Sherlock and Q blinked confused for a second but then the situation suddenly dawned on them: they must have fallen asleep and spent the entire night hiding behind the desk, and had just been discovered by the guards. As soon as they established these facts, both of them were roughly grabbed and hauled from their spot on the floor to stand upright in the middle of the office room. Sherlock opened his mouth the protest against this treatment but was immediately silenced with a sharp kick in the shin.

"You'll have time to beg and scream to your hearts' content soon enough, so better save your breath until then!" – Grumped one guard threateningly as they started to lead them out to the corridor.

"Where are we going? – Asked Q, slightly worried, while he was being shoved rather painfully out of the office.

"Intruders like yourselves are dealt with in a very peculiar way." – Came the malicious reply to which the Holmes brothers exchanged frightened glances. The excited smirk on the faces of the two men didn't promise anything good.

They were dragged along a dimly lit, underground passageway that – they knew from the previously downloaded blueprints – led to the chambers where the involved doctors executed their most secret and vicious tests.

"You are going to be very useful to our cause. You'll do great service to mankind!" – taunted the guard that was pushing Q before him.

"Sherlock, this is all your fault! I just wanted to have a holiday for once; is that really too much to ask for!?" – Lamented the youngest Holmes brother, pouting.

"Don't you dare suggest it is all my fault! You have been here with me all the time and also: it was you who didn't gather all the necessary information in the first place! And you fell asleep instead of being on guard!"

"Oh, and YOU didn't fell asleep, yes? I take it, you just lost consciousness then or maybe just rested your eyes for a few hours?"

"Oh, do shut up, little brother, you're embarrassing me!"

"You shut up! You are the most obnoxious, abominable, insufferable, detest-"

"BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP!" – shouted one of the guards but it was already too late: Sherlock and Q, taking the opportunity while their captors were distracted by their banter, both jumped to action at the same time. Sherlock hit his capturer in the face then kicked him in the groin area - repeatedly. Q elbowed his captor in the stomach then shoved him hard into the wall. Both men fell over unconscious.

"Good job, big brother."

"Yeah, you're not entirely hopeless yourself either after all. Who would have thought?"

"Let's get the hell out of here and alert the police. At least we got the evidence!" – assured Q, indicating his backpack still clutched in his hand. The guards didn't think it important enough to take it away from him. Or maybe they thought the sadist doctors could take care of that, too.

"I'll call Lestrade and Mycroft as soon as we're out." – promised Sherlock as they were running through the halls of the complex (thankfully still remembering the outline of the edifice). They had to move quickly, for their little scene had alerted others in the building, therefore they were now all chasing after them, pointing loaded pistols into their general direction. ("How have they even found weapons that quickly?")

So, that's how they got to be running for their lives instead of Q enjoying some down-time and relaxing horseback riding in the forest or swimming in the hotel pool as was his original plan.

Presently

Sherlock and Q ran out of the building and hurried down the way they had come the day before – under much more relaxed circumstances of course.

Soon, they managed to get far enough not to have to fear getting shot anymore and it seemed like their pursuers had given up on them, too. As soon as they felt safe enough to stop for breath, Sherlock made the mentioned calls.

Lestrade appeared in a little while with a team and they both had to tell the story what felt like a hundred times over and over again to different officers. While their statements were being taken, Lestrade listened in and examined the documents in Q's backpack. It all took a lot of time and the Holmes brothers were very exhausted and irked afterwards. The sun was actually already starting to set when the police finally declared that they had gathered enough evidence and reported that a different team had stormed the laboratory and confiscated everything found there. The culprits had of course fled before the authorities arrived but nobody had any doubt that they would be found eventually.

When they were finally let go and after they had politely (well, in Q's case politely anyway… Sherlock just snorted) turned down Lestrade's kind offer of giving them a lift in a police car, Sherlock turned to Q: "So, little brother, what are you going to do now that our adventure is regrettably over?"

"Regrettably? If that's your idea of fun then you're even more of a lunatic than I had originally thought, Sherlock! I'm going home as – thanks to you – my holiday is nearly over anyway! Tomorrow I'll have to be back at work." – Huffed Q angrily, strolling down the hill and preparing to call a cab to take him back to the hotel to gather his belongings.

"Why, don't tell me you didn't enjoy it!? At least it wasn't a boring time! And we did the world a favor!" – Sherlock shouted after him but was left standing there alone as Q disappeared into the town.

As soon as he accepted the fact that Q had indeed left him standing there, he took out his phone and started typing an SMS with an almost evil smirk on his face.

- Mission accomplished. You owe me 20 pounds! SH

- Don't tell me you really managed to spend an entire weekend with our baby brother without fighting and getting into trouble!? MH

- Well, I did spend the entire weekend with him. SH

- And what about the other part of the bet? MH

- I spent the entire weekend with him… SH

- And…? MH

- And that's it. SH

- Oh, dear, I'm sure I don't even want to know. Also, I'm sure I'm going to hear about it anyway or at least feel the wrath… MH

The next day

The following morning, Q was still feeling irritated from the happenings of the weekend and cursing Sherlock (and Mycroft because he just KNEW his older brother had to have something to do with all these!) under his breath. He had wanted so much to have some leisure time!

Silently fuming, he didn't realize that people on the street and in the metro had to jump out of his way to avoid colliding with him as he was walking to work, and were watching after him, blinking confusedly, muttering about madmen and psychopaths, and calling him some other, not so humbling attributives. Upon entering the building, he didn't even stop to get checked by security and didn't register his entrance with his card – even though it was obligatory for every MI6 workers.

On the hallway, Moneypenny was just exiting the staff's kitchenette with her morning coffee in one hand and her phone in the other, headed in the direction of M's office to begin the day. Smiling, she opened her mouth to greet the Quartermaster but the teenager bypassed her so quickly, she didn't even get to begin to utter a sound. She startled so much at that uncharacteristic behavior that she poured the coffee all over her skirt and had to dash to the nearest bathroom to try to right herself some.

A little bit farther down the corridor two women from Accounting had to particularly squash themselves to the wall to let him pass between them while a cleaning staff member accidently kicked over a pail of water in his hurry to get out of the boy's way, effectively soaking the floor.

Q didn't register any of these though and continued to Q-Branch, still thinking about ways to get back to both his brothers. Inside Q-Branch, R – who was nearing the end of her night shift – was about to give 007 his equipment for the upcoming mission. Both of them brightened upon seeing the boy be back from his long weekend and turned to him to ask about his vacation.

"Hey, Q, how was-"

"DON'T you dare say anything, Bond! I don't want to talk about it!" – And with that he disappeared into his office to aggressively dump his bag onto the couch.

Everyone stood frozen on spot. Nobody had ever seen the usually controlled and collected young Quartermaster act that way before.

"What was that about?" – Wondered Bond out loud, voicing the question on everyone's mind.

R shook her head almost sadly. "Well, he is a teenager after all… He was bound to start behaving like one sometime soon. You know: getting moody, melancholic and depressed without any reason whatsoever…"

Bond just nodded worriedly.

As if summoned, Q poked his head out of his office once more: "Oh, and just for the record: I am NEVER going on a holiday, ever again! Everyone who even suggests such a thing is going to be assigned to testing stench bombs for at least a year!" – And with that he slammed his door shut with such force that the map of the London Underground system they had hung on the wall for mission purposes fell and landed on the heads of the two unfortunate minions sitting under it at their desks.