to take with you?”

“Only ‘zebub.”

The guard started walking towards them, his emu familiar following.

“Make sure that you swim in the main pool tomorrow.”  James said quietly and then added a little louder; “Are you sure I can’t convince you?  A quick spin in my Aston.  I know a wonderful little restaurant with views of the bay and…”

“Mr Safin needs to speak to you now.”

James turned to the guard who’d interrupted them, apparently noticing him for the first time.

“Sorry.” Q said.  “I did try to tell you that I was working…”

“How can you blame me for trying to arrange a date though?  You are such a handsome young man.”  He caught up Q’s hand and kissed the back of it gallantly.  “Apologies.  If you change your mind I’ll be here until the end of the week.”

Q picked up his glass and with a final nervous smile he turned and headed back to Safin.  The bartender put James's drink down beside him and he casually picked up the glass to take a sip.

“Did you get all that?”  He asked quietly.

“We did.” Came the response from Tanner.

“We have one shot at this.  We need to get him out tomorrow.”

Chapter Text

James spent most of the evening in his room, plotting Q’s kidnapping with Tanner.  Agents around the local area were mobilised, putting measures into place for them.  James wanted to get Q out as smoothly as they could but it was possible that the whole thing would go to shit the moment James made his move so they needed to consider every possible contingency.  James was almost certain that the three guards were armed, their familiars were certainly all threats and he still hadn’t identified Safin’s.  His might be the deadliest of them all, a venomous scorpion or snake, although admittedly, those kinds of familiars were extremely rare.

At three in the morning, he went down to the little marina which was located at the bottom of the hotel’s gardens and found a small, fast speedboat, just like Tanner said he would.  Arc circled above him, keeping an eye out to ensure that James wasn’t seen as he stashed the majority of his possessions in the boat's footlocker before creeping back to his room.  They managed to get a few hours of sleep before James ordered them an early breakfast.  At seven o’clock he was ready to go and he went down to the pool area before anyone else got there.  There was a large herbaceous border on the edge of the gardens and he found himself a spot in that.  He was totally hidden but had a fair view of the main pool.  Settling himself down with his back to one of the trees at the back of the border, he waited.

Right on cue, Safin and his entourage turned up mid-morning.  They went to the same side area as they had the day before.  James sat up, flexing his legs to make sure he wasn’t going to cramp up when he went to move.  He poised, ready to spring when he saw Q.  He stayed like that for twenty minutes and then he appeared.  He was just dressed in his floral swim shorts again and a pair of brightly coloured deck shoes, and he carried a towel.  He looked around himself as he put it down on one of the many sun loungers that flanked the pool and went to take his shoes off.

Arc suddenly took flight as James pounced, bursting out of the bushes to grab Q.  He wrapped one arm around his chest and slapped his other hand over his mouth as he dragged him back into the bushes.  Beelzebub ran after him, snarling frantically.

“It’s me.”  James hissed.  “Calm the wolf, we need to go now! ”

Q nodded and put his hand out to his familiar as James released his grip.

“It’s OK, ‘zebub.  He’s going to help us to get away.”

James didn’t wait to see if the wolf would obey Q, he just grabbed Q's hand and ran.  He’d used the time the night before to work out the best route to where the boat was moored.  Arc swooped above them, keeping watch.  He suddenly hooted.  They’d been seen.

There was nothing to be done, they had to just keep running.  The main thing now was to stay ahead of their pursuers, especially the emu.  They could be vicious, capable of eviscerating a man with a single stroke of their claws.  James had his Walther PPK tucked into a holster under his t-shirt but he didn’t have time to grab it.  Even a moment’s hesitation might give the bird time to catch up with them.  Instead, he sprinted and to his amazement Q not only kept up but pulled ahead slightly, his hand never loosening it’s vice-like grip on James’s.  They reached the pontoons and James pulled ahead, guiding Q towards the speedboat.

“IN!” He shouted, letting go and taking a flying leap into the boat.  Q landed besides him a second later, followed almost immediately by Beelzebub.  James threw off the mooring rope and gunned the engine, opening the throttle. They almost got clear but then Q slammed into the back of James as the emu jumped in with them.

It was pandemonium.  Arc dive-bombed the emu, his claws extended, as Q ducked and avoided its wildly stabbing beak.  There wasn’t enough room for the bird to properly kick so instead it battered at James with its wings when it saw him draw out his Walther and try to aim at it.  It smacked his wrist with a powerful blow, sending the gun into the belly of the boat, as Beelzebub, unable to bite through the muzzle, used his claws to tear into one of its legs.  It shrieked and immediately tried to stamp on the wolf, a whirling melee of feathers and fury.  James tried to get to the gun but a wing caught the side of his head and he was knocked back, landing on the steering wheel and almost flipping them all out of the boat as it slewed to one side and…

There was a gun shot and the bird shrieked again, a red stain appearing on the feathers on the side of its chest.  Beelzebub took his chance and launched himself at the bird, knocking it overboard.  Q was kneeling on the floor of the boat, the Walther in his hand.  James fancied he heard a shout, no doubt from the emu’s human, but he didn’t look back.  He corrected their course and headed out to the open sea.

“Stay low.”  James said to the others, glancing up.  The goshawk might follow for a little way but they tended to dislike open water.  He sat down in the captain’s seat and glanced around. “Is everyone OK?”  Archimedes hopped up onto his lap, out of the breeze coming up off the water and James watched as Q carefully put the gun down beside him, unconsciously wiping his hand on the side of his shorts.  Beelzebub immediately moved in on him, sniffing his face and allowing Q to draw him into a hug.  “We’re heading for Yakakent in Turkey.”  James explained.  “I should be able to get us there in a little less than three hours.  There will be a car waiting for us there that we can use to get us to a safe house.”  He touched the side of the sunglasses. “Tanner?”

“Here,” came the reply.

“I’ve got Q.  Can you sweep for anyone following?”

“We’re monitoring you now.”

“Thanks.”  James turned to Q.  “Q, my bag is in the footlocker.  Help yourself to some clothes if you’re cold.”

Q was shivering, dressed as he was in just his shorts, and he was looking a little shell-shocked but he nodded.  James would check him over properly later.  For now, they had to keep moving.

~00Q~

They arrived at Yakakent in the early afternoon.

James moored the little boat at the berth Tanner had indicated and then helped Q to disembark.  The crossing had been rough and Q had puked up the contents of his stomach before miserably curling up on the bench seat behind James.  He’d wrapped himself in James’s sweatshirt and the baggy fit of it made him look impossibly small and young.  Beelzebub had lain with him, allowing him to bury his fingers in his thick fur.  Archimedes stayed on James’s lap but several times he caught him craning his neck to check on their passengers.

Q leaned on James heavily as he led him to the non-descript silver BMW waiting for them.  James tucked his fingers in under the handle and the fingerprint scanner unlocked the doors for him.  He was about to lead Q around to the passenger side door when Q moved to the backdoor.  Without a word he climbed onto the backseat, Beelzebub following him.  James shut the door on them and went to the boot, retrieving a bag, before getting in behind the wheel.  He pulled a bottle of water and a ration pack of biscuits out of it and handed them to Q.

“Drink this and eat if you can.  Let me know if you’re going to puke again.”

Q nodded as he put his seatbelt on.

“Thank you.”  He said quietly.

It was the first thing he’d said since getting into the boat.  James glanced into the rear-view mirror and smiled at him as he started the engine.  He didn’t look well but he’d been through a lot since he was at the pool.  Taking a small box out of the bag, James took an earbud out of it and put it in his ear.  This enabled him to take off the sunglasses but stay in touch with Vauxhall before immediately pulling out of the parking space.   He needed to keep them moving.  

He drove steadily, unwilling to draw attention to them by speeding too fast.  He kept glancing up at the reflection of Q in the rear-view mirror.  He was sat quietly, stroking Beelzebub absentmindedly.  After a while he opened the bottle of water and sipped at it before pouring some into the palm of his hand, allowing his wolf to lap it up.  James was about to open his own bottle and offer Archimedes some water when the owl hopped down off the back of the passenger seat next to him and onto Q’s lap.  He saw Q smile; a sunny, happy expression that appeared briefly on his face as he tipped some water into the bottle’s cap and held it steady for the owl to drink.

