M and Eve arrived at the safe house without any further complications. They had doubled back on themselves multiple times and used other techniques to shake off any tails they may have picked up from their enemies or MI6. When both Eve and Mallory were satisfied they weren't being followed they made the final journey to the pre-arranged meeting location. Eve insisted on going first through the door with her pistol out; M knew better to argue and focussed on covering their backs.

The agents made their way into the empty space silently; clearing each room of the loft as a synchronous team. Only once they were happy that the place was empty they staggered tiredly to the few chairs the place had and collapsed into them. Now the adrenaline was wearing off the effects of the ambush were making themselves known. They both had suffered head injuries and felt sluggish because of it.

M kept his pistol in his hand and watched the door warily; Bond and Q would be entering at any moment and there was every chance they could bring company although M doubted Bond would miss a tail. He still felt on edge in the so-called safe house. If the enemy had found them earlier then who was to say they wouldn't find them here.

Eve noticed his agitation. "We're off the grid Gareth."

M blinked as Eve used his given name; it wasn't often he heard that these days. "Sorry." He smiled effortlessly and made a point of relaxing his grip on the pistol and placing it on the coffee table; making sure it still within reach if needed.

Moneypenny shivered and that was when Mallory realised how chilly the loft was. He supposed the space didn't usually have occupants to keep warm. "I'm going to go and see if I can get the radiators going. Try and find a first aid kit." She instructed.

M was loathe to take his eyes off the front door and Eve noticed. "The door's triple locked, we've got cameras set up over all the entrances and there's motion sensors everywhere. We're secure M."

Mallory had to admit when she spelt it out like that it seemed silly he thought keeping an eye on the door would make any difference; the place was as secure as it could be and he seriously needed to let his senses relax. Being hyper-vigilant was exhausting and did not work well with head wounds. M found a fully stocked first aid kit in the bathroom and met Eve back in the centre of the flat; she had thankfully been able to kick some heat into the room but it would still take a while to heat the large space completely.

They arrived at an impasse as they both reached for things in the first aid kit and realised they would have to patch each other up; Eve clearly wanted to take care of him first but Mallory beat her to the punch. "You first, that's an order."

She scowled at the order and muttered something unintelligible under her breath which hadn't sounded polite. Mallory managed to find a kettle and prepared some warm water; he washed the dried blood away from Eve's face and removed the glass fragments from her side. He realised she had gotten off quite easily considering a car had literally blown up in her face.

Eve soon took hold of the towel and ordered M's shirt off. He smirked childishly at the comment and raised his brows suggestively; Eve flicked him with the towel for the reaction which only served to cause them both to laugh. She cleaned up the various cuts to his face and chest with care and Mallory had to resist the urge to shiver as her soft fingers almost caressed his skin. Soon the injuries were all clean and wrapped and sadly the moment was over. Mallory was just buttoning up his shirt when a loud shrieking alarm made the pair jump out of their skin.

M reached for his gun and held it firmly as he and Eve made their way over to the security system. Mallory breathed out a sigh of relief as he recognised Bond and Q walking along the corridor; there was a third figure that Bond was shoving along. A figure that was tied up with a bag over his head.

"What the hell?" M muttered as he watched the security feed. Who had the agent found?

Mallory and Eve waited near the door with their guns held loosely; whoever that person was with Bond was clearly not on their side and may be a danger to all of them. A few seconds later the door swung open silently and M wasn't surprised to see Bond enter first with his Walther PK raised. The agent's eyes swept round the room in a scrutinising gaze and he lowered the weapon when his eyes met M's.

"It's clear Q."

Christ. Bond sounded pissed.

M watched silently as James went out into the corridor and returned with the bundled up captive in his grip; Q followed cautiously afterwards and Eve triple locked the door after them all. Mallory's anxious gaze flicked up and down Q and Bond; this was the first time he had been able to see what damage had been done to his friends. Bond hadn't exactly had the time to reveal details over the phone.

The quartermaster's clothes looked ruffled and were torn in numerous places like he'd been in a scuffle, his face was sooty like he had been around fire too long and there was dried blood sticking his hair to his forehead. Mallory frowned as he noticed Q was holding his left arm awkwardly; it looked like he'd sprained it or dislocated the limb somehow.

