Chapter 17: The return of Ormond Greaves

Ormond Greaves was seated in the back of the taxi that had appropriated for the sole purpose of driving him to and from headquarters for the time being. April was at the wheel, her normal tailored business suit exchanged for a cheaper example that still hid all of her weapons. She stopped the car directly in front of the public entrance of headquarters. The shady money exchange shop at the edge of the shopping centre that fronted it was almost never used by employees. Only when they would come in the first time would they come to this entrance, then they would be assigned another every other week. This to prevent people noticing what was going on underneath their feet.

He walked slowly into the exchange, thankfully no longer as unsteady on his feet as he had been the day before. After they'd left Wiggins, he'd slept the rest of the day and the whole night before waking up refreshed in Bond's place. The flat was bare, just a lot of half unpacked boxes everywhere. Only a chair, side table and the TV in front of it were regularly in use. It's where 007 planted him in when he woke and told him not to move. Q's blood pressure had been higher that morning but it was still too low to be doing anything rigorous. Bond had bargained with him that if he'd stayed resting the rest of the day and his blood pressure didn't drop any further, he could go in that night. So, he spent his day watching some old MythBusters episodes until April came to let Bond get to HQ before him and to help him with his disguise.

"What do you want?" The scruffy looking man behind the security glass asked unkindly, startling him out of his thoughts.

"I want to withdraw some money. I don't have a penny on me right now." Ormond answered quietly in his Birmingham accent.

"Name?" The guy asked with narrowed eyes.

"Ormond Greaves."

"Wait there." The man pointed to the bench covering the other side as he picked up the phone. Ormond walked over and lowered himself onto the bench with a soft sigh. He hated to admit that he probably shouldn't be on his feet yet. He felt fine whenever he stayed off his feet but as soon as he got up it was like all energy just drained out of him.

"Ormond? Christ, it is you!" Jordan walked in from the back. The agent, because he definitely looked like an agent, was wearing his mask perfectly. If anyone was looking in, they would definitely believe Jordan was seeing an old friend. "I thought you were dead, mate. I almost couldn't believe it when she said you were coming in today. Come on I'll take you downstairs."

Ormond slowly got to his feet hating himself for feeling so unsteady. Jordan quickly walked to his side.

"Christ, should you be on your feet? I mean, brain injuries are no joke, man." He said as he helped Ormond of the couch.

"Just couldn't sit still anymore. Rehab sucked. Just get me to a desk and I'll be fine. I just tire easily." Ormond grouched.

"All right, my friend, but you're not getting up after unless it's to go to the bathroom. You need anything you ask one of the others." Jordan chided gently. "I'm off duty in an hour or so but Justin got transferred to the nightshift. Remember him?"

"Sure, what colour is his mohawk today?" Ormond asked with a grin.

"He's been purple for a week now, red before that." Jordan answered with a laugh. He led him through a set of doors to an elevator at the end of the hall. The doors closed behind them.

"How've you been, Jordan?" He asked quietly as the lift started to slowly move down. He looked the agent over, noticing the tightness in his posture that indicated pain and exhaustion. He seemed to be coping though.

"Well, you wouldn't believe it but I've been offered training as a field agent." Jordan said sounding like someone had done something insane.

"Field agent? You?" Ormand laughed in faked disbelief.

"Yup, me. I've got to say training is hard. And painful. We started hand to hand yesterday. My bruises have bruises I'm telling you." Jordan groaned with a laugh. Q studied him closely. The Jordan before him was very different man from the one who he'd last seen a few weeks ago. He projected confidence and calm and his posture was straighter. He was a lot better at hiding his insecurity, though Q could still see it. But the calm he was projecting wasn't faked. It seemed being in the field suited Jordan quite well. Bond had given a report on their mission and had praised Jordan's performance in the field. Jordan had been as green as could be off course but he was showing great potential. Coming from a double-0 that was high praise.

"Well, good for you, mate. It clearly suits you. Hate to lose you as a colleague though." He said.

