Title: When I'm Yours: One Shots
Author: athar riordan (formally Dagana/Xaphania06)
Fandom: James Bond (daniel craig)
Series: When I'm Yours
Time Frame: Post 'Casino Royale'

Summary: His job takes him to dark places, places no man should ever go. He keeps this part of his life hidden from her to keep her safe. Now it's her turn to save him but will her love be enough for his salvation? Daniel Craig's Bond. Series of One-Shots set around original unfinished story.

Author's Note:

The original story these one-shots are based around, "When I'm Yours", was originally posted in 2006 in under the penname 'Xaphania06' (which was later changed to 'Dagana'). However, due to events over the course of the following years, the account details for the original story were lost – and so I began re-write of the original story; with some changes (as you can see from the re-written first chapter-turned-one shot below).

However, sadly my muse moved on and I was then unable to complete the re-write and so I'm coming out with this. When I'm Yours: One-Shots. These pieces may or may not include aspects of my original story's plot and may end up including links with Quantum of Solace , Skyfall and possibly Spectre.

If you have any request's for particular one shots, let me know. There were some pieces of the original story I may post that i've had written down forever that could easily serve as little vignette's in their own right, so they may pop up and i'll let you know if they're new or refurbished pieces in the Author's Note.

Okay, so that's the incredibly long Author's Note. Now on with the story - well, one-shots...

The Dreams We Wish To Forget

His breathing was shallow, and his chest seemed to heave, almost as if a great weight was pressing down; suffocating him. Lying amidst crumpled sheets in his double bed at his flat in Chelsea, Double '0' agent James Bond tossed and turned while trying to escape an unseen foe that plagued his dreams. In the midst of his dreaming, the MI6 agent could be heard murmuring the same name over and over again – almost desperately.

"Vesper..."

*Dream*

They lay on the sand, allowing the sun to dry them after an afternoon of swimming and general relaxation at the sandy Bahamas hideaway. Vesper Lynd had brought her MI6 companion here to recuperate following his extended stay in a Montenegro hospital, following his car crash and subsequent 'interrogation' by the banker – and criminal – Le Chiffre almost a month before. At one point, it had been touch and go for the injured man due to the severity of injuries sustained during the ordeal – but Bond had been strong, and the doctors had been amazed at how fast he had seemed to overcome the trauma.

Vesper ran her hand through Bond's drying blonde hair, as he rolled on top of her and planted a gentle kiss on her lips- their tongues met passionately as Vesper responded almost desperately to her lovers aching passion. The spy was careful with the treasury agent, using his own arm to take most of his weight while his other tanned arm brushed delicate curls from Vesper's slightly flushed cheeks. It had been little over a week since the pair had made love on that rainy afternoon in Montenegro, and since then, Vesper had begun to feel a change about her – and Bond seemed to have noticed it as well.

"Are you alright?" Bond murmured in a slightly husky voice, a few moments later, as he moved to lay his head beside hers while they lay on top of two large beach towels. Vesper looked at him with warm green coloured eyes, before planting a kiss in his hair teasingly.

"Why do you ask?" she said as one hand rested on her lover's bare chest lightly.

Bond looked down to where Vesper's hand lay, before bringing his own hand up to intertwine their fingers, and looked back up. "You seem different. Are you alright? You've been off your food, and quieter..."

"Well, maybe I'm happy," Vesper responded softly as she planted a feverant kiss on his lips while James lay back with one leg bent and the other laying straight, as he watched her with piercing blue eyes that – vesper noted- now held a hint of caution within their deep blue gaze.

"No, it's not that. There's something wrong," James murmured as he studied her. "What did the doctor say when you went to see him?"

Vesper took in a deep breath and allowed a pause to ensue. She had only found out a few days ago, and the news had yet to properly sink in, for Vesper – she hadn't had the time to think about what his own reaction would be to what she had been told.

"I'm... James, the doctor... thinks I'm pregnant." She whispered, almost fearfully.

Bond sat up right and turned slightly on his side so he could look into Vesper's worry filled eyes. A worry the MI6 agent himself could understand.

