Missing Person
008 was… interesting, to say the least. Q had mistakenly thought that he'd seen all there was to see when it came to the double-0s, but it would appear that not only was their sole purpose to make his life difficult, but they also had conspired to make his life chaotic.
Not that Milli herself was chaotic, of course. In fact, Q was cautiously optimistic about how not-chaotic the blond agent was, at least in comparison to her counterparts. She was blunt, straight-forward, and could do with a few HR seminars perhaps, but ultimately, she followed orders and did what was right.
Or, at least, she did what she thought was right, but Millicent Osmund was very much a choose-the-needs-of-the-many-over-the-needs-of-the-few type of person. Her recent mission was a prime example of that, as she had successfully caused an uprising in the Turkish faction of Kurdistan. Although Q was sure that the previous M had her reasons for wanting to cause a civil war, they weren't exactly clear to him. Or to Milli either, for that matter, but like a dutiful soldier, she had accepted her orders and done as told.
Despite ultimately being the reason for hundreds of deaths in the future, she portrayed exactly zero remorse and Q didn't know whether to accept that as a double-0 trait or as a purely 008 quirk.
Either way, once he'd learned how to adapt the way he communicated with her and dramatically lowered his expectations for empathy or general emotion, they got along quite well. She even joined in on his sparring sessions with Duncan from time to time, although Q could never quite bring himself to hit her properly, half-afraid that her porcelain skin would crack under the slightest bit of force.
He very quickly learned that it did not.
But her analytical and strategic mind had another benefit for the Quartermaster in the form of her acceptance of his dynamic. Or perhaps acceptance was too strong a word. Although she was standoffish by nature, Milli was ultimately professional no matter what her personal opinion on working for an omega was, which, really, was more than he could have ever even hoped for considering she was a terrifying hyped-up alpha who killed people for a living. But then again, it was probably because she was a double-0 that she remained respectful, whatever her personal opinions were. She didn't get to be one of the nine most powerful and lethal people in the British government by being rude, after all, despite her abruptness and the general immaturity that the pack all showed at one point or another.
So instead of being offended by his dynamic, like the accounts department, or being appalled by him using it to his advantage, like a few in HR but most of medical, or even being amused and slightly turned on like the double-0s - *cough* Saif *cough* - were, Milli took one sniff of him and said: "Being an omega makes you a liability, but at least you make everyone underestimate you".
He decided to take it as a compliment.
So here he was, one week later, and two weeks after Mortner decided to commit a death-by-double–0 offence. The man still hadn't returned to his apartment or his car and he hadn't even used any of his credit cards or phone which, Q had to reluctantly admit, was rather impressive of him. He was positively sure, now more than ever, that the alpha wouldn't be returning to finish the job, as it were, but the double-0s - of bloody course - had decided otherwise.
M officially lifted the protection detail and put the agents back on active duty, not that the stupid knotheads even listened, and assured Q that he told the junior agents to still keep an ear out, but chances were…
Chances were if they hadn't found Mortner by now, then they never would.
The bruises around his neck had faded to pale yellows and splotchy greens, almost blending in with his skin tone unless you knew where to look. The paranoia still remained, although Q knew from experience that it would take more than a few days for that to wear off, but his general level of anxiety had thankfully lowered to more manageable levels.
The double-0s even relaxed slightly in their guard dog duty, although they very much still remained, but Q was half convinced that it was just an easy excuse on their side to demand more cuddle time from him.
Not that he was complaining, mind you.
So asides from the wayward attempted murderer, and the new trial-and-error navigations that came with meeting a new double-0, life was pretty good for the Quartermaster right now. Mortality rates were at an all-time low - both for the victims of his agents and his agents themselves - and the double-0s continued to react well to his positive reinforcement and generous affection.
Eve still laughed whenever she walked in on him being petted by Saif or hug-attacked by Alexis, but at least now he could tease her just as much about Edie. He was able to give R the much-needed holiday she'd requested all those weeks ago in medical, Bill was allowed to talk to him directly again without a double-0 standing in the way, and he'd even been able to say a few words to M before Duncan and Alec had full-bodily picked him up and carried him back to the lab where they could keep a better eye on him.