M's attention returned to Bond as the agent threw his captive to the floor; the guy landed in a heap at Mallory's feet with a grunt. The 00 agent was sending the struggling prisoner daggers and looked like he seriously wanted to work out some of this rage on the guy.

"Who's this?" M asked partly amused at seeing Bond's methods in person; he usually just read about them in the after mission reports.

Bond shifted his glare from the prisoner at his feet and managed to produce one of his trademark smirks. "A bad guy."

Mallory scoffed and felt a smile tug at his lips. "Well thank god for that." He dead-panned. Gareth took in his agent's condition with a small sweep, Bond bristled as he realised he was being scanned. 007 looked roughed up and was clearly bleeding in a few places but nothing serious; he didn't look any worse than the quartermaster. It looked like they all had got lucky to escape without serious injuries.

"I'm going to take him in the other room." Bond literally growled and roughly dragged the captive up and threw him through the door.

After the brief scuffle the door was slammed shut and the three remaining agents tried to block out the sounds of violence coming from the other side of the door. Mallory could see that Q looked rather uncomfortable with Bond's thirst for vengeance but this wasn't the James he knew, this was 007 and that's what they needed now. M realised that Q had probably never seen Bond like this, not in the flesh it must be a bit of a shock.

They could all hear flesh hitting flesh and the sound of someone being painfully secured. M realised it would probably be a good time to give Q some medical attention and try to take his mind off what was happening, Eve had the same idea and helped steer Q over to their makeshift medical area. The quartermaster remained quiet as Eve helped him down gently and pried his satchel from his limp hands; Q was showing all the signs of shock.

"It's going to be alright Q." Mallory soothed and helped Eve clean the blood and grime off his face; whatever had happened with Bond and the kidnapping attempt had shaken Q up.

"They nearly killed James." Q whispered suddenly.

Mallory and Eve shared a concerned glance as they both heard their friend's voice shake; the best thing would be to encourage Q to talk about what had happened so his brain could process it.

"What happened Q?" Eve asked kindly and dabbed at another cut with the warm cloth.

Q didn't even react to the touch, his eyes looked distant. "They were going to shoot him, I had to stop them."

M's concern was growing the more he heard but Q was still muttering so he daren't interrupt.

"I pushed James out of the way, nearly got shot. He was so angry I got hurt."

Mallory realised now why 007 had looked so enraged when he had entered the apartment and the unusual distance between the two. He realised Q was clutching his arm protectively and saw from this distance that it was definitely dislocated, setting it would hurt like a bitch but it had to be done.

"That's how you hurt your arm?" Eve asked attempting to bring Q's attention back to the present and out of the past.

Q started as if he were awaking from a dream and looked down at the limb he was holding. "Yeah." His voice sounded less distant which was a plus.

They all heard a muffled scream come from the room next door which caused Q to wince. "Are we really going to let him do this?

Mallory felt rotten about the situation but the guy Bond was interrogating would have killed the agent and kidnapped Q; the sad fact was they didn't know anything about Imperium so if the kidnapper was the only link then they had to utilise it.

"We don't have a choice Q." M replied grimly. He trusted Bond not to take it too far, the agent knew the rules and limits. "We need information that that man has, all of us and MI6 won't be safe until we take Imperium down."

Q couldn't tear his eyes away from the door so Mallory decided to distract the quartermaster; he grabbed a chair and pulled up besides Q. He gently took hold of the quartermaster's arm and planned how he was going to manipulate the limb; he caught Eve's eye and was thankful she had caught on to what he was about to do. Moneypenny held Q's other arm lightly and pressed her body into his so he wouldn't have the opportunity to scamper away.

"Sorry Q this is going to hurt." Mallory grabbed Q's arm strongly and pushed hard.

"Wha-" The question died on Q's lips as his shoulder was manipulated back into place; he gasped out loudly when fire raced up his arm. He hadn't felt this kind of pain since he was shot which was unfortunately in the same shoulder; he was pretty sure it was making the dislocation 10 times worse.

Q breathed deeply as the pain subsided and realised strong hands were holding him upwards; he glared at Mallory who just shrugged apologetically.

"Sorry Q, had to be done."

"You couldn't have given me any warning?" Q hissed with heat as let go of the rest of the pain; he had to admit his shoulder felt a lot better now the burning was subsiding although he imagined it would still be sore for a few days.

