And here we have yet another Christmas with the family for Q. Not in so many chapters this time, though. These are mostly silly little headcanons about Bond putting Q's childish male cousins into their place, which I couldn't seem to eradicate from my head. I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I did!

I do not claim to own the James Bond franchise.

TapTap

Alice left straight from the lab to where James was waiting, in the new, specially equipped car she had just started to produce in more than prototype fashion, as the agent had insisted that he'd drive himself this time. She didn't mind - she hated driving anyway and she couldn't have cared less who else was doing it; just as long as she didn't have to.

Checking that her bags were there (they were - James didn't miss much, and certainly not anything so straightforward as that) the Quartermaster settled into the comfortable passenger seat and closed her eyes, naturally already having advised her roommate about her cousin Kate's changed degree of knowledge.

"Q," was the succinct word that woke her up, and she opened her eyes to spot the familiar roads mere miles from her family's main "family home". "Nearly there," she noted and stretched, trying to get the kinks out of her neck. "Yes," James merely confirmed, not being a very chatty person by nature.

"It is that time of year again," Q muttered to herself, grateful for a few moments to gather herself. Of course James would know to wake her in time. Sometimes she was still surprised at that sheer instinctiveness of all of her double oh friends. Then again, as instincts was how they made it out alive, it was rather natural that those of them who had managed to stay alive for this many years were all rather good at staying in touch with that side of themselves; they had to be.

By the time Alice had reached the end of her little errant thought, James was pulling up into the drive, parking next to one of her uncles' cars, an usually nicelooking hot hatchback which now looked rather silly next to the specially designed and largely handmade hypercar she had personally drawn for her roommate.

James exited the car smoothly, going round it to open her door before gathering their bags, as usual not allowing her to help (and that went not only for Bond, but West, Trevelyan and Kent - 005 - as well). She had stopped asking, by now. There were limits for how stubborn even she could be. At least, when no electronics were involved, there were.

As they reached the door, Alice reached out and rang the doorbell a fraction sooner than James. The door was opened within half a minute by one of Alice's cousins, who gave her a harsh look and then just literally backed away as James stepped up behind her and gave them a look in return which was best described as silently lethal.

Q held back a smirk as they stepped into the entrance hall, her cousin having already... well, honestly; ran away. As she met James' eyes, he gave her an amused, slight grin. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Of course James was enjoying this.

Half an hour and a quick tripp upstairs to put their bags in the room they'd gotten last year, they entered the lounge, every eye drawn to them immediately. Kate had told her about the family gossip, of course - the predictions that their most boring relative could never hold on to a man like James very long. But now here they were, James' arm wound protectively around her shoulders just like last year.

"Hello Alice. James!" The greeting came from Kate, and they went straight over to sit with her, James kissing her cheek, making it seem like they had become quite good friends since the family had last seen him and Alice last year, instead of the two not having seen each other once.

Kate, smiling knowingly, greeted Alice with a hug, smirking only barely perceptibly when she noted, "How lovely to see you again... not that it was long ago. Has anything happened since last?" "Not a thing. It is just three days. For you?" Alice quipped back as James went to get them both food.

"No as such. So how's the dishy fiance?" Alice grinned properly now. "Hot and not bothered. Any men in your life?" Kate didn't reply, too busy laughing. "Making fun of me, are you? Nothing has changed then!" James scolded them playfully as he returned with two plates, putting them onto the table and pulling over a chair - turning it the wrong way around before sitting down, of course - to their table, next to Alice.

"Still trying to make my cousin eat more, James?" Kate asked, remembering the man's line from last year when she saw the well-filled plates. The next few minutes were spent with James very believably - probably because it was all true - complaining good-naturedly to Kate about how Alice absolutely never took good enough care of herself.

In the evening, as the two women settled into a couch talking about Kate's latest engineering project, their male cousins took it upon theirselves to pull James into their cardgame, laughing as Alice made a show of telling her "fiance" to behave himself.

Naturally, after settling on poker, both Alice and James knew very well how it was all going to end, but the other players didn't, and were all shocked to discover that James won without even breaking a sweat.

"James!" Alice reprimanded from halfway across the room as he pulled all the chips towards himself with the ease of long habit and practise. "I told you to play nicely!" They all looked at her in some surprise, even Kate, but James merely smiled. "I am, love. We are not betting high". "Best for you, that, sweetheart!" she responded, getting only a wide, charming smile in return. The glimmer in James' eyes told her all she needed to know though - the undercover double oh was really enjoying himself, that much was clear.

The next day - after presents had been exchanged (she had gotten James some inane, family-will-see-it-friendly gift for the moment, as his real gift was not, and Kate some intriguing new engineering tools she had developed especially) - the cousins monopolized James once more, this time insisting he'd join them for a ride and some shooting, as they had a track set up with targets in the wood.

Alice rather suspected quite a few of her older relatives thought her fiance was going to get his ass kicked, especially as there were mentions of sparring before they went back again, but she also noticed that Kate didn't seem to share in this sentiment at all. She didn't herself, either, and half expected one or more of her cousins to return with a black eye. She should have known James was far too subtle for any of that. It was, though, very clear that he had gotten a much better score at shooting than any of the others, and she was not surprised in the least.

She was amused though, as James still smiled in that mischievous way, and all the rest of the weekend was easier than ever as her normally cocky cousins were suitably subdued. Kate seemed to enjoy that as much as she did.

Perhaps it was that, or maybe they had gotten burned last year, but there were no one bursting into hers and James' room this year, which - besides being convenient - was just incredibly funny.

It was two unusually painless and quick days, and then they returned to London, to celebrate Christmas with the now returned agents 001, 003 and 004, as well as Trevelyan and Kent, who had seemingly spent Christmas eve and morning together getting drunk and gossiping about James.

Thus it was, that on the 26:th of december, Q, and her little collection of lethal - but nice - field agents sat in the otherwise deserted Q-branch, some on the floor (Emma and Michael), some on a sofa (004 and 001) and some on Q's desk (Bond and Trevelyan) sharing cocoa and outrageous stories only the more strange because Alice was positive they were all true.

Herself, she sat in her high desk chair by the monitors, frankly using the two agents as a convenient backrest. It was bisarre, really, but this somewhat odd situation? It felt like home.