Wallowing
This bar stinks.
Or is it just him?
James hasn't showered in days...weeks...nor eaten. He just drinks until it is time to pass out, in a bloody dreamless sleep. Maybe someone will kill him as he sleeps and he will see her again.
"Más tequila." The bartender just hands him the bottle as he holds out his hand.
Bond hands him $20 dollars.
James stares at the silver ring on the bar with the octopus staring back at him. He considers paying for booze with it but there might be something from it that the Q's, or someone who has a life to live might care about.
He uncorks the bottle and takes a swig. The bartender hands him a dish of limes.
Fuck...the vitamins might be rejected by his body at this point.
James bites the bitter fruit as he glances at the television playing in the corner. Images of the devastation he wrought are still playing months later. They are saying there was a bomb planted in the hotel. In all likelihood terrorists, if they only knew, it was a bloody assassination.
Q sent some messages to the same. The days all blend into one painful blur without her.
They were being watched. They were trying to take him out, they couldn't have know who she was.
In the end they managed to take the best part of his life. Sciarra had a bomb planted on their floor, suspecting his or MI6's intervention.
All that remains now is the mystery of how Marco Sciarra knew James and Olivia were there. M didn't even bloody well know they were there, but then again, he has been distracted of late. Only Quinton knew and he loved her too. No Quinton would never have betrayed them.
James was too focused on Olivia to bloody well notice. He told her as much. How could he be expected to concentrate with her there? Her smile and laugh made him harden from a room away. Seeing her in all her glory, was his constant desire. Just like that first time he caught her changing upstairs at Skyfall.
James didn't care that her hair was a different colour or longer he only craved her being in his arms. To taste her kiss, smell her hair and hear her voice again, is his only desire. No food...just something to keep him numb until death comes for him.
M's gone. She never left the hotel, just like he asked her not too. Now there is nothing left to bury.
Mallory is harping about finally telling the children.
Whatever.
James is done.
He cannot tell them, it's best Mallory does.
Tanner has left a dozen messages. In one he was pissed drunk and crying over her loss. Bond can still see her, hear her in his head.
Why? He's spiralling and descending into self pity again. Why always him and those he loves? This is not normal. None of this is normal.
James' life diverted to this path from tragedy. Tragedy begets tragedy, and he has seen far too much. After Vesper he thought he had experienced true heart ache, but now...the heart has been torn out of him.
Now there is nothing left but a shell of a man and a bottle.
There's suddenly someone sitting beside him, and he tenses. "Felix. What are you doing here? Vacation?"
James stuffs the ring back into his pocket.
"No brother. I heard you were on one. An actual honeymoon. The great playboy, James Bond settled down with a woman, and what a woman! You never did do anything by halves brother."
"Yes, I know. Of course she's dead now."
"I know. I'm so sorry mate. M has had me watching you at a distance, to make sure you don't do anything as crazy as flying a helicopter through a full city square during the day of the dead."
"Day of the dead. The day she died. The day I died."
"Listen James. I know this hurts like a bitch but they need you. It's been two months. Their on the way to collect you and I thought I should help sober you up before the fact."
"I wanted to wait until I had proof."
"I know, and they have it. That is why Eve is on her way to get you."
"Eve? Please don't give her a gun or she will manage to shoot us both. On second thought let her shoot me. I would rather go by a friend's hand than that of a bloody assassin."
Felix grabs him around the waist and pulls him up. Bond reaches back to the bar for his bottle.
"Brother you don't need any more."
"I need this, more than I need you Felix."
The door opens before they move from the bar. Eve enters with a frown on her lovely face.
"James. Look at the state of you."
"And here I was about to say how beautiful you look Eve." Eve has sad eyes, full of pity and remorse.
There are suddenly tears coming down her face. She wipes them away but he saw them. They are as much for him and the message she has come to deliver. They are for Olivia.
Olivia...christ no...she is gone...
They all lost her, not just him, but Tanner, Mallory, Eve, the Q's and her children. He's been too bloody selfish to realize how many loved her. He's not the only one in earth shattering pain. He cannot hold all the grief to himself.
Felix takes them both to a waiting car and drives them to a hotel. Eve wraps her arm around Bond's shoulder in the back seat as he begins to shake, sobbing in her arms.
Felix and Eve manage to get him into a suite and Felix helps him to shower.
Eve brought some clothes for him and laid them out on the bed. Felix leaves him to get dressed.
