Hello there! Thank you so very much to the Guest and TimeLady945 for the reviews. I really enjoyed hearing feedback and it was nice to see that someone is actually reading this. Q is actually in this one and this actually has dialogue now, so yay :)

Anyway, here's the new chapter and I hope you enjoy it as much as the last!

Very few of us are what we seem.

-Agatha Christie

It has always been said to never judge a person by their cover, for it could lead to misconceptions and possibly awkward situations. But as you walk along the streets, you cannot help but wonder:

What secrets lie beneath the surface, waiting to be revealed?

After her escape from Operation Chetiri, Alexa had moved to England under the alias of "Alexandra Abbott". She had pooled together the money she had received from her assassinations (which barely covered her tuition and living expenses) and went to study at King's College for computer science. It was a lovely college, and she was prosperous and content. Her social interaction skills were still subpar and to be frank, she had not made a single friend. After six long (and somewhat lonely) years, she had obtained her master's degree in computer science in 2008. Although Alexa did not graduate at the top of her class, she was fairly close and placed second to a man whose name she could not recall.

After her studies had finally concluded, she used her degree to land a job in network security at Enigma Technologies, a technology company based in London. She worked in the network security branch on developing new ways to improve the company's security software, which protected banks and businesses around the city. Alexa worked as a regular employee for two years before deciding to reach a higher position where she would have better pay and more access to the technology at the office.

Alexa believed that the best way to protect yourself from hackers was to become one, so she used her spare time learning the art of hacking. It had taken two more years before she implemented this newfound knowledge in their security system, which helped her to rise above the ranks to become the head of network security in her department.

It was only fair to say that life for her was quite good, but she could not help but become bored by her job at Enigma Tech. Her co-workers were rather dull, only speaking to her on businesslike terms and to be completely honest, she wanted to do more than protect the businesses and banks of London. She wanted to go further somehow, but she did not where to go from here. Her answer would later come from a rather unexpected place, more specifically, at the Barbican Tube station.

Alexa walked out of the Enigma Technology building at around 8:13 PM on September 10, 2012, wrapping her jacket around her. It was a rather exhausting day and she found herself feeling drained. She had worn a black blazer today, paired with a white sweater that had small, blue stripes. Unlike any businesswoman, she had actually worn flats, like a sensible person and a pair of comfortable black slacks.

She jogged down the steps and scanned her pass before taking a seat at a bench. The platform was not very full at the moment, save for the occasional person coming into the station. She pulled out a book on computer viruses from her purse and began to read until her train arrived.

Alexa had gone about ten pages into the book before she heard soft footsteps from the staircase beside her. She did not look up and flipped to the next page of her book. Moments later, she heard the footsteps coming her way before the person sat down next to her on the bench.

"Computer Viruses: from Theory to Applications by Eric Filiol. Certainly an unusual choice," they said.

Alexa looked up suddenly to meet the eyes of a man who looked to be about her age, with tousled brown hair and green eyes. He wore glasses and she found him rather cute, if not, handsome. She dropped her gaze immediately, almost afraid to look at him for any longer and stared at her book. He seemed familiar somehow and she really couldn't place why this was so. Her brain scrambled to form a complete and appropriate sentence in response and after a moment, she finally spoke.

"I...find it relevant to my interests," Alexa said, shrugging slightly. The man studied her carefully, in order to make various deductions about her that could tell him if she was dangerous or not. She was rather thin, with slender bones, small hands, and narrow wrists that made her look girlish and fine-limbed. She had a small, upturned nose and high cheekbones that contrasted with her striking grey eyes.

She was more on the shorter side of the height spectrum, about 5' 4" (162 cm) without any heels and she was dressed nicely, but not so much as to classify her as a businesswoman. He determined her to be an average civilian, with a higher class job in technology, it seemed. There was a faint accent in her voice that he could not quite place and her pleasant features seemed to hide her wary eyes. She was suspicious of him as well, so he would have to proceed with caution.

"Someone with an interest in computer viruses wasn't the kind of thing I expected to find in a Tube station," he replied as he leaned back into the bench. His tone was the perfect mix between informing and condescending, so she could not tell if he was poking fun at her or merely stating a fact. Although she was aware of the potentially dangerous situations that could occur with associating with a stranger, she did not edge away because she knew that she could take him down if she chose to. Besides, he knew what she was talking about so she figured there was no harm in chatting with him. However, there was something about him that was different and she was cautious of him, despite his unassuming features.

