Hey, guys. Uh, I just realised that I haven't put any disclaimers on my stories so here's one. Unfortunately the brilliance that is James Bond doesn't belong to me no matter how hard I wish. These damned beans aren't working!
007 hesitated before knocking on the cream coloured door of Q's flat. M had sent him to the Quartermaster's home to deliver a USB with some vital information that he only trusted Q to decrypt and didn't want to falling into the wrong hands. Bond wasn't sure exactly why the young genius was on leave but he supposed it might have something to do with the flu virus that was spreading across London. He also suspected that he was the one delivering the USB because M wanted Bond out of MI6 so he would stop terrorizing the other agents.
He shook off his moment's hesitation and knocked sharply on the door. The sound of a puppy yipping tiredly surprised him. Who would have thought that Q of all people would have a dog? The young man in question opened the door and his eyes widened as he saw the suit-clad agent outside his flat.
"007? What the hell are you doing here?" He asked, surprised, his legs blocking the small fluffy black and white puppy from leaving the apartment.
Bond looked the man up and down. Q was wearing a pair of old-looking jeans and a too-large sweater. His unruly curls were in even more disarray than usual and he even had a splodge of paint in them. "M wanted me to deliver this." He replied, holding out the USB. "He said it was urgent."
Q sighed and took the small device from Bond's hand. "Fine. Do you want a cup of tea?"
Bond blinked but nodded. "Thank you, Q."
Q smiled slightly as he lifted the puppy, holding it firmly in his arms and stood back to let James pass. Q closed the door behind them and dropped the puppy which promptly scampered off into one of the rooms. Bond looked around curiously and to his surprise he didn't see too many technical gadgets and he froze in the doorway to the living room. The TV was on, the noise low, showing a children's science channel and a young boy, no more than four was curled up beneath a blanket on the sofa with a box of tissues beside him. The boy looked up at him, dark curls sticking to his flushed face and nose red and runny, the puppy seated on the floor at his feet amidst several discarded tissues, chewing on a colourful toy. "Who're you?" the child asked, voice thick with illness.
"This is James." Q said as he entered the room, two cups of tea in hand and gave one to James, gesturing to the agent to sit. He himself sat on the sofa beside the boy after James sat and took the tea Q offered. Q placed his own carefully down on the coffee table as the boy clambered into his lap, pulling the blanket tighter around himself. "He came to give me something from work."
The boy hummed softly and blew his nose noisily on a tissue. Q smiled fondly as he ran nimble fingers through the dark curls. "007." James looked up. "This is my son, Ben."
James looked at the pair closely and nodded. There was an uncanny resemblance between the two. Ben had Q's dark curls, sharp features, although softer with infancy and the kind of obvious intelligence that simply oozed. The biggest difference however was the eyes. Q's were a warm brown while Ben's were a soft sky blue. Looking around the room, James saw a photo of Q and a red-haired woman holding a baby between them. She has the same blue eyes and maybe the same smile.
"That's Zoe." Q said, interrupting his thoughts. "My wife. She died in a plane accident when Ben was one. "
Suddenly Bond remembered Eve's words, 'Q's afraid of flying.'
"You were there." he realised.
Q nodded solemnly, pressing a kiss to his son's hair. "Yeah. I was in a coma for three weeks and when I woke up, I was told that she had passed. But at least I still had Ben. He was with his grandparents."
Bond didn't say 'I'm sorry.' he knew how hollow the words sounded even if they were said with good intentions. "He's lucky to have you." he said instead.
Q smiled and hugged the boy tighter. "I'd be lost without him."
"Daddy." Ben moaned, sniffling and coughing several times. "I don't like being sick."
Q laughed gently. "I don't think anyone likes being sick, Baby."
"Some people might." Ben said stubbornly, a pout on his lips and he wrapped his arms firmly around his father, nuzzling into his chest.
"Hmm." Q hummed rubbing the toddlers back with a gentle smile. "I s'pose." nothing was said for a few moments as Q comforted his sick child and James watched the father and his son, feeling the loss of his own parents for the first time in years. "Would you like some soup, Squirt?"
Ben nodded lazily. "y's please Daddy." Q looked quickly over at Bond who was holding his tea in one hand and looking around at the photos on the walls while his other hand lay on the arm of the chair, tapping out an elusive pattern. The younger man stood, holding his son in his arms and deposited the boy in 007's lap, then turning and stalking into the kitchen to make soup.
James stared down at the child in his lap in shock. The child looked back, eyes wide and blue but slightly glazed with fever. Ben eyed him for a few seconds then buried his face in the agent's front, curling as close as possible to the source of heat as he could, the blanket still tight around his small frame. James got over his shock somewhat and pulled his free arm off the arm rest and held it over the boy's back, hesitating before copying what he had seen Q doing earlier and rubbing comforting circles on the small back. He had never had to deal with children before and having one so small and fragile in his lap was…frighting. James Bond hadn't felt fear in a long time.
"Daddy talks about you s'mtimes." Ben muttered into his shirt front.
"Does he?" James said just as softly, looking down at the messy mop of curls and feeling faintly curious as to what Q might tell his son about Agent 007.
"Mmm. You're the one who doesn't bring the stuff back. Daddy calls you an annoying pillock but I'm not supposed to say bad things. But I'm not really saying s'mthing bad if it's just telling the story again." James smirked at the child who would probably be just as cunning as his father one day. "Don't tell Daddy." he added in a whisper.
"Don't worry, Ben. I won't tell Daddy."
"Thanks." they fell silent, James beginning to relax for the first time in a long time with the weight and warmth of the boy in his lap. "What's a pillock?"
James huffed a laugh. "I'm sure Daddy will tell you when you're older."
"What will Daddy tell you when you're older?" Q asked as he re-entered the room sounding curious, amused and worried.
James and Ben exchanged a look before James said, "Where babies come from." With a perfectly straight face.
Q cringed as he placed a plastic bowl full of warm soup on the small table and took Ben from Bond's arms kissing the toddler's cheek and wrapping him firmly in his blanket. Q sat down with Ben in his lap and held the bowl of soup where Ben could reach and handed the boy a spoon. Ben plunked the spoon into the soup with a splash and Q sighed as he observed his son demolishing his food while barely eating any of it. James smirked and chuckled as he watched. "I see he is as enthusiastic as you at tearing things apart."
Q scowled at him. "I make things, 007. it's you who tears them apart. But yes. Ben usually has more interest in playing with his food as opposed to eating it but," Q continued in a dangerous voice, "He knows he'll only get dessert if he finishes it. Right Ben?"
Ben stopped what he was doing and looked up to his father with a guilty expression that had Q and James biting back smiles. "Yes Daddy." Ben said softly, dipping his spoon into the soup and beginning to eat slowly.
Q kissed Ben's curls and squeezed him gently around the middle in a soft hug. "Good boy."
James found himself spending the rest of the afternoon with Q and his family. At one point the puppy-whose name he had found out was Sherlock after Ben's favourite book character-had jumped into his lap and fallen asleep. Q had looked amused but hadn't said anything as the formidable agent sunk into the armchair, idly patting the puppy as he spoke with Q and Ben. When the agent did finally get out of his chair, laying the puppy gently on the cushion he had just vacated he had a vague sense of loss as he shook hands with his Quartermaster who was balancing his sleeping son in his other hand.
Q said he was welcome back anytime and as Agent James Bond-007, one of the most dangerous men in the world walked down the stairs of the apartment block, he thought that perhaps he might take the younger man up on that offer. Q's little apartment with his strange puppy and adorable yet still odd son had felt the closest to home that he could remember since the deaths of his parents.