**James Bond**

Bond left feeling chastised for his intrusion, yet elated to have seen her after so long. He had a long night in front of him.

Michael was waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs, drinking a glass of water in the doorway to the kitchen.

"Fraternisation is against the rules in the agency isn't it, Bond? You're making her position very difficult. If the world…"

"Don't threaten me!" Bond warned Michael quickly as he moved toward him threateningly.

"I'm not. I'm stating the obvious. You're making her situation ten times harder. She has a lot on her plate already, 007, and people are scrutinising her every move. I wouldn't be surprised if the Prime Minister or some nefarious political enemy has her being watched twenty-four seven."

"Did you see anyone?"

"No, but we both know how they operate."

"If you see anyone familiar, let me know."

"I will, but Bond; just try to understand her point of view in all of this."

"What about me?" Bond asked furiously. "Would it kill everyone to have a fucking shred of sympathy for me? I thought she was dead. Do you understand? Dead. Do you know how it feels to find out she's alive, injured and she's being put in danger yet again? Most of the time I can't even think straight. Sometimes I think she will disappear again, in a blink of an eye. I'm terrified I will lose her again. When I don't have her in my line of sight, I feel stressed beyond all hope. I'm losing my focus over it." Bond ran his fingers through his short blond hair as he paced in front of Michael. His frustration and grief displayed to a young man he was forced into trusting with such a precious person to him.

"Oh god."

James watched as Michael visibly paled, with the sudden realisation of what Bond's words meant. With a defeated sigh, Bond straightened his shoulders.

"You and I...we never had this conversation. Even better I was never here. Goodnight."

Bond didn't want to spend another minute in M's flat with Michael. The one man who she had allowed to be around her at all times. The man who had to spend the night in her flat just because he was now her bodyguard.

The young man didn't deserve his ire. He was only doing his job. Bond couldn't help but feel a sharp pang of jealousy, that was proving difficult for him to control. He had been her bodyguard and look what happened, M had gotten grievously injured and he thought she was dead.

"Bond. Wait."

"What?" Bond didn't turn back, but he was waiting for Michael to speak.

"You can count on me. She won't be harmed on my watch. I get it. It must be a difficult position for you, but I'll keep her safe. I promise."

"Thanks."

"It's nothing. Just take care of yourself. She's different and not at all herself, when you're not around."

It didn't take long for James and Tanner to find out that it was an order from the Prime Minister's office to eliminate M, as a possible national threat. Tanner in fact did almost all the work by himself, but due to the delay that Bond's visit to medical caused, he was unable to meet Tanner sooner. They now had all the evidence they needed, which didn't take more than three days to gather.

Bond and Tanner headed straight to headquarters. They marched confidently into her office and waited patiently for her to tell them to enter. When she finally called them in, Bond stood a step behind Tanner, greeted her with a polite nod and let her Chief of Staff talk. He nodded over to the sofa where Michael sat awaiting his next orders.

"I understand you finally have something to report?"

James stayed silent. It was M's cruel way of letting Bond know she didn't forget about his visit to her flat that night.

"Yes, ma'am," Tanner confirmed. "It was all done on the Prime Minister's direct orders."

"Alright. Do you have the report?"

"Yes." Tanner handed it to her. M allowed them take their seats as she started to read. It took her some time to go through the papers. When M finished, she looked up both of them.

"We'll never speak about this again. Michael, I need a car. Please, take care of it. We're leaving in five minutes."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Tanner, great job. Is there a copy of the report?"

"No, ma'am. Not yet."

"Very well, It won't be necessary. I want this mission to be off the record. I will take this with me. You can go now. Bond, you're staying at headquarters until I'm back. Do I make myself clear?"

"Ma'am," he mumbled with a nod. Bond fought with every instinct within him to let her go alone. "May I offer a suggestion?"

"You may."

"I'll go with you for extra protection." He hoped she would accept his offer. She had to. How could she even dream of going with only Michael to protect her? She was about to confront her enemy and all of this wasn't sitting well with Bond.

"It's nice of you to suggest this, Bond, but I assure you, I can handle it myself. You will have your hands full, I'm afraid. You will be preparing your report, with a coherent explanation for your foolhardiness."

Of course in a roundabout way M was asking for the reason why he kissed her. With a resigned sigh, he nodded. "Alright."

"Gentlemen," M gestured for the door.

Bond left her office with Tanner. They were both looking at her back as she purposefully walked through the door with Michael by her side.

"You think she will be ok?" Tanner whispered.

"She better be." Bond said as they walked behind M towards the exit.

"On the other hand, she didn't forbid me to follow her and keep an eye on things from a distance." Tanner left Bond in front of the exit as he made his way after M.

***Olivia Mansfield***

Olivia ignored the scared look of Prime Minister's secretary. She didn't bother to slow down as she strode through the hall of 10 Downing street.

"Ma'am, you can't..."

"I assure you I can," she opened the door for his office. While Tanner was restraining the poor woman, she signaled for Michael to stay outside of the door.

"Ma'am," Michael hoped she would change her mind. Bond would kill him for letting her out of his sight.

"Don't worry. This will be over fairly quickly," she nodded for him to stay, slammed the door behind herself and threw the report on Prime Minister's desk. "Right now I'm contemplating your demise from this world, so I would like to hear an explanation. Why would I want to change my mind about having you disappear?"

M watched him sift through the evidence and then he looked up.

"Would I be forgiven if I told you, I just wanted to protect our country?" He asked calmly.

"No. I think I would like to hear more details. Why am I a threat to Great Britain simply by existing?"

"I didn't know how you were doing. I only heard you had amnesia and then you were a wild card from the moment Bond took you away. It wasn't anything personal, M. I couldn't allow you to roam about the world with things you have in your head. Given the state of your faculties, it seemed better to have it said that you died in Scotland."

"And you couldn't come to me sooner!? Bond was out there killing your mercenaries one by one! I could have stopped him! It never had to go that far! If you had bothered to come see me and check on me yourself. Or even to listen to one of the doctors!" The fury coming from her was almost unbearable.

"Bond's doing me a favor, for once. I would have had to get around to it myself sooner or later," he smirked callously. "They are a bit high maintenance. Trust me, if Mallory disclosed to us you're only recovering and you're mentally stable, I wouldn't have given the order."

"They tried to kill me before I woke up," M reminded him calmly.

"Your first words in the hospital could have been: I'm the head of MI6."

Condescending, self-absorbing bloody idiotic pig.

"If I'm not mistaken, your agents were only hurt, not killed."

This was the final nail in the coffin. The agents at the hospital were only knocked unconscious, yes, she could agree with him on that. However, the Prime Minister almost had Bond and her killed while they were on the run. "As compensation for your obvious crimes, of which I have evidence. I think your resignation is in order," she informed him as she took the file back from his desk, turned and imperiously walked towards the door.

"You're joking?"

M stopped and turned back to look at him, sitting arrogantly self assured behind his desk.

"Believe what you want. If you refuse to cooperate, I will let Mallory and the committee deal with you. But I won't be responsible for what Bond may do from this point forward. You began this, but I sure as hell plan to finish it! After all it was 007's primary assignment, given to him by Mallory, once he found out that I was alive and in hospital. Protecting the United Kingdom is Bond's main priority, but the mission given to him by Mallory, the man you replaced me with, was also to protect the head of MI6. Try and have a good last day in office."