Sorry this took a bit longer than I expected due to the fact that the characters had other ideas on how the story should go. Hope you enjoy.
M stood at the door staring at the door handle as though it were a foreign object.
"M…are you alright? Do you need some help with the handle?" asked Tanner who had been watching her for several minuets
"I am perfectly capable of opening a door!" she snapped "I…just do not know what to say to him" she said in a slightly softer tone "After everything he has been through…"
"M" he said putting his hand on her shoulder "Just listen to him…hear what he has to say, I mean what is the worst that could happen?"
"You do realize that we are talking about James Bond?" she said eyeing him curiously "With him, anything can happen and it usually does"
"Point taken, but you will never know what he is thinking or how he feels unless you go in there" replied Tanner as he nodded toward the door
"Right then" she said taking a deep breath "Like a lamb to slaughter"
"More like a moth to a flame" Tanner said under his breath
"I'm sorry…did you say something?" she asked glaring at him
"Nothing…not a thing" stammered Tanner
"Good"
James sat in the bed with an anxious and slightly annoyed look on his face. He was anxious about seeing M and rightfully so. He was under the impression that they were husband and wife, but judging from Tanners reaction, this was not the case and he was not sure how much Tanner had told her. He was equally annoyed because, even though he had been cleared medically, for his own protection as well as hers, he was chained to the bed. "Standard procedure" he was told. A load of crap was more like it, but who was he to argue. So far everything he thought he knew was completely wrong.
"Hello James" said M nervously as she entered the room and closed the door behind her
"M" he replied, nodding his head
"How are you feeling?"
"Well I would be a lot better if I weren't wearing these fashionable Government Issue accessories" he grumbled as he attempted to raise his hands
"Why on earth…" she snapped in her infamous annoyed tone as she turned and headed out the door "I will be right back!"
"Sure you will…that's what they all say" smirked James
M poked her head back in the room and glared at him before disappearing in search of the doctor.
A few minutes later M returned with a less than pleased doctor in tow.
"M, you of all people must understand that this is standard procedure…"
"I want them off now!" she demanded
"Fine, I just hope you know what you are doing" grumbled the doctor as he removed the restraints and headed toward the door "And just so we are clear, there will be a guard posted outside the door in case either of you get any ideas about trying to leave… " he said as he looked at James
"Would I do that?" James replied innocently as he watched the door closed
M turned her attention back to James, whose expression went from slightly amused to dead serious the moment she made eye contact.
"Glad to see you still have your sense of humor. I assume that you have some questions" she said as she made her way over to the bed
"A few"
"What would you like to know?"
"What happened to me?" he asked
"That is a very good question, one that I was hoping YOU could answer" she replied as she started to reach for the chair in the corner. James caught her arm and motioned for her to sit on the bed beside him.
"What do you remember?" she asked as she sat down
"You" he said as he looked at her "I remember being in your office on the receiving end of an undeserved dressing dow…"
"UNDESERVED!"
"Yes, undeserved dressing down. You were prattling on about of all things procedures…something about them not being guidelines, but rather rules that were meant to be followed…to the letter in my case I believe you said…"
"Number one, I do not prattle and number two, if just once you could actually accomplish a mission without creating an international incident…"
"What are you complaining about, you got your evidence didn't you?" he said defensively
"Alright, let's fast forward a bit shall we" she said in a frustrated tone "After your debriefing…what do you remember?"
"I remember the overwhelming need for a drink so I stopped at a few pubs…"
"And then what?" she asked curiously
"And then I remember you walking into the room" he said quietly as he reached over and took her hand, giving it a light squeeze
"And then what?" she said with a slight crack in her voice
"You tell me. Apparently what I remember or what I think I remember is incorrect. All I know for sure is that you never gave up on me, you never left me, or at least I feel like you never left me" he replied pulling his hand back
"How could I leave you?" she whispered as her eyes began to fill with tears "I…"
James could tell that his usually articulate boss was at a loss for words, but the look in her eye told him everything he needed to know as he reached over and wiped away a tear that had managed to slip down her cheek.
"It's alright M" he said softly "I love you too"
"Go on" she replied as she nervously cleared her throat "Tell me what you THINK happened, and I will tell you what is real and what is imagined"
"I think…I hurt you…"
"Yes, but that was an accident…"
"That is what you say, but was it? And was it really an accident that I ended up at your flat?"
"You were not at my flat. You were here in the hospital…"
"Are you sure? In my version of what happened, you came to collect me and took me to your flat to convalesce and I hurt you, but you didn't send me away, you stayed with me…"
"I did stay with you, but it was here, at the hospital…"
"And the injections, they said it was vitamins, but…"
"They were sedatives, after you became confused and you tried to "Escape" with me, it became necessary for everyone's safety to sedate you" she said quietly
"So I never took you to Lady Velvet? And you never had a meeting with Mallory on the Themes in the middle of the night, and there was never a mention of "if you were married, you would not be in this predicament?" and you and I never…"
"Well that is not entirely true. There was a discussion about my involvement, where you are concerned, and Mallory, bless his pointed head, may have mentioned that my constant presence here could be misinterpreted as highly unprofessional behavior. He did also make the comment that it is not as if we were married, then my presence could be easily explained…"
"Where did that conversation take place?" he asked curiously
"Here in your room I suppose, which would explain why you thought we were…married. You must have heard enough of the conversation to incorporate it into your dreams" said M, completely confident with her conclusion
"Maybe, but how do you explain the fact that Clair Dower and her niece were behind the attempt to discredit you and have you removed as head of MI6?" asked James
"Oh James," she said leaning over and cupping his cheek "That bloody woman is always looking for ways to have me removed."
