Chapter 4
M sits at the table cradling her cup of tea in her hands, as she absently stares out the window. Bond is off shopping for supplies for their trip to Scotland the next morning. Her mind begins to wander back...back to memories long buried but unearthed again by her argument with James.
Christ. Who is she kidding? She knew that a relationship with James Bond in any capacity would be dangerous and not just for the explosive mayhem that usually follows James around.
There are things buried that M never wants to share. M has an excuse...an excellent excuse. The official secrets act and her job prevent her from speaking about many aspects of her life.
This trip to Skyfall...it is really where it all began...the memories flood over her and she begins to cry...cry for the past...for the loves and losses, and for the relationship it could now destroy.
M's laptops beeps...Tanner has sent her an email.
Tanner is still digging into Clare Dower and wishes her good travels for the trip tomorrow.
M snaps back to reality and begins to work again, she emails back...
Tanner I do not know of availability of internet but we will be spending the night at Judi's home before heading to Scotland. You have my daughter's contact information incase needed. Enjoy your remaining weeks of freedom without having the evil queen of numbers in the office.
M
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1970
"Fine Nigel you want space...I'll give you bloody space! That bitch Amy is likely going with you isn't she?"
"Olivia...it is a group of us going and you have to work...you always have to work. I know what your aspirations are for your career but be realistic Olivia. I can easily make enough for the two of us to live off...you do not need to work."
"You want me barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen also Nigel? Why on earth did I even bother to get an education if I am just to stay at home like a good little woman!"
"That is not what I mean and you know it! You just fight me on everything...Marshall and I are going to France with Josephine and some old family friends. There is nothing weird going on and if you and Joe could actually pretend to get along from time to time none of this would even be an issue!"
"Fine! Do what and whomever you want. A month...we will break up... and if in a month we are better off and not missing each other...then it was not meant to be."
"If that is how you want to do it fine...there will be no repercussions...and Olivia...I will be here on your doorstep to collect you in one month."
"If I am still here."
"Now you are just being a bitch Olivia!"
Nigel clenches his fists in his anger...he would never strike her...it is not in his nature and he loves her too much. Olivia has been pushing all his buttons since this trip was even mentioned and he really wished that she would come with them.
"Fine...I will come back and you can take me or leave me for someone else...but for christ sake Olivia don't pretend that this is all me and not anything to do with your bloody stubborn nature!"
The door slams as Nigel Mansfield walks out of her life into the rain. Olivia turns back inside and curls up on the sofa, crying softly. Realizing that she just let the best man she has ever met out of her life and possibly into the arms of another woman. All she can do now is pray that he returns to her in a month.
"Christ...what have I done?"
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"Olivia don't look now but your favourite 00 agent is here trolling around for a new companion for the weekend."
"Isn't he more your interest than mine Mary?"
"Yes well he has already had me and he never called again...a cold one but he is really so very good...you should have a go, now that you and Nigel are on the rocks. What has he been gone now...a week? Nigel is a cute one...how long did you say until he and you finally decide yay or nay to continue dating?"
"Mary...stay away from Nigel. Besides he is too busy with his ex-girl Amy right now. Perhaps he may just realize why she is an ex and not his girlfriend in the next two weeks on their vacation in France."
"Speaking of vacation...this is your last day before our two weeks out of office while they move us to the new building. Thank god we get to finally leave this bloody bunker...this place still reeks of Churchill's cigars."
"Yes, a new modern building above ground will be so very nice. I may have saved me a great deal of strife with Nigel if I had known they were going to give us this time off. What are you doing for our mandatory summer vacation?"
"I would love to spend it under a certain 00 agent again but then...he never asks twice."
"What do you mean he never asks twice? He has asked me..oh...never mind...I don't care any way."
"OLIVIA! He asked you twice? Tell me everything! When? Where? How often and how and why in hell did you say no?"
"I am or was with Nigel...he is too old and jaded for me."
"He is only ten years older...and so very handsome."
"Mary...I am not interested in James Bond."
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Bond and M complete their packing for the morning and make dinner. James gets the wine and starts some soft music as they enjoy the chicken that he picked up along with salad and desert.
M seems so distracted since their small argument in the morning.
"Olivia...is everything all right?"
They finish cleaning up and move to the sofa in the sitting room.
"Everything is fine James...you worry too much. I am a healthy woman...I am just older than you. I don't expect to expire any second now."
"I should hope not...I don't think I can live without you."
"James do be realistic. Promise me you will go on living should anything happen to me."
"It won't be easy...but alright. Now you stop worrying about whatever is bothering you. Is it that lovely Clare Dower that has your thoughts elsewhere...or is it the multitude of former lovers that I am dying to know about?"
M laughs and leans her head on his shoulder. "Who do you want to know about first...Marshall...or his brother?"
