Risico

When they reached their apartment, Alec wasted no time in putting the car in park and getting out, walking around to the opposite side to pull open the door.

Q was passed out completely, sprawled across James in a frankly adorable manner that had the blond grinning despite the situation. Between them, they managed to transfer his koala-like grip from one alpha to the other, and Alec carefully held him close even as Q automatically wrapped his arms and legs around him once more.

"You got him?" James asked, and he nodded, stepping back. "Yeah. Can you get the doors?"

He awkwardly tossed him the keys, and Bond locked the car before leading the way towards the apartment block. He held open the front door before pressing the button for the elevator, never before so grateful to not have a concierge given his rather… dishevelled state right now.

Once they reached the top floor, James typed in their door code, before locking up behind them. Alec headed straight for their bedroom, carefully lowering Q down onto the middle of their conveniently large bed. The omega pouted in his sleep and made a cute little grumbling noise as he tried to gently pry his hands from around his neck.

He was still wearing his jeans and torn shirt, both now smeared with blood, although he was missing his boots - whether he'd kicked them off himself in the car, or James had tugged them off while he'd been still, Alec wasn't sure. Either way, he wasn't going to just start pulling at his clothes after what he had just gone through, so he decided that they'd leave them for tonight, and tomorrow, he could find something of his or James's for Q to wear.

Slowly extricating himself from the omega's surprisingly strong grasp, he waited until he'd settled once more before sending a quick text to the pack, letting them know that they were back safely and asking one of them to feed Q's cats tomorrow, before he headed towards the bathroom where he could hear the sound of water running.

He found James standing in front of the sink, shirtless, methodologically washing the blood out from underneath his nails. There was a red-stained toothbrush on the counter next to him, and not for the first time that night, Alec wished desperately that he had seen the man tear out that bastard's throat.

Despite his thin veneer of respectability and all of the fancy suits and charming, harmless smiles, James was ultimately a mountain lion trapped in a cage and when his claws got unleashed, it was beautiful. Seeing him snarling and vengeful and bloody only made Alec love him that much more - or at least come as close to love as any of their kind could. And, while he was in the spirit of being honest, seeing his partner covered in blood was more than a little bit of a turn-on.

Leaning against the doorway, he watched him for another few minutes, admiring tanned skin and strong shoulders and the way his muscles rippled down his back every time he reached forwards to turn on the tap.

There was a lot that they had to talk about, and there were even more things that they had to do if they wanted to get Q through his drop with the least amount of pain possible, but Alec knew that there was one thing in particular that he needed to clear the air about before things went any further.

"So… I kissed Q tonight".

"And you didn't even let me watch?" James asked, just as calmly, "Rude".

"Yeah, well, it was kind of a spur-of-the-moment type thing… He was being harassed by that засранец you killed. Course, I didn't know what he was planning at the time - the only thing I knew was that he was refusing to listen to the omega telling him no, but seemed to have no problem listening to the omega's alpha tell him the same thing".

James snorted but there was no humour behind it.

"Assholes like that… the only thing they understand is ownership. God forbid that an omega, of all things, could possibly think for themselves".

Alec smiled and didn't bother trying to hide it. His partner really had come a long way with his opinions on omegas, and he knew firsthand just how difficult it had been for him. The fact that he had persevered anyway - for the sake of Q, no doubt - just made him love him that much more.

"He certainly didn't think it… I stepped in when it was clear he wasn't going to back off and pretended to be Q's alpha to get him to leave".

"And that somehow led to you kissing the pup?"

"A fortuitous but necessary side effect, I assure you".

"Uh-huh". James glanced up in the mirror and gave him a dry look. "And just how did our favourite boffin react?"

"Adorably. He got all flustered but then kissed me back, of course - I've been told that my kisses are very inspiring".

"And that's it?"

"Well… He might have also had a minor mental breakdown once he remembered just who, exactly, it was that he was kissing. Seemed to think that you'd hate him for it".

He smirked and turned back to scrubbing the blood from his hands. "Shows what he knows".

"And that's exactly what I said to him as well… I don't think he believed me, though. You might need to tell him yourself".

"Now?" A solitary eyebrow rose in the mirror's reflection.