"It's better if you don't see it coming." Eve replied for their boss and shoved a glass of water into his hand; she then popped some pills from a pack and passed them over. "Here, take these."

Q didn't question what exactly he was taking; as long as they helped with the pain he frankly didn't care. He saw Mallory jump out of the corner of his eye and realised why as he turned his head to where M had stared; Bond had entered the room.

James' concerned gaze fell on him and Q watched his partner calm down considerably when he saw that Q was alive and well. Q glanced past Bond and grimaced as he glimpsed the captive with a hell of a lot of blood over his face; the kidnapper looked unconscious. 007 stepped out of the room fully and carefully closed the door behind him; his facial expression unreadable as he stalked over to Q.

Q distantly heard M and Eve excusing themselves from the space so it wasn't long before it was just James and Q in the living area; Eve passed James a makeshift sling as she went which the agent took gratefully. Q remained silent and tried to ignore the blood splattered over his partner's knuckles as James poked and prodded his shoulder to make sure the limb was properly back in place. Q couldn't help but wince and hiss as Bond jarred the joint putting the sling on, but soon after the burning receded and with the limb supported it hardly caused any distress.

They sat quietly for a few moments and Q heard M and Eve busy themselves with the security system and provisions in one of the other rooms. Q was glad for the alone time with James but he didn't know what to say; he knew he had reacted badly out in the field. He had let personal emotions cloud his judgement and it had almost got him killed.

It saved James though.

That was the only saving grace in the whole situation although James wouldn't see it that way; he was furious that Q had put himself in the line of fire but really how could he not? Q was not used to field work which was painstakingly obvious by the way he was reacting to Bond questioning the kidnapper; if he had been in Q branch on the other end of a microphone then he wouldn't have thought twice about it. This was what Bond did on a regular basis, There was something different about seeing it for real though; seeing another human being suffer. He wasn't cut out for this, how the hell did Bond do it?

"I know why you did it." James eventually muttered. All the anger had drained out of his voice and the agent now just sounded drained. "Doesn't mean I approve, but I get it."

Q smiled as he deciphered his partner's words. This was as close to an apology he was going to get from the 00 agent about the way he reacted after Q threw his body in front of a bullet for him. He leaned into James outstretched arm and rested his head against his partner's chest; concentrating on the steady heartbeat beneath that always grounded him.

"I'm sorry for worrying you. I would do it again though." Q wasn't going to lie to James, he would do it all over again without a moment's hesitation.

James gripped Q a little harder as if he were afraid to let go. "I know. You bloody idiot." The words held no heat.

Q scoffed at the insult and felt the odd urge to laugh; he was sure his mind was having a hard time processing the intense emotions of the last hour. Perhaps laughing was better than crying. The quartermaster suddenly sobered when he spotted the blood on Bond's hands again; it brought him back to the horrible nightmare they were living in. Q continued to stare at James' hands and wondered how they could so gentle with him and still be capable of torturing someone.

He reluctantly pulled himself away from his partner's chest and looked him in the eye. "Do you have to do this?"

James looked regretful but resolute, his eyes drifted to the door containing the kidnapper and Q almost flinched at the hardness that appeared in Bond's face. "I can't let them hurt you anymore Q. Enough is enough. Imperium is too dangerous, we need this information."

Q didn't like hearing those words but he knew that James was right; blood sometimes had to be spilt and good people had to get their hands bloody. It was just a shame that James had to be the one to do it. Q noticed that Mallory and Eve were setting up some laptops and monitors and realised there might be something he could do after all. There was every chance he could find more information about Imperium, he had leads he could follow from both attempted kidnapping attempts; perhaps someone had been sloppy planning them.

"I'm going to se if I can find fresh intel." Q put the man in the other room out of his mind and focussed his head on a problem he could solve; he would be able to focus properly when he was in front of a keyboard again.

"That sounds good Q. If you find anything come and get me." James kissed the top of Q's head warmly before his face clouded over and he became the agent again.

Q watched James walk away from him and towards his duty; wishing once more that it didn't have to be this way but knowing that James had to do this. Q sighed sadly and looked away before he became too melancholy. Q stood and made his way over to the makeshift office space excitement to get back online already lifting his mood and the prospect of a challenge distracting him from the shocks of the morning.

