London
They made it to London and took M directly to medical. Bond refused to leave her side and told Tanner to call Judith and have her come in. Mallory was called, and even with the late hour he was still there in M's office waiting for them. Mallory arrived in medical an hour after they got M settled if you could call it that.
M was not a cooperative patient in any way. M and Bond were similar in that respect.
"Hello M. How are you?"
"Fine Mallory and I wish everyone would just stop worrying and let me go home."
Mallory smiled at the stubborn, former head of MI6 and shook his head. Mallory did not relish that he would have to tell her that conversations were swirling around her...forced retirement because of this. It had not escaped notice that she went missing and that an estate in Italy was destroyed with MI6 heavily involved.
"We will but since the perpetrators of your kidnapping may be loose we will have you stay here for observation...and that is an order M."
Tanner smiled but quickly corrected his face when he saw M glare at the lot of them. No one was spared the steel eyed gaze from the former boss of MI6.
"I told you M...you are not M right now. I will stay on as M's bodyguard unless the units are up and ready to depart for Morocco."
"No 007, Q has been following various trails and although they did find something in the desert they believe the attack in Italy was routed and those concerned fled to Austria.
"Then I will go there…"
"No, we believe that you are too close to this situation so 005 and 008 are already closing in on the location of Franz Oberhauser. I have a back up team in Austria and for now you would be better served as a bodyguard pending a review of you disappearing from work to chase after M to begin with"
"I took it as personal time. There is no need for an investigation."
M looked suddenly shocked. "You took your personal time to chase after us...007 how unprofessional."
"Unprofessional...shall we discuss how you were using your daughter and yourself as bait to pull various psychopaths out of hiding and could have been killed and or worse for it?" Bond saud with his hands on his hips.
M's mouth hung open. "I would have been…"
"As thrilling as the tale of what happened was I need to tell you that the government is aware of what has gone on. Apparently Ian...your gentleman friend has friends in the government and after you basically told him what you do for a living there are those aware that you have had issues with in the past M. Haines being the biggest voice among them clamoring for your forced retirement." Mallory said.
The room grew silent as they watched M for a reaction. M sat with her arms crossed over her breasts sitting up in her hospital bed as she stared at her feet under the covers. Everyone was cautiously waiting for a reaction, any response about what had happened but M was just too bloody tired to fight all these swirling emotions in her head.
When she finally did look up her gaze immediately met Bond's gorgeous blue eyes.
"I think that you will make a wonderful replacement for me Mallory. I just need a couple of months to tie up some loose ends and the job will be yours."
The room was eerily silent with disbelief. "It is time. I've done this a long time and I should have left 5 years ago...but didn't"
"M?" Tanner and Bond basically said at the same time.
"I've outlived my usefulness as head of MI6. However, I would like to continue to assist and become an agent."
Mallory had the good sense not to let his mouth hang open like Tanner and Bond. "I think that is a very interesting idea M and it could be really useful as an analyst on contract of course. For as long as you want."
"No...you know that I meant as a field agent. Who would suspect me? It's perfect. No one would pay attention to me, a little old lady."
"They will when I'm with you." Bond stated.
"Bond...you are a 00 agent and I will not have that designation."
"And I will not let you go anywhere dangerous on your own. I will take a demotion and the two of us can do surveillance work or teach bloody windsurfing! Whatever the future state of your job is, I will be involved in so much as to make sure that no one hurts you M."
"I did hazard to say to M, that I thought she was too sentimental about you Bond but I had no idea that this was mutual. Although, it makes me uncomfortable to have to ask this...but are the two of you in a relationship?" Mallory asked.
Tanner cleared his throat and looked anywhere but at the others as he shifted uncomfortably on his feet in the corner of the room.
Bond just nodded and said, "yes," at the same moment that M said, "no!"
M stared daggers at Bond. "We are not in a relationship!"
"We are in a way. From a certain point of view." Bond explained.