Alec scowled at him. "No, you идиот, very obviously not now! But… soon. Once all of this absolute clusterfuck is…"

He waved his hands around meaninglessly but James nodded anyway. Rinsing off the rest of the soap, he dried his hands on a nearby towel before turning around to face his partner and Alec didn't even bother trying to hide the fact he was checking him out.

"... This is going to complicate things, isn't it?"

"Probably".

"... Does it change anything?"

"Not for me" he replied easily, although there was an edge of steel in his voice, "Does it change anything for you?"

James shook his head, decisively. "No, of course not… but it changes our plan. It changes how we're going to approach him".

"Q isn't fragile".

"He's not" he agreed, "But even diamonds can break, under enough pressure. We can't act as… headstrong as we have been".

"I think he'd appreciate a little straightforwardness, actually".

"There's a difference between being blunt and being pushy".

"And god knows you've never been accused of either, Mr Make-Aggressive-Eye-Contact-With-My-Crush-While-Kissing-My-Partner-Just-To-See-What-He'll-Do".

James gave him a look but Alec simply grinned in response.

"We'll just… wait and see what happens next" he finally decided, "How Q reacts to us when he wakes up, how he acts in general… He might be traumatised, but likewise, he might not be. Either way, there's no point in us speculating until we get all the facts, and once we do, we can decide how to continue from there. Agreed?"

"Agreed".

Returning to the bedroom, they both changed into clean shirts and pants, for Q's sake more so than their own - Alec, the absolute maniac, usually slept in the nude, whereas James had been in more than one sticky situation that led to him always keeping his briefs on no matter whose bed he was sleeping in.

Ideally, they would have showered - preferably together - to wash off the scent of sweat, alcohol, and blood, but neither of them could bear to spend another minute away from their omega after the events of the night, and leaving him completely alone for a long stretch of time felt impossible.

Lying down on their respective sides of the bed, they both silently turned to face each other and, more importantly, the lost little kitten that was lying between them.

Q instinctively curled close, his hands gripping James's shirt even as he pressed back against Alec's chest. Bond stretched out one hand beneath the boffin's pillow while his partner carefully, lightly, wrapped an arm around his waist and tugged him even closer.

Q made a sleepy, happy noise and they both smiled.

"... This isn't how I imagined having him in our bed".

Alec's smile faded. "You and me both".

James stared at the omega's split lip and already-bruising cheek and wished he could go back in time to make that bastard suffer even more.

"Have you ever dealt with a drop before?"

"No" Alec replied quietly, "Have you?"

"... Once".

"Vesper?"

He barely held back a flinch at the name, memories of dark eyes and pale skin and shower water drenching his clothes rushing to the surface.

"... Yeah".

He could feel Alec's gaze on him, but he avoided it by bowing his head closer to Q, inhaling his warm, vanilla-like, calming scent.

"Well… at least we're not going into this completely blind".

"Aren't we?" he asked, somewhat bitterly, "We never exactly prepared for something like this. My situation was- was completely different! What if we mess up? What if we do something that makes him hate us?"

"Then we'll deal with that if it happens" Alec replied evenly, "But there's no point in assuming the worst unless it actually happens, and it's not going to happen, because neither of us will let it".

"... I just don't want to mess this up".

"You're not going to" he said quietly, "If for no other reason than you'd rather hurt yourself than hurt him, and in the tiny minuscule chance that you do end up trying to do something stupid, then I'll stop you".

"Just like that?"

"Just like that".

James smiled, hesitantly, and inched closer to both him and Q, and Alec reached out to place a reassuring hand on his hip.

"We're going to be fine" he promised, "We're going to take care of our cub, we're going to help him out of this, and afterwards he'll realise just how amazing we are and he'll fall madly in love with both of us".

The blond snorted but continued to smile, so Alec considered it a win.

"We'll figure some more out tomorrow" he finished, reaching up to switch off the bedroom light, "But for now, we could all do with some sleep".

Alec woke up with the distinct feeling that someone was staring at him. Given that the only scents around him were of James and Q, he knew it wasn't an unknown or enemy, so he didn't bother tensing up. He also knew that James sometimes liked to just stare at him while he slept, not that he'd ever admit it, the creep, so he decided to take his time waking up, allowing his senses to come back online one by one as he embraced the very rare kind of morning that he could have a lie-in.

