Rough Justice
Half an hour after Alec fell asleep, there was a light knock on the door, and a familiar face appeared.
"Is this a bad time?"
Eve.
"Not at all" Q replied quietly, conscious of the slumbering dragon next to him, "Checking to see if I'm still alive?"
"Something like that" she replied easily, stepping into the room and closing the door behind her, "But I also thought that you might like these".
She held out his laptop, complete with a headset and charging cable.
"Eve" he said seriously, looking up at her, "I could kiss you".
She laughed and placed the equipment on the bedside table next to him. "As much as I'd be honoured, Quartermaster, I have a feeling that your little bodyguard there might take offence".
He glanced down at the alpha lying next to him, one arm thrown over Q's waist and pinning him in place while his face was pressed against the omega's waist, warm breath ghosting over bare skin. The drugs had knocked him out completely, and looking at him now, blond hair askew and face oddly young, it was difficult to reconcile this peaceful man with the raging alpha from a few hours previous.
"He seems rather… harmless, when he's asleep" Eve said suddenly, and Q couldn't help but snort. "He seems rather harmless when he's awake, too. That's part of what makes him a bloody good agent".
"I've heard he's a bit of a charmer".
He gave her a curious look. "You mean you two haven't met?"
"Not while he's been awake, no" she replied wryly, "Although I've heard a few interesting stories about him from Bond".
"Bond?" he exclaimed, "Just when on earth were you talking with Bond?!"
"Why? Are you jealous?"
He immediately flushed and then cursed his own body's betrayal, but thankfully, Eve merely laughed in response rather than teasing him even further.
"I haven't spoken to him recently, if that's what you're wondering about. This was way back, before I even shot him off that train".
"And he told you about Alec?"
She hummed. "Apparently, those two have a… thing".
"... A thing?"
"A thing. According to the rumour mill, anyway. But the way that James spoke about him… Well, let's just say that I would be more surprised if they weren't together. Or, at least, as together as they can be, given their line of work. But then the whole Nine Eyes thing happened and Bond drove off into the sunset with Doctor Swann, so… who knows? Maybe they were just friends with benefits. A lot of benefits".
"Eve!"
"What I wouldn't give to the be filling in that sandwich".
"Eve!"
She grinned, her eyes twinkling mischievously. "Are you honestly telling me that you wouldn't want to be in the middle of that?"
Q felt his cheeks flush again and he was suddenly consciously aware of the arm that Alec still had wrapped around his waist. He didn't want to lie to her - because, let's face it, even picturing Alec and James bloody Bond standing next to each other did things to his stomach that he didn't want to admit - but he also didn't want to tell the truth, because if he did that, then she would never let him live it down.
So instead he asked, "How's Edie?"
"I wouldn't know" she replied calmly, completely unfazed the absolute traitor, "She's been silent since yesterday".
Q frowned, the possibilities of teasing her momentarily put on hold. "With you too? I haven't heard anything from any of the double-0s since yesterday morning either".
Eve frowned as well, before narrowing her eyes at him in suspicion. "They're not murdering anyone else for you, are they?"
His immediate reaction was to say no, of bloody course not, that was one time! but then he actually thought about it and-
Yeah.
He really couldn't put anything past that lot of idiots now, could he?
"I don't… think so" he finally settled on, "The last time I saw any of them was when they carried the chair up to your office. They left pretty much straight away after that, and I haven't heard from them since".
"Hmm… And you didn't give them the names of any old enemies? Anyone you might have been… displeased with?"
"Eve, they are not going to murder someone that I was once displeased with!"
She raised a sardonic eyebrow. "You sure about that?"
No.
"Yes! And the only people I've been displeased with lately are the double-0s themselves, so unless they've all run off to commit mass suicide - which would be very much against their innate survival instinct - then I think it's safe to say that they're not committing murder!"
"... That you know of". She continued speaking before he could protest. "But hey, speaking of people that you're displeased with, M just received a rather interesting complaint from a Doctor Arkov".
"A complaint?" he asked, frowning, "About me?"
"No, actually. About Hans Mortner. Know him?"
Q narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously and suddenly wished that Alec would wake up if only to have an excuse to avoid this conversation.
"We've… met".
"Apparently, according to Arkov, this Mortner guy was a little… overly friendly with you". Eve's expression remained calm and perfectly pleasant, but her eyes were burning with barely repressed fury. "I know that the double-0s are currently AWOL, Q, but if you need someone else capable of murder to step in…"
The offer hung in the air between them, and Q distantly wondered just when the hell this had become his life.
"I don't need you to kill Mortner for me, Eve".
