A/N: It's monday and here's the new chapter. I haven't written anything else yet, since I've slept really poorly for the past five days. Updating might be slow for the next month or so, maybe one chapter a week. I have my first exam week coming up in three short weeks, a bunch of other school related deadlines, I'm a bit sick, suffer from severe insomnia and have a lot going on on the social life front too. I'm really sorry, but I'll do my best. Besides I might get inspired by all of this boring RL stuff. Thank you to all my faithful readers and also the ones who have visited, since the 2'000 visit mark is now crossed :) I'm really excited about that. Reviews might help with the motivation to right and I would really appreciate them.
RebaForever15 - Thank you really much! I'll try to make their time together nice, but who knows what happens once he goes back to work ;)
m-is-for-Molly-and-Mansfield - You are welcome and I was delighted to see you started a fic yourself too.
JFDF - That's excatly what I thought when I was writing the chapter! I'm glad you liked it.
ILFlynn - Thank you and I hope you keep reading.
#####
Chapter Twelve – Runaway
#####
The quartermaster was busily at work when Lilac Summers , better known as 008 strolled into Q didvision.
"Brought your gun back." She said, waving the gun in the air, "I suspect some part is broken, since it's jamming."
"I'll take a look at it." He said taking the gun, placing it into a box with gadgets that needed repairing. She thanked him and turned to leave.
"Oh, by the way" Lilac said, spinning on her heel, "do you happen to know where Bond is? We were supposed to go to Hong Kong last week, but he cancelled and there was a mission that was originally intended for him and was signed to me just a moment ago."
"He's on leave."
"Is he hurt?"
"No, just taking care of some family business."
Lilac nodded and left. "Weird," she muttered to herself as she rode up in the elevator, "I could have sworn he didn't have any family."
#####
James looked outside with a grim expression. London was once again cocooned in heavy black clouds, rain pouring down on the streets with lightning striking, causing the sky to light up. He was going to the office today to go through the stuff M had told him about. The storm had made Louella anxious and she had woken up earlier than usual.
He wasn't comfortable going to the headquarters with his daughter at all, but she couldn't be left with a sitter either. James sighed, seeing that it was half past nine and they had to leave.
"Come on, Lou." He said to the girl who was lazily playing with her toys on the floor, "We have to go visit Daddy's workplace."
#####
At MI6 headquarters everyone was busily at work, making phone calls, writing reports and running around, trying to keep the organization up and running. Being busy however didn't stop them from stopping everything they were doing when they saw a certain 00 agent walk in with a child by his side.
Louella wasn't happy at all when they entered a large room with a lot of people. The weird tunnels underground had been creepy enough, but this was just driving her towards a panick attack. The anxious twitching and death grip of Louella's hand didn't go unnoticed by James. The poor girl could not understand why so many people were staring at her. He decided to pick her up and shot a few glares at random office workers.
"Were going up there." He said to his daughter, pointing towards a door at the end of a staircase. The girl looked over to where his finger was pointing before she wrapped her hands around his neck.
From the other end of the room Lilac saw the two and was so shocked she dropped the files in her hand. She'd been on missions with James in the past and never had he told her that he had a daughter. Lilac inspected the little girl who was being carried by her father. She had blond locks and was dressed in a light pink jacket that fell mid-tigh. It had an elastic band at the bottom that gathered the rubbery material closer to the girl's legs. Louella turned her head and lilac saw a pair of blue eyes and a slightly lost looking girl, sucking on her pacifier. The girl clutched her rubber boots closer to her father's waist, trying to hold on for dear life. The sight was more than odd.
James was glad to reach the top of the stairs and get away from all those confused spectators, into a quiet hallway. When they reached M's outer office he saw Eve and Tanner talking casually to one another.
"Good morning Eve." He said cheerfully, happy to see Monneypenny after not having seen the secretary who was also sort of a friend to him for a few weeks.
"Oh, James. Hi." Eve said a little startled, blushing slightly. Tanner took a step away from her desk and buried his hands in the pockets of his pants, looking as if he'd just been caught doing something naughty.