*End Dream*

From the room next to Bonds, Aidan Combs could only listen to James' desperate pleas, as he continued to toss and turn while traversing his nightmarish path. It was something the younger woman had become accustomed to since her reassignment, shortly after joining the agency three years ago; but that didn't mean that her heart didn't go out to the older man. She just wished he would allow people to show him that he wasn't alone – that he was more lucky than most.

Shifting her head on the pillow, Aidan sighed before she closed her eyes and breathed deeply, while she drifted back into her own slumber. She would soon be up and facing challenges of a rather different nature once the sun rose, and would need all the sleep she could get.

"Vesper..."
"Sometimes, I think it was selfish of us, to have a child..."

James Bond sat bolt upright in his bed; his sheets about his waist while his bare chest- now sheening with a small layer of sweat- caught the light that was coming through his apartment window from the passing traffic. Vesper's words continued to plague the agent's dreams, as he tried to catch the first proper sleep in almost a week, after tracking down a suspect that needed to be brought in for interrogation. Pushing a hand through his now damp, dark blonde hair, James tried to banish the remnants of the dream from the forefront of his mind. He had been trying for the past several years to forget the woman entirely; but dreams and circumstances would not allow him to do so.

Vesper Lynd had been James Bond's first, and possibly, greatest love. A short while after their apparent whirlwind romance, Vesper had discovered she was pregnant with the couple's child – a little girl- a short time later. It was a surprise to them both – especially Bond- but they realised that they would have to change both of their priorities if they were going to allow themselves a chance to experience this new part of their lives. Bond had tendered his resignation to M, in order to remain with Vesper in the hopes of creating a stable family – something he hadn't had since the death of his parents in childhood.

However, the couple had not been able to escape danger just yet - Someone Vesper had been trying to get away from had tracked the couple down and was waiting for most opportune moment to strike. The moment would arrive in Venice.

In early June, Vesper and James' daughter Kaley was born prematurely, but in good health. Despite having time to get used to the idea of parenthood, the couple were still surprised by the new and overwhelming emotions experienced on the day their daughter had been born; both from the labour and seeing the little girl for the first time. Kaley had been wrapped up in a light blanket like a small package, Vesper had noted with amusement as she had passed the little girl to her father for the first time, while she watched James marvel at his daughter's delicate features- especially the way the little girl's nose would wrinkle when she yawned.

Vesper had fallen asleep watching the exchange between father and daughter, who had latched onto James' little finger, with a smile on her face.

*Flashback*

A few days after their daughter's birth, Vesper lay with her head resting lightly on James' shoulder while the blonde haired man held their daughter in his arms. Following the mother and daughter's discharge from the hospital earlier in the day, James had booked the new family into one of the city's favoured hotels. Lying in her father's arms, Kaley's blue eyes watched and scrutinised her father before looking off in different directions as she took in her strange, new environment. It was something, Bond mused, that would take some getting used to. The agent had informed M of the couple's new arrival the day before, and while she had been surprised- the MI6 chief of the special investigative Division had offered her congratulations to the new family.

As Kaley fell asleep following the excitement of her day, Vesper couldn't help the sombre mood that had overcome her while she felt James plant a delicate kiss in her dark, curled hair. Mumbling quietly, so as not to disturb the little girl in her lovers arms, Vesper's eyes glazed over slightly in memory as she spoke.

"Sometimes, when I watch her- and remember everything that's happened since we first met... I think it was selfish of us to be able to have a child. It wasn't a part of the mission any of us had signed up for..."

Bond had stilled upon hearing Vesper's tired voice. Moving his lips from her hair as Vesper's voice trailed off upon the woman drifting off to sleep, James rested his head against hers. Knowing, that in some ways – what she had said was, sadly, true.

*End Flashback*

But then, Vesper had betrayed him. She had been working – from the start of the mission- for the people behind Le Chiffre as a double agent. Following her death in a building collapse only a short time after their daughter's birth, Bond would discover that Vesper had made a deal to save him- the prize money from the Royale poker game in exchange for both their lives. M supposed that Vesper had believed that she would be allowed to live after handing the money over; But sadly that had not been the case, and Bond had been left as a single parent to a baby who was no more than a month old.