There was a knock at the door and Judith poked her head in the room. Tanner and Mallory said their hellos and left the room. Judith hugged Bond and then her mother as she sat on the side of her mother's bed.
"What is going on? Why is everyone bolting from the room and very quiet? Tanner looked about to burst."
"Your mother is going to be forced to retire and now she wants to be an agent provocateur." Bond said with a smirk. "And I told her that she was not going anywhere without me."
"Good, you finally told her how you feel. It's about time the two of you got together." Judith said with a wink and a smile at Bond who was pacing the room like a caged tiger. "What is it? What's wrong?" Judith asked with a frown.
"There is no us, my dear. Bond and I are not compatible and we are certainly not going to be partners in all this."
"Why not?" Judith and Bond asked simultaneously.
"Because you have work to do as a 00 agent and you are far too…"
"Young? Come on M I'm closer to 50 than I care to admit and I've barely survived some very intense years. You and I both know I will have to retire being a 00 soon and how rarely 00's actually get to retire and not just die in the field."
"You could be the first and I could see you training new recruits and eventually moving up the ladder in MI6...possibly becoming M in the future. You are an intelligent man Bond and this could happen if you don't go out and get yourself killed being reckless like coming after us on this mission."
"I trained you to seduce men. Don't you understand yet why I followed you?"
"Mum...Bond was in love with you and couldn't stand to see you seduce other men. I personally think that it was romantic of him to chase after you and try to keep other men from...well I suppose he was too late for that in the end but the thought was very romantic."
"Judith, you always were too romantic. James Bond is not a romantic and neither am I. I am a pragmatist who understands my job, my loyalty to the cause and the rules of engagement."
"I may be a pragmatist M but I do also have feelings that you tend to dismiss. I do love you and I will follow you."
"Bond...I'm getting tired of all this. I need to rest and you need to talk to a psychologist about your obvious mother issues."
"No...no...no you do not get to dismiss my desire for you by tossing around pseudo psychological issues you think I have! You cannot explain my love away in any convenient package that will make me leave. Hell... even if you order me away... I will stay. The only way you will rid yourself of me in the short term would be to let me go after Franz before he causes more trouble but others have already been sent. Therefore you're stuck with me."
Judith smiled. "I for one agree. However, I left without dinner and am famished. Bond could you please go get us something to eat?"
Bond nodded. "So long as the two of you stay put. Oh and M, your house will have to be swept for anything dangerous before you return tomorrow. It would be best for me to move into your spare room for the foreseeable future."
"Why? It's not like my bodyguard ever has sleepovers, why should you?"
"M you know why." Bond frowned and left the two women alone.
"Mum what is going on with you two?"
"Bond thinks he's in love with me and he cannot be."
"Why not?"
"Why are you not surprised by this?"
"Because he and I spoke at length on the ship about his feelings for you. At my most vulnerable I came on to him and he declined."
"You what!"
"You heard me mother. I came on to him since you dismissed all his obvious flirtations and then tumbled into bed with Ian. I swear you did that just to get a rise out of me and Bond. Either that or you were trying to push us together to justify why he couldn't possibly love you like he claims."
"I have had a stressful few days and I don't need anymore drama, you included, young lady."
"I am hardly young and I could see the way his eyes always followed you. At first I thought he was taking his job extra seriously but when he was teaching us how to seduce men he was completely uncomfortable about it...you must have noticed."
"I did but I didn't go to...oh...a dangerous agent has a crush on me...territory."
"Mum you need to get your head on straight. You are interested in him...or you would not have reacted to me coming on to him how you did." Judith stated as she glared at her mother.
"Mum you are not officially in charge of him...you have stepped aside and with all that has happened I hope you will consider making that permanent and letting James get close to you as well."
"But I can't do that! What if he was out on a mission and I was not…"
"There to oversee him? Is that it? You don't think he will be safe unless you are here to control everything around him?"
The two women searched each other's eyes as M nodded her head just slightly.