"What were you expecting to find?" she said, her words coming out a bit too sharp for her liking. Alexa inwardly cringed and fell silent, hoping that she didn't offend him with her tone of voice.

"I don't know. Certainly not you. What is it about this that interests you, Miss...?" he said, his voice trailing off.

Alexa met his questioning stare and set her book down on her lap. "I'm Alexa," she said. "And you are?"

The man seemed to pause for a moment before holding out a hand. "Call me Q," he replied, smiling vaguely. Her brow furrowed and she stared at him disbelievingly.

"Do you honestly expect me to believe that your name is a letter?" she said skeptically.

"No, of course not," he scoffed. "I merely prefer going by this name."

"Ah, I see," she said softly, nodding in comprehension. "What was your earlier question?"

"I was wondering why such a subject was relevant to your interests," he replied. There was something in her that had struck him as intriguing and he wanted to know why she knew more about technology than the average person. She did not hesitate to answer him this time, because she saw genuine interest to the topic.

"Well, I'm looking at virus creation and possible implementation. There are about a million different ways you could do it, and I just wanted to see what kind of zero-day attacks I might see in the future. I've come up with a few ideas, but I'm doing a bit more reading to see what I else can come up with," she replied.

"That's certainly unusual. I'm sure that there are different viruses that someone could generate, like a virus that examines network transmissions from any party. A quantum-based attack or an algorithm compromise could break encryption at each host application level," Q said casually. "The qubit created from horizontal polarization can still be intercepted by that virus whilst going through the horizontal/vertical beam splitter. A man in the middle attack, so to speak, except not a true physical attack. It would be a data mining attack."

Her eyes lit up and she nodded, glad to see that he actually understood what she was attempting to do. "You're right. That's not a bad idea for a zero day attack. I'm sure someone out there could come up with it, and it's up to us to figure out how to get around it," she said. Q nodded silently and quickly realised that Alexa was not the average computer geek he met in the city. She at least had some kind of purpose in mind, and he figured it would be important to know what it was.

"Do you mind telling me what this is all for?" he asked. "It's not every day I meet someone who's intent on making a secure system.

"It's just fascinating to me," she replied vaguely.

"I see," he replied. Q stopped briefly and glanced at the train that was arriving. They both stood up to get on and instead of sitting away from him, Alexa found herself next to the mysterious Q once more. He did not seem to mind, so she decided to ask the one question that had been on her mind this entire time. Unfortunately, it had been at the same exact time he decided to ask her as well so it came to be that they both spoke.

"Have I-" he began.

"Look, have we-" she started to say. Alexa immediately stopped and clamped a hand over her mouth in surprise. "Sorry, you go first," she said, her cheeks turning a distinct shade of pink in embarrassment. How she hated social interactions! She was utter rubbish at them!

Q smirked lightly, at seeing how shy she really was. He glanced at the sign on the wall before returning his gaze to her. "No, it's fine. What were you going to say?" he asked.

"This is going to sound completely ridiculous, but you seem familiar. I'm not quite sure why," Alexa finally confessed. His eyebrows raised slightly and he nodded slowly.

"Strange. I was about to say the same for you," Q replied. His memory contained a vague glimpse of her but nothing more, which was natural. He had an eidetic memory but his mind was like a computer. It deleted things that he found to have no importance. Apparently, where he had seen her was deemed unimportant by him and therefore deleted. However, he had a hunch that it was at least at something important, as she left some traces of her identity. Maybe it was at university, he thought to himself.

She looked surprised and toyed absentmindedly with the edge of her book. "Have you worked with the government at all?" he asked, upon thinking that she had maybe interned for them at some point.

"No, I haven't," she replied, shaking her head. This seemed to puzzle him further and he tapped his fingers against his knee, thinking of any way that he could have seen her. She could not place where on earth she had seen him and within minutes, they had arrived at Euston Square station.

"Well, this is me. It was nice to meet you, Q," she said. She stood up and grabbed the handrail on the side of the train to steady herself.

"It was lovely to meet you as well," he said. "Have a good evening."

