Sitting on the balcony, Bond listened as he heard the noise of the traffic in central London. He had arranged for him and Madeleine to stay in a swanky hotel in the centre of the city while he was back visiting his daughter. But it wasn't just his daughter now. He always found Q with her. The two of them now came as part of a package deal. Her boyfriend, no fiancé, was now a part of Bond's family, no matter how annoying Bond found him to be. He kept quiet as he sipped on his scotch and listened to Madeleine hum to herself in the background as she slipped out of her dress and into her pyjamas.

Bond had undone the top three buttons of his shirt, his tie long gone in the bedroom. The view was becoming quite nice, overlooking the Thames. People could hardly see them from the height they were at. Bond took another sip of his drink before feeling Madeleine rest a hand on his shoulder. She took the seat next to his as Bond took her hand and kissed the back of it. She continued beaming at him before sipping on her champagne.

"You have been quiet since we said goodbye to Alison and Q," Madeleine commented, placing her glass down on the mosaic table in front of her, hearing the blaring of horns in the distance. "What is going on?"

"Nothing," Bond said and Madeleine frowned at him. He shrugged again. "Honestly, there is nothing wrong, Madeleine. I am just…well…it feels odd."

"What feels odd?" she asked from him before putting two and two together. She didn't even need to ask him. She should have known. It was another moment before she dared to move to her feet. Plonking herself down on James's lap, she threw an arm over his shoulders. Taking the glass of scotch from him, she placed it on the table with her glass. "Alison being engaged?"

"I know she is a young woman now," James said to her. "And I know that I have no right to tell her what to do and I want her to be happy, but is this the right thing for her?"

"What?" Madeleine asked. "Marriage?"

"Settling down," Bond said, clarifying. "She is still young, Madeleine. She is in her twenties and already thinking of settling down and I know that Q makes her happy and she loves him and he loves her…but marriage seems so final. Is she too young to get married?"

"You said it yourself that she is a young woman," Madeleine said to him. "Now is this about her or is this about something else?"

Bond's brows knitted together and he chewed down on his lip. "What do you mean?" he asked in a mutter.

"Well, talking about settling down and marriage," Madeleine said. "For as long as I have known Alison she has wanted the quiet life. She enjoys it…is it not her you're scared about but you?"

"Don't psychoanalyse me," Bond urged from her and Madeleine squeezed his shoulders, trying not to let him get too anxious. She didn't want to do that to him. She knew James better than he thought. It was her job to know people and Bond was no mystery to her.

"You're projecting onto her," Madeleine said. "Alison has no problem with settling down, but you do. You're worried because you're worried about yourself, James."

"No, I'm not," Bond said to her and she scoffed.

"Really?" she checked, voice clearly with a tone of disbelief. "It's fine, James. I don't mind. We've been together for a year now and you have enjoyed travelling with me…we have seen different sights together…it has been an adventure, but we both know that adventures end. I think that scares you. You are so used to adventures."

"I love what we have," James promised Madeleine. "I love being with you, Madeleine. I do not want you to think that I would ever grow bored with you."

"I do not think that," she said to him. "I just think that you are scared of living without your job. It is all you have known for years, James, and I understand that. But everything will be fine. We will be fine. Just do not put your fears onto Alison. She is happy."

"I know," James said, voice slightly strained before sighing and reaching for Madeleine's hand, squeezing it tightly. "I know," he repeated, his tone lighter this time as she bent down and kissed him chastely. He leaned into her then, losing himself for a moment as he tried to place his worries to the side. In the long run, they were not worries. He was happy. He just had to let himself be happy instead of worrying. That was something that he found difficult to do.

"We will be fine," Madeleine promised him. "Alison will be fine too. She looked better than fine from what I had seen today."

"She…I love her, Madeleine," Bond said to her, voice slightly shaky as he leaned his head back and looked to the sky. "And the thought of another man being the one she turns to…it just makes me feel slightly redundant. I know that she has been with Q for a long time, but I just don't want to lose her."

"You are not going to lose her," Madeleine said confidently. "She adores you, James. She loves you and she will always need you. There is a difference between a husband and a father."

"I need to stop thinking about this," James muttered and Madeleine's lips quirked upwards as she ran a hand down his chest.

"I think I can help that."

….

Sitting at the desk in the living room, the lamp was on, illuminating the books that Alison was marking. She had gone through numerous career thoughts, wondering what she wanted to do in the long run. She had enjoyed interning at a PR firm, but then had volunteered to tutor a colleague's daughter in math. It was then when she had decided she enjoyed teaching. She had her math degree and she figured she could combine the two.

It has been hard work for a long time, setting up lesson plans and always bringing work home with her, especially while she did that alongside her university course. Now that she had lesson plans and ideas of what she was doing, she was still busy, but not working until the late hours.

"Here you go."

Alison had been lost in her marking that she barely heard Q behind her. Bending over where she sat, he placed a mug of hot chocolate on the coaster at the corner of the desk. Alison twirled her pen in her hand and peered up to look to him, kissing him on the cheek as he placed his hands on her shoulders, his fingers massaging her muscles as she moaned and leaned back.

"You feel tense," Q commented.