"Of course you don't" she replied easily, "I mean, once Trevelyan wakes up, I'm sure that he'll want to-"
"No! No murder!" he exclaimed, "At all! Of any kind! Nothing even happened, for god's sake!"
Eve watched him closely, her gaze far too knowing for him to be comfortable with. "But something would have happened. Is that it?"
"Not… quite" he explained awkwardly, "Look, Mortner just made a few… comments, but he didn't touch me. Alec made sure of that".
"Oh, yes, the… unfortunate accident, that Doctor Arkov mentioned in his report. Personally, I'm not sure if it's even possible to dislocate someone's arm while 'helping them to the door' but according to M, he has very limited medical knowledge so he's decided not to question it".
Q face palmed. This was starting to get beyond ridiculous.
"You've created quite the A Team" Eve said, smirking, "Between me, M, Bill, the entirety of your branch, and now six-and-a-half double-0s… Someone would have to be mad to go after you".
"Yes, well, as Mortner proves, there are quite a few mad people in this world!" he snapped, "I don't need a group of bloody champions, Eve!"
"I know you don't" she replied evenly, "I know that you're capable of looking after yourself, Q, and the rest of your so-called champions are aware of that too… We just want you to know that you have to fight those battles alone anymore. There's always going to be some dynamicist prats no matter where you go, but at least now you've got more than one person fighting in your corner… So just say the word and I'll deck them, alright?"
He huffed in laughter. "Alright… Thanks".
"Of course" she replied, smiling, turning back to the door, "And that goes for the double-0s too. If one of those lunatics hurt you, you let me know. I'm sure that between M, Bill, R, and myself, we'll come up with some rather… creative punishments. Caio!"
Q watched her go with a smile on his lips. He still wasn't quite used to having people to stick up for him, much less having alphas stick up for him, but he found that he quite liked it. Especially when one of those alphas in question had pressed himself against his side, his warm breath against hip from where his shirt had ridden up.
Awkwardly pulling his laptop towards himself, his other hand still firmly encased in Alec's, he turned it on and got to work. He certainly wasn't going anywhere while the alpha next to him pinned him in place, so he might as well get as much coding done as he could while being one-handed. Slow work was still better than no work, as they said.
Leaning back against the pillows propped up behind him, he pulled open a terminal and dimmed the brightness of the screen in case it woke Alec. It was going to be a long night and he already knew he wasn't going to get much work done, but since he would very likely have an angry 006 to deal with tomorrow morning, right now he was just going to embrace every single moment of comfort that he could.
Two hours later, Alec shifted slightly in his sleep, his grip around Q loosening just enough for him to slip out of the bed he'd been sitting up on. His laptop had died half an hour before, and due to his new status of double-0 teddy bear, he'd been unable to stand up and plug it in.
Now, however, he was finally able to get back on his feet and regain feeling in his limbs. Alec made a disgruntled noise as his warm pillow disappeared but thankfully didn't wake up. Q wasn't exactly afraid of speaking to the agent when he was sober, but he also knew that there was going to be more than one insult thrown his way since he'd used his dynamic against the alpha. Considering that 006 was still alive and reasonably well, however, the entire experience had been more than worth it.
Dragging himself back to Q branch, he passed more than a few employees who gave him curious and/or disgusted looks, proving his theory that word of what had happened had already spread throughout the building. For a building full of spies, they really were the worst gossips…
Ten minutes later, he was more than grateful to return to his own branch. His minions also gave him not-so-subtle looks, although, to be fair, they were more coveted than appalled. Whether they were jealous of him or Alec, he wasn't sure, and he also wasn't sure that he wanted to find out.
Q headed straight for his office.
"Nice of you to join us, Quartermaster" R announced, materialising out of thin air by his side, "Glad to see that you're still alive".
"Glad to see that you don't have to run this branch, more like it" he grumbled, taking the metal stairs two at a time.
"Perhaps. We were all watching, you know".
He was too exhausted to be annoyed.
"I think Halim almost had a heart attack when you stepped into that holding cell" she continued, still following him, "I'm surprised that 006 didn't attack you on sight".
Q paused at the top of the stairs and gave her a look. "Are you really?"
"... No" R admitted, albeit reluctantly, "You're like double-0 bloody catnip! How is 006, by the way?"
"Alive" he replied shortly, stepping into his office and immediately plugging in his laptop to charge, "Any updates?"
"Asides from half of your own branch labelling you as the omegian king and the other half being slightly terrified? No".
Q sighed and gave her a tired look. "Text me if anything changes. And now, if you'll excuse me, I have a fuck ton of work to catch up with".