Overall, Q was quite pleased with how things were going, both in his non-existent personal life and his all-consuming professional one. He felt as secure as he could be and surprisingly happy. There was nothing to complain about - asides from the obvious missing maniac - and for the first time in a long while, he felt… settled. Balanced. Like a ship in a storm that had finally found a safe harbour to dock in.
Which is, of course, exactly when everything decided to go wrong.
"It was supposed to be a simple recon mission. Wasn't it supposed to be a simple recon mission?"
Halim sighed. "Yes sir, but-"
"No! No buts! It was supposed to be a simple recon mission!" he snapped, chest heaving from frustration and anger and fear, "What part of breaking into the enemy base and attacking them screams simple recon mission?!"
On the screen in front of them, he watched as Duncan ducked just in time to avoid the spray of bullets that went over his head, the guards chasing him shouting in quick-fire Spanish.
"Well?! Getting shot at is not a valid excuse to ignore your Quartermaster, 003! What happened to this being a simple recon mission?!"
Even on the tiny pixelated cameras, Q could see the man wince.
"I fucking heard you the first time, brat, but as you can clearly fucking see, I'm a little busy right now!"
"Don't you sass me! I do the sassing around here, mister! Why, in all that is Kelley and Nimoy, did you have to engage them?!"
"You told me to retrieve some info, so I'm retrieving some fucking info!"
"Yes! From afar! Not up close and personal in enemy territory when I did not equip you to go into enemy territory!"
Duncan skidded around the corner of a white non-descript hallway into yet another white non-descript hallway, the sound of racing footsteps following his every move.
"Do you want the data or not?"
"What I want, is for my stupid idiotic imbecilic agent to survive his apparently suicidal actions!" Q snapped, fingers flying across the keyboard, "Which means here I am, trying to hack into the bloody Spanish National Archives to see if I can find the blueprints of this place to get you out of there!"
"For which I am very fucking grateful!" 003 snarked, "But the fact remains, brat, that I can get a hell of a lot more information a hell of a lot quicker now, than I could have had I sat back in that fucking utilities van to just observe!"
"Observing was your entire bloody mission! It was literally what you were meant to do, you bloody knothead, and yet you decided to simply go against all orders so you could get a bloody adrenaline hit!"
On screen, the alpha in question shoved open an emergency exit door and started dashing up the stairs.
"What? No! No, what the fuck are you doing?! 003, why are you going up?! Go down, you bloody idiot! How the hell am I meant to get you out of there if you're on the third floor?!"
"I'm sure you'll find a way" Duncan replied, ducking as more gunfire followed in his wake, "But last time I checked, brat, their records room was on the fifth floor, so that's where I'm fucking going".
As soon as he made sure that the agent would survive this ordeal, Q was going to fucking kill him himself.
"003, I am ordering you to turn around and march your ass back to that utilities van! You don't even have any bullets left for damn sake!"
"Don't need them". He grunted, throwing his shoulder against another door to force it open. "I've got a USB and I'm fucking positive that there's a computer around here somewhere".
"A computer- 003, if there are any computers in that building at all, then they are going to be bloody well guarded!"
"Let me worry about the guards, brat".
"Electronically guarded" he bit out, "As in encryption, as in firewalls, as in every bloody defence system a megalomaniac supervillain can buy, and on top of all of that, it's very likely written in fucking Spanish! And your tiny little USB stick isn't going to do anything against all of those!"
"Perhaps you've forgotten, Quartermaster" he said, turning the corner and full-on punching a guy in the throat, "But I was the one who hacked into '6s surveillance tapes to track down that bastard who shot you! I'm not a fucking novice when it comes to computers!"
Q had forgotten.
But that didn't make the alpha's stupid stupid stupid life choices any better.
"Be that as it may, 003, I highly doubt that even you can break through this guy's cyber security while getting shot at!"
Duncan finally found the right room and very quickly dispatched the two men stationed in front of it, using their surprise - and his pro-wrestler strength - to his advantage. Silently sliding inside, the door clicked shut after him, and Q cursed as he realised that whoever had built this place, had very smartly decided to not include cameras in the mainframe.
"003, I'm running blind, there's no surveillance from this point forward".
There was a low grunt and the sound of something heavy hitting flesh.
"003?"
Another thud.
"This isn't a good fucking time, Quartermaster".
The click of a gun's safety being switched off.
"003, how many assailants are in the room?"
Another thud and a pained groan.
"003!"