Alexa said goodbye and soon stepped into Euston Square station. She slung her purse over one shoulder and walked to the stairs, letting out a sigh as she went up. Alexa had never talked to a stranger like that, much less about computer viruses.

She headed home and found herself thinking about Q more than she really should have been; her thoughts were mostly about his intelligence. Although she had only seen a brief glimpse of it, she knew that he was likely more intelligent than her, and she found some small part in herself that hoped that he would be there again tomorrow.

About a week passed until their paths crossed once more. Alexa was still working on the same problem of her security system but Q actually faced one of his own. Although it had been several months since the Raoul Silva incident, a few of his men had remained. They had found two of his men in the Q-Branch and the numbers of his employees had gone from eight to a mere six, counting himself. He needed to fill those spots somehow and he had no idea where to start his recruitment process, so to speak. M had suggested that he start looking at people internationally, but he really had no time to do so.

The only person whom he could possibly think of was Alexa, but he didn't know too much about her yet. Sure, he had been keeping a keen eye on her for the past few days but he was otherwise still in the dark about who she really was. However, he was intent on seeing her to figure out more about her, to see if she would be a probable candidate for a position in the Q-Branch.

That evening, Alexa had headed out of the building a bit later than she usually did because she had been working on designing her secure system. She headed down the stone steps as usual and scanned her pass, sitting on another bench as she waited for her train. Alexa took out the book she had been looking at for the past few days, a novel about implementation and began to read.

The world and all its noise did not reach her as she became engrossed in her book, her mind working to find the solutions for new attacks that she thought she might see in the future. It would be ten minutes before she returned back to reality, when a voice seemed to break her trance.

"I see you've got something new this time," he said. She looked up, a startled expression covering her features. Alexa had been so deep in thought that she hadn't really expected anyone to bother her. When she realized that it was just Q, she set her book on her lap and looked back up at him.

"It's a different book, but it's the same problem," she said.

"I take it that you haven't resolved your dilemma?" he said as he sat down next to her.

"I've come up with some ideas, but other than that, I haven't really gotten anywhere on any possible solutions. It's frustrating," she said, looking irritated.

"You won't give up, though. Am I correct in that assumption?" he replied.

"Precisely," Alexa said. She glanced at him briefly, attempting to find some deduction that she could retaliate with but she found none of specific use. Alexa sighed and returned her gaze to the passing people on the platform.

"Why do I keep running into you?" she finally said. "Are you doing this on purpose?"

"Not at all. But we really can't just keep running into each other like this. Why don't we go have a coffee?" he suggested, after carefully considering his words. He had never really attempted to get close to anyone like this before but it was what his job required him to do so. Q saw her hesitate momentarily but she merely shrugged and stood up.

"Right now? That certainly doesn't sound like a bad idea," Alexa said. She put her book back in her purse and the two headed back up the steps, walking silently next to each other. Alexa and Q went to a coffee shop down the street called Betsy's and took a seat at a booth next to the window.

"What can I get you two?" the waitress said as she handed them a small menu.

"I'll take a decaf, with two sugars and milk," Alexa replied as she glanced at the paper in her hands.

"I'll have a cup of Earl Grey with a splash of milk," Q replied. The woman rushed off to put their orders in and Alexa turned back to face him, wringing her hands nervously in her lap.

"May I ask you something?" she said hesitantly.

"Ask away," he replied with a shrug.

"Who exactly are you?" she blurted out. Upon noticing that her sentence wasn't exactly what she wanted to say, she hastily rephrased it. "I mean, you know exactly what I'm talking about when I mentioned the zero-day attacks. Not just anyone can do that, so why can you?"

"I'm not a malignant figure. I'm just someone who can understand computer viruses because it interests me. It's not like the trivial information in the world that can be deleted. Information like that should be stored away and kept because it is of interest," Q said.

"Why?" Alexa said, her grey eyes peering curiously into his. Q knew that he could not answer her directly and instead, attempted to answer her question with one of his own.

"Why not? Security is an ever evolving thing with today's technology and I...choose to keep up, to make sure I'm not in any real danger. What about you?" he said evasively.

"It's my job. I have to be interested or else I'll go broke," Alexa said lightheartedly. The waitress came by, momentarily putting a stop to their conversation and she set down two steaming mugs of tea and coffee.