"Ten minutes and I am back in here, so make it quick. Eve has ordered food."
"Fine." He manages to croak out.
Felix joins Eve as she sets the table for the three of them. Felix takes the bottle of tequila and dumps it down the sink.
"I'm not going to lie Eve, he's not good."
"I know. None of us are. Those of us who know are devastated. It's like losing her twice. First, Skyfall the funeral, and now this."
"So M did not die months ago, and her age was actually reversed by your old Q?"
"Yes and she was so upset she banished Q, who only did it because he had been in love with her for 50 years. He waited until she lost her husband and then...used the serum on himself for a test."
"She was mad at obtaining what everyone on the planet wants?"
"He never gave her a choice...we all deserve a choice Felix. He just blindsided her and broke into her flat and jabbed her with a needle."
"Ok, I see your point. Then Bond's love for her came out and they married? It sounds even crazier than youth serum. I will not be putting any of this into my report."
Eve smiles. "I don't blame you. Yes, they fell in love and it was a very rocky road getting there. A man from her past came to claim her. The new M asked her out on a few dates too. She explained her and Q's revitalization, as plastic surgery. Only a few of us knew the truth. She was only in the offices a month and stayed out of sight as much as possible."
"I wish I could have met her." Felix says as the door opens.
Bond enters the room clean shaven and looking far more human. Even if it does not quite meet his eyes.
They sit and eat in relative silence. Bond stares down at his plate as he reaches for a beer but Eve hands him water.
"I think you could use this more."
"What I could use...what I need is...her."
"I know James. I am sorry."
"Tell me!"
"Q and Quinton analyzed everything the team brought back from the quadrant where your room was located. There was DNA evidence. They have had all of Q division go over all the external and internal camera feeds they could access. She was not seen leaving the hotel. All airports train and bus stations. They searched private airfields as well as they could access. Nothing."
"The CIA observance of the square has been sent to London so they could look through that also. There was no evidence that she escaped. James, I am truly sorry."
James bangs his hands down on the table as his eyes race around the room to look for his bottle.
"Felix dumped it James. M wants you back in London. We leave tomorrow morning 6 am. There is a funeral in Rome that the Q's think you need to attend. For Marco Sciarra. They finally took possession of the body from the Mexican authorities and the funeral is sometime within the next two weeks. It may lead you to who did this."
James' eyes snap to hers, as his brows raise. "They found the lead? M...she mentioned the night before...that the funeral would be in Rome."
"Yes...It will be James, and you should be there to find out everything about him."
James fingers the silver ring in his pocket.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Tanner takes Bond to the underground lair of Q. "He is hiding away is he?"
"Yes. We are all devastated Bond. Believe me."
"I do. I can't deal with Ryan and Judi right now. I hope Mallory is managing her children."
"He has his hands full and he would rather you stay out of the line of fire. You met C."
"Yes...what an arrogant twat."
"Exactly. This joining of the nine security branches into one has M worried."
"She mentioned it to me the night before. Said she would have made such a fuss it would have been scrapped in the planning phases."
Tanner smiles thinking about M going off on everyone like she use too. "Bond; when all is said and done you should take some time. Go away for a while. Heal."
"I will go away but I will never heal. The love of my life died within a month of our wedding."
"Yes, but you had that month! That is longer than some of us have had."
Bond remains silent as they come to the dock. Tanner tries to help him up. Bond goes in and looks at the fire power. None of it is for him...they even taunt him with the car for 009 as they tag him.
All he gets is a exploding watch and the subtle invitation to steal the DB10 because the DB5 is not ready. M has told him to stay in London until he can deal with the aftermath of the bombing in Tunis, Hamburg and Mexico City.
Tanner and Q realize that is not going to happen. Tanner wanders the room to allow him to make the plans, he needs plausible deniability. Tanner knows that Bond's going to Sciarra's funeral in Rome. Even in his diminished emotional state, Bond will sniff out this mission.
For her.
Tanner will do anything he can behind the scenes to help him. They all loved her.
Quinton and Séverine are going through files and images with a fine tooth comb to find where White may have kept his secrets. This may lead them to whatever Quantum and Silva were involved with and more importantly, who.
Q lectures him about the new world order around here and that his two cats will be homeless should he screw this up.
Bond alludes to needing time. Q says the bio signs will not be active in next 72 hours.
Time for a funeral.
To be continued...
