It was over. Zündapp had been arrested. So had his boss, the disgraced Miles Axlerod. The two men who had killed Leland... one of them was dead, the other missing. The former had been beaten to death, almost looking a little like Leland in death. They'd actually captured Finn during the mission, tying him along with two others to the machinery inside Big Bentley. They'd all almost died.

To make things worse, the two men -Grem and Ace- had taunted Finn about Leland. They'd beaten him. Then threw him into a trash compactor. Then pulled his corpse out of it. That's why his body was so broken. As broken as Finn emotionally was.

He hadn't killed himself, but he was pretty sure as soon as MI6 picked up on how traumatized he was, he'd be let go. Somehow they hadn't yet. But he knew he was. Everything got to him in ways it hadn't before. He was kept up at night, now expecting someone from a past mission to come and kill him at any time. He'd made lots of enemies over his long, illustrious career. He was driving to work and a driver had cut in front of his Aston Martin -he had nearly died on the spot. Outside of work he just shut himself inside his flat now -not that he was ever that sociable before. That had always been Leland's job. Right now, he was lying in bed, knowing he was probably going to call in sick to work today. Again. He hadn't slept in two days. He kept having this, these episodes of insomnia. After a couple days during one he just felt braindead. Maybe he just always was now, mentally fried by Leland's death. Maybe it would be better if he got fired. Move somewhere far away from London. It would be his first time moving out of the city. He'd been all around the world many times for work, but he had always remained here in his regular life. He had been born in the East End, and he had kept the accent despite being advised early in his career that it would hold him back.

And then they had brought Leland in from up north, and suddenly Finn's accent was only the second worst in their opinion. By the time Leland was killed it had softened, but back then...

Completely unintelligible. He was from Liverpool, and he was the first Scouser Finn had ever met in his life. Immediately Finn disliked him. The thick accent, the cocky attitude, the way he carried himself...

Both of them had grown up working class, but Leland had always carried himself differently than Finn. If he had grown up more privileged he probably would have gone to an art school somewhere.

Instead he ended up in the military like Finn, only less willingly. Both of them had then ended up at MI6. Finn was the introverted one, quiet and retreating in his personal life. At work he was the perfect suave British agent, like you'd see in a James Bond film -at least until he opened his mouth. Leland didn't even try to fit that stereotype, rather, he made the role fit him. Finn hated that at first but over the years, as Finn himself grew more confident, it become one of the best things about Leland.

There were so many wonderful things about Leland. He had been great with women, something Finn was lacking in. What no one knew back then was that there had been a reason for Finn being so gun-shy around them.

He didn't like them. No, not in the sense of having issues towards women or being angry with them, but rather in the sense of never being attracted to them. The only people Finn had ever felt that way towards... were other men. It had started when he was very young. A classmate older just by a year. Finn never spoke a word to the other boy, but that had been his first crush. Throughout his late childhood and adolescence he had been waiting for that moment when it would be a girl that would make him feel that way, and all the things he had rehearsed in his head with various male crushes would become applicable to the real world, the normal world.

He realized at a certain point that day would never come. He left denial and entered the closet. He had been partnered with Leland for a few years, having long moved past his initial apprehension towards the man, when they were sent to Hong Kong. They had both been so young. Finn hadn't even gone grey yet -his once honey-blonde hair had faded away in his thirties.

He thought back to that night. Leland and him had been waiting in a nightclub for an informant, but the man never came. Towards the end of the night, with no one watching them, Leland kissed Finn.

And Finn kissed back. They gave up waiting for the informant after that. Finn still vividly remembered Leland driving him back to the hotel, with Hong Kong's neon lights shining through the rain.

"I'm sorry, Finn." Finn, lost in thought, snapped back to reality.

"For what?" Leland gave him a sort-of "you know what" look. Finn's face shifted a little.

"No, it's fine, Leland, I-"

"It's unprofessional, and I'm sorry. Stella and me just broke up and I guess-"

"Leland." Finn made eye contact with the visibly embarrassed man, eerily lit up by the yellow glow of a neon light. Finn gave him a slight smile.

"I... I enjoyed it, Leland. You know... there's a reason why I'm never with girls."

"Finn..." Leland was a little surprised that Finn wasn't angry with him. He was also surprised that Finn was gay. Leland turned into a dark parking garage and put the car -Finn's Aston Martin- in park.

"Finn, I know the agency doesn't even want field partners to be friends, but I... I think I love you, Finn." Finn blushed.

"And I've been trying to hold it back, because they'd have my arse for it. So I thought having a bird would stop me, but I couldn't lie to Stella anymore, 'cos she wanted to get married and I just cannot have a bloody wife and live a lie forever. I didn't have it in me to marry a straight woman while being... gay." Leland looked down.

"Finn, I was leaving Stella every morning and coming into work and just. Just thinking about how I wanted to have you instead of her. And she started naggin' me about getting married and I told meself, 'Leland, you can't do this to her. She deserves romance'. So I broke it off." Leland sighed.

"The agency's gonna kill me for this." Leland looked straight ahead at the rain, with Finn looking right at him, taking him in as if he had never seen the other man before. Leland was attractive, stockier than the bony, gaunt Finn. His titian red hair was shaved on the sides, and he had a mustache, although his was shorter and thicker than Finn's. He was wearing little tiny gold rings in his ears, and in context now, Finn could tell he was gay.

"Not if we hide it, they won't." Leland turned to face Finn.

"What?"

"Secrets are part of our job, Leland."

"I never thought I'd see the day I'd hear you talk about going behind MI6's back."

"And I never thought I'd see the day I'd find the one I love."

Finn jolted upright, hearing his phone ring. He picked jt up.

"Hello?"

"A Karmann Ghia has no radiator." The posh voice on the other end replied -it was Holley, Leland's replacement.

"That's because it's air-cooled." He quickly answered in his own working-class accent.

"Finn?" Finn must have been running late again. Maybe they were going to discipline him -or finally fire him.

"You must come to St. George's Hospital." Finn's face contorted in confusion.

"What? Why?"

"MI6 wanted you to hear it from me, so... they said your old field partner is here, and they're going to let you see him."

"Holley, my dear, Leland passed away. Whoever's there, they've been mixed up with him."

"No, it is him, I swear! MI6 brought me in to look at him, it's really Agent Turbo." Finn sighed.

"He's dead."

"They told me an American agent evacuated him from the oil rig the night you came to rescue him."

"I saw his body, Holley." Holley hung up, only to text Finn a minute later. She had send Finn a photo of a man lying in a hospital bed, unconscious and severely injured. Finn's heart sank as he realized he recognized him immediately.

It was Leland.