"You think so?" Jordan asked him, suddenly shy. "I mean I still have a lot to learn. People still sneak up on me all the time."

"Well duh. It hasn't been that long, has it? It takes time you know." Ormond replied. "But I think you could be great. It would be good for MI6 to have a field agent with your skills. But if you want to stay in Q-branch that's totally cool too. You might even be able to do both part time, you know. Just think about it." Because Q would really hate it if Jordan went into the field full time and would totally kick up a fuss with M to keep him. But only if he wanted to.

"I don't know man. I haven't had time to think at all between work and training and everything else. Though part time would be really cool." The lift stopped and the doors opened up into a barely lid corridor.

"Just think about it. How's everyone else by the way?" Ormond asked as they walked out.

"Well there's a bit of upheaval at the moment. Mind, this is my first day back in the department since I started training so this is all second hand but we've gotten new department heads and there are a lot of complaints both ways and Moneypenny isn't really taking them seriously. Can't really blame her, she has got a lot on her plate, I guess. Don't want colour your opinion though, just thought I'd let you know. Just wish Q or R would be back to solve things."

"There's no Q or R?" Ormond asked mainly to get a feel of what the stories were to explain their disappearances.

"No Q said he had something to do, and then never came back. There's all sorts of stories going around there but Q being Q we're trying not to dig into it." Ormond frowned in confusion. "Oh right. You don't know. Q isn't like the previous Q's. He's much more involved in the organisation then just Q-branch. It's all hush hush though. We think he's pulled away, taking care of other stuff. Which wouldn't be such a big deal if R was still here. But a few days after Q left she came down with burn-out so we won't be seeing her for a while. I just hope she'll be better soon." They walked out of the corridors into the main hall which was bustling as ever.

"Welcome to HQ." Jordan said.

They walked along the balcony to the tunnel of the other side. Q fought the urge the catch up with people. To see how his department was coping but that wasn't his task now so he took a deep breath. Exhaustion settled over him suddenly and just kept himself from stumbling. He gritted his teeth. He wasn't going to stop and rest and give his minders the satisfaction of knowing they were right.

"Almost there, Ormond." Jordan mumbled just loudly enough for him to hear and Q silently cursed him for becoming so observant. He was right though because no time later they were standing in front of an office. Ormond knocked and went in when called.

Moneypenny had taken over the office Q and R used for paperwork. The place was still as bare as it had been when they had used it except there were a few more filing cabinets. M's assistant was hard at work but when he entered, she looked up and gestured him to a chair.

"Mister Greaves. Welcome back." She said politely.

"Thank you, ma'am." He said quietly. "It's good to be back."

"I have orders for you directly from M." She said as she handed him a black envelope similar to the ones the agents got. It even had top secret stamped on it. "You are to work on a special project for the Double-0's. There are four of them in London at the moment though not all are at your disposal we'll make sure one of them will be available to you whenever you need them. All progress reports will be made directly to M." Q nodded. It was a good cover for him to be in contact with the double-0's and with M. He opened the envelope to read the missive.

Mister Greaves,

Welcome to HQ.

Your orders are to take the rest you need. The Director convinced me to let you back for the sake of world security. And no, he did not formulate it as that but that is basically what it came down to. So, you make sure you rest. No extra hours, no active missions.

If you must work on something, start making progress with the recruitment, if you can do it within the limit of your hours. If not, I'm sure you can find other ways to keep yourself occupied.

Good luck and I'll talk to you soon.

M

"Thank you." He said as he looked up, resisting the urge at having another minder added to the list.

"I'll let Mister Bruskin show you where you'll be working. Good luck." She answered and returned to her paperwork.

"Thank you, ma'am." Ormond said and cursed back a sigh at having to stand up again so soon. He did so without shaking thankfully and went to the door, orders in hand. He would dispose of them later.

Jordan was waiting for him.

"Come on. I'll show you your spot before I leave. Got you a nice corner, like you used to have. I know how you like to be out of the way. We even turned the desk so your back is to the wall." Jordan said as they walked towards the department, knowing that interesting times were ahead.