James smiled.  Arc didn’t have to drink.  He got most of the moisture he needed from the meat that he ate but he had always enjoyed the closeness it brought him with James.  The fact that he was choosing to share that closeness with Q must have meant he really liked him.  After he had enough, he briefly allowed Q to stroke the back of his head before hopping up, first onto the back of James’s seat, then onto his shoulder.

“Tart.” James murmured as Arc tucked himself into his neck, no doubt preparing to snooze.

“Are we there yet?”

James chuckled.

“A few hours yet, birdy.”

“Longshanks.”   Archimedes replied, sleepily nibbling James’s earlobe.

Before long, all of James’s passengers were asleep and they stayed that way until he reached the safe house in Istanbul.

The sun had set as they arrived at the neat little townhouse in Kumköy.  It was past ten o’clock and the streets were quiet in the mainly residential area.  One of Tanner’s team was obviously watching remotely and the doors to the garage slid open as they pulled up outside.  James quickly reversed in and the doors slid shut again.

Q had woken up at the change in direction, having slept restlessly for the previous six hours.  He peered about himself through the windows.

“Where are we?”  He asked as James opened the back door of the car to let him out.

“An MI6 safehouse in Istanbul.”

“Are we safe here?”

“Probably.”  James replied.  “Come on, let’s get you upstairs.”

The house had been modified and the ground floor had been completely remodelled into a large garage big enough for three cars.  James led Q up the interior stairs at the back of the building and into the apartment above.  It was beautiful in its simplicity, all white walls and cool brown tiles on the floor.  James securely bolted the door behind them.

“There should be everything we need in here.” He said, leading Q through the lounge, past the small kitchen in the corner to the bedroom beyond.  “The larder will be fully stocked if you’re hungry.  The wardrobe and drawers in the bedroom will have a variety of clothes in different sizes.  Take what you need.  There’s just one bed but you can use that.” He reached the doorway to the ensuite bathroom and flicked on the light. “You can have the shower first too.  There should be all the toiletries and towels that you need in there.”

Q didn’t say anything but he nodded so James left him to it.  He went to the kitchen and checked in the cupboard under the sink, finding what he needed in the small tool kit that he found there.  He took it back into the bedroom.  Beelzebub was sitting in the doorway to the bathroom, facing James, no doubt guarding his human who had just turned on the shower.  When he saw what James had in his hand he stood up and growled.

“Easy ‘bub.”  James soothed.  He slowly sat down cross-legged on the floor in front of the wolf and placed the Stanley knife he’d found on the floor between them.  He put his hands out, palm up, in a peaceful gesture.  “If I wanted to hurt him, I could have done it a hundred times over already.  I just want to take the muzzle off you.  It must be uncomfortable.” Arc flew into the room silently and landed on the floor beside James, watching with interest. Beelzebub looked between them as if unsure.  He woofed out a small bark.  James almost laughed.  People couldn’t understand each other’s familiars, it just didn’t work like that, but for a moment it had almost sounded like Beelzebub had said;

“Fren?”

“That’s right.  I want to be your friend.” James said.

The wolf’s eyes widened, as if surprised, and then he walked forward a couple of steps cautiously.  James picked up the knife.

“Friend.”  He repeated, pleased that he’d apparently guessed right.  Beelzebub slunk forward again until James could take the knife and slice through one of the leather straps on the muzzle.  It came off easily and James immediately slid the knife across the floor, away and out of his reach.  He reached up with both hands and started to gently rub the sides of Beelzebub’s face where the muzzle had been pressing into his fur.  Very slowly, the wolf’s tail started to wag.  “Now don’t suddenly feel the urge to bite my face off, fuzzball.” James said.

Beelzebub’s tail started wagging harder as his mouth opened, his tongue lolling in a happy manner as James increased the pressure of his fingertips and started scrubbing at his face.

“Is that good?”

The wolf huffed as if agreeing that yes, it was extremely good.  James grinned and moved around to scratch around the back of his head.  His frowned as his fingertips suddenly touched a hard patch.  It felt like a thick scar at the base of the wolf’s skull.  Before he could investigate it further the easy manner between them was broken when Beelzebub suddenly straightened up, his ears pricking up.  In a flash he was running into the bathroom.  He hit the door with his shoulder, pushing it further open as he entered.  James stood up.  The bathroom was essentially one big wet room, with the shower in one corner.  He could see that Q was naked, crumpled on the floor under the spray, pressed up against the wall.  He was curled up, his head resting on his knees, his shoulders shaking.  James went to him.  Beelzebub was pacing as if unwilling to get under the torrent of water himself and he was whining in agitation.  James had no such qualms about getting wet and was kneeling beside Q in seconds.

“Q?”

He reached out to touch his shoulder and at first Q shied away but when James repeated his name he seemed to slump, sobbing as he allowed James to pull him into his arms.

“Hey…”  James soothed.

“I’m sorry.” Q whispered. “I’m so sorry.  I shouldn’t… I… I’m so sorry.”

James rested his cheek against Q’s sodden curls.

“Shh.  It’s OK.”

“I killed it.  That man’s familiar.  Oh God.”

James suddenly realised the reason for Q being so quiet since the fight with the security guard’s emu. 

“You didn’t kill it.”  James said.  “I’m sure of it.”

“How do you know?”

“Because you shot it in the wing.  I saw the blood.  And it wouldn’t have drowned because it’s human was right there.  He would have fished it out of the water in no time.”

Q looked up at him then. 

“How do you do it?  Kill one and not the other?”

“I don’t.”  James replied gently.  “At least, I try not to.  The idea of Arc dying… or of my death leaving him alone… it horrifies me.  I do everything I can not to inflict that on another, no matter what the circumstances are.  I’m licensed to kill but I kill both or neither.”

Q lifted his hand and stroked the side of James’s face.

“I never realised before; you have the palest, bluest eyes.”

James smiled at the sudden change of subject.

“All the better to see you with my dear.”  He joked.  He expected to maybe get a little smile out of Q but instead he looked almost puzzled.

“Are you a big bad wolf James?”

James hesitated and then glanced over to their familiars who had settled next to each other on the floor just outside the spray of the shower.  Beelzebub was staring straight at James.

With his pale blue eyes.

James looked back at Q as a glimmer of realisation dawned.  He ignored it, immediately pushing it away.

“I have no idea.”  He said.

James guided Q back up onto his feet.

“Finish your shower and then get yourself into bed.  You’ve had a long day.  You need to get all the sleep you can while you have the chance.”

“OK.”  Q said quietly, he picked up the shower gel as James went over to the sink.  He stood on the mat and stripped off his wet clothes.  He grabbed a towel and cinched it around his waist before taking the clothes out to the lounge.  There was a banister at the top of the stairs and he hung them over it to dry.  He waited until he heard the shower shut off and then gave it five minutes before going back into the bedroom.  Q was in the bed, curled around Beelzebub with his back to the door.  James had taken a pair of pyjama trousers out of his overnight bag which had been stashed in the speedboat and he picked up his sweatshirt up off the floor where Q had dropped it when he undressed.  He took them both into the bathroom with him.

He showered quickly before dressing and creeping back out to the main room of the apartment.  Once there, he quickly went through the cupboards in the small kitchen.  When he didn’t find what he wanted he sighed.

“Typical.”

“ Problems Commander?” Arc asked, flying to land on his shoulder.

“No booze.”  James groused.  Arc nibbled his ear affectionately.

“You drink too much.”

“You’re not my mum, birdy.”  James shot back as he went to sit in one of the two armchairs in the lounge section of the room.

“Thank God for that, Longshanks.”   Arc replied, climbing down onto James’s chest to settle himself.  James huffed out a dry laugh and then laid his head back.  Christ, he suddenly felt exhausted.  He’d had a long day he supposed.  They were silent for several minutes before Arc said quietly; “You lied to him.”

“Hmm?” James cracked an eye open.

“Q.  You told him that you’d never killed a person or their familiar without the other before but you have, I’ve seen you do it.  And not to be a killjoy but I’m pretty sure that Q killed that emu.”

“He didn’t need to know that.”  James murmured, not sure how far his voice would carry in the little apartment. “He was distraught at the thought of it and who can blame him?  I’m pretty sure he’s in shock still… either that or it’s the trauma from whatever his captors did to him.  We need to be gentle with him.”  Arc regarded him and tilted his head, the way he did when James puzzled him.  “What?”

