Title: 50 Reasons (The Q-Branch Edition)
Disclaimer: I don't own or claim any rights. I don't get paid. I'm just playing around with the characters.
Reason 14 - Celebration
Fit for light duty. Of all the designations imposed by MI6 medical James Bond despised that one the most. That designation meant that while the damage was primarily healed you were not yet back to 100%. It also meant that you got stuck with the dreaded 3 Rs; Reports, Reviews and Rehabilitation. This was why he was at a desk going over the personal security protocols for all department branch heads. Arbitrarily he'd done the review by age starting with Dr. Fillmore the head of medical as the oldest and concluding with Q as the youngest. Of course it was the latter that proved to be the most surprising.
Q, it seemed from the reports, was a security nightmare. He had a completely irregular schedule but refused to use the agency drivers unless no other transport was available or when he was directly ordered to do so. He walked most everywhere but was highly aware of surveillance techniques both personnel and electronic. The former he had a tendency to ditch quickly and the latter he would ignore unless he was in the mood to hack or otherwise incapacitate it. Even A-list agents had been known to lose him while attempting a tail. On the up side, he did carry his laptop or a tablet and his phone at all times but he was known to routinely disable their tracking capacity. He also had several different panic buttons. Unfortunately he often forgot to carry them with him. As near as Bond could tell the consensus from the last security review was if we can't track him no one else will be able to either. Bond wondered just exactly how difficult it was to keep track of one skinny Quartermaster so he assigned himself the task of finding out. Several days later James had to conclude that the answer was very.
Over the next week Bond discovered that the only effective way to tail Q was loosely with some sort of electronic back up. Since Q would clearly notice a trace program in his phone or other electronics James had gone for the old fashioned approach, he inserted one of the micro tracers into the protective case for Q's phone. It was simple to enlist a little help from the Q branch minions, who were rightfully concerned about their boss' personal safety. Thus, he now had a new phone app that could turn the tracer on and off at will.
Sauntering down the pavement in Q's wake early one evening James wondered to himself whether he should suggest that M assign agents to attempt to tail Q as a training exercise. Just as he was considering the pros and cons of this idea he noticed a heavy black sedan that seemed to be pacing Q. All senses suddenly on alert Bond managed to send a snap of the plates to Moneypenny for a trace. The sedan pulled up beside Q who ignored it for half a block before he finally stopped and faced it a look of annoyance on his face. The back door opened and James was surprised that Q got in without a fuss.
Bond quickly engaged the electronic tracker from his phone then hailed a cab. He didn't have the cabbie follow the sedan directly. Any decent driver would spot a cab tail. No he just used the tracking app to keep with a minute or two of Q's location.
Twenty minutes later the tracker indicated that Q was stationary. Apparently he had arrived at the destination. James followed only to discover that the location in question was one of the nicer 5 star restaurants in London. James himself had patronized this particular establishment upon occasion. He wasn't terribly surprised, therefore, when the maître d recognized him and offered him a table.
Upon entering the dining room Bond made a quick assessment noting the relative locations of everyone in the immediate vicinity. Q was sitting across a table from a familiar balding gentleman dressed in an impeccable conservative suit. Q was looking resigned rather than tense so James deduced that he didn't need an expeditious extraction from his elder brother's presence at the moment. James' phone vibrated just then and he glanced at it. The information Moneypenny had provided, James' own identification of Q's dinner companion plus the fact that he had also recognized one of the diners sitting at another table told him all he needed to know about the situation.
A gorgeous female in a black frock was presumably dining alone however given the number of diners her location was a bit too close to that of Q and his companion. James made a detour. She put down her menu next to a blackberry and watched him approach. He noted approvingly that she was intentionally keeping her hands carefully within his view.
"Nice to see you again," he greeted her without formality, "Do you mind if I join you?"
"Not at all," she replied indicating the chair with an incline of her head.
James seated himself and accepted his menu. Before he could speak, however, he noticed that his new companion had focused her attention on the doorway. A tall thin gentleman with a long nose, high cheekbones and a familiar mop of unruly hair swept into the room heading directly for the table at which Q was currently seated. The gentleman was none other than the infamous Sherlock Holmes.
"This is going to be interesting," she murmured, "I didn't think he would come, family celebrations are so not his style."
Author's Note: Spotted a typo and fixed it. Modified slightly to fix a timeline inconsistency found by Aelaer over on AO3.