Title: For Want of a...
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Warnings Apply
Fandom: James Bond
Relationships: James Bond/Q
Tags: Alternate Universe, Getting Together, Q is a Holmes, Morally Grey Characters,
Summary: For want of knowledge, James finds himself at the hands of the new Quartermaster. If it wasn't for his loyalty to England, James might actually fear for his life.
Word Count: 4,603
Spoilers: Up Through Skyfall
Beta: Grammarly



There was nothing like slipping into a place he wasn't supposed to be. James had found it kept him on his toes. He also liked to know how to get into the homes of people he was fond of just in case he ever needed to save them in said domicile.

James also liked to fuck with people. The rumour of a new Quartermaster was intriguing. The biggest thing was that no one knew who it was. M was pulling them from somewhere, and the computer and paper files in her office gave him nothing. Whatever she was doing with that, it was hidden in something he hadn't found, or it was in her head.

Tanner had been no help either. Getting him skunk drunk had just made the man wax poetic about the newest techie to be hired into Q-Branch by M and how much he had already made the system run smoothly. James had looked into that man and doubted he was doing anything. A political hire for the head of MI5 to give his youngest brother a job after he had been fired from MI5 for reasons unknown.

James had dismissed the man as ineffectual, but he kept an eye on him in the system as James didn't trust a single thing he might do for MI6. James wasn't sure that anyone could trust a thing he did.

The only lead James had was a safe house that was recently retrofitted into a housing unit for someone. If it wasn't for the strange plans, he would have thought it was just getting it set up with better utilities for the various people they sometimes housed. This was vastly different.

A week of staking it out showed that no one came and went from the house, so no one was living there yet. Still, an empty place could tell him a lot, which was why James was breaking in there now. He wasn't sure what was going on with the place, but he planned to find out.

James never took anything for granted, and he slipped up the back walk in the garden to find more technology than should be there. James was sure he had tripped something, but he wasn't sure what it was. No alarms were going off. Nothing was really happening at all, so James kept on. There was a covered porch, and while James could have cut himself inside of there, he went for the door and picked the lock. It was crude, but at least it wasn't the biggest, most obvious thing.

He did not step far inside and instead stayed right on the threshold to look around. He found that there was not a lot in that room that was personal. It had a few chairs, comfortable but found anywhere. A table was set up that showed evidence that only one person used it and the discarded tea cup was evidence that despite what he thought, someone was living there. There was still tea in the cup, cold and not steaming, so it was old.

"Interesting," James said. He took a step and realised seconds too late that he should have really paid attention to the flooring.

As soon as he put any weight on the floor, it gave, opening up in a pitch black maw. He hated how easy that had been, even as he tucked into a roll to hopefully land where he would not damage himself too much.

This was not on the plans at all. There was nothing under the house. No basement, nothing.

The floor rushed to meet him, and James could see a little, enough of it to roll when he needed. He slammed into another wall but thankfully, it only winded him a little. He turned and put his back to the wall as soon as possible. There was very little light in the room, which was a shock as James figured there would be no light. So he took his time as he straightened up, using the wall to boost him.

James was happy his body wasn't injured. He wasn't sure what would happen, so he just settled in to wait and see. His eyes would take time to adjust to the lighting, and then he could move around.

Three hours later, James hoped that whoever was staying here wouldn't be gone for too long. His phone wasn't getting service, not even a single bar. He was cut off from the rest of the world, and there was no way out. James had felt along every single inch of the wall he could reach, and there were no seams. If there was a way out, it was from above, and James couldn't get there. He had carefully checked that as well, but if there was a seam above his reach, he hadn't felt it jumping.

A sound in front of him had James putting his back to the wall, and he drew his gun. A light turned on through the wall, and James realised he was in a glass or plastic cage of some kind. It was the strangest thing. He had no idea what was going to happen to him but what he could see was that shooting wasn't going to get him out.

James hadn't thought about bringing a knife with him.

"You are lucky that my sensors realised who you were, 007. Otherwise, you would be dead. Put the gun away, or I will knock you out and have 002 retrieve you and take you to medical for a full exam."

James debated for a few seconds but put his gun up in the end. Going along seemed like the best bet. If he could be knocked out without even a chance to do anything, going along and getting his captor to lower their guard seemed the best idea.

"Also, 007, hurt my cats, and they will never find your body."

The wall the light was shining through opened up, showing there was a seam so small his fingers couldn't feel it. James walked through it and smiled as he took in the hallway. A cat was sitting there, black and fluffy. It looked at him for a few seconds before taking off up the stairs that lit up as he moved. The lights where James was turned off until he took a step toward the stairs. It was interesting. The lights turned off on the stairs by the time James reached them.

James wasn't sure where the steps were going to go. To a kitchen with a table in the middle with the idiot brother of the head of MI5 wasn't it. James figured he needed to change the idiot part.