“You like him, don’t you?”

James shrugged.

“He seems like a nice enough bloke.”

“Bullshit.”   Arc said, without malice. “ I mean you really like him, don’t you?  Do you think he might be the one?  Your soulmate?”

“Why, do you?” James said, laughing at the absurdity of it.  “Honestly, you say that about everyone I meet!”

“I do not!”   Arc protested.

“You said it about Vesper!” 

“That’s true but that was only because I could see how much you loved her."

James hesitated.  It was true, he had loved her.  He’d loved her so much he hadn’t seen her betrayal of him - of England - coming.  Arc was watching him closely again.

“I hardly know him.”  James finally said.

“But you have noticed how easy everything has been with him so far, haven’t you?  I saw the way he turned into your arms when you held him.”

While he was still thinking about that Arc suddenly lifted his head.

“He’s talking to the wolf.  Keep on talking as if I’m here .”  Arc took flight and landed by the door to the bedroom.  He stood stock still, eavesdropping.

“You’re just an incurable romantic.  Hey, did I ever tell you the story I heard about the first time Bill asked Eve out?  They had both been working late and…”  He talked quietly, repeating a story they both knew only too well because they’d been in the room at the time.  Eve and Bill had been having a blazing row over something trivial, an expenses claim if he remembered rightly, and James had managed to stop it by pointing out that their familiars, getting bored of the argument, had curled up together in Mackenzie’s bed beside her desk.  James didn’t believe he’d ever have the opportunity again to see Bill turn as red and flustered as he had at that exact moment.  It not only stopped the argument dead in its tracks, it also led to the dinner date that would eventually lead to their wedding three years later.

Arc flew back, landing on James’s chest.  He snuggled into his neck and spoke quietly into his ear.

“I didn’t catch much of it.”

“What did you hear?”

“ The wolf… he’s almost impossible for me to understand but I picked out a few words… he said something about sacrifices… Q needing to do what was best for him, I think… Q sounded upset.  He said he couldn’t lose Beelzebub… Why would he say that?  He doesn’t think MI6 would separate them, does he?”

“I don’t know.”  James replied.  “Maybe that was something that Safin did to them.  A way of punishing him?”

“But he’s free of him now.  Isn’t he?”

“One can only hope so.” James said.

He eventually dozed off.  He had wanted to stay alert but Arc convinced him to sleep.  He reminded James that his hearing was so acute he would hear any approaching danger well before him, even if he was asleep and James was awake.  He awoke quickly though when Arc said his name.  It took less than a second for him to orientate and realise that Q was standing in front of him.  He was wrapped up in one of the blankets from the bed.

“Q?”

“Sorry.”  He said.  “I couldn’t sleep.  I’m so tired but I just couldn’t.  I keep freaking out.  Thinking that he’s going to find me.”

“This is an actively monitored safe house, which is why I brought us here.”  James said.  “There were half a dozen other houses within a day’s drive that we could have used but this one is watched by MI6 twenty-four seven when it’s in use.  There are cameras covering the roads in every direction for three blocks.  Alarms and cameras on every door and window.  Someone is monitoring the local police radios.  And besides, Arc will tell us if anyone tries to break in.  We’re as safe here as if we were in the heart of the new Vauxhall House.”

Q didn’t look very comforted.  He was fingering the blanket around him and looking utterly lost.

“Do you want to stay out here with us for a while?”  James asked gently.

Q nodded and immediately sat down on the wide armchair with James.  He was surprised, but not unpleasantly so as he moved his hips to one side of the seat.  If he was honest, he had expected Q to sit in the other armchair.  Arc moved out of the way and Beelzebub wrapped himself around James’s ankles as Q snuggled in.  James put his arm around Q's back and hooked a hand in under his knee to prevent him from slipping off.

“There.  Is that better?”

Q nodded and his eyes slid shut as he relaxed.  James noticed Arc was looking at him again in his puzzled way.  If he wasn’t mistaken, the bloody bird was laughing at him.  He mouthed ‘sod off’ at him and rested his head on the back of the chair to go back to sleep.

It lasted about an hour before James woke up with a numb buttock and a crick in his neck.  He tried to stay still, unwilling to wake up the sleeping man in his arms but eventually it became too uncomfortable.  He slipped his hand in under Q’s knees and held onto him as he smoothly stood up.  Q awoke with a little start.

“What’s happened?”

James hitched him up in his arms and walked towards the bedroom.

“If we’re going to spend the night on the same piece of furniture, I’d much rather it was the bed.”

Q mumbled, slipping his hand up around James’s neck.  He was more asleep than awake when James laid him down on the bed, docile and pliable as he pulled away the blanket that he was wrapped in and replaced it with the bedcovers.  James took his glasses off him and carefully put them on the nightstand.  Finally, he laid down next to him and couldn’t help but smile at the way Q immediately snuggled back into his side.  Beelzebub jumped up onto the bed and settled across their legs as Archimedes took his usual spot on the pillow beside James’s head.  Instead of affectionately nibbling on James’s hair like he usually did though, he started to pick through Q’s curls.

“Arc, don’t wake him.”  James said softly.

“ His hair is crazy.” The owl replied. “ It’s like a nest.”

“You’d know.” James quipped, letting his eyes slide shut.  He felt Arc rub his head up against his forehead as he allowed himself to drift back off to sleep.

He awoke to the signal in his earpiece alerting him that someone at Vauxhall wanted to talk to him.  It was still mostly dark and he muzzily checked his watch.  It was a little after six in the morning.  He touched the earpiece, activating it.

“Bond.”  He said softly.

“Operations here.  Word from Mr Tanner.  He’s managed to secure you a private flight home.  Be at Istanbul Airport in time for a nine o’clock flight.  There’s a Bombardier waiting for you.  Full crew, all thoroughly vetted.  I’ll upload the directions to the satnav in your car.”

“Thank you.”  The line went dead and James looked down to see Q looking back up at him.  “Sorry, did I wake you?”

“I’m OK.”  Q replied.  He looked sleepy and comfortable and the pull that James felt the day before was back.  He wondered if he was becoming attracted to him. 

“We don’t have to leave for another couple of hours.  You can go back to sleep if you like.”

Q shrugged and closed his eyes. 

“I’m not sure I can sleep anymore.”  He yawned and Beelzebub immediately joined in.  He’d managed to wriggle between their legs during the few hours that they’d all slept.  James smiled.  It has been a long time since he’d shared his bed with someone and that someone hadn’t brought a large wolf with her.  There was a stray curl laying across Q’s forehead and James unthinkingly used his fingertips to sweep it back off his face. Q opened his eyes again at the soft gesture.  James might have hoped he would get a small smile from him but instead he frowned.

“What do you think they’ll do with me?  When we get back to London?”

“I’m not sure.” James admitted.  “They’ll want to make sure you haven’t been compromised.  There will probably be a run of tests.  Psych evaluations, physical examinations.”

Q stroked his fingers over James chest, watching the way the material of his sweatshirt moved.  After a pause he asked:

“Will they hurt me or ‘zebub?”

James didn’t know what to say.  He couldn’t tell Q the truth.  The truth was, they probably would hurt him; he was almost sure of it.  They would be relentless, trying to break him down in their efforts to make sure that he hadn’t been turned by Safin, that he wasn’t hiding anything.  He would have to go through psychological and possibly chemical and physical hell before they were satisfied that he wouldn’t be a threat and even then, he would be monitored closely, scrutinised.  He realised that he didn’t have to say any of that though when Q sighed.

“I thought so.”  He said quietly.

“It’ll be OK.”  James said.  “I’ll be there with you.”

“You’re a very strange man James.”

“I am?”

“You come across as dangerous but I don’t think you could ever hurt me.” 

Q might as well have been describing his wolf who had lifted his head and was now watching him closely from his spot between their legs.  Before he could think how to reply Q shifted up the bed and brushed his lips across James’s.

“Q…” James’s tone was warning.  Pleading almost.  He was supposed to be protecting Q, not taking advantage of him.  Especially not after what Q had been through…

“Please…” He moved to kiss him again but James pulled back.