M and Eve helped him setup a temporary work station as Q quickly found his injured arm getting in the way and he found it difficult to hold too much with it; he was going to have to learn to type single-handedly quickly or the sling would have to go. Q was pretty sure it was going to be the sling but he would have to keep it on for a while otherwise Eve and Mallory would fuss and James would go mad. So Q struggled on with one hand and got to work.

Q didn't know how long had passed since he last saw James, he only knew that two cups of tea had appeared in front of him and had been drained during that time and he had actually made some progress and found a few leads. It had taken a bit longer to set up a secure network connection with the equipment they had in the safe house, he would probably need to persuade Bond to let him out of the house to get more if they wanted Imperium found before the year was out.

They had all tried to blot out the sounds of pounding flesh and grunts of pain from the other room, Q rarely noticed the commotion unless there was a particularly loud scream. Otherwise he was too busy caught up in his work to notice; he realised it probably sounded callous but really the faster he did found out what they needed to know the quicker Bond could stop the interrogation. Eve had tried to distract him once or twice when the sounds got louder and Q noticed suddenly that Mallory wasn't in the room. Eve then told him that M had been in the room with Bond for hours. Q hadn't even noticed.

Eve had scolded him the moment she realised he had ditched the sling. In fairness he had tried to type single-handedly for a whole half hour but it had quickly gotten old and Q would rather work through the pain than live with the snail-pace.

Q's attention remained on the screens until he heard approaching footsteps, he recognised that it was Bond before he looked around and realised perhaps he was finally picking up some of the skills James had been trying to teach him. He smiled warmly and met his partner's gaze happy to see the agent again especially now he had time to process and get over the shock of the morning's events.

The smile slid off his face as his eyes fell upon James' stony face, and he saw the bruised knuckles and blood splattering the agent's hands. He was still in agent mode and from Q's experience this wouldn't wear off until some time after the interrogation; right now he needed professional Quartermaster not his partner Q.

"Q." Bond nodded at him curtly and joined him and Eve in the makeshift work area, Mallory soon followed and they were all sitting round for an impromptu debrief.

007 jumped into the debrief and explained everything that he had learned from their guest. Q and Eve made notes as Bond revealed key details about Imperium's plans. They were planning major terrorist strikes across the globe to destabilise stock markets, Q understood that if anyone knew the outcome in advance they would make billions in such a shake up.

He also pressed the kidnapper for hours about why they wanted Q and M so badly, what they needed with project Eureka and where they were based. Bond indicated that the guy had been difficult to break and Q winced as he remembered the haunting screams. The kidnapper was just a low level employee but knew enough to be a danger to Imperium and Bond had sniffed that out, he kept on pressing the man until he finally told them that Imperium needed Eureka to put their final plans in motion. Hence their obsession with Q, and he had managed to get coordinates out of the kidnapper when he started being more open.

At this point James passed Q a piece of scrap paper with coordinates scribbled down, Q ignored the red stains on the paper and immediately pulled up a view of the location on the big screen.

When James finished his debrief everyone looked at the information Q was bringing up rapidly on the screens, all the details Bond was giving him were in the filling in the gaps he had been missing. It was like being suddenly given all the puzzle pieces when he had only been working with a handful before.

"What are we going to do about our friend in there?" Eve asked.

Bond shrugged his shoulders lightly clearly not that interested in the fate of the man who had tried to kidnap Q. "He isn't going anywhere. I've given him enough sedative to knock him out for at least a day. We can message a clean up team to come in once we vacate and we know what we're doing."

Mallory nodded thoughtfully in agreement. "It's the safest option."

Q groaned as he ran out of screens to project things on, Eve snickered and Bond grinned at his partner. The quartermaster had been spoiled in Q branch. The four agents surveyed the overwhelming amount of new data and realised they were ill-equipped to deal with the situation as it stood.

"We need a plan." Mallory pointed out.

"We need weapons." James added with a mischievous spark in his eye, if there was anything 007 loved more than cars it was a big gun.

"I need more hardware." Q groaned miserably as the laptop struggled to handle all the data and tasks he was throwing at it.

Eve's face lit up with a genuine smile that lifted the mood of the room. "Let's go shopping."