After having showered and pulled on his clothes (trainers, old jeans and a warm pullover) Q was walking out of the hotel's main entrance with a backpack, headed to the nearby forest to begin his day. That was when he spotted a tall, lean figure some 500 feet away, standing unnaturally still and observing him attentively. Q had the urge to turn around and run as quickly as he could but he knew he didn't stand a chance against the other. So he gave a resigned sigh and made a beeline to the direction of the waiting man, hoping to every God that ever existed to get rid of him as soon as possible and go on with his plans as if this (hopefully brief) encounter had never happened.

"What do you want?" – asked Q forgoing the pleasantries.

"Is that the way to greet your long-time-no-seen big brother?" – asked the mysterious stranger, raising an eyebrow amused.

"Yes, it is, if I didn't miss seeing said brother at all. How did you find me, anyway?" – huffed Q.

"Surely, Benedict, you didn't think I couldn't find you?" – The other looked like he found this idea absolutely hilarious.

"Don't call me that, are you crazy!? You know very well my name is classified! Only the current and the old Ms know it, nobody else!"

"Oh, yes, of course… You go by some ridiculous one-letter-name now, as it is customary with your people… Z, Y or D? Something like that…"

"It's Q!"

"Sorry, must have deleted it. Can't have unnecessary information crowding in my head, it would interfere with my work."

"Nobody else would call it work! And if I remember correctly, I was able to successfully avoid you for over two years."

"Yes, and I still haven't forgiven you for making us believe you were dead! How could you do this to us Ben- Q? Mycroft had all the Government looking for you, all over the world, before finally accepting you must really be dead for all his efforts to be fruitless." – For the first time, the stranger looked honestly sad and disappointed.

"Maybe I didn't want you to find me? Maybe I just wanted to have a normal life, without my meddling big brothers deciding everything for me and wanting to dictate my every move!?"

"So, you had to fake your death – in a horrible way at that – and flee to MI6?"

"It was the only place where I knew none of you could find me. Well, it worked for two years. Of course, Mycroft just had to decide to pay a visit to MI6 and especially Q-Branch to thank us for our services to Queen and Country. Of course, M just had to forget to warn me about it first… And of course I just had to happen to be-"

"All right, I think I get it!" – His brother cut him off because he knew Q could go on with his ranting for longer than anyone he knew, including himself. – "I remember that incident quite vividly. You must know we just wanted to raise you and be there for you after losing our parents when you were just a baby. Now I see we didn't do a very good job but you could forgive us: we aren't very socialized people ourselves."

"No kidding… I have never seen two more socially inept people in my life! Pff… But I thought you would deduce that I'm alive… well, anyway: Why are you here, Sherlock?"

"I need your help. I-"

"No."

"Excuse me?"

"I said: no!"

"You don't even know what I want to ask of you."

"It doesn't matter. Whatever it is, the answer is still a clear NO. I'm on vacation and I want to enjoy it, not get pulled into any of your shady business."

"Hey, that's not nice, I would just like to spend some time with you, like I'm told brothers usually do…"

"I don't remember you wanting to spend much time with me when I was a child."

"I already said a lot of times I was sorry for shutting you into that garden shed when you were 2 years old and wanted to come with me to a crime scene! I don't know what's so big of a deal about it anyway; Mycroft found you in just half an hour and got you out! And now I would like you to accompany me-"

"Well, but now it's me who doesn't want to spend time with you! Funny how people change…"

"I could make you."

"Just try it. I'd make sure all your current and future computers and laptops would get viruses, your phones would play embarrassing tunes every time you get a call or an SMS and the internet would be full with photoshoped compromising pictures of you in just a few hours!"

"It wouldn't matter for you because the damage would already be done, little brother. I'd just have to call Mycroft to have a word with your M about how you are his brother and how he is worried about you. He could have you pulled from your position in the blink of an eye, and nothing you do or say could change anything!"

"You wouldn't!"

"Of course I would. I'm Sherlock Holmes, I don't do pity and I don't have feelings. I am a high-functioning sociopath."

"More like a psychopath. This is blackmail!"

"Exactly."

"Just tell me then what the hell you want, and let us get it over with!"

"I would like you to come with me and help me hack the system of a laboratory doing forbidden experiments with medicine and testing them on unsuspecting patients with cooperating doctors."

"So I just hack them, get the data and then I'm free to go?"

"Yes. It shouldn't take more than a few hours."

"All right. You get two hours. Then I'm away to the forest and I don't want to see you again for a while – a very long while if it's doable.

"Agreed. I have a room in a different hotel nearby, and I have my laptop at ready there."

Q sighed resigned to his fate. "Show the way."