Chapter 13: The problems of dealing with a minor

Q looked at the young woman walking next to him. She kept shooting glances at him as if she wasn't really sure what to make of him. Which, in fairness, wasn't that surprising. The girl, though orphaned at the age of thirteen, had grown surprisingly sheltered. She'd lived with a loving foster family for years. It was only last year that her life had taken a turn for the worse. She'd had to move out after a nasty accident had left the father paralyzed and in need of a lot of care which had caused tensions. Her current family weren't bad but it was obvious that, when she turned 18 the next year, she would unable to stay there. Q knew from the stories that he'd heard from the other orphans that Mansfield loved to employ, that striking out on their own had been very upsetting and he was going to make sure that Mandi wouldn't be alone in dealing with that. He just hoped she would accept his help.

The nervousness seemed to keep her from opening up though so, with the breakroom looming on the right, Q decided to try make her feel more at ease in a typical British way.

"Tea?" He asked as he opened the door. Inside the breakroom it was moderately quiet. A couple of R's engineers were seated at the large table while Andy and Justin were on the couches that lined the corner. All looked up as they entered but returned to their conversations after a nod in greeting.

"Please." Mandi answered softly, appearing a little calmer with more people around. Q gestured to the chairs on the other side of the table from where the boffins were sitting. He grabbed a couple of Q-mugs, ignoring the R-mugs while sending a small smirk to R's people because he couldn't help himself, and poured hot water in them. The tea box and milk and sugar packets were handed over by the amused engineers and Mandi accepted them gratefully, already more at ease because the light banter.

"How are you, Ms. Parker?" He asked quietly after they had sipped their tea in silence for a while. "I apologize for the mess in the room just now. I hope you feel more at ease now?" He knew the fighting had upset her, reminded her of the fights that had broken out after her foster father's accident.

"Yes, thank you." Mandi said quietly. She seemed to be mulling over something because her expression seemed to sour more and more. Until finally she broke.

"Why are people always so… so… bleh." She pulled a disgusted face that made Q smile. "I mean." She ranted on. "If we just worked together, we could get do so many things. But no." The sarcasm was dripping of her voice. "People just refuse to be nice."

"You'll find that adults are very flawed. And because they notice the flaws in others, they think it justifies their own behaviour." Q responded.

"Well, it doesn't." Mandi sat back in her chair and crossed her arms in huff. She looked so much like the typical teenager that it made Q smile. He hoped that the passion that the girl displayed wouldn't be completely lost as she grew up.

"So, how did you start hacking?" He asked to take her mind of things.

"Well, there was this teacher in school, just before I had to leave, that saw I was good with computers. I was having some issues with a couple of girls from my class, and he allowed me to sit in on the upper year classes whenever I had free time. Learned a lot from him. And from there it just grew, I guess. I kept in touch with him when I moved. He built the school website and challenged me to hack it. My first attempt I got in in 4 seconds because they forgot to delete my log-in codes. He was so ashamed." Q laughed at that.

"He got me a few jobs after that." She continued. "Some we even did together." She fell silent after that and a sad smile played on her face.

"You lost touch?" Q asked the obvious.

"He got busy with teaching and decided to get out of the game. When the gauntlet was run, I had hoped he would get in touch with me. But I heard nothing." She replied sadly.

"Sorry to hear that. Still, I bet you had fun with the gauntlet." Q said once again changing the subject, trying to raise the girl's enthusiasm back up. She smiled.

"Did you run it?" She asked a little excited.

"Well, someone had to test it." He answered keeping his fingers crossed Mandi didn't jump to the right conclusion straight away.

"Wait, you know GH0ST?" She exclaimed. Behind them he heard Andy and Justin snigger softly.

"Yes." He answered. He sat back a little and fished the document he had taken out of her file out of his pocket.

"Ms Parker, before I tell you anything else, I have to ask you to sign this document. It's called the Official Secrets Act. Read it well before you do. It is important that you follow the directions of it if you decide to sign it." He handed over the document. The girl looked clearly startled.