"Mum...I don't know how to get around that….unless Bond retires as well?"
"The organization needs him...even more than they need me."
Judith sat down on the edge of the hospital bed with her mother and picked up her hand. "Mum the country will survive without the two of you. Trust in all your agents and Mallory seems nice."
"Nice is he...do we need to have another conversation about the emotional highs and lows of a mission?"
"No and you were right I was scared to death and bored stiff all at the same time."
"I know darling...and I am so thankful for Bond and Tanner looking after you before he came for me. I would have fired him had he not seen to your safety first."
"Oh James knew that mum. And he did look after me and you. I am sorry to hear about your former agent...Tiago and what he had planned."
M looked shocked, "Mallory read you into that? I don't know that I wanted you to know that much about it." M frowned.
"He told me after our meeting and we went for dinner and…"
"Dinner!? Oh...so you two? Are you? Did you?"
"Just dinner mum...nothing serious. And yes...I do like him. I think he is a trustworthy person but I just don't know about being involved with yet another head of this organization. I see how it ruled your life over us and father."
M squeezed her daughter's hand. "I think he is an excellent man."
"And so is James and I swear to god if you don't sleep with that man I will never speak to you again." Judith answered with a smile and a chuckle.
"Judith! Really now. I cannot just sleep with an agent!"
"Ian could have been an agent."
"No I had Q run background on him before it went that far. He was a nice man and I had a good time."
"But you didn't have the feeling you have for Bond."
"No."
"Good."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because that means that you have feelings for your agent and you and he will be a wonderful couple. Even if the public kind of finds it gross. I will not because I understand the two of you a lot better after this mission. I know he is crazy for you and would never hurt you intentionally."
"You really wouldn't mind? What if we all went out for dinner...I still think I would be embarrassed to appear in public together with everyone assuming I'm his mother and you are his wife."
"Do you really care that much about what others think? Come on now. You are the bloody head of MI6! Why would you care and if it's that big a deal just laugh it off and kiss him. They will think he is your toy boy but who the hell cares about anyone other than family and friends!"
"Ok...ok dear. Don't get your knickers in a twist. I will calmly have a discussion with James and discuss this possibility."
"Good!. Do you want me to stay at the house with you for a while or will Bond be enough of a distraction while you heal?"
M laughed. "A distraction he may well be."
There was a knock at the door and Bond peaked back in with a bag of food that he dropped into an empty chair near the door. "M there has been some chatter about Morocco. Do you want me to bring Tanner, Q and Mallory down to read you in?"
"Yes I would. Bring them down. Help me sit up Judith."
Judith got off the bed and hit the button to raise the head of the bed more. She retrieved the bag of food and brought it over to the table she wheeled closer to M over the bed so that she could eat her sandwich. "Here Mum, eat this. Do you need me to leave?"
"No you can stay. You were a part of this mission as well."
M and Judith ate their sandwiches and began on their soup and tea. A few minutes later Bond entered again and all of them moved into the room and surrounded M's bed.
Mallory began the debrief. "The team has found a base of operations. Q can you continue?"
"Yes most certainly. The base was equipped like a server and what we found was that they are the company behind the 9 eyes initiative that is being toted to all the governments involved as a future way of policing for terrorism."
"That is suspicious. Were there any found there?"
"No M no one. There was a large message to 007 however. It had pictures of many of our Quantum members who 007 took care of, Greene, Le Chiffe, Silva and...Vesper."
Bond tensed. "He's here. I know it. He is looking for us. While we're here we're safe from him. However, that also means that I'm also not out preventing the chaos that he could cause now that we interrupted his plans for world domination.
"You really think he would follow you to London?" M asked concerned by the implications.
"Yes and we will need agents in my flat and M's house. He will come to get what he came for and that was the two of us. I think he wants to toruture me by having M as a pawn in his control."
"Well that cannot happen!" Mallory states seriously. "Oberhauser will not take M. She's far too important to let fall into his hands. M you must stay here in the room off your office upstairs and Judith can stay with you as well."
