Work Text:
Alice felt ready to start crying, her face turning a bright shade of red as she tried to rock her baby back to sleep, shushing him and cooing to him quietly. But the damage was done: eyes were already being drawn back to her, disapproving and irritated. Too loud conversations were treated with immense disdain, and a crying baby was an even bigger distraction from their work. The general murmur and hum of activity was acceptable, but anything that was easily picked out was frowned upon.
Not to mention her proximity to the center of the room, where Q was directing an agent through a mission, with a few other technicians standing by to help whenever he needed it. Luckily, he hadn’t looked up from the monitor yet, still speaking into the agent in clear, crisp words. He seemed unbothered, but it was always impossible to tell with him. She’d long learned that he had one of the best poker faces of anyone in MI6, and had seen him completely bluff through a mission report that hadn’t been written to M, himself.
Her baby still refused to stop crying. He was upset with having to be so still for so long, but she couldn’t spare taking the time to stand up and walk around with him. She still had so much code to write before the end of the day, and her colleagues would know she wasn’t focusing on work and would be judging her even more than they already were.
“May I?”
Her stomach dropped, and she felt ready to start crying along with her child.
She’d been so frantic to quiet her son down that she hadn’t realized the Quartermaster had left the dais and was now standing next to her. The headset’s microphone was pushed slightly away from his mouth, signaling that he wasn’t talking to Double-Oh Four at the moment. An eerie silence had fallen over the room.
The most shocking part was that he had his arms outstretched.
She swallowed back her fear and hesitantly handed him over to Q, feeling like she was feeding Collin to a beast. She logically knew that he wasn’t going to hurt him—at least not in the middle of Q-branch—but she had no clue what he wanted. Was he about to escort him out of the building? Put him in another room?
But it didn’t seem like Q was going to do anything of the sort. He held the baby with practiced ease, settling him onto his hip and making high-pitched, soothing noises. The tears were already starting to stop, mostly from confusion as Collin stared at the new man.
“Is it alright if I try walking around with him?” Q asked, turning back to her. His voice was suddenly business again, so fast she felt like she would get whiplash. “I get to walk around the room, while you’re stuck at your desk.”
“Sir, you really don’t have to, I won’t inconvenience you—“
“It wouldn’t be an inconvenience,” he said dismissively, waving his free hand, much to the fascination of Collin. “The motion might help him get back to sleep, or at least keep him entertained. And I’ll be in your line of sight the entire time.”
“But…the mission?” Alice spluttered, gesturing to the screen.
“The excitement is over,” he said with a shrug. “I’m now simply overseeing some others guide Four to the extraction point.”
Alice knew her jaw was hanging open, but she couldn’t close it. There were others in the room with a similar expression.
“I…” she swallowed. “Y-yes, I suppose we can try.”
Q nodded, and went back to the center of the room, moving the microphone back to his mouth and continuing with the mission.
Alice couldn’t tear her eyes away from the scene. It all felt like a fever dream, watching the Quartermaster go about his business with a baby on his hip. He seemed completely unbothered, directing the agent and absently allowing Collin to play with his hand. And Collin was utterly fascinated with the man, staring at him with wide eyes and his mouth slightly open. He made a few gurgling attempts to speak, vying for his attention, and Q would give him a small, indulgent smile.
And the rest of the day was like that. Alice took Collin back when he needed a diaper change and to be fed before he was finally ready for another nap, but when Collin woke up again and got bored sitting with his mother, Q was there to take him off her without another word, speaking in a baby voice to him as he worked.
Before she knew it, most people had trickled out of the offices, save for the skeleton crew and the techs still working on missions. Colin had dozed off in his carrier, pacifier nearly falling out of his mouth. Alice flitted nervously around her desk, making a few aborted motions towards Q’s office. Finally, when she couldn’t wait any longer, she bit the inside of her cheek and knocked on his door.
“I…I’m so sorry about today, sir,” she said, mustering up her nerve as much as she could. “My babysitter called in sick, and I couldn’t find anyone to take care of Collin on such short notice. I know it was highly unprofessional of me, and I promise, it won’t happen again.”
“I don’t think you can promise that,” Q said bluntly with a shrug. Alice blanched violently, clutching tighter to the baby carrier’s handle. “Life takes a lot of unexpected turns, and I’m sure there will be other times where little Collin gets to join us again.”
“It won’t, I promise, sir,” she repeated herself, voice starting to get high in her desperation. “I-I’ll start looking for a back-up babysitter as soon as I get home, so I won’t bother the department again.”
Q scoffed. “I hired professionals. If Q-branch can’t work without some background noise, then I should fire them all for their incompetence. Besides, it says nowhere in the MI6 handbook that you’re not allowed to bring your baby to work. I don’t think it’s unprofessional in the slightest.”
“The others don’t seem to think that,” she blurted out before she could stop herself. She felt tears start to well in her eyes, the stress of the day hitting her like a brick wall. “Sir, I know I’m a single mother, but it won’t affect my work in the slightest. I know my colleagues are concerned about it, but I’m getting everything done on time.”
Q’s brow was furrowed. “Alice,” he said slowly, “if anyone is giving you trouble, please tell me. It’s unacceptable for them to treat you badly for this. And I know you’re getting your work done as usual, I checked.” He looked at her straight in the eyes, and she was shocked by his earnest expression.
“I won’t say that I can understand what being a single mother is like,” Q continued, “nor will I ever, but I won’t stand for an employee with exceptional talent and potential being sidelined because of her personal life choices. Now, if there’s nothing else you wish to tell me, I do have some paperwork to finish, and little Colin would likely appreciate his room.”