When he finally did open his eyes, he found two wide baby blue orbs staring back at him, mere inches from his face.

"Good mornin', cub" he whispered, voice hoarse from sleep, "You back with us?"

The omega slowly blinked but remained silent.

"... I'll take that as a no".

Lifting his head, he spied James on the other side of the boffin, curled around him protectively with his face buried in the younger man's curls.

Still asleep, then.

"Are you hungry?" he asked quietly, turning back to Q, but once again, he remained silent.

He was still disassociating, which, although obviously wasn't ideal, was still manageable. Alec racked his brain for all the information he had on drops, as well as on unresponsive omegas.

It was a survival mechanism, plain and simple, a self-induced coma-like state that omegas automatically put themselves into when extremely scared or hurt. The human side of their brain more or less shut down as a way of detaching themselves from their surroundings, but with that, came some nasty stress-induced side-effects.

Depression, anxiety, fatigue, and when Q came back online he was going to have the mother of all migraines.

They weren't able to prevent any of that, as much as Alec wanted to, but what they could do was minimise the effects by taking care of him now. He needed something to eat, that was for certain, and a tall glass of water wouldn't go amiss either. Plenty of sleep, as little stress as possible, and a handful of painkillers on the bedside table for whenever he came up again.

But all of this was still dependent on Q actually wanting them near him.

Alec had heard of omega's becoming completely feral during a drop - to such an extent that they would lash out viciously at whoever got too close, alpha or otherwise. It made sense, he supposed, given that some drops were caused by alphas being abusive bastards in the first place, but the last thing he wanted to do right now was to leave Q alone.

Thankfully, it didn't look like he would have to, given the bright eyes that were still pinning him in place. The omega wasn't freaking out about being so close to him and didn't seem to have any problem with James latching on like a limpet either.

Maybe they could get through this.

But first - food.

Detangling himself from the omega, he tried to sit up, only for Q to whine pitifully and cling to his t-shirt. Alec tried to gently prise away his fingers, but the younger man was having none of it and instead gripped on even tighter.

He sighed.

Okay then.

New plan.

Awkwardly pulling his arms through the sleeves of the shirt, he managed to pull it over his head without loosening the boffin's grip. Shuffling backwards, he bundled up the fabric and pressed it closer to Q until the omega had buried his face in the warm, soft material, slowly breathing in its scent.

Alec waited until he was sure that Q wouldn't protest against him moving, before quickly slipping out of bed and tucking the quilt back around him. James still had an arm thrown over the boffin's waist, so he was confident that he could safely leave him there for a few minutes without Q getting himself into too much trouble.

Not that he seemed inclined to move, apparently, since he was still face-planting Alec's shirt and deeply inhaling the alpha's residual scent.

It was somewhat humbling to realise that he could be replaced by a t-shirt.

Softly padding out to the kitchen, he grabbed his phone and switched on the kettle. Dialling the familiar number, he busiest himself by getting out cups and spoons and a carton of milk as it rang.

"Agent Trevelyan, I distinctly remember forbidding you from ever using this number unless it was a world-class emergency!"

"Good morning, Miss Moneypenny" he replied cheerfully, "As lovely as ever, I see".

"I have a hangover from hell and a last-minute board meeting with M in two hours. What do you want?"

"I need you to tell Mallory that Q won't be coming in today, despite his weird fixation about working at the weekend, and probably not tomorrow, either. Or the rest of us, for that matter".

There was a beat of silence, and he could practically hear the cogs turning in her mind.

"... This doesn't have anything to do with how you lot up and disappeared last night, does it? Right when things were getting good, too".

"It might" he said vaguely, grabbing the box of Twinings, "How much did Edie tell you?"

"Hardly anything. Just that Q wasn't feeling well so you and Bond were taking him home" Eve explained, "But that doesn't explain why everyone else left as well".

"There was an… incident, as such. Q's fine; we're taking care of him, but he's going to need some time to recover".

"Trevelyan. What happened?"

"Nothing you have to worry about" Alec replied firmly, pouring three mugs of tea, "I just need you to cover for us for a few days".