After turning back on his laptop and praising the inventor of autosave for the millionth time, Q accessed Alec's medical records. They told him nothing new, and he was once again thankful to have found Doctor Arkov, because as blunt as the man was, at least he was completely honest.
The fact that he didn't talk down to Q for simply being an omega, was only a rather large cherry on top of an already delicious cake.
Setting up a simple alarm that would alert him as soon as Alec was released from medical, he returned back to the program that he'd been coding before. He worked twice as fast with both hands, despite his exhaustion, but he found himself strangely missing the warm gun-calloused fingers that had sent so many people to their death.
Q shook his head and refocused on the laptop screen in front of him. That was just his tiredness speaking, nothing more. He'd stayed up late last night and came in early this morning, after all, just in case anything had gone wrong with Alec's extraction team. He hadn't exactly slept peacefully last night either, and between all of that and the more-than-usual amount of stress he'd had to deal with today, it was no wonder that he was half-asleep already.
Maybe once he finished this section of the code, he could take a quick nap…
A sudden bang woke him and Q jerked up from where he'd fallen asleep on his desk, glasses askew and a keyboard indentation on the side of his face. Blinking rapidly, he tried desperately to remember just what on earth he'd been doing to pass out in his office and-
Oh.
Alec. Holding cell. Drug. Medical. Hans fucking Mortner. Eve. Laptop. Office.
Spinning around, Q hit the button to make the glass that overlooked the rest of the branch clear again, just in time for him to see a very angry and very injured 006 storming his way through the lab.
He quickly turned back to his laptop, but there was no notification. The double-0 had 'signed' himself out then, and very likely had a small army of doctors roaming the halls for him. Q watched as the man half-marched and half-limped his way through his minions, all of whom very quickly got out of his way with almost comically frightened expressions.
Stumbling to his own feet, still dazed from his impromptu nap, Q just about managed to steady himself before Alec flung open the door and strode into his office.
The scent of furious alpha immediately assaulted his senses, making him want to cower away and bare his neck.
Instead, he planted his feet more firmly on the floor and jutted out his chin. "006. Is there a problem?"
"Damn right there's a problem, you little bastard!" he snapped, "I don't appreciate being fucking manipulated!"
From behind him, Q could see R sneaking up with a taser gun, and he gave a subtle twitch of his fingers to call her off. She stopped, clearly reluctant, but obediently lowered the weapon, remaining in place just in case.
Alec took a step forward. "Well?!"
"Well what, 006?"
"You used your- your- your bloody dynamic against me!"
"Would you rather have suffered indefinitely?"
He scoffed. "Indefinitely? The fucking drug would have worn off in a few hours!"
"Yes" he agreed, "And we know that now. But at the time, we did not. It was either to allow you to become more and more aggressive, eventually causing harm to both yourself and others, or I lost quite a few hours of work… Which I have since made up, by the way, in case you were wondering".
He narrowed his eyes at him. "You still manipulated me!"
"And for that, I'm sorry. Truly. I'm sure it doesn't surprise you to know that I've had my own dynamic used against me on more than one occasion… What I will not apologise for, is potentially saving your life!"
Alec continued to glare for another minute, before all fight seemed to leave his body at once, and the stress and pain became clear in the tense line of his shoulders.
Behind him, R also relaxed, and gave him a nod before returning to her station.
"... Thanks".
Q blinked and turned back to the agent in surprise. "Excuse me?"
"You know damn well what I just said, cub, and I am not repeating it!"
He bit back a smile. "Then you're very welcome. That being said, I didn't get you out of the frying pan only for you to walk yourself into the fire".
At his confused frown, Q realised that idioms probably didn't translate into Russian so well and he was likely too exhausted and in pain to bother trying to understand it.
"You need to rest" he clarified, "I know for a fact that your doctor didn't let you leave willingly, and with good reason, too. Sleep. Now".
The scowl returned, but he couldn't very well argue as he leant heavily on his uninjured leg, right arm held stiffly against his chest.
"... Fine" he eventually bit out, "But I'm not returning to medical!"
"I never said you had to, 006" he replied calmly, "In fact, there's a perfectly serviceable couch not six feet to your left. It may be a bit lumpy, but I'm sure you've slept on worse".
Alec stared at him closely, before slowly hobbling over and collapsing down on it with a wince. Alpha situation defused, Q sat back down in front of his laptop and tried to recall how far into the code he'd gotten before face planting his keyboard.
He was also acutely aware of two bottle-green eyes boring into his skull.
It was twenty minutes before Alec spoke again, and Q was silently impressed that he hadn't passed out from exhaustion yet.
"... You're not what I thought you'd be, cub".
"Good". He adjusted his glasses with a pleased little smirk. "I so do enjoy defying expectations".