The new father had returned to London with the baby a short time later- before going off alone on a series of back-to-back missions, leaving Kaley in the care of a young agent M had assigned to both look after and protect her. Aidan Combs. The young woman had become a permanent member of Bond's household since then; taking care of Kaley while Bond continued his ongoing search for revenge, while she also continued her own training with MI6 on home soil. However, nearly three years later, it seemed to the young agent that Bond was more interesting in targeting the people linked with the man behind his dead lover and Le Chiffre, rather than being a father to his child; the Double '0' had become known for normally leaving a trail of bodies in his wake after receiving little or no answers from the people he had tracked down.

At the thoughts of revenge, Bond pulled the cover from his toned form before swinging his legs over the edge of the bed and getting up to enter his ensuite bathroom. Switching on the overhead light, Bond blinked a few times at the level of brightness, as he moved to the sink where he turned on the faucet in order to splash ice cold water on his face with cupped hands in order to clear his slightly foggy mind. It had been nearly three years, and still, the dreams returned to Vesper and the days leading to her death; three years he wished he could forget the dreams, but there was always a small voice at the back of his mind, telling him that this was unlikely to happen.

"Daddy?"

At the sound of the young voice behind him, Bond looked up from the still running water in the sink to the mirror he stood in front of- his hands gripping the edges of the porcelain bowl as he turned his haunted blue eyes to the reflection of the doorway where a little girl of no more than four years old stood rubbing sleep from her tired and glazed blue-green eyes. The child's head was tilted to the side as she watched her father with an innocent quizzical expression on her features – her shoulder length brown hair brushing the collar of her baby blue coloured pyjamas.

Bond gave a small sigh upon seeing the girl, before moving to switch off the tap. Kaley watched her father as he averted his gaze while turning off the faucet before he began to move toward her – reaching to the rail near to where she stood to retrieve a towel to wipe his face with. The spy towered over the little girl, who came to just above his knee, and who was now looking down with an uncertain look on her face. She had been woken by her father's murmurings, following her own bad dream – but now she was feeling nervous after seeking him out.

"Is everything alright?" Bond asked in a slightly husky voice from sleep while continuing to watch the young girl while drying his face, ignoring the slight chill he felt from the perspirations of his sleep. The agent's body language suggested he was tense, but he brushed away these feelings as he watched the young girl before him – waiting for her to answer. Kaley rarely ventured into his room- choosing instead to go to Aidan- and so the Double '0' agent couldn't help but wonder as to why the little girl was here now.

"Had a bad dream," came the mumbled reply, as Kaley kept her eyes down.

Bond raised an eyebrow at the admission, but remained silent, while he finished towelling his face and neck to remove any remaining water. Putting the towel onto the side, Bond watched the silent girl for a moment longer before slowly easing himself down on one knee so as to meet Kaley's eye level. His motions were awkward, and his face remained – for the most part- impassive as he asked.

"Would you like to talk about it?"

The almost four year old gave a half hearted shrug as she glanced at Bond before returning her gaze to the floor. Bond frowned, as his piercing blue eyes took in his daughter's slightly withdrawn disposition. Her body language allowed Bond to read the girl like an open book- Unlike Vesper, a small voice in his mind whispered, as the spy took in her nervousness and aversion of gaze. Yes, Kaley was easy to read; and Bond knew the insecurities the girl had toward him where of his own doing as he remained a detached parent toward her.

While a surge of guilt went through the spy, Bond knew he couldn't afford to have regrets over the decision to distance himself from the girl who shared her mother's dark hair and rosy cheeks while inheriting her father's blue eyes. This was despite the small part of him that screamed for abandoning the child when he had wanted nothing more than to become a father, when he had first found out that Vesper was pregnant on the sunny beach almost five years before. Regrets led to weakness, and weakness was no longer an attribute the man could afford, especially in his line of work. Especially after what had happened in Venice... with Vesper...

