She closed her eyes, sighing deeply as she focused on the sounds around her.
Heels clicking against the concrete. Voices loud and chattering about some football match. The familiar sound of cars rushing past on the road behind her.
Opening her eyes she took a deep breath.
"C'mon Piper," she muttered quietly to herself, "You can do this."
She pushed her shoulders back, hoping it would make her appear confident, (a tip she'd read in one of Amy's many Cosmopolitans that littered their flat).
More than anything she was beginning to doubt her choice in her heels and pencil skirt. But Amy had tutted at her last night when she saw the original outfit choice.
"Pipe, no," the blonde said, sitting on her flatmate's bed.
"What? I'm not allowed to wear trousers to work? It's 2014, Amy. I can wear what I'd like," the redhead retorted, putting her hand on her hip.
"All I'm saying is you wanna make a good impression, yeah?" Amy said, continuing as Piper nodded back at her, "So go in there preparing to wow them. Besides, you're dressing for yourself, don't you want to look nice on your first day?"
"I'd prefer not to look like a street walker Amy," Piper said seriously, turning her nose up at the tight skirt and heels her friend had chosen.
Amy rolled her eyes.
"Just do it and I'll bugger off," she said.
Piper sighed, as Amy grinned and handed her the clothes.
Smoothing an invisible wrinkle from her skirt, Piper made her way into the building. A brief security check and then she was escorted to an elevator.
After what seemed like ages, the doors opened and Piper stepped out. She saw a women, in a similar skirt to hers (not that she would dare give Amy the satisfaction of knowing she was right), smiling brightly at her.
"Piper Anderson?" she asked. Piper nodded, smiling back at the women in front of her. "My name is Eve Moneypenny, I'm here to take you to see M. Welcome to MI6."
Steel and white, Piper was beginning to notice that Mi6's taste in décor was lacking. She supposed that they had more important matters to deal with than what colour to paint the walls, but the walls felt sterile.
"M will see you now," Eve said, shaking Piper from her own thoughts.
She nodded, opening the door. She saw a man, likely in his late 40s to early 50s, smiling at her as she walked in.
"Good morning, Miss Anderson," he said, motioning for her to sit down.
"Piper is fine with me, sir," she said as she sank into the chair. She placed her hands in her lap, hoping that M wouldn't see her fidgeting. Her nerves were starting to get the better of her.
"Very well, Piper," M replied, looking down at a dossier on his desk. Piper assumed it was about her.
"You certainly have incredible credentials Piper, and for someone so young. You're the youngest person we've ever hired," M said.
Piper nodded, "I promise my work will be at par with my older colleagues."
M laughed.
"I have no doubt it will, Piper. Besides you are the first person we've found with your extensive knowledge of language," he said kindly.
"M," a deeper voice interrupted.
Piper turned and was met with a tall handsome blonde. He looked at her, nodding slightly, before ignoring her to focus solely on M.
"007…" M began warningly, "I'm in the middle of a meeting, as you can see." He motioned to Piper, who lifted her hand to wave at the intruder.
"Oh," he began, looking over the woman sitting in the chair. He walked over to her and shook her hand.
"I'm Bond, James Bond," he said with a husky tone.
Piper nodded, "Piper Anderson, foreign languages specialist."
Bond laughed softly at the redhead, "I'm sorry to be rude but aren't you a little young?"
Piper's smile turned to a frown as she opened her mouth, ready to berate this man. Luckily, M interrupted her.
"Piper is 23, but what she lacks in age, she makes up for in incredible talent. She's fluent in over ten different languages," M said.
"I stand corrected then," Bond said, "Apologies, Piper."
She smiled as M turned back to her, "I apologize for cutting our meeting short but would it be alright if I had Miss Moneypenny show you where you will be working?"
Piper began to get up. "That's perfectly alright, M. Thank you again," she said, shaking the man's hand.
She smiled at Bond.
"It was a pleasure to meet you Bond, I'll let you two get to it then."
"And this is where you can eat, if you want to. Most people here tend to eat at their desks," Eve explained, pointing to a small cafeteria.
"A lot of workaholics here, I take it?" Piper said with a grin.
Eve nodded, "You wouldn't believe how late some of them stay here, especially Q."
"Q?" Piper asked, puzzled.
"Our Quartermaster, every Quartermaster uses the code name Q," Eve explained as she continued to walk down the hallway.
"Actually, why don't we go there next? Q Branch is often in need of translations."
The two women entered the room and all Piper could hear was the frantic typing of keyboards. She'd never seen so many computers in one place.
"Moneypenny!" an older man called, raising his hand to her.
"I'll be right back," Eve said to Piper before walking away.
Piper stood nervously, unsure what to do with herself. She looked back at Eve who was deep in conversation. After much internal debate, she decided to look around the Q Branch. She wandered aimlessly, observing the various agents working away. She was in awe at their immense knowledge of technology. She spent so much time with old books that she occasionally forgot about how advanced the world really was.
She eyed one computer at the front of the room, facing the others. She assumed that this was the head of the branch's computer. Running her hand along the smooth white surface of the desk, she couldn't help but smile. She was really here, at MI6. Mum would've been so proud.
She picked up a mug from the desk. She noticed a Scrabble tile on the side. She smirked when she saw it was a Q. "This guy must really like his code name," she thought to herself.
"Piper!" she heard Eve call her name. She turned quickly, placing the mug back down on the desk.
Eve walked towards her, and Piper noticed she wasn't alone.
Beside her was a tall man, with dark brown hair and rimmed glasses. She noticed his attire, a cardigan and some brown slacks. "An old grump then," she thought. But as he came closer, Piper realized that he couldn't be much older than herself.
"Piper Anderson," Eve said, motioning to the man beside her, "Meet Q."
The man extended his hand out to her.
"Nice to meet you," Piper said, shaking the man's hand.
"Pleasure," he replied. He sounded distracted and Piper frowned a bit. Still, she couldn't help but notice that he was attractive.
Piper felt a blush creep onto her cheeks and looked down, hoping that Eve and Q hadn't noticed.
"Well," Eve said, breaking the silence, to which Piper was silently grateful, "I need to get Piper to her office."
Q nodded, "See you around Miss Anderson."
She nodded before exiting with Eve, who was already beginning to tell Piper about her new co-workers.