The cat was heading into the rest of the house, but James wasn't going to follow it. He would just stay right here.

"I knew you had accessed the renovation blueprints, but I hadn't thought you would have broken in like that. At least not yet. I guess M was right about you not doing what you were supposed to do at any given point in time. I should have figured that out, but I'm only three files into your career at MI6 and therefore have not got to your 007 days."

"Your file does not read the way I think it should." James sat at the table and found a pot of tea with a glass of amber liquid beside it. He picked that up and sniffed at it. It was good stuff. It was more expensive than the usual stuff James kept at home for drinking. He drank too much of it, and it wasn't worth getting the really good stuff when James barely tasted it.

"My file reads exactly as M wants it to read. If you have an issue with that, then you need to take that up with her."

"Oh, no. It's just one thing. The reason you were fired is not there, so when I hear you made this or that thing faster or better, it's worrisome and 95% of the reason I am here right now."

"I see. I'll have a chat with her when she no doubt pulls me in to figure out if you survived being stuck in my dungeon. You picked the better one. My front porch dungeon is full of sand. It's meant to make the person think there is something under it and can escape that way. I would love to see if someone dies that way."

James swallowed as he heard the near glee in the man's tone. James knew a lot about the head of MI5's more famous brother, but he hadn't even been aware of this one. He wondered if that was for a reason. M thought she could control him, or she would have never taken him on or put him where he was. He wondered if he had been let go from MI5 and scooped up by M for his little quirks.

"Don't worry, I'm not like Lock. I don't keep body parts in my fridge."

"He does?"

"He keeps all manner of things for working on experiments."

"Remind me to never visit him."

"I doubt you would anyway. He doesn't like to leave London, much less England, unless he has to. I at least visit other locations on the isles. So, 007, what can I do for you?"

"I mainly came to check you out. Figure you out and all of that kind of thing."

"I see. Well. Here I am. Feel free to look about just remember-."

"Don't harm the cats," James interjected.

The Quartermaster turned back to the computer.

James planned on taking his time as he looked about the house. He didn't want to miss anything.

---

"Do you find this funny?" the Quartermaster asked as he looked down at James through the hole in the ceiling.

"Funny, no, but I nearly had it this time."

"What if I had been stuck at work for hours?"

"I brought food." James held up the wrapper from the sandwich he picked up from the Pret. He smiled as the Quartermaster huffed and dropped the rope ladder down into the pit. James stood up and grabbed his backpack, shrugging it over his shoulder.

James dusted off his suit as much as possible before he started up the rope ladder. He pulled it up after him when he was on solid ground. The sand pit was at least comfortable to sleep on.

"And if I had been longer?"

"I have more food in here." James shook the bag. More sand fell out. "Um, how do I do this?" He took off the jumper he had on over his dress shirt.

"Well, you cannot wear that. Strip naked; it's not like you care. I'll give you a pair of sweats and a shirt, and then you can wear these again once I wash them."

"Agreed. I'll just do this while you go and get the clothes." James started to unbutton his shirt and waited to see what the Quartermaster was going to do.

The Quartermaster just turned on his heel and left the room. James smiled to himself and worked on getting naked as fast as possible, not caring about his shirt. He had worn easily washed things, or he didn't mind throwing them away because sand was horrible. So them being washed was going to be a bad thing. He had brought other clothes but would rather avail himself of what the Quartermaster offered.

The sweats and shirt were simple, and the Quartermaster tossed them at James without even looking at his body. James cocked his head to the side as the Quartermaster headed back to the kitchen. It wasn't like James wanted to take the Quartermaster to bed, but this was a little strange.

"What should I call you?" James asked.

"From what I have been told, you typically call the person in my position Q, so that is fine with me."

"Q. What are your dinner plans?"

"Having Chinese delivered when I get hungry. I'm off for the next two days and am not allowed back inside of MI6. M has been taking lessons from my brother well, and for now, I am going to allow her to do it. For now. I'll deal with her later once she thinks she's got me under her thumb. Then I'll show her how much she doesn't have control of me."

James liked the attitude, but he wasn't sure this man could do it. M was a formidable woman. She wasn't going to back down for this man.

Still, he looked like he had a spine of steel. It was going to be interesting over the next while.

---

James wasn't sure what he was feeling, but he was shocked he wasn't in pain. He tried to sit up but found he wasn't able to. He didn't know where he was.

The last thing he remembered was stumbling off the train and then into a taxi. He wasn't sure what had happened after that. He forced his eyes open and looked around. The walls were bare and pale yellow. He had only seen one room that looked like that.

"Move, and I'll drug you again," Q said.

"Am I okay?"

"You will be. You bloody idiot. If you had gotten help in Turkey, you would be fine even sooner. You are going to be stuck here under my tender mercy until such a time that I feel like you are allowed to make decisions on your own."