"I have been hunched over this desk for almost two hours," she responded. He continued kneading her shoulders, his fingers long enough to stretch out and cover a large expanse of her shoulders. "And I spent two hours after school today marking the year nine mock papers."

"And it is only Wednesday," Q said to her and she frowned, turning her head over her shoulder and looking up to him as his lips quirked at her pout. Bending down, he kissed her chastely, pulling back and resting his forehead against hers. "It will be Friday before we know it," he promised her.

"Hmm," she mumbled. "What are we doing this weekend anyway?"

"Well, your father has asked us out for dinner on Friday before he flies off again."

"Oh yeah," Alison said and turned back to her work as Q kept his hands on her shoulders. She started writing in one workbook, speaking in a concerned voice as she kept her gaze on her work. "Did you think he seemed off the other night?"

They had met Bond and Madeleine again for dinner on Monday night. Alison had gotten home early enough to cook a meal for them. Considering she was living in her father's apartment and barely paying him rent, she never wanted him to feel like this wasn't his home. But a part of him knew that it was more her home. He only had ever seen it as a base.

"How do you mean?" Q asked from her.

She shrugged as Q paused his movements. "I don't know," she responded. "He just seemed a bit distant…like…he had something on his mind."

Q took a moment to contemplate the other night. "I must admit that I did not think that there had been anything off," he said to her. "I thought that he had been his usual self, but you know him much better than I do."

"I guess I might be overreacting," Alison responded and leaned back once more, dropping the pen from her grip and reaching for the hot chocolate instead. Taking a sip of it, she let out a pleasant shudder and then placed it down. "I mean, he just seemed a bit odd. I'll talk to him on Friday…oh God, Q, right there." She trailed off, moaning as Q pushed into a sore spot and she arched back into him.

"Right," Q said quickly, "that's it."

"What?" Alison asked as he removed his hands from her and spun her around in her chair. She shrieked loudly as he took her hand, hauling her from her seat.

"If you insist on making those noise then I cannot be held responsible from dragging you away from your work and into the bedroom," Q said to her and she laughed at him, hands going to his shoulders as he picked her up, letting her legs wrap around his waist. "I'm only a man, Alison."

"Not just a man," Alison said, playing with the hair on the back of his neck, "my fiancé."

"I don't think I will ever tire of hearing you say that," he said to her.

"What about husband?" she asked him.

"Even better," he whispered against her lips and thought about the future they had together.

….

Alison had insisted that she had to go to the corner shop for another bottle of wine on the Friday evening. She had told her father she would cook dinner again instead of going out. She had hid one bottle of wine in her bedroom to run out on purpose. Asking her father to come with her, she had nodded at Q who remained seated at the dining table and entertaining Madeleine. Bond had pulled his coat on and offered his arm to Alison as the two of them stepped onto the quiet street.

"Are you going to tell me what is wrong or do I have to nag it out of you?" Alison asked her father, walking at as slow a pace as she could.

"Nothing is wrong," Bond promised her.

"You are a rubbish liar," she informed him, looking up to him as she dropped her free hand into the pocket of her red coat after brushing her hair over one shoulder. "You have been weirdly quiet at dinner tonight and the other night."

"It is nothing serious," he altered his statement and Alison frowned.

"Just talk to me," she pleaded from him. "Come on, dad."

He smiled at that. His daughter's voice urging for him to talk to her was one he had gotten used to. He looked down to her and moved his free hand to her cheek, cupping it gently for a moment.

"It's weird," Bond said. "I never thought that I would be any good at this parenting stuff and I never really had to do much of it before. Your mother was always good at that…but then…after everything…having you live with me…going through so much together…I never thought that we would be as close as we are. It just feels odd, Alison. I've never been able to call you my little girl because I didn't know you as a girl, but I still see you as…I don't know…you're my daughter and in a way it feels weird to me that you are getting married."

Alison frowned. "Do you not want me to get married?"

"Of course not," Bond said and he stood still, turning to face her. "Although, it would make me feel better to think of you living like a nun, but I don't want that. I want you to marry Q because he makes you happy…I just…I just realise now that there is another man who is going to make you happy…happier than I do. It feels weird to me."

"Dad," Alison sighed. "You don't need to feel that. I will always need you. There will never be a time when I don't need you."

"I know," Bond said, "and I know I am being irrational. I don't talk about feelings."

"Well you are doing a good job of it tonight," Alison said to him. "Nothing is going to change, dad. It is just that instead of being my boyfriend, Q is going to be my husband."

"And that still sounds odd," Bond mumbled and Alison smiled.

"I know," she promised him. "I'm not used to it. This is new for all of us, I guess."

"Just ignore me, Ali," Bond urged from her. "I don't know what has gotten into me. Since I left the field things have been strange."

"I know," she said to him, "but you have no need to think anything will change. You'll always be my dad and I will always want you around and need you."

"And I will always be there," Bond promised her. "And I am happy as long as you are happy."

"I'm happy," Alison promised with a nod. "Really happy."

"Then that is enough," James nodded. "Come on, we should get this bottle of wine before Q burns dessert."

Alison chuckled at that and nodded, moving her arm back into her father's as they made their way to the shop. James had to admit that he felt lighter. Perhaps everything would be fine in the end.

….

A/N: Do let me know what you think!