"I'm a minor." She started. "Shouldn't I have a guardian present before I sign anything." Q could smack himself. He should've remembered that dealing with a minor also meant dealing with their guardians. And that if he had wanted to avoid that he should've waited until she was 18. He put his head in his hand for a moment basking in his own stupidity. Then he sat up. He was just going to have to deal.

"Yes." He answered before asking. "Have you told your guardians where you are?"

Mandi cringed clearly answering that question.

"No." She said. "They're not really interested in me. I mean, they're great people and all. But they're trying very hard not to get attached because I have to move out in a few months. And they're trying to make the transition easier by not keeping tabs on me. But they told me to call if I needed them. I think this applies. It's just that they don't know about the hacking…" She cringed again at the thought of having explain. Q thought fast. Sent a quick message of to Mycroft to confirm which got him a quick reply. He sighed in relief.

"I have a lawyer on the perimeter who can act in their stead if you don't want to tell them. He can go over the document with you, make sure you completely understand what it says and sign in your guardians' stead. Or," He said making sure the girl knew all the options available to her. "I can escort you to the door and you leave, no harm done. You don't have to sign if you're not comfortable." He saw the girl hesitate and mentally crossed his fingers, hoping she wouldn't leave. He could do so much more for her if she would let him. The scholarship was hers, no matter if she signed or not. He would just approach her again when she was done with uni. But if she signed…

"It's nothing scary." Andy cut in, trying to reassure the scared girl. "It basically says you're not allowed to tell anyone anything about this place and what you've seen and heard here."

"We've all signed it when we started working here." Justin added. The two boffins nodded in consent.

"You want me to work here? But I'm 17 and I just got a scholarship to go to university and I…" Mandi was clearly starting to panic now.

"Mandi, I need you to take a deep breath. Can you do that for me?" Q took control back of the situation. While he appreciated the others efforts it clearly wasn't helping. Mandi nodded hesitantly. Before taking a breath. "Good now hold it. And let it out slowly." He guided her through a few more breaths. The others, noticing they weren't helping left the room.

"Better?" Q asked. Mandi nodded. "Good, now listen. Though recruitment is definitely the aim of today's meeting I will not give you a job offer today. Go to university, stay out of trouble and there's a job waiting for you when you're done. But you impressed me and I wanted to meet you despite not being able to get you to come and work for me today." Q said. There was a knock at the door before it opened. Q gestured for the lawyer to come in. "Now, read this through with the lawyer and if you don't feel right about it then, for any reason, you can leave. I'll be back in about ten minutes." He walked towards the door, shortly explained the situation to the lawyer and left the room.

"Whidden is almost done with his testimony. MI5 has taken Pasco to lockup prior to interrogation. I have sent the tapes along with them but they will probably want the other two to testify against her." Arabella reported, looking up from her phone as he stepped into the observation room. She had been watching the confession going on in the other room.

"Well, we can always ask." Q answered as he watched Whidden write out his testimony in the room beyond the window. He would indeed be done soon and ready for Q to present him with the contracts. But he also needed to get back to Mandi. "Damn, this day is not going as smoothly as I would like." Q complained.

"Hmmm, you do too much yourself as always." Arabella commented absentmindedly. "Delegation is not your strongpoint."

Q sighed as he always did. "True, as always. Will you take care of Whidden for me? Then I can focus on Parker until they are all ready for the tour." Arabella nodded as she typed.

"Thank you." He sighed in relief. He wanted to say more but was interrupted by his phone alerting. Cursing he fished it out of his pocket and looked.

"Just what we need, 001 is checking in. I need to go. I'll be in the IT department. You take care of Whidden and have Jordan take care of Parker. Bring them all to the IT-department once they're done. They might as well see what we want them to do eventually." He ordered as he walked out of the room putting the phone to his ear.

"001, this is Q. I will reach a computer in 90 seconds to assist you. In the meantime, give me a status report..."

Today was going to be a long day.