“I’m sorry, Q.”  He said softly, “I can’t.”

Q paused, his gaze searching.

“Because you’re on duty?”  He asked.

No, James wanted to say, because you’re beautiful and a beautiful young man like you needs a lover who will worship him and spend time slowly making love to him, not some hard man like me who would probably hold you too tightly and fuck you too quickly.  Instead, he said:

“Something like that.”

James stroked his fingertips gently over the bruise on Q’s soft cheek as he settled back down, resting his head on James’s shoulder again.  James relaxed.  They had about an hour before they needed to head to the airport.  Q fell silent but just as James was sure he’d dozed off again he spoke;

“I’m so scared.”

“Of what?”  James asked, but Q wouldn’t say.

Chapter Text

James went down to the car ahead of Q.  He was finishing up in the bathroom so James took the opportunity to activate his earpiece.

“Tanner.”

“Just the man.  I think we might have a problem.”  He said quietly.

“With Q?”

James glanced up the stairs.  He needn’t have bothered though.  Arc was sitting up the top of them, ready to warn him the moment Q or Beelzebub came out of the bathroom.

“Yes,” he said, “only, I’m not quite sure exactly what the problem is… I might just be reading too much into it.”

“Tell me anyway.  Your instincts tend to be good.  Except for when it comes to blowing things up that is.”

“Very funny.  It’s just… Q’s scared and I might understand that except his fear seems to be focussed on what’s to come, not what Safin did to him.  It’s like he’s dreading going back to MI6.”

“But he knows us.”  Tanner replied and James could almost picture him standing in operations, his hands on his hips and his brow wrinkled.  “He should know that we won’t hurt him badly or punish him for being taken.  We might question him but still…”  He paused.  “Do you think Q is a threat?”

“No, but I think Safin might be.  Look, I don’t have much time.  I noticed something last night and I need you to do something for me…”

He quickly explained what it was that he wanted and just in time.  He’d barely stopped speaking when Arc fluttered down to land on his shoulder.  He reached up to tickle his chest feathers.

“He’s in the lounge.”   Arc hooted quietly.

“Thanks birdy.”  James said, before turning his attention back to Tanner. “I’ve got to go.  Can you do that for me?”

“No problem.  You know what to do when you get here.”

James broke the link and went to the corner of the garage.  There was a small petrol pump there and he used it to refuel the car.  As he stood there holding the nozzle, Arc hopped up onto the roof of the car directly in front of him.

“So?”

“So what?”

“So why didn’t you fuck him?”   He asked.

“I don’t know what you mean.”  James replied.

“Bollocks.”   The owl said.  “He was wrapped around you, practically humping your leg trying to kiss you and you were like Sir Galahad, turning him down politely.”

“It wasn’t the time or the place.”

“And again, I say: bollocks.  You’ve had more quick fucks than I’ve had warm mice James.  I should know, I’ve had to watch most of them…”

“You don’t have to watch.”  James replied dryly. 

“… do you know who you didn’t fuck at the first chance?” Archimedes continued, ignoring him , “Who you took your time over?  Who you wooed?  Vesper…”

“Oh please.”  James grumbled.  The tank was over half-full, plenty of fuel to get them to the airport with, so he turned off the pump and hung the nozzle back on the wall. “Not this again.”

“Yes, this again.”   He insisted.  “You’ve always wondered why I was your familiar, I know you have.  You knew your soulmate would be intelligent.  You knew he’d be a man.”

“It doesn’t always work like that.”  James insisted.

“No, but it usually does. Please James.  Don’t fuck this up, I knew the answer to the question that Q asked you in the shower last night and I know that you did too.”

“What question?”

“When he asked you if you were a big bad wolf.  I think it’s as plain as the beak on my face that you are."

James was about to reply when he heard Q on the stairs.  He turned to look and smiled when he saw him.  He’d found himself a white t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans.  He still wore his brightly coloured deck shoes and it made him look like a student.  Maybe one on gap-year, tanned and young and beautiful.  The wolf loped down the stairs beside him, at complete odds to him in every way.  Large, muscular, pale and deadly.  With blue, blue eyes.

It was ridiculous, it really was, but the more James thought about it, the more he suspected that Arc might have a point.

James was on high-alert and he knew that the staff at Vauxhall were actively monitoring them as he drove to the airport.  They had no reason to suspect that Safin had tracked them to the safe-house but even so, James felt almost uncomfortable that he hadn’t.  Safin was a man with unlimited resources and the more James thought about it, the more he suspected that he shouldn't have been able to successfully take Q the way he did.  It gave James the same sense of uneasiness that Q’s mood gave him.  He had gone quiet again, sitting in the back of the car once more with Beelzebub snuggled up, his head in his lap.  He was terrified of something; James was becoming surer of that with every passing minute.

When they pulled up to the airport James saw that a side gate was standing open.  Driving through it, he followed the sat nav’s directions to where a lone plane stood at the end of the runway.  James was about to tell Q to stay put while he checked the coast was clear when he saw a familiar person and her honey badger familiar standing at the top of the stairs to the plane's door.

“Come and meet a good friend of mine.”  James said.

They got out of the car and James went to the boot to retrieve his bag.  To his surprise Q didn’t wait for him but raced over to the plane and up the stairs.  A moment later he and Moneypenny were hugging.  James grinned and followed him up.

“I didn’t expect to see you here, Eve.”  James said. “And I didn’t realise you two knew each other.”

“I couldn’t resist.  Q and I met years ago at our induction to MI6.  M wanted to give you a little extra firepower for the journey home and when I found out who you were escorting, I volunteered like a shot.  Come on in out of the open and I’ll ask the pilots to get us underway.”

She took Q’s hand and led him inside.  Beelzebub followed but Arc hesitated, shifting from side to side where he was perched on the guard rail at the side of the stairs. 

“Come on birdy,” James said gently.  “I know you hate it but we won’t be in the air for long.”

“Four hours.” Archimedes said miserably. “Four hours stuck in a metal box with no way out.”

“I don’t know why you get so worked up.  If anything goes wrong, I’ll be the one plummeting to my death.  At least you've got a chance of flying to safety.”

“Don’t.” The owl muttered, shaking his head and ruffling his feathers. “Don’t James.  Don’t even joke about it.”

James sighed and gently scooped up his familiar, holding him close to his chest.  He one-handedly released the brakes on the steps and used his foot to shove them away from the doorway before closing the hatch.  He made sure it was secured properly before heading into the main lounge area.  It was sumptuously laid out with a number of white leather clad easy chairs and sofas.  Q was already seated in one of the chairs, facing the front of the plane.  James saw that he’d secured his lap belt as he sat down opposite him.  Beelzebub was wearing a harness now which had been clipped onto a D-ring set into the floor besides Q’s chair.  James sat opposite Q and strapped himself in before allowing Archimedes to snuggle into his neck.  He saw that Q was watching him.

“He hates planes.”  He said by way of explanation.

“I know the feeling.”  Q replied. 

The plane started to move and James focussed in on Arc.  The little owl began to tremble as they taxied out onto the runway.  James nuzzled him, kissing his head.

“Easy there…”

Arc nodded but it didn’t lessen his shivering at all.  James closed his eyes and slipped his fingers in under his feathers to rub soothing circles onto the base of his skull.  Poor Arc.  It was the same every time they flew and one of the things that he adored about him was the fact that he was willing to endure it so often for James.  James had offered to retire from the field more than once, to take on another role at MI6 so he wouldn’t have to fly so often but Arc always refused.  A human should never change their ways to accommodate their familiar, he said.  The discomfort he felt when flying was nothing to the upset he would feel if James sacrificed his career for him.  The wheels of the plane left the tarmac and they started to rise up.  James felt Arc relax a little.  He would be alright once they were cruising.

There was a strangled cry from opposite them and James opened his eyes to see Q tearing off his seatbelt.

“NononononoNO!” He jumped to his feet and lurched past James.  As quick as a flash James had placed Arc on the arm of his chair and had undone his own belt to go after him.  He reached him just as he got to the outer door, managing to put his hand on it just as James grabbed him and pulled him away. “I can’t do this I can’t I can’t…” He wailed as James wrapped his arms around him.  He started to thrash.  “Let me off!  Please!  Please let me off…”

The plane shuddered, a small enough pocket of turbulence but enough to makes James lose his balance.  They both fell, landing heavily.  James had just enough time to twist, making sure he bore the brunt of the impact.  He grunted but didn’t let go of Q.

