As the weeks past Margot saw many similar encounters between the Quartermaster and the handsome Agent. It was like watching a romance novel play out right in front of her. Surprisingly no one else seemed to notice anything, or perhaps they were just better at hiding their observations than she was. She couldn't help smiling every time she witnessed 007's not so subtle flirtations. It made the rest of her day's stress lighten considerably.
Her job was stressful, being the newest recruit she had a long way to go to prove her worth. She ended up staying later than the others, delving so far into coding that she could still see it dancing in front of her eyes when she looked away from her monitor. It was like seeing the Matrix, and she had to blink it away before she tripped over something on her way to the coffee maker. And when she wasn't coding, she was tinkering with some bit of tech. She had to cut her hair shorter after too many mishaps with the soldering tools.
The only other person who stayed there later than her was Q himself. She would see him in his office, staring at his monitor with single-minded purpose. He'd be talking an agent through some late night task till the mission was complete, and then he would collapse back into his chair with a huff of relief.
It was on one such evening that things in Margot's work life took an interesting turn. She was working on a new prototype trying to get it to accept the programming. For some reason the tech's installed hardware kept rejecting the coding. She was too busy cursing at her screen to notice someone walk up behind her. "Such language for a lady, what has you in such a mood Phillips?"
Margot nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of her boss right behind her. She turned to look sheepishly at Q, "Sorry sir, I'm just trying to get this prototype ready for your presentation tomorrow, but I'm having a bit of trouble installing Marcus' programming."
"Perhaps I should take a look, do you mind?" Q waved a hand towards her workstation.
"No, go right ahead, maybe you can find what I'm missing?" Margot step aside and let Q take her spot at the keyboard. She watched as he skimmed through the code faster than she could follow, stopped, deleted a couple of lines and typed in some new lines in their place and hit enter. The whole system flew into action and the install went without another hiccup.
"Seems Marcus got a couple of sub-routines wrong is all." Q turned to her with a grin.
"I can't believe I missed that, I feel like such a noob!" Margot groaned. She finally got some attention from the department head, and all it did was show how inept she was.
Q gave her a quick pat on the back. "The fault was not yours, it was Marcus'. It happens to the best of us. Besides you've been here for over fourteen hours, you need some rest. Don't you have a bed you should be in?"
"Of course," Margot smiled, "and you have a handsome agent waiting for you, I'd imagine."
Q stiffened beside her as she realized what she had just said. Damn her sleepy brain getting her in trouble. "Handsome agent?" Q slowly turns towards her with a look of confusion mixed with embarrassment, his cheeks showing a hint of pink.
Margot's own face was five shade a deeper red as she looked back at Q, sputtering out an apology, "Oh God, I shouldn't have, it's just he's home right now and I figured… I mean I see how you are together, I just assumed…Which you shouldn't do, assume that is, ever. I should really shut up now, shouldn't I?" Well it was meant to be an apology, what came out was something else entirely.
"How we are together?" Q's face was a bit redder, but his voice no less confused, I don't know what you mean. It was then that Margot realized that Q and 007 were not in fact dating as she thought, and Q didn't seem to realize that they should be.
"Well yeah," Margot tried to talk calmly, so as not to spook the Quartermaster, "The way 007 flirts with you, and how you blush at every touch. You are always a bit happier after he's stopped by, and he always leaves here like he's floating a couple of inches off the ground."
"He flirts with everyone, it doesn't mean anything." Q sighed, trying to convince himself that she was wrong.
"He certainly knows how to lay on the charm, sure," Margot placed a hand on Q's arm drawing his attention to her, "but his smile is always a bit wider and more genuine after he leaves your office. And I've seen the way he stares at you when he's with other techs, with you it is different."
Q was suddenly a bit flustered, which made him seem even younger than he already did, "What should I do?"
"Well you could try asking him to dinner?" Margot suggested, but the withering look she received back was understandable, how could anyone be expected to ask out a god-like being such as 007. It was ridiculous to Margot, and she wasn't even the one who'd be doing it. "I suppose you just go on like always and wait for him to make the first move. That's what I'd do anyway."
After that Q took a special interest in Margot's work, giving her more responsibilities and she lived up to all of it. The other techs took notice of her new 'Teacher's Pet' position, and she had even less invitations to go out with them for drinks than before. Of course she didn't really mind, she loved her work, and the time she got to spend working with Q was actually pretty fun.
But then something happened that changed things again. 007 was in the field and Q was in his ear while his top-tier techs (T3 as they were known among the rest of the department) were running maps and satellite feeds.
It was a particularly rough mission along the borders of North Korea. It had also gone quite pear-shaped in the last five minutes. "God damn it 007, how is it every time you're in the field there are significantly more explosions than necessary? " Q screamed into his comms.
"Just tell me how to get the hell out of here Q and I'll let you spank me when I get back." You could hear the grin on 007 lips as he spoke.
Luckily for Q, Margot was the only one paying attention to him as a blush crept up his face, "Turn down the alley on your left, go five meters and you should find an entrance to a residential housing unit with a helipad on the roof. Retrieval will be there in five."
"Roger that." The whole room heard Bonds steps as he ran around the corner, and then the shouts in Korean, right before the barrage of gunfire rang out of the speakers. There was a grunt, and a spike in the heart monitor connected to 007, "Shit, I'm hit," there was a sound of bond slamming through the door to the stairwell that would lead him to the roof, but instead of the echo of footsteps running up concrete stairs all that was heard was the sound of a body falling to the ground, "Sorry Q, I'm not sure I'll be making it back for that spanking."
"007 get up to the roof." Q was starting to get frantic, his voice cracking, "007 that is an order, get up those stairs…007…Bond answer me…Bond…James!"
Tanner was already on the phone giving retrieval direction to carry the agent up from the ground floor. Meanwhile Margot took the moment to get Q a refill on his cup of Earl Grey, he had already stopped screaming into the comms as the team confirmed Bond was on the helicopter on his way to the closest medical station. His heart beat was faint on the monitor, but it was still going. Margot handed Q the mug and slowly lead him back to his office, closing the door behind them so he could break down in private. She didn't leave his side.
The next morning Q announced her promotion to the position of his personal assistant, but she knew it was really to the position of good friend.