She scoffed. "You're going to have to do a lot better than that if you want me to lie to M for you!"

Which… yeah.

Fair enough.

"... How about this? You tell M that his Quartermaster is sick and that it appears to have spread to the rest of the double-0s too, and as soon as Q is able to, I'll get him to call you" he suggested, "… It's really not my place to say what happened, Eve, and I'm not going to betray him like that".

There was another minute of silence as he removed the tea bags and started pouring in some milk.

"M's not going to be happy" she warned, and he knew that he'd won, "You lot were meant to start questioning that Janssen woman today".

"I'm sure she'll get over it".

"Yeah, well, I'm not sure that M will!"

"Tell him it's a new interrogation tactic" Alec suggested, "We're letting her sweat by making her wait. Maybe after a weekend in the basement, she'll be more willing to talk".

"... Fine" Eve eventually agreed, "But if Q doesn't ring me by the end of next week, then I'm going to kick down your door whether he's there or not!"

Stirring the tea, Alec tapped the spoon on the rim of the cup before tossing it into the sink to deal with later. Typing one more number into his phone, he pressed call and hoped that the right man in medical was on duty today.

"Arkov here".

He let out a silent sigh of relief.

"Hey doc, quick question. Hypothetically, if I currently had an omega who was in the middle of a drop, what could I do to help?"

"... 006, what have you done to our Quartermaster?"

"Nothing!" he answered, perhaps just a little bit too quickly, "Nothing at all. I'm simply asking a hypothetical question that would hypothetically help me if I ever happened to be in this hypothetical situation".

"Uh-huh" Arkov replied flatly, "And tell me, Trevelyan, hypothetically, if you were in this situation, then what would be the hypothetical reason for this omega's hypothetical drop?"

"... Let's just say, hypothetically, that some bastard got too handsy with him at a club and it was pure chance that someone managed to stop him before it went too far".

Silence.

"... Hypothetically?"

"Hypothetically".

The doctor sighed. "Then hypothetically, I would tell you to keep him calm, safe, and comfortable. Make sure he drinks a glass of water every two hours or so and give him easy-to-eat food throughout the day. Keep it simple - regular snacks instead of three full meals, food that doesn't cause much mess and is easy to digest. Toast, pasta, cut-up fruit, things like that. Keep him in one or two rooms only, not that he'll likely want to leave them anyway, and whatever you do, do not raise your voice or move too suddenly!"

"And if he gets upset? Hypothetically?"

"Then speak quietly and slowly and don't touch him unless he wants you to. Better yet, don't touch him at all unless he reaches out first. Every omega is different; some prefer to be held constantly while others can't even stand the feeling of their own clothes against their skin. Let him decide".

"Water, food, and comfort, got it" Alec said, mentally thanking whatever deity that was out there that '6 employed at least one intelligent doctor, "Any idea when he'll - hypothetically - come out of it?"

"I'd say anywhere from a few hours to a few days, depending on how badly he was affected by what happened. Just stay with him, make sure he gets enough nutrients and water, and wait it out... There's nothing else you can do".

"Alright. Thanks, doc".

"Of course" Arkov replied evenly, "But just so you know, Agent Trevelyan, if anything does happen to that boy, then your yearly physical is going to non-hypothetically come up real soon".

"... Understood".

Carefully balancing all three mugs, he slowly made his way back to the bedroom, making a mental note to do a grocery shop later on in the day. Neither he nor James liked cooking, so they often ate out and right now, they most definitely did not have enough food to keep up with a hungry, dropping omega.

Silently pushing open the door, he came to a sudden stop at the sight in front of him.

James had clearly woken up as he was now lying on his back, blue eyes open, and Q had moved too, rolling over to face him. He was now sprawled out across the blond's chest, head tilted back so he could peer up at him much in the same way he'd stared at Alec himself half an hour before - with nothing short of adoration in his eyes. James had one hand loosely intertwined with one of the omega's, while his other ran up and down his back, slowly, soothingly. But he was staring down at Q, too, and the look in his eyes made Alec's breath catch.

He swore to god, he could go blind right now and he'd happily die having had this as his last ever sight.