Alice stared with her jaw hanging in open shock, watching as Q decisively turned back to his desk and started shuffling through the paperwork. It was obvious the discussion was done, but as Alice started making her way out of the office, a question burned on her tongue.
“Do you…have any children, sir?”
Q’s lips quirked into a semblance of a smile, and he glanced up at her. “No I don’t, but I grew up around a lot of young children,” he explained. “I picked up a few tips on how to take care of them.”
“Oh.”
Blinking owlishly, Alice slipped out of the office, Colin’s shifting in his carrier quickly taking her attention.
***
Q’s obvious approval and lack of concern about Colin’s presence scared off most of the sneers and thinly veiled insults, and Alice found herself actually able to focus and not feel constant dread when she had her baby with her.
A woman who was her senior had taken to hanging around her desk, smiling at Colin and chatting about the child she had in the 70’s. Her excitement ramped up when the woman pulled out blueprints and started asking for her input on a weapon prototype.
***
Outside of Alice’s hearing range and vision, R gave Q a suspicious look and elbowed him.
“Did you have anything to do with that?” she asked, nodding her head in the direction of the two women who were excitedly talking over blueprints.
Q barely glanced at them. If R wasn’t so versed in looking for his little facial movements, she would have missed the corner of his mouth tick up in a smile. “No, that wasn’t me,” he said, changing a line of code before rerunning the program. “Allegra did that all on her own. Besides, it’s not like Alice isn’t a good coder.”
R hummed, unconvinced. “We need to get you a better hobby, so you stop meddling with people’s lives.”
***
With the new project, Alice had begun to spend later nights in the labs and ended up with little Colin for the last few hours of her workday. Allegra seemed delighted, and Colin seemed equally delighted to have more people to entertain him. Q often found himself on babysitting duty as the two weapons developers would attend meetings and testings.
A week after the first incident, Q found himself alone in the center of Q-Branch, holding the sleeping baby as Alice tested a prototype with Allegra.
He’d been lucky up until this point. The double-ohs hadn’t visited his offices recently, but when they had it hadn’t coincided with his watching of Colin. His luck had run out, though.
Upon returning from his mission, Alec had beelined to Q-Branch to drop off his weapons and join James in their forced time off. It had been a successful mission, but he’d been left with a dislocated shoulder that needed time to heal.
He passed by the entrance of the main offices, expecting to see a couple of graveyard shifters.
Alec paused, and then took a few steps back to get a double-take. No, he hadn’t been hallucinating--there was indeed a sleeping baby resting on Q’s chest. The genius seemed unbothered by it all, absently swaying from side to side as he typed with one hand.
Uncertain, Alec slowly started to walk towards Q. Before he announced his presence, however, he made sure to snap a discreet picture and send it to James. Ignoring the immediate buzzing of James’ call, Alec tucked his phone back into his pocket and approached Q, whistling to gain the genius’ attention.
Q whipped around and glared at Alec. “Please refrain from any excess noise, double-oh nine,” he said, voice low. “In case you haven’t noticed, there is a sleeping child present.”
“So you do know that you’re holding a baby. I was worried that you didn’t know.” He leaned forward and squinted at the sleeping baby. “Is it real?”
“Of course it’s real,” Q huffed, typing something rapidly on the computer with his free hand.
When Q offered no more information, Alec slowly asked, “Is...it yours?”
Q stopped typing and leaned his head back, closing his eyes as if silently asking the gods what he’d done to deserve the attentions of a double-oh agent. “No, Trevelyan, Colin is not my baby. His mother is currently in the shooting range testing a new prototype, and I’m babysitting.”
“Oh.”
“Are there any other questions you have for me? Do hurry up, I have work to complete.”
“Is it truly not yours?”
“For the second time, no .”
Alec finally seemed appeased, and leaned down to coo at the baby. Q swatted at him, but Alec easily moved out of the way. Q held a warning finger to his lips, eyes promising bodily harm if he woke up the baby.
“When are you done?” Alec asked, having the sense to keep his voice low.
Q carefully deposited the fully asleep baby into the carrier next to him, expertly maneuvering himself out of unconsciously grasping hands. He straightened and moved back over to the console, leaving the baby to sleep.
“Well, I have a couple of hours left until my agents reach their evacuation point, so it’s looking like I’ll be here well into the night,” Q sighed, keeping his voice soft.
Seeing his opportunity, Alec smirked and walked up behind Q until they were almost touching.
“You could finish up and come home with me,” Alec asked huskily, lips brushing against the back of Q’s neck. “It would be a lot more enjoyable than spending the night here with a bunch of old computers.”
Q swatted him away. “If you think calling the computers I personally built old is the best way into my trousers, then you should think again.”
Alec’s mouth twisted sourly as he realized the faux pas he’d unfortunately committed. “I’d never mean it like that ,” he tried to save himself, grasping at straws.
He reached out to tug Q closer by his belt, which the genius reluctantly allowed. Alec took the opportunity to plaster himself to Q’s back, boldly pressing a kiss to Q’s neck again. Q shivered involuntarily, and while he didn’t reciprocate, he didn’t pull away, which Alec took as a positive sign.
“So how about it?” Alec coaxed. “Ready to head home?”
“Not a chance,” Q said sweetly. “You can go home, if you’re itching so bad to do that.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were trying to get rid of me, Q,” Alec said, putting on a hurt expression.
“You are correct. You’re being a nuisance.”
Alec gave him a lazy grin as he settled into the nearest chair. He kicked out a foot to nudge Q’s ankle with his shin gently. “You know I’m exclusively yours and James’ nuisance.”
Even though he was turned away, Alec could see that the corner of Q’s mouth twitched up. “Quite.”