“It’s OK Q, it’s OK… shhh…”

Q was momentarily stunned but immediately went back to fighting, trying to push James away but with less strength now.

“James?”  Eve spoke from behind them but James stayed focussed on Q.  He managed to turn him so he was facing him and then crushed him to his chest.

“Shhhh… it’s OK.”  His words were softly spoken now and he repeated them over and over until Q started to calm down, the fight finally leaving him.  He reached up into Q’s hair and started to massage the base of his skull.  It occurred to him that a few minutes before he’d been doing exactly the same thing to his familiar.  Q’s hands went from pushing him away to clutching at his shirt as James pressed his cheek to the top of his head.  There was a tap on his hip and he looked up to see Eve was kneeling beside him, a syringe in her hand.  He nodded and spoke quietly.

“Q, Eve’s got a little something for you, an injection, it will help you to calm down a little.  I know you’re scared but panicking is no good.  Do you want it?”

Q shook his head, his face still buried in James’s chest.

“I’m sorry.  I just can’t.  I hate losing control… They drugged me when they took me… I should have told you that I hated flying…  I just… I just wanted to go home.”

“I know.” James said gently, tilting his head so he could see his face. “Don’t be sorry, my Arc has the same problem.  A bird who’s scared of flying, would you believe it?  I’m sorry, I was so focussed on him I didn’t realise you were scared too.” He held him for a few more minutes until the worst of his trembling had passed and then kissed his forehead soothingly.  “Can you get up now, do you think?  If I helped?”  James asked.  Q nodded and sat himself up shakily.  James moved with him.  “Let’s get you settled down, see if we can’t find a way to help you relax.” 

He stood up and took Q’s hands and pulled him to his feet.  He staggered, obviously still feeling the aftereffects from the adrenaline rush his panic had induced, so James scooped him up and carried him back through to the longue.  Q let James lay him down on one of the long sofa’s opposite the chairs that they had been in.  He was limp, almost asleep by the time James settled him.  James could hear Beelzebub whining and Eve must have unclipped his harness because a moment later he was besides James, licking Q’s face in his concern.

“He’s alright ‘bub.”  James said.  “He’ll be fine.”  Arc flew over and landed on the sofa besides them.  James reached over to stroke Q’s face and he roused, sleepily allowing James to place a cushion under his head.  “Arc’s here.” James said, putting his hand out.  Archimedes hopped onto it and let James put him down in front of Q.  Q immediately reached over to stroke him.  “He hates this type of flying as much as you do.  Will you keep him company for me?  Let him know everything will be alright?”  Q nodded.  Arc gave James a puzzled look, tilting his head, and then took a couple of steps towards Q, tucking himself into Q’s neck.  Q wrapped a slack hand around him, his eye’s sliding shut.  He mumbled something, it might have been an attempt at reassuring Arc, but he was almost dozing before he could finish.

James stroked Q’s side before standing and going to sit down at the other end of the room.  Beelzebub sniffed Q and Archimedes before following him over and placing his chin on James’s lap.  James smiled as he started to rub his ears.

“He’ll be alright.”  James reassured the wolf again.  “He’ll sleep for most of the flight now.”

Beelzebub panted at James, his tongue lolling as he happily accepted the fuss.  James looked up when Eve sat down opposite him, Mackenzie followed and neatly curled up at her feet.

“Sooooo.”  She said quietly with a big smile.

“So?”

“You two appear to have swapped familiars.”

James huffed out a laugh.

“Not really.”

“I’d been on three dates with Bill and slept with him twice before Kenny allowed him to get close enough to even stroke him.  You’ve only known Q a couple of days and he’s getting snuggles off Arc while you’re sitting there apparently trying to scrub his wolf’s ears off his head.”

“Well, Arc and Q are both scared of flying…”

“And you probably think that’s just a coincidence.” She said, rolling her eyes.  “Honestly.  Men .”  She stood up and stretched.  Mackenzie mirrored her. “I’m going to hang out with the pilots.  They’re both quite a good laugh so I’ll leave you boys to it on your own in here for the rest of the flight.”  She tilted her head at James. “I realise there’s a lot going on and I also realise that things aren’t going to be easy for Q going forward but please don’t ignore the signs James.”

“Signs?”

“Looks to me like you’ve found your soulmate.”  She said.

James chuckled, as if the thought hadn’t occurred to him as she walked to the door.  As she reached it, he spoke.

“Eve?”

“Yes James?”

“You slept will Bill after only three dates?”

“Piss off.” She said primly.  “I slept with him at the end of our first.”

That made him laugh out loud.  He turned to Beelzebub.

“ What a slapper .”  He joked in a mock whisper.

“Takes one to know one!”  She laughed as she closed the door.

He started to massage the wolf’s ears again but stopped when he heard Q speak.

“James?”

James had assumed Q had dozed off but when he looked over, he was watching him through half-closed eyes.

“Are you still awake?” He asked.

“Was she telling the truth?”  Q asked back. 

Beelzebub stepped back as James stood up and went over to Q.  He sat down on the floor beside him again.  He was going to deny it but seeing Q up close, properly, he just couldn’t.  The young man reached out to touch his cheek and James caught up his hand to press it to his face.

“What do you think?”

“Please stay here with me.”  He whispered.  “I don’t know if Eve’s right… everything is so confusing right now… I really can’t tell… but I know that you make me feel safe.”

James gave in to temptation and kissed the palm of Q’s hand and when he looked up at him, he leaned in and placed another soft kiss on his lips. When he sat back down again he held onto his hand.

“I’ve never had a serious boyfriend…” Q whispered. “… I was always so busy with my studies and later on with my work… ‘zebub despaired of me.  He kept telling me I must have missed my soulmate...”

“Can you imagine the conversations that Arc and I have had at my age?” James said with a smile but Q ignored his quip.

“… and then I was taken by Safin and he was so charming and oh so dangerous and I wondered…” He hesitated and James felt Q's grip on his hand tighten.  “… I wondered if he… for a little while… if he might be the one for me…”

“What is his familiar like?  Did that give you any clue?  Me and Arc never did see it.”

Q shivered, a full body tremor.

“He told me he had a cat before I knew him, a Bengal, but he killed it.  He said he didn’t believe in soulmates.”

James was a man of the world and in his years of service to his country he’d seen some horrifying things but he was struck dumb for a moment by the enormity of what Q had just said.

“He killed his own familiar?” He asked. “How… why…?”

“I don’t know.” Q said miserably. “When I found out… when I’d heard what he’d done, I knew that I had to get away from him… at least… I don’t think…”

He stopped speaking, cutting himself off.  James waited for a moment to see if he would continue.

“You don’t think, what?”  He asked gently.

Q shook his head as if he’d just realised that he’d said something that he shouldn’t and curled over on his side, letting go of his hand to wrap his fingers around James’s bicep.  He didn’t speak again.

Arc nibbled at Q’s hair as he dozed and James almost found himself almost nodding off.  Beelzebub had come over to flop down by him and the warmth of the wolf pressing up against his leg coupled with the vibration of the plane had a soothing effect.  James had always liked flying, and he’d never understood why Arc had such an aversion to planes, but as he sat and watched Q’s relaxed face, he thought that he finally did.  Q looked so young, so innocent, but James suspected that the months spent with Safin might have damaged him, hardened him even.  James wondered what kind of a trusting soul he might have once been.  He wasn’t that man any more though.  He had secrets.  There was something that Q didn’t want him to know, he was sure of it, and James wondered if he would ever trust him enough to tell him. Only time would tell, he guessed.

~00Q~

The new MI6 building at Vauxhall was deceptive to those who didn’t know it well.  There was a large public reception area, decked out in glass and steel that had been beautifully sculpted into columns.  It looked like the kind of welcoming hospitality area that ushered people into a hundred or more head offices and corporate tower blocks that littered the City of London.  The difference with MI6’s was that the security, although apparently light, was absolutely water tight.  There was virtually no way to smuggle anything in without it being detected.