"And your job is?" Q said as he took a sip of his tea.

"Well, I should introduce myself properly. We did meet at the Tube station, so I only think it would be fair. But if I tell you who I am, you have to tell me who you are," she replied.

"I can't promise that," he said, giving her an enigmatic smirk.

"Then I won't say anything," Alexa said stubbornly. They stared at each other for several moments before Q felt pressured under her gaze, something that never happened before He found this rather odd, and also found her much more tenacious than she looked.

"I'll give you at least a few things," he said coolly. She seemed satisfied by this answer and leant back in her chair.

"Good. I'm Alexandra Abbott. I work as a head of network security at Enigma Technologies," she said. Something seemed to click in his mind and he finally figured out what her name meant to him. A glimpse of his university graduation flashed through his mind and he now recalled the silent woman that had accepted the title of being second best to him.

"So that's why you looked so familiar," he muttered.

"Why? What is it?" she said, looking startled.

"I've heard your name before. You graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2008," he replied. Her eyes flickered with momentary confusion and something akin to suspicion but she merely shrugged at him.

"I do recall that I've seen you somewhere, so I suppose that was it," Alexa said.

"Well, I'm glad you don't remember my name then. Terrible one, mind you," he replied matter-of-factly. Q took another drink of his tea and set it down in front of him again. "So, Enigma Technologies. I've heard that name several times in the news. What is it that your company does again?"

"We protect the banks and businesses of London," Alexa said, attempting to sound enthusiastic. He acknowledged her pseudo-enthusiastic demeanor with a smirk of his own.

"You hate your job, don't you?" Q said, looking amused.

"Oh god, yes," Alexa said instantaneously. She saw the error in her words, seeing that it was bad to criticize her own occupation.

"Well, I mean, I don't exactly hate it. It's nice but it's just a bit...dull, I suppose," she confessed. "I'm sorry, this is just coming out all wrong."

"No, it's fine," Q said shrugged, not minding her honesty. "What exactly is it that bores you?"

"Well, don't get me wrong. I like working on our security system but to put it simply, I'm bored. I'm only twenty-seven and being bored now is a bad thing. I have a lot of my life left to live and I just...don't want to confine myself to protecting banks and businesses for the rest of my life. I want to reach a bit higher and find something worthwhile to protect but I have no idea what that would be. Therefore, I am stuck at my current job at Enigma," Alexa confessed. Q remembered his current dilemma and took the last sip of his tea.

"I might be able to help with that, actually," he replied.

"How so?" she said, looking puzzled.

"I'd like you to answer this for me first. Would you ever consider leaving your job now, considering your current success?" Q said.

"Well...I suppose so, if the new job is something worthwhile. But I have nothing better to go to," Alexa said with a shrug.

"Would you consider yourself good at what you do?" he said as he pulled out £5 from his wallet.

"I...think so, but that's really not for me to judge," she said as she looked down at her coffee cup. Alexa's eyes flickered with alarm as he set the money on the table and stood up.

"Wait, where are you going?" Alexa said, looking startled.

"We'll see how good you are soon enough. I hope to contact you again in a few days, Alexa," he said as he put his coat on. He exited the cafe, leaving her in stunned silence. It took her a minute to recover from his sudden departure, but she merely sighed and headed home as well. She did not understand what he had meant by his words but she figured that it wouldn't be too terrible. He did say that he didn't have malignant intentions.

However, she truly had no idea of the events to come and how they would shape her life for the year ahead. He had the upper hand now and all she could do was to watch and wait for Q's next move.

Alright, that seems to be it. But, I do have a rather important issue to address so please don't scroll past this.

I was wondering if you guys would prefer this story to stay in the James Bond fandom or let it cross-over with the Sherlock fandom.

Both would blend together marvelously (honestly, it would) and although the Sherlock fandom won't have too many major elements to the story, its presence will still be there. For example, Q's name would be Sherrinford Holmes, because that's the name of the supposed third Holmes brother. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was supposed to stick him in the actual stories somewhere but I don't know what the hell happened to that. You can give your input by giving a review!

Anyway, I would like to hear back from everyone and I hope you can leave a review to let me know what else I can do with this fic. I hope you're all enjoying it so far!