"I have wanted to ask you how it happened between you and Marshall but I know him a bit...I didn't know your husband and I cannot help but think that I missed out on something there. I know your children...slightly and between Ryan, Marshall and the photos around the flat I see that he was a handsome bloke."
"Yes he was."
"Do you still miss him?"
"Terribly...I still expect to hear him call out from me when I come home...sorry...I don't mean to say that I don't like when you do the same."
"None taken. When did you realise you loved him?"
"Almost right away...his hair and his smile...he melted me to my core."
Bond swallows as he watches the far away look in her eyes...he is jealous of a dead man far more than he ever thought he could be. James has always been of the opinion that people die all the time...end of story but then he forgot about the painful echo of that person that remains.
James pushed his parents down...there memory was one of youth...one he could trample beneath him because it happened in childhood. Nigel represents a lifetime of memories...good and bad.
"Did you jump in straight away or did you date a while before..."
"A month...we saw each other everyday. Nigel even moved into the flat above mine...I said it was so he could keep an eye on me."
"I bet...making sure there weren't any other men going in and out."
"Yes..well and we were still in university but I had just been selected to begin work at MI6 upon my graduation. Nigel was going on into graduate studies and two flats worked better at that time."
"Then you became lovers?"
"Yes." M smiled at the memory.
"What? Tell me everything?"
"I am shocked you want to know...that seems so unlike a man wanting to know of all the details of the ones that came before."
"You spent a lifetime with that man...I need to know every move he made." Bond laughs and M chuckles with him.
M's hands begin to move down his shoulder...nails trailing down his shirt sleeve to the cuff. Her nails graze the back of his hand and he turns the palm upward to feel the ticklish sensation of her nails on his palm.
M turns to face him and her voice drops to a husky seductive timbre.
"I think we should concentrate on making some more memories of our own."
Bond's lips crash into hers. His hands yanking her shirt tails up to allow him to touch her bare flesh. Bond pulls her towards him and into his lap all the time not breaking the kiss.
M's hands run through his short hair pulling his face closer to hers. Bond lifts her suddenly and lies her beneath him on the sofa covering her body with his as he presses his arousal against her. The friction causes her to break away from his mouth panting.
Their mutual arousal leaves them conflicted about stopping their heated kisses with the need to greatly reduce the amount of clothing that each of them is currently wearing.
M works the buttons on his shirt as he does the same for her's. Bond kisses the tops of her lace covered breasts growling has M's hands try to work his belt open.
Bond unhooks her bra releasing the greatest pair of breasts he has ever seen. No other woman's breasts are as naturally large and soft as M's...all the other women...were far smaller or augmented and hard to the touch. M's breasts are divine.
M's small hands move past his waist band and into his pants to touch his heated flesh.
"Christ M...I need you now."
"I need you too dear boy."
Bond pulls off her trousers and panties using his fingers to rub and test her. M's head leans back on a cushion and Bond grabs another and slides it under her to prop her pelvis upward.
"M you feel wet...do you think we should try or should I go get our little tube of assistance."
Bond captures a nipple in his mouth to lick and nip at, as he watches her arch and moan because of him.
"James...try...please."
James' fingers are moving in and out stretching and readying her for him.
Bond's lips find hers as he moves between her legs and presses into her slowly.
"James!"
"Do you need me to stop love?"
"No I need you to move."
Bond makes love to her and this time is positive she is not distracted, and only thinking of him.
"M...love..."
"Yes! James...harder! Yes!"
With a final push Bond tenses as his orgasm takes him followed immediately with M's cry of completion.
Bond collapses on top of her for a few moments to catch his breath and come down from his orgasm.
"I had your focus tonight my love."
"Yes you make it hard for me not to be thinking of you constantly...you are the most all consuming lover I have ever had."
"I hope you mean that in a good way."
M laughs and swats his arm. "Yes it is. Besides I think it is far more likely that you would be daydreaming of another younger model."
"The only younger model I would want to see is you and I do see her under me right now."
"Pish...as if. If we put a blond wig on my daughter though..."
"M! I'm shocked you want me thinking of your daughter or of you...as you daughter?"
M laughs. "We are not that alike but the physical and you are not just attracted to the physical or you wouldn't be here now."
"No...you are right there. I love everything about you and your daughter...is gorgeous but she is not you. Here let me help you up so we can get to bed early."
"Yes we need a good night sleep for our trip."
"Who said anything about sleeping?"
"James! What am I going to do with you?"
"Anything you want my love...anything you want."
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"Earth to M...you seem a million miles away this morning."
"Sorry James...what were you saying?"
"Are your bags ready for the car?"
"Yes...everything is ready for our trip north."
James is excited for M to see the surprise he has for her.
James takes the bags out to the car as M locks up and sets the alarm. M looks at James as he comes around the surprise...the car to open the door for her and smiles at her.