Eve led the way through the foyer towards the lift that would take Q to the detention level for preliminary questioning.  She bypassed the usual security scans and metal detectors by holding her ID up to the guard who tried to stop them.

“They’re with me.  M’s orders.”

The guard used a small hand-held scanner on the card and read the screen as it flashed green.

“Very good ma’am.”

They carried on to the lift.

“I’ll check in with M,” she said as she swiped her pass card and pressed a couple of numbers on the panel, “are you going straight to detention?”

“We are.”  James said.

By the time the lift doors opened and Moneypenny and Mackenzie stepped out, Q was trembling.  James slipped his hand into his as they started moving again.

“It’ll be okay.  You’ll probably only be there for a day or two.  As long as you’re honest with the team that question you, you’ll do fine.”

“Will I see you again?”

“Of course, you will.”  James smiled and gently squeezed his hand just before the doors opened again.  He let go of him and led him through to the small reception desk.

Ten minutes later James walked into the operations department where M and Tanner were standing with their familiars, pouring over a smart desk. M’s magpie Myrtle was perched on his shoulder, Tanner’s lynx Tabitha sitting at their feet.

“Ah, Bond.  Right on cue.”  M said, stepping back.  James leaned in to see what they were looking at.  On the screen were the results of the myriad of scans that had taken place while they were in the lift.  

“The scanning technology was installed covertly into that lift about a month ago,” Tanner explained, “only staff with the highest clearance know it’s there.  When you told me that you wanted me to arrange a scan of the wolf without Q’s knowledge, this seemed like the easiest way.”

“I thought you would have to come up with a way of drugging and separating them.”  James said, impressed at the amount of biometric data currently on display following such a short ride in the lift.

“That would have been no good,” Tanner replied, “it might have tipped Q off to what we were doing.”

“Do you think he’s here to try something?” James asked cautiously.

“We're almost certain of it.”  M interjected.  “Tanner, show Bond what you’ve just shown me.”

Tanner pulled up a file and put it onto the larger screen in front of them.  Bond peered at it.

“Is that...?”

Onscreen was what could be described as an x-ray of Beelzebub, except it was way more sophisticated than that.  It appeared to be a real-time recording that showed the beating of his heart, the movement of his blood and the shifting of his guts.  There was a white, rectangular-looking mass in the back of his neck where James had felt the scar on him which Tanner zoomed in on.

“Fucking hell.” James said softly.  “Is that an explosive charge?”

“We think so, yes.” Tanner said. “It’s not a hundred percent clear but there's a micro-circuit board attached to it.  When you said that you thought Q was unduly worried about something…”

“We think Safin is still controlling Q by threatening the wolf.” M said.

“So, we can take ‘bub into surgery.  Take the implant out...”  James started before he realised the way M and Tanner were hesitating. “…but you don’t mean to do that, do you?”  He added quietly.  “You mean to see what Q does.  See if he confesses.”

“We want to see what he tries to do, yes.  We think Safin wants something but we still have no idea what he’s up to.  Our best guess is that Safin is after information and we want to see what Q is here to give him access to.  We think Q will try to carry out Safin’s orders, whatever they are, to try to save his familiar.”

“You want Q to become a traitor?” James asked bitterly. “And what if Safin’s aim is to blow up the bloody building like Silva did with the last one?”

“We’re going to have a team of boffins watch him twenty-four hours a day.  If he does get access, they’ll only allow him to take only the information that we want him to have.”

“Why not just ask Q?” James insisted. “Offer to save the wolf!  Protect him!  You said you thought he was loyal to MI6!”

“Because it’s not that simple.”  M replied.

Tanner zoomed into the image again.

“The device.”  Tanner said grimly.  “According to the techies, this part seems to be a receiver, probably a detonator that can be triggered remotely.  More worrying is that this additional circuitry appears to be a transmitter.”

“You think that Safin might be listening in.”

“We can’t afford to let Safin know that we’re onto him.” M said. “He probably thinks he’s won by letting us ‘rescue’ Q.  All signs seem to indicate that he's orchestrated this whole thing and we want him to play his hand.”

“…and that means that Q can’t know either.”  James watched the recording of the wolf and sighed, thinking back to the conversation that Arc had overheard the night before.  Q knew what he’d be walking into.  He knew what Safin wanted him to do and he would do it, for Beelzebub.  It made James want to run back to the detention level to be with him, to hold him tightly and tell him that everything would be alright.   “Jesus.  Poor ‘bub.  Poor Q .”  He murmured.

Chapter Text

M took a step back from the display.

“If you would Bond, you’re with me.” 

They weren’t far from M’s office and they headed straight there.  Moneypenny was at her desk in her outer office and she winked at James as he passed.  If he was honest, James wasn’t sure what M wanted but it was either follow the man or start typing his mission report so he was happy for the distraction.

He sat when M indicated the chair near the door and then watched as he opened his window.  His familiar Myrtle had still been riding his shoulder up until that point but as soon as she was able to, she took flight out into the fresh air.  M pointed at Archimedes, who was now perched on James’s knee. 

“Does he want to…?”

James shook his head.

“Too early.  He prefers dusk.”

“And I don’t want to hang around with that corvid idiot.”   Arc added quietly.

“That’s right, you are diurnal.”  James said pointedly, hoping Arc would take the hint and shut up in case Myrtle was still close and guessed what he was saying.  Arc liked Myrtle well enough but found her a bit pompous on occasions which was a fair comparison to how James felt about M if he was honest with himself.  The man went to his drinks cabinet and poured out two large brandies before handing one to James.

“Everything that I’m about to say is strictly off the record.  As is the conversation that I had with Moneypenny prior to you joining us in operations just now.”

“Sir?”

“I’ll get straight to the point.  You think Q may be your soulmate.”

James frowned.

“I think you’re confusing me with Moneypenny, Sir.” He said.  “She certainly seemed keen on that idea.”

“So, there was nothing?  No sense of attraction between the two of you?  You’ve spent your life with an extremely clever bird.  Then you meet a young man with one of the highest IQs of this entire organisation?  A young man with a blue-eyed wolf as a familiar.  Come on man, even I could see it.  He might as well have called the beast ‘Bond’.”

“You know as well as I do that the form that a familiar manifests in isn’t always…”

M made a frustrated sound.

“Bond, this isn’t a joke!  We are playing a dangerous game here, one which risks the life of that man’s familiar!  I have every confidence that we will be able to gain the upper hand over Safin if the plan works but the fact remains that I can’t have you getting territorial over Q.  I remember what it was like when I met my Sally.  We were introduced by friends and I can still remember the exhilaration of realising that she was the one…”

“I’m hardly ‘exhilarated’ by Q, Sir.”

“So, what would you say if I told you to go home right now?  To leave whatever happens in the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours to us?  What if I ordered you to leave his life and the life of his familiar in our hands?”

James hesitated.  If he was honest with himself, it was a horrible thought.  To think of Q alone and frightened.  Scared for ‘bub’s life.  Terrified of what Safin had ordered him to do.

M spoke again, his voice was gentler.

“I can see it on your face.  You haven’t accepted it yet and that’s fine – it took me weeks to realise that I’d met my future wife – but I think you’re close.  I won’t order you away from him.  I’ll even authorise the wiping of any security camera footage from his cell if you want to visit him, but you need to accept this James.  Come to terms with it.  Or you’ll be a liability when the time comes for Q to act.”

“You need me to not protect him.  Not stop him from doing what he was sent here to do.”  James said, looking at Arc.

“Exactly.”

“When every part of me seems to want to keep him safe.”

“Yes.”

James nodded.

“I can try.”

M went over exactly what he wanted James to do next while they each finished their drinks and then James got up to leave.  As he passed by Moneypenny on the way out, she smiled.

“Alright there?”

He paused.

“I’m not sure that I am.” He admitted. "Eve, what if you were right about me and Q?"  Instead of answering him, she picked up the receiver of the phone on her desk and dialled zero.

“Sir, I’ll be stepping out for a while.”

M must have acknowledged her and she hung up before standing up. 

“Come on Kenny, we’re going to get coffee with James and Arc.”

~00Q~

They sat in the corner of the staff canteen and talked for over an hour.  James had always found Eve had a good ear for his troubles and he poured his heart out to her.  At the centre of everything had been the confusion he was feeling.