M frowned, really wanting to go home. "I knew I had to stay tonight after the doctor demanded it but I had hoped to go home and get some things for an extended stay."
"Moneypenny and I will go get things for you M and I will check out your house. Send a team to watch my flat but I will deal with M's home first. I have the suspicion that Franz would want to get to M first. Tanner you stay here and watch over M and Judith until I return." Bond said seriously.
"I will Bond. I will add that they will be completely safe here at MI6."
8 Hours later:
Bond and Eve tried to get as close to the building as possible but with the emergency services in the way he was blocked continuously.
An explosion had basically ripped through M's office. The black scars on the impressive building at Vauxhall cross were visible and the smell of smoke and disaster hung in the air.
Bond's heart clenched in his chest. Through the sound of the blood pounding in his ears Bond heard Eve on a panicked call to Tanner, most likely.
The police were going to refuse access but Bond started to run. Eve followed and he could hear her pausing to explain to the authorities around them.
Once over the bridge all Bond could see were ambulances and the fire brigade. There were stretchers with sheets over the heads of some victims.
"Dear god please don't let it be her….please...not M." Bond said to know one but Eve heard him.
"Don't think like that Bond." The two of them just returned with supplies after having to deal with intruders and minions of the master criminal that Bond was after, his own foster brother.
Bond and Eve drove to his flat first to see that there were cars waiting for his arrival. Bond drove the company car past them and around the block. They both got out and Bond told Eve to drive the car into the parking garage. Bond was going to use that as a distraction.
Bond opened the boot and pulled out the gear he would need, guns and a tactical vest. He usually didn't bother with the vest because of the lack of mobility it caused but this time he wasn't going to risk it. There was far too much to lose.
Eve headed for the parking garage as Bond jogged down the block to come up behind the car. Using the dark as cover. He crouched low behind the car and used the silencer he affixed to his gun to make quick work of the driver and his companion. Bond hopped into the back of the car and took their mobiles, walkie talkies and identification. These two were Austrians likely guns for hire.
Bond headed up the stairs of the building to his floor and cautiously made his way down the hall. He heard a quiet pop...pop. The lift door was open and there was a body in it preventing the door from closing. Eve was very good at her job.
Bond entered his flat. Eve was standing over the body of another man. "Should I call in the clean up crew?"
"No. If Franz has ears on the situation he may see that and know what happened here. I don't see him so my guess he is hiding in a safe house or at M's flat.
"Let's put them back in their car." Bond ran into his room and came back with a plastic shower curtain that Eve assisted with as they lay it on the floor and then moved the bodies into the centre. "The building has a trolley for heavy loads hold on."
Bond left the flat and bought back a heavy duty cart. Luckily it was past midnight and the darkness would hide much of what was going on. The two of them lifted the heavy mass onto the trolley and down the service elevator to the car. They managed to stuff them in the boot and headed back into the flat.
Eve cleaned blood off the floor as well as she could with bleach and gloves as Bond gathered a duffle bag of clothing and supplies. He would stay away until Franz was in jail or in the ground.
"Eve you didn't have to…"
"No...I made the mess...so I will clean it up."
"Come on, the same in not more goons will likely be at M's flat. Maybe even Franz waiting for me to bring her home."
They went back to the garage to get the company car. "I don't even know where M lives?" Eve said. "I assume that you've been there?" Her eyes lifted as she smirked.
Bond started to drive and glanced at her as he smirked back. "Let's just say that I've had to give her an excuse not to fire me for years."
"That sounds like you've been having an affair Bond...and with the boss no less!"
Bond chuckled. "No...but I did prove to her that I was more than just a tool for her to use as she wished and one that thought outside the box."
"Really. Do tell Bond."
"I knew that the only way some of what was going on could have happened was if there was someone high up in the government pulling the strings. Now with the connection of Franz to this nine eyes situation I'm getting a feeling in the pit of my stomach that it was him all along. Money, and power would do a lot to have made all this happen over the years...even…"
"That woman Q mentioned….Vesper? Did you and she?"