M loves his smile...but she also remembers the same smile...and the same car.
All those years fall away in her mind's eye to that summer day that Olivia Jenkins traveled north to Scotland with an entirely different James Bond.
"I thought we would travel in style...what do you think?"
"I think...I am traveling back in time."
"You knew I had this beauty?"
"Yes...I did...I'm M remember."
"Do you keep such close tabs on all of your 00's?"
"Only 007's apparently."
Bond kisses her as he helps her into the passenger side.
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"Miss Jenkins...fancy meeting you here?"
"Bond...I don't think it is just a coincident that you happen to be in the supply closet the second I come in...you have been hovering around all day...no mission before the big move?"
"No...and I had a little bird tell me that you and that man in your life are on the rocks? Is it true that the cad left you here to go off on vacation with his ex-girlfriend?"
"That little bird...should keep her mouth shut. I will recommend it, as soon as I see her next."
"Well Olivia...if I may call you Olivia? I happen to need a date to a wedding back home in Scotland and I could really use a lovely woman such as yourself to be on my arm for the occasion. We would be gone for a week or so...are you game?"
"Really? Why me...did the entire secretarial pool say no already? Or did you already work your way through their ranks?"
"No...those girls are hardly appropriate to take to such an event."
Olivia frowns and stares the handsome man in the face.
"Explain? You have asked me out before in an almost half serious manner, and on all those occasions I have said no. You think just because Nigel and I are having difficulties that I am suddenly desperate enough to actually saying yes to a womanizer like you?"
"No...I knew you were a smart woman...loyal to a fault and a rising star here at MI6. I asked you out before...with witnesses I may add, because that is what is expected of me and I would never want you to feel that I did not find you attractive. That my dear Olivia is definitely not the case. You my dear, are the type of woman that you take home to meet the family and there is not another woman here that I can say that about."
"Oh you are smooth...Mr. Bond."
The smirk on his face says a million things but what he actually says surprises Olivia a great deal.
"I understand heartache Olivia and I will not pressure you into anything that you do not want to do. I respect you and I do not expect us to sleep together...I just need someone that can impress upon my family and friends that I am living a normal productive life and have found someone to enjoy time with."
"I somehow doubt you really do not expect me to sleep with you Mr. Bond."
"Well...if you would like too, I definitely will not say no to you my dear. I will allow you to make the first move. Deal?"
Olivia smiles as she considers...she has nothing else to do for the next two weeks.
"All right Mr. Bond. You may take me home to meet your family...it cannot be as disastrous as when I met Nigel's"
"Oh do tell Miss Jenkins...please tell me of the trouble you caused...I cannot imagine them finding you anything but charming."
"I will save that story for the ride...and you can tell me what to expect as your pretend girlfriend in front of your family and friends."
"Pretend...is that how we are going to play this?"
"I do not think it could be anything more Mr. Bond. I don't fancy myself a notch on your belt."
"I don't think there is ever a risk of you becoming that...it would be inconceivable for me to crack through that hard stubborn coating that surrounds you...your pretty little shell."
"And yet you still asked a woman you cannot hope to seduce."
"And yet you are intrigued or bored enough to come be my pretend girlfriend."
"I consider it a learning opportunity Mr. Bond. I can see if I have the ability to act a part...play a roll."
"Why Olivia...do you want to try your hand out in the field rather than behind a desk?"
"Perhaps. Does that surprise you?"
"No...not at all. You my dear would be a natural and should M ever need me to partner with anyone...I hope it is you."
"You say that now...how do you know I will be capable?"
"I observe for a living Olivia and if there is one woman in all of MI6 that could run the entire show...it would be you."
"My god you do lay it on thick and now here I am picturing myself as M."
"Now I cannot picture you as anything less my dear."
Olivia smiles at him as she exits the supply closet. "When will you call around?"
"9 tomorrow morning, if that is alright?"
"I will be ready."
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"M...you seem so lost today. If you are tired...feel free to sleep."
"Not very comfortable to sleep is it?"
"Not comfortable...stop insulting my beautiful old girl. "
"Well your other old girl finds this an incredibly uncomfortable ride...it didn't feel this uncomfortable in 1970."
"Are you going to complain the entire way." Bond's thumb hovers over the eject button.
"Go ahead eject me, see if I care."
"What do you mean by that 70's comment?"
"When I was young, I must have had more padding...or this car did."
"Well...M perhaps the Aston Martin that you rode in was less maintained than this one."
M chuckles and stares out at the traffic on the motorway.
Mary...her co-worker from 40 years ago said it best...what Nigel...and now James doesn't know...won't hurt them.
This is the same Aston Martin she rode in 1970...years earlier on the same trip North...besides, what happens in Scotland, stays in Scotland and it has for the last 40 years.
To be continued…