Louella was once again delighted with Eve's hair and was blissfully happy when she was allowed to touch it.
"M should be here soon, she got stuck in a meeting with Mallory." Tanner informed James, aware of why the man was here.
"So he's safely back at work, terrorizing our department."
All three of them chuckled, confusing Louella a little, since she was oblivious to what they were talking about.
"Thank you for, well you know… getting him out of the office."
"No problem, Tanner. How long was he gone?"
"Ten days. He just came back a week ago."
"That reminds me," Eve said, snatching a file from her desk, "could you bring this down to Q division later? You had an appointment with Q later, right?"
"Yeah, sure. I should probably go back to work." Tanner said awkwardly, backing out of the office.
"Thanks, Bill!" Eve called after him.
James fidled with Louella's hair for a moment, until he was sure Bill was far enough to not hear him.
"Is something going on between you two?"
"What?" Eve was a little taken aback and blushed again.
"You heard me. And remember that I am trained to detect lies." He said with a smirk.
"Is it really that obvious?" She asked helplessly.
"Kind of. Does M know?"
"Not yet."
"Well, you'd better tell her before she finds out on her own."
"You're probably right." Eve replied with a small smile.
Just then M entered the office looking like she was ready to rip somebody's head off.
"Emma!" Louella shouted, the pacifier falling out of her mouth and onto the floor.
A look of pure surprise washed over the older woman's face before it turned into some weird expressions due to the fact that she wasn't quite sure if she was pissed that Bond had made Louella call her by her real name or delighted with how happy the little girl was with seeing her.
Eve and James both froze in anticipation for M's reaction and let out a sigh of relief when M responded to Louella's blabbering. James and M moved into her office while Louella was content on telling Eve all about how Cinderella got herself a prince.
"I should have you shot for that." M said dryly after she had closed the door.
"Shot for what?"
"You know bloody well what I mean. Teaching her my real name." She replied angrily, "It's classified information you know!"
"Well if it bothers you so much, shoot me."
"I wouldn't want to leave the poor girl an orphan. It's not her fault that her father is an arse." James thought that he saw a hint of a smile appear on her face, but it was gone in a second.
"Well, look at you. All sentimal and empathetic."
"Don't push it, Bond."
M gave him a few more papers to sign before she led him and Louella to a room nearby, where there were about five boxes on the floor. She left them alone and James got to work, opening the first box. Louella soon got bored and tried to occupy herself as best as she could. James groaned starting to get frustrated too.
"Sweetie, are you hungry yet?" he asked the girl. Only when she didn't answer he turned around to realize that the room was empty and the door ajar.
"Crap." In a split second he was on his feet and in the hallway. Luckily they were on a floor where the corridors weren't a giant labyrinth, but they were pretty organized. James wasn't sure which way she had gone so he turned in the direction they'd come from.
"Louella?" He hooted, jogging lightly along the rows of corridors, starting to get more panicked every second.
He spotted her pacifier near a door at the very end of the corridor. James burst trough the door to see Louella jumping down the metal staircase already almost at the bottom. She had manged to get back into the large hall with dozens of office cubicals. James was well aware of the noise she made and the fact that every single pair of eyes was glued onto one of them. He walked down the stairs, calm but quick.
"Lou." He called the girl who was walking around close to the wall. She flashed him a smile and started running away from him. In a matter of seconds James was running and caught up to her, swinging her up in the air. If someone hadn't noticed what was going on they surely did when the girl let out a loud sqeal.
"Tag." He whispered into her ear with a smile.
"You can't run away like that Louella." He said to her in a voice loud enough for people close by to hear. James set her down and they walked hand in hand back up the stairs, leaving people looking at their backs with astonished looks.
Amongst the crowd were Bill Tanner and Eve Monneypenny, both shaking their heads in amusement at the little girl with the bouncing curls.
#####
A/N: Thank you for reading. Please leave a review :)