Softly sighing, Bond purposefully softened his gaze as the frown disappeared from his tired features. Reaching up after a moment, Bond raised his hand to gently brush a vagrant strand of brown hair from the young girl's face – tucking it behind Kaley's ear so that could finally take in her slightly pale features. Moving his finger down Kaley's face, he then hooked it beneath her chin so as to gently turn her face up and toward him in order for them to make eye contact. As two pairs of similar eyes met and the little girl's face came into view, an image of her mother flashed in Bond's mind- causing the man to close his eyes for a moment, before brushing it aside to speak with unnatural softness.

"Come on," he murmured, as he dropped his hand from beneath Kaley's chin when he was sure she would not look away. "You should get back to bed."

Kaley swallowed at her father's gentle tone, while he began to stand. The three year old didn't want to go back to her room, following a realistic dream of her father getting seriously hurt and being unable to return home played on her overactive mind. It was apart of the reason she had come to find him, to make sure that he was okay, and unhurt.

Knowing that her father was watching her, Kaley ignored the hand Bond had offered to instead raise her own hands up – parodying to be carried; her eyes remaining on her father's knee all the while. Bond's eyebrows rose in surprise at the unexpected motion, but he hid it quickly as he bent down in order for Kaley to wrap her small arms around his toned shoulders while he lifted her up and sat her in the crook of his bare arm; Kaley's legs wrapped around his waist while Bond rested a hand in the small of her back to support her. After her father had picked her up, Kaley buried her head instinctively beneath his slightly stubble chin so that she could hear the steady beat of his heart in order to reassure herself – something that did not go unnoticed by her father, as Bond suspected this visit could have had something to do with the little girl's dreaming.

Switching off the bathroom light, Bond allowed his eyes to readjust to the darkness before moving back into his room. Thinking for a moment, the spy decided against bringing Kaley back to her own room and so instead, carried the young girl through his darkened room and back over to the unmade bed.

With the hand that had been resting on Kaley's back, Bond bent down slightly to pull back the cover from the untouched side of the large bed before moving to place Kaley down. At the feeling of her father setting her down, Kaley whimpered slightly and tightened her grip on his shoulders for fear of being separated. Bond's eyes lowered at the tightening of his daughter's hold, but continued to lower her down until his knees touched the bed frame and Kaley's back touched the mattress.

"It's alright, you can let go," James murmured into Kaley's hair, as the little girl's grip on both his waist and shoulders eased slightly. Settling the little girl into the bed, the spy moved his hand to pull the sheets over Kaley, who reluctantly released her grip, and tucked them around her. Turning his eyes to Kaley, Bond ran his hand through her hair before placing a kiss on her forehead instinctively – much to his own surprise. "Go to sleep,"

Despite the pull of sleep, Kaley shifted her head on the large pillow almost nervously to watch her father move back around to his own side of the bed and climb in. Lying back down, Bond pulled the crumpled sheet back up to his waist, while one beneath his head and the other resting lightly across his chest. Turning his head slightly, Bond watched Kaley who lay a few inches away blinking heavily as he settled himself back down.

"Go back to sleep," he repeated quietly; his tone became slightly firmer at the little girl's losing battle against sleep, as he ignored how uncomfortable he felt with another person sharing his bed again after so long. Kaley shifted slightly in response when she was sure her father wasn't going anywhere – moving to lay on her side- as her body finally succumbed to the wave of tiredness Bond had seen wash over her as soon as he put her down.

Turning back so that he could look at the ceiling, Bond listened to the little girls breathing as it began to even out. If only the other dreams could be eased by a few gentle words of reassurance, Bond thought with an undercurrent of bitterness, as he closed his eyes to try and get a few more hours sleep before work took over again.

Author's Note:

Okay, so the first "one-shot" is the re-write of the first chapter of When I'm Yours.

I figured, it would be a good start as it's been sitting on my hard drive for nearly three years now - and it's also a good introduction and background before we hit the one shots that will be added later. Please, let me know what you think of the re-write of the first chapter and I hopefully look forward to seeing you for the next one-shot. :)