A muffled shout, Spanish swearing, a loud echoing bang, and then-
Q's screen went black.
He stared at it for one long moment, blinking rapidly, brain screeching to a halt because-
"What the fuck".
He quickly pulled up command line and tried to hack back into the cameras to no avail.
"What the fuck?"
His movements grew more frantic, less controlled, as he tried every single bloody method he knew to get into the building's cameras back up in front of him but-
"What the fuck?!"
Next to him, Halim was starting to look pale.
"003, can you hear me?"
His headset remained silent.
"003! Do you copy?!"
No response.
"Duncan bloody Fortier, if you do not answer in the next three seconds then I swear to christ that I will murder you myself!"
Nothing.
Q cursed viciously and tried desperately to think.
Okay.
Duncan had broken into the bad-guy-of-the-week's lair, gotten into their data room, and had been attacked by an unknown number of guards. He had successfully disarmed at least one of them, based on what Q had heard, but then there had been a gunshot and silence and then-
And then someone had managed to kick Q out of their servers.
Which meant that they had known he was on their servers, which meant that they had access to the computers that Duncan had been trying to break into, which meant that they very likely knew exactly what was happening and who 003 actually was.
His cover was blown.
Fuck.
What a brilliant bloody week for R to be on holiday.
Spinning around, he faced the two other double-0s in the room, but whereas Charlie had stood up and was slightly frowning - a rather large show of worry from him - Milli was as blank-faced as ever, remaining perched gracefully on the edge of an empty desk.
Which, although Q had expected it, was still somewhat surprising considering that out of all of the double-0s, it was Duncan that 008 seemed to like the most. A feeling that worked both ways, in fact, as the omega vividly remembered the first time he'd heard the gruff grumpy alpha use Milli's first name, instead of her last. Every other double-0 was firmly on a last-name-basis - aside from Edie, of course, but that was just because it was Edie - so Q had been particularly shocked when Duncan had not only used 008's real name, but her nickname too.
So for Milli's closest packmate to not only be MIA right now, but potentially even MPD, and for her to still be as unconcerned as ever?
That was either a very very good sign, or a very very bad one.
"Why aren't you panicking?!" he burst out.
Milli blinked, slow and measured.
"Why should I be panicking?"
Q made a very helpful - and slightly crazy - gesture at the blank screens in front of him.
"Oh". She blinked again. "He will be fine".
"What? How?!"
Her expression changed from carefully impassive to vaguely annoyed, as if Q was being particularly stupid for asking a question with such an obvious answer.
"Because he is Duncan".
"That's not a valid reason!"
She frowned. "Yes, it is".
Taking a deep breath, Q forced himself to calm down and try to see things from her point of view.
"Milli, I understand that Duncan is a brilliant agent and very likely one of the most dangerous creatures on this planet. He's just as intelligent as the rest of you lot, although he prefers to use his fists over his brains most of the time because he's easily the best fighter in the pack. He speaks three languages that I know of, can hack into MI6's database in a few minutes, and is the only bloody one of you lot who bothered to take the first aid seminar seriously… All of that increases his chances of survival, I'll admit, but it does not guarantee it!"
008 stared back at him for a long moment, seeming to consider his words, before silently and gracefully sliding off the edge of the desk and turning to head towards the door with no further explanation than-
"Jake is in Spain".
-and calmly leaving TSS.
Q stared after her, once again beyond confused, before spinning back around to face Charlie and-
"What the fuck does that mean?!"
But Charlie, for some equally inexplicable reason, was now looking as relaxed and composed as ever too. He stepped closer, close enough to pull the stressed omega into his arms and bury his face in his curls.
"It means, котеночек, that you have nothing to worry about".
Q tried to pull away from the man's rather nice warm hold to no avail.
"Nothing to worry about?! 003 just went offline in enemy territory after potentially getting shot!"
"Which is just another day at the office" Charlie replied, smiling, "Honestly, котеночек, Duncan will be fine. Just give it a few days, and you'll see".
Q wanted to protest, he really did, but the alpha's arms were safe and his scent was at its strongest and right here and right now there just didn't seem to be anything to worry about, and he could feel the stress of the morning starting to slip away.
"... I still have to report it to M".
"That can wait" came the easy reply, "Nothing's going to change between now and in a few hours time, so just breathe, Q. Duncan will be fine, I promise".