James reached up and covered her hand with his and closed his eyes as he leaned into her touch, turning his head slightly and placing a light kiss to her palm.
"James…" said M as she attempted to pull her hand away "I don't think that…"
"That is the problem!" he said as his eyes snapped open and he stared at her with an almost hurt expression "You never take time to stop and think"
"About what?" she replied defensively
"About why it never seems to seriously bother you that I routinely break into your flat for no apparent reason, or about why you endlessly defend me, when if it were any other agent they would have been out in their ear faster than you could blink or about why you didn't pull away from me when I kissed you" he said with a crooked grin
"As a matter of fact, as in appropriate as it is, I do not put you on report for breaking into my flat because at least I know where you are, and to be quite honest, it is nice to know that someone is watching over me occasionally, and I "endlessly defend you" as you put it because you are my best agent, and I sure as hell do not want you switching sides and working against us, and as for the last part of your statement, I never pull away from you because you never…"
That was as far as M got with her rant before James reached over and pulled her to him, kissing her gently but firmly. M put her hand on his chest to steady herself as she felt his arms go around her, holding her securely in place.
For a split second, the thought did cross her mind to pull away, but she found her own body betraying her and responding to the kiss. She leaned into him and intensified the kiss, while wrapping her arms around his neck. James began to grin as a small moan escaped her lips, causing her to pull back and rest her forehead against his chest in an attempt to avoid making eye contact with him.
He gently tilted her chin up so that she had no other choice but to look into his amazingly blue eyes.
"You were saying?" he said with a wide grin
"This was…is highly inappropriate" she managed to say as she continued to gaze into his eyes
"And yet you didn't pull away" he replied as he leaned down and kissed her again
"Well…" she said pulling away from him "I should…"
"You should what?" he asked as he pulled her into his arms and leaned them back against the pillows "What should the head of MI6 do about this situation?"
"James…"
"Do you want to know why I keep breaking into your flat?" he asked as he gently rubbed small circles on her back "It is not because I need to practice cracking your security code, which by the way is a topic for a later discussion. It is because I love you and I cannot stand to be away from you. I realized a long time ago that somehow, the "Evil Queen of Numbers" had stolen my heart and I found it necessary to find any and every reason to be near you, even if it might cost me my job" he said quietly
"We cannot…" she started to say before he interrupted her
"Oh but we can. Mallory said it himself. If we were married then none of this would be an issue"
"Do you have any idea how ridiculous this sounds? You…married to me?" she said as she pulled herself the rest of the way onto the bed and nestled herself in his arms "What would people say? And How do you know that I even would want to be married to you?" she asked
"You are in bed with me aren't you? And let's not forget that you already married me once, even if it was only for your own protection" he replied with a laugh
M shook her head as she snuggled closer to him.
"I do love your vivid imagination" she replied with a laugh, "But, I have to admit that I was terrified when you did not wake up" she said as she laced her fingers with his "I thought I had lost you and it was my fault for letting them sedate you in the first place"
"You could never lose me" he replied as he placed a kiss to the top of her head "So what do you say?" he asked
"To what?"
"To being my wife…again, to ending all of this nonsense and game playing"
"I see that you seem to be having difficulty understanding the use of certain words. To use the word "Again" would imply that we have been married before, which is incorrect as we have not" she said firmly
"Let's say, for the moment, that you are correct and we have not been married before. That still does not change the fact that I want to be married to you now" he replied
"Isn't this all a bit sudden?" she asked pulling back so that she could look at him
"If anything, it has taken far too long" he replied as he kissed the tip of her nose
"I don't know…"
"Look, in my mind I already married you once on the Themes in the middle of the night. I would like to do it again, but properly but his time I would prefer to be conscious if at all possible" he said in a serious tone
"I see," she replied before giving him a quick kiss, untangling herself from him and getting off the bed.
"Where are you going?" he asked in a confused tone
"You have given me a lot to think about" she replied "You need your rest and I have a lot of work to catch up on. I will be back later to check on you"
Tanner was waiting anxiously outside the door for her.
"Well, how did it go?' he asked nervously "How much does he remember?"
"He remembers all that he needs to remember" she said dryly
"So you didn't tell him did you?" he asked as he followed her down the hall
"He knows what he needs to know. As far as he is concerned, the last three weeks were all a dream and the bits he does remember can all be easily explained as conversations he overheard while he was in the coma" she said in a serious tone
"But M, isn't that lying?"
"No. Everything he thinks he knows, did happen the first three days of this bloody ordeal, and he WAS in a coma for the remaining two and a half weeks after he was found unconscious at Mawdsley Hospital."
"Do you ever intend to tell him?" asked Tanner, somewhat stunned that M would consider lying to James
"Tanner, James nearly died trying protect me. Now it is my turn to protect him. It is what we call a Leap of Faith. Faith that the past will stay in the past and that the future will be filled with endless possibilities." she replied
"But what if he finds out?"
"Mr. Mallory has made sure that no trace of this incident will ever see the light of day. Something about it being a severe embarrassment not only to MI6, but to Whitehall and the PM as well. I have been given permission to take James away for an extended holiday once he is released from hospital, and by the time we return, this will have blown over and we should all be able to resume our lives"
"Now look who has forgotten who we are talking about. Remember this is James Bond, the one and only 007. If he even so much as suspects that things are not as he has been told, he will be like a dog with a bone until he finds the truth. Do you really want to be there when he does?" asked Tanner
"I have no choice Tanner. It would destroy him if he knew the truth" she replied with a sadness in her voice that nearly broke Tanners heart.
TO BE CONTINUED...