"Moneypenny shot me," James said.

"Yes, I'm well aware. The mission was a cock up from the start. I was stuck in meetings at MI5, and M refused to call me in. I could have told her that the computer didn't have anything close to what she thought it did on there. Ronson died for nothing, and so far as to what MI6 thinks, you are dead as well. You will just have to be happy here."

"I'm shocked you didn't dump into MI6's loving hands."

"Well, I had to reason you had a reason for not going to them if you didn't show up there. You didn't nearly make it into my house for fun and games. Why are you here?"

"I am not sure. I just knew I needed to be somewhere safe. I guess I call this place safe."

"Hmm, my security knew you were nearly in, and I have it set to ask me. So I let you in since you looked like you were ready to keel over. I decided to let you in so I didn't have a dead body I had to carry out of the rooms that I couldn't even experiment on."

"You can't on a dead body?"

"Not when the rooms are designed to kill you. A dead person falling in would do nothing."

James laughed, and it hurt so badly, but he still did it.

"Your body is beat to hell. The doctor left notes that you can take with you when you decide to come back from the dead. So that medical and get a good grasp of things. Your stitching was the only reason you made it here alive. If you hadn't done that, you would have died on the train. How did you even get on the train?"

"Money goes a long way on that." James tried to sit up but found himself strapped to the bed. "You can take these off."

"As long as you promise that you move carefully. I can make you something to eat that will be easy to eat. Pasta?"

"Yes. That sounds good. The carbs will do me some good. Do you have orange juice?"

"I do not. I'll have you write down what you like to eat."

"Why are you not at work?"

"I left because I pissed off M. I made sure everyone knew the files were wrong. It was a lure I put out there. The idiots who made that list were stupid, and I ensured they didn't fuck up NATO agents."

"Okay, so you proved how badass you are with that, and she?"

"Got really pissed that I fucked with it. I wasn't there when this was all going down, and now she blames me for your death. I'm on vacation for at least another week, so she doesn't have to look at my smug face." Q smiled a little and moved over to where James was strapped to the bed.

The first strap was released, followed by the other on his waist. They were the good kind, ones James knew were used in medical facilities. As he sat up slowly, he realised he was on a medical bed. It wasn't the worst bed in the world. It wasn't anywhere near as comfortable as his bed, but it wasn't the worst. He had slept on worse while working.

"Need any help?"

"No, did you bathe me?"

"No, the doctor I call had a pair of nurses with him. They did that. I wouldn't be able to move you around like that and clean you up without hurting you worse. They will come back daily to do a little care and wipe you down. You just need to let me know when you want it to happen. When you wake up or when you are getting ready for bed."

"Bed. Give me drugs, and then I'll just pass out afterwards. I would probably do better with that than waking up to it."

"Okay. I'll make sure to let them know when they can come and take care of you."

James waited for Q to slip out of the room before he started to move. His body felt good, less sore than he thought it would. He looked around now that he could look around and found a little pile of syringes. There were two used. He picked up one and looked at it. It was a pain killer. He set it back down. He didn't want to have it mess him up.

While there were times he didn't mind taking more than what was recommended. This was vastly different since it was injected drugs. The only thing he was looking forward to was getting some food in him. He felt like he had not eaten in days. Food would help his body heal. Being somewhere safe would allow him to sleep to heal as well.

The cats were on the couch when James finally made it into the rest of the house. He didn't stop to get them as he would rather not have to move too much. He sat down at the table in the kitchen, and it wasn't long before Mombi made her way into there to sniff at him. Ozma wasn't anywhere to be seen, so she didn't seem to care about coming and visiting him.

"The water is nearly boiling. Do you want to have me throw some veg into the pasta? I have some peas I can do."

"Sure." James rubbed at his nose. He felt like he was moving in cotton. He had no idea what time of day it was. He looked at the clock to see it was nearly noon. "Do you have a safe phone I can use?"

"I do. I'll fetch it when I am done getting the meal together."

"No rush. I just want to check in with Alec."

"Oh, I've already done that. He's not that happy with me, but he understands. He's trying to finish up his mission as quickly as possible. Then I will have to decide if I want to give him access to my house or not."

"He'll make a scene if you don't."

"Well, right now, he has no idea where it is unless someone told him."

"I have not, but I can't say he hasn't followed me here before."

"Spies." Q picked up a large bowl and dumped the contents into the water before moving to the freezer and grabbing a bag of peas. He looked at the writing before shrugging and walking over to dump them into the bowl.

It was a little strange to see Q this way. Every time James came over, there was food that was bought in. James had thought the man didn't cook. There had always been a few things that looked homemade, but for all James knew, those were from people at MI6.

The little bit of domesticity was lovely to watch. It also scared James a little because he had never wanted that in his life before. James hadn't wanted it even when he thought of marrying Vesper. He had seen them being together, but this part never came in.