Bond just glanced at Eve and she nodded in understanding. "I quit because of her but she was a traitor."
"I'm sorry Bond." Eve could tell by the way Bond was acting that this woman had been serious. "And M?"
"What about M?"
"You love her don't you?"
"With every fiber of my being."
"I guess everyone may be a little surprised that you are sexually attracted to an older woman but I'm not...not really. I don't think Tanner is either."
"I really don't give a damn about anyone's feelings on the matter but M's. Maybe Judith's as well. Everyone assumed I was her favourite anyway."
"Yes they did, but they're also likely to dismiss the sexual due to M's age. I don't think it is right to assume a mother son relationship when the sparks fly as they do between the two of you."
"Well I'm glad that you and Tanner could see the truth of it. Mallory did as well. He saw it before M even realized there might be something there. I just have to convince the damn stubborn woman to take the leap. She thinks I'll leave her...I didn't when Vesper...and I could never after that no matter how hurt and tired of the job I became. To disappoint M would have been like a dagger to the heart."
"How did you finally realize?"
"Mitchel tried to kill her on behalf of this organization that Franz is involved in. I chased them down and killed Greene. We realized that this was from up high and that Haines was involved at that point. M has been watching him ever since."
"Haines...isn't he the one that…"
"Yes. M had a operative have an affair with him and got enough to blackmail him into staying the fuck out of her way." Bond smiled at that particular memory.
Eve laughed. "Good for her. I for one am proud of the two of you and I will support whatever happens between you. But...Bond if you do intentionally hurt her...I will hurt you. Do you get my drift."
"Yes Ma'am. I promise never to cross you or her Miss Moneypenny."
They arrived a street over from M's flat, armed themselves and headed out. Bond told her to go to the front of the house and get rid of anyone watching from a car or van. Bond went round the back the way he usually broke in from the upstairs rear window. He moved through the upstairs listening for anyone and heard noise from the kitchen.
Bond quietly moved to the stairs and headed down to see who was there. As he moved around to the kitchen someone hit him from behind. He went down as the door flung open and Eve put a bullet in his attacker's head. Another man came from the kitchen in time to get shot by Eve as Bond laid on the floor under the first attacker who caught him.
"What would I do without you Eve?"
"Get shot likely."
"I was thinking they were both in the kitchen." Bond got up and looked into the kitchen to see that they had been rigging a bomb to M's hob to blow the next time she cooked."
I will call using M's secure landline for the bomb squad to get over here and take a look, while you collect some clothes for M."
"I'm surprised that you're not wanting to join me in grabbing M's knickers Bond." Eve said with a laugh as she headed upstairs. "Which room?"
"First on the right, and I would love to help but I might waste too much time. I will search down here to see if anything else is disturbed as I clean up these two. Did they have a car?"
"Yes there is a black Audi out there with a dead driver."
"You are the most efficient agent I know Eve." Bond rolled these two individually in rugs from the hallway. He tossed one over his shoulder and made his way out and to the boot of the Audi out front. Lucky M had been away or her watch detail may have been killed by these men.
Bond took their phones and wallets so that Q could do some investigating. The sky was starting to lighten, dawn would be soon. Eve emerged with a large suitcase and locked the door.
Eve joined Bond as they walked back down the block to the next street, keeping their eyes alert to any watchers. Bond tossed the case in the back and they began to drive back to base. There had been no communication with base as they didn't want anyone to overhear what they were doing so their mobile phones were powered off.
As they got closer to headquarters they could hear emergency vehicles. A lot of sirens were heading the same direction and as they got to the bridge they could see the smoke and destruction and the day began and the darkness could no longer be held back. Morning had arrived and Bond's stomach dropped.
M's office had been destroyed. M's private rooms were hidden off her office and that part of the building looked to be destroyed.
To be continued...