“This isn’t me.” He’d insisted. “I don’t do this.  I don’t fall in love with strangers!  With Vesper it took days…weeks.  I’ve barely known Q five minutes.  Barely spoken to him… and yet it’s taking everything I have not to go back to the detention level and watch in on his interviews, hold his fucking hand like a fucking teenager.” He’d put his head in his hands. “Oh fuck, you’re all right, aren’t you?  Every sodding one of you.  He’s the one and after years of searching for him, I don’t want to have found him now because it’s inconvenient and there are much, much greater things at stake.”

Moneypenny had taken his hand at that.

“There’s nothing much greater than finding your soulmate James.”

He held off until the evening, going to his office to write his report and then up onto the roof so he could have a cigarette and watch Arc exercising, flitting about in the dusk and terrorising the local bat population.  Once he’d had enough of flying, he landed on James’s shoulder and without a word they made their way back down to the detention level.

~00Q~

The door to the cell recognised James’s ID card and he pushed inside, closing it until it locked behind him again.  He might have thought that he would sit and talk with Q, maybe lie down with him for a little while like they had the previous night if he wanted, but the moment the door latched, Q was on him, wrapping his arms around him tightly and pressing his cheek to James’s chest as Arc hopped off his shoulder and flew to perch on the back of the chair that stood next to the bed in the little room.

“Oh, thank God you came back!” Q almost sobbed.  “I know you said that you would but I was so scared that you’d change your mind.”

“I wouldn’t have deserted you darling.”  James spoke softly.  He buried his face in the younger man’s hair and closed his eyes.  He was warm and it felt good to have him close again.  They had been right, Arc and Moneypenny and M.  James had done nothing but think about Q since they’d parted company a few hours before.  He’d been able to ignore the obvious attraction that he’d been developing since meeting Q a scant thirty-six hours before but now that they were back together…

He cradled Q’s cheek, tilting his head up so he could see his face.  He was pale but his eyes shone green and his lips were perfect, plump and pink.  Q was a little shorter than James so he ducked his head to kiss them.  He tasted sweet and he sighed as James deepened the kiss, parting his lips with his tongue.  His eyes slid shut as Q pressed himself more firmly into James.  It was perfect.  Q was perfect.  They broke off the kiss and hugged, each tucking their faces into each other’s shoulders.

“Will you stay with me for a little while?  Can you stay?”

“I can, for an hour or so.”  James said.  He moved his head so he could whisper in Q’s ear.  “I asked the guards at the front desk to turn off the cameras.  We’re alone in here.  They can hear us but they can’t see.”  It was a little white lie.  James had asked the guards to turn off their monitors at the reception desk, that was true but they were still being recorded, still being watched from the observation room further down the hall.  James felt a little guilty at lying to Q but he trusted M to ensure that any footage of them in the cell would never see the light of day. 

And Q needed to think they weren’t being watched.

His train of thought broke when Q kissed his cheek.

“Come with me.”  He said.  He took James by the hand and led him for the four steps it took him to reach the side of the bed.  He let go as he toed off his shoes and lay down.  He put his hand out to James.  He couldn’t resist, had no desire to, so he kicked his own shoes off and lay beside him. 

“What is it that you want Q?”  James asked.

“You.”

Q kissed him then and this time there was no hesitation, no denial.  James let himself fall into it, the rhythm and slide as they moved, the feeling of their bodies pressing together.  He shivered but didn’t object when he felt Q’s slim fingers toying with the button on his waistband, instead he just kissed him harder at his first tentative delve under the elastic of his underpants.  The button was popped and then Q’s fingers quested further, his knuckles brushing over James’s belly, under his clothing until his fingertips grazed the shaft of his rapidly hardening cock.

“I want this.” Q said between kisses.  “Will you fuck me?  Please?”

“I can’t.” James replied sadly.

“Because you’re still on duty?”

“Because I don’t have a condom, or lube for that matter and I don’t want our first-time to be a spit-slicked shag in a holding cell…” something suddenly occurred to him, “… and besides, didn’t you say you’d never had a boyfriend?”  Q didn’t answer but James saw the way his cheeks suddenly pinked up. “You don’t deserve to lose your virginity like this, Q.  I need to get you into a proper bed.”

“Your bed?”

James smiled.

“If you like.”

Q smiled back, but looked a little disappointed so James kissed him again.

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t make love to you now though.” James smiled.  He rolled back to grab the thin blanket that was folded up on the chair and shook it out over them.  He laid down again and ran his fingers through Q’s hair.  “There.  A little privacy in case the guards come in. Now, where were we?”

Q immediately reached down again, apparently emboldened by the cover James had given them, and unzipped James’s fly.

“I think I was just about here.”  Q whispered.

~00Q~

They made out like a couple of teenagers, kissing and exploring each other’s bodies as far as they were able while staying mostly dressed, taking each other in hand until they both came.  Afterwards they redressed and settled down, both falling asleep.  Or appearing to, at least.

James had been lying, still alert but unmoving, ever since Q closed his eyes.  He’d closed his too and allowed his face to slacken hoping Q might assume he’d fallen asleep.  On the way down to the cell he’d told Arc to settle down and feign sleep too when he saw James close his eyes.  After a while he felt Q shift, easing away from him before slowly rolling off the bed but he didn’t react other than to let out a soft snore.  As he suspected, after a moment or two, he felt Q’s fingers dip into his back pocket and slide out his ID card.

“ ’zebub …”

The word was breathed out, almost silent but it was loud enough for the wolf to hear.  James heard his claws tap on the tiled floor of the cell as he walked over to Q and the next second, the door was unlocked.  It closed softly but James didn’t move, just on the off-chance that the guards at the desk hadn’t turned off their monitors like they’d said they would.  After a count of thirty, more then enough time for Q to have got past the front desk of the department, he sat up and activated his earpiece.

“Bond here.  Q is on the move.”

“We’re following him on the cameras.”  Tanner replied. “He’s made his way to the south stairwell and he’s going up.”

“Where is he heading?”  James asked, slipping his feet into his shoes before striding across the cell and banging on the door.  Arc landed on his shoulder as it was opened by one of the guards.

“He primarily worked on the eighth floor; that’s the part of the building he’s most used to.  It would make sense that he’s heading there.”

“The archives are up there.  Do you think he’ll try to access one of the terminals in there?”  James left detention and headed for the north stairwell.  He wanted to follow Q but couldn’t risk him noticing him.

“He’d know that the archive department generally runs daytime shifts only.”

James glanced at his watch.  It was almost ten o’clock at night, the department would be deserted.

“Is everyone in place?”

“The tech teams are poised. They’re waiting for the first signs of Q hacking into the system.  Then they’re going to divert him into a ringfenced network.  It’s the one they use for external hackers.  It will let them see what Safin is interested in and at the same time it will enable them to safely carry out a counter-hack.”

“And Q and Safin won’t notice?”

“They shouldn’t.  Not initially anyway.”

“And what about the wolf?”

“Vets are on standby, as are a security team.  Everything’s going to be OK James.”

“Fuck, I hope so.”  James muttered.  He steadily climbed the stairs.  He’d just reached the access door to the eighth floor when Tanner spoke again.

“The techs have picked up activity on one of the terminals in the archives.”  Tanner said.  “Q’s gathering the data his blackmailers need to allow remotely access to the system.  They’re running the protocols now that will direct him to the ringfenced database.”

James set his back to the wall and waited.  Arc had been quiet since they left the cell, still perching on James’s shoulder.  As James fell silent, Arc stepped in closer to snuggle into the side of his head, nuzzling his face.

“Hey birdy.”  He said.  He sounded dejected, even to his own ears.

“Longshanks.”   Arc hooted. “ Everything alright?”

“I’m not sure.”  James replied.  “What if we’ve got this wrong?  What if we’re putting Q and Beelzebub into even more danger?”

Archimedes nibbled his face comfortingly.

“This is the best idea.  It has to be.  It’s one thing to get Q and ‘bub away from Safin.  It’s something else to give him long-term security.”

“I just want him to be safe.” James said.

“No, you don’t.  That’s not all you want.  What you want, after all of this is over, is for Q to be able to forgive you.”

“I’m not sure that he will.”

Arc hooted at that, amused.

“What?”

“You really haven’t been paying attention, have you?”