"When was the last time I got a shot?"

"Oh, you are due after you eat. Once those are gone, I have a script for you as well for oral medications when I am out of the shots. The doctor had it filled already and sent over."

"How is that possible?" James asked.

"He's one of MI6's special doctors. He keeps his mouth shut and doesn't care who he sees. I'm sure at some point, your file will be updated with everything much later since everything is paid for in cash and nothing to be done through your medical stuff; he doesn't have to file right away and will fudge things. He's been my doctor for a long time and does all my check-ups here. Myc wanted to make sure no one got to me after someone tried to take me once to get my mother's cooperation on something."

James nodded. He stayed silent as Q worked on the food the rest of the way, dropping the peas into the water with the noodles. The water stopped boiling, but it warmed back up pretty quick, and as soon as it was to boiling again, Q took it off the stove.

"Want to wash up? There is a sink over there."

James knew where the sink was. Q knew that James knew where the sink was. He also knew that Q liked to act like a little shit.

So far, the man hadn't actually become the Quartermaster yet, Boothroyd was still working, but Q was doing more each day in taking over. James had to assume this would move that timetable up even more.

---

Come in from the cold.

James knew what it meant, but he still didn't understand anything about what was happening. Still, he changed into his suit and prepared himself as best he could. He knew his ID would still work, even if it would throw up red flags. The number was one of eight he knew to be Q's.

Half a mile from MI6, James knew something was up. The traffic was stopped, and James wasn't sure what was happening.

"Here is fine." James handed over the cash needed for what the trip would have been since the man was going to be stuck in this traffic for a few minutes.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I doubt you'll be able to get through there anyway, so I might as well walk from here."

"Be safe. I've heard little bits, and they think someone tried to blow up the building."

James said nothing but hurried himself up and out of the taxi. He looked around as he buttoned up his jacket again.

It was chaos around MI6, with most of the lower staffers all outside and looking at the building like they were afraid of it. James slipped by them all and made his way to where he could slip in closest to M's office. He assumed it was where he needed to go. The first checkpoint sent no alarms, so James wondered just what Q had done. He kept on going only to arrive outside M's office with no secretary.

There was loud talking in M's office, so James laid his hands on both knobs and turned them to make a grand entrance.

The talking stopped as soon as James got inside the room. He turned and shut the doors before smiling at M.

"Bloody hell," Tanner said.

"What are you doing here?" M demanded.

"I was told it was time to come in from the cold since I'm finally all healed up. I passed a few tests the other day, and I've been told I'm as battle-ready as possible."

"I supposed you did this?" M asked as she looked at Q.

"Made sure his access wasn't gone? Yes."

"And knowing where he was? If I had your phone dumped?"

"You'd find nothing. I'm not going to get caught like that. The main explosion was set for your office. If I had been at home where you wanted me to be as of last night, the whole of MI6 could have blown up."

"And you had him on tap all of this time?"

"Well, he deserved to lick his wounds privately and heal up the best he could. He's not as young and spry as he used to be, so it took longer. Especially the damage the idiot did to get to safety after he came out of the river."

"Report to medical and get then yourself through fitness. I'll deal with this cock up the best way I can. And you...Quintavius. If you go against me again-"

"You'll what?" Q asked.

"Get out of my sight."

James looked at the two of them, and he frowned. He had thought he knew everything about M, but it seemed he did not. He swallowed as he looked at Q, who rolled his eyes. Q flapped his hand in a vague motion that looked like it would mean for James to go out first. James opened the door to allow Q to slip out of the door.

"Quintavius?" James asked.

"My unfortunate birth name. My brothers got off easy."

"And M is your?"

"Aunt. She thinks she's my mother, but she's not."

"And she doesn't like when you don't do what she wants?"

"Oh, no, she honestly doesn't care about that. Sherlock let it slip I was sleeping with a Double-Oh; today, she found out who. She is not happy but I've already made it plain that I will not take you being treated unfairly."

James nodded. The relationship had bloomed slowly, especially since James couldn't just take Q to bed that first night even if he wanted to. Affection had bloomed where there was little room for that kind of thing before. Q gave as good as he got when James tried to pick a fight with him. It was as close to a relationship as James had gotten in a long time.

"Let's get you to medical, and then I can see about sending you out to figure out what the bloody hell is going on. I don't even know how the idiot got into the system, but then I haven't been given full control of it yet."

"Well, you will, and you'll do it masterfully. Now, go, and I'll find my own way. Take control of what you need to take control of. Where is Boothroyd?"

"Unknown. M told me earlier to take control and not stop until I had rooted out the bastard. So, that's what I'm going to do."

James was almost afraid for the person who had attempted to blow up MI6. Q wasn't going to let go. Not until he was done and the world was a crater full of smoke and ash around the person.

It was going to be spectacular.

The End