The 00 agent did not know what he was irritated with more; the fact that he had been sent on one of his less than boring assignments in the Caribbean, the fact that it had been storming non stop since he got there, or the fact that he was currently sitting in a casino and his date failed to show. James Bond looked down at the glass of scotch in his hands. He had hardly taken a sip of his drink, since ordering it.

James had been sent to the Caribbean in search of a man selling illegal substances stolen from a manufacture in Germany. M had given him the assignment after every other possible assignment he could have been assigned had been obtained by another one of the 00 agents. Of course, it was not the first dud he had been assigned. He could list a few that were worse than the situation he was in now. Perhaps it was just the fact that he wanted to go home to London, already. He had been traveling a lot, recently. He had been spending a lot of time away from his two year old, Lulu, who he was starting to miss quite a bit. He called Felix once and a while to check in on her, but with the prices of international calls, he had to keep his contact with his daughter and friend to an all time minimal.

Lost in his own thoughts, James continued to stare off into space, sitting in his nice tuxedo, hoping his date would finally show herself. He needed something to look forward to for the night. He had thought about dancing or playing some poker, but both were almost immediately out of the question. The people playing poker were a bunch of college kids goofing off with their friends, and James found himself too high class to play with a bunch of immature delinquents. There was also dancing that he almost instantly refused to do. A day earlier, James was along the beach looking for anything that would help him find the drug trafficking offender, but ended up getting tangled up in a bunch of electrical wiring that was being used to jump start a boat. His right foot had been badly electrocuted and burned, so the only thing he could do on it for the moment was limp and stagger around wherever it was he went.

James sighed, stood from his table, and limped over to the bar counter. He used his good foot to hop up onto the stool next to the other men surrounding him and waved the bartender over.

"I'd like another glass of scotch, please." James ordered, friendly.

The bartender nodded, took his glass, and went off to get him a refill. He came back almost instantly with his glass of scotch, then walked off to tend to another customer.

James drowned his petty assignment with a huge gulp of scotch. He set his glass down besides him, propped his head up with his right hand, and began to think. He wondered how Lulu was, how Felix was, was everything alright in his house, was his car empty on gas back in London. After recollecting his thoughts, James decided to take a peek at his watch. The time read 7:30 PM. He decided that enough was enough for the night, left the bartender a tip, and limped out back to his rental car, and drove back to his motel for the evening.

He arrived back to his motel in just about fifteen to twenty minutes. He walked in and limped over to a nearby elevator, when a man stopped him in his tracks.

"Are you Mr. Bond?" The man questioned.

James raised an eyebrow, wondering why he was curious into knowing who he was.

"Depends...who are you," James responded.

"I'm the night shift hotel manager. You have a call for you at the check in desk." The manager answered.

"From who,"

"They said from London...Felix, I believe the name was."

James nodded and limped his way back over to the lobby entrance. He stopped at the desk, and the manager handed him the phone.

"Thank you," James answered.

He took the desk phone, pushed a button on the phone, and lifted it to his ear.

"James Bond, speaking," James answered.

"James, where are you, right now?" Felix asked.

"I was on my way to my room to go to sleep for the night, why?"

"Are you near by an airport?"

"Why, what's going on there, Felix?"

"How close is the nearest one?"

"Felix, is something wrong back home?"

"It's Lulu, James,"

James gulped and felt his heart begin to pound against his chest.

"What about Lulu, Felix?"

"I'm at the hospital in the Emergency Room."

"What happened,"

"Lulu hasn't felt well, since you left."

"I know that; she's just upset with that I've been gone so often, lately."

"That's what I thought, but she's got a high fever, and she kept constantly crying about her ear hurting earlier this morning. It wasn't until earlier tonight, when she was silent and exhausted that I realized something was really wrong. Her skin was flushed, her eyes were worn, and she was hot to the touch."

"What's wrong with her, Felix?"

"She has a pretty bad ear infection, James. They wanna keep her overnight to observe her and make sure her fever doesn't rise anymore than it has."

"Felix, stay right there; I'm getting the next flight out of Bermuda."

"How's the search for that guy coming?"

"It doesn't matter, for the moment, Felix. I need to get home to my daughter. I'll call you from my car phone, when I land in London."

Without another word, James hung up the front desk door. He snapped his head towards the manager.

"I need to check out immediately. Something's come up back home, and I have to cut my visit short." James answered, urgent to getting to an airport.

"Would you like me to send someone upstairs to retrieve your luggage, Mr. Bond?" The manager asked.

"Yes, please," James urged.

The manager nodded and paged a bellhop to go upstairs and bring James his luggage. After what felt like forever, the bellhop brought James his suitcase. James nodded, thanked the bellhop, paid his hotel bill, and ran as fast as he could with his limp to his rental car. He drove it to the car place, turned it in, paid that fee, and called a cab to drive him to the nearest airport in town. He was soon sitting on an airplane flying home to London.