James was about to ask what he meant but at that moment his earpiece activated.

“He’s in.” Tanner said.  “Tech are rerouting his commands… he’s in the proxy server… we’re getting a remote link…  it’s done. Gods man, he was quick.  All teams, execute the final plan.”

James left the stairwell and headed towards the archives department.  He was only half way there though when he heard a commotion.

“He’s rabbiting Sir!”  He heard someone say. “He’s on the move!  He’s heading for the roof access on this floor!”

James abruptly turned, running to intercept them.  He got there just as the one of the security team was putting his shoulder to the door to one of the many little cunningly hidden outdoor spaces on the building.  It burst open and they piled through, James bringing up the rear.  Q was cowering, his wolf in front of him, snarling and snapping his jaws, desperately trying to defend his human. 

The lead on the security team calmly raised his pistol and shot him.

Q screamed, a gut-wrenching, heart-breaking sound and he dived for Beelzebub who had fallen to the floor.  James was quicker though, grabbing Q roughly and dragging him away.

“I’ve got him Sir!”  He said loudly.  “The wolf’s dead.  I’m taking Q back to detention.”

Q desperately cried out his wolf’s name, thrashing and trying to fight James as he took him back into the building.  He was so panic-stricken he didn’t seem to register MI6’s veterinarian team as they scurried by, heading out onto the roof.  James pulled Q into the nearest side room and pressed him up against the wall.

“Sweetheart.  Sweetheart!  It’s OK.  I’m sorry.  It’s OK.  ‘bub’s going to be OK, alright?  The vets are with him now.”

Q paused in his efforts to fight James, looking confused and frightened.

“Wh…what do you mean?  They killed him!  You said…”

“We know about the explosive device in the back of ‘bub’s neck.  We know that Safin wanted us to think that I’d rescued you.” James explained quickly. “And I know that you’d do anything for ‘bub.  The same way I’d do anything for Arc.  I’m so sorry, the theatrics were for him, for Safin.  The scans we had of ‘bub were inconclusive but we guessed that he might have been listening in to everything that was said around him.  The security operative shot ‘bub with a powerful sedative.  It was designed to disrupt his heartbeat momentarily, long enough for any biometric sensors in the implant to report back his death.  The vet team are with him now to remove it and give him the antidote to the dart.”

Q nodded, still confused but starting to look relieved.

“When Safin took me, by the time we’d woken up, the device was already in ‘zebub.  I thought about telling you… but… one mistake … one word out of place… and he would have killed him, I know he would.  I wanted to tell you…especially after…” His voiced hitched as tears began to track down his face.  “Please, don’t hate me.”

James was about to tell he could never hate him when they heard the muffled sound of a small explosion.

“’zebub!”

Q shoved at James, desperate to get away again and James let him go, watching as he ran.  A second later and James was following him close behind.

“Please no.”  Q whispered, pushing open the door to the roof. 

He gave a little cry of relief when he saw what had happened and he ran to his wolf.  He was still prone, but lying on a green surgical sheet.  The back of his neck was bloody and one of the vets was preparing a dressing to place over it, while the other held a stethoscope to his chest.  Q fell to his knees and reached out hesitantly to touch his paw.

“Is he alright?”

“He going to be fine,” the vet, a man called Kressler, said, “We’re going to take him down to surgery to stitch his wound now.  Not the neatest of openings I’ve ever done but time was of the essence.”  He gestured to the far end of the small roof area that they were on where a small scorched blast mark, around a meter in diameter, could be clearly seen.  “A couple of second earlier and it would still have been in my hand.  A couple of seconds before that… well.”

~00Q~

The whole mission, operation, whatever they were calling it, was deemed a success.  Whoever was hacking into the ringfenced database hadn’t apparently realised immediately that they were looking at a dummy network, just as MI6 had planned.  The analysts tracking the activity were pleased, M had told James, the longer the hacker poked around, the more information they were able to get about their intentions and their location.  It would only fool Safin for so long but it would give them valuable insight into his activities.

As for Q, they were as sure as they could be that Safin would have overheard the dramatics on the roof.  With any luck he would assume that Beelzebub was dead and the leverage that he had over Q was gone.  MI6 would continue with their debrief of Q and then let him lay low for a few months before giving him a new cover identity that registered his familiar as a white Malamute.  It wasn’t the best of covers but with a large white wolf following him everywhere, it was the best they could manage.  If the debrief went as well as James assumed it would, it would then be up to Q whether he wanted to carry on working for them or take up their offer of helping him to disappear.

James headed home.  There wasn’t much else he could do.  Beelzebub went into surgery to repair the wound on his neck while Q was questioned and then they would be allowed to spend the night together in a secure room in the veterinarian department.  James took a walk through the dusk along the side of the Thames before catching a train.  Archimedes flew about him while he strolled, his thoughts keeping him company.  It was only once he that thought he might be exhausted enough to sleep that James put out his wrist for Archimedes to land on and they headed for the nearest tube station.

The next morning found James back in Vauxhall once more, heading to Beelzebub’s room before dawn.  He’d not slept well, worrying about the young man and his wolf all night, and he was eager to see them again.  He entered the room to find them curled up together on the single bed, Q spooning up behind Beelzebub whose head was resting on Q’s pillow.  Q’s arm was wrapped around him and he was holding his paw, like they needed all the extra points of contact they could think of.  There was a large bandage around the wolf’s neck. 

“Hey…”  Q voice was soft, sounding like he was still mostly asleep and it tugged on James’s heart to hear it.

“I’m sorry, did I wake you?”

“Been dozing… ‘zebub’s doing OK.  I keep waking up to watch him.”  Arc hopped up onto the bed and nibbled the fur between the wolf's eyes affectionately.  “Hi, Arc.”  The owl hooted at him in a friendly manner and accepted Q’s tickles under his chin.

“He really is very cute.  Can we keep him?”    He asked James.

Q huffed out a quiet laugh.

“Did he just call me cute?”

James raised his eyebrow, remembering the way he’d seemed to understand what ‘bub was saying at the safe house in Turkey.

“Something like that.”  James said.  “You need to watch what you say, birdy.”

“Longshanks.” He replied, apparently unconcerned as he went back to his preening of the wolf’s fur.

“What are you doing here?”  Q asked.

“I came to see you.  To see how ‘bub is doing… and to apologise.”

“Apologise?”

James sat down on the chair next to the bed.

“I deceived you.  I knew there was something wrong and I didn’t tell you.  When M decided to use you to get to Safin I let him.  I told you the cameras were off in the cell when we were being watched.  I…” He paused, suddenly feeling ashamed.  “I could have made love to you at the safe house.  You were upset, thinking that ‘bub was going to die… most likely thinking you were going to go to prison for what Safin was forcing you to do and I didn’t… I could have made you forget for a while…”

“You saved me.  Protected me.  You didn’t know that Safin had planned it all and yet you didn’t hesitate to get me away from him.  There’s nothing to apologise for.”

“I made you think that ‘bub was dead.”  James said hoarsely.

“For a split second, and it was horrible.  The worst moment of my life but I understand, I truly do James.  It had to be done.  Safin… he’s one of the most intelligent men I’ve ever met.  If I hadn’t had that… reaction… if I’d known it wasn’t real… he might not have believed it.”

James nodded, still not convinced but feeling a little easier.

“What will you do now?”

Q shrugged and kissed the top of Beelzebub’s head when he whined in his sleep.

“Answer lots more of M’s questions, I guess.  Hopefully I’ll pass all the tests and be allowed back home.”  He paused, as if suddenly realising. “I’m not sure I’ll still have a home though.  I used to rent a place.  I suppose it would have been cleared out when I disappeared… I wonder if MI6 would have put my stuff into storage?”

“Maybe.  I can find out for you today.”

“I’ll have to find a new flat.”

“Move in with me.”  James immediately said.

Q smiled at him.

“Is that the ‘move in with me while you find somewhere to rent’ kind of offer or the ‘move in with me’ kind?”

James reached out and placed his hand over the one that Q was holding Beelzebub’s paw with and lightly curled his fingers around them both.  Arc made a small sound of affection as he settled down on the pillow to cuddle into the top of Beelzebub’s head.

“I’ll let you decide.”  James said.

~FIN~